Despotic and ignorant merchants are representatives of the dark kingdom. "Dark Kingdom" in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm

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A.N. Ostrovsky was born and lived in Moscow, on Malaya Ordynka. Merchants have settled in this area for a long time. From childhood, he noticed pictures of everyday life and the peculiar customs of this merchant world. And it is understandable why the writer in his works used, first of all, his rich stock of observations on the life of merchants, clerks and philistines. The whole warehouse of this empty, dark life was alien and disgusting to him. Ostrovsky wrote 48 plays, and all of them were a great success, which speaks of the author's unprecedented talent.

One of the best works of A.N. Ostrovsky is the drama "Thunderstorm", written by him in 1859. It was written at a time when the rotten, useless antiquity was replaced by the desire to study, to knowledge, the desire to truly live and be free be in love. In The Thunderstorm, Ostrovsky showed typical representatives of the "dark kingdom", the "fathers" of the city of Kalinov, who, relying on their wealth, humiliate and rob poor people, commit any excesses both at home and on the streets of the city.

The richest Kalinov merchant is Savel Prokofievich Wild. This is a domineering and stern person, accustomed to everyone around him obeying him, and they go to any lengths so as not to somehow anger him. Wild feels his power over the rest of the inhabitants of Kalinov, and therefore it costs him nothing to scold, rob a poor man and push him out the door with his foot. For the sake of money, he is ready to go to any fraud and deceit. And he directly declares to the mayor: “A lot of people stay with me in a year ... I won’t pay them a penny, I make thousands of this, so it’s good for me.” All members of the Dikoy family are in constant fear, afraid of at least something to anger their master, the petty tyrant. Here is what Kuligin says: “Look for such and such a scolder as Savel Prokofievich!”

Wild is a very dark and illiterate person. When the self-taught mechanic Kuligin explained to him what a thunderstorm is, he exclaimed indignantly: “What kind of electricity is there!? Well, how are you not a robber! A thunderstorm is sent to us as a punishment so that we feel, and you want to defend yourself with poles and some kind of goads, God forgive me. What are you, a Tatar, or what?
Kuligin consults with Diky about the construction of a sundial, a lightning rod - all those things that are necessary in the city. But this rich man is so ignorant and dark that he not only does not give money to Kuligin, but threatens him with a prison for free-thinking: “Send you to the mayor for these words, so he will ask you!”

Wild is a representative of the old order, he is very religious. Fearing to anger the Lord God, he at the same time acts outrageously over the poor. I have only one feeling for Diky - it is hostility, contempt. How did he meanly deal with his nephew Boris? The glitter of gold brought this merchant to the point that he violated the will of his mother and did not give that part of the inheritance that was intended for his nephew. In all his appearance, this man is terribly disgusting. Terrible egoist.

The second representative of the Kalinovsky merchant class is Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova (Kabanikha). This face is also typical for representatives of the "dark kingdom", but even more sinister and gloomy. The boar is harsh and domineering. She does not consider anyone and makes the whole family crawl on their knees in front of her.

"Prude, sir! The beggars are clothed, and the household is completely stuck, ”Kuligin defines the character of Kabanikhi so correctly and aptly.

She strictly observes the rules of Domostroevskaya antiquity and tries to subordinate her children to these orders, who, as she sees, already live according to other rules that are completely incomprehensible to her. She has no idea how young people will live after the death of their “wise” fathers and mothers: “... What will happen, how the elders will die, how the light will stand, I don’t know!”
Boar, as well as Wild, is dark, ignorant. This is how she answers the wanderer Feklusha when she tells her about new amazing machines: “You can call it in every possible way, perhaps even call it a machine; people are stupid, they will believe everything. And at least shower me with gold, so I won’t go.

She is evil and despotic. Demanding obedience, she does not allow Tikhon and Katerina to live, does not allow them to act independently. Disliked by Katerina for her love of freedom, pride, for disobedience, she is even glad for the death of this beautiful girl who wanted to live and love freely, so that she would not be bound by the framework of house building. The imperiousness of Kabanikha is also evident when she forces Katerina to kneel before Tikhon: “To your feet, to your feet!”
Wild and Kabanikha are similar to each other, but at the same time they have sharp differences: Kabanikha is, first of all, smarter than Wild, she is more restrained, outwardly impassive and harsh. She is the only person in the city who is somehow considered Wild.

Kabanikha and Dikoy are typical representatives of the "dark kingdom", which impede the development of everything new, advanced.

The merit of A.N. Ostrovsky lies in the fact that he very accurately, aptly was able to show us the representatives of the merchant world in the drama "Thunderstorm". ON THE. Goncharov wrote: “From whatever side it is taken, whether from a groan of a plan, or a dramatic movement, or finally characters, it is everywhere imprinted with the power of creativity, the subtlety of observation and the elegance of decoration.”

Throughout the course of the drama, we see the inevitable doom of the "dark kingdom", all the Kabanovs and the Wild, who interfere with the correct free life.

In Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm" the problems of morality are widely posed. On the example of the provincial town of Kalinov, the playwright showed the truly cruel customs reigning there. Ostrovsky portrayed the cruelty of people living the old fashioned way, according to Domostroy, and a new generation of young people who reject these foundations. The characters in the drama are divided into two groups. On one side are old people, champions of the old order, who, in essence, carry out this "Domostroy", on the other - Katerina and the younger generation of the city.

The heroes of the drama live in the city of Kalinovo. This city occupies a small, but not the last place in Russia of that time, at the same time it is the personification of serfdom and "Domostroy". Outside the walls of the city, another, alien world seems to be. No wonder Ostrovsky mentions the Volga in his remarks, "a public garden on the banks of the Volga, beyond the Volga a rural view." We see how the cruel, closed world of Kalinov differs from the outer, "uncontrollably huge." This is the world of Katerina, who was born and raised on the Volga. Behind this world lies the life that Kabanikha and her ilk are so afraid of. According to the wanderer Feklusha, the “old world” is leaving, only in this city there is “paradise and silence”, in other places it’s “just sodom”: people in the bustle do not notice each other, harness the “fiery serpent”, and in Moscow “now the amusement Yes, games, but the Indo rumble goes through the streets, there is a groan. But even in the old Kalinov, something is changing. New thoughts are carried by Kuligin. Kuligin, embodying the ideas of Lomonosov, Derzhavin and representatives of an earlier culture, suggests putting a clock on the boulevard to watch the time.

Let's get acquainted with the rest of Kalinov's representatives.

Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova - champion of the old world. Already the name itself draws us a heavy, heavy woman, and the nickname "Boar" complements this unpleasant picture. The boar lives the old fashioned way, in accordance with a strict order. But she observes only the appearance of this order, which she maintains in public: a good son, an obedient daughter-in-law. He even complains: “They don’t know anything, there is no order ... What will happen, how the old people will die, how the light will stand, I don’t know. Well, at least it’s good that I don’t see anything. ” In the house, real arbitrariness reigns. The boar is despotic, rude, with the peasants, "eats" the household and does not tolerate objections. Her son is completely subordinate to her will, she expects this from her daughter-in-law.

Next to Kabanikha, who every day “grinds all her household like rusty iron,” the merchant Dikoy, whose name is associated with wild strength, is speaking. Wild not only "grinds and saws" members of his family. He also suffers from the men whom he deceives in the calculation, and, of course, the buyers, as well as his clerk Kudryash, a recalcitrant and impudent guy, ready to teach a lesson to the “scoldener” in a dark alley with his fists.

The character of Wild Ostrovsky described very accurately. For Wild, the main thing is money, in which he sees everything: power, glory, worship. This is especially striking in the small town where he lives. He can already easily “pat on the shoulder” of the mayor himself.

Diky and Kabanikha, representatives of the old order, are opposed by Kuligin. Ku-ligin is an inventor, his views correspond to those of the Enlightenment. He wants to invent a sundial, a "perpetuum mobile", a lightning rod. His invention of the lightning rod is symbolic, just as a thunderstorm is symbolic in drama. It is not without reason that he does not like Kuligin Dikoy so much, who calls him "worm", "Tatar" and "robber". Diky's willingness to send the inventor-educator to the mayor, his attempts to refute Kuligin's knowledge, based on the wildest religious superstition - all this also acquires a symbolic meaning in the play. Kuligin quotes Lomonosov and Derzhavin and refers to their authority. He lives in the old "domostroevsky" world, where they still believe in omens and people with "dog heads", but the image of Kuligin is evidence that people have already appeared in the "dark kingdom" who can become moral judges of those who dominate them . Therefore, at the end of the drama, it is Kuligin who brings Katerina's body ashore and utters words full of reproach.

The images of Tikhon and Boris are developed insignificantly, Dobrolyubov in a well-known article says that Boris can be more likely attributed to the setting than to the heroes. In the remark, Boris is distinguished only by his clothes: "All persons, except Boris, are dressed in Russian." This is the first difference between him and the inhabitants of Kalinov. The second difference is that he studied at a commercial academy in Moscow. But Ostrovsky made him a nephew of Wild, and this suggests that, despite some differences, he belongs to the people of the “dark kingdom”. This is confirmed by the fact that he is unable to

fight this kingdom. Instead of giving Katerina a helping hand, he advises her to submit to her fate. The same and Tikhon. Already in the list of characters it is said about him that he is “her son”, that is, the son of Kabanikhi. He really is more like just a son of Kabanikha than a person. Tikhon has no willpower. The only desire of this man is to break out from under the care of his mother in order to take a walk for the whole year. Tikhon is also unable to help Katerina. Both Boris and Tikhon leave her alone with their inner feelings.

If Kabanikha and Wild belong to the old way, Kuligin carries the ideas of enlightenment, then Katerina is at a crossroads. Raised and brought up in a patriarchal spirit, Katerina fully follows this lifestyle. Cheating here is considered unforgivable, and, having cheated on her husband, Katerina sees this as a sin before God. But her by nature is proud, independent and free. Her dream to fly means breaking free from the power of her despotic mother-in-law and from the stuffy world of the Kabanovs' house. As a child, she once, offended by something, went to the Volga in the evening. The same protest is heard in her words addressed to Varya: “And if I get very sick of it here, they won’t hold me back by any force. I'll throw myself out the window, I'll throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!” In Katerina's soul there is a struggle between the pangs of conscience and the desire for freedom. Katerina is also different from the representatives of the youth - Varvara and Kudryash. She does not know how to adapt to life, to be hypocritical and pretend, as Kabanikha does, she does not know how to look at the world as easily as Varya. Ostrovsky could have ended the drama with a scene of Katerina's repentance. But that would mean that the "dark kingdom" won. Katerina dies, and this is her victory over. the old world.

According to contemporaries, Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" was of great importance. It shows two worlds, two ways of life - the old and the new with their representatives. The death of the main character Katerina suggests that the new world will win and that it is this world that will replace the old one.

We will get into the "dark kingdom" from the very first lines of the play. However, the name "kingdom" evokes associations with a fairy tale and is too poetic for what the merchant world described by Ostrovsky is. The characterization of the city of Kalinov at the beginning of the work is given by Kuligin. According to him, there is nothing to see here except the contrast of wealth and poverty, cruelty and humility. The rich tend to get richer at the expense of the poor. At the same time, the rich are at enmity with each other, as they feel competition. “And among themselves, sir, how they live! They undermine each other's trade, and not so much out of self-interest, but out of envy. They quarrel with each other; they lure drunken clerks into their tall mansions ... And they ... scribble malicious slander on their neighbors. And they will begin, sir, the court and the case, and there will be no end to the torment. Kuligin refuses to capture all this in verse - so mores seem to him prosaic.

Consider the characters who are the expression of these morals, the face of the "dark kingdom".

One of them is the landowner Wild. Residents of the city call him "scold" and "shrill man." It is the appearance of the Wild, when he "as if off the chain", gives Kuligin a reason to start discussing the cruel customs of the city. The name of this character is telling. It can be compared to a wild beast - it is so cruel, quick-tempered, stubborn. Wild is a despot, both in his family and beyond. He terrorizes, among other things, his nephew, mocks the townspeople - “he outrages in every possible way, as his heart desires.” The general impression of Dikoy is formed if you listen to reviews about him from different people.

The boar in its cruelty is not inferior to the Wild. She is also endowed with a speaking surname. “Boar” is a derivative of the word “boar”, which also refers to the earthiness of the character, cruelty, inhumanity, lack of spirituality. She exhausts her family with constant moralizing, tyrannizes them, makes them live in accordance with strict rules. She is eradicating human dignity from her household. Katerina suffers especially hard, she says that thanks to her mother-in-law, life has become disgusting to her and the house has become disgusting.

Feklusha occupies a special role "in the dark kingdom". This is a wanderer who intensively spreads rumors about various superstitions and obvious nonsense. For example, about people with dog heads, about belittling time, about a fiery snake. The saddest thing is that in the city of Kalinov people willingly believe these rumors, they love Feklusha and are always happy to invite her to their house. This shows the extent of their superstition and hopeless stupidity.

The lady is another colorful character who expresses the spirit and customs of the "dark kingdom". This half-mad woman screams to Katerina that beauty will lead her into a whirlpool, which horrifies her. The image of the lady and her words can be understood in two ways. On the one hand, this is a warning that real beauty (of which Katerina is the bearer) will not live long in this world. On the other hand, how do you know? - perhaps Katerina is the personification of a lady in her youth. But she could not cope with these worlds and went crazy in her old age.

So, all these characters personify the worst aspects of the outgoing world - its cruelty, primitiveness, mysticism.

The work of A. N. Ostrovsky stands at the origins of our national dramaturgy. Fonvizin, Griboyedov and Gogol began the creation of the great Russian theater. With the advent of Ostrovsky's plays, with the flowering of his talent and skill, dramatic art rose to new heights. No wonder the critic Odoevsky noted that before Ostrovsky there were only 3 dramas in Russian literature: "Undergrowth", "Woe from Wit" and "The Inspector General". He called the play "Bankrupt" the fourth, emphasizing that it is the last missing cornerstone on which the majestic "building" of the Russian theater will be erected.

From "Bankrupt" to "Thunderstorm"

Yes, it is with the comedy “Our people - we will settle” (the second name of “Bankrupt”) that the wide popularity of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, a playwright, who united in his work and masterfully reworked the best traditions of the “natural” school - socio-psychological and satirical. Having become the "Columbus of Zamoskvorechye", he revealed to the world a hitherto unknown layer of Russian life - the middle and small merchants and bourgeoisie, reflected its originality, showed both bright strong, pure characters, and the gloomy harsh reality of the world of huckstering, hypocrisy, lack of high impulses and ideals . It happened in 1849. And already in his first significant play, the writer outlines with strokes a special type of personality that will appear in him again and again: from Samson Silych the Bolshoi to Titus Titych Bruskov from “A Hangover at a Strange Feast” and further, to Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova and Savel Prokopyevich Diky from "Thunderstorms" - a type of tyrant, named very accurately and succinctly and, thanks to the playwright, entered our speech everyday life. This category includes people who completely violate the logical and moral, human community. The critic Dobrolyubov called Dika and Kabanikha, representing the "dark kingdom" in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm", "tyrants of Russian life" by the critic Dobrolyubov.

Tyranny as a socio-typological phenomenon

Let's analyze this phenomenon in more detail. Why do tyrants appear in society? First of all, from the awareness of one's own complete and absolute power, the complete leveling of the interests and opinions of others in comparison with one's own, the feeling of impunity and the lack of resistance from the victims. This is how the "dark kingdom" is shown in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm". Wild and Kabanova are the richest residents of the small provincial town of Kalinov, located along the banks of the Volga. Money allows them to feel personal importance and significance. They also give them power - over their own families, over strangers, in some way dependent on them people, and more broadly - over public opinion in the city. The "dark kingdom" in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is terrible because it destroys or distorts the slightest manifestations of protest, any trends of freedom and independence. Tyranny is the other side of slavery. It equally corrupts both the “masters of life” themselves and those who are dependent on them, poisoning all of Russia with its noxious breath. That is why, according to Dobrolyubov's definition, the "dark kingdom" in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is synonymous with tyranny.

drama conflict

Possessing a deep understanding of reality, the writer was able to depict its most significant and significant aspects. In the pre-reform year of 1859, he was under the impression of traveling along the Volga in 1856-1857. creates a play, later recognized as one of his best creations - the drama "Thunderstorm". What is interesting: literally a month after the play was completed, events took place in Kostroma, as if they were reproducing a literary work according to the script. What does it say? About how accurately Alexander Nikolaevich felt and guessed the conflict and how realistically the “dark kingdom” is reflected in the play “Thunderstorm”.

It was not in vain that Ostrovsky chose the main contradiction of Russian life as the main conflict - the clash between the conservative principle, based on patriarchal traditions, formed over the centuries and based on indisputable authority, moral principles and prohibitions, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the rebellious, creative and living principle , the need of the individual to break stereotypes, to go forward in spiritual development. Therefore, not only Dikoy and Kabanikha embody the "dark kingdom" in the play "Thunderstorm". Ostrovsky makes it clear that the slightest concession to him, connivance and non-resistance automatically transfer a person to the rank of accomplices.

The philosophy of the "dark kingdom"

From the very first lines of the play, two elements break into our consciousness: the free, wonderful distances, wide horizons and the stuffy, thickened atmosphere of a pre-storm, the agonizing expectation of some kind of upheaval and a thirst for renewal. Representatives of the "dark kingdom" in the play "Thunderstorm" are horrified by the cataclysms of nature, seeing in them the manifestation of God's wrath and future punishments for sins - obvious and imaginary. Marfa Ignatievna repeats this all the time, echoes her and Dikoy. At Kuligin's request to donate money for the construction of a lightning rod for the townspeople, he reproaches: "The storm was given as a punishment, and you, such and such, want to defend yourself from the Lord with a pole." This remark clearly shows the philosophy that the representatives of the “dark kingdom” adhere to in the play “Thunderstorm”: one cannot resist what has dominated for centuries, one cannot go against the will or punishment from above, humility and humility must remain the ethical norms of our time. What is interesting: the main tyrants of Kalinov themselves not only sincerely believe in this order of things, but also recognize it as the only correct one.

hypocrite under the guise of virtue

The "Dark Kingdom" in A. N. Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" has many faces. But its pillars are primarily Dikoy and Kabanova. Marfa Ignatievna, a portly merchant's wife, the mistress of the house, behind the high fence of which invisible tears are shed and everyday humiliation of human dignity and free will takes place, is unequivocally named in the play - a hypocrite. They say about her: "He gives alms to the poor, goes to church, is devoutly baptized, and eats at home, sharpens iron like rust." She tries to observe the external laws of antiquity in everything, while not particularly caring about their internal content. The boar knows that the younger ones must obey the elders and demands blind obedience in everything. When Katerina says goodbye to Tikhon before his departure, she makes her bow at the feet of her husband, and her son - to give his wife a strict order on how to behave. There and “do not argue with mother”, and “do not look at the guys” and many other “wishes”. Moreover, all those present are well aware of the farce of the situation, its falsity. And only Marfa Ignatievna revels in her mission. She also played a decisive role in Katerina's tragedy, distorting her son's character, spoiling his family life, outraging Katerina's soul and forcing her to take a fatal step from the banks of the Volga into the abyss.

Lies as a law

"The Dark Kingdom" in A. N. Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm" is tyranny in its highest manifestation. Katerina, comparing life in her own family and in her husband's family, notices the most important difference: here everything seems to be “out of captivity”. And it is true. Either you obey the inhuman rules of the game, or you will be crushed to powder. Kuligin bluntly states that morals in the city are "cruel". He who is rich tries to enslave the poor in order to increase his fortune on their pennies. The same Dikoy swaggers over Boris, who is dependent on him: "If you please me, I will give the inheritance!" But it is impossible to please a petty tyrant, and the fate of the unfortunate Boris and his sister is predetermined. They will remain humiliated and insulted, powerless and defenseless. Is there a way out? There is: lie, dodge, while possible. This is what Tikhon's sister, Barbara, does. It is simple: do what you want, as long as no one notices anything, everything was “sewn and covered”. And when Katerina objects that she doesn’t know how to dissemble, she can’t lie, Varvara simply tells her: “And I didn’t know how, but it became necessary - I learned!”

Kudryash, Varvara and others

And what are the victims of the "dark kingdom" based on the drama by A. N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm" in general? These are people with a broken destiny, crippled souls, a disfigured moral world. The same Tikhon is a kind, gentle person by nature. The tyranny of his mother killed in him the rudiments of his own will. He cannot resist her pressure, he does not know how to resist, and he finds consolation in drunkenness. To support his wife, to take her side, to protect him from the arbitrariness of the boar, is also beyond his power. At his mother's instigation, he beats Katerina, although he takes pity on her. And only the death of his wife makes him openly blame his mother, but it is clear that the fuse will pass very quickly, and everything will remain the same.

Another male character, Vanya Kudryash, is quite another matter. He rebuffs everyone, and even the “piercing” Wild does not let down rudeness. However, this character is also spoiled by the deadening influence of the “dark kingdom”. Curly is a copy of the Wild, only not yet in force, not matured. Time will pass, and he will prove worthy of his master. Barbara, who has become a liar and endures her mother's harassment, eventually runs away from home. The lie has become her second nature, and therefore the heroine evokes our sympathy and compassion. The timid Kuligin rarely dares to defend himself against the impudence of the petty tyrants of the "dark kingdom". In fact, no one, except for Katerina, who, by the way, is also a victim, has sufficient firmness to challenge this "kingdom".

Why Katherine?

The only hero of the work who has the moral determination to condemn the life and customs of the "dark kingdom" in A. N. Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is Katerina. Her naturalness, sincerity, ardent impetuosity, inspiration do not allow to put up with arbitrariness and violence, to accept the etiquette dictated since Domostroev times. Katerina wants to love, enjoy life, experience natural feelings, be open to the world. Like a bird, she dreams of breaking away from the earth, from the deadly life and soaring into the skies. She is religious, but not boar-like. Her straightforward nature is torn in two by the contradiction between duty towards her husband, love for Boris and awareness of her sinfulness before God. And all this is deeply sincere, from the very depths of the heart. Yes, Katerina is also a victim of the "dark kingdom". However, she managed to break his chains. She shook the age-old foundations. And she was able to point the way out to others - not only by her own death, but by protest in general.

Let's get acquainted with the rest of Kalinov's representatives.