The meaning of the name and figurative symbolism of the drama "Thunderstorm" by A.N. Ostrovsky

The realistic method of writing enriched literature with symbolic images. Griboyedov used this technique in the comedy Woe from Wit. The bottom line is that objects are endowed with a certain symbolic meaning. Images-symbols can be end-to-end, that is, repeated several times throughout the text. In this case, the meaning of the symbol becomes significant for the plot. Particular attention should be paid to those images-symbols that are included in the title of the work. That is why it is necessary to focus on the meaning of the title and figurative symbolism of the drama "Thunderstorm".

To answer the question of what the symbolism of the title of the play "Thunderstorm" contains, it is important to know why and why the playwright used this particular image. Thunderstorm in the drama appears in several forms. The first is a natural phenomenon. Kalinov and its inhabitants seem to live in anticipation of thunder and rain. The events unfolding in the play take about 14 days. All this time, from passers-by or from the main characters there are phrases that a thunderstorm is coming. The violence of the elements is the culmination of the play: it is the storm and the peals of thunder that make the heroine confess to treason. Moreover, peals of thunder accompany almost the entire fourth act. With each beat, the sound grows louder: Ostrovsky seems to be preparing readers for the highest point of conflict.

The symbolism of a thunderstorm includes another meaning. "Thunderstorm" is understood by different heroes in different ways. Kuligin is not afraid of a thunderstorm, because he does not see anything mystical in it. Wild considers a thunderstorm a punishment and an occasion to remember the existence of God. Katerina sees in a thunderstorm a symbol of fate and fate - after the most rolling thunderclap, the girl confesses her feelings for Boris. Katerina is afraid of thunderstorms, because for her it is equivalent to the Last Judgment. At the same time, the storm helps the girl to take a desperate step, after which she became honest with herself. For Kabanov, Katerina's husband, a thunderstorm has its own meaning. He talks about this at the beginning of the story: Tikhon needs to leave for a while, which means he needs to lose his maternal control and orders. “There will be no thunderstorm over me for two weeks, there are no shackles on my legs ...”. Tikhon compares the riot of nature with the incessant tantrums and whims of Marfa Ignatievna.

One of the main symbols in Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm can be called the Volga River. She seems to separate two worlds: the city of Kalinov, the "dark kingdom" and that ideal world that each of the characters came up with for themselves. Indicative in this respect are the words of the Lady. Twice the woman said that the river is a whirlpool that draws in beauty. From a symbol of supposed freedom, the river turns into a symbol of death.

Katerina often compares herself to a bird. She dreams of flying away, escaping from this addictive space. “I say: why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you are drawn to fly,” says Katya to Varvara. Birds symbolize the freedom and lightness that a girl is deprived of.

The symbol of the court is not difficult to trace: it appears several times throughout the work. Kuligin, in conversations with Boris, mentions the court in the context of the "cruel morals of the city." The court appears to be a bureaucratic apparatus that is not called upon to seek the truth and punish violations. He can only take time and money. Feklusha talks about refereeing in other countries. From her point of view, only a Christian court and a court according to the laws of house building can judge righteously, while the rest are mired in sin.
Katerina, on the other hand, talks about the Almighty and about human judgment when she tells Boris about her feelings. For her, Christian laws come first, and not public opinion: “If I was not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment?”

On the walls of the dilapidated gallery, past which the inhabitants of Kalinovo walk, scenes from the Holy Letter are depicted. In particular, the paintings of fiery hell. Katerina herself recalls this mythical place. Hell becomes synonymous with mustiness and stagnation, which Katya is afraid of. She chooses death, knowing that this is one of the worst Christian sins. But at the same time, through death, the girl gains freedom.

The symbolism of the drama "Thunderstorm" is developed in detail and includes several images-symbols. Using this technique, the author wanted to convey the severity and depth of the conflict that was both in society and within each person. This information will be useful for 10 classes when writing an essay on the topic "The meaning of the name and symbolism of the play" Thunderstorm "".

Artwork test

The drama of A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm" shows us life in the city of Kalinov, now and then disturbed by various manifestations of a thunderstorm. The image of this natural phenomenon in the drama is very multifaceted: it is both the protagonist of the play and its idea.

One of the most striking manifestations of the image of a thunderstorm is the characterization of the characters in the drama. For example, we can say with confidence that the character of Kabanikha is quite similar to thunder: she also frightens the people around her, and can even destroy her. Let us recall the words of Tikhon before leaving: “Yes, as I know now that there will be no thunderstorm over me for two weeks, there are no shackles on my legs, so am I up to my wife?” A native son, speaking of a thunderstorm, means tyranny in the house. A similar situation prevailed in the house of the Wild. He got angry, cursed, and sometimes even hit on me because of all sorts of little things. Curly said about him: "Shrill man!" - and for sure, the character of the Wild can pierce anyone, like an electric discharge.

But the thunderstorm in the work characterizes not only the "cruel manners" in Kalinov. It is noticeable that the brightest moments of bad weather coincide with Katerina's mental anguish. Recall that when Katerina confessed to Varvara that she loved another, a thunderstorm began. But even in Katerina's soul there was restlessness; her impulsiveness made itself felt: even without doing anything wrong, but only thinking not about her husband, Katerina began to talk about imminent death, running away from home and terrible sins. Upon Kabanov's return, hurricanes raged in Katerina's soul, and, at the same time, thunder was heard on the streets, frightening the townspeople.

Also, the image of a thunderstorm appears before readers as a punishment for committed sins. Katerina spoke of a thunderstorm: "Everyone should be afraid. It's not so terrible that it will kill you, but that death will suddenly find you as you are, with all your sins, with all your evil thoughts." We can understand that a thunderstorm for the townspeople is only suffering. The same idea is confirmed by the words of Dikoy: "The storm is sent to us as a punishment, so that we feel, and you want to defend yourself with poles and some kind of horns, God forgive me." This fear of a punishment storm characterizes Wild as an adherent of the old ways, if we consider the storm in its following image: a symbol of change.

The thunderstorm as a symbol of the new is clearly shown in Kuligin's monologue: "This is not a thunderstorm, but grace!" Kuligin, being a hero-reasoner, opens up to readers the point of view of Ostrovsky himself: changes are always for the better, they should not be feared.

Thus, it becomes obvious that A. N. Ostrovsky, skillfully wielding the image of a thunderstorm in its various manifestations, showed all aspects of life in a typical Russian provincial town, starting with the tragedy of "cruel morals" and ending with the personal tragedy of everyone.

I used this technique in the comedy "Woe from Wit". The bottom line is that objects are endowed with a certain symbolic meaning. Images-symbols can be end-to-end, that is, repeated several times throughout the text. In this case, the meaning of the symbol becomes significant for the plot. Particular attention should be paid to those images-symbols that are included in the title of the work. That is why the emphasis should be placed on the meaning of the title and figurative symbolism of the drama The Thunderstorm.

To answer the question of what the symbolism of the title of the play "Thunderstorm" contains, it is important to know why and why the playwright used this particular image. Thunderstorm in the drama appears in several forms. The first is a natural phenomenon. Kalinov and its inhabitants seem to live in anticipation of thunder and rain. The events unfolding in the play take about 14 days. All this time, from passers-by or from the main characters there are phrases that a thunderstorm is coming. The violence of the elements is the culmination of the play: it is the storm and the peals of thunder that make the heroine confess to treason.
Moreover, peals of thunder accompany almost the entire fourth act. With each beat, the sound grows louder: Ostrovsky seems to be preparing readers for the highest point of conflict.

Katerina often compares herself to a bird. She dreams of flying away, escaping from this addictive space. “I say: why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you are drawn to fly,” says Katya to Varvara.
Birds symbolize the freedom and lightness that a girl is deprived of.

Katerina, on the other hand, talks about the Almighty and about human judgment when she tells Boris about her feelings. For her, Christian laws come first, and not public opinion: “If I was not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment?”

The meaning of the name and symbolism of the play "Thunderstorm" by Ostrovsky - an essay on the topic |

For works of a realistic direction, endowing objects or phenomena with a symbolic meaning is characteristic. This technique was first used by A. S. Griboedov in the comedy Woe from Wit, and this became another principle of realism.

A. N. Ostrovsky continues the tradition of Griboedov and endows the heroes with the meaning of natural phenomena, the words of other characters, and the landscape. But Ostrovsky's plays have their own peculiarity: through images - symbols are set in the titles of the works, and therefore, only by understanding the role of the symbol embedded in the title, we can understand the whole pathos of the work.

An analysis of this topic will help us to see the totality of symbols in the drama "Thunderstorm" and determine their meaning and role in the play.

One of the important symbols is the Volga River and the rural view on the other bank. The river as a boundary between the dependent, unbearable for many life on the bank, on which the patriarchal Kalinov stands, and the free, cheerful life there, on the other bank. The opposite bank of the Volga is associated by Katerina, the main character of the play, with childhood, with life before marriage: “What a frisky I was! I have completely withered you.” Katerina wants to be free from a weak-willed husband and despotic mother-in-law, to “fly away” from the family with Domostroy principles. “I say: why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on the torus, you are drawn to fly,” says Katerina to Varvara. Katerina recalls birds as a symbol of freedom before throwing herself off a cliff into the Volga: the grass grows, so soft... the birds will fly to the tree, they will sing, they will take the children out...”

The river also symbolizes an escape towards freedom, but it turns out that this is an escape towards death. And in the words of the mistress, a half-crazy old woman, the Volga is a whirlpool that draws beauty into itself: “This is where beauty leads. Here, here, in the very pool!”

For the first time, the lady appears before the first thunderstorm and frightens Katerina with her words about disastrous beauty. These words and the thunder in Katerina's mind become prophetic. Katerina wants to escape into the house from a thunderstorm, because she sees God's punishment in her, but at the same time she is not afraid of death, but is afraid to appear before God after talking with Varvara about Boris, considering these thoughts sinful. Katerina is very religious, but this perception of the storm is more pagan than Christian.

Heroes perceive the storm in different ways. For example, Dikoy believes that a thunderstorm is sent by God as a punishment so that people remember God, that is, he perceives a thunderstorm in a pagan way. Kuligin says that a thunderstorm is electricity, but this is a very simplified understanding of the symbol. But then, calling the storm grace, Kuligin thereby reveals the highest pathos of Christianity.

Some motifs in the heroes' monologues also have a symbolic meaning. In act 3, Kuligin says that the home life of the rich people of the city is very different from the public life. Locks and closed gates, behind which “households eat food and tyrannize the family,” are a symbol of secrecy and hypocrisy.

In this monologue, Kuligin denounces the “dark kingdom” of tyrants and tyrants, whose symbol is a lock on a closed gate so that no one can see and condemn them for bullying family members.

In the monologues of Kuligin and Feklusha, the motif of the court sounds. Feklusha speaks of a trial that is unfair, albeit Orthodox. Kuligin, on the other hand, speaks of a trial between merchants in Kali-nova, but this trial cannot be considered fair either, since the main reason for the emergence of court cases is envy, and because of the bureaucracy in the judiciary, cases are dragged out, and every merchant is only glad that " Yes, and he will become a penny.” The motive of the court in the play symbolizes the injustice reigning in the "dark kingdom".

The paintings on the walls of the gallery, where everyone runs during a thunderstorm, also have a certain meaning. The paintings symbolize obedience in society, and “gehenna fiery” is hell, which Katerina, who was looking for happiness and independence, is afraid of, and is not afraid of Kabanikh, because outside the house she is a respectable Christian and she is not afraid of God's judgment.

Tikhon's last words carry another meaning: “Good for you, Katya! And why did I stay in the world and suffer!”

The meaning is that Katerina, through death, gained freedom in a world unknown to us, and Tikhon will never have enough strength of mind and strength of character to either fight his mother or end his life, since he is weak-willed and weak-willed.

Summing up what has been said, we can say that the role of symbolism is very important in the play.

Giving the phenomena, objects, landscape, words of the characters another, deeper meaning, Ostrovsky wanted to show how serious the conflict existed at that time not only between, but also within each of them.