Comparative analysis of the images of Katerina and Larisa Ogudalova. Ostrovsky's plays: the images of Katerina Kabanova and Larisa Ogudalova, as a reflection of the Russian national female character

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 they 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 got used to have a fun life Volga “light” - 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 is also in Hard time remembers God, and, having agreed to marry a petty official, Karandyshev, dreams of leaving with him to the village, away from the city temptations and 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 person than Larisa. And Katerina’s tragedy is much deeper than Larisa’s tragedy.

Class practice. Let's try to open it common features, characteristic of the style of O. as a whole. Criticism of various movements - Slavophile Edelson, revolutionary democrat Chernyshevsky, liberal Boborykin - blamed Ostrovsky for the lack of unity of action in his plays, its internal expediency, etc. Chernyshevsky believed that Ostrovsky’s entire play “Poverty is not a vice” “consists of a series of incoherent...

He himself exploded from the inside because freedom began to leave him, i.e. life itself. In Ostrovsky's forty original plays from contemporary life, there are practically no male heroes. Heroes in the sense positive characters, occupying a central place in the play. Instead of them, Ostrovsky's heroines are loving, suffering souls. Katerina Kabanova is just one of them. Her character is often compared to...

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, wholly 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 is used to 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 also remembers God in difficult times, 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.

The female image, its inconsistency and true beauty have always attracted playwrights. One of the main features of Russian literature is attention to female images, and often the emergence of a female image as the main, leading one in the work. Despite the fact that the authors of the works were men, they felt very subtly and extremely accurately depicted strength and weakness feminine character. A. N. Ostrovsky, the creator of the national Russian theater, was no exception. In his plays, the writer showed the life of merchant society and how time changed it. Two, perhaps, the most popular plays of the writer - “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry” - are separated by an interval of twenty years. “The Thunderstorm,” written in 1859, was the pinnacle of A. N. Ostrovsky’s creativity. This play became the pearl of Russian drama of the second half of the 19th century century, because a force appeared in her that resolutely resisted the strange deadening order, the oppressive atmosphere. The lines of “Dowry” were written on paper in 1879. In this play, the merchants are no longer ignorant representatives of the “dark kingdom”, but people who pretend to be educated, read foreign newspapers, and dress in European fashion. The plays are very similar in concept. The pages of both works reflect the problem of women's lack of rights, the opposition of the girl's character and inner world to the orders and mores of the society in which she lives. The fates of Katerina and Larisa Ogudalova are similar. A. N. Ostrovsky demonstrates that when money interferes in people’s relationships, what was once called love and trust is destroyed. But it seems to me that the issue is not only the irresistible power of money. I believe that if between two people there really are high relations, then not a single person who is faced with the choice of “money or beloved” will stop for a minute on the “money” option. But in Ostrovsky’s plays, neither Boris nor Paratov could choose the comfortable existence of their beloved women over money. In my opinion, in in this case one cannot talk about Boris’s love for Katerina and any true feelings of Paratov for Larisa. Katerina's character was formed in the atmosphere of a simple patriarchal merchant family. Her spiritual needs were satisfied by the stories of wanderers and praying men like Feklushi. Love in the family and the freedom provided to her shaped the character of Katerina, who is naturally endowed with a poetic soul. N.A. Dobrolyubov described Katerina as “a ray of light in dark kingdom" This is true. She shone with the genuine beauty of her soul, sincerity and belief that a different way of life was possible. Among the shaky morality, which became the last straw and the impetus for betrayal, she was the most highly moral person. Her betrayal of her husband cannot be viewed as a fatal mistake and she cannot be condemned for it. After all, the heroine struggled with her feelings in all ways, trying to protect herself from sin. In Boris she sees her protector and seeks support. But he also leaves and abandons Katerina, realizing that the best way out for her is death. It is impossible to say unambiguously whether Katerina is strong or weak. On the one hand, she strong man, because she found the strength to resist the social foundations of that time, she fights for happiness with her feelings.

Aug 05 2014

Revealing the Russian national character V female type- a traditional solution to the problem in Russian. Gallery female images: Pushkin's Tatyana Larina and Masha Mironova, Lermontov's Vera and Princess Mary, Matryona Timofeevna and Daria from Nekrasov's poems- all these images embody best features Russian national character and invariably evoke the admiration of readers. A. N. Ostrovsky did not stand aside, showing a variety of female characters in his plays: among them the merchant’s daughter Lipochka (“We are our own people - we will be numbered”), and the actress Elena Ivanovna Kruchinina (“Guilty without guilt”), and two sisters - Polina and Yulenka, who got married in such different ways and arranged their destinies (“Profitable Place”). But especially bright characters heroines are presented in two dramas. This is the merchant wife of Kabanov in the drama "" and the daughter of the widow Kharita Ignatievna Ogudalova - from the drama "".

Of course, both heroines are different in many ways - both in their origin and social status, they received different upbringings and education. Katerina was born into a merchant family, and her education is typical for a girl of her circle - the ability to sew, gold embroidery, predominance religious literature, in general, the huge influence of church and religion on her worldview. As a representative of a different social circle, my education is secular in nature - reading novels, singing, playing different musical instruments. And the position of the heroines in society and their lives are very different: if Katerina is the wife of the merchant Tikhon Kabanov, from a well-known and respected family in the city, then Larisa, although she has a “good surname,” is a poor girl of marriageable age, without a dowry.

Hence their way of life: Katerina is seen in the city only in church, accompanied by her mother-in-law, she is withdrawn and boring, and for Larisa, her mother invites many guests to the house, seeing them as possible suitors, so there is always music and fun there. But the heroines have a lot in common: they are pure, sincere, truthful. Katerina admits to Varvara: “I don’t know how to deceive, I can’t hide anything.” Lying is also not typical for Larisa.

Vozhevatov says about her: “But she’s simple-minded. She’s not stupid, but she doesn’t have any cunning... suddenly, out of the blue, she says that it’s not necessary,” that is, the truth. For heroines, their inner world, they are bright and talented as individuals. Katerina is carried away by her soul into the world of her sublime dreams, into fabulous paradise gardens with unprecedented flowers, where angels sing.

Larisa is a talented musician, she is wonderful. And of course, both heroines feel an urgent need to love, it has become organic, a necessary condition their existence. Vozhevatov talks about how “sensitive” Larisa is, how she “almost died of grief” after Paratov’s departure.

Katerina shares her dreams of love with Varvara, her husband’s sister. But, as it turned out, the heroines have no one to love: the men who are nearby are not capable of deep, strong feeling, worthy of either Larisa. Tikhon, weak-willed and weak, is entirely under his mother’s shoe and, at her will, humiliates Katerina.

He is ready to feel sorry for her, but if this means sacrificing his interests, for example, taking her with him on a business trip, then Tikhon does not consider it necessary to hide his irritation: “...You’re still forcing yourself on me!” Only from home environment, from the hostility of her mother-in-law, misunderstanding and indifference of her husband, Katerina began to look for love elsewhere, falling in love with Boris Grigorych, in the words of A. N. Dobrolyubov, “in the wilderness.”

Boris Grigoryich, of course, is not a hero either, he thought of an affair with a married woman as a pleasure: “let’s take a walk” while the husband is away - and he is not at all ready to take responsibility for what happened with Katerina, it never even occurred to him it came that she would not be able to pretend in front of her family and hide her sin. Paratov, Larisa’s chosen one, is also not a hero. Having suddenly left, he does not give any news about himself for a year, neglecting Larisa’s feelings, in order to improve his financial situation decides to marry advantageously. But, having met Larisa, he pretends to be indignant that Larisa is marrying Karandyshev: “Oh women!

Your name is insignificance! And having achieved her confession that she still loves him, Paratov invites her to go with him beyond the Volga, which could compromise the girl. After this act, Larisa must either not come home at all, or return with Paratov together for her mother’s blessing. But after this, Paratov announces to Larisa, again pompously and pompously, about his engagement, about the “golden chains” with which he is shackled for life. Thus, not seeing mutual understanding, not receiving an answer to their sincere, deep passion, both Katerina after betraying her husband, and Larisa after Paratov’s betrayal, find themselves in a situation of moral choice.

For Larisa, this is either marriage to the unloved Karandyshev, or the shame of a fallen woman, the kept woman of one of the rich merchants. For Katerina, the choice is even more terrible - captivity in her mother-in-law's house or death. Larisa essay with Allsoch. Ru 2005 is still too young to be so decisive.

She dreamed of a quiet family paradise, but the petty, narcissistic Karandyshev tormented her with his nagging and reproaches. Larisa’s choice is dictated primarily by her spiritual loneliness: neither her mother, nor Karandyshev, nor her childhood friend Vozhevatov, who is playing toss with Knurov, understands her, who will now go with Larisa to Paris. The word “thing” dropped by Karandyshev seems to Larisa a terrible and precise definition of her situation: “I was looking for love and didn’t find it... But it’s cold to live like that... I didn’t find love, so I’ll look for gold.”

She, a very young girl, inexperienced in life, is scared by this discovery, but lacks the strength to commit suicide. Therefore, she perceives Karandyshev’s shot as a “good deed.” Katerina is stronger, more decisive, she understands that her future will not bring her anything good and she has nothing to wait for, that it is harder at home than in the grave. And the sin of suicide can no longer stop her, because “you can’t live.”

In both cases, the death of both heroines is to blame for the society in which they were, the people around them, who put the power of money and the prejudices of public morality above sincere human relationships - love, kindness, tenderness, what they were looking for and could not find in the life of the heroine of A. N. Ostrovsky’s dramas.

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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 “The Dowry” is a 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 prone 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.

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 is a resident of a large city, also located on the Volga, but has long lost the patriarchal nature of family relationships. 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.

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 her 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.

Here the author’s remarks convey the confusion of the main character of “The Dowry,” her desire for suicide and her 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.