Question to a psychologist 

What is the dark kingdom of Ostrovsky. "Dark Kingdom" in the play "Thunderstorm. The deep meaning of the allegory "dark kingdom"

"DARK KINGDOM" IN A.N. OSTROVSKOY'S PIECE "GRO3A"

1.Introduction.

"A ray of light in a dark kingdom."

2. The main part.

2.1 The world of the city of Kalinov.

2.2 The image of nature.

2.3 Inhabitants of Kalinov:

a) Wild and Boar;

b) Tikhon, Boris and Varvara.

2.4 The collapse of the old world.

3. Conclusion.

A change in the public consciousness. Yes, everything here seems to be out of captivity.

A. N. Ostrovsky

The play by Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm", published in 1859, was enthusiastically received by progressive critics thanks, first of all, to the image of the main character - Katerina Kabanova. However, this beautiful female image, “a ray of light in the dark kingdom” (in the words of N. A. Dobrolyubov), was formed precisely in the atmosphere of patriarchal merchant relations, which oppresses and kills everything new.

The action of the play opens with a calm, unhurried exposition. Ostrovsky depicts the idyllic world in which the characters live. This is the provincial town of Kalinov, which is described in great detail. The action takes place against the backdrop of the beautiful nature of central Russia. Kuligin, walking along the river bank, exclaims: “Miracles, truly it must be said that miracles!< … >For fifty years I have been looking at the Volga every day and I can’t get enough of it.” Beautiful nature contrasts with the cruel customs of the city, with the poverty and lack of rights of its inhabitants, with their lack of education and limitations. Heroes seem to be closed in this world; they do not want to know anything new and do not see other lands and countries. Merchant Dikoy and Marfa Kabanova, nicknamed Kabanikha, are the true representatives of the "dark kingdom". These are individuals with a strong character, having power over other heroes and manipulating their relatives with the help of money. They adhere to the old, patriarchal orders, which suit them completely. Kabanova tyrannizes all members of her family, constantly finding fault with her son and daughter-in-law, teaches and criticizes them. However, she no longer has absolute confidence in the inviolability of the patriarchal foundations, so she defends her world with her last strength. Tikhon, Boris and Varvara are representatives of the younger generation. But they were also influenced by the old world and its practices. Tikhon, completely subordinate to the power of his mother, gradually becomes an inveterate drunkard. And only the death of his wife makes him cry out: “Mommy, you ruined her! You, you, you ... ”Boris is also under the yoke of his uncle Diky. He hopes to receive his grandmother's inheritance, so he endures his uncle's bullying in public. At the request of the Wild, he leaves Katerina, pushing her to commit suicide with this act. Varvara, the daughter of Kabanikhi, is a bright and strong personality. Creating visible humility and obedience to her mother, she lives in her own way. Meeting with Kudryash, Varvara does not worry at all about the moral side of her behavior. For her, in the first place is the observance of external propriety, which drown out the voice of conscience. However, the patriarchal world, so strong and powerful, which killed the main character of the play, is dying. All heroes feel it. Katerina's public declaration of love for Boris was a terrible blow for Kabanikha, a sign that the old was leaving forever. Through a love-domestic conflict, Ostrovsky showed a turning point that is taking place in the minds of people. A new attitude to the world, individual perception of reality are replacing the patriarchal, communal way of life. In the play "Thunderstorm" these processes are depicted especially vividly and realistically.

"Dark Kingdom" in Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm"

Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm", in accordance with the critical and theatrical traditions of interpretation, is understood as a social drama, since it attaches special importance to everyday life.

As almost always with Ostrovsky, the play begins with a lengthy, unhurried exposition. The playwright does more than introduce us to the characters and the scene: he creates an image of the world in which the characters live and where events will unfold.

The action takes place in a fictional remote town, but, unlike other plays by the playwright, the city of Kalinov is described in detail, concretely and in many ways. In The Thunderstorm, an important role is played by the landscape, described not only in stage directions, but also in the dialogues of the characters. One can see its beauty, others have looked at it and are completely indifferent. The high steep bank of the Volga and beyond the river introduce the motif of space and flight.

Beautiful nature, pictures of the nightly festivities of young people, songs that sound in the third act, Katerina's stories about childhood and her religious experiences - all this is the poetry of Kalinov's world. But Ostrovsky confronts her with gloomy pictures of the daily cruelty of the inhabitants to each other, with stories about the lack of rights of the majority of the townsfolk, with the fantastic, incredible "lostness" of Kalinov's life.

The motif of the complete isolation of Kalinov's world is getting stronger and stronger in the play. Residents do not see anything new and do not know other lands and countries. But even about their past, they retained only vague, lost connection and meaning legends (talking about Lithuania, which “fell to us from the sky”). Life in Kalinovo freezes, dries up. The past is forgotten, "there are hands, but there is nothing to work." News from the big world is brought to the inhabitants by the wanderer Feklusha, and they listen with equal confidence both about countries where people with dog heads “for infidelity”, and about the railway, where they began to harness the “fire serpent” for speed, and about the time that “ began to diminish."

There is no one among the characters in the play who does not belong to Kalinov's world. Lively and meek, domineering and subservient, merchants and clerks, a wanderer and even an old crazy lady prophesying hellish torments for everyone - they all revolve in the sphere of concepts and ideas of a closed patriarchal world. Not only Kalinov's obscure townsfolk, but also Kuligin, who performs some of the roles of the reasoning hero in the play, is also flesh and blood of Kalinov's world.

This character is depicted as an unusual person. The list of actors says about him: "... a tradesman, a self-taught watchmaker, looking for a perpetuum mobile." The hero's surname transparently hints at a real person - I.P. Kulibin (1735 - 1818). The word "kuliga" means a swamp with a well-established connotation of the meaning of "a distant, deaf place" due to the well-known saying "in the middle of nowhere."

Like Katerina, Kuligin is a poetic and dreamy nature. So, it is he who admires the beauty of the Trans-Volga landscape, complains that the Kalinovites are indifferent to him. He sings "Among the Flat Valley...", a folk song of literary origin. This immediately emphasizes the difference between Kuligin and other characters associated with folklore culture, he is also a bookish man, although of rather archaic bookishness. He confidentially informs Boris that he writes poetry "in the old way," as Lomonosov and Derzhavin once wrote. In addition, he is a self-taught mechanic. However, Kuligin's technical ideas are clearly anachronistic. The sundial, which he dreams of installing on Kalinovsky Boulevard, came from antiquity. Lightning rod - a technical discovery of the XVIII century. And his oral stories about judicial red tape are sustained in even earlier traditions and resemble old moralizing stories. All these features show his deep connection with the world of Kalinov. He, of course, is different from the Kalinovites. It can be said that Kuligin is a “new man”, but only his novelty has developed here, inside this world, which gives rise not only to its passionate and poetic dreamers, like Katerina, but also to its own “rationalists” - dreamers, its own special, home-grown scientists and humanists.

The main business of Kuligin's life is the dream of inventing the "perpetuum mobile" and getting a million from the British for it. He intends to spend this million on Kalinov's society, to give work to the bourgeoisie. Kuligin is really a good person: kind, disinterested, delicate and meek. But he is hardly happy, as Boris thinks of him. His dream constantly forces him to beg for money for his inventions, conceived for the benefit of society, and it never occurs to society that there can be any benefit from them, for fellow countrymen Kuligin is a harmless eccentric, something like an urban holy fool. And the main of the possible "philanthropists" of Dikaya even lashes out at the inventor with abuse, confirming the general opinion that he is incapable of parting with money.

Kuligin's passion for creativity remains unquenched: he pities his countrymen, seeing in their vices the result of ignorance and poverty, but he cannot help them in anything. With all the industriousness, creative warehouse of his personality, Kuligin is a contemplative nature, devoid of any pressure and aggressiveness. Probably, this is the only reason the Kalinovites put up with him, despite the fact that he differs from them in everything.

Only one person does not belong to the Kalinovsky world by birth and upbringing, does not resemble other residents of the city in appearance and manners - Boris, "a young man, decently educated," according to Ostrovsky's remark.

But even though he is a stranger, he has already been taken prisoner by Kalinov, he cannot break ties with him, he has recognized his laws over himself. After all, Boris's connection with Wild is not even monetary dependence. And he himself understands, and those around him say that he will never give him Wild grandmother's inheritance, left on such "Kalinov" conditions ("if he is respectful to his uncle"). And yet he behaves as if he is financially dependent on Wild or is obliged to obey him as the eldest in the family. And although Boris becomes the subject of great passion for Katerina, who fell in love with him precisely because outwardly he is so different from those around him, Dobrolyubov is still right when he said about this hero that he should be attributed to the setting.

In a certain sense, the same can be said about all the other characters in the play, starting with Wild and ending with Kudryash and Varvara. All of them are bright and lively. However, compositionally, two heroes are put forward in the center of the play: Katerina and Kabanikha, representing, as it were, two poles of Kalinov's world.

The image of Katerina is undoubtedly correlated with the image of Kabanikha. Both of them are maximalists, both will never come to terms with human weaknesses and will not compromise. Both, finally, believe in the same way, their religion is harsh and merciless, there is no forgiveness for sin, and they both do not remember mercy.

Only the Kabanikha is all chained to the ground, all her forces are aimed at holding, collecting, upholding the way of life, she is the guardian of the ossified form of the patriarchal world. The boar perceives life as a ceremonial, and she not only does not need, but is also afraid to think about the long-vanished spirit of this form. And Katerina embodies the spirit of this world, its dream, its impulse.

Ostrovsky showed that even in the ossified world of Kalinov, a folk character of amazing beauty and strength can arise, whose faith - truly Kalinov's - is nevertheless based on love, on a free dream of justice, beauty, some kind of higher truth.

For the general concept of the play, it is very important that Katerina did not appear from somewhere from the expanses of another life, another historical time (after all, the patriarchal Kalinov and contemporary Moscow, where bustle is in full swing, or the railway that Feklusha talks about, are different historical times) , but was born and formed in the same "Kalinov" conditions.

Katerina lives in an era when the very spirit of patriarchal morality - harmony between the individual and the moral ideas of the environment - has disappeared and the ossified forms of relations are based only on violence and coercion. Her sensitive soul caught it. After listening to her daughter-in-law's story about life before marriage, Varvara exclaims in surprise: "But it's the same with us." “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity,” Katerina drops.

All family relations in the Kabanovs' house are, in essence, a complete violation of the essence of patriarchal morality. Children willingly express their humility, listen to instructions without attaching any importance to them, and slowly violate all these commandments and orders. “Oh, I think you can do whatever you want. If only it was sewn and covered, ”says Varya

Katerina's husband in the list of characters follows directly Kabanova, and it is said about him: "her son." Such, indeed, is the position of Tikhon in the city of Kalinov and in the family. Belonging, like a number of other characters in the play (Barbara, Kudryash, Shapkin), to the younger generation of Kalinovites, Tikhon in his own way marks the end of the patriarchal way of life.

The youth of Kalinov no longer wants to adhere to the old ways of life. However, Tikhon, Varvara, Kudryash are alien to the maximalism of Katerina, and, unlike the central heroines of the play, Katerina and Kabanikha, all these characters stand on the position of worldly compromises. Of course, the oppression of their elders is hard for them, but they have learned to get around it, each according to his character. Formally recognizing the power of elders and the power of customs over themselves, they constantly go against them. But it is against the background of their unconscious and compromise position that Katerina looks significant and morally lofty.

Tikhon in no way corresponds to the role of a husband in a patriarchal family: to be the ruler and at the same time the support and protection of his wife. A mild-mannered and weak man, he is torn between the harsh demands of his mother and compassion for his wife. Tikhon loves Katerina, but not in the way that, according to the norms of patriarchal morality, a husband should love, and Katerina's feeling for him is not the same as she should have for him according to her own ideas.

For Tikhon, to break free from his mother's care means to go on a spree, to drink. “Yes, mother, I don’t want to live by my own will. Where can I live with my will! - he answers the endless reproaches and instructions of Kabanikh. Humiliated by his mother's reproaches, Tikhon is ready to vent his annoyance on Katerina, and only the intercession of her sister Barbara, who secretly lets him go to drink at a party, stops the scene.

"The Thunderstorm" was published in 1859 (on the eve of the revolutionary situation in Russia, in the "pre-storm" era). Its historicism lies in the conflict itself, the irreconcilable contradictions reflected in the play. She responds to the spirit of the times.

"Thunderstorm" is an idyll of the "dark kingdom". Tyranny and silence are brought in it to the limit. In the play, a real heroine from the people's environment appears, and it is the description of her character that is given the main attention, and the little world of the city of Kalinov and the conflict itself are described more generally.

“Their life flows smoothly and peacefully, no interests of the world disturb them, because they do not reach them; kingdoms can collapse, new countries open up, the face of the earth will change... - the inhabitants of the town of Kalinov will continue to exist in complete ignorance of the rest of the world ... The concepts and way of life they have adopted are the best in the world, everything new comes from evil spirits ... they find it awkward and even the daring to persistently seek reasonable grounds ... The information reported by the Feklushs is such that they are not able to inspire a great desire to exchange their lives for another ... A dark mass, terrible in its naivety and sincerity " .

Terrible and hard for everyone is an attempt to go against the requirements and convictions of this dark mass. The absence of any law, any logic - that is the law and logic of this life. In their indisputable, irresponsible dark dominion, giving complete freedom to whims, not putting any laws and logic into anything, the “tyrants” of life begin to feel some kind of discontent and fear, without knowing what and why. They are fiercely looking for their enemy, ready to attack the most innocent, some Kuligin: but there is neither an enemy nor a guilty person who could be destroyed: the law of time, the law of nature and history takes its toll, and the old boars breathe heavily, feeling that there is a power above them, which they cannot overcome ... They do not want to give in, they only care about how it would become in their lifetime ...

Kabanova is very seriously upset by the future of the old order, with which she has outlived a century, talking about the collapse of the established world: “And it will be worse than this, dear,” and in response to the words of the wanderer: “We just don’t live to see it.” The boar throws weightily: "Maybe we'll live." She only consoles herself with the fact that somehow with her help the old order will stand until her death.

The Kabanovs and the wild ones are busy now only to continue the former. They know that their self-will will still have plenty of scope as long as everyone will be shy before them; that's why they are so stubborn.

The image of Katerina is the most important discovery of Ostrovsky - the discovery of a strong folk character born by the patriarchal world with an awakening sense of personality. The relationship between Katerina and Kabanikha in the play is not an everyday feud between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, their fates expressed the clash of two historical eras, which determines the tragic nature of the conflict. In the soul of a completely “Kalinovskaya” woman in terms of upbringing and moral ideas, a new attitude to the world is born, a feeling that is not yet clear to the heroine herself: “Something bad is happening to me, some kind of miracle! I’m just starting to live again, or I don’t know.” Katerina perceives awakened love as a terrible, indelible sin, because love for a stranger for her, a married woman, is a violation of moral duty. With all her heart she wants to be pure and impeccable, her moral demands on herself do not allow compromise. Having already realized her love for Boris, she resists it with all her might, but does not find support in this struggle: “it’s as if I’m standing over an abyss and someone is pushing me there, but there’s nothing for me to hold on to.” Not only external forms of household chores, but even prayer becomes inaccessible to her, as she felt the power of sinful passion over herself. She feels fear of herself, of the desire for will that has grown in her, inseparably merged in her mind with love: “Of course, God forbid this should happen! And if it gets too cold for me here, they won't hold me back by any force. I'll throw myself out the window, I'll throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!”

The consciousness of sin does not leave her at the moment of intoxication with happiness and takes possession of her with great force when happiness is over. Katerina repents publicly without hope of forgiveness, and it is the complete absence of hope that pushes her to commit suicide, a sin even more serious: “I still ruined my soul.” The complete impossibility of reconciling one's love with the demands of conscience and the physical aversion to home prison, to captivity, kill Katerina.

Katerina is not a victim of anyone personally from those around her, but of the course of life. The world of patriarchal relations is dying, and the soul of this world leaves life in torment and suffering, crushed by the form of worldly ties, and passes a moral judgment on itself, because the patriarchal ideal lives in it.

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    • "The Dark Kingdom" in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm"

    It has gone to the extreme, to the denial of all common sense; more than ever, it is hostile to the natural requirements of mankind and, more fiercely than before, is trying to stop their development, because in their triumph it sees the approach of its inevitable death.

    N. A. Dobrolyubov

    Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky for the first time in Russian literature deeply and realistically depicted the world of the “dark kingdom”, painted colorful images of petty tyrants, their way of life and customs. He dared to look behind the iron merchant gates, was not afraid to openly show the conservative strength of "inertness", "numbness". Analyzing Ostrovsky’s “plays of life”, Dobrolyubov wrote: “There is nothing holy, nothing pure, nothing right in this dark world: the tyranny that dominates him, wild, crazy, wrong, drove out of him any consciousness of honor and right ... And it cannot be them where human dignity, freedom of the individual, faith in love and happiness, and the sacredness of honest labor are thrown into dust and brazenly trampled on by tyrants.” And yet, many of Ostrovsky's plays depict "shakiness and the near end of tyranny."

    The dramatic conflict in The Thunderstorm consists in the clash between the moribund morality of tyrants and the new morality of people in whose souls a sense of human dignity is awakening. In the play, the very background of life, the setting itself, is important. The world of the "dark kingdom" is based on fear and monetary calculation. The self-taught watchmaker Kuligin says to Boris: “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! Whoever has money, he tries to enslave the poor, so that he can make even more money on his free labors. Direct monetary dependence forces Boris to be respectful with the "scold" Wild. Tikhon is resignedly obedient to his mother, although in the finale of the play even he rises to a kind of rebellion. The clerk Wild Curly and Tikhon's sister Varvara are cunning and dodging. The penetrating heart of Katerina feels the falsity and inhumanity of the surrounding life. “Yes, everything here seems to be from bondage,” she thinks.

    The images of petty tyrants in The Thunderstorm are artistically authentic, complex, devoid of psychological unambiguity. Wild - a wealthy merchant, a significant person in the city of Kalinov. At first glance, nothing threatens his power. Savel Prokofievich, according to the apt definition of Kudryash, “as if he had broken loose”: he feels himself the master of life, the arbiter of the destinies of people subject to him. Doesn't Diky's attitude towards Boris speak of this? The people around are afraid to anger Savel Prokofievich with something, his wife trembles before him.

    Wild feels on his side the power of money, the support of state power. In vain are the requests to restore justice, with which the “peasants” deceived by the merchant turn to the mayor. Savel Prokofievich patted the mayor on the shoulder and said: “Is it worth it, your honor, to talk about such trifles with you!”

    At the same time, as already mentioned, the image of the Wild is rather complicated. The cool disposition of the “significant person in the city” comes up not against some kind of external protest, not against the manifestation of discontent of others, but against internal self-condemnation. Savel Prokofievich himself is not happy with his "heart": He came for the money, he carried firewood ... He sinned: he scolded, so scolded that it was impossible to demand better, he almost nailed him. That's what my heart is! After forgiveness, he asked, bowed at his feet. This is what my heart brings me to: here in the yard, in the mud, I bowed; bowed to him in front of everyone.” This recognition of Dikoy contains a meaning that is terrible for the foundations of the “dark kingdom”: tyranny is so unnatural and inhuman that it outlives itself, loses any moral justification for its existence.

    The rich merchant Kabanova can also be called a “tyrant in a skirt”. An exact description of Marfa Ignatievna was put into the mouth of Kuligin: “A hypocrite, sir! She feeds the poor, but eats the household completely.” In a conversation with his son and daughter-in-law, Kabanikha hypocritically sighs: “Oh, a grave sin! How long to sin!”

    Behind this feigned exclamation lies an imperious, despotic character. Marfa Ignatievna actively defends the foundations of the "dark kingdom", trying to subdue Tikhon and Katerina. Relations between people in the family should, according to Kabanova, be regulated by the law of fear, the Domostroy principle “let the wife of her husband be afraid.” Marfa Ignatievna's desire to follow the old traditions in everything is manifested in the scene of Tikhon's farewell to Katerina.

    The position of the hostess in the house cannot completely reassure the Kabanikha. Marfa Ignatievna is frightened by the fact that young people want to, that the traditions of hoary antiquity are not respected. “What will happen, how the old people will die, how the light will stand, I don’t know. Well, at least it’s good that I won’t see anything, ”Kabanikha sighs. In this case, her fear is quite sincere, not designed for any external effect (Marfa Ignatievna pronounces her words alone).

    An essential role in Ostrovsky's play is played by the image of the wanderer Feklusha. At first glance, we have a minor character. In fact, Feklusha is not directly involved in the action, but she is a myth-maker and defender of the “dark kingdom”. Let us listen to the pilgrim's reasoning about the “Persian Saltan” and “Turkish Saltan”: “And they cannot ... judge a single case righteously, such a limit has been set for them. We have a righteous law, and they ... unjust; that according to our law it turns out that way, but according to theirs everything is the other way around. And all their judges, in their countries, are also all unrighteous...” The main meaning of the above words is that “we have a righteous law ..:”.

    Feklusha, anticipating the death of the “dark kingdom”, shares with Kabanikha: “The last times, mother Marfa Ignatievna, by all signs, are the last.” The wanderer sees an ominous sign of the end in the speeding up of the passage of time: “Already, time has already begun to diminish ... smart people notice that our time is also getting shorter.” And indeed, time is working against the “dark kingdom”.

    Ostrovsky comes in the play to large-scale artistic generalizations, creates almost symbolic images (thunderstorm). Noteworthy is the remark at the beginning of the fourth act of the play: “In the foreground is a narrow gallery with the vaults of an old building that is beginning to collapse...” It is in this decaying, dilapidated world that Katerina’s sacrificial confession sounds from its very depths. The fate of the heroine is so tragic, primarily because she rebelled against her own Domostroy ideas of good and evil. The finale of the play tells us that living “in a dark kingdom is worse than death” (Dobrolyubov). “This end seems to us gratifying ... - we read in the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”, - ... it gives a terrible challenge to the self-righteous force, he tells her that it is no longer possible to go further, it is impossible to live longer with her violent, deadly beginnings." The irresistibility of the awakening of man in man, the rehabilitation of a living human feeling that replaces false asceticism, constitute, it seems to me, the enduring merit of Ostrovsky's play. And today it helps to overcome the force of inertia, numbness, social stagnation.

    The action of the play by N.I. Ostrovsky takes place in the Volga city of Kalinov. The name is fictitious, but this does not mean that such a city does not exist. This is a collective, averaged image. In place of the author's Kalinov could be any Russian city.

    The work describes the Russian reality of the beginning and middle of the 19th century. The heavy, oppressive social atmosphere of that time. So the place doesn't matter. The city, as well as the country, is ruled by the rich, tyrants, liars, ignoramuses, embittered by boredom, profiting from the hard work of ordinary people. Ostrovsky continues the dramaturgy of Gogol, Fonvizin and Griboyedov. Since then, little has changed. Empty and cruel people are getting richer, and the common people cannot escape from bondage. All this was dubbed by the author's contemporary and literary critic Dobrolyubov as the "dark kingdom". This definition turned out to be so accurate that it still does not lose its relevance and is used in the literature.

    In a broad sense, the "dark kingdom" in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is a figurative description of the socio-political state of Russia at the end of the 18th and until the middle of the 19th century. A thoughtful reader who knows the history of his native state understands well what time it is, what was the Russian reality at that time. The time when wealthy merchants and powerful landlords dominate. The country is exhausted morally and physically by serfdom and, perhaps, will not recover from it for several more centuries.

    The tradesman Kuligin reports that there are cruel customs in the city. And nothing but rudeness and hopeless poor can not be found here. And, as the reader understands, we are talking not only about one city. And never escape from this web. An ordinary person cannot earn more than a piece of "daily bread" with honest work. The poor, who unquestioningly obey the rich tyrants, allow them to humiliate themselves, use, taking it for granted, is also an integral part of the dark kingdom.

    Both the philistines and even ordinary peasants understand that “he who has money tries to enslave the poor”, so that by his hellish labor, which is almost unpaid, to make himself even more money, to increase his fortune. After all, people like Savely Prokofievich do not even hide it. The master openly tells the mayor that he has thousands of money out of the money that was not paid to the workers, and he feels good about it. Wild fully justifies his surname. He not only enjoys the hard and gratuitous labor of men, but also mocks them. “He will first break upon us, abuse us in every possible way, as his soul pleases,” but still he will not pay anything. It will also make them guilty. Or he will throw a penny and make you rejoice and thank, because he could not give it.

    An equally important element of the dark kingdom is Kabanikha and the stuffy, unpleasant atmosphere in her house. Marfa Ignatyevna is kind and generous for the show, she gives to the poor, and they pray for her. And she completely ate her “homemade”. She likes to bully her own son and his young wife Katerina. She is pleased that her daughter-in-law was afraid of her. Katerina sincerely loves her husband and even her mother-in-law, she calls her mother. She does not know how to pretend and does not strive for this, which her mother-in-law cannot understand at all. This trait in the daughter-in-law causes anger and irritation in the mistress of the house. Very accurately called Dobrolyubov Katerina a ray of light in a dark kingdom. But one beam cannot illuminate large expanses and it perishes, crushed by darkness.

    Doyurolyubov writes in his critical article that "the freedom of the individual, faith in love and happiness, the shrine of honest labor, is impossible where human dignity is thrown into dust and brazenly trampled on by tyrants." He also does not remove responsibility from those who allow themselves to be trampled on. The critic believes that the dark world described by Ostrovsky is close to collapse. That the play presents "shakiness and the near end of tyranny." After all, there are already rare rays, such as Katerina, which means that the sun will soon rise over this kingdom.

    Option 2

    The work "Thunderstorm" by A. N. Ostrovsky was written on the eve of the abolition of serfdom in 1859. And it became the first sign of a change in the era. In "Thunderstorm" the merchant environment is illuminated, which personifies the "dark kingdom" in the work. Ostrovsky settled in the city of Kalinov a whole range of negative images. On the example of their reader, such characteristics as ignorance, ignorance and adherence to the old foundations are revealed. It can be indicated that all the townspeople are imprisoned in the shackles of the old "house-building". The brightest representatives of the "dark kingdom" are Kabanova and Dikoy, in them the reader can clearly see the ruling class of that time.

    Let's take a closer look at the described images of Marfa Kabanova and Dikoy.

    Dikoy and Kabanova are the wealthiest merchants in Kalinovo, they are the "supreme" power, with the help of it they believe that they can crush the serfs, but even more so their relatives, deciding that they are right.

    Ostrovsky opens the reader to the world of the merchants, with all its vices, realities and true events and many vivid, demonstrative images. Showing that there is nothing human, spiritual, good. There is no faith in a new, better future, love and free labor.

    Such qualities as tyranny, ignorance, rudeness, cruelty and greed are always present in these images. Do not eradicate all this, since the upbringing and environment left their mark on the personality of Wild and Kabanova. Such images are attracted to each other, and cannot be without each other, where one ignoramus appeared, there another will appear. It is very convenient to hide your stupidity and ignorance under the guise of progressive thoughts and education, such images can be found everywhere. Considering themselves "the hand of power" they oppress those around them, not worrying about taking responsibility for their deeds. Kabanov and Wild is a world of money, envy, cruelty and malice. They shy away from innovation and progressive thoughts.

    Kabanova Marfa Ignatievna is very despotic and hypocritical, in her opinion, family relationships should be subject to fear. She finally seized her brownies and did not take root very firmly in the old foundations both in the house and in her head.

    The image of the Wild is very ambiguous and complex. He is experiencing his inner protest, Wild realizes how callous his nature and heart are, but he cannot do anything about it. First he scolds what the world stands on, and then asks for forgiveness and repentance.

    The main idea of ​​the play "Thunderstorm" by Ostrovsky is to expose the "dark kingdom", a mean merchant environment, with the help of the images of Dikoy and Kabanova. But they are the only symbolic images, they convey to the reader the thoughts and reasoning of the author. He pointed to the vices of rich people, denouncing them without spirituality, meanness, cruelty. At the end of the play, the idea that life is unbearable and terrible in the "dark kingdom" is very clearly conveyed. Unfortunately, the world of tyrants oppresses a progressive and new person who could overcome ignorance, falsehood and meanness. In Russia at that time, cities and villages were full of such images as the work "Thunderstorm".

    The Dark Kingdom in the play by Ostrovsky Thunderstorm

    The play "Thunderstorm" was published two years before the introduction of his great reform by Alexander II. The desire for change was growing in society, but so was the fear of it. In nature, a thunderstorm is terrible in appearance and the force beating in it, but beneficial in its consequences. A.N. Ostrovsky wrote in an atmosphere of changes expected by many, bringing to light the "ulcers of society."

    He introduces us into the oppressive atmosphere of a merchant environment, a real "house-building". The “dark kingdom” shown by him is in the pre-storm stage, when everything calms down. It seems that even the air for breathing is not enough. This atmosphere is so depressing. The near end of their power over the minds of those around Kabanikh and Dikaya is not yet felt. As long as they are sovereign rulers. The imperious Marfa Kabanova plagues everyone with her meticulousness, reproaches and suspicion. Her ideal is the old ways and customs. Wild - a tyrant, a drunkard and an ignorant person. He is much more primitive than Kabanova, but the power of money and old customs brought him into the circle of the "fathers" of the city. They subjugated almost everyone. The son of Kabanikha Tikhon does not contradict his mother in anything. Resigned to the "spiritual" slavery and nephew Wild Boris. Only sister Tikhon lives as she sees fit. But for this, Varvara imitates submission, deceives and tricks everyone. And so almost everything. Someone is afraid of the power of money, someone is pressure and arrogance, someone is feigned splendor, and someone is afraid just out of habit.

    But not everyone reconciled. The despotism of Dikoy and Kabanikh is opposed by Katerina and Kuligin. Katerina is a pure and bright soul. Unable to withstand the unequal struggle, she commits the most terrible sin in the Christian faith - suicide. But this protest against the oppressive atmosphere of life in the city, if not dispelling the clouds completely, then made it possible to break through them a small ray of light and hope. A murmur rises and sprouts of resistance to the “dark kingdom” may sprout. And there is a leader of the resistance. Kuligin is still acting by conviction, trying to show everyone the horror of what is happening. Let's be honest, he doesn't do very well. But he did not break down and continues to fight for the minds, trying to change the mood in society.

    I really like the play "Thunderstorm" by the meticulous enumeration of the vices of the author's contemporary society. He deliberately exaggerates and does not allow comic situations, which he is a master at describing. I think that he also does not indicate the ways of solving the problem on purpose. As an experienced person, an “engineer of human souls,” as writers will be called in our country in the next century, he knows that logical constructions do not work in real life. The main thing is to show the problem in all its "glory" and convey to people that the absence of its solution will lead to the gradual degradation of society. I believe that this goal A.N. Ostrovsky achieved by writing the play "Thunderstorm".

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