Essay “The main conflict in the play “The Thunderstorm.” Family and social conflict in the drama “The Thunderstorm”

Features of the conflict in A.N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm”
Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” raises the problem of a turning point in social life that occurred in the 50s of the 19th century, a change in social foundations, as well as the problem of the position and role of women in the family and society.
In the play "The Thunderstorm" several conflicts can be distinguished. On the one hand, two ways of life are shown, the old, “Domostroevsky” and the new, represented by the younger generation. Therefore, we can say that the play is dedicated to the social conflict of generations, where the new steps on the heels of the old, the old does not want to give in to the new. The relationship between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, the bondage of a woman in a merchant family can also be considered as part of a social conflict. But the play is much more complex than it might seem at first glance. After all, Katerina is struggling with herself, different sides of her personality are in conflict. This is a spiritual conflict. In this respect, “The Thunderstorm” is close to tragedy in its genre. Let's try to understand all these conflicts separately.
Representatives of the old time, the era of “Domostroy” are Kabanova and Dikoy. The names alone describe the characters of these people. Kabanova is the last guardian of the “house-building” way of life in the city. She adheres to the old orders and views and seeks to impose them on her household: “... no order, they don’t know how to say goodbye. This is how the old days come to be... What will happen, how the old people will die, how the light will remain, I don’t know. Well, at least it’s good that I won’t see anything.” The boar is despotic and self-willed, demanding complete submission. And she achieved this primarily from her own son, who does not dare to go against the will of his mother. She is even more forced to cling to the old world by the belief that incredible things are happening outside Kalinov, there is “just sodom”, people in the bustle do not notice each other, they harness the “fiery serpent” and the devil himself walks among them, unnoticed by anyone. Dikoy also adheres to the old order. For him, the main thing in life is money and wealth; it is not for nothing that, having become rich, he can even “pat the mayor on the shoulder.”
Kabanikha and Dikiy are contrasted in the play by Kuligin, a man of progressive views, an inventor. Each of the opponents tries to defend their ideals. Wild church superstition is in his arsenal. Kuligin defends his human dignity with references to the authority of Lomonosov and Derzhavin. Symbolic in this regard is the scene of Kuligin’s argument with Dikiy. If we look at her more closely, we will see in those arguing not just a greedy merchant and a talented self-taught mechanic, but a person zealously defending patriarchal foundations, and a person trying to overthrow them. From this point of view, the roles of Kuligin and Dikiy are very important. This is the essence of social conflict.
Another conflict is spiritual. It develops inside the main character of the play - Katerina. Katerina grew up in a world where love, kindness, and tenderness reigned. Katerina’s mother “doted on her soul.” The girl went to church, listened to praying prayers, and lived in unity with nature. Katerina was raised in such a way that she cannot violate moral and moral laws; any deviation from them leads her into confusion. From this world, Katerina found herself in a completely different environment, where people care about different values. Katerina’s mother-in-law, Kabanikha, pretends that her family is a model of prosperity: her daughter-in-law and son fear and respect her, Katerina is afraid of her husband.
But in fact, she doesn’t care what happens in reality, only appearances are important to her. The old way of life is destroyed within Katerina herself. Varvara also plays a big role here - a representative of the younger generation, but the bearer of different views, different from the views of Katerina. It is Varvara who encourages Katerina to go on a date with Boris. Without Varvara, it is unlikely that Katerina would have decided to do this. Varvara’s world is much simpler; she can turn a blind eye to everything. Following this very simplified morality, Varvara does not see anything reprehensible in Katerina’s meetings with Boris. For Katerina, cheating on her husband is something shameful; she then cannot look him in the eye. But Tikhon, her husband, does not correspond to her ideas about an ideal spouse. A husband is a support, a support, a ruler. Tikhon does not live up to Katerina’s expectations. This disappointment leads her to Boris. This new feeling for Katerina is a sin; it gives rise to remorse. If she had continued to live in a patriarchal world, this would not have happened. And if Tikhon had insisted on his own and taken her with him, she would have forgotten about Boris forever. Katerina’s tragedy is that this pure nature, with high moral requirements, does not know how to adapt to life. Katerina was unable to live further, having once violated the moral laws of Domostroy. Tormented by reproaches of conscience, she confesses everything to her husband, but even in her husband’s forgiveness she does not find relief from mental suffering. This is the essence of spiritual conflict.
Thus, the play shows two main conflicts - social and spiritual. The death of Katerina proves her moral superiority over the “dark kingdom” and ignorant people.

Conflict is the main driving force of a dramatic work. The conflict unfolds through the plot and can be realized on several different levels. Whether it is a confrontation of interests, characters or ideas, the conflict is resolved in the finale of the work. The essence of the conflict can also be determined by the literary era (realism and postmodernism, for example, are characterized by different types of conflicts). In realism, the conflict will be hidden in the depiction of social unrest and exposure of the vices of society. As an example, the article will consider the main conflict in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm”.
The work was written in 1859, several years before the abolition of serfdom. Ostrovsky wanted to show how much society is corroding itself from the inside just because the way of life remains the same. Patriarchal orders hinder progress, and corruption and servility destroy the human element in a person. In the description of such an atmosphere lies the main conflict of “The Thunderstorm”.

So, as a rule, the conflict is realized at the character level. To do this, pairs or groups of characters must be identified. We should start with the most striking confrontation: the couple Katya - Kabanikha. These women had to live together due to circumstances. The Kabanov family is quite rich, Marfa Ignatievna herself is a widow. She raised a son and daughter. Kabanikha constantly manipulates her son, causing scandals and hysterics. A woman believes that only her opinion has the right to exist, so everything must correspond to her ideas. She humiliates and insults the rest of the family. Varvara gets the least of it, because the daughter lies to her mother.

Katya was married off early to Tikhon Kabanov, Kabanikha’s son. Katya naively believed that her life before marriage would not be much different from her new life, but the girl was wrong. Pure Katya is not able to understand how you can lie to your mother, as Varvara does, how you can hide your thoughts and feelings from someone, how you can not defend the right to your own opinion. The order of this family is alien to her, but because of the patriarchal foundations that reigned at that time, the girl had no choice.

Here the conflict is realized at the internal level. These characters are too different, but at the same time both women have the same strong character. Katerina resists the corrupting influence of Kabanikha. Marfa Ignatievna understands that she is faced with a strong rival who can “turn” Tikhon against his mother, and this is not part of her plans.

In the pair Boris - Katerina, a love conflict is realized. A girl falls in love with a young man who has arrived in the city. Boris seems to Katya like herself, unlike the others. Boris, like Katerina, is annoyed by the atmosphere of the city. They both don't like that everything here is built on fear and money. The feelings of young people flare up quite quickly: one meeting was enough for them to fall in love with each other. Tikhon's departure allows the lovers to meet secretly and spend time together. Katya says that for the sake of Boris she commits a sin, but since she was not afraid of sin, then she is not afraid of condemnation from people. The girl does not understand why their meetings should be hidden. She wanted to confess everything to her husband so that later she could be honest with Boris, but the young man dissuades her from such an act. It is more convenient for Boris to meet secretly and not take responsibility. Of course they couldn't be together. Their love is tragic and fleeting. The situation takes an unexpected turn when Katya realizes that Boris is actually the same as all the other residents: pathetic and petty. And Boris doesn’t try to deny it. After all, he came to the city only to improve relations with his uncle (only in this case could he receive an inheritance).

The pair Kuligin - Dikoy will help determine the main conflict of the drama "The Thunderstorm" by Ostrovsky. Self-taught inventor and merchant. All power in the city seems to be concentrated in the hands of the Wild One. He is rich, but only thinks about increasing capital. He is not afraid of threats from the mayor, he deceives ordinary residents, steals from other merchants, and drinks a lot. Dikoy constantly swears. There was room for insults in every one of his remarks. He believes that people who are lower than him on the social ladder are unworthy of talking to him, they deserve their miserable existence. Kuligin strives to help people; all his inventions should benefit society. But he is poor, and there is no way to earn money by honest work. Kuligin knows about everything that happens in the city. “Cruel morals in our city.” Kuligin cannot resist or fight this.

The main conflict of the drama “The Thunderstorm” unfolds within the main character. Katya understands how strong the gap is between ideas and reality. Katerina wants to be herself, free, light and pure. But it’s impossible to live like that in Kalinov. In this struggle, she risks losing herself, giving up, and not withstanding the onslaught of circumstances. Katya chooses between black and white; gray does not exist for her. The girl understands that she can either live the way she wants or not live at all. The conflict ends with the death of the heroine. She could not commit violence against herself, kill herself for the sake of social order.

There are several conflicts in the play "The Thunderstorm". The main one is the confrontation between man and society. Added to this conflict is the conflict of generations, the conflict of old and new. The conclusion suggests itself that an honest person cannot survive in a society of liars and hypocrites.

The definition of the main conflict of the play and a description of its participants can be used by 10th grade students in essays on the topic “The main conflict in the play “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky.”

Work test

A conflict is a clash between two or more parties that do not coincide in their views and worldviews. In Ostrovsky’s play<Гроза>several conflicts, but how to decide which one is the main one? In the era of sociology in literary studies, it was believed that social conflict was the most important in the play. Of course, if you see in the image of Katerina a reflection of the spontaneous protest of the masses against the constraining conditions<темно-го царства>and to perceive Katerina’s death as a result of her collision with her tyrant mother-in-law, the genre of the play should be defined as a social and everyday drama. Drama is a work in which the social and personal aspirations of people, and sometimes their lives themselves, are under threat of death from external forces beyond their control. The play also contains a generational conflict between Katerina and Kabanikha: something new always comes on the heels of the old, the old does not want to surrender copyright 2005 ALLSoch.ru to the new. But the play is much deeper than it might seem at first glance. After all, Katerina primarily fights with herself, and not with Kabanikha, the conflict develops not around her, but in herself. Therefore the play<Гроза> can be defined as a tragedy. Tragedy is a work in which there is an insoluble conflict between the personal aspirations of the hero and the super-personal laws of life that occur in the mind of the protagonist. In general, the play is very similar to an ancient tragedy: the chorus is replaced by some extra-plot characters, the denouement ends with the death of the main character, as in the ancient tragedy (except for the immortal Prometheus). The death of Katerina is the result of a collision of two historical eras. Some of the characters in the play seem to differ from the time in which they live. For example: Kuligin is a man of the 18th century, he wants to invent a sundial, which was known in antiquity, or a perpetuum mobile, which is a distinctive feature of the Middle Ages, or a lightning rod. He himself reaches with his mind something that has already been invented a long time ago, but he only dreams about it. He quotes Lomonosov and Derzhavin - this is also a trait of a man of the 18th century. Boris is already an educator of the 19th century, an educated person. Katerina is the heroine of pre-Petrine times. The story about her childhood is a story about the ideal version of patriarchal pre-Mostroev relations. In this world of kings there is only all-pervading mutual love; a person does not separate himself from society. Katerina was raised in such a way that she could not refuse moral and moral laws; any violation of them would mean inevitable death. Katerina turns out to be, as it were, older than everyone in the city in her worldview, even older than Kabanikha, who remained as the last guardian of the house-building way of life in Kalinov. After all, Kabanikha only pretends that everything in her family is as it should be: her daughter-in-law and her son fear and respect her, Katerina is afraid of her husband, and she doesn’t care how everything really happens, only appearances are important to her. The main character finds herself in a world that she imagined completely differently, and the patriarchal structure within Katerina is destroyed right before her eyes. In many ways, Varvara decides Katerina’s fate by encouraging the latter to go on a date. Without Varvara, it is unlikely that she would have decided to do this. Varvara belongs to the youth of the city of Kalinov, which was formed at the turning point of patriarchal relations. Katerina, finding herself in a new environment for her, cannot get used to society; it is alien to her. For her, an ideal husband is a support, support, and ruler. But Tikhon does not confirm Katerina’s expectations, she is disappointed in him, and at this moment a new feeling is born - a feeling of personality, which takes the form of a feeling of love. This feeling for Katerina is a terrible sin. If she had continued to live in a patriarchal world, then this feeling would not have existed. Even if Tikhon had shown his masculine will and simply taken her with him, she would have forgotten about Boris forever. Katerina's tragedy is that she does not know how to be a hypocrite and pretend, like Kabanikha. The main character of the play, moral, with high moral requirements, does not know how to adapt to life. She could not live further, having broken the laws once<Домостроя>. The feeling that arose in Katerina cannot be fully embodied in her, and she, not reconciling herself with what she has done, commits an even greater sin - suicide. Play<Гроза>is the tragedy of the main character, in which the era of the turning point of patriarchal relations played an important role.

A conflict is a clash between two or more parties that do not coincide in their views and worldviews.

There are several conflicts in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm,” but how can you decide which one is the main one? In the era of sociology in literary criticism, it was believed that social conflict was the most important in the play. Of course, if we see in the image of Katerina a reflection of the spontaneous protest of the masses against the constraining conditions of the “dark kingdom” and perceive Katerina’s death as the result of her collision with her tyrant mother-in-law, the genre of the play should be defined as a social and everyday drama. Drama is a work in which the social and personal aspirations of people, and sometimes their very lives, are under threat of death from external forces beyond their control.

The play also contains a generational conflict between Katerina and Kabanikha: the new always steps on the heels of the old, the old does not want to give in to the new. But the play is much deeper than it might seem at first glance. After all, Katerina primarily fights with herself, and not with Kabanikha, the conflict develops not around her, but in herself. Therefore, the play “The Thunderstorm” can be defined as a tragedy. Tragedy is a work in which there is an insoluble conflict between the personal aspirations of the hero and the super-personal laws of life that occur in the mind of the protagonist. In general, the play is very similar to an ancient tragedy: the chorus is replaced by some extra-plot characters, the denouement ends with the death of the main character, as in the ancient tragedy (except for the immortal Prometheus).

The death of Katerina is the result of a collision of two historical eras. Some of the characters in the play seem to differ in the time in which they live. For example: Kuligin is a man of the 18th century, he wants to invent a sundial, which was known in antiquity, or a perpetuum mobile, which is a distinctive feature of the Middle Ages, or a lightning rod. He himself reaches with his mind something that has already been invented a long time ago, but he only dreams about it. He quotes Lomonosov and Derzhavin - this is also a trait of a man of the 18th century. Boris is already an educator of the 19th century, an educated person. Katerina is the heroine of pre-Petrine times. The story about her childhood is a story about the ideal version of patriarchal house-building relations. In this world of kings there is only all-pervading mutual love; a person does not separate himself from society. Katerina was raised in such a way that she could not refuse moral and ethical laws; any violation of them would mean inevitable death. Katerina turns out to be older than everyone in the city in terms of her worldview, even older than Kabanikha, who remained as the last guardian of the house-building way of life in Kalinov. After all, Kabanikha only pretends that everything in her family is as it should be: her daughter-in-law and her son fear and respect her, Katerina is afraid of her husband, and she doesn’t care how everything really happens, only appearances are important to her. The main character finds herself in a world that she imagined completely differently, and the patriarchal structure within Katerina is destroyed right before her eyes. In many ways, Varvara decides Katerina’s fate by encouraging the latter to go on a date. Without Varvara, it is unlikely that she would have decided to do this. Varvara belongs to the youth of the city of Kalinov, who were formed at the turning point of patriarchal relations. Katerina, finding herself in a new environment for her, cannot get used to society; it is alien to her. For her, an ideal husband is a support, support, and ruler. But Tikhon does not confirm Katerina’s expectations, she is disappointed in him, and at this moment a new feeling is born - a feeling of personality, which takes the form of a feeling of love. This feeling for Katerina is a terrible sin. If she had continued to live in a patriarchal world, then this feeling would not have existed. Even if Tikhon had shown his masculine will and simply taken her with him, she would have forgotten about Boris forever. Katerina's tragedy is that she does not know how to be a hypocrite and pretend, like Kabanikha. The main character of the play, moral, with high moral requirements, does not know how to adapt to life. She could not live further, having once violated the laws of “Domostroy”. The feeling that arose in Katerina cannot be fully embodied in her, and she, not reconciling herself with what she has done, commits an even greater sin - suicide.

The play “The Thunderstorm” is a tragedy of the main character, in which the era of the turning point in patriarchal relations played an important role.

this is a clash of two or more parties that do not coincide in their views and worldviews. There are several conflicts in Ostrovsky's play The Thunderstorm, but how to decide which one is the main one? In the era of sociologism in literary criticism, it was believed that social conflict was the most important in the play. Of course, if we see in the image of Katerina a reflection of the spontaneous protest of the masses against the constraining conditions of the dark kingdom and perceive Katerina’s death as a result of her collision with her tyrant mother-in-law, the genre of the play should be defined as a social and everyday drama. Drama is a work in which the social and personal aspirations of people, and sometimes their lives themselves, are under the threat of death from external forces beyond their control. The play also contains a generational conflict between Katerina and Kabanikha, the new always comes on the heels of the old, the old does not want to give in to the new . But the play is much deeper than it might seem at first glance. After all, Katerina, first of all, fights with herself, and not with Kabanikha, the conflict develops not around her, but in herself. Therefore, the play The Thunderstorm can be defined as a tragedy.

A tragedy is a work in which there is an insoluble conflict between the personal aspirations of the hero and the super-personal laws of life that occur in the mind of the main character. In general, the play is very similar to an ancient tragedy; the chorus is replaced by some extra-plot characters; the denouement ends with the death of the main character, like the ancient tragedy except the immortal Prometheus. Death Katerina is the result of a collision of two historical eras.

Some of the characters in the play seem to differ from the times in which they live. For example, Kuligin is a man of the 18th century, he wants to invent a sundial, which was known back in the antiquity, or a perpetuum mobile, which is a distinctive feature of the Middle Ages, or a lightning rod. He himself reaches with his mind something that has already been invented a long time ago, but he only dreams about it. He quotes Lomonosov and Derzhavin - this is also a human trait

13. Depiction of the “dark kingdom” in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky "The Thunderstorm".

In order to show the contradictions between rudeness and honor, between ignorance and dignity, the play shows two generations: people of the older generation, the so-called “dark kingdom,” and people of a new trend, more progressive, who do not want to live by old laws and customs.

Dikoy and Kabanova are typical representatives of the “dark kingdom”. It was in these images that Ostrovsky wanted to show the ruling class in Russia at that time.

Dikoy and Kabanova are that very “dark kingdom”, relics, supporters of the foundations of this “dark kingdom”. That's who they are, these Wild and Kabanovs, stupid, ignorant, hypocritical, rude. They preach the same peace and order. This is a world of money, anger, envy and hostility. They hate everything new and progressive.

A. N. Ostrovsky’s idea was to expose the “dark kingdom” using the images of Dikiy and Kabanova. He denounced all rich people for lack of spirituality and meanness. Basically, in the secular society of Russia in the 19th century there were such Wild and Kabanovs, as the author showed us in his drama “The Thunderstorm”.