Characteristics of the boar and the wild one from the play. Wild and Kabanikha (based on the play by A

According to I. A. Goncharov, A. N. Ostrovsky “brought a whole library of artistic works as a gift to literature, and created his own special world for the stage.” The world of Ostrovsky’s works is amazing. He created large and integral characters, knew how to emphasize comic or dramatic properties in them, and draw the reader’s attention to the virtues or vices of his heroes.

The heroes of the play “The Thunderstorm” deserve special attention - Savel Prokofievich Dikoy and Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova.

Savel Prokofievich Dikoy is a merchant, a significant person in the city of Kalinov. The heroes of the play give him eloquent characteristics. “He belongs everywhere. He’s afraid of someone!” - Kudryash says about him. Dikoy, in fact, does not recognize anything other than his own will. He doesn't care about the thoughts and feelings of other people. It costs Savel Prokofievich nothing to scold, humiliate, or insult. With those around him, he behaves as if he had “lost his chain,” and without this he “cannot breathe.” “...You are a worm,” he says to Kulig. “If I want, I’ll have mercy, if I want, I’ll crush.”

The power of the Wild One is stronger, the weaker, more weak-willed the person. So Kudryash, for example, knows how to resist the Wild One. “...He is the word, and I am ten; he will spit and go. No, I won’t slave to him,” says Kudryash about his relationship with the merchant. Another man is Dikiy’s nephew, Boris. “He got Boris Grigoryich as a sacrifice, so he rides on it,” people around him notice. The wild one is not embarrassed by the fact that Boris is an orphan and that he has no one closer to his uncle. The merchant realizes that the fate of his nephew is in his hands, and takes advantage of this. “Driven, beaten...” Boris says sadly. The merchant is no less cruel to his employees: “With us, no one dares even say a word about a salary, he’ll scold you for all he’s worth.” The unscrupulous Dikoy makes his fortune from other people's slave labor and deception: "... I will underpay them by a penny... but I make thousands from this...". However, sometimes the Dikiy has an epiphany, and he realizes that he is going too far: “After all, I already know that I have to give, but I can’t do everything with good.”

Dikoy is a despot and tyrant in his family, “his own people cannot please him,” “when he is offended by a person whom he does not dare to scold; here, stay home!”

Kabanikha, the rich Kalinovsky merchant’s wife, is not inferior to Dikiy. Kabanikha is a hypocrite, she does everything “under the guise of piety.” Outwardly she is very pious. However, as Kuligin notes, Kabanikha “gives money to the poor, but completely eats up her family.” The main object of her tyranny is her own son Tikhon. Being an adult, married man, he is completely at the mercy of his mother, has no opinion of his own, and is afraid to contradict her. Kabanikha “builds” his relationship with his wife, she guides his every action, every word. Complete obedience is all she wants to see in her son. The power-hungry Kabanikha does not notice that under her yoke a cowardly, pathetic, weak-willed, irresponsible man has grown up. Having escaped from the supervision of his mother for a while, he chokes on freedom and drinks, because he does not know how to use freedom in any other way. “...Not one step out of your will,” he repeats to his mother, and “he himself is thinking about how he can escape as quickly as possible.”

Kabanikha is jealous of her son’s daughter-in-law, constantly reproaches him with Katerina, “she eats him.” “I already see that I’m a hindrance to you,” she nags Tikhon. Kabanikha believes that the wife of her husband should be afraid, precisely afraid, and not love or respect. In her opinion, correct relationships are built precisely on the suppression of one person by another, on humiliation, on lack of freedom. Indicative in this regard is the scene of Katerina’s farewell to her husband, when all Tikhon’s words addressed to his wife are just a repetition of Kabanikha’s instigations.

If Tikhon, who has been crushed by her since childhood, suffers from Kabanikha, then the life of such a dreamy, poetic and integral nature as Katerina in the merchant’s house becomes unbearable. “Here, whether she got married or whether she buried her, it’s all the same,” Boris argues about this.

Constant pressure forces Kabanikha’s daughter, Varvara, to adapt. “Do what you want, as long as it’s sewn and covered,” she reasons.

Assessing the images of the “masters of life,” N. Dobro-lyubov shows Diky and Kabanikha as tyrants, with their “constant suspicion, scrupulousness and pickiness.” According to the critic, “The Thunderstorm” is Ostrovsky’s most decisive work” in this play “the mutual relations of tyranny and voicelessness are brought... to the most tragic consequences...”.

The action of Ostrovsky's drama takes place in the fictitious city of Kalinov on the banks of the Volga, where a traditional way of life reigns. The city has beautiful nature, but callousness and ignorance, anger, drunkenness and debauchery reign among the inhabitants of this area. And the worst thing is that people are used to it. They had such a way of life, and if a normal person came to them, he could not stay there for a long time. As in every literary work, Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” has positive and negative characters. The negative ones, first of all, include the mother-in-law of the main character Katerina, Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, and the uncle of Boris, Katerina’s beloved man, Savel Prokofievich Dikoy.

In the play, these characters are rarely called by their patronymic names; they are more often called and. What these characters have in common is that they are both cruel and heartless people, but they are united by their love of money. Relationships between people, according to their worldview, are based only on wealth. They abuse their family as they please, forcing them to live in constant fear.

Dikoy has put himself above everyone around him, but they are afraid of him and do not even try to resist this. He shows permissiveness because there is no one in Kalinin who could resist him. Dikoy is convinced of his impunity and considers himself the master of life.

Kabanikha covers up her disrespectful behavior with a mask of virtue. She is a strong and powerful person, she has little interest in emotions and feelings. As a person of the old formation, Kabanova is interested in earthly affairs and interests. Its requirements are unquestioning adherence to order and rank.

Dikiy, like Kabanova, can be considered representatives of a certain part of the merchant class who behaved inappropriately. Such people cannot be called pious. But it cannot be said that the Russian merchants of the 19th century were the prototype of Kabanikha and Dikiy. In the same drama, Ostrovsky shows that Boris's father was Dikiy's brother, but being brought up in the same family, he was different from the merchant Dikiy. Boris's father was married to a girl of noble origin, and he had a completely different life than his despotic brother.

Kabanova is also shown as a typical representative of the merchant class. Being the head of the family, the mother of Tikhon, Varvara and mother-in-law of Katerina, she constantly torments her closest people with her behavior. She may have loved her children in her own way, but can a normal mother behave like that? Probably not. The drama contains a description of Katerina's story about her childhood. Katerina's parents were also from the merchant class, but Katerina's mother was a sensitive, kind and sympathetic woman. She loved and cared for her daughter very much.

Ostrovsky took the plot for his play from real life, but the city was given the fictitious name Kalinov. Many Volga cities believed that the play “The Thunderstorm” was written based on events that happened in their city. Now for some reason they believe that this is the city of Kostroma.

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Very often, extremely negative images appear in literature. At a time when the opinion is generally expressed about the duality of the human soul and nature and the presence of both positive and negative sides of personality, masters of artistic expression every now and then deliberately endow their characters with only bad character traits, excluding even the slightest manifestations of the positive influence of the hero’s activities.

In the play “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky, one of these characters is Kabanikha.

Personality characteristics of Kabanikha

The full name of the heroine is Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, but in the text she is most often called Kabanikha. Marfa Ignatievna is on friendly terms with Dikiy, and he is also her godfather. It is worth noting that such a friendship is not surprising, because both characters are very similar in character.

Dear readers! On our website you can familiarize yourself with Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm”.

Kabanikha is a wealthy merchant's wife. Her position in society implied a tolerant attitude towards others, but in fact her habits were not at all noble. Kabaniha has a firm and unshakable character. She is a cruel and rude woman.

Marfa Ignatievna is too conservative, she is “stuck” in the past tense and lives by the principles and foundations of the past, not realizing that changes have occurred in the world and it is no longer possible to live in the old way. She believes that a person’s wisdom is determined by his age - young people a priori cannot be smart, this is only the prerogative of old people: “Don’t judge your older self! They know more than you."

Kabanikha is sure that children must bow at the feet of their parents, and the husband must “order” his wife all the time. Marfa Ignatievna is very upset when these standards of behavior are not respected and thinks that this is a problem of bad manners of the younger generation: “They don’t know anything, there’s no order.”

Kabanikha is used to playing to the public - she tries to be a virtuous and noble woman in the eyes of society, although in reality she is not. Marfa Ignatievna often gives alms to the poor, but she does this not at the behest of her heart, but so that everyone thinks that she is a kind and generous woman.

Kabanikha is a very devout woman, but, apparently, her religiosity is also feigned, since in spite of everything, Kabanikha does not adhere to the laws of God and often neglects the basic rules of behavior in relation to other people.

Family and relationship with relatives

The complexity of character is manifested in full force in relation to their relatives. Her family consists of three people - a son, daughter and daughter-in-law. Kabanikha developed extremely contradictory relationships with all of them.

All the difficulties and conflicts in the family are associated with the authoritarian character of the mother, her conservatism and special love for scandals.

We invite thoughtful readers to familiarize themselves with Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm.”

Kabanikha’s son, Tikhon, is already an adult at the time of the story; he could be completely independent, but his mother does not give him the opportunity to do this. The woman takes care of her son all the time and tries to control his every step, citing Tikhon’s incompetence. As a result

Kabanikha began not only to give advice to her son, but to literally live in his place: “he eats, he doesn’t let him pass.”

Marfa Ignatievna constantly interferes in the relationship between her son and daughter-in-law and sometimes orders her son’s wife to be beaten, because this is the order: “But I love her, I’m sorry to lay a finger on her. I beat him a little, and even that was my mother’s orders.”

Tikhon, despite his age and conviction that such rude actions towards his wife are not necessary, still unquestioningly carries out his mother’s will.

Kabanikha does not have the best attitude towards her young daughter-in-law Katerina - she is always dissatisfied with her and will always find something to reproach the young girl with. The reason for this attitude lies not in Katerina’s dishonest attitude towards Kabanikha or not in Katerina’s failure to fulfill her duties, but in Kabanikha’s habit of commanding everyone and the jealousy that arose towards her daughter-in-law.

Kabanikha cannot accept the adulthood of her son; she is offended that Tikhon gives preference to his wife rather than his mother.

Kabanikha’s daughter Varvara is not so straightforward; she has long realized that she will never be able to defend her position: her mother, who at her core was a domestic tyrant, simply could not stand anything like that and did not allow any liberties. The girl found only one way out of this situation - to deceive her mother. Varvara always said what Marfa Ignatievna wanted to hear, but acted as she wanted: “Our whole house rests on this. And I wasn’t a liar, but I learned when it became necessary.”

Such actions within the family on the part of Kabanikha become the cause of many tragedies. Her daughter Varvara runs away from home, never to appear here again - for the girl, escape became the only salvation from her mother’s domestic tyranny. Tikhon and Katerina, who did not even think about how it was possible to change their situation, but simply took a wait-and-see attitude and silently endured insults and humiliation from their mother, could not achieve success.

Katerina, having cheated on her husband in order to feel happy, under the pressure of morality and shame, admits her act, and then, but under the pressure of Kabanikha’s humiliation, commits suicide. Only after Katerina’s death did Tikhon find the strength to verbally rebuff his mother and reproach her for unlawful actions towards her loved ones: “You ruined her! You! You!". However, due to Tikhon’s soft character, it is unlikely that he will be able to defend his position to the end.

The attitude of others towards Kabanikha

Despite all her efforts to convince others that she was a kind and good woman, Marfa Ignatievna did not succeed. The truth about her quarrelsome nature and love for tyranny has still leaked out and those around her periodically gossip about it.

The main incriminating body of information about Kabanikha’s character comes from the statements of Kuligin and Kudryash. Kudryash exposes the duality of her behavior. Marfa Ignatievna lives “to show people off” and “as it really is.” According to Kudryash, with Kabanikha everything happens “under the guise of piety.”

Kuligin also develops this same theme in his stories: “Prudence, sir! He gives money to the poor, but completely eats up his family.”

Thus, thanks to literary hoax, the reader has the opportunity to see an unusual image consisting exclusively of negative character traits. Kabanikha is trying with her drastic actions to preserve the old system, which is rapidly collapsing, she is unable to achieve a positive result using such methods, but at the same time Marfa Ignatievna is ruining the fate of her children, which looks extremely sad.

A powerful merchant's wife who is afraid of everything new - this is the image he created in the play “The Thunderstorm”. Like a real dictator, Kabanikha defends housebuilding and established habits. After all, everything new carries danger and the possibility of losing control over loved ones.

History of creation

The play "The Thunderstorm" was first published in 1860. The writer was prompted to write the work by a personal drama, which was reflected in the work. In Kabanikha, Ostrovsky embodied the characteristics of a tyrant, despot and tyrant. The writer does not specifically describe the details of the heroine’s appearance so that the reader can independently, only based on the character’s inner world, create the image of the merchant’s wife.

Ostrovsky also does not indicate the exact age of the heroine. At the same time, Kabanikha relies on her own seniority and calls on the younger generation to respect:

“Don’t judge your older self! They know more than you. Old people have signs for everything. An old man won’t say a word to the wind.”

The resulting image, as well as the work as a whole, caused fierce debate among the writer's contemporaries. But, despite different points of view, “The Thunderstorm” became the anthem of the pre-reform social upsurge.

"Storm"

Marfa Ignatievna lives in the city of Kalinov, located on the banks of the Volga. The woman’s husband died, leaving Kabanikha with her son Tikhon and daughter Varvara. In a provincial town there are unpleasant rumors about the merchant's wife. The woman is a real prude. For strangers, Marfa Ignatievna happily gives to the suffering, but the woman terrorizes close people.

The woman tells those around her to live by outdated moral principles, which she herself violates every day. The heroine believes that children should not have their own opinions, they are obliged to honor their parents and listen to their mother unquestioningly.

Tikhon's wife gets the most. The young girl arouses hatred and jealousy in the elderly merchant's wife. Kabanikha often reproaches her son that the young man loves his young wife more than his mother. The heroine spends her time preaching morals, the hypocrisy of which is noticeable to those around her.

The conflict between the young daughter-in-law and the merchant's wife escalates with Tikhon's departure. The head of the house, who considers displays of affection a sign of weakness, orders her son to sternly reprimand his wife before leaving. A woman despises a man who sincerely loves Catherine. The merchant's wife considers her son too weak, so she suppresses the will of the young man with her own authority, turning the life of Tikhon and Katerina into hell.

As soon as Tikhon leaves Kalinov, Kabanikha watches her daughter-in-law with redoubled attention. It does not escape the woman that changes are happening to Catherine, so the moment Tikhon returns home, the merchant’s wife again presses on the young people.

When Katerina cannot withstand the pressure and admits to treason, Kabanikha feels satisfaction. The woman turned out to be right; free will in relation to the wife does not lead to anything good. Even after the death of his daughter-in-law, Kabanikha does not soften. Marfa Ignatievna does not allow her son to go in search of his wife. And when the body is discovered, he holds Tikhon so that he does not even say goodbye to his wife.

Film adaptations

In 1933, a film adaptation of “The Thunderstorm” was released, directed by Vladimir Petrov. The role of Kabanikha was performed by Varvara Massalitinova. The film received an award at the Venice International Festival as the best film presented to the public.

In 1977, Felix Glyamshin and Boris Babochkin filmed the television play “The Thunderstorm” based on Ostrovsky’s work of the same name. The colorful film was liked by television viewers. The despotic merchant's wife was played by actress Olga Kharkova.

In 2017, directors again turned to the writer’s work. Andrey Moguchiy staged his own interpretation of “The Thunderstorm”. The teleplay combines archaism and avant-garde. The image of Kabanikha on stage was embodied by People's Artist of Russia Marina Ignatova.

• Analysis of the dialogues of the heroes of “The Thunderstorm” allows us to conclude that Kabanikha was raised in the Old Believer faith. Therefore, the woman rejects innovations, even the railway.

• In the theater, the merchant's wife is often portrayed as an elderly woman. Although the writer does not indicate the heroine's age, the character is hardly more than 40 years old.
• Ostrovsky awarded Marfa Ignatievna a telling first and last name. “Marfa means “lady,” and the surname Kabanova is common among the merchants. The woman received the nickname “Kabanikha” for her stubbornness, for which she became famous among the city residents.

Quotes

“They don’t really respect elders these days.”

“You can’t tell anyone: if they don’t dare to your face, they will stand behind your back.”

“Come on, come on, don’t be afraid! Sin! I have seen for a long time that your wife is dearer to you than your mother. Since I got married, I don’t see the same love from you.”

“Why be afraid?! Are you crazy, or what? He won’t be afraid of you, and he won’t be afraid of me either. What kind of order will there be in the house?”

“If you want to listen to your mother, then when you get there, do as I ordered you.”

Kabanova, or as she is called, Kabanikha, is one of the main characters in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm”. Marfa Ignatievna is a rich merchant's wife and also a widow. She has two children: son Tikhon and daughter Varvara. Her son Tikhon lives in her house with his wife Katerina.

Kabanikha is presented as an angry, envious and hypocritical woman who seemingly hates everything around her. Her favorite pastime is reading morals to her son and daughter, and she generally keeps Catherine in fear. Her very appearance is menacing and fearless.

It is not for nothing that the writer gives the head of the family such a strange nickname. It fully conveys the character of the heroine. Assessing her actions, we can confidently call her heartless.

Her greatest offense is that she raised her son to be a weak-willed and spineless man. He can't take a step without asking her. Thus, he cannot and does not even try to protect his wife from her mother-in-law’s attacks. From Kabanikha’s side, the reader sees ordinary jealousy towards her own son.

Her image is contradictory: she believes in God, but does evil, gives alms, but offends her loved ones. She skillfully plays in front of others: she pretends not to understand, calls herself old and haggard, but at the same time she is determined to teach others.

Naturally, the image of Kabanova is the prototype of Catherine, her opposite. Although, there is still something in common between them. They both respect antiquity, but understand it differently. For the mother-in-law, antiquity is what should subjugate the youth. Her attitude suggests that old people should give orders, and young people should obey unquestioningly. Katerina has other ideas. For her, antiquity is love and care for one's neighbor, it is mercy and compassion not only towards older people, but also towards everyone around. Katerina is a victim of Kabanikha, who endures bullying and abuse, while Varvara only pretends to listen to her mother, in fact adhering only to her own views.

After reading the play, the reader realizes that it was Kabanikha who contributed to the death of Katerina. She threatened to take her own life, apparently running away from her mother-in-law's attacks. Maybe Kabanikha did not want such a denouement, but the desire to break her daughter-in-law prevailed in any case. As a result, Kabanova’s family is collapsing. The daughter blamed her mother for Katerina’s death and left home, while Tikhon went on a drinking binge.

Option 2

We all know Ostrovsky's dramatic play "The Thunderstorm", in which there is an interesting heroine - Kabanikha (Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova).

Kabanikha is presented in the image of a rich merchant's wife. Marfa Ignatievna is a long-widowed woman.

This woman can be described as a lover of showing off her strength. Power and fortitude are the main features of Kabanikha’s image.

Marfa Ignatievna demands mandatory obedience from everyone, including her relatives. She is almost always unhappy with them. She scolds and educates them every day, and is especially dissatisfied with her son and Katerina. Kabanikha requires people to perform rituals and rites. She believes that it is important to keep the family order at bay.

Kabanikha likes to do different things and her main interests are expressed in following established procedures.

Kabanikha and Katerina have little similarity in that both are unable to reconcile their weak character traits. The second similarity is expressed in religiosity, both revere it, while not believing in forgiveness. This is where the similarity in their character traits ends.

The differences in characters are expressed by the fact that she is spiritual and a dreamer, the second lover of maintaining order in small things. For Katerina, love and will come first; for Kabanikha, it’s carrying out orders.

Kabanikha feels like a guardian of order, believing that with her death there will be chaos in the world and at home. No one doubts that the lady has an imperious character, which she periodically shows to everyone.

Kabanikha herself, no matter how much she scolds her children for being disobedient, never complains about them. Therefore, when the daughter-in-law openly confesses in public, this is unacceptable for her and turns out to be a terrible blow to her pride, to which was added the son’s rebellion, and in addition to these troubles, another one is added - the daughter’s escape from her home.

At the end of the play, the author shows the collapse of the powerful, seemingly indestructible world of Kabanikha. It is a terrible blow for her that everything has gone out of the lady’s control. Of course, the reader does not sympathize with her, because this is her fault. What she deserved, she got.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the image of Marfa Ignatievna personifies the patriarchal way of life. She claims that it is not her business whether it is good or bad, but it must be followed.

The outcome of the play is tragic: Katerina dies, the son rebels, the daughter runs away from home. With all the events taking place in the play, Kabanikha’s world collapses, and so does she.

Essay on the theme of Kabanikh

One of the main characters in the work “The Thunderstorm” is Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova. People all called her Kabanikha. The rich merchant's wife and widow had two children, Varvara and Tikhon, who married Catherine. She was a typical representative of the older generation who loves to give instructions and lecture. For her, the most important priority in life was to comply with the customs and orders established in society. She did not love her children, kept the whole house in fear, and often offended people.

The author of the play describes his heroine as a formidable, strict, evil, cruel and heartless woman. She did not neglect to show hypocrisy. In public, she tried to behave decently. She helped the poor, but at the same time offended her own children and her daughter-in-law Ekaterina. She often left everyone to pray to God. But this did not help her live a holy life. Her children believed that the only way to survive in their mother's house was to learn to deceive. Marfa Ignatievna preferred to keep her Son in fear. She was often jealous of his young wife. In her instructions, she repeated more than once that young people respect old people. In fact, she only had herself. It wasn't so important to her that others listened. She just liked to keep everyone at bay and feel like she was in control. Kabanikha strictly observed traditions and forced young people to do the same.

The heroine was a very stern woman. You could often hear her scolding and criticizing everyone around her. In her character one could observe despotism, which was the result of her blind trust in established customs. Her severity was also expressed in her attitude towards her own daughter-in-law. She cut off every word of Catherine and made poisonous remarks. She condemned her daughter-in-law for treating her husband kindly. In her opinion, a woman should be so afraid of her husband that she feels like his slave.

As a result, with her behavior and attitude towards life, Kabanikha strangled all living things around her. Her children were unhappy. The fate of each of them is not attractive to readers. Perhaps everyone who read the play wondered whether it was worth being such a stern admirer of man-made traditions.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky wrote his play “The Thunderstorm” in 1859. The plot centers on a confrontation between generations. The older generation has always stuck to old morals, experiences and customs. They refused to understand the young people. And those, on the contrary, never sought to follow the traditions established over centuries. Therefore, the elders tried to re-educate their will. This problem, which Ostrovsky described in his play, will forever remain significant as long as fathers and sons exist. Parents want their children to be like them and follow their paths.

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