Love in Katerina's life in the play Thunderstorm. Katerina is a Russian tragic heroine. Katerina's life in the Kabanovs' house. Love of Katerina and Boris

In Katerina's position, we see that all the "ideas" instilled in her from childhood, all the principles environment- rebel against her natural aspirations and actions. The terrible struggle to which the young woman is condemned takes place in every word, in every movement of the drama, and this is where all the importance of the introductory characters for which Ostrovsky is so reproached turns out. Take a good look: you see that Katerina was brought up in concepts that are the same as the concepts of the environment in which she lives, and cannot get rid of them, having no theoretical education. The stories of the wanderers and the suggestions of the family, although they were processed by her in her own way, could not help but leave an ugly trace in her soul: and indeed, we see in the play that Katerina, having lost her bright dreams and ideal, lofty aspirations, retained from her upbringing one thing a strong feeling - the fear of some dark forces, something unknown, which she could not explain to herself well, nor reject. For every thought she fears, for the simplest feeling she expects punishment for herself; it seems to her that a thunderstorm will kill her, because she is a sinner, the pictures of fiery hell on the church wall seem to her already a foreshadowing of her eternal torment ... And everything around her supports and develops this fear in her: Feklushi go to Kabanikha to talk about the last times; Wild insists that a thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment, so that we feel; the mistress who has come, inspiring fear in everyone in the city, is shown several times in order to shout over Katerina in an ominous voice: “You will all burn in fire in unquenchable.” Everyone around is full of superstitious fear, and everyone around, in accordance with the concepts of Katerina herself, should look at her feelings for Boris as the greatest crime. Even the daring Curly, the esprit-fort * of this environment, and he finds that the girls can go out with the guys as much as they want - that's nothing, but the women should really be locked up. This conviction is so strong in him that, having learned about Boris's love for Katerina, he, despite his daring and some kind of outrage, says that "this business must be abandoned." Everything is against Katerina, even her own ideas about good and evil; everything must make her — to stifle her impulses and wither in the cold and gloomy formalism of family silence and obedience, without any living aspirations, without will, without love — or else learn to deceive people and conscience.<…>

The environment in which Katerina lives requires her to lie and deceive; “It’s impossible without this,” Varvara tells her, “remember where you live; Our whole house is based on this. And I was not a liar, but I learned when it became necessary. Katerina succumbs to her position, goes out to Boris at night, hides her feelings from her mother-in-law for ten days ... You might think: another woman has gone astray, learned to deceive her family and will debauchery on the sly, pretending to caress her husband and wearing the disgusting mask of a humble woman! One could not strictly blame her for this either: her situation is so difficult! But then she would have been one of the dozens of faces of the type that is already so worn out in stories that showed how "the environment seizes good people". Katerina is not like that: the denouement of her love, despite the whole home environment, is visible in advance, even when she only approaches the matter. She doesn't work psychological analysis and therefore cannot express subtle observations of himself; what she says about herself, it means that she strongly makes herself known to her. And she, at the first suggestion of Varvara about her meeting with Boris, cries out: “No, no, don’t! what are you, God forbid: if I see him at least once, I will run away from home, I will not go home for anything in the world! It is not a reasonable precaution that speaks in her, it is a passion; and it’s already clear that no matter how hard she restrains herself, passion is above her, above all her prejudices and fears, above all suggestions. heard by her since childhood. In this passion lies her whole life; all the strength of her nature, all her living aspirations merge here. She is attracted to Boris not only by the fact that she likes him, that he is not like the others around her both in appearance and speech; she is attracted to him by the need for love, which has not found a response in her husband, and the offended feeling of the wife and woman, and the mortal anguish of her monotonous life, and the desire for freedom, space, hot, unrestricted freedom. She keeps dreaming about how she could “fly invisibly wherever she wanted”; otherwise such a thought comes: “if it were my will, I would now ride on the Volga, on a boat, with songs, or on a troika on a good one, embracing” ... “Not with my husband,” Varya tells her, and Katerina does not can hide her feelings and immediately opens up to her with the question: “How do you know?” It is evident that Varvara's remark explained a lot to herself: in telling her dreams so naively, she did not yet fully understand their significance. But one word is enough to give her thoughts the certainty that she herself was afraid to give them. Until now, she could still doubt whether this new feeling really contained the bliss for which she was so languidly seeking. But once she has uttered the word of mystery, she will not depart from it even in her thoughts. Fear, doubts, the thought of sin and human judgment - all this comes into her head, but no longer has power over her; this is so, formalities, to clear the conscience. In the monologue with the key (the last one in the second act), we see a woman in whose soul a decisive step has already been taken, but who only wants to “speak” herself somehow. She makes an attempt to stand somewhat aloof from herself and judge the act she has decided on as an extraneous matter; but her thoughts are all directed towards the justification of this act. “Here,” he says, “is it a long time to die ... In captivity, someone has fun ... At least now I live, toil, I don’t see a gap for myself ... my mother-in-law crushed me” ... etc. d. - all exculpatory articles. And then more easing considerations: “It is already clear that fate wants it that way. .. Yes, what a sin in this, if I look at him once ... Yes, even if I talk, it’s not a problem. Or maybe such a case will never happen again in a lifetime ... ”This monologue aroused in some critics a desire to sneer at Katerina as over a shameless and submissive *; but we know no greater shamelessness than to assure that we or one of our ideal friends are not involved in such transactions with conscience ... It is not individuals who are to blame for these transactions, but those concepts that have been hammered into their heads from childhood and which so often they are contrary to the natural course of the living strivings of the soul. Until these concepts are expelled from society, until the full harmony of the ideas and needs of nature is restored in the human being, until then such transactions are inevitable. It is also good if, while doing them, one comes to what seems natural and common sense, and does not fall under the yoke of conventional instructions of artificial morality. This is precisely what Katerina became strong for, and the stronger nature speaks in her, the calmer she looks in the face of children's nonsense, which those around her have taught her to be afraid of. Therefore, it even seems to us that the artist, who plays the role of Katerina on the St. Petersburg stage, is making a small mistake, giving the monologue we are talking about too much heat and tragedy. She obviously wants to express the struggle going on in Katerina's soul, and from this point of view she conveys the difficult monologue admirably. But it seems to us that it would be more in line with the character and position of Katerina in this case - to give her words more calm and lightness. The struggle, in fact, is already over, only a little thought remains, the old rags still cover Katerina, and she gradually throws her off her. The end of the monologue betrays her heart. “Come what may, and I will see Boris,” she concludes, and in the oblivion of premonition she exclaims: “Oh, if only the night would come sooner!”

Such love, such a feeling will not get along within the walls of a boar's house, with pretense and deceit. Katerina, although she decided on a secret meeting, but for the first time, in the rapture of love, she says to Boris, who assures that no one will know anything: “Eh, no one is to blame for pitying me, she herself went for it. Don't be sorry, kill me! Let everyone know, let everyone see what I'm doing... If I'm not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment?

And for sure, she is not afraid of anything, except for depriving her of the opportunity to see her chosen one, to talk with him, to enjoy these summer nights with him, these new feelings for her. Her husband arrived, and her life became unrealistic. It was necessary to hide, to be cunning; she did not want to and did not know how; she had to go back to her callous, dreary life—it seemed to her bitterer than before. Moreover, I had to be afraid every minute for myself, for my every word, especially in front of my mother-in-law; one also had to be afraid of a terrible punishment for the soul ... Such a situation was unbearable for Katerina: days and nights she kept thinking, suffering, exalted her imagination, already hot, and the end was one that she could not endure - for all people crowded in the gallery of the old church, repented of everything to her husband. His first movement was fear of what his mother would say. “Don’t, don’t say, mother is here,” he whispers, confused. But the mother has already listened and demands a full confession, at the end of which she draws her moral: “What, son, where will the will lead?”

It is difficult, of course, to mock common sense more than how Kabanikha does it in his exclamation. But in " dark kingdom“Common sense means nothing: with the “criminal” they took measures that were completely opposite to him, but usual in that life: the husband, at the behest of his mother, beat his wife a little, the mother-in-law locked her up and began to eat eaten ...

The will and peace of the poor woman are over: before, at least they could not reproach her, at least she could feel that she was completely right in front of these people. And now, after all, one way or another, she is guilty before them, she violated her duties to them, brought grief and shame to the family; now the most cruel treatment of her already has reasons and justification. What is left for her?

<…>Less impossibility would have been another solution - to run away with Boris from the arbitrariness and violence of the household. Despite the severity formal law Despite the bitterness of crude tyranny, such steps are not impossible in themselves, especially for such characters as Katerina. And she does not neglect this way out, because she is not an abstract heroine who wants to die on principle. Having run away from home to see Boris, and already thinking about death, she, however, is not at all averse to escaping; having learned that Boris is going far away, to Siberia, she very simply tells him: "take me with you from here." But then a stone emerges in front of us for a minute, which keeps people in the depths of the whirlpool, which we called the “dark kingdom”. This stone is material dependence. Boris has nothing and is completely dependent on his uncle, Diky; Dikoy and the Kabanovs were arranged to send him to Kyakhta, and, of course, they would not let him take Katerina with him. That is why he answers her: “It is impossible, Katya; I’m not going of my own free will, my uncle is sending, the horses are already ready, ”and so on. Boris is not a hero, he is far from being worth Katerina, she fell in love with him more in the wilderness. He has had enough of "education" and will not be able to cope either with the old way of life, or with his heart, or with common sense - he walks around as if lost. He lives with his uncle because he and his sister must give part of the grandmother's inheritance, "if they are respectful to him." Boris is well aware that Dikoi will never recognize him as respectful and therefore will not give him anything; yes, this is not enough. Boris argues like this: “No, he will first break over us, scold us in every possible way, as his heart desires, but all the same will end up giving nothing or so, some little, and even begin to tell what he has given out of mercy, that it shouldn't be." And yet he lives with his uncle and endures his curses; why? - unknown. At the first meeting with Katerina, when she talks about what awaits her for this, Boris interrupts her with the words: “well, what to think about it, it’s good for us now.” And at the last meeting, she cries: “who knew that we would suffer so much for our love with you! I'd better run then!" In a word, this is one of those very frequent people who do not know how to do what they understand, and do not understand what they are doing. Their type has been portrayed many times in our fiction, sometimes with exaggerated compassion for them, sometimes with excessive bitterness against them. Ostrovsky gives them to us as they are, and with a special skill for him draws in two or three features their complete insignificance, although, by the way, not devoid of a certain degree of spiritual nobility. There is nothing to talk about Boris, he, in fact, should also be attributed to the situation in which the heroine of the play finds herself. He represents one of the circumstances that makes its fatal end necessary. If it were a different person and in a different position, then there would be no need to rush into the water. But the fact of the matter is that the environment, subject to the power of the Dikikhs and Kabanovs, usually produces Tikhonov and Borisov, unable to perk up and accept their human nature, even when confronted with such characters as Katerina. We have said a few words above about Tikhon; Boris is the same in essence, only "educated". Education took away from him the power to do dirty tricks, it is true; but it did not give him the strength to resist the dirty tricks that others do; it has not even developed in him the ability to behave in such a way as to remain alien to all the vile things that swarm around him. No, not only does he not oppose, he submits to other people's nasty things, he willy-nilly participates in them and must accept all their consequences. But he understands his situation, talks about it, and often even deceives, for the first time, truly lively and strong natures, who, judging by themselves, think that if a person thinks so, understands so, then he must do so. Looking from their point of view, such natures will not hesitate to say to “educated” sufferers who are moving away from the sad circumstances of life: “take me with you, I will follow you everywhere.” But this is where the impotence of the sufferers will turn out; it turns out that they did not foresee, and that they curse themselves, and that they would be glad, but it’s impossible, and that they have no will, and most importantly, that they have nothing in their souls and that in order to continue their existence, they must serve that but to the Wild one, whom we would like to get rid of together with us ...

There is nothing to praise or scold these people, but attention must be paid to the practical ground on which the question passes; it must be admitted that it is difficult for a person who expects an inheritance from an uncle to shake off his dependence on this uncle, and then one must give up excessive hopes in nephews who expect an inheritance. even if they were “educated” to the utmost. If we analyze the guilty here, then it will be not so much the nephews that are to blame, but the uncles, or, better, their inheritance.

Dobrolyubov N.A. "A Ray of Light in a Dark Realm"

The chosen natures have their own fate. Only it is not outside of them: they carry it in their own heart. When she comes on her first date with Boris, from the first words she showers him with reproaches for ruining her.

“Why did you come, my destroyer?” she says. “After all, I’m married, because my husband and I live to the grave, to the grave. “After all, what am I preparing for myself? Where is my place, you know?

Calm down, sit down.

Well, how did you not ruin me, if I, leaving the house at night, go to you.

It was your will.

I have no will. If I had my own will, I would not go to you. ( He raises his eyes and looks at Boris. A little silence.) Your will is now over me, can't you see! ( Throws itself on his neck.)

E! Why feel sorry for me, no one is to blame - she herself went for it. Don't be sorry, destroy me, let everyone know, let everyone see what I'm doing. If I am not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment? They say it's even easier when you endure for some sin here on earth.

Again, the whole character is visible. Again Russian motives. With a kind of voluptuousness, with a kind of daring, she already thinks about the moment when everyone learns about her fall and dreams of the sweetness of being executed in public for her deed. What kind of despotism after that could have an influence on such a nature. Be she surrounded by the most kind people, she, having committed her sin, would have been executed in the same way and yearned. Perhaps there would have been no suicide, but her life would still have been shattered. Such common women, as the author gives us, make no concessions either to the public court, or to the demands of youth, or even to the all-healing time. If she were a developed woman, she would find the justification for her love both in the thirst of a person to taste happiness on earth, and in her bitter lot, and, finally, in the legitimacy in which she herself would clothe her love. All these higher considerations are completely alien to Katerina. What in ordinary language is called a misdemeanor, in her concept is a grave, mortal sin, worthy of all the torments of hell.

<…>How, they say, could Katerina fall in love with such a vulgar gentleman as Boris! Among so many convex and bright faces in the drama, this face really catches the eye with its impersonality and insignificance. Not a single property that makes up the character is indicated in it directly and positively by the author. The flabbiness and passivity of this person appear in him as if by themselves, without the knowledge of the author. All this is true, but what of it? How could Katerina now find out what kind of person this was? She fell in love with him without saying a single word to him; on the first date she came to him as to a stranger; before she saw him, her heart already demanded love. She liked him because he suffers grief just as much as she does. Finally, she just fell in love with his face, and she fell in love with Boris. You never know who and for what women love, the most developed, not like Katerina in this respect, a simple and direct woman.

Dostoevsky M.M. ""Thunderstorm". Drama in five acts by A.N. Ostrovsky"

Read also other topics of analysis of the drama "Thunderstorm":

Dobrolyubov N.A. "A Ray of Light in a Dark Realm"

”, A.N. Ostrovsky opens up several problematic lines for readers, thereby making the plot fascinating and fascinating.

Of course, the main problematic line of the play is an attempt to free herself and her soul from the oppressive oppression of her relatives. Life in the estate for her was a real punishment. Therefore, with the development of the plot, we are also carried away by the problematic line of love that arises between Katerina and Boris.

Why does this girl have love feelings not for her husband, but for someone else's man? Yes, because she did not love. She married him only because he did not cause hostility in her soul. She never experienced real feelings of love for Tikhon Kabanov. Therefore, she is captured by real love emotions that a girl experiences for the first time in her life. And she can't resist them.

What attracted her to Boris? He was not like the rest of the inhabitants of her estate. He looked like a new generation. It is he who changes not only Katerina's inner world, but also her general worldview.

Chatting with, she tells her about her dreams, that she no longer sees trees and birds. She feels the call of her native voice, she experiences a passionate embrace. It is precisely such changes in her consciousness that lead to that risky step. She goes on a date with her lover. Her bold act was made not only to meet love feelings. She strives for freedom and liberation from domestic oppression, he has eternal skirmishes with Kabanikha, from the weak-willed Tikhon.

With Boris, Katerina experiences wonderful feelings of love, but, as we see further, the girl’s heart is mistaken. Boris differed from the representatives of the "dark kingdom" only in his appearance. In fact, he was just as cowardly and spineless as Tikhon. He was afraid of the influence of his uncle Wild, and therefore could not protect poor Katerina from the shame and ridicule that fell upon the girl after confessing to treason. Boris does not take his beloved with him. He leaves her among those callous and cruel people. And how does the girl behave? She does not get angry, does not scold Boris, but only quietly and gently says goodbye to him. So her love was high and pure. She was for Katerina the highest life value.

After breaking up with Boris, Katerina decides to free herself from the heavy burden of life and jumps from a river cliff into the raging waves of the Volga. The girl dies, but at the same time her soul is freed from the cruel and hypocritical world of tyrants from the "dark kingdom".

The image of Katerina in the play "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, who seeks 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 "Thunderstorm" cannot but attract attention and make one feel sympathy. Honesty, the ability to feel deeply, the sincerity of nature and a penchant for poetry - these are the features that distinguish Katerina herself from the representatives of " 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 easy to see, Katerina's speech itself is more like a melodic melody, it is replete with diminutive and caressing words and expressions: "sun", "grass", "rain". The heroine shows incredible candor 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 state of mind of the heroine

The image of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm" perfectly echoes the image of a bird, which symbolizes freedom in folk poetry. Talking with Varvara, she repeatedly refers to this analogy and claims that she is "a free bird that has fallen into an iron cage." In captivity, she is sad and painful.

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

In the house of the Kabanovs, Katerina, who is dreamy and romantic, feels completely alien. The humiliating reproaches of the mother-in-law, who is used to keeping all the household in fear, the atmosphere of tyranny, lies and hypocrisy oppress the girl. However, Katerina herself, who by nature is a strong, whole 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 deceit cause Katerina's sharp rejection. The heroine opposes the "dark kingdom", his orders did not break her will to live, fortunately, did not force her to become like other residents of the Kabanovs' house and begin to hypocrite and lie at every step.

The image of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm" is revealed in a new way, when the girl makes an attempt to break away from the "hateful" world. She does not know how and does not want to love the way the inhabitants of the “dark kingdom” do, freedom, openness, “honest” happiness are important to her. While Boris convinces her that their love will remain a secret, Katerina wants everyone to know about it, so that everyone can 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 that 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 struggle with her own feelings is beyond the strength of the fragile Katerina.

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

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

Evil is attacking Katerina from all sides. Constant harassment from the mother-in-law, throwing between duty and love - all this eventually leads the girl to tragic ending. Having managed to know happiness and love in her short life, she is simply not able to continue living in the Kabanovs' house, where such concepts do not exist at all. She sees the only way out in suicide: the future frightens Katerina, and the grave is perceived as salvation from mental anguish. However, the image of Katerina in the drama "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 death of the heroine was not in vain. The girl won a moral victory over the "dark kingdom", she managed to dispel a little darkness in the hearts of people, induce them to action, open their eyes. The life of the heroine herself became a "beam of light" that flashed in the darkness and left its glow over the world of madness and darkness for a long time.

Homework for the lesson

1. Collect citation material to characterize Katerina.
2. Read steps II and III. Mark phrases in Katerina's monologues that testify to the poetic nature of her nature.
3. What is Katerina's speech?
4. How is life in your parents' house different 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 Dikoy?
6. Why next to Katerina Varvara?
7. Does Katerina Tikhon love?
8. Fortune or misfortune on life path Katerina Boris?
9. Can Katerina's suicide be considered a protest against the "dark kingdom"? Maybe the protest is in love with Boris?

Exercise

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

Answer

D.I, yavl. V, p.232: Inability to be hypocritical, lie, directness. The conflict is outlined right away: Kabanikha does not tolerate self-esteem, disobedience in people, Katerina does not know how to adapt and submit. In Katerina there is - along with spiritual softness, trembling, songfulness - and firmness hated by Kabanikh, strong-willed determination, which are heard both in her story about sailing on a boat, and in her individual actions, and in her patronymic Petrovna, derived from Peter - " a rock". D.II, yavl. II, pp. 242–243, 244.

Therefore, Katerina cannot be brought to her knees, and this greatly complicates the conflict confrontation between the two women. A situation arises when, according to the proverb, the scythe found a stone.

Question

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

Answer

Katerina is a poetic nature. 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 bloomed ...

“I used to get up early; if in the summer, I’ll go to the spring, wash myself, bring some water with me and that’s all, water all the flowers in the house. I had many, many flowers,” she says about her childhood. (d.I, yavl. 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, yavl. VII, p. 235). With these repetitions, the playwright emphasizes the romantic sublimity of Katerina's soul, her freedom-loving aspirations. Married early, she tries to get along with her mother-in-law, to love her husband, but no one needs sincere feelings in the Kabanovs' house.

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

“Until death, I loved to go to church! It’s like, it happened, I’ll go into paradise, and I don’t see anyone, and I don’t remember the time, and I don’t hear when the service ends,” she recalls. (d.I, yavl. VII, p. 236)

Question

How would you characterize the character's speech?

Answer

Katerina's speech reflects all her wealth inner world: the power of feelings, human dignity, moral purity, truthfulness of nature. The strength of feelings, the depth and sincerity of Katerina's experiences are also 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, becomes smooth, rhythmic, melodious. In her speech, there are vernacular, words of a church-religious nature (lives, angels, golden temples, images), expressive means of folk-poetic language (“Winds are violent, you transfer my sadness and longing to him”). Speech is rich in intonations - joyful, sad, enthusiastic, sad, anxious. The 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

S.235 d.I, yavl. VII ("Was I like that!")

Conclusion

Outwardly, the living conditions in Kalinovo 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 is as if from bondage." 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 is different in character from all actors"Thunderstorms". Whole, honest, sincere, she is incapable of lies and falsehood, therefore, in a cruel world where 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 love for Boris. This is freedom of choice.

Question

Does Katerina Tikhon love?

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 has disgusted me, he has disgusted me, his caress is worse for me than beatings."

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

Question

Happiness or misfortune on the life path of Katerina Boris?

Answer

The very love for Boris is a tragedy. D.V, yavl. III, p. 280 "Unfortunately, I saw you." Even the narrow-minded Kudryash understands this, warning with alarm: “Oh, Boris Grigoryevich! (...) After all, this means you want to ruin her completely, Boris Grigoryich! (...) But what kind of people are here! You know yourself. They will eat her, (...) Just look - don’t make trouble for yourself, but don’t get her into trouble! Suppose, even though she has a husband and a fool, but 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; deceit that puts Katerina on a par with Varvara; renunciation of love is submission to the world of Kabanikhi. Love-choice dooms Katerina to torment.

Question

How is the heroine's torment, her struggle with herself, her strength shown in the scene with the key and the scenes of meeting and parting with Boris? Analyze vocabulary, sentence structure, folklore elements, connections with folk song.

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, that I am deceiving myself? I have to die to see him." Date scene: "Let everyone know, let everyone see what I'm doing! If I was not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment? Farewell scene: “My friend! My joy! Goodbye!" All three scenes show the determination of the heroine. She never betrayed herself: she decided on love at the behest of her heart, confessed to treason from an inner sense of freedom (a lie is always not free), she came to say goodbye to Boris not only because of a feeling of love, but also because of guilt: he suffered because of for her. She rushed into 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

Katerina's protest against the oppression of the "dark kingdom" is based on a natural desire to defend the freedom of her personality. Captivity is the name of her main enemy. With all her being, Katerina felt that living in a "dark kingdom" worse than death. And she preferred death to captivity.

Question

Prove that Katerina's death is a protest.

Answer

Katerina's death is a protest, a riot, a call to action. Varvara ran away from home, Tikhon blamed his mother for the death of his wife. Kuligin reproached him with unmercifulness.

Question

Will the city of Kalinov be able to live in the old way?

Answer

Most probably not.

The fate of Katerina acquires in the play symbolic meaning. Not only the heroine of the play perishes - patriarchal Russia, patriarchal morality perishes and goes into the past. Drama Ostrovsky, as it were, captured people's Russia at a turning point, on the threshold of a new historical era.

For conclusion

The play still asks a lot of questions. First of all, it is necessary to understand the genre nature, the main conflict of "Thunderstorm" and understand why N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote in his article "A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom": "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 "Thunderstorm" a tragedy, based on the specifics of the conflict (obviously tragic) and the nature of Katerina, who raised big questions that remained somewhere on the periphery of society's attention. Why did Katherine die? Because she got a cruel mother-in-law? Because she, being a husband's wife, committed a sin and could not stand the pangs of conscience? If we confine 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 loses its high tragic intensity.

At first glance, it seems that the main conflict of the play is Katerina's clash with Kabanova. If Marfa Ignatievna had been kinder, gentler, more humane, there would hardly have been a tragedy with Katerina. But the tragedy might not have happened if Katerina knew how to lie, adapt, if she had not judged herself so severely, 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 own principles.

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