Comparison of Katerina and Larisa in Ostrovsky's "thunderstorm" and "dowry". Comparative analysis of the plays “Thunderstorm” and “Dowry” (hereinafter - G
There are twenty years between “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry”. During this time, the country has changed, the writer has changed. All these changes can be traced through the example of the play “The Thunderstorm” and the drama “Dowry”.
The merchants in “The Dowry” are no longer ignorant and tyrant representatives of the “dark kingdom,” but people who pretend to be educated, read foreign newspapers, and dress in European style.
The main characters of two plays by A.N. Ostrovsky differ significantly in their social status, but are very similar in their tragic destinies. Katerina in “The Thunderstorm” is the wife of a rich but weak-willed merchant who is entirely under the influence of her despotic mother. Larisa in “The Dowry” is a beautiful unmarried girl who lost her father early and was raised by her mother, a poor woman, very energetic, who, unlike her mother-in-law Katerina, is not prone to tyranny. Kabanikha cares about the happiness of her son Tikhon, as she understands him. Kharita Ignatievna Ogudalova equally zealously cares about the happiness of her daughter Larisa, again, in her own understanding. As a result, Katerina rushes into the Volga and dies at the hands of her unsuccessful groom Larisa. In both cases, the heroines are destined to die, although their relatives and friends seemed to wish them only the best.
The main characters, Katerina and Larisa, are often compared to each other. They both strove for freedom, both received it not in this world, both were pure and bright in nature, loved the unworthy, and with all their being showed a protest against the “dark kingdom” (in my opinion, the “Dowryless” society also fits this definition) .
Katerina Kabanova lives in a small Volga town, where life is still largely patriarchal. And the action of “The Thunderstorm” takes place before the reform of 1861, which had a huge impact on the life of the Russian province. Larisa Ogudalova is a resident of a large city, also located on the Volga, but has long lost the patriarchal nature of family relationships. The Volga unites the heroines; for both of them, the river symbolizes freedom and death: both Katerina and Larisa are overtaken by death on the river. But here are also differences: the city of Bryakhimov is not separated from the rest of the world, like Kalinov, it is not excluded from historical time, it is open, people come and go to it (in “The Thunderstorm” the Volga River is perceived primarily as a border, and in “Dowry” ” it becomes a means of communication with the world).
The action of “Dowry” takes place in the late 1870s, at the end of the second decade after the liberation of the peasants. Capitalism is developing rapidly. Former merchants are turning into millionaire entrepreneurs. The Ogudalov family is not rich, but thanks to the persistence of Kharita Ignatievna, they make acquaintances with influential and rich people. The mother inspires Larisa that, although she does not have a dowry, she should marry a rich groom. And Larisa has no doubt about it, hoping that both love and wealth will unite in the person of her future chosen one. The choice for Katerina had already been made long ago, marrying off the unloved, weak-willed, but rich Tikhon. Larisa is accustomed to the cheerful life of the Volga “society” - parties, music, dancing. She herself has abilities - Larisa sings well. It is simply impossible to imagine Katerina in such a situation. It is much more closely connected with nature, with popular beliefs, and is truly religious. Larisa, too, in difficult times remembers God, and, having agreed to marry the petty official Karandyshev, dreams of leaving with him to the village, away from the city temptations and her former wealthy acquaintances. However, in general, she is a person of a different era and environment than Katerina. Larisa has a more subtle psychological makeup, a more subtle sense of beauty than the heroine of “The Thunderstorm”. But this also makes her even more defenseless against any unfavorable external circumstances.
The merchants of “Groza” are just becoming the bourgeoisie, this is manifested in the fact that the patriarchal relations traditional for them are becoming obsolete, deception and hypocrisy are being established (Kabanikha, Varvara), which are so disgusting to Katerina.
Larisa is also a victim of deception and hypocrisy, but she has different life values, unthinkable for Katerina, the source of which, first of all, lies in her upbringing. Larisa received a Europeanized upbringing and education. She is looking for sublimely beautiful love, gracefully beautiful life. To do this, ultimately, she needs wealth. But there is no strength of character, no integrity of nature in her. It would seem that the educated and cultured Larisa should have expressed at least some kind of protest, unlike Katerina. But she is a weak nature in all respects. Weak not only in order to kill herself when everything collapsed and everything became hateful, but even in order to somehow resist the deeply alien norms of life that boils around her. In soul and body, Larisa herself turns out to be an expression of the deceitfulness of the surrounding life, emptiness, spiritual chill, hiding behind a spectacular external shine.
The essence of the conflict in dramas is also different. In “The Thunderstorm,” the clash occurs between tyrants and their victims. The play has very strong motifs of lack of freedom, stuffiness, suppression, and closed space. Katerina, accustomed to living “like a bird in the wild,” dreaming of flight, cannot subordinate herself to the laws of the world in which she found herself after her marriage. Her situation is truly tragic: the free expression of feeling - love for Boris - comes into conflict with her true religiosity, her inner inability to live in sin. The climax of the play is Katerina’s public recognition, which takes place amid the thunderclaps of an approaching thunderstorm.
An event that, like a thunderclap, shakes the entire city is the death of Katerina. Traditionally, it is perceived by drama viewers as a protest against the cruel laws of life, as a victory of the heroine over the force that oppresses her.
In “Dowry”, at first glance, everything is the opposite. Larisa is not sharply opposed to the heroes around her; she is admired and idolized. There is no talk of any suppression or despotism. But another motive is extremely strong in the play, which was not in “The Thunderstorm” - the motive of money. It is he who forms the conflict of the drama. Larisa is homeless, and this determines her position in the play. All the characters around her - Knurov, Vozhevatov, Paratov, Karandyshev - talk only about money, benefit, profit, buying and selling. In this world, a person’s feelings also become a subject of trade. This clash of monetary, material interests with the feelings of the heroine leads to a tragic ending.
And the heroines’ attitudes towards death are very different; Larisa’s willpower is much weaker than Katerina’s. Katerina sees death here as an opportunity to merge with the natural world and get rid of suffering, when her husband’s house became a grave for her: “Where to now? Should I go home? No, it doesn’t matter to me whether I go home or go to the grave. Yes, to home, to the grave!.. to the grave! It’s better in a grave... There’s a grave under a tree... how nice!.. The sun warms it, wets it with rain... in the spring the grass will grow on it, so soft... birds will fly to the tree, they will sing, they will bring out children, flowers will bloom: yellow, red, blue... all sorts of (thoughts) all sorts...”
Larisa, after her hopes for marriage with Paratov have finally collapsed, and Knurov openly invited her to become a rich kept woman, is thinking about throwing herself into the Volga, like Katerina. However, she does not have enough determination for this: “Larissa. Just now I was looking down through the bars, my head was spinning, and I almost fell. And if you fall, they say... certain death. (Thinking.) It would be nice to rush! No, why rush!.. Stand by the bars and look down, you’ll get dizzy and fall... Yes, that’s better... unconscious, no pain... you won’t feel anything! (He approaches the bars and looks down. He bends down, grabs the bars tightly, then runs away in horror.) Oh, oh! How scary! (Almost falls, grabs the gazebo.) What dizziness! I'm falling, falling, ouch! (Sits down at the table near the gazebo.) Oh, no... (Through tears.) Parting with life is not at all as easy as I thought. So I have no strength! Here I am, how unhappy! But there are people for whom this is easy...”
Here the author’s remarks convey the confusion of the main character of “The Dowry,” her desire for suicide and her inability to accomplish it. Larisa either approaches the cliff or moves away from it. She still hopes that some force acting against her will will help her die. Larisa dreams of leaving life pure, sinless, including without the sin of suicide. And she clearly lacks the determination to take her own life. Katerina is a different matter. She realizes that she is a sinner because she cheated on her husband, even an unloved one, even for the sake of real, genuine love. Her suicide is both atonement for sin (albeit through, from the point of view of Christianity, another sin, but for Katerina this circumstance no longer matters), and reunification with the natural world - birds, trees, and liberation from the earthly grave - the home of the hated Kabanikha. Before her death, Katerina by no means forgives her mother-in-law who killed her. Larisa, in full agreement with Christian ideals, declares that she loves all those - Paratov, Knurov, Vozhevatov, Karandyshev - who, voluntarily or unwittingly, contributed to her death. Katerina’s faith is more passionate and less canonical, in some ways close to the pagan deification of the natural elements. Larisa's faith is calmer, partly bookish, although no less sincere. The heroine of “The Thunderstorm” is a more strong-willed person. She is capable of such a decisive act as suicide. The heroine of “The Dowry” does not have the will to commit suicide. An accident comes to her aid in the person of Karandyshev, who ended Larisa’s life with his shot.
Freedom and love are the main things that were in Katerina’s character. She believed in God freely, not under pressure. By her own free will, she sinned and punished herself. Moreover, suicide for a believer is an even more terrible sin, but Katerina agreed to it. Her impulse for freedom, for freedom, turned out to be stronger than the fear of torment beyond the grave, but, more likely, it was her hope in God’s mercy, for Katerina’s God is undoubtedly kindness and forgiveness incarnate.
Katerina is a truly tragic heroine. She had no thought of protesting against the world and the order in which she lived. She had no conflict with the world or with those around her. The cause of her death was the internal conflict of her heart. The world of Russian patriarchal life in Katerina itself exploded from within, because freedom began to leave it, i.e. life itself.
And Larisa, a young girl with a pure soul, who knows how to love and yearns for mutual true feelings, faces the world of businessmen, where only capital reigns. In this world, the fate of a homeless woman is doomed to tragedy. Like Katerina, Larisa belongs to women with a “warm heart”. She is also endowed with a musical, poetic soul. Larisa's world contains both a gypsy song and a Russian romance. A dreamy, artistically gifted nature, she does not notice shortcomings in people, sees others through the eyes of the heroine of a romance and often acts in accordance with the traditions of the behavior of such a heroine (the desire to catch up with a departed loved one, love and separation, temptation by love, escaping from an engagement). Larisa seems to hover above the world of ordinary people; it is not for nothing that her name is translated from Greek as seagull.
The shipowner, rich gentleman Sergei Sergeevich seems to Larisa to be the ideal man. He is capable of being sincerely carried away; he is delighted with Larisa’s beauty, originality, and artistic gift. But his spiritual impulses are short-lived; business calculations always take over: “I... have nothing cherished; If I find a profit, I’ll sell everything, anything.” True to this rule, Paratov does this with both the Lastochka steamship and Larisa. For the sake of momentary bliss, he persuades Larisa to go beyond the Volga, from where there are two roads for her: either “rejoice”, or “Mom, look for me in the Volga.” Paratov has no intention of exchanging his millionth bride for Larisa Dmitrievna. At the end of the play, Larisa has an epiphany. Sergei Sergeevich reminds her that “the frenzy of passion soon passes, what remains are chains and common sense,” and advises her to return to her fiance. But for Larisa this is impossible: “If I don’t love my husband, I must at least respect him; But how can I respect a person who indifferently endures ridicule and all kinds of insults!” The heroine of the play tries to throw herself into the Volga, but she does not have the strength to carry out this intention. Desperate, she decides to throw down a kind of challenge both to her failed fiancé and to the whole world of self-interest and profit: “if you are a thing, then there is only one consolation - to be expensive, very expensive.” She delivers a harsh verdict on a world where women are viewed as a joke. “No one ever tried to look into my soul, I didn’t see sympathy from anyone, I didn’t hear a warm, heartfelt word... But it’s cold to live like that.”
After the shot, she declares “it’s me,” the heroine not only strives to remove the blame from Karandyshev; Larisa realized that she too was to blame for what happened. Having accepted death as a blessing, she thereby breaks out of the world of businessmen, morally rising above them, and forever separates herself from this world. By this she admits her guilt. But Katerina is even more sinful than Larisa, since she commits suicide. But this is precisely her tragedy: she understands, realizes that she has sinned, repents, and then sins again. Their main difference lies in each heroine’s understanding of her sin.
In essence, the characters of Katerina and Larisa are rather antipodes. Larisa does not have the main thing that Katerina has - integrity of character, the ability to take decisive action.
But these heroines of Ostrovsky have a lot in common: this is the thirst for flight, and the desire for will, freedom; their protest against the “dark kingdom”. But their main difference is in the expression of this protest. Katerina is a much stronger nature than Larisa. And Katerina’s tragedy is much deeper than Larisa’s tragedy.
In the best plays by A.N. Ostrovsky's most interesting are female characters, in which, despite all individual differences, similarities are felt. Katerina Kabanova from the drama “The Thunderstorm” and Larisa Ogudalova from “The Dowry” are united by their doom in the environment from which they came.
In the atmosphere of lies and violence that prevails in The Thunderstorm, only Katerina looks natural, but her sincerity is not needed by others. The true tragedy of the heroine is that she is hopelessly alone in this world. Katerina’s sublime and poetic soul, the bird soul, has no place in the city of Kalinov.
Katerina - a strong, strong-willed, decisive nature and at the same time soft, reverent - dies not only because of a collision with the “dark kingdom” of tyrants, but also because, having given free rein to her feelings, she violated her moral duty - not so much to her husband, but to yourself. Her demands on herself are limitless and do not tolerate compromise. The tragedy of Katerina is a tragedy of conscience, the drama of a woman who fell in love, but could not live in a lie, bringing suffering to people and herself.
Katerina does not know how to lie and deceive. She cannot “live in the world and suffer.” Where to go? Nowhere. And you can’t run away from yourself. No one condemned Katerina more mercilessly than herself. The heroine's repentance led her to death. What else could she do? Suicide became a deliverance from earthly torment, which seemed to her worse than hell...
"Dowry" was published nineteen years after "The Thunderstorm", in 1879. Much has changed during this time in Russia. It would seem that the city of Bryakhimov is in no way comparable to the patriarchal Kalinov. The drowsy silence of the Volga province is now disturbed not by barge haulers' songs, but by the shrill whistles of steamships.
Ignorant shopkeepers were replaced by industrialists and merchants, managers of firms and trading houses, traveling to Paris for exhibitions. But, alas, in the seemingly civilized world, cruelty, lies, calculation, and injustice reign. The highest value here is money, not a person’s personality.
In the world of buying and selling, a wonderful person with a “hot heart” lives, loves, and suffers - Larisa Ogudalova. The originality and sublime structure of the soul make her similar to Katerina. Larisa does not have a dowry, so Paratov, whom she trustingly and selflessly loved, cannot marry her. But it's not just about the dowry. Paratov in this play also appears as an object of bargaining: having squandered his fortune, he is sold to a rich bride. He is unable to bear responsibility for the fate of another person (and this is what true love implies). All his life Paratov searched for feelings that brought him pleasure. He deceives Larisa, obeying his own whim, without thinking about the future fate of this girl.
For Karandyshev, marriage with Larisa is necessary as a means of self-affirmation, revenge of wounded pride. Who is he? A minor official, bypassed by fortune. “I’m a funny person,” he says about himself. But why does he, who knows the pain of insulted dignity, offend and humiliate Larisa? Karandyshev is drawn to her only by the desire to prove that he is no worse than Paratov, Knurov, Vozhevatov. And Larisa understands this well.
“Friendship” of Vozhevatov, “devotion” of Knurov, “love” of Paratov and Karandyshev - everything turns out to be unreal. Before Larisa, who deeply feels and thinks, but has been reduced to the status of a thing, there is only one way out - death. Therefore, the denouement of “Dowry” is natural.
So, both of Ostrovsky’s heroines are killed by the cruelty and vulgarity of the surrounding life, the defection of the chosen ones of their hearts. Both Katerina and Larisa are looking for love in life, but do not find it. Their departure is a protest against a society in which there is no place for sincere feelings.
There are twenty years between “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry”. During this time, the country has changed, the writer has changed. All these changes can be traced through the example of the play “The Thunderstorm” and the drama “Dowry”.
The merchants in “The Dowry” are no longer ignorant and tyrant representatives of the “dark kingdom,” but people who pretend to be educated, read foreign newspapers, and dress in European style.
The main characters of two plays by A.N. Ostrovsky differ significantly in their social status, but are very similar in their tragic destinies. Katerina in “The Thunderstorm” is the wife of a rich but weak-willed merchant who is entirely under the influence of her despotic mother. Larisa in “The Dowry” is a beautiful unmarried girl who lost her father early and was raised by her mother, a poor woman, very energetic, who, unlike her mother-in-law Katerina, is not prone to tyranny. Kabanikha cares about the happiness of her son Tikhon, as she understands him. Kharita Ignatievna Ogudalova equally zealously cares about the happiness of her daughter Larisa, again, in her own understanding. As a result, Katerina rushes into the Volga and dies at the hands of her unsuccessful groom Larisa. In both cases, the heroines are destined to die, although their relatives and friends seemed to wish them only the best.
The main characters, Katerina and Larisa, are often compared to each other. They both strove for freedom, both received it not in this world, both were pure and bright in nature, loved the unworthy, and with all their being showed a protest against the “dark kingdom” (in my opinion, the “Dowryless” society also fits this definition) .
Katerina Kabanova lives in a small Volga town, where life is still largely patriarchal. And the action of “The Thunderstorm” takes place before the reform of 1861, which had a huge impact on the life of the Russian province. Larisa Ogudalova is a resident of a large city, also located on the Volga, but has long lost the patriarchal nature of family relationships. The Volga unites the heroines; for both of them, the river symbolizes freedom and death: both Katerina and Larisa are overtaken by death on the river. But here are also differences: the city of Bryakhimov is not separated from the rest of the world, like Kalinov, it is not excluded from historical time, it is open, people come and go to it (in “The Thunderstorm” the Volga River is perceived primarily as a border, and in “Dowry” ” it becomes a means of communication with the world).
The action of “Dowry” takes place in the late 1870s, at the end of the second decade after the liberation of the peasants. Capitalism is developing rapidly. Former merchants are turning into millionaire entrepreneurs. The Ogudalov family is not rich, but thanks to the persistence of Kharita Ignatievna, they make acquaintances with influential and rich people. The mother inspires Larisa that, although she does not have a dowry, she should marry a rich groom. And Larisa has no doubt about it, hoping that both love and wealth will unite in the person of her future chosen one. The choice for Katerina had already been made long ago, marrying off the unloved, weak-willed, but rich Tikhon. Larisa is accustomed to the cheerful life of the Volga “society” - parties, music, dancing. She herself has abilities - Larisa sings well. It is simply impossible to imagine Katerina in such a situation. It is much more closely connected with nature, with popular beliefs, and is truly religious. Larisa, too, in difficult times remembers God, and, having agreed to marry the petty official Karandyshev, dreams of leaving with him to the village, away from the city temptations and her former wealthy acquaintances. However, in general, she is a person of a different era and environment than Katerina. Larisa has a more subtle psychological makeup, a more subtle sense of beauty than the heroine of “The Thunderstorm”. But this also makes her even more defenseless against any unfavorable external circumstances.
The merchants of “Groza” are just becoming the bourgeoisie, this is manifested in the fact that the patriarchal relations traditional for them are becoming obsolete, deception and hypocrisy are being established (Kabanikha, Varvara), which are so disgusting to Katerina.
Larisa is also a victim of deception and hypocrisy, but she has different life values, unthinkable for Katerina, the source of which, first of all, lies in her upbringing. Larisa received a Europeanized upbringing and education. She is looking for sublimely beautiful love, gracefully beautiful life. To do this, ultimately, she needs wealth. But there is no strength of character, no integrity of nature in her. It would seem that the educated and cultured Larisa should have expressed at least some kind of protest, unlike Katerina. But she is a weak nature in all respects. Weak not only in order to kill herself when everything collapsed and everything became hateful, but even in order to somehow resist the deeply alien norms of life that boils around her. In soul and body, Larisa herself turns out to be an expression of the deceitfulness of the surrounding life, emptiness, spiritual chill, hiding behind a spectacular external shine.
The essence of the conflict in dramas is also different. In “The Thunderstorm,” the clash occurs between tyrants and their victims. The play has very strong motifs of lack of freedom, stuffiness, suppression, and closed space. Katerina, accustomed to living “like a bird in the wild,” dreaming of flight, cannot subordinate herself to the laws of the world in which she found herself after her marriage. Her situation is truly tragic: the free expression of feeling - love for Boris - comes into conflict with her true religiosity, her inner inability to live in sin. The climax of the play is Katerina’s public recognition, which takes place amid the thunderclaps of an approaching thunderstorm.
An event that, like a thunderclap, shakes the entire city is the death of Katerina. Traditionally, it is perceived by drama viewers as a protest against the cruel laws of life, as a victory of the heroine over the force that oppresses her.
In “Dowry”, at first glance, everything is the opposite. Larisa is not sharply opposed to the heroes around her; she is admired and idolized. There is no talk of any suppression or despotism. But another motive is extremely strong in the play, which was not in “The Thunderstorm” - the motive of money. It is he who forms the conflict of the drama. Larisa is homeless, and this determines her position in the play. All the characters around her - Knurov, Vozhevatov, Paratov, Karandyshev - talk only about money, benefit, profit, buying and selling. In this world, a person’s feelings also become a subject of trade. This clash of monetary, material interests with the feelings of the heroine leads to a tragic ending.
And the heroines’ attitudes towards death are very different; Larisa’s willpower is much weaker than Katerina’s. Katerina sees death here as an opportunity to merge with the natural world and get rid of suffering, when her husband’s house became a grave for her: “Where to now? Should I go home? No, it doesn’t matter to me whether I go home or go to the grave. Yes, to home, to the grave!.. to the grave! It’s better in a grave... There’s a grave under a tree... how nice!.. The sun warms it, wets it with rain... in the spring the grass will grow on it, so soft... birds will fly to the tree, they will sing, they will bring out children, flowers will bloom: yellow, red, blue... all sorts of (thoughts) all sorts...”
Larisa, after her hopes for marriage with Paratov have finally collapsed, and Knurov openly invited her to become a rich kept woman, is thinking about throwing herself into the Volga, like Katerina. However, she does not have enough determination for this: “Larissa. Just now I was looking down through the bars, my head was spinning, and I almost fell. And if you fall, they say... certain death. (Thinking.) It would be nice to rush! No, why rush!.. Stand by the bars and look down, you’ll get dizzy and fall... Yes, that’s better... unconscious, no pain... you won’t feel anything! (He approaches the bars and looks down. He bends down, grabs the bars tightly, then runs away in horror.) Oh, oh! How scary! (Almost falls, grabs the gazebo.) What dizziness! I'm falling, falling, ouch! (Sits down at the table near the gazebo.) Oh, no... (Through tears.) Parting with life is not at all as easy as I thought. So I have no strength! Here I am, how unhappy! But there are people for whom this is easy...”
Here the author’s remarks convey the confusion of the main character of “The Dowry,” her desire for suicide and her inability to accomplish it. Larisa either approaches the cliff or moves away from it. She still hopes that some force acting against her will will help her die. Larisa dreams of leaving life pure, sinless, including without the sin of suicide. And she clearly lacks the determination to take her own life. Katerina is a different matter. She realizes that she is a sinner because she cheated on her husband, even an unloved one, even for the sake of real, genuine love. Her suicide is both atonement for sin (albeit through, from the point of view of Christianity, another sin, but for Katerina this circumstance no longer matters), and reunification with the natural world - birds, trees, and liberation from the earthly grave - the home of the hated Kabanikha. Before her death, Katerina by no means forgives her mother-in-law who killed her. Larisa, in full agreement with Christian ideals, declares that she loves all those - Paratov, Knurov, Vozhevatov, Karandyshev - who, voluntarily or unwittingly, contributed to her death. Katerina’s faith is more passionate and less canonical, in some ways close to the pagan deification of the natural elements. Larisa's faith is calmer, partly bookish, although no less sincere. The heroine of “The Thunderstorm” is a more strong-willed person. She is capable of such a decisive act as suicide. The heroine of “The Dowry” does not have the will to commit suicide. An accident comes to her aid in the person of Karandyshev, who ended Larisa’s life with his shot.
Freedom and love are the main things that were in Katerina’s character. She believed in God freely, not under pressure. By her own free will, she sinned and punished herself. Moreover, suicide for a believer is an even more terrible sin, but Katerina agreed to it. Her impulse for freedom, for freedom, turned out to be stronger than the fear of torment beyond the grave, but, more likely, it was her hope in God’s mercy, for Katerina’s God is undoubtedly kindness and forgiveness incarnate.
Katerina is a truly tragic heroine. She had no thought of protesting against the world and the order in which she lived. She had no conflict with the world or with those around her. The cause of her death was the internal conflict of her heart. The world of Russian patriarchal life in Katerina itself exploded from within, because freedom began to leave it, i.e. life itself.
And Larisa, a young girl with a pure soul, who knows how to love and yearns for mutual true feelings, faces the world of businessmen, where only capital reigns. In this world, the fate of a homeless woman is doomed to tragedy. Like Katerina, Larisa belongs to women with a “warm heart”. She is also endowed with a musical, poetic soul. Larisa's world contains both a gypsy song and a Russian romance. A dreamy, artistically gifted nature, she does not notice shortcomings in people, sees others through the eyes of the heroine of a romance and often acts in accordance with the traditions of the behavior of such a heroine (the desire to catch up with a departed loved one, love and separation, temptation by love, escaping from an engagement). Larisa seems to hover above the world of ordinary people; it is not for nothing that her name is translated from Greek as seagull.
The shipowner, rich gentleman Sergei Sergeevich seems to Larisa to be the ideal man. He is capable of being sincerely carried away; he is delighted with Larisa’s beauty, originality, and artistic gift. But his spiritual impulses are short-lived; business calculations always take over: “I... have nothing cherished; If I find a profit, I’ll sell everything, anything.” True to this rule, Paratov does this with both the Lastochka steamship and Larisa. For the sake of momentary bliss, he persuades Larisa to go beyond the Volga, from where there are two roads for her: either “rejoice”, or “Mom, look for me in the Volga.” Paratov has no intention of exchanging his millionth bride for Larisa Dmitrievna. At the end of the play, Larisa has an epiphany. Sergei Sergeevich reminds her that “the frenzy of passion soon passes, what remains are chains and common sense,” and advises her to return to her fiance. But for Larisa this is impossible: “If I don’t love my husband, I must at least respect him; But how can I respect a person who indifferently endures ridicule and all kinds of insults!” The heroine of the play tries to throw herself into the Volga, but she does not have the strength to carry out this intention. Desperate, she decides to throw down a kind of challenge both to her failed fiancé and to the whole world of self-interest and profit: “if you are a thing, then there is only one consolation - to be expensive, very expensive.” She delivers a harsh verdict on a world where women are viewed as a joke. “No one ever tried to look into my soul, I didn’t see sympathy from anyone, I didn’t hear a warm, heartfelt word... But it’s cold to live like that.”
After the shot, she declares “it’s me,” the heroine not only strives to remove the blame from Karandyshev; Larisa realized that she too was to blame for what happened. Having accepted death as a blessing, she thereby breaks out of the world of businessmen, morally rising above them, and forever separates herself from this world. By this she admits her guilt. But Katerina is even more sinful than Larisa, since she commits suicide. But this is precisely her tragedy: she understands, realizes that she has sinned, repents, and then sins again. Their main difference lies in each heroine’s understanding of her sin.
In essence, the characters of Katerina and Larisa are rather antipodes. Larisa does not have the main thing that Katerina has - integrity of character, the ability to take decisive action.
1. Introduction.
After reading A. N. Ostrovsky’s plays “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry,” I decided to compare them with each other as the only dramatic works of this author that were written at different times, but have many similarities. The comparison of these plays is also prompted by the fact that in both of them a drama of an extraordinary female nature unfolds before us, leading to a tragic denouement. Finally, it is also important that in both plays the image of the Volga city in which the action takes place plays an important role.
2. Similarities and differences.
2.1. Both plays in question belong to the genre of drama, although the exact genre of "The Thunderstorm" remains a controversial issue in Russian literature. This play combines the features of both tragedy and drama (i.e., “everyday tragedy”). The tragic genre is characterized by an insoluble conflict between the personal aspirations of the hero and the laws of life, which is inherent in both plays.
2.2. In terms of the time it was written, “The Thunderstorm” is the main work of Ostrovsky’s pre-reform drama, while “Dowry” absorbs many motifs from the playwright’s post-reform work. The difference in the eras depicted in these plays led to a complete dissimilarity in the artistic world; "Dowry" is a drama of the bourgeois era - a new time, when ties with a thousand-year-old folk tradition are severed, a time that freed a person not only from the foundations of morality, but also from shame, honor, conscience - and this decisively influences its problematics. The culture of the people in “The Thunderstorm” is inspired by the moral values of Orthodoxy. Residents of the city of Kalinov still live according to “Domostroy”; life is still largely patriarchal.
2.3. Born in Zamoskvorechye, Ostrovsky knows well the life and customs of the merchants and explores the various characters of this circle in his work. His plays are densely populated by merchants and clerks, their children and wives. The playwright is interested in any little detail, from the description of the costume and furnishings of the house to the individuality of the speech of each character. Ostrovsky was completely original in his portrayal of heroes.
2.4. In my opinion, the author is especially good at female types – “warm hearts”.
Two dramas by A.N. devoted to the same problem - the position of women in Russian society. Of course, these women are extraordinary individuals. I want to focus on female heroines.
2.4.1. First of all, this is Katerina from the play “The Thunderstorm”. She is religious and romantic at the same time. Her soul strives for happiness, longing for freedom. Katerina is a merchant's daughter, married without love to Tikhon, she finds herself in an atmosphere of cruelty. In this environment, family responsibilities are performed not from the heart, but “from under bondage,” and Katerina is associated for the rest of her life with her stupid and narrow-minded husband, with her angry and grumpy mother-in-law.
But her romantic impulses find a way out; Katerina falls passionately in love with a young man, Boris, who stands out for his decent manners and some education. Two principles struggle in the heroine: sincere feeling, love and consciousness of the duty of a married woman. This internal struggle evokes in Katerina a desire for personal freedom. Having cheated on her husband, Katerina herself repents to him, but, exhausted by the homely atmosphere, she prefers death to returning to her family. Honest, sincere and principled, she is not capable of deception and falsehood, of resourcefulness and opportunism.
She talks about her desire to fly several times. With this, Ostrovsky emphasizes the romantic sublimity of Katerina’s soul. She would like to become a bird, flying wherever she wants: “Why don’t people fly!.. Why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you feel the urge to fly. That’s how I would run up, raise my arms and fly,” she says to Varvara, Tikhon’s sister, “how playful I was!” And yours has completely withered...” Harsh reality returns the heroine to the world of the Kabanovs and the Wild. Here you need to lie, quietly do what you want, outwardly observing the rules of decency. Varvara, who grew up in the house, perfectly mastered this science. Varvara is the complete opposite of Katerina. She is not superstitious, is not afraid of thunderstorms, and does not consider strict adherence to established customs obligatory. Katerina is disgusted by this behavior.
Therefore, in a merciless world where Wild and Boars reign, her life turns out to be unbearable, impossible and ends so tragically. Katerina’s protest against Kabanikha is a struggle of the bright, pure, human against the darkness of lies and cruelty of the “dark kingdom.” Katerina has a very unique character: she is God-fearing and rebellious at the same time. For her, this is not suicide, but liberation from the hardships of life and hopelessness.
2.4.2. The situation is different in the drama “Dowry”. The main character Larisa is not a simple girl from a bourgeois environment, she is an educated, cultured, thinking girl. She received a noble upbringing and, unlike Katerina, grew up in conditions where the weak are humiliated and where the strongest survive. Her character does not have the integrity that Katerina has. Therefore, Larisa does not strive, and cannot, realize her dreams and desires. She is oppressed by poverty and low status. Larisa does not accept the world in which she lives. She wants to get out of it at any cost.
For Larisa’s mother, a widow with three daughters, the ostentatious grace and nobility of family life is not a normal state, but a decoration for arranging profitable marriages for her daughters. For her, flattery and cunning are the main principles of communication with rich people visiting the house. Larisa is the youngest daughter, the last one left in the house, and her mother needs to get rid of her, without even claiming great luck. All this puts the extraordinary girl in a difficult situation. Around Larisa is a motley and dubious crowd of admirers and contenders for her hand, among whom there are quite a few “rabble of all sorts.” Life in her house is like a “bazaar” or a “gypsy camp.” The heroine is forced not only to endure the falsehood, cunning, and hypocrisy that surrounds her, but also to take part in them.
Larisa becomes a victim of the noble splendor and irresistibility of Sergei Sergeevich Paratov. She sees in him the “ideal of a man,” a man who cannot be disobeyed, whom one cannot but trust. Larisa does not see the insignificance and pettiness of his nature. Having lost hope of happiness with Sergei Sergeevich, Larisa is ready to marry anyone who will take her away from a house that looks like a fair. She doesn’t like Karandyshev, doesn’t even respect him, but she hopes for him. But there is no nobility in this world. Larisa soon realized this. “I am a thing,” she tells Karandyshev. Realizing this, Larisa wants to sell herself at a higher price. The heroine is overcome by internal contradictions. She is ashamed of her thoughts, wants a clean and honest life, but does not see the way there. She wants to die and doesn’t have the strength, so Larisa takes Karandyshev’s shot as a blessing, liberation from the oppression of unsolvable problems. The death of the heroine is a worthy departure from life.
2.5. A. Ostrovsky's plays are full of various symbolism. First of all, these are symbols associated with the natural world: forest, thunderstorm, river, bird, flight. The names of the characters also play a very important role in the plays, most often names of ancient origin: ancient Greek and Roman.
2.5.1. Women's names in Ostrovsky's plays are very bizarre, but the name of the main character almost always extremely accurately characterizes her role in the plot and fate. Larisa means “seagull” in Greek, Katerina means “pure”. Larisa is a victim of Paratov’s trade pirate deals: he sells “birds” - “Swallow” (steamboat) and then Larisa - a seagull. Katerina is a victim of her purity, her religiosity, she could not bear the splitting of her soul, because she loved not her husband, and cruelly punished herself for it. It is interesting that Kharita and Martha (in “The Dowry” and in “The Thunderstorm”) are both Ignatievna, that is, “ignorant” or, in scientific terms, “ignoring”. They stand, as it were, on the sidelines of the tragedy of Larisa and Katerina, although both of them are certainly to blame (not directly, but indirectly) for the death of their daughter and daughter-in-law.
2.5.2. Paratov is both a parade and a pirate. Also, of course, the comparison of Paratov with a “paraty” beast, that is, powerful, predatory, strong and merciless, suggests itself. His predatory behavior in the play is best characterized by this surname.
There is no need to comment on the names of Dikoy and Kabanov. And Tikhon is Kabanov, no matter how “quiet” he is. So Katerina rushes about in this dark forest among animal-like creatures. She chose Boris almost unconsciously, the only difference between him and Tikhon was his name (Boris is “fighter” in Bulgarian).
Wild, headstrong characters, except for the Wild One, are represented in the play by Varvara (she is a pagan, a “barbarian,” not a Christian and behaves accordingly).
Kuligin, in addition to the well-known associations with Kulibinsh, also evokes the impression of something small, defenseless: in this terrible swamp he is a sandpiper - a bird and nothing more. He praises Kalinov like a sandpiper praises his swamp.
Larisa in “Dowry” is not surrounded by “animals”. Mokiy is “blasphemous”, Vasily is “king”, Julius is, of course, Julius Caesar, and also Kapitonich, that is, living with his head (kaput - head), and perhaps striving to be in charge.
And finally, Kharita - the mother of three daughters - is associated with the Kharites, the goddesses of youth and beauty, of which there were three, but she also destroys them (remember the terrible fate of the other two sisters - one married a sharper, the other was stabbed to death by her Caucasian husband).
3. Conclusions
3.1. “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry” are Ostrovsky’s best plays, which showed the reader and viewer the hitherto unknown world of the merchants with its passions and pain, sorrows and joys. This world stepped onto the stage of the Russian theater, showing the depth and diversity of natures, unbridled and rich in passions, petty and cruel, kind and noble, but weak, unable to stand up for themselves.
The female characters created by the playwright took their rightful place in classical Russian literature.
3.2. Katerina and Larisa have different upbringings, different characters, different ages, but they are united by the desire to love and be loved, to find understanding, in a word, to become happy. And each one goes towards this goal, overcoming the obstacles created by the foundations of society. For Katerina, money still does not matter; she is ready to follow Boris on foot, if only he agrees to take her with him. Larisa is poisoned by the glitter of gold and does not want to vegetate with her pitiful and poor husband.
Katerina cannot connect with her loved one and finds a way out in death.
Larisa's situation is more complicated. She became disillusioned with her loved one and stopped believing in the existence of love and happiness. Realizing that she is surrounded by lies and deception, Larisa sees two ways out of this situation: either the search for material values, or death. And given the circumstances, she chooses the first. But the author does not want to see her as an ordinary dependent woman, and she leaves this life.
3.3. The characters of the main characters are very similar. These are natures who live by the mind of the heart, dream of happiness and love, and idealize the world. But the play “Dowry” was created in a different socio-political environment than “The Thunderstorm”. The playwright's hopes for the correction of society and the human race raise sincere doubts, which is why the endings of these plays differ significantly. If after the death of Katerina the world of the “dark kingdom” realizes its guilt, and Tikhon challenges his mother, blaming her for the death of his wife, then the murder of Larisa Ogudalova does not cause a similar resonance. The author deliberately emphasizes the indifference of others; the scene of the heroine's death is voiced by the singing of a gypsy choir.
3.4. Revealing the meaning of names and surnames in Ostrovsky's plays helps to comprehend both the plot and the main images. Although surnames and names cannot be called “speaking” in this case, since this is a feature of the plays of classicism, they are speaking in the broad - symbolic - sense of the word.
" were written almost twenty years apart. During this period, the external appearance of life changed. But the basic human problems remain. To analyze each of them in detail, you need to turn to these works of Ostrovsky separately.
Let's start the analysis with the earlier play "The Thunderstorm". The most striking problem is the struggle between love and duty. The main character, Katerina, was literally torn between these two feelings. She was married to Tikhon, but at the same time she did not love him at all. He was simply the only one of the young people who was not disgusted. One day Katerina saw Boris and fell in love with him. Partly because he was different from the men around her.
Boris came from Moscow, where he received his education. He dressed in a European style, which made him very different in appearance from the others. Katya felt love for the first time and didn’t know what to do. As luck would have it, Tikhon left the city for a long time. He was her last savior from “sin.” Katerina was a deeply religious girl. She did not know how to dissemble like Varvara. But one day feelings took over, and Katerina met Boris at night. After this, a strong feeling of guilt and fear of God came over her from time to time. The whole situation was aggravated by the oppression of Kabanikha, Tikhon’s mother. Before his departure, she forced Tikhon to give several parting words humiliating to Katerina. Boris speaks of her like this: “A prude, sir, he gives money to the poor, but he completely eats up his family.”
The list of “households” also includes her son. He does not have the right to vote and follow his mother. At the same time, she wants Katerina to be afraid of her husband. Of course, Tikhon wants to break out of this cage and hurry to leave. Kabanikha treats Katerina with distrust and rudely cuts her off. Katya’s words that Kabanikha is her own mother are no exception. This mixture of feelings, characters and humiliations immediately leads to tragedy at the end of the play.
Now let's fast forward twenty years to the drama "Dowry". Large businessmen and representatives of trading companies replaced the uncouth merchants. These are Paratov, Knurov and Vozhevatov. They manage big money and disdain to take control of people's destinies. From the very first pages we learn that Paratov turned the head of the dowry Larisa. He fought off all the suitors, and then left in an unknown direction. This is how a moral problem arose in the play.
Larisa, out of despair, agreed to marry anyone. Immediately the poor official Karandyshev offered her his hand and heart. He was overcome with pride that he now owned the most beautiful girl. Karandyshev tried to extend his time of showing off in front of others. But a little later, the already engaged Paratov arrived. He took gold mines as a dowry and hurried to celebrate this with his old friends, Knurov and Vozhevatov. But, having learned about Larisa’s engagement, Paratov hurries to her. Left alone with Larisa, he again turned her head, after which Larisa agreed to go with Paratov and his friends to the Volga. She left without her fiancé. And finally she shouted to her mother: “Either you are happy, mom, or look for me in the Volga.” A day of fun dancing and singing with the gypsies on the ship “Swallow” passed. Paratov tells Larisa about his shackles and asks her to go home. Larisa is devastated. At the same moment, a game of Toss was taking place on the other deck.
Prize - Travel with Larisa. Vozhevatov, her childhood friend, and Knurov played. The loser promised not to interfere with the winner. This “honest merchant” was given by Vozhevatov. Passing by Larisa, who is suffering and asking for help, he does not help her. The love conflict between Larisa, Paratov, Karandashev and Knurov is resolved by tragedy. Larisa dies from Karandyshev’s shot, but does not blame anyone for this. Now she's happy.
These two girls are “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” It is difficult for them to survive in the greedy world of power and money. But one should not assume that the problems of this world remained in the nineteenth century or on the pages of Ostrovsky’s plays. They still exist today. Most likely, they will last for a very long time. You need to be aware of such problems, but don’t be afraid. And if you want to change something, then, first of all, you need to start with yourself.