Ostrovsky's works: a list of the best. Ostrovsky's first work

Chronological table Ostrovsky helps to highlight the main stages of the writer's life. This article presents information about the life and work of Ostrovsky by dates in a convenient form. Information about the biography of A.N. Ostrovsky, a famous Russian playwright, will be of interest to schoolchildren and everyone who is interested in Russian classical literature.

Ostrovsky made a unique contribution to theatrical art. place of honor in the life of Ostrovsky is occupied by theatrical work. In periodizing it creative way the dates of the development of the Russian theater associated with the founding of the Artistic Circle are reflected. The works of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky in the table are listed in chronological order. You can learn more about the work of the playwright in a special section.

1823 March 31- Born A.N. Ostrovsky in Moscow in the family of the official of the Moscow departments of the Senate Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky and his wife Lyubov Ivanovna.

1831 - Death of mother A.N. Ostrovsky.

1835 - Admission to the third grade of the 1st Moscow gymnasium.

1840 – Admission to the law faculty of Moscow University.

determined to serve in the Moscow conscientious court.

1847 February 14- Reading the play "The Picture family happiness» at S.P. Shevyreva, the first success.

1853 January 14- Premiere on the stage of the Maly Theater of the comedy "Do not get into your sleigh" - the first play by A. N. Ostrovsky, staged at the theater.

1856 – Collaboration with the Sovremennik magazine.

1860 January– The play "Thunderstorm" was first published in No. 1 of the Library for Reading magazine.

1865, March-April– The charter of the Moscow artistic circle was approved (A.N. Ostrovsky, V.F. Odoevsky, N.G. Rubinshtein).

opening of the Artistic circle.

1868 November- In No. 11 of the magazine " Domestic notes”The comedy “Enough of simplicity is enough for every wise man” was printed.

1870 November– On the initiative of A. N. Ostrovsky, the Assembly of Russian Drama Writers was established in Moscow, later transformed into the Society of Russian Drama Writers and opera composers.

1874 - A. N. Ostrovsky was unanimously elected chairman of the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers.

1879 – In No. 5 of “Notes of the Fatherland” the drama “Dowry” was published.

"A table word about Pushkin".

1882 January- The comedy Talents and Admirers was published in No. 1 of Otechestvennye Zapiski.

1882 February- Honoring A. N. Ostrovsky on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of his creative activity.

1886 June 2- Death of A.N. Ostrovsky. He was buried in the cemetery in Nikolo-Berezhki near Shchelykovo.

June's most popular class materials.

1823 , March 31 (April 12) - was born in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka in the family of Ostrovsky Nikolai Fedorovich, a court attorney who dealt with property and commercial affairs, a collegiate assessor, who received the nobility in 1839.

1835–1840 - studies at the Moscow Provincial Gymnasium, graduated ninth out of eleven students in his group.

1840 - enrolled as a student of the law faculty of Moscow University. At the insistence of his father, he enters the unloved Faculty of Law instead of the coveted Faculty of History and Philology.

1843 - Became an official of the Moscow Conscientious Court.

1845 - goes to serve in the Moscow Commercial Court. Rewriting and examining civil cases first in the Constituent Court, and then financial cases in the Commercial Court, the census official did not so much advance in his service as he collected material.

1847 - in the "Moscow City List" Ostrovsky's first works are published - "Notes of a resident outside Moscow", excerpts from the comedy "Insolvent Debtor" and the one-act comedy "The Picture of Family Happiness".

1848 - the first trip to the estate of his father Shchelykovo (Kostroma province). Since 1868, Ostrovsky has been spending every summer here.

1849 - completed the first big comedy - "Bankrupt" ("Own people - let's settle"). In the course of work, "Insolvent Debtor" turned into "Bankrupt". This four-act play was no longer perceived as the first step of a novice talent, but as a new word in Russian dramaturgy. [ ]

1849–1850 , winter - Ostrovsky and P. Sadovsky read the play "Bankrupt" in Moscow literary circles. The play, with its accusatory power and artistic skill, makes a huge impression on the listeners, especially on democratic youth.

1851 , January 10 - Ostrovsky was dismissed due to the police supervision established for him. (In 1850, the secret department of the office of the Moscow governor-general began the "Case of the writer Ostrovsky" in connection with the prohibition of his comedy "Own people - we will settle".)

1853 - completed and staged for the first time on the stage of the Maly Theater comedy "Don't get into your sleigh", for a benefit performance by Nikulina-Kositskaya. The presentation was a great success. It was Ostrovsky's first play, played on the theater stage. Beginning of February - Ostrovsky is in St. Petersburg, directing the production of the comedy "Don't get into your sleigh" at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
November - in an amateur performance in Moscow, in the house of S. A. Panova, Ostrovsky played the role of Malomalsky in the comedy "Do not get into your sleigh." Ostrovsky finished the comedy "Poverty is not a vice."
End of December - Ostrovsky is in St. Petersburg, watching the rehearsals of the play "Poverty is not a vice" in Alexandrinsky theater.

1854 , January - in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky is present at a dinner with N. A. Nekrasov. Meets with I. S. Turgenev.
The first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Poverty is no vice" took place at the Maly Theater. The performance was a huge success.
September 9 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Poverty is no vice" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater in a benefit performance directed by Yablochkin. The presentation was a great success.

1856 , January 18 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Hangover at a stranger's feast" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for a benefit performance by Vladimirova.
April-August - a trip along the upper reaches of the Volga. The comedy "Profitable Place" was written.

1858 , October 17 - censorship allowed the printing of the Collected Works of Ostrovsky in two volumes, in the edition of gr. G. A. Kusheleva-Bezborodko (on title page publication date is 1859).
December 7 - completed scenes from village life - the play "The Pupil".

1859 March 10 - Ostrovsky in St. Petersburg delivered a speech at a dinner in honor of the great Russian artist A. E. Martynov; he met here with N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Nekrasov, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, I. S. Turgenev, I. A. Goncharov.
Terence's Getzira translated. Written drama "Thunderstorm".
December 2 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for a benefit performance by Linskaya.

1860 , January - Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm" was published in No. 1 of "Library for Reading".
February 23 - in St. Petersburg for literary evening in favor of the Literary Fund, Ostrovsky reads an excerpt from the comedy "Our people - let's settle."
October - No. 10 of the Sovremennik magazine published an article by N. -bov (N. A. Dobrolyubova) "A ray of light in a dark kingdom."

1861 , January - Ostrovsky in St. Petersburg directs the production of the comedy "Our people - let's get along" at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
January 16 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Our People - Let's Settle" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for a benefit performance by Linskaya.
December - work on the dramatic chronicle "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk" was completed.

1862 , January 9 - Ostrovsky in St. Petersburg at the chairman of the Litfond E. P. Kovalevsky read his drama "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk".
February - Ostrovsky refused to put his signature under the protest of a group of St. Petersburg reactionary and liberal writers against the democratic journal Iskra V. Kurochkin, which sharply criticized Pisemsky's reactionary articles in the Library for Reading.
The end of March - before leaving for the border, Ostrovsky met in St. Petersburg with N. G. Chernyshevsky.

1863 , January 1 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "For what you go, you will find" ("The Marriage of Balzaminov") took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
January - the first performance of Ostrovsky's drama "Sin and trouble does not live on anyone" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
September 27 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Profitable Place" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for Levkeeva's benefit performance.
November 22 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's play "The Pupil" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for the benefit of Zhuleva.

1864 , April 15 - allowed by censorship No. 3 (March) magazine " Russian word", in which an article by D. I. Pisarev about the work of Ostrovsky "Motives of Russian Drama" is printed.

1865 , end of February - beginning of March - Ostrovsky in St. Petersburg is busy with permission to establish a Moscow artistic circle.
April 23 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Voevoda" took place at the Mariinsky Theater, in the presence of the author.
September 25 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "In a Busy Place" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for a benefit performance by Levkeeva.

1866 , May 6 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's drama "Abysses" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater in the benefit performance of Vasiliev 1st.

1867 , January 16 - censorship allowed the libretto of V. Kashperov's opera "Thunderstorm", written by Ostrovsky.
On March 25, Ostrovsky in St. Petersburg in the Benardaki Hall gives a public reading in favor of the Literary Fund of the drama "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky".
July 4 - Ostrovsky visited N. A. Nekrasov in Karabikha.
October 30 - the first performance of V. Kashperov's opera "Thunderstorm" took place simultaneously at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
Ostrovsky and his brother Mikhail Nikolaevich bought from their stepmother, Emilia Andreevna Ostrovskaya, an estate in Shchelykovo, where the playwright subsequently spent the summer months.

1868 , November 1 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for a benefit performance by Bourdin.
November - in No. 11 of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine, published since the beginning of 1868 under the editorship of N. A. Nekrasov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, Ostrovsky's comedy "Enough Stupidity for Every Wise Man" was published. Since that time, Ostrovsky has been constantly collaborating in Otechestvennye Zapiski, right up to the closure of the journal by the tsarist government in 1884.

1869 , January 29 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Hot Heart" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater in a benefit performance by Linskaya.
February 12 - Ostrovsky enters into a church marriage with the artist M.V. Vasilyeva (Bakhmetyeva). (Ostrovsky had four sons and two daughters from this marriage.)

1870 , February - in No. 2 of "Notes of the Fatherland" Ostrovsky's comedy "Mad Money" was published.
April 16 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Mad Money" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater.

1871 , January - in No. 1 of "Notes of the Fatherland" Ostrovsky's comedy "Forest" was published.
January 25 - Ostrovsky gives a public reading in favor of the Literary Fund of the comedy "Forest" in the hall of the St. Petersburg Assembly of Artists.
September - in No. 9 of "Notes of the Fatherland" Ostrovsky's comedy "Not All the Cat's Shrovetide" was published.
November 1 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "The Forest" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for a benefit performance by Burdin.
December 3 - in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky, at a dinner with N. A. Nekrasov, read the comedy "There was not a penny, but suddenly an altyn."

1872 , January - Otechestvennye zapiski magazine No. 1 published Ostrovsky's comedy "There was not a penny, but suddenly an altyn."
January 13 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Not All the Cat's Shrovetide" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
February 17 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's drama "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" took place at the Mariinsky Theater for the benefit of Zhuleva; Ostrovsky, who was present at the performance, was presented with a gilded wreath and an address from the troupe.
March 27 - Moscow merchants, admirers of the playwright's talent, honor Ostrovsky with a dinner and present him with a silver vase with images of Pushkin and Gogol.
September 20 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "There was not a penny, but suddenly Altyn" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for Malyshev's benefit performance.

1873 , end of March - April - Ostrovsky finished the play "The Snow Maiden".
September - Ostrovsky's play "The Snow Maiden" was published in issue 9 of the Vestnik Evropy magazine.
December 21 - in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky signed an agreement with N. A. Nekrasov and A. A. Kraevsky for the publication of his collected works.

1874 , January - Ostrovsky's comedy "Late Love" was published in No. 1 of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine.
October 21 - The founding meeting of the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was held in Moscow, organized on the initiative of Ostrovsky. The playwright was unanimously elected chairman of the Society.
The collection of Ostrovsky's works in eight volumes, published by Nekrasov and Kraevsky, comes out of print.

1875 , November - Ostrovsky's comedy "Wolves and Sheep" was published in No. 11 of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine.
The first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Rich Brides" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for Levkeeva's benefit performance.
December 8 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Wolves and Sheep" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for a benefit performance by Burdin.

1876 , November 22 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Truth is good, but happiness is better" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for a benefit performance by Burdin.

1877 , January - in No. 1 of the journal "Domestic Notes" Ostrovsky's comedy "Truth is good, but happiness is better" was published.
December 2 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "The Last Victim" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for a benefit performance by Bourdin.

1878 , January - in No. 1 of the journal "Domestic Notes" Ostrovsky's comedy "The Last Victim" was published.
October 17 - Ostrovsky graduated from the drama "Dowry".
November 22 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's drama "Dowry" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for the benefit performance of Burdin.
December - the IX volume of Ostrovsky's works was published by Salaev.

1879 , January - Ostrovsky's play "The Dowry" was published in No. 1 of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine.

1880 , February - N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov began the opera "The Snow Maiden", independently compiling a libretto according to the text play of the same name Ostrovsky.
April 24 - Ostrovsky visited I. S. Turgenev, who arrived in Moscow in connection with the preparation of Pushkin's celebrations.
June 7 - during a dinner arranged by the Moscow Society of Russian Literature Lovers in the Noble Assembly for writers participating in Pushkin's celebrations, Ostrovsky pronounced "A Table Word about Pushkin".
August 12 - N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov finished the opera The Snow Maiden.

1881 , April - Ostrovsky directs the production of the comedy "Our People - Let's Settle" in the first private theater in Moscow - the Pushkin Theater of A. Brenko.
November 1 - in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky participated in a meeting of the commission for the revision of the Regulations on theaters and presented to the commission a "Note on the situation dramatic art in Russia at the present time." Ostrovsky took part in the work of this commission for several months, but "the commission was in fact a deceit of hopes and expectations," as Ostrovsky later wrote about it.
December 6 - Ostrovsky graduated from the comedy "Talents and Admirers".

1882 , January - Ostrovsky's comedy "Talents and Admirers" was published in No. 1 of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine.
The first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Talents and Admirers" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater as a benefit performance for Strelskaya.
The first performance of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden took place at the Mariinsky Theatre.
February 12 - I. A. Goncharov in his letter congratulated Ostrovsky on the 35th anniversary of his literary activity and highly appreciated the work of the playwright.
April 19 - Alexander III allowed Ostrovsky to establish a private theater in Moscow.

1883 , April 28 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Slaves" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater with the participation of M. N. Yermolova in the role of Evlalia.
Summer - Ostrovsky began work on the play Guilty Without Guilt.
December 17 - Ostrovsky visited M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in St. Petersburg.

1884 , January 20 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's play "Guilty Without Guilt" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
Otechestvennye zapiski magazine, No. 1, published Ostrovsky's drama Guilty Without Guilt.
March 5 - Ostrovsky was received by Alexander III in the Gatchina Palace in connection with the award of a life pension in the amount of three thousand rubles (instead of the requested six thousand).
April 20 - the government closed the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine, in which Ostrovsky had published 21 plays since 1868, including two written in collaboration with other authors and one translated.
August 28 - Ostrovsky finished his "Autobiographical note", in which he summed up his many years of literary and theatrical activity.
November 19 - in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky signed an agreement with the publisher Martynov on the publication of a collection of his works.

1885 , January 9 - the first performance of Ostrovsky's play "Not of this world" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater for the benefit performance of Strepetova.
From January to May came out vols. I–VIII Collected Works of Ostrovsky in the edition of N. G. Martynov.
December 4 - in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky sold to N. G. Martynov the right to the second edition of his dramatic translations.

1886 January 1 - Ostrovsky assumed the position of head of the repertoire of the Moscow Imperial Theaters.
April 19 - The Society of Lovers of Russian Literature elected Ostrovsky as its honorary member.
May 23 - L. N. Tolstoy addressed a letter to Ostrovsky, in which he asked to allow the Posrednik publishing house to reprint some of Ostrovsky's plays in a cheap edition. In this letter, L. N. Tolstoy calls Ostrovsky "undoubtedly a writer of the whole people in the broadest sense."
On June 2, at 10 o'clock in the morning, the great Russian playwright Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky died from a severe attack of angina pectoris (angina pectoris) in his working room in Shchelykovo.

Born in the family of Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, the son of a priest who practiced as a court lawyer in property and commercial cases, and mother Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina, the daughter of a sexton. The family was prosperous and lived in Zamoskvorechye on Malaya Ordynka. There were four children in the family who received an excellent home education. Young Alexander got acquainted early with Russian literature in his father's library. His father wanted to make him a lawyer.

In 1835 - 1840, Alexander Ostrovsky studied at the 1st Moscow Gymnasium. In 1840 he entered the law faculty of Moscow University, but did not graduate from it, quarreling with one of the teachers.

In 1843, Alexander Ostrovsky, at the request of his father, entered the service of a clerk in a Moscow court for a salary of 4 rubles. Gradually it grew to 15 rubles. Alexander Ostrovsky worked in courts until 1851.

In 1846, he wrote the comedy "The Insolvent Debtor" or "The Picture of Family Happiness" (later called "Own People - Let's Settle!") and was partially printed in the "Moscow City List" in 1847.

In 1850, the comedy "Our people - let's settle" brought the first glory. Even before publication, it became popular in reading under the name "Bankrupt" and was banned from being presented on stage. By personal order of Emperor Nicholas I, Alexander Ostrovsky was placed under police supervision, which was removed only after the accession of Emperor Alexander II, and the premiere of the comedy "Our People - Let's Settle" took place only in 1861.

In 1850 - 1851, Alexander Ostrovsky collaborated as a critic and editor with the conservative magazine Moskvityanin, as a playwright, being influenced by A.A. Grigoriev and his circle.

During this period he wrote whole line comedies from merchant life“The Poor Bride” (1851), “Do Not Get into Your Sleigh” (1852), “Poverty is not a vice” (1853), “Do not live as you want” (1854).

In 1853 on stage Bolshoi Theater the play “Don’t get into your sleigh” was staged, and then for more than three decades, almost every season, new plays by Alexander Ostrovsky were staged in the Moscow Maly and St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky theaters.

In 1855, the comedy "Hangover at a Strange Feast" was written, where the first spoken word "tyrant" headed a whole gallery of colorful characters in the plays of Alexander Ostrovsky.

In 1856, Alexander Ostrovsky became a permanent contributor to the Sovremennik magazine. This year, the comedy “Profitable Place” was written.

In 1856 - 1857 Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich sent a group of famous writers on a trip to Russia to study and describe various localities. Alexander Ostrovsky traveled from the upper reaches of the Volga to Nizhny Novgorod.

In 1858 he wrote the play The Pupil.

In 1859, the drama "Thunderstorm" was written based on impressions from a trip to the Volga cities. In the same year, with the assistance of Count G.A. Kushelev-Bezborodko published the first two-volume collected works of Alexander Ostrovsky.

In 1863, Alexander Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize and elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

In 1865-1866 he founded the Artistic Circle.

In 1868, Alexander Ostrovsky wrote a cycle of comedies Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man, the play A Warm Heart. Later, the plays Crazy Money (1869), Forest (1870), the poetic utopia The Snow Maiden (1873), Labor Bread (1874), Wolves and Sheep (1875) were written.

In 1874, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was formed, whose chairman Alexander Ostrovsky remained until his death.

In 1878, the plays "Dowry" and "The Last Victim" were written.

In 1881, he actively worked in the commission at the directorate of the Imperial Theaters "for the revision of legal provisions in all parts of the theater management."

In 1883, Alexander III awarded him an annual pension of 3,000 rubles.

In 1885, Alexander Ostrovsky became the head of the repertoire of Moscow theaters and the head of the theater school.

Alexander Ostrovsky died at his Shchelykovo estate in the Kostroma province. He was buried in the church cemetery near the Temple in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki. The Moscow Duma established a reading room named after A.N. Ostrovsky after his death.

(1843 – 1886).

Alexander Nikolaevich "Ostrovsky -" a giant of theatrical literature "(Lunacharsky), he created the Russian theater, a whole repertoire on which many generations of actors were brought up, traditions were strengthened and developed performing arts. His role in the history of the development of Russian dramaturgy and the entire national culture can hardly be overestimated. He did as much for the development of Russian dramaturgy as Shakespeare did in England, Lope de Vega in Spain, Molière in France, Goldoni in Italy, and Schiller in Germany.

"History left the name of the great and brilliant only for those writers who knew how to write for the whole people, and only those works survived the centuries that were truly popular at home; such works eventually become understandable and valuable for other peoples, and finally, and for the whole world." These words of the great playwright Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky can be attributed to his own work.

Despite the harassment inflicted by the censorship, the theatrical and literary committee and the directorate of the imperial theaters, despite the criticism of reactionary circles, Ostrovsky's dramaturgy gained more and more sympathy every year both among democratic spectators and among artists.

Developing the best traditions of Russian dramatic art, using the experience of progressive foreign dramaturgy, tirelessly learning about the life of his native country, constantly communicating with the people, closely connecting with the most progressive contemporary public, Ostrovsky became an outstanding depiction of the life of his time, who embodied the dreams of Gogol, Belinsky and other progressive figures. literature about the appearance and triumph on the national stage of Russian characters.

The creative activity of Ostrovsky had a great influence on the entire further development of progressive Russian drama. It was from him that our best playwrights studied, he taught. It was to him that aspiring dramatic writers were drawn in their time.

The strength of Ostrovsky's influence on the writers of his day can be evidenced by a letter to the playwright poetess A. D. Mysovskaya. “Do you know how great was your influence on me? It was not love for art that made me understand and appreciate you: on the contrary, you taught me to love and respect art. I am indebted to you alone for the fact that I withstood the temptation to fall into the arena of miserable literary mediocrity, did not chase after cheap laurels thrown by the hands of sweet and sour half-educated. You and Nekrasov made me fall in love with thought and work, but Nekrasov gave me only the first impetus, you are the direction. Reading your works, I realized that rhyming is not poetry, and a set of phrases is not literature, and that only by processing the mind and technique, the artist will be a real artist.

Ostrovsky had a powerful impact not only on the development of domestic drama, but also on the development of the Russian theater. The colossal importance of Ostrovsky in the development of the Russian theater is well emphasized in a poem dedicated to Ostrovsky and read in 1903 by M. N. Yermolova from the stage of the Maly Theater:

On the stage, life itself, from the stage blows the truth,

And the bright sun caresses and warms us ...

The live speech of ordinary, living people sounds,

On stage, not a “hero”, not an angel, not a villain,

But just a man ... Happy actor

In a hurry to quickly break the heavy fetters

Conditions and lies. Words and feelings are new

But in the secrets of the soul, the answer sounds to them, -

And all the mouths whisper: blessed is the poet,

Tore off the shabby, tinsel covers

And shed a bright light into the kingdom of darkness

The famous actress wrote about the same in 1924 in her memoirs: “Together with Ostrovsky, truth itself and life itself appeared on the stage ... The growth of original drama began, full of responses to modernity ... They started talking about the poor, the humiliated and insulted.”

The realistic direction, muffled by the theatrical policy of the autocracy, continued and deepened by Ostrovsky, turned the theater onto the path of close connection with reality. Only it gave life to the theater as a national, Russian, folk theater.

“You brought a whole library of works of art as a gift to literature, you created your own special world for the stage. You alone completed the building, at the foundation of which the cornerstones of Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol were laid. This wonderful letter was received among other congratulations in the year of the thirty-fifth anniversary of literary and theatrical activity, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky from another great Russian writer - Goncharov.

But much earlier, about the very first work of the still young Ostrovsky, published in Moskvityanin, a subtle connoisseur of elegance and a sensitive observer V. F. Odoevsky wrote: this man is a great talent. I consider three tragedies in Rus': “Undergrowth”, “Woe from Wit”, “Inspector”. I put number four on Bankrupt.

From such a promising first assessment to Goncharov's anniversary letter - a full, busy life; labor, and led to such a logical relationship of assessments, because talent requires, first of all, great labor on itself, and the playwright did not sin before God - he did not bury his talent in the ground. Having published the first work in 1847, Ostrovsky has since written 47 plays, and translated more than twenty plays from European languages. And all in the created by him folk theater- about a thousand actors.

Shortly before his death, in 1886, Alexander Nikolayevich received a letter from L. N. Tolstoy, in which the brilliant prose writer admitted: “I know from experience how people read, listen and remember your things, and therefore I would like to help you have now quickly become in reality what you are, undoubtedly, a writer of the whole people in the broadest sense.

Even before Ostrovsky, progressive Russian dramaturgy had magnificent plays. Let us recall Fonvizin's "Undergrowth", Griboedov's "Woe from Wit", Pushkin's "Boris Godunov", Gogol's "Inspector General" and Lermontov's "Masquerade". Each of these plays could enrich and embellish, as Belinsky rightly wrote, the literature of any Western European country.

But these plays were too few. And they did not determine the state of the theatrical repertoire. Figuratively speaking, they towered above the level of mass dramaturgy like lonely, rare mountains in an endless desert plain. The vast majority of the plays that filled the then theater scene were translations of empty, frivolous vaudeville and sentimental melodramas woven from horrors and crimes. Both vaudeville and melodrama, terribly far from life, were not even its shadow.

In the development of Russian dramaturgy and domestic theater, the appearance of plays by A.N. Ostrovsky constituted a whole era. They sharply turned dramaturgy and theater back to life, to its truth, to what truly touched and excited people of the unprivileged stratum of the population, working people. Creating "plays of life", as Dobrolyubov called them, Ostrovsky acted as a fearless knight of truth, a tireless fighter against the dark kingdom of autocracy, a merciless exposer of the ruling classes - the nobility, the bourgeoisie and the officials who faithfully served them.

But Ostrovsky was not limited to the role of a satirical accuser. He vividly, sympathetically depicted the victims of socio-political and domestic despotism, workers, truth-seekers, enlighteners, warm-hearted Protestants against arbitrariness and violence.

The playwright not only made people of labor and progress, bearers of the people's truth and wisdom, the positive heroes of his plays, but also wrote in the name of the people and for the people.

Ostrovsky portrayed in his plays the prose of life, ordinary people in everyday circumstances. Taking the universal problems of evil and goodness, truth and injustice, beauty and ugliness as the content of his plays, Ostrovsky outlived his time and entered our era as her contemporary.

The creative path of A.N. Ostrovsky lasted four decades. He wrote his first works in 1846, and his last in 1886.

During this time, he wrote 47 original plays and several plays in collaboration with Solovyov (“Balzaminov's Marriage”, “Savage”, “Shines but does not warm”, etc.); made many translations from Italian, Spanish, French, English, Indian (Shakespeare, Goldoni, Lope de Vega - 22 plays). There are 728 roles, 180 acts in his plays; all Rus' is represented. Variety of genres: comedies, dramas, dramatic chronicles, family scenes, tragedies, dramatic sketches are presented in his dramaturgy. He acts in his work as a romantic, householder, tragedian and comedian.

Of course, any periodization is to some extent conditional, but in order to better navigate the diversity of Ostrovsky's work, we will divide his work into several stages.

1846 - 1852 - the initial stage of creativity. The most important works written during this period: “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky resident”, the plays “A Picture of Family Happiness”, “Own People - Let's Settle”, “The Poor Bride”.

1853 - 1856 - the so-called "Slavophile" period: "Don't get into your sleigh." "Poverty is not a vice", "Do not live as you want."

1856 - 1859 - rapprochement with the circle of Sovremennik, a return to realistic positions. The most important plays of this period: "A Profitable Place", "The Pupil", "A Hangover in Someone else's Feast", "The Balzaminov Trilogy", and, finally, created during the period of the revolutionary situation, "Thunderstorm".

1861 - 1867 - deepening in the study of national history, the result is the dramatic chronicles of Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk, Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky, Tushino, the drama Vasilisa Melentievna, the comedy Voyevoda or Dream on the Volga.

1869 - 1884 - the plays created during this period of creativity are devoted to social and domestic relations that developed in Russian life after the reform of 1861. The most important plays of this period: “Enough simplicity for every wise man”, “Hot Heart”, “Mad Money”, “Forest”, “Wolves and Sheep”, “Last Victim”, “Late Love”, “Talents and Admirers”, “ Guilty without guilt."

Ostrovsky's plays did not appear out of nowhere. Their appearance is directly connected with the plays of Griboedov and Gogol, which absorbed everything valuable that the Russian comedy that preceded them achieved. Ostrovsky knew the old Russian comedy of the 18th century well, he specially studied the works of Kapnist, Fonvizin, Plavilshchikov. On the other hand - the influence of the prose of the "natural school".

Ostrovsky came to literature in the late 1940s, when Gogol's dramaturgy was recognized as the greatest literary and social phenomenon. Turgenev wrote: "Gogol showed the way how our dramatic literature will go with time." Ostrovsky, from the first steps of his activity, realized himself as a successor to the traditions of Gogol, " natural school”, he considered himself among the authors of a “new trend in our literature”.

The years 1846 - 1859, when Ostrovsky worked on his first big comedy "Our People - Let's Settle", were the years of his formation as a realist writer.

The ideological and artistic program of Ostrovsky, the playwright, is clearly set out in his critical articles and reviews. The article "Mistake", the story of Madame Tour" ("Moskvityanin", 1850), an unfinished article on Dickens' novel "Dombey and Son" (1848), a review of Menshikov's comedy "Fads", ("Moskvityanin" 1850), "Note on the situation Dramatic Art in Russia at the Present Time" (1881), "A Table Word on Pushkin" (1880).

Ostrovsky's socio-literary views are characterized by the following main provisions:

First, he believes that drama should be a reflection of people's life, people's consciousness.

The people for Ostrovsky are, first of all, the democratic mass, the lower classes, ordinary people.

Ostrovsky demanded that the writer study the life of the people, those problems that concern the people.

“In order to be a people's writer,” he writes, “love for one's homeland is not enough… one must know one's people well, get along with them better, become related. The best school for talent is the study of one's nationality.

Secondly, Ostrovsky talks about the need for national identity for dramaturgy.

The nationality of literature and art is understood by Ostrovsky as an integral consequence of their nationality and democracy. "Only that art is national, which is popular, for the true bearer of nationality is the popular, democratic mass."

In the "Table Word about Pushkin" - an example of such a poet is Pushkin. Pushkin is a people's poet, Pushkin is a national poet. Pushkin played a huge role in the development of Russian literature because he "gave the courage to the Russian writer to be Russian."

And, finally, the third provision is about the socially accusatory nature of literature. “The more popular the work, the more accusatory element in it, because the “distinctive feature of the Russian people” is “aversion from everything that is sharply defined”, unwillingness to return to the “old, already condemned forms” of life, the desire to “seek the best”.

The public expects art to denounce the vices and shortcomings of society, to judge life.

Condemning these vices in their artistic images the writer arouses aversion to them in the public, forces them to be better, more moral. Therefore, “the social, denunciatory direction can be called moral and public,” Ostrovsky emphasizes. Speaking of the social accusatory or moral-public direction, he means:

accusatory criticism of the dominant way of life; protection of positive moral principles, i.e. protecting the aspirations of ordinary people and their pursuit of social justice.

Thus, the term "moral accusatory direction" in its objective meaning approaches the concept of critical realism.

The works of Ostrovsky, written by him in the late 40s and early 50s, “A Picture of Family Happiness”, “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident”, “Our People - Let's Settle”, “The Poor Bride - are organically connected with the literature of the natural school.

“The picture of family happiness” is largely in the nature of a dramatized essay: it is not divided into phenomena, there is no completion of the plot. Ostrovsky set himself the task of depicting the life of the merchants. The hero interests Ostrovsky solely as a representative of his estate, his way of life, his way of thinking. Goes beyond the natural school. Ostrovsky reveals the close connection between the morality of his characters and their social existence.

He puts the family life of the merchants in direct connection with the monetary and material relations of this environment.

Ostrovsky completely condemns his heroes. His heroes express their views on the family, marriage, education, as if demonstrating the wildness of these views.

This technique was common in the satirical literature of the 40s - the method of self-exposure.

The most significant work of Ostrovsky 40-ies. - came the comedy "Our people - let's settle" (1849), which was perceived by contemporaries as a major conquest of the natural school in drama.

"He started out extraordinary," Turgenev writes of Ostrovsky.

The comedy immediately attracted the attention of the authorities. When the censorship submitted the play to the tsar for consideration, Nicholas I wrote: “Printed in vain! To play same ban, in any case.

Ostrovsky's name was put on the list of unreliable persons, and the playwright was placed under covert police surveillance for five years. The “Case of the writer Ostrovsky” was opened.

Ostrovsky, like Gogol, criticizes the very foundations of relations that dominate society. He is critical of contemporary social life and in this sense he is a follower of Gogol. And at the same time, Ostrovsky immediately defined himself as a writer - an innovator. Comparing the works of the early stage of his work (1846-1852) with the traditions of Gogol, let's see what new things Ostrovsky brought to literature.

The action of Gogol's "high comedy" takes place as if in a world of unreasonable reality - "The Government Inspector".

Gogol tested a person in his attitude to society, to civic duty - and showed - that's what these people are like. This is the center of vices. They don't care about society at all. They are guided in their behavior by narrowly selfish calculations, selfish interests.

Gogol does not focus on everyday life - laughter through tears. The bureaucracy for him acts not as a social stratum, but as a political force that determines the life of society as a whole.

Ostrovsky has something completely different - a thorough analysis of social life.

Like the heroes of the essays of the natural school, the heroes of Ostrovsky are ordinary, typical representatives their social environment, which is shared by their usual everyday life, all her prejudices.

a) In the play "Our people - we will settle" Ostrovsky creates a typical biography of a merchant, talks about how capital is accumulated.

Bolshov sold pies from a stall as a child, and then became one of the first rich men in Zamoskvorechye.

Podkhalyuzin made up his capital by robbing the owner, and, finally, Tishka is an errand boy, but, however, he already knows how to please the new owner.

Here are given, as it were, three stages of a merchant's career. Through their fate, Ostrovsky showed how capital is made up.

b) The peculiarity of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy was that he showed this question - how capital is made up in a merchant environment - through consideration of intra-family, daily, ordinary relations.

It was Ostrovsky who was the first in Russian drama to consider thread by thread the web of daily, everyday relationships. He was the first to introduce into the sphere of art all these trifles of life, family secrets, petty economic affairs. A huge place is occupied by seemingly meaningless everyday scenes. Much attention is paid to the poses, gestures of the characters, their manners of speaking, their very speech.

Ostrovsky's first plays seemed to the reader to be unusual, not for the stage, more like narrative rather than dramatic works.

The circle of Ostrovsky's works, directly related to the natural school of the 40s, closes with the play The Poor Bride (1852).

In it, Ostrovsky shows the same dependence of a person on economic, monetary relations. Several suitors seek the hand of Marya Andreevna, but the one who gets it does not need to make any effort to achieve the goal. The well-known economic law of a capitalist society works for him, where everything is decided by money. The image of Marya Andreevna begins in the work of Ostrovsky, a new topic for him, the position of a poor girl in a society where everything is determined by commercial calculation. ("Forest", "Pupil", "Dowry").

So, for the first time in Ostrovsky (unlike Gogol) not only vice appears, but also a victim of vice. In addition to the masters of modern society, there are those who oppose them - aspirations whose needs are in conflict with the laws and customs of this environment. This entailed new colors. Ostrovsky discovered new aspects of his talent - dramatic satirism. “Own people - we will count” - satire.

The artistic manner of Ostrovsky in this play is even more different from Gogol's dramaturgy. The plot loses its edge here. It is based on an ordinary case. The theme that was voiced in Gogol's "Marriage" and received satirical coverage - the transformation of marriage into a purchase and sale, here acquired a tragic sound.

But at the same time, this is a comedy in terms of characterization, in terms of positions. But if the heroes of Gogol cause laughter and condemnation of the public, then in Ostrovsky the viewer saw his daily life, felt deep sympathy for some - condemned others.

The second stage in the activities of Ostrovsky (1853 - 1855) is marked by the seal of Slavophile influences.

First of all, this transition of Ostrovsky to Slavophile positions should be explained by the intensification of the atmosphere, the reaction that is established in the "gloomy seven years" of 1848-1855.

In what specific way did this influence appear, what ideas of the Slavophiles turned out to be close to Ostrovsky? First of all, Ostrovsky’s rapprochement with the so-called “young editors” of The Moskvityanin, whose behavior should be explained by their characteristic interest in Russian national life, folk art, the historical past of the people, which was very close to Ostrovsky.

But Ostrovsky was unable to distinguish in this interest the main conservative principle, which manifested itself in the prevailing social contradictions, in a hostile attitude towards the concept of historical progress, in admiration for everything patriarchal.

In fact, the Slavophils acted as ideologists of the socially backward elements of the petty and middle bourgeoisie.

One of the most prominent ideologists of the "Young Edition" of "Moskvityanin" Apollon Grigoriev argued that there is a single "national spirit" that constitutes the organic basis of people's life. Capturing this national spirit is the most important thing for a writer.

Social contradictions, the struggle of classes - these are historical stratifications that will be overcome and that do not violate the unity of the nation.

The writer must show the eternal moral principles of the people's character. The bearer of these eternal moral principles, the spirit of the people, is the “middle, industrial, merchant” class, because it was this class that preserved the patriarchy of the traditions of old Rus', preserved the faith, customs, and language of the fathers. This class has not been touched by the falsity of civilization.

Ostrovsky's official recognition of this doctrine is his letter in September 1853 to Pogodin (the editor of Moskvityanin), in which Ostrovsky writes that he has now become a supporter of the "new direction", the essence of which is to appeal to the positive principles of everyday life and folk character.

The former view of things now seems to him "young and too cruel." The denunciation of social vices does not seem to be the main task.

“Correctors will be found even without us. In order to have the right to correct the people without offending them, one must show them that one knows the good behind them” (September 1853), writes Ostrovsky.

A distinctive feature of the Russian people of Ostrovsky at this stage is not his willingness to renounce the outdated norms of life, but patriarchy, adherence to the unchanged, fundamental conditions of life. Ostrovsky now wants to combine the “high with the comic” in his plays, understanding by the high the positive features of merchant life, and by the “comic” - everything that lies outside the merchant circle, but exerting its influence on it.

These new views of Ostrovsky found their expression in three so-called "Slavophile" plays by Ostrovsky: "Do not sit in your sleigh", "Poverty is not a vice", "Do not live as you want."

All three Slavophile plays by Ostrovsky have one defining beginning - an attempt to idealize the patriarchal foundations of life and the family morality of the merchant class.

And in these plays, Ostrovsky turns to family and everyday subjects. But behind them there are no longer economic, social relations.

Family, domestic relations are interpreted in purely moral terms - everything depends on the moral qualities of people, there are no material, monetary interests behind this. Ostrovsky tries to find a way to resolve the contradictions in moral terms, in the moral rebirth of the characters. (The moral enlightenment of Gordey Tortsov, the nobility of the soul of Borodkin and Rusakov). Tyranny is justified not so much by the existence of capital, economic relations, but by the personal properties of a person.

Ostrovsky depicts those aspects of merchant life, in which, as it seems to him, the national, the so-called "national spirit" is concentrated. Therefore, he focuses on the poetic, bright sides of merchant life, introduces ritual, folklore motifs, showing the "folk-epic" beginning of the life of the heroes to the detriment of their social certainty.

Ostrovsky emphasized in the plays of this period the closeness of his heroes-merchants to the people, their social and domestic ties with the peasantry. They say about themselves that they are “simple”, “ill-mannered” people, that their fathers were peasants.

From the artistic side, these plays are clearly weaker than the previous ones. Their composition is deliberately simplified, the characters turned out to be less clear, and the denouement less justified.

The plays of this period are characterized by didacticism, they openly contrast light and dark principles, the characters are sharply divided into “good” and “evil”, vice is punished at the denouement. The plays of the "Slavophile period" are characterized by open morality, sentimentality, and edification.

At the same time, it should be said that during this period, Ostrovsky, in general, remained on a realistic position. According to Dobrolyubov, "the power of direct artistic feeling could not leave the author here either, and therefore private positions and individual characters are distinguished by genuine truth."

The significance of Ostrovsky's plays written during this period lies, first of all, in the fact that they continue to ridicule and condemn tyranny in whatever form it manifests /Lubim Tortsov/. (If Bolshov - rudely and straightforwardly - is a type of tyrant, then Rusakov is softened and meek).

Dobrolyubov: “In Bolshov we saw a vigorous nature, influenced by merchant life, in Rusakov it seems to us: but this is how even honest and gentle natures come out with him.”

Bolshov: “What am I and my father to do if I don’t give orders?”

Rusakov: "I will not give for the one whom she loves, but for the one whom I love."

The glorification of the patriarchal life in these plays is contradictory combined with the formulation of acute social issues, and the desire to create images that would embody national ideals (Rusakov, Borodkin), with sympathy for young people who bring new aspirations, opposition to everything patriarchal, old. (Mitya, Lyubov Gordeevna).

In these plays, Ostrovsky's desire to find a bright, positive beginning in ordinary people was expressed.

This is how the theme of folk humanism arises, the breadth of the nature of a simple person, which is expressed in the ability to boldly and independently look at the environment and in the ability to sometimes sacrifice one's own interests for the sake of others.

This theme was then sounded in such central plays by Ostrovsky as "Thunderstorm", "Forest", "Dowry".

The idea of ​​creating a folk performance - a didactic performance - was not alien to Ostrovsky when he created "Poverty is not a vice" and "Do not live as you want."

Ostrovsky sought to convey the ethical principles of the people, the aesthetic basis of his life, to evoke a response from the democratic viewer to the poetry of his native life, national antiquity.

Ostrovsky was guided in this by the noble desire "to give the democratic spectator an initial cultural inoculation." Another thing is the idealization of humility, humility, conservatism.

The assessment of Slavophile plays in Chernyshevsky's articles "Poverty is no vice" and Dobrolyubov's "Dark Kingdom" is curious.

Chernyshevsky published his article in 1854, when Ostrovsky was close to the Slavophiles, and there was a danger of Ostrovsky departing from realistic positions. Chernyshevsky calls Ostrovsky's plays "Poverty is not a vice" and "Do not sit in your own sleigh" "false", but further continues: "Ostrovsky has not yet ruined his wonderful talent, he needs to return to a realistic direction." “In truth, the power of talent, an erroneous direction destroys even the strongest talent,” concludes Chernyshevsky.

Dobrolyubov's article was written in 1859, when Ostrovsky freed himself from Slavophile influences. It was pointless to recall previous misconceptions, and Dobrolyubov, limiting himself to a dull hint on this score, focuses on revealing the realistic beginning of these same plays.

The assessments of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov complement each other and are an example of the principles of revolutionary democratic criticism.

At the beginning of 1856 begins new stage in the work of Ostrovsky.

The playwright approaches the editors of Sovremennik. This rapprochement coincides with the period of the rise of progressive social forces, with the maturing of a revolutionary situation.

He, as if following the advice of Nekrasov, returns to the path of studying social reality, the path of creating analytical plays in which pictures of modern life are given.

(In a review of the play “Don’t Live the Way You Want,” Nekrasov advised him, abandoning all preconceived ideas, to follow the path that his own talent would lead: “give free development to your talent” - the path of depicting real life).

Chernyshevsky emphasizes Ostrovsky's "wonderful talent, strong talent. Dobrolyubov - "the power of artistic flair" of the playwright.

During this period, Ostrovsky created such significant plays as "The Pupil", "Profitable Place", the trilogy about Balzaminov and, finally, during the period of the revolutionary situation - "Thunderstorm".

This period of Ostrovsky's work is characterized, first of all, by the expansion of the scope of life phenomena, the expansion of topics.

Firstly, in the field of his research, which includes the landlord, serf environment, Ostrovsky showed that the landowner Ulanbekova (“The Pupil”) mocks her victims just as cruelly as illiterate, ignorant merchants.

Ostrovsky shows that the same struggle between the rich and the poor, the older and the younger, is going on in the landowner-noble environment, as well as in the merchant one.

In addition, in the same period, Ostrovsky raises the topic of philistinism. Ostrovsky was the first Russian writer to notice and artistically discover philistinism as a social group.

The playwright discovered in philistinism a predominating and overshadowing all other interests interest in the material, what Gorky later defined as "an ugly developed sense of ownership."

In the trilogy about Balzaminov (“Festive sleep - before dinner”, “Your own dogs bite, don’t pester someone else’s”, “What you go for, you will find”) / 1857-1861 /, Ostrovsky denounces the petty-bourgeois way of existence, with its mentality, limitations , vulgarity, greed, ridiculous dreams.

In the trilogy about Balzaminov, not just ignorance or narrow-mindedness is revealed, but some kind of intellectual wretchedness, the inferiority of a tradesman. The image is built on the opposition of this mental inferiority, moral insignificance - and complacency, confidence in one's right.

In this trilogy there are elements of vaudeville, buffoonery, features of external comedy. But internal comedy prevails in it, since the figure of Balzaminov is internally comical.

Ostrovsky showed that the realm of the philistines is the same dark realm of impenetrable vulgarity, savagery, which is directed towards one goal - profit.

The next play - "Profitable Place" - testifies to the return of Ostrovsky to the path of "moral and accusatory" dramaturgy. In the same period, Ostrovsky was the discoverer of another dark kingdom - the kingdom of officials, the royal bureaucracy.

During the years of the abolition of serfdom, the denunciation of bureaucratic orders had a special political meaning. The bureaucracy was the most complete expression of the autocratic-feudal system. It embodied the exploitative-predatory essence of the autocracy. It was no longer just domestic arbitrariness, but a violation of common interests in the name of the law. It is in connection with this play that Dobrolyubov expands the concept of "tyranny", understanding it as autocracy in general.

“Profitable Place” reminds N. Gogol's comedy “Inspector General” in terms of issues. But if in The Inspector General the officials who commit lawlessness feel guilty and fear retribution, Ostrovsky's officials are imbued with the consciousness of their rightness and impunity. Bribery, abuse, seem to them and others the norm.

Ostrovsky emphasized that the distortion of all moral norms in society is the law, and the law itself is something illusory. Both officials and people dependent on them know that the laws are always on the side of those who have power.

Thus, officials - for the first time in literature - Ostrovsky are shown as a kind of dealers in the law. (The official can turn the law however he wants).

He came to Ostrovsky's play and new hero- A young official Zhadov, who has just graduated from the university. The conflict between the representatives of the old formation and Zhadov acquires the force of an irreconcilable contradiction:

a / Ostrovsky managed to show the failure of the illusions about an honest official as a force capable of stopping the abuses of the administration.

b/ fight against "Yusovism" or compromise, betrayal of ideals - Zhadov has no other choice.

Ostrovsky denounced that system, those living conditions that give rise to bribe-takers. The progressive significance of comedy lies in the fact that in it the irreconcilable denial of the old world and "Yusovism" merged with the search for a new morality.

Zhadov is a weak person, he cannot stand the fight, he also goes to ask " profitable place».

Chernyshevsky believed that the play would have been even stronger if it had ended with the fourth act, i.e., with Zhadov’s cry of despair: “Let’s go to uncle to ask for a profitable job!” In the fifth, Zhadov is confronted with the abyss that nearly ruined him morally. And, although the end of Vyshimirsky is not typical, there is an element of chance in Zhadov’s salvation, his words, his belief that “somewhere there are other, more persistent, worthy people” who will not compromise, will not reconcile, will not give in, talk about the prospect of further development of new social relations. Ostrovsky foresaw the coming social upsurge.

The rapid development of psychological realism, which we observe in the second half of the 19th century, also manifested itself in dramaturgy. The secret of Ostrovsky's dramatic writing lies not in one-dimensional characteristics human types, but in the desire to create full-blooded human characters, the internal contradictions and struggles of which serve as a powerful impetus for the dramatic movement. G.A. Tovstonogov spoke well about this feature of Ostrovsky’s creative manner, referring, in particular, to Glumov from the comedy Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man, a far from ideal character: “Why is Glumov charming, although he commits a number of vile deeds? he is unsympathetic to us, then there is no performance. What makes him charming is hatred of this world, and we inwardly justify his way of retribution with him.

Interest in the human personality in all its states forced writers to look for means to express them. In the drama, the main such means was the stylistic individualization of the characters' language, and it was Ostrovsky who played the leading role in the development of this method. In addition, Ostrovsky, in psychologism, made an attempt to go further, along the path of providing his heroes with the maximum possible freedom within the framework of author's intention- the result of such an experiment was the image of Katerina in The Thunderstorm.

In "Thunderstorm" Ostrovsky rose to the image of a tragic collision of living human feelings with the deadly house-building life.

Despite the variety of types of dramatic conflicts presented in Ostrovsky's early works, their poetics and their general atmosphere were determined, first of all, by the fact that tyranny was given in them as a natural and inevitable phenomenon of life. Even the so-called "Slavophile" plays, with their search for bright and good principles, did not destroy and did not violate the oppressive atmosphere of tyranny. The play "The Thunderstorm" is also characterized by this general coloring. And at the same time, there is a force in her that resolutely opposes the terrible, deadly routine - this is the folk element, expressed both in folk characters (Katerina, first of all, Kuligin and even Kudryash), and in Russian nature, which becomes an essential element of dramatic action. .

The play "Thunderstorm", which raised the complex issues of modern life and appeared in print and on stage just on the eve of the so-called "liberation" of the peasants, testified that Ostrovsky was free from any illusions about the ways of social development in Russia.

Even before the publication of "Thunderstorm" appeared on the Russian scene. The premiere took place on November 16, 1859 at the Maly Theatre. Magnificent actors were involved in the play: S. Vasiliev (Tikhon), P. Sadovsky (Wild), N. Rykalova (Kabanova), L. Nikulina-Kositskaya (Katerina), V. Lensky (Kudryash) and others. The production was directed by N. Ostrovsky himself. The premiere was a huge success, and subsequent performances were triumphant. A year after the brilliant premiere of The Thunderstorm, the play was awarded the highest academic award - the Great Uvarov Prize.

In The Thunderstorm, the social system of Russia is sharply denounced, and the death main character shown by the playwright as a direct consequence of her hopeless situation in the "dark kingdom". The conflict in Groz is built on an irreconcilable clash between the freedom-loving Katerina and scary world wild and boar, with bestial laws based on "cruelty, lies, mockery, humiliation of the human person. Katerina went against tyranny and obscurantism, armed only with the power of her feelings, the consciousness of the right to life, happiness and love. According to the fair remark of Dobrolyubov, she "feels the opportunity to satisfy the natural thirst of her soul and can no longer remain motionless: she is eager for a new life, even if she had to die in this impulse."

From childhood, Katerina was brought up in a peculiar environment that developed in her romantic dreaminess, religiosity and a thirst for freedom. These character traits further determined the tragedy of her position. Brought up in a religious spirit, she understands all the "sinfulness" of her feelings for Boris, but she cannot resist the natural attraction and completely surrenders to this impulse.

Katerina opposes not only "Kabanov's concepts of morality." She openly protests against the immutable religious dogmas that affirmed the categorical inviolability of church marriage and condemned suicide as contrary to Christian teaching. Bearing in mind this fullness of Katerina’s protest, Dobrolyubov wrote: “Here is the true strength of character, which in any case you can rely on! This is the height to which our folk life reaches in its development, but to which very few in our literature have been able to rise, and no one has been able to hold on to it as well as Ostrovsky.

Katerina does not want to put up with the surrounding deadly situation. “I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!” she says to Varvara. And she commits suicide. Katerina's character is complex and multifaceted. This complexity is most eloquently evidenced, perhaps, by the fact that many outstanding performers, starting from seemingly completely opposite dominants of the main character's character, have not been able to exhaust it to the end. All these various interpretations did not fully reveal the main thing in Katerina's character: her love, to which she gives herself with all the immediacy of a young nature. Her life experience is negligible, most of all in her nature a sense of beauty, a poetic perception of nature is developed. However, her character is given in movement, in development. One contemplation of nature, as we know from the play, is not enough for her.We need other areas of application of spiritual forces.Prayer, service, myths are also means of satisfying poetry tic feeling of the main character.

Dobrolyubov wrote: “It is not rituals that occupy her in the church: she does not hear at all what they sing and read there; she has other music in her soul, other visions, for her the service ends imperceptibly, as if in one second. She is occupied with trees strangely drawn on images, and she imagines a whole country of gardens, where all such trees are, and everything is in bloom, fragrant, everything is full of heavenly singing. Otherwise, on a sunny day, she will see how “such a bright pillar goes down from the dome, and smoke is walking in this pillar, like clouds,” and now she already sees, “as if angels are flying and singing in this pillar.” Sometimes she will introduce herself - why shouldn't she fly? And when she stands on a mountain, she is drawn to fly like that: like this, she would run away, raise her hands, and fly ... ".

A new, yet unexplored sphere of manifestation of her spiritual powers was her love for Boris, which ultimately became the cause of her tragedy. “The passion of a nervous passionate woman and the struggle with debt, falling, repentance and heavy atonement for guilt - all this is filled with the liveliest dramatic interest, and is conducted with extraordinary art and knowledge of the heart,” I. A. Goncharov rightly noted.

How often is the passion, the immediacy of Katerina's nature, condemned, and her deep spiritual struggle is perceived as a manifestation of weakness. Meanwhile, in the memoirs of the artist E. B. Piunova-Schmidthof we find Ostrovsky’s curious story about his heroine: strong character. She proved this with her love for Boris and suicide. Katerina, although overwhelmed by the environment, at the first opportunity gives herself up to her passion, saying before that: “Come what may, but I will see Boris!” In front of the picture of hell, Katerina does not rage and hysteria, but only with her face and whole figure must portray mortal fear. In the scene of farewell to Boris, Katerina speaks quietly, like a patient, and only the last words: “My friend! My joy! Goodbye!" - He speaks as loudly as possible. Katherine's position became hopeless. You can’t live in your husband’s house ... There is nowhere to go. To parents? Yes, by that time they would have tied her up and brought her to her husband. Katerina came to the conclusion that it was impossible to live as she lived before, and, having a strong will, drowned herself ... ".

“Without fear of being accused of exaggeration,” wrote I. A. Goncharov, “I can honestly say that there was no such work as a drama in our literature. She undoubtedly occupies and probably will for a long time occupy the first place in high classical beauties. From whatever side it is taken, whether from the side of the creation plan, or the dramatic movement, or, finally, the characters, it is everywhere imprinted with the power of creativity, the subtlety of observation and the elegance of decoration. In The Thunderstorm, according to Goncharov, "a broad picture of national life and customs subsided."

Ostrovsky conceived The Thunderstorm as a comedy and then called it a drama. N. A. Dobrolyubov spoke very carefully about the genre nature of The Thunderstorm. He wrote that "the mutual relations of tyranny and voicelessness are brought in it to the most tragic consequences."

TO mid-nineteenth century, Dobrolyubov's definition of the "play of life" turned out to be more capacious than the traditional subdivision of dramatic art, which still experienced the burden of classicistic norms. In Russian drama, there was a process of convergence of dramatic poetry with everyday reality, which naturally affected their genre nature. Ostrovsky, for example, wrote: “The history of Russian literature has two branches that have finally merged: one branch is grafting and is the offspring of a foreign, but well-rooted seed; it goes from Lomonosov through Sumarokov, Karamzin, Batyushkov, Zhukovsky, and so on. to Pushkin, where he begins to converge with another; the other - from Kantemir, through the comedies of the same Sumarokov, Fonvizin, Kapnist, Griboedov to Gogol; in him both are completely merged; dualism is over. On the one hand: laudatory odes, French tragedies, imitations of the ancients, the sensibility of the late eighteenth century, German romanticism, frantic youthful literature; and on the other: satires, comedies, comedies and " Dead Souls”, Russia, as if at the same time, in the person of its best writers, lived period after period the life of foreign literatures and raised its own to universal human significance.

Comedy, thus, turned out to be closest to the everyday phenomena of Russian life, it sensitively responded to everything that worried the Russian public, reproduced life in its dramatic and tragic manifestations. That is why Dobrolyubov so stubbornly held on to the definition of "the play of life", seeing in it not so much a conventional genre meaning as the very principle of reproducing modern life in drama. Actually, Ostrovsky spoke about the same principle: “Many conditional rules have disappeared, and some more will disappear. Now dramatic works are nothing but a dramatized life. "This principle determined the development of dramatic genres throughout the subsequent decades of the 19th century. In terms of its genre, The Thunderstorm is a social tragedy.

A.I. Revyakin rightly notes that the main feature of the tragedy - "the image of irreconcilable life contradictions that cause the death of the protagonist, who is an outstanding person" - is evident in The Thunderstorm. The depiction of the folk tragedy, of course, led to new, original constructive forms of its embodiment. Ostrovsky repeatedly spoke out against the inert, traditional manner of constructing dramatic works. Thunderstorm was also innovative in this sense. He spoke about this, not without irony, in a letter to Turgenev dated June 14, 1874, in response to a proposal to print The Thunderstorm in French translation: “It does not interfere with printing The Thunderstorm in a good French translation, it can impress with its originality; but whether it should be put on stage - one can think about it. I highly appreciate the ability of the French to make plays and I am afraid to offend their delicate taste with my terrible ineptitude. From the French point of view, the construction of the Thunderstorm is ugly, but it must be admitted that it is generally not very coherent. When I wrote The Thunderstorm, I was carried away by finishing the main roles and, with unforgivable frivolity, "reacted to the form, and at the same time I was in a hurry to keep up with the late Vasiliev's benefit performance."

A.I. Zhuravleva’s reasoning about the genre originality of “Thunderstorm” is curious: “The problem of genre interpretation is the most important in the analysis of this play. If we turn to the scientific-critical and theatrical traditions of the interpretation of this play, we can distinguish two prevailing trends. One of them is dictated by the understanding of The Thunderstorm as a social and domestic drama, in which everyday life is of particular importance. The attention of the directors and, accordingly, the spectators is, as it were, equally distributed among all participants in the action, each person receives equal importance.

Another interpretation is determined by the understanding of "Thunderstorm" as a tragedy. Zhuravleva believes that such an interpretation is deeper and has "greater support in the text", despite the fact that the interpretation of "Thunderstorm" as a drama is based on the genre definition of Ostrovsky himself. The researcher rightly notes that "this definition is a tribute to tradition." Indeed, the entire previous history of Russian dramaturgy did not provide examples of a tragedy in which the heroes would be private individuals, and not historical figures, even legendary ones. "Thunderstorm" in this respect remained a unique phenomenon. The key point for understanding the genre of a dramatic work in this case is not the "social status" of the characters, but, above all, the nature of the conflict. If we understand the death of Katerina as the result of a collision with her mother-in-law, to see her as a victim of family oppression, then the scale of the heroes really looks small for a tragedy. But if you see that the fate of Katerina was determined by the clash of two historical eras, then the tragic nature of the conflict seems quite natural.

A typical sign of the tragic structure is the feeling of catharsis experienced by the audience during the denouement. By death, the heroine is freed both from oppression and from internal contradictions that torment her.

Thus, the social drama from the life of the merchant class develops into a tragedy. Ostrovsky was able to show the epoch-making turning point that is taking place in the common people's consciousness through a love-everyday collision. The awakening sense of personality and a new attitude to the world, based not on individual will, turned out to be in irreconcilable antagonism not only with the real, worldly reliable state of Ostrovsky's modern patriarchal way of life, but also with the ideal idea of ​​morality inherent in a high heroine.

This transformation of drama into tragedy was also due to the triumph of the lyrical element in The Thunderstorm.

The symbolism of the title of the play is important. First of all, the word "thunderstorm" has a direct meaning in her text. The title image is included by the playwright in the development of the action, directly participates in it as a natural phenomenon. The motive of a thunderstorm develops in the play from the first to the fourth act. At the same time, the image of a thunderstorm was also recreated by Ostrovsky as a landscape: dark clouds filled with moisture (“as if a cloud is curling in a ball”), we feel stuffiness in the air, we hear thunder, we freeze before the light of lightning.

The title of the play has figurative sense. The storm is raging in Katerina's soul, it is reflected in the struggle of creative and destructive principles, the collision of bright and gloomy forebodings, good and sinful feelings. The scenes with Grokha seem to push forward the dramatic action of the play.

The storm in the play acquires and symbolic meaning, expressing the idea of ​​the whole work as a whole. Appearance in dark kingdom people like Katerina and Kuligin are a thunderstorm over Kalinov. The thunderstorm in the play conveys the catastrophic nature of life, the state of the world split in two. The many-sidedness and versatility of the title of the play becomes a kind of key to a deeper understanding of its essence.

“In Mr. Ostrovsky’s play, which bears the name “Thunderstorm,” wrote A. D. Galakhov, “the action and atmosphere are tragic, although many places excite laughter.” The Thunderstorm combines not only the tragic and the comic, but, what is especially important, the epic and the lyrical. All this determines the originality of the composition of the play. V.E. Meyerhold wrote excellently about this: “The peculiarity of the construction of the Thunderstorm is that Ostrovsky gives the highest point of tension in the fourth act (and not in the second picture of the second act), and the strengthening is noted in the script is not gradual (from, the second act through the third to the fourth), but with a push, or rather, with two pushes; the first rise is indicated in the second act, in the scene of Katerina's farewell to Tikhon (the rise is strong, but not yet very), and the second rise (very strong - this is the most sensitive push) in the fourth act, at the moment of Katerina's repentance.

Between these two acts (set as if on the tops of two unequal, but sharply rising hills) - the third act (with both pictures) lies, as it were, in a valley.

It is easy to see that the internal scheme of the construction of The Thunderstorm, subtly revealed by the director, is determined by the stages of development of Katerina's character, the stages of her development, her feelings for Boris.

A. Anastasiev notes that Ostrovsky's play has its own special destiny. For many decades, "Thunderstorm" has not left the stage of Russian theaters, N. A. Nikulina-Kositskaya, S. V. Vasilyev, N. V. Rykalova, G. N. Fedotova, M. N. Ermolova became famous for their performances of the main roles, P. A. Strepetova, O. O. Sadovskaya, A. Koonen, V. N. Pashennaya. And at the same time, "theater historians have not witnessed integral, harmonious, outstanding performances." The unsolved mystery of this great tragedy lies, according to the researcher, "in its many ideas, in the strongest alloy of undeniable, unconditional, concrete historical truth and poetic symbolism, in the organic combination real action and deeply hidden lyrical beginning.

Usually, when they talk about the lyricism of "Thunderstorm", they mean, first of all, the lyrical system of the worldview of the main character of the play, they also talk about the Volga, which is opposed in its most general form to the "barn" way of life and which causes Kuligin's lyrical outpourings . But the playwright could not - by virtue of the laws of the genre - include the Volga, the beautiful Volga landscapes, in general, nature in the system of dramatic action. He showed only the way in which nature becomes an integral element of the stage action. Nature here is not only an object of admiration and admiration, but also the main criterion for evaluating everything that exists, allowing you to see the alogism, the unnaturalness of modern life. “Did Ostrovsky write Thunderstorm? "Thunderstorm" Volga wrote! - exclaimed the famous theater critic and critic S. A. Yuryev.

“Every true everyday worker is at the same time a true romantic,” the well-known theater figure A. I. Yuzhin-Sumbatov will later say, referring to Ostrovsky. Romantic in the broad sense of the word, surprised by the correctness and severity of the laws of nature and the violation of these laws in public life. This is what Ostrovsky discussed in one of his early diary entries after arriving in Kostroma places: “And on the other side of the Volga, directly opposite the city, there are two villages; one is especially picturesque, from which the curliest grove stretches all the way to the Volga, the sun at sunset somehow miraculously climbed into it, from the root, and did many miracles.

Departing from this landscape sketch, Ostrovsky argued:

“I'm exhausted looking at this. Nature - you are a faithful lover, only terribly lustful; no matter how you love you, you are still dissatisfied; unsatisfied passion boils in your eyes, and no matter how you swear that you are unable to satisfy your desires, you do not get angry, do not move away, but look at everything with your passionate eyes, and these eyes full of expectation are execution and torment for a person.

The lyricism of The Thunderstorm, so specific in form (Ap. Grigoriev subtly remarked about it: “... as if not a poet, but a whole people created here ...”), arose precisely on the basis of the closeness of the world of the hero and the author.

In the 1950s and 1960s, orientation toward a healthy natural beginning became the social and ethical principle of not only Ostrovsky, but of all Russian literature: from Tolstoy and Nekrasov to Chekhov and Kuprin. Without this peculiar manifestation of the "author's" voice in dramatic works, we cannot fully understand the psychologism of "The Poor Bride", and the nature of the lyric in "Thunderstorm" and "Dowry", and the poetics of the new drama late XIX century.

By the end of the 1960s, Ostrovsky's work was expanding thematically. He shows how the new is mixed with the old: in the usual images of his merchants, we see gloss and secularity, education and "pleasant" manners. They are no longer stupid despots, but predatory acquirers, holding in their fist not only a family or a city, but entire provinces. In conflict with them are the most diverse people, their circle is infinitely wide. And the accusatory pathos of the plays is stronger. The best of them: "Hot Heart", "Mad Money", "Forest", "Wolves and Sheep", "Last Victim", "Dowry", "Talents and Admirers".

The shifts in the work of Ostrovsky of the last period are very clearly visible, if we compare, for example, "Hot Heart" with "Thunderstorm". Merchant Kuroslepov is an eminent merchant in the city, but not as formidable as Wild, he is rather an eccentric, he does not understand life and is busy with his dreams. His second wife, Matryona, is clearly having an affair with the clerk Narkis. They both rob the owner, and Narkis wants to become a merchant himself. No, the “dark kingdom” is not monolithic now. The Domostroevsky way of life will no longer save the self-will of the mayor Gradoboev. The unbridled revelry of the wealthy merchant Khlynov is a symbol of the burning of life, decay, nonsense: Khlynov orders the streets to be poured with champagne.

Parasha is a girl with a "hot heart". But if Katerina in The Thunderstorm turns out to be a victim of an unrequited husband and a weak-willed lover, then Parasha is aware of her powerful spiritual strength. She also wants to fly. She loves and curses the weakness of character, the indecisiveness of her lover: “What kind of guy is this, what kind of crybaby imposed on me ... Apparently, I myself should think about my own head.”

With great tension, the development of Yulia Pavlovna Tugina's love for her unworthy young reveler Dulchin is shown in The Last Victim. In the later dramas of Ostrovsky, there is a combination of action-packed situations with a detailed psychological description of the main characters. Great emphasis is placed on the vicissitudes of the torment they experience, in which the struggle of the hero or heroine with himself, with his own feelings, mistakes, and assumptions begins to occupy a large place.

In this regard, "Dowry" is characteristic. Here, perhaps, for the first time, the author focuses on the very feeling of the heroine, who has escaped from the care of her mother and the old way of life. In this play, there is not a struggle between light and darkness, but the struggle of love itself for its rights and freedom. Larisa Paratova herself preferred Karandysheva. The people around her cynically abused Larisa's feelings. The mother who wanted to “sell” her daughter, a “dowryless” for a money man, conceited that he would be the owner of such a treasure, was outraged. Paratov abused her, deceiving her best hopes and considering Larisa's love one of the fleeting pleasures. Knurov and Vozhevatov also abused, playing Larisa in toss among themselves.

What kind of cynics, ready to go for forgery, blackmail, bribery for selfish purposes, landowners turned into in post-reform Russia, we learn from the play "Sheep and Wolves". The “wolves” are the landowner Murzavetskaya, the landowner Berkutov, and the “sheep” are the young rich widow Kupavina, the weak-willed elderly gentleman Lynyaev. Murzavetskaya wants to marry her dissolute nephew to Kupavina, "scaring" her with the old bills of her late husband. In fact, the bills were forged by a trusted solicitor, Chugunov, who equally serves Kupavina. Berkutov swooped in from St. Petersburg, a landowner - and a businessman, more vile than local scoundrels. He instantly realized what was the matter. Kupavina with its huge capitals took over, without talking about feelings. Deftly "parroting" Murzavetskaya by exposing the forgery, he immediately concluded an alliance with her: it is important for him to win the ballot in the elections for the leaders of the nobility. He is a real "wolf" and is, all the rest next to him are "sheep". At the same time, there is no sharp division into scoundrels and innocents in the play. Between the "wolves" and "sheep" as if there is some kind of vile conspiracy. Everyone plays war with each other and at the same time easily put up and find a common benefit.

One of the best plays in Ostrovsky's entire repertoire, apparently, is the play Guilty Without Guilt. It combines the motifs of many previous works. The actress Kruchinina, the main character, a woman of high spiritual culture, experienced a great life tragedy. She is kind and generous hearted and wise Kruchinina stands at the pinnacle of goodness and suffering. If you like, she and the “ray of light” in the “dark kingdom”, she and the “last victim”, she and the “hot heart”, she and the “dowry”, around her are “admirers”, that is, predatory “wolves”, money-grubbers and cynics. Kruchinina, not yet assuming that Neznamov is her son, instructs him in life, reveals her unhardened heart: “I am more experienced than you and have lived more in the world; I know that in people there is a lot of nobility, a lot of love, selflessness, especially in women.

This play is a panegyric to the Russian woman, the apotheosis of her nobility and self-sacrifice. This is the apotheosis of the Russian actor, whose real soul Ostrovsky knew well.

Ostrovsky wrote for the theatre. This is the peculiarity of his gift. The images and pictures of life he created are intended for the stage. That is why the speech of Ostrovsky's characters is so important, that is why his works sound so bright. No wonder Innokenty Annensky called him a "realist-auditor". Without staging on stage, his works were as if not completed, which is why Ostrovsky took the prohibition of his plays by theatrical censorship so hard. (The comedy "Our People - Let's Settle" was allowed to be staged in the theater only ten years after Pogodin managed to publish it in a magazine.)

With a feeling of undisguised satisfaction, A. N. Ostrovsky wrote on November 3, 1878 to his friend, artist of the Alexandrinsky Theater A. F. Burdin: "The Dowry" was unanimously recognized as the best of all my works.

Ostrovsky lived "Dowry", at times only on her, his fortieth thing, directed "his attention and strength", wanting to "finish" her in the most thorough way. In September 1878, he wrote to one of his acquaintances: "I am working on my play with all my might; it seems that it will not turn out badly."

Already a day after the premiere, on November 12, Ostrovsky could find out, and undoubtedly learned from Russkiye Vedomosti, how he managed to "tire out the entire audience, even the most naive spectators." For she - the audience - has clearly "outgrown" those spectacles that he offers her.

In the 1970s Ostrovsky's relationship with critics, theaters and audiences became more and more complicated. The period when he enjoyed universal recognition, won by him in the late fifties and early sixties, was replaced by another, which was growing more and more in different circles of cooling towards the playwright.

Theatrical censorship was more severe than literary censorship. This is no coincidence. In essence, theatrical art is democratic, it is more direct than literature, it is addressed to the general public. Ostrovsky in his "Note on the situation of dramatic art in Russia at the present time" (1881) wrote that "dramatic poetry is closer to the people than other branches of literature. All other works are written for educated people, and dramas and comedies - for the whole people; dramatic writers must always remember this, they must be clear and strong. This closeness to the people does not in the least humiliate dramatic poetry, but, on the contrary, doubles its strength and prevents it from becoming vulgar and petty." Ostrovsky speaks in his "Note" about how the theatrical audience in Russia expanded after 1861. Ostrovsky writes about a new spectator, not experienced in art: “Fine literature is still boring for him and incomprehensible, music too, only the theater gives him complete pleasure, there he experiences everything that happens on the stage like a child, sympathizes with good and recognizes evil, clearly presented." For a "fresh audience," Ostrovsky wrote, "strong drama, big comedy, defiant, frank, loud laughter, hot, sincere feelings are required." It is the theater, according to Ostrovsky, which has its roots in the folk show, has the ability to directly and strongly influence the souls of people. Two and a half decades later, Alexander Blok, speaking about poetry, will write that its essence lies in the main, "walking" truths, in the ability to convey them to the reader's heart.

Move on, mourning nags!

Actors, master the craft,

To from the walking truth

Everyone felt sick and light!

("Balagan"; 1906)

The great importance that Ostrovsky attached to the theater, his thoughts on theatrical art, about the situation of the theater in Russia, about the fate of the actors - all this was reflected in his plays.

In the life of Ostrovsky himself, the theater played a huge role. He took part in the production of his plays, worked with actors, was friends with many of them, corresponded. He put a lot of effort into defending the rights of actors, seeking to create a theater school in Russia, his own repertoire.

Ostrovsky knew well the inner, hidden from the eyes of the audience, backstage life of the theater. Starting with "Forest" (1871), Ostrovsky develops the theme of the theater, creates images of actors, depicts their fate - this play is followed by "Comedian XVII century"(1873), "Talents and Admirers" (1881), "Guilty Without Guilt" (1883).

The theater in the image of Ostrovsky lives according to the laws of that world, which is familiar to the reader and the viewer from his other plays. The way the fates of the artists are formed is determined by the customs, relationships, circumstances of the "common" life. Ostrovsky's ability to recreate an accurate, lively picture of time is also fully manifested in plays about actors. This is Moscow of the era of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ("Comedian of the 17th century"), a provincial city modern to Ostrovsky ("Talents and Admirers", "Guilty Without Guilt"), a noble estate ("Forest").

In the life of the Russian theater, which Ostrovsky knew so well, the actor was a forced person, who was in multiple dependence. “Then there was a time for favorites, and all the managerial diligence of the repertoire inspector consisted in instructions to the chief director to take every possible care when compiling the repertoire so that favorites who receive large pay per performance play every day and, if possible, at two theaters,” Ostrovsky wrote in “A Note on Draft Rules on Imperial Theaters for Dramatic Works" (1883).

In the portrayal of Ostrovsky, the actors could turn out to be almost beggars, like Neschastlivtsev and Schastlivtsev in The Forest, humiliated, losing their human form due to drunkenness, like Robinson in The Dowry, like Shmaga in Guilty Without Guilt, like Erast Gromilov in Talents and admirers", "We, the artists, our place is in the buffet", - Shmaga says with defiance and malicious irony.

Theater, the life of provincial actresses in the late 70s, at about the time when Ostrovsky wrote plays about actors, shows M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in the novel "Gentlemen Golovlyov". Yudushka's nieces Lyubinka and Anninka become actresses, escaping Golovlev's life, but end up in a nativity scene. They had no talent, no training, they had not studied acting, but all this was not required on the provincial stage. The life of actors appears in Anninka's memoirs as hell, like a nightmare: "Here is a scene with scenery sooty, captured and slippery from dampness; here she herself is spinning on the stage, just spinning, imagining that she is playing ... Drunk and pugnacious nights; passers-by landowners hurriedly taking out a green one from their skinny wallets; merchant-grip cheering the “actors” almost with a whip in their hands. And backstage life is ugly, and what is played out on stage is ugly: "... And the Duchess of Gerolstein, stunning with a hussar mentic, and Cleretta Ango, in a wedding dress, with a slit in front to the very waist, and Beautiful Elena, with a slit in front, behind and from all sides ... Nothing but shamelessness and nakedness ... that's what life has been like!" This life drives Lubinka to suicide.

The coincidences between Shchedrin and Ostrovsky in depicting the provincial theater are natural - both of them write about what they knew well, they write the truth. But Shchedrin is a merciless satirist, he exaggerates so much, the image becomes grotesque, while Ostrovsky gives an objective picture of life, his "dark kingdom" is not hopeless - it was not for nothing that N. Dobrolyubov wrote about a "ray of light".

This feature of Ostrovsky was noted by critics even when his first plays appeared. "... The ability to depict reality as it is - "mathematical fidelity to reality", the absence of any exaggeration ... All these are not the hallmarks of Gogol's poetry; all these are the hallmarks of the new comedy," B. Almazov wrote in the article "Dream by occasion of a comedy. Already in our time, the literary critic A. Skaftymov in his work "Belinsky and the dramaturgy of A.N. Ostrovsky" noted that "the most striking difference between the plays of Gogol and Ostrovsky is that Gogol does not have a victim of vice, and Ostrovsky always has a suffering victim vice... Depicting vice, Ostrovsky protects something from it, protects someone... Thus, the entire content of the play changes. in order to sharply put forward the inner legitimacy, truth and poetry of genuine humanity, oppressed and driven out in an atmosphere of dominant self-interest and deceit. Ostrovsky's approach to depicting reality, which is different from that of Gogol, is explained, of course, by the originality of his talent, the "natural" properties of the artist, but also (this should not be overlooked) by the changed time: increased attention to the individual, to his rights, recognition of his value.

IN AND. Nemirovich-Danchenko in his book "The Birth of the Theatre" writes about what makes Ostrovsky's plays especially scenic: "the atmosphere of kindness", "clear, firm sympathy on the side of the offended, to which the theater hall is always extremely sensitive."

In plays about the theater and actors, Ostrovsky certainly has the image of a true artist and a wonderful person. In real life, Ostrovsky knew many excellent people in theater world, highly valued them, respected. An important role in his life was played by L. Nikulina-Kositskaya, who brilliantly performed Katerina in The Thunderstorm. Ostrovsky was friends with the artist A. Martynov, he highly appreciated N. Rybakov, G. Fedotova, M. Yermolova played in his plays; P. Strepetova.

In the play Guilty Without Guilt, actress Elena Kruchinina says: "I know that people have a lot of nobility, a lot of love, selflessness." And Otradina-Kruchinina herself belongs to such wonderful, noble people, she is a wonderful artist, smart, significant, sincere.

“Oh, don’t cry; they are not worth your tears. You are a white dove in a black flock of rooks, so they peck at you. Your whiteness, your purity is offensive to them,” Narokov says to Sasha Negina in Talents and Admirers.

The most vivid image of a noble actor created by Ostrovsky is the tragedian Neschastlivtsev in The Forest. Ostrovsky depicts a "living" person, with a difficult fate, with a sad life story. Neschastlivtsev, who drinks heavily, cannot be called a "white dove". But he changes throughout the play, the plot situation gives him the opportunity to fully reveal the best features of his nature. If at first Neschastlivtsev's behavior shows through the posturing inherent in the provincial tragedian, a predilection for pompous recitation (at these moments he is ridiculous); if, playing the master, he finds himself in ridiculous situations, then, having understood what is happening in the Gurmyzhskaya estate, what rubbish his mistress is, he takes an ardent part in the fate of Aksyusha, shows excellent human qualities. It turns out that the role noble hero is organic for him, this is really his role - and not only on stage, but also in life.

In his view, art and life are inextricably linked, the actor is not a hypocrite, not a pretender, his art is based on genuine feelings, genuine experiences, it should have nothing to do with pretense and lies in life. This is the meaning of the remark that Gurmyzhskaya and her entire company of Neschastlivtsev throws: "... We are artists, noble artists, and comedians are you."

Gurmyzhskaya turns out to be the main comedian in the life performance that is played out in The Forest. She chooses for herself an attractive, pretty role of a woman of strict moral rules, a generous philanthropist who has dedicated herself to good deeds(“Gentlemen, do I live for myself? Everything that I have, all my money belongs to the poor. I am only a clerk with my money, and every poor, every unfortunate owner is their owner,” she inspires others). But all this is hypocrisy, a mask that hides her true face. Gurmyzhskaya is deceiving, pretending to be kind-hearted, she did not even think of doing something for others, helping someone: “Why did I get emotional! Gurmyzhskaya not only plays a role that is completely alien to her, she also forces others to play along with her, imposes on them roles that should present her in the most favorable light: Neschastlivtsev is assigned to play the role of a grateful, loving nephew. Aksyusha - the role of the bride, Bulanov - Aksyusha's groom. But Aksyusha refuses to break a comedy for her: "I won't marry him, so why this comedy?" Gurmyzhskaya, no longer hiding the fact that she is the director of the play being played, rudely puts Aksyusha in her place: "Comedy! How dare you? But even a comedy; I feed and clothe you, and I will make you play a comedy."

The comedian Schastlivtsev, who turned out to be more perceptive than the tragic Neschastlivtsev, who at first accepted Gurmyzhskaya’s performance on faith, figured out the real situation before him, tells Neschastlivtsev: “The high school student, apparently, is smarter; he plays a better role here than yours ... He’s a lover plays, and you are ... a simpleton.

Before the viewer appears the real, without a protective pharisaic mask, Gurmyzhskaya - a greedy, selfish, deceitful, depraved lady. The performance that she played pursued low, vile, dirty goals.

Many of Ostrovsky's plays present such a false "theatre" of life. Podkhalyuzin in Ostrovsky's first play "Our People - Let's Settle" plays the role of the most devoted and faithful owner of a person and thus achieves his goal - having deceived Bolshov, he himself becomes the owner. Glumov in the comedy "Enough Stupidity for Every Wise Man" builds his career on a complex game, putting on one or another mask. Only chance prevented him from achieving his goal in the intrigue he had started. In "Dowry" not only Robinson, entertaining Vozhevatov and Paratov, appears as a lord. The funny and pitiful Karandyshev tries to look important. Having become Larisa's fiancé, he "... raised his head so high that he would stumble upon someone. And he put on glasses for some reason, but he never wore them. He bows - barely nods," says Vozhevatov. Everything that Karandyshev does is artificial, everything is for show: the miserable horse he got, and the carpet with cheap weapons on the wall, and the dinner he arranges. Paratov's man - prudent and soulless - plays the role of a hot, unrestrainedly broad nature.

Theater in life, imposing masks are born of the desire to disguise, hide something immoral, shameful, pass off black for white. Behind such a performance is usually calculation, hypocrisy, self-interest.

Neznamov in the play "Guilty Without Guilt", being a victim of the intrigue that Korinkina started, and believing that Kruchinina only pretended to be a kind and noble woman, bitterly says: "Actress! actress! so play on stage. They pay money for a good pretense And to play in life over simple, gullible hearts that don't need a game, who ask for the truth... they should be executed for this... we don't need deceit! Give us the truth, the pure truth!" The hero of the play here expresses a very important idea for Ostrovsky about the theater, about its role in life, about the nature and purpose of acting. Ostrovsky contrasts comedy and hypocrisy in life with art full of truth and sincerity on stage. A real theater, an inspired play by an artist is always moral, brings good, enlightens a person.

Ostrovsky's plays about actors and theater, which accurately reflected the circumstances of Russian reality in the 1970s and 1980s, contain thoughts about art that are still alive today. These are thoughts about the difficult, sometimes tragic fate of a true artist, who, while realizing himself, spends, burns himself, about the happiness he finds in creativity, complete self-giving, about the lofty mission of art, which affirms goodness and humanity. Ostrovsky himself expressed himself, revealed his soul in the plays he created, perhaps especially frankly in plays about the theater and actors. Much in them is consonant with what the poet of our century writes in wonderful verses:

When the feeling dictates the line

It sends a slave to the stage,

And this is where the art ends.

And the soil and fate breathe.

(B. Pasternak " Oh I would know

what happens... ").

Entire generations of remarkable Russian artists grew up on the productions of Ostrovsky's plays. In addition to the Sadovskys, there are also Martynov, Vasiliev, Strepetov, Yermolov, Massalitinov, Gogolev. The walls of the Maly Theater saw the great playwright live, and his traditions are still growing on the stage.

The dramatic skill of Ostrovsky is the property of contemporary theater, the subject of intense study. It is not at all outdated, despite some old-fashionedness of many techniques. But this old-fashionedness is exactly the same as in the theater of Shakespeare, Moliere, Gogol. These are old, genuine diamonds. Ostrovsky's plays contain limitless possibilities for stage performance and acting growth.

The main strength of the playwright is the all-conquering truth, the depth of typification. Dobrolyubov also noted that Ostrovsky depicts not just types of merchants, landowners, but also universal types. We have all the signs the highest art which is immortal.

The originality of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy, its innovation is especially clearly manifested in typification. If ideas, themes and plots reveal the originality and innovation of the content of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy, then the principles of typification of characters already relate to its artistic depiction, its form.

A. H. Ostrovsky, who continued and developed the realistic traditions of Western European and Russian drama, was attracted, as a rule, not by exceptional personalities, but by ordinary, ordinary social characters of greater or lesser typicality.

Almost any character of Ostrovsky is original. At the same time, the individual in his plays does not contradict the social.

Individualizing his characters, the playwright discovers the gift of the deepest penetration into their psychological world. Many episodes of Ostrovsky's plays are masterpieces of realistic depiction of human psychology.

“Ostrovsky,” Dobrolyubov rightly wrote, “knows how to look into the depths of a person’s soul, knows how to distinguish nature from all externally accepted deformities and growths; that is why the external oppression, the heaviness of the whole situation that crushes a person, is felt in his works much more strongly than in many stories, terribly outrageous in content, but the external, official side of the matter completely obscures the inner, human side. Dobrolyubov recognized one of the main and best properties of Ostrovsky's talent in the ability to "notice nature, penetrate into the depths of a person's soul, catch his feelings, regardless of the image of his external official relations."

In working on the characters, Ostrovsky constantly improved the methods of his psychological skill, expanding the range of colors used, complicating the colors of the images. In his very first work, we have before us bright, but more or less one-linear characters of the characters. Further works are examples of a more in-depth and complicated disclosure of human images.

In Russian dramaturgy, the school of Ostrovsky is quite naturally designated. It includes I. F. Gorbunov, A. Krasovsky, A. F. Pisemsky, A. A. Potekhin, I. E. Chernyshev, M. P. Sadovsky, N. Ya. Soloviev, P. M. Nevezhin, and A. Kupchinsky. Learning from Ostrovsky, I. F. Gorbunov created wonderful scenes from the petty-bourgeois merchant and craft life. Following Ostrovsky, A. A. Potekhin revealed in his plays the impoverishment of the nobility (“The Newest Oracle”), the predatory essence of the wealthy bourgeoisie (“Guilty”), bribery, the careerism of bureaucracy (“Tinsel”), the spiritual beauty of the peasantry (“Sheep’s Fur Coat - the human soul”), the emergence of new people of a democratic warehouse (“Cut off chunk”). Potekhin's first drama, The Judgment of Man Not God, which appeared in 1854, is reminiscent of Ostrovsky's plays written under the influence of Slavophilism. At the end of the 1950s and at the very beginning of the 1960s, the plays of I. E. Chernyshev, an artist of the Alexandrinsky Theater and a permanent contributor to the Iskra magazine, were very popular in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the provinces. These plays, written in a liberal-democratic spirit, clearly imitating Ostrovsky's artistic style, made an impression with the exclusivity of the main characters, the sharp formulation of moral and domestic issues. For example, in the comedy The Bridegroom from the Debt Office (1858) it was told about a poor man who tried to marry a wealthy landowner, in the comedy Happiness Is Not in Money (1859), a soulless predator-merchant is depicted, in the drama Father of the Family (1860) tyrant-landlord, and in the comedy "Spoiled Life" (1862) depicts an extremely honest, kind official, his naive wife and a dishonorably treacherous veil that violated their happiness.

Under the influence of Ostrovsky, later, at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, such playwrights as A.I. Sumbatov-Yuzhin, Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, S. A. Naidenov, E. P. Karpov, P. P. Gnedich and many others.

Ostrovsky's indisputable authority as the country's first playwright was recognized by all progressive literary figures. Highly appreciating the dramaturgy of Ostrovsky as “nationwide”, listening to his advice, L. N. Tolstoy sent him the play “The First Distiller” in 1886. Calling Ostrovsky the "father of Russian dramaturgy," the author of "War and Peace" asked him in a cover letter to read the play and express his "father's verdict" about it.

Ostrovsky's plays, the most progressive in the dramaturgy of the second half of XIX century, constitute a step forward, an independent and important chapter in the development of world dramatic art.

The enormous influence of Ostrovsky on the dramaturgy of the Russian, Slavic and other peoples is indisputable. But his work is connected not only with the past. It lives actively in the present. By his contribution to the theatrical repertoire, which is an expression of current life, the great playwright is our contemporary. Attention to his work does not decrease, but increases.

Ostrovsky will long attract the hearts and minds of domestic and foreign viewers with the humanistic and optimistic pathos of his ideas, the deep and broad generalization of his heroes, good and evil, their universal human properties, the uniqueness of his original dramatic skill.

playwright whose work has become milestone Russian national theater

Alexander Ostrovsky

short biography

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky April 12, 1823 in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka. His father, Nikolai Fedorovich, was the son of a priest, he himself graduated from the Kostroma Seminary, then the Moscow Theological Academy, but began to practice as a court lawyer, dealing with property and commercial matters; rose to the rank of collegiate assessor, and in 1839 received the nobility. Mother, Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina, the daughter of a sexton and a prosvir, died when Alexander was not yet nine years old. There were four children in the family (four more died in infancy). The younger brother is the statesman M. N. Ostrovsky. Thanks to the position of Nikolai Fedorovich, the family lived in prosperity, great attention was paid to the study of children who received home education. Five years after the death of Alexander's mother, his father married Baroness Emily Andreevna von Tessin, the daughter of a Swedish nobleman. The children were lucky with their stepmother: she surrounded them with care and continued to teach them.

Ostrovsky's childhood and part of his youth were spent in the center of Zamoskvorechye. Thanks to his father's large library, he got acquainted early with Russian literature and felt a penchant for writing, but his father wanted to make him a lawyer. In 1835, Ostrovsky entered the third grade of the 1st Moscow Provincial Gymnasium, after which in 1840 he became a student at the law faculty of Moscow University. He failed to complete the university course: without passing the exam in Roman law, Ostrovsky wrote a letter of resignation (he studied until 1843). At the request of his father, Ostrovsky entered the service of a clerk in the Constituent Court and served in the Moscow courts until 1850; his first salary was 4 rubles a month, after a while it increased to 16 rubles (transferred to the Commercial Court in 1845).

By 1846, Ostrovsky had already written many scenes from merchant life and conceived the comedy "Insolvent Debtor" (later - "Own people - let's settle!"). The first publication was a short play "The Picture family life”and the essay“ Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident ”- they were printed in one of the issues of the“ Moscow City List ”in 1847. Professor of Moscow University S.P. Shevyrev, after Ostrovsky read the play at his home on February 14, 1847, solemnly congratulated the audience on "the appearance of a new dramatic luminary in Russian literature."

A. N. Ostrovsky.

Literary fame for Ostrovsky was brought by the comedy “Our people - let's settle!”, Published in 1850 in the journal of the university professor M. P. Pogodin “Moskvityanin”. Under the text was: "A. ABOUT." (Alexander Ostrovsky) and "D. G.". Under the middle initials was Dmitry Gorev-Tarasenkov, a provincial actor who offered Ostrovsky cooperation. This cooperation did not go beyond one scene, and subsequently served as a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky, since it gave his detractors a reason to accuse him of plagiarism (1856). However, the play evoked favorable responses from H. V. Gogol, I. A. Goncharov. The influential Moscow merchants, offended by their estate, complained to the "bosses"; as a result, the comedy was banned from staging, and the author was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision on the personal order of Nicholas I. Supervision was removed after the accession of Alexander II, and the play was allowed to be staged only in 1861.

Ostrovsky's first play, which was able to get on the stage, was Don't Get into Your Sleigh, written in 1852 and staged for the first time in Moscow on the stage of the Maly Theater on January 14, 1853.

For more than thirty years, since 1853, new plays by Ostrovsky appeared almost every season in the Moscow Maly and Alexandrinsky theaters in St. Petersburg. Since 1856, Ostrovsky became a permanent contributor to the Sovremennik magazine. In the same year, in accordance with the wishes of the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, a business trip of outstanding writers took place to study and describe various areas of Russia in industrial and domestic terms. Ostrovsky took over the study of the Volga from the upper reaches to Nizhny Novgorod.

A. N. Ostrovsky, 1856

In 1859, with the assistance of Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, the first collected works of Ostrovsky were published in two volumes. Thanks to this edition, Ostrovsky received a brilliant assessment from N. A. Dobrolyubov, which secured him the fame of a painter " dark kingdom". In 1860, the Thunderstorm appeared in print, to which Dobrolyubov dedicated the article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom”. From the second half of the 1860s, Ostrovsky took up the history of the Time of Troubles and entered into correspondence with Kostomarov. Five “historical chronicles in verse” became the fruit of the work: “Kuzma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”, “Vasilisa Melentyeva”, “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky”, etc.

In 1863, Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize (for the play The Thunderstorm) and was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1866 (according to other sources - in 1865), Ostrovsky founded the Artistic Circle, which later gave the Moscow stage many talented figures. Ostrovsky's house was visited by I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, I. S. Turgenev, A. F. Pisemsky, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. E. Turchaninov, P. M. Sadovsky, L. P. Kositskaya-Nikulina, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. N. Ermolova, G. N. Fedotova.

In 1874, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was formed, of which Ostrovsky remained the permanent chairman until his death. Working in the commission "for the revision of legal provisions in all parts of the theater management", established in 1881 under the directorate of the Imperial Theaters, he achieved many changes that significantly improved the position of artists. In 1885, Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertoire of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school.

Despite the fact that his plays made good collections and that in 1883 Emperor Alexander III granted him an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, money problems did not leave Ostrovsky until last days his life. Health did not meet the plans that he set for himself. Hard work exhausted the body.

On June 2 (14), 1886, on Spirits Day, Ostrovsky died in his Kostroma estate Shchelykovo. His last work was the translation of "Antony and Cleopatra" by William Shakespeare - Alexander Nikolayevich's favorite playwright. The writer was buried next to his father at the church cemetery near the Temple in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province. For the burial, Alexander III granted 3,000 rubles from the sums of the cabinet; the widow, inseparably with 2 children, was assigned a pension of 3,000 rubles, and for the upbringing of three sons and a daughter - 2,400 rubles a year. Subsequently, the widow of the writer M.V. Ostrovskaya, an actress of the Maly Theater, and the daughter of M.A. Shatelen were buried in the family necropolis.

After the death of the playwright, the Moscow Duma set up a reading room named after A. N. Ostrovsky in Moscow.

Family

• The younger brother is the statesman M. N. Ostrovsky.

Alexander Nikolaevich had a deep passion for the actress Lyubov Kositskaya, but both of them had a family. However, even after becoming a widow in 1862, Kositskaya continued to reject Ostrovsky's feelings, and soon she began a close relationship with the son of a wealthy merchant, who eventually squandered her entire fortune; She wrote to Ostrovsky: "... I do not want to take away your love from anyone."

The playwright lived in cohabitation with the commoner Agafya Ivanovna, but all their children died in early age. Having no education, but being a smart woman, with a subtle, easily vulnerable soul, she understood the playwright and was the very first reader and critic of his works. Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for about twenty years, and in 1869, two years after her death, he married the actress Maria Vasilyevna Bakhmetyeva, who bore him four sons and two daughters.

Creation

"Columbus Zamoskvorechye"

The play Poverty is Not a Vice (1853) was first staged on January 15, 1869 at the Maly Theater for a benefit performance by Prov Mikhailovich Sadovsky.

Ostrovsky Theater

Russian theater begins with A. N. Ostrovsky in his modern understanding: playwright created theater school and a holistic concept of theatrical production.

The essence of Ostrovsky's theater is the absence of extreme situations and opposition to the actor's gut. The plays of Alexander Nikolaevich depict ordinary situations with ordinary people whose dramas go into everyday life and human psychology.

The main ideas of the theater reform:

• the theater should be built on conventions (there is a 4th wall separating the audience from the actors);
• invariability of attitude to language: mastery of speech characteristics, expressing almost everything about the characters;
• betting on more than one actor;

“A good play will please the public and will be successful, but will not last long on the repertoire if poorly played: the public goes to the theater to watch good performance good plays, not the play itself; play can be read. Othello, no doubt good play; but the public did not want to watch it when Charsky played the role of Othello. The interest of the performance is a complex matter: it involves equally both play and performance. When both are good, the performance is interesting; when one thing is bad, then the performance loses its interest.

- "Note on the draft "Rules on the Imperial Theater Prizes for Dramatic Works""

Ostrovsky's theater demanded a new stage aesthetics, new actors. In accordance with this, Ostrovsky creates an ensemble of actors, which includes such actors as Martynov, Sergei Vasiliev, Evgeny Samoilov, Prov Sadovsky.

Naturally, innovations met opponents. They were, for example, Shchepkin. The dramaturgy of Ostrovsky demanded from the actor a detachment from his personality, which MS Shchepkin did not do. For example, he left the dress rehearsal of The Thunderstorm, being very dissatisfied with the author of the play.

Ostrovsky's ideas were brought to their logical end by K. S. Stanislavsky and M. A. Bulgakov.

Folk myths and national history in the dramaturgy of Ostrovsky

In 1881, the successful premiere of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden, which the composer called his best work, took place on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater. A. N. Ostrovsky himself appreciated the work of Rimsky-Korsakov:

“The music for my The Snow Maiden is amazing, I could never imagine anything more suitable for it and so vividly expressing all the poetry of the Russian pagan cult and this first snow-cold, and then irresistibly passionate heroine of a fairy tale.”

The appearance of the poetic play by Ostrovsky "The Snow Maiden", created on the basis of the fabulous, song and song-ritual material of Russian poetry, was caused by an accidental circumstance. In 1873 the Maly Theater was closed for overhaul, and his troupe moved to the building of the Bolshoi Theater. The Commission for the Management of the Imperial Moscow Theaters decided to put on an extravaganza performance in which all three troupes would participate: drama, opera and ballet. With a proposal to write such a play in a very short time, they turned to A.N. Ostrovsky, who willingly agreed to this, deciding to use the plot from the folk tale "The Snow Maiden Girl". The music for the play, at the request of Ostrovsky, was commissioned by the young P. I. Tchaikovsky. Both the playwright and the composer worked on the play with great enthusiasm, very quickly, in close creative contact. On March 31, on his fiftieth birthday, Ostrovsky finished The Snow Maiden. The first performance took place on May 11, 1873 at the Bolshoi Theatre.

While working on The Snow Maiden, Ostrovsky carefully looked for the size of the poems, consulted with historians, archaeologists, experts ancient life, turned to a large amount of historical and folklore material, including the Tale of Igor's Campaign. He himself highly appreciated this play of his, and wrote, "I<…>in this work I go out on a new road”; he spoke enthusiastically about Tchaikovsky's music: "Tchaikovsky's music for The Snow Maiden is charming." I. S. Turgenev was “captivated by the beauty and lightness of the language of the Snegurochka.” P. I. Tchaikovsky, working on The Snow Maiden, wrote: “I have been sitting at work without getting up for about a month; I am writing music for Ostrovsky's magic play "The Snow Maiden", dramatic work he considered the pearl of Ostrovsky's creations, and said about his music for him: “This is one of my favorite brainchildren. The spring was wonderful, my soul was good ... I liked Ostrovsky's play, and in three weeks, without any effort, I wrote the music.

Later, in 1880, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote an opera based on the same plot. M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov writes in his memoirs: “With some special warmth, Alexander Nikolayevich spoke about Tchaikovsky’s music for The Snow Maiden, which, obviously, greatly prevented him from admiring Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden. Undoubtedly ... Tchaikovsky's sincere music ... was closer to the soul Ostrovsky, and he did not hide the fact that she was dearer to him, as a populist.

Here is how K. S. Stanislavsky spoke about The Snow Maiden: “The Snow Maiden is a fairy tale, a dream, a national legend, written, told in Ostrovsky's magnificent sonorous verses. One might think that this playwright, the so-called realist and everyday worker, never wrote anything but wonderful poems, and was not interested in anything other than pure poetry and romance.

Criticism

Ostrovsky's work became the subject of fierce debate among critics of both the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 19th century, Dobrolyubov (the articles "Dark Kingdom" and "Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom") and Apollon Grigoriev wrote about him from opposite positions. In the XX century - Mikhail Lobanov (in the book "Ostrovsky", published in the series "ZhZL"), M. A. Bulgakov and V. Ya. Lakshin.

Memory

• Central Library named after A. N. Ostrovsky (Rzhev, Tver region).
• Moscow regional Theatre of Drama named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Kostroma State Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Ural Regional Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Irbit Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky (Irbit, Sverdlovsk region).
• Kineshma Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky (Ivanovo region).
• Tashkent State Theater and Art Institute named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Streets in a number of cities of the former USSR.
• On May 27, 1929, a monument to Ostrovsky was unveiled in front of the Maly Theater (sculptor N. A. Andreev, architect I. P. Mashkov) (the jury preferred it over the monument to Ostrovsky, submitted to the competition by A. S. Golubkina, who depicted the great playwright at the moment captivating viewer creative impulse).
• In 1984, in Zamoskvorechye, in the house where the great playwright was born - a cultural monument of the early 1920s, a branch Theater Museum them. A. A. Bakhrushin - House-Museum of A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Now in Shchelykovo (Kostroma region) there is a memorial and natural museum-reserve of the playwright.
• Once every five years, since 1973, the All-Russian Theater Festival "Ostrovsky's Days in Kostroma" lights up the stage, which is supervised by the Ministry of Culture Russian Federation and the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation (All-Russian Theater Society).
• A memorial plaque in Tver, on Sovetskaya (former Millionnaya) Street, house 7, informs that the playwright lived in this house, the Barsukov hotel, in the spring and summer of 1856, during his trip to the Upper Volga region.
• Every two years, since 1993, the Maly Theater hosts the Ostrovsky in the Ostrovsky House festival, to which theaters from all over Russia bring their performances based on the plays of the playwright to Moscow.
• Ostrovsky's plays never leave the stage. Many of his works have been filmed or served as the basis for the creation of film and television scripts.
• Among the film adaptations most popular in Russia is Konstantin Voinov's comedy Balzaminov's Marriage (1964, starring G. Vitsin).
• The film "Cruel Romance", filmed by Eldar Ryazanov based on "Dowry" (1984), received considerable popularity.
• In 2005, director Evgeny Ginzburg received the main prize ( Grand Prix "Garnet Bracelet") eleventh Russian festival"Literature and Cinema" (Gatchina) " for an incredible interpretation great play A. N. Ostrovsky "Guilty Without Guilt" in the film "Anna""(2005, screenplay by G. Daneliya and Rustam Ibragimbekov; starring - Opera singer Lyubov Kazarnovskaya).

In philately

Postage stamps of the USSR

Portrait of A. N. Ostrovsky - postage stamp of the USSR. 1948

Portrait of A. N. Ostrovsky based on the painting by V. Perov (1871, State Tretyakov Gallery) Postage Stamp THE USSR. 1948

Postage stamp of the USSR, 1959.

Playwright A. N. Ostrovsky (1823-1886), actors M. N. Ermolova (1853-1928), P. S. Mochalov (1800-1848), M. S. Shchepkin (1788-1863) and P. M. Sadovsky (1818-1872). Postage stamp of the USSR 1949.

Plays

• "Family Picture" (1847)
• "Own people - let's count" (1849)
• "An Unexpected Case" (1850)
• "Morning young man» (1850)
• "Poor Bride" (1851)
• "Do not get into your sleigh" (1852)
• "Poverty is no vice" (1853)
• "Do not live as you like" (1854)
• "Hangover at a stranger's feast" (1856) text. The play was first staged on the stage of the theater on January 9, 1856 at the Maly Theater for the benefit performance of Prov Mikhailovich Sadovsky, and then, on January 18, in St. Petersburg on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater for the benefit performance of Vladimirova.
• "Profitable Place" (1856) text The play was first staged on the stage of the theater on September 27, 1863 at the Alexandrinsky Theater for Levkeeva's benefit performance. It was first staged at the Maly Theater on October 14 of the same year for a benefit performance by E. N. Vasilyeva.
• "Festive Sleep Before Dinner" (1857)
• "Did not get along!" (1858)
• "Pupil" (1859)
• "Thunderstorm" (1859)
• "An old friend is better than two new ones" (1860)
• “Your own dogs squabble, don’t pester someone else’s” (1861)
• "The Marriage of Balzaminov" (1861)
• "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk" (1861, 2nd edition 1866)
• "Hard Days" (1863)
• "Sin and trouble does not live on anyone" (1863)
• Voevoda (1864; 2nd edition 1885)
• "Joker" (1864)
• "In a Busy Place" (1865)
• "Abyss" (1866)
• "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" (1866)
• "Tushino" (1866)
• "Vasilisa Melentyeva" (co-authored with S. A. Gedeonov) (1867)
• "Sufficient Simplicity for Every Wise Man" (1868)
• "Hot Heart" (1869)
• "Mad Money" (1870)
• "Forest" (1870)
• "Not everything is Shrovetide for the cat" (1871)
• “There was not a penny, but suddenly an altyn” (1872) text On December 10, 1872, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• "Comedian of the 17th century" (1873)
• "Snow Maiden" (1873) text. In 1881, the premiere of the opera by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov took place on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater
• "Late Love" (1874) text On November 22, 1874, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• Labor Bread (1874) text On November 28, 1874, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• "Wolves and Sheep" (1875)
• "Rich Brides" (1876) text On November 30, 1876, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• “Truth is good, but happiness is better” (1877) text On November 18, 1877, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• "The Marriage of Belugin" (1877), together with Nikolai Solovyov
• The Last Victim (1878)
• "Dowry" (1878) text On November 10, 1878, the first performance of the drama took place at the Maly Theater for Musil's benefit performance.
• "Good gentleman" (1879)
• "Wild Woman" (1879), together with Nikolai Solovyov
• "Heart is not a stone" (1880)
• "Slaves" (1881)
• "Shines, but does not warm" (1881), together with Nikolai Solovyov text. Premiere November 14, 1881 in St. Petersburg, at the Alexandrinsky Theater, in the benefit of F. A. Burdin.
• "Guilty Without Guilt" (1881-1883)
• "Talents and Admirers" (1882)
• "Handsome Man" (1883)
• "Not of this world" (1885)

Screen versions of works

• 1911 - Vasilisa Melentyeva
• 1911 - In a lively place (film, 1911)
• 1916 - Guilty without guilt
• 1916 - In a busy place (film, 1916, Chardynin)
• 1916 - In a lively place (film, 1916, Sabinsky) (Another name On the big road)
• 1933 - Storm
• 1936 - Dowry
• 1945 - Guilty without guilt
• 1951 - Truth is good, but happiness is better (film-play)
• 1952 - Wolves and sheep (teleplay)
• 1952 - Enough simplicity for every wise man (teleplay)
• 1952 - Snow Maiden (cartoon)
• 1953 - Hot Heart (film-play)
• 1955 - In a lively place (film-play)
• 1955 - Talents and Admirers (film-play)
• 1958 - Depths (TV film, screen version of the performance of the Leningrad Academic Drama Theater named after M.