What was the reason for the sadness of Katerina, who lived in the Kabanov family?

The main character of Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” is significantly different from the representatives of the environment in which she has to live. Katerina has a pure and living soul; she does not know how to adapt. She is defenseless and weak in front of her mother-in-law and everyone who adheres to the views of Kabanikha and Wild. Katerina cannot defend herself and does not receive support from her weak and weak-willed husband.

The conflict that Katerina has with the “dark kingdom” is very serious. At first the conflict is completely invisible, the young woman suffers in silence. And every day it becomes harder and harder for her to live among tyrants, bigots and ignoramuses. The conflict ends in a real tragedy, which led to the death of the heroine.

You can understand how difficult it is for Katerina from her own words when she talks about her childhood. Young years passed in an atmosphere of complete freedom and sincere love. Nobody offended Katya,

no one forced her to work. She felt the love and care of her mother. Katerina is very romantic and religious. Since childhood, she listened to the stories of the praying mantises, she was interested in everything they said.

Katerina is very cheerful, she loves life in all its manifestations and evokes the deepest sympathy in the reader. But at the same time, we have to admit that Katerina is completely unsuited to life. Since childhood, her mother protected her from all life’s hardships and worries, and the girl grew up in ignorance of what she would have to face in the future, in adulthood. But we should not forget that she was also born and raised in a merchant environment. This means that she should have understood that life in her husband’s house would not be easy.

Katerina is married off against her will. She does not have any warm feelings for her husband, but there is no place for hatred in her heart. Indeed, Tikhon is a completely weak-willed and weak-willed person. He obeys his mother in everything, and it doesn’t even occur to him that he could act differently. It is no coincidence that Tikhon tells his mother that he does not want to live by his own will. Katerina does not feel support from her husband when her mother-in-law oppresses and humiliates her in every possible way. Katerina has to endure it in silence. And for such an emotional nature it is very, very difficult to tolerate other people’s nagging and undeserved insults.

Katerina is very kind. In her parents' house she willingly helps the poor. And in her husband’s house no one can not only help her, but even provide simple human sympathy. Katerina has a special relationship with the church. She perceives the church as a bright and beautiful place in which she can dream for her own pleasure. All these qualities reveal in Katerina a dreamy, completely detached from reality, easily vulnerable, trusting and surprisingly naive nature. It is especially difficult for such people to put up with what does not suit them, and the lack of opportunity to express their emotions and talk about painful things is destructive for them.

After marriage, Katerina is forced to live in an atmosphere of deception and cruelty. The girl was robbed of everything that was dear to her. And in return she received absolutely nothing. The result is disappointment and spiritual emptiness. Katerina is no longer happy about going to church; she feels deeply unhappy. A living, ardent imagination works, but the girl sees only gloomy, joyless, overwhelming pictures in front of her. And she begins to have sad, anxious thoughts. Katerina stops enjoying life and is no longer even able to admire the beauties of nature.

But initially it doesn’t even occur to Katerina to grumble and conflict. She silently endures humiliation and bullying. She cannot get used to them, but gradually begins to understand that it is the same everywhere. When a person has nothing good left in life, he inevitably perishes spiritually. But nevertheless, every person tries to find salvation for himself.

Katerina finds love in the hope that this beautiful and bright feeling will fill the emptiness in her

soul and allow her to become happy. First, Katerina tries to love her husband. She says: “I will love my husband. Silence, my darling, I won’t exchange you for anyone.” It would seem that what’s wrong with sincerely expressing your feelings? But in the merchant patriarchal environment, where domostroy reigns, manifestations of feelings are condemned in every possible way. That is why the mother-in-law says to the girl: “Why are you hanging around your neck, shameless woman? It’s not your lover you’re saying goodbye to.” The girl was insulted for no reason. And so every time.

After her husband leaves, Katerina feels lonely. The energy of her living and ardent soul requires an outlet, so it is not surprising that Katerina fell in love with Boris, a man so different from others, just like her. Love became a real salvation for her. Now Katerina no longer thinks about the suffocating atmosphere of the Kabanovsky house, she lives with her feelings, hopes, dreams. A person in love begins to look at life differently and stops noticing previously unbearable abominations. Pride awakens in a person, he begins to value himself more. Katerina's falling in love is a protest against her powerless position, which forces her to resign herself to fate.

Katerina has a presentiment of her death. She understands perfectly well that her love for Boris is inherently sinful. But at the same time, she cannot resist her feeling, because her usual life already seems completely hostile and unacceptable to her. Katerina says to her beloved: “You ruined me.” Katerina is very religious and superstitious; it is no coincidence that she is afraid of an approaching thunderstorm, considering it a punishment for a sin committed. Katerina begins to be afraid of thunderstorms after she falls in love with Boris. She believes that love will certainly be punished by the wrath of the Almighty. The sin she committed weighs heavily on the heroine. Obviously, this is why she decides to confess to the crime she committed. Katerina’s act causes the reader’s lively surprise; it seems strange and completely illogical. Katerina is very frank; she openly reveals all her secrets to her husband and mother-in-law.

The crime she committed weighed heavily on her soul. She can't forgive herself. Now Katerina is tormented by thoughts about how she will live further, how she will return home and look her husband in the eyes.

The heroine imagines that her death will be a worthy way out of this situation. She says: “No, it doesn’t matter whether I go home or go to the grave... It’s better in the grave... To live again? No, no, don’t... it’s not good.” Katerina can no longer live, now she understands that her life itself has been and will be miserable and unhappy.

Katerina’s last act demonstrates her determination and integrity of character. She sacrifices herself to save herself from shame and a hateful life. But Katerina cannot live disgraced. Katerina lives in real slavery, and her soul protests against this in every possible way. Love elevates her for a while, and then again plunges her into the abyss of melancholy and sadness, but even greater, since she was severely disappointed in her loved one. Repentance and disappointment are so strong that Katerina decides to commit suicide.

The image of Katerina in the play “The Thunderstorm” contrasts perfectly with the gloomy realities of Russia in the pre-reform period. At the epicenter of the unfolding drama is the conflict between the heroine, striving to defend her human rights, and a world in which strong, rich and powerful people rule everything.

Katerina as the embodiment of a pure, strong and bright people's soul

From the very first pages of the work, the image of Katerina in the play “The Thunderstorm” cannot but attract attention and make one feel sympathy. Honesty, the ability to feel deeply, sincerity of nature and a penchant for poetry - these are the features that distinguish Katerina herself from representatives of the “dark kingdom”. In the main character, Ostrovsky tried to capture all the beauty of the people's simple soul. The girl expresses her emotions and experiences unpretentiously and does not use distorted words and expressions common in the merchant environment. This is not difficult to notice; Katerina’s speech itself is more reminiscent of a melodic tune; it is replete with diminutive words and expressions: “sunshine”, “grass”, “rain”. The heroine shows incredible sincerity when she talks about her free life in her father’s house, among icons, calm prayers and flowers, where she lived “like a bird in the wild.”

The image of a bird is an accurate reflection of the heroine’s state of mind

The image of Katerina in the play “The Thunderstorm” perfectly resonates with the image of a bird, which in folk poetry symbolizes freedom. Talking with Varvara, she repeatedly refers to this analogy and claims that she is “a free bird that is caught in an iron cage.” In captivity she feels sad and painful.

Katerina's life in the Kabanovs' house. Love of Katerina and Boris

In the Kabanovs' house, Katerina, who is characterized by dreaminess and romance, feels like a complete stranger. The humiliating reproaches of her mother-in-law, who is accustomed to keeping all household members in fear, and the atmosphere of tyranny, lies and hypocrisy oppress the girl. However, Katerina herself, who is by nature a strong, integral person, knows that there is a limit to her patience: “I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me!” Varvara’s words that one cannot survive in this house without deception evoke sharp rejection in Katerina. The heroine resists the “dark kingdom”; its orders did not break her will to live; fortunately, they did not force her to become like the other residents of the Kabanov house and begin to be a hypocrite and lie at every step.

The image of Katerina is revealed in a new way in the play “The Thunderstorm”, when the girl makes an attempt to escape from the “disgusted” world. She does not know how and does not want to love the way the inhabitants of the “dark kingdom” do; freedom, openness, and “honest” happiness are important to her. While Boris convinces her that their love will remain a secret, Katerina wants everyone to know about it, for everyone to see. Tikhon, her husband, however, the bright feeling awakened in her heart seems to her And just at this moment the reader comes face to face with the tragedy of her suffering and torment. From this moment on, Katerina’s conflict occurs not only with the outside world, but also with herself. It is difficult for her to make a choice between love and duty; she tries to forbid herself to love and be happy. However, the fight with her own feelings is beyond the strength of the fragile Katerina.

The way of life and laws that reign in the world around the girl put pressure on her. She strives to repent of what she has done, to cleanse her soul. Seeing the painting “The Last Judgment” on the wall in the church, Katerina cannot stand it, falls to her knees and begins to publicly repent of her sin. However, even this does not bring the girl the desired relief. Other heroes of the drama “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky are not able to support her, even her loved one. Boris refuses Katerina’s requests to take her away from here. This man is not a hero, he is simply unable to protect either himself or his beloved.

The death of Katerina is a ray of light that illuminated the “dark kingdom”

Evil is falling on Katerina from all sides. Constant bullying from her mother-in-law, tossing between duty and love - all this ultimately leads the girl to a tragic ending. Having managed to experience happiness and love in her short life, she is simply unable to continue living in the Kabanovs’ house, where such concepts do not exist at all. She sees the only way out as suicide: the future scares Katerina, and the grave is perceived as salvation from mental torment. However, the image of Katerina in the drama “The Thunderstorm”, in spite of everything, remains strong - she did not choose a miserable existence in a “cage” and did not allow anyone to break her living soul.

Nevertheless, the heroine’s death was not in vain. The girl won a moral victory over the “dark kingdom”; she managed to slightly dispel the darkness in the hearts of people, motivate them to action, and open their eyes. The life of the heroine herself became a “ray of light” that blazed in the darkness and left its glow over the world of madness and darkness for a long time.

We met the main character of A. N. Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”, plunged into the magical world of her memories of childhood and youth, learned her character traits, spiritual world, watched with bitterness the tragic ending... What made the young

Throw a beautiful woman off a cliff into the Volga? Perhaps her death was an accident or could have been avoided? Answer the question: “Why did Katerina die?” - means to think once again about the complexity and contradictory nature of her nature.

In terms of character and interests, Katerina differs from the inhabitants of the city of Kalinov around her. She is naturally endowed with a unique character. In her actions and behavior, she is the only one of all the characters in the play who proceeds not from external demands and circumstances, but from her internal qualities: sincerity, desire for goodness, beauty, justice, and freedom of feelings. Katerina is a deeply poetic nature, full of high lyricism. The origins of the formation of just such a character must be sought in her childhood and girlhood, the memories of which are covered in poetry. In her parents’ house, Katerina lived “like a flower blooming,” surrounded by affection and care. In her free time, she went to the spring for water, grew flowers, wove lace, embroidered, went to church “as if to heaven,” prayed selflessly and joyfully, listened to the stories and singing of wanderers. The religious atmosphere that surrounded her developed in her impressionability, dreaminess, belief in the afterlife and inevitable retribution to man for his sins. Katerina’s faith in God is sincere, deep and organic. Her religiosity is an experience of the good, majestic spiritual and at the same time an enthusiastic enjoyment of the beautiful. Katerina, apparently, was raised in a bourgeois family, in which an atmosphere of spiritual freedom, democracy and respect for the human person reigned. Hence the firmness and strong-willed determination in her character and some actions.

Katerina's marriage and the sharp change in her position are a completely new, dramatic worldview for her. In the Kabanovs’ house, she found herself in the “dark kingdom” of spiritual unfreedom, where outwardly everything is the same, but “as if from under bondage.” In the mother-in-law’s house there lives a stern religious spirit, democracy has evaporated here, even the pilgrims in Kabanikha’s house are completely different - from among those bigots who “due to their weakness did not go far, but have heard a lot.” And their stories are gloomy - about the last times, about the coming end of the world. Katerina constantly feels dependent on her mother-in-law, who is ready to humiliate her human dignity every minute; she suffers humiliation and insults; she does not find any support from her husband. Tikhon, in his own way, loves and even pities Katerina, but he is unable to truly understand the extent of her suffering and aspirations, unable to delve into her spiritual world. One can only feel sorry for him - he found himself in a vice, unquestioningly follows his mother’s orders and is “powerful to resist her despotism.

Life in such an environment changed Katerina’s character: it was as if she “withered”; all that was left were the memories of that distant, wonderful life, when her heart rejoiced and rejoiced every day.

memories of that distant wonderful life when the heart rejoiced and rejoiced every day. Katerina rushes about like a bird with cut wings. “But while a person is alive, the desire to live cannot be destroyed in him...” And therefore, the spiritually rich, poetically sublime nature of the heroine gives birth to a new feeling, still unclear to her. “There is something so extraordinary about me. I’m just starting to live, or I don’t even know,” she says. This new vague feeling - an awakening sense of personality - takes the form of a strong, deep and spiritual love for Boris. Boris has some attractive qualities: he is mentally soft and delicate, a simple and modest person. He differs from most Kalinovites in his manners, education and speech, but he accepts a dependent position in his uncle’s house, submits to his whims and consciously tolerates his tyranny. According to N.A. Dobrolyubov, Katerina fell in love with Boris “more in solitude”; in other circumstances, she would have seen all his shortcomings and weaknesses of character earlier. Now she is frightened by the strength and depth of her new feeling, strives with all her might to resist it, and doubts the correctness of her actions. She also feels guilty before Tikhon. After all, the honest and truth-loving Katerina cannot and does not want to live by the laws of the “dark kingdom” - do whatever you want, just so that everything is “sewn and covered” (as Varvara advises her). She finds no one to support her in her internal struggle. “It’s as if I’m standing over an abyss, and someone is pushing me there, but I have nothing to hold on to,” she admits to Varvara. And indeed, everything around her is already crumbling, everything she tries to rely on turns out to be an empty shell, devoid of moral content, no one in the world around her cares about the moral value of her ideas.

Thus, the play conveys a special combination of circumstances that makes Katerina’s situation unbearable and tragic. She can no longer live in her mother-in-law's house; she feels like a bird in a cage, deprived of the ability to fly. But there is nowhere to go, it is impossible to escape from the cage.

A researcher of Ostrovsky’s work, A. Anastasyev, believes that “the desire for will, for a free existence, which constantly lived in Katerina and intensified to the limit when love came... was a necessary requirement of her nature. But due to the objective conditions of life, she could not fulfill the demand. This is where the tragedy lies.” I agree with this statement. In the conditions of Kalinov’s world, the natural aspirations and needs of the individual could not be satisfied, and this is the tragic hopelessness of Katerina’s situation, which pushed her to death.

Homework for the lesson

1. Collect quotation material to characterize Katerina.
2. Read acts II and III. Note phrases in Katerina’s monologues that indicate the poetry of her nature.
3. What is Katerina’s speech like?
4. How does life in your parents’ house differ from life in your husband’s house?
5. What is the inevitability of Katerina’s conflict with the world of the “dark kingdom”, with the world of Kabanova and Wild?
6. Why is Varvara next to Katerina?
7. Does Katerina love Tikhon?
8. Happiness or misfortune in the life of Katerina Boris?
9. Can Katerina’s suicide be considered a protest against the “dark kingdom”? Perhaps the protest is in love for Boris?

Exercise

Using material prepared at home, characterize Katerina. What traits of her character are revealed in her very first remarks?

Answer

D.I, yavl. V, p.232: Inability to be a hypocrite, lie, directness. The conflict is immediately obvious: Kabanikha does not tolerate self-esteem or disobedience in people, Katerina does not know how to adapt and submit. In Katerina there is - along with spiritual softness, trembling, songfulness - and a firmness and strong-willed determination that Kabanikha hates, which can be heard in her story about sailing on a boat, and in some of her actions, and in her patronymic Petrovna, derived from Peter - “ stone". D.II, yavl. II, pp. 242–243, 244.

Therefore, Katerina cannot be brought to her knees, and this significantly complicates the conflictual confrontation between the two women. A situation arises when, as the proverb goes, the scythe lands on a stone.

Question

How else does Katerina differ from the inhabitants of the city of Kalinov? Find places in the text where the poetry of Katerina’s nature is emphasized.

Answer

Katerina is a poetic person. Unlike the rude Kalinovites, she feels the beauty of nature and loves it. In the morning I got up early... Oh, yes, I lived with my mother, like a flower blooming...

“I used to get up early; if it’s summer, I’ll go to the spring, wash myself, bring some water with me and that’s it, I’ll water all the flowers in the house. I had many, many flowers,” she says about her childhood. (D.I, Rev. VII, p. 236)

Her soul is constantly drawn to beauty. Her dreams were filled with wonderful, fabulous visions. She often dreamed that she was flying like a bird. She talks about her desire to fly several times. (D.I, Rev. VII, p. 235). With these repetitions, the playwright emphasizes the romantic sublimity of Katerina’s soul and her freedom-loving aspirations. Married early, she tries to get along with her mother-in-law and love her husband, but in the Kabanovs’ house no one needs sincere feelings.

Katerina is religious. Given her impressionability, the religious feelings instilled in her in childhood firmly took possession of her soul.

“Before I died, I loved going to church! Surely, it used to be that I would enter heaven, and I wouldn’t see anyone, and I wouldn’t remember the time, and I wouldn’t hear when the service would end,” she recalls. (D.I, Rev. VII, p. 236)

Question

How would you characterize the heroine’s speech?

Answer

Katerina’s speech reflects all the richness of her inner world: the strength of feelings, human dignity, moral purity, truthfulness of nature. The strength of feelings, the depth and sincerity of Katerina’s experiences are expressed in the syntactic structure of her speech: rhetorical questions, exclamations, unfinished sentences. And in especially tense moments, her speech takes on the features of a Russian folk song, becoming smooth, rhythmic, and melodious. In her speech there are colloquialisms, words of a church-religious nature (lives, angels, golden temples, images), expressive means of folk poetic language (“Violent winds, bear with him my sadness and melancholy”). Speech is rich in intonations - joyful, sad, enthusiastic, sad, anxious. Intonations express Katerina’s attitude towards others.

Question

Where did these traits come from in the heroine? Tell us how Katerina lived before marriage? How is life in your parents' house different from life in your husband's house?

Answer

P.235 d.I, yavl. VII (“Was I like that!”)

Conclusion

Outwardly, the living conditions in Kalinov are no different from the environment of Katerina’s childhood. The same prayers, the same rituals, the same activities, but “here,” the heroine notes, “everything seems to be from under captivity.” And captivity is incompatible with her freedom-loving soul.

Question

What is Katerina’s protest against the “dark kingdom”? Why can’t we call her either “victim” or “mistress”?

Answer

Katerina differs in character from all the characters in "The Thunderstorm". Whole, honest, sincere, she is incapable of lies and falsehood, therefore in the cruel world where the Wild and Kabanovs reign, her life is tragic. She does not want to adapt to the world of the “dark kingdom,” but she cannot be called a victim either. She protests. Her protest is her love for Boris. This is freedom of choice.

Question

Does Katerina love Tikhon?

Answer

Given in marriage, apparently not of her own free will, she is at first ready to become an exemplary wife. D.II, yavl. II, p. 243. But such a rich nature as Katerina cannot love a primitive, limited person.

D. V, yavl. III, P.279 “Yes, he was hateful to me, hateful, his caress is worse to me than beatings.”

Already at the beginning of the play we learn about her love for Boris. D. I, phenomenon VII, p. 237.

Question

Happiness or misfortune in the life path of Katerina Boris?

Answer

Love for Boris itself is a tragedy. D.V, yavl. III, p. 280 “It’s unfortunate that I saw you.” Even the narrow-minded Kudryash understands this, warning with alarm: “Eh, Boris Grigoryich! (...) After all, this means you want to ruin her completely, Boris Grigoryich! (...) But what kind of people are here! You know. They’ll eat you, "They'll hammer it into the coffin. (...) Just watch - don't cause trouble for yourself, and don't get her into trouble! Let's face it, even though her husband is a fool, her mother-in-law is painfully fierce."

Question

What is the complexity of Katerina’s internal state?

Answer

Love for Boris is: a free choice dictated by the heart; deception that puts Katerina on a par with Varvara; refusal of love means submission to the world of Kabanikha. Love-choice dooms Katerina to torment.

Question

How are the heroine’s torment, struggle with herself, and her strength shown in the scene with the key and the scenes of the meeting and farewell with Boris? Analyze vocabulary, sentence construction, folklore elements, connections with folk songs.

Answer

D.III, scene II, yavl. III. pp. 261–262, 263

D.V, yavl. III, p. 279.

Scene with the key: “What am I saying, am I deceiving myself? I should even die to see him.” Date scene: “Let everyone know, let everyone see what I do! If I wasn’t afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment?” Farewell scene: “My friend! My joy! Goodbye!" All three scenes show the heroine's determination. She did not betray herself anywhere: she decided to love at the behest of her heart, admitted to betrayal out of an inner feeling of freedom (a lie is always unfreedom), came to say goodbye to Boris not only because of the feeling of love, but also because of the feeling of guilt: he suffered because of... for her. She rushed to the Volga at the request of her free nature.

Question

So what lies at the heart of Katerina’s protest against the “dark kingdom”?

Answer

At the heart of Katerina’s protest against the oppression of the “dark kingdom” is a natural desire to defend the freedom of her personality. Bondage is the name of her main enemy. With all her being, Katerina felt that living in the “dark kingdom” was worse than death. And she chose death over captivity.

Question

Prove that Katerina's death is a protest.

Answer

Katerina's death is a protest, a rebellion, a call to action. Varvara ran away from home, Tikhon blamed his mother for his wife’s death. Kuligin reproached him for being unmerciful.

Question

Will the city of Kalinov be able to live as before?

Answer

Most likely no.

Katerina's fate takes on a symbolic meaning in the play. Not only the heroine of the play dies - patriarchal Russia, patriarchal morality dies and becomes a thing of the past. Ostrovsky's drama seemed to capture people's Russia at a turning point, on the threshold of a new historical era.

To conclude

The play still asks many questions to this day. First of all, it is necessary to understand the genre nature, the main conflict of “The Thunderstorm” and understand why N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote in the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”: “The Thunderstorm” is, without a doubt, Ostrovsky’s most decisive work. The author himself called his work a drama. Over time, researchers increasingly began to call the “Thunderstorm” a tragedy, based on the specifics of the conflict (obviously tragic) and the character of Katerina, who raised big questions that remained somewhere on the periphery of society’s attention. Why did Katerina die? Because she got a cruel mother-in-law? Because she, being her husband’s wife, committed a sin and could not withstand the pangs of conscience? If we limit ourselves to these problems, the content of the work is significantly impoverished, reduced to a separate, private episode from the life of such and such a family and is deprived of its high tragic intensity.

At first glance, it seems that the main conflict of the play is the clash between Katerina and Kabanova. If Marfa Ignatievna had been kinder, softer, more humane, it is unlikely that tragedy would have happened to Katerina. But the tragedy might not have happened if Katerina had been able to lie, adapt, if she had not judged herself so harshly, if she had looked at life more simply and calmly. But Kabanikha remains Kabanikha, and Katerina remains Katerina. And each of them reflects a certain life position, each of them acts in accordance with its principles.

The main thing in the play is the inner life of the heroine, the emergence of something new in her, still unclear to her. “There’s something so extraordinary about me, as if I’m starting to live again, or... I don’t know,” she confesses to her husband’s sister Varvara.