Katerina - central image in the play "The Thunderstorm". The fate of this heroine is tragic. That’s why the essay “Was there another way for Katerina?” is one of the most widespread written works on What was the conflict between this heroine and the other characters in the play?

Childhood and adolescence

In order to understand what Katerina’s conflict with the so-called dark kingdom was, you should know her general ideas about life. To demonstrate the peculiarities of her character, Ostrovsky presented some information about her childhood and adolescence. Essay “Was there a different path for Katerina?” We should, of course, start with the characteristics of this heroine. And you can understand a person by having an idea of ​​his upbringing and the society in which he spent his early years.

In some episodes, Katerina remembers her father's house. Main feature her childhood was complete freedom. It cannot be called permissiveness. Rather, such freedom was due to the love and care of the parents. The atmosphere in which Katerina spent the first years of her life is an example of a patriarchal lifestyle, in in the best sense this phrase. In the essay “Was there a different path for Katerina?” you can add some quotes from the memories of the main character. For example, Katerina recalls that in her parents’ house she liked to get up early, then washed her face with water from a spring and went to church on Sundays with her mother. There is no significant difference in the lifestyle that the girl led in her parents' house from the one she leads in her husband's house. The joy with which she indulges in memories speaks rather of her loneliness.

In the world in which the heroine lived before her marriage, there was no coercion or violence. And therefore, it was precisely the idyllic picture of such a patriarchal life that became hers. In the Kabanovs’ house, everything is different. Psychological tyranny reigns here. The mother-in-law puts depressing pressure on Katerina. And the young woman has no strength to resist him.

Kabanikha's world

Katerina got married when she was very young. Her parents found her future husband. She did not resist, because in patriarchal world That's how it was done. Katerina is ready to honor her mother-in-law. In her understanding, her husband is a mentor and support. But Tikhon is not capable of becoming the head of the family. His mother plays this role. Essay “Was there a different path for Katerina?” you can start with It is this image that creates the opposite of the main thing. And it is the mother-in-law, with her outdated and overly domineering views, that has a destructive effect on Katerina.

Boris

No matter how hard Katerina strives to love and respect her husband, she fails. He evokes only pity in her soul. When the heroine meets a stranger young man, the heart opens to a feeling that was previously unknown to her. Could she have done anything differently? Was there another way for Katerina? The essay based on Ostrovsky's play is intended to provide answers to these questions.

The characteristics of Boris in writing a written work on the topic to which this article is devoted do not play an important role. The image of the husband is essential. Tikhon is a spineless, soft-bodied person. Even after the tragedy that became the climax of the play occurs, he is afraid to contradict his mother. Tikhon loves his young wife. But this feeling turns out to be much weaker than the fear of Kabanikha. However, many in the small provincial town are in awe of this lady.

Religiosity

At the beginning of the play, remembering her childhood, Katerina talks with joy and warmth about visiting church. It should be said that piety is her characteristic feature. It was the awareness of the sin committed that led her to fear and feelings of hopelessness. But at the same time, faith in God did not keep her from doing what, according to Christian concepts, is the most terrible thing.

“Was there another way for Katerina?” - an essay in which it is imperative to include a description of Kabanikha’s world. From the moment Katerina crossed the threshold of her house, the harmony in her soul began to collapse. Therefore, it became increasingly difficult for her to carry out daily activities and attend church.

Deception and hypocrisy

Was there another way for Katerina? The essay “Thunderstorm” is tragic story a girl who could not adapt to the morals and way of life that prevailed in her husband’s house. By nature, this young woman does not know how to lie. She is not capable of living in deception and hypocrisy. But it is impossible to exist in any other way in Kabanikha’s house. She endures with all her strength, finds salvation in dreams and daydreams. But vulgar and crude reality brings her back to earth again. And there is humiliation and suffering.

Sin and Confession

Katerina makes a mistake. She falls in love with Boris and cheats on her husband. The essay “Was there another way for Katerina from the play “The Thunderstorm”” is a written work, the outline of which can be written as follows:

  • Katerina's image.
  • Characteristics of Kabanikha.
  • Contrasting Boris with Tikhon.
  • An inevitable tragedy.

After it becomes clear what Kabanikha is and what kind of atmosphere prevails in her house, the feelings of the main character also become clear. A girl who grew up in love and affection would never be able to get along in this house. She is not accustomed to cruelty and hypocrisy and feels not only unhappy, but also extremely lonely in the world of Kabanikha. Boris is a man who impressed her only because he did not look like any representative of the “dark kingdom.” If there had been at least a faint hope of happiness in Katerina’s life, she would not have committed treason.

Essay “Was there a different path for Katerina?” (Ostrovsky, “The Thunderstorm”) is a task that requires independent reflection. Can an honest person get used to a world of lies? Is he able to hide his misdeeds and move on after committing a sin? In the case of the heroine of Ostrovsky's play, the answer is clear. Katerina had no other choice.

She was killed by Kabanikha’s deceitful world, loneliness, lack of understanding and support from her husband. She could have overcome all this if she had been more experienced. But the peculiarity of the patriarchal way of life is such that a girl, leaving her father’s house, has no idea about life. Therefore, we can say that Katerina’s tragedy was inevitable.

The drama "The Thunderstorm", written in 1859, at a time of social upsurge on the eve of peasant reorganization, seemed to crown the first period creative activity Ostrovsky, a cycle of his plays about the “dark kingdom”. This play was extremely popular. The drama was staged on the stages of almost all theaters in Russia: from large metropolitan theaters to theaters in small, lost towns. And it is not surprising, because Ostrovsky showed a new heroine in the play, symbolizing a protest against the old way of life, symbolizing the sprouts of a new life. And that’s exactly how the play was received by the public. Even the censors perceived "The Thunderstorm" exactly as public play, because they demanded that Ostrovsky completely remove Kabanikha: it seemed to them that Kabanikha was a parody of the Tsar, “Nikolai Pavlovich in a skirt.”

According to V. Lakshin, “The Thunderstorm” amazed Ostrovsky’s contemporaries with its “poetic power and dramatic story about the fate of Katerina.” The play was perceived as an exposure of merchant moral standards and arbitrariness that dominated the country.
I think that no one will argue with the fact that Katerina’s fate is really dramatic. She, perhaps without realizing it, protested against the tyranny and despotism of the society in which she lived. Her voluntary death is precisely a challenge to this tyrant force. But was another outcome possible?

After some reflection, one can come to the conclusion that theoretically Katerina Kabanova still had a selection. Let's try to analyze possible resolutions to the conflict of the play.

The first and, perhaps, the most desirable way is to leave with Boris. This is exactly what the poor lady hopes for when she goes on her last date with her loved one. But Boris, that same “educated Tikhon,” is not able to answer for his actions, is not able to take responsibility upon himself. He refuses Katerina. The last hope is crumbling.

The second way is to get a divorce. But at that time, in order to get a divorce, you could wait a very long time, and you had to go through all the authorities, try all the humiliations. If divorce was rare in noble families (remember Anna Karenina), then for a merchant family it was simply impossible.

The third way is to go to a monastery. But the husband's wife could not be accepted into the monastery. They would have found her there anyway and returned her to her husband.

The fourth and most terrible path is the path of Katerina Izmailova. Get rid of your husband and mother-in-law, kill them. But Katerina Kabanova cannot choose that very path, cannot hurt another person, cannot break the fifth commandment “thou shalt not kill,” since she is unusually devout.

Katerina could not exist according to Varvara’s principle: “Do whatever you want, as long as everything is sewn and covered.” Katerina’s nature cannot come to terms with lies. It was impossible to simply leave her husband and return to her parents’ home; she would have been found and returned, and her shame would have fallen on the whole family.

There was one more way left - to exist with Tikhon as before, because he loved her in his own way and forgave her for her transgression. But could Katerina listen to her mother-in-law’s daily prodding and reproaches? And that’s not the main thing. With Boris Katerina experienced true love, I learned the beauty of intimacy with a loved one, the joy of being in his arms. And is it really possible after this to exist with an unloved husband, who is under Kabanikha’s heel, a husband who, moreover, is not able to defend his wife from his mother’s insults? Of course not! Having fallen in love with Boris, Katerina could no longer love anyone else. Her integral nature, following her feelings, did not even allow the thought of this. She couldn’t even imagine returning to the Kabanovs’ home: “It doesn’t matter to me whether it’s home or the grave. Yes, home or grave!.. It’s better in the grave... But I don’t even want to think about life... And people are disgusting to me, and the home is disgusting to me, and the walls are disgusting!.. It’s impossible to live!”

Thus, the only way out for Katerina was suicide. This decision is not a weakness, but a strength of her character. It is known that suicide in the Christian tradition is the greatest offense. Suicides are buried outside the church fence and there is no funeral service. But this does not frighten the devout Katerina. “They won’t pray?” she exclaims. “Whoever loves will pray...” Such spiritual talent and such integrity as Katerina’s have one reward - death.

Of course, Katerina is “a ray of light in a dark kingdom,” but with her death it does not go out. The beam made a hole among the menacing clouds - the world of the Wild and Boars. This gap is an ulcer in the “dark kingdom”. Katerina’s death serves as a silent reproach both to Boris, “blindly submitting to the will of the Wild,” and to Tikhon, “a weak-willed victim of fear of his mother.” Katerina makes the apathetic Tikhon perk up internally, who in a frenzy accuses his mother: “You ruined her! You! You!”

V. Lakshin wrote about this last scene of the drama: “This, although apparently fragile, victory over the fear of authority constitutes the content of almost the most psychologically acute and courageous scene, worthy of crowning the entire drama.”

The action of Ostrovsky's drama "The Thunderstorm" takes place in the nineteenth century, in a small provincial town where patriarchal orders reign. Katerina, main character plays, lives in the wealthy house of the Kabanovs with her husband Tikhon and her mother-in-law, nicknamed Kabanikha for her quarrelsome character and tyranny. In his work, Ostrovsky shows the conflict " dark kingdom", which personifies the way of life in the Kabanovs' house, and Katerina, who would like to build her family on the principles of mutual love and respect. Katerina, living in the Kabanovs' family, is forced to endure the oppression of Kabanikha's tyranny. The situation in the family requires her to lie and deceive. "Without this is impossible, remember where you live; our whole house rests on this,” her husband’s sister Varvara tells her. Everything that surrounds Katerina rebels against her natural aspirations and desires. In a conversation with Varvara, in five words she simply and at the same time very accurately conveys her attitude towards the current situation situation. “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity!” She is striving to escape from this captivity to a free life, even if she has to die in this impulse. She does not consider the existence that she leads in the Kabanov family to be life, but she wants to live. not to exist, wants to live freely without any pressure on her. Her husband Tikhon cannot help her in her desire to live freely. He, like Katerina, suffers a lot from the old Kabanikha. He is simple-minded and not at all evil, but extremely weak-willed. He is unable to protect his wife from the attacks of his own mother. Katerina, realizing this, feels pity for him, this feeling in her is much stronger than her love for Tikhon. In her desire to escape from the dark kingdom, she is looking for a person who would understand her. and shared her views. He turns out to be the nephew of a wealthy landowner, Boris. This is a well-educated man who arrived from the capital; he does not accept the morals prevailing in the city and understands Katerina well. In addition, he is financially dependent on his uncle, just like the young woman is on her husband and mother-in-law. She fell in love with him more out of despair than for his spiritual qualities. Katerina cannot make up her mind, cannot find a way out of this situation.
But there is always a way out of any situation, and more than one. One of the possible options is to leave everything as it is and continue to endure and try to come to terms with the hope that something will change in the future. If only the people around her could change... But this will not happen. Kabanova cannot leave what she was raised with and her spineless son cannot suddenly, for no apparent reason, acquire firmness and independence.
Another way out seems less impossible. Katerina could have fled with Boris from the tyranny and oppression of her family. Having secretly met with Boris, she asks him: “Take me with you from here.” But this is also impossible, because Boris is Dikiy’s nephew and financially depends on him. In addition, Dikoy and Kabanov agreed to send him to Klyakhta, and, of course, they will not allow him to take Katerina with him. In essence, Boris is the same Tikhon, only “educated”. Education took away from him the strength to do dirty tricks, but also did not give him the strength to resist them.
She also could not simply leave the Kabanovs’ house and return to her parents or settle somewhere with relatives, since in those days women had a different position in society than now. Moral standards did not allow this. According to the social norms of that time, the wife had to obey her husband and, as a rule, she was financially dependent on him.
At the end of "The Thunderstorm" a terrible challenge is given to tyrant power. Ostrovsky, at the end of his tragedy, shows the reader the impossibility of existing in an environment where tyranny reigns with its violent and deadening principles. His Katerina chooses the only worthy way out of that terrible current situation. She carried her protest to the end. Having thrown herself into the abyss, she gained freedom and showed everyone that life is in " dark kingdom"much worse than death. Although, from the point of view of Christian morality, Katerina did the wrong thing (after all, the church condemns suicide), I believe that for her this was the only way out, since long-suffering would destroy her personality, teach her to lie and dodge, and kill everything good and positive in her .