Ostrovsky's plays: a list and heroes

Creativity Alexander Ostrovsky deservedly is the pinnacle of Russian drama in the middle of the XIX century. It is familiar to us since school years. And despite the fact that Ostrovsky's plays, whose list is very large, were written back in the century before last, they still remain relevant today. So what is the merit of the famous playwright and how was his creativity innovative?

short biography

Alexander Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12) in 1823 in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka. The childhood of the future playwright was held in Zamoskvorechye, the merchant district of Moscow. The playwright's father, Nikolai Fyodorovich, served as a court solicitor and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. Therefore, Ostrovsky spent several years studying for a lawyer and after that, at the behest of his father, went to court as a scribe. But already then Ostrovsky began to create his first plays. Since 1853, plays playwright in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Alexander Ostrovsky had two wives and six children.

General characteristics of the works and themes of Ostrovsky's plays

Over the years of his work, the playwright has created 47 plays. "Poor Bride", "Forest", "Dowry", "Snow Maiden", "Poverty is not a vice" - all these are Ostrovsky's plays. The list can be continued very long. Most of the plays are comedies. No wonder Ostrovsky remained in history as a great comedian - even in his dramas there is a funny beginning.

Ostrovsky's enormous contribution lies in the fact that he laid the principles of realism in Russian dramatic art. In his work reflects the very life of the people in all their diversity and naturalness, the heroes of Ostrovsky's plays are the most diverse people: merchants, artisans, teachers, officials. Perhaps the works of Alexander Nikolayevich are still close to us precisely because his characters are so realistic, true and so similar to ourselves. Let's analyze this on specific examples of several plays.

Early work of Nikolai Ostrovsky. "We'll count our people"

One of the debut plays, which gave Ostrovsky a general celebrity, was the comedy "His people - we shall be counted". Her plot is built on the basis of actual events from the legal practice of the playwright.

The play depicts the deception of the merchant Bolshov, who declared himself bankrupt so that he did not have to pay his debts, and the counter-swindle of his daughter and son-in-law, who refused to help him. Here Ostrovsky depicts patriarchal traditions of everyday life, characters and vices of Moscow merchants. In this play, the playwright sharply touched on the theme that the red lines went through all his work: this is the theme of the gradual destruction of the patriarchal life, the transformation of moral values and the human relations themselves.

Analysis of Ostrovsky's play "The Storm"

The play "Thunderstorm" became a turning point and one of the best works in Ostrovsky's works. It also shows the contrast between the old patriarchal world and the fundamentally new way of life. The play takes place on the bank of the Volga in the provincial town of Kalinove.

The main heroine Katerina Kabanova lives in the house of her husband and his mother, the merchant Kabanikhi. She suffers from constant pressure and oppression from her mother-in-law - a bright representative of the patriarchal world. Katerina is torn between a sense of duty towards her family and feelings that have overwhelmed her. She is in turmoil because she loves her husband in her own way, but she can not control herself and agrees to see Boris. After the heroine repents, her desire for freedom and happiness collides with established moral principles. Katerina, incapable of deceit, confesses to her husband and Kabanikh.

She can no longer live in a society where lies and tyranny reign and people are not able to perceive the beauty of the world. The husband of the heroine loves Katerina, but she can not, like her, rebel against the oppression of her mother - for this he is too weak. Beloved, Boris, too, is not able to change anything, because he himself can not free himself from the power of the patriarchal world. And Katerina commits suicide - a protest against the old way of life, doomed to destruction.

As for Ostrovsky's play, the list of heroes can be conditionally divided into two parts. In the first there will be representatives of the old world: Kabanikh, Wild, Tikhon. In the second - the heroes, symbolizing a new beginning: Katerina, Boris.

Heroes of Ostrovsky

Alexander Ostrovsky created a whole gallery of the most diverse characters. Here, officials and merchants, peasants and nobles, teachers and artists are many-sided, like life itself. A remarkable feature of the Ostrovsky drama is the speech of his characters - each character speaks his own language, appropriate to his profession and character. It is worth noting the skillful use by the playwright of folk art: proverbs, sayings, songs. As an example, we can mention at least the name of Ostrovsky's plays: "Poverty is not a vice", "We'll count our people" and others.

The significance of the Ostrovsky drama for Russian literature

The dramaturgy of Alexander Ostrovsky served as a significant stage in the formation of the national Russian theater: it was he who created in the present form, and this is the undoubted innovation of his work. Ostrovsky's plays, the list of which was briefly mentioned at the beginning of the article, confirmed the triumph of realism in Russian drama, and he entered its history as an inimitable, original and bright master of words.