Characteristics of Catherine from the play The Thunderstorm: appearance. The image of Katerina in the play The Thunderstorm
The publication of “The Thunderstorm” occurred in 1860. Difficult times. The country smelled of revolution. Traveling along the Volga in 1856, the author made sketches of the future work, where he tried to depict as accurately as possible the merchant world of the second half of the 19th century. There is an insoluble conflict in the play. It was he who led to the death of the main character, who could not cope with her emotional state. The image and characterization of Katerina in the play “The Thunderstorm” is a portrait of a strong, extraordinary personality, forced to exist in the conditions of a small patriarchal city. The girl could not forgive herself for betraying herself, giving herself up to human lynching, without even hoping to earn forgiveness. For which she paid with her life.
Katerina Kabanova is the wife of Tikhon Kabanov. Kabanikha's daughter-in-law.
Image and characteristics
After marriage, Katerina’s world collapsed. Her parents spoiled her and cherished her like a flower. The girl grew up in love and with a feeling of limitless freedom.
“Mama doted on me, dressed me up like a doll, and didn’t force me to work; I do what I want".
As soon as she found herself in her mother-in-law's house, everything changed. The rules and laws are the same, but now from a beloved daughter, Katerina became a subordinate daughter-in-law, whom her mother-in-law hated with every fiber of her soul and did not even try to hide her attitude towards her.
When she was very young, she was given to someone else's family.
“They married you off when you were young, you didn’t have to go out with the girls; “Your heart hasn’t left yet.”
That’s how it should be, for Katerina it was normal. In those days, no one built a family out of love. If you endure it, you will fall in love. She is ready to submit, but with respect and love. In my husband's house they did not know about such concepts.
“Was I like that! I lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild...”
Katerina is a freedom-loving person. Decisive.
“This is how I was born, hot! I was still six years old, no more, so I did it! They offended me with something at home, and it was late in the evening, it was already dark; I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they found it, about ten miles away!
She is not one of those who obey tyrants. She is not afraid of dirty intrigues on the part of Kabanova. For her, freedom is the most important thing. Do not follow idiotic orders, do not bend under the influence of others, but do what your heart desires.
Her soul languished in anticipation of happiness and mutual love. Tikhon, Katerina’s husband, loved her in his own way, as best he could, but his mother’s influence on him was too strong, turning him against his young wife. He preferred to drown out problems with alcohol, and escaped from conflicts in the family on long business trips.
Katerina was often left alone. They did not have children with Tikhon.
“Eco woe! I don’t have children: I would still sit with them and amuse them. I really like talking to children – they are angels.”
The girl was increasingly sad about her worthless life, praying in front of the altar.
Katerina is religious. Going to church is like a holiday. There she rested her soul. As a child, she heard angels singing. She believed that God would hear prayers everywhere. When it was not possible to go to the temple, the girl prayed in the garden.
A new round of life is associated with the arrival of Boris. She understands that passion for another man is a terrible sin, but she is unable to cope with it.
“It’s not good, it’s a terrible sin, Varenka, why do I love someone else?”
She tried to resist, but she did not have enough strength and support:
“It’s as if I’m standing over an abyss, but I have nothing to hold on to.”
The feeling turned out to be too strong.
Sinful love raised a wave of internal fear for its action. The more her love for Boris grew, the more she felt sinfulness. She grabbed at the last straw, crying out to her husband with a request to take her with him, but Tikhon is a narrow-minded person and could not understand his wife’s mental suffering.
Bad dreams and an irreversible premonition of impending disaster drove Katerina crazy. She felt the reckoning approaching. With each thunderclap, it seemed to her that God was throwing arrows at her.
Tired of the internal struggle, Katerina publicly confesses to her husband that she has cheated. Even in this situation, the spineless Tikhon was ready to forgive her. Boris, having learned about her repentance, under pressure from his uncle, leaves the city, leaving his beloved to the mercy of fate. Katerina did not receive support from him. Unable to withstand the mental anguish, the girl rushes into the Volga.
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The question of choosing a soul mate has always been problematic for young people. Now we have the right to choose a life partner ourselves; previously, the final decision in marriage was made by the parents. Naturally, parents first of all looked at the well-being of their future son-in-law and his moral character. This choice promised an excellent material and moral existence for children, but the intimate side of marriage often suffered. Spouses understand that they should treat each other favorably and respectfully, but the lack of passion does not have the best effect. There are many examples in the literature of such dissatisfaction and the search for fulfillment of one’s intimate life.
We invite you to familiarize yourself with A. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm”
This topic is not new in Russian literature. From time to time it is raised by writers. A. Ostrovsky in the play “The Thunderstorm” portrayed a unique image of the woman Katerina, who, in search of personal happiness, under the influence of Orthodox morality and the emerging love feeling, comes to a dead end.
Katerina's life story
The main character of Ostrovsky's play is Katerina Kabanova. Since childhood, she was brought up with love and affection. Her mother felt sorry for her daughter, and sometimes freed her from all work, leaving Katerina to do what she wanted. But the girl did not grow up lazy.
After the wedding with Tikhon Kabanov, the girl lives in the house of her husband’s parents. Tikhon has no father. And the mother manages all processes in the house. The mother-in-law has an authoritarian character; she suppresses all family members with her authority: her son Tikhon, her daughter Varya and her young daughter-in-law.
Katerina finds herself in a world completely unfamiliar to her - her mother-in-law often scolds her for no reason, her husband is also not distinguished by tenderness and care - sometimes he beats her. Katerina and Tikhon have no children. This fact is incredibly upsetting for the woman - she likes to babysit children.
One day the woman falls in love. She is married and understands perfectly well that her love has no right to life, but still, over time, she gives in to her desire while her husband is in another city.
Upon her husband’s return, Katerina experiences pangs of conscience and confesses her action to her mother-in-law and husband, which causes a wave of indignation. Tikhon beats her. The mother-in-law says that the woman needs to be buried in the ground. The situation in the family, already unhappy and tense, worsens to the point of impossibility. Seeing no other way out, the woman commits suicide by drowning herself in the river. On the last pages of the play we learn that Tikhon still loved his wife, and his behavior towards her was provoked by his mother’s instigation.
Appearance of Katerina Kabanova
The author does not provide a detailed description of Katerina Petrovna’s appearance. We learn about the woman’s appearance from the lips of other characters in the play - most of the characters consider her beautiful and delightful. We also know little about Katerina’s age - the fact that she is in the prime of her life allows us to define her as a young woman. Before the wedding, she was full of aspirations and glowing with happiness.
Life in her mother-in-law's house did not have the best effect on her: she noticeably withered, but was still pretty. Her girlish gaiety and cheerfulness quickly disappeared - their place was taken by despondency and sadness.
Family relationships
Katerina’s mother-in-law is a very complex person; she runs everything in the house. This applies not only to household chores, but also to all relationships within the family. The woman finds it difficult to cope with her emotions - she is jealous of her son for Katerina, she wants Tikhon to pay attention not to his wife, but to her, his mother. Jealousy eats up the mother-in-law and does not give her the opportunity to enjoy life - she is always dissatisfied with something, constantly finding fault with everyone, especially with her young daughter-in-law. She doesn’t even try to hide this fact - those around her make fun of old Kabanikha, saying that she tortured everyone in the house.
Katerina respects old Kabanikha, despite the fact that she literally does not give her a pass with her nagging. The same cannot be said about other family members.
Katerina’s husband, Tikhon, also loves his mother. His mother's authoritarianism and despotism broke him, as did his wife. He is torn by feelings of love for his mother and wife. Tikhon does not try to somehow resolve the difficult situation in his family and finds solace in drinking and carousing. Kabanikha’s youngest daughter and Tikhon’s sister, Varvara, is more pragmatic, she understands that you cannot break through a wall with your forehead, in this case you need to act with cunning and intelligence. Her respect for her mother is ostentatious; she says what her mother wants to hear, but in reality she does everything her own way. Unable to bear life at home, Varvara runs away.
Despite the dissimilarity of the girls, Varvara and Katerina become friends. They support each other in difficult situations. Varvara incites Katerina to secret meetings with Boris, helps the lovers organize dates for the lovers. Varvara does not mean anything bad in these actions - the girl herself often resorts to such dates - this is her way of not going crazy, she wants to bring at least a piece of happiness into Katerina’s life, but the result is the opposite.
Katerina also has a difficult relationship with her husband. This is primarily due to Tikhon’s spinelessness. He does not know how to defend his position, even if his mother’s wishes clearly contradict his intentions. Her husband has no opinion of his own - he is a “mama’s boy”, unquestioningly fulfilling the will of his parent. He often, at his mother’s instigation, scolds his young wife and sometimes beats her. Naturally, such behavior does not bring joy and harmony to the relationship between spouses.
Katerina's dissatisfaction is growing day by day. She feels unhappy. Understanding that the quibbles addressed to her are far-fetched still do not allow her to live a full life.
From time to time, intentions arise in Katerina’s thoughts to change something in her life, but she cannot find a way out of the situation - the thought of suicide visits Katerina Petrovna more and more often.
Character traits
Katerina has a meek and kind disposition. She doesn't know how to stand up for herself. Katerina Petrovna is a soft, romantic girl. She loves to indulge in dreams and fantasies.
She has an inquisitive mind. She is interested in the most unusual things, for example, why people cannot fly. Because of this, others consider her a little strange.
Katerina is patient and non-conflict by nature. She forgives the unfair and cruel attitude of her husband and mother-in-law towards her.
In general, those around, if you don’t take into account Tikhon and Kabanikha, have a good opinion of Katerina, they think that she is a sweet and lovely girl.
The desire for freedom
Katerina Petrovna has a unique concept of freedom. At a time when most people understand freedom as a physical state in which they are free to carry out those actions and actions that they prefer, Katerina prefers moral freedom, devoid of psychological pressure, allowing them to control their own destiny.
Katerina Kabanova is not so decisive as to put her mother-in-law in her place, but her desire for freedom does not allow her to live by the rules within which she finds herself - the idea of death as a way to gain freedom appears in the text several times before Katerina’s romantic relationship with Boris . The publication of information about Katerina's betrayal of her husband and the further reaction of her relatives, in particular her mother-in-law, become just a catalyst for her suicidal tendencies.
Katerina's religiosity
The issue of religiosity and the influence of religion on people's lives has always been quite controversial. This trend is especially clearly questionable in times of active scientific and technological revolution and progress.
In relation to Katerina Kabanova, this trend does not work. A woman, not finding joy in ordinary, worldly life, is imbued with special love and reverence for religion. Her attachment to the church is also strengthened by the fact that her mother-in-law is religious. While old Kabanikha’s religiosity is only ostentatious (in fact, she does not adhere to the basic canons and postulates of the church that regulate relationships between people), Katerina’s religiosity is true. She firmly believes in the commandments of God and always tries to observe the laws of existence.
While praying and being in church, Katerina experiences special pleasure and relief. At such moments she looks like an angel.
However, the desire to experience happiness and true love takes precedence over religious vision. Knowing that adultery is a terrible sin, a woman still succumbs to temptation. For happiness lasting ten days, she pays with another, most terrible sin in the eyes of a believing Christian - suicide.
Katerina Petrovna realizes the gravity of her action, but the concept that her life will never change forces her to ignore this prohibition. It should be noted that the idea of such an end to her life’s journey had already arisen, but, despite the hardships of her life, it was not carried out. Perhaps the fact that the pressure from her mother-in-law was painful for her played here, but the concept that it had no basis stopped the girl. After her family finds out about the betrayal - the reproaches against her become justified - she really tarnished her reputation and the reputation of the family. Another reason for this outcome of events could be the fact that Boris refuses the woman and does not take her with him. Katerina must somehow solve the current situation herself and she doesn’t see a better option than throwing herself into the river.
Katerina and Boris
Before Boris appeared in the fictional city of Kalinov, finding personal, intimate happiness was not relevant for Katerina. She did not try to make up for the lack of love from her husband on the side.
The image of Boris awakens in Katerina a faded feeling of passionate love. A woman realizes the severity of a love relationship with another man, and therefore languishes with the feeling that has arisen, but does not accept any prerequisites to turn her dreams into reality.
Varvara convinces Katerina that Kabanova needs to meet alone with her lover. The brother’s sister knows very well that the feelings of young people are mutual, in addition, the coolness of the relationship between Tikhon and Katerina is not new to her, therefore she regards her act as an opportunity to show her sweet and kind daughter-in-law what true love is.
Katerina cannot make up her mind for a long time, but the water wears away the stone, the woman agrees to the meeting. Finding herself captive of her desires, strengthened by a kindred feeling on the part of Boris, the woman cannot deny herself further meetings. The absence of her husband plays into her hands - for 10 days she lived as if in paradise. Boris loves her more than life itself, he is affectionate and gentle with her. With him, Katerina feels like a real woman. She thinks she has finally found happiness. Everything changes with Tikhon's arrival. Nobody knows about the secret meetings, but Katerina is tormented, she is seriously afraid of punishment from God, her psychological state reaches its climax and she admits to committing a sin.
After this event, the woman’s life turns into hell - the already falling reproaches from her mother-in-law become unbearable, her husband beats her.
The woman still has hope for a successful outcome of the event - she believes that Boris will not leave her in trouble. However, her lover is in no hurry to help her - he is afraid of angering his uncle and being left without his inheritance, so he refuses to take Katerina with him to Siberia.
For a woman, this becomes a new blow, she is no longer able to survive it - death becomes her only way out.
Thus, Katerina Kabanova is the owner of the kindest and gentlest qualities of the human soul. A woman is especially sensitive to the feelings of other people. Her inability to give a sharp rebuff becomes the reason for constant ridicule and reproaches from her mother-in-law and husband, which further drives her into a dead end situation. Death in her case becomes an opportunity to find happiness and freedom. Awareness of this fact evokes the saddest feelings among readers.
Perhaps few works of that time, and even among the works of the author Ostrovsky himself, could cause so much heated controversy than the play “The Thunderstorm”.
The desperate act of Katerina Kabanova, who crossed the line of life and death, evokes both sympathetic understanding and sharp rejection. There is no one opinion, and there cannot be.
Characteristics of the heroine
The beloved and spoiled daughter of a merchant family, Katerina marries Tikhon, turning her world upside down. Using the example of her parents and new family, we see how different the patriarchal way of life can be: ostentatious and demonstrative (what will the neighbors say? What will the acquaintances think?), or deep and sincere, hidden from prying eyes.
The lack of a full-fledged education contributes to the fate of this woman. According to Katerina’s stories, she gained her knowledge from the stories of her mother and father, as well as praying mantises and wanderers. Faith in people and admiration for the world created by God are its main features. Katerina did not know hard work; she loved to go to church, which seemed to her like a fairy-tale temple where angels were waiting for her.
(Kiryushina Galina Aleksandrovna as Katerina, stage of the Maly Theater)
A cloudless and happy childhood quickly gives way to a joyless marriage. A kind, naive and very religious girl for the first time encountered undisguised hatred for the people around her. There is no longer room for angels and joy in the new family. And marriage itself is not at all for love. And if Katerina hopes to fall in love with Tikhon, then Kabanikha - as everyone around her calls her mother-in-law - leaves no chance for either her son or her daughter-in-law. Perhaps Tikhon would be the one who would make Katya happy, but only under the wing of his mother he does not know such feelings as love.
A meeting with Boris gives the unhappy woman hope that life can still change and become better. The dark atmosphere at home pushes her to rebel and try to fight for her happiness. Going on a date, she realizes that she is committing a sin. This feeling does not leave her either before or after. Firm faith in God and awareness of the depravity of the committed act push Katerina to confess everything to her husband and mother-in-law.
The image of the heroine in the work
(Scene from drama)
Amazed, but deep down understanding his wife, Tikhon does not condemn her. But this doesn’t make it any easier for Katerina herself. Forgiving yourself is much more difficult. Perhaps she wanted to ease her mental turmoil with a confession, but it didn’t work out. She doesn't need forgiveness. The very thought of returning to the house for her becomes identical to death, only not instantaneous, but long, painful, inevitable. According to the religious canon, suicide is a mortal sin that cannot be forgiven. But this does not stop the desperate woman.
In her thoughts, Katya often imagines herself as a bird, her soul yearns for heaven. Living in Kalinov is unbearable for her. Having fallen in love with Boris, who has recently arrived in the city, she imagines how they will leave the hated city together. Love is seen as real and such a close salvation. But to make a dream come true, you need a mutual desire...
(Fragment from a dramatic production)
Having met Boris on the banks of the Volga, Katerina experiences severe disappointment. Once such a wonderful young man resolutely refuses to take a married woman with him, dealing her the final blow to the heart with his refusal. Katya no longer wants to be a stumbling block in her family, to continue to drag out a joyless existence, to break her soul day after day to please her mother-in-law.
And the exit is here - very close, you just need to take a step off the cliff into the waters of the Volga. And the thunderstorm seems to her like nothing more than an indication from above. What Katya had once only vaguely thought about, afraid to admit to herself sinful thoughts, turned out to be the simplest way out. Not finding her place, support, love, she decides to take this very last step.
2. The image of Katerina in the play “The Thunderstorm”
Katerina is a lonely young woman who lacks human participation, sympathy, and love. The need for this draws her to Boris. She sees that outwardly he is not like other residents of the city of Kalinov, and, not being able to recognize his inner essence, considers him a person from another world. In her imagination, Boris seems to be a handsome prince who will take her from the “dark kingdom” to the fairy-tale world that exists in her dreams.
In terms of character and interests, Katerina stands out sharply from her environment. The fate of Katerina, unfortunately, is a vivid and typical example of the fate of thousands of Russian women of that time. Katerina is a young woman, the wife of the merchant son Tikhon Kabanov. She recently left her home and moved into her husband’s house, where she lives with her mother-in-law Kabanova, who is the sovereign mistress. Katerina has no rights in the family; she is not even free to control herself. With warmth and love, she remembers her parents' home and her girlhood life. There she lived freely, surrounded by the affection and care of her mother. The religious upbringing she received in the family developed in her impressionability, daydreaming, belief in the afterlife and retribution for man's sins.
Katerina found herself in completely different conditions in her husband’s house. At every step she felt dependent on her mother-in-law, endured humiliation and insults. From Tikhon she does not meet any support, much less understanding, since he himself is under the power of Kabanikha. Out of her kindness, Katerina is ready to treat Kabanikha as her own mother. "But Katerina's sincere feelings do not meet with support from either Kabanikha or Tikhon.
Life in such an environment changed Katerina's character. Katerina’s sincerity and truthfulness collide in Kabanikha’s house with lies, hypocrisy, hypocrisy, and rudeness. When love for Boris is born in Katerina, it seems like a crime to her, and she struggles with the feeling that washes over her. Katerina's truthfulness and sincerity make her suffer so much that she finally has to repent to her husband. Katerina's sincerity and truthfulness are incompatible with the life of the “dark kingdom”. All this was the cause of Katerina’s tragedy.
"Katerina's public repentance shows the depth of her suffering, moral greatness, and determination. But after repentance, her situation became unbearable. Her husband does not understand her, Boris is weak-willed and does not come to her aid. The situation has become hopeless - Katerina is dying. It is not Katerina's fault one specific person. Her death is the result of the incompatibility of morality and the way of life in which she was forced to exist. The image of Katerina had enormous educational significance for Ostrovsky’s contemporaries and for subsequent generations. He called for a fight against all forms of despotism and oppression of the human personality. This expression of the growing protest of the masses against all types of slavery.
Katerina, sad and cheerful, compliant and obstinate, dreamy, depressed and proud. Such different mental states are explained by the naturalness of each mental movement of this simultaneously restrained and impetuous nature, the strength of which lies in the ability to always be itself. Katerina remained true to herself, that is, she could not change the very essence of her character.
I think that the most important character trait of Katerina is honesty with herself, her husband, and the world around her; it is her unwillingness to live a lie. She does not want and cannot be cunning, pretend, lie, hide. This is confirmed by the scene of Katerina’s confession of treason. It was not the thunderstorm, not the frightening prophecy of the crazy old woman, not the fear of hell that prompted the heroine to tell the truth. “My whole heart was exploding! I can’t stand it anymore!” - this is how she began her confession. For her honest and integral nature, the false position in which she found herself is unbearable. Living just to live is not for her. To live means to be yourself. Its most precious value is personal freedom, freedom of the soul.
With such a character, Katerina, after betraying her husband, could not stay in his house, return to a monotonous and dreary life, endure constant reproaches and “moral teachings” from Kabanikha, or lose freedom. But all patience comes to an end. It is difficult for Katerina to be in a place where she is not understood, her human dignity is humiliated and insulted, her feelings and desires are ignored. Before her death, she says: “It’s all the same whether you go home or go to the grave... It’s better in the grave...” It’s not death that she desires, but life that is unbearable.
Katerina is a deeply religious and God-fearing person. Since, according to the Christian religion, suicide is a great sin, by deliberately committing it, she showed not weakness, but strength of character. Her death is a challenge to the “dark power”, the desire to live in the “light kingdom” of love, joy and happiness.
The death of Katerina is the result of a collision of two historical eras. With her death, Katerina protests against despotism and tyranny, her death indicates the approaching end of the “dark kingdom.” The image of Katerina belongs to the best images of Russian fiction. Katerina is a new type of people in Russian reality in the 60s of the 19th century.
<…>the idea of domestic despotism and a dozen other equally humane ideas, perhaps, lie in Mr. Ostrovsky’s play. But they were probably not what he was asking himself when he began his drama. This can be seen from the play itself<…>The author spent less color on domestic despotism than on the depiction of other springs in his play. You can still get along with such despotism. Kudryash and Varvara nicely lead him by the nose, and young Kabanov himself is not too embarrassed by them and is very drunk. Old woman Kabanova is more grumpy than evil, more inveterately formalist than a callous woman. Only Katerina dies, but she would have died without despotism. This is a sacrifice of one’s own purity and one’s beliefs. But we will return to this essential thought, which follows directly from Katerina’s character. Now let's focus on this person.
Before us are two female faces: old woman Kabanova and Katerina. Both of them were born in the same stratum of society, and perhaps, and most likely, in the same city. Both of them, from an early age, were surrounded by the same phenomena, strange phenomena, ugly to the point of some kind of fabulous poetry. From an early age they submitted to the same demands, the same forms. Their whole life, measured by hours, flows with mathematical correctness. They look at life in exactly the same way, believe and worship the same things. Their religion is the same. The pilgrims and pilgrims do not talk in their house; they tell them the most absurd tales about their distant wanderings, tales in which they both believe as something indispensable and unchangeable. The devil with his pranks plays the same role for them as the most ordinary phenomenon, the role of some household person. And yet, all this life, all these circumstances, all this belief made one a dry and callous formalist, further dried out her naturally dry and poor temperament, while the other (Katerina), without ceasing to obey the phenomena around her, was completely convinced in their legality and truth, creates from all this a whole poetic world, full of some kind of enchanting charm. She is saved by moral purity and infantile innocence, and by the poetic power that is innate in this character. This face, without ceasing to be real, is all imbued with poetry, that Russian poetry that blows over you from Russian songs and legends. The poetic power in her is so great that she dresses everything in poetic images, sees poetry in everything, even in the grave. The sun warms it, she says, wets it with rain, in the spring the grass will grow on it, so soft, the birds will hatch a nest, the flowers will bloom.
We must cite here one poetic page of Mr. Ostrovsky’s drama in order to be able to further trace the character of Katerina!
“Was I like that,” she says to Varvara, her husband’s sister. - I lived, didn’t 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 whatever I want. Do you know how I lived with girls? I'll tell you now. 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. Then we’ll go to church with Mama, everyone and the pilgrims. Our house was full of pilgrims and praying mantises. And we’ll come home from church, sit down to do some work, more like gold velvet, and the wandering women will begin to tell us where they’ve been, what they’ve seen, different lives, or sing poetry. So time will pass until lunch, then the old women will go to sleep, and I will walk around the garden. Then to Vespers, and in the evening again stories and singing. It was that good.
And when Varvara notices to her that now she lives the same way, she continues:
Yes, everything here seems to be out of captivity. And to death I loved going to church! 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. Exactly how it all happened in one second. Mama said that everyone used to look at me, what was happening to me! You know, on a sunny day, such a light column goes down from the dome and smoke moves in this column, like clouds, and I see, it used to be as if angels were flying and singing in this column. And sometimes, girl, I’d get up at night, we also had lamps burning everywhere, and somewhere in a corner I’d pray until the morning. Or I’ll go into the garden early in the morning, the sun is still just rising, I’ll fall on my knees, pray and cry, and I myself don’t know what I’m praying for and what I’m crying about; that's how they'll find me. And what I prayed for then, what I asked for, I don’t know; I didn’t need anything, I had enough of everything. And what dreams I had, Varenka, what dreams! Either there are golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens, and everyone is singing invisible voices, and there is a smell of cypress, and the mountains and trees are as if not the same as usual, but as if they were painted in images.
From this page, amazing in its poetic charm, character is clearly created in your mind. This is the same situation in which Kabanova finally became callous and which Katerina’s young, dreamy imagination transformed into such lofty poetry. For this pure, untainted nature, only the bright side of things is available; submitting to everything around her, finding everything legal, she knew how to create her own little world out of the miserable life of a provincial town. She believes all the nonsense of the wanderers, believes in evil spirits and is especially afraid of them. This power in her imagination was adorned with all the legends, all the folk stories. The ten thousand ceremonies that rule so despotically in the town where she lives do not bother her at all. She grew up among them and performs them religiously. Only where they rape her open and direct soul is she indignant against them. She will not, for example, no matter how much you persuade her, howl for her departed husband, just so that people can see how much she loves him. “No point! I don’t know how. Why make people laugh!” - she responds to her mother-in-law’s words that, they say, a good wife, after seeing her husband off, howls for an hour and a half and lies on the porch. She considers the slightest deviation from the straight path a grave sin. Hell with all its horrors, with all its fiery poetry, occupies her imagination just as much as heaven with its joys. But do not attribute its purity and virtue to one religious tendency of mind. This purity is innate in her. Without her, she, like thousands of others, would have entered into various transactions and agreements with her conscience and through various donations, penances, * extra fasts and bows, she would have gotten along perfectly with both hell and heaven, no matter how terrible one was, incorruptible another.
Meanwhile, the evil one or life confuses her and leads her into temptation. The bitter fate that she suffers in the house from her mother-in-law, the insignificance of her husband, who, although he loves her, is unable to make her love himself, force her to look around her, to leave the poetic world, which has moved away from her and now stands before her as a memory. In the beautiful scene of the first act with Varvara, she tells her with charming innocence the state of her soul. It only seemed to her that Varvara expressed sympathy for her, and she immediately laid out all the treasures of her heart in front of her. This trait of the Russian character of being frank in front of the first person you meet, which is extremely convenient for dramatic form, you will find in every work of Mr. Ostrovsky. If Katerina in this scene does not yet confess her love for Boris, the nephew of one overly eccentric merchant Dikiy, it is only because she herself does not yet suspect this love in herself. Meanwhile, she already loves and, once convinced of this, gives herself over to her love almost without struggle and with a full consciousness of sin. Katerina is an ardent woman, a woman of first impressions and impulses, a woman of life. She knows very well that she will fall as soon as her husband leaves for Moscow, that she cannot control her heart, and she is looking in advance for means and defense against temptation. When her husband refuses to take her with him, she asks him, on her knees asks him to take some terrible oath from her, “so that I don’t dare,” she says, “to speak to anyone without you under any circumstances.” strangers, not to see each other, so that I wouldn’t even dare to think about anyone but you... So that I wouldn’t see either my father or my mother! I should die without repentance if I..."
<…>She would keep her Oath. The whole character is visible in these words. She is a weak woman, although ardent and passionate. Everything that she says to Varvara about her agility is nothing more than sweet boasting on her part, the boasting of a nature that does not know either life or its real strengths. Only religion, which she, like all our common people, understands very narrowly and materially can keep her from falling. As a redemptive sacrifice of her oath, she will give the most precious blessings - her parents, her hope of not dying without repentance. But her husband did not take this oath from her, probably mistaking her desire for a woman’s whim, and she fell.
The evil one, who tormented her with temptation, loves such natures. They are very susceptible to love temptations and struggle little with them, as if they knew in advance that they would not be able to overcome the enemy. They know in advance that they will not survive their fall, that the days of delight will be followed by long years of tears and repentance, and that the best way their bitter life can end will be high monastery walls, or long and sincere wanderings to different pilgrimages, unless some river or the bottom of the nearest pond. And yet they fall.
Dostoevsky M.M. ""Storm". Drama in five acts by A.N. Ostrovsky"
