He proposed his ideas for theater reform, and Pushkin himself recommended studying with him... Artistic features of playwright A.N. Ostrovsky What is Ostrovsky’s main merit

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is a famous Russian writer and playwright who had a significant influence on the development of the national theater. He formed a new school of realistic acting and wrote many wonderful works. This article will outline the main stages of Ostrovsky's creativity. And also the most significant moments of his biography.

Childhood

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky, whose photo is presented in this article, was born in 1823, on March 31, in Moscow, in the region. His father, Nikolai Fedorovich, grew up in the family of a priest, graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy himself, but did not serve in the church. He became a lawyer and dealt with commercial and judicial matters. Nikolai Fedorovich managed to rise to the rank of titular councilor, and later (in 1839) received the nobility. The mother of the future playwright, Savvina Lyubov Ivanovna, was the daughter of a sexton. She died when Alexander was only seven years old. There were six children growing up in the Ostrovsky family. Nikolai Fedorovich did everything to ensure that the children grew up in prosperity and received a decent education. A few years after the death of Lyubov Ivanovna, he married again. His wife was Emilia Andreevna von Tessin, baroness, daughter of a Swedish nobleman. The children were very lucky to have their stepmother: she managed to find an approach to them and continued to educate them.

Youth

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky spent his childhood in the very center of Zamoskvorechye. His father had a very good library, thanks to which the boy early became acquainted with the literature of Russian writers and felt an inclination towards writing. However, the father saw only a lawyer in the boy. Therefore, in 1835, Alexander was sent to the First Moscow Gymnasium, after studying there he became a student at Moscow University. However, Ostrovsky failed to obtain a law degree. He quarreled with the teacher and left the university. On the advice of his father, Alexander Nikolaevich went to serve in court as a scribe and worked in this position for several years.

Attempt at writing

However, Alexander Nikolaevich did not give up trying to prove himself in the literary field. In his first plays he adhered to an accusatory, “moral-social” direction. The first were published in a new edition, Moscow City Listk, in 1847. These were sketches for the comedy “The Failed Debtor” and the essay “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident.” Under the publication were the letters “A. ABOUT." and "D. G." The fact is that a certain Dmitry Gorev offered cooperation to the young playwright. It did not progress beyond the writing of one of the scenes, but subsequently became a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky. Some ill-wishers later accused the playwright of plagiarism. In the future, many magnificent plays would come from the pen of Alexander Nikolaevich, and no one would dare doubt his talent. The following will be described in detail. The table presented below will allow you to systematize the information received.

First success

When did this happen? Ostrovsky's work gained great popularity after the publication in 1850 of the comedy “Our People - Let's Be Numbered!” This work evoked favorable reviews in literary circles. I. A. Goncharov and N. V. Gogol gave the play a positive assessment. However, this barrel of honey also included an impressive fly in the ointment. Influential representatives of the Moscow merchant class, offended by their class, complained to the highest authorities about the daring playwright. The play was immediately banned from production, the author was expelled from service and placed under the strictest police supervision. Moreover, this happened on the personal order of Emperor Nicholas I himself. Supervision was eliminated only after Emperor Alexander II ascended the throne. The theater audience saw the comedy only in 1861, after the ban on its production was lifted.

Early plays

The early work of A. N. Ostrovsky did not go unnoticed; his works were published mainly in the magazine “Moskvityanin”. The playwright actively collaborated with this publication both as a critic and as an editor in 1850-1851. Under the influence of the “young editors” of the magazine and the main ideologist of this circle, Alexander Nikolaevich composed the plays “Poverty is not a vice”, “Don’t sit in your own sleigh”, “Don’t live the way you want”. The themes of Ostrovsky's creativity during this period are the idealization of patriarchy, ancient Russian customs and traditions. These sentiments slightly muted the accusatory pathos of the writer’s work. However, in the works of this cycle, Alexander Nikolaevich’s dramatic skill grew. His plays became famous and in demand.

Collaboration with Sovremennik

Beginning in 1853, for thirty years, Alexander Nikolaevich’s plays were shown every season on the stages of the Maly (in Moscow) and Alexandrinsky (in St. Petersburg) theaters. Since 1856, Ostrovsky’s work has been regularly covered in the Sovremennik magazine (works are published). During the social upsurge in the country (before the abolition of serfdom in 1861), the writer’s works again acquired an accusatory edge. In the play “At Someone Else's Feast there is a Hangover,” the writer created the impressive image of Bruskov Tit Titych, in which he embodied the brute and dark power of domestic autocracy. Here the word “tyrant” was heard for the first time, which later became attached to a whole gallery of Ostrovsky’s characters. The comedy “Profitable Place” ridiculed the corrupt behavior of officials that had become the norm. The drama “The Kindergarten” was a living protest against violence against the individual. Other stages of Ostrovsky’s creativity will be described below. But the pinnacle of achievement of this period of his literary activity was the socio-psychological drama “The Thunderstorm”.

"Storm"

In this play, the “everyman” Ostrovsky painted the dull atmosphere of a provincial town with its hypocrisy, rudeness, and the unquestioned authority of the “elders” and the rich. In contrast to the imperfect world of people, Alexander Nikolaevich depicts breathtaking pictures of Volga nature. The image of Katerina is filled with tragic beauty and gloomy charm. The thunderstorm symbolizes the heroine's mental turmoil and at the same time personifies the burden of fear under which ordinary people constantly live. The kingdom of blind obedience is undermined, according to Ostrovsky, by two forces: common sense, which Kuligin preaches in the play, and Katerina’s pure soul. In his “Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom,” the critic Dobrolyubov interpreted the image of the main character as a symbol of deep protest, gradually maturing in the country.

Thanks to this play, Ostrovsky's creativity soared to unattainable heights. “The Thunderstorm” made Alexander Nikolaevich the most famous and revered Russian playwright.

Historical motives

In the second half of the 1860s, Alexander Nikolaevich began studying the history of the Time of Troubles. He began to correspond with the famous historian and Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov. Based on the study of serious sources, the playwright created a whole series of historical works: “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky”, “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”, “Tushino”. The problems of Russian history were portrayed by Ostrovsky with talent and authenticity.

Other plays

Alexander Nikolaevich still remained faithful to his favorite theme. In the 1860s he wrote many "everyday" dramas and plays. Among them: “Hard Days”, “The Deep”, “Jokers”. These works consolidated the motifs already found by the writer. Since the late 1860s, Ostrovsky's work has been experiencing a period of active development. In his dramaturgy, images and themes of the “new” Russia that survived the reform appear: businessmen, acquirers, degenerate patriarchal moneybags and “Europeanized” merchants. Alexander Nikolaevich created a brilliant series of satirical comedies that debunk the post-reform illusions of citizens: “Mad Money”, “Warm Heart”, “Wolves and Sheep”, “Forest”. The moral ideal of the playwright is pure-hearted, noble people: Parasha from “Warm Heart”, Aksyusha from “The Forest”. Ostrovsky’s ideas about the meaning of life, happiness and duty were embodied in the play “Labor Bread”. Almost all of Alexander Nikolaevich’s works written in the 1870s were published in Otechestvennye zapiski.

"Snow Maiden"

The appearance of this poetic play was completely accidental. The Maly Theater was closed for renovation in 1873. Its artists moved to the Bolshoi Theater building. In this regard, the commission for the management of the Moscow Imperial Theaters decided to create a performance in which three troupes would be involved: opera, ballet and drama. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky undertook to write a similar play. “The Snow Maiden” was written by the playwright in a very short time. The author took the plot from a Russian folk tale as a basis. While working on the play, he carefully selected the sizes of the poems and consulted with archaeologists, historians, and antiquity experts. The music for the play was composed by the young P. I. Tchaikovsky. The play premiered in 1873, on May 11, on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. K. S. Stanislavsky spoke of “The Snow Maiden” as a fairy tale, a dream told in sonorous and magnificent verse. He said that the realist and everyday life writer Ostrovsky wrote this play as if before that he was not interested in anything except pure romance and poetry.

Work in recent years

During this period, Ostrovsky composed significant socio-psychological comedies and dramas. They tell about the tragic destinies of sensitive, gifted women in a cynical and selfish world: “Talents and Admirers”, “Dowry”. Here the playwright developed new techniques of stage expression that anticipated the work of Anton Chekhov. While preserving the peculiarities of his dramaturgy, Alexander Nikolaevich sought to embody the “internal struggle” of the characters in an “intelligent, subtle comedy.”

Social activity

In 1866, Alexander Nikolaevich founded the famous Artistic Circle. He subsequently gave the Moscow stage many talented figures. D. V. Grigorovich, I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, P. M. Sadovsky, A. F. Pisemsky, G. N. Fedotova, M. E. Ermolova, P. I. Tchaikovsky visited Ostrovsky , L. N. Tolstoy, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. E. Turchaninov.

In 1874, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was created in Russia. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was elected chairman of the association. Photographs of the famous public figure were known to every lover of performing arts in Russia. The reformer made a lot of efforts to ensure that the legislation of the theater management was revised in favor of the artists, and thereby significantly improved their financial and social situation.

In 1885, Alexander Nikolaevich was appointed to the post of head of the repertoire department and became the head of the theater school.

Ostrovsky Theater

The work of Alexander Ostrovsky is inextricably linked with the formation of real Russian theater in its modern sense. The playwright and writer managed to create his own theater school and a special holistic concept for staging theatrical performances.

The peculiarities of Ostrovsky's creativity in the theater lie in the absence of opposition to the actor's nature and extreme situations in the action of the play. In the works of Alexander Nikolaevich, ordinary events happen to ordinary people.

Main ideas of reform:

• theater should be built on conventions (there is an invisible “fourth wall” that separates the audience from the actors);
• when staging a play, the bet must be made not on one famous actor, but on a team of artists who understand each other well;
• the invariability of the actors’ attitude to language: speech characteristics should express almost everything about the characters presented in the play;
• people come to the theater to watch the actors play, and not to get acquainted with the play - they can read it at home.

The ideas that the writer Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky came up with were subsequently refined by M. A. Bulgakov and K. S. Stanislavsky.

Personal life

The playwright's personal life was no less interesting than his literary work. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky lived in a civil marriage with a simple bourgeois woman for almost twenty years. Interesting facts and details of the marital relationship between the writer and his first wife still excite researchers.

In 1847, in Nikolo-Vorobinovsky Lane, next to the house where Ostrovsky lived, a young girl, Agafya Ivanovna, settled with her thirteen-year-old sister. She had no family or friends. No one knows when she met Alexander Nikolaevich. However, in 1848 the young people had a son, Alexei. There were no conditions for raising a child, so the boy was temporarily placed in an orphanage. Ostrovsky’s father was terribly angry that his son not only dropped out of a prestigious university, but also got involved with a simple bourgeois woman living next door.

However, Alexander Nikolaevich showed firmness and, when his father and his stepmother left for the recently purchased Shchelykovo estate in the Kostroma province, he settled with Agafya Ivanovna in his wooden house.

The writer and ethnographer S. V. Maksimov jokingly called Ostrovsky’s first wife “Marfa Posadnitsa” because she was next to the writer in times of severe need and severe deprivation. Ostrovsky's friends characterize Agafya Ivanovna as a naturally very intelligent and warm-hearted person. She knew the customs and customs of merchant life very well and had an unconditional influence on Ostrovsky’s work. Alexander Nikolaevich often consulted with her about the creation of his works. In addition, Agafya Ivanovna was a wonderful and hospitable hostess. But Ostrovsky did not formalize his marriage with her even after his father’s death. All the children born in this union died very young, only the eldest, Alexei, briefly outlived his mother.

Over time, Ostrovsky developed other hobbies. He was passionately in love with Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya-Nikulina, who played Katerina at the premiere of The Thunderstorm in 1859. However, a personal break soon occurred: the actress left the playwright for a rich merchant.

Then Alexander Nikolaevich had a relationship with the young artist Vasilyeva-Bakhmetyeva. Agafya Ivanovna knew about this, but she steadfastly carried her cross and managed to maintain Ostrovsky’s respect for herself. The woman died in 1867, on March 6, after a serious illness. Alexander Nikolaevich did not leave her bed until the very end. The burial place of Ostrovsky's first wife is unknown.

Two years later, the playwright married Vasilyeva-Bakhmetyeva, who bore him two daughters and four sons. Alexander Nikolaevich lived with this woman until the end of his days.

Death of the writer

The intense social life could not but affect the writer’s health. In addition, despite good fees from the production of plays and an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, Alexander Nikolaevich always did not have enough money. Exhausted by constant worries, the writer’s body eventually failed. In 1886, on June 2, the writer died on his Shchelykovo estate near Kostroma. The Emperor donated 3 thousand rubles for the playwright's burial. In addition, he assigned a pension of 3 thousand rubles to the writer’s widow, and another 2,400 rubles a year to raise Ostrovsky’s children.

Chronological table

Ostrovsky's life and work can be briefly displayed in a chronological table.

A. N. Ostrovsky. Life and art

	A. N. Ostrovsky was born.
	The future writer entered the First Moscow Gymnasium.
	Ostrovsky became a student at Moscow University and began studying law.
	Alexander Nikolaevich left the university without receiving a diploma of education.
	Ostrovsky began serving as a scribe in Moscow courts. He was engaged in this work until 1851.
	The writer conceived a comedy called “The Picture of Family Happiness.”
	The essay “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident” and sketches of the play “The Picture of Family Happiness” appeared in the “Moscow City List”.
	Publication of the comedy “Poor Bride” in the magazine “Moskvityanin”.
	Ostrovsky's first play was performed on the stage of the Maly Theater. This is a comedy called “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh.”
	The writer wrote an article “On sincerity in criticism.” The premiere of the play “Poverty is not a vice” took place.
	Alexander Nikolaevich becomes an employee of the Sovremennik magazine. He also takes part in the Volga ethnographic expedition.
	Ostrovsky is finishing work on the comedy “The Characters Didn’t Mesh.” His other play, “A Profitable Place,” was banned from production.
	The premiere of Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” took place at the Maly Theater. The collected works of the writer are published in two volumes.
	"The Thunderstorm" is published in print. The playwright receives the Uvarov Prize for it. The features of Ostrovsky’s creativity are outlined by Dobrolyubov in the critical article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom.”
	The historical drama “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk” is published in Sovremennik. Work begins on the comedy “Balzaminov’s Marriage.”
	Ostrovsky received the Uvarov Prize for the play “Sin and Misfortune Lives on No One” and became a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
1866 (according to some sources - 1865)	Alexander Nikolaevich created the Artistic Circle and became its foreman.
	The spring fairy tale “The Snow Maiden” is presented to the audience.
	Ostrovsky became the head of the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers.
	Alexander Nikolaevich was appointed to the post of head of the repertoire department of Moscow theaters. He also became the head of the theater school.
	The writer dies on his estate near Kostroma.

Ostrovsky’s life and work were filled with such events. A table indicating the main incidents in the writer’s life will help to better study his biography. The dramatic heritage of Alexander Nikolaevich is difficult to overestimate. Even during the life of the great artist, the Maly Theater began to be called “Ostrovsky’s house,” and this says a lot. Ostrovsky’s work, a brief description of which is outlined in this article, is worth studying in more detail.

A. N. Tolstoy said superbly: “Great people do not have two dates of their existence in history - birth and death, but only one date: their birth.”

The significance of A. N. Ostrovsky for the development of Russian drama and stage, his role in the achievements of all Russian culture are undeniable and enormous. He did as much for Russia as Shakespeare did for England or Moliere for France. Continuing the best traditions of Russian progressive and foreign drama, Ostrovsky wrote 47 original plays (not counting the second editions of “Kozma Minin” and “The Voevoda” and seven plays in collaboration with S. A. Gedeonov (“Vasilisa Melentyeva”), N. Ya. Solovyov (“Happy Day”, “The Marriage of Belugin”, “Savage”, “It shines, but does not warm”) and P. M. Nevezhin (“Whim”, “Old in a new way”). In the words of Ostrovsky himself, this is “a whole folk theater."

Ostrovsky's immeasurable merit as a bold innovator lies in the democratization and expansion of the themes of Russian drama. Along with the nobility, bureaucrats and merchants, he also depicted ordinary people from the poor townspeople, artisans and peasants. Representatives of the working intelligentsia (teachers, artists) also became heroes of his works.

His plays about modernity recreate a wide range of Russian life from the 40s to the 80s of the 19th century. His historical works reflected the distant past of our homeland: the beginning and middle of the 17th century. In Ostrovsky's original plays alone, there are more than seven hundred speaking characters. And besides them, many plays have crowd scenes in which dozens of people participate without speeches. Goncharov correctly said that Ostrovsky “wrote all of Moscow life, not the city of Moscow, but the life of the Moscow, that is, Great Russian state.” Ostrovsky, expanding the themes of Russian drama, solved pressing ethical, socio-political and other problems of life from the standpoint of democratic enlightenment, defending the interests of the people. Dobrolyubov rightly argued that Ostrovsky in his plays “captured such common aspirations and needs that permeate all Russian society, whose voice is heard in all phenomena of our life, the satisfaction of which is a necessary condition for our further development.” When realizing the essence of Ostrovsky’s work, it cannot be emphasized enough that he continued the best traditions of progressive foreign and Russian nationally original dramaturgy consciously, with deep conviction, from the very first steps of his writing activity. While Western European drama was dominated by plays of intrigue and situation (remember O. E. Scribe, E. M. Labiche, V. Sardou), Ostrovsky, developing the creative principles of Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Pushkin and Gogol, created a dramaturgy of social characters and morals .

Boldly expanding the role of the social environment in his works, the circumstances that comprehensively motivate the behavior of the characters, Ostrovsky increases the proportion of epic elements in them. This makes his “plays of life” (Dobrolyubov) similar to contemporary Russian novelism. But for all that, epic tendencies do not weaken their scenic quality. Using a wide variety of means, starting with the always acute conflict, which Dobrolyubov wrote so thoroughly about, the playwright gives his plays a vivid theatricality.

Noting the invaluable treasures given to us by Pushkin, Ostrovsky said: “The first merit of the great poet is that through him everything that can become smarter becomes smarter... Everyone wants to think sublimely and feel with him; everyone is waiting for him to tell me something beautiful, something new, something I don’t have, something I lack; but he will say, and it will immediately become mine. This is why there is love and worship of great poets” (XIII, 164-165).

These inspired words spoken by the playwright about Pushkin can rightfully be addressed to him himself.

Ostrovsky's deeply realistic creativity is alien to narrow everydayism, ethnography and naturalism. The generalizing power of his characters is in many cases so great that it gives them the properties of a household name. Such are Podkhalyuzin (“We are our own people - we will be numbered!”), Tit Titych Bruskov (“In someone else’s feast there is a hangover”), Glumov (“Simplicity is enough for every wise man”), Khlynov (“Warm Heart”). The playwright consciously strove to make his characters known from the very beginning of his creative career. “I wanted,” he wrote to V.I. Nazimov in 1850, “for the public to brand vice with the name of Podkhalyuzin in the same way as they brand with the name of Harpagon, Tartuffe, Nedorosl, Khlestakov and others” (XIV, 16).

Ostrovsky's plays, imbued with high ideas of democracy, deep feelings of patriotism and genuine beauty, their positive characters, expand the mental, moral and aesthetic horizons of readers and spectators.

The great value of Russian critical realism of the second half of the 19th century is that, while containing the achievements of Russian and Western European realism, it is also enriched by the acquisitions of romanticism. M. Gorky, speaking about the development of Russian literature, in the article “On How I Learned to Write,” rightly noted: “This fusion of romanticism and realism is especially characteristic of our great literature, it gives it that originality, that strength that all more noticeably and deeply influences the literature of the whole world."

The dramaturgy of A. N. Ostrovsky, representing in its generic essence the highest expression of critical realism of the second half of the 19th century, along with realistic images of the most diverse aspect (family and everyday life, socio-psychological, socio-political), also contains romantic images. The images of Zhadov (“Profitable Place”), Katerina (“Thunderstorm”), Neschastlivtsev (“Forest”), Snegurochka (“Snow Maiden”), Meluzov (“Talents and Admirers”) are shrouded in romance. To this, following A.I. Yuzhin, Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko and others, A. A. Fadeev also drew attention. In the article “Tasks of Literary Criticism” he wrote: “Many consider our great playwright Ostrovsky to be a writer of everyday life. What kind of a writer of everyday life is he? Let's remember his Katerina. The realist Ostrovsky consciously sets himself “romantic” goals.”

Ostrovsky's artistic palette is extremely colorful. In his plays he boldly and widely refers to symbolism (The Thunderstorm) and fantasy (The Voevoda, The Snow Maiden).

Satirically denouncing the bourgeoisie (“Warm Heart”, “Dowry”) and the nobility (“Simplicity is enough for every wise man”, “Forest”, “Wolves and Sheep”), the playwright brilliantly uses the conventional means of hyperbolism, grotesque and caricature. Examples of this are the scene of the mayor's trial over the townsfolk in the comedy "Ardent Heart", the scene of the reading of a treatise on the dangers of reforms by Krutitsky and Glumov in the comedy "Simplicity is enough for every wise man", Baraboshev's anecdotal story about speculation in granulated sugar discovered along the banks of rivers ("Pravda" - good, but happiness is better").

Using a wide variety of artistic means, Ostrovsky moved in his ideological and aesthetic development, in creative evolution, towards an increasingly complex revelation of the inner essence of his characters, drawing closer to the dramaturgy of Turgenev and paving the way for Chekhov. If in his first plays he depicted characters with large, thick lines (“Family Picture”, “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!”), then in later plays he uses very subtle psychological coloring of the images (“Dowry”, “Talents and Admirers”, “ Guilty without guilt").

The writer's brother, P. N. Ostrovsky, was rightly indignant at the narrow everyday standard with which many critics approached Alexander Nikolaevich's plays. “They forget,” said Pyotr Nikolaevich, “that first of all he was a poet, and a great poet, with real crystal poetry, which can be found in Pushkin or Apollo Maykov!.. Agree that only a great poet could create such a pearl of folk poetry as "Snow Maiden"? Take, for example, Kupava’s “complaint” to Tsar Berendey - after all, this is purely Pushkin’s beauty of verse!!” .

Ostrovsky’s powerful talent and his nationality delighted true connoisseurs of art, starting with the appearance of the comedy “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!” and especially since the publication of the tragedy “The Thunderstorm”. In 1874, I. A. Goncharov asserted: “Ostrovsky is undoubtedly the greatest talent in modern literature” and predicted “longevity” for him. In 1882, in connection with the 35th anniversary of Ostrovsky’s dramatic activity, as if summing up the results of his creative activity, the author of “Oblomov” gave him an assessment that became classic and textbook. He wrote: “You alone completed the building, at the foundation of which Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol laid the cornerstones... Only after you, we Russians can proudly say: “We have our own Russian, national theater... I greet you, as the immortal creator of an endless system of poetic creations, from “The Snow Maiden”, “The Voivode’s Dream” to “Talents and Admirers” inclusive, where we see and hear with our own eyes the original, true Russian life in countless, vital images, with its true appearance, style and dialect ".

The entire progressive Russian public agreed with this high assessment of Ostrovsky’s activities. L.N. Tolstoy called Ostrovsky a writer of genius and truly popular. “I know from experience,” he wrote in 1886, “how people read, listen to and remember your things, and therefore I would like to help you to become now as quickly as possible in reality what you undoubtedly are - a national figure in itself.” in a broad sense, a writer." N. G. Chernyshevsky, in a letter to V. M. Lavrov dated December 29, 1888, stated: “Of all those who wrote in Russian after Lermontov and Gogol, I see a very strong talent in only one playwright - Ostrovsky...”. Having visited the play “The Abyss,” A.P. Chekhov reported to A.S. Suvorin on March 3, 1892: “The play is amazing. The last act is something that I wouldn't have written in a million. This act is a whole play, and when I have my own theater, I will stage only this one act.”

A. N. Ostrovsky not only completed the creation of Russian drama, but also determined with his masterpieces all its further development. Under his influence, the whole “Ostrovsky School” appeared (I. F. Gorbunov, A. F. Pisemsky, A. A. Potekhin, N. Ya. Solovyov, P. M. Nevezhin). The dramatic art of L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov and A. M. Gorky was formed under his influence. For the author of War and Peace, Ostrovsky's plays were examples of dramatic art. And therefore, having decided to write “The Power of Darkness,” he began to reread them again.

Caring for the development of domestic drama, Ostrovsky was an exceptionally sensitive, attentive mentor and teacher of aspiring playwrights.

In 1874, on his initiative, in collaboration with theater critic and translator V.I. Rodislavsky, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers was created, which improved the situation of playwrights and translators.

All his life Ostrovsky fought to attract new forces to dramaturgy, to expand and improve the quality of the Russian nationally original theatrical repertoire. But he was always alien to disdain for the artistic successes of other peoples. He stood for the development of international cultural relations. In his opinion, the theatrical repertoire “should consist of the best original plays and good translations of foreign masterpieces with undoubted literary merit” (XII, 322).

Being a man of versatile erudition, Ostrovsky was one of the masters of Russian literary translation. With his translations, he promoted outstanding examples of foreign drama - plays by Shakespeare, Goldoni, Giacometti, Cervantes, Machiavelli, Grazzini, Gozzi. He translated (based on the French text by Louis Jacolliot) the South Indian (Tamil) drama “Devadasi” (“La Bayadère” by the folk playwright Parishurama).

Ostrovsky translated twenty-two plays and left sixteen plays begun and unfinished from Italian, Spanish, French, English and Latin. He translated poems by Heine and other German poets. In addition, he translated the drama of the Ukrainian classic G. F. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko “Shchira Lyubov” (“Sincere love, or Darling is more valuable than happiness”).

A. N. Ostrovsky is not only the creator of brilliant plays and an outstanding translator, but also an outstanding connoisseur of stage art, an excellent director and theorist who anticipated the teachings of K. S. Stanislavsky. He wrote: “I read each of my new comedies, long before rehearsals, several times in the circle of artists. In addition, I went through each person’s role separately” (XII, 66).

Being a theatrical figure on a large scale, Ostrovsky passionately fought for a radical transformation of his native stage, for turning it into a school of social morals, for the creation of a public private theater, and for improving the acting culture. By democratizing the theme, defending the nationality of works intended for the theater, the great playwright decisively turned the domestic stage towards life and its truth. M. N. Ermolova recalls: “Together with Ostrovsky, truth and life itself appeared on the stage.”

Many generations of outstanding Russian artists were brought up and grew up on Ostrovsky’s realistic plays: P. M. Sadovsky, A. E. Martynov, S. V. Vasiliev, P. V. Vasiliev, G. N. Fedotova, M. N. Ermolova, P. A. Strepetova, M. G. Savina and many others, up to modern ones. The artistic circle, which owed its emergence and development primarily to him, provided many servants of the muses with significant material assistance, contributed to the improvement of acting culture, and put forward new artistic forces: M. P. Sadovsky, O. O. Sadovskaya, V. A. Maksheev and others. And naturally, the attitude of the entire artistic community towards Ostrovsky was reverent. Large and small, metropolitan and provincial artists saw in him their favorite playwright, teacher, ardent defender and sincere friend.

In 1872, celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of A. N. Ostrovsky’s dramatic activity, provincial artists wrote to him: “Alexander Nikolaevich! We all developed under the influence of that new word that you introduced into Russian drama: you are our mentor.”

In 1905, in response to the words of a Petersburgskaya Gazeta reporter that “Ostrovsky is outdated,” M. G. Savina replied: “But in that case, you can’t play Shakespeare, because he is no less outdated. Personally, I always enjoy playing Ostrovsky, and if the public no longer likes him, it’s probably because not everyone knows how to play him now.”

Ostrovsky's artistic and social activities were an invaluable contribution to the development of Russian culture. And at the same time, he was very upset by the lack of necessary conditions for the realistic production of his plays, for the implementation of his bold plans for a radical transformation of the theatrical business, for a steep increase in the level of dramatic art. This was the tragedy of the playwright.

Around the mid-70s, Alexander Nikolaevich wrote: “I am firmly convinced that the position of our theaters, the composition of the troupes, the director’s part in them, as well as the position of those who write for the theater will improve over time, that dramatic art in Russia will finally emerge from its stalemate. , abandoned state... but I can’t wait for this prosperity. If I were young, I could live in hope in the future, but now there is no future for me” (XII, 77).

Ostrovsky never saw the dawn he desired - a significant improvement in the position of Russian playwrights, decisive changes in the field of theater. He passed away largely unsatisfied with what he had done.

The progressive pre-October public assessed the creative and social activities of the creator of “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry” differently. She saw in this activity an instructive example of high service to the homeland, a patriotic feat of a national playwright.

But only the Great October Socialist Revolution brought truly popular fame to the playwright. It was at this time that Ostrovsky found his mass audience - the working people, and a truly rebirth began for him.

In the pre-October theatre, under the influence of vaudeville-melodramatic traditions, due to the cool and even hostile attitude of the management of the imperial theaters and the highest government spheres towards him, the plays of the “father of Russian drama” were often staged carelessly, became impoverished and were quickly removed from the repertoire.

The Soviet theater made it possible to fully reveal them realistically. Ostrovsky becomes the most beloved playwright of Soviet audiences. His plays have never been staged as often as at this time. His works had never before been published in such huge numbers as at this time. His dramaturgy has not been studied as closely as in this era.

Superbly oriented in Ostrovsky’s work, V.I. Lenin often used apt words and catchphrases from the plays “At Someone Else’s Feast,” “A Profitable Place,” “Mad Money,” and “Guilty Without Guilt” in a sharply journalistic sense. In the fight against reactionary forces, the great leader of the people especially widely used the image of Tit Titych from the comedy “A Hangover at Someone Else’s Feast.” In 1918, probably in the fall, talking with P.I. Lebedev-Polyansky about the publication of the Collected Works of Russian Classics, Vladimir Ilyich told him: “Don’t forget Ostrovsky.”

On December 15 of the same year, Lenin attended the performance of the Moscow Art Theater “Simplicity is enough for every wise man.” In this performance, the roles were played by: Krutitsky - K. S. Stanislavsky, Glumova - I. N. Bersenev, Mamaev - V. V. Luzhsky, Manefa - N. S. Butova, Golutvin - P. A. Pavlov, Gorodulina - N. O. Massalitinov, Mashenka - S.V. Giatsintova, Mamaev - M.N. Germanova, Glumov - V.N. Pavlova, Kurchaeva - V.A. Verbitsky, Grigory - N.G. Alexandrov.

The remarkable cast of actors brilliantly revealed the satirical pathos of the comedy, and Vladimir Ilyich watched the play with great pleasure, laughing from the heart and laughing contagiously.

Lenin liked the entire artistic ensemble, but Stanislavsky’s performance in the role of Krutitsky aroused his particular admiration. And most of all, he was amused by the following words of Krutitsky when he read the draft of his memorandum: “Every reform is harmful in its essence. What does the reform include? Reform involves two actions: 1) abolishing the old and 2) putting something new in its place. Which of these actions is harmful? Both are the same.”

After these words, Lenin laughed so loudly that some of the spectators paid attention to this and someone’s heads were already turning towards our box. Nadezhda Konstantinovna looked reproachfully at Vladimir Ilyich, but he continued to laugh heartily, repeating: “Wonderful! Amazing!".

During the intermission, Lenin did not cease to admire Stanislavsky.

“Stanislavsky is a real artist,” said Vladimir Ilyich, “he so transformed into this general that he lives his life in the smallest detail. The viewer does not need any explanation. He sees for himself what an idiot this important-looking dignitary is. In my opinion, the art of theater should follow this path.”

Lenin liked the play “Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man” so much that, having talked with the artist O. V. Gzovskaya about the Art Theater on the twentieth of February 1919, he remembered this performance. He said: “You see, Ostrovsky’s play... An old classic author, but Stanislavsky’s play sounds new to us. This general reveals a lot of things that are important to us... This is propaganda in the best and noble sense... If everyone were so able to reveal the image in a new, modern way - it would be wonderful!”

Lenin's obvious interest in Ostrovsky's work was undoubtedly reflected in his personal library located in the Kremlin. This library contains almost all the main literature published in 1923, in connection with the centenary of the birth of the playwright, who created, in his words, an entire national theater.

After the Great October Revolution, all anniversaries associated with the life and work of A. N. Ostrovsky are celebrated as national holidays.

The first such national holiday was the centenary of the birth of the playwright. During the days of this holiday, following Lenin, the position of the victorious people towards Ostrovsky’s legacy was especially clearly expressed by the first commissar of public education. A.V. Lunacharsky proclaimed the ideas of ethical and everyday theater in the broadest sense of the word, responding to the burning problems of the new, just emerging socialist morality. Struggling with formalism, with “theatrical” theater, “devoid of ideological content and moral tendency,” Lunacharsky contrasted the dramaturgy of A. N. Ostrovsky with all varieties of self-directed theatricality.

Pointing out that Ostrovsky is “alive for us,” the Soviet people, proclaiming the slogan “back to Ostrovsky,” A. V. Lunacharsky called on theater workers to move forward from the formalistic, narrowly everyday, naturalistic theater of “everyday life” and “petty tendentiousness.” According to Lunacharsky, “simply imitating Ostrovsky would mean dooming oneself to death.” He called for learning from Ostrovsky the principles of serious, meaningful theater, which carries “universal notes”, and the extraordinary skill of their embodiment. Ostrovsky, Lunacharsky wrote, “is the greatest master of our everyday and ethical theater, at the same time so playing with forces, so amazingly scenic, so capable of captivating the audience, and his main lesson these days is this: return to the everyday and ethical theater and together with something that is thoroughly and entirely artistic, that is, truly capable of powerfully moving human feelings and human will.”

The Moscow Academic Maly Theater took an active part in celebrating the 100th anniversary of Ostrovsky's birth.

M. N. Ermolova, unable, due to illness, to honor the memory of the playwright she deeply valued, wrote to A. I. Yuzhin on April 11, 1923: “Ostrovsky is the great apostle of life’s truth, simplicity and love for his little brother! How much he did and gave to people in general, and to us artists in particular. He instilled this truth and simplicity into our souls on stage, and we sacredly, as best we knew how and could, strove to follow him. I am so happy that I lived in his time and worked according to his instructions together with my comrades! What a reward it was to see the public’s grateful tears for our efforts!

Glory to the great Russian artist A. N. Ostrovsky. His name will live forever in his light or dark images, because there is truth in them. Glory to the immortal genius! .

The deep connection between A. N. Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy and Soviet modernity, his enormous importance in the development of socialist art, were understood and recognized by all leading figures in dramatic and stage art. So, in 1948, in connection with the 125th anniversary of the playwright’s birth, N. F. Pogodin said: “Today, a century after the significant appearance of young talent in Russia, we are experiencing the powerful influence of his unfading creations.”

In the same year, B. Romashov explained that Ostrovsky teaches Soviet writers “the constant desire to discover new layers of life and the ability to embody what is found in bright artistic forms... A. N. Ostrovsky is a comrade-in-arms of our Soviet theater and young Soviet drama in the struggle for realism , for innovation, for folk art. The task of Soviet directors and actors is: in order to reveal even more fully and deeply in theatrical productions the inexhaustible riches of Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy. A. N. Ostrovsky remains our faithful friend in the struggle for the implementation of the tasks facing modern Soviet drama in its noble cause - the communist education of the working people."

In truth, it should be noted that the distortion of the essence of Ostrovsky’s plays by formalistic and vulgar sociological interpreters also took place in the Soviet era. Formalistic tendencies clearly affected the play “The Forest” staged by V. E. Meyerhold at the theater named after him (1924). An example of a vulgar sociological embodiment is the play “The Thunderstorm”, staged by A. B. Viner at the Drama Theater named after the Leningrad Council of Trade Unions (1933). But it was not these performances, not their principles that determined the face of the Soviet theater.

Revealing Ostrovsky's popular position, sharpening the social and ethical issues of his plays, embodying their deeply generalized characters, Soviet directors created wonderful performances in the capitals and on the periphery, in all the republics of the USSR. Among them, the following were especially heard on the Russian stage: “A Profitable Place” at the Theater of the Revolution (1923), “Ardent Heart” at the Art Theater (1926), “In a Lively Place” (1932), “Truth is good, but happiness is better” (1941 ) at the Moscow Maly Theater, “The Thunderstorm” (1953) at the Moscow Theater named after V.V. Mayakovsky, “The Abyss” at the Leningrad Theater named after A.S. Pushkin (1955).

The contribution of theaters of all fraternal republics to the stage embodiment of Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy is enormous, indescribable.

To more clearly imagine the rapid growth of stage incarnations of Ostrovsky’s plays after October, let me remind you that from 1875 to 1917 inclusive, that is, in 42 years, the drama “Guilty Without Guilt” was performed 4415 times, and in 1939 alone - 2147. Scenes from the Outback “ Late Love" was performed 920 times over the same 42 years, and in 1939 - 1432 times. The “Thunderstorm” tragedy occurred 3592 times from 1875 to 1917, and 414 times in 1939. With particular solemnity, the Soviet people celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great playwright. Lectures were given all over the country about his life and work, his plays were broadcast on television and radio, and conferences were held in humanitarian educational and research institutes on the most pressing issues of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy and its stage embodiment.

The results of a number of conferences were collections of articles published in Moscow, Leningrad, Kostroma, Kuibyshev.

On April 11, 1973, a ceremonial meeting took place at the Bolshoi Theater. In his opening speech, S. V. Mikhalkov, chairman of the All-Union Anniversary Committee for the 150th anniversary of the birth of A. N. Ostrovsky, Hero of Socialist Labor, secretary of the board of the Union of Writers of the USSR, said that “Ostrovsky’s life is a feat”, that his creativity is dear to us “not only because” it played a great progressive role in the development of Russian society in the 19th century, but also because it faithfully serves people today, because it serves our Soviet culture. That’s why we call Ostrovsky our contemporary.”

He ended his opening speech with gratitude to the great hero of the day: “Thank you, Alexander Nikolaevich! Thank you very much from all the people! Thank you for the enormous work, for the talent given to people, for the plays that even today, having stepped into the new century, teach us to live, work, love - teach us to be a real person! Thank you, the great Russian playwright, for the fact that today, for all the peoples of the multinational Soviet country, you remain our beloved contemporary!” .

Following S.V. Mikhalkov, M.I. Tsarev, People’s Artist of the USSR, Chairman of the Presidium of the Board of the All-Russian Theater Society, spoke on the topic “The Great Playwright”. He argued that “Ostrovsky’s creative heritage is the greatest achievement of Russian culture. It stands on a par with such phenomena as the painting of the Wanderers, the music of the “mighty handful”. However, Ostrovsky’s feat also lies in the fact that artists and composers made a revolution in art by united forces, while Ostrovsky made a revolution in the theater alone, being at the same time a theorist and practitioner of the new art, its ideologist and leader... At the origins of the Soviet multinational theater, our directing , our acting mastery was the son of the Russian people - Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky... The Soviet theater sacredly honors Ostrovsky. He has always learned and continues to learn from him the creation of great art - the art of high realism and true nationality. Ostrovsky is not only our yesterday and our today. He is our tomorrow, he is ahead of us, in the future. And we joyfully imagine this future of our theater, which will have to discover in the works of the great playwright huge layers of ideas, thoughts, feelings that we did not have time to discover.”

In order to promote the literary and theatrical heritage of Ostrovsky, the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR and the All-Russian Theater Society from September 1972 to April 1973 held an All-Russian review of performances of drama, musical drama and children's theaters dedicated to the anniversary. The review showed both successes and failures in the modern interpretation of Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy.

Theaters of the RSFSR specially prepared over 150 premieres based on the plays of A. N. Ostrovsky for the anniversary. At the same time, more than 100 performances were included in the anniversary year's posters from previous years. Thus, in 1973, more than 250 performances of 36 works by the playwright were staged in theaters of the RSFSR. Among them, the most popular plays were: “Simplicity is Enough for Every Wise Man” (23 theaters), “Profitable Place” (20 theaters), “Dowry” (20 theaters), “Mad Money” (19 theaters), “Guilty Without Guilt” (17 theatres), “The Last Victim” (14 theatres), “Talents and Fans” (11 theatres), “The Thunderstorm” (10 theatres).

In the final show of the best performances selected by zonal commissions and brought to Kostroma, the first prize was awarded to the Academic Maly Theater for the play “Mad Money”; second prizes were awarded to the Central Children's Theater for the play “Jokers”, the Kostroma Regional Drama Theater for the play “Talents and Admirers” and the North Ossetian Drama Theater for the play “The Thunderstorm”; third prizes were given to the Gorky Academic Drama Theater for the play “Simplicity is Enough for Every Wise Man,” to the Voronezh Regional Drama Theater for the play “It Shines, but Doesn’t Warm,” and to the Tatar Academic Theater for the play “Our People—Let’s Be Numbered!”

The All-Russian review of performances, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of A. N. Ostrovsky, ended with a final scientific and theoretical conference in Kostroma. The viewing of the performances and the final conference confirmed with particular conviction that Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy, which reflected contemporary Russian reality in deeply typical, truthful and vivid images, does not age, that with its universal human properties it continues to effectively serve our time.

Despite the breadth of coverage, the viewing of performances caused by the anniversary of A. N. Ostrovsky could not provide for all the premieres. Some of them came into operation late.

Such are, for example, “The Last Sacrifice”, staged by I. Vs. Meyerhold at the Leningrad Academic Drama Theater named after A. S. Pushkin, and “The Thunderstorm”, performed by B. A. Babochkin at the Moscow Academic Maly Theater.

Both of these directors, focusing on the universal content of the plays, created mostly original performances.

In the Pushkin Theater, from the beginning to the end of the action, there is a fierce struggle between dishonesty and honesty, irresponsibility and responsibility, frivolous wasting of life and the desire to base it on the principles of trust, love and fidelity. This performance is an ensemble performance. Organically fusing deep lyricism and drama, she impeccably plays the heroine of G. T. Karelin’s play. But at the same time, the image of Pribytkov, a very rich industrialist, is clearly idealized here.

In the Maly Theater, in close-up, sometimes convincingly relying on the means of cartooning (Dikoy - B.V. Telegin, Feklusha - E.I. Rubtsova), the “dark kingdom” is shown, that is, the power of social arbitrariness, terrifying savagery, ignorance , inertia. But despite everything, young forces strive to realize their natural rights. Here even the quietest Tikhon utters words of submission to his mother in an intonation of simmering discontent. However, in the play, the overly emphasized erotic pathos argues with the social, reducing it. So, for example, a bed is played out here, on which Katerina and Varvara lie down during the action. Katerina’s famous monologue with the key, full of deep socio-psychological meaning, turned into a purely sensual one. Katerina thrashes around on the bed, clutching her pillow.

Clearly contrary to the playwright, the director “rejuvenated” Kuligin, compared him to Kudryash and Shapkin, and forced him to play the balalaika with them. But he is over 60 years old! Kabanikha rightly calls him an old man.

The overwhelming majority of the performances that appeared in connection with the anniversary of A. N. Ostrovsky were guided by the desire for a modern reading of his plays, while carefully preserving their text. But some directors, repeating the mistakes of the 20s and 30s, took a different path. So, in one performance the characters of “Slave Women” talk on the phone, in another - Lipochka and Podkhalyuzin (“We are our own people - we will be numbered!”) dance tango, in the third Paratov and Knurov become lovers of Kharita Ogudalova (“Dowry”), etc.

In a number of theaters, there has been a clear tendency to perceive Ostrovsky’s text as raw material for the director’s fabrications; re-mountings, free combinations from various plays and other gags. They were not deterred by the greatness of the playwright, who should be freed from disrespect for his text.

Modern reading, directing and acting, using the capabilities of the classical text, highlighting, emphasizing, rethinking certain of its motives, has no right, in our opinion, to distort its essence, violate its stylistic originality. It is also worth remembering that Ostrovsky, while allowing certain abbreviations of the text for stage execution, was very jealous of its meaning, not allowing any changes to it. So, for example, in response to the request of the artist V.V. Samoilov to redo the ending of the second act of the play “Jokers,” the playwright answered Burdin with irritation: “You have to be crazy to offer me such things, or consider me a boy who writes without thinking and does not value his work at all, but only values ​​the affection and disposition of the artists and is ready for them to break down his plays as they please” (XIV, 119). There was such a case. In 1875, at the opening of the Public Theatre, provincial artist N.I. Novikov, playing the role of the mayor in Gogol’s “The Inspector General,” made an innovation - in the first act of the first act he released all the officials on stage, and then came out himself, greeting them. He was hoping for applause. It turned out the other way around.

Among the spectators was A. N. Ostrovsky. Seeing this gag, he became extremely indignant. “For mercy,” said Alexander Nikolaevich, “is it really possible to allow an actor such things? Is it possible to treat Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol with such disrespect? It's a shame! Some Novikov decided to remake a genius about whom he probably has no idea!” “Gogol probably knew better than Novikov what he wrote, and Gogol should not be remade, he is already good.”

Ostrovsky's dramaturgy helps the builders of communism in understanding the past. Revealing the hard life of working people under the rule of class privileges and heartless purity, it promotes understanding of the greatness of the social transformations carried out in our country and inspires us to further actively fight for the successful construction of a communist society. But Ostrovsky’s significance is not only educational. The range of moral and everyday problems posed and resolved in the plays of the playwright, in many ways echoes our modernity and remains relevant.

We deeply sympathize with his democratic heroes, full of life-affirming optimism, for example, teachers Ivanov (“In Someone Else’s Feast there is a Hangover”) and Korpelov (“Labor Bread”). We are attracted to his deeply humane, spiritually generous, warm-hearted characters: Parasha and Gavrilo (“Warm Heart”). We admire his heroes who defend the truth in spite of all obstacles - Platon Zybkin (“Truth is good, but happiness is better”) and Meluzov (“Talents and Admirers”). We are in tune with both Zhadov, who is guided in his behavior by the desire for the public good (“Profitable Place”), and Kruchinina, who has set the goal of her life to be active good (“Guilty Without Guilt”). We share Larisa Ogudalova’s aspirations for love “equal on both sides” (“Dowry”). We cherish the playwright’s dreams of the victory of the people’s truth, the end of devastating wars, the advent of an era of peaceful life, the triumph of the understanding of love as a “good feeling,” a great gift of nature, the happiness of life, so vividly embodied in the spring fairy tale “The Snow Maiden.”

Ostrovsky's democratic ideological and moral principles, his understanding of good and evil are organically included in the moral code of the builder of communism, and this makes him our contemporary. The plays of the great playwright provide readers and viewers with high aesthetic pleasure.

Ostrovsky's work, which defined an entire era in the history of Russian stage art, continues to have a fruitful impact on Soviet drama and the Soviet theater. By rejecting Ostrovsky's plays, we impoverish ourselves morally and aesthetically.

The Soviet audience loves and appreciates Ostrovsky's plays. The decline in interest in them manifests itself only in those cases when they are interpreted in a narrow everyday aspect, muting their inherent universal human essence. Clearly in the spirit of the judgments of the final conference, as if participating in it, A.K. Tarasova in the article “Belongs to Eternity” states: “I am convinced: the depth and truth of feelings, high and light, permeating Ostrovsky’s plays will forever be revealed to people and will forever be excite them and make them better... changing times will entail a change of emphasis: but the main thing will remain forever, will not lose its cordiality and instructive truth, because integrity and honesty are always dear to man and people.”

At the initiative of Kostroma party and Soviet organizations, warmly supported by the participants in the final conference of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR and the WTO, a resolution was adopted on the regular holding of periodic festivals of the works of the great playwright, new productions of his plays and their creative discussions in Kostroma and the Shchelykovo Museum-Reserve. The implementation of this resolution will undoubtedly contribute to the promotion of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy, its correct understanding and more vivid stage embodiment.

A real event in Ostrov studies was the 88th volume of “Literary Heritage” (M., 1974), which published very valuable articles about the playwright’s work, numerous letters from him to his wife and other biographical materials, reviews of the stage life of his plays abroad.

The anniversary also contributed to the release of the new Complete Works of Ostrovsky.

2

The work of A. N. Ostrovsky, included in the treasury of world progressive art, is the glory and pride of the Russian people. And that is why for the Russian people everything that is connected with the memory of this great playwright is dear and sacred.

Already during the days of his funeral, the idea arose among progressive figures of the Kineshma zemstvo and residents of Kineshma about opening a subscription for the construction of a monument to him. This monument was supposed to be installed on one of the squares in Moscow. In 1896, the democratic intelligentsia of the city of Kineshma (with the help of the Moscow Maly Theater) organized the Musical and Drama Club named after A. N. Ostrovsky in memory of their glorious fellow countryman. This circle, having rallied around itself all the progressive forces of the city, became a hotbed of culture, science and socio-political education in the broadest layers of the population. They opened the Theater named after. A. N. Ostrovsky, a free library-reading room, a folk teahouse selling newspapers and books.

On September 16, 1899, the Kineshma district zemstvo assembly decided to name the newly built public primary school in the Shchelykovo estate after A. N. Ostrovsky. On December 23 of the same year, the Ministry of Public Education approved this decision.

Grave of A.N. Ostrovsky in Shchelykovo. 1911

The Russian people, deeply respecting Ostrovsky’s literary activity, carefully protect the place of his burial.

Visits to the grave of A. N. Ostrovsky became especially frequent after the Great October Socialist Revolution, when the victorious people had the opportunity to give what they deserve to the worthy. Soviet people, arriving in Shchelykovo, go to the Nikola churchyard on Berezhki, where behind an iron fence above the grave of the great playwright stands a marble monument on which the words are carved:

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky

At the end of 1917, the Shchelykovo estate was nationalized and came under the jurisdiction of local authorities. The “old” house was occupied by the volost executive committee, then it was transferred to a colony of street children. The new estate, which belonged to M. A. Chatelain, came into the possession of the Kineshma workers’ commune; it was soon converted into a state farm. None of these organizations even ensured the safety of the memorial values ​​of the estate, and they were gradually destroyed.

In connection with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ostrovsky, on September 5, 1923, the Council of People's Commissars decided to remove Shchelykovo from the jurisdiction of local authorities and transfer it to the disposal of the People's Commissariat of Education under the department of Main Science. But at that time, the People's Commissariat for Education did not yet have the people or material resources necessary to transform Shchelykov into an exemplary memorial museum.

In 1928, by decision of the Council of People's Commissars, Shchelykovo was transferred to the Moscow Maly Theater with the condition that a memorial museum be organized in the house of A. N. Ostrovsky.

The Maly Theater opened a holiday home in the estate, where the Sadovskys, Ryzhovs, V.N. Pashennaya, A.I. Yuzhin-Sumbatov, A.A. Yablochkina, V.O. Massalitinova, V.A. Obukhova, S. spent their holidays. V. Aidarov, N. F. Kostromskoy, N. I. Uralov, M. S. Narokov and many other artists.

At first, there was no unanimity among the Maly Theater staff on the question of the nature of Shchelykov’s use. Some artists perceived Shchelykovo only as their vacation spot. “Therefore, the old house was inhabited by vacationing workers of the Maly Theater - all of it, from top to bottom.” But gradually the team matured plans to combine a holiday home and a memorial museum in Shchelykovo. The artistic family of the Maly Theater, improving the holiday home, began to turn the estate into a museum.

There were enthusiasts for organizing a memorial museum, primarily V. A. Maslikh and B. N. Nikolsky. Through their efforts, in 1936, the first museum exhibition was opened in two rooms of the “old” house.

Work on establishing a memorial museum in Shchelykovo was interrupted by the war. During the Great Patriotic War, children of artists and employees of the Maly Theater were evacuated here.

After the Great Patriotic War, the management of the Maly Theater began renovating the “old” house and organizing a memorial museum in it. In 1948, the first director of the museum was appointed - I. I. Sobolev, who turned out to be an extremely valuable assistant to Maly Theater enthusiasts. “He,” writes B.I. Nikolsky, “helped us for the first time restore the arrangement of furniture in the rooms, indicated how and where the table stood, what kind of furniture, etc.” . Through the efforts of all Shchelykov’s enthusiasts, three rooms of the “old” house (dining room, living room and study) were opened to tourists. A theatrical exhibition was set up on the second floor.

To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the playwright's birth, an important resolution was adopted regarding his estate. On May 11, 1948, the Council of Ministers of the USSR declared Shchelykovo a state reserve. At the same time, in memory of the playwright, the Semenovsko-Lapotny district, which includes the Shchelykovo estate, was renamed Ostrovsky. In Kineshma, a theater and one of the main streets were named after Ostrovsky.

But the obligations imposed by the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR could not be fulfilled by the Maly Theater: it did not have sufficient material resources for this. And at the suggestion of its directorate, party and public organizations, the Council of Ministers of the USSR on October 16, 1953 transferred Shchelykovo to the All-Russian Theater Society.

Shchelykov's transition under the auspices of the WTO marked a truly new era for him. WTO officials showed genuine state concern for the A. N. Ostrovsky Memorial Museum.

Initial amateur attempts to create a memorial museum were replaced by its construction on a highly professional, scientific basis. The museum was provided with a staff of scientists. The “old” house was thoroughly renovated, and in fact, restored. The collection and study of literature about Ostrovsky’s work began, the search for new materials in archival repositories, the acquisition of documents and interior decoration items from private individuals. Much attention was paid to the exhibition of museum materials, gradually updating it. The employees of the memorial museum not only replenish and store its funds, but study and publish them. In 1973, the first “Schelykov collection” was published, prepared by museum staff.

Since the time of A. N. Ostrovsky, major changes have occurred in the surroundings of the ancient house. Much in the park is overgrown or completely destroyed (garden, vegetable garden). Due to the decrepitude of the years, all the office premises have disappeared.

But the main impression of the mighty northern Russian nature, among which Ostrovsky lived and worked, remained. In an effort to give Shchelykov, if possible, the appearance of Ostrovsky's time, the WTO began to restore and improve its entire territory, in particular the dam, roads, and plantings. The cemetery where the playwright is buried, and the Nikola-Berezhka Church, located on the territory of the reserve, have not been forgotten; the Sobolevs’ house, which Alexander Nikolaevich often visited, has been restored. This house has been turned into a social museum.

Shchelykov's enthusiasts, while preserving old ones, establish new traditions. Such a tradition is the annual ceremonial meetings at the playwright’s grave on June 14. This “memorable day” became not a mourning day, but a bright day of pride for the Soviet people in a writer-citizen, a patriot who devoted all his strength to serving the people. At these meetings, actors and directors, literary and theater scholars, and representatives of Kostroma and local party and Soviet organizations give speeches. The meetings end with the laying of wreaths on the grave.

Transforming Shchelykovo into a cultural center, into the center of scientific research thought addressed to Ostrovsky, interesting scientific and theoretical conferences on the study of the dramaturgy of A. N. Ostrovsky and its stage embodiment have been organized and held here since 1956. At these conferences, which bring together major theater critics, literary critics, directors, playwrights, artists, artists, the season's performances are discussed, experiences of their productions are shared, common ideological and aesthetic positions are developed, ways of development of drama and performing arts are outlined, etc. .

On June 14, 1973, with a huge crowd of people, a monument to A. N. Ostrovsky and the Literary and Theater Museum were opened on the territory of the reserve. Representatives of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR and the RSFSR, the WTO, the Writers' Union, guests from Moscow, Leningrad, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl and other cities came to the opening ceremony of the monument and museum.

The monument, created by sculptor A.P. Timchenko and architect V.I. Rovnov, is located at the intersection of an asphalt driveway and the path leading to the memorial museum, facing it.

The ceremonial meeting was opened by the first secretary of the Kostroma Regional Committee of the CPSU, Yu. N. Balandin. Addressing those present, he spoke about the unfading glory of the great Russian playwright, the creator of the Russian national theater, about his close connection with the Kostroma region, with Shchelykov, about why Alexander Nikolaevich is dear to the Soviet people, the builders of communism. S.V. Mikhalkov, M.I. Tsarev and representatives of local party and Soviet public organizations also spoke at the rally. S. V. Mikhalkov noted the importance of Ostrovsky as the greatest playwright who made an invaluable contribution to the treasury of classical Russian and world literature. M.I. Tsarev said that here, in Shchelykovo, the works of the great playwright, his enormous mind, artistic talent, and sensitive, warm heart become especially close and understandable to us.

A. A. Tikhonov, first secretary of the Ostrovsky district committee of the Communist Party, very well expressed the mood of all those present by reading a poem by local poet V. S. Volkov, a pilot who lost his sight in the Great Patriotic War:

Here it is, the Shchelykovskaya estate!

The years will not grow old memories.

To honor Ostrovsky's immortality,

We have gathered here today.

No, not the skeleton of an obelisk stone

And not the crypt and the cold of the grave,

As alive, as dear, close,

These days we honor him.

The granddaughter of the playwright M. M. Chatelain and the best production workers of the region - G. N. Kalinin and P. E. Rozhkova - also spoke at the rally.

After this, the honor of opening the monument to the great playwright was given to the chairman of the All-Union Anniversary Committee - S. V. Mikhalkov. When the canvas covering the monument was lowered, Ostrovsky appeared before the audience, sitting on a garden bench. He is in creative thought, in wise inner concentration.

After the opening of the monument, everyone headed to the new building, decorated in Russian style. M.I. Tsarev cut the ribbon and invited the first visitors to the opened Literary and Theater Museum. Exhibition of the museum "A. N. Ostrovsky on the stage of the Soviet theater" includes the main stages of the playwright's life, his literary and social activities, the stage embodiment of his plays in the USSR and abroad.

The Literary and Theater Museum is an important link in the entire complex that makes up the A. N. Ostrovsky Museum-Reserve, but the memorial house will forever remain its soul and center. Nowadays, through the efforts of the WTO and its leading figures, this house-museum is open to tourists throughout the year.

The WTO is also radically reorganizing the rest house located on the territory of the reserve. Converted into the House of Creativity, it is also intended to serve as a kind of monument to the playwright, recalling not only his creative spirit in Shchelykov, but also his wide hospitality.

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The modern Shchelykovo estate is almost always crowded. Life is in full swing in her. Here, in the spring and summer, Ostrovsky’s heirs work and relax in the House of Creativity - artists, directors, theater experts, literary critics from Moscow, Leningrad and other cities. Sightseers from all over our country come here.

Theater workers coming to Shchelykovo exchange experiences, discuss productions of the past season, and hatch plans for new works. How many new stage images are born here in friendly conversations and disputes! With what lively interest issues of theatrical art are discussed here! How many creative, significant ideas appear here! It was here that V. Pashennaya conceived her production of “Thunderstorms,” performed in 1963 at the Moscow Academic Maly Theater. “I was not mistaken,” she writes, “deciding to relax not at a resort, but among Russian nature... Nothing took me away from my thoughts about “The Thunderstorm”... I was again overcome by a passionate desire to work on the role of Kabanikha and on the entire play "Storm". It became clear to me that this play is about the people, about the Russian heart, about the Russian man, about his spiritual beauty and strength."

The image of Ostrovsky acquires a special tangibility in Shchelykov. The playwright becomes closer, more understandable, more familiar both as a person and as an artist.

It is important to note that the number of tourists visiting the memorial museum and the grave of A. N. Ostrovsky is growing every year. In the summer of 1973, from two hundred to five hundred or more people visited the memorial museum every day.

Their entries left in guest books are interesting. Excursionists write that the life of Ostrovsky, a wonderful artist, a rare devotee of labor, an energetic public figure, and an ardent patriot, arouses their admiration. They emphasize in their notes that Ostrovsky’s works teach them an understanding of evil and good, courage, love of the motherland, truth, nature, and grace.

Ostrovsky is great in the versatility of his creativity, in that he depicted both the dark kingdom of the past and the bright rays of the future that arose in the social conditions of that time. Ostrovsky's life and work arouse a legitimate sense of patriotic pride in tourists. Great and glorious is the country that gave birth to such a writer!

The regular guests of the museum are workers and collective farmers. Deeply moved by everything they saw, they note in the museum’s diaries that the works of A. N. Ostrovsky, depicting the conditions of pre-revolutionary, capitalist Russia that enslave the working man, inspire the active construction of a communist society in which human talents will find their full expression.

Donbass miners in December 1971 enriched the museum’s diary with these short but expressive words: “Thank you to the miner for the museum. Let’s take home the memory of this house where the great A. N. Ostrovsky lived, worked and died.” On July 4, 1973, the workers of Kostroma noted: “Everything here tells us about what is most dear to a Russian person.”

The house-museum of A. N. Ostrovsky is very widely visited by secondary and high school students. It attracts scientists, writers, and artists. On June 11, 1970, employees of the Institute of Slavic Studies arrived here. “We are fascinated and captivated by Ostrovsky’s house,” this is how they expressed their impressions of what they saw. On July 13 of the same year, a group of Leningrad scientists visited here, who “saw with pride and joy” that “our people know how to appreciate and preserve so carefully and so touchingly everything that concerns the life ... of the great playwright.” On June 24, 1973, Moscow researchers wrote in a guest book: “Shchelykovo is a cultural monument of the Russian people of the same importance as the Yasnaya Polyana estate. Preserving it in its original form is a matter of honor and duty of every Russian person.”

Frequent guests of the museum are artists. On August 23, 1954, People's Artist of the USSR A. N. Gribov visited the museum and left a note in the guest book: “Magic house! Everything here breathes the real thing - Russian. And the land is magical! Nature itself sings here. Ostrovsky’s creations, glorifying the beauty of this region, are becoming closer, clearer and dearer to our Russian heart.”

In 1960, E. D. Turchaninova expressed her impressions of the Shchelykovo Museum: “I am glad and happy that... I was able to live in Shchelykovo more than once, where the nature and furnishings of the house where the playwright lived reflect the atmosphere of his work.” .

Foreign guests also come to Shchelykovo to admire its nature, visit the writer’s office, and visit his grave, more and more every year.

The tsarist government, hating Ostrovsky's democratic drama, deliberately left his ashes in the wilderness, where for many years it was a feat to travel. The Soviet government, bringing art closer to the people, turned Shchelykovo into a cultural center, into a center of propaganda for the work of the great national playwright, into a place of pilgrimage for workers. The narrow, literally impassable path to Ostrovsky’s grave became a wide road. People of various nationalities travel along it from all sides to bow to the great Russian playwright.

Eternally alive and beloved by the people, Ostrovsky, with his unfading works, inspires Soviet people - workers, peasants, intellectuals, innovators in production and science, teachers, writers, performers - to new successes for the good and happiness of their native Fatherland.

M. P. Sadovsky, characterizing Ostrovsky’s work, said beautifully: “Everything in the world is subject to change - from people’s thoughts to the cut of a dress; Only truth does not die, and no matter what new directions, new moods, new forms appear in literature, they will not kill Ostrovsky’s creations, and “the people’s path will not become overgrown” to this picturesque source of truth.

4

Speaking about the essence and role of drama and dramatic writers, Ostrovsky wrote: “History has reserved the name of great and brilliant only for those writers who knew how to write for the whole people, and only those works that survived the centuries that were truly popular at home: such works with over time they become understandable and valuable for other peoples, and finally for the whole world” (XII, 123).

These words perfectly characterize the meaning and significance of the activities of their author himself. The work of A. N. Ostrovsky had a huge impact on the drama and theater of all fraternal peoples now part of the USSR. His plays have been widely translated and staged on the stages of Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia and other fraternal nations since the late 50s of the 19th century. Their stage managers, playwrights, actors and directors perceived him as a teacher who paved new ways for the development of dramatic and stage art.

In 1883, when A. N. Ostrovsky arrived in Tiflis, members of the Georgian drama troupe addressed him with an address in which they called him “the creator of immortal creations.” “Pioneers of art in the East, we have seen and proven with our own eyes that your purely Russian folk creations can move the hearts and act on the minds of more than just the Russian public, that your famous name is just as loved among us, among Georgians, as it is with you, within Russia. We are infinitely happy that our humble lot has had the high honor of serving, with the help of your creations, as one of the links in the moral connection between these two peoples, who have so many common traditions and aspirations, so much mutual love and sympathy.”

Ostrovsky's powerful influence on the development of dramatic and performing arts of the fraternal peoples further intensified. In 1948, the outstanding Ukrainian director M. M. Krushelnitsky wrote: “For us, workers of the Ukrainian stage, the treasury of his work is at the same time one of the sources that enriches our theater with the life-giving power of Russian culture.”

More than half of A. N. Ostrovsky’s plays were performed on the stages of the fraternal republics after October. But among them, the ones that received the most attention were “Our own people - let us be numbered!”, “Poverty is not a vice”, “Profitable place”, “Thunderstorm”, “Simplicity is enough for every wise man”, “Forest”, “Snow Maiden”, “Wolves and Sheep” , “Dowry”, “Talents and Admirers”, “Guilty Without Guilt”. Many of these performances became major events in theatrical life. The beneficial influence of the author of “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry” on the drama and stage of fraternal peoples continues to this day.

Ostrovsky's plays, gaining more and more new admirers abroad, are widely staged in theaters of people's democratic countries, especially on the stages of Slavic states (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia).

After the Second World War, the plays of the great playwright increasingly attracted the attention of publishers and theaters in capitalist countries. Here they were primarily interested in the plays “The Thunderstorm”, “Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man”, “Forest”, “Snow Maiden”, “Wolves and Sheep”, “Dowry”. Moreover, the tragedy “The Thunderstorm” was shown in Paris (1945, 1967), Berlin (1951), Potsdam (1953), London (1966), Tehran (1970). The comedy “Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man” was staged in New York (1956), Delhi (1958), Bern (1958, 1963), London (1963). The comedy "The Forest" was shown in Copenhagen (1947, 1956), Berlin (1950, 1953), Dresden (1954), Oslo (1961), Milan (1962), West Berlin (1964), Cologne (1965), London (1970) , Paris (1970). Performances of The Snow Maiden took place in Paris (1946), Rome (1954), and Aarhus (Denmark, 1964).

The attention of foreign democratic viewers to Ostrovsky’s work is not weakening, but increasing. His plays are conquering more and more stages of the world theater.

It is quite natural that the interest of literary scholars in Ostrovsky has recently increased. Progressive domestic and foreign criticism placed A. N. Ostrovsky, even during his lifetime, among the most important playwrights in the world as the creator of timeless masterpieces that contributed to the formation and development of realism. Already in the first foreign article about Ostrovsky, published by the English literary critic V. Rolston in 1868, he is perceived as an outstanding playwright. In 1870, Jan Neruda, the founder of realism in Czech literature, argued that Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy was ideologically and aesthetically superior to the plays of any playwright of the 19th century, and, predicting its prospects, wrote: “In the history of dramaturgy, Ostrovsky will be given an honorable place ... thanks to the truth of the image and true humanity he will live for centuries."

All subsequent progressive criticism, as a rule, considers his work among the luminaries of world drama. It is in this spirit that, for example, the French Arsene Legrel (1885), Emile Durand-Greville (1889), Oscar Metenier (1894) write their prefaces to Ostrovsky’s plays.

In 1912, Jules Patuillet’s monograph “Ostrovsky and His Theater of Russian Morals” was published in Paris. This huge work (about 500 pages!) is an ardent propaganda of the work of Ostrovsky - a deep connoisseur, a truthful portrayer of Russian morals and a remarkable master of dramatic art.

The researcher defended the ideas of this work in his further activities. Refuting critics who did not underestimate the playwright’s skill (for example, Boborykin, Vogüet and Valishevsky), Patuillet wrote about him as a “classic of the stage”, who was a complete master of his craft already in the very first major play - “Our people - let’s be numbered!” .

The interest of foreign literary and theater scholars in Ostrovsky intensified after the October Revolution, especially after the end of the Second World War. It was at this time that the extremely original essence, genius, and greatness of Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy, which rightfully took its place among the most brilliant works of world dramatic art, became increasingly clear to progressive foreign literary researchers.

Thus, E. Wendt, in the preface to the Collected Works of Ostrovsky, published in 1951 in Berlin, states: “A. N. Ostrovsky, the greatest dramatic genius of Russia, belongs to the brilliant era of Russian critical realism of the second half of the 19th century, when Russian literature took a leading place in the world and had a profound influence on European and American literature.” Calling on theaters to stage Ostrovsky’s plays, he writes: “And if the leaders of our theaters open the work of the greatest playwright of the 19th century to the German stage, this will mean an enrichment of our classical repertoire, similar to the discovery of a second Shakespeare.”

According to the Italian literary critic Ettore Lo Gatto, expressed in 1955, the tragedy “The Thunderstorm”, which went around all the stages of Europe, remains eternally alive as a drama, because its deep humanity is “not only Russian, but also universal.”

The 150th anniversary of A. N. Ostrovsky contributed to a new intensification of attention to his drama and revealed its enormous international possibilities - the ability to respond to the moral problems not only of his compatriots, but also of other peoples of the globe. And that is why, by decision of UNESCO, this anniversary was celebrated all over the world.

Time, a great connoisseur, has not erased the inherent colors from Ostrovsky’s plays: the further it goes, the more it confirms their universal human essence, their undying ideological and aesthetic value.

April 12 marks the birthday of the great Russian writer and playwright Alexander Ostrovsky, whose works made an invaluable contribution to the development of the national theater of Russia.

Alexander Ostrovsky is one of the creators of the image of a simple Russian person in literature - this is where he saw one of his main services to Russian culture. During his rich creative life - almost forty years of work - he created, according to some sources, 49 plays, according to others - 54 plays. In his works, Alexander Nikolaevich vividly, vitally, truthfully showed those aspects of Russian life that others did not dare to touch upon. The colorful, truly folk language of his plays was so consistent with the speech of the Moscow merchants that Pushkin himself advised Russian writers to learn from Ostrovsky.

Figures and facts

• 47 original plays;
• 7 plays in collaboration with other playwrights;
• He translated 22 plays from Italian, Spanish, French, and Latin. He owns numerous translations from Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goldoni;
• There are 728 characters in Ostrovsky's plays, not counting the characters without speech.

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The same simplicity and realism distinguishes the Alexander Theater

Nikolaevich. Repeatedly, the playwright wrote “projects” and “notes” about the need for reforms of the Russian theater in various government agencies. In 1885, he was appointed head of the repertory department of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school. Ostrovsky said that on stage it is necessary to show not only extreme situations, but also ordinary people in everyday life, their psychological experiences and dramas. It is from Ostrovsky’s theater that it is customary to count down Russian theater in its modern understanding.

The main ideas of Alexander Ostrovsky proposed for theater reform:

1. the theater must be built on conventions (there is a 4th wall separating the audience from the actors);
2. constancy of attitude towards language: mastery of speech characteristics that express almost everything about the characters;
3. the bet is not on one actor;
4. “People go to watch the game, not the play itself - you can read it.”

An ardent opponent of the proposed innovations was one of the founders of the Russian acting school, Mikhail Shchepkin. Ostrovsky's dramaturgy required the actor to detach himself from his personality, which the artist did not do. Once Mikhail Semenovich even left the dress rehearsal of “The Thunderstorm”, being very dissatisfied with the author of the play. Nevertheless, Ostrovsky's theater received its development, and later his ideas were brought to their logical conclusion by Konstantin Stanislavsky and Mikhail Bulgakov.

Alexander Nikolaevich's plays do not leave the stages of theaters all over the world.

Many of his works served as the basis for the creation of film and television scripts and were completely filmed, for example, the popular comedy by Konstantin Voinov “The Marriage of Balzaminov” with Georgy Vitsin in the title role or “Cruel Romance”, based on the play by Alexander Nikolaevich “Dowry”.

The Irkutsk Drama Theater has been turning to the plays of Alexander Nikolaevich since 1857: it was here that Alexander Ostrovsky’s comedy “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!” was performed for the first time in Russia. in the original version. The play was written in 1850, but was immediately banned from performance on stage: censorship did not allow Ostrovsky’s work to be discussed in print. Therefore, immediately after the premiere, the Irkutsk Governor-General sent a request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in response to which a strict prohibition followed. The next time in Russia, “We Will Be Numbered Our Own People” was staged in 1861, with a revised ending. Since 1864, Ostrovsky’s “A Profitable Place,” “The Thunderstorm,” and “Poverty is Not a Vice” have been staged on the Irkutsk stage. The Irkutsk Theater has the honor of staging the play “Handsome Man,” written by Ostrovsky in 1883, for the first time in the country.

Born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow, he grew up in a merchant environment. His mother died when he was 8 years old. And the father married again. There were four children in the family.

Ostrovsky was educated at home. His father had a large library, where little Alexander first began to read Russian literature. However, the father wanted to give his son a legal education. In 1835, Ostrovsky began his studies at the gymnasium, and then entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. Due to his interests in theater and literature, he never completed his studies at the university (1843), after which he worked as a scribe in court at the insistence of his father. Ostrovsky served in the courts until 1851.

Ostrovsky's creativity

In 1849, Ostrovsky’s work “Our People – Let’s Be Numbered!” was written, which brought him literary fame; he was highly appreciated by Nikolai Gogol and Ivan Goncharov. Then, despite censorship, many of his plays and books were published. For Ostrovsky, writings are a way to truthfully depict the life of the people. The plays “The Thunderstorm”, “Dowry”, “Forest” are among his most important works. Ostrovsky's play "Dowry", like other psychological dramas, non-standardly describes the characters, the inner world, and the torment of the heroes.

Since 1856, the writer has been participating in the publication of the Sovremennik magazine.

Ostrovsky Theater

In the biography of Alexander Ostrovsky, theater takes pride of place.
Ostrovsky founded the Artistic Circle in 1866, thanks to which many talented people appeared in the theater circle.

Together with the Artistic Circle, he significantly reformed and developed the Russian theater.

Ostrovsky's house was often visited by famous people, including I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, Ivan Turgenev, A. F. Pisemsky, Fyodor Dostoevsky, P. M. Sadovsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, M. N. Ermolova and others.

In a brief biography of Ostrovsky, it is worth mentioning the emergence in 1874 of the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers, where Ostrovsky was chairman. With his innovations, he achieved improvement in the lives of theater actors. Since 1885, Ostrovsky headed the theater school and was the head of the repertoire of Moscow theaters.

Writer's personal life

It cannot be said that Ostrovsky’s personal life was successful. The playwright lived with a woman from a simple family, Agafya, who had no education, but was the first to read his works. She supported him in everything. All their children died at an early age. Ostrovsky lived with her for about twenty years. And in 1869 he married the artist Maria Vasilyevna Bakhmetyeva, who bore him six children.

last years of life

Until the end of his life, Ostrovsky experienced financial difficulties. Hard work greatly depleted the body, and the writer’s health increasingly failed. Ostrovsky dreamed of reviving a theater school in which professional acting could be taught, but the death of the writer prevented the implementation of his long-conceived plans.

Ostrovsky died on June 2(14), 1886 on his estate. The writer was buried next to his father, in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province.

Chronological table

Other biography options

• Since childhood, Ostrovsky knew Greek, German and French, and at a later age he also learned English, Spanish and Italian. All his life he translated plays into different languages, thus improving his skills and knowledge.
• The writer’s creative path spans 40 years of successful work on literary and dramatic works. His activities influenced an entire era of theater in Russia. For his works, the writer was awarded the Uvarov Prize in 1863.
• Ostrovsky is the founder of modern theatrical art, whose followers were such outstanding personalities as Konstantin Stanislavsky and

Transcript

1 TEST. “THE WORK OF A.N. OSTROVSKY” OPTION 1 1. What city was Ostrovsky born in? 2. In 1856 Ostrovsky became an employee of which magazine? : a) “Russian Messenger”, b) “Moscowite”, c) Sovremennik, d) “Epoch”. 3. What social class does Ostrovsky portray in his plays? 4. To what literary genre can the play “The Thunderstorm” be classified as defined by A.N. Ostrovsky? A) comedy of masks, B) lyrical comedy, C) tragedy, D) drama. 5. What is the name of the city in which the play “The Thunderstorm” takes place? 6. Which character owns the words: “cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel!” 7. Whom did Dobrolyubov call “a ray of light in the dark kingdom”? 8..Determine which of the characters owns the lines. a) “We only need to ask God for one thing, that she die as soon as possible.” b) “What kind of elation is there? A thunderstorm is given to us as punishment so that we can feel it, but you want to use poles and some kind of rods, God forgive me, defend yourself" c) "And people are disgusting to me, and the house is disgusting to me, and the walls are disgusting! I won't go there! I wish I could die now!... but I can’t live! Sin!" 9. What is Kudryash’s occupation (service)? 10. Which of the heroes of “The Thunderstorm” envied the dead Katerina, wanting to be in her place? 11. Who finds the body of the drowned Katerina? 12. Where does Boris go on Dikiy’s orders? 13. Ostrovsky’s main merit is: a) depicting the social contradictions of Russian reality B) creating historical plays c) creating a new literary type d) creating a repertoire for the Russian theater 14. Name the hero-reasoner in the drama “The Thunderstorm a) Tikhon b) Kabanikha c) Katerina d) Kuligin 15. Which scene in the drama “The Thunderstorm” is key in understanding the author’s intention? a) the scene of the meeting between Katerina and Boris b) the scene with the key c) the scene of Katerina’s farewell to Tikhon before his departure d) the scene of Katerina’s confession of a perfect sin 16. Which of the following characters is a minor one? a) Kabanikha b) Feklusha c) Tikhon d) Boris 17. What did Ostrovsky’s contemporaries call him? A) “Russian Moliere”, B) Columbus of Zamoskvorechye”, C) “Russian Baudelaire”, D) “Russian Maupassant”. 18. Name the theater with which all of Ostrovsky’s creative activities were connected. 19. What literary movement was A.N. Ostrovsky the founder of? 20. In what year was the drama “The Thunderstorm” created? 21. Name the type of literary hero that became Ostrovsky’s discovery? A) the “superfluous person” type b) the “little person” type c) the tramp type e) the tyrant type 22. What words end the play “The Thunderstorm”? a) “You ruined her, you, you” b) “Here’s your Katerina. Do what you want with her!” c) “Good for you, Katya! Why did I stay in the world and suffer!” d) “Thank you, good people, for your service” 23. Indicate what type of literature most of Ostrovsky’s works belong to? A) lyricism, B) drama, C) epic, D) lyric-epic. 24. What direction of thought does Ostrovsky support in the 19th century? a) Westernism b) Slavophilism

2 TEST. “THE WORK OF A.N. OSTROVSKY” OPTION Indicate the name and patronymic of Ostrovsky 2. What was the name of the first work that brought Ostrovsky fame? 3. What social class does Ostrovsky portray in his plays? 4. To what literary genre can the play “The Thunderstorm” be classified as defined by A.N. Ostrovsky: A) comedy of masks, B) lyrical comedy, C) tragedy, D) drama. 5. What is the name of the city in which the play “The Thunderstorm” takes place? 6. Which of the characters in the play owns the words: “Do whatever you want, as long as everything is sewn and covered”? 7. Whom did Dobrolyubov call “a ray of light in the dark kingdom”? 8. Determine which of the characters the lines belong to. a) “And you’re afraid to even look at the sky, it makes you tremble!” They've made a scare out of everything." b) "I don't know how to deceive, I can't hide anything." c) "People are disgusting to me, the house is disgusting to me, and the walls are disgusting to me! I won't go there! I wish I could die now!... but I can’t live! Sin!" 9. Which of the heroes of the drama “The Thunderstorm” does Dikoy threaten to send to the mayor and calls him a “false little peasant” and a “robber”? a) Kudryash b) Boris c) Tikhon d) Kuligin 10. What invention did Kuligin want to introduce into the life of his city? a) telegraph b) lightning rod c) printing press d) microscope 11. Which of the characters in the play is described by the author in the list of characters as “a young man, decently educated”? 12. At what point does Katerina confess to Tikhon that she has cheated? 13. Where does Boris go on Dikiy’s orders? 14. Which genre is most fully developed in Ostrovsky’s work? a) comedy b) tragedy c) social drama d) lyrical comedy 15. Name the hero-reasoner in the drama “The Thunderstorm a) Tikhon b) Kabanikha c) Katerina d) Kuligin 16. Katerina confesses to Tikhon in public that she has committed a sin. What made her do this? a) a feeling of shame b) fear of the mother-in-law c) pangs of conscience and the desire to atone for guilt before God d) the desire to leave with Boris 17. In what educational institution and at what faculty did Ostrovsky study? 18. Indicate what type of literature most of Ostrovsky’s works belong to? A) lyricism, B) drama, C) epic, D) lyric-epic. 19. Name the theater with which all of Ostrovsky’s creative activities were connected? 20. What literary movement was A.N. Ostrovsky the founder of? 21. In what year was the drama “The Thunderstorm” created? 22. Name the type of literary hero that became Ostrovsky’s discovery? a) the “superfluous person” type b) the “little person” type c) the tramp type d) the tyrant type 23. With what words does the play “The Thunderstorm” end? a) “You ruined her, you, you” b) “Here’s your Katerina. Do what you want with her!” c) “Good for you, Katya! Why did I stay in the world and suffer!” d) “Thank you, good people, for your service” 24. What direction of thought does Ostrovsky support in the 19th century? a) Westernism b) Slavophilism

3 Lesson analysis based on A.N. Ostrovsky’s play “Dowry” Lizunkova Irina Vladimirovna, teacher of Russian language and literature The article is assigned to the section: teaching the Russian language Lesson design: illustrations of the production of the play at the Maly Theater; film adaptation by E. Ryazanov (experience shows that it is recommended to get acquainted with the film before discussing the play in class in order to more emotionally perceive the work); poster: “Dowry on the stage of various theaters” (students prepare the poster themselves). Lesson objectives: deeper acquaintance with the works of A. N. Ostrovsky. During his forty years of work, he wrote about fifty original plays. It is clear that in literature lessons it is impossible to give a truly complete idea of ​​the wealth of Ostrovsky’s entire theater. But it is still necessary to show the main stages of the playwright’s path not only from the textbook and using the example of one work, textually studied at school (“The Thunderstorm”). It is important to trace how the playwright’s worldview and his attitude towards the merchants change from the first work “We Will Be Numbered Our Own People!” to works of a later period: “Mad Money”, “Snow Maiden”, “Dowry”, without avoiding the study of the programmatic work “The Thunderstorm”. This is where beauty leads into the deep end. A.N. Ostrovsky “The Thunderstorm” Lesson progress I. Teacher’s word. 1.Features of A. Ostrovsky’s creativity in the years. The creativity of this period is characterized by: - ​​stable themes; - touches to the psychological physiognomy of the Russian character; - strengthening social and political generalizations, on the one hand, deepening lyricism, appealing to universal human values, on the other hand; - increased attention to an unprotected person who stands out sharply for his moral qualities and complex spiritual world; - folklore is replaced by classical literature (Paratov, for example, quotes “Hamlet”); - folk song is being replaced by romance (Larissa sings Boratynsky’s romance “Don’t tempt me unnecessarily”). II. The history of the creation of the play "Dowry". Performances by students with individual assignments. III. Working with students based on Ostrovsky’s play “Dowry” (1879). The need to comprehend and ridicule social relations and interest in the life of the heart - this, as a rule, “coexisted” in Ostrovsky in one work of art. We will base our conversation on this feature. Conversation plan 1. The kingdom of predatory, chain and smart businessmen (checking homework - table “Life position of significant persons in the city”). 2. “Women’s issue” in Russia in the 1960s (individual assignment). 3. “I was looking for love.” The image of Larisa Ogudalova. 4. Katerina Kabanova and Larisa Ogudalova. Comparative characteristics. 1. “The kingdom of predatory, chain and smart businessmen” or “significant persons in the city.” Merchants from small traders become millionaires, establish international connections, and receive a European education. Merchant characters become more refined and complex. This is now a cultural bourgeois entrepreneur. What is the life position of Knurov, Vozhevaty and Paratov? (Students read quotes from the table they filled out at home.) Working with the table. Knurov Vozhevatov Paratov

4 “Significant persons of the city” - Yes, you can do things with money. It's good for those who have a lot of money. - Find people who will promise you tens of thousands for nothing, and then scold me. - If I say eagle, I’ll lose, eagle, of course, you. - You have to pay for pleasure, they don’t come for nothing. I know what a merchant’s word is. What I promised, I will fulfill: for me the word is the law, what is said is holy. Every product has a price. Brilliant master” - I am a person with rules, marriage is a sacred matter for me. - I’m the same barge hauler myself. - I don’t know what “sorry” is. I have nothing treasured; If I find a profit, I’ll sell everything, anything. - I have a rule: don’t forgive anyone anything - After all, I almost married Larisa - I wish I could make people laugh. - Gentlemen, I have a weakness for artists. So, we see that the merchants of post-reform Russia are far different from the bearded tyrant merchants. Many of the businessmen of recent times have studied finance and know the secrets of banking operations. Unlike the Zamoskvoretsk pioneers, they have studied and are studying the European experience of enrichment. It is no coincidence that Knurov, when visiting Bryakhimov, is mostly silent: there are no interesting interlocutors. He travels abroad to talk, sometimes to St. Petersburg or Moscow. To keep up to date with the matter, the owners of mines, steamships, and factories visit industrial exhibitions in Paris, read European newspapers, and seek the company of diplomats. There are art connoisseurs among them. What, for example, is the charm of Knurov and Vozhevaty? - Behave with dignity, are able to appreciate beauty, and sincerely admire talent. And yet, what was hidden under the external veneer of “civilized”, “Europeanized” businessmen? - At the heart of the actions of the post-reform bourgeois, in terms of the scope of their activities, methods of accumulation, way of life, external gloss, so unlike the pre-reform bearded merchants, lay the same predatory law: “To yourself, to yourself alone.” Knurov seemed to care about Larisa, offering his help and asking her mother whether she had thought enough about marrying off her daughter to a poor man. In reality, he is finding out whether it is possible in this “respectable” way, with the assistance of his mother, to make the girl my mistress. Like patriarchal tyrants, these people never give up their desires and are cruel in achieving their goals. “For me, the impossible is not enough,” admits Knurov. What is the complexity of Paratov’s character? - What reflects the paradox of the breadth of the Russian person: the ideal coexists with the greatest ugliness; spiritual upsurges culminate in the triumph of sober prose. - Paratov is a simulated image of a living person who decides his own destiny, having both his vices and his positive traits. The positivity of this image lies in the breadth of his soul, firmness and determination in taking life’s steps. Traits characteristic of the original Russian character. - when communicating with people, he maintains a level corresponding to the status of a “brilliant gentleman.” Paratov wins, makes mistakes, sins and forgives himself. The strength of this image is in its contradiction. Attractiveness lies in his vices. Extremes coexist organically in him. Scope and extravagance in everything: money, feelings, material and spiritual expenses. This cannot leave anyone indifferent: in men it evokes envy and a desire to imitate; women have admiration. But even those who have enough life experience and common sense to appreciate the danger of his presence nearby, for the most part surrender to the mercy of the seducer, succumbing to the magic of his brilliance, excitement, and male attraction. “Who do you look up to? Is such blindness possible! Sergei Sergeich... This is the ideal of a man.” Not only Larisa, but also hundreds of modern female readers sympathize with him, forgiving him everything in advance, like Larisa in the play, and dooming themselves to burn in his flame; they do not want to notice what he himself does not hide: his destructive essence. - Paratov is accustomed to success, accustomed to taking the best in life and not burdening himself with considerations of cost, even in the form of responsibility for the fate of those “whom he tamed.” His life principle: “If I find a profit, I’ll sell everything.” He has nothing treasured.

5 Conclusion. The only living soul in the world of cold and calculating businessmen is Larisa Ogudalova. 2. Ostrovsky’s drama was usually called the drama of a heroless era. The “hero in a tailcoat” (nobleman) and the intellectual are not wealthy. The cultured bourgeois entrepreneur, as we have just seen in the example of the heroes of the play, upon closer examination is also not suitable for the role of a hero. From the point of view of many, Ostrovsky limits himself to ridiculing everyone. At the center of Ostrovsky’s drama, as a rule, is a woman, a pure nature, who becomes the object of the struggle of morally bankrupt contenders for the role of hero. It is this woman who becomes the heroine of Ostrovsky’s works. And this is no coincidence. During this period, the “women’s question” became more acute due to concrete successes in the struggle for higher education (in 1872, Higher Women’s Courses were opened in Moscow and St. Petersburg). A striking example of the fact that a woman is no longer satisfied with the role of being with her husband or “behind her husband” is Sofya Perovskaya, who headed the Narodnaya Volya organization. She was an educated, decisive and courageous woman (she was hanged along with four Narodnaya Volya members on April 3, 1881). This is how F.M. wrote about women during this period. Dostoevsky: “In our woman, sincerity, perseverance, seriousness and honesty, the search for truth and sacrifice are more and more noticeable; and all this has always been higher in Russian women than in men. Woman is more persistent, more patient in action; she is more serious than a man, she wants business for the sake of the business itself, and not for the sake of appearance.” Dostoevsky is quite deep in his understanding of women. And yet Ostrovsky is deeper: he has no doubt that, despite all women’s desire for equality and education, it is in love that the most important, fundamental thing happens for them. Freedom does not give a woman happiness. She fights, but the subject of her struggle is not education, not legal freedoms, but the love of her chosen one. In this battle, she suffers and grows spiritually, but since her lover is not ready to possess such a woman, she will inevitably be disappointed, her perfections will be in vain. Larisa is a shining example of such a woman. One can say about her that she fights with illusions 3. The image of Larisa Ogudalova. Meaning of the name. Larisa is a significant name, like any name from Ostrovsky: translated from Greek - seagull. Larisa is prone to various types of art and loves everything beautiful. Women named Larisa are charming, smart, neat, and always the center of attention, especially among men. This is Ostrovsky’s Larisa. Dreamy and artistic, she does not notice the vulgar sides in people, sees them through the eyes of the heroine of a Russian romance and acts in accordance with it. For her, there is only a world of pure passions, selfless love, and charm. Characteristics of Larisa (according to the text and textbook). Students' answers: - Here is the author's description, given through a remark: “Larissa is a young girl, dressed richly, but modestly.” She evokes respect and admiration from those around her. Knurov says about her: “It’s nice to see her alone more often, without interference” Or: “Larissa was created for luxury.” - His opinion is shared by Larisa’s longtime friend Vozhevatov: “The young lady is pretty, plays different instruments, sings, has a free manner, and that’s what pulls her off.” He tells Knurov the story of Larisa’s love for Paratov: “And she loved him, she almost died of grief. How sensitive!” - Larisa did not know how to hide her feelings from others. Knurov says about her: “She’s not stupid, but she has no cunning. To whom she is disposed, she does not hide it at all.” - In conversation she is open and straightforward. Always has his own opinion. Doesn't like being pointed out to her. When Karandyshev forbids her to sing, she is indignant: “Are you forbidding? So I will sing, gentlemen.” - The bargaining for Larisa includes all the male heroes of the play. A whole circle of contenders forms around her. But what are they offering her? Knurov and Vozhevaty content. Karandyshev - the position of an honest married woman and a dull existence. Paratov wants to spend his last days of bachelorhood in style. Larisa is just a strong passion for him. Who wasn't interested? This is his philosophy. - The main thing for Larisa is love. She completely trusts her chosen one and is ready to follow him to the ends of the earth: “Paratov. Now or never. Larisa. Let's go.

6 Paratov. How do you decide to go beyond the Volga? Larisa. Wherever you want." And neither the persuasion of her mother nor the reproaches of her future husband can keep her from the opportunity to be close to her beloved: “All sorts of chains are not a hindrance! We will carry them together, I will share this burden with you, I will take on most of the weight.” - Larisa sings to Paratov based on Baratynsky’s poem “Do not tempt me unnecessarily.” In the spirit of this romance, Larisa perceives both Paratov’s character and her relationship with him. For her, there is a world of only pure passions, selfless love, and charm. In her eyes, the affair with Paratov is a story about how, shrouded in mystery and enigma, the fatal seducer, despite Larisa’s pleas, tempted her. (fragment from the film “Cruel Romance.”) - But gradually the inconsistency with Larisa’s romantic ideas and the prosaic world of the people who surround her and worship her grows as the action of the drama develops. - Challenging Paratov’s inconstancy, Larisa is ready to marry Karandyshev. She also idealizes him. In her performance, she imbues him with kindness and a loving soul. But the heroine does not feel the wounded, proud, envious basis of Karandyshev’s soul. He rather celebrates victory than loves. He pleases his pride that a woman like Larisa chose him. But Larisa does not notice this for a long time, because she does not see anything vulgar in people at all, acting in accordance with romances, living according to their laws. - But insight comes. The deepest disappointment for Larisa is that all people treat her like a thing. “It’s a thing, it’s a thing! They are right, I am a thing, not a person. I’m now convinced that I’ve tested myself, I’m a thing!” she wanted something completely different: “I was looking for love and didn’t find it. They looked at me and look at me as if I was funny. No one ever tried to look into my soul, I didn’t see sympathy from anyone, I didn’t hear a warm, heartfelt word. But it’s cold to live like this” - In a fit of despair, Larisa challenges the world of profit: “Well, if you are a thing, then the only consolation is to be expensive, very expensive.” - Larisa herself is not capable of taking a more decisive step, but Karandyshev’s shot is perceived by her as a blessing. This is probably the only act not done out of calculation, the only manifestation of a living feeling. Larisa dies with words of forgiveness on her lips: “My dear, what a good deed you have done for me! The gun is here, here on the table! It’s me myself. Oh, what a blessing!” Critics about Larisa. (Statements about Larisa are written on the board.) P.D. Boboryrykin: “This girl with her suffering could attract our attention if she were a colorful, large, socially significant person. Alas, there is nothing of this in her, Larisa speaks banalities, her story about why she considers Paratov, “a libertine and an impudent person,” to be a “hero” is simply ridiculous because of her mental and moral “baseness.” V.Ya. Lakshin: “It’s hard to judge Larisa for this emptiness of her soul.” B.O. Kostelianets: “The spiritual strength of Larisa is reflected in the fact that when her love is trampled upon, when this causes in her anger, depression, cowardice, bitterness, malice, she is still able to understand what she is doomed to. She confronts the situation and does not give herself up to temptation.” V. Korovin: “Larissa is the heroine of a psychological drama only because the action is centered around her. But by its nature it lacks integrity.” Conversation on questions: 1. Can you agree that Larisa cannot “attract your attention”, since she is not “large”, not “colorful” as a person, there is nothing “socially significant” about her? 2. Could you call Larisa’s speeches “banal”, “funny”, “mentally base”? Justify your opinion. 3. Can you agree that the heroine demonstrates “emptiness of soul”? If you agree with this, then why is it difficult to blame the heroine herself? 4. Can you agree that Larisa at a certain moment experiences “anger, depression, cowardice, bitterness, malice”? Justify your answer by referring to the text. 5. Do you agree with the idea of ​​the critic V. Korovin that Larisa is the heroine of a “psychological drama”? 6. Do you agree that the heroine of the drama lacks “integrity”? 7. How and by whom is “temptation” presented in “Dowry”? Does it take Larisa much mental strength not to give herself up to the “prey of temptation”?

7 8. Do you agree that Larisa is characterized by “mental strength”? 9. Whose attitude towards the heroine do you think is more logical and correct? Conclusion. Larisa is a wonderful image: a lovely, pure, intelligent, richly gifted girl. She greedily reaches out to a bright life full of love (“I, like a butterfly to a fire, strove so irresistibly”), but is doomed to perish in the conditions of golden chains (“Love is a deceitful country, and everyone in it is unhappy”). This is a “warm heart” in the heartless world of buying and selling, cynical bargaining. This is a white seagull caught in a flock of vultures. 1. Katerina and Larisa. Comparative characteristics. Drawing up a table. Various. Katerina Larisa Catherine's soul grows from folk songs, fairy tales and legends. A centuries-old peasant culture lives in her worldview. Katerina is religious and devout. Katerina's character is integral, stable and decisive. Larisa Ogudalova is a much more fragile and unprotected girl. Larisa is not supported by anything; neither religion, nor the church, nor fear of the devil, nor fear of punishment for the triumph of just love. In her musically sensitive soul, gypsy songs and Russian romances, poems by Lermontov and Boratynsky sound. Her nature is more refined and psychologically multicolored. But that is precisely why she is deprived of the inner strength and uncompromisingness characteristic of Katerina: “It is not so easy to part with life, but there are people for whom it is easy.” General. In the apt expression of A.I. Revyakina, Katerina and Larisa are “images of great human passions.” Both Larisa and Katerina wanted to love and be loved, but they were deceived. Both Larisa and Katerina differ from others in that they do not have double morality. (Katerina is the same whether “in front of people or without people”; according to Knurov, in Larisa there is “no cunning.”) They are also united by the image of the great Russian Volga, a symbol of beauty, strength, power. She alone freely carries her waters, absorbing the beauty “that is poured out in nature,” and the beauty of the “hot heart,” tormented by captivity, thirsting for light, air, and liberation. In the waves of the Volga, Katerina found her only possible liberation; almost two decades later, on the banks of the same fabulously beautiful river, Larisa, a person of a “warm heart,” found freedom. “This is where beauty leads into the deep end.” IV. Summarizing. In “The Dowry,” Ostrovsky comes to reveal complex, psychologically polyphonic human characters and life conflicts. It is no coincidence that V.F. became famous in the role of Larisa. Komissarzhevskaya, actress of refined spiritual insights. The main idea of ​​"The Dowry" is the assertion that society is dominated by a heartless "pure man", turning the poor into one obsessed with an insatiable thirst for profit and enrichment. To be a self-aware person and not be able to express it is the tragic situation in which a person deprived of material security found himself in these conditions. Here “idols” like the millionaire Knurov triumph, with their cynicism and wolfish grip, and honest people perish, entering into an unequal struggle. The statement of A.I. is correct. Revyakin that “for the plots of his plays, Ostrovsky chose not small everyday facts and events, but the most significant, typical, generally interesting, capable of touching millions of people from the most diverse social strata.” The accuracy of Ostrovsky’s work is confirmed by the fact that the play “Dowry” is being performed with great success in many theaters across the country, as evidenced by the poster you prepared. And in a review of the play by a theater critic we read: Every time I am convinced how modern Ostrovsky is. It feels like it’s today on stage.” V. Homework. Essay on the topic: “Why do people lie that Ostrovsky is outdated?”

8 Essay topics. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky "We are our own people." "Storm". "Dowry" 1. Old and new merchants as depicted by A. N. Ostrovsky based on the play "We Will Be Numbered Our Own People." 2. The nature of the conflict and its development in the play "The Thunderstorm". 3. The picture of the "dark kingdom" in the drama "The Thunderstorm". 4. The problem of national character in the play "The Thunderstorm". b. Katerina's suicide is a strength or weakness of character? 6. The meaning of the title of the play "The Thunderstorm". 7. The theme of money in the play "Dowry" ". 8. The heroines of A. N. Ostrovsky's plays "The Thunderstorm" and "Dowry". KEY TO THE TEST OPTION 1 OPTION 2 1. Moscow 1. Alexander Nikolaevich 2. in 2. “Our people - we will be numbered” 3. merchants 3. merchants 4. g 4. g 5. Kalinov 5. Kalinov 6. Kuligin 6. Varvara 7. Katerina 7. Katerina 8. a) Boris 8. a) Kuligin B) Dikoy B) Katerina C) Katerina C) Katerina 9. clerk 9 g 10. Tikhon 10. b 11. Kuligin 11. Boris 12. To Siberia 12. In a thunderstorm 13. g 13. To Siberia 14. g) 14. c 15. g 15 g 16. b 16. c 17. b 17. Moscow University, Law 18. Maly Theater 18. b 19. critical realism 19. Maly Theater critical realism 21. d c 22. d 23. b 23. c 24. b 24. b

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