The city of Kalinov and its inhabitants (based on the play by A. N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm")

The action of the play begins with a remark: “A public garden on the high bank of the Volga; beyond the Volga, a rural view. Behind these lines lies the extraordinary beauty of the Volga expanses, which only Kuligin, a self-taught mechanic, notices: “... Miracles, it must truly be said that miracles! Curly! Here you are, my brother, for fifty years I have been looking beyond the Volga every day and I can’t see enough of everything. All other residents of the city of Kalinov do not pay attention to the beauty of nature, this is evidenced by the casual remark of Kud-ryash in response to Kuligin's enthusiastic words: “Something!” And then, off to the side, Kuligin sees Diky, the “cursor”, who is waving his arms, scolding Boris, his nephew.

The landscape background of the "Thunderstorm" allows you to more tangibly feel the stuffy atmosphere of the life of the Kalinovites. In the play, the playwright truthfully reflected social relations mid-nineteenth century: he gave a description of the material and legal status of the merchant-philistine environment, the level of cultural needs, family and everyday life, outlined the position of a woman in the family. "Thunderstorm" ... presents us with an idyllic "dark kingdom" ... Residents ... sometimes walk along the boulevard over the river ..., in the evening they sit on the rubble at the gate and engage in pious conversations; but they spend more time at home, take care of the household, eat, sleep - they go to bed very early, so it is difficult for an unaccustomed person to endure such a sleepy night as they ask themselves ... Their life flows smoothly and peacefully, no interests the world does not disturb them, because they do not reach them; kingdoms can crumble, new lands open up, the face of the earth can change as it pleases, the world can begin new life on new principles - the inhabitants of the town of Kalinov will exist for themselves as before, in complete ignorance of the rest of the world ...

It is terrible and difficult for every newcomer to attempt to go against the demands and convictions of this dark mass, terrible in its naivety and sincerity. After all, she will curse us, she will run around like the plagued, not out of malice, not out of calculations, but out of a deep conviction that we are akin to the Antichrist ... The wife, according to the prevailing concepts, is connected with him (with her husband ) inseparably, spiritually, through the sacrament; whatever the husband does, she must obey him and share his meaningless life with him ... And in the general opinion, the main difference between a wife and a bast shoe lies in the fact that she brings with her a whole burden of worries from which the husband does not can get rid of, while the la-pot gives only convenience, and if it is inconvenient, then it can easily be thrown off ... Being in such a position, a woman, of course, must forget that she is the same person, with the same rights, like a man, ”N. A. Dobrolyubov wrote in the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”. Continuing to reflect on the position of a woman, the critic says that she, having decided “to go to the end in her uprising against the oppression and arbitrariness of the elders in the Russian family, must be filled with heroic self-denial, must decide on everything and be ready for everything. -va”, because “at the very first attempt, they will let her feel that she is nothing, that they can crush her”, “they will beat her, leave her to repent, on bread and water, deprive her of daylight, try all home remedies good old days and lead to obedience.”

The characterization of the city of Kalinov is given by Kuligin, one of the heroes of the drama: “ Cruel morals sir, in our city, cruel! In philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and bare poverty. And never, sir, get out of this bark! Because honest labor will never earn us more than our daily bread. And whoever has money, sir, he tries to enslave the poor, so that for his labors more money to make money ... And among themselves, sir, how they live! They undermine each other's trade, and not so much out of self-interest, but out of envy. They are at enmity with each other ... ”Kuligin also notes that there is no work for the townspeople in the city: “The work must be given to the philistines. Otherwise, there are hands, but there is nothing to work,” and he dreams of inventing a “perpeta mobile” in order to use money for the benefit of society.

The tyranny of Dikiy and others like him is based on the material and moral dependence of other people. And even the mayor cannot call Wild to order, who will not "discount" any of his peasants. He has his own philosophy: “Is it worth it, your honor, to talk about such trifles with you! A lot of people stay with me every year; you understand: I won’t pay them extra for a penny per person, but I make thousands of this, so it’s good for me! And the fact that these men have every penny in the account does not bother him.

The ignorance of the inhabitants of Kalinov is emphasized by the introduction of the image of Feklusha, a wanderer, into the work. She considers the city "the promised land": "Bla-alepie, honey, blah-alepie! Beauty is wondrous! What can I say! Live in the promised land! And the merchants are all pious people, adorned with many virtues! Generosity and alms by many! I'm so happy, so, mother, happy, neck-deep! For our non-leaving them, even more bounty will increase, and especially to the Kabanovs' house. But we know that in the house of the Kabanovs Katerina is suffocating in captivity, Tikhon is drinking himself; Wild swaggers over his own nephew, forcing him to grovel because of the inheritance that rightfully belongs to Boris and his sister. Reliably talks about the morals that reign in families, Kuligin: “Here, sir, what a little town we have! They made a boulevard, but they don't walk. They go out only on holidays, and then they do one thing, that they go for a walk, but they themselves go there to show their outfits. You will only meet a drunken clerk, trudging home from the tavern. The poor have no time to go out, sir, they have day and night to worry about ... But what do the rich do? Well, what would it seem, they do not walk, do not breathe fresh air? So no. Everyone's gates, sir, have long been locked and the dogs let down. Do you think they do business or pray to God? No, sir! And they do not lock themselves up from thieves, but so that people do not see how they eat their own household and tyrannize their families. And what tears flow behind these locks, invisible and inaudible!.. And what, sir, behind these locks is the debauchery of dark and drunkenness! And everything is sewn and covered - no one sees or knows anything, only God sees! You, he says, see me in people and on the street; and you don’t care about my family; to this, he says, I have locks, and constipation, and evil dogs. Family, he says, it's a secret, a secret! We know these secrets! From these secrets, sir, the mind only has fun, and the rest howl like a wolf ... To rob orphans, relatives, nephews, beat up household members so that they don’t dare to utter a word about anything that he does there.

And what are Feklusha's stories about overseas lands worth! (“They say there are such countries, dear girl, where there are no Orthodox tsars, and the Saltans rule the earth ... And then there is also a land where all people have dog heads.” But what about distant countries! The narrowness of the views of the wanderer is especially clearly manifests itself in the story of the “vision” in Moscow, when Feklush takes an ordinary chimney sweep for an unclean one, who “scatters tares on the roof, and the people in the daytime in their vanity invisibly pick up”.

The rest of the inhabitants of the city match Feklusha, one has only to listen to the conversation of local residents in the gallery:

1st: And this, my brother, what is it?

2nd: And this is the Lithuanian ruin. Battle! See? How ours fought with Lithuania.

1st: What is Lithuania?

2nd: So it is Lithuania.

1st: And they say, you are my brother, she fell on us from the sky.

2nd: I can't tell you. From the sky so from the sky.

It is not surprising that the Kalinovites perceive the thunderstorm as God's punishment. Kuligin, understanding the physical nature of a thunderstorm, is trying to protect the city by building a lightning rod, and asks Di-whom for money for this purpose. Of course, he did not give anything, and even scolded the inventor: “What kind of power is there! Well, what are you not a robber! A thunderstorm is sent to us as a punishment so that we feel, and you want to defend yourself with poles and some kind of mugs, God forgive me. But Diky's reaction does not surprise anyone, parting with ten rubles just like that, for the good of the city, is like death. The behavior of the townspeople is horrifying, who did not even think of standing up for Kuligin, but only silently, from the side, watched how Dikoy insulted the mechanic. It is on this indifference, irresponsibility, ignorance that the power of petty tyrants vibrates.

I. A. Goncharov wrote that in the play “Thunderstorm” “a broad picture of national life and customs has subsided. Pre-reform Russia is authentically represented in it by its socio-economic, family-household and cultural-everyday appearance.

Alexander Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" was created by the playwright on the eve of the reform of 1861. The need for public and social changes is already ripe, there are disputes, discussions, movement public thought. But there are places in Russia where time has stopped, society is passive, does not want changes, is afraid of them.

Such is the city of Kalinov, described by Ostrovsky in his play "Thunderstorm". This city did not really exist, it is the fiction of the writer, but thereby Ostrovsky shows that in Russia there are still many such places where stagnation and savagery reign. For all that, the city is located in a beautiful area, on the banks of the Volga. Surrounding nature just screams that this place could be heaven! But happiness, in the full sense of the word, is not among the inhabitants of this city, and they themselves are to blame.

The inhabitants of Kalinov are mostly people who do not want any changes, they are illiterate. Some live reveling in their power, which money gives them, others put up with their humiliating position and do nothing to get out of this situation. The dark kingdom called the Kalinovskoye society Dobrolyubov.

Main bad guys plays by Savel Prokofievich Dikoi and Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova.

A wild merchant, an important person in the city. To characterize him briefly, he is a tyrant and a miser. He simply does not consider everyone who is lower than him in position as people. Wild can easily shortchange an employee, but does not want to give his own nephew the inheritance left to him by his grandmother. At the same time, he is very proud of his qualities.

The rich merchant's wife Kabanikha is a real punishment for her family. From this domineering, grumpy person there is no rest for anyone in the house. She wants everyone to obey her unquestioningly, to live according to the laws of Domostroy. The boar cripples the lives of her children and at the same time puts such an existence to her credit.

The boar's son, the meek cowardly Tikhon, is afraid to say an extra word against his domineering mother and cannot even defend his wife, whom the boar constantly reproaches and humiliates. But her daughter Varvara learned to lie and live double life to get out from under the influence of the mother, and this state of affairs suits her quite well.

Boris, Dikiy's nephew, is completely dependent on his uncle, although he has received an education, he is not a stupid person, he does not make any moves to get rid of this dependence. With his lack of independence and indecision, he destroys the woman he loves.

The tradesman Kuligin, a self-taught inventor, an intelligent person who is aware of the depth of stagnation and savagery in society, but he, too, cannot do anything in this situation and escapes reality, trying to realize the impossible, to invent a perpetual motion machine.

The person who can give at least some rebuff to the rudeness and tyranny of Diky is his worker Vanya Kudryash, the secondary hero of the play, who, however, plays a significant role in the unfolding action.

The only pure and bright person in this city is Kabanikh's daughter-in-law Katerina. She cannot live in this swamp, where there is no love, there are no normal human relations where lies and hypocrisy rule. Against this, she protests with her death, having decided on this terrible step, she, at least for a moment, acquires such a desired will.

Ostrovsky called his play "Thunderstorm" for a reason, the name is meaningful. The imminent changes in society, like thunderclouds, are gathering over the heads of the inhabitants of the "dark kingdom". Katerina, in her dismay, thinks that the storm was sent to her as a punishment for treason, but in fact the storm should finally destroy this dominance of stagnation, slavery and evil.

The image of the city of Kalinov, life and customs of the monasteries

All events in the work of a dramatic nature called "Thunderstorm", written by Ostrovsky, take place on the territory of the city of Kalinov. The city is a district and is located on one of the banks of the Volga. The author says that the area is different beautiful scenery and pleasing to the eye.

The tradesman Kulagin talks about the morals of the city's inhabitants, his opinion is that each of the inhabitants has rather cruel morals, they are used to being rude and cruel, such problems were often caused by the existing poverty.

Two heroes become the center of cruelty - the merchant Wild and Boar, who are prominent representatives ignorance and rudeness towards people around.

Wild, holding the position of a merchant, a fairly rich man, avaricious and with great influence in the city. But at the same time, he was used to holding power in his hands quite cruelly. He is sure that a thunderstorm is sent to people every time as a punishment for their wrong deeds and therefore they should endure it, and not put lightning rods on their houses. Also, from the story, the reader learns that Wild is doing a good job of managing financial matters, but this is all that limits his horizons. At the same time, it is worth noting his lack of education, he does not understand why electricity is needed and how it actually works.

Therefore, we can conclude that most of the merchants and philistines living in the town are uneducated people, unable to accept new information and change your life for the better. At the same time, books and newspapers are available to everyone, which they can read regularly and improve their inner intelligence.

Everyone who has a certain wealth is not accustomed to respect any officials and government officials. They treat them with some disdain. And they treat the mayor as a neighbor and communicate with him in a friendly way.

The poor are accustomed to sleep no more than three hours a day, they work days and nights on the fly. The rich try in every possible way to enslave the poor and get even more money at the expense of someone else's work. Therefore, Dikoy himself does not pay anyone for work, and everyone receives a salary only through great abuse.

At the same time, scandals often occur in the city that do not lead to anything good. Kuligin tries to write poems himself, he is self-taught, but at the same time he is afraid to show his talent, because he is afraid that he will be swallowed alive.

Life in the city is boring and monotonous, all residents are used to listening to Feklusha more than reading newspapers and books. It is he who tells others that there are countries where there are people who have the head of a dog on their shoulders.

In the evening, the inhabitants of the town do not go out for a walk narrow streets, they try to lock the door with all the locks and stay inside the house. They also release dogs to protect them from possible robbery. They are very worried about their property, which sometimes gets them overwork. Therefore, they try to always stay at home.

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City of Kalinov. Thunderstorm. Quote characteristic
The city of Kalinov is one of the central images in the play "Thunderstorm" by Ostrovsky.
The city of Kalinov is located in a beautiful area on the banks of the Volga: "The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices. ... Delight! And you are" something!
We learn about the customs of the inhabitants of the city of Kalinov from the words of the tradesman Kuligin, one of the heroes of the Thunderstorm. In his opinion, "cruel morals", "rudeness and poverty" reign in the city: "Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! In philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and naked poverty."
The main representatives of savagery, ignorance and cruelty in the city of Kalinov are two bright personalities: the merchant Wild and Kabanikha.
Merchant of the Wild - rich and powerful, but ignorant and Cruel person. For example, Dikoy is convinced that a thunderstorm is sent to people as a punishment and that lightning rods are not needed. This is more than an ignorant approach: "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 goads, God forgive me." (Dykoy's words) It is obvious that the merchant Dikoy successfully manages his household and counts money well, but his horizons are limited to this. There is no doubt that the rest of the merchants in the city are similar to the Savage. The illiterate Dikoy, for example, calls electricity "elistry". Apparently, he, like most of the inhabitants of the city, does not know about the discovery of electricity: Kuligin. Electricity. Wild (stomping foot). What else there elestrichestvo!
The majority of Kalinov's cloisters are poorly educated merchants, philistines and peasants. Even the rich inhabitants of Kalinovo, who have access to books and newspapers, are not distinguished by education. In Kalinov, influential, wealthy people do not respect the authorities. For example, the merchant Dikoy treats the mayor like his friend: “Your uncle patted the mayor on the shoulder and says: “Is it worth it, your honor, to talk about such trifles with you!” The poor strata of the population in Kalinovo sleep 3 hours a day, because they work "day and night": "The poor have no time to walk, sir, they work day and night. And they sleep only three hours a day."
In the city of Kalinov, people with money are trying to "enslave" the poor and get even richer at the expense of cheap labor. This is exactly what the merchant Dikoy does, who still does not pay a salary to anyone without swearing: “And whoever has money, sir, he tries to enslave the poor so that he can make even more money from his free labors. Do you know what your uncle, Savel Prokofich, answered the mayor? The peasants came to the mayor to complain that he would not read any of them by way ... "
The merchants of the city of Kalinov are at enmity with each other, intriguing and suing, bribing officials: “And among themselves, sir, how they live! his tall mansions of drunken clerks, such, sir, clerks, that there is no human appearance on him, a human appearance is lost. sir, the court and the case, and there is no end to the torment ... "
Obviously, high art is not held in high regard by the inhabitants of the city of Kalinov. Self-taught Kuligin does not dare to write poetry, as he is afraid that he will be "swallowed alive": Boris. Are you good at poetry? ... You would have written. It would be interesting. Kuligin. How can you, sir! Eat, swallow alive.
The city of Kalinov lives its boring and monotonous life. The illiterate inhabitants of Kalinovo receive information about the world not from newspapers and books, but from wanderers, such as, for example, Feklusha. She reports that there are unknown countries where people with dog heads live, etc.: “I, due to my weakness, did not go far; There are no Orthodox tsars, but the Saltans rule the earth.<...>And then there is the land where all the people with dog heads. "The ignorant inhabitants of Kalinov willingly believe such" enlighteners ". The inhabitants of Kalinov, for example, believe that Lithuania fell from the sky:
1st. And they say, my brother, she fell on us from the sky ... A woman. Talk more! Everyone knows that from the sky; and where there was a battle with her, mounds were poured there for memory.
1st. What about you, my brother? After all, it is so accurate!
The rich inhabitants of the city do not walk along the boulevard in the evenings, but lock themselves up early at home and let the dogs out in fear that they will be robbed: “And the rich, what do they do? Everyone’s gates, sir, have been locked for a long time, and the dogs have been let down.” The wealthy residents of Kalinovo “eat” their household and tyrannize them, but they do it behind their fences so that no one will know. Of course, we are talking, first of all, about the families of the Kabanovs and Dikoy: "... Do you think they do business or pray to God? No, sir. And they don’t lock themselves up from thieves, but so that people don’t see how they eat their own home Yes, they tyrannize the family. And what tears flow behind these locks, invisible and inaudible! ... And what, sir, behind these locks is the debauchery of dark and drunkenness! And everything is sewn and covered - no one sees and knows nothing, only God sees ... To rob orphans, relatives, nephews, beat up the family so that they don't dare to squeak about anything he does there. That's the whole secret."
Fortunately, in this whole gloomy picture there are also bright touches, for example, couples in love walking around the city at night: “Do you know, sir, who walks with us? Young guys and girls. So these steal an hour or two from sleep, Well, they walk in pairs."
15

In his works, A. N. Ostrovsky revealed various topics: the merchant class, bureaucracy, the nobility, and so on. In The Thunderstorm, the playwright turned to the provincial town of Kalinov and its inhabitants, which was very unusual for the theater of that time, because usually the focus was on larger cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg.

"Thunderstorm", written in 1859, is a work of the pre-reform era. The fate of the heroes reflected the "pre-stormy" state Russian society. Indeed, two years after the release of the drama, serfdom was abolished, which radically changed the fate of people.

The structure of the life of the city in some respects coincides with the device modern society. For example, some mothers often ruin their children with their care. These children grow up as dependent and unprepared for life people, just like Tikhon Ivanovich Kabanov.

Returning to the city of Kalinov, it must be said about the unspoken laws, full of injustice. Life is built according to Domostroy, "he who has money - he has power" ...

These laws were established by the "dark kingdom", namely the Wild and Boar. Enemies of everything new, she personifies oppressive, unjust power.

Wild, Savel Prokofich - merchant, significant person in the town. Wild appears as an arrogant, domineering and vile person. He spoils people's lives not only with his speech, which is impossible to imagine without swearing, but also with his desire to find material benefits in everything, not thinking about the lives of other people.

Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, Kabanikha - a rich merchant's wife, widow. Spoils the life of his son, indicating how to act and live in general. Hype for the bride. Unlike Wild, Boar does not express his thoughts and feelings in front of all people.

All other heroes are victims of the "dark kingdom". People are oppressed, without the right to a free life.

Tikhon Ivanych Kabanov, son of Kabanikhi. Guided, accommodating. He obeys his mother in everything.

Boris Grigorievich, Diky's nephew. He ended up in the city because of the inheritance left by his grandmother, which Dikoy must pay. Boris, like Tikhon, is depressed by the life of the city.

Varvara, Tikhon's sister, and Kudryash, Dikoy's clerk, are people who have adapted to city life. “Do whatever you want, as long as it’s covered and covered,” says Varvara.

But not all the heroes finally "dropped their hands" and succumbed to the flow of city life. One Kuligin, a tradesman, a watchmaker - self-taught is trying to fix, improve the life of the city. He sees injustice in the life of the city and is not afraid to speak out about it. "And whoever has money, sir, he tries to enslave the poor, that he can make even more money on his gratuitous labors."

And, perhaps, the most controversial and peculiar hero of the drama is Katerina. "Ray of light" or "defeat of darkness"? It is worth noting that feelings arose between Boris and Katerina. But one thing prevented the development of their relationship - Katerina was married to Tikhon. They met only once, but the morality of the heroine haunted her. She found no other way out but to throw herself into the Volga. In no case can Katerina be called a "defeat of darkness", because she destroyed outdated moral foundations. Not a "ray of light", but a "ray of freedom" - this is the best way to describe Katerina. Having lost her life, albeit in the drama of Ostrovsky, she gave people hope for the opportunity to be free. Let people at first not know what to do with this freedom, but later they will begin to realize that each of them is capable of a lot and you should not put up with the unjust laws of your hometown or obey every word of your mother.

“Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel!” - this is how the city of Kalinov is described by its resident, Kuligin, who knows it well from the inside and has experienced these most cruel customs for himself.

The city described in the drama is fictional, but the events that take place in The Thunderstorm are based on real events. Also, attention should be paid to the fact that the name of the city begins with “k”, and most Russian cities begin with this letter. By this, Ostrovsky wants to show that such events can happen anywhere and in similar cities

in the country a huge number.

Especially in one of the cities on the Volga, notorious for the number of drowned people found in the river.

First of all, everyone in the city of Kalinov tries to please the rich, everything is built on lies and love for money, and “one can never earn more by honest work, more than daily bread.” The rich try to take advantage of the poor, consider them people of the “lower class”, and their problems are nothing. And among themselves they interfere with each other's trade out of envy, they are at enmity. The most important thing for everyone is their own income, there are no any moral values. And for any word here, according to Kuligin, "they will eat, swallow alive."

The wanderer Feklusha describes the city as “a promised land with pious merchants, generous and kind, but she understands all the darkness of this city and does this only from the understanding that the more you flatter the merchants and the rich, the less likely they will drive you away. Those who ask for money are treated with great disgust by the rich.

This city is quiet, but this silence can be called dead: everyone sits in their homes and because of their own laziness does not go out, with the exception of only young girls and boys.

Naturally, the darkness of the city lies not in the place itself, but in the people living in it. The description of the city and, in principle, the actions in the drama begin with admiration for the Volga. However, then the true face of the city is gradually revealed more and more, and its gloomy description begins and intensifies precisely from the beginning of the description of the people living in the city of Kalinov.

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