Nature in the work Groza Ostrovsky. Essay plan - The role of minor characters, everyday background and landscape in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm”
Ostrovsky’s landscape is not only the background in his play “The Thunderstorm”
In A. N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm,” a significant place is given to nature. The very name of the drama means bright and strong a natural phenomenon. With the title of his work, Ostrovsky seems to emphasize that nature has a strong influence on human life.
Also, a huge role in the play belongs to the description of nature. Ostrovsky’s landscape is not only the background against which all events unfold, it seems to appear as a living actor, participating in the events taking place along with the other characters.
In the play “The Thunderstorm,” the reader is presented with magnificent pictures of nature. The city of Kalinov is located on the great Russian river Volga. The image of a freedom-loving and beautiful river is contrasted with the suffocating atmosphere of the city, in which there is nothing living, everything is outdated, gloomy, ossified. The beauty of nature affects a person, fascinates him with its strength and beauty. And how insignificant a person begins to feel compared to the strong river, mighty and virgin nature!
The beauty of nature exists regardless of a person’s desire, but it influences his consciousness in every possible way and reminds him of the eternal. Observing the beauty and life of nature, a person understands that his everyday, such small and insignificant problems seem completely insignificant in comparison with this proud and silent splendor. Next to nature, the human heart seems to come to life, it begins to feel joy and grief, love and hatred, hopes and joys more keenly.
Katerina is a dreamy person. Her entire bright, cheerful childhood was connected with nature. When a girl talks about her childhood, she first of all remembers her beloved mother, who doted on her, and caring for her favorite flowers, of which Katerina had “many, many.” Katerina also loved walks in the garden. The garden is Live nature in miniature. Katerina remembers her childhood, looking at the beautiful landscape. Natural beauty the surrounding world is harmoniously intertwined with the girl’s speech itself, with lively, figurative, emotional speech. In the work, the image of Katerina itself is closely connected with the surrounding nature.
But not all of Ostrovsky’s heroes pay attention to this beauty. For example, Kuligin says that he cannot look at her enough throughout his life. Katerina also admires the beauty of nature with great pleasure. She grew up on the Volga and since childhood loves everything connected with this river and the nature around it.
But for most of the characters in the play, nature is completely unimportant. For example, Kabanikha and Dikoy, throughout the entire drama, never once expressed admiration for the beauty of the world around them. On the background surrounding nature both Dikoya and Kabanikha look especially pitiful. It is no coincidence that they are afraid of nature and its manifestations; for example, they perceive a thunderstorm as a punishment from above. In fact, a thunderstorm is a blessing for small town, mired in vulgarity, servility and cruelty. Thunderstorm as a natural and as social phenomenon washes away the veil of hypocrisy and hypocrisy with which the townspeople have hitherto covered themselves.
The feeling of love is inextricably linked with the beauty of the vibrant nature around. Very often the meeting of lovers takes place against the background beautiful landscape. The meeting of Katerina and her lover takes place on a wonderful summer night. The nature around lives and rejoices, and it seems that it does not care about human life.
Katerina admits to committed crime, that is, in his love, when the thunderstorm broke out. Natural phenomenon amazingly harmonizes with the feelings of a scolded and humiliated woman. During the confession, Katerina is in a dilapidated church. Of all the frescoes, only the picture of hell has survived.
Katerina feels deeply unhappy, a sinner who has committed a crime, she already hates herself and her action. At this time, it began to rain, as if it were trying to wash away all the dirt from human relationships so that they would appear in their pristine purity.
Katerina decides to commit suicide. The Volga River, her favorite since childhood, helps her in this. The girl throws herself into the waves of the river to get rid of human cruelty, hatred and hypocrisy forever. She cannot live among people, but nature remains on her side.
Municipal educational institution
Secondary school No. 3
Abstract on the topic:
Landscape in Ostrovsky's drama "The Thunderstorm"
Completed by: Kuzmina S.,
student of class 11A
Teacher: Avdeeva N.V.
Krasnokamsk, 2006
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..3
Chapter I. Ostrovsky’s innovation as a playwright………………………….....4
Chapter II. Creative history of “Thunderstorm”………………………………………….6
Chapter III. The role of nature and landscape symbolism in Ostrovsky's play……..8
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………12
References………………………………………………………...…13
Introduction
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on March 31, 1823 in Zamoskvorechye, in the very center of Moscow, in the cradle of glorious Russian history, about which everything around spoke, even the names of Zamoskvoretsky streets.
"Columbus of Zamoskvorechye!" This formula, not without the help of Russian criticism, firmly stuck to the playwright A.N. Ostrovsky.
The reason for its appearance seemed to have been given by the playwright himself at the beginning of his activity, his creative path. In his youthful “Notes of a Hunter,” he presented himself as the discoverer of a mysterious country unknown to the reader.
Columbus himself, who discovered the Zamoskvoretsk country, felt its borders and its rhythms completely differently than the subsequent generation of critics. He felt that Moscow was not limited to Kamer-College Val, that “behind it there are a continuous chain of villages, towns and cities.” Ahead are the promised places, where “every hillock, every pine tree, every curve of speech is charming, every peasant face is significant.”
We know that the popular consciousness has always been a vast world of all kinds of poetic personifications. Rivers, forests, grasses, flowers, birds, animals, trees were organs of living spiritual unity. And the world in the play “The Thunderstorm” also opens up to Ostrovsky in large epic images - rivers, ravines, forests...
Nature in the work acquires an ethically high and ethically active meaning.
And I would like to prove this in my work, so I chose this topic.
To achieve the goal, I set myself the following tasks:
To identify what is Ostrovsky’s innovation as a playwright;
Dwell on the uniqueness of the creative history of “The Thunderstorm”;
Show the role of nature and landscape symbolism in the play.
ChapterI
Ostrovsky's innovation as a playwright
Ostrovsky's innovation lies in the fact that he wrote a tragedy based on exclusively life-like material, completely uncharacteristic of the tragic genre.
A characteristic feature of the tragic genre is its cleansing effect on the audience, which arouses in them a noble, sublime aspiration. So, in “The Thunderstorm,” as N.A. Dobrolyubov said, “there is even something refreshing and encouraging.”
Late Ostrovsky creates a drama whose psychological depth already anticipates the emergence of a new theater - Chekhov's Theater.
Ostrovsky considered the emergence of the theater a sign of the nation's coming of age. It is to him that our dramaturgy owes its unique national appearance. As in all literature of the 60s, epic principles play a significant role in it: the dream of the brotherhood of man is subjected to dramatic tests, like classic novel, exposes “everything that is sharply defined, special, personal, egoistically separated from the universal.”
The plots of Ostrovsky's dramas are distinguished by classical simplicity and naturalness; they create the illusion of the miraculous nature of everything that happens before the viewer. Ostrovsky likes to begin his plays with a response from the character, so that the reader and viewer have a feeling of being caught off guard by life. The endings of his dramas always have a relatively happy or relatively sad ending. This gives Ostrovsky’s works an open character.
Goncharov, speaking about the epic basis of Ostrovsky’s dramas, noted that the Russian playwright “seems to not want to resort to plot - this artificiality is beneath him: he must sacrifice to it a part of truthfulness, integrity of character, precious touches of morals, details of everyday life - and he is more willing to lengthen the action cools the viewer, just to carefully preserve what he sees and feels alive and true in nature.” Ostrovsky has confidence in the everyday course of life, the depiction of which softens the most acute dramatic conflicts and gives the drama an epic breath: the viewer feels that creative possibilities lives are inexhaustible, the results to which events led are relative, the movement of life is not completed and is not stopped.
Ostrovsky’s works do not fit into any of the classical genre forms, which gave Dobrolyubov a reason to call them “plays of life.” Ostrovsky does not like to separate the purely comic or the purely tragic from the living flow of reality: after all, in life there is neither exclusively funny nor exclusively terrible. The high and the low, the serious and the funny are in a dissolved state, intricately intertwined with each other. Any striving for classical perfection of form turns into some kind of violence against life, over its living being. Perfect form is evidence of exhaustion creative forces life, and the Russian playwright is trusting of the movement and not trusting of the results.
Dobrolyubov also noted that in Ostrovsky’s plays, the rejection of sophisticated dramatic form, stage effects and twisted intrigue sometimes looks naive, especially from the point of view of classical aesthetics. But this apparent naivety ultimately turns into deep life wisdom. The Russian playwright, with democratic simplicity, prefers not to complicate the simple in life, but to simplify the complex, to remove the veils of cunning and deception, intellectual sophistication from the heroes, and thereby expose the core of things and phenomena. His thinking is akin to the wise naivety of the people who know how to see life in its depths as indecomposable simplicity. Ostrovsky the playwright often works in the spirit of the famous folk proverb: “Simplicity is enough for every wise man.”
For the first time we see that in Ostrovsky’s plays the action of a Russian tragedy rises above the Volga expanse, opens up to the all-Russian rural expanse, at the same time acquiring a national scale. For Ostrovsky, nature is the protagonist. It is no coincidence that the playwright assigns a huge role to the landscape.
ChapterII
Creative history of "Thunderstorm"
The creation of “The Thunderstorm” was preceded by Ostrovsky’s trip along the Upper Volga. The result of this trip was the writer’s diary, which reveals much in his perception of life in the provincial Upper Volga region. These impressions could not remain fruitless, but they persisted and accumulated in the playwright’s soul for a long time before such masterpieces of his work as “The Thunderstorm” and “The Snow Maiden” were poured out on paper. It so happened that for a long time it was believed that Ostrovsky took the plot of the drama “The Thunderstorm” from the life of the Kostroma merchants.
This play can safely be called a pearl of Russian literature. In it, the main place is occupied by the description of the life and customs of the merchants, but the role of the landscape is also important.
In his play, Ostrovsky reveals the complex and contradictory relationships that dominated the society of that time, and shows the cruel and tragic consequences of these relationships. In addition, it brings to the fore the desire emerging in the souls of progressive young people for a better, fairer and freer life.
The main idea of “The Thunderstorm” is that a strong, gifted and courageous person with natural aspirations and desires cannot live happily in a society where “cruel morals” prevail, where “Domostroy” reigns, where everything is based on fear, deception and submission .
A person’s character, his mood, his attitude towards others, even if he doesn’t want it, are manifested in speech, and Ostrovsky, being a true master of artistic expression, notices these features. The manner of speech, according to the author, can tell the reader a lot about the character. Thus, each character acquires its own individuality and unique flavor.
However, the power of social conflict in “The Thunderstorm” is so great that the play can even be spoken of not as a drama, but as a tragedy. There are arguments in defense of one opinion or another, so the genre of the play is difficult to determine unambiguously.
Of course, the play was written on a social and everyday theme: it is characterized by the author’s special attention to depicting the details of everyday life, the desire to quite accurately convey the atmosphere of the city of Kalinov, its “ cruel morals" The fictional city is described in detail and in many ways. Quite a lot important role plays a landscape opening, but here a contradiction is immediately visible: Kuligin’s conversation with Kudryash about the beauty of the distances beyond the river, pictures of night walks along the boulevard, songs, picturesque nature, Katerina’s stories about childhood - this is the poetry of Kalinov’s world, which collides with the everyday cruelty of the inhabitants, stories about “stark poverty.”
Another feature characteristic of drama and present in the play is the presence of a chain of intra-family conflicts. In the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom,” N.A. Dobrolyubov considered the insufficient “development of passion to be a significant omission,” and said that this is why the “struggle between passion and duty” is designated “not quite clearly and strongly” for us. But this fact does not contradict the laws of drama.
The originality of the “Thunderstorms” genre is also manifested in the fact that, despite the gloomy, tragic overall coloring, the play also contains comic and satirical scenes. Feklushi’s anecdotal and ignorant stories “about the Saltans, about lands where all the people have dog heads” seem ridiculous to us.
The author himself called his play a drama. But could it have been otherwise? At that time, when speaking about the tragic genre, we were accustomed to dealing with a historical plot, with main characters outstanding not only in character, but also in position, placed in exceptional life situations.
Ostrovsky always looked at his writing and social activities as fulfilling a patriotic duty, serving the interests of the people. His plays reflected the most pressing issues of contemporary reality: the deepening of irreconcilable social contradictions, the plight of workers who are entirely dependent on the power of money, the lack of rights of women, the dominance of violence and arbitrariness in family and social relations, the growth of self-awareness of the working class intelligentsia.
ChapterIII
Nature and landscape symbolism in the drama “The Thunderstorm”
The overall coloring of the play is tragic, with its gloom and every second feeling of an impending thunderstorm. Here the parallelism of a social, public thunderstorm and a thunderstorm as a natural phenomenon is clearly emphasized.
The image of a thunderstorm in Ostrovsky's drama is unusually complex and multi-valued. On the one hand, the thunderstorm is a direct participant in the action of the play, on the other hand, it is a symbol of the idea of this work. In addition, the image of a thunderstorm has so many meanings that it illuminates almost all facets of the tragic conflict in the play.
Thunderstorm plays an important role in the composition of the drama. She directly participates in the action, as a real natural phenomenon. The thunderstorm affects the behavior of the characters, in addition, it is perceived by the heroes of the play differently. So, Dikoy says: “A thunderstorm is being sent to us as punishment.” Dikoy declares that people should be afraid of thunderstorms, but his power and tyranny are based precisely on people’s fear of him, which means that this fear benefits him. He wants people to be afraid of thunderstorms, just like him.
But Kuligin treats the thunderstorm differently: “Every blade of grass, every flower rejoices, but we are afraid, as if some kind of misfortune is coming.” He sees a life-giving force in a thunderstorm.
Against the backdrop of a beautiful landscape, the unbearable life of ordinary people is depicted. But the picture of nature begins to gradually change: the sky is covered with clouds, thunderclaps are heard. Hidden in this name deep meaning. In the work, a thunderstorm means fear and liberation from it. This is fear driven by tyrants, fear of retribution for sins.
If in nature a thunderstorm has already begun, then in life further events you can see her approaching. The “dark kingdom” undermines the mind, common sense Kuligina; Katerina expresses her protest, although her actions are unconscious. A thunderstorm as a natural and social phenomenon washes away the veil of hypocrisy and hypocrisy that the townspeople have used to hide behind. The splendor of nature affects a person, fascinates him with its strength and beauty. And how insignificant a person begins to feel compared to the strong river, mighty and virgin nature! The beauty of nature exists regardless of his desire; it influences his consciousness, reminding him of the eternal. Observing the beauty and life of nature, a person understands that his everyday, small problems seem insignificant compared to this proud and silent splendor. Next to nature, the human heart seems to come to life, it begins to feel joy and grief, love and hatred, hopes and joys more keenly. Katerina experiences the joy of life in the church, she bows to the sun in the garden, among the trees, herbs, flowers, the morning freshness of awakening nature: “Or early in the morning I’ll go to the garden, the sun is just rising, I’ll fall on my knees, I pray and cry, and I don’t know what I’m praying for and why I’m crying; That’s how they’ll find me.” Her entire bright, cheerful childhood was connected with nature. Katerina also loved walks in the garden. A garden is living nature in miniature. Katerina remembers her childhood, looking at the beautiful landscape. The natural beauty of the surrounding world is harmoniously intertwined with the girl’s speech itself, with lively, figurative, emotional speech. Katerina admires the beauty of nature with great pleasure. In the work, as we see, the image of the main character is closely connected with the surrounding nature.
But not only Katerina pays attention to this beauty. For example, Kuligin speaks about the beauty of his native nature: “Here, my brother, for fifty years I have been looking at the Volga every day, and I can’t get enough of it.”
The Volga in the play symbolizes freedom. The expanses of the river emphasize Katerina’s dreams of freedom. She grew up on the Volga and since childhood loves everything connected with this river: “Now I would ride along the Volga, on a boat, singing, or on a good three, hugging.”
Another important symbol is the rural view on the other side of the Volga. The river as the border between dependent, unbearable for many life on the bank on which the patriarchal Kalinov stands, and free, have a fun life there, on the other side. Katerina associates the opposite bank with childhood, with life before marriage: “How playful I was. And yours is completely wilted!” Katerina wants to be free from her weak-willed husband and despotic mother-in-law, to “fly away” from the family with Domostroev principles: “I say: why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on the mountain, you just want to fly,” says Katerina Varvara.
The river in the play also symbolizes escape towards death. And in the words of the lady, a half-crazy old woman, the Volga is a whirlpool that draws beauty into itself: “This is where beauty leads. Right there, right into the deep end!”
As we see, in the dark kingdom Ostrovsky shows a world that is isolated from the epic whole of folk life. It is stuffy and cramped, internal overstrain, the catastrophic nature of life is felt here at every step. Katerina’s worldview harmoniously combines Slavic pagan antiquity, rooted in prehistoric times, with the democratic trends of Christian culture, spiritualizing and morally enlightening old pagan beliefs. Katerina’s religiosity is unthinkable without sunrises and sunsets, dewy grasses in flowering meadows, the flight of birds, the fluttering of butterflies from flower to flower. Along with it is the beauty of a rural church, and the expanse of the Volga, and the Trans-Volga meadow expanse. In Katerina’s monologues, familiar motifs of Russian songs come to life. Katerina’s life-loving religiosity has gone far from the norms of the old patriarchal morality. Katerina experiences the joy of life in the temple; she bows to the sun in the garden, among the trees, herbs, flowers, and the morning freshness of awakening nature. She refers to wild winds, herbs, and flowers in the folk style, as spiritual beings. Without feeling this pristine freshness of her inner world, you will not understand the vitality and power of her character, the figurative beauty of her language. The metaphor in the context of Katerina’s monologues loses its shades of convention and comes to life plastically: the heroine’s soul, blooming along with nature, really fades in the world of the Kabanovs and the Wild.
The thunderstorm is hidden in the very character of the heroine; she herself says that even as a child, offended by someone, she ran away from home and sailed away in a boat along the Volga. So little Katerina’s impulse to seek protection from the Volga is a departure from untruth and evil to the land of light and goodness, this is a rejection of “wrong lies” with early childhood and readiness to leave this world if she “gets fed up” with it. Rivers, forests, grasses, flowers, birds, animals, trees, people in the popular consciousness of Katerina are the organs of a living spiritual being, the masters of the universe, who sympathize with the sins of people. Katerina’s feeling of divine powers is inseparable from the forces of nature.
For example, a beautiful night landscape corresponds to a date between Katerina and Boris. Then nature contributes to the development of action, pushes events, as it were, stimulates the development and resolution of the conflict.
Thus, in the thunderstorm scene, the elements prompt Katerina to publicly repent. At the moment of repentance, a thunderstorm broke out and rain began to fall, cleansing and washing away all sins. The point is that through death Katerina gained freedom in a world unknown to us, and Tikhon will never have enough fortitude and strength of character to either fight his oppressive mother or commit suicide, since he is weak-willed and weak-willed.
Katerina perceives the thunderstorm not as a slave, but as a chosen one. What is happening in her soul is akin to what is happening in stormy skies. This is not slavery, this is equality. What is going through the mind of Katerina, who is deciding to commit suicide? “There is a grave under the tree... how nice!.. The sun warms it, wets it with rain... in the spring the grass grows on it, it’s so soft... birds will fly to the tree, they will sing, they will bring out children, flowers will bloom: yellow, red, blue, all kinds. So quiet! so good! I feel better! But I don’t even want to think about life.” Death is the last flash of joyful and selfless love for trees, birds, flowers and herbs, for beauty and harmony God's peace. This spontaneous natural phenomenon is in surprising harmony with the feelings of a humiliated and abused woman. The “funeral service” takes place not in a church, but in a field, under the sun instead of candles, under the hubbub of birds replacing church singing, among swaying rye and colorful flowers.
In his first conversation with Varvara, Ostrovsky staged the story of Katerina’s female soul - from the first heartfelt anxieties, vague and uncertain, to a conscious understanding of the inevitability of what is happening.
At first - joyful girlish dreams, filled with love for the whole of God's world, then the first, still unconscious experience, manifested in two contrasting mental states: “It’s as if I’m starting to live again,” and next to it – “It’s as if I’m standing over an abyss... and I have nothing to hold on to,” either “the evil one is whispering in my ears,” or “a dove is cooing.”
Above the whispers of the evil one, the dove principle triumphs in Katerina’s new dreams, illuminating the morally awakening love for Boris. In folk mythology, the dove was a symbol of purity, sinlessness, and innocence.
Katerina turns her eyes to grief. And what does she see, what does she hear during church prayer? These angelic choirs in the pillar sunlight, pouring from the dome, this church singing, picked up by the singing of birds, this spirituality of the earthly elements - the elements of heaven... “As if, it happened, I entered heaven, and I didn’t see anyone, and I didn’t remember the time, and I didn’t hear when the service was over.” But “Domostroy” taught to pray “with fear and trembling, with sighing and tears.” Katerina’s life-loving religiosity is far from the harsh prescriptions.
But the Kalinovsky little world is not yet tightly closed from the broad forces of the people and the elements of life. Living life Trans-Volga meadows bring the smell of flowers to Kalinov, reminiscent of rural freedom. Katerina reaches out to this oncoming wave of refreshing space, trying to raise her arms and fly. Only Katerina is given the opportunity in “The Thunderstorm” to retain the fullness of viable principles in folk culture and maintain a sense of moral responsibility in the face of the trials to which this culture is subjected in Kalinov.
For most of the characters in the play, nature is completely unimportant. For example, Kabanikha and Dikoy throughout the entire drama never expressed admiration for the beauty of the world around them. Against the backdrop of nature, they both look especially pitiful. It is no coincidence that the “dark kingdom” is afraid of nature and its manifestations, perceiving a thunderstorm as a punishment from above.
In fact, the thunderstorm is a blessing for a small town mired in vulgarity, servility and cruelty. And Katerina is the first lightning bolt of the storm that will soon break out in society. Clouds have been gathering over the “old” world for a long time. A thunderstorm is a symbol of renewal. In nature, the air after a thunderstorm is fresh and clean. In society, after the storm that began with Katerina’s protest, there will also be a renewal: the oppressive and subjugating orders will probably be replaced by a society of freedom and independence.
Love for Boris is for Katerina a escape from the dullness and monotony of everyday joyless life. Katerina cannot refuse her feelings. After all, love is the only thing she has that is pure, bright and beautiful. Katerina is an open, straightforward person, so she cannot hide her feelings, adapting to the prevailing unrest in society. Katerina can no longer stay in this city, again enduring the humiliation of her oppressive mother-in-law. And she decides to leave with her loved one. But he refuses: “I can’t, Katya. I’m not eating of my own free will: my uncle sends me.” Katerna realizes with horror that she will again have to live with her husband and endure the orders of Kabanikha. Katerina's soul can't stand it. Thus, there are two options left for her: one is to live with her husband, subjugated and trampled, the other is to die. She chose the latter - liberation at the cost of her life. Katerina decides to throw herself into the Volga and find freedom in death.
She gives up her life at the moment when a thunderstorm breaks out in the city. A thunderstorm in nature radically changes the atmosphere, the hot and suffocating haze disappears. Katerina’s death was the same thunderstorm for society that forced people to look at their own lives differently.
The drama is called "The Thunderstorm" because this work a thunderstorm is not only a natural, but also a social phenomenon. An explosive situation was brewing in the city, and finally it happened - under the influence of the environment and the people around her, the unfortunate woman voluntarily gave up her life.
As in nature, a thunderstorm in Ostrovsky’s play combines destructive and creative forces: “The thunderstorm will kill!”, “Not a thunderstorm, but grace.”
As we see, the image of a thunderstorm in Ostrovsky’s drama is multi-valued and multi-sided: while it symbolically expresses the idea of the work, it is at the same time directly involved in the action. The image of a thunderstorm illuminates almost all facets of the tragic conflict of the play, so the meaning of the title becomes important for readers’ understanding of the play.
Conclusion
So, having considered this topic, I realized that only a true artist can create such a magnificent work. After analyzing the work, I came to the following:
Firstly, nature in Ostrovsky’s play is really a character. She lives, suffers, provokes and helps the heroes, in particular Katerina, understand themselves. The landscape changes, as if adapting to the personality of the person it surrounds. For some, admiration for the beauty of the Volga is happiness, for others, unity with nature is the meaning of life. Landscape, among other things, in Ostrovsky emphasizes the imperfection and pettiness of human relationships.
Secondly, landscape symbolism plays a great role in the play. It is no coincidence that all the key scenes in the play take place against the backdrop of a beautiful landscape that is mesmerizing. This is a charming picture of the Trans-Volga meadows, and a stormy river. The river and thunderstorm play a major role in the work. They are directly involved in the action. Their image is complex and multifaceted.
Thirdly, I realized that Ostrovsky’s work is distinguished not only by its deep nationalism, ideology, and bold exposure of social evil, but also by high artistic skill, which is entirely subordinated to the task of realistic reproduction of reality. Ostrovsky himself repeatedly emphasized that life is a source of dramatic collisions and situations.
I think that A.R. Kugel is right that “Ostrovsky is new, modern, refined, beautiful, like a refreshing spring from which you will drink, from which you will wash, from which you will rest - and then set off on the road again.”
Bibliography
Anastasyev A. “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky. M, 1975.
Zhuravleva A., Nekrasov. "Ostrovsky Theater" M, 1986.
Ivanov I. A. Ostrovsky. His life and literary activity. Chelyabinsk, 1999.
Kachurin M., Motolskaya D. Russian literature. Textbook for 9th grade of secondary school. M, 1982.
Lakshin V. Ostrovsky Theater. M, 1975.
Lebedev Yu. Russian literature of the 19th century: 2nd half. M, 1990.
Lebedev Yu. Russian literature of the 19th century. M, 2002.
Lobanov M. Ostrovsky. M, 1989.
Ostrovsky A.N. " Bitter word truth." M, 1973.
Revyakin A. The art of dramaturgy A.N. Ostrovsky. M, 1974.
Kholodov E. Playwright for all times. M, 1975.
1. Life in a provincial town.
2. The lively and rebellious character of the main character.
3. The role of nature in the play.
A. N. Ostrovsky in the play “The Thunderstorm” shows how in a small town on the banks of the Volga, tragic events. From the very first lines of the work, we learn about the atmosphere in which the heroes of the play happened to live. There are no trifles in the work; any, even seemingly insignificant detail is important. And in this context, we must not forget that it is not by chance that the writer indicates the time of year and the place where the tragedy occurred. The city is located on the banks of the great Russian river Volga. Already at the very beginning of the first act, this was said through the mouth of Kuligin. A self-taught inventor looks at the Volga and talks about its beauty. This detail shows that an intelligent and extraordinary person understands the beauty of the surrounding nature and is able to enjoy it. The people around them do not think about this, which indicates their limitations, lack of craving for beauty and, finally, emotional deafness.
A completely different person appears main character plays by Kabanova. Only she, unlike all other people, is able to understand, appreciate, and feel the main advantage of her hometown - the beautiful nature. Katya is capable of admiring for a long time beautiful landscape, she has loved nature since childhood. In the world of people, a young woman feels extremely uncomfortable; people around her are rude and cruel. Katerina lacks bright, fresh impressions. She is suffocating in a suffocating atmosphere of lies, stupidity, and hypocrisy. Katerina says: “If it were up to me, I would now ride along the Volga, on a boat, with songs, or in a good troika”... And the point here is not at all that she is drawn to entertainment, forgetting about everyday affairs. In fact, a young, emotional woman wants something bright and beautiful in her life. But there are only gloomy faces and strict orders around. Those around them are not able to appreciate the beauty of nature around them; they are concerned only with everyday affairs, boring, like their whole life. Nature in the play has its own life, radically different from the life of people, beautiful, fresh, free. Nature cannot be conquered. Katerina is very similar to her in this.
A thunderstorm is approaching - a bright, noticeable and strong natural phenomenon. And the main character seems to sense the approach of a thunderstorm, so much does she suffer from the cramped and narrow world of the “dark kingdom”. Katerina is defenseless and helpless in the face of the anger and hatred of others. She is impressionable, tender, dreamy. And she, in essence, has nothing to oppose to people like Kabanikha, rude, undeveloped people. Katerina is harmoniously connected with nature. She dreams of flying: “ Why do people don't fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you feel the urge to fly. That’s how I would run up, raise my hands and fly…” Such words indicate that Katerina does not have enough freedom to break out of the Domostroev order. As a child, Katya happily looked after flowers. She remembers exactly this, and not at all about the people who once surrounded her. Katerina was not interested in people, although her parents loved and spoiled her. The natural world was more interesting for the girl than the human world. She spent a long time admiring the garden and the river. The wedding became for her turning point, after which life changed for the worse. The emotional deafness of her husband, cruelty, stupidity and hypocrisy of her mother-in-law make the girl unhappy. All that remains from the previous life are memories and the beauty of the surrounding nature, which remains the same as before.
Katerina remembers how in childhood, after a strong insult, she ran away to the Volga, got into a boat... She was found only the next day, far from that place. It is not by chance that the girl runs to the river, but does not at all try to find solace from people, even from her family and friends. A harmonious connection with nature shows an extraordinary nature, even if it is incomprehensible to others.
It is difficult for us to imagine that Kabanikha could admire the picture of the Volga landscape, because she appears as the complete opposite of the romantic and sensitive Katerina. There are practically no people like Katya in the town. The only exception is Kuligin, who, like Katya, cannot get enough of the beauty around her.
The beauty of nature is very important to Katerina. It is no coincidence that the tragedy happened in the summer, when it appears before people in all its glory. It was in the summer that Katerina especially acutely felt her loneliness and her lack of freedom, which made her so unhappy.
Katerina perceives the beauty and grandeur of nature through the prism of her dreamy nature. She lives for this beauty, she can't imagine own life without her. People around are so accustomed to the Volga landscape that it seems only a backdrop for everyday life. Everyday life. Moreover, those around them are afraid of this nature, they sense a hidden danger in it. For example, he is afraid of thunderstorms and considers them a punishment from above. Kuligin, on the contrary, is happy about the thunderstorm, says that every blade of grass is happy, and people scare themselves. But Dikoy and others like him “scare” themselves for a reason. In fact, they are afraid of everything that is beyond their control, including natural phenomena.
Ostrovsky depicts the meeting of Boris and Katerina against the backdrop of a summer night. In fact, Katerina's love for Boris became the highlight of her joyless life. It seems to Katerina that she has finally found her happiness. The relationship between lovers is actually harmonious, at least that is the impression that readers get. But the idyll turned out to be just an illusion.
People around Katerina say that a thunderstorm portends misfortune - someone's death or a fire. The woman is in a panic, she thinks that heaven intends to punish her for the sin she committed. And the thunderstorm will only kill her. Under the influence of such thoughts, Katerina admits that she cheated on her husband. Against the backdrop of a thunderstorm, her recognition gains special meaning. A thunderstorm broke out in nature; and the betrayal of a timid, submissive wife became the same “thunderstorm” in the social sense. During a thunderstorm, nature becomes unusual and scary. This fits Katerina’s mood perfectly. She thinks that she has no forgiveness and goes crazy. Thunderstorm in in this case as if personifies Katerina’s suffering, which led her to suicide. Life is no longer pleasant to her. Katerina no longer thinks about anything. It's raining like beautiful world sheds her tears around, sympathizing with the unfortunate woman. Katerina sees no pity from people. Only the free Volga River accepts the body of the sufferer into its waves.
So what is the significance of the picture of the Volga landscape in the play? We see mention of him very often. Without a doubt, the power, grandeur and beauty of nature are contrasted by the author with the “dark kingdom” where the main character was not lucky enough to live. “Lousy little town,” as Kuligin Kalinov calls it, in spite of everything, is located in most beautiful place. However, this dignity of the city does not make anyone happy; on the contrary, it only emphasizes the wretchedness of people’s lives. Nature becomes one of the main characters in the play, it is necessary for the reader to realize the shortcomings of the human relationships depicted in the work.
1. What conflict lies at the heart of A.N.’s play? Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm"?
The basis of A.N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is tragic conflict Katerina’s living feelings and the dead foundations of the “dark kingdom”.
2. Which of the characters in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm" refers to the "dark kingdom"?
Tyrants and despots are Dikoy and Kabanikha, who belong to the “dark kingdom”.
3. What allows Tikhon to say that their “family has fallen apart”?
Unable to withstand Kabanikha’s despotism, Katerina commits suicide, leaves Varvara’s house, and Tikhon becomes completely voiceless and weak-willed.
4. What is unique about Kabanikha’s speech?
Kabanikha’s speech shows an imperious nature, which is expressed in an imperative tone: “Well, talk more!”, “At your feet, at your feet!” He always speaks edifyingly. She often uses proverbs and sayings, folk expressions and intonation.
5. What is the difference between Katerina and Varvara’s views on life?
Katerina is not used to lying and dodging, she does not accept hypocrisy, she cannot pretend, realizing her love for Boris as a sin. Varvara accepted the morality of the surrounding society and learned to hide her true feelings, lie, and dodge.
6. For what purpose did A.N. play? Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm" introduced Kudryash's songs?
Kudryash's songs give the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm" has a national flavor, and its content repeats the motif of forbidden love married woman to another.
7. What is the function of the image of the Volga in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm"?
The image of Volga shows that the action takes place in a Russian provincial town. The majestic, beautiful Volga contrasts with the sleepy, stagnant life of the city. The free Volga welcomes the rebellious Katerina into its waters.
8. What is the meaning of the title of the drama by A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm"?
The motif of a thunderstorm runs through the entire play. This is an unknown, and therefore terrible, natural phenomenon. This is also the threat of Kabani-kha’s tyranny over Tikhon (“For two weeks there will be no thunderstorm over me”). There is something elemental and thunderous in Katerina’s love for Boris. A thunderstorm is the fear of retribution for sins. A thunderstorm is also a symbol of non-reconciliation with the dark kingdom.
9. What is the function of the landscape in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm"?
The landscape serves a double function. At the beginning of the play, he is the background against which the action unfolds, and emphasizes the discrepancy between the dead life of the Kalinovites and the beautiful nature. A thunderstorm then intrudes into the action and influences the outcome of the drama.
10. What is the role of the episodic figure of the lady in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm"?Material from the site
The appearance of the old lady with two footmen coincides with the picture of a thunderstorm. The lady’s ominous speeches: “What, beauties? What are you doing here? Are you expecting some good guys, gentlemen? Are you having fun? Funny? Does your beauty make you happy? Here, here, in the deep end!” - prophesies the fate of Katerina.
11. Describe the life of the city of Kalinov.
The city of Kalinov is located in a beautiful place on the banks of the Volga. But residents care little about the beauty of nature. They are indifferent to everything that goes beyond household chores. No reliable information about life in other places penetrates their sleepy life. Only wanderers bring monstrously ridiculous rumors about lands where people with dog heads live. Ignorance and stagnation, cruel Domostroev morals reign in the city.
The action takes place in a small provincial town Kalinov on the banks of the Volga in summer. We learn about this at the very beginning of the play. Both the time of year and the place are of great importance. At the beginning of the first act we see Kuligia looking at the Volga and admiring its beauty. In any work, especially a dramatic one, there are not and cannot be trifles. Everything that the author pays attention to is of great importance.
Even with a superficial reading of Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”, one can pay attention to the fact that descriptions of nature are very common. The very title of the drama reflects a natural phenomenon - a thunderstorm. In the drama, the strength and beauty of nature is, as it were, contrasted with a stuffy and cramped society in which “cruel morals” reign. For example, Kuligin calls Kalinov a “lousy little town,” but he also emphasizes that there is wonderful nature here.
The description of nature is not only and not so much the background that is necessary for staging a drama on stage. The description of the landscape is necessary in order to demonstrate the wretchedness of people's lives. Kuligin says that people are not happy with wonderful nature; City residents walk extremely rarely, only on holidays. After all, the poor have no time to walk, and the rich hide behind fences.
It seems that the only advantage of the small provincial town of Kalinova is beautiful nature. The human world is rude, cruel and unpleasant. But nothing can spoil the beauty and grandeur of the Volga River, next to which the city is located. Katerina loved nature since childhood. She says: “If it were up to me, I would now ride along the Volga, on a boat, with songs, or in a good troika”... In her mind, fun is closely connected with nature, with walks, with joy. In the city, people are forced to live in an atmosphere of outdated orders and a gloomy mood. People like Kabanikha and others like her do not pay the slightest attention to nature. They have no need to enjoy the beauty of the landscape. After all, nature cannot be conquered or enslaved. Therefore, they “hide behind the fences,” tyrannizing their family.
Anticipating the approach of a thunderstorm, Katerina begins to suffer from a feeling of helplessness and defenselessness. Only such an impressionable nature as she can feel the superiority of the forces of nature. People seem so weak compared to the mighty elements. But the people around Katerina do not have such developed imagination, so they cannot compare themselves with the living world.
The harmonious connection between Katerina and nature is obvious. Katerina says: “Why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you feel the urge to fly. That’s how I would run up, raise my hands and fly...” A bird is part of nature, and it is no coincidence that Katerina compares herself to this free creation. The bird can fly wherever it wants, unlike the unfortunate woman who is forced to sit locked up according to house-building orders.
Romantic and impressionable, Katerina always knew how to see the beauty of nature. When she remembers singing happy childhood, then he talks about caring for flowers, and there were “many, many of them.” Katerina says little about the people who surrounded her in childhood; she remembers only her loving and caring mother. And this is no coincidence, communication with people was of little interest to the girl; flowers were much more important, closer and clearer to her. The beauty of the garden, flowers, river - this is Katerina’s world before marriage. After the wedding everything changed. Now the girl can only remember her past happiness.
When Katerina was little, she was once greatly offended. She ran away to the Volga and got into a boat. The girl was found only in the morning, about ten miles away. This episode also reveals a connection with wildlife - an offended girl seeks salvation not from people, but from the river. Katerina - true folk image, harmoniously and naturally connected with nature. It’s hard to imagine Dikiy, Kabanikha and others like them walking on the Volga, enjoying the beauty of the flowers in the garden. But Katerina, on the contrary, is difficult to imagine high fence unable to see the beauty of the world around. The drama takes place in the hot summer. And this is also not accidental. After all, in the summer, more than ever, a person can feel his unbreakable connection with nature, can enjoy its beauty, grandeur, strength. In summer, freedom is especially needed, which the main character of the drama is deprived of.
By the attitude of the characters in the drama to nature, one can judge their spiritual qualities. For Katerina, nature is a part of herself. Kuligin also admires the beauty of the world around him. He says that he cannot stop looking at the beauty of nature all his life. This characterizes Kuligin and Katerina as sublime, romantic, emotional natures. The other characters in the drama are completely different. They perceive the world around them as ordinary. And therefore they seem even more miserable and gloomy. They are afraid of natural phenomena. For example, when Kuligin tells Dikiy about the need to install lightning rods in the city, the latter shouts that a thunderstorm is a punishment that is sent from above. From Kuligin’s point of view, a thunderstorm is “grace”, because every blade of grass rejoices, and people have “made a scarecrow” for themselves and are afraid of them. But those around him are more inclined to believe the Wild One rather than Kulngin.
Many writers have depicted the scene of lovers meeting against the backdrop of nature. When Katerina and Boris meet, it is an amazingly beautiful summer night. And this detail cannot escape the reader’s gaze, because in this way the author shows the harmony of relations between people and the world around. True, this harmony is fragile. Very little time passes, and Katerina is convinced that she has committed a serious crime.
Katerina hears conversations around that during a thunderstorm someone will definitely be killed or the house will catch fire. The girl is sure that the thunderstorm was sent as a punishment for her, and it will kill her. During a thunderstorm, Katerina repents of what she did and admits to treason. A thunderstorm as a natural phenomenon perfectly matches a woman’s mood. She is confused, afraid, does not know how and where to look for salvation. And nature around is also in turmoil, the storm made the world unusual, alarming, scary. All this has the most powerful effect on the exalted Katerina. In addition, she sees a fresco in the church, which depicts a picture of hell. Isn’t all this enough to drive an impressionable woman to the point of insanity... The thunderstorm in Ostrovsky’s drama is both a natural phenomenon and a symbol of Katerina’s painful mental suffering.
Katerina had long since mentally said goodbye to life. Now all she has to do is finish the job. In those moments when Katerina talks about her torment, it rains. Nature seems to be crying with her, grieving and pitying the unfortunate one. But Katerina does not receive sympathy from people, except that Kuligin is trying to evoke mercy in the weak and weak-willed Tikhon. The Volga River, which Katerina has loved since childhood, accepts her without asking whether she was a sinner or a righteous woman during her life. Death in the waves of the river seems to Katerina a lighter punishment than the trial of people.
