According to one version, the drama "The Thunderstorm" was written by Ostrovsky when he was impressed by a married actress, Lyuba Kositskaya. The image of Katerina in “The Thunderstorm” appeared precisely thanks to Kositskaya, and it is interesting that she later got this role on stage.

Katerina was born into a merchant family, their house was prosperous, and Katerina’s childhood was carefree and joyful. The heroine herself compared herself to a free bird, and admitted to Varvara that she did whatever she wanted until she got married. Yes, Katerina’s family was good, her upbringing was good, so the girl grew up pure and open. In the image of Katerina one can clearly see a kind, sincere, Russian soul that does not know how to deceive.

Let us continue to consider the image of Katerina in the drama “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky, and note that it was very difficult for the girl to live with her husband without pretense, given his family. If we remember Kabanikha, Katerina’s mother-in-law, who keeps everyone at home in fear, it becomes clear why these characters in the drama have a conflict. Of course, Kabanikha acted using methods of humiliation and intimidation, and some were able to adapt to this and come to terms with it. For example, it was easier for Varvara and Tikhon to create the impression that they were completely submissive to their mother, although outside the home both daughter and son indulged in revelry.

Features in the image of Katerina in the drama "The Thunderstorm"

What character traits did Katerina literally frighten Kabanikha? She was pure of soul, sincere and ardent, and did not tolerate hypocrisy and deception. For example, when her husband left, the mother-in-law wanted to see her daughter-in-law howling, but it was not in Katerina’s rules to pretend. If the custom is not accepted by the soul, then it is not worth following it, the girl believes.

When Katerina realized that she loved Boris, she did not hide her feelings by talking about them. Varvara, her mother-in-law, and the main character’s husband himself learned about Katerina’s love. We see depth, strength and passion in the girl's nature, and her words express these personality traits well. She talks about people and birds, why can't people fly the same way? As a result, Katerina says that she will not tolerate an unbearable and disgusting life, and as a last resort, she will decide to take the fatal step - throw herself out the window or drown herself in the river. Reflecting on these words, you can better understand the image of Katerina in Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”.

Finally, what effort it took for the girl to tell Boris about her feelings! After all, Katerina was a married woman, but the passion for freedom and the desire to be happy, as well as willpower, manifested themselves in this brave act. Ostrovsky contrasts these character traits of Katerina with the world of Kabanikha (Marfa Kabanova). How is it shown? For example, Kabanikha blindly worships the traditions of old times, and this is not an impulse of the soul, but an opportunity not to lose power over others. The same can be said about the religious attitude, because for Katerina going to church is natural and pleasant, in Kabanikha it is a formality, and everyday issues worry her more than thoughts about the spiritual.

What does Katerina strive for?

An important point that must be taken into account when talking about the image of Katerina in the drama “The Thunderstorm” is that she is full of religious fear. The girl thinks that punishment for sin from the Lord and the thunderstorm, which she identifies with these concepts, are terrible and severe. All this, together with a feeling of guilt, prompts her to tell everyone about the sin she committed. Katerina decides to run away from a family that she does not accept with her heart and soul. The husband feels pity for her, but beats her, because that’s what needs to be done.

Boris, Katerina's lover, cannot help her. And although he sympathizes with her, it is clear how powerless he is and shows weakness and lack of will. Left alone, Katerina decides to throw herself off a cliff. Some attribute this action to the girl’s weakness of will, but Ostrovsky wanted to show the strength of her personality, which, again, complements the image of Katerina.

In conclusion, we can say that Katerina embodied a beautiful Russian soul - pure and bright. Her soul is opposed to tyranny, rudeness, cruelty and ignorance - qualities that are inherent in many people not only at the time the drama was written, but also today.

We hope that consideration of the image of Katerina in the drama “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky turned out to be useful for you. Other articles

2. The image of Katerina in the play “The Thunderstorm”

Katerina is a lonely young woman who lacks human participation, sympathy, and love. The need for this draws her to Boris. She sees that outwardly he is not like other residents of the city of Kalinov, and, not being able to recognize his inner essence, considers him a person from another world. In her imagination, Boris seems to be a handsome prince who will take her from the “dark kingdom” to the fairy-tale world that exists in her dreams.

In terms of character and interests, Katerina stands out sharply from her environment. The fate of Katerina, unfortunately, is a vivid and typical example of the fate of thousands of Russian women of that time. Katerina is a young woman, the wife of the merchant son Tikhon Kabanov. She recently left her home and moved into her husband’s house, where she lives with her mother-in-law Kabanova, who is the sovereign mistress. Katerina has no rights in the family; she is not even free to dispose of herself. With warmth and love, she remembers her parents' home and her girlhood life. There she lived freely, surrounded by the affection and care of her mother. The religious upbringing she received in the family developed in her impressionability, daydreaming, belief in the afterlife and retribution for man's sins.

Katerina found herself in completely different conditions in her husband’s house. At every step she felt dependent on her mother-in-law, endured humiliation and insults. From Tikhon she does not meet any support, much less understanding, since he himself is under the power of Kabanikha. Out of her kindness, Katerina is ready to treat Kabanikha as her own mother. "But Katerina's sincere feelings do not meet with support from either Kabanikha or Tikhon.

Life in such an environment changed Katerina's character. Katerina’s sincerity and truthfulness collide in Kabanikha’s house with lies, hypocrisy, hypocrisy, and rudeness. When love for Boris is born in Katerina, it seems like a crime to her, and she struggles with the feeling that washes over her. Katerina's truthfulness and sincerity make her suffer so much that she finally has to repent to her husband. Katerina's sincerity and truthfulness are incompatible with the life of the “dark kingdom”. All this was the cause of Katerina’s tragedy.

"Katerina's public repentance shows the depth of her suffering, moral greatness, and determination. But after repentance, her situation became unbearable. Her husband does not understand her, Boris is weak-willed and does not come to her aid. The situation has become hopeless - Katerina is dying. It is not Katerina's fault one specific person. Her death is the result of the incompatibility of morality and the way of life in which she was forced to exist. The image of Katerina had great educational significance for Ostrovsky’s contemporaries and for subsequent generations. He called for the fight against all forms of despotism and oppression of the human personality. expression of the growing protest of the masses against all types of slavery.

Katerina, sad and cheerful, compliant and obstinate, dreamy, depressed and proud. Such different mental states are explained by the naturalness of each mental movement of this simultaneously restrained and impetuous nature, the strength of which lies in the ability to always be itself. Katerina remained true to herself, that is, she could not change the very essence of her character.

I think that the most important character trait of Katerina is honesty with herself, her husband, and the world around her; it is her unwillingness to live a lie. She does not want and cannot be cunning, pretend, lie, hide. This is confirmed by the scene of Katerina’s confession of treason. It was not the thunderstorm, not the frightening prophecy of the crazy old woman, not the fear of hell that prompted the heroine to tell the truth. “My whole heart was exploding! I can’t stand it anymore!” - this is how she began her confession. For her honest and integral nature, the false position in which she found herself is unbearable. Living just to live is not for her. To live means to be yourself. Its most precious value is personal freedom, freedom of the soul.

With such a character, Katerina, after betraying her husband, could not stay in his house, return to a monotonous and dreary life, endure constant reproaches and “moral teachings” from Kabanikha, or lose freedom. But all patience comes to an end. It is difficult for Katerina to be in a place where she is not understood, her human dignity is humiliated and insulted, her feelings and desires are ignored. Before her death, she says: “It’s all the same whether you go home or go to the grave... It’s better in the grave...” It’s not death that she desires, but life that is unbearable.

Katerina is a deeply religious and God-fearing person. Since, according to the Christian religion, suicide is a great sin, by deliberately committing it, she showed not weakness, but strength of character. Her death is a challenge to the “dark power”, the desire to live in the “light kingdom” of love, joy and happiness.

The death of Katerina is the result of a collision of two historical eras. With her death, Katerina protests against despotism and tyranny, her death indicates the approaching end of the “dark kingdom.” The image of Katerina belongs to the best images of Russian fiction. Katerina is a new type of people in Russian reality in the 60s of the 19th century.

Ostrovsky embodied in the image of Katerina a typical representative of that time, more precisely the 19th century. A time when a woman did not yet have rights, when there was no such thing as divorce. Marriages were concluded not by the consent of the couple themselves (as happens in the modern world) but by matchmaking, that is, at the request of the parents. Marriages were rarely successful, women had almost no rights and were most often the “victims” of marriage.

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The main character of Ostrovsky’s work “The Thunderstorm” found herself in a similar situation.

What was the character's family, upbringing and education like? One of the reasons for Katerina’s problems is that the family she ended up in (she became Tikhon’s wife) was the opposite of her own family. For example, they had different morals, principles, and traditions. Katrina’s family was distinguished by their meek morals and good nature; in the Kabanov family, everything is absolutely the opposite. Katerina received her education at home, like all women at that time, who did not have the right to study on an equal basis with men. Consequently, she had a good upbringing (modest, she was religious).

Portrait of a hero (external features, psychological, internal portrait) There is no description of Katerina’s appearance in the work, so Ostrovsky invites the reader to independently come up with the appearance of the heroine. So, for example, I see her as a blue-eyed, dark-haired and slender girl with kind eyes. This is exactly how, in my opinion, the darkness’s appearance would reflect the heroine’s inner world. The play says that she is very beautiful, this is done so that everyone will like her (a person can figure it out in his head, but everyone has different tastes, so the author wanted Katerina to be beautiful for everyone) Many characters admire her face. The girl is childishly vulnerable, naive, open, sweet, good-natured, very sensitive.

Character traits (how character traits are manifested) She is kind, manifested in the fact that after living in Kabanikha’s house she did not become embittered, did not become callous. She tried to establish communication ties with Tikhon’s mother, but she did not want to cooperate with her. Tender, vulnerable, she tries to awaken her husband’s self-esteem and stand up for her. Unfortunately, all the heroine’s attempts are in vain. The problem is with the system itself, not just with the people.

Features of speech Katerina’s speech is melodic, musical, reminiscent of a folk song or fairy tale. Addresses all heroes with reverence, respect, and courtesy. This is how the author shows that she is close to the people.

The role of Katerina in the work (what themes and problems are presented through Katerina?) Ostrovsky considers in his work such topics as the theme of love (the relationship between Katerina and Boris), the conflict between fathers and children, the problem of the fate of a Russian woman - the main problem. The author wanted to convey the idea about the importance of equality between men and women, that it is time to move away from patriarchy and matriarchy, and to come to a partnership type of family.

Updated: 2017-12-01

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– this is a nature that is not pliable, not bendable. She has a highly developed personality, she has a lot of strength and energy; her rich soul requires freedom, breadth - she does not want to secretly “steal” joy from life. It can not bend, but break. (See also the article The image of Katerina in the play “The Thunderstorm” - briefly.)

A. N. Ostrovsky. Storm. Play. Episode 1

Katerina received a purely national upbringing, developed by the ancient Russian pedagogy of Domostroy. She lived locked up throughout her childhood and youth, but the atmosphere of parental love softened this life, and besides, the influence of religion prevented her soul from becoming hardened in suffocating loneliness. On the contrary, she did not feel any bondage: “she lived and did not worry about anything, like a bird in the wild!” Katerina often went to churches, listened to the stories of pilgrims and pilgrims, listened to the singing of spiritual poems - she lived carefree, surrounded by love and affection... And she grew up as a beautiful, gentle girl, with a fine mental organization, a great dreamer... Raised in a religious way , she lived exclusively in the circle of religious ideas; her rich imagination was fed only by those impressions that she drew from the lives of saints, from legends, apocrypha and the moods that she experienced during worship...

“...to death I loved going to church! - she later recalled her youth in a conversation with her husband’s sister Varvara. - Exactly, it happened that I would enter heaven... And I don’t see anyone, and I don’t remember the time, and I don’t hear when the service ends. Mama said that everyone used to look at me, what was happening to me! And, you know, on a sunny day such a light column goes down from the dome and smoke moves in this column, like clouds. And I see, sometimes, as a girl, I’ll get up at night - we also had lamps burning everywhere - and somewhere, in a corner, I’ll pray until the morning. Or I’ll go into the garden early in the morning, the sun is just rising, and I’ll fall on my knees, pray and cry, and I myself don’t know what I’m praying for and what I’m crying about!”

From this story it is clear that Katerina was not just a religious person - she knew moments of religious “ecstasy” - that enthusiasm in which the holy ascetics were rich, and examples of which we will find in abundance in the lives of the saints... Like them, Katerina I had “visions” and wonderful dreams.

“And what dreams I had, Varenka, what dreams! Or golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens... And everyone is singing invisible voices, and they smell of cypress... And the mountains and the trees, as if not the same as usual, but as if they were written in images!

From all these stories of Katerina, it is clear that she is not an ordinary person... Her soul, squeezed by the ancient system of life, is looking for space, does not find it around her and is carried away to “grief”, to God... There are many such natures in the old days went into “asceticism”...

But sometimes in her relationships with her family, the energy of her soul broke through - she did not go "against people" but, indignant, protesting, she then left "from people"...

“I was born so hot! - she tells Varvara. “I was only six years old, no more, so I did it!” They offended me with something at home, and it was late in the evening, it was already dark; I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat, and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they found it, about ten miles away!..

Eh, Varya, you don’t know my character! Of course, God forbid this happens! And if I get really tired of it here, they won’t hold me back by any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I won’t do this, even if you cut me!”

From these words it is clear that calm, dreamy Katerina knows impulses that are difficult to cope with.

In the drama “The Thunderstorm” by A.N. Ostrovsky created a completely new female image for his work - with inner harmony, spiritual strength and an extraordinary attitude.

Life before marriage

Katerina is a bright person with a poetic, elevated soul. She is a dreamer with a remarkably developed imagination. Before her marriage, she lived freely: she prayed in church, did handicrafts, listened to the stories of the praying mantis, and saw fabulous dreams. The author vividly represents the heroine’s desire for spirituality and beauty.

Religiosity

Katerina is very pious and religious. Christianity in her perception is closely connected with pagan beliefs and folklore legends. Katerina’s entire inner being strives for freedom and flight: “Why don’t people fly like birds?” she asks. Even in her dreams she sees her own flights in the form of a bird or a butterfly.

Having gotten married and settled in the Kabanovs’ house, she feels like a bird in a cage. Being a person of strong character, Katerina has a sense of self-esteem. In Kabanikha’s house, where everything is done as if against her will, it’s hard for her. How hard it is to accept the stupidity and weak character of your own husband. Their whole life is built on deception and submission.

Hiding behind God's commandments, Kabanova humiliates and insults her household. Most likely, such frequent attacks on the daughter-in-law are due to the fact that she feels in her a rival capable of resisting her will.

Varya Katerina admits that if her life becomes completely unbearable, she will not endure it - she will throw herself into the Volga. Even as a child, when her parents offended her in some way, she sailed away on a boat along the Volga alone. I think that the river for her is a symbol of freedom, will, and space.

Thirst for freedom and love

The thirst for freedom in Katerina’s soul is mixed with the thirst for true love, which knows no boundaries or barriers. Attempts to maintain a relationship with her husband lead nowhere - she cannot respect him because of his weak character. Having fallen in love with Boris, Dikiy’s nephew, she thinks of him as a kind, intelligent and well-mannered man, very different from those around him. He attracts her with his difference, and the heroine surrenders to her feelings.

Subsequently, she begins to be tormented by the awareness of her sinfulness. Her internal conflict is determined not only by the conviction of sin before God, but also before herself. Katerina’s ideas about morality and morality do not allow her to be calm about secret love meetings with Boris and her husband’s deception. Thus, the heroine’s suffering is inevitable. Due to her growing feelings of guilt, the girl confesses everything to her family just as a thunderstorm approaches. In thunder and lightning she sees God's punishment overtaking her.

Resolving internal conflict

Katerina's internal conflict cannot be resolved by her confession. From the inability to reconcile her feelings and the opinions of others about herself, she commits suicide.

Despite the fact that taking one’s own life is a sin, Katerina thinks about Christian forgiveness and is sure that her sins will be forgiven by the one who loves her.