Brief description

Boris Dikoy and Tikhon Kabanov are the two characters who are most closely associated with the main character, Katerina: Tikhon is her husband, and Boris becomes her lover. They can be called antipodes, which stand out sharply against each other. And, in my opinion, preference in their comparison should be given to Boris, as a more active, interesting and pleasant character for the reader, while Tikhon evokes some compassion - raised by a strict mother, he, in fact, cannot make his own decisions and defend his opinion. In order to substantiate my point of view, below I will consider each character separately and try to analyze their characters and actions.

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BORIS AND TIKHON
Boris Dikoy and Tikhon Kabanov are the two characters who are most closely associated with the main character, Katerina: Tikhon is her husband, and Boris becomes her lover. They can be called antipodes, which stand out sharply against each other. And, in my opinion, preference in their comparison should be given to Boris, as a more active, interesting and pleasant character for the reader, while Tikhon evokes some compassion - raised by a strict mother, he, in fact, cannot make his own decisions and defend his opinion. In order to substantiate my point of view, below I will consider each character separately and try to analyze their characters and actions.

To begin with, let's look at Boris Grigorievich Dikiy. Boris came to the city of Kalinov not on his own whim - out of necessity. His grandmother, Anfisa Mikhailovna, disliked his father after he married a noble woman, and after her death she left her entire inheritance to her second son, Savel Prokofievich Diky. And Boris would not have cared about this inheritance if his parents had not died of cholera, leaving him and his sister orphans. Savel Prokofievich Dikoy had to pay part of Anfisa Mikhailovna’s inheritance to Boris and his sister, but on the condition that they would be respectful to him. Therefore, throughout the entire play, Boris tries in every possible way to serve his uncle, not paying attention to all the reproaches, discontent and abuse, and then leaves for Siberia to serve. From this we can conclude that Boris not only thinks about his future, but also cares about his sister, who is in an even less advantageous position than himself. This is expressed in his words, which he once said to Kuligin: “If I were alone, it would be fine! I would give up everything and leave. Otherwise, I feel sorry for my sister. (...) It’s scary to imagine what life was like for her here.”

Boris spent his entire childhood in Moscow, where he received a good education and manners. This also adds positive features to his image. He is modest and, perhaps, even somewhat timid - if Katerina had not responded to his feelings, if not for the complicity of Varvara and Kudryash, he would never have crossed the boundaries of what is permitted. His actions are driven by love, perhaps the first, a feeling that even the most reasonable and sensible people are unable to resist. Some timidity, but sincerity, his tender words to Katerina make Boris a touching and romantic character, full of charm that cannot leave girls’ hearts indifferent.

As a person from metropolitan society, from secular Moscow, Boris has a hard time in Kalinov. He does not understand local customs; it seems to him that this provincial town he is a stranger. Boris does not fit into local society. The hero himself says the following words about this: “... it’s difficult for me here, without a habit! Everyone looks at me wildly, as if I’m superfluous here, as if I’m disturbing them. I don’t know the customs here. I understand that this is all ours , Russian, native, but still I can’t get used to it.” Boris is overcome by difficult thoughts about his future fate. Youth, the desire to live desperately rebel against the prospect of staying in Kalinov: “And I, apparently, will ruin my youth in this slum. I’m walking around completely dead...”.

So, we can say that Boris in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is a romantic, positive character, and his rash actions can be justified by falling in love, which makes young blood boil and do completely reckless things, forgetting how they look in the eyes of society.

Tikhon Ivanovich Kabanov can be considered as a more passive character, unable to make his own decisions. He is strongly influenced by his domineering mother, Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, he is “under her thumb.” Tikhon strives for freedom, however, it seems to me, he himself does not know what exactly he wants from it. So, having broken free, the hero acts as follows: “... and as soon as I left, I went on a spree. I’m very glad that I broke free. And I drank all the way, and in Moscow I drank everything, so a lot, What the hell! So that I could take a break for a whole year. I didn’t even remember about the house.” In his desire to escape “from captivity,” Tikhon closes his eyes to other people’s feelings, including the feelings and experiences of his own wife, Katerina: “..and with this kind of captivity you will escape from whatever beautiful wife you want! Just think: no matter what I am, I’m still a man; I’ll live like this all my life, as you can see, and I’ll run away from my wife, but I know that for two weeks there won’t be any thunderstorms over me, there won’t be any shackles on my legs. So what do I care about my wife?" I believe that this is Tikhon’s main mistake - he did not listen to Katerina, did not take her with him, and did not even take a terrible oath from her, as she herself asked in anticipation of trouble. The events that happened next were partly his fault.

Returning to the fact that Tikhon is not able to make his own decisions, we can give the following example. After Katerina confesses to her sin, he cannot decide what to do - listen to his mother again, who calls her daughter-in-law cunning and tells everyone not to believe her, or show leniency towards his beloved wife. Katerina herself speaks about it this way: “He’s sometimes affectionate, sometimes angry, but he drinks everything.” Also, in my opinion, an attempt to get away from problems with the help of alcohol also indicates Tikhon’s weak character.

We can say that Tikhon Kabanov is a weak character as a person who evokes sympathy. It is difficult to say whether he really loved his wife, Katerina, but it is safe to assume that with his character, another life partner, more similar to his mother, was better suited to him. Brought up in strictness, without his own opinion, Tikhon needs outside control, guidance and support.

So, on the one hand, we have Boris Grigorievich Wild, a romantic, young, self-confident hero. On the other hand, there is Tikhon Ivanovich Kabanov, a weak-willed, soft-bodied, unhappy character. Both characters are, of course, clearly expressed - Ostrovsky in his play managed to convey the full depth of these images, making you worry about each of them. But if we compare them with each other, Boris attracts more attention, he arouses sympathy and interest in the reader, while one wants to feel sorry for Kabanov.

However, each reader himself chooses which of these characters to give his preference. After all, as popular wisdom says, there are no comrades according to taste.

VARVARA
Varvara Kabanova is the daughter of Kabanikha, sister of Tikhon. We can say that life in Kabanikha’s house morally crippled the girl. She also does not want to live according to the patriarchal laws that her mother preaches. But, despite his strong character, V. does not dare to openly protest against them. Her principle is “Do what you want, as long as it’s safe and covered.”
This heroine easily adapts to the laws of the “dark kingdom” and easily deceives everyone around her. This became habitual for her. V. claims that it is impossible to live any other way: their whole house rests on deception. “And I was not a liar, but I learned when it became necessary.”
V. was cunning while she could. When they began to lock her up, she ran away from the house, inflicting a crushing blow on Kabanikha.
KULIGIN

Kuligin is a character who partially performs the functions of an exponent of the author’s point of view and therefore is sometimes classified as a reasoning hero, which, however, seems incorrect, since in general this hero is certainly distant from the author, he is depicted as quite detached, as an unusual person, even somewhat outlandish. The list of characters says about him: “a tradesman, a self-taught watchmaker, looking for a perpetuum mobile.” The hero's surname transparently hints at a real person - I. P. Kulibin (1755-1818), whose biography was published in the journal of the historian M. P. Pogodin "Moskvityanin", where Ostrovsky collaborated.
Like Katerina, K. is a poetic and dreamy nature (for example, it is he who admires the beauty of the Trans-Volga landscape and complains that the Kalinov people are indifferent to him). He appears singing “Among the Flat Valley...”, a folk song of literary origin (to the words of A.F. Merzlyakov). This immediately emphasizes the difference between K. and other characters associated with folklore culture; he is also a bookish person, albeit with a rather archaic bookishness: He tells Boris that he writes poetry “in the old-fashioned way... He’s read a lot of Lomonosov, Derzhavin... Lomonosov was a sage, an explorer of nature...” Even the characterization of Lomonosov testifies to K.’s reading in old books: not a “scientist”, but a “sage”, “an explorer of nature.” “You are an antique, a chemist,” Kudryash tells him. “A self-taught mechanic,” corrects K. K.’s technical ideas are also a clear anachronism. The sundial that he dreams of installing on Kalinovsky Boulevard comes from antiquity. Lightning rod - a technical discovery of the 18th century. If K. writes in the spirit of the classics of the 18th century, then his oral stories are sustained in even earlier stylistic traditions and are reminiscent of ancient moralizing stories and apocrypha (“and they will begin, sir, a trial and a case, and there will be no end to the torment. They are suing and suing here, and they will go to the province, and there they are waiting for them, and splashing their hands with joy” - the picture of judicial red tape, vividly described by K., recalls stories about the torment of sinners and the joy of demons). All these features of the hero, of course, were given by the author in order to show his deep connection with the world of Kalinov: he is, of course, different from the Kalinovites, we can say that he is a “new” person, but only his novelty has developed here, inside this world , giving birth not only to its passionate and poetic dreamers, like Katerina, but also to its “rationalist” dreamers, its own special, home-grown scientists and humanists. The main business of K.’s life is the dream of inventing the “perpetu mobile” and receiving a million for it from the British. He intends to spend this million on the Kalinovsky society - “jobs must be given to the philistines.” Listening to this story, Boris, who received a modern education at the Commercial Academy, remarks: “It’s a pity to disappoint him! What a good man! He dreams for himself and is happy.” However, he is hardly right. K. is truly a good person: kind, selfless, delicate and meek. But he is hardly happy: his dream constantly forces him to beg for money for his inventions, conceived for the benefit of society, and it does not even occur to society that there could be any benefit from them, for them K. - a harmless eccentric, something like a city holy fool. And the main of the possible “patrons of the arts,” Dikoy, attacks the inventor with abuse, once again confirming both the general opinion and Kabanikha’s own admission that he is not able to part with the money. Kuligin's passion for creativity remains unquenched; he pities his fellow countrymen, seeing their vices as the result of ignorance and poverty, but cannot help them in anything. So, the advice he gives (forgive Katerina, but never remember her sin) is obviously impossible to implement in the Kabanovs’ house, and K. hardly understands this. The advice is good and humane, because it is based on humane considerations, but it does not take into account the real participants in the drama, their characters and beliefs. With all my hard work, creative beginning In his personality, K. is a contemplative nature, devoid of any pressure. This is probably the only reason why the Kalinovites put up with him, despite the fact that he differs from them in everything. It seems that for the same reason it turned out to be possible to entrust him with the author’s assessment of Katerina’s action. “Here is your Katerina. Do what you want with her! Her body is here, take it; but the soul is now not yours: it is now before the Judge, who is more merciful than you!”
KATERINA
But the most extensive subject for discussion is Katerina - the “Russian strong character”, for whom truth and a deep sense of duty are above all. First, let's turn to the childhood years of the main character, which we learn about from her monologues. As we see, in this carefree time, Katerina was primarily surrounded by beauty and harmony, she “lived like a bird in the wild” among, mother's love and fragrant nature. The young girl went to wash herself, listened to the stories of the wanderers, then sat down to do some work, and so the whole day passed. She has not yet known the bitter life in “imprisonment,” but everything is ahead of her, life in the “dark kingdom” is ahead. From Katerina's words we learn about her childhood and adolescence. The girl did not receive a good education. She lived with her mother in the village. Katerina's childhood was joyful and cloudless. Her mother “doted on her” and did not force her to do housework. Katya lived freely: she got up early, washed herself with spring water, climbed flowers, went to church with her mother, then sat down to do some work and listened to wanderers and praying mantises, of which there were many in their house. Katerina had magical dreams in which she flew under the clouds. And how strongly contrasted with such a quiet, happy life is the action of a six-year-old girl, when Katya, offended by something, ran away from home to the Volga in the evening, got into a boat and pushed off from the shore! We see that Katerina grew up as a happy, romantic, but limited girl. She was very devout and passionately loving. She loved everything and everyone around her: nature, the sun, the church, her home with wanderers, the beggars whom she helped. But the most important thing about Katya is that she lived in her dreams, apart from the rest of the world. From everything that existed, she chose only that which did not contradict her nature; the rest she did not want to notice and did not notice. That’s why the girl saw angels in the sky, and for her the church was not an oppressive and oppressive force, but a place where everything is light, where you can dream. We can say that Katerina was naive and kind, brought up in a completely religious spirit. But if she encountered something on her way... contradicted her ideals, she turned into a rebellious and stubborn nature and defended herself from that stranger, stranger, who boldly disturbed her soul. This was the case with the boat. After marriage, Katya's life changed a lot. From a free, joyful, sublime world in which she felt united with nature, the girl found herself in a life full of deception, cruelty and desolation. The point is not even that Katerina married Tikhon against her will: she didn’t love anyone at all and she didn’t care who she married. The fact is that the girl was robbed of her former life, which she created for herself. Katerina no longer feels such delight from visiting church; she cannot do her usual activities. Sad, anxious thoughts do not allow her to calmly admire nature. Katya can only endure as long as she can and dream, but she can no longer live with her thoughts, because cruel reality returns her to earth, to where there is humiliation and suffering. Katerina is trying to find her happiness in her love for Tikhon: “I will love my husband. Tisha, my darling, I won’t exchange you for anyone.” But sincere manifestations of this love are stopped by Kabanikha: “Why are you hanging around your neck, shameless one? You’re not saying goodbye to your lover.” Katerina has a strong sense of external humility and duty, which is why she forces herself to love her unloved husband. Tikhon himself, because of his mother’s tyranny, cannot truly love his wife, although he probably wants to. And when he, leaving for a while, leaves Katya to walk around to his heart's content, the girl (already a woman) becomes completely lonely. Why did Katerina fall in love with Boris? After all, he did not exhibit his masculine qualities, like Paratov, and did not even talk to her. Probably the reason was that she lacked something pure in the stuffy atmosphere of Kabanikha’s house. And love for Boris was pure, did not allow Katerina to completely wither away, somehow supported her. She went on a date with Boris because she felt like a person with pride and basic rights. It was a rebellion against submission to fate, against lawlessness. Katerina knew that she was committing a sin, but she also knew that it was still impossible to live any longer. She sacrificed the purity of her conscience to freedom and Boris. In my opinion, when taking this step, Katya already felt the approaching end and probably thought: “It’s now or never.” She wanted to be satisfied with love, knowing that there would be no other opportunity. On the first date, Katerina told Boris: “You ruined me.” Boris is the reason for the disgrace of her soul, and for Katya this is tantamount to death. Sin hangs like a heavy stone on her heart. Katerina is terribly afraid of the approaching thunderstorm, considering it a punishment for what she did. Katerina has been afraid of thunderstorms ever since she started thinking about Boris. For her pure soul, even the thought of loving a stranger is a sin. Katya cannot live any longer with her sin, and she considers repentance to be the only way to at least partially get rid of it. She confesses everything to her husband and Kabanikha. Such an act seems very strange and naive in our time. “I don’t know how to deceive; I can’t hide anything” - that’s Katerina. Tikhon forgave his wife, but did she forgive herself? Being very religious. Katya fears God, but her God lives in her, God is her conscience. The girl is tormented by two questions: how will she return home and look into the eyes of the husband she cheated on, and how will she live with a stain on her conscience. Katerina sees death as the only way out of this situation: “No, whether I go home or go to the grave, it doesn’t matter. Is it better to live in the grave again? No, no, it’s not good.” Haunted by her sin, Katerina leaves this life to save her soul. Dobrolyubov defined Katerina’s character as “decisive, integral, Russian.” Decisive, because she decided to take the last step, to die in order to save herself from shame and remorse. Whole, because in Katya’s character everything is harmonious, one, nothing contradicts each other, because Katya is one with nature, with God. Russian, because who, if not a Russian person, is capable of loving so much, capable of sacrificing so much, so seemingly obediently enduring all hardships, while remaining himself, free, not a slave. Although Katerina’s life has changed, she has not lost her poetic nature: she is still fascinated by nature, she sees bliss in harmony with it. She wants to fly high, high, touch the blue sky and from there, from above, send a big greeting to everyone. The poetic nature of the heroine requires a different life than the one she has. Katerina is eager for “freedom,” but not for the freedom of her flesh, but for the freedom of her soul. Therefore, she is building a different world, her own in which there is no lie, lawlessness, injustice, or cruelty. In this world, unlike reality, everything is perfect: angels live here, “innocent voices sing, there is a smell of cypress, and the mountains and trees seem not the same as usual, but as if they were depicted in images.” But despite this, she still has to return to the real world, full of selfish people and tyrants. And among them she tries to find a kindred spirit. Katerina, in a crowd of “empty” faces, is looking for someone who could understand her, look into her soul and accept her as she is, and not as they want to make her. The heroine searches and cannot find anyone. Her eyes are “cut” by the darkness and wretchedness of this “kingdom”, her mind has to come to terms, but her heart believes and waits for the only one who will help her survive and fight for the truth in this world of lies and deceit. Katerina meets Boris, and her clouded heart says that this is the one she has been looking for for so long. But is this true? No, Boris is far from ideal; he cannot give Katerina what she asks for, namely: understanding and protection. She cannot feel with Boris “like behind a stone wall.” And the justice of this is confirmed by Boris’s vile act, full of cowardice and indecisiveness: he leaves Katerina alone, throwing her “to the wolves.” These “wolves” are scary, but they cannot frighten Katerina’s “Russian soul”. And her soul is truly Russian. And what unites Katerina with the people is not only communication, but also involvement in Christianity. Katerina believes in God so much that she prays in her room every evening. She likes to go to church, look at icons, listen to the ringing of the bell. She, like the Russian people, loves freedom. And it is precisely this love of freedom that does not allow her to come to terms with the current situation. Our heroine is not used to lying, and therefore she talks about her love for Boris to her husband. But instead of understanding, Katerina is met only with direct reproach. Now nothing holds her back in this world: Boris turned out to be different from what Katerina “pictured” him for herself, and life in Kabanikha’s house has become even more unbearable. The poor, innocent “bird imprisoned in a cage” could not withstand captivity - Katerina committed suicide. The girl still managed to “take off”, she stepped from the high bank into the Volga, “spread her wings” and boldly went to the bottom. By her action, Katerina resists the “dark kingdom.” But Dobrolyubov calls her a “ray” in him, not only because her tragic death revealed all the horror of the “dark kingdom” and showed the inevitability of death for those who cannot come to terms with oppression, but also because Katerina’s death will not pass and will not may pass without a trace for " cruel morals" After all, anger at these tyrants is already brewing. Kuligin - and he reproached Kabanikha for the lack of mercy, even the resigned executor of his mother’s wishes, Tikhon, publicly dared to throw the accusation of Katerina’s death in her face. Already now an ominous thunderstorm is brewing over this entire “kingdom”, capable of destroying it “to smithereens.” And this bright ray, which awakened, even for one moment, the consciousness of the destitute, unrequited people who are financially dependent on the rich, convincingly showed that there must be an end to the unbridled robbery and complacency of the Wild and the oppressive lust for power and hypocrisy of the Boars. The significance of Katerina’s image is also important today. Yes, maybe many people consider Katerina an immoral, shameless cheater, but is she to blame for this?! Most likely, Tikhon is to blame, who did not pay due attention and affection to his wife, but only followed the advice of his “mama.” Katerina’s only fault is that she married such a weak-willed man. Her life was destroyed, but she tried to “build” a new one from the remains. Katerina boldly walked forward until she realized that there was nowhere else to go. But even then she took a brave step, the last step over the abyss leading to another world, perhaps a better one, and perhaps a worse one. And this courage, thirst for truth and freedom makes us bow to Katerina. Yes, she is probably not so ideal, she has her shortcomings, but her courage makes the heroine a role model worthy of praise

The events in A. N. Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” unfold on the Volga coast, in the fictional city of Kalinov. The work provides a list 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, girl, main character plays. 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”. Falling in love with a newcomer young man, Katya created for herself perfect image love and possible liberation. Unfortunately, her ideas had little to do 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 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.

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 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 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.

This article gives brief description heroes of 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.

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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 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 the confidante and constant companion of Katerina, the main character of the play. 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, seem to be leaving" dark kingdom“, but not in order to generate new and honest laws of life, but, most likely, to live in the same “dark kingdom”, but already 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 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 all his mother’s instructions and moral teachings word for word. 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.

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 belief, 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 introduce 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, which she considers an inviolable shrine.

Savel Dikoy. Not so the other “tyrant” of this drama - the merchant Savel Diky. 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 caprice, out of whim. There are no reasonable grounds for his actions - this is unbridled, devoid of any logical basis, arbitrariness. 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 - 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 not capable of an open fight with her mother, face to face. 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. Stupid and cunning, ignorant old woman, she pronounces an accusation against the whole 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 serve him. Any novelty frightens Feklusha into her like-minded people - she considers the locomotive to be 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 - weak person, and Katerina became interested in him simply because “in solitude, 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 hadn’t existed, she would have idealized someone else.

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Alexander Ostrovsky's play “The Thunderstorm” is a real legacy for future generations. Despite the fact that it was written almost two centuries ago, its plot touches on the pressing problems of our turbulent times. The same problems of daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, husband and wife, mother and children... The events of the work take place on the coast of a river called the Volga, in the fictional city of Kalinov. There, in this seemingly quiet place, a real drama develops, the fault of which is ordinary people. But to understand what happened, you need to get to know the characters in the play and determine the role that each of them plays in the work.

Local self-taught mechanic Kuligin

This hero appears from the very beginning of the play. He is a self-taught mechanic who acts as a tour guide of sorts. By nature, Kuligin is a kind person who is accustomed to acting in accordance with established rules. Speaking about others and assessing their morals, he is very accurate in his judgments. He constantly dreams of the common good, of a lightning rod, of a perpetu mobile, of honest work, but, alas, his cherished desires are not destined to come true.

Vanya Kudryash - Varya's beloved

This is a minor character whom the author portrayed as kind and sincere. Despite his simple appearance, Vanya is a fighter in life and always finishes what he starts. Any business in his hands goes wrong. By nature, Ivan is not a romantic, but a practitioner, from this point of view he looks at life.

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He is a strong, smart, well-built guy whom Varvara Kabanova loves. Between them there is light and good feeling, although in order to avoid scandals from Varvara’s mother, these relationships have to be carefully hidden.

Boris is Dikiy's nephew

Boris is the nephew of Savl Prokopyich the Wild, a powerful, cruel and greedy man. The author endowed this hero contradictory nature, on the one hand, describing him as young, educated, well-read, fashionable, on the other – cowardly and weak-willed, who never learned to defend his own point of view despite external circumstances. Knowing that his inheritance is in the hands of Uncle Saul the Wild, Boris tries to please him in everything, despite reproaches and ridicule.

Having fallen in love with Katya Kabanova, who has a mutual feeling for this guy, the young man does not value this relationship, and at a time when the slightest problems arise, he does not try to protect the girl, but immediately backs down, fearing that their relationship will be made public.

Thus, we can conclude that Boris is not so much a positive as a negative character in Alexander Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm”.

Dikoy – representative of the “dark kingdom”

Savl Prokofievich Dikoy is a wealthy merchant who is the most respected and influential person in the city. However, he is picky, angry, ignorant and cruel. This set of negative qualities greatly outweighs the external significance of Dikiy, whose last name also speaks for itself - all his behavior is wild and unnatural.

It doesn’t matter to him what others think about this or that issue; Dikoy considers his own opinion to be the only correct one. He stops at nothing, brazenly taking away what he has acquired through back-breaking labor. This hero takes pleasure in quarreling and swearing with everyone. He shouts at his workers who come for their due salaries, raises his voice at family members who get the most from Savl Prokofich’s character. Knowing that the fate of his nephew is in his hands, he abuses his powers in relation to Boris, because he is ready to fulfill any of his demands in order to receive an inheritance. Dikoy can only communicate as equals with Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, who, surprisingly, understands his nature. Savl Prokopyich personifies the morals of a small provincial town. With the help of this image, the author wanted to show the reader the need for changes in the views and behavior of society at that time.

Kabanikha - the negative character of the play

The image of Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova is presented in the play as one of the most negative. This is a rich merchant's wife, a widow. A despotic and capricious woman, she keeps the whole house in fear, offending both her own son and daughter, and her daughter-in-law, who suffers the most. “You must do what your mother says,” she orders her weak-willed son Tikhon, and he obeys the demands of the oppressive parent. Achieving order down to the smallest detail, Kabanikha acts with violent methods, making everyone fear her. He won’t be afraid of you, and he won’t be afraid of me either. What kind of order will there be in the house?..” she is perplexed.

In addition, Marfa Ignatievna is a hypocritical and cold-blooded old woman who loves to read morals to her children, without doing what she herself advises. Kabanova is used to getting her way only with reproaches and threats; she does not know such feelings as love and compassion. She mistakenly believes that children should revere their parents so much that their opinions are not taken into account. Indirectly Kabanova becomes main reason the terrible death of her daughter-in-law Katerina, but does not realize it.

Tikhon, son of Kabanova

There is such an expression as “mama’s boy”. It suits Tikhon Kabanov, the son of Marfa Ignatievna, perfectly.

From childhood, accustomed to living in complete submission to a strict mother, he grew up weak-willed and characterless.

This manifests itself throughout his life. Having no opinion of his own, Tikhon cannot accept even the most simple solutions, panickingly afraid of the condemnation of their strict mother, who, without realizing it, raised her son to be an infantile loser who began to nurse at the slightest danger - and the worst thing is, they lived with the conviction that such upbringing was the only correct one.

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Only once, at the end of the play, when a tragedy occurred with his wife Katerina, Tikhon exclaimed, reproaching his mother: “Mama, you ruined her! you, you, you...” And here it is shown that even a person driven into a dead end is capable of defending his position. It’s just a pity that he realized too late what a jewel and treasure his wife was for him.

Varvara - Tikhon's sister

Varvara Kabanova is Tikhon’s sister and daughter of Marfa Ignatievna. Getting acquainted with the play, the reader can notice what a contrast the brother and sister represent. She, unlike the lack of initiative Tikhon, is lively and courageous, able to make decisions on her own. Varya managed, unlike her brother, to adapt to the character of her overly demanding and wayward mother; I learned to lie, to be a hypocrite, to dodge where necessary, to ignore her orders.

To remove obstacles to meeting her loved one, Varvara simply changed the lock. Thus, she protected herself from unnecessary outbursts of her mother’s anger. As they say, the wolves are fed and the sheep are safe.

This girl is, firstly, practical, secondly, cheerful, thirdly, smart and insightful. In addition, she is the only one in the family who supports Katerina and gives her good advice. In the work, the attitude “do what you want, the main thing is that no one finds out anything” is realized in the image of Varvara.

Katerina is the main character of the play

In A. Ostrovsky's play "The Thunderstorm" the image of Katerina is key. This girl experiences a difficult fate, and, unfortunately, her life ends tragically. But to understand the character of the heroine, you need to trace storyline author from the very beginning.

The only happy childhood for Katerina was when she, like a sponge, absorbed the good things that were instilled by her loving parents and went to church with great joy.

And then a storm struck in the girl’s life. She got married. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. For a weak-willed and spineless person, for whom mother’s orders are more important than normal and healthy relationships in his own family.

All dreams of a happy and strong family collapsed, life went downhill. The fierce mother-in-law Marfa Ignatievna began to act with the girl according to her already proven methods of violence and endless reproaches, which were unacceptable to Katerina. No matter how hard the daughter-in-law tried to smooth out the situation in her family, nothing worked. The mother-in-law continued to nag with or without reason, and the weak-willed husband still obeyed his mother.

Katerina with all her soul internally opposes such hypocritical and senseless behavior, this contradicts her bright and sincere nature, but the girl cannot resist the order established in the Kabanova family. She doesn’t love her husband, but she feels sorry for her, and this is not enough to create a strong family. And then Katerina indulges in feelings of love for another - Dikiy’s nephew, Boris. And from then on even bigger problems began - pangs of conscience that give no rest day or night, a constant question in the soul: “Should I admit my guilt?” “She’s shaking all over, as if she’s got a fever; so pale, rushing around the house, as if looking for something,” says her husband’s sister Varvara about Katerina’s condition. - Eyes like those of a madwoman! Just this morning I started crying and just kept crying. My fathers! What should I do with it?

And finally, Katerina takes a decisive step, telling her mother-in-law and husband about her sin towards Boris: “Mother! Tikhon! I am a sinner before God and before you! Wasn’t it me who swore to you that I wouldn’t look at anyone without you! Remember, remember! Do you know what I, dissolute, did without you? On the very first night I left home... And all ten nights I walked with Boris Grigorievich.”

After this, a real tragedy unfolds: reproaches and scolding from the mother-in-law, who incites her son to beat his daughter-in-law, unbearable mental pain and, finally, the fatal decision - to rush into the Volga. Alas, Katerina’s life was cut short in at a young age. Some understand and do not condemn her for this act, some, on the contrary, believe that only a weak-willed person could commit suicide. But, be that as it may, Katerina will remain in the eyes of many readers a positive heroine, that is, the best of all the characters in the play.