Why does the wanderer feklusha consider viburnum to be the promised land. The image, character and characteristics of Feklushi based on the play The Thunderstorm (A. N. Ostrovsky)

Feklusha tells city residents about other countries. They listen to her and focus their attention only on this. At the same time, unnoticed by others, she tells the truth about people. But they don't hear it because they don't want to hear it. Feklusha praises the city of Kalinov, quiet life in him. People are happy that their city is so magnificent; they don’t need anything else. The secondary characters in the play not only form the background against which the personal drama of Katerina, the main character of the work, unfolds. They show us different types people's attitudes towards their lack of freedom. The system of images in the play is such that all the minor characters form conditional pairs, and only Katerina is alone in her true desire to escape from the yoke of the “tyrants.”

Dikoy and Kabanova are people who keep in constant fear those who somehow depend on them. Dobrolyubov very aptly called them “tyrants,” since the main law for everyone is their will. It is no coincidence that they treat each other very respectfully: they are the same, only the sphere of influence is different. Dikoy rules in the city, Kabanikha rules over her family.

Katerina's constant companion is Varvara, the sister of her husband Tikhon. She is the main opponent of the heroine. Her main rule: “Do whatever you want, as long as everything is sewn and covered.” Varvara cannot be denied intelligence and cunning; Before marriage, she wants to be everywhere, to try everything, because she knows that “the girls go out as they please, and father and mother don’t care. Only women are locked up.” Varvara perfectly understands the essence of the relationship between people in their home, but does not consider it necessary to fight her mother’s “thunderstorm”. Lying is the norm for her. In a conversation with Katerina, she speaks directly about this: “Well, you can’t do without it... Our whole house rests on this. And I was not a liar, but I learned when it became necessary.” Varvara adapted to the dark kingdom, learned its laws and rules. She feels authority, strength, and a desire to deceive. She is, in fact, the future Kabanikha, because the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Varvara's friend, Ivan Kudryash, is a match for her. He 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 conversation, he behaves cheekily, smartly, boldly, boasts of his prowess, red tape, and knowledge of the “merchant establishment.” He also adapted to the tyranny of the Wild. Moreover, one can even assume that Kudryash could become the second Wild.

At the end of the play, Varvara and Kudryash leave the “dark kingdom,” but does this escape mean that they have completely freed themselves from old traditions and laws and will become the source of new laws of life and fair rules? Hardly. They will most likely try to become masters of life themselves.

The couple also consists of two men with whom Katerina’s fate was connected. They can be confidently called the true victims of the “dark kingdom.” So Katerina’s husband Tikhon is a weak-willed, spineless creature. He obeys his mother in everything and obeys her. He doesn't have a clear life position, courage, boldness. His image fully corresponds to the name given to him - Tikhon (quiet). Young Kabanov not only does not respect himself, but also allows his mother to shamelessly treat his wife. This is especially evident in the farewell scene before leaving for the fair. Tikhon repeats word for word all his mother’s instructions and moral teachings. Kabanov could not resist his mother in anything, he only sought solace in wine and on those short trips when, at least for a while, he could escape from his mother’s oppression.

Of course, Katerina cannot love and respect such a husband, but her soul yearns for love. She falls in love with Dikiy's nephew, Boris. But Katerina fell in love with him, in the apt expression of A. N. Dobrolyubov, “in the wilderness,” because in essence Boris is not much different from Tikhon. Perhaps more educated, like Katerina, he did not spend his entire life in Kalinov. Boris's lack of will, his desire to receive his part of his grandmother's inheritance (and he will receive it only if he is respectful to his uncle) turned out to be stronger than love. Katerina bitterly says that Boris, unlike her, is free. But his freedom is only in the absence of his wife.

Kuligin and Feklusha also form a couple, but here it is appropriate to talk about an antithesis. The wanderer Feklusha can be called an “ideologist” of the “dark kingdom.” With her stories about lands where people with dog heads live, about thunderstorms, which are perceived as irrefutable information about the world, she helps “tyrants” keep people in constant fear. Kalinov for her is a land blessed by God. The self-taught mechanic Kuligin, who is looking for a perpetual motion machine, is the complete opposite of Feklusha. He is active, obsessed with a constant desire to do something useful for people. A condemnation of the “dark kingdom” is put into his mouth: “Cruel, sir, the morals in our city are cruel... Whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor so that his labors will be free more money make money..." But all his good intentions run into a thick wall of misunderstanding, indifference, and ignorance. So, when he tries to install steel lightning rods on houses, he receives a furious rebuff from the Dikiy: “A thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment, so that we can feel it, but you want to defend yourself, God forgive me, with poles and some kind of rods.”

Kuligin is perhaps the only one who understands main character It is no coincidence that it is he who utters accusatory words at the end of the play, holding the body of the dead Katerina in his arms. But he is also incapable of fighting, since he has also adapted to the “dark kingdom” and has come to terms with such a life.

And finally, the last character - half-crazy lady, which at the very beginning of the play predicts the death of Katerina. She becomes the personification of those ideas about sin that live in the soul raised in a patriarchal family religious Catherine. True, in the finale of the play, Katerina manages to overcome her fear, for she understands that lying and humbling herself all her life is a greater sin than suicide.
The secondary characters, as already mentioned, are the background against which the tragedy of a desperate woman unfolds. Every character in the play, every image is a detail that allows the author to convey as accurately as possible the situation of the “dark kingdom” and the unpreparedness of most people to fight.

In Russian literature, blessed wanderers are characteristic feature merchant houses. I became acquainted with their images by reading the works of N.S. Leskov. “The Enchanted Wanderer”, Ostrovsky A.N. "The Thunderstorm" and Gorky A.M. "At the bottom". A wanderer is usually called a person traveling on foot or going on a pilgrimage. This person is an eternal traveler who does not want to lead a sedentary lifestyle. The wanderer, unlike the pilgrim, moves aimlessly, having no idea where life will take him, “he goes there without knowing where.”

But among them there were many individuals who were purposeful, hardworking, inquisitive, who had seen and learned a lot (like the image of a wanderer in N.S. Leskov). They were not afraid of difficulties, road inconveniences, or meager food. Were among them most interesting people, such philosophers with their own special, original attitude to life, who walked from Rus', endowed with a keen eye and figurative speech.

Reflecting this topic (images of wanderers), I will focus on two of them: Feklushi from the drama by A.N. Ostrovsky. “The Thunderstorm” and the plays of Gorky A.M. "At the bottom".

In the drama by A.N. Ostrovsky “Thunderstorm” wanderer Feklusha is an off-stage character; she does not participate directly in the action, but at the same time she has significant significance in it.

Feklusha was not a woman who truly believed in God, she only hid behind this faith in order to live off the population giving alms. Her stories about shrines and cities were a certain commodity with which she paid for alms, generosity and shelter.

On her first appearance in the city of Kalinov, Feklusha admires the beauty of the city, even calls it the “promised land”, praises the merchant people, especially the house of the Kabanovs, whose owner surrounded herself with hangers-on, ignorant wanderers. She needs them, they support her authority. But Kabanikha also has a kind of defenders and “like-minded people.” It is no coincidence that the second and third acts of “The Thunderstorm” open scenes with the participation of Feklusha, just as it is no coincidence that Feklusha first appears on stage in the first act - after the readers meet Kuligin, Dikiy, and Boris. With a sugary drawl she sings: “Blah-a-alepie, honey, blah-a-alepie! Wonderful beauty! What can I say! IN promised land you live!” These words sound after Kuligin’s assessment of local social life: “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel!” Immediately after these words of the watchmaker, Feklushino’s “Bla-a-alepie” sounds. It is not the beauty of nature, not the view of the Volga that delights her, but the wanderer glorifies precisely the morals of the city, the very merchants who were so negatively characterized by the self-taught mechanic. The praise of the merchants from the lips of the wanderer sounds in striking contrast: “And the merchants are all pious people, adorned with generosity and alms! I’m so pleased, mother, up to my neck...”

Ostrovsky's skill is expressed in the depiction of Feklushi in close-up, in the depiction of her not as a passing person, but as a character, a type. But the playwright in her image showed not an original, highly moral person with eccentricity and attractiveness, but a selfish, ignorant, deceitful nature who cares not about her soul, but about her stomach. The harm of such people is obvious. Her stories are not just stupid inventions, not harmless and funny lies. Feklusha spreads information about the order in other countries: “Saltan Makhnut the Turkish”, “Saltan Makhnut the Persian”, “all the judges in their countries are also all unrighteous”, “all people with dog heads”...

The next time Feklusha appears at the Kabanovs’ house and advises Glasha to look after the poor woman so that she doesn’t steal anything. To which the girl answered her irritably: “Who can tell you, you’re all slandering each other.” Despite the fact that Glasha is a girl who understands people well, she innocently believed in the fables told by Feklusha. This is one of the reasons that proves that Kalinov is an autonomous region, whose residents know nothing about other cities, countries, or what is happening in the world. This can also be judged from the conversation between the wanderer and Kabanikha. Pleasing her benefactress, Feklusha complained that they were coming “ last times”, that in all cities there is “running and bustle”, and only in Kalinov there is peace and quiet. She reported that in Moscow, in pursuit of speed, they began to harness the “fiery serpent”, i.e. train. In the end, she said that because of the sins of people, “the time began to come to debasement.” To all this, Kabanikha sympathetically agreed with her. From this dialogue it becomes clear that Kabanikha recognizes the imminent collapse of her world.

Ostrovsky A.N. used the image of Feklusha to characterize the city of Kalinov and, in particular, Kabanikha. Her dialogue with Kabanikha is important for a deeper understanding of the fact that Kabanikha is aware of the death of her world. You can also notice that Feklusha appears before any of the main events of the play as a harbinger of something important. In the dialogues between Kabanikha and her children, Kabanikha and Katerina, the plot begins, the confrontation between older conservative people and young people who want to live their own lives. Subsequently, her presence is felt in the conversation between Varvara and Katerina, in which the poor girl admits that she has long been in love with Boris, and only feels pity for her husband. And after some time, Feklusha’s presence is felt again before the first date of Katerina and Boris. And of course, the wanderer is present in the fatal scene of Katerina’s public repentance. Perhaps it was her cry that she would definitely kill someone in a thunderstorm that became the last straw for Katerina, and she decided to repent of her sin.

Over time, the image of Feklusha became one of the most popular in the Russian comedy repertoire, and some of her statements entered everyday speech.

In Gorky's play A.M. “At the Bottom” depicts the life of disadvantaged people who have lost hope and faith in the best. These are people of different ages, miscellaneous social status, but for one reason or another have sunk to the “bottom” of life. All of them do not live, but exist. They have no work, they have nothing to eat, their only shelter is a cave-like shelter. Forced to live under the same roof, they do not want to help each other. Having lost everything human, largely due to the fact that they themselves did not see any other treatment for themselves, they were cruelly thrown out of ordinary life due to the morals, orders and conditions prevailing in society.

But along with all this, one of the main questions of the play is the question of truth and lies. All the inhabitants of the shelter are exhausted by a joyless life, and therefore they do not want to think about it, they live in dreams in which they hide from real life. Locksmith Kleshch dreams of future prosperity, not noticing that his wife Anna is dying. Nastya dreams about true love, and the Actor drowns his grief with alcohol. One way or another, they are deceiving themselves.

Also in the shelter there are people who believed that one must always be truthful, no matter how bitter this truth may be. For example, Bubnov believes that people are born to die, and therefore it is stupid to feel sorry for them. Satin believes that a person can only rely on himself and does not see any point in pity. Lovers of truth behave cruelly towards dreamers. Dreamers crave goodness and compassion. This is exactly what they will receive from the wanderer Luke.

The elderly wanderer Luka appears unexpectedly at the shelter. In appearance, he is no different from the other tramps, but still he is not like everyone else. Somehow, imperceptibly, without contradicting anyone, he begins to build relationships with the inhabitants of the shelter. Luke is trying to understand why these people ended up at the bottom of their lives. He does not divide people into good and bad, for him everyone is equal: “I respect swindlers too, in my opinion, not a single flea is bad: all are black, all jump.” From birth, all people are kind and honest, and only society changes them. As a very kind person who believes in God, he feels sorry for these people. He understands that these people do not see anything good in life, and chooses such a principle as white lies. With kindness, tenderness, gentleness and affection, he found an approach to almost all the inhabitants of the shelter. The Stranger takes pity on the dying Anna, convincing her that in the “other world” her torment will definitely end; tells the Actor that in some city they have begun to treat for drunkenness, and advises him to go there. He convinces Vaska Pepel to go to Siberia and start a new bright life there. He supports Nastya and says that he believes in her stories about true love.

After some time, Luka leaves the shelter as unnoticed as he came. When the tramps noticed his absence, they reacted differently to this event. Nastya, Kleshch and Tatarin noted that he was a very humane and kind old man. They realized that thanks to him they saw at least some light in life, he gave them hope for the best. Even Satin defends the wanderer when the Baron speaks badly of him: “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man!” With his pity, stories and parables, the wanderer instilled in people faith in the best, inspired them and gave them hope.

The name Luke is associated in Christianity with the Apostle Luke, but at the same time it is intertwined with the word “evil,” and from Latin it is translated as “bright.” If you combine the last two meanings, you get a “bright lie,” a lie in the name of good and the salvation of the soul.

Thus, the wanderer is trying to awaken something bright in these people. He reminds people that faith in themselves, in the best, hope and dreams are life itself. And if this disappears from a person’s life, then he is doomed to death. Luke gave the poor faith in a bright future, but did not take into account one thing: people who have sunk to the bottom of life will never rise to the light, will not be able to begin new life. For folk wisdom says: “Whoever has fallen cannot be raised again.” His “comforting lie” brought everything to a tragic end: Anna dies in agony, Ash went to prison, the Tick went crazy, the Actor hanged himself.

The image of Luke is very contradictory. On the one hand, his lies did not bring anything good, but on the other, thanks to him, these people, exhausted by life, at least for a moment believed in a miracle, in a dream, in the best. Luke made them gray life more joyful. And thanks to the wanderer’s instructions, Satin realized that “man lives for the best,” that one cannot offend people, any mortal must be respected, and according to the laws of life, a person is free to live the way he wants!

The main idea of ​​Gorky A.M. lies in the fact that it is impossible to save a person through violence and teach goodness. This can only be done with the help of love and kindness: “A person can teach goodness... While a person believed, he lived, but he lost faith and hanged himself.” The image of Luke makes us think about the likelihood of human happiness. A person cannot be happy until he is free and while injustice reigns in the world. But all people are born for joy and happiness.

Thus, Feklusha and Luka were telling lies. Only Feklusha’s lie brought benefit to herself, but Luka’s lie brought good to other people, but at the same time it brought harm to the fallen spirit. As the saying goes: “If you lose money, you don’t lose anything, if you lose your health, you lose a lot, and if you lose heart, you lose everything!”

The wanderer Feklusha is very significant image in the play. In general, wanderers, blessed ones and holy fools were a common sign of merchant houses. Ostrovsky mentioned them quite often in his works, but they were always off-stage characters. Some of them wandered around religious reasons(collected funds for the construction of temples, went to worship shrines, etc.)

etc.), others took advantage of the generosity of the population who helped the wanderers and simply led an idle life, existing at the expense of others. Faith for such people was just a pretext; with their stories about shrines and miracles, they paid for shelter and alms. Ostrovsky did not like such a sanctimonious manifestation of religiosity, so he always mentioned wanderers and the blessed in ironic tones, using them to characterize the environment or an individual character. Only in “The Thunderstorm” did the writer bring such a typical wanderer onto the stage, making her an essential character, who then became one of the most famous in the Russian comedy repertoire.

Feklusha does not participate directly in the action of the play, but this does not diminish the significance of her image. Firstly, she is the most important character, with the help of which the author characterizes the situation in general and, in particular, the image of Kabanikha.

Secondly, the dialogue between Feklushi and Kabanikha plays a very important role for understanding life philosophy Kabanikha, her tragic feeling of the collapse of the patriarchal world.

Feklusha first appears on stage immediately after Kuligin’s statement about “ cruel morals" of the city and before the appearance of Kabanikha, mercilessly sawing her children. At the same time, Feklusha wholeheartedly praises the Kabanovs’ house for their generosity, confirming Kuligin’s words that Kabanikha is only kind to the poor, and is completely fed up with her family.

The next time the reader meets Feklusha it is in the Kabanovs’ house. She advises the girl Glasha to keep an eye on the poor girl so that she doesn’t steal anything. Glasha gets annoyed because all the beggars are slandering each other, but she has a good understanding of people and sees for herself who she can trust. At the same time, listening to Feklusha’s stories about other countries where people walk around with dog heads “for infidelity,” Glasha innocently perceives everything as the truth. This is proven by the fact that Kalinov is a closed world that knows nothing about other lands. Then Feklusha begins to tell Kabanikha about Moscow and railway. The wanderer assures that, according to all signs, “the last times” are coming. People are fussing, in a hurry, and even time has begun to pass faster, which means the end of the world is just around the corner. Kabanikha listens sympathetically to these speeches and from her remarks one can judge that she is also aware of the impending collapse of her world.

Thanks to Ostrovsky's play, the name Feklush has long become a household name and denotes a person who spreads all sorts of ridiculous stories under the guise of pious reasoning.

Updated: 2012-08-12

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If we look into modern Dictionary Russian language, we will see that the concept of “wandering” means “a journey to holy places for worship.” In general, the motif of wandering in Russian literature can be considered established and traditional. It was found in the works of many Russian writers: in the novels of F. M. Dostoevsky “Teenager”, “Demons”, in the poem “The Wanderer” by A. S. Pushkin, in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N. S. Leskov, as well as in many other poets and writers. Moreover, wandering has become a leitmotif for many European literatures, where it found expression in the dissemination of “wandering stories.” Now we need to say a little about the motive of wandering. The feat of pilgrimage, often combined with foolishness in the minds of the people, represents one of the highest states of the spirit of a Christian who has trampled all the temptations and allurements of the world and achieved perfection. John Climacus once said: “Pilgrimage is the irrevocable abandonment of everything that resists us in the pursuit of piety. Wandering is unknown wisdom, undetectable thoughts, the path to Divine lust, abundance of love, renunciation of vanity, silence of the depths. Wandering is separation from everything, with the intention of making one’s thought inseparable from God... This feat is great and praiseworthy.” That is, a wanderer is a person who is strong in spirit.

Now let’s try to see what kind of wanderers can be found in the plays of A. N. Ostrovsky “The Thunderstorm” and A. M. Gorky “At the Depth”. Only two images can be compared here: the image of Feklusha (drama “The Thunderstorm”) and the image of Luka (drama “At the Bottom”). It is important to immediately note that neither Luka nor Feklusha are true wanderers, because neither Luka, nor even less Feklusha have traveled and are not going to travel to holy places for worship.

In the work of A. N. Ostrovsky, wandering can be directly described as the replacement of the true with the false (with the exception of that true wandering that Katerina talks about, remembering her childhood). Feklusha is a false wanderer who walks from one house to another, spreading various gossip, for example, about people with dog heads. Thanks to this image, the work creates a contrast between humane existence and the moral degradation of society. Feklusha is a poor soul and a poor mind. The wildness of her character strikes the reader immediately, despite the fact that she appears on stage once or twice (that is, she is an episodic or even extra-plot character). She defends Kabanikha, about whom Kuligin says: “A prude... She gives money to the poor, but completely eats up her family,” because she sheltered her, fed her, and even tells everyone how wonderful Feklusha is. All the fantasies of the false wanderer (about the countries where the sultans rule, about the lands where “people with dog heads” live, about the “vanity” reigning in Moscow, about the “fiery serpent” that “became harnessed,” about the time that “became to come in derogation”) beat a person in the literal sense of the word. What she says leads to lies. So, all of Feklusha’s stories are simply adaptation to the surrounding world, the world dark kingdom, the ideologist of which was Feklusha, therefore A. Ostrovsky’s appeal to the image of a pseudo-wanderer was a means of showing thriving hypocrisy in the “dark kingdom.” This is most clearly demonstrated to us by the dialogue between Feklusha and Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova; it also gives the reader a lot of new things to characterize these characters. They mourn the end of the good old days and condemn the new order. The author especially emphasizes how ignorant these two heroines are. The new is powerfully entering life, undermining the foundations of the Domostroev order. Feklushi’s words that “the last times are coming” and even “time has begun to come into decline” sound symbolic. By introducing this dialogue into the plot of the drama, A. N. Ostrovsky wanted to say that the patriarchal world of the Kabanovs and the Dikikhs is really surviving last days. A thunderstorm is gathering above them.

Feklusha is one of those “strange” people who served as sources of information for the inhabitants of the “dark kingdom”. She forced everyone to listen with reverence to all her inventions. In the city of Kalinov, no one knew about anything, so everyone listened to the heroine’s stories in surprise. The inhabitants of this city were ignorant people, and Feklusha helps us see this. Minor role Feklushi in the play reveals to the readers “ dark kingdom” – the life of the inhabitants of the city of Kalinov. Being an ideologist of the “dark kingdom,” she positions herself as a holy person and does not see a single sin behind herself (her only sin is that she loves to eat). All the other heroes do the same: they are ready to shift responsibility for their mistakes to others. For example, Dikoy says that at his home there is a war going on, although in fact he is fighting alone, the old lady scares Katerina and Varvara with a thunderstorm, and Kabanova says that everyone around her will soon drive her to sin. Both Feklusha and all the residents of Kalinov can only judge others, but at the same time they forgive themselves for any wrongdoing. The atmosphere of the city is that of a court of justice. Kabanikha and other representatives of the dark kingdom understand and accept all the absurd stories of the pseudo-stranger, because Feklusha also expresses their worldview.

Feklusha tells city residents about other countries. They listen to her and focus their attention only on this. At the same time, unbeknownst to others and to herself, she tells the truth about people. But they don't hear it because they don't want to hear it. Feklusha praises the city of Kalinov and the quiet life in it. People are happy that, according to her, their city is magnificent, although this is far from true, they don’t need anything else. They only support Feklusha with alms, which is what she wants to achieve. And Kabanova needs the false wanderer so that Marfa Ignatievna can pretend to be pious, supposedly “sheltering” the “wanderer.” Why does the author introduce the image of Feklusha into his work? This is because it helps to create a “backdrop”, to convey the general mood of the city’s residents, its atmosphere. Without it, it is difficult to imagine how this “dark kingdom” lives and “breathes.” This image reveals a socially critical view of A. N. Ostrovsky’s society. The author’s negative attitude is expressed in satirical pathos, which he turns to when drawing the image of Feklushi and the “dark kingdom”.

Thus, for the author of the drama “The Thunderstorm,” pilgrimage is truly a spiritual feat, that is, this is what was inherent in the traditional understanding of pilgrimage, namely “a journey to holy places for worship.” For A. Ostrovsky, it was important to show that in the life of a soulless society, positive images of wanderers are replaced by images depicting a “surrogate” of wandering, devoid of internal content. Moreover, the playwright repeatedly emphasizes how deep moral degradation"dark kingdom" That is, in the work we see life (true wandering in Katerina’s stories about her childhood) and pseudo-life (false wandering, which is embodied in Feklusha herself, in what she talks about).

Now let’s look at the image of Luke and his role in M. Gorky’s drama “At the Bottom”. First, let's try to answer the question: how did the inhabitants of the shelter perceive their situation before Luka appeared? In the exhibition we see people who have essentially come to terms with their humiliating situation. The night shelters sluggishly, habitually quarrel, and the Actor says to Satin: “One day they will completely kill you... to death...” “And you are a fool,” Satin snaps. And in response to the Actor’s surprised question “Why?” Satin remarks philosophically: “Because you can’t kill twice.” These words of Satin show his attitude towards the existence that they all lead in the shelter. This is not life, they have all been dead for a long time (in spiritual sense this word). People feel like they have been: “I was educated person”, – Satin; By the way, using the past tense in this case is impossible, “I was a furrier,” recalls Bubnov.

The beginning of the socio-philosophical conflict (the main conflict of the play) is the appearance of Luke. He says practically nothing about himself, we only learn: “They crushed a lot, that’s why he’s soft.” He immediately “announces” his views on life: “I don’t care! I respect swindlers too, in my opinion, not a single flea is bad: all are black, all jump... that’s how it is.” And one more thing: “To the old man, where it’s warm, there’s homeland...” Luka instantly finds himself in the center of attention of the guests: “What an interesting old man you brought, Natasha...” - and all subsequent development of the plot is concentrated around him.

Luka quickly finds an approach to the shelters: “I’ll look at you, brothers - your life - oh-oh!..”. He feels sorry for Alyoshka: “Eh, guy, you’re confused.” He does not respond to rudeness, skillfully avoids questions that are unpleasant for him, and is ready to sweep the floor instead of the bunkhouses. Luke becomes necessary for each of them.

Development internal action begins when the heroes discover in themselves the ability to dream about better life. The result of this is as follows: the prostitute Nastya dreams of beautiful and bright love; An actor, a drunken man, a degraded alcoholic, remembers creativity and seriously thinks about returning to the stage; Hereditary thief Vaska Pepel discovers in herself a desire for an honest life, wants to go to Siberia and become a strong master there. So, dreams reveal true essence heroes.

Luke is absolutely selfless in his desire to awaken in people the best, for the time being hidden sides of their nature. Only Bubnov and Baron remain “deaf” to Luka’s words, therefore they are indifferent to themselves and to the people around them.

Is Luke lying? There may be different opinions on this matter. Luke is trying to help people, to “instill” in them faith in themselves. He sincerely wishes them well and shows them real ways to achieve a new, better life. But we must know that there were no hospitals, especially hospitals with marble floors, at that time. And he generally tells Nastya that the truth must be sought not in the surrounding reality, but in faith: “If you believe, it means it’s true,” says Luka to Nastya. Or let us remember the parable of the Promised Land.

M. Gorky gives the concept of “wandering” in a different sense and meaning. Luke, of course, is a wanderer, but he does not travel to holy places, he simply wanders. He's free! Even in conditions of living in a shelter, he is able to maintain inner freedom. With such an attitude towards life, he is free from all spiritual obligations. He does not judge anyone, but there is no spiritual achievement in his actions.

The most important thing is that both heroes personify society in the literal sense of the word: the image of Feklushi shows the “prosperity” of bigotry in Russia, and the image of Luka depicts to the reader the features of the Russian national character: dissatisfaction with life, a tendency to eternally search for the best, the need for freedom.

Who is Feklusha in the play “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky? At first glance, he is a completely inconspicuous character who neither directly nor indirectly influences the plot. Then the question arises: why introduce such a character at all. In fact, this character has his own, very significant, function. The characterization of Feklusha in the play “The Thunderstorm” can begin with the word “wanderer.”

In general, the motives of wandering are quite strong in Russian literature and culture. Images of wanderers are found in Pushkin, Dostoevsky, and Gorky. It cannot be denied that the image of wanderers is associated with folklore tradition. In fairy tales you can find many examples of characters who traveled around the world, “wandered.” Wanderers were a symbol and bearer of worldly wisdom, a certain higher truth, such as Luke in Gorky’s play “At the Depths” or the elder wanderers from the epics about Ilya Muromets. Ostrovsky's works change the pole of perception. The role of Feklushi in the play “The Thunderstorm” is different. There is no description of Feklushi in the text. But her appearance is not difficult to imagine. Wanderers, as usual, are middle-aged or slightly older people. Often, for lack of other clothing, they were forced to dress in rags.

The name of the character is indicative - Feklusha. Despite the fact that Feklusha is about the same age as Marfa Ignatievna, if not older. With the childish form of the name, the author does not want to emphasize the childish spontaneity of perception, but, again, as in the case of Tikhon, the infantilism inherent in these acting persons. This woman remained at the level of development at which small children are. But only this trait is rather negative. Ostrovsky introduces this character into the comedy immediately after Kuligin’s monologue about the “cruel morals” and hypocrisy of Kabanikha and before the appearance of Marfa Ignatievna.

“Blah-alepie, honey, blah-alepie! Wonderful beauty! What can I say! You live in the promised land! And the merchants are all pious people, adorned with many virtues,” these are the words Feklusha says to another woman. Her words are sweet and deceitful. She shamelessly lies, supporting the myth about the power of the merchants and the correctness of their way of life. Thanks to this character, it is clear how deeply false principles are rooted in people's minds. What Feklusha says cannot be called adequate.

A noteworthy episode is the conversation with Glasha, the courtyard girl of the Kabanovs’ house. The wanderer talks about the unrighteousness of life. She judges narrowly and limitedly. From her point of view, other religions and faiths are not correct, because they are unrighteous: “they say that there are such countries, dear girl, where there are no Orthodox kings, and the Saltans rule the earth. In one land the Turkish saltan Makhnut sits on the throne, and in another - the Persian saltan Makhnut; and they carry out judgment, dear girl, on all people, and no matter what they judge, everything is wrong. And they, my dear, cannot judge a single case righteously, such is the limit set for them. Our law is righteous, but theirs, dear, is unrighteous.”

Her words about the bustle of Moscow and fiery engines not only look like illogical nonsense, but also illustrate the lack of education and “darkness” of such people. Progress and enlightenment for people like Feklusha will forever remain sinful darkness. By the way, in the image of Feklushi the author shows hypocrisy regarding religion. The fact is that it has long been believed that helping strangers is righteous. Here, people who have a distorted knowledge and understanding of Christianity help and believe a stranger with exactly the same judgments.

Feklusha’s speech characteristics in “The Thunderstorm” are also important. Her remarks are filled with addresses like “dear”, “sir”, “dear girl”, “your lordship”. On the one hand, this gives her speech a hypnotic melodiousness, on the other, it proves Feklusha’s creepy character.

Feklusha in “The Thunderstorm” does not affect the development of the plot, but in this character Ostrovsky embodied another facet of the “dark kingdom”. Assenting and subordinating to Kabanikha and others like her only strengthens tyranny as a phenomenon, being the reason for its existence.

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