Brief description of the heroes of the storm. Characteristics of the characters in the play The Thunderstorm. The attitude of Kabanikha’s children to the patriarchal world

The events in A. N. Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” take place on the Volga coast, in the fictional city of Kalinov. The work provides a list of characters and their brief characteristics, but they are still not enough to better understand the world of each character and reveal the conflict of the play as a whole. There are not many main characters in Ostrovsky’s “The Thunderstorm”.

Katerina, a girl, the main character of the play. She is quite young, she was married off early. Katya was brought up exactly according to the traditions of house building: the main qualities of a wife were respect and humility

to your spouse. At first, Katya tried to love Tikhon, but she could not feel anything but pity for him. At the same time, the girl tried to support her husband, help him and not reproach him. Katerina can be called the most modest, but at the same time the most powerful character in “The Thunderstorm”. Indeed, Katya’s strength of character does not appear outwardly. At first glance, this girl is weak and silent, it seems as if she is easy to break. But this is not true at all. Katerina is the only one in the family who resists Kabanikha’s attacks.
She resists, and does not ignore them, like Varvara. The conflict is rather internal. After all, Kabanikha is afraid that Katya might influence her son, after which Tikhon will stop obeying his mother’s will.

Katya wants to fly and often compares herself to a bird. She is literally suffocating in Kalinov’s “dark kingdom.” Having fallen in love with a visiting young man, Katya created for herself an ideal image of love and possible liberation. Unfortunately, her ideas had little in common with reality. The girl's life ended tragically.

Ostrovsky in “The Thunderstorm” makes not only Katerina the main character. The image of Katya is contrasted with the image of Marfa Ignatievna. A woman who keeps her entire family in fear and tension does not command respect. Kabanikha is strong and despotic. Most likely, she took over the “reins of power” after the death of her husband. Although it is more likely that in her marriage Kabanikha was not distinguished by submissiveness. Katya, her daughter-in-law, suffered the most from her. It is Kabanikha who is indirectly responsible for the death of Katerina.

Varvara is the daughter of Kabanikha. Despite the fact that over so many years she has learned to be cunning and lie, the reader still sympathizes with her. Varvara is a good girl. Surprisingly, deception and cunning do not make her like the rest of the city's residents. She does as she pleases and lives as she pleases. Varvara is not afraid of her mother’s anger, since she is not an authority for her.

Tikhon Kabanov fully lives up to his name. He is quiet, weak, unnoticeable. Tikhon cannot protect his wife from his mother, since he himself is under the strong influence of Kabanikha. His rebellion ultimately proves to be the most significant. After all, it is the words, and not Varvara’s escape, that make readers think about the whole tragedy of the situation.

The author characterizes Kuligin as a self-taught mechanic. This character is a kind of tour guide.
In the first act, he seems to be taking us around Kalinov, talking about its morals, the families that live here, and the social situation. Kuligin seems to know everything about everyone. His assessments of others are very accurate. Kuligin himself is a kind person who is used to living by established rules. He constantly dreams of the common good, of a perpetu mobile, of a lightning rod, of honest work. Unfortunately, his dreams are not destined to come true.

The Wild One has a clerk, Kudryash. This character is interesting because he is not afraid of the merchant and can tell him what he thinks about him. At the same time, Kudryash, just like Dikoy, tries to find benefit in everything. He can be described as a simple person.

Boris comes to Kalinov on business: he urgently needs to establish relations with Dikiy, because only in this case will he be able to receive the money legally bequeathed to him. However, neither Boris nor Dikoy even want to see each other. Initially, Boris seems to readers like Katya, honest and fair. In the last scenes this is refuted: Boris is unable to decide to take a serious step, to take responsibility, he simply runs away, leaving Katya alone.

One of the heroes of “The Thunderstorm” is the wanderer and the maid. Feklusha and Glasha are shown as typical inhabitants of the city of Kalinov. Their darkness and lack of education is truly amazing. Their judgments are absurd and their horizons are very narrow. Women judge morality and ethics according to some perverted, distorted concepts. “Moscow is now full of carnivals and games, but in the streets there is an indo roar and a groan. Why, Mother Marfa Ignatievna, they started harnessing a fiery serpent: everything, you see, for the sake of speed,” is how Feklusha speaks about progress and reforms, and the woman calls a car a “fiery serpent.” The concept of progress and culture is alien to such people, because it is convenient for them to live in an invented limited world of calm and regularity.

This article provides a brief description of the characters in the play “The Thunderstorm”; for a deeper understanding, we recommend that you read the thematic articles about each character in “The Thunderstorm” on our website.

Meaning of the name

A thunderstorm is not only a rampant of the elements, but also a symbol of the collapse and purification of the stagnant atmosphere of a provincial town, where the medieval order of Kabanikha and Dikiy ruled. This is the meaning of the title of the play. With the death of Katerina, which occurred during a thunderstorm, the patience of many people is exhausted: Tikhon rebels against the tyranny of his mother, Varvara escapes, Kuligin openly blames the inhabitants of the city for what happened.

Tikhon first spoke about the thunderstorm during the farewell ceremony: “...For two weeks there will be no thunderstorm over me.” By this word he meant the oppressive atmosphere of his home, where an oppressive mother rules the roost. “A thunderstorm is being sent to us as punishment,” Dikoy says to Kuligin. The tyrant understands this phenomenon as punishment for his sins; he is afraid of paying for his unfair treatment of people. Kabanikha agrees with him. Katerina, whose conscience is also not clear, sees the punishment for sin in thunder and lightning. God's righteous wrath - this is another role of the thunderstorm in Ostrovsky's play. And only Kuligin understands that in this natural phenomenon one can only find a flash of electricity, but his progressive views cannot yet get along in a city in need of cleansing. If you need more information about the role and significance of thunderstorms, you can read on this topic.

Genre and direction

“The Thunderstorm” is a drama, according to A. Ostrovsky. This genre defines a heavy, serious, often everyday plot, close to reality. Some reviewers mentioned a more precise formulation: domestic tragedy.

If we talk about direction, this play is absolutely realistic. The main indicator of this, perhaps, is the description of the morals, habits and everyday aspects of the existence of residents of provincial Volga cities (detailed description). The author attaches great importance to this, carefully outlining the realities of the heroes’ lives and their images.

Composition

Exposition: Ostrovsky paints an image of the city and even the world in which the heroes live and future events will unfold.
What follows is the beginning of Katerina’s conflict with her new family and society as a whole and the internal conflict (dialogue between Katerina and Varvara).
After the beginning, we see the development of the action, during which the heroes strive to resolve the conflict.
Towards the end, the conflict reaches a point where problems require urgent resolution. The climax is Katerina’s last monologue in act 5.
Following it is a denouement that shows the intractability of the conflict using the example of Katerina’s death.

Conflict

Several conflicts can be distinguished in “The Thunderstorm”:

Firstly, this is the confrontation between tyrants (Dikay, Kabanikha) and victims (Katerina, Tikhon, Boris, etc.). This is a conflict between two worldviews - old and new, obsolete and freedom-loving characters. This conflict is highlighted.
On the other hand, the action exists thanks to a psychological conflict, that is, internal - in Katerina’s soul.
The social conflict gave rise to all the previous ones: Ostrovsky begins his work with the marriage of an impoverished noblewoman and a merchant. This trend became widespread during the time of the author. The ruling aristocratic class began to lose power, becoming poorer and ruined due to idleness, wastefulness and commercial illiteracy. But the merchants gained momentum due to unscrupulousness, assertiveness, business acumen and nepotism. Then some decided to improve matters at the expense of others: the nobles married sophisticated and educated daughters to rude, ignorant, but rich sons from the merchant guild. Because of this discrepancy, the marriage of Katerina and Tikhon is initially doomed to failure.

The essence

Brought up in the best traditions of aristocracy, noblewoman Katerina, at the insistence of her parents, married the uncouth and soft-bodied drunkard Tikhon, who belonged to a wealthy merchant family. His mother oppresses her daughter-in-law, imposing on her the false and ridiculous rules of Domostroy: to cry openly before her husband leaves, to humiliate herself in front of us in public, etc. The young heroine finds sympathy from Kabanikha’s daughter, Varvara, who teaches her new relative to hide her thoughts and feelings, secretly acquiring the joys of life. During her husband's departure, Katerina falls in love and begins dating Dikiy's nephew, Boris. But their dates end in separation, because the woman does not want to hide, she wants to escape with her beloved to Siberia. But the hero cannot risk taking her with him. As a result, she still repents of her sins to her visiting husband and mother-in-law and receives severe punishment from Kabanikha. Realizing that her conscience and domestic oppression do not allow her to live further, she rushes into the Volga. After her death, the younger generation rebels: Tikhon reproaches his mother, Varvara runs away with Kudryash, etc.

Ostrovsky's play combines features and contradictions, all the pros and cons of feudal Russia of the 19th century. The town of Kalinov is a collective image, a simplified model of Russian society, described in detail. Looking at this model, we see “an essential need for active and energetic people.” The author shows that an outdated worldview only gets in the way. It first spoils family relationships, and later prevents cities and the entire country from developing.

The main characters and their characteristics

The work has a clear character system into which the images of the heroes fit.

First, they are the oppressors. Dikoy is a typical tyrant and a rich merchant. His insults send the relatives running to the corners. Dikoy is cruel to her servants. Everyone knows that it is impossible to please him. Kabanova is the embodiment of the patriarchal way of life, the outdated Domostroy. A wealthy merchant, a widow, she constantly insists on observing all the traditions of her ancestors and herself strictly follows them. We described them in more detail in this.
Secondly, adaptable. Tikhon is a weak man who loves his wife, but cannot find the strength to protect her from her mother’s oppression. He does not support the old orders and traditions, but sees no point in going against the system. Such is Boris, who endures the machinations of his rich uncle. This is dedicated to revealing their images. Varvara is the daughter of Kabanikha. She takes it by deceit, living a double life. During the day she formally obeys conventions, at night she walks with Curly. Deceit, resourcefulness and cunning do not spoil her cheerful, adventurous disposition: she is also kind and responsive to Katerina, gentle and caring towards her beloved. An entire story is dedicated to the characterization of this girl.
Katerina stands apart; the characterization of the heroine is different from everyone else. This is a young intelligent noblewoman, whom her parents surrounded with understanding, care and attention. Therefore, the girl got used to freedom of thought and speech. But in marriage she faced cruelty, rudeness and humiliation. At first she tried to come to terms with Tikhon and his family, but nothing worked: Katerina’s nature resisted this unnatural union. She then took on the role of a hypocritical mask who has a secret life. This didn’t suit her either, because the heroine is distinguished by her straightforwardness, conscience and honesty. As a result, out of despair, she decided to revolt, admitting her sin and then committing a more terrible one - suicide. We wrote more about Katerina’s image in a section dedicated to her.
Kuligin is also a special hero. He expresses the author’s position, introducing a bit of progressiveness into the archaic world. The hero is a self-taught mechanic, he is educated and smart, unlike the superstitious inhabitants of Kalinov. We also wrote a short story about his role in the play and character.

Themes

The main theme of the work is the life and customs of Kalinov (we dedicated a separate section to it). The author describes a provincial province to show people that they do not need to cling to the remnants of the past, they need to understand the present and think about the future. And the inhabitants of the Volga town are frozen outside of time, their life is monotonous, false and empty. It is spoiled and hampered in its development by superstition, conservatism, as well as the reluctance of tyrants to change for the better. Such a Russia will continue to vegetate in poverty and ignorance.
Also important themes here are love and family, as throughout the narrative, problems of education and generational conflict are raised. The influence of family on certain characters is very important (Katerina is a reflection of her parents’ upbringing, and Tikhon grew up so spineless due to his mother’s tyranny).
Theme of sin and repentance. The heroine stumbled, but realized her mistake in time, deciding to correct herself and repent of what she had done. From the point of view of Christian philosophy, this is a highly moral decision that elevates and justifies Katerina. If you are interested in this topic, read our about it.

Issues

Social conflict entails social and personal problems.

Ostrovsky, firstly, denounces tyranny as a psychological phenomenon in the images of Dikoy and Kabanova. These people played with the destinies of their subordinates, trampling down the manifestations of their individuality and freedom. And because of their ignorance and despotism, the younger generation becomes as vicious and useless as the one that has already outlived its usefulness.
Secondly, the author condemns weakness, obedience and selfishness using the images of Tikhon, Boris and Varvara. By their behavior they only condone the tyranny of the masters of life, although they could jointly turn the situation in their favor.
The problem of the contradictory Russian character, conveyed in the image of Katerina, can be called personal, although inspired by global upheavals. A deeply religious woman, in search and discovery of herself, commits adultery and then commits suicide, which contradicts all Christian canons.
Moral issues associated with love and devotion, education and tyranny, sin and repentance. The characters cannot distinguish one from the other; these concepts are intricately intertwined. Katerina, for example, is forced to choose between loyalty and love, and Kabanikha does not see the difference between the role of a mother and the power of a dogmatist; she is driven by good intentions, but she embodies them to the detriment of everyone.
Tragedy of conscience quite important. For example, Tikhon had to decide whether to protect his wife from his mother’s attacks or not. Katerina also made a deal with her conscience when she became close to Boris. You can find out more about this.
Ignorance. The residents of Kalinov are stupid and uneducated; they believe fortune-tellers and wanderers, and not scientists and professionals in their field. Their worldview is turned to the past, they do not strive for a better life, so there is nothing to be surprised at the savagery of morals and the ostentatious hypocrisy of the main people of the city.

Meaning

The author is convinced that the desire for freedom is natural, despite certain failures in life, and tyranny and hypocrisy are ruining the country and the talented people in it. Therefore, one must defend one’s independence, thirst for knowledge, beauty and spirituality, otherwise the old order will not go away, its falseness will simply embrace the new generation and force it to play by its own rules. This idea is reflected in the position of Kuligin, a unique voice of Ostrovsky.

The author's position in the play is clearly expressed. We understand that Kabanikha, although she preserves traditions, is wrong, just as the rebellious Katerina is wrong. However, Katerina had potential, she had intelligence, she had purity of thoughts, and the great people personified in her could still be reborn, throwing off the shackles of ignorance and tyranny. You can find out even more about the meaning of drama in this topic.

Criticism

"The Thunderstorm" became the subject of fierce debate among critics in both the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 19th century, Nikolai Dobrolyubov (article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”), Dmitry Pisarev (article “Motives of Russian Drama”) and Apollon Grigoriev wrote about it from opposite positions.

I. A. Goncharov highly appreciated the play and expressed his opinion in a critical article of the same name:

In the same drama, a broad picture of national life and morals was laid out, with unparalleled artistic completeness and fidelity. Every person in drama is a typical character, snatched directly from the environment of folk life.

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Katerina, a girl, the main character of the play. She is quite young, she was married off early. Katya was brought up exactly according to the traditions of house-building: the main qualities of a wife were respect and obedience to her husband. At first, Katya tried to love Tikhon, but she could not feel anything but pity for him. At the same time, the girl tried to support her husband, help him and not reproach him. Katerina can be called the most modest, but at the same time the most powerful character in “The Thunderstorm”. Indeed, Katya’s strength of character does not appear outwardly. At first glance, this girl is weak and silent, it seems as if she is easy to break. But this is not true at all. Katerina is the only one in the family who resists Kabanikha’s attacks. She resists, and does not ignore them, like Varvara. The conflict is rather internal in nature. After all, Kabanikha is afraid that Katya might influence her son, after which Tikhon will stop obeying his mother’s will.

Katya wants to fly and often compares herself to a bird. She is literally suffocating in Kalinov’s “dark kingdom”. Having fallen in love with a visiting young man, Katya created for herself an ideal image of love and possible liberation. Unfortunately, her ideas had little in common with reality. The girl's life ended tragically.

Ostrovsky in “The Thunderstorm” makes not only Katerina the main character. The image of Katya is contrasted with the image of Marfa Ignatievna. A woman who keeps her entire family in fear and tension does not command respect. Kabanikha is strong and despotic. Most likely, she took over the “reins of power” after the death of her husband. Although it is more likely that in her marriage Kabanikha was not distinguished by submissiveness. Katya, her daughter-in-law, got the most from her. It is Kabanikha who is indirectly responsible for the death of Katerina.

Varvara is the daughter of Kabanikha. Despite the fact that over so many years she has learned to be cunning and lie, the reader still sympathizes with her. Varvara is a good girl. Surprisingly, deception and cunning do not make her like other residents of the city. She does as she pleases and lives as she pleases. Varvara is not afraid of her mother’s anger, since she is not an authority for her.

The author characterizes Kuligin as a self-taught mechanic. This character is a kind of tour guide. In the first act, he seems to be taking us around Kalinov, talking about its morals, the families that live here, and the social situation. Kuligin seems to know everything about everyone. His assessments of others are very accurate. Kuligin himself is a kind person who is used to living by established rules. He constantly dreams of the common good, of a perpetu mobile, of a lightning rod, of honest work. Unfortunately, his dreams are not destined to come true.

One of the heroes of “The Thunderstorm” is a wanderer and a maid. Feklusha and Glasha are shown as typical inhabitants of the city of Kalinov. Their darkness and lack of education is truly amazing. Their judgments are absurd and their horizons are very narrow. Women judge morality and ethics according to some perverted, distorted concepts. “Moscow is now full of carnivals and games, but in the streets there is an Indian roar and a groan. Why, Mother Marfa Ignatievna, they started harnessing a fiery serpent: everything, you see, for the sake of speed” - this is how Feklusha speaks about progress and reforms, and the woman calls a car a “fiery serpent”. The concept of progress and culture is alien to such people, because it is convenient for them to live in an invented limited world of calm and regularity.

Work test

He opened the “constipations” of two rich merchant houses in the city of Kalinov - the houses of Kabanova and Savel Dikgo.

Kabanikha. Powerful and cruel, the old woman Kabanova is a living personification of the rules of false, sanctimonious “piety”: she knows them well, she herself fulfilled them and steadily demands their fulfillment from others. These rules are as follows: the younger ones in the family must obey the elder; they have no right to have yours opinion, their desires, mine world - they must be “depersonalized”, they must be mannequins. Then they must “be afraid,” live in fear.” If there is no fear in life, then, according to her conviction, the world will cease to stand. When Kabanova convinces her son, Tikhon, to act on his wife with “fear,” he says that he does not want Katerina to be “afraid” of him - it is enough for him if she “loves” him. “Why be afraid? - she exclaims, - Why be afraid? Are you crazy, or what? He won’t be afraid of you, and even less so of me! 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?” Finally, the third rule is not to bring anything “new” into life, to stand for the old in everything - in outlook on life, in human relations, customs and rituals. She laments that “the old stuff is getting out.” “What will happen when the old people die? I don’t even know how the light will stay there!” – she says completely sincerely.

A. N. Ostrovsky. Storm. Play

These are Kabanova’s views, and her cruel nature is reflected in the way they are implemented. She crushes everyone with her lust for power; she knows no pity or condescension towards anyone. She not only “watches” for the implementation of her rules, she invades someone else’s soul with them, finds fault with people, “sharpenes” them for no reason or reason... And all this is done with full consciousness of her “right”, with a consciousness of “necessity” and with constant concerns about external decorum...

The despotism and tyranny of Kabanikha is much worse than that shown by Gordey Tortsov in the play “Poverty is not a vice”, or Wild. Those who do not have any support outside themselves, and therefore it is still possible, although rarely, by skillfully playing on their psychology, to force them to temporarily become ordinary people, as he does We love Tortsov with his brother. But there is no force that would bring Kabanova down: in addition to her despotic nature, she will always find support and support for herself in those foundations of life that she considers an inviolable shrine.

Savel Dikoy. Not so the other “tyrant” of this drama - the merchant Savel Dikoy. This is Gordey Tortsov’s brother: rude, always drunk, who considers himself entitled to scold everyone because he is rich, Dikoy is despotic not “on principle,” like Kabanova, but out of whim, out of whim. There are no reasonable grounds for his actions - this is unbridled arbitrariness, devoid of any logical basis. Dikoy, according to the apt definition of the Kalinovites, is a “warrior”: in his own words, “there is always a war going on at home.” “You are a worm! If I want, I’ll have mercy, if I want, I’ll crush!” - this is the basis of his relations with those people who are weaker or poorer than him. One feature of him had a characteristic echo of antiquity - having scolded a peasant during his shit - he “bowed to him in the yard, in the mud - in front of everyone... bowed!”... In this “national repentance” a glimmer of respect for to some higher moral order of things established by antiquity.

Tikhon Kabanov. In the Kabanova family, the younger generation is represented by her son Tikhon, daughter-in-law Katerina and daughter Varvara. All three of these faces were affected differently by the influence of old woman Kabanova.

Tikhon is a completely weak-willed, weak creature, depersonalized by his mother... He, an adult man, obeys her like a boy, and, fearing to disobey her, is ready to humiliate and insult his beloved wife. His desire for freedom is expressed by pathetic, cowardly drunkenness on the side and the same cowardly hatred of his home...

Varvara Kabanova. Varvara is a braver person than her brother. But she is also unable to openly fight her mother head-on. And she wins her freedom through deception and cunning. She covers up her wild life with “deanery” and hypocrisy. Oddly enough, girls in the city of Kalinov turned a blind eye to such a life: “when can we go for a walk, if not among the girls!” – says Kabanova herself. “Sin is not a problem, rumor is not good!” - they said in Famusov’s circle. The same point of view is here: publicity, according to Kabanova, is the worst thing of all.

Varvara tried to arrange for Katerina the same “fraudulent happiness” that she herself enjoyed with a clear conscience. And this led to a terrible tragedy.

Feklusha. The praying pilgrim Feklusha represents in “The Thunderstorm” the complete opposite of the inquisitive mechanic Kuligin. A stupid and cunning, ignorant old woman, she pronounces an accusation against the entire new cultural life, glimpses of which disturb the “dark kingdom” with their novelty. The whole world, with its vanity, seems to her to be the “kingdom of the flesh,” the “kingdom of the Antichrist.” He who serves the “world” serves the devil and destroys his soul. From this point of view, she agrees with Kabanikha and with many other inhabitants of Kalinov and the entire “dark kingdom” depicted by Ostrovsky.

In Moscow, life is teeming, people are fussing, in a hurry, as if they are looking for something, says Feklusha, and contrasts this “vanity” with the peace and silence of Kalinov, who plunged into sleep at sunset. Feklusha, in the old way, explains the reasons for the “city bustle”: the devil invisibly scattered “the seeds of tares” into human hearts, and people moved away from God and served him. Any novelty frightens Feklusha into her like-minded people - she considers the locomotive a “fire-breathing snake”, and the old woman Kabanova agrees with her... And at this time, here, in Kalinov, Kuligin dreams of a perpetuum mobile... What an incompatible contradiction of interests and worldviews !

Boris. Boris Grigorievich is Dikiy’s nephew, an educated young man who listens to Kuligin’s enthusiastic speeches with a light, polite smile, because he does not believe in perpetuum mobile. But, despite his education, culturally, he is lower than Kuligin, who is armed with both faith and strength. Boris does not apply his education to anything, and he has no strength to fight life! He, without fighting with conscience, carries away Katerina and without fighting with people, leaves her to the mercy of her fate. He is a weak man, and Katerina became interested in him simply because “in the wilderness, even Thomas is a nobleman.” A certain veneer of culture, cleanliness and decency in manners is what made Katerina idealize Boris. And she couldn’t bear to live if Boris didn’t exist—she would idealize someone else.