The author of the play "The Thunderstorm" uses the meaning of this word in several meanings. In Ostrovsky's work, thunderstorms as a natural phenomenon occur several times in the play. During the first conversation between Katerina and Varvara, when the former shares her emotional experiences, tells her dreams, bad premonitions, a thunderstorm is gathering, and it is here that Katerina says that she is very much afraid of a thunderstorm. Then she gathers herself in front of Katerina’s confession of treason, feelings in the soul of the main character heat up, everything in her is boiling and just when the rumble of thunder is heard. And a thunderstorm begins during confession. The thunderstorm is associated with the main character’s state of mind. The thunderstorm begins when everything is restless in her soul, it is not there when Katerina is happy with Boris.

Also, a thunderstorm has a figurative meaning, Katerina herself is like a thunderstorm, she boldly admits to what she has done, without being ashamed of those around her. I don’t think that any of the other residents would have been able to confess; for example, Varvara wouldn’t have been able to tell so openly; she was used to doing everything quietly so that no one would know. For Kabanikha this is a blow, Katerina strikes her like a thunderstorm, because she strives to be white and fluffy in public, and now the honor of her family is tarnished. And Katerina’s death is very loud, all the residents of the city have heard about it, everyone will discuss it, many will understand that it is the mother-in-law who is largely to blame for the death of her daughter-in-law, now the opinion of her in society will change, and her power will weaken, but for her this the most important. Katerina managed to spoil Kabanikha’s power with her actions.

For example, Kuligin considers a thunderstorm a joy; usually before a thunderstorm it is stuffy, there is not enough air, and after it everything seems to come to life again, all living things rejoice, only people are afraid. Of course, at the time when the play was written, such a phenomenon was treated with great caution; many called it a warning of some kind of misfortune, the voice of God, because they did not know how it arose. After the death of Katerina, the situation in society will be defused, this protest will resonate in the souls of the townspeople, even then, when Boris was mourning his wife, he first began to blame his mother for being the reason for such an act. Varvara is no longer afraid of her mother’s oppression and decides to leave home, to freedom, now Kabanikha has no one to rule in the house, her goal of preventing the modern generation from developing according to its principles has not been achieved, her authority has been undermined, she will be defeated.

Works of the realistic direction are characterized by the endowment of objects or phenomena symbolic meaning. A. S. Griboyedov was the first to use this technique in the comedy “Woe from Wit,” and this became another principle of realism. A. N. Ostrovsky continues the tradition of Griboedov and gives meaning to natural phenomena, the words of other characters, and the landscape that are important for the heroes. But Ostrovsky’s plays also have their own peculiarity: cross-cutting images - symbols are given in the titles of the works, and therefore, only by understanding the role of the symbol embedded in the title, we can understand the whole pathos of the work. Analysis of this topic will help us see the entire set of symbols in the drama “The Thunderstorm” "and determine their meaning and role in the play. One of the important symbols is the Volga River and the rural view on the other bank. The river is like the border between the dependent, unbearable for many life on the bank on which the patriarchal Kalinov stands, and the free, cheerful life there, on the other bank. Katerina, the main character of the play, associates the opposite bank of the Volga with childhood, with life before marriage: “How playful I was! I’ve completely withered away from you.” Katerina wants to be free from her weak-willed husband and despotic mother-in-law, to “fly away” from the family with Domostroev principles. "I speak: why people don't fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on the torus, you feel the urge to fly,” says Katerina Varvara. Katerina remembers birds as a symbol of freedom before throwing herself off a cliff into the Volga: “It’s better in a grave... There’s a grave under a tree... how good!... The sun warms it, wets it with rain... it’s spring on it the grass grows, it’s so soft... the birds will fly to the tree, they will sing, they will bring out the children...” The river also symbolizes an escape towards freedom, but it turns out that this is an escape towards death. And in the words of the lady, a half-crazy old woman, the Volga is a whirlpool that draws beauty into itself: “This is where beauty leads. Here, here, right into the pool!” For the first time, the lady appears before the first thunderstorm and frightens Katerina with her words about disastrous beauty. These words and thunder in Katerina’s consciousness become prophetic. Katerina wants to run away into the house from the thunderstorm, because she sees God’s punishment in it, but at the same time she is not afraid of death, but is afraid to appear before God after talking with Varvara about Boris, considering these thoughts to be sinful. Katerina is very religious, but this perception of the thunderstorm is more pagan than Christian. The heroes perceive the thunderstorm differently. For example, Dikoy believes that a thunderstorm is sent by God as punishment so that people remember about God, that is, he perceives a thunderstorm in a pagan way. Ku-ligin says that a thunderstorm is electricity, but this is a very simplified understanding of the symbol. But then, calling the thunderstorm grace, Kuligin thereby reveals the highest pathos of Christianity. Some motives in the monologues of the heroes also have a symbolic meaning. In act 3, Kuligin says that home life The rich people of the city are very different from the public. Locks and closed gates, behind which “households eat and tyrannize the family,” are a symbol of secrecy and hypocrisy. In this monologue, Kuligin denounces the “dark kingdom” of tyrants and tyrants, the symbol of which is a lock on a closed gate so that no one can see and judge them for bullying family members. In the monologues of Kuligin and Feklusha, the motive of the trial sounds. Feklusha talks about a trial that is unfair, even though it is Orthodox. Kuligin speaks of a trial between merchants in Kalinov, but this trial cannot be considered fair, since main reason the emergence of court cases is envy, and because of the bureaucracy in the judiciary, cases are delayed, and every merchant is only happy that “it will cost him a penny.” The motive of the trial in the play symbolizes the injustice reigning in the “dark kingdom.” Certain meaning There are also paintings on the walls of the gallery, where everyone runs during a thunderstorm. The paintings symbolize obedience in society, and “fiery Gehenna” is hell, which Katerina, who was looking for happiness and independence, is afraid of, and Kabanikha is not afraid, since outside the house she is a respectable Christian and is not afraid of her God's judgment.Carry another meaning and last words Tikhona: “Good for you, Katya! Why did I stay in the world and suffer!” The point is that through death Katerina gained freedom in a world unknown to us, and Tikhon will never have enough fortitude and strength of character to either fight his mother or commit suicide, so how weak-willed and weak-willed he is. To sum up what has been said, we can say that the role of symbolism is very important in the play. Giving phenomena, objects, landscape, words of heroes one more, more deep meaning, Ostrovsky wanted to show how serious the conflict existed at that time not only between, but also within each of them. 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. The motifs of ancient theater in Ostrovsky’s works have not yet been sufficiently studied, so it is difficult to take into account all the semantic overtones of Greek and Roman names. It is clear, however, that these names were not at all chosen by chance by the author; their sound composition, imagery and their meaning in the Russian language are very important. There is no need to comment on the surnames of Dikaya and Kabanov. But let’s not forget that Dikoy is not only the all-powerful Savel Prokofievich, but also his nephew, Boris. After all, Boris’s mother “couldn’t get along with her relatives,” “it seemed very wild to her.” This means that Boris is Dikoy on his father’s side. What follows from this? Yes, it follows that he was unable to defend his love and protect Katerina. After all, he is the flesh of his ancestors and knows that he is entirely in the power of the “dark kingdom.” And Tikhon is Kabanov, no matter how “quiet” he is. So Katerina is rushing about in this dark forest among beast-like creatures. She chose Boris almost unconsciously, the only difference between him and Tikhon is his name (Boris is “fighter” in Bulgarian). Wild, headstrong characters, except for Wild, are represented in the play by Varvara (she is a pagan, “barbarian”, not a Christian and behaves accordingly) and Kudryash, on whom the corresponding Shapkin is located, reasoning with him. Kuligin, in addition to the well-known associations with Kulibin, also evokes the impression of something small, defenseless: in this terrible swamp he is a sandpiper, a bird - and nothing more. He praises Kalinov as a sandpiper praises his swamp. 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,” respectively) are both Ignatievnas, that is, “ignorant” or, scientifically speaking, “ignoring.” They stand as if apart from 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. Larisa in “Dowry” is not surrounded by “animals”. But these are people with huge ambitions, playing with it like a thing. 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 everyone looks at Larisa as a stylish, fashionable, luxurious thing, as an unprecedentedly high-speed ship, as a luxurious villa. And what Larisa thinks or feels is the tenth matter, not of interest to them at all. And Larisa’s chosen one, Paratov Sergei Sergeevich - “highly revered”, from a family of arrogant Roman patricians - evokes associations with such a famous tyrant in history as Lucius Sergius Catilina. And finally, Charita - the mother of three daughters - is associated with the Charites, goddesses of youth and beauty, of which there were three, but she also destroys them (let us remember the terrible fate of the other two sisters - one married a sharper, the other was stabbed to death by her Caucasian husband). In the play “The Forest” Aksyusha is completely alien to this world evil spirits. The forest can be understood as a new “dark kingdom”. Only it’s not merchants who live here, but kikimors like Gurmyzhskaya and Ulita. Aksyusha is a stranger because her name means “foreigner” or “foreigner” in Greek. In light of this, the questions that Aksyusha and Peter ask each other are noteworthy: “Are you one of our own or someone else’s?” - “Whose are you? Is it yours?” But the name Gurmyzhskaya (Raisa - in Greek “careless”, “frivolous”) is very suitable for her, but it seems like an overly delicate characteristic for this witch. Julitta (Julia) is again related to the Julian family, famous in Rome, but this name may hint more directly at her depraved nature. After all, in the ancient Russian story “On the Beginning of Moscow,” the criminal wife of Prince Daniel, a traitor and a deceiver, is called Ulita. The names of the actors Schastlivtsev and Neschastlivtsev (Arkady and Gennady) justify their pseudonyms and behavior. Arkady means “happy”, and Gennady means “noble”. Milonov, of course, has something in common with Manilov and Molchalin, and Bodaev, both in surname and in manners, is Sobakevich’s heir. So, revealing the meaning of names and surnames in Ostrovsky’s plays helps to comprehend both the plots 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.

44. OSTROVSKY AS A MASTER PLAYWRIGHT

Ostrovsky performed his plays at the turning point from the 40s to the 50s. This was a critical playwright period in the history of the Russian stage, when it found itself filled either with bombastic tragedies, or with vaudeville and sensitive melodramas, partly borrowed from the West. Actually Russian, folk theater There was no film that would broadly reflect the life of Russia. Ostrovsky acted in his plays primarily as a first-class realist artist. Having an excellent knowledge of Russian life, especially the life of the merchants, Ostrovsky brought Russian life to the stage in all its originality and naturalness. Family life merchants with their despotism and tyranny, rudeness and ignorance in social and home life, the powerless position of women, the ritual side of life, prejudices and superstitions, folk dialect - all this was reflected in Ostrovsky’s everyday plays so truthfully and vividly that the theater viewer seemed to feel the very atmosphere of Russian life on stage. Having finally broken with the templates of classicism and romanticism and made With his numerous works of “plays of life,” OstroEsky completed the work of Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Pushkin and Gogol in dramaturgy and forever established the triumph of realistic drama in Russia. We should not forget that Ostrovsky described the life not only of merchants. We see in his plays officials, and clerks, and matchmakers, and actors, and businessmen of the new formation, and nobles, and poor working intellectuals, and generals, and peasants, etc. This is a whole encyclopedia of the life and customs of the era with all their positive and negative sides. A return to stilted tragedy and sensitive methodrama after Ostrovsky’s realistic plays has become impossible. The skill of the realist is reflected in Ostrovsky and in the language of his plays, which characterizes the depicted environment. Remember what techniques are used to characterize Manilov, Sobakevich, Plyushkin and Chichikov in the poem Gogol’s “Dead Souls” or Oblomov in Goncharov’s novel “Oblomov”. The speech of each character serves as one of the important typification techniques in works epic genre. But in novels, the author has a variety of means of characterizing the characters, up to and including direct authorial characterization. There is no author's speech in the play. Therefore, the language of the characters in it is the main means of their typification. The characters in the play, as Gorky explains, “are created exclusively and only by their speeches.” The hero of the play must speak as a person of his character, way of thinking, mood, cultural level and social position or profession would speak. Consequently, the image of a hero in a play can only turn out to be typical and expressive when his speech is typical for this image. In Ostrovsky’s plays there are more than a thousand characters, and each of them speaks a language corresponding to its spiritual character and profession. Thus, Katerina’s lyrically colored language in the play “The Thunderstorm” has nothing in common with the rough, abrupt speech of the Wild. And Dikiy’s speech, in turn, differs significantly from the speech of another tyrant - Gordey Tortsov (“Poverty is not a vice”), who is carried away by the external, ostentatious side of culture and uses such “foreign” words as nebel, champagne, ficants, etc. Skillful individualization The speeches of the characters characterize Ostrovsky as a wonderful master of dialogue. It is enough to read or listen to the conversation between Kabanova, Tikhon and Katerina in the third scene of the second act or the conversation between Dikiy and Kuligin in the second scene of the fourth act to be convinced of this. The difference in the speech of the characters in these dialogues is given so expressively and clearly that the character of each character becomes understandable without any explanation. It is necessary to note in Ostrovsky’s plays the skillful use of the linguistic riches of folk poetry: songs, proverbs, sayings, etc. Let us recall, for example, Kudryash's songs in the third act of the drama "The Thunderstorm". Ostrovsky even uses proverbs in the titles of his plays: “Don’t live the way you want,” “Don’t sit in your own sleigh,” “We’ll be our own people,” “Poverty is not a vice,” “Truth is good, but happiness is better,” “ old friend better than the new two,” etc. The fidelity and accuracy of Ostrovsky’s folk language were already noted by Dobrolyubov. Assessing Ostrozsky’s remarkable linguistic mastery, Gorky called him “a sorcerer of the word.” The composition of Ostrozsky’s plays also serves the task of a realistic depiction of reality. The action of his plays usually unfolds slowly, calmly, in accordance with the stable, sedentary life that is depicted in them. Ostrovsky avoids dramatic effects in the form of shots, suicides, disguises, etc. Katerina’s suicide in the drama “The Thunderstorm” should be considered not as a stage device that enhances the impression of the play, but as a dramatic finale prepared by the entire course of events. Very important property Ostrovsky's plays are a comic element, skillfully used by the playwright. It appears in Ostrovsky in different forms: either as humor, warmed by warmth and sympathy, when depicting small, downtrodden, honest people, unwitting victims of social inequality, or as an accusatory, satirical laughter, directed against the despotism of tyrants, the shamelessness and ruthlessness of predators, the depravity of the nobility, etc. Satirical the direction of Ostrovsky's plays was deeply revealed by Dobrolyubov. In his articles dedicated to Ostrovsky, the great critic explained how this was possible within the framework of tsarist censorship, how important ideological meaning Ostrovsky had a laugh aimed at exposing various aspects of the “dark kingdom.” Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy is a complex phenomenon that has absorbed the experience of a number of Russian and Western European playwrights, whose work Ostrovsky carefully studied. The most important advantage of Ostrovsky’s work is deep realism, expressed in a broad, truthful coverage of Russian life, in the creation of many typical images from various social classes, in the remarkable characterization of the depicted environment and the naturalness of the construction of plays.

46. Artistic originality poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” occupies a central place in the work of N. A. Nekrasov. It became a kind of artistic result of more than thirty years literary work author. All the motives of his early lyrics were, as it were, collected together and developed in the poem, all the problems that worried him were rethought, and the highest artistic achievements were used. N. A. Nekrasov not only created a special genre of socio-philosophical poem. He subordinated it to his ultimate task: to show Russia in its past, present and future. Having begun to write “hot on the heels,” that is, immediately after the reform of 1861, an epic poem about a liberating, reborn people, N. A. Nekrasov endlessly expanded his original plan. The search for “lucky people” in Rus' took him from modernity to ancient origins: the poet strives to understand not only the results of the abolition of serfdom, but also the very philosophical nature of such concepts as “happiness”, “freedom”, “sin”, because beyond this philosophical understanding It is impossible to understand the essence of the present moment and foresee the future of the people. The fundamental novelty of the genre explains the fragmentation of the poem, built from individual unfinished chapters. United by the image - the symbol of the road, the poem breaks down into someone's stories, as well as into the fates of dozens of people. Each episode in itself could become the plot of a song or a story, a legend or a novel. All together, in their unity, they constitute the fate of the Russian people, highlighting their historical path from slavery to freedom. That is why only in the last chapter does the image “ people's defender” Grisha Dobrosklonov - the one who will help people find their will. Each of the characters in the poem has their own voice. N. A. Nekrasov combines fairy tale, everyday and poetic speech and introduces an evaluative element into it, forcing readers to perceive the character’s speech the way the author wants. We do not get the impression that the poem is stylistically inconsistent, because all the techniques used here are subordinated to a common task: to create a poem that would be close and understandable to the peasant. The author's task determined not only genre innovation, but also the entire originality of the poetics of the work. N. A. Nekrasov repeatedly turned to folklore motifs and images in his lyrics. Poem about folk life he builds entirely on a folklore basis. All the main genres of folklore are involved in the work to one degree or another: fairy tale, song, epic, legend, ditty. What is the place and significance of folklore in the poem? Firstly, folklore elements allow N.A. Nekrasov to recreate the picture of the peasant’s idea of ​​the world, to express the people’s view on many important issues. Secondly, the poet skillfully uses special folklore techniques, style, figurative system, laws and artistic media. The images of Kudeyar and Savely are taken from folklore. Folk art suggested N. A. Nekrasov many comparisons; some of them are even based on riddles. The poet uses characteristic folk speech repetitions, negative parallelism, picking up the end of a line at the beginning of the next, the use of song interjections. But the most basic difference between folklore and fiction, which we find in N.A. Nekrasov, is a lack of authorship. Folklore is distinguished by the fact that the people together compose a work, the people tell it, and the people listen to it. In folklore author's position replaces national morality. The individual author's point of view is alien to the very nature of oral folk art. Author's literature turns to folklore when it is necessary to penetrate deeper into the essence of national morality; when the work itself is addressed not only to the intelligentsia (the bulk of readers of the 19th century), but also to the people. Both of these tasks were set by N. A. Nekrasov in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” And one more most important aspect distinguishes original literature from folklore. Oral creativity does not know the concept of “canonical text”: each listener becomes a co-author of the work, retelling it in his own way. N. A. Nekrasov strove for such active co-creation between the author and the reader. That is why his poem was written “in a free language, as close as possible to common speech.” Researchers call the verse of the poem “a brilliant find” by N. A. Nekrasov. Free and flexible poetic meter, independence from rhyme, opened up the opportunity to generously convey the originality of the folk language, preserving all its accuracy, aphorism and special proverbial phrases; organically weave village songs, sayings, lamentations, elements into the fabric of the poem folk tale(a magical self-assembled tablecloth treats wanderers) skillfully reproduce the provocative speeches of tipsy men at the fair, and the expressive monologues of peasant speakers, and the absurdly smug reasoning of the tyrant landowner. Colorful folk scenes, full of life and movements, round dances of characteristic expressive faces and figures - all this creates a unique polyphony in Nekrasov’s poem.