– this is a nature that is not pliable, not bendable. She has a highly developed personality, she has a lot of strength and energy; her rich soul requires freedom, breadth - she does not want to secretly “steal” joy from life. It can not bend, but break. (See also the article The image of Katerina in the play “The Thunderstorm” - briefly.)

A. N. Ostrovsky. Storm. Play. Episode 1

Katerina received a purely national upbringing, developed by the ancient Russian pedagogy of Domostroy. She lived locked up throughout her childhood and youth, but the atmosphere of parental love softened this life, and besides, the influence of religion prevented her soul from becoming hardened in suffocating loneliness. On the contrary, she did not feel any bondage: “she lived and did not worry about anything, like a bird in the wild!” Katerina often went to churches, listened to the stories of pilgrims and pilgrims, listened to the singing of spiritual poems - she lived carefree, surrounded by love and affection... And she grew up as a beautiful, gentle girl, with a fine mental organization, a great dreamer... Raised in a religious way , she lived exclusively in the circle of religious ideas; her rich imagination was fed only by those impressions that she drew from the lives of saints, from legends, apocrypha and the moods that she experienced during worship...

“...to death I loved going to church! - she later recalled her youth in a conversation with her husband’s sister Varvara. - Exactly, it happened that I would enter heaven... And I don’t see anyone, and I don’t remember the time, and I don’t hear when the service ends. Mama said that everyone used to look at me, what was happening to me! And, you know, on a sunny day such a light column goes down from the dome and smoke moves in this column, like clouds. And I see, sometimes, as a girl, I’ll get up at night - we also had lamps burning everywhere - and somewhere, in a corner, I’ll pray until the morning. Or I’ll go into the garden early in the morning, the sun is just rising, and I’ll fall on my knees, pray and cry, and I myself don’t know what I’m praying for and what I’m crying about!”

From this story it is clear that Katerina was not just a religious person - she knew moments of religious “ecstasy” - that enthusiasm in which the holy ascetics were rich, and examples of which we will find in abundance in the lives of the saints... Like them, Katerina I had “visions” and wonderful dreams.

“And what dreams I had, Varenka, what dreams! Or golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens... And everyone is singing invisible voices, and they smell of cypress... And the mountains and the trees, as if not the same as usual, but as if they were written in images!

From all these stories of Katerina, it is clear that she is not an ordinary person... Her soul, squeezed by the ancient system of life, is looking for space, does not find it around her and is carried away to “grief”, to God... There are many such natures in the old days went into “asceticism”...

But sometimes in her relationships with her family, the energy of her soul broke through - she did not go "against people" but, indignant, protesting, she then left "from people"...

“I was born so hot! - she tells Varvara. “I was only six years old, no more, so I did it!” They offended me with something at home, and it was late in the evening, it was already dark; I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat, and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they found it, about ten miles away!..

Eh, Varya, you don’t know my character! Of course, God forbid this happens! And if I get really tired of it here, they won’t hold me back by any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I won’t do this, even if you cut me!”

From these words it is clear that calm, dreamy Katerina knows impulses that are difficult to cope with.

Katerina was conceived by Ostrovsky as a positive image, with integrity, courage, determination and freedom-loving character and at the same time bright, loving, creative, full of deep poetry. He strongly emphasizes her connection with the people. With all the development of the action, Ostrovsky talks about Katerina’s victory over the dark kingdom.

Katerina's life parental home was similar in terms of life to the Kabanovs’ house, the same wanderers with their stories, reading the lives of saints, visiting church. But “she made up for this life, poor in content, with her spiritual wealth.”

The whole story about Katerina’s life is imbued with great tenderness for the past and horror for the present: “It was so good” and “I have completely withered with you.” And the most valuable thing that was now lost was the feeling of will. “I lived like a bird in the wild,” “...I used to do whatever I wanted,” “my mother didn’t force me.” And in response to Varvara’s remark that the life of Katerina’s parents’ house is similar to theirs, Katerina exclaims: “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity.” Surprisingly simply, sincerely, as she feels, without a single embellishing word, Katerina says: “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.”
Church and religion occupied a large place in Katerina’s life from her youth.

Growing up in a patriarchal merchant family, she could not be different. But her religiosity differs from the ritual fanaticism of the Wild and Kabani not only in its sincerity, but also in the fact that she perceived everything connected with religion and the church primarily aesthetically. “And to death I loved going to church! It was as if I would enter heaven.”

The church filled her fantasies and dreams with images. Looking at the sunlight pouring from the dome, she saw singing and flying angels in it, “she dreamed of golden temples.”
From bright memories Katerina moves on to what she is experiencing now. Katerina is deeply sincere and truthful, she wants to tell Varvara everything, not to hide anything from her.

With her characteristic imagery, trying to convey her feelings as accurately as possible, she tells Varvara: “At night, Varya, I can’t sleep, I keep imagining some kind of whisper; someone speaks to me so affectionately, as if he were loving me, as if a dove was cooing. I no longer dream, Varya, as before, of paradise trees and mountains, but as if someone is hugging me so warmly and warmly and leading me somewhere, and I follow him, I go.”
All these images testify to the richness of Katerina’s spiritual life.

How many subtle nuances of an emerging feeling are conveyed in them. But when Katerina tries to comprehend what is happening to her, she relies on the concepts brought up in her by religion; She perceives the awakened feeling through the prism of her religious ideas: “Sin is on my mind... I cannot escape this sin.” And hence the premonition of trouble: “Before any trouble, before some kind of this...”, “No, I know that I will die,” etc.

Religion not only filled her fantasies and dreams with its images, it entangled her soul with fear - the fear of “fiery hell,” the fear of sin. Brave, decisive Katerina, who was not afraid even of the formidable Kabanikha, who was not afraid of death, is afraid of sin, she sees the evil one everywhere, the thunderstorm seems to her like God’s punishment: “I’m not afraid of dying, but when I think that suddenly I will appear before God as I am here with you, after this conversation - that’s what’s scary.”

Katerina is characterized by a constant desire to go somewhere, a thirst for justice and truth, and an inability to tolerate insults. It is no coincidence that as an example of the manifestation of her warm heart, she recalls an incident from early childhood when someone offended her and she left on a boat: “... it was late in the evening, it was already dark, I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat, and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they found it about ten miles away.”

Along with Katerina’s ardor and determination, Ostrovsky shows her purity, inexperience, and girlish shyness. Hearing Varvara’s words: “I’ve noticed for a long time that you love another person,” Katerina gets scared, she’s scared, perhaps because what she doesn’t dare admit to herself has become obvious. She wants to hear the name of Boris Grigorievich, she wants to know about him, but she doesn’t ask about it. Shyness only forces her to pose the question: “So what?” Varvara expresses what Katerina herself is afraid to admit to herself, what she is deceiving herself about. Either she strives to prove to herself that she loves Tikhon, then she doesn’t even want to think about Tikhon, then she sees with despair that the feeling is stronger than her will, and this invincibility of the feeling seems to her a terrible sin. All this is incredibly expressively reflected in her speech: “Don’t tell me about him, do me a favor, don’t tell me! I don't even want to know him. I will love my husband." “Do I really want to think about him; But what should you do if it’s out of your head? No matter what I think about, he remains before my eyes. And I want to break myself, but I just can’t.”

In an effort to conquer her heart, she constantly appeals to her will. The path of deception, so common in the dark kingdom, is unacceptable for Katerina. In response to Varvara’s proposal: “But in my opinion, do what you want, as long as it’s sewn and covered,” Katerina replies: “I don’t want it that way. And what good. I’d rather be patient as long as I can”; or “And if I get really tired of it here, no force can hold me back. I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga.” “I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me.”

Katerina doesn't want to lie, Katerina doesn't know compromises. Her words, spoken unusually decisively and energetically, speak of her integrity, unrestraint, and ability to go to the end.

The main characters of Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm"

The events in A. N. Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” take place on the Volga coast, in the fictional city of Kalinov. The work provides a list characters and them brief characteristics, but they are still not enough to better understand the world of each character and reveal the conflict of the play as a whole. There are not many main characters in Ostrovsky’s “The Thunderstorm”.

Katerina, girl, main character plays. She is quite young, she was married off early. Katya was brought up exactly according to the traditions of house-building: the main qualities of a wife were respect and obedience to her husband. At first, Katya tried to love Tikhon, but she could not feel anything but pity for him. At the same time, the girl tried to support her husband, help him and not reproach him. Katerina can be called the most modest, but at the same time the most powerful character in “The Thunderstorm”. Indeed, Katya’s strength of character does not appear outwardly. At first glance, this girl is weak and silent, it seems as if she is easy to break. But this is not true at all. Katerina is the only one in the family who resists Kabanikha’s attacks. She resists, and does not ignore them, like Varvara. The conflict is rather internal in nature. After all, Kabanikha is afraid that Katya might influence her son, after which Tikhon will stop obeying his mother’s will.

Katya wants to fly and often compares herself to a bird. She is literally suffocating in Kalinov’s “dark kingdom”. Falling in love with a newcomer young man, Katya created for herself perfect image love and possible liberation. Unfortunately, her ideas had little to do with reality. The girl's life ended tragically.

Ostrovsky in “The Thunderstorm” makes not only Katerina the main character. The image of Katya is contrasted with the image of Marfa Ignatievna. A woman who keeps her entire family in fear and tension does not command respect. Kabanikha is strong and despotic. Most likely, she took over the “reins of power” after the death of her husband. Although it is more likely that in her marriage Kabanikha was not distinguished by submissiveness. Katya, her daughter-in-law, got the most from her. It is Kabanikha who is indirectly responsible for the death of Katerina.

Varvara is the daughter of Kabanikha. Despite the fact that over so many years she has learned to be cunning and lie, the reader still sympathizes with her. Varvara good girl. Surprisingly, deception and cunning do not make her like other residents of the city. She does as she pleases and lives as she pleases. Varvara is not afraid of her mother’s anger, since she is not an authority for her.

Tikhon Kabanov fully lives up to his name. He is quiet, weak, unnoticeable. Tikhon cannot protect his wife from his mother, since he himself is under the strong influence of Kabanikha. His rebellion ultimately proves to be the most significant. After all, it is the words, and not Varvara’s escape, that make readers think about the whole tragedy of the situation.

The author characterizes Kuligin as a self-taught mechanic. This character is a kind of tour guide. In the first act, he seems to be taking us around Kalinov, talking about its morals, about the families that live here, about the social situation. Kuligin seems to know everything about everyone. His assessments of others are very accurate. Kuligin himself a kind person who is used to living by established rules. He constantly dreams of the common good, of a perpetu mobile, of a lightning rod, of honest work. Unfortunately, his dreams are not destined to come true.

The Wild One has a clerk, Kudryash. This character is interesting because he is not afraid of the merchant and can tell him what he thinks about him. At the same time, Kudryash, just like Dikoy, tries to find benefit in everything. He can be described as a simple person.

Boris comes to Kalinov on business: he urgently needs to establish relations with Dikiy, because only in this case will he be able to receive the money legally bequeathed to him. However, neither Boris nor Dikoy even want to see each other. Initially, Boris seems to readers like Katya, honest and fair. IN last scenes this is refuted: Boris is not able to decide to take a serious step, to take responsibility, he simply runs away, leaving Katya alone.

One of the heroes of “The Thunderstorm” is a wanderer and a maid. Feklusha and Glasha are shown as typical inhabitants of the city of Kalinov. Their darkness and lack of education is truly amazing. Their judgments are absurd and their horizons are very narrow. Women judge morality and ethics according to some perverted, distorted concepts. “Moscow is now full of carnivals and games, but in the streets there is an indo roar and groan. Why, Mother Marfa Ignatievna, they started harnessing a fiery serpent: everything, you see, for the sake of speed” - this is how Feklusha speaks about progress and reforms, and the woman calls a car a “fiery serpent”. The concept of progress and culture is alien to such people, because it is convenient for them to live in an invented limited world of calm and regularity.

Characteristics of Katerina from the play “The Thunderstorm”

Using the example of the life of a single family from the fictional city of Kalinov in the play “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky, the whole essence of the outdated patriarchal structure is shown Russia XIX century. Katerina is the main character of the work. She is contrasted with all the other characters in the tragedy, even from Kuligin, who also stands out among the residents of Kalinov, Katya is distinguished by her strength of protest. The description of Katerina from “The Thunderstorm”, the characteristics of other characters, the description of the life of the city - all this adds up to a revealing tragic picture, conveyed photographically accurately. The characterization of Katerina from the play “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky is not limited to just the author’s commentary in the list of characters. The playwright does not evaluate the actions of the heroine, relieving himself of the responsibilities of an all-knowing author. Thanks to this position, each perceiving subject, be it a reader or a viewer, can himself evaluate the heroine based on his own moral convictions.

Katya was married to Tikhon Kabanov, the son of a merchant's wife. It was given out, because then, according to the domostroy, marriage was more likely the will of the parents than the decision of the young people. Katya's husband is a pitiful sight. The child's irresponsibility and immaturity, bordering on idiocy, led to the fact that Tikhon is incapable of anything other than drunkenness. Marfa Kabanova fully embodied the ideas of tyranny and hypocrisy inherent in everything “ dark kingdom" Katya strives for freedom, comparing herself to a bird. It is difficult for her to survive in conditions of stagnation and slavish worship of false idols. Katerina is truly religious, every trip to church seems like a holiday for her, and as a child, Katya more than once fancied that she heard angels singing. It happened that Katya prayed in the garden, because she believed that the Lord would hear her prayers anywhere, not just in church. But in Kalinov, the Christian faith was deprived of any internal content.

Katerina's dreams allow her to briefly escape from the real world. There she is free, like a bird, free to fly wherever she wants, not subject to any laws. “And what dreams I had, Varenka,” continues Katerina, “what dreams! Either the temples are golden, or the gardens are extraordinary, and everyone is singing invisible voices, and there is a smell of cypress, and the mountains and trees seem not to be the same as usual, but as if depicted in images. And it’s like I’m flying, and I’m flying through the air.” However, in Lately Katerina began to have a certain mysticism. Everywhere she begins to see imminent death, and in her dreams she sees the evil one who warmly embraces her and then destroys her. These dreams were prophetic.

Katya is dreamy and tender, but along with her fragility, Katerina’s monologues from “The Thunderstorm” reveal perseverance and strength. For example, a girl decides to go out to meet Boris. She was overcome by doubts, she wanted to throw the key to the gate into the Volga, thought about the consequences, but still took an important step for herself: “Throw the key! No, not for anything in the world! He’s mine now... Whatever happens, I’ll see Boris!” Katya is disgusted with Kabanikha’s house; the girl doesn’t like Tikhon. She thought about leaving her husband and, having received a divorce, living honestly with Boris. But there was nowhere to hide from the tyranny of the mother-in-law. With her hysterics, Kabanikha turned the house into hell, stopping any opportunity for escape.

Katerina is surprisingly insightful towards herself. The girl knows about her character traits, about her decisive disposition: “I was born this way, hot! I was only six years old, no more, so I did it! They offended me with something at home, and it was late in the evening, it was already dark; I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they found it, about ten miles away! Such a person will not submit to tyranny, will not be subject to dirty manipulations by Kabanikha. It’s not Katerina’s fault that she was born at a time when a wife had to unquestioningly obey her husband and was an almost powerless appendage whose function was childbearing. By the way, Katya herself says that children could be her joy. But Katya has no children.

The motif of freedom is repeated many times in the work. The parallel between Katerina and Varvara seems interesting. Sister Tikhon also strives to be free, but this freedom must be physical, freedom from despotism and mother’s prohibitions. At the end of the play, the girl runs away from home, finding what she dreamed of. Katerina understands freedom differently. For her, this is an opportunity to do as she wants, take responsibility for her life, and not obey stupid orders. This is freedom of the soul. Katerina, like Varvara, gains freedom. But such freedom is achievable only through suicide.

In Ostrovsky’s work “The Thunderstorm,” Katerina and the characteristics of her image were perceived differently by critics. If Dobrolyubov saw in the girl a symbol of the Russian soul, tormented by the patriarchal house-building, then Pisarev saw a weak girl who had driven herself into such a situation.

In the drama “The Thunderstorm” by A.N. Ostrovsky created a completely new one for his creativity female image– with inner harmony, spiritual strength and an extraordinary attitude.

Life before marriage

Katerina is a bright person with a poetic, elevated soul. She is a dreamer with a remarkably developed imagination. Before her marriage, she lived freely: she prayed in church, did handicrafts, listened to the stories of the praying mantis, and saw fabulous dreams. The author vividly represents the heroine’s desire for spirituality and beauty.

Religiosity

Katerina is very pious and religious. Christianity in her perception is closely connected with pagan beliefs and folklore legends. Katerina’s entire inner being strives for freedom and flight: “Why don’t people fly like birds?” she asks. Even in her dreams she sees her own flights in the form of a bird or a butterfly.

Having gotten married and settled in the Kabanovs’ house, she feels like a bird in a cage. Being a person of strong character, Katerina has a sense of self-esteem. In Kabanikha’s house, where everything is done as if against her will, it’s hard for her. How hard it is to accept the stupidity and weak character of your own husband. Their whole life is built on deception and submission.

Hiding behind God's commandments, Kabanova humiliates and insults her household. Most likely, such frequent attacks on the daughter-in-law are due to the fact that she feels in her a rival capable of resisting her will.

Varya Katerina admits that if her life becomes completely unbearable, she will not endure it - she will throw herself into the Volga. Even as a child, when her parents offended her in some way, she sailed away on a boat along the Volga alone. I think that the river for her is a symbol of freedom, will, and space.

Thirst for freedom and love

The thirst for freedom in Katerina’s soul is mixed with the thirst for true love, which knows no boundaries or barriers. Attempts to maintain a relationship with her husband lead nowhere - she cannot respect him because of his weak character. Having fallen in love with Boris, Dikiy’s nephew, she thinks of him as a kind, intelligent and well-mannered man, very different from those around him. He attracts her with his difference, and the heroine surrenders to her feelings.

Subsequently, she begins to be tormented by the awareness of her sinfulness. Her internal conflict is determined not only by the conviction of sin before God, but also before herself. Katerina’s ideas about morality and morality do not allow her to be calm about secret love meetings with Boris and her husband’s deception. Thus, the heroine’s suffering is inevitable. Due to her growing feelings of guilt, the girl confesses everything to her family just as a thunderstorm approaches. In thunder and lightning she sees God's punishment overtaking her.

Resolving internal conflict

Katerina's internal conflict cannot be resolved by her confession. From the inability to reconcile her feelings and the opinions of others about herself, she commits suicide.

Despite the fact that taking one’s own life is a sin, Katerina thinks about Christian forgiveness and is sure that her sins will be forgiven by the one who loves her.

I am very sorry that there was not a single strong man around Katerina who could protect her from internal experiences and external conflicts. In my opinion, Katerina is rightly called “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.”

The main sources of Katerina's language are folk vernacular, folk oral poetry and church-everyday literature.

The deep connection of her language with popular vernacular is reflected in vocabulary, imagery, and syntax.

Her speech is replete with verbal expressions, idioms of popular vernacular: “So that I don’t see either my father or my mother”; “doted on my soul”; “calm my soul”; “how long does it take to get into trouble”; “to be a sin”, in the sense of misfortune. But these and similar phraseological units are generally understandable, commonly used, and clear. Only as an exception are morphologically incorrect formations found in her speech: “you don’t know my character”; “After this we’ll talk.”

The imagery of her language is manifested in the abundance of verbal and visual means, in particular comparisons. So, in her speech there are more than twenty comparisons, and all the other characters in the play, taken together, have a little more than this number. At the same time, her comparisons are widespread, folk character: “It’s like a pigeon is calling me”, “It’s like a dove is cooing”, “It’s like a mountain has been lifted from my shoulders”, “My hands are burning like coal.”

Katerina’s speech often contains words and phrases, motifs and echoes of folk poetry.

Addressing Varvara, Katerina says: “Why don’t people fly like birds?..” - etc.

Longing for Boris, Katerina says in her penultimate monologue: “Why should I live now, well, why? I don’t need anything, nothing is nice to me, and God’s light is not nice!”

Here there are phraseological turns of a folk-colloquial and folk-song nature. So, for example, in a meeting folk songs, published by Sobolevsky, we read:

It’s absolutely impossible to live without a dear friend...

I’ll remember, I’ll remember about the kind one who’s not nice to the girl White light,

The white light is not nice, not nice... I’ll go from the mountain into the dark forest...

speech phraseological thunderstorm Ostrovsky

Going out on a date with Boris, Katerina exclaims: “Why did you come, my destroyer?” In a folk wedding ceremony, the bride greets the groom with the words: “Here comes my destroyer.”

In the final monologue, Katerina says: “It’s better in the grave... There’s a grave under the tree... how good... The sun warms it, the rain wets it... in the spring the grass grows on it, it’s so soft... birds will fly to the tree, they will sing, they will bring out children, the flowers will bloom: yellow , little red ones, little blue ones...”

Everything here comes from folk poetry: diminutive-suffixal vocabulary, phraseological units, images.

For this part of the monologue, direct textile correspondences are abundant in oral poetry. For example:

...They will cover it with an oak board

Yes, they will lower you into the grave

And they will cover it with damp earth.

Overgrow, my grave,

You're an ant in the grass,

More scarlet flowers!

Along with popular vernacular and folk poetry, the language of Katerina, as already noted, was greatly influenced by church literature.

“Our house,” she says, “was full of pilgrims and praying mantises. And we’ll come from church, sit down to do some work... and the wanderers will begin to tell where they have been, what they have seen, different lives, or sing poetry” (D. 1, Rev. 7).

Possessing a relatively rich vocabulary, Katerina speaks freely, drawing on diverse and psychologically very deep comparisons. Her speech flows. So, she is not alien to such words and expressions of literary language as: dreams, thoughts, of course, as if all this happened in one second, there is something so extraordinary in me.

In the first monologue, Katerina talks about her dreams: “And what dreams I had, Varenka, what dreams! Or golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens, and everyone is singing invisible voices, and there is a smell of cypress, and the mountains and trees, as if not the same as usual, but as if they were written in images.”

These dreams, both in content and in the form of verbal expression, are undoubtedly inspired by spiritual poems.

Katerina’s speech is unique not only lexico-phraseologically, but also syntactically. It consists mainly of simple and complex sentences, with predicates placed at the end of the phrase: “So time will pass until lunch. Here the old women will fall asleep, and I will walk in the garden... It was so good” (D. 1, Rev. 7).

Most often, as is typical for the syntax of folk speech, Katerina connects sentences through the conjunctions a and yes. “And we’ll come from church... and the wanderers will start telling... It’s like I’m flying... And what dreams did I have.”

Katerina’s floating speech sometimes takes on the character of a folk lament: “Oh, my misfortune, my misfortune! (Crying) Where can I, poor thing, go? Who should I grab hold of?

Katerina’s speech is deeply emotional, lyrically sincere, and poetic. To give her speech emotional and poetic expressiveness, diminutive suffixes are used, so inherent in folk speech (key, water, children, grave, rain, grass), and intensifying particles (“How did he feel sorry for me? What words did he say?” ), and interjections (“Oh, how I miss him!”).

The lyrical sincerity and poetry of Katerina’s speech are given by the epithets that come after the defined words (golden temples, extraordinary gardens, with evil thoughts), and repetitions, so characteristic of the oral poetry of the people.

Ostrovsky reveals in Katerina’s speech not only her passionate, tenderly poetic nature, but also her strong-willed strength. Katerina’s willpower and determination are shaded by syntactic constructions of a sharply affirming or negative nature.