The tragic fate of Larisa is homeless. Ostrovsky's plays: the images of Katerina Kabanova and Larisa Ogudalova, as a reflection of the Russian national female character

Many poets and writers dedicated their lines to women, the beautiful half of humanity. In Russian literature, the image of a woman was depicted with great warmth, her best features were sung: loyalty, sincerity, beauty, intelligence, nobility, tenderness and selfless love.

Larisa is an unusually interesting and attractive character in A.N. Ostrovsky's play "Dowry".

The meaning of life main character is love. Larisa is a beautiful, intelligent, gentle, multi-talented girl with a pure soul. She lives in a provincial town, in a family without sufficient means of livelihood. But the girl does not chase a successful match, she waits and hopes that true love will come to her .

Kharita Ignatievna is trying to arrange the fate of her daughter, so she is busy looking for the best groom, but the main condition is money. The girl’s mother is not interested in the education and decency of the groom, just to marry off her daughter more profitably.

Frequent receptions are held in the house with the money of Knurov and Vozhevatov. The audience is very diverse: rich merchants and the modest Karandyshev, officials and the brilliant nobleman Sergei Sergeevich Paratov. Larisa fell in love with Sergei Sergeevich with all her soul. He is handsome, charming, smart, courteous and calculating. But the girl does not notice his shortcomings, forgives him any sin, condemns herself to shame for his pleasure and is ready to follow him to the ends of the world.

Having squandered his fortune, Paratov is forced to marry a rich bride. Larisa is deceived, disgraced and abandoned. Desperate, she is ready to marry Karandyshev, hoping to find peace with him. Childhood friend Vasya Vozhevatov plays her toss with the elderly and serious merchant Knurov. Like a person , Larisa is not interested in any of them. For them, she is a “thing,” dear and beautiful. Having lost everything, the girl is ready to become a “thing.” Karandyshev’s shot brings her deliverance: she dies free, without becoming anyone’s. Larisa’s death is perceived as deliverance from torment: “I was looking for love and didn’t find it. They looked at me and look at me as if I was a joke. No one ever tried to look into my soul, I didn’t see sympathy from anyone, I didn’t hear a warm, heartfelt word.”

Sincere and proud Larisa was alien to cunning and lies, she is a woman with a “warm heart”. Such people are not capable of compromise. They can either win or die. Beauty and youth are ruined, but Larisa dies free.

The drama by A. N. Ostrovsky "Dowry" is a wonderful play late period writer's creativity. It was conceived in 1874, completed in 1878 and staged in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the same year. M. Ermolova, M. Savina, and later V. Komissarzhevskaya - best actors capital theaters - took on the role of Larisa Ogudalova. What captivated them so much with this wonderful heroine?

Larisa Ogudalova is distinguished by her truthfulness, sincerity, and directness of character, thereby reminiscent of Katerina from “The Thunderstorm.” According to Vozhevaty, Larisa Dmitrievna “has no cunning.” What brings her closer to the heroine of “The Thunderstorm” is her high poetry. Larisa is attracted by the Trans-Volga distance, the forests beyond the river, and beckoned by the beauty itself - the Volga with its spaciousness. “There is no earthly, this worldly thing,” notes Knurov. And in fact: she all seems to be raised above the dirt of reality, above the vulgarity and baseness of life. In the depths of her soul, like a bird that she herself resembles, beats the dream of a beautiful and noble, honest and quiet life, Translated from Greek, Larisa means “seagull”, and this is no coincidence.

Shouldn't I prefer my mother's lifestyle? Kharita Ignatievna, left a widow with three daughters, is constantly cunning and cunning, flattering and ingratiating, begging from the rich and accepting their handouts. She made her house really noisy" gypsy camp"to create the appearance of beauty and splendor of life. And all this in order, under the cover of this tinsel, to trade in living goods. She has already ruined two daughters, now it’s the turn of the third to trade. But Larisa cannot accept this way of life of her mother, it is alien to her The mother tells her daughter to smile, but she wants to cry. And she asks the groom to tear her out of this “bazaar” that surrounds her, where there is a lot of “all sorts of rabble,” and to take her far away, beyond the Volga.

However, Larisa is a dowryless, poor, cash-strapped bride. She has to put up with it. In addition, she herself managed to become infected with a craving for external brilliance. Larisa lacks integrity of character, her mental life is quite contradictory. Not only does she not want to see the vulgarity and cynicism of the people around her, but for quite a long time she cannot discern it. All this distinguishes her from Katerina. Refusing her mother's lifestyle, she exists among vulgar admirers.

Larisa Ogudalova had to experience the indifference and cruelty of those around her, to endure love drama, and as a result she dies, just like the heroine of “The Thunderstorm”. But despite the apparent similarity, Larisa Ogudalova has a completely different character than Katerina Kabanova. The girl received an excellent education, she is smart, sophisticated, educated, dreams of beautiful love, but initially her life turns out completely differently. She is homeless. Larisa's mother is very selfish. She sells the beauty and youth of her daughters.

First, an old man with gout appeared in the house. Larisa clearly doesn't want this unequal marriage, but “you had to be nice: mummy orders.” Then the rich manager of some prince came running, always drunk. Larisa has no time for him, but in the house they accept him: “her position is unenviable.” Then a certain cashier “appeared”, showering Kharita Ignatievna with money. This one fought off everyone, but didn’t show off for long. Circumstances here helped the bride: he was arrested in their house with a scandal.

Larisa Ogudalova falls in love with the “brilliant master” Sergei Sergeevich Paratov. She sincerely considers him the ideal man. The master has a fortune, he fully corresponds to the idea of ​​​​a noble and educated person. Inner essence his is revealed later. Larisa is young and inexperienced, so she falls into Paratov’s trap and ruins herself. She doesn't have strong character and becomes a toy in the hands of others. It comes to the point where the girl is being played toss. Those around her consider her a thing, an expensive and beautiful amusement, but her sublime soul, beauty and talent turn out to be unimportant. Karandyshev tells Larisa: “They don’t look at you as a woman, as a person... they look at you as a thing.”

She herself agrees with this: “A thing... yes, a thing! They are right, I am a thing, I am not a person...”.

Larisa has a passionate heart, she is sincere and emotional. She generously gives her love, but what does she get in return? For her loved one, Larisa is just another form of entertainment and fun. Out of despair, she even agrees to accept Knurov’s conditions.

Death is a kind of salvation for Larisa, a spiritual salvation, of course. Such a tragic ending saves her from the difficult choice that she is trying to make, saves her from moral death and falling into the abyss called depravity.

The only way out that Larisa finds is leaving this world. Larisa first wanted to commit suicide herself. She approached the cliff and looked down, but unlike Katerina, she did not have enough determination and strength to accomplish her plan. However, Larisa's death is predetermined and prepared by the entire play. Suddenly a shot is heard from the pier (this is what Larisa is scared of). Then the ax in Karandyshev’s hands is mentioned. He calls certain death a fall from a cliff. Larisa talks about Paratov’s “indifferent shot” at the coin she was holding in her hands. She herself thinks that here on any branch “you can hang yourself,” but on the Volga “it’s easy to drown yourself everywhere.” Robinson has a premonition of a possible murder. Finally, Larisa dreams: “If only someone would kill me now?”

The death of the heroine becomes inevitable, and it comes. In a mad fit of ownership, performing a great deed for her, Karandyshev kills her. This is the last and involuntary choice of the homeless woman. This is how the tragedy of the main character of Ostrovsky’s play ends.

"Dowry" is a drama about the catastrophe of personality in an inhuman world. This work is about the tragedy of an ordinary Russian woman, a homeless woman with a warm, loving heart.

A. N. Ostrovsky's drama "Dowry" is a wonderful play from the late period of the writer's work. It was conceived in 1874, completed in 1878 and staged in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the same year. M. Ermolova, M. Savina, and later V. Komissarzhevskaya - the best actors of the capital's theaters - took on the role of Larisa Ogudalova. What captivated them so much with this wonderful heroine?

Larisa Ogudalova is distinguished by her truthfulness, sincerity, and directness of character, thereby reminiscent of Katerina from “The Thunderstorm.” According to Vozhevaty, Larisa Dmitrievna “has no cunning.” What brings her closer to the heroine of “The Thunderstorm” is her high poetry. Larisa is attracted by the Trans-Volga distance, the forests beyond the river, and beckoned by the beauty itself - the Volga with its spaciousness. “There is no earthly, this worldly thing,” notes Knurov. And in fact: she all seems to be raised above the dirt of reality, above the vulgarity and baseness of life. In the depths of her soul, like a bird, which she herself resembles, beats the dream of a beautiful and noble, honest and quiet life. Translated from Greek, Larisa means “seagull,” and this is no coincidence.

Shouldn't I prefer my mother's lifestyle? Kharita Ignatievna, left a widow with three daughters, is constantly cunning and cunning, flattering and ingratiating, begging from the rich and accepting their handouts. She set up a real noisy “gypsy camp” in her house to create the appearance of beauty and splendor of life. And all this in order to trade in human goods under the cover of this tinsel. She has already ruined two daughters, now it’s her turn to sell the third. But Larisa cannot accept her mother’s lifestyle; it is alien to her. The mother tells her daughter to smile, but she wants to cry. And she asks her groom to tear her out of this “bazaar” surrounding her, where there is a lot of “all sorts of rabble,” and to take her further away, beyond the Volga.

However, Larisa is a dowryless, poor, cash-strapped bride. She has to put up with it. In addition, she herself managed to become infected with a craving for external brilliance. Larisa lacks integrity of character, her mental life is quite contradictory. Not only does she not want to see the vulgarity and cynicism of the people around her, but for quite a long time she cannot discern it. All this distinguishes her from Katerina. Refusing her mother's lifestyle, she exists among vulgar admirers.

Larisa Ogudalova had to experience the indifference and cruelty of those around her, survive a love drama, and as a result she dies, just like the heroine of “The Thunderstorm”. But despite the apparent similarity, Larisa Ogudalova has a completely different character than Katerina Kabanova. The girl received an excellent education, she is smart, sophisticated, educated, dreams of beautiful love, but initially her life turns out completely differently. She is homeless. Larisa's mother is very selfish. She sells the beauty and youth of her daughters.

First, an old man with gout appeared in the house. Larisa clearly does not want this unequal marriage, but “I had to be nice: mummy orders.” Then the rich manager of some prince came running, always drunk. Larisa has no time for him, but in the house they accept him: “her position is unenviable.” Then a certain cashier “appeared”, showering Kharita Ignatievna with money. This one fought off everyone, but didn’t show off for long. Circumstances here helped the bride: he was arrested in their house with a scandal.

Larisa Ogudalova falls in love with the “brilliant master” Sergei Sergeevich Paratov. She sincerely considers him the ideal man. The master has a fortune, he fully corresponds to the idea of ​​a noble and educated person. His inner essence is revealed later. Larisa is young and inexperienced, so she falls into Paratov’s trap and ruins herself. She does not have a strong character and becomes a toy in the hands of others. It comes to the point where the girl is being played toss. Those around her consider her a thing, an expensive and beautiful amusement, but her sublime soul, beauty and talent turn out to be unimportant. Karandyshev tells Larisa: “They don’t look at you as a woman, as a person... they look at you as a thing.”

She herself agrees with this: “A thing... yes, a thing! They are right, I am a thing, I am not a person...”.

Larisa has a passionate heart, she is sincere and emotional. She generously gives her love, but what does she get in return? For her loved one, Larisa is just another form of entertainment and fun. Out of despair, she even agrees to accept Knurov’s conditions.

Death is a kind of salvation for Larisa, a spiritual salvation, of course. Such a tragic ending saves her from the difficult choice that she is trying to make, saves her from moral death and falling into the abyss called depravity.

The only way out that Larisa finds is leaving this world. Larisa first wanted to commit suicide herself. She approached the cliff and looked down, but unlike Katerina, she did not have enough determination and strength to accomplish her plan. However, Larisa's death is predetermined and prepared by the entire play. Suddenly a shot is heard from the pier (this is what Larisa is scared of). Then the ax in Karandyshev’s hands is mentioned. He calls certain death a fall from a cliff. Larisa talks about Paratov’s “indifferent shot” at the coin she was holding in her hands. She herself thinks that here on any branch “you can hang yourself,” but on the Volga “it’s easy to drown yourself everywhere.” Robinson has a premonition of a possible murder. Finally, Larisa dreams: “If only someone would kill me now?”

The death of the heroine becomes inevitable, and it comes. In a mad fit of ownership, performing a great deed for her, Karandyshev kills her. This is the last and involuntary choice of the homeless woman. This is how the tragedy of the main character of Ostrovsky’s play ends.

"Dowry" is a drama about the catastrophe of personality in an inhuman world. This work is about the tragedy of an ordinary Russian woman, a homeless woman with a warm, loving heart.

Larisa Ogudalova - heroine of the romance

Ostrovsky play female national

Larisa Ogudalova is an image no less famous than Katerina Kabanova, and causes no less controversy. The main question remains the question of the strength of Larisa’s morality and the meaning of her last words. Ostrovsky really created controversial image, in this part of the work we will try to find the answer to the question of what is the true strength of character of Larisa Ogudalova, and why she, so unlike the spiritually pure Katerina, also remains the embodiment of female tragedy.

The modern understanding of this image is largely based on the perception of the film famous film“Cruel Romance”, we will not argue about the correspondence of the director’s version and the author’s intention, but it seems to us that the title of the film very accurately reflects the style of the play. A-priory, cruel romance- this is an urban love ballad, filled with exaggerated tragic pathos, sentimental, but not giving a feeling of catharsis, this tragic pathos is inherent in all the main characters of the play, except Larisa herself, who takes off like a seagull - the bird that gave the root of her name - above spiritually small people. "Dowry" is a play about everyday life and morals, but it does not have the breakthrough that we find in "The Thunderstorm." The death of Larisa is not a given given by Larisa herself, but the result of the instant choice of the heroine, who before last moment is in captivity of her own illusions, which is why her death is not suicide, but Karandyshev’s shot. Lotman, in the article “Ostrovsky and the Russian drama of his time,” evaluates the tragedy of Larisa Ogudalova, the heroine: “ modern woman, feeling like an individual, independently accepting important life decisions, is faced with the cruel laws of society and can neither reconcile with them nor oppose them with new ideals. Under the spell strong man, a bright personality, she does not immediately realize that his charm is inseparable from the power that wealth gives him, and from the merciless cruelty of the “capital collector.” Larisa’s death is a tragic way out of the insoluble moral contradictions of the time.”

The play “The Dowry” was written in the late 70s of the 19th century, during the triumph of the nouveau riche - wealthy merchants, when money had an increasing influence on people, overshadowing true values. Tragic consequences This was reflected in the fate of the main character of the drama. Larisa is soft, pure girl, but she was brought up in the best European traditions- she was taught what a European girl is supposed to have: good manners and musical education. But Larisa doesn't understand true meaning this formation, which is only a beautiful setting for a valuable thing. Her mother, who has already successfully “placed” two daughters, none of whom have found happiness, also predicts for Larisa a successful marriage with a wealthy man. The elder Ogudalova does not act for the benefit of her daughter; in this world of profit, the tragedy begins with the fact that the mother tries to sell her daughter at a higher price, for her own benefit.

Larisa is deprived mother's love, she is deprived of love in general, like Katerina, and her heart demands that this lack of love be filled. Here she is closer to the image of Tatyana Larina, whose soul was waiting for “someone,” but unlike Tatyana, whose story ends with a marriage, albeit with an unloved, but with a person respected by her and society who loves Tatyana, Larisa does not receive the love she deserves from his chosen one Paratov, nor from his fiancé Karandyshev.

Larisa, a naive young girl, cannot believe that in the society where, according to her mother’s will, she must move, everything is determined by money. “She embodies the traditions of noble upbringing, and her character reveals a sharp contradiction between the desire for external splendor, for the ostentatious nobility of life and the deeper, internal properties of her nature - seriousness, truthfulness and thirst for genuine and sincere relationships. Such a contradiction was then a phenomenon encountered in the lives of the best representatives of the privileged strata of society.” In her mind, of course, she knows everything perfectly well, the fate of her sisters is clear proof of this, but her soul just can’t accept it. It’s amazing how such a pure and love-hungry girl grew up in this family, who strives for a truly sublime feeling, and, as it seems to her, finds it in the person of the “brilliant master” Sergei Sergeevich Paratov. A woman of an ardent heart, Larisa is looking for love, there is no calculation or vulgarity in her: “After all, in Larisa Dmitrievna there is no earthly, this worldly thing,” notes Knurov. She is looking for sublimely beautiful love, gracefully beautiful life. Larisa is blindly confident that Paratov loves her as sincerely and recklessly as she loves him, and this is her tragedy. Katerina and Larisa are united by the fact that they are both capable of endowing their chosen one with non-existent spiritual beauty, but if Katerina knows about her mistake, although she hides this knowledge, then Larisa does not see that it is only in her world that Paratov has the features ideal person who is capable of love.

“But Larisa’s chosen one, not possessing the business acumen of the merchants Knurov and Vozhevatov, has already managed to fully assimilate their morality; it is no coincidence that he confesses to Knurov: “I, Mokiy Parmenych, have nothing cherished; If I find a profit, I’ll sell everything, anything.” Larisa draws her lover to herself and Karandyshev like this: “You yourself mean something, you are good, fair man; but from comparison with Sergei Sergeich you lose everything... Sergei Sergeich... is the ideal of a man.” We cannot accurately determine Larisa Ogudalova’s reading range, but we can assume that she was brought up on romantic stories, and from there she took her ideal, the embodiment of which Paratova sees: the ideal of masculinity, courage, valor and honor. Larisa is not able to look critically at this man: the episode with the Caucasian officer, when Paratov, in order to demonstrate his composure and accuracy, shot at the target that she was holding in her hand, she perceives as proof of his “ideality”, so similar to “ideality” romantic heroes. Although in fact this episode speaks only of bragging and pride, for the sake of which Sergei Sergeich, without hesitation, risks his own and others’ lives.

In fact " ideal man“Sergei Sergeich is a coward, and a coward of the lowest kind, because he is afraid of being left without capital, and therefore marries a rich woman, and his “outburst of passion” for Larisa is just a game with Karandyshev, to whom Paratov “points out his place” in such an immoral way ", was perfectly aware of everything and accurately calculated his actions. Larisa for him is a beautiful thing, a toy, which was suddenly taken away by some insignificant Karandyshev. The heroine of the play compromises herself by leaving with Paratov, but she is not yet aware of her sin; only after a conversation with Sergei Sergeevich, she understands that her love was an illusion built by herself. Larisa is enchanted and lives in an enchanted world, which is destroyed as the play progresses. There is no such thing in it moral strength, as in Katerina, that spirit of insight that allowed the heroine of “The Thunderstorm” to anticipate her tragic ending, she is disappointed not in the world, but for now only in her lover. She still believes that the world around her, although cruel, is at least not much like that romantic world, which she built with such tenacity.

Throughout the play, Larisa does not grow spiritually, she begins to see spiritually, her eyes open, but internal growth, as such, does not occur, but the reason for this is not at all the lack of a spiritual principle in Larisa, there is no such force in Larisa that is capable of breaking so firmly the established power of money, she is only able to leave this world into a fictional world created by her imagination, but she does not have the strength to fight. Ultimately, the girl, broken by the betrayal of her lover, to whom “the falsity of the ideal is revealed, in the name of which she was ready to make any sacrifice,” and before whom “in all its ugliness the position to which she is doomed is revealed - the role of an expensive thing,” decides to become kept woman in order to again try to build a kind of “cocoon” around her, with the help of Knurov’s money to build, if not a beautiful love, then at least a beautiful life. You can blame Larisa for the lack of spirituality, because such a decision is immoral, and she herself says that “gold shone before her,” but this decision is a decision made in complete despair, and in her mind it is tantamount to the desire to die. She understands that spiritual death awaits her and hesitates between the death of the body and the death of the soul. What leads to a tragic outcome is Larisa’s realization that everyone around her views her as an expensive, beautiful thing that can be bought. She utters bitter words: “A thing... yes, a thing! They are right, I am a thing, not a person... Every thing must have an owner, I will go to the owner.” Feeling like a thing, Larisa momentarily abandons all her spiritual qualities, but they manifest themselves: a girl cannot become a simple kept woman, a toy for whom they do not feel love, and who does not feel love herself.

When Larisa first talks about suicide, she only provokes Paratov to make a decision, as it seemed to Larisa, favorable for her: “For unhappy people there is a lot of room in God's world: here is the garden, here is the Volga. Here you can hang yourself on every branch, on the Volga - choose any place. It’s easy to drown yourself anywhere if you have the desire and the strength,” she is not yet seriously thinking about suicide. The words about the Volga and the garden are intended to rather frighten her lover, but Knurov invites her to become a kept woman, emphasizing with meaning: “It’s impossible for me to do little,” thoughts of death become real. Larisa reflects: “Giving up on life is not at all as easy as I thought. So I have no strength! How unhappy I am! But there are people for whom this is easy... Oh, what am I!... but nothing is nice to me, and I have no reason to live! Why am I hesitant? What keeps me above this abyss? What's stopping you? Oh, no, no... Not Knurov, luxury, brilliance... no, no... I owe it to the vanity... Debauchery... oh, no... I just don’t have the determination. Pathetic weakness: to live, at least somehow, but to live... When you can’t live and don’t need to. How pitiful and unhappy I am... If only someone would kill me now... How good it is to die... There is nothing to reproach myself with yet. Or get sick and die... Yes, I think I’ll get sick. How bad I feel!.. I’ll be sick for a long time, you’ll calm down, you’ll come to terms with everything, you’ll forgive everyone and you’ll die... Oh, how bad, how dizzy.”

Even the prospect of a beautiful life does not console Larisa; she utters the word “debauchery,” which means she realizes the enormity of the prospect proposed by Knurov, which means spirituality it's strong in her. Until the moment of epiphany, Larisa lived with love, which in her was stronger than the concepts of morality and morality, especially since such concepts were not a priority in her upbringing; now she feels in herself moral law, not associated with religion, like Katerina’s, but associated with her understanding of the “ideal,” which, as it turned out, is inseparable from the moral.

When Karandyshev tells the bride that Knurov and Vozhevatov played a toss on her, a tragic breakdown occurs in Larisa’s soul, she will no longer be able to build illusions around herself - real world turned out to be stronger than her imagination, she will no longer be able to live in this world. Karandyshev, for whom his wife, a member of the circle of local millionaires, was supposed to become a means of overcoming his own inferiority complex, helps Larisa, without realizing it, to fulfill her innermost desire: “If only someone would kill me now...” - saves her , allows her to leave without tainting her soul and body with debauchery, without making her own beauty a commodity. A minute before her death, she shows true nobility, saving her killer from trial, convincing Paratov, Knurov, Vozhevatov, the true culprits of her death, who crowded around her, that she committed suicide. Although it is possible to interpret her words differently: I want to believe in the fantastic idea that Larisa, with the power of her soul, can still influence the world, and it is her determination, and not Karandyshev’s shot, that allows her to die... “It’s me myself... No one is guilty, no one... It’s me.”

“Paratov frantically shouts to the singing gypsies: “Tell them to shut up! Tell me to shut up!” - but the dying Larisa has the strength to ironically challenge Paratov’s order: “No, no, why!.. Let them have fun, some have fun, some have fun... I don’t want to disturb anyone. Live, live everything! You need to live, but I need... to die. I don't complain about anyone, I don't take offense at anyone... y'all good people...” her life ends with a deeply sincere confession: “I love you all... all of you,” - her world triumphs, yet she was able, through pain, through disappointment, to gain such spiritual strength, to ascend to such a peak that with all her heart she gave the world of cruelty and profit forgiveness and a kiss.

Larisa ultimately turned out to be as strong as Katerina, although she did not change anything in the world, but she was able to forgive the world. The bird girl eventually finds a grave in the same Volga, that is, she becomes free. The true strength of Larisa Ogudalova's character lies in her ability to love and forgive, in her dedication, in her naive faith in the world. What other heroine is also capable of blindly believing in love in a world where power belongs to money? Isn't this girl strong, who, just before her death, short hours is he experiencing disappointment in love, in the world, in himself, but can he die by blowing a kiss to the world? The world will not change, the gypsy choir sings, and Larisa does not demand to interrupt the fun of this “celebration of life”, she simply leaves, leaves with a pure soul and with a pure heart, not clouded by hatred. I think this is her true strength.

Ostrovsky "Dowry" - essay "The tragic fate of Larisa in the "dark kingdom" (based on the play "Dowry" by A. N. Ostrovsky)"