Essay “The problem of human dignity in the drama “The Thunderstorm.” The problem of human dignity in the drama thunderstorm - essay The problem of human dignity of Katerina in the drama thunderstorm

Collection of essays: The problem of human dignity in the drama “The Thunderstorm”

Throughout his career, he created a number of realistic works in which he depicted the contemporary reality and life of the Russian province. One of them is the play “The Thunderstorm”. In this drama, the author showed the wild, deaf society of the district town of Kalinov, living according to the laws of Domostroy, and contrasted it with the image of a freedom-loving girl who did not want to come to terms with Kalinov’s norms of life and behavior. One of the most important problems raised in the work is the problem of human dignity, especially relevant in the middle of the 19th century, during the crisis of the outdated, outdated orders that then reigned in the provinces.

The merchant society shown in the play lives in an atmosphere of lies, deceit, hypocrisy, and duplicity; within the walls of their estates, representatives of the older generation scold and lecture their household members, and behind the fence they pretend to be courteous and benevolent, putting on cute, smiling masks. N.A. Dobrolyubov, in the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom,” applies the division of the heroes of this world into tyrants and “downtrodden individuals.” The tyrants - merchant Kabanova, Dikoy - are powerful, cruel, considering themselves the right to insult and humiliate those who depend on them, constantly tormenting their family with reprimands and quarrels. For them, the concept of human dignity does not exist: in general, they do not consider their subordinates to be people.

Constantly humiliated, some members of the younger generation lost their self-esteem and became slavishly submissive, never arguing, never objecting, and having no opinion of their own. For example, Tikhon is a typical “downtrodden personality,” a person whose mother, Kabanikha, crushed his already not very spirited attempts to demonstrate character since childhood. Tikhon is pitiful and insignificant: he can hardly be called a person; drunkenness replaces all the joys of life for him, he is incapable of strong, deep feelings, the concept of human dignity is unknown and inaccessible to him.

Less “downtrodden” individuals are Varvara and Boris; they have a greater degree of freedom. Kabanikha does not forbid Varvara to go for a walk (“Walk before your time comes, you’ll still be tired”), but even if reproaches begin, Varvara has enough self-control and cunning not to react; she does not let herself be offended. But again, in my opinion, she is driven more by pride than by self-esteem. Dikoy publicly scolds Boris, insulting him, but thereby, in my opinion, he humiliates himself in the eyes of others: a person who brings family squabbles and quarrels into public view is unworthy of respect.

But Dikoy himself and the population of the city of Kalinov adhere to a different point of view: Dikoy scolds his nephew - that means the nephew depends on him, which means Dikoy has a certain power - which means he is worthy of respect.

Kabanikha and Dikoy are unworthy people, tyrants, corrupted by the unlimited power of their home, mentally callous, blind, insensitive, and their life is dull, gray, filled with endless teachings and reprimands to their family. They do not have human dignity, because the person who has it knows the value of himself and others and always strives for peace and peace of mind; tyrants are constantly trying to assert their power over people, often mentally richer than themselves, provoking them into quarrels and exhausting them with useless discussions. Such people are not loved or respected, they are only feared and hated.

This world is contrasted with the image of Katerina, a girl from a merchant family who grew up in an atmosphere of religiosity, spiritual harmony and freedom. Having married Tikhon, she finds herself in the Kabanovs’ house, in an unfamiliar environment, where lying is the main means of achieving something, and duplicity is the order of the day. Kabanova begins to humiliate and insult Katerina, making her life impossible. Katerina is a mentally vulnerable, fragile person; Kabanikha’s cruelty and heartlessness hurt her painfully, but she endures without responding to insults, and Kabanova keeps provoking her into a quarrel, jabbing and humiliating her dignity with every remark. This constant bullying is unbearable. Even the husband is unable to stand up for the girl. Katerina's freedom is sharply limited. “Everything here is somehow out of bondage,” she says to Varvara, and her protest against the insult to human dignity results in her love for Boris - a man who, in principle, simply took advantage of her love and then ran away, and Katerina, who could not stand it further humiliation, she committed suicide.

None of the representatives of Kalinovsky society knows a sense of human dignity, and no one can understand and appreciate it in another person, especially if this is a woman, by Domostroevsky standards - a housewife, who obeys her husband in everything, who can, in extreme cases, beat her. Not noticing this moral value in Katerina, the World of the city of Kalinov tried to humiliate her to its level, to make her a part of itself, to drag her into a web of lies and hypocrisy, but human dignity is one of the innate and ineradicable qualities, it cannot be taken away, which is why Katerina does not can become like these people and, seeing no other way out, throws herself into the river, finally finding the long-awaited peace and quiet in heaven, where she has been striving all her life.

The tragedy of the play “The Thunderstorm” lies in the intractability of the conflict between a person with self-esteem and a society in which no one has any idea about human dignity. “The Thunderstorm” is one of Ostrovsky’s greatest realistic works, in which the playwright showed the immorality, hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness that reigned in provincial society in the mid-19th century.

Over the course of his creative career, A. N. Ostrovsky created a number of realistic works in which he depicted the contemporary reality and life of the Russian province. One of them is the play "The Thunderstorm". In this drama, the author showed the wild, deaf society of the district town of Kalinov, living according to the laws of Domostroy, and contrasted it with the image of a freedom-loving girl who did not want to come to terms with Kalinovsky norms of life and behavior. One of the most important problems raised in the work is the problem of human dignity, especially relevant in the middle of the 19th century, at the time of crisis of the outdated, outdated orders that then reigned in the province.

The merchant society shown in the play lives in an atmosphere of lies, deceit, hypocrisy, and duplicity; within the walls of their estates, representatives of the older generation scold and lecture their household members, and behind the fence they pretend to be courteous and benevolent, putting on cute, smiling masks. N. A. Dobrolyubov, in the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom,” applies the division of the heroes of this world into tyrants and “downtrodden individuals.” The tyrants - merchant Kabanova, Dikoy - are powerful, cruel, considering themselves the right to insult and humiliate those who depend on them, constantly tormenting their family with reprimands and quarrels. For them, the concept of human dignity does not exist: in general, they do not consider their subordinates to be people.
Constantly humiliated, some members of the younger generation lost their self-esteem and became slavishly submissive, never arguing, never objecting, and having no opinion of their own. For example, Tikhon is a typical “downtrodden personality,” a man whose mother, Kabanikha, crushed his already not very spirited attempts to demonstrate character since childhood. Tikhon is pitiful and insignificant: he can hardly be called a person; drunkenness replaces all the joys of life for him, he is incapable of strong, deep feelings, the concept of human dignity is unknown and inaccessible to him.

Less “downtrodden” individuals are Varvara and Boris; they have a greater degree of freedom. Kabanikha does not forbid Varvara to take a walk (“Walk before your time comes, you’ll still have enough”), but moreover, if reproaches begin, Varvara has enough self-control and cunning not to react; she does not let herself be offended. But again, in my opinion, she is driven more by pride than by self-esteem. Dikoy publicly scolds Boris, insulting him, but thereby, in my opinion, he humiliates himself in the eyes of others: a person who brings family squabbles and quarrels into public view is unworthy of respect.

But Dikoy himself and the population of the city of Kalinov adhere to a different point of view: Dikoy scolds his nephew - that means the nephew depends on him, which means Dikoy has a certain power - which means he is worthy of respect.

Kabanikha and Dikoy are unworthy people, tyrants, corrupted by the unlimited power of their home, mentally callous, blind, insensitive, and their life is dull, gray, filled with endless teachings and reprimands to their family. They do not have human dignity, because the person who possesses it knows the value of himself and others and constantly strives for peace and peace of mind; tyrants are constantly trying to assert their dominance over people, often mentally richer than themselves, provoking them into quarrels and exhausting them with useless discussions. Such people are not loved or respected, they are only feared and hated.

This world is contrasted with the image of Katerina, a girl from a merchant family who grew up in an atmosphere of religiosity, spiritual harmony and freedom. Having married Tikhon, she ends up in the Kabanovs’ home, in an unfamiliar environment, where lying is the main means of achieving something, and duplicity is the order of the day. Kabanova begins to humiliate and insult Katerina, making her life impossible. Katerina is a mentally vulnerable, fragile person; Kabanikha’s cruelty and heartlessness hurt her painfully, but she endures without responding to insults, and Kabanova keeps provoking her into a quarrel, jabbing and humiliating her dignity with every remark. This constant bullying is unbearable. Even the husband is unable to stand up for the girl. Katerina's freedom is sharply limited. “Everything here is somehow out of bondage,” she says to Varvara, and her protest against the insult to human dignity results in her love for Boris - a man who, in principle, simply took advantage of her love and then ran away, and Katerina, who could not stand it further humiliation, she committed suicide.

None of the representatives of Kalinovsky society knows a sense of human dignity, and no one can understand and appreciate it in another person, especially if this is a lady, by Domostroevsky standards - a housewife, who obeys her husband in everything, who can, in extreme cases, beat her. Not noticing this moral value in Katerina, the World of the city of Kalinov tried to humiliate her to its level, to make her a part of itself, to drag her into a web of lies and hypocrisy, but human dignity is one of the innate and ineradicable qualities, it cannot be taken away, which is why Katerina does not can become like these people and, seeing no other way out, throws herself into the river, finally finding the long-awaited peace and quiet in heaven, where she has been striving all her life.

The tragedy of the play "The Thunderstorm" lies in the intractability of the conflict between a person with self-esteem and a society in which no one has any idea about human dignity. "The Thunderstorm" is one of Ostrovsky's greatest realistic works, in which the playwright showed the immorality, hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness that reigned in provincial society in the mid-19th century.

Throughout his career, A. N. Ostrovsky created a number of realistic works in which he depicted the contemporary reality and life of the Russian province. One of them is the play “The Thunderstorm”. In this drama, the author showed the wild, deaf society of the district town of Kalinov, living according to the laws of Domostroy, and contrasted it with the image of a freedom-loving girl who did not want to come to terms with Kalinov’s norms of life and behavior. One of the most important problems raised in the work is the problem of human dignity, especially relevant in the middle of the 19th century, during the crisis of the outdated, outdated orders that then reigned in the provinces.
The merchant society shown in the play lives in an atmosphere of lies, deceit, hypocrisy, and duplicity; within the walls of their estates, representatives of the older generation scold and lecture their household members, and behind the fence they pretend to be courteous and benevolent, putting on cute, smiling masks. N.A. Dobrolyubov, in the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom,” applies the division of the heroes of this world into tyrants and “downtrodden individuals.” The tyrants - merchant Kabanova, Dikoy - are powerful, cruel, considering themselves the right to insult and humiliate those who depend on them, constantly tormenting their family with reprimands and quarrels. For them, the concept of human dignity does not exist: in general, they do not consider their subordinates to be people.
Constantly humiliated, some members of the younger generation lost their self-esteem and became slavishly submissive, never arguing, never objecting, and having no opinion of their own. For example, Tikhon is a typical “downtrodden personality,” a person whose mother, Kabanikha, crushed his already not very spirited attempts to demonstrate character since childhood. Tikhon is pitiful and insignificant: he can hardly be called a person; drunkenness replaces all the joys of life for him, he is incapable of strong, deep feelings, the concept of human dignity is unknown and inaccessible to him.
Less “downtrodden” individuals are Varvara and Boris; they have a greater degree of freedom. Kabanikha does not forbid Varvara to go for a walk (“Walk before your time comes, you’ll still have enough”), but even if reproaches begin, Varvara has enough self-control and cunning not to react; she does not let herself be offended. But again, in my opinion, she is driven more by pride than by self-esteem. Dikoy publicly scolds Boris, insulting him, but thereby, in my opinion, he humiliates himself in the eyes of others: a person who brings family squabbles and quarrels into public view is unworthy of respect.
But Dikoy himself and the population of the city of Kalinov adhere to a different point of view: Dikoy scolds his nephew - that means the nephew depends on him, which means Dikoy has a certain power - which means he is worthy of respect.
Kabanikha and Dikoy are unworthy people, tyrants, corrupted by the unlimited power of their home, mentally callous, blind, insensitive, and their life is dull, gray, filled with endless teachings and reprimands to their family. They do not have human dignity, because the person who has it knows the value of himself and others and always strives for peace and peace of mind; tyrants are constantly trying to assert their power over people, often mentally richer than themselves, provoking them into quarrels and exhausting them with useless discussions. Such people are not loved or respected, they are only feared and hated.
This world is contrasted with the image of Katerina, a girl from a merchant family who grew up in an atmosphere of religiosity, spiritual harmony and freedom. Having married Tikhon, she finds herself in the Kabanovs’ house, in an unfamiliar environment, where lying is the main means of achieving something, and duplicity is the order of the day. Kabanova begins to humiliate and insult Katerina, making her life impossible. Katerina is a mentally vulnerable, fragile person; Kabanikha’s cruelty and heartlessness hurt her painfully, but she endures without responding to insults, and Kabanova keeps provoking her into a quarrel, jabbing and humiliating her dignity with every remark. This constant bullying is unbearable. Even the husband is unable to stand up for the girl. Katerina's freedom is sharply limited. “Everything here is somehow out of bondage,” she says to Varvara, and her protest against the insult to human dignity results in her love for Boris - a man who, in principle, simply took advantage of her love and then ran away, and Katerina, who could not stand it further humiliation, she committed suicide.
None of the representatives of Kalinovsky society knows a sense of human dignity, and no one can understand and appreciate it in another person, especially if this is a woman, by Domostroevsky standards - a housewife, who obeys her husband in everything, who can, in extreme cases, beat her. Not noticing this moral value in Katerina, the World of the city of Kalinov tried to humiliate her to its level, to make her a part of itself, to drag her into a web of lies and hypocrisy, but human dignity is one of the innate and ineradicable qualities, it cannot be taken away, which is why Katerina does not can become like these people and, seeing no other way out, throws herself into the river, finally finding the long-awaited peace and quiet in heaven, where she has been striving all her life.
The tragedy of the play “The Thunderstorm” lies in the intractability of the conflict between a person with a sense of self-worth and a society in which no one has any idea about human dignity. “The Thunderstorm” is one of Ostrovsky’s greatest realistic works, in which the playwright showed the immorality, hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness that reigned in provincial society in the mid-19th century.

Three themes attracted particular attention of Russian writers in the 50-60s of the 19th century: serfdom, the emergence of a new force in public life - the common intelligentsia, and the position of women in the family and society. Among these themes there was one more - the tyranny of tyranny, the tyranny of money and ancient authority in the merchant environment, a tyranny under the yoke of which all members of merchant families, especially women, suffocated. The task of exposing economic and spiritual tyranny in the “dark kingdom” of the merchants was set by A. N. Ostrovsky in the drama “The Thunderstorm”.

The tragic conflict between Katerina's living feelings and the dead way of life is the main plot line of the play.

The drama presents two groups of inhabitants of the city of Kalinov. One of them personifies the oppressive power of the “dark kingdom”. This is Dikoy and Ka-banikha. Another group includes Katerina, Kuligin, Tikhon, Boris, Kudryash and Varvara. These are victims of the “dark kingdom”, who equally feel its brute force, but express their protest against this force in different ways.

In terms of character and interests, Katerina stands out sharply from the environment into which she found herself due to everyday circumstances. It is precisely in the exclusivity of her character that lies the reason for the deep life drama that

Katerina had to survive, falling into the “dark kingdom” of the Wild and Kabanovs.

Katerina is a poetic and dreamy person. The caresses of her mother, who doted on her, caring for her favorite flowers, of which Katerina had “many, many”, embroidering on velvet, visiting church, walks in the garden, stories of wanderers and praying mantises - this is the range of daily activities, under the influence of which the inner life was formed. Katerina's world. Sometimes she plunged into some kind of waking dreams, like fairy-tale visions. Katerina talks about her childhood and girlhood, about the feelings she experiences when looking at beautiful nature. Katerina’s speech is figurative and emotional. And such an impressionable and poetically minded woman finds herself in the Kabanova family, in a musty atmosphere of hypocrisy and intrusive guardianship. She finds herself in an environment that reeks of deathly cold and soullessness. Of course, the conflict between this atmosphere of the “dark... kingdom” and Katerina’s bright spiritual world ends tragically.

The tragedy of Katerina’s situation is complicated by the fact that she was married to a man whom she did not know and could not love, although she tried with all her might to be Tikhon’s faithful wife. Katerina’s attempts to find a response in her husband’s heart are broken by his slavish humiliation, narrow-mindedness, and rudeness. Since childhood, he has been accustomed to obeying his mother in everything; he is afraid to go against her will. He endures all of Kabanikha’s bullying without complaint, not daring to protest. Tikhon’s only cherished desire is to escape from his mother’s care, at least for a short time, to drink, and to go on a spree so that he can “take time off for the whole year.” This weak-willed man, himself a victim of the “dark kingdom,” of course, not only could not help Katerina, but simply understand her, and Katerina’s spiritual world was too complex, high and inaccessible for him. Naturally, he could not foresee the drama that was brewing in the soul of his wife.

Boris, Dikiy's nephew, is also a victim of a dark, sanctimonious environment. He stands significantly higher than the “benefactors” around him. The education he received in Moscow, at a commercial academy, contributed to the development of his cultural views and needs, so Boris finds it difficult to get along among the Kabanovs and the Wild. But he does not have enough character to break out from under their power. He is the only one who understands Katerina, but is unable to help her: he lacks the determination to fight for Katerina’s love, he advises her to submit to fate and leaves her, foreseeing that Katerina will die. Lack of will, inability to fight for their happiness doomed Tikhon and Boris to “live in the world and suffer.” And only Katerina found the strength to challenge the painful tyranny.

Dobrolyubov called Katerina “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” The death of a young, gifted woman, a passionate, strong nature, illuminated this sleeping “kingdom” for a moment and sparkled against the background of dark, gloomy clouds.

Dobrolyubov rightly views the suicide of Katerina as a challenge not only to the Kabanovs and the Wild, but also to the entire despotic way of life in gloomy feudal-serf Russia.

Throughout his career, A. N. Ostrovsky created a number of realistic works in which he depicted the contemporary reality and life of the Russian province. One of them is the play “The Thunderstorm”. In this drama, the author showed the wild, deaf society of the district town of Kalinov, living according to the laws of Domostroy, and contrasted it with the image of a freedom-loving girl who did not want to come to terms with Kalinovsky norms of life and behavior. One of the most important problems raised in the work is the problem of human dignity, especially relevant in the middle of the 19th century, during the crisis of the outdated, outdated orders that then reigned in the provinces.

The merchant society shown in the play lives in an atmosphere of lies, deceit, hypocrisy, and duplicity; within the walls of their estates, representatives of the older generation scold and lecture their household members, and behind the fence they pretend to be courteous and benevolent, putting on cute, smiling masks. N.A. Dobrolyubov, in the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom,” applies the division of the heroes of this world into tyrants and “downtrodden individuals.” The tyrants - merchant Kabanova, Dikoy - are powerful, cruel, considering themselves the right to insult and humiliate those who depend on them, constantly tormenting their family with reprimands and quarrels. For them, the concept of human dignity does not exist: in general, they do not consider their subordinates to be people.

Constantly humiliated, some members of the younger generation lost their self-esteem and became slavishly submissive, never arguing, never objecting, and having no opinion of their own. For example, Tikhon is a typical “downtrodden personality,” a person whose mother, Kabanikha, crushed his already not very spirited attempts to demonstrate character since childhood. Tikhon is pitiful and insignificant: he can hardly be called a person; drunkenness replaces all the joys of life for him, he is incapable of strong, deep feelings, the concept of human dignity is unknown and inaccessible to him.

Less “downtrodden” individuals are Varvara and Boris; they have a greater degree of freedom. Kabanikha does not forbid Varvara to go for a walk (“Walk before your time comes, you’ll still be tired”), but even if reproaches begin, Varvara has enough self-control and cunning not to react; she does not let herself be offended. But again, in my opinion, she is driven more by pride than by self-esteem. Dikoy publicly scolds Boris, insulting him, but thereby, in my opinion, he humiliates himself in the eyes of others: a person who brings family squabbles and quarrels into public view is unworthy of respect.

But Dikoy himself and the population of the city of Kalinov adhere to a different point of view: Dikoy scolds his nephew - that means the nephew depends on him, which means Dikoy has a certain power - which means he is worthy of respect.

Kabanikha and Dikoy are unworthy people, tyrants, corrupted by the unlimited power of their home, mentally callous, blind, insensitive, and their life is dull, gray, filled with endless teachings and reprimands to their family. They do not have human dignity, because the person who has it knows the value of himself and others and always strives for peace and peace of mind; tyrants are constantly trying to assert their power over people, often mentally richer than themselves, provoking them into quarrels and exhausting them with useless discussions. Such people are not loved or respected, they are only feared and hated.

This world is contrasted with the image of Katerina, a girl from a merchant family who grew up in an atmosphere of religiosity, spiritual harmony and freedom. Having married Tikhon, she finds herself in the Kabanovs’ house, in an unfamiliar environment, where lying is the main means of achieving something, and duplicity is the order of the day. Kabanova begins to humiliate and insult Katerina, making her life impossible. Katerina is a mentally vulnerable, fragile person; Kabanikha’s cruelty and heartlessness hurt her painfully, but she endures without responding to insults, and Kabanova keeps provoking her into a quarrel, jabbing and humiliating her dignity with every remark. This constant bullying is unbearable. Even the husband is unable to stand up for the girl. Katerina's freedom is sharply limited. “Everything here is somehow out of bondage,” she says to Varvara, and her protest against the insult to human dignity results in her love for Boris - a man who, in principle, simply took advantage of her love and then ran away, and Katerina, who could not stand it further humiliation, committed suicide. None of the representatives of Kalinovsky society knows a sense of human dignity, and no one can understand and appreciate it in another person, especially if this is a woman, by Domostroevsky standards - a housewife who obeys her husband in everything, who can help her as a last resort, beat him. Not noticing this moral value in Katerina, the World of the city of Kalinov tried to humiliate her to its level, to make her a part of itself, to drag her into a web of lies and hypocrisy, but human dignity is one of the innate and ineradicable qualities, it cannot be taken away, which is why Katerina does not can become like these people and, seeing no other way out, throws herself into the river, finally finding the long-awaited peace and quiet in heaven, where she has been striving all her life.

The tragedy of the play “The Thunderstorm” lies in the intractability of the conflict between a person with self-esteem and a society in which no one has any idea about human dignity. “The Thunderstorm” is one of Ostrovsky’s greatest realistic works, in which the playwright showed the immorality, hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness that reigned in provincial society in the mid-19th century.

The Thunderstorm is, without a doubt, Ostrovsky's most decisive work; the mutual relations of tyranny and voicelessness are brought to the most tragic consequences in it... There is even something refreshing and encouraging in “The Thunderstorm”. N. A. Dobrolyubov

A. N. Ostrovsky received literary recognition after the appearance of his first major play. Ostrovsky's dramaturgy became a necessary element of the culture of his time; he retained the position of the best playwright of the era, the head of the Russian dramatic school, despite the fact that at the same time A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A. F. Pisemsky, A. K. Tolstoy and L. N. Tolstoy. The most popular critics viewed his works as a true and profound reflection of modern reality. Meanwhile, Ostrovsky, following his own original creative path, often baffled both critics and readers.

Thus, the play “The Thunderstorm” came as a surprise to many. L. N. Tolstoy did not accept the play. The tragedy of this work forced critics to reconsider their views on Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy. Ap. Grigoriev noted that in “The Thunderstorm” there is a protest against the “existing”, which is terrible for its adherents. Dobrolyubov argued in his article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom.” that the image of Katerina in “The Thunderstorm” “breathes on us with new life.”

Perhaps for the first time, scenes of family, “private” life, the arbitrariness and lawlessness that were hitherto hidden behind the thick doors of mansions and estates, were shown with such graphic power. And at the same time, this was not just an everyday sketch. The author showed the unenviable position of a Russian woman in a merchant family. The enormous power of the tragedy was given by the special truthfulness and skill of the author, as D.I. Pisarev rightly noted: “The Thunderstorm” is a painting from life, which is why it breathes truth.”

The tragedy takes place in the city of Kalinov, which is located among the greenery of gardens on the steep bank of the Volga. “For fifty years I’ve been looking across the Volga every day and I can’t get enough of it. The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices,” Kuligin admires. It would seem that the life of the people of this city should be beautiful and joyful. However, the life and customs of the rich merchants created “a world of prison and deathly silence.” Savel Dikoy and Marfa Kabanova are the personification of cruelty and tyranny. The order in the merchant's house is based on the outdated religious dogmas of Domostroy. Dobrolyubov says about Kabanikha that she “gnaws at her victim... long and relentlessly.” She forces her daughter-in-law Katerina to bow at her husband’s feet when he leaves, scolds her for “not howling” in public when seeing off her husband.