Groza Ostrovsky - what is the dark kingdom? "Dark Kingdom" in the play "The Thunderstorm"

The drama “The Thunderstorm” was written by A.N. Ostrovsky on the eve of the peasant reform in 1859. The author reveals to the reader the features of the social structure of that time, the characteristics of a society standing on the threshold of significant changes.

Two camps

The play takes place in Kalinov, a merchant town on the banks of the Volga. Society was divided into two camps - the older generation and the younger generation. They involuntarily collide with each other, since the movement of life dictates its own rules, and it will not be possible to preserve the old system.

The “Dark Kingdom” is a world characterized by ignorance, lack of education, tyranny, house-building, and aversion to change. The main representatives are the merchant's wife Marfa Kabanova - Kabanikha and Dikoy.

Kabanikha's world

Kabanikha torments her family and friends with groundless reproaches, suspicions and humiliations. For her, it is important to adhere to the rules of the “old times,” even at the expense of ostentatious actions. She demands the same from her environment. Behind all these laws there is no need to talk about any feelings even towards one’s own children. She brutally rules over them, suppressing their personal interests and opinions. The entire way of life of the Kabanovs' house is based on fear. To intimidate and humiliate is the life position of a merchant’s wife.

Wild

Even more primitive is the merchant Dikoy, a true tyrant, humiliating those around him with loud shouts and abuse, insults and exaltation of his own personality. Why is he acting this way? It’s just that for him it’s a kind of way of self-realization. He brags to Kabanova about how he subtly scolded this or that, admiring his ability to come up with new abuse.

The heroes of the older generation understand that their time is coming to an end, that their usual way of life is being replaced by something different, fresh. This makes their anger become more and more uncontrollable, more violent.

The philosophy of the Wild and Kabanikha is supported by the wanderer Feklusha, a respected guest for both. She tells frightening stories about foreign countries, about Moscow, where instead of people there are certain creatures with dog heads. These legends are believed without realizing that they are thereby exposing their own ignorance.

Subjects of the "dark kingdom"

The younger generation, or rather its weaker representatives, succumb to the influence of the kingdom. For example, Tikhon, who since childhood has not dared to say a word against his mother. He himself suffers from her oppression, but he does not have enough strength to resist her character. Largely because of this, he loses Katerina, his wife. And only bending over the body of his deceased wife does he dare to blame his mother for her death.

Dikiy’s nephew, Boris, Katerina’s lover, also becomes a victim of the “dark kingdom.” He was unable to resist cruelty and humiliation and began to take them for granted. Having managed to seduce Katerina, he could not save her. He didn't have the courage to take her away and start a new life.

A ray of light in a dark kingdom

It turns out that only Katerina breaks out of the usual life of the “dark kingdom” with her inner light. She is pure and spontaneous, far from material desires and outdated life principles. Only she has the courage to go against the rules and admit it.

“DARK KINGDOM” IN A.N. OSTROVSKY’S PLAY “GRO3A”

1.Introduction.

"A ray of light in a dark kingdom."

2. Main part.

2.1 The world of the city of Kalinov.

2.2 Image of nature.

2.3 Inhabitants of Kalinov:

a) Dikoya and Kabanikha;

b) Tikhon, Boris and Varvara.

2.4 The collapse of the old world.

3. Conclusion.

A turning point in the popular consciousness. Yes, everything here seems to be out of captivity.

A. N. Ostrovsky

The play “The Thunderstorm” by Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky, published in 1859, was enthusiastically received by advanced 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, oppressing and killing everything new.

The play opens with a calm, unhurried exposition. Ostrovsky depicts the idyllic world in which the heroes 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’ve been looking at the Volga every day and I can’t get enough of it.” Beautiful nature contrasts with the cruel morals of the city, with the poverty and lack of rights of its inhabitants, with their lack of education and limitations. The heroes seem to be closed in this world; they don’t want to know anything new and don’t see other lands and countries. Merchant Dikoy and Marfa Kabanova, nicknamed Kabanikha, are true representatives of the “dark kingdom”. These are individuals with a strong character, who have power over other heroes and manipulate their relatives with the help of Money. They adhere to the old, patriarchal order, which completely suits them. Kabanova tyranns all members of her family, constantly finding fault with her son and daughter-in-law, teaching and criticizing them. However, she no longer has absolute confidence in the inviolability of patriarchal foundations, so she defends her world with her last strength. Tikhon, Boris and Varvara - representatives younger generation. But they too were influenced by the old world and its orders. Tikhon, completely subordinate to his mother’s authority, gradually becomes an alcoholic. And only the death of his wife makes him cry out: “Mama, you ruined her! You, you, you...” Boris is also under the yoke of his uncle Dikiy. He hopes to receive his grandmother's inheritance, so he endures his uncle's bullying in public. At the request of the Dikiy, he leaves Katerina, pushing her to suicide with this act. Varvara, Kabanikha’s daughter, is a bright and strong personality. By creating visible humility and obedience to her mother, she lives in her own way. When meeting with Kudryash, Varvara is not at all worried about the moral side of her behavior. For her, the first place is the observance of external decency, which drowns out the voice of conscience. However, the patriarchal world, so strong and powerful, which destroyed the main character of the play, is dying. All the heroes feel this. 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 the turning point taking place in people's minds. A new attitude to the world, an individual perception of reality are replacing the patriarchal, communal way of life. In the play "The Thunderstorm" these processes are depicted especially vividly and realistically.

Ostrovsky paints a gloomy picture of tyrant relations: arbitrariness, on the one hand, lawlessness and oppression, on the other, in the drama “The Thunderstorm.”
The action takes place in the provincial town of Kalinov, on the banks of the Volga. Profound ignorance, mental stagnation, senseless rudeness - this is the atmosphere in which the action develops.

Kalinov is truly a “dark kingdom,” as Dobrolyubov aptly dubbed the entire world depicted by Ostrovsky. The Kalinovites mostly learn about what happens outside their town and how people live there from various wanderers, like Feklushi. This information is usually of the most fantastic nature: about unrighteous judges, about people with dog heads, about a fiery serpent. Historical knowledge, for example, about Lithuania, which “fell from the sky,” is of the same nature. Main role tyrant merchants play in the city, holding in their hands the powerless
a lot of middle-class people who, thanks to their money, enjoy the support of the district authorities.

Feeling their complete impunity, they oppress all those under their control, push them around at will, and sometimes directly mock them. “Look for another scolder like ours, Savel Prokofich! There’s no way he’ll cut off a person,” one of the townsfolk says about Dikiy. However, he is a “scolder” only in relation to people who are dependent and unrequited, like Boris and Kuligin; when the hussar scolded him during the transport, he did not dare to say anything to him, but all the family hid from him for two weeks in attics and closets.

The inhabitants of Kalinov have no public interests, and therefore, according to Kuligin, they are all sitting at home, locked up. “And they don’t lock themselves away from thieves, but so that people don’t see them eating their own family and tyrannizing their family. And what tears flow behind these constipations, invisible and inaudible! And what, sir, behind these castles is dark debauchery and drunkenness! “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel!” - says the same Kuligin in another place.

The rudeness and ignorance of the Kalinovites is fully consistent with their conceit and complacency: both Dikoy and Kabanova are quite sure that it is impossible to live otherwise than how they live. But they live according to the old ways, with distrust, even hatred towards any innovation. They have complete contempt for science and knowledge in general, as can be seen from Dikiy’s conversation with Kuligin about electricity. Considering themselves to be right in everything, they are imbued with confidence that only they hold on to the light. “Something will happen when the old people die,” says Kabanova, “I don’t even know how the light will stay on.” Having no solids moral concepts, they cling even more stubbornly to their grandfather’s customs and rituals, in which they see the very essence of life. For Kabanova, for example, it is not important that Katerina actually loves her husband, but it is important that she shows it, for example, by “howling” on the porch after he leaves. The religiosity of the Kalinovites is also distinguished by the same ritualism: they go to church, strictly observe fasts, host strangers and wanderers, but the internal, moral side of religion is completely alien to their soul; therefore, their religiosity bears the imprint of hypocrisy and is often associated with gross superstition.

All family relationships in Kalinov are based mainly on fear. When Kabanov tells his mother that he doesn’t need his wife to be afraid of him, it’s enough if she loves him, Kabanova objects indignantly: “Why, why be afraid! How, why be afraid! Are you crazy, or what? He won’t be afraid of you, and he won’t be afraid of me either. What kind of order will there be in the house? After all, you, tea, live with her in law. Ali, do you think the law means nothing?” Therefore, when Katerina, at parting, throws herself on her husband’s neck, Kabanova sternly stops her and forces her to bow at her feet: for her, in the relationship of a wife to her husband, it is the expression of fear and slavish subordination, and not true feeling, that is important.

In The Thunderstorm, Ostrovsky showed how such family despotism affects the oppressed. Stronger and more persistent natures try to deceive the vigilance of domestic tyrants, resorting to pretense and all sorts of tricks; such, for example, is Varvara, Kabanova’s daughter; on the contrary, weak and soft natures, like her son Tikhon, finally lose all will, all independence; Their only protest against constant oppression is that, having temporarily broken free, freed from supervision, they indulge in outrageous revelry, trying to “take a whole year off.” In response to his mother’s reproaches that he doesn’t have “his own mind,” Tikhon even threatens: “I’ll take it and drink the last one I have: then let my mother babysit me like I’m a fool...” And it is quite possible that he will someday carry out this threat.

But especially difficult in the “dark kingdom,” like Kalinov, is the position of such persons who are endowed with significant spiritual strength, which does not allow them to completely break under the yoke of despotism, to lose all consciousness of their personality, but who, at the same time, are too weak to stand up for themselves, and are too pure in soul to resort to cunning and deception; for them, a tragic outcome becomes almost inevitable. This is exactly the situation in which Katerina, the main heroine of “The Thunderstorm,” finds herself.

The Dark Kingdom in the play “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky - this allegorical statement is familiar to everyone from the light hand of his contemporary, the literary critic Dobrolyubov. This is exactly how Nikolai Ivanovich considered it necessary to characterize the difficult social and moral atmosphere in the cities of Russia at the beginning of the 19th century.

Ostrovsky - a subtle connoisseur of Russian life

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky made a brilliant breakthrough in Russian drama, for which he received a worthy review article. He continued the traditions of the Russian national theater laid down by Fonvizin, Gogol, and Griboyedov. In particular, Nikolai Dobrolyubov highly appreciated deep knowledge and the playwright’s truthful portrayal of the specifics of Russian life. The Volga city of Kalinov, shown in the play, became a kind of model for all of Russia.

The deep meaning of the allegory “dark kingdom”

The Dark Kingdom in Ostrovsky's play "The Thunderstorm" is a clear and succinct allegory created by the critic Dobrolyubov, which is based on both a broad socio-economic explanation and a narrower literary one. The latter is formulated in relation to the provincial town of Kalinov, in which Ostrovsky depicted an average (as they now say - statistically average) Russian town of the late 18th century.

The broad meaning of the concept of “dark kingdom”

First, let us characterize the broad meaning of this concept: the dark kingdom in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is a figurative description of the socio-political state of Russia at a certain stage of its development.

After all, a thoughtful reader interested in history has a clear idea of ​​what kind of Russia (late 18th century) we are talking about. The huge country, a fragment of which was shown by the playwright in the play, lived in the old fashioned way, at a time when industrialization was dynamically taking place in European countries. The people were socially paralyzed (which was abolished in 1861). Strategic ones have not yet been built railways. The people for the most part were illiterate, uneducated, and superstitious. In fact, the state was little involved in social policy.

Everything in provincial Kalinov seems to be “cooked in its own juice.” That is, people are not involved in large projects - production, construction. Their judgments betray complete incompetence in the simplest concepts: for example, in the electrical origin of lightning.

The dark kingdom in Ostrovsky's play "The Thunderstorm" is a society devoid of a vector of development. The class of industrial bourgeoisie and proletariat had not yet taken shape... The financial flows of society were not formed insufficient for global socio-economic transformations.

The dark kingdom of the city of Kalinov

In a narrow sense, the dark kingdom in the play “The Thunderstorm” is a way of life inherent in the philistinism and merchant class. According to the description given by Ostrovsky, this community is absolutely dominated by wealthy and arrogant merchants. They constantly exert psychological pressure on others, not paying attention to their interests. There is no control over these ghouls who “eat like crazy.” For these tyrants, money is equivalent to social status, and human and Christian morality is not a decree in their actions. They practically do whatever they want. In particular, realistic, artistically complete images - the merchant Savel Prokopievich Dikoy and the merchant's wife Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova - initiate the “dark kingdom” in the play “The Thunderstorm”. What are these characters? Let's take a closer look at them.

The image of the merchant Saveliy Prokofich Dikiy

Merchant Dikoy is the richest man in Kalinov. However, his wealth does not border on breadth of soul and hospitality, but on “tough character.” And he understands his wolf nature, and wants to change somehow. “Once I fasted about fasting, about great things...” Yes, tyranny is his second nature. When a “little man” comes to him asking to borrow money, Dikoy rudely humiliates him, moreover, it almost comes to beating the unfortunate man.

Moreover, this psychotype of behavior is always characteristic of him. (“What can I do, my heart is like that!”) That is, he builds his relationships with others on the basis of fear and his dominance. This is his usual pattern of behavior towards people with inferior

This man was not always rich. However, he came to wealth through a primitive aggressive established social model of behavior. He builds relationships with others and relatives (in particular, with his nephew) on one principle only: to humiliate them, formally - to deprive them of social rights, and then to take advantage of them himself. However, having felt psychological rebuff from a person of equal status (for example, from the widow of the merchant Kabanikha), he begins to treat him more respectfully, without humiliating him. This is a primitive, two-variant behavior pattern.

Behind the rudeness and suspicion (“So you know that you are a worm!”) hidden greed and self-interest. For example, in the case of a nephew, he effectively disinherits him. Savel Prokofich harbors in his soul hatred for everything around him. His credo is to reflexively crush everyone, crush everyone, clearing a living space for himself. If we were living at this time, such an idiot (sorry for being blunt) could easily, just in the middle of the street, beat us up for no reason, just so that we would cross to the other side of the street, clearing the way for him! But such an image was familiar to serf Russia! It’s not for nothing that Dobrolyubov called the dark kingdom in the play “The Thunderstorm” a sensitive and truthful reflection of Russian reality!

The image of the merchant's wife Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova

The second type of Kalinov’s wild morals is the rich merchant widow Kabanikha. Her social model of behavior is not as primitive as that of the merchant Dikiy. (For some reason, regarding this model, an analogy comes to mind: “The poor eyesight of a rhinoceros is the problem of those around them, not the rhinoceros itself!) Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, unlike the merchant Dikiy, builds her social status gradually. The tool is also humiliation, but of a completely different kind. She influences mainly her family members: son Tikhon, daughter Varvara, daughter-in-law Katerina. She bases her dominance over others on both her material and moral superiority.

Hypocrisy is her key to The merchant's wife has a double morality. Formally and outwardly following the Christian cult, it is far from a truly merciful Christian consciousness. On the contrary, she interprets her ecclesiastical status as a kind of deal with God, believing that she is given the right not only to teach everyone around her everything, but also to indicate how they should act.

She does this constantly, completely destroying her son Tikhon as a person, and pushing her daughter-in-law Katerina to suicide.

If you can bypass the Dikiy merchant, having met him on the street, then with regard to Kabanikha the situation is completely different. If I can put it this way, then she continuously, constantly, and not episodically, like Dikoy, “generates” the dark kingdom in the play “The Thunderstorm”. Quotes from the work characterizing Kabanikha testify: she zombifies her loved ones, demanding that Katerina bow to her husband when he enters the house, instilling that “you can’t contradict mother,” so that the husband gives strict orders to his wife, and on occasion beats her...

Weak attempts to resist tyrants

What contrasts the community of the city of Kalinov with the expansion of the two aforementioned tyrants? Yes, practically nothing. They live in a society that is comfortable for them. As Pushkin wrote in “Boris Godunov”: “The people are silent...”. Someone, educated, tries to timidly express his opinion, like engineer Kuligin. Someone, like Varvara, crippled herself morally, living a double life: giving in to tyrants and doing as she pleases. And someone will face an internal and tragic protest (like Katerina).

Conclusion

Is the word “tyranny” encountered in our everyday life? We hope that for the majority of our readers - much less often than for the residents of the fortress town of Kalinov. Accept your sympathy if your boss or someone from your family circle is a tyrant. Nowadays, this phenomenon does not immediately spread to the entire city. However, it does exist in places. And we should look for a way out of it...

Let's return to Ostrovsky's play. Representatives create the “dark kingdom” in the play “The Thunderstorm”. Their common features are the presence of capital and the desire to dominate society. However, it does not rely on spirituality, creativity, or enlightenment. Hence the conclusion: the tyrant should be isolated, depriving him of the opportunity to lead, as well as depriving him of communication (boycott). A tyrant is strong as long as he feels the indispensability of himself and the demand for his capital.

You should simply deprive him of such “happiness”. It was not possible to do this in Kalinov. Nowadays this is real.

Ostrovsky paints a gloomy picture of tyrant relations: arbitrariness, on the one hand, lawlessness and oppression, on the other, in the drama “The Thunderstorm.”
The action takes place in the provincial town of Kalinov, on the banks of the Volga. Profound ignorance, mental stagnation, senseless rudeness - this is the atmosphere in which the action develops.

Kalinov is truly a “dark kingdom,” as Dobrolyubov aptly dubbed the entire world depicted by Ostrovsky. The Kalinovites mostly learn about what happens outside their town and how people live there from various wanderers, like Feklushi. This information is usually of the most fantastic nature: about unrighteous judges, about people with dog heads, about a fiery serpent. Historical knowledge, for example, about Lithuania, which “fell from the sky,” is of the same nature. The main role in the city is played by tyrant merchants, who hold in their hands the powerless
a lot of middle-class people who, thanks to their money, enjoy the support of the district authorities.

Feeling their complete impunity, they oppress all those under their control, push them around at will, and sometimes directly mock them. “Look for another scolder like ours, Savel Prokofich! There’s no way he’ll cut off a person,” one of the townsfolk says about Dikiy. However, he is a “scolder” only in relation to people who are dependent and unrequited, like Boris and Kuligin; when the hussar scolded him during the transport, he did not dare to say anything to him, but all the family hid from him for two weeks in attics and closets.

The inhabitants of Kalinov have no public interests, and therefore, according to Kuligin, they are all sitting at home, locked up. “And they don’t lock themselves away from thieves, but so that people don’t see them eating their own family and tyrannizing their family. And what tears flow behind these constipations, invisible and inaudible! And what, sir, behind these castles is dark debauchery and drunkenness! “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel!” - says the same Kuligin in another place.

The rudeness and ignorance of the Kalinovites is fully consistent with their conceit and complacency: both Dikoy and Kabanova are quite sure that it is impossible to live otherwise than how they live. But they live according to the old ways, with distrust, even hatred towards any innovation. They have complete contempt for science and knowledge in general, as can be seen from Dikiy’s conversation with Kuligin about electricity. Considering themselves to be right in everything, they are imbued with confidence that only they hold on to the light. “Something will happen when the old people die,” says Kabanova, “I don’t even know how the light will stay on.” Having no firm moral concepts, they cling even more stubbornly to their grandfather’s customs and rituals, in which they see the very essence of life. For Kabanova, for example, it is not important that Katerina actually loves her husband, but it is important that she shows it, for example, by “howling” on the porch after he leaves. The religiosity of the Kalinovites is also distinguished by the same ritualism: they go to church, strictly observe fasts, host strangers and wanderers, but the internal, moral side of religion is completely alien to their soul; therefore, their religiosity bears the imprint of hypocrisy and is often associated with gross superstition.

All family relationships in Kalinov are based primarily on fear. When Kabanov tells his mother that he doesn’t need his wife to be afraid of him, it’s enough if she loves him, Kabanova objects indignantly: “Why, why be afraid! How, why be afraid! Are you crazy, or what? He won’t be afraid of you, and he won’t be afraid of me either. What kind of order will there be in the house? After all, you, tea, live with her in law. Ali, do you think the law means nothing?” Therefore, when Katerina, at parting, throws herself on her husband’s neck, Kabanova sternly stops her and forces her to bow at her feet: for her, in the relationship of a wife to her husband, it is the expression of fear and slavish subordination, and not true feeling, that is important.

In The Thunderstorm, Ostrovsky showed how such family despotism affects the oppressed. Stronger and more persistent natures try to deceive the vigilance of domestic tyrants, resorting to pretense and all sorts of tricks; such, for example, is Varvara, Kabanova’s daughter; on the contrary, weak and soft natures, like her son Tikhon, finally lose all will, all independence; Their only protest against constant oppression is that, having temporarily broken free, freed from supervision, they indulge in outrageous revelry, trying to “take a whole year off.” In response to his mother’s reproaches that he doesn’t have “his own mind,” Tikhon even threatens: “I’ll take it and drink the last one I have: then let my mother babysit me like I’m a fool...” And it is quite possible that he will someday carry out this threat.

But especially difficult in the “dark kingdom,” like Kalinov, is the position of such persons who are endowed with significant spiritual strength, which does not allow them to completely break under the yoke of despotism, to lose all consciousness of their personality, but who, at the same time, are too weak to stand up for themselves, and are too pure in soul to resort to cunning and deception; for them, a tragic outcome becomes almost inevitable. This is exactly the situation in which Katerina, the main heroine of “The Thunderstorm,” finds herself.