Who is more terrible than a wild boar or a wild boar? Wild and Kabanikha. Characteristics of the characters in the drama by A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm"
/ / / Comparative characteristics Wild and Kabanikha (based on Ostrovsky's play "The Thunderstorm")
The action of Ostrovsky's drama takes place in the fictitious city of Kalinov on the banks of the Volga, where a traditional way of life reigns. The city has beautiful nature, but callousness and ignorance, anger, drunkenness and debauchery reign among the inhabitants of this area. And the worst thing is that people are used to it. They had such a way of life, and if you came to them normal person, then he could not stay there for long. As in every literary work, in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” there are positive and negative heroes. The negative ones primarily include the mother-in-law main character Katerina - Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova and uncle Boris, Katerina’s beloved man, Savel Prokofievich Dikoy.
In the play, these characters are rarely called by their patronymic names; they are more often called and. What these characters have in common is that they are both cruel and heartless people, but they are united by their love of money. Relationships between people, according to their worldview, are based only on wealth. They abuse their family as they please, forcing them to live in constant fear.
Dikoy has put himself above everyone around him, but they are afraid of him and do not even try to resist this. He shows permissiveness because there is no one in Kalinin who could resist him. Dikoy is convinced of his impunity and considers himself the master of life.
Kabanikha covers up her disrespectful behavior with a mask of virtue. She is a strong and powerful person, she has little interest in emotions and feelings. As a person of the old formation, Kabanova is interested in earthly affairs and interests. Its requirements are unquestioning adherence to order and rank.
Dikiy, like Kabanova, can be considered representatives of a certain part of the merchant class who behaved inappropriately. Such people cannot be called pious. But you can't say that Russian merchants The 19th century was the prototype of Kabanikha and Dikiy. In the same drama, Ostrovsky shows that Boris's father was Dikiy's brother, but being brought up in the same family, he was different from the merchant Dikiy. Boris's father was married to a girl noble origin, and he had a completely different life than his tyrannical brother.
Kabanova is also shown as a typical representative of the merchant class. Being the head of the family, the mother of Tikhon, Varvara and mother-in-law of Katerina, she constantly torments her closest people with her behavior. She may have loved her children in her own way, but can a normal mother behave like that? Probably not. The drama contains a description of Katerina's story about her childhood. Katerina's parents were also from the merchant class, but Katerina's mother was a sensitive, kind and sympathetic woman. She loved and cared for her daughter very much.
Ostrovsky took the plot for his play from real life, but the city was given the fictitious name Kalinov. Many Volga cities believed that the play “The Thunderstorm” was written based on events that happened in their city. Now for some reason they believe that this is the city of Kostroma.
Having written “The Thunderstorm,” A. N. Ostrovsky, as it were, included himself in the ranks of such writers as N. V. Gogol and M. Yu. Lermontov. He created another one, his own model of a city where a traditional way of life reigns. But unlike Gogol’s city, Kalinov is shown ambiguously by Ostrovsky. On the one hand, beautiful nature (“The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices”), and on the other, the callousness of people, the ignorance that reigns in the city, anger, and so on.
All residents of this city can be divided into two groups: despots and those who obey them. The two most influential people in the city can easily be classified as despots: Dikiy and Kabanova, whom everyone in the city calls Kabanikha. The names of these people say a lot about their characters. After all, it’s not for nothing that no one (except Feklushi) calls Diky Savel Prokofievich, and Kabanikha Marfa Ignatievna.
Both Dikoya and Kabanikha feel like full-fledged masters in the city. Everyone obeys them: some willingly (“It’s better to endure”), others not, but all their protests are expressed only in words (“We don’t have enough guys to take my stand, otherwise we would teach him to stop being naughty”). And that is why they do what they want, and no one dares to object to them.
The main feature that unites these merchants is the love of money. All relationships between people, in their opinion, are built on wealth. Kabanikha is richer than Dikoy, and therefore she is the only person in the city with whom Dikoy must be polite. (“Well, don’t be too loose-lipped! Find me cheaper! And I’m dear to you!”) Another feature that unites them is religiosity. But they perceive God not as someone who forgives, but as someone who can only punish.
But to better understand these characters, let's look at each one individually. Savel Prokofievich Dikoy is a greedy and very rude person. He can be compared to Gogol's Plyushkin. He also bargains for literally every penny. (“...What are you going to tell me to do with myself when my heart is like this! After all, I already know that I have to give, but I can’t give everything good. You are my friend, and I have to give to you, but if you come to me ask - I’ll scold you.”) Dikoy does everything in his power just to accumulate more money. (“I’ll underpay them by just a penny per person, but this makes up thousands for me.”) But his main drawback is that he considers himself the same as everyone else. (“Well, what is it? Who doesn’t feel sorry for their own goods?”) Dikoy is very calculating. He will never allow himself to be rude to someone who is stronger and more powerful than him (“...you’ve been fighting with women all your life”). This is also evidenced by the story with the hussar (Dikoy silently listened to how he was scolded and did not object).
Kabanikha’s character is a little different. It was formulated quite clearly by Kudryash; to Shapkin’s statement “Kabanikha is good too,” he replies: “Well, at least she, at least, is all under the guise of piety.”... Kabanova, like no one else, reflects this city’s entire commitment to old traditions. (She teaches Katerina, Tikhon and others how to live in general and how to behave in a particular case.) Kabanova tries to seem like a kind, sensitive, sincere, and most importantly, unhappy woman. He tries to justify his actions by his age: “Mother is old and stupid; Well, you, young people, smart ones, shouldn’t exact it from us fools.” But this statement looks more like irony than sincere recognition. Kabanova considers herself the center of the universe; she cannot imagine what will happen to the whole world after her death.
In his work, Ostrovsky showed a city whose inhabitants are ignorant (they do not want to read books or learn anything, but are happy to listen to wanderers who have never been anywhere themselves). Such concepts as love, friendship, mutual assistance are alien to them. (“I’ll spend it, and it won’t cost him a penny.”) But this world is not so serene. Katerina’s protest, that is, her suicide, shakes their settled, quiet life.
And Katerina’s death is not accidental, because she was the only “ray of light in the dark kingdom.”
According to I. A. Goncharov, A. N. Ostrovsky “brought a whole library of artistic works as a gift to literature, and created his own special world for the stage.” The world of Ostrovsky’s works is amazing. He created large and integral characters, knew how to emphasize comic or dramatic properties in them, and draw the reader’s attention to the virtues or vices of his heroes.
The heroes of the play “The Thunderstorm” deserve special attention - Savel Prokofievich Dikoy and Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova.
Savel Prokofievich Dikoy - merchant, significant person in the city of Kalinov. The heroes of the play give him eloquent characteristics. “He belongs everywhere. He’s afraid of someone!” - Kudryash says about him. Wild, in fact, nothing but of one's own will, do not recognize. He doesn't care about the thoughts and feelings of other people. It costs Savel Prokofievich nothing to scold, humiliate, or insult. With those around him, he behaves as if he had “lost his chain,” and without this he “cannot breathe.” “...You are a worm,” he says to Kulig. “If I want, I’ll have mercy, if I want, I’ll crush.”
The power of the Wild One is stronger, the weaker, more weak-willed the person. So Kudryash, for example, knows how to resist the Wild One. “...He is the word, and I am ten; he will spit and go. No, I won’t slave to him,” says Kudryash about his relationship with the merchant. Another man is Dikiy’s nephew, Boris. “He got Boris Grigoryich as a sacrifice, so he rides on it,” people around him notice. The wild one is not embarrassed by the fact that Boris is an orphan and that he has no one closer to his uncle. The merchant realizes that the fate of his nephew is in his hands, and takes advantage of this. “Driven, beaten...” Boris says sadly. The merchant is no less cruel to his workers: “With us, no one dares even say a word about a salary, he will scold you for all he knows.” The unscrupulous Dikoy makes his fortune from other people's slave labor and deception: “... I will underpay them by a penny... but I make thousands from this...”. However, sometimes the Dikiy has an epiphany, and he realizes that he is going too far: “After all, I already know that I have to give, but I can’t do everything with good.”
Dikoy is a despot and tyrant in his family; “his own people cannot please him in any way,” “when he is offended by a person whom he does not dare to scold; here, stay home!”
Kabanikha, the rich Kalinovskaya merchant's wife, is not inferior to Dikiy. Kabanikha is a hypocrite, she does everything “under the guise of piety.” Outwardly she is very pious. However, as Kuligin notes, Kabanikha “gives money to the poor, but completely eats up her family.” Main object her tyranny is her own son Tikhon. As an adult, married man, he is completely at the mercy of his mother, has no own opinion, is afraid to contradict her. Kabanikha “builds” his relationship with his wife, she guides his every action, every word. Complete obedience is all she wants to see in her son. The power-hungry Kabanikha does not notice that under her yoke a cowardly, pathetic, weak-willed, irresponsible man has grown up. Having escaped from the supervision of his mother for a while, he chokes on freedom and drinks, because he does not know how to use freedom in any other way. “...Not one step out of your will,” he repeats to his mother, and “he himself thinks about how he can escape as quickly as possible.”
Kabanikha is jealous of her son’s daughter-in-law, constantly reproaches him with Katerina, “she’ll eat him.” “I already see that I’m a hindrance to you,” she nags Tikhon. Kabanikha believes that the wife of her husband should be afraid, precisely afraid, and not love or respect. In her opinion, correct relationships are built precisely on the suppression of one person by another, on humiliation, on lack of freedom. Indicative in this regard is the scene of Katerina’s farewell to her husband, when all Tikhon’s words addressed to his wife are just a repetition of Kabanikha’s instigations.
If Tikhon, who has been crushed by her since childhood, suffers from Kabanikha, then the life of such a dreamy, poetic and integral nature as Katerina in the merchant’s house becomes unbearable. “Here, whether you got married or buried, it doesn’t matter,” Boris argues about this.
Constant pressure forces Kabanikha’s daughter, Varvara, to adapt. “Do what you want, as long as it’s sewn and covered,” she reasons.
Assessing the images of the “masters of life,” N. Dobro-lyubov shows Diky and Kabanikha as tyrants, with their “constant suspicion, scrupulousness and pickiness.” According to the critic, “The Thunderstorm” is Ostrovsky’s most decisive work” in this play “the mutual relations of tyranny and voicelessness are brought... to the most tragic consequences...”.
“And they don’t lock themselves away from thieves, but so that people don’t see
how they eat their own family and tyrannize their families.”
As Dobrolyubov correctly noted, Ostrovsky in one of his plays truly depicts dark kingdom"- a world of tyranny, betrayal and stupidity. The drama takes place in the city of Kalinov, which stands on the banks of the Volga. There is a certain symbolic parallelism in the location of the city: the rapid flow of the river is contrasted with an atmosphere of stagnation, lawlessness and oppression. It seems as if the city is isolated from the outside world. Residents learn news thanks to the stories of wanderers. Moreover, this news is of very dubious and sometimes even absurd content. The Kalinovites blindly believe the stories of crazy old people about unrighteous countries, lands that have fallen from heaven and rulers with dog heads. People are accustomed to living in fear not only of the world, but also of the rulers." dark kingdom" This is their comfort zone that no one intends to leave. If, in principle, everything is clear with ordinary people, then what about the above-mentioned rulers? In “The Thunderstorm,” Dikoy and Kabanikha represent the “dark kingdom.” They are both the masters and creators of this world. The tyranny of the Wild and Kabani knows no bounds.
In the city, power does not belong to the mayor, but to the merchants, who, thanks to their connections and profits, were able to receive support from higher authorities. They mock the bourgeoisie and deceive ordinary people. In the text of the work, this image is embodied in Savl Prokofievich Diky, a middle-aged merchant who keeps everyone in fear, lends money at huge interest rates and deceives other merchants. In Kalinov there are legends about his cruelty. No one except Kudryashch can answer the Wild One appropriately, and the merchant actively takes advantage of this. He asserts himself through humiliation and mockery, and the feeling of impunity only increases the degree of cruelty. “Look for another scolder like ours, Savel Prokofich! He will never cut off a person,” this is what the residents themselves say about Dikiy. It is interesting that Dikoy takes out his anger only on those he knows, or on the residents of the city - the weak-willed and downtrodden. This is evidenced by the episode of Dikiy’s quarrel with the hussar: the hussar scolded Saul Prokofievich so much that he did not say a word, but then everyone at home “hid in attics and basements” for two weeks.
Enlightenment and new technologies simply cannot penetrate Kalinov. Residents are distrustful of all innovations. So, in one of the last appearances, Kuligin tells Diky about the benefits of a lightning rod, but he doesn’t want to listen. Dikoy is only rude to Kuligin and says that it is impossible to earn money honestly, which once again proves that he did not receive his wealth through daily efforts. Negative attitude towards change – common feature Wild and Kabanikha. Marfa Ignatievna advocates for the observance of old traditions. It is important to her how they enter the house, how they express feelings, how they go for walks. At the same time, neither the internal content of such actions nor other problems (for example, her son’s alcoholism) bother her. Tikhon’s words that his wife’s embrace is enough for him seem unconvincing to Marfa Ignatievna: Katerina must “howl” when she says goodbye to her husband and throw herself at his feet. By the way, external ritualism and attribution are characteristic of life position Marfa Ignatievna in general. A woman treats religion in exactly the same way, forgetting that in addition to weekly trips to church, faith must come from the heart. In addition, Christianity in the minds of these people was mixed with pagan superstitions, which can be seen in the scene with the thunderstorm.
Kabanikha believes that the whole world rests on those who follow the old laws: “something will happen when the old people die, I don’t even know how the light will last.” She also convinces the merchant of this. From the dialogue between Wild and Kabanikha, one can see a certain hierarchy in their relationship. Savl Prokofievich recognizes Kabanikha’s unspoken leadership, her strength of character and intelligence. Dikoy understands that he is incapable of such manipulative hysterics as Marfa Ignatievna throws at her family every day.
The comparative characterization of the Wild and Kabanikha from the play “The Thunderstorm” is also quite interesting. The despotism of the Wild is directed more towards external world- on the residents of the city, only relatives suffer from Marfa Ignatievna’s tyranny, and in society the woman maintains the image of a respectable mother and housewife. Marfa Ignatievna, like Dikiy, is not at all embarrassed by gossip and conversations, because both are confident that they are right. Neither one nor the other cares about the happiness of loved ones. Family relationships for each of these characters must be built on fear and oppression. This can be seen especially clearly in Kabanova’s behavior.
As can be seen from the examples above, Kabanikha and Dikiy have similarities and differences. But most of all, they are united by a sense of permissiveness and an unshakable confidence that this is exactly how everything should be.
Work test
The play "The Thunderstorm" takes special place in the works of Ostrovsky. In this play, the playwright most vividly depicted the “world of the dark kingdom,” the world of tyrant merchants, the world of ignorance, tyranny and despotism, and domestic tyranny.
The action in the play takes place in a small town on the Volga - Kalinov. Life here, at first glance, represents a kind of patriarchal idyll. The entire city is surrounded by greenery, an “extraordinary view” opens beyond the Volga, and on its high banks there is a public garden where residents of the town often stroll. Life in Kalinov flows quietly and slowly, there are no shocks, no exceptional events. News from big world The wanderer Feklusha brings to the town, telling the Kalinovites tales about people with dog heads.
However, in reality, not everything is so good in this small, abandoned world. This idyll is already destroyed by Kuligin in a conversation with Boris Grigorievich, Dikiy’s nephew: “ Cruel morals, sir, in our city, they are cruel! In the philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and naked poverty... And whoever has money... tries to enslave the poor so that he can make even more money from his free labors.” However, there is no agreement between the rich: they “are at enmity with each other”, “they scribble malicious slander”, “they are suing”, “they are undermining trade”. Everyone lives behind oak gates, behind strong bars. “And they don’t lock themselves away from thieves, but so that people don’t see how they eat their own family and tyrannize their family. And what tears are flowing behind these locks, invisible and inaudible!.. And what, sir, behind these locks is dark debauchery and drunkenness!” - exclaims Kuligin.
One of the richest, most influential people in the city is the merchant Savel Prokofievich Dikoy. The main features of the Wild are rudeness, ignorance, hot temper and absurdity of character. “Look for another scolder like ours, Savel Prokofich! He will never cut off a person,” Shapkin says about him. The whole life of the Wild One is based on “swearing”. Neither financial transactions, nor trips to the market - “he doesn’t do anything without swearing.” Most of all, Dikiy gets it from his family and his nephew Boris, who came from Moscow.
Savel Prokofievich is stingy. “...Just mention money to me, it will ignite everything inside me,” he tells Kabanova. Boris came to his uncle in the hope of receiving an inheritance, but actually fell into bondage to him. Savel Prokofievich does not pay him a salary, constantly insults and scolds his nephew, reproaching him for laziness and parasitism.
Dikoy repeatedly quarrels with Kuligin, a local self-taught mechanic. Kuligin is trying to find a reasonable reason for Savel Prokofievich’s rudeness: “Why, sir Savel Prokofievich, honest man Do you want to offend? To which Dikoy replies: “I’ll give you a report, or something!” I don’t give an account to anyone more important than you. I want to think about you like that, and I do! For others you fair man, and I think that you are a robber, that’s all... I say that you are a robber, and that’s the end. So, are you going to sue me or something? So you know that you are a worm. If I want, I’ll have mercy, if I want, I’ll crush.”
“What theoretical reasoning can survive where life is based on such principles! The absence of any law, any logic - this is the law and logic of this life. This is not anarchy, but something much worse...” wrote Dobrolyubov about Dikiy’s tyranny.
Like most Kalinovites, Savel Prokofievich is hopelessly ignorant. When Kuligin asks him for money to install a lightning rod, Dikoy declares: “A thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment, so that we can feel it, but you want to defend yourself with poles and rods.”
Dikoy represents the “natural type” of the tyrant in the play. His rudeness, rudeness, and bullying of people are based, first of all, on his absurd, unbridled character, stupidity and lack of opposition from other people. And only then on wealth.
It is characteristic that practically no one offers active resistance to Dikiy. Although it is not so difficult to calm him down: during the transport he was “scolded” by an unfamiliar hussar, and Kabanikha is not shy in front of him. “There are no elders over you, so you are showing off,” Marfa Ignatievna bluntly tells him. It is characteristic that here she is trying to fit the Wild One into her vision of the world order. Kabanikha explains Dikiy’s constant anger and temper with his greed, but Savel Prokofievich himself does not even think of denying her conclusions. “Who doesn’t feel sorry for their own goods!” - he exclaims.
Much more complex in the play is the image of Kabanikha. This is an exponent of the “ideology of the dark kingdom”, which “created for itself a whole world of special rules and superstitious customs.”
Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova is a rich merchant’s wife, a widow, cultivating the orders and traditions of antiquity. She is grumpy and constantly dissatisfied with those around her. She gets it from her, first of all, from her family: she “eats” her son Tikhon, reads endless moral lectures to her daughter-in-law, and tries to control her daughter’s behavior.
Kabanikha zealously defends all the laws and customs of Domostroy. A wife, in her opinion, should be afraid of her husband, be silent and submissive. Children must honor their parents, unquestioningly follow all their instructions, follow their advice, and respect them. None of these requirements, according to Kabanova, are met in her family. Marfa Ignatievna is dissatisfied with the behavior of her son and daughter-in-law: “They know nothing, no order,” she argues alone. She reproaches Katerina for not knowing how to see her husband off “in the old-fashioned way” - therefore, she doesn’t love him enough. "Another good wife“After seeing her husband off, she howls for an hour and a half and lies on the porch...” she lectures her daughter-in-law. Tikhon, according to Kabanova, is too gentle in his treatment of his wife and is not sufficiently respectful towards his mother. “They don’t really respect elders these days,” says Marfa Ignatievna, reading instructions to her son.
Kabanikha is fanatically religious: she constantly remembers God, sin and retribution; wanderers often visit her house. However, Marfa Ignatievna’s religiosity is nothing more than pharisaism: “A bigot... She gives tribute to the poor, but completely eats up her family,” Kuligin notes about her. In her faith, Marfa Ignatievna is stern and unyielding; there is no place for love, mercy, or forgiveness in her. So, at the end of the play she does not even think about forgiving Katerina for her sin. On the contrary, she advises Tikhon to “bury his wife alive in the ground so that she will be executed.”
Religion, ancient rituals, pharisaical complaints about his life, playing on filial feelings - Kabanikha uses everything to assert her absolute power in the family. And she “gets her way”: in the harsh, oppressive atmosphere of domestic tyranny, Tikhon’s personality is disfigured. “Tikhon himself loved his wife and would be ready to do anything for her; but the oppression under which he grew up so disfigured him that there was no strong feeling, no decisive desire can develop. He has a conscience, a desire for good, but he constantly acts against himself and serves as a submissive instrument of his mother, even in his relations with his wife,” writes Dobrolyubov.
The simple-minded, gentle Tikhon lost the integrity of his feelings, the opportunity to express best features of your nature. Family happiness was initially closed to him: in the family where he grew up, this happiness was replaced by “Chinese ceremonies.” He cannot show his love for his wife, and not because “a wife should be afraid of her husband,” but because he simply “doesn’t know how” to show his feelings, which have been cruelly suppressed since childhood. All this led Tikhon to a certain emotional deafness: he often does not understand Katerina’s condition.
Depriving her son of any initiative, Kabanikha constantly suppressed him masculinity and at the same time reproached him for his lack of masculinity. Subconsciously, he strives to make up for this “lack of masculinity” through drinking and rare “partying” “in the wild.” Tikhon cannot realize himself in any business - probably his mother does not allow him to manage affairs, considering his son unsuitable for this. Kabanova can only send her son on an errand, but everything else is under her strict control. It turns out that Tikhon is deprived of both his own opinion and his own feelings. It is characteristic that Marfa Ignatievna herself is to some extent dissatisfied with her son’s infantilism. This comes through in her intonations. However, she probably does not realize the extent of her involvement in this.
Varvara’s life philosophy was also formed in the Kabanov family. Her rule is simple: “do what you want, as long as it’s safe and covered.” Varvara is far from Katerina’s religiosity, from her poetry and exaltation. She quickly learned to lie and dodge. We can say that Varvara, in her own way, “mastered” the “Chinese ceremonies”, perceiving their very essence. The heroine still retains spontaneity of feelings and kindness, but her lies are nothing more than reconciliation with Kalinov’s morality.
It is characteristic that in the finale of the play both Tikhon and Varvara, each in their own way, rebel against “mama’s power.” Varvara runs away from home with Kuryash, while Tikhon openly expresses his opinion for the first time, reproaching his mother for the death of his wife.
Dobrolyubov noted that “some critics even wanted to see in Ostrovsky a singer of broad natures,” “they wanted to assign arbitrariness to the Russian person as a special, natural quality of his nature - under the name “breadth of nature”; they also wanted to legitimize trickery and cunning among the Russian people under the name of sharpness and slyness." In the play "The Thunderstorm" Ostrovsky debunks both of these phenomena. Arbitrariness comes out as "heavy, ugly, lawless", he sees in it nothing more than tyranny and cunning, which turn out not to be cleverness, but to vulgarity. , the other side of tyranny.
