Characteristics of the characters in the play "Thunderstorm. Algorithm for writing an essay The system of artistic images in the drama Thunderstorm

Goals:

determine the meaning of the title, the originality of the system of images; answer questions about how the characters of the characters are revealed and what is the peculiarity of the conflict of the play.

During the classes.

Group 1. The meaning of the play's title is "Thunderstorm". Students' reports about independent observations of the text under the guidance of a teacher.

Define the word "storm"?

What is the significance in the play?

(A thunderstorm for Katerina is God's punishment; Tikhon calls his mother's scolding a thunderstorm; Kuligin sees "grace" in a thunderstorm)

The compositional role of a thunderstorm? (links the whole play together: in act 1 a thunderstorm is approaching, in act 4 it portends death, breaks out in the climactic scene of Katerina's confession)

Group 2 The system of characters in the play. Messages about independent observations on the text.

- Let's call the actors "Thunderstorms" ( poster reading ). What do their names and surnames mean?

- Surnames in Ostrovsky's plays "speak" not only about the character of the hero, but actually give information about him. Ostrovsky's careful attitude to the names of the characters is one of the reasons for their realism. Here, such a rare quality as the reader's intuition is manifested.

Studying the list of characters, it should be noted the distribution of heroes by age (young - old), family ties (Dika and Kabanova are indicated, and most of the other heroes are related to them), education (only Kuligin, a self-taught mechanic and Boris ). Then, in working with the text, the knowledge of students deepens, and the system of characters becomes different. The teacher, together with the class, makes a table, which is written in notebooks.

Issues for discussion

What place does Katerina occupy in this system of images?

Why were Kudryash and Feklusha among the "masters of life"?

How to understand such a definition - "mirror" images?

Group 3 . Features of the disclosure of the characters of the heroes.Students' reports about their observations on the text.

Speech characteristic (individual speech characterizing the hero):

Katerina is a poetic speech, reminiscent of a spell, lamentation or song, filled with folk elements.

Kuligin is the speech of an educated person with "scientific" words and poetic phrases.

Wild - speech is replete with rude words and curses.

Boar - hypocritical, "pressing" speech.

Feklusha - speech shows that she was in many places.

The role of the first replica, which immediately reveals the character of the hero:

Kuligin . Miracles, truly it must be said: miracles!

Curly. And what?

Wild. Buckwheat you, eh, come to beat the court! Parasite! Get lost!

Boris. Holiday; what to do at home!

Feklush. Blah-alepie, honey, blah-alepie! Beauty is wondrous.

Kabanova. If you want to listen to your mother, then when you get there, do as I ordered you.

Tikhon . But how can I, mother, disobey you!

Barbara. Do not respect you, how!

Katerina. For me, mother, it’s all the same that your own mother, that you, and Tikhon loves you too.

Using the technique of contrast and comparison:

Feklusha's monologue - Kuligin's monologue;

life in the city of Kalinov - the Volga landscape;

Katerina - Barbara;

Tikhon - Boris.

Lesson summary . The main conflict of the play is revealed in the title, the system of characters, which can be divided into two groups - "masters of life" and "victims", in the peculiar position of Katerina, who is not included in any of these groups, in the speech of the characters corresponding to their position, and even in the technique of contrast, which determines the opposition of the characters.

Homework:

1. To answer the problematic question: Can we condemn Kabanikha for her attitude towards her daughter-in-law, if, in the end, the mother-in-law turned out to be right in her fears, because Katerina cheated on her husband.
2. Follow the development of the action of the play how the conflict develops, what role does the thunderstorm play in this?

In 1856, A. N. Ostrovsky went on an expedition along the Volga along with many theater-goers and writers. As a result... the author writes the play "Thunderstorm", which reflects the life of the social stratum of interest to the author: philistinism and merchant class, represented in the work with the help of the collective image of the city of Kalinov, called Dobrolyubov "dark kingdom".
The title is the key to understanding the work. The image of a thunderstorm is primarily associated with the general state of the world. The old foundations of society have already outlived themselves, and the problem of moral and historical renewal is becoming urgent. Also, a thunderstorm symbolizes conflict. The social external conflict becomes central in the work, which is realized with the help of images of the inhabitants of the city.
Kalinov is represented by tyrants (oppressors) and the oppressed. Consider the image of Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova. She lives according to the laws of Domostroy and the patriarchal world. It is important for her to observe the ritual life, only this can keep order in the house. (But since The Thunderstorm is a work of critical realism, it is characterized by social and psychological typification. Consequently, the house represents the city of Kalinov, and therefore Russia as a whole.)
The cruelty of the Kabanikh, often reaching inhumanity, is also based on the fear of destruction of foundations and orders. For example, Marfa Ignatievna insists that Tikhon beat Katerina (so that he knows whom to respect), and triumphs over her death, accusing her of destroying order.
Despotism and lust for power also become striking features of the Kabanikh. “If she won’t be afraid of you, then even more so of me. What will be the order in the house?”
Under the influence of her mother-in-law, a society whose life is based on fear and lies (after all, Varvara herself says that “... the whole house rests on lies ...”), Katerina was to become a typical representative of it. But Katerina becomes a worthy opponent of Kabanikha. Katerina is also a strong personality. She, like Marfa Ignatievna, believes that there is nothing that could atone for sin. But Katerina is saved from the ugly life logic of Kabanikh by the ability to see beauty and sincere faith in God. The values ​​of the “dark kingdom” are alien to her. This partially becomes the basis of the external conflict, which is presented in the work with the help of psychological pairs. Its main feature is that people's worldview destroys each other's lives. For example, this happened in the Kabanov family. Kabanikha appears as a complex personality. Despite her external rigidity towards her relatives, she sincerely loves her children and does not understand that she is breaking their lives.
Varvara, the daughter of Marfa Ignatievna, constantly dodges, lies, even before God (for example, when she steals the key that her mother kept behind the icon). For her, there is practically nothing sacred, because she leaves the family.
Tikhon is a ruined person. He cannot resist the orders of his mother and does everything that she requires. As a result, the final scene of the play becomes even more tragic. Only under the influence of the death of his wife do feelings awaken in Tikhon, and most importantly, the soul, and he blames his mother, who loves him passionately, for what happened. The external conflict is resolved by the collapse of the family and is directly related to the image of a storm approaching at the very beginning of the story, bringing destruction to the established orders of the “dark kingdom”. But the moral essence of some of its representatives is contradictory, an active internal struggle takes place in their souls, which becomes the basis for an internal conflict in the work. First of all, consider the image of Catherine. The desire for true pure love is beyond reason. But Katerina realizes the sinfulness of desire, and this becomes a heavy burden for her soul. Having sinned, Katerina no longer turns to God for help, but she cannot live with the thought of sin, and, accordingly, she will never achieve happiness with Boris. Due to excessive impressionability, Katerina sees bad omens both in the image of fiery hell and in the words of a half-crazy old woman: “...beauty... leads to a whirlpool...” and “... we will all burn in hell...”
As a result, the question “where to now?” Katerina sees only one answer: “It is better in the grave ... To live again? No, no, don't... it's not good... It's all the same that death will come, that it's on its own... but you can't live! Sin!"
But, besides Katerina, an internal conflict also occurs in the soul of Tikhon. The influence of the mother suppressed the individual beginning in him. But he is not able to hurt his wife, because he loves her very much and worries about her. He says: “... I'll pull it out, otherwise I'll do it myself ... what can I do without it!” The death of his wife greatly affects his inner state. A desire is revived in him, a desire to resist, and he finds in himself the spiritual strength to say to his mother: “You ruined her!”
Since the play “Thunderstorm” is a work of critical realism, the characters are both typical and individual. The author's position is dissolved in the narrative and is not directly expressed. Only sometimes some heroes become reasoners. The final is open, but good does not win and evil does not triumph.

The Thunderstorm by A. N. Ostrovsky made a strong and deep impression on his contemporaries. Many critics were inspired by this work. However, in our time it has not ceased to be interesting and topical. Raised to the category of classical drama, it still arouses interest.

The arbitrariness of the "older" generation lasts for many years, but some event must occur that could break the patriarchal tyranny. Such an event is the protest and death of Katerina, which awakened other representatives of the younger generation.

Let us consider in more detail the characteristics of the main acting heroes.

In the same 1859, The Thunderstorm appeared, the famous play by Ostrovsky. The work was intense and short in time: starting in June-July, the playwright finished it in October 1859.

"Thunderstorm" - a work, to some extent mysterious. Firstly, it turned out to be exceptionally viable, repertory in different eras of the history of the Russian theater. Secondly, it is unusual in terms of genre. This is a tragedy with elements of sharp comedy, almost a farce: Feklusha’s stories about overseas countries ruled by “saltans” and people with dog heads live, nonsense that the townsfolk listen with amazement and fear, or really wild antics of a Wild, rich merchant, in in which the self-evil beginning is presented in grotesque forms of unbridled arbitrariness.

During the time that has passed since the triumph of the comedies "Bankrupt" and "Poverty is no vice", much has changed in the playwright's creative manner, although the same images-types that were before were apparently preserved intact. However, all this is not so, one might say. That tyrants (Wild, Kabanikha), like two drops of water, are similar to the former ones, is only an external impression. The space of conflict has changed dramatically. There (“Bankrupt”, “Poverty is not a vice”) the action is limited to the narrow confines of the family, here the sphere of application of the forces of tyrannical will has expanded immeasurably. The family remains, but not only she. In the author's remark characterizing Savel Prokofievich Diky, there is a definition not just of his social status ("merchant"), but also of his social position: "a significant person in the city." In conversations, the mayor is mentioned, Dikoy is on a short footing with him and does not even consider it necessary to hide from him his tricks with unpaid or arbitrarily cut workers' salaries.

This is a new turn in the artistic study of the type of petty tyrant, who finally leaves his Zamoskvoretsky chambers and "sweeps" not only over the family, but over strangers. The wild one will not be forgotten: and 10 years later she will appear in The Hot Heart (1869), turning into the eternally drunk Kuroslepov, and the mayor will appear in the same play from behind the scenes and will no longer become an extra-plot character, as in The Thunderstorm, but the central character, the mayor Gradoboev, is the classic satirical comedy character of Ostrovsky.

Another feature of the new play was that the colors in the coverage of tyranny in The Thunderstorm turned out to be even more concentrated. Wild fully lives up to its name - unbridled, wild power, purely Russian, is completely ugly in its manifestations. Another type of tyrannical relationship - restrained, but also very cruel - Kabanova. The composition of the characters emphasizes: "a rich merchant"; Dikoy himself is afraid of her. In this image, a remarkable feature of Ostrovsky's dramatic style makes itself felt: he always leaves room for director's and actor's improvisation, for the search for original solutions in the development of a particular character. So, in the productions of "Thunderstorm" already in the era of the 90s of the twentieth century, completely new directorial and acting approaches appeared in the interpretation of the image of Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova: instead of a heavy, roughly fashioned, stern merchant's wife, a relatively young woman appeared on the stage in a number of metropolitan and provincial theaters , graceful, "home", sweet woman, but a real hell for her daughter-in-law because of the reckless, blind love for her son. The psychological paradox inherent in the image manifested itself in the fact that maternal love is capable of destroying more than one family and turning the lives of loved ones into incessant torture.

The conflict of the play also underwent significant changes. Previously, the carriers of a positive moral principle were opposed to negative heroes: the noble, loving Vanya Borodkin - Vikhorev ("Don't get into your sleigh"), the clerk Mitya - Gordey Karpych Tortsov and Korshunov. But even in such cases, confrontation in the conflict was excluded: the former were too humiliated and downtrodden to protest, the latter were infinitely confident in their unbridled will, in the right, without hesitation, to make judgment and reprisal.

In The Thunderstorm, the grouping of characters and their conflict interactions have changed dramatically. Here, for the first time in Ostrovsky, there is a serious confrontation with brute force, moreover, at an almost unconscious, spontaneous level. Katerina is a weak, undeveloped creature - a merchant's daughter and a merchant's wife. Flesh of the flesh of this environment. Therefore, it could be called a "ray of light", as Dobrolyubov did (the article "A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom") with a big stretch. The critic used the image of Katerina to veiledly express the idea of ​​a revolutionary transformation of society: the play, as he explained to readers, "serves" as an echo of aspirations that require a better device.

Meanwhile, the conflict ending in disaster, the death of the heroine, was not social, but rather psychological. An agonizing feeling of guilt and a sense of fear for what she has done (adultery) live in Katerina's soul. These motives are reinforced by another feature of the heroine: her sincerity, openness, kindness. She does not know how to lie and act according to the principle: do whatever you want, as long as everything is covered (the rule of life for Varvara, her husband's sister). It is impossible for Katerina to go merrily along the path of vice: without love, without participation, it is impossible for her to live, and she will not live like that. The house of the Kabanovs for her, where even her husband cannot respond to her feelings, although he loves her in his own way, is a living grave, death is easier, and she goes to her death in a state of half-delusion, half-awake: only nature can give her her silent response - sympathy, and she turns to her (phenomenon 2, 3, 4 of the fifth act), while people ruthlessly torture and torment her at every step.

In the conflict of "Thunderstorm" the social factor no longer dominated, which Dobrolyubov insisted on and what was in the previous plays: the clerk Mitya - and his master, the rich merchant Tortsov, and the same Korshunov; Vanya Borodkin - and nobleman Vikhorev. Here, in The Thunderstorm, the people who create acute conflict are equal to each other. The explosive power of protest is concentrated primarily in the character of the heroine, as Ostrovsky created it.

True, Katerina still has a way out: one could live following the example of Varvara and Kudryash. But she doesn’t go along with them, she can’t lie, dodge, and Boris is far from Kudryash, who admits that he won’t sell his head cheaply, and his tough boss, Dikay, has to reckon with a simple clerk. Boris, on the other hand, repeats exactly those uncomplaining reasoners whom the audience knew from Ostrovsky's previous plays.

Another feature that distinguishes this unusual character of the heroine is the feeling of freedom that lives in him. Apparently, in the family where Katerina spent her childhood and youth, with a deeply religious upbringing, there was not a trace of despotism and a self-righteous way of life, which marked all the characters of Ostrovsky, who came from a merchant environment. A sense of freedom, closeness to nature, good human relations distinguish the heroine in everything, and she is perceived by others as alien to this life, an unusual, “strange”, according to Varvara, woman.

Thus, the tragic beginning in the play is primarily due to the image of his heroine happily found and finely developed by the playwright. Ostrovsky will never be able to create anything similar in terms of the power of the tragic sound, although he strove for this with all the strength of his soul and approached the success of The Thunderstorm in different periods of his work: in The Dowry (1869) and in The Snow Maiden (1873).

39. hero in the image of Saltykov-Shchedrin ("Gentlemen Psychology Golovlev")

The Golovlyov chronicle was not originally conceived by Shchedrin as an independent work, but was part of the Well-intentioned Speeches cycle. The selection of individual essays about the "old people" into an independent work was due to those changes in the social life of the country, which were most clearly manifested in the sphere of family relations. By the beginning of the 1970s, Shchedrin affirmed that “the novel has lost its former ground since nepotism and everything that belongs to it begins to change its character”, that “it has become unthinkable." Having renounced the traditional interpretation of the family theme, the novelistic plot, the writer nevertheless had the right to consider The Golovlyovs as a novel. Despite the fact that it is composed of separate stories, they are a whole, determined by the writer's intention and the central figure of Porfiry Golovlev. Shchedrin set himself a difficult task: to uncover the internal mechanism of the family's disintegration, due to the moral failure of both feudal and bourgeois ideals. From chapter to chapter, the tragic departure from the family, and then from the life of Stepka the Stupid, Anna, Pavel, and Arina Petrovna herself can be traced.

In each of the characters, the writer notes the character traits generated by serfdom: carelessness and inability to meaningful work in Stepan Golovlev, extreme indifference to people and cynicism in Pavel, a thirst for acquisition and sanctimonious splendor in Arina Petrovna, hypocrisy and idle talk in Judas. The most complete and consistent process of the destruction of the landlord clan is presented in the image of Porfiry Golovlev.

Portrait of Judas Shchedrin writes using bright colors of psychological satire. One of the main ways to characterize the inner world of the hero is his speech. “Deceitful word”, in the figurative expression of N. Mikhailovsky, becomes the key to revealing the contradiction between the created social myths and reality. Verbal formulas, generally accepted concepts that Judas uses in a given situation, turn out to be a lie, an empty phrase., Empty talk. Judas (“Oh, Volodya, Volodya! You are not a good son! You are bad! Apparently, you don’t pray to God for dad that he even took away his memory!”), does not at all testify to his emotional experiences. He is much more concerned about the ritual side of the event, the need to keep up appearances even in front of his mother: “Oh, what a sin! It’s good that the lamps in the figurative are lit.” Judas' self-justification is built as a set of common moral formulas, which, combined in the image-experience of the hero, reveal in him an unconscious liar who has absorbed the social. It justifies the father's cruelty towards his suicidal son: “He lived well and quietly ... what did he lack? Money, right? If you have little money - be able to restrain yourself. Not everything is sweet, not everything with sugar, hour and kvass, eat!”. The word of Judas imitates noble ideas, lofty spiritual impulses, but it loses its real content. The hero does not go through the painful process of the birth of a word, in order to express feelings, he takes a ready-made someone else's.

After the appearance of the first chapters of The Golovlevs, critics began to call Judas the Russian Tartuffe. : conscious (Tartuffe) and unconscious (Judas) was fundamental. Unconscious hypocrisy, empty talk in Shchedrin's satire acquire the character of a special form of social and spiritual impoverishment of the ruling class. Therefore, the “non-Tartuffe” finale of Judas is so important in the psychological characterization of the hero.

The path of Judas to enlightenment in the finale is the path of the hero's perfection of the "binge of idle talk", when from a form of life he becomes its goal. His last surge was accompanied by the removal of his son Evprakseyushka from Golovlev. The "agony" of Judas, writes Shchedrin, began with the fact that "the resource of idle talk, which he had so willingly abused until now, began to visibly shrink."

The chapters "Cheap" and "The Calculation" gradually reveal the tragedy of Porfiry Golovlev, who finally acquires a human language precisely because everything that he could destroy died, even the objects of his fantasies disappeared. The last thing the hero says when addressing Anninka is perceived as a farewell to life: “You must forgive me! - he continued, - for everyone ... And for himself ... and for those who no longer exist ... What is it! what happened?! .. where is ... everything? The consciousness awakened for a minute made Judas feel like a man and understand that he had no opportunities for “resurrection”. The impetus for the “calculation” of the hero with life is the gospel parable about the redemption of guilt by suffering, its moral effect coincided with the mental confusion experienced by Judas, and the death of the hero became inevitable.

One should not see Shchedrin's desire to "forgive" his hero in the sentimental Christian finale of the novel. Shchedrin's democracy was a characteristic phenomenon of the 1960s, when the social milieu was seen as the source of the formation of the human personality. The hypocrisy of Judas was rooted in the social conditions of his life, and not only in the evil inclinations of his personality. Shchedrin's notion of the function of a moral court played a significant role in "justifying" the hero. The conscience awakened in the finale of the hero characterizes not only the state of Golovlev. It becomes a symbol of the awakening of public consciousness.