Composition: "The Dark Kingdom" in the drama "Thunderstorm": Wild and Boar. "The Dark Kingdom" in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" Who in the play thunderstorm is not a representative
"Dark Kingdom" in the drama "Thunderstorm": Wild and Boar
Look for such and such a scolding as Savel Prokofich among us!
A. N. Ostrovsky
The drama of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm" for many years became a textbook work depicting the "dark kingdom" that suppresses the best human feelings and aspirations, trying to force everyone to live according to their rough laws. No free-thinking - unconditional and complete obedience to elders. The carriers of this "ideology" are Wild and Kabanikha. Internally, they are very similar, but there is some external difference in their characters. The boar is a hypocrite and a hypocrite. Under the guise of piety, she, “like rusty iron,” eats her household, completely suppressing their will.
The boar raised a weak-willed son, she wants to control his every step. The very idea that Tikhon can make decisions on his own without looking back at his mother is unpleasant to her. “I would believe you, my friend,” she says to Tikhon, “if I didn’t see with my own eyes and hear with my own ears, what kind of respect for parents from children has now become! If only they remembered how many diseases mothers endure from children. The boar not only humiliates the children herself, she teaches Tikhon to do the same, forcing him to torture his wife. This old woman is suspicious. If she had not been so ferocious, Katerina would not have rushed first into the arms of Boris, and then into the Volga. Wild, just like a "chain" pounces on everyone. Curly, however, is sure that “... we don’t have enough guys for me to become, otherwise we would wean him to be mischievous.” This is absolutely true. Wild does not meet with due resistance, and therefore suppresses everyone. Behind him, capital is the basis of his outrages, which is why he keeps himself that way.
For Wild there is one law - money. With them, he determines the “value” of a person. Swearing is a normal state for him. They say about him: “To look for such a scolder as Savel Prokofich is with us. No way will a person be cut off. ” Kabanikha and Wild are "pillars of society", spiritual mentors in the city of Kalinov. They have established unbearable orders, from which one rushes into the Volga, others run wherever their eyes look, and still others become drunkards.
The boar is quite sure that she is right, she alone knows the ultimate truth. That is why he behaves so unceremoniously. She is the enemy of everything new, young, fresh. “So, here’s the old thing and it’s being displayed. He does not want to go into another house. And if you go up, you will spit, but get out more quickly. What will happen, ka! 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. ” Dikoy has a pathological love for money. In them he sees the basis of his unlimited power over people. For him, all means are good in getting money: he shortchanges the townspeople, “he will not count a single one by the way”, he has “thousands made up of unpaid kopecks”, quite calmly appropriates the inheritance of his nephews. Wild is not scrupulous in the choice of means.
Under the yoke of the Scavs and Boars, not only their households, but the whole city, groan. "Tolstoy is powerful" opens before them an unlimited possibility of arbitrariness and tyranny. In the play "Thunderstorm" Ostrovsky gives a true picture of the provincial city. But any other city of tsarist Russia looked like this. A terrifying impression is made on the reader and the viewer, but why is the drama still relevant 140 years after its creation? Little has changed in the psychology of people. Who is rich, in power, he is right, unfortunately, to this day.
A.N. Ostrovsky completed his play in 1859, on the eve of the abolition of serfdom. Russia was in anticipation of reform, and the play became the first stage in the realization of the coming changes in society.
In his work, Ostrovsky presents us with a merchant environment, personifying the "dark kingdom". The author shows a whole gallery of negative images on the example of the inhabitants of the city of Kalinov. On the example of the townspeople, their ignorance, lack of education, and adherence to the old order are revealed to us. We can say that all Kalinovtsy are in the shackles of the old "house building".
The prominent representatives of the "dark kingdom" in the play are the "fathers" of the city in the person of Kabanikhi and Dikiy. Marfa Kabanova tortures those around her and those close to her with reproaches and suspicion. She relies on the authority of antiquity in everything and expects the same from others. There is no need to talk about her love for her son and daughter, the children of Kabanikha are completely subordinate to her power. Everything in Kabanova's house is based on fear. To scare and humiliate is her philosophy.
Wild is much more primitive than Kabanova. This is the image of a real tyrant. With his screams and swearing, this hero humiliates other people, thereby, as it were, rising above them. It seems to me that this is a way of self-expression for Dikiy: “What are you going to order me to do with myself when my heart is like that!”; “I scolded him, so scolded him that it’s impossible to demand better, he almost nailed me. Here it is, what a heart I have!
The unreasonable scolding of the Wild, the hypocritical captiousness of the Kabanikh - all this is due to the impotence of the heroes. The more real the changes in society and people, the stronger their protesting voices begin to sound. But there is no point in the rage of these heroes: only an empty sound remains from their words. “... And everything is somehow restless, it’s not good for them. In addition to them, without asking them, another life has grown up with other beginnings, and although it is far away, it is still not clearly visible, but it already gives itself a presentiment and sends bad visions to dark arbitrariness, ”dobrolyubov writes about the play.
The images of Kuligin and Katerina are opposed to the Wild, Kabanikha, and the whole city. In his monologues, Kuligin tries to reason with the inhabitants of Kalinov, to open their eyes to what is happening around. For example, all the townspeople are in a wild, natural horror from a thunderstorm and perceive it as a punishment from heaven. Only Kuligin is not afraid, but sees in a thunderstorm a natural phenomenon of nature, beautiful and majestic. He proposes to build a lightning rod, but does not find the approval and understanding of others. Despite all this, the "dark kingdom" failed to absorb this self-taught eccentric. Amid savagery and tyranny, he retained a man in himself.
But not all the heroes of the play can resist the cruel customs of the "dark kingdom". Tikhon Kabanov is downtrodden, hounded by this society. Therefore, his image is tragic. The hero could not resist, from childhood he agreed with his mother in everything, he never contradicted her. And only at the end of the play, in front of the body of the dead Katerina, Tikhon decides to confront his mother and even blames her for the death of his wife.
Tikhon's sister, Varvara, finds her way to survive in Kalinovo. A strong, courageous and cunning character allows the girl to adapt to life in the "dark kingdom". For her peace of mind and for the sake of avoiding trouble, she lives by the principle of "hidden and covered", deceives and tricks. But, doing all this, Varvara is only trying to live as she wants.
Katerina Kabanova is a bright soul. Against the backdrop of the entire dead kingdom, it stands out for its purity and immediacy. This heroine was not mired in material interests and outdated worldly truths, like other residents of Kalinov. Her soul strives to free itself from the oppression and suffocation of these people, alien to it. Having fallen in love with Boris and cheated on her husband, Katerina is in terrible pangs of conscience. And she perceives the storm as a punishment from heaven for her sins: “Everyone should be afraid! It’s not that it’s scary that it will kill you, but that death will suddenly find you as you are, with all your sins ... ”. Pious Katerina, unable to withstand the pressure of her own conscience, decides on the most terrible sin - suicide.
Dikiy's nephew, Boris, is also a victim of the "dark kingdom". He resigned himself to spiritual slavery and broke down under the pressure of the old-timers. Boris seduced Katerina, but he did not have the strength to save her, to take her away from the hated city. The "Dark Kingdom" turned out to be stronger than this hero.
Another representative of the "Dark Kingdom" is the wanderer Feklusha. In the house of Kabanikhi, she is highly respected. Her ignorant tales about distant lands are listened to attentively and even believed. Only in such a dark and ignorant society, no one can doubt Feklusha's stories. The wanderer supports the Boar, feeling her strength and power in the city.
In my opinion, the play "Thunderstorm" is a work of genius. It reveals so many images, so many characters that would be enough for a whole encyclopedia of negative characters. All ignorance, superstition, lack of education absorbed the "dark kingdom" of Kalinov. Thunderstorm shows us that the old way of life has long outlived itself and does not meet modern conditions of life. Changes are already on the threshold of the "dark kingdom" and, together with a thunderstorm, they are trying to break into it. It doesn't matter that they meet with great resistance from wild and boar. After reading the play, it becomes clear that they are all powerless before the future.
The drama "Thunderstorm" is considered to be one of the main works of A. N. Ostrovsky. And this cannot be denied. The love conflict in the play recedes almost into the background, instead, the bitter social truth is exposed, the "dark kingdom" of vices and sins is shown. Dobrolyubov called the playwright a fine connoisseur of the Russian soul. It is difficult to disagree with this opinion. Ostrovsky very subtly describes the experiences of one person, but at the same time he is accurate in depicting the universal human vices and flaws of the human soul, which are inherent in all representatives of the "dark kingdom" in "Thunderstorm". Dobrolyubov called such people tyrants. The main tyrants of Kalinov are Kabanikha and Dikoy.
Wild is a bright representative of the "dark kingdom", initially shown as an unpleasant and slippery person. He appears in the first act along with his nephew Boris. Savl Prokofievich is very dissatisfied with the appearance of Boris in the city: “A parasite! Get lost!” The merchant swears and spits on the street, which shows his bad manners. It should be noted that in the life of the Wild there is absolutely no place for cultural enrichment or spiritual growth. He knows only what is necessary to know in order to lead the "dark kingdom".
Savl Prokofievich does not know either history or its representatives. So, when Kuligin quotes lines from Derzhavin Dikoy, he orders not to be rude to him. Usually, speech allows you to say a lot about a person: about his upbringing, manners, outlook, and so on. Diky's remarks are full of curses and threats: "not a single calculation can do without abuse." In almost every appearance on stage, Savl Prokofievich is either rude to others or expresses himself incorrectly. The merchant is especially annoyed by those who ask him for money. At the same time, Wild himself very often deceives when calculating in his favor. Wild is not afraid of either representatives of the authorities, or a rebellion "senseless and merciless." He is confident in the inviolability of his person and the position that he occupies. It is known that when talking with the mayor that Dikoy allegedly robs ordinary peasants, the merchant openly admits his guilt, but as if he himself is proud of such an act: “Is it worth it, your honor, to talk about such trifles with you! I have a lot of people a year - sometimes people stay: you - then understand: I won’t pay them extra for a penny per person, but I have thousands of this, so it’s good for me! ”Kuligin says that in trade everyone is a friend they steal a friend, and they choose as assistants those who, from prolonged drunkenness, have lost both their human appearance and all humanity.
Wild does not understand what it means to work for the common good. Kuligin proposed to install a lightning rod, with the help of which it would be easier to get electricity. But Savl Prokofievich drove the inventor away with the words: “So you know that you are a worm. I want to - I'm sorry. If I want to, I'll crush it." In this phrase, the position of Wild is most clearly visible. The merchant is confident in his rightness, impunity and power. Savl Prokofievich considers his power to be absolute, because the guarantee of his authority is money, which the merchant has more than enough. The meaning of the life of the Wild is the accumulation and increase of his capital by any legal and illegal methods. Wild believes that wealth gives him the right to scold, humiliate and insult everyone. However, his influence and rudeness scare many, but not Curly. Curly says that he is not afraid of the Wild, so he only acts as he wants. By this, the author wanted to show that sooner or later the tyrants of the dark kingdom will lose their influence, because the prerequisites for this already exist.
The only person with whom the merchant speaks normally is another characteristic representative of the "dark kingdom" - Kabanikha. Marfa Ignatievna is known for her heavy and grumpy disposition. Marfa Ignatievna is a widow. She herself raised her son Tikhon and daughter Varvara. Total control and tyranny led to horrific consequences. Tikhon cannot act against the will of his mother, he also does not want to say something wrong from the point of view of Kabanikha. Tikhon coexists with her, complaining about life, but not trying to change anything. He is weak and spineless. Daughter Varvara lies to her mother, secretly meeting with Kudryash. At the end of the play, she runs away with him from her home. Varvara changed the lock on the gate in the garden so that she could freely go out for a walk at night while the Boar was sleeping. However, she also does not openly confront her mother. Katherine got it the most. The boar humiliated the girl, tried in every possible way to offend and expose her husband (Tikhon) in a bad light. She chose an interesting manipulation tactic. Very measuredly, without haste, Kabanikha gradually “ate” her family, pretending that nothing was happening. Marfa Ignatievna covered herself by taking care of the children. She believed that only the old generation retained an understanding of the norms of life, so this knowledge must be passed on to the next generation, otherwise the world will collapse. But with Kabanikh, all wisdom becomes mutilated, perverted, false. However, it cannot be said that she is doing a good deed. The reader understands that the words "care for children" become an excuse in front of other people. In front of her, the Kabanikha is honest and perfectly understands what she is doing. She embodies the view that the weak should be afraid of the strong. Kabanikha herself speaks of this in the scene of Tikhon's departure. “Why are you standing there, don’t you know the order? Order your wife - how to live without you! To Tikhon’s quite reasonable remark that Katerina has no need to be afraid of him, because he is her husband, Kabanikha replies very sharply: “Why be afraid! Yes, you're crazy, right? You will not be afraid, and even more so me. The boar has long ceased to be a mother, a widow, a woman. Now this is a real tyrant and dictator who seeks to assert his power by any means.
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 opened 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: free, wonderful distances, wide horizons and 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 a 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 Ignatyevna, a portly merchant's wife, the mistress of a house behind whose high fence 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, ruining 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 her 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.
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 in the old 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 external, "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, they 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 really 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.
