The tragedy of the work.

Critics rating

1. Oblomov - Stolz.

2. Oblomov - Olga Ilyinskaya

The problem of love.

The tragedy of the work.

The tragedy takes place in the city of Kalinov, which is located among the greenery of gardens on the steep bank of the Volga. “For fifty years I’ve been looking across the Volga every day and I can’t get enough of it. The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices,” Kuligin admires. It would seem that the life of the people of this city should be beautiful and joyful. However, the life and customs of the rich merchants created “a world of prison and deathly silence.” Savel Dikoy and Marfa Kabanova are the personification of cruelty and tyranny. The order in the merchant's house is based on the outdated religious dogmas of Domostroy. Dobrolyubov says about Kabanikha that she “gnaws at her victim... long and relentlessly.” She forces her daughter-in-law Katerina to bow at her husband’s feet when he leaves, scolds her for “not howling” in public when seeing off her husband.

Kabanikha is very rich, this can be judged by the fact that the interests of her affairs go far beyond Kalinov; on her instructions, Tikhon travels to Moscow. She is respected by Dikoy, for whom the main thing in life is money. But the merchant's wife understands that power also brings obedience to those around her. She seeks to kill any manifestation of resistance to her power in the home. The boar is hypocritical, she only hides behind virtue and piety, in the family she is an inhuman despot and tyrant. Tikhon does not contradict her in anything. Varvara learned to lie, hide and dodge.

The main character of the play Katerina is marked strong character, she is not used to humiliation and insults and therefore conflicts with her cruel old mother-in-law. In her mother’s house, Katerina lived freely and easily. In the Kabanov House she feels like a bird in a cage. She quickly realizes that she cannot live here for long.

Katerina married Tikhon without love. In Kabanikha’s house, everything trembles at the mere imperious cry of the merchant’s wife. Life in this house is difficult for young people. And then Katerina meets a completely different person and falls in love. For the first time in her life, she experiences deep personal feeling. One night she goes on a date with Boris. Whose side is the playwright on? He is on Katerina’s side, because a person’s natural aspirations cannot be destroyed. Life in the Kabanov family is unnatural. And Katerina does not accept the inclinations of those people with whom she ended up. Hearing Varvara’s offer to lie and pretend, Katerina replies: “I don’t know how to deceive, I can’t hide anything.”

Katerina's directness and sincerity evokes respect from both the author, the reader, and the viewer. She decides that she can no longer be a victim of a soulless mother-in-law, she cannot languish behind bars. She's free! But she saw a way out only in her death. And one could argue with this. Critics also disagreed about whether it was worth paying Katerina for freedom at the cost of her life. So, Pisarev, unlike Dobrolyubov, considers Katerina’s act senseless. He believes that after Katerina’s suicide everything will return to normal, life will go on as usual, and the “dark kingdom” is not worth such a sacrifice. Of course, Kabanikha brought Katerina to her death. As a result, her daughter Varvara runs away from home, and her son Tikhon regrets that he did not die with his wife.

It is interesting that one of the main, active images of this play is the image of the thunderstorm itself. Symbolically expressing the idea of ​​the work, this image directly participates in the action of the drama as a real natural phenomenon, enters into action at its decisive moments, and largely determines the actions of the heroine. This image is very meaningful; it illuminates almost all aspects of the drama.

So, already in the first act a thunderstorm broke out over the city of Kalinov. It broke out like a harbinger of tragedy. Katerina already said: “I’ll die soon,” she confessed to Varvara her sinful love. In her mind, the mad lady's prediction that the thunderstorm would not pass in vain, and the feeling of her own sin with a real thunderclap had already been combined. Katerina rushes home: “It’s still better, everything is calmer, I’m at home - to the images and pray to God!”

After this, the storm ceases for a short time. Only in Kabanikha’s grumbling are its echoes heard. There was no thunderstorm that night when Katerina felt free and happy for the first time after her marriage.

But the fourth, climactic act, begins with the words: “The rain is falling, as if a thunderstorm is not gathering?” And after that the thunderstorm motif never ceases.

The dialogue between Kuligin and Dikiy is interesting. Kuligin talks about lightning rods (“we have frequent thunderstorms”) and provokes Dikiy’s anger: “What other kind of electricity is there? Well, how come you are not a robber? A thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment, so that we can feel it, but you want to defend yourself, God forgive me, with poles and some horns. What are you, a Tatar or what?” And in response to the quotation from Derzhavin, which Kuligin cites in his defense: “I decay with my body in dust, I command thunder with my mind,” the merchant does not find anything to say at all, except: “And for these words, send you to the mayor, so he will will ask!”

Undoubtedly, in the play the image of a thunderstorm takes on special meaning: This is a refreshing, revolutionary start. However, the mind is condemned to dark kingdom, he encountered impenetrable ignorance, supported by stinginess. But still, the lightning that cut through the sky over the Volga touched the long-silent Tikhon and flashed over the destinies of Varvara and Kudryash. The thunderstorm shook everyone up thoroughly. Inhuman morals will sooner or later come to an end. The struggle between the new and the old has begun and continues. This is the meaning of the work of the great Russian playwright.

Role minor characters in the drama "The Thunderstorm". The drama “The Thunderstorm” as assessed by critics (N.A. Dobrolyubov, D.I. Pisarev, A.A. Grigoriev, A.V. Druzhinin).

The secondary characters in the play not only form the background against which the personal drama of Katerina, the main character of the work, unfolds. They show us different types people's attitudes towards their lack of freedom. The system of images in the play is such that all the minor characters form conditional pairs, and only Katerina is alone in her true desire to escape from the yoke of the “tyrants.”

Dikoy and Kabanov are people who keep those who are somehow dependent on them in constant fear. Dobrolyubov very aptly called them “tyrants,” since the main law for everyone is their will. It is no coincidence that they treat each other very respectfully: they are the same, only the sphere of influence is different. Dikoy rules in the city, Kabanikha rules in her family.

Katerina's constant companion is Varvara, the sister of her husband Tikhon. She is the main opponent of the heroine.

Critics rating

The thunderstorm, according to Dobrolyubov, is Ostrovsky’s most decisive work, for it marks the near end of tyrant power. The central conflict of the drama - the clash of the heroine defending her human rights with the world of the dark kingdom - expressed the essential aspects folk life during a revolutionary situation. And that is why the critic considered the drama Thunderstorm a truly folk work.

Characterizing the social atmosphere of the 60s, Dobrolyubov wrote: Wherever you look, everywhere you see the awakening of the individual, the presentation of his legal rights, protest against violence and tyranny, for the most part still timid, vague, ready to hide, but still already making his existence noticeable. Dobrolyubov saw the manifestation of an awakened and ever-growing protest against the oppression of tyrants in his feelings and actions, in the very death of Katerina.

The critic assessed Ostrovsky's drama as a work that expresses the urgent needs of its time - the demand for law, legality, respect for man. In the image of Katerina, he sees the embodiment of Russian living nature. Katerina prefers to die than to live in captivity.

3.A.I. Goncharov “Oblomov” The principle of plot antithesis in the novel (Oblomov–Stolz, Oblomov–Olga). The problem of love in the novel.

1. Oblomov - Stolz.

2. Oblomov - Olga Ilyinskaya

Stolz - no goodie novel, his activity sometimes resembles the activity of Sudbinsky from the despised Stolz of Oblomov’s St. Petersburg entourage: work, work, work again, like a machine, without rest, entertainment and hobbies.

His practicality is far from high ideals; he resembles a businessman, a tourist. The image of Stolz is schematic, emotionally faceless.

Goncharov does not know what business can save Russia from Oblomovism. A writer can answer only one eternal question: “who is to blame?” - autocracy, serfdom. On the second problematic issue doesn’t know the answer: “What should I do?”

The main plot situation in the novel is the relationship between Olga Ilyinskaya and Oblomov.

Goncharov follows the path that has become traditional in Russian literature: a person is morally weak to the test of love, but if he is able to respond to strong feeling love. Oblomov reinforces this conclusion. Olga Ilyinskaya is characterized by harmony of mind, heart, will, activity and kindness. Goncharov poetizes Oblomov’s suddenly flared up feeling of love. There is a feeling that Oblomov will be reborn as a person to the fullest. The hero’s inner life began to move, along with the feeling of love for Olga, an active interest in spiritual life, in art, in the mental demands of that time awakens in Oblomov. Oblomov’s feeling of love for Olga was a short-term flash. Oblomov’s illusions on this score quickly dissipate. The gap between Olga and Oblomov is natural. Their natures are too different. More valuable than romantic dates was the thirst for a serene sleepy state for Oblomov. “A man sleeps serenely” - this is Ilya Ilyich’s ideal of existence.

Life in Pshenitsina’s house is physically inert, and therefore unhealthy. Oblomov goes quickly towards his eternal dream - death. He gradually fits into a wide and spacious coffin. Dobrolyubov saw predecessors in Oblomov, who are also historically determined - these are images extra people: Onegin, Pechorin, Rudin (Turgenev).

The problem of love.

In his work “Oblomov” I. A. Goncharov tries to find answers to those eternal questions questions that a person asks himself at least once in his life. And one of these multifaceted worlds, to the study and understanding of which the author devoted his novel, is the world of harmony, happiness, and love. Love, as it were, permeates the entire work, filling it with different colors, revealing the most unexpected features of the hero, awakening in them a thirst for action and knowledge.

The second, no less significant function of the love plot in a novel is opposition. IN this work two collective images, who are complete opposites when comparing characters or appearance - they both pass the test of love. Both Oblomov and Stolz are connected by the thread of their relationship with Olga. How different their behavior is when they fall in love with her, and how much more it gives than any other comparison.

A. N. Ostrovsky is rightfully considered the father of Russian everyday drama and Russian theater. He opened up new horizons for the Russian theater, new heroes, a new type of human relations. About 60 plays belong to his pen, of which the most famous are “Dowry”, “ Late love”, “Forest”, “Simplicity is enough for every wise man”, “We will count our own people” and, of course, “Thunderstorm”.
The play “The Thunderstorm” was called by A. N. Dobrolyubov the most decisive work, since “the mutual relations of tyranny and voicelessness are brought to tragic consequences in it...”. Indeed, the play takes us to the small Volga town of Kalinov, which would not be anything remarkable if, in the depths of its patriarchy, problems had not arisen that can be attributed to a number of universal human problems. Stuffiness is the main thing that determines the atmosphere of the city. And the playwright very accurately conveys to us the state of mind of people forced to spend their lives in this atmosphere.
The secondary characters in the play not only form the background against which the personal drama of Katerina, the main character of the work, unfolds. They show us different types of people’s attitudes towards their lack of freedom. The system of images in the play is such that all the minor characters form conditional pairs, and only Katerina is alone in her true desire to escape from the yoke of the “tyrants.”
Dikoy and Kabanov are people who keep those who are somehow dependent on them in constant fear. Dobrolyubov very aptly called them “tyrants,” since the main law for everyone is their will. It is no coincidence that they treat each other with great respect: they are the same, only their sphere of influence is different. Dikoy rules in the city, Kabanikha rules over her family.
Katerina's constant companion is Varvara, the sister of her husband Tikhon. She is the main opponent of the heroine. Her main rule: “Do whatever you want, as long as everything is sewn and covered.” Varvara cannot be denied intelligence and cunning; Before marriage, she wants to be everywhere, to try everything, because she knows that “girls go out as they want, father and mother don’t care. Only women are locked up.” Varvara perfectly understands the essence of the relationship between people in their house, but does not consider it necessary to fight her mother’s “thunderstorm”. Lying is the norm for her. In a conversation with Katerina, she speaks directly about this: “Well, you can’t do without it... Our whole house rests on this. And I wasn’t a liar, but I learned when it became necessary.” Varvara adapted to the dark kingdom, learned its laws and rules. She feels authority, strength, and a desire to deceive. She is, in fact, the future Kabanikha, because the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Varvara's friend, Ivan Kudryash, is a match for her. He 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 conversation, he behaves cheekily, smartly, boldly, boasts of his prowess, red tape, and knowledge of the “merchant establishment.” He also adapted to the tyranny of the Wild. Moreover, one can even assume that Kudryash could become the second Wild.
At the end of the play, Varvara and Kudryash leave the “dark kingdom,” but does this escape mean that they have completely freed themselves from old traditions and laws and will become the source of new laws of life and honest rules? Hardly. They will most likely try to become masters of life themselves.
The couple also consists of two men with whom Katerina’s fate was connected. They can be confidently called the true victims of the “dark kingdom.” So Katerina’s husband Tikhon is a weak-willed, spineless creature. He obeys his mother in everything and obeys her. He doesn't have a clear life position, courage, boldness. His image fully corresponds to the name given to him - Tikhon (quiet). Young Kabanov not only does not respect himself, but also allows his mother to shamelessly treat his wife. This is especially evident in the farewell scene before leaving for the fair. Tikhon repeats word for word all his mother’s instructions and moral teachings. Kabanov could not resist his mother in anything, he only sought solace in wine and on those short trips when, at least for a while, he could escape from his mother’s oppression.
Of course, Katerina cannot love and respect such a husband, but her soul yearns for love. She falls in love with Dikiy's nephew, Boris. But Katerina fell in love with him, in the apt expression of A.N. Dobrolyubov, “in the wilderness,” because in essence Boris is not much different from Tikhon. Perhaps he was more educated and, like Katerina, did not spend his entire life in Kalinov. Boris's lack of will, his desire to receive his part of his grandmother's inheritance (and he will receive it only if he is respectful to his uncle) turned out to be stronger than love. Katerina bitterly says that Boris, unlike her, is free. But his freedom is only in the absence of his wife.
Kuligin and Feklusha also form a couple, but here it is appropriate to talk about an antithesis. The wanderer Feklusha can be called an “ideologist” of the “dark kingdom.” With her stories about lands where people with dog heads live, about thunderstorms, which are perceived as irrefutable information about the world, she helps “tyrants” keep people in constant fear. Kalinov for her is a land blessed by God. The self-taught mechanic Kuligin, who is looking for a perpetual motion machine, is the complete opposite of Feklusha. He is active, obsessed constant desire do something useful for people. A condemnation of the “dark kingdom” is put into his mouth: “Cruel, sir, the morals in our city are cruel... Whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor so that his labors will be free of more more money make money...” But all his good intentions run into a thick wall of misunderstanding, indifference, and ignorance. So, when he tries to install steel lightning rods on houses, he receives a furious rebuff from the Wild: “A thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment, so that we can feel it, but you want to defend yourself, God forgive me, with poles and some kind of rods.”
Kuligin is perhaps the only one who understands the main character; it is no coincidence that it is he who utters accusatory words at the end of the play, holding her in his arms dead body Katerina. But he is also incapable of fighting, since he too has adapted to the “dark kingdom” and has come to terms with such a life.
And finally, the last character - half-crazy lady, which at the very beginning of the play predicts the death of Katerina. She becomes the personification of those ideas about sin that live in the soul raised in a patriarchal family religious Catherine. True, in the finale of the play, Katerina manages to overcome her fear, for she understands that lying and humbling herself all her life is a greater sin than suicide.
The secondary characters, as already mentioned, are the background against which the tragedy of a desperate woman unfolds. Each character in the play, each image is a detail that allows the author to convey as accurately as possible the situation of the “dark kingdom” and the unpreparedness of most people to fight.

A. N. Ostrovsky is rightfully considered the singer of the merchant milieu, the father of Russian everyday drama, Russian national theater. He is the author of about 60 plays, and one of the most famous is “The Thunderstorm”. A. N. Dobrolyubov called Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” the most decisive work, since “the mutual relations of tyranny and voicelessness are brought to tragic consequences in it... There is something refreshing and encouraging in “The Thunderstorm”. This something is, in our opinion, the background of the play.”

The background of the play is made up of minor characters. This is the constant companion of Katerina, the main character of the play, Varvara, the sister of Katerina’s husband, Tikhon Kabanova. She is the opposite of Katerina. Her main rule: “Do whatever you want, as long as everything is sewn and covered.” You can’t deny Varvara her intelligence and cunning, before marriage she wants to be everywhere, to try everything, because she knows that “girls go out as they please, father and mother don’t care. Only women are locked up.” Lying is the norm for her. Otsa directly tells Katerina that it is impossible without deception: “Our whole house rests on this. And I was not a liar, but I learned when it became necessary.”

Varvara adapted to the “dark kingdom” and studied its laws and rules. She feels authority, strength, readiness and even a desire to deceive. She is, in fact, the future Kabanikha, because the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Varvara's friend, Kudryash, is a match for her. He is the only one in the city of Kalinov who can repel the Wild One. “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. He behaves cheekily, smartly, boldly, boasts of his prowess and knowledge of the “merchant establishment.” Kudryash is the second Wild, only still young.

In the end, Varvara and Kudryash leave the “dark kingdom,” but their escape does not mean at all that they have completely freed themselves from old traditions and laws and will accept new laws of life and fair rules. Once free, they will most likely try to become masters of life themselves.

The play also contains true victims of the “dark kingdom”. This is Katerina Kabanova’s husband, Tikhon, a weak-willed, spineless creature. He listens to his mother in everything and obeys her, does not have a clear position in life, courage, courage. His image fully corresponds to his name - Tikhon (quiet). Young Kabanov not only does not respect himself, but also allows his mother to shamelessly treat his wife. This is especially evident in the farewell scene before leaving for the fair. Tikhon repeats word for word all his mother’s instructions and moral teachings. Kabanov could not resist his mother in anything; he slowly drank himself to death, becoming even more weak-willed and quiet. Of course, she cannot love and respect such a husband, but her soul yearns for love. She falls in love with Dikiy's nephew, Boris. But Katerina fell in love with him, in Dobrolyubov’s apt expression, “in the wilderness,” because in essence Boris is not much different from Tikhon. Maybe a little more educated. Boris's lack of will, his desire to receive his part of his grandmother's inheritance (and he will receive it only if he is respectful to his uncle) turned out to be stronger than love. .

In the “dark kingdom” the wanderer Feklusha enjoys great reverence and respect. Feklushi's stories about the lands where people with dog heads live are perceived as irrefutable information about the world. But not everything in it is so gloomy: there are also living, sympathetic souls. This is a self-taught mechanic, Kuligin, who invents a perpetual motion machine. He is kind and active, literally obsessed with a constant desire to do something useful for people. But all his good intentions run into a thick wall of misunderstanding, indifference, and ignorance. So, in response to an attempt to install steel lightning rods on houses, he receives a furious rebuff from the Dikiy: “The thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment so that we can feel it, but you want to defend yourself, God forgive me, with poles and some kind of rods.”

Kuligin is essentially the reasoner in the play; the condemnation of the “dark kingdom” is put into his mouth: “Cruel, sir, the morals in our city are cruel... Whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor so that he can get even more free money for his labors.” make money..."

But Kuligin, like Tikhon, Boris, Varvara, Kudryash, adapted to the “dark kingdom” and came to terms with such a life. The secondary characters, as already mentioned, are the background against which the tragedy of a desperate woman unfolds. Every face in the play, every image was a step on the ladder that led Katerina to the banks of the Volga, to death.

THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF MINIOR CHARACTERS IN THE DRAMA “THE STORM”.

A.N. Ostrovsky was born and spent his childhood in Zamoskvorechye, where merchants, artisans, and the poor had long settled. Almost 50 plays were written by him over a long period of time literary life, and many of them were rooted in their native Zamoskvorechye. The drama “The Thunderstorm” (1859), written at a time of social upsurge on the eve of the peasant reform, seemed to crown the first decade of the writer’s activity, a cycle of his plays about the “dark kingdom” of tyrants. The artist’s imagination takes us to the small Volga town of Kalinov - with merchant warehouses on the main street, with old church, where pious parishioners go to pray, with a public garden above the river, where ordinary people walk decorously on holidays, with gatherings on benches near the planked gates, behind which chained dogs bark furiously. The rhythm of life is sleepy, boring, to match the tediously long summer day, with which the action of the play begins: ".

The main conflict of the drama does not boil down to the love story of Katerina and Boris. Development dramatic conflict it would have been impossible without Feklushi, without Varvara, without Kuligin and others minor characters. Feklusha, a wanderer and hanger-on, is similar to Kabanikha in her reasoning. She thinks like her mistress, she regrets what her mistress regrets - about the antiquity dear to their hearts: “ Last times, Mother Marfa Ignatievna, the last, by all accounts the last.” The interlocutors lament the fact that in other cities life is in full swing. They are terrified by the “fiery serpent” that they began to harness. They expect all sorts of troubles ahead: “And it will be worse than this, dear.” But of the people close to Kabanikha, only Feklusha will not condemn her severity. In the atmosphere of the “dark kingdom”, under the yoke of tyrant power, the living fade and wither human feelings, the will weakens, the mind fades. If a person is endowed with energy and a thirst for life, then, getting used to circumstances, he begins to lie and dodge.

Under the pressure of this dark force The characters of Tikhon and Varvara develop. This power disfigures them, each in their own way. Tikhon is pitiful and impersonal. But even Kabanikha’s oppression did not completely kill the living feelings in him. Somewhere in the depths of his timid soul there glimmers a flame - love for his wife. He does not dare to show this love, and he does not understand Katerina; he is glad to leave even her, just to escape from his home hell. But the fire in his soul does not go out. Confused and depressed, Tikhon speaks about his wife who cheated on him: “But I love her, I’m sorry to lay a finger on her...” His will is constrained, and he does not even dare to help his unfortunate Katya. However, in the last scene, love for his wife overcomes Tikhon’s fear of his mother. Over Katerina’s corpse, for the first time in his life he dares to blame his mother:

“Kabanov. Mama, you ruined her, you, you, you...

Kabanova. What you! You don’t remember yourself! I forgot who you're talking to!

Kabanov. You ruined her! You! You!"

How different these accusations are from Tikhon’s timid, humiliated words when he first appeared on stage: “Do we dare, Mama, to think!”, “Yes, I, Mama...” This means, indeed, the foundations of the “dark kingdom” are collapsing and Kabanikha’s power is wavering, even if Tikhon spoke like that.

The development of characters in The Thunderstorm is associated with the central conflict of the drama. Life in Kabanova’s house also crippled Varvara. She does not want to endure the power of her mother, she does not want to live in captivity. But Varvara easily adapts to the morality of the “dark kingdom” and takes the path of deception. This becomes habitual for her - she claims that it is impossible to live otherwise: their whole house rests on deception. “And I wasn’t a liar, but I learned when it became necessary,” says Varvara. Her everyday rules are very simple: “Do whatever you want, as long as it’s safe and covered.” However, Varvara was cunning while she could, and when they began to lock her up, she ran away from home. And again Kabanikha’s ideals are crumbling. The daughter “disgraced” her house and broke free from her power.

The most weak and pathetic of the characters is Dikiy’s nephew, Boris Grigorievich. He speaks about himself: “I’m walking around completely dead... Driven, beaten...” He is a kind, cultured person. He stood out sharply against the background of the merchant environment. But Boris is unable to protect either himself or the woman he loves. In misfortune, he only rushes about and cries: “Oh, if only these people knew how it feels for me to say goodbye to you! My God! May God grant that someday they may feel as sweet as I do now. Goodbye Katya! You are the villains! Monsters! Oh, if only there was strength! In the scene of his last date with Katerina, Boris evokes contempt. The man she fell passionately in love with is afraid to run away with the woman she loves. He’s afraid to even talk to her: “They wouldn’t find us here.” But it is to this weak-willed person that Katerina’s last words before her death are addressed: “My friend! My joy! Goodbye!"

Katerina's husband Tikhon deserves more respect than Boris, since he dared to make accusations. Even the clerk Wild Curly, who is reputed to be a rude man, commands at least some respect because he was able to protect his love by running away with his beloved. Among the characters in the play, opposed to the Wild and Kabanikha, Kuligin boldly and sensibly judges the “dark kingdom”. This self-taught mechanic has a bright mind and with a broad soul like many talented people from the people. He condemns the greed of the merchants, the cruel attitude towards people, ignorance, and indifference to everything truly beautiful. Kuligin's opposition to the “dark kingdom” is especially expressive in the scene of his clash with Dikiy. Kuligin writes poetry, but his ordinary speech is also imbued with poetry. “It’s very good, sir, to go for a walk now,” he says to Boris. “It’s quiet, the air is excellent, the meadows smell of flowers from across the Volga, the sky is clear...” And then Lomonosov’s poems sound.

Kuligin condemns the “cruel morals” of the Dikikhs and Kabanovs, but he is too weak in his protest. Just like Tikhon, like Boris, he is afraid of tyrant power and bows before it. “There is nothing to do, we must submit!” - he says humbly. Kuligin teaches others to be obedient. He advises Kudryash: “It’s better to endure it.” He recommends the same to Boris: “What should we do, sir. We must try to please somehow.” And only at the end, shocked by the death of Katerina, Kuligin rises to open protest: “Here is your Katerina. Do whatever you want with her! Her body is here, take it; but the soul is now not yours: it is now before a judge who is more merciful than you!” With these words, Kuligin not only justifies Katerina, but also accuses the merciless judges who destroyed her. We see that the death of Katerina awakened a protest against the “dark kingdom” from the voiceless, downtrodden Tikhon, and provoked Kuligin, who was usually timid of tyrants, to open protest. The main conflict of the drama is the struggle between old and new morality. And as the author intended, not only the main character, Katerina, protests against the old world, but also the secondary characters, one way or another, raise their voices against the “dark kingdom.”

Minor characters in the drama "The Thunderstorm"

A.N. Ostrovsky, the author of numerous plays about the merchants, is rightfully considered the “singer of merchant life” and the father of the Russian national theater. He created about 60 plays, the most famous of which are “Dowry”, “Forest”, “We Will Be Numbered”, “Thunderstorm” and many others.

The most striking and decisive, according to A. N. Dobrolyubov, was the play “The Thunderstorm”. In it, “the mutual relations of tyranny and combativeness are brought to tragic consequences... There is something refreshing and encouraging in The Thunderstorm. This something is, in our opinion, the background of the play.” The background or background of the play is made up of minor characters.

The most striking of them is the daughter of the mistress of the Kabanov house - “Varvara. She is Katerina's confidante and constant companion. -the main character plays. Varvara is a smart, cunning, and mischievous girl. She is young and strives to be everywhere before she gets married, to try everything, because she knows that “girls go out as they please, father and mother don’t care. Only women sit locked up.” Adapting to the “Dark Kingdom”, Varvara learned its laws and rules. She became the embodiment of the morality of this kingdom: “Do what you want, as long as everything is sewn and covered.” For her, lying is the norm of life: “Our whole house rests on this,” it’s impossible without deception. Seeing nothing seditious in her lifestyle, Varvara strives to teach Katerina to be cunning and deceive. But honest, sincere Katerina cannot live in this oppressive atmosphere of lies and violence.

But Varvara’s friend, Kudryash, completely shares her views, because he is a typical inhabitant of the “dark kingdom”. Already now the features of the future Wild are visible in him. He is impudent, bold and free in conversation, boasts of his prowess, red tape, and knowledge of the “merchant establishment.” He is no stranger to ambition and the desire for power over people: “I am considered a brute; why are they keeping me? Therefore, he needs me. Well, that means I’m not afraid of him, let him be afraid of me...” Varvara and Kudryash, It would seem that they are leaving the “dark kingdom”, but not in order to give birth to new and honest laws of life, but, most likely, to live in the same “dark kingdom”, but as masters in it.

The true victim of the morals that reigned in the city of Kalinov is Katerina’s husband Tikhon Kabanov. This is a weak-willed, spineless creature. He obeys his mother in everything and obeys her. He does not have a clear position in life, courage, courage. His image fully corresponds to the name given to him - Tikhon (quiet). Young Kabanov not only does not respect himself, but also allows his mother to shamelessly treat his wife. This is especially evident in the farewell scene before leaving for the fair. Tikhon repeats word for word all his mother’s instructions and moral teachings. Tikhon could not resist his mother in anything, he slowly became an alcoholic and, thereby, became even more weak-willed and quiet.

Of course, Katerina cannot love and respect such a husband, but her soul yearns for love. She falls in love with Dikiy's nephew, Boris. But Katkrina fell in love with him, in Dobrolyubov’s apt expression, “in the wilderness,” because in essence Boris is not much different from Tikhon. Perhaps a little more uneducated than him. Boris's servility to his uncle and the desire to receive his share of the inheritance turned out to be stronger than love.

Minor characters of wanderers and praying mantises also help create the necessary background for the play. With their fantastic fables they emphasize the ignorance and denseness of the inhabitants of the “dark kingdom”. Feklushi's stories about the lands where people with dog heads live are perceived by them as immutable facts about the universe. .

The only living and thinking soul in the city of Kalinov is the self-taught mechanic Kuligin, who is looking for a perpetual motion machine. He is kind and active, obsessed with a constant desire to help people, to create something necessary and useful. But all his good intentions run into a thick wall of misunderstanding and indifference. So, when he tries to install lightning rods on houses, he receives a furious rebuff from the Wild: “A thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment, so that we can feel it, but you want to defend yourself with poles and some kind of goads, God forgive me.” Kuligin gives a vivid and true description of the “dark kingdom”: “Cruel, sir, the morals in our city are cruel... Whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor so that he can make even more money from his free labors...”

Condemning and disagreeing with the laws of Kalinov’s life, Kuligin does not fight them. He reconciled and adjusted to her.

All the minor characters in the play created the background against which Katerina’s tragedy unfolds. Every face, every image in the play was a step in the ladder that led the heroine to her own death.