Description of the city of Kalinov and its inhabitants. Essay “The city of Kalinov and its inhabitants in the “Thunderstorm”. Ostrovsky - Columbus of merchant life

The theater season of 1859 was marked by a bright event - the premiere of the work “The Thunderstorm” by playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. Against the background of the rise of the democratic movement for the abolition of serfdom, his play was more than relevant. As soon as it was written, it was literally torn from the author’s hands: the production of the play, completed in July, was on the St. Petersburg stage already in August!

A fresh look at Russian reality

A clear innovation was the image shown to the viewer in Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”. The playwright, born in a merchant district of Moscow, thoroughly knew the world he presented to the audience, inhabited by philistines and merchants. The tyranny of the merchants and the poverty of the townspeople reached completely ugly forms, which, of course, was facilitated by the notorious serfdom.

Realistic, as if written off from life, the production (initially in St. Petersburg) made it possible for people buried in everyday affairs to suddenly see the world in which they live from the outside. It's no secret - mercilessly ugly. Hopeless. Indeed, it is a “dark kingdom”. What they saw was a shock to the people.

Average image of a provincial town

The image of the “lost” city in Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” was not only associated with the capital. The author, while working on material for his play, purposefully visited a number of settlements in Russia, creating typical, collective images: Kostroma, Tver, Yaroslavl, Kineshma, Kalyazin. Thus, the city dweller saw from the stage a broad picture of life in central Russia. In Kalinov, the Russian city dweller learned about the world in which he lived. It was like a revelation that needed to be seen, realized...

It would be unfair not to note that Alexander Ostrovsky adorned his work with one of the most remarkable female characters in Russian classical literature. The author used the actress Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya as a prototype for creating the image of Katerina. Ostrovsky simply inserted her type, manner of speaking, and remarks into the plot.

The radical protest against the “dark kingdom” chosen by the heroine - suicide - was also not original. After all, there was no shortage of stories when, among the merchants, a person was “eaten alive” behind “high fences” (expressions taken from Savel Prokofich’s story to the mayor). Reports of such suicides periodically appeared in Ostrovsky's contemporary press.

Kalinov as a kingdom of unhappy people

The image of the “lost” city in Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” was indeed similar to the fairy-tale “dark kingdom”. Very few truly happy people lived there. If ordinary people worked hopelessly, leaving only three hours a day for sleep, then employers tried to enslave them to an even greater extent in order to further enrich themselves from the labor of the unfortunate.

Prosperous townspeople - merchants - fenced themselves off from their fellow citizens with tall fences and gates. However, according to the same merchant Dikiy, there is no happiness behind these constipations, because they fenced themselves off “not from thieves,” but so that it would not be seen how “the rich... eat their household.” And behind these fences they “rob relatives, nephews...”. They beat the family members so much that they “don’t dare make a murmur.”

Apologists of the “dark kingdom”

Obviously, the image of the “lost” city in Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” is not at all independent. The richest townsman is the merchant Dikoy Savel Prokofich. This is the type of person who is unscrupulous in his means, accustomed to humiliating ordinary people and underpaying them for their work. So, in particular, he himself talks about an episode when a peasant turns to him with a request to borrow money. Savel Prokofich himself cannot explain why he went into a rage then: he cursed and then almost killed the unfortunate man...

He is also a real tyrant for his relatives. His wife daily begs visitors not to anger the merchant. His domestic violence forces his family to hide from this tyrant in closets and attics.

The negative images in the drama “The Thunderstorm” are also complemented by the rich widow of the merchant Kabanov, Marfa Ignatievna. She, unlike Wild, “eats” her family. Moreover, Kabanikha (this is her street nickname) tries to completely subjugate her household to her will. Her son Tikhon is completely deprived of independence and is a pitiful semblance of a man. Daughter Varvara “didn’t break,” but she changed radically internally. Her principles of life were deception and secrecy. “So that everything is covered up,” as Varenka herself claims.

Kabanikha drives his daughter-in-law Katerina to suicide, extorting compliance with the far-fetched Old Testament order: bowing to her husband as he enters, “howling in public,” seeing off her husband. The critic Dobrolyubov in his article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom” writes about this mockery like this: “It gnaws for a long time and relentlessly.”

Ostrovsky - Columbus of merchant life

Characteristics of the drama “The Thunderstorm” were given in the press of the early 19th century. Ostrovsky was called “Columbus of the patriarchal merchants.” His childhood and youth were spent in a region of Moscow populated by merchants, and as a court official, he more than once encountered the “dark side” of the life of various “Wild” and “Boars”. What was previously hidden from society behind the high fences of mansions has become obvious. The play caused a significant resonance in society. Contemporaries recognized that the dramatic masterpiece raises a large layer of problems of Russian society.

Conclusion

The reader, getting acquainted with the work of Alexander Ostrovsky, certainly discovers a special, non-personified character - the city in the drama “The Thunderstorm”. This city created real monsters that oppress people: Wild and Kabanikha. They are an integral part of the “dark kingdom”.

It is noteworthy that it is these characters who with all their might support the dark patriarchal meaninglessness of house-building in the city of Kalinov, and personally instill misanthropic morals in it. The city as a character is static. It was as if he had frozen in his development. At the same time, it is noticeable that the “dark kingdom” in the drama “The Thunderstorm” is living out its days. Kabanikha’s family is collapsing... Dikaya expresses concerns about her mental health... The townspeople understand that the natural beauty of the Volga region is discordant with the heavy moral atmosphere of the city.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is rightfully considered a singer of the merchant milieu. He is the author of about sixty plays, the most famous of which are “Our People – We Will Be Numbered”, “The Thunderstorm”, “Dowry” and others.

“The Thunderstorm,” as Dobrolyubov characterized it, is the author’s “most decisive work,” since the mutual relations of tyranny and voicelessness are brought to tragic consequences in it...” It was written at a time of social upsurge, on the eve of the peasant reform, as if crowning the author’s cycle of plays about "dark kingdom"

The writer’s imagination takes us to a small merchant town on the banks of the Volga, “... all in greenery, from the steep banks distant spaces covered with villages and fields are visible. A blessed summer day beckons you to go outside, under the open sky…”, admire the local beauty, take a walk along the boulevard. Residents have already taken a closer look at the beautiful nature in the vicinity of the city, and it does not please the eye of anyone. The townspeople spend most of their time at home: running the household, relaxing, and in the evenings “...they sit on the rubble at the gate and engage in pious conversations.” They are not interested in anything that goes beyond the city limits. The inhabitants of Kalinov learn about what is happening in the world from wanderers who, “themselves, due to their weakness, did not walk far, but heard a lot.” Feklusha enjoys great respect among the townspeople; her stories about the lands where people with dog heads live are perceived as irrefutable information about the world. It is not at all disinterested that she supports Kabanikha and Dikiy, their concepts of life, although these characters are the leaders of the “dark kingdom”.

In Kabanikha’s house, everything is built on the authority of power, just like in the Wild. She forces her loved ones to sacredly honor the rituals and follow the old customs of Domostroy, which she has remade in her own way. Marfa Ignatievna internally realizes that there is nothing to respect her for, but she does not admit this even to herself. With her petty demands, reminders and suggestions, Kabanikha achieves the unquestioning obedience of her household.

Dikoy matches her, whose greatest joy is to abuse a person and humiliate him. For him, swearing is also a way of self-defense when it comes to money, which he hates to give away.

But something is already eroding their power, and they see with horror how the “covenants of patriarchal morality” are crumbling. This “the law of time, the law of nature and history takes its toll, and the old Kabanovs breathe heavily, feeling that there is a force above them that they cannot overcome,” however, they are trying to instill their rules in the younger generation, and not to no avail.

For example, Varvara is the daughter of Marfa Kabanova. Her main rule: “do what you want, as long as everything is sewn and covered.” She is smart, cunning, and before marriage she wants to be everywhere and try everything. Varvara adapted to the “dark kingdom” and learned its laws. I think her bossiness and desire to deceive makes her very similar to her mother.

The play shows the similarities between Varvara and Kudryash. Ivan is the only one in the city of Kalinov who can answer Dikiy. “I am considered a rude person; Why is he holding me? Therefore, he needs me. Well, that means I’m not afraid of him, but let him be afraid of me…” says Kudryash.

In the end, Varvara and Ivan leave the “dark kingdom”, but I think they are unlikely to be able to completely free themselves from old traditions and laws.

Now let's turn to the true victims of tyranny. Tikhon, Katerina’s husband, is weak-willed and spineless, obeys his mother in everything and slowly becomes an alcoholic. Of course, Katerina cannot love and respect such a person, but her soul longs for real feeling. She falls in love with Dikiy's nephew, Boris. But Katya fell in love with him, in Dobrolyubov’s apt expression, “in the wilderness.” In essence, Boris is the same Tikhon, only more educated. He traded love for his grandmother's inheritance.

Katerina differs from all the characters in the play in the depth of her feelings, honesty, courage and determination. “I don’t know how to deceive; I can’t hide anything,” she says to Varvara. Gradually, life in her mother-in-law's house becomes unbearable for her. She sees a way out of this impasse in her death. Katya’s act stirred up this “quiet swamp”, because there were also sympathetic souls, for example, Kuligin, a self-taught mechanic. He is kind and obsessed with the desire to do something useful for people, but all his intentions run into a thick wall of misunderstanding and ignorance.

Thus, we see that all the residents of Kalinov belong to the “dark kingdom”, which sets its own rules and orders here, and no one can change them, because these are the morals of this city, and whoever fails to adapt to such an environment is, alas, doomed to death.

Homework for the lesson

1. Write down the definition of the word in your notebook remark.
2. Look up the interpretation of words in the explanatory dictionary wanderer, pilgrimage.

Question

Where does Ostrovsky's play "The Thunderstorm" take place?

Answer

The play takes place in the Volga town of Kalinov.

Answer

Through stage directions.

Already the first remark contains a description of the landscape. "A public garden on the banks of the Volga; beyond the Volga there is a rural view; on the stage there are two benches and several bushes."

The viewer seems to see with his own eyes the beauty of Russian nature.

Question

Which character introduces readers to the atmosphere of the city of Kalinov? How does he characterize the city of Kalinov?

Answer

Kuligin’s words: “Miracles, truly it must be said that they are miracles! ...for fifty years I have been looking at the Volga every day and I can’t get enough of everything. The view is extraordinary! Beauty. My soul rejoices.”

Question

What laws underlie the life of Mr. Kalinov? Is everything as good in the city of Kalinov as it seems at first glance?

Answer

Kuligin speaks about the inhabitants of his city and their morals as follows: “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, are cruel. In the philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and naked poverty. And we, sir, will never get out of this hole !"

Despite the fact that Kalinov is located in a beautiful place, each of its residents spends almost all of their time behind the high fences of their estates. “And what tears flow behind these constipations, invisible and inaudible!” - Kuligin paints a picture of the city.

Next to poetry, there is a completely different, ugly, unsightly, repulsive side of Kalinov’s reality. Here merchants undermine each other's trade, tyrants mock their households, here they receive all information about other lands from ignorant wanderers, here they believe that Lithuania “fell from the sky on us.”

Nothing interests the residents of this city. Occasionally some incredible rumor will fly here, for example, that the Antichrist has been born.

News is brought by wanderers who have not wandered for a long time, but only convey what they have heard somewhere.

Wanderers- a common type of people in Rus' who go on pilgrimage. Among them there were many individuals who were purposeful, inquisitive, hardworking, who had learned and seen a lot. They were not afraid of difficulties, road inconveniences, or meager food. There were among them the most interesting people, sort of philosophers with their own special, original attitude to life, who walked from Rus', endowed with a keen eye and figurative speech. Many writers loved to talk with them, L.N. showed particular interest in them. Tolstoy, N.S. Leskov, A.M. Bitter. A.N. also knew them. Ostrovsky.

In acts II and III, the playwright brings the wanderer Feklusha onto the stage.

Exercise

Let's turn to the text. Let's read the dialogue between Feklushi and Glasha by role. P.240. (II act).

Question

How does this dialogue characterize Feklusha?

Answer

This wanderer intensively spreads superstitious tales and absurd fantastic rumors throughout the cities and towns. Such are her messages about the belittlement of time, about people with dog heads, about scattering tares, about a fiery serpent... Ostrovsky did not portray an original, highly moral person, but a selfish, ignorant, deceitful nature that cares not about its soul, but about its stomach.

Exercise

Let's read the monologue of Kabanova and Feklusha at the beginning of Act III. (P.251).

A comment

Feklusha is readily accepted in Kalinov’s houses: her absurd stories are needed by the owners of the city, wanderers and pilgrims support the authority of their government. But she also disinterestedly spreads her “news” throughout the city: they will feed you here, give you something to drink here, give you gifts there...

The life of the city of Kalinov with its streets, alleys, high fences, gates with strong locks, wooden houses with patterned shutters, and townspeople was reproduced by A.N. Ostrovsky in great detail. Nature has fully “entered” the work, with the high Volga bank, expanses beyond the river, and a beautiful boulevard.

Ostrovsky so carefully recreated the scene of the play that we can very clearly imagine the city of Kalinov itself, as it is depicted in the play. It is significant that it is located on the banks of the Volga, from the high slope of which wide open spaces and boundless distances open up. These pictures of endless expanses, echoed in the song “Among the Flat Valley,” are of great importance for conveying the feeling of the immense possibilities of Russian life and, on the other hand, the constraint of life in a small merchant town. Volga impressions were widely and generously included in the fabric of Ostrovsky's play.

Conclusion

Ostrovsky showed a fictional city, but it looks extremely reliable. The author saw with pain how politically, economically and culturally backward Russia was, how dark the country's population was, especially in the provinces.

It seems as if Kalinov is fenced off from the whole world by a tall fence and lives some kind of special, closed life. But is it really possible to say that this is a unique Russian town, that life is completely different in other places? No, this is a typical picture of Russian provincial reality.

Homework

1. Write a letter about the city of Kalinov on behalf of one of the characters in the play.
2. Select quotation material to characterize Dikiy and Kabanova.
3. What impression did the central figures of “The Thunderstorm” – Dikaya and Kabanov – make on you? What brings them together? Why do they manage to “tyrannize”? What is their power based on?

Literature

Based on materials from the Encyclopedia for Children. Literature Part I
Avanta+, M., 1999

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was a master of precise descriptions. The playwright in his works managed to show all the dark sides of the human soul. Perhaps unsightly and negative, but without which it is impossible to create a complete picture. Criticizing Ostrovsky, Dobrolyubov pointed to his “folk” worldview, seeing the writer’s main merit in the fact that Ostrovsky was able to notice those qualities in Russian people and society that can hinder natural progress. The theme of the “dark kingdom” is raised in many of Ostrovsky’s dramas. In the play “The Thunderstorm,” the city of Kalinov and its inhabitants are shown as limited, “dark” people.

The city of Kalinov in “The Thunderstorm” is a fictional space. The author wanted to emphasize that the vices that exist in this city are characteristic of all Russian cities at the end of the 19th century. And all the problems that are raised in the work existed everywhere at that time. Dobrolyubov calls Kalinov a “dark kingdom.” The definition of a critic fully characterizes the atmosphere described in Kalinov. Residents of Kalinov should be considered inextricably linked with the city. All the inhabitants of the city of Kalinov deceive each other, steal, and terrorize other family members. Power in the city belongs to those who have money, and the mayor’s power is only nominal. This becomes clear from Kuligin’s conversation. The mayor comes to Dikiy with a complaint: the men complained about Savl Prokofievich, because he cheated them. Dikoy does not try to justify himself at all; on the contrary, he confirms the words of the mayor, saying that if merchants steal from each other, then there is nothing wrong with the merchant stealing from ordinary residents. Dikoy himself is greedy and rude. He constantly swears and grumbles. We can say that due to greed, Savl Prokofievich’s character deteriorated. There was nothing human left in him. The reader even sympathizes with Gobsek from the story of the same name by O. Balzac more than with Dikiy. There are no feelings towards this character other than disgust. But in the city of Kalinov, its inhabitants themselves indulge the Dikiy: they ask him for money, they are humiliated, they know that they will be insulted and, most likely, they will not give the required amount, but they ask anyway. Most of all, the merchant is annoyed by his nephew Boris, because he also needs money. Dikoy is openly rude to him, curses him and demands that he leave. Culture is alien to Savl Prokofievich. He doesn't know either Derzhavin or Lomonosov. He is only interested in the accumulation and increase of material wealth.

Kabanikha is different from Wild. “Under the guise of piety,” she tries to subordinate everything to her will. She raised an ungrateful and deceitful daughter and a spineless, weak son. Through the prism of blind maternal love, Kabanikha does not seem to notice Varvara’s hypocrisy, but Marfa Ignatievna perfectly understands what she has made her son. Kabanikha treats her daughter-in-law worse than the others. In her relationship with Katerina, Kabanikha’s desire to control everyone and instill fear in people is manifested. After all, the ruler is either loved or feared, but there is nothing to love Kabanikha for.
It is necessary to note the telling surname of Dikiy and the nickname Kabanikha, which refer readers and viewers to wild, animal life.

Glasha and Feklusha are the lowest link in the hierarchy. They are ordinary residents who are happy to serve such gentlemen. There is an opinion that every nation deserves its own ruler. In the city of Kalinov this is confirmed many times. Glasha and Feklusha are having dialogues about how there is “sodom” in Moscow now, because people there are starting to live differently. Culture and education are alien to the residents of Kalinov. They praise Kabanikha for advocating for the preservation of the patriarchal system. Glasha agrees with Feklusha that only the Kabanov family has preserved the old order. Kabanikha’s house is heaven on earth, because in other places everything is mired in depravity and bad manners.

The reaction to a thunderstorm in Kalinov is more similar to a reaction to a large-scale natural disaster. People are running to save themselves, trying to hide. This is because a thunderstorm becomes not just a natural phenomenon, but a symbol of God’s punishment. This is how Savl Prokofievich and Katerina perceive her. However, Kuligin is not at all afraid of thunderstorms. He urges people not to panic, tells Dikiy about the benefits of the lightning rod, but he is deaf to the requests of the inventor. Kuligin cannot actively resist the established order; he has adapted to life in such an environment. Boris understands that in Kalinov, Kuligin’s dreams will remain dreams. At the same time, Kuligin differs from other residents of the city. He is honest, modest, plans to earn money by his own labor, without asking the rich for help. The inventor studied in detail all the ways in which the city lives; knows what is happening behind closed doors, knows about the Wild One’s deceptions, but cannot do anything about it.

Ostrovsky in “The Thunderstorm” depicts the city of Kalinov and its inhabitants from a negative point of view. The playwright wanted to show how deplorable the situation is in the provincial cities of Russia, and emphasized that social problems require immediate solutions.

The given description of the city of Kalinov and its inhabitants will be useful to 10th grade students when preparing an essay on the topic “The city of Kalinov and its inhabitants in the play “The Thunderstorm”.”

Work test

"The Thunderstorm" - drama AN. Ostrovsky. Written in July-October 1859. First publication: the magazine “Library for Reading” (1860, vol. 158, January). The first acquaintance of the Russian public with the play caused a whole “critical storm”. Prominent representatives of all directions of Russian thought considered it necessary to speak out about the “Thunderstorm”. It was obvious that the content of this folk drama reveals “the deepest recesses of non-Europeanized Russian life” (A.I. Herzen). The dispute about it resulted in a debate about the basic principles of national existence. Dobrolyubov’s concept of the “dark kingdom” emphasized the social content of the drama. And A. Grigoriev considered the play as an “organic” expression of the poetry of folk life. Later, in the 20th century, a point of view arose on the “dark kingdom” as the spiritual element of the Russian person (A.A. Blok), and a symbolic interpretation of the drama was proposed (F.A. Stepun).

Image of the city of Kalinova

The city of Kalinov appears in the play “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky as a kingdom of “captivity”, in which living life is regulated by a strict system of rituals and prohibitions. This is a world of cruel morals: envy and self-interest, “dark debauchery and drunkenness,” quiet complaints and invisible tears. The flow of life here has remained the same as one hundred and two hundred years ago: with the languor of a hot summer day, decorous Compline, festive revelry, and nightly dates of couples in love. The completeness, originality and self-sufficiency of the life of the Kalinovites does not need any going beyond its limits - to where everything is “wrong” and “in their opinion everything is the opposite”: the law is “unrighteous”, and the judges “are also all unrighteous”, and “ people with dog heads." Rumors about the long-standing “Lithuanian ruin” and that Lithuania “fell from the sky on us” reveal the “historiosophy of the laity”; simple-minded reasoning about the picture of the Last Judgment - “theology of the simple,” primitive eschatology. “Closedness”, distance from “big time” (M.M. Bakhtin’s term) is a characteristic feature of the city of Kalinov.

Universal sinfulness (“It is impossible, mother, without sin: we live in the world”) is an essential, ontological characteristic of Kalinov’s world. The only way to fight sin and curb self-will is seen by the Kalinovites in the “law of life and custom” (P.A. Markov). The “law” has burdened, simplified, and crushed living life in its free impulses, aspirations and desires. “The predatory wisdom of this world” (the expression of G. Florovsky) comes through in the spiritual cruelty of Kabanikha, the dense obstinacy of the Kalinovites, the predatory spirit of Kudryash, the resourceful sharpness of Varvara, the flabby compliance of Tikhon. The stamp of social outcast marks the appearance of the “non-covetous” and silver-free Kuligin. Unrepentant sin wanders around the city of Kalinov in the guise of a crazy old woman. The graceless world languishes under the oppressive weight of the “Law”, and only the distant rumbles of a thunderstorm remind of the “final end”. The all-encompassing image of a thunderstorm appears in action, as breakthroughs of higher reality into the local, otherworldly reality. Under the onslaught of an unknown and formidable “will,” the life of the Kalinovites “began to decline”: the “last times” of the patriarchal world are approaching. Against their background, the time of action of the play can be read as the “axial time” of the breakdown of the integral way of Russian life.

The image of Katerina in “The Thunderstorm”

For the heroine of the play, the disintegration of the “Russian cosmos” becomes a “personal” time of experiencing tragedy. Katerina is the last heroine of the Russian Middle Ages, through whose heart the crack of the “Axial Time” passed and revealed the formidable depth of the conflict between the human world and the Divine heights. In the eyes of the Kalinovites, Katerina is “somehow strange,” “somehow tricky,” incomprehensible even to those close to her. The “otherworldliness” of the heroine is emphasized even by her name: Katerina (Greek - ever-pure, eternally pure). Not in the world, but in the church, in prayerful communication with God, the true depth of her personality is revealed. “Oh, Curly, how she prays, if only you would look! What an angelic smile she has on her face, and her face seems to glow.” These words of Boris contain the key to the mystery of Katerina’s image in “The Thunderstorm”, an explanation of the illumination and luminosity of her appearance.

Her monologues in the first act expand the boundaries of the plot action and take us beyond the boundaries of the “small world” designated by the playwright. They reveal the free, joyful and easy soaring of the heroine’s soul to her “heavenly homeland.” Outside the church fence, Katerina faces “captivity” and complete spiritual loneliness. Her soul passionately strives to find a kindred spirit in the world, and the heroine’s gaze stops on the face of Boris, alien to Kalinov’s world not only due to his European upbringing and education, but also spiritually: “I understand that all this is our Russian, native, and all- I still can’t get used to it.” The motive of voluntary sacrifice for his sister - “I feel sorry for the sister” - is central to the image of Boris. Doomed “to be a sacrifice,” he is forced to meekly wait for the drying up of the Wild’s tyrant will.

Only in appearance, the humble, hidden Boris and the passionate, decisive Katerina are opposites. Internally, in a spiritual sense, they are equally alien to this world. Having seen each other only a few times, without ever speaking, they “recognized” each other in the crowd and could no longer live as before. Boris calls his passion “foolish” and recognizes its hopelessness, but Katerina “cannot be removed” from his mind. Katerina's heart rushes to Boris against her will and desire. She wants to love her husband, but she cannot; seeks salvation in prayer - “there is no way to pray”; in the scene of her husband’s departure, she tries to curse fate (“I will die without repentance if I ...”) - but Tikhon does not want to understand her (“... and I don’t want to listen!”).

Going on a date with Boris, Katerina commits an irreversible, “fatal” act: “After all, what am I preparing for myself. Where do I belong..." Exactly according to Aristotle, the heroine guesses about the consequences, foresees the coming suffering, but commits a fatal act, not knowing all the horror of it: “Why feel sorry for me, no one is to blame - she did it herself.<...>They say it’s even easier when you suffer for some sin here on earth.” But the “unquenchable fire”, “fiery Gehenna”, predicted by the crazy lady, overtake the heroine during her lifetime - with pangs of conscience. The consciousness and feeling of sin (tragic guilt), as experienced by the heroine, leads to the etymology of this word: sin - to warm (Greek - heat, pain).

Katerina’s public confession of what she has done is an attempt to extinguish the fire burning her from within, to return to God and find her lost spiritual peace. The climactic events of Act IV, both formally, semantically, meaningfully, and figuratively, are symbolically connected with the feast of Elijah the Prophet, the “formidable” saint, all of whose miracles in folk legends are associated with the bringing down of heavenly fire to the earth and the intimidation of sinners. The thunderstorm that had previously rumbled in the distance broke out right above Katerina’s head. In combination with the image of a painting of the Last Judgment on the wall of a dilapidated gallery, with the shouts of the lady: “You can’t escape from God!”, with Dikiy’s phrase that the thunderstorm is “sent as punishment,” and with the remarks of the Kalinovites (“this thunderstorm will not pass in vain” ), it forms the tragic climax of the action.

In Kuligin’s last words about the “merciful judge” one hears not only a reproach to the sinful world for the “cruelty of morals,” but also Ostrovsky’s belief that the Supreme Being is unthinkable without mercy and love. The space of Russian tragedy is revealed in “The Thunderstorm” as a religious space of passions and suffering.

The protagonist of the tragedy dies, and the Pharisee triumphs in her rightness (“I understand, son, where the will leads!..”). With Old Testament severity, Kabanikha continues to uphold the foundations of Kalinov’s world: “escape into ritual” is the only conceivable salvation for her from the chaos of will. The escape of Varvara and Kudryash into the open air, the rebellion of the previously unrequited Tikhon (“Mama, it was you who ruined her! You, you, you...”), the cry for the deceased Katerina - foreshadow the onset of a new time. The “milestone”, “turning point” of the content of “The Thunderstorm” allows us to speak of it as “Ostrovsky’s most decisive work” (N.A. Dobrolyubov).

Productions

The first performance of “The Thunderstorm” took place on November 16, 1859 at the Maly Theater (Moscow). In the role of Katerina - L.P. Nikulina-Kositskaya, who inspired Ostrovsky to create the image of the main character of the play. Since 1863, G.N. acted as Katerina. Fedotov, from 1873 - M.N. Ermolova. The premiere took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater (St. Petersburg) on ​​December 2, 1859 (in the role of Katerina - F.A. Snetkova, the role of Tikhon was brilliantly performed by A.E. Martynov). In the 20th century, “The Thunderstorm” was staged by directors: V.E. Meyerhold (Alexandrinsky Theatre, 1916); AND I. Tairov (Chamber Theatre, Moscow, 1924); IN AND. Nemirovich-Danchenko and I.Ya. Sudakov (Moscow Art Theater, 1934); N.N. Okhlopkov (Moscow Theater named after Vl. Mayakovsky, 1953); G.N. Yanovskaya (Moscow Youth Theater, 1997).