Katerina's suicide is strength or weakness? Causes of suicide Katerina ("Thunderstorm")

For the first time the play "Thunderstorm" was staged in St. Petersburg, in the Alexandrinsky Theater, December 2, 1859. She immediately had great success, talked about and argued. They argued mainly about the interpretation of the fate and character of the main character, Katerina Kabanova, as well as the main idea of the play, which outlined a new "hero of the times." "Catherine's suicide is strength or weakness?" - this is the main question, which many critics tried to give their answer. Among them, N.A. Dobrolyubov.

Opinion of NA. Dobrolyubova

Nikolai Alexandrovich devoted this article to his article "A ray of light in a dark kingdom," written in 1860. In the article, the critic of "Contemporary" gives a detailed analysis of the play from the point of view of "real criticism," from a revolutionary-democratic position. This was the second article of Dobrolyubov about the "Thunderstorm." The first, "The Dark Kingdom", was written a year ago, in 1859.

The main theme of these and many other articles devoted to this work is the character of the main character. The fate of Katerina Kabanova really makes us think a lot, and in this article I would like to consider in detail the nature of the main character and the reasons for her unfortunate fate. Nikolai Alexandrovich used images of the "dark kingdom" and "ray of light," which were later often quoted in the analysis of this work. To the question: "Is Katerina's suicide a force or a weakness?" - he responds that this act testifies to the courage of the main character who opposes the evil of the "dark kingdom".

Opinion D.I. Pisarev

However, not all critics agreed with Dobrolyubov's point of view, there was often a polemic between them. For example, D.I. Pisarev in his article "The Motives of Russian Drama", written in 1864, disagreed with the opinion of Nikolai Aleksandrovich that Katerina is a new historical heroine, which the era brought us. In Dmitri Ivanovich's opinion, such a character is Evgeny Bazarov, a democrat from the Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons".

The opinion of A.A. Grigoriev

An interesting point of view of another critic, Grigoriev. A few months before the publication of the article "The Ray of Light in the Dark Realm," he reproached her for suggesting a one-sided approach to Ostrovsky's understanding of his life. In the opinion of this critic, in the first article of Nikolai Aleksandrovich, "The Dark Kingdom," Ostrovsky appears as a punisher and exposer of tyranny.

However, in assessing the main character, the opinions of these two writers coincide. They both talk about the fact that Katerina is a heroic character who has emerged from the people's environment, celebrating the poetry of her soul and the tragedy of fate. Let's try together to answer the question: "Catherine's suicide is strength or weakness?", Detailing the external and internal side of the character of the main character.

Patriarchal merchants in Ostrovsky's image

It should be said that in Ostrovsky this was no longer the first work depicting the patriarchal merchant class. His life was described in other plays by the author of the late 1840s - early 1850s, for example, in the comedy "His people - we'll count!". However, in the early plays of Alexander Nikolayevich there was still no such vivid image, similar to Katerina. The character of the heroine, which originated from the merchant's environment, is a real artistic discovery, created by Alexander Ostrovsky ("The Storm").

At first glance, the emergence of a heroine, which has such an outlook on life, so uncharacteristic of the patriarchal environment of the city of Kalinova, seems casual. However, this was not the case. Her destiny, her desire for happiness at the behest of the heart, and not according to the "law", is the result of deep processes taking place at that time in society, gradually destroying the patriarchal system of the merchant class. The play "Thunderstorm" is full of dialogues about "the end of the world", "the last times", about the fact that young people have ceased to honor traditions and customs; And against this background unfolds the plot of the work.

Symbolism "Thunderstorms"

"Thunderstorm" is a symbolic play, its symbolism is associated with folklore, and this is different from Ostrovsky's early plays. In the work much like a fairy-tale world, even the very image of the city of Kalinov evokes associations with the world of fairy tales. Heroes seem to live in their own closed reality, bounded by the limits of a narrow Kalinin worldview.

In reality, which was created by Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolayevich ("Storm"), there are no actors who at least slightly go beyond these limits. Even Katerina, striving for a different life, has a very vague idea of what this other life is like. She only realizes that her present existence is disgusting. Beloved Katerina, nephew of Wild Boris, is like a stranger who came to this sleepy city from a foreign country in which there was a completely different life. However, he also turns into a subject of the "dark kingdom" of Kalinov, and does not at all resemble the image of Ivan Tsarevich, who saves his beloved.

Katerina is like a "sleeping beauty". But her "awakening" was by no means joyful. Sweet dream of Katerina Kabanova - life in the house of loving parents - was roughly interrupted by marrying an unloved person. Tikhon is weak-minded, in everything submits to his mother, who is in the play a true tyrant.

External conflict

What led to such a tragic ending? Katerina's suicide is strength or weakness? In the play, there are no specific culprits for what happened. The whole Kalinin world is to blame. The main heroine was a victim of the way of life, formed as if under the influence of evil spells, which keep the whole city under their control. The inhabitants of Kalinov are not able to resist them. At best, they only sympathize with Katerina in silence or give her advice on how to deceive Kabanikh and organize a meeting with her lover. However, any proposal of the Kalinovites provokes a protest in her soul, since they all imply some compromise with the morals of the city, with its position as a merchant's wife.

Kalinovtsy used to obey fate, and Katerina challenges her, and the city rejects her. The main heroine personifies dreams about changes. They attract her, beckon, unlike, for example, from the Kabanikhi, to which the "last times" and "the end of the world" are dreaming. Katerina realizes that she is doomed in her pursuit of a new one, and having made sure that this closed world is unable to change and support from anyone, the heroine decides to die. However, when trying to answer the question: "Catherine's suicide is a victory or a defeat?" It is also worth considering the inner conflict of the heroine.

Internal conflict

Tragedy "Thunderstorm" Katerina's suicide determines not only how her external conflict with the "dark kingdom", but also as an internal conflict of the heroine. In her soul, there is a struggle between the old and the new. The thought of violating the moral duty pursues Catherine: she believes that she has sinned that she will never receive forgiveness. This religious consciousness of sin is especially difficult and painful for the main character. She is alternately possessed by her own guilt and heroic despair. Each act of the main heroine perceives as a step towards the abyss, believing that there is no turning back. She does not see any hope of salvation, she never gets the thought of the possibility of forgiveness of sins and the salvation of the soul.

Social, philosophical and psychological aspects of the tragedy

Thus, in understanding the tragic fate of the protagonist, several aspects can be distinguished.

The first aspect is social, because in order to become happy, Katerina must either leave Kalinov, or destroy the whole social and everyday life of this city. Neither one nor the other in this situation is impossible, the heroine is a prisoner of this bewitched world.

The reasons for the suicide of Katerina include the philosophical aspect as a reluctance to obey, opposition to one's own destiny. Here the heroine also can not be the winner. She has two choices: either to reconcile herself with fate, with her role as a victim of the "dark kingdom", or to die. In the play (Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm") Katerina's suicide appears as a natural ending.

The psychological aspect of the tragedy is an internal contradiction between the realization of one's grave sin and the free will that motivates the heroine to transcend internal moral prohibitions. It should be noted that the form that Katerina accepts this prohibition, religious, does not have much significance. After all, suicide is even more difficult than adultery, sin.

All three aspects are interrelated, and all of them are important for a full understanding of the causes of the heroine's tragic death and the answer to the question: "Is Katerina's suicide a victory or a defeat?". So, ordinary adultery has turned into a "Groza" in a large-scale tragedy of personality, and in itself this treachery is more likely not a cause, but only a consequence of its opposition to the Kalinin world.

Katerina's Love for Boris

Love from Katerina is not the highest need of the soul, as in the heroine of "Dowry" Larisa Ogudalova. This is only a form of protest against the life of the merchant's environment, a symbol of freedom. To Boris Katerina refers not as a beloved, but as the embodiment of her dream of freedom.

These characters and do not find a common language: the main character could rise above the life of the Kalinin society, and Boris was unable to do so. So why did Katerina decide to commit suicide?

The heroine decided to drown not from "unhappy love" and not even from the sinful, "impossible" - she was pushed into this Kalinin way of life, because such a desire could not be realized within the narrow framework of this city. Thus, for Ostrovsky for the first time life becomes a form of life, a reflection of the aspirations of man, there is a so-called "philosophy of life."

Philosophy of life

In this work he is endowed with a special function: a reflection of the lowly, material in life people, under which hides all the sublime and spiritual. Destruction of everyday life foreshadows a rapid collapse of the usual social relations.

Even the plot-composition elements "Thunderstorms" are subject to attention to it. The work notes the static nature of the plot, the passage of the most amorous intrigue, as well as many scenes that are not related to the development of the plot, but are necessary for describing the everyday environment of the city. A leisurely development of events corresponds to the pace of life of the Kalinovites, measured and unhurried. The extensive background of the main character, as well as the background of the secondary heroes, creates the feeling that events begin long before the beginning of the narrative. The final scene does not fully exhaust its meaning, hinting at this the possibility of repeating the described events in real life.