Is Ostrovsky outdated? School essay on the drama “Dowry” Why do they lie that Ostrovsky is outdated.

The nomination “Electronic presentation for the lesson” traditionally attracted the most participants. On the one hand, this is understandable: creating a bright, colorful slide show at first glance seems easier than writing several pages of thoughtful and deep text. But this simplicity is deceptive, because a high-quality presentation is not just a set of pictures thrown at random, and the more, the better, they say, you can’t spoil the porridge with butter. Here it is important to observe the measure, maintain a single semantic line, and most importantly, clearly understand what place this visual series will take in the lesson and why it is needed in general. If this is an element of a story about the life and work of a hero, then it should not be overloaded with unnecessary information; it is expected that the teacher and children will comment on each slide, which means that it should contain only key concepts. It’s another matter if the teacher wants to use this work as additional material. For example, you can mail it to a child who missed a lesson. Then the presentation can contain all the basic information, as well as, for example, tasks for testing and self-control. A wonderful example of just such a project was presented by Anna Eskina, a teacher of Russian language and literature from School No. 123 in Omsk. In the fifteen slides of her presentation “Heir to... realism, simplicity and truthfulness,” there was a place for curious biographical facts, and tasks for knowledge of the texts of plays, and serious analytical questions that will make the child shake up and turn on logic. For example, it is known for certain that several of Ostrovsky’s plays - “Family Picture”, “Profitable Place”, “The Kindergarten” - were under censorship ban for a long time. At the same time, Nicholas I was delighted with the comedy “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh,” and his son Alexander II awarded the playwright a diamond ring for the noble patriotic feelings shown by the author in the dramatic chronicle “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk,” which (attention !) for five years before that, it was officially banned from production. And how should we understand this? Agree, children have a lot to puzzle over.
Since we asked our readers to send electronic presentations for lessons, it is not surprising that they mainly received only those plays that are included in the school curriculum. The leaders, naturally, are “Thunderstorm” and “Dowry”. Most often, of course, the main characters are compared - Katerina and Larisa. This was achieved most clearly by Svetlana Klyuchnikova from the village of Stegalovka, Lipetsk region, and by Zulikha Temukueva, a teacher of Russian language and literature at school No. 16 named after. R.M. Friev of the city of Nalchik. Several works are dedicated to The Snow Maiden. Here I would like to say a special thank you to Elena Gokova from the Promyshlennaya village in the Kemerovo region and Lyubov Sosnina from the Chekmenevskaya school in the Perm region. Lyubov Vladimirovna sent us not only a presentation, but also a script for the lesson “The Play “The Snow Maiden”. Literary journey. Shchelykovo. Basically, teachers devoted their works to retrospective reviews of Ostrovsky’s life and work. An interesting move was found by Lyubov Darzhinova, a student at the Faculty of Humanities at Kalmyk State University. Her entire project is about a thunderstorm, which she considered both as an atmospheric phenomenon, giving it a scientific definition, and as a metaphor. I traced and analyzed the shades of attitude towards the thunderstorm of the heroes of the play of the same name, collecting together all the necessary quotes.
The most exotic presentation, perhaps, was prepared by Valentina Ivanova, a teacher of Russian language and literature at the Kobyai school of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). And we couldn’t help but note with a special diploma her research on the influence of Ostrovsky’s drama on the formation and development of the Yakut national theater. In detail, Valentina Nikolaevna compares “The Thunderstorm” with the play “Taptal” (“Love”), created by her fellow countryman - playwright, poet and educator Anempodist Sofronov. Not only the conflict and the system of images are similar in the two works, but even the names of the main characters - Katerina and Katiriis.
Winners of the “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye” competition in the category “Electronic presentation for a lesson” dedicated to the work of A.N. Ostrovsky
1st place - Anna ESKINA, teacher of Russian language and literature of secondary school No. 123 with in-depth study of individual subjects named after. O.I. Okhrimenko, Omsk.
2nd place - Elena GOKOVA, teacher of Russian language and literature at Industrial Basic School No. 3, Kemerovo region.
3rd place - Svetlana KLYUCHNIKOVA, teacher of Russian language and literature at a secondary school in the village of Stegalovka, Lipetsk region.
Special diploma - Valentina IVANOVA, teacher of Russian language and literature at Kobyai Secondary School, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Thanks to the “Living Ostrovsky” nomination (here we were waiting, firstly, for your essays with thoughts about who needs the playwright’s work today and why, and secondly, reviews of films and performances based on Ostrovsky’s works), we were able to compile a full-fledged theater poster : fortunately, as it turned out, the plays “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye” are successfully performed even in the most remote corners of Russia. According to Natalya Danilova from the Altai Territory, the performances “There Wasn’t a Penny, But Suddenly Altyn”, “Liquid Apples”, “Bankrupt” do not leave the playbills of the theater in her native Biysk. Veronika Vinnikova and Elena Kharlamova, eleventh-graders of St. Petersburg school No. 262, claim that “everyone who is interested in Russian classical literature is simply obliged to go to the play “Slave Girls” at the St. Petersburg State Academic Drama Theater named after V.F. Komissarzhevskaya,” since The production is not only brilliant, but also philosophical, making you think about what freedom and unfreedom really are. A regular participant and multiple winner of creative competitions “UG” Lyubov Dobrosova from Tatarstan invites you to the Kazan Theater named after V.I. Kachalov for the play “Bankrupt, or Our People - We Will Be Numbered!” “My students were shocked... The next day in class, after heated discussions about the play, everyone came to the conclusion that Ostrovsky’s play was written as if in our time. And in fact, aren’t there a lot of children these days who abandon their parents for profit and leave them without a means of support?! And how many people become homeless or end up in a nursing home, useless and forgotten by everyone, as a result of a scam organized by their own children or grandchildren?!” - says Lyubov Alexandrovna. Describing the productions of Ostrovsky’s plays at the Kemerovo Drama Theater named after A.V. Lunacharsky, Olga Savina from Industrial School No. 3 comes to the conclusion that the undying interest in the playwright’s work lies in the fact that he does not simply castigate self-interest and greed, from which we will still be saved today no, but it reveals a much more terrible problem in Russia today both for him and for us - the disintegration of the family as such.
We received this research work from Polina Chergintsova, an eleventh-grader at gymnasium No. 1 in the city of Polyarnye Zori, Murmansk region. Polina compares Eldar Ryazanov’s film “Cruel Romance” with the original source - the play “Dowry”. The work turned out to be so large-scale and serious that we boldly recommend that Polina not give up science and continue her studies at the Faculty of Film Studies or Theater Studies.
It was decided to give the victory in the “Living Ostrovsky” nomination to Lydia Lednichenko from the Komi Republic, accompanist of the Syktyvkar Humanitarian Pedagogical College named after I.A. Kuratov. Her review of Andres Puustusmaa's film "Dowry" is witty and even caustic, very accurately and professionally written, and we hope it will not leave you indifferent. Lidia Andreevna left no stone unturned from the picture, which, it must be said, was really not very successful: “Screenwriter Elena Shatalova’s own relationship with the school apparently did not work out. How else can one explain the strange fantasy of turning the heroine’s mother, Arina Ignatievna, into a teacher? In Ostrovsky, the “brisk”, “dexterous” and “agile” Kharita Ignatievna does not risk putting her daughter under money bags as openly as the teacher and “fifth generation Muscovite” does.
No less impressive was the poetic essay “Love during a “Thunderstorm”” by Lyudmila Ponomareva, teacher of Russian language and literature at school No. 11 in the Ust-Labinsk district of the Krasnodar Territory, which is based on the tragic love of the playwright and actress Lyubov Kositskaya: “Actress Kositskaya is her own this thunderstorm.” she didn’t survive love, just like her heroine Katerina Kabanova. So who needs Ostrovsky today and why? To us, readers and viewers. And why - everyone keeps this in their heart...”
Winners of the “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye” competition in the “Living Ostrovsky” category
1st place - Lydia LEDNICHENKO, accompanist of the Syktyvkar Humanitarian Pedagogical College named after I.A. Kuratov, Komi Republic.
2nd place - Lyudmila PONOMAREVA, teacher of Russian language and literature, secondary school No. 11, Ust-Labinsk district, Krasnodar region.
3rd place - Lyudmila ABROSIMOVA, teacher-librarian of Novobureysk school No. 3, Amur region.
Special diploma - Lyubov DOBROSOVA, teacher of Russian language and literature of secondary school No. 22 with in-depth study of certain subjects in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan.
The brightest and most colorful category is, of course, artistic. Thanks to our contestants, the same heroes of “The Thunderstorm,” “Dowry,” and “The Snow Maiden” come to life in pencil and watercolor. Everyone has their own Katerina, their own Paratov and Lel, but they also have something in common - an amazing combination of past and present on their faces.
First place for the most unusual and original series of works: Marina Khusnutdinova, a teacher of Russian language and literature from a gymnasium in Guryevsk, Kaliningrad region, sent us photographs in which her students pose in the images of characters from textbook plays.
Winners of the “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye” competition in the category “Illustrations for the works of A.N. Ostrovsky”
1st place - Marina KHUSNUTDINOVA, teacher of Russian language and literature from the gymnasium of Guryevsk, Kaliningrad region.
2nd place - Kristina MONASTYREVA, 10th grade student of secondary school No. 5 in Biysk, Altai Territory.
3rd place - Elena LODINA, teacher of additional education at secondary school No. 89 in St. Petersburg.
All winners will receive prizes from our friends - book publishing houses AST, Samokat and Aquilegia-M. Participants - “UG” certificates. In the meantime, read Ostrovsky and stay with UG. There are new competitions and new victories ahead.

"Wide the way! The truth is walking across the stage. We love Tortsov - the truth! This is the end of stage landscapes, the end of the Puppeteer: the embodied truth has appeared on stage." These words were overheard at the first performance of the comedy “Poverty is not a Vice” at the Maly Theater in 1854 and Ostrovsky’s friend, actor and writer Ivan Fedorovich Gorbunov, spoke about them in his memoirs. They were said by a “regular theater visitor and connoisseur,” a teacher of Russian literature.

We love Tortsov - a simple merchant, moreover, impoverished and degenerate, but retaining his kindness, intelligence, desire to help good people and knowing how to do it. It was he who made his rich brother repent, who decided to move to Moscow, where he intended to “imitate every fashion” and marry his daughter to an evil old widower.

Viewers have seen a lot of people like Lyubim Tortsov in their lives, but they never thought that a play could be written about such a hero. That is why his appearance on stage gave hope that the fictitious “landscapers”, who do not resemble any real peasants or ordinary people in general (neither Russian nor French), will disappear from the theater stage. It is also important that the performance is judged not by an enlightened nobleman, on whose opinion until recently the success or failure of any performance depended, but by an intellectual commoner, a teacher.

The then young Alexander Ostrovsky addressed this new viewer, bringing to the stage heroes with whom he was well familiar from his own life experience. He listened to their speech, imagined how they could pronounce this or that line - with what facial expression, what gesture they would make. And he knew which actor could play his character.

In Ostrovsky's latest works, a woman is increasingly at the center of events. The writer seems to be disappointed in the moral merits of the active hero, the “business man,” whose interests and vitality are too often completely absorbed by the struggle for material success.

A woman in Ostrovsky’s era is much more confined to the home circle than a man. Marriage for her is the only way to secure her future and take a strong position in life. “Bride” is almost a profession, a girl’s life duty. One of Ostrovsky's early plays was called "The Poor Bride". At the end of his career, he wrote the drama "Rich Brides."

But Ostrovsky’s most famous play about the fate of, as they put it then, “girls of marriageable age” is “The Dowry,” written in 1878.

Larisa in "The Dowry" is a richly gifted, talented, artistic person. She spontaneously strives for truth and moral purity. All this raises the heroine of the play high above those around her. But even over her, the ideas about life values ​​characteristic of her circle have power - the circle of ruined nobles who only know how to spend their money with taste, and rich “civilized” merchants who willingly take a disinterested part in this. Larisa becomes the bride of a poor but ambitious official Karandyshev. He is in love with Larisa and at the same time strives through marriage with a well-known beauty in the city to become part of the local high society. Karandyshev receives Larisa’s hand only because in the recent past she experienced a passionate infatuation with the brilliant gentleman and shipowner Paratov, who persistently courted Larisa, “beat off all the suitors” and then suddenly left the city without making an offer. Paratov's unexpected return throws the girl into confusion - she still loves him. Larisa asks Karandyshev to get married as soon as possible and take her to the village. But he, wanting to stroke his pride, insists on a magnificent wedding.

Meanwhile, Larisa seems to be surrounded by a bidding war of contenders. But what are they offering her? Karandyshev - the position of an honest married woman and a dull existence. Rich merchants - the young bachelor Vozhevatov, who, however, does not want to marry a dowry, and the venerable father of the Knurov family - would like to turn Larisa into their kept woman. Paratov, already planning to marry a rich bride (which Larisa has no idea about yet), simply wants to spend the last days of his bachelor’s freedom in style.

The bargaining for Larisa involves all the male heroes of the play. And Paratov is not only not an exception here, but also the most cruel, dishonest participant in this bargaining. He is considered a broad-minded, reckless brave man. Larisa enthusiastically tells Karandyshev about how Paratov fearlessly shot at the coin she was holding. To which he quite reasonably remarks: “He has no heart, that’s why he’s so brave.”

In the very first scene with Paratov, the viewer hears his confession: “I don’t know what “pity” is. I... have nothing treasured; if I find a profit, I’ll sell everything, whatever.” And immediately after this it becomes known that Paratov is selling not only the ship, but also himself - to a bride with gold mines. The scene at the dinner at Karandyshev’s house also exposes Paratov. The cheap decoration of the apartment, but with pretensions to wealth, and the attempt of Larisa's poor fiancé to arrange a luxurious dinner are nothing more than a caricature of the style and lifestyle of Paratov himself. And the whole difference turns out to be in the amounts that each of the heroes can spend on it.

Carried away by Paratov's ardent love speeches, Larisa sacrifices her good name: from the house of the triumphant, but fairly intoxicated groom, she leaves with the guests beyond the Volga for a night picnic. Upon returning to the city, she learns that Paratov does not intend to marry her. Two other fans decide who gets Larisa by tossing a coin. The winner, Knurov, invites her to become his kept woman.

The offended Larisa wants to commit suicide by throwing herself off a cliff into the Volga, but the fear of death wins, and she decides to “become a very expensive thing.” Pushing away Karandyshev, who claims her as a groom and defender of honor, she sends him after Knurov. Driven to the point of losing his mind by her neglect, Karandyshev shoots the bride. Mortally wounded Larisa thanks Karandyshev and says to those running to the shot: “No one is to blame, no one... It’s me myself...”. She dies, forgiving everyone, while the gypsy choir sings loudly offstage. But the more gentleness and forgiveness in the words of the dying heroine, the more viewers and readers condemn those who brought her to death.

In the last decades of his life, Ostrovsky created a kind of artistic monument to the Russian theater. In 1872, he wrote a poetic comedy, “The Comedian of the 17th Century,” about the birth of the first Russian theater at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, father of Peter I. But Ostrovsky’s plays about his contemporary theater are much better known: “Talents and Admirers” (1881) and “Without Guilt guilty" (1883). Here he showed how tempting and difficult the life of an actress is. Her fate combines the renunciation of personal happiness - and the delight of creative success, the struggle for self-respect - and the adoration of the audience, poverty - and resounding success. In these plays, Ostrovsky depicts the theatrical life and fate of the actors soberly, without embellishment: with the struggle of pride, petty behind-the-scenes intrigues and grievances, with need and dependence on rich fans. But above all this, the great and noble art of theater still rises. In a sense, we can say that Ostrovsky loved the theater the same way he loved Russia: without turning a blind eye to the bad and without losing sight of what is most precious and important.

Having worked for the Russian stage for almost forty years, Ostrovsky created a whole repertoire - about fifty plays. “I wrote all over Russian life” - from prehistoric, fairy-tale times and past events to topical reality. Ostrovsky's works remain on stage at the beginning of the 21st century. His dramas often sound so modern that they make those who recognize themselves on stage angry. And after a hundred and fifty years we see the heroes of his plays nearby.

“Why do they lie that Ostrovsky is “outdated,” wrote theater critic A.R. Kugel at the beginning of the last century. “For whom? For a huge number of people, Ostrovsky is still quite new, - moreover, quite modern, but for those who refined, looking for everything new and complicated, Ostrovsky is beautiful, like a refreshing spring from which you will drink, from which you will wash, from which you will rest - and again set off on the road.”

June 18 2012

Ostrovsky considered the emergence of the national theater a sign of the nation's coming of age. It is no coincidence that this coming of age falls in the 60s, when, through the efforts of primarily Ostrovsky, as well as his associates A.F. Pisemsky, A.A. Potekhin, A.V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, N.S. Leskov, A. K. Tolstoy in Russia created a realistic domestic repertoire and prepared the ground for the emergence of a national theater, which could not exist, having in reserve only a few dramas by Fonvizin, Griboedov, Pushkin and Gogol. In the middle of the 19th century, in an environment of deep social crisis, the rapidity and catastrophic nature of the changes taking place in the country created the conditions for the rise and flourishing of dramatic art. Russian (*73) responded to these historical changes with the phenomenon of Ostrovsky. Our dramaturgy owes its unique national appearance to Ostrovsky. As in the entire 60s, epic principles play a significant role in it: the dream of the brotherhood of people is subjected to dramatic tests, like a classic novel, “everything that is sharply defined, special, personal, egoistically rejected from the human” is exposed. Therefore, Ostrovsky, in contrast to Western European drama, shuns stage conventions and avoids intricate intrigue. Her plots are distinguished by classical simplicity and naturalness; they create the illusion of the miraculous nature of everything that happens in front of the viewer. Ostrovsky likes to begin his plays with a response from the character, so that the reader and viewer have a feeling of being caught off guard by life. The endings of his dramas always have a relatively happy or relatively sad ending.

This gives Ostrovsky's works an open character: it began before the curtain was raised and will continue after it is lowered. The conflict has been resolved, but only relatively: it has not resolved all the complexity of life's conflicts. Goncharov, speaking about the epic basis of Ostrovsky’s dramas, noted that the Russian playwright “seems to not want to resort to plot - this artificiality is beneath him: he must sacrifice to it a part of truthfulness, integrity of character, precious touches of morals, details of everyday life - and he is more willing to lengthen the action cools the viewer, just to carefully preserve what he sees and feels alive and true in nature.” Ostrovsky has confidence in the everyday course of life, the depiction of which softens the most acute dramatic conflicts and gives the drama an epic breath: the viewer feels that the creative possibilities of life are inexhaustible, the results to which events led are relative, the movement of life is not completed and has not stopped. Ostrovsky’s works do not fit into any of the classical genre forms, which gave Dobrolyubov a reason to call them “plays of life.” Ostrovsky does not like to separate the purely comic or the purely tragic from the living flow of reality: after all, in life there is neither exclusively funny nor exclusively terrible. High and low, serious and funny are in it in a dissolved state, intricately intertwined with each other. (*74) Any striving for classical perfection of form turns into some kind of violence against life, over its living being. The perfect form is evidence of the exhaustion of the creative forces of life, and the Russian playwright is trusting of the movement and distrustful of the results. Repulsion from a sophisticated dramatic form, from stage effects and twisted intrigue sometimes looks naive, especially from the point of view of classical aesthetics. The English critic Rolston wrote about Ostrovsky: “The predominant qualities of English or French playwrights are the talent of composition and the complexity of intrigue. Here, on the contrary, the drama develops with a simplicity equal to which can be found in Japanese or Chinese theater and which emanates primitive art.” But this apparent naivety ultimately turns into deep life wisdom.

The Russian playwright, with democratic simplicity, prefers not to complicate the simple in life, but to simplify the complex, to remove the veils of cunning and deception, intellectual sophistication from the heroes, and thereby expose the core of things and phenomena. His thinking is akin to the wise naivety of a people who know how to see life in its fundamentals, reducing every complexity to the indecomposable simplicity hidden in its depths. Ostrovsky the playwright often trusts the wisdom of the famous folk proverb: “Simplicity is enough for every wise man.” During his long creative life, Ostrovsky wrote more than fifty original plays and created the Russian national theater. According to Goncharov, Ostrovsky painted a huge picture all his life. “This picture is “Thousand Years of Russia.” At one end it ends in prehistoric time (“The Snow Maiden”), at the other it stops at the first railway station...” “Why do they lie that Ostrovsky is “outdated,” wrote A.R. Kugel at the beginning of our century. “For whom? For a huge number of people, Ostrovsky is still quite new - moreover, quite modern, and for those who are refined, looking for everything new and complicated, Ostrovsky is beautiful, like a refreshing spring from which you will drink, from which you will wash, from which you will rest - and again on the road."

Ostrovsky "Dowry"

Today we have a research lesson on the topic “The Kingdom of Predatory, Tenacious and Smart Businessmen.”

In this lesson we will compare the analyzed texts and images.

We need to identify

Compare the table of quotes confirming the life position of the characters.

This work will help us uncover the topic.

Read the epigraph.

How does the theme resonate with the epigraph? And is it possible to determine the goals and objectives of the lesson?

Lesson objectives:

1. Identify the evolution in Ostrovsky’s work.
2. Trace the history of the drama.
3. Continue to develop skills in analyzing a dramatic work.
4. Formation of skills of socio-psychological characteristics of the character.
5. Analyzing the drama, show the moral ideals and beauty of the heroine.
6. Encourage students to independently analyze the images of the main characters and carefully read the work.
7. Stimulate students' interest in reading fiction.
8. Encourage students to become independent in finding answers to questions.
9. Stimulate thought processes during the analysis of the work.
10. To develop students’ speech, communication skills, and aesthetic feelings.

Lesson objectives: deeper acquaintance with the work of A.N. Ostrovsky; show students the main stages of the playwright’s path; to trace how the playwright’s worldview and his attitude towards the merchants change from the first work “Our own people - we will be numbered!” to works of a later period: “Mad Money”, “Snow Maiden”, “Dowry”.

Lesson-research on the topic

Comparison of analyzed texts and images.

1. We need to identify...
2. Make a table of quotes confirming the life position of the characters. This work will help us reveal the topic.

Subject: “The kingdom of predatory, tenacious and smart businessmen.

Epigraph

Portrait.

D/z at the beginning of the lesson

Plan.

1. 1. Evolution of the views of A.N. Ostrovsky

1) 50s

2) 70-80 years.

2. Features of A.N.’s creativity Ostrovsky in 1870-1880.

II. The history of the creation of the play "Dowry"

III. Working with the text “Dowry”

1. Speaking first and last names.
2. The kingdom of predatory, tenacious and smart businessmen. "Significant people of the city."
3. "Women's question" in Russia in the 1870-1890s.
4. “I was looking for love...” Image of Larisa Ogudalova

IV. Conclusions.

Subject

1. Teacher's word.

1. The evolution of A.N.’s views Ostrovsky.

In the early 50s, a little after the writing of the play “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!” Ostrovsky wrote: “I was young and too cruel... now I combine the comic and the sublime. Correctors will be found even without us.”

Now in his plays the bright sides of the Russian national character and folk morality prevail. The pinnacle of mature creativity is “The Thunderstorm” - the result of an expedition along the Volga in 1856-1857. The people of “Thunderstorm” live in a special state of the world - crisis, catastrophic. The pillars holding back the old order have been shaken. Only on the outside everything is fine. Patriarchy is becoming a thing of the past.

Ostrovsky’s latest plays depict the “abyss,” the “forest” of modern times. In creating a collective image of “wolves,” Ostrovsky widely used satirical techniques.

1870-1880s A period of rapid and rapid economic development and capital accumulation in Russia. Since the mid-60s, Russia has seen a rise in entrepreneurship. Even officers resigned and opened a bookstore or linen shop. The government transferred some unprofitable state-owned enterprises into private hands. In the post-reform years, a whole galaxy of talented Russians emergedentrepreneurs(Bakhrushin, Putilov, Gubonin). A lot of new things are appearing in the lives of Russians; words that are unusual for the Russian ear are entering the Russian vocabulary. A complex, motley, restless world also entered into the works of Ostrovsky, who became a kind of chronicler of post-reform Russia, seething and embarking on a path of capitalization that was dissatisfied with it.

In the plays of A. Ostrovsky, examples of businessmen of a new formation are brought out, whose life is built on strict calculation; maladjusted nobles; creative intelligentsia, with difficulty making their way in conditions of intensivecommercialization; shows the time when business marriages (mesalliances) became the norm. Pukirev “Unequal marriage”

2. Features of A. Ostrovsky's creativity in 1870-1880

The creativity of this period is characterized by:

1. persistent themes;
2. strokes and psychological physiognomies of the Russian character;
3. strengthening social and political generalizations, on the one hand, deepening lyricism, appealing to universal human values, on the other hand;
4. increased attention to an unprotected person who stands out sharply for his moral qualities and complex spiritual world;
5. folklore is replaced by classical literature (Paratov, for example, quotes “Hamlet”);
6. folk song is replaced by romance (Larissa sings Boratynsky’s romance “Don’t tempt me unnecessarily”).

Vocabulary work.

Evolution - development, the process of changing something from one state to another.

Entrepreneur- 1) capitalist - owner of the enterprise.

2) an enterprising and practical person.

Commerce - trade, trading operations.

Misalliances (obsolete) - marriage with a person of lower social status, class.

Predatory - 1) about animals: feeding on animals;

2) figurative: greedy, full of desire to take possession of someone, expressing such a desire.

1. The history of the creation of the play "Dowry"

“In a play like “The Dowry”, it is not only the artist’s thought that captivates – the thought is moral and humane. It contains the very depth of life, the desire to comprehend its riddle, to touch... the good and the bad in people.”

V. Lakshin

Let us mentally transport ourselves to Shchelykovo, where the playwright is working on the play “Dowry”. What is he thinking about in the silence of his office? Why is it now, when the woman who devotedly loved him has passed away, that he turns to the topic of love? Were those words spoken? Or did your heart hurt because you were too late to say them? What did Ostrovsky want to tell us? And isn’t this the secret of the play that future generations will have to unravel?

And the newspapers of that time vied with each other: “How the talent of our first playwright was crushed!” “Ostrovsky outlived his talent!”

But why does this “failed play” touch you so much, why doesn’t it let you go, makes you think? What is her secret?

Let's approach the revelation of this secret from the very beginning, from the history of creation.

(Student with a report)

Ostrovsky's friend, actor M.I. Pisarev, conveyed the story of the playwright himself about the original plot of the play called “Dowry”: “On the Volga there is an old woman with 3 daughters. 2 rollicking, and driving horses, and hunting. Their mother loves them very much, and they have a dowry. The youngest is quiet, thoughtful, and without a dowry. Two people are in love. One villager, a homebody, having fun, having so much fun, he succeeds in everything. He reads the Apostle and goes hunting. The other one grabbed the tops, but was empty. Lives in St. Petersburg, in the village in the summer, phraser. The girl fell in love with him, drama.” Judging by this entry, we have before us the first approaches to the plot, which was finally determined only by November 1874.

There is another version.

The material for “The Dowry” was a court case - the murder of a young woman motivated by jealousy, which was investigated in Kineshma when Ostrovsky was a magistrate. The playwright “carefully studied this case and talked with a number of people involved in it.”

The artistic realization of the plot lasted for many years.

On October 1, 1876, Ostrovsky reported to F.A. Burdin from Shlykov: “All my attention and all my strength are directed to the next big play, which was conceived more than a year ago and on which I have been continuously working. I’m thinking of finishing it this same year and I’ll try to finish it as carefully as possible, because this will be my fortieth original work.”

However, two more years of intense creative work passed before, on October 17, 1878, Ostrovsky, on the white autograph of “Dowry,” with a feeling of relief and creative triumph, wrote the inscription: “Aria 40,” and in a letter to the head of the repertoire department of the St. Petersburg theaters P.S. Fedorov said: “This play begins a new type of my works.”

In October 1878, Ostrovsky returned from Shchelykov to Moscow and, according to accepted tradition, tested his next drama for the judgment of a select public through literary readings. This time they pass with rare success for a playwright.

On November 3, 1878, he reports to F.A. Burdin: “I have already read my play in Moscow five times, among the listeners there were hostile persons and those who were hostile towards me, and everyone unanimously recognized The Dowry as the best of all my works.”

A month later, the premieres of “Dowry” took place at the Maly Theater and at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Two months later, it was published in the first issue of Otechestvennye zapiski for 1879.

1. Working with students based on Ostrovsky’s play “Dowry”

Teacher : Usually the titles of Ostrovsky’s plays are sayings, proverbs, that is, phrases with meaning (“Truth is good, but happiness is better”, “The heart is not a stone”, “Guilty without guilt”). Even the Thunderstorm has leaks. In "Dowry", at first glance, there is no subtext. Well, who is this homeless woman?

Vocabulary work.

Dowryless - in the old days: a poor girl with no dowry (Ozhegov)

Dowry - property given to the bride by her family for her married life.

Dahl

Dowry - a bride with a rich dowry.

In praise, they call a bride without a dowry a bride who is taken without anything.

This is a girl with high moral qualities who does not require a dowry.

There is a difference, and the title of the play sounds different.

Let's analyze the list of actors

Who is she - a homeless woman?

Larisa is the only one whose last name is not indicated. Why? How is it different from others? Ostrovsky has meaningful first and last names.

Our group was preparing a research paper on the meaning of names and surnames. (The person in charge answers)

Knukrov (dialect.) - knur - hog, boar, boar.

Paratov (adj. paraty - lively, strong, stalwart, zealous, ardent)

Vozhevatov (vozhevatov people - cheeky, shameless)

Kharita Ignatievna Ogudalova (Greek kharis - grace, charm, beauty. Gypsies from the choir were called Kharites;

Every gypsy in Moscow was called Ignati, to cheat - to deceive, seduce, deceive, deceive.

Ogudala was popularly called a jester, a swindler and a deceiver.

Julius Kapitonovich Karandyshev (Julius is the name of the famous Roman Emperor Caesar;

Kapiton (Latin kapitos - head; Karandyshev (pencil - a teenager, a short man, a person with exorbitant, unfounded claims).

Larisa (Greek - seagull)

Conclusion: the main character does not fit into this circle of people.

The need to comprehend and ridicule social relations and interest in the life of the heart - this, as a rule, “existed” in Ostrovsky in one work of art. We will base our conversation on this feature.

Conversation plan.

1. The kingdom of predatory, tenacious and smart businessmen (checking homework - table “Life position” of significant persons in the city”)
2. “The Women’s Question” in Russia in the 1870-1890s (individual assignments).
3. “I was looking for love...” Image of Larisa Ogudalova
4. Katerina Kabanova and Larisa Ogudalova. Comparative characteristics.

Teacher : “The kingdom of predatory, tenacious and smart businessmen” or “significant persons in the city.”

Merchants from small traders become millionaires, establish international connections, and receive a European education. Merchant characters become more refined and complex. This is now a cultural bourgeois entrepreneur.

What is the life position of Knurov, Vozhevaty, and Paratov?

Homework.

Row 1 was filled in the table by Knurov

2nd row - Vozhevatov

3rd row - Paratov

Draw a conclusion.

Teacher: So, we see that the merchants of post-reform Russia differed far from the bearded tyrant merchants. Many of the businessmen of recent times have studied finance and know the secrets of banking operations. Unlike the Zamoskvoretsk pioneers, they studied and are studying the European experience of enrichment. It is no coincidence that Knurov, when visiting Bryakhimov, is mostly silent: there are no interesting interlocutors. He travels abroad to talk, sometimes to St. Petersburg or Moscow. To keep up to date with the matter, owners of mines, steamships, and factories visit industrial exhibitions in Paris, read European newspapers, and seek the company of diplomats. There are art connoisseurs among them.

What, for example, is the charm of Knurov and Vozhevatov?

(Behave with dignity, ways to appreciate beauty, sincerely appreciate beauty, sincerely admire talent).

What was hidden under the external veneer of “civilized”, “Europeanized” businessmen?

(At the heart of the actions of the post-reform bourgeois, in the scope of their activities, methods of accumulation, way of life, external gloss, so unlike the pre-reform bearded merchants, lay the same predatory law: “To yourself, to yourself alone”).

After watching an episode from the play, answer the question “Does Knurov care about Larisa or how can his action in this situation be characterized?”

Staged episode (conversation between Knurov and Larisa’s mother about Larisa’s fate)

Let us turn once again to the names of these “heroes”. Do the names match the characters of these people?

Conclusion: these people never give up their desires and are cruel in achieving their goals. “It’s impossible for me to have enough,” admits Knurov.

Paratov's image.

What is the complexity of Paratov’s character?

It reflects the paradox of the breadth of the Russian person: the ideal coexists with ugliness.

Paratov is the image of a living person who decides his own destiny, having both his vices and his positive traits. The positivity of this image lies in the breadth of his soul, firmness and determination in taking life’s steps. Traits characteristic of the original Russian character.

When communicating with people, he maintains a level corresponding to the status of a “brilliant gentleman.” Paratov wins, makes mistakes, sins and forgives himself. The strength of this image is in its contradiction. Attractiveness lies in his vices. Extremes coexist in it to a limited extent. Scope and extravagance in everything: money, feelings, material and spiritual expenses. This cannot leave anyone indifferent: in men it evokes envy and a desire to imitate; women have admiration. But even those who have enough life experience of danger and common sense to appreciate his presence nearby, for the most part surrender to the mercy of the seducer, succumbing to the magic of his brilliance, excitement, and masculine attraction. “Who do you look up to? Is such blindness possible! Sergei Sergeich... This is the ideal of a man.” Not only Larisa, but also hundreds of readers sympathize with him, forgiving him everything in advance, like Larisa in the play, and dooming themselves to burn in his flame; they do not want to notice what he himself does not hide: his destructive essence. Paratov is accustomed to success, accustomed to taking the best in life and not burdening himself with considerations of cost, even in the form of responsibility for the fate of those “whom he has tamed.” His life principle: “... if I find a profit, I’ll sell everything...” He has nothing treasured.

Teacher : - The only living soul in the world of cold and calculating businessmen is Larisa Ogudalova.

Ostrovsky's drama was usually called the drama of a heroless era. The “hero in a tailcoat” (nobleman) and the intellectual are not wealthy. The cultural bourgeois entrepreneur, upon closer examination, is also not suitable for the role of a hero.

From the point of view of many, Ostrovsky limits himself to ridiculing everyone; at the center of Ostrovsky’s drama is, as a rule, a woman, a pure nature, who becomes the object of the struggle of morally bankrupt contenders for the role of hero.

It is this woman who becomes the heroine of Ostrovsky’s work. And this is no coincidence.

During this period, the “women’s question” intensified due to concrete successes in the struggle for higher education (in 1872, Higher Women’s Courses were opened in Moscow and St. Petersburg).

A striking example of the fact that a woman is no longer satisfied with the role of being with her husband or behind her husband,” is Sofya Perovskaya, who headed the Narodnaya Volya organization. She was an educated, determined and courageous woman (hanged along with four people's owners on April 3, 1881)

This is how F.I. wrote about women during this period. Dostoevsky: “In our woman, one can more and more notice sincerity, perseverance, seriousness and honesty, the search for truth and sacrifice, and all this has always been higher in Russian women than in men... A woman is more persistent, more patient in action; she is more serious than a man, she wants business for the sake of the business itself, and not for the sake of appearance.”

Dostoevsky is quite deep in his understanding of women. And yet Ostrovsky is deeper: he has no doubt that, despite all women’s desire for equality and education, it is in love that the most important, fundamental thing happens for them. Freedom does not give a woman happiness. She fights, but the subject of her struggle is not education, not legal freedoms, but the love of her chosen one. In this battle, she suffers and grows spiritually, but since her lover is not ready to possess such a woman, she will inevitably be disappointed, her perfections will be in vain.

Larisa is a shining example of such a woman. One can say about her that she fights with illusions...

The image of Larisa Ogudalova. Meaning of the name.

Larisa is a significant name, like any name from Ostrovsky: translated from Greek - seagull. Larisa is prone to various types of art and loves everything beautiful. Women named Larisa are charming, smart, neat, and always the center of attention, especially among men. This is Ostrovsky’s Larisa: dreamy and artistic, she does not notice the vulgar sides, sees them through the eyes of the heroine of a Russian romance and acts in accordance with it. For her, there is only a world of pure passions, selfless love, and charm.

Characteristics of Larisa (according to the text and textbook).

Creative work.

She evokes respect and admiration from those around her. Knurov says about her: “it’s nice to see her alone more often, without interference...” or “Larissa was created for luxury...”

His opinion is shared by Larisa’s longtime friend Vozhevatov: “The young lady is pretty, plays different instruments, sings, her manner is free, and that’s what pulls her off.” He tells Knurov the story of Larisa’s love for Paratov: “And she loved him, she almost died of grief. so sensitive!”

Larisa did not know how to hide her feelings from others. Knurov says about her: “She’s not stupid, but she has no cunning. She’s disposed to this, and doesn’t hide it at all.”

In conversation she is open and straightforward. Always has his own opinion. doesn't like being pointed out to her. When Karandyshev forbids her to sing, she is indignant: “Are you forbidding? So I will sing, gentlemen.”

Teacher :

The bargaining for Larisa involves all the male heroes of the play. A whole circle of applicants forms around her. But what are they offering her?

Student: - Knurov and Vozhevatov - content. Karandyshev - the position of an honest married woman and a dull existence. Paratov wants to spend his last days of bachelorhood in style. Larisa is just a strong passion for him. Who wasn't interested? This is his philosophy.

And for Larisa, the main thing is love. She completely trusts her chosen one and is ready to follow him to the ends of the earth.

Dramatization: page 269.

Teacher :

And neither the persuasion of her mother nor the reproaches of her future husband can keep her from the opportunity to be close to her beloved: “All sorts of chains are not a hindrance! We will carry them together, I will share this burden with you, I will take on most of the weight.”

Larisa sings a romance to Paratov based on Boratynsky’s poems “Don’t tempt me unnecessarily.”

Why this romance?

Student

In the spirit of this romance, Larisa perceives both Paratov’s character and her relationship with him. For her, there is only a world of pure passions, selfless love, and charm. in her eyes, the affair with Paratov is a story about how, shrouded in mystery and riddle, the fatal seducer, despite Larisa’s pleas, tempted her.

Teacher : - In Eldar Ryazanov’s film “Cruel Romance” there is another romance “And finally, I’ll say...”

After listening to the romance, answer the question: Why did the director change the romance, what is the difference?”

This study shows us that these are different types of art. And the artist Ryazanov has his own vision of this work.

Gradually, the discrepancy between the romantic ideas of the people who surround her and worship her increases as the drama progresses.

Why is Larisa going to marry Karandyshev? (Challenges Paratov's inconstancy.)

How does Larisa imagine Karandyshev? (She also idealizes him. In her presentation, she endows him with a kind and loving soul. But the heroine does not feel the wounded, proud, envious basis in Karandyshev’s soul)

And how does Karandyshev feel about Larisa?

(He rather celebrates victory than loves. He pleases his vanity that a woman like Larisa chose him. But Larisa does not notice this for a long time, because she generally does not see anything vulgar in people, acting in accordance with romances, living them laws).

Has Larisa had an epiphany?

(Yes. The deepest disappointment for Larisa is that all people treat her like a thing).

Dramatization “A Thing, Yes a Thing...”

In a fit of despair, Larisa challenges the world of profit: “Well, if you are a thing, there is only one consolation - to be expensive, very expensive.”

Is there a way out for Larisa in this situation?

(Larissa herself is not capable of taking a more decisive step, but Karandyshev’s shot is perceived by her as a good deed. Larisa dies with the words of farewell on her lips: “My dear, what a good deed you have done for me! The gun is here, here on the table! It’s me myself... myself... Oh, what a blessing!”)

Student :

Critics about Larisa

P.D. Boborykin: “This girl with her suffering could attract our attention if she were a colorful, large, socially significant person. Alas... there is none of this in her, Larisa speaks banalities, her story about why she considers Paratov, “a libertine and an impudent person,” to be a “hero” is simply ridiculous in its mental and moral baseness.”

V.Ya. Lakshin: “It’s hard to judge Larisa for this emptiness of her soul.”

V. Korovin: “Larissa is the heroine of a psychological drama only insofar as the action is centered around her. But by its nature it lacks integrity.”

B.O. Kostelianets: “The spiritual strength of Larisa is reflected in the fact that when her love is trampled upon, when this causes in her anger, depression, cowardice, bitterness, malice, she is still able to understand what she is doomed to. She confronts the situation and does not give herself up to temptation.”

Conversation on questions:

1. Can you agree that Larisa cannot “attract our attention”, since she is not “large”, not “colorful” as a person, there is nothing “socially significant” about her?
2. Would you call Larisa’s speeches “banal”, “ridiculous”, “mentally base”? Justify your opinion.
3. Can you agree that the heroine demonstrates “emptiness of the soul”? If you agree with this, then why is it difficult to blame the heroine herself?
4. Can you agree that at a certain moment Larisa experiences “anger, depression, cowardice, bitterness, malice”? Justify your answer by referring to the text.
5. Do you agree with the idea of ​​the critic Korovin that Larisa is the heroine of a “psychological drama”?
6. Do you agree that the heroine of the drama is “lacking integrity”?
7. How and by whom is “temptation” presented in “Dowry”? Does Larisa need more or more mental strength not to give herself over to “prey to temptation”?
8. Do you agree that Larisa is characterized by “mental strength”?
9. Whose attitude towards the heroine do you think is more logical and correct?

Conclusion: Larisa is a wonderful image: a lovely, pure, intelligent, richly gifted girl. She greedily reaches out to a bright life full of love (“I, like a butterfly to a fire, strove so irresistibly...”), but is doomed to perish in the conditions of golden chains (“Love is a deceptive country, and everyone in it is unhappy...”). This is a “warm heart” in the heartless world of buying and selling, cynical bargaining. This is a white seagull caught in a flock of vultures.

The students conclude:

D/z Katerina and Larisa. Comparative characteristics. Drawing up a table. Various.

Student: General.

In the apt expression of A.I. Revyakina, Katerina and Larisa are “images of great human passions.” Both Larisa and Katerina wanted to love and be loved, but they were deceived. Both Larisa and Katerina differ from others in that they do not have dual morals. (Katerina - whether “in front of people or without people” - is the same; according to Knurov, in Larisa there is “no cunning”). They are also united by the image of the great Russian Volga - a symbol of beauty, strength, power. She alone freely carries her waters, absorbing both the beauty “that is poured out in nature” and the beauty of the “hot heart”, tormented by captivity, thirsting for light, air, liberation. In the waves of the Volga, Katerina found her only possible liberation; almost two decades later, on the banks of the same fabulously beautiful river, Larisa, a person of a “warm heart,” found freedom.

“This is where beauty leads... into the deep end.”

Summarizing.

In “The Dowry,” Ostrovsky comes to reveal complex, psychologically polyphonic human characters and life conflicts. It is no coincidence that V.F. became famous in the role of Larisa. Komissarzhevskaya, actress of refined spiritual insights.

The main idea of ​​“Dowryless” is the assertion that society is dominated by a heartless “pure man”, who turns the poor into one obsessed with an insatiable thirst for profit and enrichment. To be a self-aware person and not have the opportunity to express it - such is the tragic situation in which a person deprived of material security found himself in these conditions. Here “idols” like the millionaire Knurov triumph, with their cynicism and wolfish grip, and honest people perish, entering into an unequal struggle. The statement of A.I. is correct. Revyakin that “for the plots of his plays, Ostrovsky chose not small everyday facts and events, but the most significant, typical, generally interesting, capable of touching millions of people from the most diverse social strata.”

The relevance of Ostrovsky’s work is confirmed by the fact that the play “Dowry” is being performed in many theaters across the country, as evidenced by the poster you prepared. And in a review of the play by a theater critic we read: “Every time I am convinced how modern Ostrovsky is. It feels like it’s today on stage.”

Homework - essay

1. “Why do people lie that Ostrovsky is outdated” (Kügel)
2. What attracts me to the image of Larisa Ogudalova.
3. Am I condemning or justifying Larisa Ogudalova?

“Why do they lie that Ostrovsky is “outdated”? For a huge number of people, Ostrovsky is still quite new... beautiful, like a refreshing spring from which you will drink, from which you will wash, from which you will rest - and again set off on the road,” theater critic Abram Kugel wrote about Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky in the 30s of the twentieth century . Decades later, today, in the 21st century, these words still clearly and clearly define the place of the playwright.

Readers of our library made a journey into the world of art, into the world of theater, into the world of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky on November 1 at the literary and theatrical evening “Journey through the pages of the life and work of N.A. Ostrovsky."

A.N. Ostrovsky is one of the most private, if not mysterious, persons of Russian literary history. He lived his life as a homebody, left no memories, was reluctant to write letters and kept almost no diaries. “Flipping through” the pages of the playwright’s biography, the evening’s participants became acquainted with little-known facts of his life and drew parallels between the real events that Ostrovsky had to witness and his plays.

It is simply impossible to talk about plays without theatrical performances. Therefore, the evening featured voices from both professional and amateur artists. Participants in the evening were able to see excerpts from the plays “Our People – We Will Be Numbered” and “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh,” the films “The Thunderstorm” and “Cruel Romance,” filmed by Eldar Ryazanov based on the play “Dowry,” and the fairy tale extravaganza “The Snow Maiden.” Katerina’s monologue from the play “The Thunderstorm” was performed live.