Why still causes literary controversy the image of Catherine? Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm" - a play in five acts - is understood in different ways by even brilliant critics Dobrolyubov and Pisarev. On one converge all literary critics: unconditionally masterful is the depraved life of the Russian philistine hinterland of the XIX century (the fictional city of Kalinov). In Russia, there was stagnation. Serfdom, like fetters, hampered the development of a huge country. Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky his work was able to stir up the Russian intelligentsia, showing in it a highly emotional image with a tragic fate.
Where did the image of Catherine
The main character is a deeply popular type of a young woman who has a creative worldview, deep spirituality, spontaneous strong emotions. She is endowed with passions, not constrained by reason. Obviously, Ostrovsky's play "The Storm" is also featured in autobiography. The image of Katerina, who decided on an extramarital affair, was created by Ostrovsky, apparently coming down from the prototype - the actress Kositskaya Lyubov Pavlovna. Both the actress and the playwright had their own families, but their mutual relations were ambiguous. Certainly, the world of mutual relations of these two creative people was rich. In it, obviously, there was a certain conflict between family relations and passionate love "on the side". How his refraction in the tragic fate of a Russian woman and appeared Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm." The image of Katerina in it contrasts and with any image from her environment, and with the whole environment at the same time.
The main heroine of "Thunderstorms" and her entourage
The social status of Katerina is a merchant's daughter-in-law. The girl married Tikhon Kabanov. With the husband they live in the rich house at the mother-in-law of Martha Ignatyevna. Tikhon has an unmarried sister, Varvara. She also lives in the house. The main "family ideologist" is his mother-in-law. She opposes the image of Catherine. Ostrovsky "Storm", as the name of the work, according to Dobrolyubov, reflects the conflict between tyranny and mute. And tyranny really in the Kabanovs' house is flourishing: Marfa Ignatyevna is a pragmatic, authoritarian woman. Its morality is unconquerable-hypocritical. She is not inclined to conform the domestic way with the desires of the next of kin. What for? Cabanha (this is her nickname) knows "how it should be." And the whole house obeys her. That's only the daughter-in-law instinctively there is disagreement with lack of spirituality and mercantilism.
The image of Katerina in the vision of critics
According to the literary critic Pisarev, the image of Katerina does not differ either by a solid character or a clear mind. Ostrovsky "The Storm" (as the name of the drama) simultaneously reveals another conflict - between the emotional essence of the heroine and the outside world. The world is certainly not harmonious. But Katerina is fundamentally deprived of the author of the main instrument of social coexistence - Christian humility. According to Pisarev, in her since childhood, the capacity for an unreasonable protest action is laid. According to Dobrolyubov's vision, she aspires to the "spaciousness of life", she has the "strength of character". The polemics of literary scholars are obvious. But it's hard not to agree with Pisarev: only emotions and passions make up the image of Katerina. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm" tells that a young woman is just enough to exchange passionate views for the emergence of a feeling for Boris (educated nephew of the rich merchant Savel Prokofievich Wild). Not really understanding what kind of person this is, the girl rushes into her senses like a whirlpool, with her head. Impulsive and ridiculous is the death of a young woman. "Extreme" Dobrolyubov saw her reason for the heroine's unwillingness to live in a deceitful hypocritical world. A more reasonable Pisarev followed how a real psychologist, a logical chain of her reflections, led to a fatal step. It is characteristic that Katerina did not even think about suicide. On a date she learned that beloved Boris is going to Siberia and that he does not take her with him. Katerina needs to return home, but for some reason she decides that it will be better "in the grave." Then the young woman comes to mind the association - field flowers on the grave. Forgetting that it is sinful, touched by the imagined flower kingdom, folded her arms cross, she jumps into the Volga.
conclusions
The image of Katerina is certainly bright. Ostrovsky was able to reliably depict the originality of her thinking, the openness of feelings. In it there is nothing artificial, far-fetched. It is like a natural element: feelings and emotions determine the course of her life. Yes, it stands out among the philistine circle. However, is it possible to call it "ray of light" in a kindly way? In fact, apart from the openness of feelings, "light" is also associated with reason, with service, with kindness. The life of a luminous person is not a flash in the night, but an illumination by an even soft light of all those around. In this sense, the "ray of light" is the well-known literary images: Maria Bolkonskaya with her incomparable radiant eyes, Lady Melanie ("Gone with the Wind").