Was there another way. Was there a different path for Katerina? Public significance of the play

Katerina dies because she has no other choice in solving the problem. She is placed in such conditions that if she had remained to live, she would, firstly, suffer from her thoughts and feelings, reproach herself. After all, it was she who spoke about her sin, if she had kept silent, no one would have known about it, but this does not mean that Katerina would have lived peacefully and for her own pleasure. Scolding herself, regretting the sin she had committed, she would drive herself crazy, she would slowly melt and fade away, over time she would have sucked herself into the grave. I think that Katerina would be afraid every day that they would find out about her sin, would think about it and her mental anguish would not leave her. It seems to me that if Varvara was in Katerina's place, she would have kept silent about what she had done and lived calmly. But Katerina, unlike Varvara, is religious, she just experienced love for the first time in her life, and could not drown it out, went on about her.

Secondly, Kabanikha would have “gnawed” her. She was already a tyrant in the family, and now she would become even worse. Katerina, with her strong character and will, could not endure her constant ridicule, mockery, indulgence, accusations. She would not have been able to develop, she would have withdrawn into herself. Her husband would have forgiven her soon, but not daring to contradict his mother, Tikhon would not defend her. It seems to me that Varvara could have shared her grief, she would have listened to her, but she would not have been able to help either, because she strongly depends on her mother. Third, the society in which she lives would reject her. Maybe someone understood Katerina (she did not marry for love, no children, bad mother-in-law), but no one would openly dare to defend and justify the girl. Kabanikha possessed authority and power in her city, if the children could not say a word to her in opposition, then the inhabitants of the city even more so. It would be very difficult for Katerina to live in such conditions.

If you think about another option, for example, Katerina would have left with Boris, but this is unrealistic. Boris would not have dared to do this, he is not so brave and decisive, his love would not have been enough to induce such actions. He is dependent on the Wild one, as he said, and does so. Even if we assume that Katerina and Boris would have escaped abandoning their families, they have nowhere to run, they have no means of subsistence. And if Boris is free, then Katerina is a married woman, at that time it was very difficult to get a divorce, because the young were married. Again, there would be a struggle, contradictions inside Katerina. Still, no matter how scary it may sound, for Katerina, death was the best way out.

The main character of the drama is Katerina - a young woman, daughter-in-law of Kabanikha. Katerina is a whole person, brought up by the Volga expanse. In her character, the playwright emphasized the awakening of consciousness, a sincere deep feeling of love and independence, tenderness, love for beauty and an irresistible attraction to a harmonious and happy life. These character traits do not allow her to come to terms with despotism and lies; she organically does not tolerate those pre-construction orders that contradict the natural needs of man, enters into a tragic conflict with them, wages a stubborn unequal struggle, as far as she has strength and, finally, dies in the waters of the Volga, unhappy, but not surrendering.

The image of Katerina is depicted realistically and embodies the essential character traits of a Russian woman on the eve of the liberation reform. The development of Katerina's character is so naturally and vividly presented that it accurately conveys to us the story of a terrible, tragic life that fell on the lot of a powerless woman in old tsarist Russia.

From childhood, Katerina is brought up in the spirit of religion and obedience. She was married to Tikhon Kabanov without her consent and without love. She was too young to understand this feeling. It all happened as if in a dream. She did not dare to resist her parents and decided to endure rather than cause trouble to her relatives. In the house of Kabanova, Katerina did not meet a humane attitude towards herself either from her husband or from her mother-in-law. On the contrary, she was forbidden to have her own judgment, her own feeling, and in material terms she was directly dependent on her mother-in-law. Soon she has a longing for happiness and love, a desire to find a response in the heart of a loved one.

“At night, Varya, I can't sleep,” she says, “I keep dreaming of some kind of whisper: someone speaks to me so kindly, as if a dove is cooing. I do not dream, Varya, as before, trees of paradise, and mountains, but as if someone is hugging me so hotly, hotly and leading me somewhere and I follow him, I go. "
As a child, Katerina loved to dream romantically. This romanticism was supported in her by religion and a painfully poor monotonous life. Her imagination worked tirelessly and carried her away to some poetic world. The harsh reality, the senseless ravings of the wanderers, turned with her into golden temples, extraordinary gardens. In what follows, we see how a dark and woeful life sober up her and leads to a real view. Finding herself in the dungeons of the Kabanov house, Katerina did not put up with humiliation and was eager for light, air, wanted to indulge in a dream, look at the Volga, admire nature, but she was kept in captivity, her aspirations were trampled underfoot. At first, as before, she seeks an answer and support in religion, but she no longer finds consolation in it, cannot imagine an ideal world with the same clarity.

“Some kind of dream creeps into my head. I will not leave her anywhere. I will think - I will not collect thoughts in any way, I will pray - I will not pray in any way. I babble words with my tongue, but it’s not at all the same on my mind: as if the evil one was whispering in my ears ”.
Katerina has matured, a real outlook on life has formed in her. She understands that the Kabanovs' house is the same prison; her husband is disgusted with her, because he is under his mother's shoe and lives an animal life without any aspirations. “How can I love you,” she bluntly declares to Tikhon. And she will say to Varvara about Tikhon: "And in the wild he seems to be bound." At first Katerina, being held captive by traditions, was afraid of new thoughts, worried about the future, tried to restrain her impulses. But the passion that gripped her turned out to be above all: she sincerely fell in love with Dikiy Boris's nephew and decided to leave Kabanova's house. She fell in love with Boris because he is not like others, humane, maybe a friend who recognizes the right of human dignity for another.

The tragedy of Katerina's position is aggravated by the fact that, breaking the shackles of deceitful morality, she could not finally defeat in herself the traditions that religion and upbringing instilled in her and which paralyzed and weakened her struggle. She had been instilled with some kind of fear since childhood. Her life is filled with contradiction: now she boldly takes a new step, then she cries, she prays. For every thought she expects some kind of punishment, she is afraid; it seems to her that the storm will kill her like a criminal. This fear is supported by those around her. Feklusha frightens her with stories about the end of the world, the half-mad lady threatens her with a stick: "Everything will burn in the fire in the inextinguishable."

But the love of freedom kindles in her hatred of the world of inertia and lies. “Who is having fun in captivity? Even though I am now living, toiling, I don’t see a glimpse, ”she says. And in her actions she went so far that she could not return to her previous position. If you cannot enjoy the sun, joy, love, then she does not want to live. When they found out about her connection with Boris and when Boris left Kalinov, Katerina tragically experienced loneliness and came to the thought of death. Here are the words the playwright conveyed her mood in the last monologue:
“Where to now? Go home? No, I'm home, what's in the grave!., What's in the grave! It's better in the grave ... There is a grave under the tree ... how nice ... And I don't want to think about life. Live again? No, no, don't ... It's not good.! And people are disgusting to me, and the house is disgusting to me, and the walls are disgusting. "
Katerina did not want to live in slavery and chose death over life.

Did Katerina Kabanova have a way out?

The play by Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky "The Thunderstorm" was published in 1860, during a period of social upsurge. The story itself, told in the play, reflects the typical conflicts of the 60s: the struggle between the moribund morality of tyrants and their unrequited victims and the new morality of people, in whose souls a sense of human dignity awakens. The image of Katerina occupies a special place among the characters in the play. According to Dobrolyubov, from him "a new life blows on us, which opens up to us in its very death."

Katerina is a poetic and dreamy nature. Remembering her childhood and girlhood, she herself tells Varvara about how the world of her feelings and moods was formed. She lived happily and easily in her parents' house, but she did not receive an education. The stories of wanderers and praying mantis replaced her books. Impressive by nature, Katerina eagerly listened to their every word, taking everything on faith. This is how most women were educated in the 19th century. Today the wanderers have been replaced by the TV. Katerina speaks in a language that only a poetically minded and gifted woman could speak in the merchant environment of that time. Elements of poetic folk speech, and the influence of church and book literature, as well as church services, which Katerina loved to attend “until death,” are heard in it. She is distinguished by a special soft lyricism, emotionality and sincerity, which correspond to the general temperament of Katerina. The play repeatedly repeats an image that helps to understand the main thing in Katerina's character - the image of a bird. In folk poetry, a bird is a symbol of will. Hence the constant epithet "free bird". “I lived, I didn't grieve about anything, like a bird in the wild,” recalls Katerina about how she lived before her marriage, “... Why don't people fly like birds? she says to Varvara. "You know, sometimes it seems to me that I am a bird." But the free bird fell into an iron cage. And she fights and yearns in captivity.

The nature is dreamy, impressionable, with a character predominantly "loving, ideal", according to Dobrolyubov's definition, Katerina at the same time has an ardent and passionate soul. Katerina suffers only for the time being. “And if I get pissed off here,” she says, “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 don’t want to, even though you cut me! ” Among the victims of the "dark kingdom" Katerina stands out for her open character, courage, and directness. “I don’t know how to deceive; I can’t hide anything, ”she replies to Varvara, who says that you cannot live without deception in their house. And 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 annoying, petty care, from which it breathes deathly cold and heartlessness. Naturally, the conflict between this situation of the "dark kingdom" and the bright spiritual world of Katerina ended tragically.

I would like to pose the question: "Could it have been different?" The tragedy of Katerina's position was further complicated by the fact that she was married off to a man whom she did not know and could not love, no matter how hard she tried to be a faithful and loving wife. Katerina's attempts to find a response in her husband's heart are broken by the slavish humiliation and narrow-mindedness of Tikhon and the rudeness of his interests. Tikhon thinks only about how to run to the Dikiy for a drink, to have a fun. He, like Katerina, wants to escape from the house, but, unlike his wife, he sometimes succeeds. It is not difficult to understand with what force her feelings flare up when she meets a person who is not like everyone around her. Katerina loves not like the women around her. She is ready for anything for a loved one, even transcending those concepts of sin and virtue that were sacred to her. The religiosity of Katerina is not Kabanikha's hypocrisy, but a deep, sincere conviction. “Ah, Varya,” she complains, “sin is on my mind! How much I, poor, cried, what I really did not do on myself! I cannot get away from this sin. Don't go anywhere. It's not good, it's a terrible sin, Varenka, that I love someone else. " The catastrophe occurs precisely because Katerina cannot and does not want to conceal her sin.

In the fourth act of the drama, in the scene of repentance, there is a denouement. A terrible thunderstorm, which she perceives as a "thunderstorm of God", "a terrible lady with her curses and an ancient painting on a dilapidated wall depicting" fiery hell "- all this almost drives Katerina crazy. She publicly, on the city boulevard, repents before her husband. If the drama ended with this scene, the invincibility of the foundations of the "dark kingdom" would be shown. This would give Kabanikha the right to triumph: "Where is it leading!" But the drama ends with Katerina's suicide, which should be perceived as her moral victory over the "dark forces" to which she did not want to submit. By this she showed her desperate, albeit powerless, protest against the "dark kingdom." Today you can ask the question: "Why did she do it?" After all, she could leave home, like Varvara, which would annoy Kabanikhe even more. But Katerina was ready to do it. She was not afraid of distant Siberia, where her beloved Boris Grigorievich was sent. But he was too weak, he did not have enough character to break free from the power of the Kabanovs and Wilds. He is the only one among all who really understands Katerina, but he cannot help her: he has no determination to fight for his love. The path to a free life for Katerina is closed, and she does not want to go home, because "what is home, what is to the grave."

She sees no other way as suicide. Yes, it would probably be difficult to find a way out in the conditions of the mores that reigned in society in the middle of the 19th century. After all, another heroine of Russian literature, Anna Karenina, comes to the same decision later. Dobrolyubov called Katerina "a ray of light in the dark kingdom", which for a moment illuminated its unrestrained darkness.

In 1864, A. I. Herzen wrote about The Thunderstorm: “In this drama, the author penetrated into the deepest recesses<…>Russian life and threw a sudden ray of light into the unknown soul of a Russian woman who suffocates in the grip of the inexorable and half-savage life of a patriarchal family. "

The image of Katerina rightfully belongs to the best images of women, not only in Ostrovsky's work, which is now acquiring new significance, but also in all Russian fiction.

Was there a different path for Katerina?

The play "The Thunderstorm", which was written by Ostrovsky in 1859, is one of the most popular among the author. Such a success of the work is not surprising at all. In the drama, a completely new female image was described, which was distinguished by strength and depth. The heroine seemed to personify a protest against the stuffy and musty world, where the patriarchal way of life reigned, according to the laws of which practically all of Russia of that time lived. In fact, Katerina's actions can hardly be called a deliberate protest. The point is that “the dark

kingdom ”(as the world of Dobrolyubov called it) considers any movement of the soul as a challenge. The forces turned out to be unequal, and in the end it all ended in suicide of the main character. But death in the play was the beginning of Katerina's immortality. The play, like 150 years old, evokes a lively response from readers, and one of the most debated questions remains - did Katerina have a different path?
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If you analyze the situation in which the heroine found herself, then you can consider several ways out of her at once.
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The path that Katerina herself dreamed about is associated with her beloved Boris. For her, such a way out of the situation would be just a fairy tale. But a bad prince came out of Boris, and this fairy tale did not come true - her chosen one turned out to be too weak of character and selfish. He leaves for Siberia without her, which finally broke Katerina.
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Another option is to leave Tikhon. This path seems quite natural to modern people, but in those days, getting a divorce was accompanied by a lot of bureaucratic costs, and Katerina would have to endure all possible humiliation. This process would take a very long time. In addition, by this act, she would finally dishonor her own name and take a great sin on her soul, since then marriages were really concluded before God.
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For her, her salvation could be the religious path. She would become a nun and devote herself and her whole life to God, with whom all the happy moments of childhood were connected. But a married woman would never have been taken to a monastery. If they found out that she was married, they would definitely return her husband.

The fourth option is the way in which everything would remain as it was. She would also live with Tikhon and her mother-in-law, listening to everyday insults and reproaches from the latter. But in this case, the freedom-loving and sensitive Katerina would simply go crazy soon, especially in the absence of the support of her weak-willed husband.

So, having considered all the possible options, we can conclude that Katerina's death was natural, and she was the only possible way out for the girl, but this decision speaks, rather, not of weakness, but of the strength of her personality. She did not seek compromises with the world around her and with her conscience, but acted as her heart suggested.

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Katerina is the central character in the play "The Thunderstorm". The fate of this heroine is tragic. That is why the essay "Was there a different path for Katerina?" is one of the most common written works on What was the conflict between this heroine and other characters in the play?

Childhood and adolescence

In order to understand what was the conflict between Katerina and the so-called dark kingdom, one should know her general ideas about life. To demonstrate the features of her character, Ostrovsky presented some information about her childhood and adolescence. Composition "Was there a different path for Katerina?" one should, of course, start with the characterization of this heroine. And you can understand a person by having an idea of ​​his upbringing and the society in which he spent his early years.

In some episodes, Katerina recalls her father's house. The main feature of her childhood was complete freedom. It cannot be called permissiveness. Rather, this freedom was due to the love and care of the parents. The atmosphere in which Katerina spent the first years of her life is an example of a patriarchal lifestyle, in the best sense of this phrase. In the essay "Was there a different path for Katerina?" you can add some quotes from the memories of the main character. For example, Katerina recalls that in her parents' house she liked to get up early, then washed with water from a spring and went to church with her mother on Sundays. In the lifestyle that the girl led in the parental home, there is no significant difference from the one that she leads in the house of her husband. The joy with which she recollects, speaks rather of her loneliness.

In the world in which the heroine lived before marriage, there was no coercion and violence. That is why it was precisely an idyllic picture of such a patriarchal life that became her. Everything is different in the Kabanovs' house. Psychological tyranny reigns here. The mother-in-law puts depressing pressure on Katerina. And the young woman has no strength to resist him.

World of Kabanikha

Katerina got married when she was very young. Her parents found her future husband. She did not oppose, because in the patriarchal world it was customary. Katerina is ready to read her mother-in-law. A husband, in her understanding, is a mentor and support. But Tikhon is not able to become the head of the family. This role is played by his mother. Composition "Was there a different path for Katerina?" you can start with It is this image that creates the opposite of the main thing. And it is the mother-in-law with her outdated and overbearing views that has a destructive effect on Katerina.

Boris

No matter how hard Katerina strives to love and respect her husband, she does not succeed. He causes only pity in her soul. When the heroine meets a visiting young man, her heart opens to a feeling that was previously unknown to her. Could she have done otherwise? Was there a different path for Katerina? A composition based on Ostrovsky's play is designed to provide answers to these questions.

The characterization of Boris in writing a written work on the topic of this article does not play an important role. The image of the husband is essential. Tikhon is a spineless, soft-bodied person. Even after the culminating tragedy of the play, he fears to contradict his mother. Tikhon loves his young wife. But this feeling turns out to be much weaker than the fear of the Kabanikha. However, many in a small provincial town are in awe of this lady.

Religiosity

At the beginning of the play, recalling her childhood, Katerina tells with joy and warmth about her attending church. It should be said that piety is her characteristic. It was the realization of the perfect sin that led her into fear and a sense of hopelessness. But at the same time, faith in God did not keep her from doing what, according to Christian concepts, is the most terrible.

"Was there a different path for Katerina?" - an essay, in which it is imperative to include a description of the world of Kabanikha. Since Katerina crossed the threshold of her house, the harmony in her soul began to collapse. Therefore, it became more and more difficult for her to do her daily activities and attend church.

Deception and hypocrisy

Was there a different path for Katerina? The composition "The Thunderstorm" is a tragic story of a girl who could not adapt to the morals and way of life that reigned in her husband's house. By nature, this young woman does not know how to lie. She is not capable of living in deception and hypocrisy. But there is no other way to exist in Kabanikha's house. She endures with the last bit of strength, finds salvation in dreams and dreams. But the vulgar and rough reality brings her back to earth again. And there - humiliation and suffering.

Sin and confession

Katerina is making a mistake. She falls in love with Boris and cheats on her husband. The essay "Was there another way for Katerina from the play" The Thunderstorm "" is a written work, the plan of which can be ironed in this way:

• The image of Katherine.
• Characteristics of the Kabanikha.
• Contrasting Boris Tikhon.
• An inevitable tragedy.

After it becomes clear what Kabanikha is and what kind of atmosphere reigns in her house, the feelings of the main character become clear. A girl who grew up in love and affection could never get along in this house. She is not used to cruelty and hypocrisy and feels not only unhappy, but also extremely lonely in the world of Kabanikha. Boris is a man who impressed her only because he did not look like a single representative of the "dark kingdom". If there was even a faint hope of happiness in Katerina's life, she would not have committed treason.

Composition "Was there a different path for Katerina?" (Ostrovsky, "Thunderstorm") - a task that requires independent reflection. Can an honest person get used to a world of lies? Is he able to hide his wrongdoings and move on after committing a sin? In the case of the heroine of Ostrovsky's play, the answer is unequivocal. Katerina had no other choice.

She was killed by the false world of Kabanikha, loneliness, lack of understanding and support from her husband. She could have overcome all of this if she was more experienced. But the peculiarity of the patriarchal way of life is such that the girl, leaving her father's house, has no idea of ​​life. Therefore, we can say that Katerina's tragedy was inevitable.