The tragic severity of Katerina’s conflict with the “dark kingdom” (Based on the drama “The Thunderstorm” by A. Ostrovsky)

When analyzing the image of Katerina Kabanova, the heroine’s monologues, revealing her feelings and rich and complex spiritual world, will certainly be in the spotlight.

Analysis of the first scenes reveals some of Katerina’s character traits: impetuosity, frankness, pride. The desire to support her husband forced her to break “etiquette” and interfere in the conversation of older family members. It is important to understand what causes Kabanikha’s dissatisfaction. Katerina’s behavior, which seems completely natural to us, actually contradicts the generally accepted norms of that era: Katerina, according to all traditions the youngest in the family hierarchy, addresses her mother-in-law on a personal level, objects to her, and demonstrates her resentment. All this is regarded by Marfa Ignatievna as insolence and simply bad manners. Kabanikha’s reproaches to Tikhon are truly unfounded, but irritation against Katerina is quite natural and natural from the point of view of the system of rules by which Kabanikha lives.

The heroine truly reveals herself in her monologue (act 1, scene 7). Reading it, we can feel the lyrical elation, expressiveness of Katerina’s speeches, their poetic imagery and emotional intensity.

Observing how the heroine’s thoughts develop (micro-themes of the monologue), we will see that the main theme developed in it is changes in the heroine’s mental life. They are only partly related to changes in external circumstances.

“Why don’t people fly!”

“...How playful I was! I’ve completely withered away from you...”

“...I lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild...”

“...Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity...”

“...And to death I loved going to church!..”

“...And what dreams I had. ...what dreams!.., as if I were flying, I’m flying through the air...”

“...And now sometimes I dream, but rarely, and not even that.”

“... And something bad is happening to me... some kind of sin!.. I have such and such fear!.. Before some kind of trouble!..”

Katerina peers with surprise into her own soul, in which new, unknown to her and terrible for her, depths have opened. She is looking for her former self and therefore strives with her memory into a bright, serene youth. For a minute she becomes her former self: frisky and willful - and again returns to the alarming “now”. Let’s think about what the textbook phrase means: “Why don’t people fly?” Why is the image of a bird, the motif of flight, repeated in Katerina’s monologue? It is not difficult to understand that these words and images embody the dream of freedom, spiritual clarity, and harmony with the world. The heroine has now lost all this. Instead of flying, she dreams of falling, of an abyss. Instead of the happiness of a bright prayer, there is a sly whisper of temptation.

The thirst for flight and the fear of sin are the two poles of the heroine’s mental life, equally powerful. Having fallen in love with the “other,” Katerina is doomed to a difficult moral struggle. She knows what she should do, but she is almost sure that she cannot. She has nothing to hold on to, she has already decided that, having seen her beloved at least once, she will not go home for anything in the world.

The theme of bondage is no less important in the monologue. In just one phrase, Katerina explains how the way of life in her husband’s house differs from before. “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity.” I think it’s worth stopping at these words to feel the full power and meaning of this short remark. Yes, in the Kabanovs’ house “everything is the same” as in the parents’: prayers, handicrafts, conversations of wanderers, walking in the garden. Life is still the same, and anyone who perceives it only as the external routine of life will not notice any difference. Why is it so hard and stuffy for Katerina in this house? Precisely because for her this life is not a form, but life itself. She loved it all so sincerely and deeply, she was so happy with it all. And what? Now all this is her responsibility, regulated and subject to strict control. Let's try to imagine that this happens to us; What favorite, most beloved thing does not disgust us the next day?

The trouble is not only in Kabanikha’s eternal nagging and reproaches, Katerina’s mother-in-law took away the entire space of her mental life, poisoned everything that she loved before, and gave nothing in return. The mother-in-law actually does not allow Katerina to love her husband, since a wife should not love, but be afraid. And she herself does not need Katerina’s daughterly love, she only requires respect and obedience. God did not give children to the Kabanovs. What remains for this soul - so strong, active, rich, a soul with such a thirst for flight?

Life has found a solution. “Lawless” passion turned out to be a way out for a soul limited in all legitimate aspirations. Thus, already in the heroine’s first monologue, Ostrovsky indicates the duality of the conflict into which she is drawn. The external conflict is her opposition to the cruel way of life, which kills everything free, sincere, individual in the feelings and relationships of people. In this conflict, Katerina, like Ostrovsky’s other “warm hearts,” is ready for an irreconcilable struggle. But another contradiction tears her own soul apart: the demands of conscience and the needs of the heart collide in an insoluble conflict, predetermining the death of the heroine.

The movement of action at first contributes to Katerina’s heartfelt aspirations. Each plot twist brings her closer to a frightening and desired abyss: Varvara’s promise, her husband’s departure, receiving the key to the garden gate, Varvara’s date - and the voice of conscience falls silent for a while, muffled by the triumph of love.

Turning to these episodes, you can follow how Katerina tries to overcome herself, how she clings to every straw: she drives Varvara away from her, fawns over her husband, asks to take her with her, begs her to take a terrible oath, wants to forget herself in work and prayer and even after taking the key, he still persuades himself: “Throw it away, throw it far away, throw it into the river...”

We invite you to think about why none of your loved ones wanted to help Katerina in her struggle. It is easy to see that in the actions of Varvara and Tikhon, selfishness and indifference prevail over all other feelings. Katerina really has no one to grab onto.

Neither will her loved one become a support for her. Reading the scene of the first date, we are convinced of how much stronger Katerina is morally than her chosen one. She courageously and directly looks her fateful fate in the eye; fully understanding what awaits her, she takes full responsibility upon herself. “If I was not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment?” - Katerina exclaims in response to Boris’s cowardly promises to keep their relationship secret.

Katerina crossed the line of fear and went against her conscience. Has she found freedom? Is her love similar to the flight of the soul that she dreamed of in the first scene?

Ostrovsky tells us the answer. The mundane scene of Varya and Kudryash’s usual meeting not only serves as a contrast to the previous lyrical explanation, but also makes us look at this explanation “in an everyday way.” A simple question: “Well, did you get along?” - imbues the heroes with a spirit of vulgarity and forces Katerina to hide her face. Yawning, Varvara says goodbye to her boyfriend, and we understand that Boris and Katerina will come to the same result if they learn to live in accordance with the general law of the city of Kalinov: do whatever you want, as long as everything is covered up. It is no coincidence that the meeting of lovers takes place not on the high Volga bank, but in an overgrown ravine.

But, unfortunately or fortunately, pushing Katerina onto her path, Varvara did not calculate her character and did not believe her daughter-in-law’s words: “I don’t know how to deceive; I can’t hide anything.” Having submitted to the general lie outwardly, Katerina suffers all the more from mental anguish. The voice of a sick conscience again takes precedence over love and demands a way out; this struggle reaches a climax and is resolved by public repentance.

If you correctly assessed the character of the heroine, it will not be difficult for you to answer whether Katerina’s repentance was provoked by random circumstances (a thunderstorm, the appearance of an old lady, a meeting with Boris), or whether it was the inevitable denouement of a love story.

Of course, this outcome is natural. For Katerina’s warm heart, the most unbearable things are pretense and lies. It is better to endure shame, beatings from your husband, reproaches from your mother-in-law, than to carry within yourself an unconfessed, unpunished, unrepentant sin. Turning to Katerina’s last monologue, we see that repentance did not bring her relief. Fear and pangs of conscience are now replaced by despair. The external oppression has become even more unbearable, the love for Boris is even stronger and more hopeless - he leaves and does not take her with him. Note that even at the moment of the last farewell, Katerina does not blame Boris for anything, does not demand anything from him, and blames herself for ruining him. Katerina’s conscience is calm: the heroine has paid enough for her sin. But she has nothing and no reason to live. The last desperate impulse for freedom was suffocated in Kalinov’s hopeless life.

The motive of flight is replaced in the last monologues by the key image of the grave. Home is a real grave for her, where she was buried alive and forever. Katerina is sure that her soul is lost, she is tortured, morally exhausted, she sees herself already dead, undergoing a funeral service and does not want to lie, pretending to be alive. A grave under a tree is more pleasant than the disgusting walls of a crypt house. You can have different attitudes towards her last fatal choice, but you cannot help but see in it the same truthfulness that is characteristic of all Katerina’s actions. The playwright maintains the truth of her character to the end, this is his skill. And no matter how much we sympathize with the heroine, no matter how much we condemn her, we understand with all clarity: another ending is impossible for Katerina.

Comparing Katerina with Varvara allows us to highlight the sincerity, purity, depth of the soul of the main character, the consciousness of her rebellion against the stifling laws of the “dark kingdom”.

It is quite acceptable and even natural to compare Katerina with Kabanikha. The strength of nature distinguishes them from everyone around them. The smart and powerful merchant Kabanova can easily “stop” even the scolder of Dikiy. She is able to tell the unflattering truth to your face and “talk” - to console, calm down with a sincere word. Her cruelty towards her family does not come from a bad character, but naturally follows from worldly wisdom, absorbed from childhood. The task of the elders is to teach, and the younger ones are to listen and gain intelligence. Reproaches from relatives, in her opinion, save young people from the ridicule of others and from absurd and dangerous actions. Her philosophy of life has its own rightness, but it is all based on distrust of people, on the suppression of living feelings, free manifestations of the soul. A new era is pressing on Marfa Ignatievna. Even her own son does not consider it necessary to intimidate his wife, content with love, not fear. The values ​​proclaimed by Kabanikha are in many ways close to Katerina. They both see God's judgment in the thunderstorm. Only Marfa Ignatievna, unlike Katerina, considers herself sinless, she does not doubt her rights and that she is right. But for all her intelligence, Kabanova does not understand that by driving her family into a corner, tightening the pressure, she herself is preparing an explosion of protest, a rebellion against her power.

Book materials used: Yu.V. Lebedev, A.N. Romanova. Literature. Grade 10. Lesson-based developments. - M.: 2014

Drama A.N. Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm" was written at a time when the main conflict of the era was most clearly visible in society - the conflict between an individual defending his right to freedom and a society suppressing this individual. This conflict - the main conflict of the mid-nineteenth century - was reflected in the drama in the form of Katerina’s clash with the “dark kingdom”. The essence of this conflict was very accurately described by N.A. Dobrolyubov: “In... the individual we see an already matured demand for the right and spaciousness of life arising from the depths of the whole organism.” The clash between personality and society was inevitable on the eve of fundamental reforms that shook the entire Russian society, and Ostrovsky was the first of the Russian writers to show the tragedy of this clash.
All the heroes of the drama can be divided into two groups: these are the masters of the “dark kingdom” and their victims. The first group includes Dikoy and Kabanikha, the second group includes almost all the other characters in the drama.
The inevitability of conflict between them is felt already at the very beginning of the play. We see how Kuligin admires the beauty of the magnificent landscape opening from the high bank of the Volga, and immediately hear how he scolds his nephew Dikoy for something and “nags” his pet Kabanikh. The harmony of nature is, as it were, opposed to the “cruel morals” that reign in human society.
Savel Prokofich Dikoy, a rich merchant, feels like a master in the city. His power is based on the power of money, so he can even condescendingly pat the mayor on the shoulder. Dikoy feels his strength, his impunity in the world of the “dark kingdom” and therefore swaggers to his heart’s content over those who depend on him: over his family, Boris, and men. He can be described in one word - “tyrant”. But much more terrible than the Wild one, it seems to me, is Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova - Kabanikha. This is a type of domestic tyrant, she “like rusting iron” sharpens her son Tikhon, daughter Varvara, daughter-in-law Katerina. More than anything else, she is afraid of losing power over them, afraid that they will be able to live just fine without her petty tutelage. Kabanova and Dikoy personify in the drama those dark forces that suppressed personality, humiliated human dignity, and turned a married woman into an unrequited, downtrodden house slave.
The victims of the “dark kingdom” are Tikhon, Boris, Kudryash and Varvara. But the destructive influence of this deadening environment affected them in different ways. Tikhon is completely subordinate to his mother; he does not dare to object to her, does not dare to stand up for Katerina, although he understands that her mother is treating her unfairly. And only the death of Katerina gave rise to a momentary protest in his heart, but it was a “rebellion on his knees,” and then everything would go on as before. Boris, unlike Tikhon, grew up in a different environment (in Moscow); It’s wild for him to see local customs and mores. He sincerely fell in love with Katerina; but he betrayed her, refusing to take her with him to Siberia. His betrayal was the final impetus that pushed the heroine to suicide. Kudryash, like Tikhon, grew up in Kalinov. He realized long ago that in this city only strength is valued, and he knows how to stand up for himself. Kudryash is known in the city as a rude man, and even Dikoy is afraid of him. Kudryash managed to defend his love - he runs away with Varvara. Varvara was also able to adapt to this life. She knows that everything in her mother's house is based on hypocrisy and deception, and she has learned to lie. “I wasn’t a liar before, either, but I learned when it became necessary,” she tells Katerina. Her principle is to do whatever you want, as long as everything is “sewn and covered.” But when the deception is revealed, she is forced to secretly flee with Kudryash - after all, Kabanikha will never agree to marry her to the clerk Kudryash. Varvara’s act cannot be considered a protest against the stifling orders of the “dark kingdom”; This is just a way to preserve your minimal freedom and your personality.
The “Dark Kingdom” is opposed in the drama by Katerina. Although she comes from the same merchant environment and was brought up in the same conditions as Varvara and Tikhon, the atmosphere in Katerina’s family was different. It was an atmosphere of love, mutual understanding, and therefore, having found herself in Kabanova’s house, in an atmosphere of fear and deception, she feels like a bird caught in a cage. It is no coincidence that the image of a bird is connected with the image of Katerina. She says to Varvara: “Why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. That’s how I would run up, raise my hands and fly.” But Katerina cannot escape from the cage of the Kabanovsky house. Katerina does not accept the atmosphere of lies and deceit in the Kabanovs’ house, and therefore the heroine suffers because she is forced to deceive her husband, love secretly, and hide her feelings. But Katerina is endowed not only with a sensitive soul, but also with a strong, decisive character. “And if I get really tired of being here, they won’t hold me back by any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me!” Ostrovsky's heroine suffers greatly due to the fact that she was deprived of the right to love and be loved. Tikhon himself pushes Katerina away from himself, and she, unfortunately, does not have children for whose sake she would endure everything. That’s why Katerina responded so much to Boris’s love, but this love, in addition to short-term happiness, brought Katerina new suffering. She doesn't need "stolen" love. During a terrible thunderstorm, Katerina, afraid of being suddenly killed and therefore afraid of appearing before God without communion, confesses all her sins to her husband, repents before him and before people. But after this confession, the heroine’s life becomes even more unbearable. Tikhon forgave her, but Kabanikha will never forgive her for the fact that Katerina publicly confessed and “disgraced” the family. For the heroine there is only one way out - to run away with Boris, but he cowardly betrays her and advises her to “be patient.” And then there is only one way left for Katerina - to throw herself into the Volga, because returning home is even more terrible, worse than death, it means dooming herself to a slow, painful death.
ON THE. Dobrolyubov wrote in the article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom” that Katerina’s death is “a terrible challenge to the evil force itself.” The critic sees in Katerina “a protest against Kabanov’s concepts of morality.” The heroine of Ostrovsky’s play dares to challenge the entire “dark kingdom”, and in a collision with it she dies. This is the tragic severity of Katerina’s conflict with the “dark kingdom” in the drama “The Thunderstorm”.

The strength of Katerina’s character and the tragic severity of her conflict with the “dark kingdom” in the drama “The Thunderstorm” by A. N. Ostrovsky.

The drama “The Thunderstorm” was conceived under the impression of Ostrovsky’s trip along the Volga (1856-1857), but was written in 1859. “The Thunderstorm,” as Dobrolyubov wrote, “is without a doubt Ostrovsky’s most decisive work.” This assessment has not lost its strength to this day.

Among everything written by Ostrovsky, “The Thunderstorm” is undoubtedly the best work, the pinnacle of his creativity. This is a real pearl of Russian drama, standing on a par with such works as “Minor”, ​​“Woe from Wit”, “The Inspector General”, “Boris Godunov”, etc. With amazing power it depicts the Ostrovsky corner of the “dark kingdom”, where people's human dignity is brazenly violated. The masters of life here are tyrants. They crowd people, tyrannize their families and suppress every manifestation of living and healthy human thought.

Among the heroes of the drama, the main place is occupied by Katerina, who is suffocating in this musty swamp. 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 at ease, surrounded by the affection and care of her mother. In her free time, she went to the spring to get water, looked after flowers, embroidered on velvet, went to church, listened to the stories and singing of wanderers. The religious upbringing she received in her family developed in her impressionability, dreaminess, belief in the afterlife and retribution for man's sins.

Katerina found herself in completely different conditions in her husband’s house. From the outside, everything seemed to be the same, but the freedom of the parental home was replaced by stuffy slavery. At every step she felt dependent on her mother-in-law and suffered 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. She says to Kabanikha: “For me, mamma, everything is the same as my own mother and you.” But Katerina’s sincere feelings do not meet with support from either Kabanikha or Tikhon.

Life in such an environment changed Katerina’s character: “How playful I was, but you withered completely... Was I like that? 1” 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.

The intensity of Katerina’s feelings is especially clearly visible after Tikhon’s return: “She’s trembling all over, as if she’s suffering from a fever: she’s so pale, rushing around the house, as if she’s looking for something. Her eyes are like those of a madwoman, she started crying this morning, and she’s still sobbing.” Katerina’s public repentance shows the whole depth of her suffering, moral greatness, 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. More than one specific person is to blame for Katerina’s death. 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 subsequent generations. He called for a fight against all forms of despotism and oppression of the human person. This is an expression of the growing protest of the masses against all types of slavery.

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.

Dobrolyubov wrote that Katerina’s character “is full of faith in new ideals and selfless in the sense that it is better for him to die than to live under those principles that are disgusting to him. The decisive, integral character acting among the Dikikhs and Kabanovs appears in Ostrovsky in the feminine type, and this is not without its serious significance." Further, Dobrolyubov calls Katerina “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” He says that her suicide seemed to illuminate for a moment the endless darkness of the “dark kingdom.” At its tragic end, according to the critic, “a terrible challenge was given to tyrant power.” In Katerina we see a protest against Kabanov’s concepts of morality, a protest carried to the end, proclaimed both under domestic torture and over the abyss into which the poor woman threw herself.

Lesson 34. Topic: Katerina’s protest against the “dark kingdom.” What is the tragedy of the heroine and is her death accidental?

Goals:

1. cultivate self-esteem, the ability to objectively evaluate the actions of other people, including literary characters.
2. develop skills of coherent monologue statements.
3. teach to analyze the character's image, highlight the features of speech characteristics.

This is how I was born, hot!

(Katerina. From A.N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm”)

DURING THE CLASSES

I. ORGANIZATIONAL MOMENT

Setting the goal of the lesson: in this lesson we will talk about the image of the main character of Ostrovsky’s drama, find out what her tragedy was and think about whether her death was accidental?

II. CONVERSATION WITH THE CLASS

A) At home you should have described Katerina. What are her character traits?

Katerina does not know how to lie or be a hypocrite, she is not inclined to deceive anyone, to pretense, she is characterized by meekness and fidelity. But for all her meekness, she is a fighter: she cannot and does not want to submit to the inhabitants of the “dark kingdom”, she does not want to adapt to life through lies. All her feelings and motives are sincere and open.

The meaning of the name “Katerina” should also be taken into account.

Catherine - the name has ancient Greek roots and comes from the word “katharios”, which means “pure”, “purebred”, “immaculate”, “impeccable”, “simple”, “purest”. All meanings of the name are implemented in the character's character.

While reading, you noticed Katerina’s attitude to work, to religion, and to family life. What can you say about this?

Living in her parents’ house, Katerina loved to work and do handicrafts, but this work was “not under pressure.” Katerina’s attitude towards faith and religiosity largely boil down to a feeling of religious ecstasy in church, when the heroine is impressed by the external side of the Christian religion: ritualism.

I wanted to find love and harmony in family life, but this does not work. She doesn’t love her husband (although she tries), because “there’s nothing to love him for,” but she regrets. It should also be taken into account that Katerina did not marry for love, but, like most girls of that time, because Tikhon was a fairly profitable match.

So, we have identified and recorded the main character traits of Katerina: meekness, inability to lie, manifestation of self-esteem; we talked about her attitude to work, religion and family, now let's talk aboutWhat was Katerina's life like in her parents' house before her marriage?(d. 1, appearance 7)

“like a bird in the wild,” “mama doted on her soul,” “didn’t force me to work,” she did needlework, looked after flowers, went to church, listened to the stories of pilgrims and pilgrims, and walked in the garden.

Katerina talks about flying more than once, comparing herself to a bird. What could this mean?

She wants freedom. And flight in this sense is the flight of the soul. Katerina is also a freedom-loving person.

What new qualities can we identify by analyzing her monologue (D. 1, Rev. 7)?Dreaminess, poetry.

B) Why can we call Katerina a poetic person?She talks about visits to church, about her dreams, talks with enthusiasm, using the expressive means of folk poetic language and vernacular; her speech is enlivened by various intonations, which is a manifestation of emotions, impressions of what she saw, Katerina does not seek to hide everything in herself, she is open to this world, there are also many rhetorical questions and exclamations in her speech, often sentences are unfinished, the speech is similar to a song in its melody, a work of folk art.

IN) Life in the husband's house (2, 3, 10).How is life for Katerina in the Kabanovs’ house?

“I’m completely withered here,” “yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity,” “it’s stuffy.” The atmosphere reigning in the Kabanovs' house is fear. Everything is based on the orders of the mother-in-law, who is characterized by hypocrisy and hypocrisy.

We see how the girl’s life changes dramatically. How the atmosphere of her husband’s house and the entire city of Kalinov has a detrimental effect on her.

Why does Katerina pay attention to Boris? Is it only because of the unbearably harsh living conditions, because of the endless oppression of the mother-in-law?

Katerina feels the need to love - to be loved and to give her love to someone. But she doesn’t feel such feelings for her husband, just like he himself, they don’t have children, although she dreams of children.

He pays attention to Boris because he is different from other residents of the city of Kalinov. He is intelligent, somewhat timid, educated, different from his ignorant husband. And all the thirst for love, independence, will is manifested in Katerina’s love for Boris.

What interferes with Katerina on the path to happiness, what stops her?Prejudice, reluctance to lie, cheat, commit sin.

Did Katerina overcome them? What artistic detail is a symbol of her mental struggle, the struggle with herself?

She defeated all prejudices by agreeing to meet with Boris. But this was not easy for Katerina. A symbol of internal struggle is the key to the gate.

Let's see how the heroine's struggle with herself went. Provide quotes to prove this.

On the one hand, she did not want to meet Boris, she did not want to break the oath given to her husband. (“This is ruin!”, “Quit!”), but her thirst for love and freedom takes over (“Apparently fate itself wants this.”, “Why am I deceiving myself!”) Thus, we can say,that love for Boris is a manifestation of will. Refusal of it (love) would imply complete submission to the world of the Kabanovs and Wild.

But does Katerina find freedom?

On the one hand, yes, she is free to do what her “hot heart” calls for, and on the other, the voice of conscience does not leave the heroine, having embarked on the path of betrayal, she, a pure nature, has already died. But even so, one cannot help but note one more feature of Katerina - determination (“I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me!”).

Thus, we can say that having fallen in love with Boris, agreeing to meet with him, she has already declared her protest against the musty moral foundations of the Kalinovsky society, she is already saying that there is no turning back. Will she be able to return to her former slave, “stuffy” life again?!

G) Why does Katerina repent? (D. 4, Rev. 6)

Why does she reveal her secret to everyone, because she has a living example of unpunished deception before her eyes (Varvara)?

In a conversation with Varvara, Katerina says: “I don’t know how to deceive, I can’t hide anything.”“I was born this way, hot” - what does this phrase mean?

Katerina is a hero guided by her heart. Therefore, he belongs to a number of Ostrovsky’s characters called “warm hearts.”

In Christianity, repentance is purification. Sometimes some of us go to church for confession, to repent of our sins, which the Lord will forgive, and cleansing will come to us. Does purification come to Katerina?

Katerina repents before her husband, before her mother-in-law, but it doesn’t make her feel any better - cleansing doesn’t come, because she still loves Boris and is unable to change her feelings.

How is Boris behaving?He seems to remain aloof from the drama that happened. His behavior is rational, does not make rash conclusions and does not make rash decisions. He was unable to help Katerina change her life, free her from the oppression of the “dark kingdom”.

Let us turn to the scene of the last meeting between Katerina and Boris (no. 5, episode 3). Here everyone shows their qualities to a greater extent.

Boris is weak-willed. He meekly submits to his uncle's will, fearing to lose his favor and, consequently, his share of the inheritance. He goes to say goodbye to “the place,” but not to Katerina. He calls himself a “free bird” - the complete opposite of Katerina. And Boris does not risk his freedom for her. In addition, he complains about fate: “It would be better for me to run away then.” He doesn’t want to take Katerina with him, she would be a burden for him in this situation, because Katerina suffers for two people, and he suffers solely for himself. The young woman’s determination (“Let everyone know, let everyone see what I’m doing. If I wasn’t afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment!”) emphasizes the weakness and cowardice of her chosen one: “If only they wouldn’t find us here!”

Boris leaves Katerina with the words “I would die sooner.” Why does he say this, does he, who is immensely loved by Katerina, really wish her death?

Boris also sees the hopelessness of her situation. He rejects one chance to save her - to take her with him. Katerina cannot leave her husband, since at that time she could have been returned through the police.

What remains for Katerina? Live in your husband's house, be despised by everyone?

D) Let's turn to the resolution of the conflict. Katerina dies.How do you feel about her death? Is this the only way out?Please note that she was a religious girl, and suicide is the worst sin! Doesn’t even this stop the heroine of Ostrovsky’s play?

The death of the heroine is a protest. Since staying alive would mean reconciling yourself, suppressing your feelings, giving up your will, becoming a slave to tyrants, erasing your self-esteem - becoming a weak-willed creature.

Thus, Katerina’s death is a protest against the “dark kingdom”, it is an affirmation of the power of human freedom.

Let’s draw a conclusion, based on everything that was discussed today in class: what is Katerina’s tragedy, is her death accidental?

Katerina could not come to terms with and obey the laws of the “dark kingdom”. Having embarked on the path of treason, she had already died. This state of affairs is not for her pure soul. Suicide is both victory and punishment. We can condemn the heroine, we can sympathize with her, but she had no other choice.

LESSON CONCLUSION

(on record): the tragic ending of the drama is Katerina’s protest against Kabanov’s concepts of morality, this is an affirmation of the power of human freedom, his victory over prejudice, this is an affirmation of will and self-esteem. Katerina’s tragedy is not that while her husband was alive, she gave her heart to another person, but that she had no one else to give to the feeling that was burning her. She fell in love with Boris in the “desolation”. It is not the forbidden love for Boris that destroys her, but the search for it. Katerina’s death is an inevitable outcome for the “warm heart.”

III. HOMEWORK.

Group assignments:

1. First group: analysis of the scene of the 1st date (d3, episode 3) and conclusion.
2. Second group: analysis of the thunderstorm scene (D.4 yavl1,4,6), its symbolic meaning.
3. Third group: analysis d.5 – phenomenon 2

Katerina's death - protest or humility, a feat of the soul or its confusion, weakness?

And if I get really tired of it here,

so no force can hold me back.

A. Ostrovsky

Against the backdrop of a still formidable, but already shaky tyranny, Ostrovsky showed the original, integral, strong, selfless character of a Russian woman, who, with the decisiveness of her protest, presented a terrible challenge to the “tyrant” Power and foreshadowed the onset of the end of the “dark kingdom.” Dobrolyubov called Katerina, the main character of the drama “The Thunderstorm,” a folk, national character, “a bright ray in a dark kingdom.”

Katerina appears before us as bright, but deeply suffering. Her childhood was happy and cloudless. Her mother “doted on her.” Surrounded by affection and care, she lived freely in her parents' house. “It was so good,” she recalls. But the most valuable thing, now lost, was the feeling of will: “I lived... like a bird in the wild.” She loved to attend church services: it was as if angels were flying and singing. “Early in the morning I’ll go to the garden... 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,” says Katerina. She does not tolerate insults and responds to them passionately and decisively: “I was born this way, hot! 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.”

And so such an impressionable, poetically minded and at the same time decisive woman finds herself in the Kabanova family, in a musty atmosphere of hypocrisy and intrusive, petty tutelage. After home paradise with its magical world of dreams and visions, Katerina finds herself in an environment that reeks of deathly cold and soullessness. The rude and domineering mother-in-law wears her down with her petty pickiness at every step: “She crushed me... I’m sick of her and the house, even the walls are disgusting.” Katerina knows no compromises. Or endure, “as long as I can endure,” or: “I’ll leave, and that’s how I was.” And Katerina would have completely withered if a feeling of protest against such a life had not been born in her: “I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me!”

Katerina's feeling of offended dignity grows. The entire conversation with Tikhon is imbued with a passionate desire to find support in her husband, this is a last desperate attempt to preserve her feelings for him. She begs him to stay or take her with him. Tikhon’s answer shows Katerina all his insignificance, and she exclaims with horror: “How can I love you when you say such words?” Katerina is in despair.

It is not difficult to understand with what force Katerina’s feelings must have flared up when she met a person unlike everyone else on her way. She is ready to do anything for her loved one. She cannot lie, deceive: “Let everyone know, let everyone see what I am doing! If I wasn’t afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment?”

The joy and happiness of love did not last long. Katerina does not want and cannot hide her “sin” and repents before her husband. But this confession does not speak about Katerina’s weakness. It took many external pushes to tear it out of the woman's mouth. A terrible thunderstorm, which she had always feared, broke out; she saw Boris; then I heard someone accidentally say the words: “...the thunderstorm will not pass in vain”; then the prophecy of the lady. And finally, the worst thing for Katerina is when she sees an image of fiery Gehenna. Material from the site

Katerina turns to Boris with hope, but he cannot help her and retreats from her. She cannot come to terms with, endure Kabanikha’s constant torture and bullying: “Where to now? Whether I go home or go to the grave, it doesn’t matter to me.”

In her dying minutes, Katerina breaks the last bonds of the dark kingdom - fear of sin. It was not separation from Boris that forced Katerina to take the last step towards the cliff, but the most terrible thought for her, that she would be caught and returned home “forcibly, where the people are disgusting, and the house is disgusting, and the walls are disgusting.

Protesting, but not giving up, she passes away. “Sad, bitter such liberation, but what to do when there is no other way out,” writes Dobrolyubov in the article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom.” In Katerina he saw a “Russian, strong character” who withstands herself, despite any obstacles, and when her strength is not enough, she will die, but will not betray herself.

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