The tragedy of Katerina Kabanova and Larisa Ogudalova. Similarities and differences between Katerina Kabanova and Larisa Ogudalova in “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry” by Ostrovsky1. Meanings of the name

In his works great playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky often talks about the difficult, sometimes tragic fate of a woman. An example is the heroines of two, probably, the most popular plays by A.N. Ostrovsky - Larisa Ogudalova from “Dowry” and Katerina Kabanova from the play “The Thunderstorm”. The main characters, Katerina and Larisa, are often compared to each other. The basis for their comparison is the desire of both for freedom, both were pure and bright natures, loved the unworthy, they are united by the indifference and cruelty of others and, most importantly, death in the finale.
In the play "Dowry" young, beautiful, talented girl becomes a toy in the hands of others. Cruelty, selfishness, heartlessness and indifference of those around him drive young Katerina Kabanova from “The Thunderstorm” to the grave. IN different time These two plays were written, which is why Ostrovsky’s heroines are so different. The images of these girls are reverent, romantic and so different.
Katerina is a romantic, dreamy, God-fearing woman. Her soul is initially gnawed by conflicting feelings, an impulse for freedom and Christian humility before fate. Katerina is a merchant’s daughter, married without love to a rich but weak-willed merchant, who is entirely under the influence of her despotic mother. The girl has to obey her mother-in-law, her unloved husband and endure all the attacks and humiliation. Her soul strives for happiness, longing for freedom. Because she was raised in a different environment:
“I lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild.”
A bird yearning for freedom will never be able to come to terms with its captivity. She will fight for her freedom to the end, even at the cost of her life. Katerina internally could not come to terms with her pitiful fate; every day she felt more and more unhappy.
Larisa does not have the main thing that Katerina has - integrity of character, the ability to take decisive action. Larisa does not have the simple, natural integrity of Katerina; on the contrary, one feels in her early fatigue from life, some kind of emptiness, disappointment. It would seem that the educated and cultured Larisa should have expressed at least some kind of protest. But no, she is a weak nature in all respects, weak even in order not to be a toy in the dirty hands of others. This beautiful, multi-talented girl becomes a bait for rich suitors. After all, Larisa’s mother inspires her that, although she does not have a dowry, she must marry “successfully.” And there are plenty of people who want to entertain themselves with a funny and beautiful “toy”. This is the brilliant dandy Paratov, and Knurov, playing toss with his rivals. Even Karandyshev, who is in love with Larisa, perceives the girl not as a person, but as a thing:
"They don't look at you as a woman, as a person... they look at you as a thing."
Larisa got used to have a fun life- parties, music, dancing. It is simply impossible to imagine Katerina in such a situation; she is much more closely connected with nature, with popular beliefs, and truly religious. Larisa is also in Hard time remembers God, and, having agreed to marry Karandyshev, dreams of leaving for the village with him.
The conflict in the play "Dowry" is structured differently than in "The Thunderstorm". There was no talk about Katerina’s poverty as the basis of her tragedy. Larisa's fate is predetermined from the very beginning by her poverty: it is like a stigma that cannot be hidden, like fate that indomitably pursues a person. In “The Thunderstorm,” the clash occurs between tyrants and their victims. In “The Dowry” there is another motive - the motive of money. It is he who forms the main conflict of the drama. Larisa is homeless, and this determines her position in the play. The girl is looking for sublimely beautiful love and the same life. For this she needs wealth. Of course, Karandyshev is not a match for her in all respects. But her idol, the embodiment of her ideals, the brilliant master Paratov, ultimately turned out to be not at all what she needed.
After disappointments in Paratov and Knurov, Larisa is thinking about throwing herself into the Volga, but the girl lacks the determination:
“And if you fall, they say... certain death. It would be good to rush! No, why rush! ...What dizziness! I'm falling, falling, ouch! Oh, no... Leaving life is not as easy as I thought. So I have no strength! Here I am, how unhappy! But there are people for whom it’s easy...”
Larisa dreams of leaving life pure, sinless, including without the sin of suicide. And she clearly lacks the determination to take her own life.
Katerina is a different matter. She realizes that she is a sinner because she cheated on her husband, even for the sake of real, genuine love. Katerina Kabanova always knew that if it became completely unbearable, she would be able to “leave” the “dark kingdom” that she hated:
“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. I'll rush to the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me!”
Her suicide is an atonement for sin. Katerina understands perfectly well that suicide is an even greater sin, but this does not stop her: this is where the strength of her character manifests itself.
Could the author leave such a character in Kabanova’s house? No. I believe that the author’s decision to end Katerina’s life this way is completely justified. With her suicide, the girl challenged all tyranny, she will no longer be a victim of a soulless mother-in-law, she will no longer languish behind bars. She's free! Of course, such a liberation is sad and bitter, but there was simply no other way out. The heroine of “The Dowry” does not have the will to commit suicide. A chance comes to her aid in the person of Karandyshev, who with his shot ended Larisa’s life and, thereby, freed her from suffering. The girl thanks the killer for saving her from life in a world where she “didn’t see sympathy from anyone, didn’t hear a warm, heartfelt word. But it’s cold to live like this.”
Between these heroines of plays by A.N. Ostrovsky - Larisa Ogudalova from “The Dowry” and Katerina Kabanova from the play “The Thunderstorm” have a lot in common: this is the thirst for flight, and the desire for will, freedom; their protest against the “dark kingdom”. But their main difference is in the expression of this protest. Katerina is a much stronger person than Larisa. And Katerina’s tragedy is much deeper than Larisa’s tragedy.

Essay on literature.

What brings together the main heroines of Ostrovsky’s plays “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry”? Larisa Ogudalova and Katerina Kabanova at first glance seem very similar both externally and internally, but if we look at this issue in more detail, we can find not only a lot in common between the heroines, but also many differences between them.

Larisa and Katerina have a common problem - an unsuccessful marriage, a marriage of convenience. But if Katerina was presented to us already married, Larisa was just preparing to become Karandyshev’s wife. Larisa had a choice, unlike Katya. The main character of “The Dowry” herself agreed to Karandyshev’s proposal, even despite the fact that her mother was against this marriage. Katerina was much less fortunate; they didn’t ask her opinion about marriage at all and married her to Tikhon Kabanov because of money.

In my own way social status Ostrovsky's heroines were significantly different. Katerina is the wife of a rich merchant who always obeyed the will of her mother. Larisa is a homeless woman who, by chance, decides to marry an unloved man, not rich, and also a complete loser. These women could have a happy future, but their husbands are largely to blame for their unhappiness.

Ogudalova and Kabanova wanted to escape, they wanted to get away from the life they hated, they asked their husbands about this, but, unfortunately, the feelings of their wives did not bother them at all.

And when the heroines realize that they cannot find salvation, they will come to a single decision - to end their own life. This seems to them the only possible way to save themselves from suffering. Katya is a more decisive and courageous girl; she will decide to commit suicide, but Larisa will not be able to do this. Karandyshev will kill Ogudalova, but it will not look like a crime. She will take Karandyshev’s sin upon herself, she will not blame him or fight for her life. Larisa wanted to be killed. And this is no better than suicide.

I believe that what brings Katerina and Larisa together most of all is their suffering, the feeling of helplessness; they did not have the opportunity to change their lives.

Female characters play a central role in Ostrovsky's dramas. The works “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry” clearly show the discrimination against women at that time. Despite the fact that these plays were written at different times (almost twenty years apart), the situation of women did not improve, and in the traditional family the attitude was even worse.

Effective preparation for the Unified State Exam (all subjects) -

There are twenty years between “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry”. During this time, the country has changed, the writer has changed. All these changes can be traced through the example of the play “The Thunderstorm” and the drama “Dowry”.

The merchants in “The Dowry” are no longer ignorant and tyrant representatives of the “dark kingdom,” but people who pretend to be educated, read foreign newspapers, and dress in European style.

The main characters of two plays by A.N. Ostrovsky differ significantly in their social status, but are very similar in their tragic destinies. Katerina in “The Thunderstorm” is the wife of a rich but weak-willed merchant who is entirely under the influence of her despotic mother. Larisa in “Dowry” is beautiful unmarried girl, who lost her father early and was raised by her mother, a poor woman, very energetic, who, unlike her mother-in-law Katerina, is not inclined to tyranny. Kabanikha cares about the happiness of her son Tikhon, as she understands him. Kharita Ignatievna Ogudalova equally zealously cares about the happiness of her daughter Larisa, again, in her own understanding. As a result, Katerina rushes into the Volga and dies at the hands of her unsuccessful groom Larisa. In both cases, the heroines are destined to die, although their relatives and friends seemed to wish them only the best.

The main characters, Katerina and Larisa, are often compared to each other. They both strove for freedom, both received it not in this world, both were pure and bright in nature, loved the unworthy, and with all their being showed a protest against the “dark kingdom” (in my opinion, the “Dowryless” society also fits this definition) .

Katerina Kabanova lives in a small Volga town, where life is still largely patriarchal. And the action of “The Thunderstorm” takes place before the reform of 1861, which had a huge impact on the life of the Russian province. Larisa Ogudalova - resident big city, also located on the Volga, but patriarchal family relations long lost. The Volga unites the heroines; for both of them, the river symbolizes freedom and death: both Katerina and Larisa are overtaken by death on the river. But here are also differences: the city of Bryakhimov is not separated from the rest of the world, like Kalinov, it is not excluded from historical time, it is open, people come and go to it (in “The Thunderstorm” the Volga River is perceived primarily as a border, and in “Dowry” ” it becomes a means of communication with the world).

The action of “Dowry” takes place in the late 1870s, at the end of the second decade after the liberation of the peasants. Capitalism is developing rapidly. Former merchants are turning into millionaire entrepreneurs. The Ogudalov family is not rich, but thanks to the persistence of Kharita Ignatievna, they make acquaintances with influential and rich people. The mother inspires Larisa that, although she does not have a dowry, she should marry a rich groom. And Larisa has no doubt about it, hoping that both love and wealth will unite in the person of her future chosen one. The choice for Katerina had already been made long ago, marrying off the unloved, weak-willed, but rich Tikhon. Larisa is accustomed to the cheerful life of the Volga “society” - parties, music, dancing. She herself has abilities - Larisa sings well. It is simply impossible to imagine Katerina in such a situation. It is much more closely connected with nature, with popular beliefs, and is truly religious. Larisa, too, in difficult times remembers God, and, having agreed to marry the petty official Karandyshev, dreams of leaving with him to the village, away from the city temptations and her former wealthy acquaintances. However, in general, she is a person of a different era and environment than Katerina. Larisa has a more subtle psychological makeup, a more subtle sense of beauty than the heroine of “The Thunderstorm”. But this also makes her even more defenseless against any unfavorable external circumstances.

The merchants of “Groza” are just becoming the bourgeoisie, this is manifested in the fact that the patriarchal relations traditional for them are becoming obsolete, deception and hypocrisy are being established (Kabanikha, Varvara), which are so disgusting to Katerina.

Larisa is also a victim of deception and hypocrisy, but she has different life values, unthinkable for Katerina, the source of which, first of all, lies in upbringing. Larisa received a Europeanized upbringing and education. She is looking for sublimely beautiful love, gracefully beautiful life. To do this, ultimately, she needs wealth. But there is no strength of character, no integrity of nature in her. It would seem that the educated and cultured Larisa should have expressed at least some kind of protest, unlike Katerina. But she is a weak nature in all respects. Weak not only in order to kill herself when everything collapsed and everything became hateful, but even in order to somehow resist the deeply alien norms of life that boils around her. In soul and body, Larisa herself turns out to be an expression of the deceitfulness of the surrounding life, emptiness, spiritual chill, hiding behind a spectacular external shine.

The essence of the conflict in dramas is also different. In “The Thunderstorm,” the clash occurs between tyrants and their victims. The play has very strong motifs of lack of freedom, stuffiness, suppression, and closed space. Katerina, accustomed to living “like a bird in the wild,” dreaming of flight, cannot subordinate herself to the laws of the world in which she found herself after her marriage. Her situation is truly tragic: the free expression of feeling - love for Boris - comes into conflict with her true religiosity, her inner inability to live in sin. The climax of the play is Katerina’s public recognition, which takes place amid the thunderclaps of an approaching thunderstorm.

An event that, like a thunderclap, shakes the entire city is the death of Katerina. Traditionally, it is perceived by drama viewers as a protest against the cruel laws of life, as a victory of the heroine over the force that oppresses her.

In “Dowry”, at first glance, everything is the opposite. Larisa is not sharply opposed to the heroes around her; she is admired and idolized. There is no talk of any suppression or despotism. But another motive is extremely strong in the play, which was not in “The Thunderstorm” - the motive of money. It is he who forms the conflict of the drama. Larisa is homeless, and this determines her position in the play. All the characters around her - Knurov, Vozhevatov, Paratov, Karandyshev - talk only about money, benefit, profit, buying and selling. In this world, a person’s feelings also become a subject of trade. This clash of monetary, material interests with the feelings of the heroine leads to a tragic ending.

And the heroines’ attitudes towards death are very different; Larisa’s willpower is much weaker than Katerina’s. Katerina sees death here as an opportunity to merge with the natural world and get rid of suffering, when her husband’s house became a grave for her: “Where to now? Should I go home? No, it doesn’t matter to me whether I go home or go to the grave. Yes, to home, to the grave!.. to the grave! It’s better in a grave... There’s a grave under a tree... how nice!.. The sun warms it, wets it with rain... in the spring the grass will grow on it, so soft... birds will fly to the tree, they will sing, they will bring out children, flowers will bloom: yellow, red, blue... all sorts of (thoughts) all sorts...”

Larisa, after her hopes for marriage with Paratov have finally collapsed, and Knurov openly invited her to become a rich kept woman, is thinking about throwing herself into the Volga, like Katerina. However, she does not have enough determination for this: “Larissa. Just now I was looking down through the bars, my head was spinning, and I almost fell. And if you fall, they say... certain death. (Thinking.) It would be nice to rush! No, why rush!.. Stand by the bars and look down, you’ll get dizzy and fall... Yes, that’s better... unconscious, no pain... you won’t feel anything! (He approaches the bars and looks down. He bends down, grabs the bars tightly, then runs away in horror.) Oh, oh! How scary! (Almost falls, grabs the gazebo.) What dizziness! I'm falling, falling, ouch! (Sits down at the table near the gazebo.) Oh, no... (Through tears.) Parting with life is not at all as easy as I thought. So I have no strength! Here I am, how unhappy! But there are people for whom this is easy...”

Here the author's remarks convey confusion main character“Dowryless”, her craving for suicide and inability to accomplish it. Larisa either approaches the cliff or moves away from it. She still hopes that some force acting against her will will help her die. Larisa dreams of leaving life pure, sinless, including without the sin of suicide. And she clearly lacks the determination to take her own life. Katerina is a different matter. She realizes that she is a sinner because she cheated on her husband, even an unloved one, even for the sake of real, genuine love. Her suicide is both atonement for sin (albeit through, from the point of view of Christianity, another sin, but for Katerina this circumstance no longer matters), and reunification with the natural world - birds, trees, and liberation from the earthly grave - the home of the hated Kabanikha. Before her death, Katerina by no means forgives her mother-in-law who killed her. Larisa, in full agreement with Christian ideals, declares that she loves all those - Paratov, Knurov, Vozhevatov, Karandyshev - who, voluntarily or unwittingly, contributed to her death. Katerina’s faith is more passionate and less canonical, in some ways close to the pagan deification of the natural elements. Larisa's faith is calmer, partly bookish, although no less sincere. The heroine of “The Thunderstorm” is a more strong-willed person. She is capable of such a decisive act as suicide. The heroine of “The Dowry” does not have the will to commit suicide. An accident comes to her aid in the person of Karandyshev, who ended Larisa’s life with his shot.

Freedom and love are the main things that were in Katerina’s character. She believed in God freely, not under pressure. By her own free will, she sinned and punished herself. Moreover, suicide for a believer is an even more terrible sin, but Katerina agreed to it. Her impulse for freedom, for freedom, turned out to be stronger than the fear of torment beyond the grave, but, more likely, it was her hope in God’s mercy, for Katerina’s God is undoubtedly kindness and forgiveness incarnate.

Katerina - true tragic heroine. She had no thought of protesting against the world and the order in which she lived. She had no conflict with the world or with those around her. The cause of her death was internal conflict her hearts. Russian world patriarchal life in Katerina he himself exploded from the inside, because freedom began to leave him, i.e. life itself.

And Larisa, a young girl, pure soul, who knows how to love and longs for mutual true feelings, faces the world of businessmen, where only capital reigns. In this world, the fate of a homeless woman is doomed to tragedy. Like Katerina, Larisa belongs to women with a “warm heart”. She is also endowed with musical, poetic soul. Larisa's world contains both a gypsy song and a Russian romance. A dreamy, artistically gifted nature, she does not notice shortcomings in people, sees others through the eyes of the heroine of a romance and often acts in accordance with the traditions of the behavior of such a heroine (the desire to catch up with a departed loved one, love and separation, temptation by love, escaping from an engagement). Larisa seems to hover above the world of ordinary people; it is not for nothing that her name is translated from Greek as seagull.

The shipowner, rich gentleman Sergei Sergeevich seems to Larisa to be the ideal man. He is capable of being sincerely carried away; he is delighted with Larisa’s beauty, originality, and artistic gift. But his spiritual impulses are short-lived; business calculations always take over: “I... have nothing cherished; If I find a profit, I’ll sell everything, anything.” True to this rule, Paratov does this with both the Lastochka steamship and Larisa. For the sake of momentary bliss, he persuades Larisa to go beyond the Volga, from where there are two roads for her: either “rejoice”, or “Mom, look for me in the Volga.” Paratov has no intention of exchanging his millionth bride for Larisa Dmitrievna. At the end of the play, Larisa has an epiphany. Sergei Sergeevich reminds her that “the frenzy of passion soon passes, what remains are chains and common sense,” and advises her to return to her fiance. But for Larisa this is impossible: “If I don’t love my husband, I must at least respect him; But how can I respect a person who indifferently endures ridicule and all kinds of insults!” The heroine of the play tries to throw herself into the Volga, but she does not have the strength to carry out this intention. Desperate, she decides to throw down a kind of challenge both to her failed fiancé and to the whole world of self-interest and profit: “if you are a thing, then there is only one consolation - to be expensive, very expensive.” She delivers a harsh verdict on a world where women are viewed as a joke. “No one ever tried to look into my soul, I didn’t see sympathy from anyone, I didn’t hear a warm, heartfelt word... But it’s cold to live like that.”

After the shot, she declares “it’s me,” the heroine not only strives to remove the blame from Karandyshev; Larisa realized that she too was to blame for what happened. Having accepted death as a blessing, she thereby breaks out of the world of businessmen, morally rising above them, and forever separates herself from this world. By this she admits her guilt. But Katerina is even more sinful than Larisa, since she commits suicide. But this is precisely her tragedy: she understands, realizes that she has sinned, repents, and then sins again. Their main difference lies in each heroine’s understanding of her sin.

In essence, the characters of Katerina and Larisa are rather antipodes. Larisa does not have the main thing that Katerina has - integrity of character, the ability to take decisive action.

But these heroines of Ostrovsky have a lot in common: this is the thirst for flight, and the desire for will, freedom; their protest against the “dark kingdom”. But their main difference is in the expression of this protest. Katerina is a much stronger nature than Larisa. And Katerina’s tragedy is much deeper than Larisa’s tragedy.

Katerina Kabanova and Larisa Ogudalova - two women, two heroines of Ostrovsky, two tragic fates, which at first glance are completely different. What do Katerina, who cheated on her husband and condemned herself to death as a woman, have in common, and the young girl Larisa, who is killed by her groom? How are they similar? dark kingdom» Kalinova and the town of Bryakhimov? Is it that unhappy love for an unworthy chosen one unites these two women, and the tragic ending of their lives. In this chapter of our work, we will conduct benchmarking the images of Katerina Kabanova and Larisa Ogudalova, and we will reveal what unites these heroines, why they are the keys to understanding the pathos of Ostrovsky’s entire work, in whose comedies and dramas a spiritless world is described with equal sorrow, in which people rarely find happiness.

The main heroines of Ostrovsky’s two plays are different in appearance, social status and upbringing: Katerina in “The Thunderstorm” is the wife of a rich but weak-willed merchant who is entirely under the influence of her oppressive mother, Larisa in “Dowry” is a beautiful unmarried girl who lost her father early and was brought up mother, a self-centered and greedy woman.

Katerina is religious and romantic at the same time, she “recognizes religious and moral norms not because the author wants it, but because she acts in accordance with the concepts brought up in her by her environment,” but at the same time she is endowed with inner firmness and a desire for freedom; Married without love to Tikhon, she finds herself in an atmosphere of cruelty that does not give a person the right to personal happiness, and dies from a lack of sincere love. But her romantic impulses find a way out, Katerina falls passionately in love with young man, Boris, who stands out for his decent manners and some education, and this small difference from the rest of the residents of the city of Kalinov is enough for the ardent Katerina to see her love in him. But such love, which contradicts her inner moral convictions, does not bring her happiness. She suffers from the fact that her love is criminal in relation to morality, that she cannot simultaneously be loved and be honest with herself and people. The internal struggle, the reluctance to transgress one’s own (by no means public) moral laws, becomes the cause of the heroine’s tragic situation. Having cheated on her husband, Katerina herself repents to him, but, exhausted by the homely atmosphere, she prefers death to returning to her family. Katerina commits suicide because “the feeling human dignity“, which grew up in her on the basis of romantic aspirations, turns out to be stronger than the slavish obedience that patriarchal forms of life, which have already lost their content, demand from Katerina.”

The situation is different in the drama “Dowry”. The main character Larisa is not just a narrow-minded bourgeois - a heroine " cruel romance", this is an educated, cultured, thinking girl. She was not brought up in a world where the harmony of nature religious consciousness And human soul give to a person inner strength and develop spirituality, like Katerina, and in a world where the weak are humiliated, where the strongest survive, where money becomes religion, and the measure of morality is the ability to cover up one’s sins: it is not for nothing that the play “Dowry” opens with a scene where two “masters” drink champagne from tea cups to maintain appearances. Her character does not have the integrity that Katerina has. Therefore, Larisa does not strive, and cannot, realize her dreams and desires. She is oppressed by poverty and the humiliation of her own position; Larisa does not accept the world in which she lives and wants to escape from it at any cost, but in the end the only way death becomes liberation.

Women's names in Ostrovsky's plays are very bizarre, but the name of the main character almost always extremely accurately characterizes her role in the plot and fate. Larisa means “seagull” in Greek, Katerina means “pure”. Larisa is a victim of Paratov's trade pirate deals: he sells “birds” - “Swallow” (steamer) and then Larisa - “seagull”. Katerina is a victim of her purity, her religiosity; she could not bear the splitting of her soul, because she loved not her husband, and cruelly punished herself for it. It is worth noting that both Kharita and Martha (in “The Dowry” and in “The Thunderstorm”) are both Ignatievnas, that is, “ignorant”, and in the context of the plays, rather even “blind” - neither one nor the other sees their guilt in death daughters and daughters-in-law.

The characters of the main characters are very similar. These are natures who live “with the mind of the heart,” dreaming of love, idealizing the world, creating it anew in their imagination: both of them endow their beloved with non-existent traits, both believe in the possibility of happiness, and both perish. Each of them is in one way or another connected with the symbol of the bird: Larisa with the name, and Katerina with the constant dream of flight, and the bird is a symbol of spirit and soul, freedom and dreams.

But the play “Dowry” was created in a different socio-political environment than “The Thunderstorm”. The playwright abandoned hopes for the correction of society as a whole, for the “salvation of the human race,” which is why the endings of these plays differ significantly. If after the death of Katerina the world of the “dark kingdom” realizes its guilt, and Tikhon challenges his mother, blaming her for the death of his wife, then the murder of Larisa Ogudalova does not cause a similar resonance: the author deliberately emphasizes the indifference of others; the scene of the heroine's death is voiced by the singing of a gypsy choir.

However, where higher value has not the similarity of situations, but deep difference characters of Katerina and Larisa. Katerina Kabanova lives in a small Volga town, where life is still largely patriarchal: the action of “The Thunderstorm” takes place before the reform of 1861, which had a largely revolutionary impact on the life of the Russian province. Larisa Ogudalova is also a resident small town, also located on the Volga, but has long lost the patriarchal nature of family relationships. The Dowry takes place in the late 1870s, when capitalism is booming and former merchants are turning into millionaire entrepreneurs. The Ogudalov family is not rich, but, thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of Kharita Ignatievna, they make acquaintance with “ strongmen of the world this,” and the mother inspires Larisa that, although she has no dowry, she should marry a rich groom. Brought up in the spirit of a novel, or rather even a “romantic” attitude towards reality, Larisa accepts these rules of the game, naively hoping that love and wealth will unite in the person of her future chosen one.

Larisa is accustomed to the cheerful life of the Volga “light” - parties, music, dancing. She herself has artistic ability- Larisa sings well. It is simply impossible to imagine Katerina in such a situation. She is much more closely connected with nature, with popular beliefs, but at the same time deeply religious: in her youth, her favorite activities are work and prayer, and in church she sees angels. Larisa, too, in difficult times remembers God, and having become disillusioned with love and agreeing to marry the petty official Yuli Kapitonich Karandyshev, she dreams of leaving with him to the village, away from the city temptations and her previous wealthy acquaintances, but this desire of hers is also based on romantic ideas about rural life, as purification, but in general she is a person of a different environment. Katerina’s faith is more passionate and less canonical, in some ways close to the pagan deification of the natural elements. Larisa’s faith is calmer, even “bookish,” although no less sincere.

Katerina, a resident of Kalinov, although she was brought up in relative freedom, is still forced to marry an unloved person, because tradition dictates so. She “doesn’t care who to love,” because she needs the very feeling of love, she is capable of sincere feelings even for the weak-willed Tikhon, but he is under the yoke of his mother, who considers love unacceptable in the relationship between husband and wife, and cannot find the strength in himself to love her. Katerina is looking for understanding, the same enthusiastic and bright perception of the world, secularism is alien to her, for her true pleasure can be work, admiring nature, and prayer.

Larisa is a dreamy person, she lives in a world invented by herself, in which there is graceful “beautiful” love, “seasoned” with wealth and gloss, but this world is being destroyed, and this makes her unhappy. Katerina, on the other hand, lives in a reality that puts pressure on her, and from which she tries to hide through her love for Boris. Katerina is ruined by internal dissonance, while Larisa suffers from destroyed illusions.

Larisa's daydreaming makes her more defenseless against any unfavorable external circumstances than Katerina, who is endowed with perseverance and courage, and is capable of resistance. Katerina in childhood commits a rebellion against a world that is unfair to her; Larisa is incapable of such a rebellion; faced with the cynicism and cruelty of her chosen one, she is ready to compromise with her inner world, and become a kept woman, she is forced to abandon this only by the fact that the right to own her was played at a toss.

Katerina cannot be called a rebel, since she was brought up in strict accordance with the laws of “domostroy” (in their original understanding), but she is capable of rebellion: Kabanikha, who perverted the concept of the traditional patriarchal family structure, becomes the catalyst for this rebellion. Larisa cannot protest, she is spontaneous people's power she is not, she is a sophisticated young lady, the heroine of a romance, who is not capable of decisive action, of open challenge.

Both heroines die in the finale, but they perceive death differently: “Even in her difficult marriage, Katerina did not lose her romantic aspirations, which, while feeding her vague dreams of freedom, at the same time contain a naive but strong religious and moral conviction in the immortality of the soul. For her, death is not the destruction of personality, but its liberation from an unbearable existence. Larisa doesn't have this. She embodies in her character not the end of the era of family authority, but the beginning of the era of naked power of the pure. She has kind and sincere feelings, but there are no strong moral foundations, no sense of purpose. She is weak, full of hesitation and therefore easily susceptible to temptation.” Katerina sees in death an opportunity to merge with the natural world and get rid of suffering, become part of the earth, enter the Kingdom of Heaven (despite the sin of suicide, Katerina believes in her salvation in heaven, since by suicide she punishes herself, and does not escape punishment). Larisa, on the other hand, lacks determination in her decision to commit suicide. She cannot imagine that after death she will be better off than during life: she retains hope for earthly happiness to the end, she has nothing to punish herself for, and death for her does not seem to be the only possible way out, until she is completely disappointed in those around you and yourself. Larisa either approaches the cliff or moves away from it. She hopes that, like the heroine of a romance, some kind of help will help her die. high power: your head will spin, and Larisa will accidentally fall down and will certainly fall to death, or she will be ill for a long time, forgive everyone and die. Larisa dreams of leaving life pure, sinless, including without the sin of suicide. Before her death, Larisa, with Christian humility, says that she loves all those - Paratov, Knurov, Vozhevatov, Karandyshev - who caused her death; Katerina does not forgive anyone; she rather challenges the world than leaves it quietly, like Larisa.

In a merciless world where Wild and Boars reign, Katerina’s life is unbearable, impossible, and therefore it must end tragically. Katerina's protest against Kabanikha is a struggle of the bright, pure, human against the darkness of lies and cruelty of the “dark kingdom”. Larisa's situation is more complicated, she loses faith in the possibility of love and happiness, having realized that in the eyes of people she is nothing more than a beautiful thing, Larisa sees two ways out of this situation: either search material assets, or death, but the first for her is no different from the second. By choosing the “gloss of gold” she will die spiritually; the author shows the inevitability of her death, forcing not the heroine herself to commit suicide, but Karandyshev to end the bride’s life with a shot.

At Katerina's controversial nature: She is God-fearing and rebellious at the same time. Larisa, on the other hand, does not fight the world of money, she leaves it for the illusion of love, and if Katerina is a creator, pushing the world towards change with a desperate last effort, then Larisa is a romantic, whose fate is shattered by reality, but does not affect it . Larisa's character is more integral, but not as strong as Katerina's character.

Katerina’s will is stronger because she is closer to the people’s worldview, where there is no room for reflection, while Larisa is a romantic, subtle heroine, and therefore more vulnerable. Katerina, committing suicide, shows the strength of the Russian national feminine character, Larisa - his subtlety, sensitivity, weakness. These heroines are two sides of the same coin - the female character of the nineteenth century, which combines high spiritual purity and sacrifice, strength and weakness, rebellion and submission to fate, determination and subtlety, spontaneous impulse and romantic sophistication. This is what allows Katerina and Larisa, women created by the power of one author, to become the embodiment of femininity, to enter the gallery female images Russian classical literature. According to Lotman: “The death of the heroine of “The Dowry” and Katerina in “The Thunderstorm” mark a verdict on a society that is unable to preserve the treasure of an inspired personality, beauty and talent; it is doomed to moral impoverishment, to the triumph of vulgarity and mediocrity.”

“The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry” are so similar in plot, they create a complete picture of the world, reveal ideological pathos of Ostrovsky’s work as a whole: using the example of his heroines, the playwright shows what power a person has, the power of rebellion and forgiveness, and how spirituality and morality are devalued in the world, and their carriers die either of their own free will, like Katerina, or under the yoke of circumstances, like Larisa.