Brief description the city of Kalinov in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm"
The city of Kalinov is a province that is far behind in terms of development. Here, it seems, everything has frozen and will never budge - it will remain under a layer of dust and a web of ignorance.
In this web, in their “dark kingdom,” the rulers are entirely tyrants and tyrants, entangling the city in a network of deceptions and lies. They have so established their power that the second half of the inhabitants, the so-called “oppressed,” do nothing for their own liberation, and prefer to step aside and submit to the cruel elements.
Needless to say, self-interest and greed reign in the city; after all, it was with the help of money that the oppressors gained their dubious authority. Everything: the fragmentation of society, fear, greed and self-confidence - all this is due to the fault of money, of which some have a lot, while others have too little to strengthen their position. Society is rotten through and through, and it does not strive, which means it will never achieve beauty of feelings and breadth of mind; the greater devours the lesser, and the ignoramuses from the “dark side” of the city are dragging the few who still retain some kind of sincerity to the bottom. And they do not dare to resist.
The only thing that has retained its pristine purity is nature, which here gains all its strength and eventually bursts into violent thunderstorms, as if in protest against people who have hardened from within.
Dramatic events of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm" takes place in the city of Kalinov. This town is located on the picturesque bank of the Volga, from the high cliff of which the vast Russian expanses and boundless distances open up to the eye. “The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices,” enthuses local self-taught mechanic Kuligin.
Pictures of endless distances, echoed in a lyrical song. Among the flat valleys,” which he sings, are of great importance for conveying the feeling of the immense possibilities of Russian life, on the one hand, and the limitations of life in a small merchant town, on the other.
Magnificent paintings of the Volga landscape are organically woven into the structure of the play. At first glance, they contradict its dramatic nature, but in fact they introduce new colors into the depiction of the scene of action, thereby performing an important artistic function: the play begins with a picture of a steep bank, and it ends with it. Only in the first case does it give rise to a feeling of something majestically beautiful and bright, and in the second - catharsis. The landscape also serves for a more vivid depiction characters- Kuligin and Katerina, who subtly feel its beauty, on the one hand, and everyone who is indifferent to it, on the other. The brilliant playwright so carefully recreated the scene of action that we can visually imagine the city of Kalinov, immersed in greenery, as it is depicted in the play. We see its high fences, and gates with strong locks, and wooden houses with patterned shutters and colored window curtains filled with geraniums and balsams. We also see taverns where people like Dikoy and Tikhon are carousing in a drunken stupor. We see the dusty streets of Kalinovsky, where ordinary people, merchants and wanderers talk on benches in front of the houses, and where sometimes a song can be heard from afar to the accompaniment of a guitar, and behind the gates of the houses the descent begins to the ravine, where young people have fun at night. A gallery with vaults of dilapidated buildings opens to our eyes; a public garden with gazebos, pink bell towers and ancient gilded churches, where “noble families” walk decorously and where entertainment unfolds social life this small merchant town. Finally, we see the Volga pool, in the abyss of which Katerina is destined to find her final refuge.
Residents of Kalinov lead a sleepy, measured existence: “They go to bed very early, so it’s difficult for an unaccustomed person to endure such a sleepy night.” On holidays, they walk decorously along the boulevard, but “they only pretend to be walking, but they themselves go there to show off their outfits.” The inhabitants are superstitious and submissive, they have no desire for culture, science, they are not interested in new ideas and thoughts. The sources of news and rumors are pilgrims, pilgrims, and “passing kaliki.” The basis of relationships between people in Kalinov is material dependence. Here money is everything. " Cruel morals, sir, in our city, they are cruel! - says Kuligin, addressing a new person in the city, Boris. “In philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and stark poverty.” And we, sir, will never get out of this crust. Because honest work will never earn us more than our daily bread. And whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor in order to make even more money from his free labors. He testifies: “And among themselves, sir, how they live! They undermine each other's trade, and not so much out of self-interest as out of envy. They are at enmity with each other; they get drunken clerks into their high mansions... And they... write malicious clauses about their neighbors. And for them, sir, a trial and a case will begin, and there will be no end to the torment.”
A vivid figurative expression of the manifestation of rudeness and hostility that reigns in Kalinov is the ignorant tyrant Savel Prokofich Dikoy, a “scold man” and a “shrill man,” as its residents characterize it. Endowed unbridled temper, he intimidated his family (dispersed “through attics and closets”), terrorizes his nephew Boris, who “got to him as a sacrifice” and which, according to Kudryash, he constantly “rides.” He also mocks other townspeople, cheats, “shows off” over them, “as his heart desires,” rightly believing that there is no one to “calm him down” anyway. Swearing and swearing for any reason is not only the usual way of treating people, it is his nature, his character, the content of his entire life.
Another personification of the “cruel morals” of the city of Kalinov is Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, a “hypocrite,” as the same Kuligin characterizes her. “He gives money to the poor, but completely eats up his family.” Kabanikha firmly stands guard over the established order established in her home, jealously guarding this life from the fresh wind of change. She cannot come to terms with the fact that the young people do not like her way of life, that they want to live differently. She doesn't swear like Dikoy. She has her own methods of intimidation, she corrosively, “like rusting iron,” “sharpenes” her loved ones.
Dikoy and Kabanova (one - rudely and openly, the other - “under the guise of piety”) poison the lives of those around them, suppressing them, subordinating them to their orders, destroying bright feelings in them. For them, the loss of power is the loss of everything in which they see the meaning of existence. That’s why they hate new customs, honesty, sincerity in the expression of feelings, and the attraction of young people to “freedom.”
A special role in the “dark kingdom” belongs to the ignorant, deceitful and arrogant wanderer-beggar Feklusha. She “wanders” through cities and villages, collecting absurd tales and fantastic stories - about the depreciation of time, about people with dog heads, about scattering chaff, about a fiery serpent. One gets the impression that she deliberately misinterprets what she hears, that she takes pleasure in spreading all these gossip and ridiculous rumors - thanks to this, she is willingly accepted in the houses of Kalinov and towns like it. Feklusha does not fulfill her mission selflessly: she will be fed here, given something to drink here, and given gifts there. The image of Feklusha, personifying evil, hypocrisy and gross ignorance, was very typical of the environment depicted. Such feklushi, carriers of nonsense news that clouded the consciousness of ordinary people, and pilgrims were necessary for the owners of the city, as they supported the authority of their government.
Finally, another colorful exponent of the cruel morals of the “dark kingdom” is the half-crazed lady in the play. She rudely and cruelly threatens the death of someone else's beauty. These terrible prophecies, sounding like the voice of tragic fate, receive their bitter confirmation in the finale. In the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom” N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote: “In The Thunderstorm the need for the so-called “unnecessary faces” is especially visible: without them we cannot understand the heroine’s face and can easily distort the meaning of the entire play...”
Dikoy, Kabanova, Feklusha and the half-crazy lady - representatives of the older generation - are exponents of the worst sides of the old world, its darkness, mysticism and cruelty. These characters have nothing to do with the past, rich in its own unique culture and traditions. But in the city of Kalinov, in conditions that suppress, break and paralyze the will, representatives of the younger generation also live. Someone, like Katerina, closely bound by the way of the city and dependent on it, lives and suffers, strives to escape from it, and someone, like Varvara, Kudryash, Boris and Tikhon, humbles himself, accepts its laws or finds ways to reconcile with them .
Tikhon, the son of Marfa Kabanova and Katerina’s husband, is naturally endowed with a gentle, quiet disposition. He has kindness, responsiveness, the ability to make sound judgment, and the desire to break free from the clutches in which he finds himself, but weak-willedness and timidity outweigh his positive qualities. He is used to unquestioningly obeying his mother, doing everything she demands, and is not able to show disobedience. He is unable to truly appreciate the extent of Katerina’s suffering, unable to penetrate her spiritual world. Only in the finale does this weak-willed but internally contradictory person rise to open condemnation of his mother’s tyranny.
Boris, “a young man of decent education,” is the only one who does not belong to the Kalinovsky world by birth. This is a mentally gentle and delicate, simple and modest person, and, moreover, his education, manners, and speech are noticeably different from most Kalinovites. He does not understand local customs, but is unable either to defend himself from the insults of the Wild One, or to “resist the dirty tricks that others do.” Katerina sympathizes with his dependent, humiliated position. But we can only sympathize with Katerina - she happened to meet on her way a weak-willed man, subordinate to the whims and whims of his uncle and doing nothing to change this situation. N.A. was right. Dobrolyubov, who claimed that “Boris is not a hero, he stands far from Katerina, and she fell in love with him in the desert.”
Cheerful and cheerful Varvara - the daughter of Kabanikha and the sister of Tikhon - is a vitally full-blooded image, but she emanates some kind of spiritual primitiveness, starting with her actions and everyday behavior and ending with her thoughts about life and rudely cheeky speech. She adapted, learned to be cunning so as not to obey her mother. She is too down to earth in everything. Such is her protest - escaping with Kudryash, who is well acquainted with the customs of the merchant environment, but lives easily without hesitation. Varvara, who learned to live guided by the principle: “Do what you want, as long as it’s well protected,” expressed her protest at the everyday level, but on the whole she lives according to the laws of the “dark kingdom” and in her own way finds agreement with it.
Kuligin, a local self-taught mechanic who in the play acts as an “exposer of vices,” sympathizes with the poor, is concerned with improving people’s lives, having received a reward for the discovery of a perpetual motion machine. He is an opponent of superstitions, a champion of knowledge, science, creativity, enlightenment, but his own knowledge is not enough.
He doesn’t see an active way to resist tyrants, and therefore prefers to submit. It is clear that this is not the person who is able to bring novelty and fresh air into the life of the city of Kalinov.
Among the characters in the drama, there is no one, except Boris, who does not belong to the Kalinovsky world by birth or upbringing. All of them revolve in the sphere of concepts and ideas of a closed patriarchal environment. But life does not stand still, and tyrants feel that their power is being limited. “Besides them, without asking them,” says N.A. Dobrolyubov, - another life has grown, with different beginnings ... "
Of all the characters, only Katerina - a deeply poetic nature, filled with high lyricism - is focused on the future. Because, as noted by academician N.N. Skatov, “Katerina was brought up not only in the narrow world of a merchant family, she was born not only patriarchal world, and the whole world is national, folk life, already spilling over the boundaries of patriarchy.” Katerina embodies the spirit of this world, its dream, its impulse. She alone was able to express her protest, proving, albeit at the cost of her own life, that the end of the “dark kingdom” was approaching. By creating such an expressive image of A.N. Ostrovsky showed that even in the ossified world of a provincial town, a “folk character of amazing beauty and strength” can arise, whose pen is based on love, on a free dream of justice, beauty, some kind of higher truth.
Poetic and prosaic, sublime and mundane, human and animal - these principles are paradoxically united in the life of a provincial Russian town, but in this life, unfortunately, darkness and oppressive melancholy prevail, which N.A. could not better characterize. Dobrolyubov, calling this world a “dark kingdom.” This phraseological unit is of fairy-tale origin, but the merchant world of "The Thunderstorm", we are convinced of this, is devoid of that poetic, mysterious and captivating that is usually characteristic of a fairy tale. “Cruel morals” reign in this city, cruel...
Essay on literature.
Cruel morals in our city, cruel...
A.N. Ostrovsky, "The Thunderstorm".
The city of Kalinov, in which the action of “The Thunderstorm” takes place, is outlined by the author very vaguely. Such a place could be any town in any corner of vast Russia. This immediately increases and generalizes the scale of the events described.
Preparations for the reform to abolish serfdom are in full swing, which affects the life of all of Russia. Outdated orders give way to new ones, previously unknown phenomena and concepts arise. Therefore, even in remote towns like Kalinov, ordinary people are worried when they hear the steps of a new life.
What is this “city on the banks of the Volga”? What kind of people live there? The stage nature of the work does not allow the writer to directly answer these questions with his thoughts, but it is still possible to get a general idea about them.
Externally, the city of Kalinov is a “blessed place.” It stands on the banks of the Volga, from the steepness of the river an “extraordinary view” opens. But most local residents “have either taken a closer look or don’t understand” this beauty and speak disdainfully about it. Kalinov seems to be separated by a wall from the rest of the world. They don’t know anything here about what’s going on in the world. Residents of Kalinov are forced to draw all information about the world around them from the stories of “wanderers” who “they themselves have not walked far, but have heard a lot.” This satisfaction of curiosity leads to ignorance of the majority of citizens. They talk quite seriously about the lands “where people have dog heads”, about how “Lithuania fell from the sky.” Among the residents of Kalinov there are people who “don’t give an account to anyone” for their actions; ordinary people, accustomed to such lack of accountability, lose the ability to see logic in anything.
Kabanova and Dikoy, living according to the old order, are forced to give up their positions. This embitters them and makes them even more furious. Dikoy attacks everyone he meets with abuse and “doesn’t want to know anyone.” Aware internally that there is nothing to respect him for, he, however, reserves the right to deal with the “little people” like this:
If I want, I will have mercy, if I want, I will crush.
Kabanova relentlessly pesters her family with ridiculous demands that contradict common sense. She is scary because she reads instructions “under the guise of piety,” but she herself cannot be called pious. This can be seen from Kuligin’s conversation with Kabanov:
Kuligin: We must forgive our enemies, sir!
Kabanov: Go talk to your mother, what will she say to you about this.
Dikoy and Kabanova still seem strong, but they begin to realize that their strength is coming to an end. They have “nowhere to rush,” but life moves forward without asking their permission. That is why Kabanova is so gloomy, she cannot imagine “how the light will stand” when her order is forgotten. But those around, not yet feeling the powerlessness of these tyrants, are forced to adapt to them,
Tikhon, deep down kind person, came to terms with his situation. He lives and acts as “mama ordered,” having finally lost the ability to “live with his own mind.”
His sister Varvara is not like that. Tyrant oppression did not break her will, she is bolder and much more independent than Tikhon, but her conviction “if only everything was sewn and covered” suggests that Varvara was unable to fight her oppressors, but only adapted to them.
Vanya Kudryash, daring and strong nature, got used to tyrants and is not afraid of them. The Wild One needs him and knows this, he will not “slave in front of him.” But the use of rudeness as a weapon of struggle means that Kudryash can only “take an example” from the Wild, defending himself from him with his own techniques. His reckless daring reaches the point of self-will, and this already borders on tyranny.
Katerina is, as the critic Dobrolyubov put it, “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” Original and lively, she is not like any of the characters in the play. Her folk character gives her inner strength. But this strength is not enough to withstand Kabanova’s relentless attacks. Katerina is looking for support - and does not find it. Exhausted, unable to further resist oppression, Katerina still did not give up, but left the fight, committing suicide.
Kalinov can be located in any corner of the country, and this allows us to consider the action of the play on a scale throughout Russia. Everywhere tyrants are living out their days, weak people still suffer from their antics. But life moves tirelessly forward, no one can stop its rapid flow. A fresh and strong stream will sweep away the dam of tyranny... Characters freed from oppression will spill out in all their breadth - and the sun will break out in the “dark kingdom”!
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is rightfully considered a singer of the merchant milieu. He is the author of about sixty plays, the most famous of which are “Our People – We Will Be Numbered”, “The Thunderstorm”, “Dowry” and others.
“The Thunderstorm,” as Dobrolyubov described it, is the author’s “most decisive work,” since the mutual relations of tyranny and voicelessness are brought to tragic consequences in it...” It was written at a time of social upsurge, on the eve of the peasant reform, as if crowning the author’s cycle of plays about "dark kingdom"
The writer’s imagination takes us to a small merchant town on the banks of the Volga, “... all in greenery, from the steep banks distant spaces covered with villages and fields are visible. A blessed summer day beckons you to go outside, under the open sky…”, admire the local beauty, take a walk along the boulevard. Residents have already taken a closer look at the beautiful nature in the vicinity of the city, and it does not please the eye of anyone. The townspeople spend most of their time at home: running the household, relaxing, and in the evenings “...they sit on the rubble at the gate and engage in pious conversations.” They are not interested in anything that goes beyond the city limits. The inhabitants of Kalinov learn about what is happening in the world from wanderers who, “themselves, due to their weakness, did not walk far, but heard a lot.” Feklusha enjoys great respect among the townspeople; her stories about the lands where people with dog heads live are perceived as irrefutable information about the world. It is not at all disinterested that she supports Kabanikha and Dikiy, their concepts of life, although these characters are leaders " dark kingdom».
In Kabanikha’s house, everything is built on the authority of power, just like in the Wild. She forces her loved ones to sacredly honor the rituals and follow the old customs of Domostroy, which she has remade in her own way. Marfa Ignatievna internally realizes that there is nothing to respect her for, but she does not admit this even to herself. With her petty demands, reminders and suggestions, Kabanikha achieves the unquestioning obedience of her household.
Wild to match her, the most great joy for which to abuse a person, to humiliate him. For him, swearing is also a way of self-defense when it comes to money, which he hates to give away.
But something is already eroding their power, and they see with horror how the “covenants of patriarchal morality” are crumbling. This “the law of time, the law of nature and history takes its toll, and the old Kabanovs breathe heavily, feeling that there is a force above them that they cannot overcome,” however, they are trying to instill their rules in the younger generation, and not to no avail.
For example, Varvara is the daughter of Marfa Kabanova. Her main rule: “do what you want, as long as everything is sewn and covered.” She is smart, cunning, and before marriage she wants to be everywhere and try everything. Varvara adapted to the “dark kingdom” and learned its laws. I think her bossiness and desire to deceive makes her very similar to her mother.
The play shows the similarities between Varvara and Kudryash. Ivan is the only one in the city of Kalinov who can answer Dikiy. “I am considered a rude person; Why is he holding me? Therefore, he needs me. Well, that means I’m not afraid of him, but let him be afraid of me…” says Kudryash.
In the end, Varvara and Ivan leave " dark kingdom“, but I think they are unlikely to be able to completely free themselves from old traditions and laws.
Now let's turn to the true victims of tyranny. Tikhon, Katerina’s husband, is weak-willed and spineless, obeys his mother in everything and slowly becomes an alcoholic. Of course, Katerina cannot love and respect such a person, but her soul longs for real feeling. She falls in love with Dikiy's nephew, Boris. But Katya fell in love with him, in Dobrolyubov’s apt expression, “in the wilderness.” In essence, Boris is the same Tikhon, only more educated. He traded love for his grandmother's inheritance.
Katerina differs from all the characters in the play in the depth of her feelings, honesty, courage and determination. “I don’t know how to deceive; I can’t hide anything,” she says to Varvara. Gradually, life in her mother-in-law's house becomes unbearable for her. She sees a way out of this impasse in her death. Katya’s act stirred up this “quiet swamp”, because there were also sympathetic souls, for example, Kuligin, a self-taught mechanic. He is kind and obsessed with the desire to do something useful for people, but all his intentions run into a thick wall of misunderstanding and ignorance.
Thus, we see that all the residents of Kalinov belong to the “dark kingdom”, which sets its own rules and orders here, and no one can change them, because these are the morals of this city, and whoever fails to adapt to such an environment is, alas, doomed to death.
The events of the play "" unfold in the city of Kalinov, which was created by the author. He summarized the life and customs of most Russian cities of that time. Many cities were similar to Kalinov. The author describes the beautiful landscapes of the city, which spread over vast expanses. But such harmony and beauty is opposed by the callousness and cruelty of the living people - merchants and their servants.
The play begins with a description of the city's landscape on behalf of one of Kuligin's heroes. He was perhaps one of the few who could enjoy the wonderful beauty of the surrounding forests, trees, and plants. The rest of the city residents - Dikoy, Kabanikha, Feklusha - are preoccupied with their everyday problems. Kuligin gives characteristics to the residents of the city. They are cruel and greedy, they are ready to do dirty tricks on their neighbor, interrupt trade, and then go to court and write complaints against each other.
He also talks about the family tradition of the residents of Kalinov. In the estate, all members of her family are oppressed and cannot say a word. The old woman is completely fed up with her family and doesn’t give them a peaceful life.
If we talk about moral laws, then the power and authority of money reigns in the city. The one who is rich is the lord of the city. Dikoy was such a person in Kalinov. He could treat everyone who was poorer and lower than him carelessly, he was rude, and constantly quarreled with everyone. Such a powerful man simply did not feel the ground under his feet, because everything in his position was decided by money. Although, his inner essence was weak.
Kabanikha strictly adheres to centuries-old traditions. In her family, everyone obeys the will and desire of their elders. She tells absolutely all the residents of her estate what to do and how to do it. Kabanikha terribly disliked Katerina for her free, free character. The young girl did not want to obey the old woman’s instructions, so swearing constantly arose between them.
In the city of Kalinov, material and monetary dependence prevails. Boris is afraid of his uncle Dikiy and does not dare to save Katerina from trouble. Tikhon faithfully obeys his mother and obeys her every whim.
Lies and deceit reign in the city. The main principle was lies. Only with her help did the girl learn to live in Kabanova’s estate. But the power and boundless will of tyrants are on the verge of destruction. The spirit of freedom is in the air. Therefore, the rich and merchants, sensing something is wrong, behave in the worst way.
