Introduction 3-8
Chapter 1. General characteristics of A.N. Ostrovsky.
Milestones in the life of a playwright. 9-28
Chapter 2. The history of the creation of the play "Deeps". 29-63
§ 1. Analysis of the most important discrepancies in the original
and final handwritten versions. 34-59
§ 2. The work of A.N. Ostrovsky over the remarks. 60-63
Conclusion 63-72
Bibliography 73-76
Whichever side we look at
activities of Mr. Ostrovsky, we must
we will recognize her as the most brilliant,
the most enviable activity in modern
new to us Russian literature.
/ A. Druzhinin /
Introduction .
The work of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is an exceptional phenomenon in the history of Russian literature and theater. In terms of the breadth of coverage of life phenomena and the variety of artistic means, A.N. Ostrovsky has no equal in Russian drama. He has written about 50 plays. A contemporary of the playwright I.A. Goncharov believed that A.N. Ostrovsky created his own special world, created the Russian national theater.
The role of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky in the history of the development of Russian drama can hardly be overestimated. His contribution to Russian culture is compared with such well-known names as Shakespeare (England), Lope de Vega (Spain), Moliere (France), Goldoni (Italy), Schiller (Germany).
Among the plays of the first half of the 19th century, such masterpieces of realistic drama as Griboyedov's Woe from Wit, Boris Godunov and Pushkin's Little Tragedies, The Inspector General and Gogol's Marriage were especially prominent. These outstanding realistic plays clearly outlined the innovative tendencies of Russian drama.
The overwhelming majority of the works that filled the theatrical stage were translations and alterations of Western European plays. Now no one knows the names of MV Kryukovsky (Pozharsky, 1807), SI Viskovaty (Ksenia and Temir, 1810?)
After the defeat of the Decembrists (A.N. Ostrovsky, the future famous playwright, was only two years old) hastily stitched works appeared in the theatrical repertoire, in which flirting, farcical scenes, anecdote, mistake, accident, surprise, confusion, disguise, hiding took the main place ... Under the influence of social struggle, vaudeville changed its content. At the same time, along with vaudeville, melodrama was very popular.
The melodrama "Thirty Years, or the Life of a Player" by V. Ducange and M. Dunot, translated from French, was first staged in Russia in 1828. This melodrama, enjoying success, was often staged in both metropolitan and provincial theaters. Its exceptional popularity is also attested to by Ostrovsky in the drama "The Abyss". The guardians of moral purity from The Northern Bee and other organs of the reactionary press were outraged by the fact that the usual norms of morality were breaking in the melodrama: the crime was justified, sympathy was evoked for seemingly negative heroes. But it couldn't be banned. It strengthened the autocratic-serf order more.
In the 19th century, translations of works by progressive playwrights of Western European romanticism, for example, Schiller (Cunning and Love, 1827, Carlos, 1830, Wilhelm Tell, 1830, The Robbers, 1828, 1833, 1834) and B Hugo ("Angelo, Tyrant of Padua", 1835-1836, the play was staged in translation by MV Samoilova under the title "The Venetian Actress"). Belinsky and Lermontov created their plays during these years, but in the first half of the 19th century they did not go to the theater.
N.V. Gogol contributed to the establishment of realistic and national originality in the theater, and A.N. Ostrovsky in the field of drama. The playwright not only made the people of labor, bearers of the people's truth and wisdom, the positive heroes of his plays, but also wrote in the name of the people and for the people.
Welcoming the playwright on the 35th anniversary of his career, Goncharov wrote that A.N. Ostrovsky had brought a whole library of works of art as a gift to literature, and created his own special world for the stage. The writer also appreciated the significant role of the playwright in the creation of the Russian national theater.
A.N. Ostrovsky had an impact not only on the development of domestic drama and theater, on his roles the great talents of A.E. Martynov, L.P. Kositskaya-Nikulina, K.N. Rybakov, M.N. Ermolova and many others.
NS Vasilieva recalled: “Ostrovsky gave each person of the play such an outline that it was easy for the actor to reproduce the author's intention. The characterization was clear. And how figuratively, with what enthusiasm and variety of intonation he read folk scenes! The artists listened to him with reverence! "
For almost half a century, A.N. Ostrovsky was a chronicler of Russian life, quickly responded to newly emerging social phenomena, brought characters to the stage that were still being formed.
Reading his plays, interest arises in the history of their creation. As you know, Leo Tolstoy rewrote his works many times, FM Dostoevsky also did not immediately build the plots of his novels. And how did A.N. Ostrovsky work?
In the Russian State Library, in the Department of Manuscripts, manuscripts of many plays by A.N. Ostrovsky are kept, such as "The Thunderstorm", "Our People - Numbered", "Dowry", "Wolves and Sheep" and others, including the manuscript of the drama “The Abyss”, the most significant among the plays by A.N. Ostrovsky about the present after the “Thunderstorm”.
The purpose of this work is in the process of analyzing the manuscript of the play "The Abyss", first of all, to show the path that the playwright has done, making changes and additions to the original text of the play, and to determine its place in the drama of A.N. Ostrovsky.
Before proceeding to the characterization of the manuscript, a few words should be said about the work of A.N. Ostrovsky on the plays. The work of a playwright is conventionally divided into three stages. At the first stage, A.N. Ostrovsky observed the people around him and their relationships. I didn't make any sketches, I kept everything in my head. Almost all the main characters in many of Ostrovsky's plays have at least two prototypes, and he himself pointed to them. This once again emphasizes the fact that the playwright did not invent his characters and situations, but focused on life collisions. For example, the prototype for Neschastlivtsev in the play "The Forest" was the actor N.Kh. Rybnikov. Provincial actors, in whom A.N. Ostrovsky saw talent, were also prototypes.
After accumulating sufficient information, A.N. Ostrovsky proceeded to comprehend everything he saw, believing that the writer should be at the level of the advanced requirements of the era. It should be noted that at this stage of creativity, the playwright also did not make sketches of plays.
Only after ordering the impressions did A.N. Ostrovsky move on to composing the script. Almost always there was only one draft, but in the process of work, new thoughts always appeared. Therefore, when revising the draft, inserts appeared, certain moments were deleted, and a whole-formed and thoughtful work was already published in print.
Turning to literary and research works about the work of A.N. Ostrovsky, such authors as L.R. Kogan, V.Ya. Lakshin, G.P. Pirogov, A.I. Revyakin and others, the author of this work did not find enough complete information about the drama "The Abyss", not to mention the fact that its manuscript was ignored and not described from a research point of view in any work.
Of great interest is the work of N.P. Kashin "Sketches about A.N. Ostrovsky", which analyzes the manuscripts of such plays as "Our people - we will be numbered", "Do not sit in your sleigh", "Thunderstorm", "Poverty - not a vice ”and many others. But even this author left the play “The Abyss” without attention, although in its drama and psychological characteristics of the images, as well as in its idea, it is in no way inferior to the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky, which have already become textbooks. It is no coincidence that in 1973, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of A.N. Ostrovsky, the theater bearing his name staged the play "The Abyss" as one of the most significant and not deservedly forgotten works of the great playwright. The play was a huge success and ran for several seasons at the Maly Theater.
The author of this work took the trouble to “go along with A. Ostrovsky” the creative path of creating the play “The Abyss” from the concept to the final version and determine its place in the work of the playwright. So, step by step, page after page, the creative laboratory for the creation of the play was opened.
In the work on the manuscript, the textual research method described in the works of D.S. Likhachev, E.N. Lebedeva and others was used. This method allows you to identify discrepancies, to understand the movement of the author's thought from the concept to its implementation, that is, to trace the gradual formation of the text.
There are two purposes of textual study:
1. Preparation of the text for publication.
2. Literary analysis of the text.
The purpose of the study in this work is a literary analysis of the text of the play "The Abyss", associated with clarifying its history of creation for a deeper understanding of the author's intention, the content and form of the work, the technique of the playwright's work on the manuscript of the play.
Textual analysis includes the following stages:
1. Study of the creative history of the creation of the work.
2. Comparison of all draft versions.
3. Acquaintance with the responses, in the event that the work was read before publication.
4. Comparison of plans, sketches, rough and white manuscripts.
In this work, only the first stage of textual analysis was used, since there is a single draft of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky "The Deeps", which became the subject of research.
The result of this painstaking, but very interesting work was a real work, which is an attempt at the first (perhaps the only) study of the manuscript of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky "The Abyss".
Chapter 1 General characteristics of the work of A.N. Ostrovsky.
Milestones in the life of a playwright.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born in Moscow on March 31 (April 12), 1823, in the family of the official Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky. He was the eldest in the family. Alexander Nikolayevich's father was an educated man, he graduated from the theological academy, quickly promoted in the service and successfully engaged in private practice: he was a lawyer, dealt with merchants. This gave him the opportunity to build his own house in Zamoskvorechye, where he could invite home and visiting teachers for his children.
In 1825, he first became the staff secretary of the 1st department of the Moscow chamber of the civil court, then he was promoted to titular adviser, and as a result he received the rank of collegiate assessor. This gave him the right to hereditary nobility.
Nikolai Fedorovich, who wrote poetry in his youth, followed the novelties of literature, subscribed to all the leading magazines: "Moscow Telegraph", "Otechestvennye zapiski", "Library for reading", "Contemporary". He had a solid library, which was later used by Alexander Nikolaevich. An important event in the life of the young playwright was the appearance in the house of his stepmother, Baroness Emilia Andreevna von Tessin. Together with her, new tastes and habits entered the Ostrovsky house, special attention was paid to teaching children music, languages, and the upbringing of secular manners.
In 1835, Alexander Nikolayevich entered the third grade of the first Moscow gymnasium, and in 1840 he graduated with honors. Then, in the same year, at the insistence of his father, he applied for admission to the law faculty of Moscow University.
The future playwright listened to and successfully passed the general education disciplines taught by brilliant professors: D.L. Kryukov (ancient history), P.G. Redkin (history of Russian jurisprudence), T.N. Granovsky (middle and modern history) and many others.
In the second year, already highly specialized subjects were taught, which did not interest Ostrovsky. Having received a negative mark on the transition to the third year, the young playwright dropped out of university.
The father was upset and identified his son as an official of the Commercial Court.
The service did not captivate Alexander Nikolaevich, but gave him rich material for creativity.
In the 40s, A.N. Ostrovsky began performing with his first works. It was in this decade that realism finally took shape and triumphed as the leading literary trend.
“Forming in the 40s under the influence of Belinsky and Herzen, who defended the idea of denying the then dominant feudal-serf regime, Ostrovsky saw the highest expression of the nationality in the accusatory satirical direction, in the works of Kantemir, Fonvizin, Kapnist, Griboyedov and Gogol. He wrote: "The more elegant the work, the more popular it is, the more of this accusatory element in it ... The public expects from the art of putting on a living, graceful form of its judgment over life, waiting for the combination of modern vices and shortcomings noted in the century in full images."
The first dramatic works of A. N. Ostrovsky - "A Family Picture" (1847) and "Our People - Let's Numbered!" (1850) are devoted mainly to negative types and criticism of despotic arbitrariness in family and domestic relations.
Dobrolyubov wrote that A. Ostrovsky "found the essence of the general (requirements) of life at a time when they were hidden and expressed very weakly."
The ideas of utopian socialism, atheism and revolution enjoyed particular success among young people during these years. This was a manifestation of the liberation movement associated with the struggle against serfdom.
Like his closest friends, A.N. Ostrovsky in the second half of the 40s was under the influence of the views of his time.
At this time, the public danger was bankruptcy, the struggle for money, neglecting both family ties and moral rules. All this was reflected in the plots of works such as "Our people - we will be numbered!"
A vivid expression of A.N. Ostrovsky's deep admiration for the people is his love for oral poetry, evoked in childhood by the tales and songs of the nanny. In the future, it strengthened and developed under the influence of the playwright's general aspiration, his interest in the peasantry. Some of his recordings of folk songs A.N. Ostrovsky subsequently shared with P.I. Yakushkin, P.V. Shein and other collectors of folklore.
Giving priority attention to Russian literature, the playwright was also interested in the best examples of foreign literature: he read Sophocles in the gymnasium, and in 1850-1851 he translated Plautus's Asinaria and Seneca's Hippolytus. Also A.N. Ostrovsky closely followed the current Western European literature. At the end of the 1940s, he read the novels "Misdemeanor of Mr. Antoine" by Georges Sand, "Martyn Naydenysh" by E. Syu and "Dombey and Son" by C. Dickens.
In his youth, A.N. Ostrovsky got acquainted not only with Russian and foreign literature, but also with works devoted to the history of culture and aesthetics. Especially a lot for the development of literary and aesthetic tastes were given to him by the articles of Belinsky and Herzen. Following Belinsky, Ostrovsky considered a serious study of the history of culture and the latest aesthetic theories for a writer to be obligatory.
At the end of the 40s, A.N. Ostrovsky collaborated in "Moskvityanin", where he wrote critical articles about the stories of E. Tour and A.F. Pisemsky, in which he defended the principles of realism. Realism was not conceived as a playwright outside the nationality, and therefore the defining principle of A.N. Ostrovsky's aesthetics was nationality in its democratic understanding. Relying on the realistic traditions of progressive literature, demanding from contemporary writers a true reproduction of life, he defended the principle of historicism in his judgments.
A.N. Ostrovsky believed that the first condition for the artistry of a work was its content. With the totality of his ideological and aesthetic principles, the playwright affirmed the view of literature as a wonderful "school of morals", as a mighty moral transforming force.
A.N. Ostrovsky entered literature immediately as an established writer: the comedy "Our people - we will be numbered!"
In the 1850s, A.N. Ostrovsky began to organize literary evenings in his house, where he read his own plays. At first, such evenings were held in a close friendly circle, but then the number of those invited increased. As a rule, they gathered on Saturdays, when there were no performances in the theaters. These readings began as early as 1846 with scenes from the comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered!", But the circle of listeners only expanded in the 1950s.
N.F. Ostrovsky was often not happy with his son, but even more displeasure was caused by the fact that Alexander Nikolaevich, having fallen in love with a simple girl from a philistine environment, introduced her to his house as a wife. The angry father deprived his son of all material assistance. From that time on, a hard life began for the playwright, in material terms.
The plight of the family (A.N. Ostrovsky had already had four children by that time) was the main content of the playwright's life in the 1850s. Thanks to Agafya Ivanovna “with limited material resources, in the simplicity of life there was the contentment of everyday life. Everything that was in the oven stood on the table with humorous greetings, tender sentences, ”notes the writer S.V. Maksimov. She, according to Maksimov, well understood “and Moscow merchant life in its particulars, which, undoubtedly, largely served her chosen one. He himself not only was not shy of her opinions and reviews, but willingly went to meet them, listened to advice and corrected a lot after reading what he had written in her presence and when she herself had time to listen to the conflicting opinions of various connoisseurs. A large share of participation and influence is attributed to her by probable rumors when creating the comedy "Our people - numbered!", At least regarding the plot and its external setting. "
In the mid-60s, A.N. Ostrovsky was captured by the theme of "power and people." He devoted his historical works to this topic: the chronicle "Kozma Zakharyich Minin - Sukhoruk", "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" and "Tushino". In his letters, the playwright noted that he created these works under the impression of Pushkin's "Boris Godunov".
By the end of the 60s, twenty-two plays by A.N. Ostrovsky had a huge success in all theaters in Russia. The plays were not staged entirely, since the censors cut pieces of the text out of the works, “cut them alive,” as L.A. Rozanova notes.
A terrible blow awaited the playwright: all the children born in this marriage died. In 1867, the playwright's beloved wife, Agafya Ivanovna, died, and in 1869 he married Maria Vasilyevna Vasilyeva, an artist of the Moscow Maly Theater.
In 1867, the playwright, together with his brother Mikhail, bought the Shchelykovo estate from his stepmother. “Special mention should be made of Shchelykov in the fate of Ostrovsky. As it is impossible to imagine the life and work of A.S. Pushkin without Mikhailovsky, L.N. Tolstoy without Yasnaya Polyana, I.S. Turgenev without Spassky-Lutovinov, so the life of A.N. Ostrovsky is inseparable from the Shchelykovo estate, located not far from Kostroma and Kineshma ".
For the first time, the playwright was struck by the beauty of this land back in 1848 and every year he came to visit his father and stepmother. About the house, he spoke like this: "The house is amazingly good both from the outside with the originality of the architecture and the internal convenience of the premises ... The house stands on a high mountain, which is dug to the right and left with such delightful ravines, covered with curly pines and linden trees, that you cannot imagine anything like that." Every year, from spring to late autumn, A.N. Ostrovsky lived in Shchelykovo with his family and friends. Here he could afford to walk in a Russian suit: in wide trousers, an oversized shirt and long boots.
These memorable places for the playwright are reflected in his works. For example, in "Snegurochka" the village of Subbotino and the adjacent meadow were described. Some of the most significant plays were written in Shchelykovo: "Every wise man has enough simplicity," guilty guilt ”and many others.
“Ostrovsky called his appointment happiness, since he got the practical opportunity to make transformations into reality. Such vigorous activity undermined Ostrovsky's forces in less than a year. "
“In his declining years, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky left in the album of MI Semevsky, editor of the magazine“ Russian Starina ”, a record of the most significant facts and events experienced by him. “The most memorable day for me in my life: February 14, 1847,” he wrote. "From that day on, I began to consider myself a Russian writer, and without hesitation or hesitation I believed in my calling." On this day, A.N. Ostrovsky finished the comedy "Pictures of Family Happiness", his first complete and complete work.
Then they created: "Our people - we will be numbered", "Poor Bride", "Profitable Place", "The Thunderstorm" and many, many other plays.
The terminally ill A.N. Ostrovsky on May 31, 1886 set to work on the translation of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.
The burial took place at the Nikolo-Berezhki cemetery. Over the open
Kropachev uttered an agitated farewell speech to the grave, and his last words were: “ Your premonition has come true: "the last act of your life drama is over"! "... A cross was installed on the grave with the inscription:" Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. "
travelers not described ... "- this is how the great playwright wrote in his" Notes of a Zamoskvoretsk resident ".
“... This country, according to official reports, lies directly opposite the Kremlin ... Until now, only the position and name of this country was known; as for the inhabitants of it, that is, their way of life, language, manners, customs, degree of education - all this was covered with the darkness of obscurity ”.
A.N. Ostrovsky spent his childhood, adolescence and youth in Zamoskvorechye. He knew its inhabitants well and, as a child, could observe the manners, customs and characters of the heroes of his future plays. When creating the images of the "dark kingdom", A.N. Ostrovsky used his childhood impressions that will be remembered for a long time.
And who, if not A.N. Ostrovsky, was destined to remove the veil of uncertainty from this part of Moscow - Zamoskvorechye.
A.N. Ostrovsky's introduction to the literary word began mainly from his native literature. The first comedy he read and made an indelible impression on him was NR Sudovshchikov's comedy "The Unheard of Wonder, or the Honest Secretary." Among the Russian playwrights of the 18th century, A.N. Ostrovsky especially appreciated Ablesimov, the creator of the comic opera The Miller the Sorcerer, the Deceiver and the Matchmaker.
How did the playwright nurture the ideas of his works?
For several years, A.N. Ostrovsky wrote down only the words characteristic of the bourgeois-merchant environment, which he had to face: "himself" (owner, head of the family), "lover", "hare" and others. Then the playwright took an interest in writing proverbs, discovering their deep meaning. This is reflected in the titles of his works: "Do not sit in your sleigh", "Not all the carnival for the cat."
The first of A.N. Ostrovsky's well-known prose works is "The Legend of How the Quarter Overseer Danced, or Only One Step From the Great to the Ridiculous." Gogolian influences are felt in him, especially in the pictures of everyday life.
In 1864 - 1874, A.N. Ostrovsky deduced as the main characters people who are not able to fight with the "well-fed", but have a sense of human dignity. Among them: the clerk Obroshenov ("Jokers"), the honest official Kiselnikov ("The Abyss") and the hardworking teacher Korpelov ("Labor Bread"). The playwright sharply opposed the main characters to the environment in which they live, in order to force the reader and viewer to reflect and draw conclusions about the existing order.
In his plays, A.N. Ostrovsky describes the reality of the time in which he lived. The playwright believed that reality is the basis of art, the source of the writer's creativity.
Living in Zamoskvorechye, A.N. Ostrovsky not only managed to sufficiently study the characters of merchants, traders and their families, but also truthfully show them in his works.
In total, A.N. Ostrovsky created 47 original plays, wrote 7 together with other writers, translated more than 20 dramatic works from other languages. Back in 1882, IA Goncharov wrote to him: “You alone completed the building, at the base of which the cornerstones Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol were laid ... I greet you as the immortal creator of the endless system of poetic creations ... we hear the primordial, true Russian life ... "1
The first period of creativity A. N. Ostrovsky (1847 - 1860).
A.N. Ostrovsky's literary activity began in 1847 with the publication in the Moscow City Leaflet of stories and essays under the general title "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident"; family happiness "). However, the earliest literary experience of A.N. Ostrovsky dates back to 1843 - this is "The Legend of how the quarter warden started dancing, or From the great to the ridiculous, only one step." The first literary publications were prosaic - the unfinished story "They did not agree" (1846), essays and stories "Yasha's biography", "Zamoskvorechye on a holiday" and "Kuzma Samsonich" (1846-1847). "Notes of zamoskvoretsko
1 Goncharov I.A. Collected op. in 8 vols., t. 8., M .: 1980, p. 475
"Acquaintance with the Maly Theater, its repertoire, personal friendship with many of the actors contributed to the fact that Ostrovsky left prose and began writing plays."
A.N. Ostrovsky served in a commercial court when he began to think about a new work. The fruit of long-term inner work was the play "Bankrupt", which later received the name "Our People - Let's Numbered!" The driving force is the conflict between fathers and children on the basis of "enlightenment", "education". It is surprising that the play was not yet published, and rumors about it spread throughout Moscow. It was read in Moscow literary salons and home circles, and the first author's reading took place in the second half of 1849 at the apartment of M.N. Katkov, in Merzlyakovsky lane. (At that time, M.N. Katkov was an adjunct in the Department of Philosophy at Moscow University). The young playwright was just beginning his journey and still could not get used to the praises that excited him pleasantly. Among the listeners of the new play by A.N. Ostrovsky were S.P. Shevyrev, A.S. Khomyakov, T.N. Granovsky, S.M. Soloviev, F.I.Buslaev and many others. The reviews were all unanimously enthusiastic.
In 1849 A.N. Ostrovsky was invited to read a new play to M.P. Pogodin, editor and publisher of Moskvityanin. M.P.Pogodin liked the new play by A.N. Ostrovsky so much that he soon (1850) published it in his journal, in the department "Russian literature". From that moment on, the playwright's cooperation with this magazine began.
Soon after reading his play at M.P. Pogodin, A.N. Ostrovsky decided to introduce him to his friends. And so in the literary environment of Moscow and St. Petersburg they started talking about the "young editorial board" of "Moskvityanin", which was then already in its tenth year. Among the authors were named the names of A.N. Ostrovsky, A.A. Grigoriev, T.I. Filippov and others along with N.V. Gogol, V.A. Zhukovsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, K.S.Aksakov and many others.
Communication with M.P. Pogodin and his friends - Slavophiles did not pass without leaving a trace for A.N. Ostrovsky; as you want "). But there were also contradictions between the publisher and the “young editorial board,” which wanted to have greater independence. MP Pogodin did not believe that young people could keep the traditions of Karamzin and Pushkin in the magazine. In the early 1950s, the Moskvityan had already published such plays as The Poor Bride (1852), Don't Sit in Your Sleigh (1853), Don't Live As You Want to (1855). A valuable acquisition of "Moskvityanin" was the cooperation of PI Melnikov and Pisemsky in it.
Soon, M.P. Pogodin began to point out the weaknesses of the journal. One of his friends advised amiably: “You always have a lot of typos. Even other magazines began to imitate you in this. Appearance Muscovite not elegant, the fonts are hackneyed and ugly: not at all
it would be bad for you to imitate in this case Contemporary, the most dandy Russian magazine. "
In October 1857, Apollo Grigoriev was approved as editor of Moskvityanin, but by that time he was already in Italy, and Moskvityanin had to be closed.
On January 14, 1853, the comedy "Don't Get in Your Sleigh, Don't Sit", the first play that was played in the theater, was performed. Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya, already known by that time, agreed to play the main role. The lively speech, rich in everyday colors, amazed the audience. MP Lobanov writes about it this way: “But what followed was what was already the pinnacle of the performance, what remained forever, for life in the memory of those who had the good fortune to see Sergei Vasiliev. In a conversation with Rusakov, who asks why he, Ivanushka, was not happy, Borodkin replies: "Something is a little sad." He said it as if by chance, but with an indescribable feeling, "as criticism later noted, unable to find words to express the melancholy that was heard in Borodkin's voice. Modest, seemingly ordinary remarks suddenly lit up with such significance and depth of feeling that it was a whole revelation for the audience, amazed them and caused a stunning impression. "
“The artists entered their roles so enthusiastically, with such selflessness that they gave the impression of the complete vitality of what was being done on the stage. It was obvious what Ostrovsky himself would later call “the school natural and expressive games".
Ivan Aksakov wrote to Turgenev that the impression made by the play
AN Ostrovsky on stage, "can hardly be compared with any previously experienced impression."
Khomyakov wrote: "The success is huge and well deserved."
This success of the playwright opened the door to the nascent Ostrovsky Theater.
With the arrival of A.N. Ostrovsky in the Maly Theater, the theater itself changed. On the stage, ordinary people appeared in jackets, greasy boots, and chintz dresses. Actors of the older generation spoke out negatively about the playwright. From the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky in the Russian theater, the principles of realistic nationally distinctive drama are affirmed. “Before the viewer there should be not a play, but life, so that there is a complete illusion, so that he will forget that he is in the theater” - this is the rule followed by the playwright. High and low, comic and dramatic, everyday and unusual were realistically combined in his plays. "
Cooperation with the Sovremennik magazine became a new stage in the playwright's creative work. A.N. Ostrovsky's frequent trips from Moscow to St. Petersburg brought him to the literary salon of I.I. Panaev. It was here that he met L.N. Tolstoy, I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, N.A. Nekrasov, N.A. Dobrolyubov and many other authors of the journal, which at that time was edited by N.A. Nekrasov ... For quite a long time, A.N. Ostrovsky collaborated with Sovremennik, in which the plays Festive Sleep Until Dinner (1857), We Did Not Get Together (1858), An Old Friend is Better than Two New (1860), Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk "(1862)," Hard days "(1863)," Jokers "(1864)," Voevoda "(1865)," In a busy place "(1865). After the journal was closed in 1866, the playwright published almost all of his plays in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski, which became his successor, edited by N.A. Nekrasov, and then M.E.Saltykov-Shchedrin, G. Eliseev and N. Mikhailovsky.
In 1856, A.N. Ostrovsky took part in the Ethnographic expedition of the Naval Ministry, and he went to study the way of life, living conditions, culture, fishing in the Volga cities from the upper Volga to Nizhny Novgorod. The trip along the Volga provided such rich material that A.N. Ostrovsky decided to write a cycle of plays under the general title "Nights on the Volga". The main idea of the cycle was to be the idea of continuity in the life and culture of the Russian people, but these plans remained unfulfilled. At the same time, A.N. Ostrovsky began work on the Volga dictionary, which later grew into the Dictionary of the Russian Folk Language. After the death of the playwright, his vocabulary research was transferred to the Academy of Sciences and partially used in the academic dictionary of the Russian language, published since 1891 under the editorship of J.K. Grot.
The second period of creativity A. N. Ostrovsky (1860 - 1875).
If at the first stage of his creative path A.N. Ostrovsky painted mostly negative images ("Poverty is not a vice," "Don't live as you want," positive, (falling into the sugary idealization of the merchant class, patriarchy, religion; at the third stage, starting in 1855, he finally comes to the need for organic fusion in his plays of denial and affirmation) are people of labor.
The second period of the 60-75 years includes such plays as "An old friend is better than two new ones", "Hard days", "Jokers", "Not all the carnival for the cat", "Late love", "Labor bread", "In a busy place" , "There was not a penny, but suddenly altyn", "The Trilogy about Balzaminov", "The dogs are squabbling" and "The Abyss".
The theme of the plays by A.N. Ostrovsky was expanding; he becomes a representative of all the main estates of his era.
“The educated Moscow of the 1940s had two favorite brainchildren, which it was proud of, with which it connected its main hopes and sympathies: the university and the theater. The Bolshoi Theater reigned supreme: in tragedy - Mochalov, in comedy - the great Shchepkin. " A.N. Ostrovsky was also scorched by the whirlwind of enthusiasm for Mochalov. Later, he expressed the idea that the need for tragedy among the “young public” is greater than the need for comedy or family drama: “She needs a deep breath on the stage, for the whole theater, she needs genuine, warm tears, warm speeches that would pour straight into the soul ". 20 years later, in the drama "The Abyss", A.N. Ostrovsky will depict a walk in Neskuchny Garden, which he knew firsthand, and put in the mouths of strolling merchants and students a stormy approval of Mochalov's play in Ducange's melodrama "Thirty Years, or the Life of a Player":
"Merchant. Ay, yes Mochalov! Respected.
Wife. Only these performances are very much to watch
pitiful; so it’s even too much.
Merchant. Well, yes, you understand a lot! "
“In The Abyss, especially the devilish temptation of a bribe will be described strongly and somehow personally: life pushes the referee's clerk under the arm and leaves him no clue to preserve his honesty. Here is the obvious evidence that “everyone is taking”, and the mother’s complaints that the family is starving to death, and the reasoning of the merchant-father-in-law in the spirit that whoever needs to go to court prepares money anyway: “You won’t take , so another will take from him. " All this, as one would expect, ends with the hero doing a little cleaning up in the case and taking a big jackpot from the client, and then going crazy from the reproaches of his conscience. "
“In the year of the liberation of the peasants (1861) AN Ostrovsky finished two plays: a small comedy“ Wherever you go, you will find, ”where he finally married his hero, Misha Balzaminov, and thus completed the trilogy about him; and the fruit of 6 years of work - the historical drama in verse "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk". Two things are polar in genre, style and objectives. It would seem, what do they have to do with what society lives and breathes? " Some heroes act, while others only reason and in a very Russian way everyone dreams that happiness itself will fall on their heads.
AN Ostrovsky also ponders over the pages of the Minin manuscript about the people, the national character, how it took shape and manifested itself in history. The playwright wanted, referring to history and poetic instinct, to show a man of conscience and inner duty, capable of raising the people to feat in a difficult moment. This was a fresh topic at the time.
Following Minin, AN Ostrovsky wrote a drama in verse from the life of the 17th century Voevoda, or a dream on the Volga "(1865). There were amazingly successful pages in it, and after reading it, IS Turgenev exclaimed: “What a smelly poetry in places, like our Russian grove in summer! Ah, master, master, this bearded man! "
This was followed by the chronicles "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" (1866) and "Tushino" (1867).
“I have never been able to bow and run, to flatter the authorities; they say that over the years, under the yoke of circumstances, the consciousness of self-esteem disappears, that need will teach rolls to eat - with me, thank God, this did not happen "- wrote AN Ostrovsky in a letter to Gedeonov. The playwright realized that behind his back was the Russian theater, Russian literature.
Every autumn, a new play matured, was written, played in the theater, this marked the following dates:
1871 - "There was not a penny, but suddenly altyn";
1872 - "Rabbit of the 17th century";
1873 - "Snow Maiden", "Late Love";
1874 - "Labor Bread";
1875 - "Wolves and Sheep", "Rich Brides" and so on ...
The third period of creativity A. N. Ostrovsky (1875 - 1886).
It should be noted that the plays of the playwright of the third period are dedicated to the tragic fate of a woman in the difficult conditions of Russia in the 70s and 80s. This theme includes such plays as "The Last Sacrifice" (1877), "Dowry" (1878), "The Heart is Not a Stone" (1879), "Slaves" (1880), "Guilty Without Guilt" (1883) and others. The heroines of A.N. Ostrovsky's plays of the third period are the image of slaves. The heroines experience the torment of unfulfilled hopes, unrequited love ... Only a few of these women manage to rise above the environment. A striking example of such a strong personality is the heroine of the play "Guilty Without Guilt" - Kruchinina.
Once someone remarked to A.N. Ostrovsky that he idealizes a woman in his plays. To this the playwright replied: "How can you not love a woman, she gave birth to God for us." Also, in the plays of the third period, the image of a predator-predator for women appears in front of the reader. A.N. Ostrovsky reveals spiritual emptiness, cold calculation and self-interest behind the noble appearance of such a predator. In the plays of the last period, many episodic figures appear, helping to convey the atmosphere, for example, of a noisy fair.
In the last play of the playwright "Out of this world", as in the previous ones, important moral and psychological questions are raised - love, relationship between husband and wife, moral duty and others.
At the end of the 70s, A.N. Ostrovsky created a number of plays in collaboration with young playwrights: with N.Ya.Soloviev - "Happy Day" (1877), "The Marriage of Belugin" (1877), "Wild Woman" (1879), "It shines, but it does not warm" (1880); with P.M. Nevezhin - "Blazh" (1880), "Old in a new way" (1882).
In the 70s, A.N. Ostrovsky willingly turned to the subjects of the criminal chronicle. It was at this time that he was elected an honorary justice of the peace in the Kineshemsky district, and in Moscow in 1877 he served as a jury at the District Court. The plots of the trials gave a lot. There is an assumption that the plot of "The Dowry" was suggested to the playwright by the case of murder out of jealousy, heard in the Kineshma Magistrate Court.
In 1870, through the efforts of A.N. Ostrovsky, a collection of Russian dramatic writers was established, of which he was chairman. To understand the aesthetic positions of the playwright, it is important to note that A.N. Ostrovsky tried to stop the decline of theatrical art in Russia. Many people remembered with admiration about A.N. Ostrovsky's reading of his plays, about his work with actors on the role. A.Ya. Panaeva, P.M. Nevezhin, M.I. Pisarev and others wrote about relations with Moscow actors, about their warm feelings for the playwright
Chapter 2. The history of the creation of the play "Deeps".
Thanks to persistent work, A.N. Ostrovsky created a new play every year, however, back in 1857, critics assured readers that there was nothing more to expect from A.N. Ostrovsky, that his talent had died out. The inconsistency of such statements was refuted by the appearance of new talented plays, in particular, the play "The Abyss".
In May 1865 A.N. Ostrovsky made a trip along the Volga. Returning from a trip, he finishes a new play "In a Busy Place", continues to translate from W. Shakespeare, works on the historical play "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky." In the second half of December he finishes the play "The Abyss", summing it up a kind of conclusion to the theme of Zamoskvorechye in the 60s.
From the above it is clear that during this period the literary activity of A.N. Ostrovsky was versatile and extremely intense.
For the first time the play "The Abyss" was published in the newspaper "St. Petersburg Vedomosti" in January 1866 (№№ 1, 4, 5, 6, 8). For some of her prints, preliminary censorship was required. In January of the same year, A.N. Ostrovsky read the play in the Artistic Circle, and in March "The Deeps" had already been approved by the Theater Censorship. In April the audience saw a new play by A.N. Ostrovsky on the stage of the Maly Theater, and in May the play Abyss was first presented at the Alexandrinsky Theater in the benefit performance of Vasiliev the 1st.
The audience greeted the play with resounding approval. It should be noted that during this period, relations between A.N. Ostrovsky and the management of the imperial theaters were more tense. This is also noted by F. Burdin in one of his letters to A. N. Ostrovsky: “In general, you need to explain with great chagrin that the Higher spheres do not favor your works. They are disgusted with their accusatory pathos, ideological spirit ... it has come to the point that “Abyss” aroused tremendous displeasure in the authorities and they are afraid to put it down. ”
This is confirmed by the table of performances of plays by A.N. Ostrovsky from 1887 to 1917. It is interesting that the first place in this table is taken by the play "Forest" - 160 performances a year. The play "The Abyss" - less than 15 performances a year. The plays “There was not a penny, but suddenly altyn”, “Ardent heart”, “Enough simplicity for every wise man” were subjected to the same “discrimination”.
In his work, A.N. Ostrovsky, following N.V. Gogol, continued the theme of the "little man". This is confirmed by the main character of the play "The Abyss" - Kiselnikov. He is unable to fight and floats with the flow of life. Finally, the abyss of life sucks him in. Through this image, A.N. Ostrovsky shows that in the existing
reality cannot remain a passive observer that one must fight, otherwise the abyss will swallow and it will be impossible to get out of it. Plays by A.N. Ostrovsky both educate and make the viewer think about the surrounding reality. As A.I. Revyakin notes in his work, the playwright believed that any kind of art must necessarily educate and be a weapon in the social struggle.
A.N. Ostrovsky not only draws the types of inhabitants of Zamoskvorechye, he maximally reveals to the readers and viewers the social structure that determined the behavior of these people. How
A. V. Lunacharsky noted: “... his creative eyes quickly penetrated the souls of crippled, now proud, now humiliated creatures, full of deep feminine grace or sadly flapping the broken wings of high idealism. ... From the depths of their mighty breasts bursts sometimes almost ridiculous in its formal eccentricity, but such an infinitely human cry about a straightened life ... "
The playwright did not consider such a bold and truthful display of reality to be his merit. For A.N. Ostrovsky, the truth of life is not a dignity, but a prerequisite for a work of art. This is the most important principle of artistry.
In the play "The Abyss" A. N. Ostrovsky did not deviate from the main themes of his works and showed the "bottom" of the post-reform life. At the same time, the play turned out to be unusual for the author in terms of genre: not a drama - an episode, but a drama - fate, a kind of novel in faces. Many researchers of A.N. Ostrovsky spoke about the influence of Western European literature on him, especially about his plot borrowings from foreign sources. A.I. Revyakin draws attention to ² ... the influence of Schiller (“Robbers” - and “Voevoda”, “Dmitry the Impostor” - and “Dmitry the Pretender a wise man of rather simplicity "), Shakespeare (" A Midsummer Night's Dream "- and" Snow Maiden "), V. Ducanj and Dino (" Thirty Years, or the Life of a Player "- and" Deeps ")".
The hero of the play, Kiselnikov, goes from being an idealist student of the 1930s to a petty judicial officer of the 1940s. Each action of the play takes place 5-7 years later and depicts the path of a young man who graduated from the university, entering life with hopes and hopes for a brighter future. What is the bottom line? Marrying a girl from Zamoskvoretsk, he falls into everyday life, as if into the abyss. Purity of thoughts ends with a crime - a large bribe, which the hero sees as the only way to escape poverty.
Almost every play by A.N. Ostrovsky was banned from theatrical censorship, since the playwright again and again raised questions about the pressing problems of our time. But nothing could force the playwright to change the theme of his plays.
A general description of the manuscript of the play "Deeps" should be given.
The manuscript of the play, kept in the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library, contains 54 leaves. The text is written in pencil. Some passages are difficult to read, since time has left an imprint on the text of the manuscript (the result of long-term storage and repeated access to the text). There are no margins in the manuscript. All notes were made by A.N. Ostrovsky in the empty spaces. When viewing the manuscript, a large number of insertions and additions are found, most often they are made directly in the text. Large inserts are placed in free spaces or given below with a “F” mark. There are few crossed out passages in the manuscript, while the original version is most often crossed out with a bold line. There are also crossed out pieces of text. There are sheets in which there are no corrections.
It can be assumed that these fragments were found by A.N. Ostrovsky immediately. However, it is possible that after a large number of changes and amendments, these sheets could be rewritten anew. It is impossible to make a categorical statement in favor of the first or second assumption.
The entire manuscript is written in an even, small handwriting. As for the inserts, it is often possible to disassemble them only with the help of a magnifying glass, since there was no special place for them, and Ostrovsky was forced to place them in scanty free places.
Attention is drawn to the numbers above the words, which allowed the author to achieve great expressiveness of the text.
For instance:
Glafira
Now I will not be afraid of you, because you will enter our house.
The first sheet of the manuscript is of particular interest for characterizing the manuscript.
After the first three lines:
"Abyss"
“Scenes from Moscow Life”.
Scene I. "
Immediately there are columns of text, written in small illegible handwriting, "for myself." Upon careful examination, some of the words from these records could be read. In these recordings, A.N. Ostrovsky arranged the main events of the play by scenes. During final processing, all these entries were crossed out, as they subsequently became unnecessary. In general, there are a lot of author's notes and sketches on the first sheet. All of them are also crossed out. This is a general brief description of the appearance of the manuscript of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky "The Abyss".
Now let's move on to the additions and changes made by A.N. Ostrovsky during the final edition, of which there are a lot in the manuscript. Since the nature of this work does not provide for a complete and thorough study of the manuscript, only those places that have undergone changes during the creation of the play will be analyzed. It is necessary to analyze and establish the purpose and meaning of these amendments, some of which make significant changes in the character of the characters, others help to better reveal the situation in the play.
§ 1. Analysis of the most important discrepancies in the original and final handwritten versions.
Researchers (A.I. Revyakin, G.P. Pirogov, V.Ya. Lakshin and others) of A.N. Ostrovsky's work have established that the playwright rarely succeeded in starting a play right away. For a long time and persistently he worked out the first remarks, the arrangement of the characters. A.N. Ostrovsky strove to ensure that the first remarks of the characters in the play were similar to an ongoing dialogue.
Very often, his plays begin with a response that allows one to easily imply the previous actions that took place before the curtain was lifted. It is precisely this beginning that is observed in the "Abyss".
SceneI.
The action begins with a discussion of Ducange's new translated play Thirty Years, or the Life of a Player. The discussion is led by merchants and their wives.
The first phenomenon was succeeded by AN Ostrovsky right away, as the playwright had studied the merchants very well and he had more than once heard the judgments of such “art connoisseurs”.
The second phenomenon of "The Abyss" was originally conceived as a discussion of the same play, but now by students. A.N. Ostrovsky contrasted the opinion of the merchants with the opinion of the students. In the first version, the students not only talked about the play, but also talked about the theater “as the highest pleasure”. “The Life of a Player” was discussed by three students and two other characters who were not included in the cast of the play. These characters appear with A.N. Ostrovsky under the names Alb and Galosh. Apparently, the author gave their names in an abbreviated form.
This phenomenon has perhaps the largest number of fixes. A.N. Ostrovsky almost completely alters the text of this phenomenon: he removes the statement of the first student about the theater, instead of three students, only two participate in the conversation; a new person is introduced - Pogulyaev.
True, Pogulyaev says only one phrase, but his ideas are developed by students. The author also removes the lengthy arguments of Alb and Galosz.
Thus, after the changes introduced, two students and Pogulyaev remain in the second phenomenon.
What could have caused such a rethinking of this phenomenon? Yes, apparently, by the fact that A. Ostrovsky himself did not consider it necessary to talk a lot about the play “The Life of the Player”, especially since the statement of Pogulyaev and the students gives a fairly complete assessment of this play.
Pogulyaev
And how good Mochalov was today. It's just a pity that the play is bad.
1st student
Dry piece. Naked morality.
..................................................... .
What a play! This is nonsense not worth talking about.
Long and general reasoning could only distract the viewer's attention.
In the third phenomenon, initially there were only two characters: Kiselnikov and Pogulyaev. The conversation went on between friends throughout the entire phenomenon. Kiselnikov's life was not very successful, and therefore it is not surprising that Kiselnikov willingly tells his friend Pogulyaev about everything.
With such an arrangement of the characters, the action turned out to be somewhat monotonous. The conversation “tete a tete” does not suit A.N. Ostrovsky, and in the new edition he introduces two more students who studied together with Kiselnikov. Now three people are already asking questions, and Kiselnikov only manages to answer them.
The fact that Kiselnikov tells about his life not only to Pogulyaev, but also to the students present, characterizes him as an open and sociable person. When editing, A.N. Ostrovsky does not alter the phrases belonging to Pogulyaev and does not add new text. The playwright breaks these phrases into replicas. Now, in a new version, they are already pronounced by students.
In the original version, A.N. Ostrovsky does not indicate how long Pogulyaev did not see Kiselnikov, this clarification appears only in the revised version.
Interestingly, in the original version, Kiselnikov himself talked about his life. With the introduction of two more characters, the number of questions increases and, therefore, Kiselnikov's long answers are broken up into smaller ones. Kiselnikov now more often answers in monosyllables. By this, A. N. Ostrovsky kind of makes it clear that, after all, Kiselnikov does not have a great desire to talk about himself.
A new phrase appears, which Kiselnikov tries to justify in everything he has said.
Kiselnikov
However, I still have time for all this.
But since there are no real actions behind this phrase, the subsequent dialogue moves on to another topic.
Kiselnikov
My father was a stern, capricious old man ...
The constant presence of his father depressed Kiselnikov.
The fourth and fifth phenomena were left by A.N. Ostrovsky in their original form. In the fifth phenomenon, new characters appear. Their speech characteristics were immediately found by the playwright.
In the sixth phenomenon, inserts with the “F” mark appear for the first time, there are many changes and additions in the text itself. Noteworthy is the insert in Glafira's answer to Pogulyaev's question about her studies.
In the original version, to Pogulyaev's question about what she was doing, Glafira answered:
Glafira
I am engaged in embroidery.
In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky adds:
Glafira
Usually what the young ladies do. I am engaged in embroidery.
In her opinion, all young ladies are only engaged in embroidery and are not interested in anything else.
There is no doubt that A.N. Ostrovsky with this additional phrase in Glafira's answer emphasizes the narrowness of her interests. Perhaps, with this additional phrase, the playwright simultaneously opposes Kiselnikov's education and the limitations of his bride.
Now let's turn to another scene in which Kiselnikov convinces Pogulyaev that there is no better family than the Borovtsovs, that nothing can be better than their family pleasures. In the original version of the manuscript, Pogulyaev silently listens to Kiselnikov and thus, as it were, largely agrees with him. But when editing the original text, A.N. Ostrovsky is not satisfied with such behavior of Pogulyaev, and a new line appears in which the author, through the mouth of an old comrade Kiselnikov, expresses his attitude to the Borovtsovs' way of life.
Pogulyaev
Well, no, there is something better than that.
Instead of tacit consent, Pogulyaev's protest is visible.
To show the limited interests and views of Borovtsova, A.N. Ostrovsky immediately introduces her remark.
Borovtsova
Is it dancing, or what? Well them. The husband hates it.
Thus, in the sixth phenomenon of the first scene, these two short inserts (Glafira's words and Borovtsova's words) significantly reveal the characteristics of the Borovtsov family, emphasizing their individuality and contrast with Kiselnikov.
In the seventh, last phenomenon of the first scene, there are no significant changes in the text.
SceneII
Seven years pass. Kiselnikov's life after marriage is not changing for the better. The father-in-law does not give him the promised inheritance, Glafira from a meek girl turns into a greedy and hysterical woman.
The first appearance of the second scene begins with a scandal between Ki-Selnikov and Glafira.
In the original version of the manuscript, when the scandal reaches its peak, we read:
Kiselnikov(pinches ears)
In the final version:
Kiselnikov(pinching his ears, screaming)
You are my tyrants, you!
Just one remark, and how the character of the image is changing! In the first version, Kiselnikov is a passive nature, in which all ability to fight is destroyed. In the final version - before us is a man whom fate forced to live among hated people, he has to adapt, but the hero is not afraid to say his opinion about others. At the end of the apparition, A.N. Ostrovsky introduces a long monologue of Kiselnikov, in which he almost repents of his behavior.
With this remark of Kiselnikov, reinforced by the addition of just one word to the remark: “screams” and an additionally introduced monologue at the end of the phenomenon, A.N. Ostrovsky shows that in the soul of the protagonist of the play, who has lived for seven years in the kingdom of merchant obscurantism, has not yet died out the struggle between the passive and active principle of his nature, but the passive principle begins to gain the upper hand and suck into the abyss of merchant life.
A.N. Ostrovsky does not immediately get the image of Glafira. In the final version, the playwright draws the readers' attention to her rudeness and greed. In the original version of the manuscript, we read:
Glafira
How many times have I told you to rewrite the house in my name ...
Kiselnikov
After all, this is her house, her own? ...
Glafira
So what about her? I give her my dresses, I don’t regret for
It so happened that Glafira treats Kiselnikov's mother well - she gives her his dresses. But these words contradicted the character of the greedy Glafira.
When editing the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky corrects this discrepancy. But at the same time, the playwright does not change the text of the characters' speech, but only in the last words of Glafira, before the word “dresses”, he inserts the definition “old”. Now Glafira's answer looks like this:
Glafira
So what about her? I give her my old dresses, I don’t regret it for her ...
So, with just one word, introduced during editing, A.N. Ostrovsky reveals Glafira's insignificant soul and reveals new features in her character: heartlessness, callousness.
In the second appearance, the Borovtsovs come to visit Kiselnikov. Glafira has a name day, and her parents congratulate her. It turns out that Kiselnikov has already laid Glafira's earrings, which were given to her as a dowry. Glafira's parents are outraged. But Kiselnikov had no other choice. The money he receives from the service is too little to feed a large family. Borovtsov teaches Kiselnikov to take bribes. He paints him a rich life.
In the original version, Borovtsov's teaching does not completely reveal his views on life. In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky adds:
Borovtsov
You live for your family - here you be good and honest, and fight with others like in a war. What you managed to grab, and drag home, fill and cover your hut ...
In these added words, the reader looms the image of a greedy predator, caring only for his own good. If this is the head of the Borovtsov family, then so are the rest of its members. A.N. Ostrovsky once again emphasizes the impossibility, incompatibility of views on the life of the Kiselnikov and Borovtsovs.
In the third phenomenon, A.N. Ostrovsky does not make any special changes when editing.
In the fourth phenomenon of the second scene, when editing the first version of the manuscript, in order to fully reveal the characters, A.N. Ostrovsky makes additions to their speech.
Guests are gathering at Kiselnikov's house. Pereyarkov and Turuntaev come to Glafira's name day. In the first version of the manuscript, when Anna Ustinovna holds up tea for the guests and Glafira shouts at her mother-in-law in front of everyone, we read:
Glafira
Why did you fail there with your tea!
................................................
Trample only in the house, but there is no sense.
Borovtsova
Well, you quieter, quieter! Hello daddy!
In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky emphasizes Borovtsova's duplicity.
Borovtsova
Well, you quieter, quieter! Don't shout in front of people! Not good. Hello daddy!
From this addition it becomes clear that Borovtsova only cares about external decency, she is not at all opposed to Glafira shouting at her mother-in-law, but not in public. The conclusion involuntarily suggests itself that a new phrase in Borovtsova's speech was added by A.N. Ostrovsky not only to promote her character, but also the character of Glafira. It becomes clear that Glafira's meekness before the wedding was ostentatious, and by her nature and upbringing she was rude and greedy.
This small addition reveals the character of two characters at once.
In the original version, when Pogulyaev arrives, Glafira meets him quite kindly.
Pogulyaev (Glafire)
I have the honor to congratulate you. (bows to everyone)
Glafira
Thank you humbly.
From the dialogue it is clear that Glafira accepts Pogulyaev without joy, but purely outwardly, her behavior does not go beyond the bounds of decency. In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky adds one more phrase to Glafira's speech:
Pogulyaev (Glafire)
I have the honor to congratulate you. (bows to everyone).
Glafira
Thank you humbly. Only now we did not expect strangers, we want to spend time between ours.
In the final version, the meaning of Glafira's answer to Pogulyaev's greeting changes dramatically. She pronounces the first phrase as if with a mockery, and then emphasizes that Pogulyaev is a stranger to them. This is how one more character trait of Glafira is revealed: indifference to "unnecessary" people.
When talking with Pogulyaev, Pereyarkov emphasizes that they (the Borovtsovs, Pereyarkov and Turuntaev) have tenderness between themselves; that "they live in perfect harmony." But as soon as Pereyarkov glances at his neighbor's cards (he does this without a twinge of conscience), Turuntaev calls him a robber in front of everyone.
A skirmish begins. Each of those present is trying to insult his companion worse. When editing, A.N. Ostrovsky adds new lines. Now all these "nice" people look like bazaar squabblers.
Pereyarkov
Percentage! Koschey! Judas!
Turuntaev
Thief, day thief!
Borovtsov
Why are you barking!
Turuntaev
What are you, arshinnik!
To these remarks, introduced in the finale of the quarrel between Borovtsov and Turuntaev, when editing, A.N. Ostrovsky adds Pogulyaev's phrase, which is a conclusion to this scene.
Pogulyaev
So much for you!
At the end of the apparition, Pogulyaev gives Kiselnikov a loan. Kiselnikov is very grateful to him. Initially, it looked like this:
Kiselnikov
Thank you, brother, thank you, I borrowed it! Here is a friend, so a friend! If it had not been for him, I would have completely disgraced myself in front of my father-in-law.
After editing the original version, we read:
Kiselnikov
Here is a friend, so a friend! What is there to do, if not he! Where to go? God sent it to me for my truth and meekness. There would be more such friends, so it would be easier to live in the world! If it had not been for him, I would have completely disgraced myself in front of my father-in-law.
What does A.N. Ostrovsky want to draw our attention to? Does the meaning of Kiselnikov's words change in the final version?
In the first version, A.N. Ostrovsky does not reveal the word "friend" in the understanding of Kiselnikov. In the final version, it becomes clear that for him a friend is the one who can lend money. The playwright stresses that need dulls all other feelings in Kiselnikov.
At the beginning of the play, Kiselnikov still tries to protest. Even if these were only words, they could also go into deeds. Gradually, A.N. Ostrovsky brings the reader and viewer to the tragic finale of the play. At the end of the second scene, Kiselnikov is a weak, weak-willed personality, incapable of protest, taking credit for meekness and patience.
SceneIII
In the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky begins to write the third scene of The Deeps from the second appearance. Apparently, the playwright was not ready to present the first phenomenon and left it “for later”. The first phenomenon follows the second, then the third phenomenon follows, and so on.
In the first appearance of the third scene, A.N. Ostrovsky tells about the life of Kiselnikov over the past five years.
Five more years pass. Glafira died. The children are sick, but Kiselnikov has no money for their treatment. The father-in-law, on whom Kiselnikov had pinned his last hope, "turned out to be insolvent." But Kiselnikov continues to hope that Borovtsov will return at least part of the money he has taken. In order not to upset his mother, Kiselnikov tries to instill in her at least a little hope.
Kiselnikov
I'll go to my father-in-law tomorrow morning. I won’t give it back, I’ll just take it by the collar.
Anna Ustinovna
Ask well ...
The mother advises her son to ask him well first, and then he can go out the door. By nature, Kiselnikov is a weak-willed person. He can never "take by the gate." Anna Ustinovna knows this very well. After all, Kiryusha will more easily yield than use force and pressure, even in a case involving his own money. In support of this, A.N. Ostrovsky adds:
Anna Ustinovna
Well, where are you! You better ask well ...
This inserted phrase once again, through the words of the mother, very figuratively reveals the weak-willed character of her son.
It is necessary to dwell on the second phenomenon in more detail. It is perhaps the most dramatic passage in the play. In the second phenomenon, the main events take place that change the character of Kiselnikov, which will then become guiding in his subsequent actions.
Borovtsov and Pereyarkov come to Kiselnikov. Borovtsov is now poorly dressed, and he himself came to his son-in-law with a request. In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky introduces the address “BROTHER” into Borovtsov's words. The father-in-law calls Kiselnikov so not because he loves him, this is just a new trick of Borovtsov to carry out his nefarious plan. A.N. Ostrovsky makes significant changes to the speech of Pereyarkov, who directs all actions of Borovtsov in this meeting.
In the original version, we read:
Pereyarkov
Cry! After all, you will cry in front of other creditors.
In the new edition, Pereyarkov gives Borovtsov more detailed and sophisticated advice:
Pereyarkov
Cry! Why aren't you crying? Your business now is such an orphan. After all, you will cry in front of other creditors. We'll have to bow at our feet.
In the new version, A.N. Ostrovsky emphasizes the cunning of Pereyar-kov. Such words can pity any person, and even more so Kiselnikov. Borovtsov knows in advance that after all that has been said and played out, Kiselnikov will agree to help him and sign the necessary document.
The ingenuous Kiselnikov is ready to believe Borovtsov and give up his own money. To emphasize Borovtsov's generosity “in words”, a new remark appears in the final version.
Borovtsov
How can you not believe something, eccentric! I'll make you gilded later ... I'll make you gilded later ...
AN Ostrovsky draws attention to "later", which here borders on "never".
In the original version of the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky ended the second phenomenon with a successful deal. In an effort to reveal the state of mind of the protagonist, his despair and fear of life, in a new version A.N. Ostrovsky introduces Kiselnikov's monologue.
Kiselnikov
My children, children! What have I done to you! You are sick, you are hungry; you are robbed, and your father helps. The robbers came, took away the last piece of bread, but I did not fight with them, did not cut myself, did not gnaw them with my teeth, but gave them myself, gave your last food with my own hands. I myself would rob people and feed you - both people would forgive me, and God would forgive me; and I, together with the robbers, robbed you. Mamma, mamma!
In the third appearance, Kiselnikov tells his mother about everything that happened. Both are agitated. In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky introduces short remarks that add dynamism to their conversation and further enhance the drama of the situation.
Anna Ustinovna
Don't murmur, Kiryusha, don't murmur!
Kiselnikov
Oh, to die now!
Anna Ustinovna
And children, children!
Kiselnikov
Yes, children! Well, what's missing is gone.
The last remark testifies to Kiselnikov's prudence. He understands that tears cannot help grief.
In the original version of the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky puts into the mouth of Kiselnikov only the following words:
Kiselnikov
When to rest! Business does not tolerate. You will sit with me! I won't be so bored; and then one is worse than longing for the heart sucks.
But it is not clear from these words how Kiselnikov is going to get out of this situation. Therefore, when editing the text, A.N. Ostrovsky inserts several new phrases into the quoted statement of Kiselnikov and thereby shows that he is not going to sit idly by.
Kiselnikov
When to rest! Business does not tolerate. Well, mamma, let them enjoy! They won't get rich with our money. I will now begin to work. I will work day and night. You will sit with me! I won't be so bored; and then one is worse than longing for the heart sucks.
It seems interesting to trace the development of Kiselnikov's life.
Kiselnikov studied at the university, but did not finish it. Hoped to continue teaching. He meets Glafira, marries her for love, and is sure that Glafira also loves him. Kiselnikov dreams of a happy and rich new life, as his father-in-law promises six thousand for Glafira.
However, in life everything turned out quite differently. Glafira turns into a scandalous and greedy merchant. Kiselnikov not only does not receive the promised six thousand, but also loses his savings, given to his father-in-law against a credit receipt.
Glafira dies. Four sick children remain in Kiselnikov's arms. Kiselnikov has no money for treatment. All children, except for Lisa, die. In addition, the rich father-in-law is "declared bankrupt." Kiselnikov still has the last hope that his father-in-law will return him at least part of his own money, but the circumstances are such that Kiselnikov himself, out of pity for his father-in-law, "gives" him this last money. Such is the position of the desperate Kiselnikov before the fourth appearance.
The events of the fourth event foreshadow the play's denouement. An unknown person encourages Kiselnikov to make a forgery of the document. For this he offers a large amount. By nature, Kiselnikov is a very honest and noble person. He could never afford to accept a bribe, even in a critical situation, although others did it without a twinge of conscience. But now the last hope is crumbling. The father-in-law "steals" from him. There is no money and will not be, but in the arms of an elderly mother and daughter, who still needs to be put on her feet. In desperation, Kiselnikov forges a document. When editing the manuscript, wishing to emphasize the unconsciousness of Kiselnikov's act, A.N. Ostrovsky adds the following statements of his hero to the original version after the service crime he committed:
Kiselnikov
God! What am I doing! (crying.)
...........................................................................
You won't ruin me. Family, sir!
In the fifth apparition we have before us a rushing Kiselnikov, with eyes full of fear. His speech and actions are disorderly. His condition is close to that of a patient with a fever. Most of all, Kiselnikov is afraid of losing the money he just got.
Kiselnikov
Oh my god! Well, in the cracks, behind the wallpaper, wrap in rags.
In an effort to emphasize that Kiselnikov does not care about money for himself, but for his family, when working out this place, A.N. Ostrovsky develops the cited remark more widely.
Kiselnikov
Oh my god! Well, in the cracks, behind the wallpaper, wrap in rags. So that you have money left, than for you to live with children after me.
At the end of the fourth and final appearance of the third scene, while editing, A.N. Ostrovsky adds Kiselnikov's exclamation.
Kiselnikov
Mamma, after all, I'm on the verge of hard labor ... Tomorrow, maybe
This is Kiselnikov's last sober exclamation.
SceneIV
In the first appearance of the fourth scene, we see Borovtsov, completely ruined, and Kiselnikov, who has lost his mind.
Five more years pass. The life of the actors is changing, and their position is changing. Now Kiselnikov and Borovtsov are selling old things together on the square. A mighty merchant, Kiselnikov's father-in-law, Borovtsov finds himself in the position of his poor son-in-law. That is life.
Anna Ustinovna, who has aged five years, remains the same devoted mother, trying to protect her beloved Kiryusha from any excitement. This character trait, when editing the text, A.N. Ostrovsky emphasizes in the new edition.
In the first version, when Borovtsov reminds Anna Ustinovna of her previous life, we read:
Anna Ustinovna
Oh, be quiet you!
In the second version, after editing, we have:
Anna Ustinovna
Oh, be quiet you! What are you with him! Well, he will wake up and remember ...
Anna Ustinovna is constantly worried about Kiryusha. She believes that Kiryusha can wake up.
When editing the original version of the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky adds to Borovtsov's speech the words “talan is a share.” Why is this? The playwright shows us that even Borovtsov, who lives for himself and “wages war with others,” is trying to make Kiselnikov’s life easier. He comes up with this proverb so that Kiselnikov could believe in something.
In the second phenomenon, we first meet Kiselnikov's eldest daughter, Liza, and again meet Pogulyaev. In the first version, A.N. Ostrovsky does not specify who Pogulyaev has become over the past five years. But when comparing his life with the life of Kiselnikov, it becomes necessary. In the new edition, A.N. Ostrovsky introduces the following addition to Pogulyaev's dialogue:
Pogulyaev
Now a lawyer, I'm concocting.
This insert shows that Pogulyaev achieved a good position in society and got a place in court. Anna Ustinovna tells him the story of Kiselnikov. It is noteworthy that in the original version, her story began with the words:
Anna Ustinovna
The service was not given to him - somehow he did not get used to it; ...
In the new version, we read:
Anna Ustinovna
The family, father, and relatives of Kiryusha were ruined. The service was not given to him - somehow he did not get used to it; ...
With the new words of Anna Ustinovna, AN Ostrovsky once again emphasizes that the main reason for Kiselnikov's current position is not in the service, but in his environment.
Anna Ustinovna tells Pogulyaev that Kiryusha is mad. When editing, A.N. Ostrovsky adds: “out of fear”. What is this fear? This is the fear of an honest person before the law, the fear of the head of the family for his daughter and mother.
In the conversation between Liza and Pogulyaev, A.N. Ostrovsky changes almost nothing. Only the final version touches upon the topic of happiness. It turns out that Pogulyaev has everything except happiness.
Pogulyaev is quite well off financially, and he is happy to help his friend's family. In memory of his old acquaintance, he gives Anna Ustinovna a banknote. Kiselnikov's mother is very grateful to him.
Anna Ustinovna
We humbly thank you that we, orphans, have been remembered. You are visiting.
In order to reveal the psychology of a poor person, A.N. Ostrovsky makes an addition to the above words of Anna Ustinovna.
Anna Ustinovna
- If you don't have happiness, then you have money; it means that you can still live.
We humbly thank you that we, orphans, have been remembered. You are visiting.
For a poor person, happiness is sometimes not necessary when
have money.
When constructing the fourth phenomenon, A.N. Ostrovsky makes semantic corrections to the arrangement of events.
In the original version, the fourth phenomenon began with the arrival of Kiselnikov with a ten-ruble banknote, which was given to him by his master-neighbor for poverty. In a modified version, the action begins with the incoherent words of Kiselnikov, which he had just heard from the master and haunted his swaying psyche.
Kiselnikov
Kennel, kennel ...
...................................
The kennel, he says, is the kennel ...
Kiselnikov ponders the words he heard, he is going to go to the master again. Lisa immediately understands what is at stake. She is desperate. Lisa can save her family if she goes to the rich master-neighbor for maintenance. What should she do?
At the end of the appearance, Lisa utters words full of despair:
Lisa
Who will help me! I am standing over an abyss, I have nothing to hold on to. Kind people!
In the process of editing the text, A.N. Ostrovsky makes changes to this part of the manuscript. Modified version:
Lisa
Who will help me now! I am standing over an abyss, I have nothing to hold on to. Oh, save me, good people! Grandma, talk to me something!
In the first version, Lisa talks about help in general, and in the final version, about help at the moment. This cry of a drowning man: "Save me!" - the culmination moment in the current situation. Lisa asks for help, but from whom? Even the grandmother does not speak to her either, because she is afraid to give her bad advice and to deprive the family of possible salvation. In a modified version, A.N. Ostrovsky enhances the drama of the current situation.
In the fifth phenomenon, Pogulyaev reappears. In the original version of the manuscript, the phenomenon begins with Liza's exclamation to Pogulyaev:
Lisa
Help me!
This could be regarded as an unexpected straw, which Lisa grabbed, being in despair. She didn't care who to ask for help.
When editing the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky rejects this option. Of all the people around Liza, only Pogulyaev can help her. Therefore, in the new edition, he concretizes Liza's appeal.
Lisa
Oh, how on time you are! I need to ask for advice, not from anyone. Help me.
Pogulyaev makes an offer to Lisa, and she agrees. He informs Kiselnikov about this. Kiselnikov's reaction to this message undergoes a change when editing the manuscript.
In the first option:
Kiselnikov
Mamma!
Anna Ustinovna
True, Kiryusha, true!
What does this exclamation of Kiselnikov mean? Fright, joy? From this exclamation, Kiselnikov's reaction is not entirely clear.
While working out this scene, A.N. Ostrovsky feels that it is important for Kiselnikov to come to his senses and realize, at that moment, what happiness fell to the lot of his daughter. If A.N. Ostrovsky had changed only the words of Kiselnikov, this would not have been enough either. Therefore, a new phrase appears in Anna Ustinovna's speech, testifying to Kiselnikov's common sense at this crucial moment.
Kiselnikov
Mamma! Lisa! Is he getting married? Truth?
Anna Ustinovna
Thank God I woke up! True, Kiryusha, true!
Anna Ustinovna's remark: "Thank God, I woke up!" - emphasizes the mother's double joy. Firstly, Kiryusha has come to his senses and can be happy for her daughter, and secondly, she is glad that Liza is getting married so successfully.
In the sixth appearance of the drama, we see that Kiselnikov's common sense does not leave until the very end of the play. When Pogulyaev invites everyone to move to him, Kiselnikov openly says that it is not worth it, that he is a fraud, and now only his father-in-law can keep him company.
When editing the sixth phenomenon, the playwright makes a change to the final monologue of Kiselnikov, reinforcing it with an exclamation:
Kiselnikov
No, Pogulyaev, take them, take them; God will not leave you; but drive us, drive us! ...
Kiselnikov is afraid that the abyss will suck his daughter. His life is already broken, so let Lisa not repeat his mistakes.
When considering and studying the manuscript of A. N. Ostrovsky "The Abyss", it is easy to establish two versions of its writing: the initial and the final.
In compositional construction, the play is conceived as follows.
Young Kiselnikov meets his old friend Pogulyaev. From the story of Kiselnikov we learn how he lived recently. Here we learn that Kiselnikov is going to marry Glafira. All these events are the exposition of the play.
Kiselnikov got married. His life has changed. A.N. Ostrovsky tells about all the misfortunes that have fallen on his head. The marriage of Kiselnikov is the beginning of the play.
A.N. Ostrovsky brings us to the climax gradually. First, Kiselnikov loses the promised inheritance, then gives his father-in-law his own money. The highest point of the culmination is the forgery of the document.
The play has a dramatic denouement - Kiselnikov loses his mind.
What fragment of the play did A.N. Ostrovsky work on more thoroughly? Having leafed through the manuscript again, it is clear that A.N. Ostrovsky had to make equal changes to all parts of the play. Considering that the exposition is the smallest in volume, and there are a lot of corrections and additions in it, then we can say that A.N. Ostrovsky worked on the exposition more carefully.
Noteworthy is the work of the playwright on the main characters. All images are almost immediately outlined by the author in their final form. In the speech of some characters, A.N. Ostrovsky adds phrases and remarks that emphasize new character traits. This is especially true for the images of Kiselnikov and Glafira. The image of Pogulyaev remains in its original form, and the new phrases in Anna Ustinovna's speech do not in any way affect her image. They serve to reveal the images and characters of other heroes. A.N. Ostrovsky also introduces changes to the characterization of the images of Borovtsov and Borovtsova.
§ 2. The work of AN Ostrovsky on the remarks.
A.N. Ostrovsky's work on the remarks should be discussed separately. To begin with, you should refer to the explanatory dictionary of S. I. Ozhegov and find out the meaning of the word "REMARKA":
In the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky, and in this case in the play "The Abyss", the directions play an important role. And this follows, first of all, from the fact that in the process of work the playwright made significant changes not only to the main text of the work, but also to the directions.
In the play "The Abyss" there are three types of remarks: remarks concerning the characters, remarks that reveal the situation in the life of the heroes, and remarks that reveal the characters through speech and emotional state.
There are few remarks related to the characters in the manuscript.
In the final version of the play, A.N. Ostrovsky replaces the name of Gulyaev with Pogulyaev. It is difficult to say what could have caused such a change. To the characteristic of Pogulyaev, the author adds: "graduated from the course."
After editing the list of characters, A.N. Ostrovsky removes Borovtsova's maiden name, in the play she appears not as Firsova, but as Borovtsova.
After making changes to the composition of the characters in the play, A.N. Ostrovsky crosses everything out, apparently in the hope of returning to this once again. However, there is no new version of the characters in the manuscript, therefore, the original version was given to print.
There are no changes in the characters' stage directions before the second scene.
In the third scene, Glafira was included in the original version of the characters. It is not in the final version.
A.N. Ostrovsky attached great importance to the description of the situation surrounding the characters on the stage. The playwright paid a lot of attention to work on the stage directions of this type.
In the first scene, after describing the characters in the initial version of the manuscript, we read:
"Boring Garden".
This is the setting in which the first scene should take place.
Such a short remark does not satisfy the playwright. In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky reveals to the viewer the panorama of the boring garden.
"A boring garden. A meadow between trees; in front of a path and a bench; in the depth of a path, trees behind a path and a view of the Moscow River ..." Why does the author reveal to the readers the panorama of a boring garden, near which the merchants lived? It can be assumed that A.N. Ostrovsky is trying to achieve greater imagery, he pays attention to details: a bench, paths, trees ... The nature of Zamoskvorechye appears before the reader and the viewer (an abundance of trees, a view of the Moscow River). These descriptions are given by the author also for greater reliability of the action.
In the second scene of the play, there are no directions in the original version. When processing and editing the manuscript, a remark appears in the text:
"A small room in Kiselnikov's apartment."
This remark alarms the reader and the viewer. After all, Kiselnikov hoped to get rich, and the setting of the second scene suggests otherwise. This remark very clearly and frankly introduces into the content of the unfolding action.
In the third scene, there was a short remark in the original version:
"Poor room"
But what does A.N. Ostrovsky mean by this definition?
In the new edition, after the changes and additions made, A.N. Ostrovsky reveals the concept of "poor". The playwright gives this definition a specific and one-variant interpretation:
"Poor room; a painted table and a few chairs; a tallow candle and a pile of papers on the table ..."
This clarification shows that the main character of the play, Kiselnikov, is already on the brink of poverty. Again, A.N. Ostrovsky pays attention to details, and does not look at the picture in general. The candle on the table is exactly "greasy", which makes the reader empathize with the hero, emphasizes the mess: the "pile of papers" on the table.
The cases examined show that stage design directions help to reveal the content and create a certain mood.
Finally, the third kind of remarks: emotional remarks and remarks that indicate to whom the character is specifically addressing.
So, for example, in a dialogue with Glafira (scene II, first appearance) Kiselnikov, unable to bear the insults, plugs his ears. In the original version, after editing, A.N. Ostrovsky endows Kiselnikov's passive behavior with an answer coming from the depths of his soul and expands the remark with the word "SCREAMS".
In the fifth phenomenon of the second scene, when Kiselnikov, being in distress, tells Pogulyaev a dream with consolation and the hope of getting rich, A.N. Ostrovsky adds:
"through tears".
These tears reveal the state of mind of Kiselnikov, his despair. The playwright educates the reader and viewer on the example of his hero, teaches empathy.
In the scene where Kiselnikov receives a bribe for forging a document, to the words of Kiselnikov:
"Lord! What am I doing this!"
A.N. Ostrovsky adds the remark "(crying)".
Based on all of the above, we can conclude: all the new remarks introduced by the author when editing the first version of the manuscript carry a great psychological and emotional load in the play and help the reader, spectators and actors to better understand the characters, look into their souls, and arouse sympathy for the main character. ...
Conclusion.
In the play "The Abyss" A. N. Ostrovsky reveals to the reader and the audience the life of a merchant family. Removing the usual external gloss, the author shows that rudeness, humiliation and deceit lie behind the external attractiveness of rich families in their lives.
A.N. Ostrovsky asserted the principle of a truthful depiction of reality.
In the play “The Abyss,” he draws the image of a typical representative of the Russian merchant class - Borovtsov. The life story of Borovtsov is the story of the life of an avaricious and stingy merchant who started with exorbitant wealth and ended in poverty.
In the play, A.N. Ostrovsky poses a big social question, the question of life in the merchant class. A. N. Ostrovsky was able to deeply reveal and paint pictures of merchant life only thanks to his personal acquaintance and observations of the life of this society.
The image of the merchant class remained the primary theme in his work. However, A.N. Ostrovsky did not limit himself to this and painted the life of the bureaucracy ("Our people - we will be numbered", "Poor Bride", "The Abyss"), the nobility ("Do not sit in your sleigh") and philistinism ("Do not live like this as you want ").
As AI Revyakin justly noted: "The versatility of thematic interests, the development of the most important topical problems of his era made Ostrovsky a national writer of enormous social significance."
Among the petty bureaucracy, A.N. Ostrovsky always singled out honest workers who were bent over from backbreaking work. The playwright treated them with deep sympathy.
Experiencing extreme material deprivation, feeling their powerlessness, these hero-workers tried to bring goodness and truth into life by word and deed. Not sharing Kiselnikov's intention to live on Glafira's dowry and on interest on capital, the student from the play "The Abyss" confidently declares: "But in my opinion, there is nothing better than living on your labor." (sc. 1, yavl. 3).
In "The Abyss" A. N. Ostrovsky specially brings to the fore an unremarkable person. The author makes the main negative traits of the protagonist passivity and inability to fight the environment and its mores.
In the opinion of the Borovtsovs and others like them, the main disadvantages of Kiselnikov are honesty and poverty.
The creativity of A.N. Ostrovsky is consonant with the creativity of F.M. Dostoevsky, in the disclosure of the problem of moral searches of the individual. Dostoevsky's heroes Svidrigailov and Stavrogin languish in the emptiness of existence and, in the end, commit suicide. The search leads them to the problem of the inner moral "abyss". In "Hard Days" one of the heroes of AN Ostrovsky remarks: "In one word, I live in the abyss" and to the question: "where is this abyss?" - answers: “Everywhere: you just have to go down. It borders the northern ocean to the north, the eastern ocean to the east, and so on. "
The playwright revealed the depth of these words in the play "The Abyss". And with such artistic force he revealed that the restrained Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wrote with uncharacteristic enthusiasm for him: “The play is amazing. The last act is something that I wouldn't write for a million. This act is a whole play, and when I have my own theater, I will stage only this one act. ”2
Like Zhadov from "Lucrative Place" and other people who left "university life" with its "concepts", "advanced convictions", Kiselnikov begins to realize that he is "no better than others" once he agrees to forge a document. Beginning with the accusation of the bribe-takers, Kiselnikov ends up with a moral collapse, as he says of himself: "We sold everything: ourselves, conscience ..." and the reason for this is seen in the ideal that such as Kiselnikov aspired to in their youth.
The ideal was just loud declarations, but not actions. At the very first test of life, the Kisselnikovs are ready to serve any idea, as long as it is beneficial.
"... the playwright does not burn with hatred," A.I. Revyakin notes, "but sympathizes, regrets, mildly grieves, seeing the ruined human life, because the" power of grace "is seen further, and it forgives more, because it loves deeper."
Kiselnikov perishes in the abyss of merchant life. For a weak personality, such an end is inevitable.
Summing up the work on the analysis of the manuscript of A. N. Ostrovsky's drama "The Abyss", it should be noted that the material contained in the draft manuscript made it possible to comprehensively trace the birth of the play and the finishing of its images.
All the noted changes and additions were made by A.N. Ostrovsky to enhance the emotional impact of the play, the desire to evoke compassion in the reader and viewer for the main character - Kiselnikov.
The fact that in the process of his creative work A.N. Ostrovsky did not have to rewrite the draft manuscript twice or several times, and all the changes, insertions and additions he made in the first version of the manuscript indicates that the author knew the material presented well, the images were they thought that it was only necessary to arrange them artistically and convey to the reader and viewer. Classics do not oppose modernity, but give us the opportunity to see ourselves in a historical perspective. As E. Kholodov noted: “without a sense of the past, there is no sense of the present - one who is indifferent to the past, indifferent to the future, no matter how much he swears in words of loyalty to the ideals of this brightest - brightest future. The classics just nurture in us a sense of personal involvement in the historical movement of mankind from the past to the future. "
Plays acquire a modern sound depending on how much the theater managed to convey to the audience something that can excite everyone today. It should be noted that in one era the interest of theaters and spectators is attracted by some classical plays, and in other epochs by other classical plays. This is due to the fact that the classics enters into complex ideological and aesthetic mutual relations with modernity. In our theater studies, there is the following periodization of A.N. Ostrovsky's repertoire:
1 period- years of the civil war. Ostrovsky is staged and played in the old fashioned way.
2 period- 20s. A formalistic experiment on Ostrovsky's drama.
3 period- the end of the 20s and 1 half of the 30s. The influence of sociology. In Ostrovsky's work, only satirical colors are emphasized.
4 period- the years of the Second World War and the first post-war years. In Ostrovsky's drama, they looked for both the dark and light sides of the depiction of life.
In 1923, the country widely celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian playwright. That year, a monument to the great Russian playwright was laid in front of the facade of the Maly Theater. Also this year, 10 volumes of the first Soviet Collected Works of A.N. Ostrovsky, completed in 1923, were published. During the jubilee year in Moscow, Petrograd, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Vladikavkaz, more than a dozen books were published dedicated to the life and work of the playwright. And, of course, the performances of the great playwright were staged.
In the 60s, Ostrovsky again began to gain the attention of theaters and critics. Performances were staged during these years not only in Moscow and Leningrad, but also in many other cities: in Kiev, Gorky and Pskov - "On Every Wise Man ...", in Novosibirsk and Sverdlovsk - "Thunderstorm", in Minsk and Kaluga - "The Last Victim ", In Kaunas -" A profitable place ", in Vilnius -" The Marriage of Balzaminov ", in Novgorod -" Abyss ", in Tambov -" Guilty without guilt ". It should be noted that each epoch introduced its own new vision of Ostrovsky's drama, therefore, precisely those questions that interested the modern viewer were brought to the fore.
A.N. Ostrovsky has several plays, in the center of which is the image of a young man choosing his own path in life. The most popular are the plays "A Profitable Place", "Enough for Every Wise Man," and "The Abyss". In these plays, three paths of a young intellectual in contemporary A.N. Ostrovsky are traced. What unites the main characters (Zhadov, Glumov and Kiselnikov) is that they are young people, that is, people who begin their lives, choosing life paths.
“The ideals of Zhadov from“ Lucrative Place ”are not crushed by some“ awful, shaking soul drama ”- they are undermined day after day, day after day by the vile prose of life, tirelessly repeating the irresistibly vulgar arguments of common sense - today, as yesterday tomorrow is like today. "
The play "The Abyss" reminds the modern viewer of the old theater, not even of Ostrovsky's time, but of an even more distant era. Let us remember that the first scenes take place, according to the author's remark, "about 30 years ago," and the play itself was written in 1865. The play begins with the audience talking about Ducange's melodrama "Thirty Years Later, or the Life of a Player" with the participation of Mochalov himself.
Kholodov notes that "the presentation of the melodrama" Thirty Years Later, or the Life of a Player "is, as it were, opposed to the presentation of the drama of Kiselnikov's life, which could be titled" Seventeen Years, or the Life of a Loser. " The essence of The Abyss lies in the fact that, taking as a basis the plot scheme typical of melodrama, the playwright with all the logic of his play refutes the melodramatic concept of personality and society. A.N. Ostrovsky opposes life to the theater.
"The Abyss" is the only one of Ostrovsky's plays, which is based on the biographical, "hagiographic" principle - we get to know Kirill Filippych Kiselnikov when he is 22 years old, then
we meet him at 29 years old, at 34 years old and finally at 39 years old. With regard to Zhadov and Glumov, the viewer can only guess how their life will turn out, while Kiselnikov's life has been unfolding in front of the viewer for 17 years. Kiselnikov is getting old before our eyes - at 39 he is already an old man.
In the plays "The Deeps" and "The Profitable Place" the same metaphor appears - the image of a driven horse. Zhadov: " Need, circumstances, lack of education of relatives, surrounding debauchery can drive me as they drive a mail horse ..."Kiselnikov:" You know, mamma, they are driving a mail horse, it trudges leg by leg, hanging its head, not looking at anything, just to drag it to a station; here I am". Zhadov's circumstances still "can drive him", but they have already driven Kiselnikov ("here I am, too"). Kiselnikov, as Kholodov notes, is Zhadov, driven by life.
The role of Kiselnikov is usually entrusted to experienced actors who are closer in age to Kiselnikov's last scenes, therefore, in the performance of the first scene by such actors, when the hero is only 22 years old, there is always a certain stretch.
“Kiselnikov’s trouble is in the Kiselnikov region, Kholodov notes,“ in his mental inertness, in inactive good-heartedness, in spinelessness, in lack of will. Trouble or fault? " This question is raised at the beginning of the play by the playwright himself. After the presentation of Ducange's melodrama Thirty Years, or the Life of a Player, the audience exchanges opinions about the tragic fate of the hero. Several points of view are presented to the viewer:
« Whoever you lead with, so you yourself will be»
« Everyone is to blame for himself ... Stand firm, because you alone will answer».
One position: " Why, it's a pity". Another position: " Sorry for nothing. Know the edge, but don't fall! For that reason is given to man».
"The Deeps" is an amazing play, since the playwright does not give an exact answer: whether the main character is guilty or not. The theater, following A.N. Ostrovsky, answers that it is the hero's trouble, but also the fault.
Unlike Zhadov, Kiselnikov commits a crime, and we are witnessing the final fall of the hero.
It should be noted that the drama "The Deeps" is currently attracting more viewers than readers and researchers. I dare to assume that researchers are not very interested in studying the only version of the manuscript with all the corrections and additions made to it. In artistic terms, "The Deeps" is weaker than the drama "Thunderstorm", for example.
Well, the reader is not interested in this drama, in my opinion, because he cannot find a love intrigue, and the topic of the “little man” is no longer interesting, since it was comprehensively disclosed in the works of N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky, A.P. Chekhov.
However, the play "The Abyss" is always present in the repertoire of the Maly Theater, which bears the name of the great playwright.
Until 2002, the play was staged by Yuri Solomin, and now it is already staged in a new production - Korshunov.
The play is relevant in our time, as it raises an acute psychological question - how to survive in this world if you are an honest person? In my opinion, each of the readers should find for themselves the answer to the question posed by A.N. Ostrovsky.
Excerpts from "Memories of the artist NS Vasilkva". "Yearbook of the Imperial Theaters", 1909, No. 1, p.4.
Revyakin A.I. "The dramaturgy of A. N. Ostrovsky" (To the 150th anniversary of his birth), M .: Knowledge, 1973, p. 36
Lakshin V.Ya. "Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky" - 2nd ed., Rev. and additional - M .: Art, 1982, p. 63.
E.G. Kholodov "Playwright for All Seasons"; All-Russian Theater Society, M., 1975, p. 260-261.
3 ibid. P. 321
Ibid. 321 General characteristics of A.N. Ostrovsky. General characteristics of A.N. Ostrovsky.
For 1847 - 1886 Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky (see his brief and biographies on our website) wrote about forty plays in prose and eight more in blank verse. They are all of different merit, but on the whole undoubtedly represent the most remarkable collection of dramatic works that is in the Russian language. Griboyedov and Gogol wrote great and completely original plays, and their genius surpassed Ostrovsky, but it was Ostrovsky who was destined to create a Russian drama school, a Russian theater worthy to stand next to the national theaters of the West, if not as an equal, then as comparable to them.
Portrait of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. Artist V. Perov, 1871
The limitations of Ostrovsky's art are obvious. His plays (with few exceptions) are neither tragedies nor comedies, but belong to the average, bastard genre of drama. The dramatic plan of most of them, sacrificed to the "slices of life" method, lacks the solid consistency of classical art. With few exceptions, there is no poetry in his dramas, and even where it is present, as in Thunderstorm, this is the poetry of atmosphere, not words and texture. Ostrovsky, although an amazing master of typical and individualized dialogue, is not a master of language in the sense in which they were Gogol and Leskov. In a sense, even his very rootedness in Russian soil is limited, because his plays are always narrowly local and do not have universal significance. If it were not for this limitation, if he was all-human, remaining national, his place would be among the greatest playwrights.
Russian literature of the nineteenth century. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. Video lecture
However, the breadth, scope, and diversity of his vision of Russian life are almost limitless. He is the least subjective of the Russian writers. His characters are in no way an emanation of the author. These are true reflections of "others." He is not a psychologist, and his characters are not Tolstoyans, into whose inner world the mighty force of the author's intuition introduces us - they are just people, as other people see them. But this superficial realism is not the outward, painterly realism of Gogol and Goncharov, it is truly dramatic realism, because it represents people in their relations with other people, which is the simplest and oldest way of characterization, adopted both in narration and in drama - through speech and actions; only here is this method enriched with an enormous abundance of social and ethnographic details. And, despite this superficiality, Ostrovsky's characters have individuality and originality.
These general remarks refer mainly to the earliest and most characteristic works of Ostrovsky, written before about 1861. The plots of these plays are taken, as a rule, from the life of the Moscow and provincial merchants and the lower strata of the bureaucracy. The broad, versatile picture of the Old Testament, non-Europeanized life of the Russian merchants most of all struck Ostrovsky's contemporaries in his work, because they were interested in reality embodied in literary creativity, and not in its transformation in art. Critics of the 1850s shed a lot of ink when clarifying Ostrovsky's attitude to the Old Testament Russian merchants. He himself provided abundant food for such discussions and for any kind of interpretation, because his artistic sympathies are distributed in different ways in different plays. Any interpretation, from the most enthusiastic idealization of unshakable conservatism and patriarchal despotism to the furious denunciation of the merchant class as an incorrigible dark kingdom, could find support in the text of his plays. The true attitude of Ostrovsky to all this was simply not always the same, the moral and social position were essentially secondary circumstances for him. His task was to build plays from elements of reality as he saw it. Questions of sympathy and antipathy for him were a matter of pure technique, dramatic expediency, for, although he was an “anti-artist” and a realist, he very keenly felt those inner laws according to which, and not according to the laws of life, he had to build each new play. Thus, for Ostrovsky, the moral assessment of the merchant father of the family, tyrannizing his loved ones, depended on his dramatic function in this play. But other than that, it is extraordinarily difficult to form an idea of Ostrovsky's social and political worldview. This was the most objective and impartial writer, and the interpretation given to his plays by his friend and propagandist Apollo Grigoriev - "unbridled delight before the organic forces of undefiled national life" - is as alien to the real Ostrovsky as the anti-traditional and revolutionary propaganda that was squeezed out of them Dobrolyubov.
Technically, Ostrovsky's most interesting plays are the first two: Bankrut(written in 1847-1849 and published under the title Our people - numbered in 1850) and Poor bride(published in 1852 and delivered in 1853). The first was the most striking and sensational beginning of the activity of a young author that has ever been in Russian literature. Gogol in Marriage gave an example of a typical image of the merchant environment. In particular, the type of matchmaker practicing in the merchant environment was already widely used. Having depicted only unpleasant characters, Ostrovsky followed in the footsteps of Gogol in To the auditor... But he went even further and threw away the most venerable and oldest of comedic traditions - poetic justice that punishes vice. The triumph of vice, the triumph of the most shameless of the characters in the play, gives it a special note of daring originality. This is what angered even old realists like Shchepkin, who found Ostrovsky's play cynical and dirty. Ostrovsky's realism, despite the obvious influence of Gogol, is essentially the opposite of him. He is alien to expressiveness for the sake of expressiveness; he does not fall into caricature or farce; it is based on a thorough, deep, first-hand knowledge of the life described. Dialogue strives for truth in life, and not for verbal wealth. The ability to use realistic speech unobtrusively, without falling into the grotesque, is an essential feature of the art of Russian realists, but in Ostrovsky it has reached perfection. Finally, the non-theatrical construction of the plays is not at all Gogol's, and, deliberately abandoning all tricks and calculations for the stage effect, Ostrovsky reaches the top from the very beginning. The main thing in the play is the characters, and the intrigue is completely determined by them. But the characters are taken in a social aspect. These are not men and women in general, they are Moscow merchants and clerks who cannot be torn away from their social environment.
V Bankrupt Ostrovsky almost fully displayed the originality of his technique. In his second play, he went further in the direction of de-theatralization of the theater. Poor bride both in tone and in atmosphere is not at all similar to Bankrut... Wednesday here is not a merchant's, but a petty bureaucratic. The unpleasant feeling that she evokes is redeemed by the image of the heroine, a strong girl who is not at all lower and much more alive than the heroines of Turgenev. Her story has a characteristic ending: after the ideal romantic admirer leaves her, she resigns herself to fate and marries the lucky boor Benevolensky, who alone can save her mother from imminent ruin. Each character is a masterpiece, and Ostrovsky's ability to build an action entirely on characters is at its best here. But the last act is especially remarkable - a bold technical novelty. The play ends with a massive scene: the crowd is discussing Benevolensky's marriage, and here an amazingly new note is introduced with the appearance of his former mistress in the crowd. The restraint and inner content of these last scenes, in which the main characters hardly appear, were truly a new word in dramatic art. Ostrovsky's power in creating a poetic atmosphere first manifested itself in the fifth act. Poor bride.
Ostrovsky never stopped and always continued to look for new ways and methods. In his last plays ( Dowry, 1880), he tried a more psychological method of creating characters. But on the whole, his last plays testify to a certain drying up of creative forces. By the time of his death, he dominated the Russian stage with the sheer quantity of his works. But the heirs he left behind were average and uncreative people, able only to write plays with "grateful roles" for excellent actors and actresses raised in the school of Shchepkin and Ostrovsky, but unable to continue the living tradition of literary drama.
“He opened the world to a man of a new formation: an Old Believer merchant and a capitalist merchant, a merchant in an army jacket and a merchant in a troika, traveling abroad and doing his own business. Ostrovsky opened the door wide open to the world, hitherto locked behind high fences from prying eyes "(V. G. Marantzman)
Features of Ostrovsky's style 1. Speaking surnames. There are no random names and surnames in the play "The Thunderstorm". Tikhon Kabanov is a weak-willed drunkard and a mama's son. He lives up to his name.
In the play "Guilty Without Guilt." Seeing the name Neznamov, the reader immediately understands that we are talking about a person who does not know about his past.
Features of Ostrovsky's style. 2. Specific author's remarks. Ostrovsky's plays were also intended for reading, so his remarks, although they consist of rather short inserts, have great inner potential. For example, the directions in The Thunderstorm describe the landscape, setting, characters and their behavior.
Features of Ostrovsky's style 3. Originality of names (often proverbs). 1. Our people are numbered 2. The heart is not a stone 3. Do not live the way you want 4. True, good, but happiness is better
This feature of Ostrovsky was noted by critics even when his first plays appeared. “… The ability to portray reality as it is -“ mathematical fidelity to reality ”, the absence of any exaggeration… All this is not the hallmark of Gogol's poetry; all these are the distinctive features of the new comedy ", - wrote B. Almazov in the article" A Dream on the Occasion of a Comedy ". Already in our time, the literary critic A. Skaftmov in his work "Belinsky and the Drama of A. N. Ostrovsky" noted that "the most striking difference between the plays of Gogol and Ostrovsky is that Gogol does not have a victim of vice, and Ostrovsky always has a suffering victim vice ... Portraying vice, Ostrovsky protects something from him, protects someone ... Thus, the entire content of the play changes. The play is colored with suffering lyricism, enters into the development of fresh, morally pure or poetic feelings; the author's efforts are directed towards sharply putting forward the inner legality, truth and poetry of genuine humanity, oppressed and expelled in an atmosphere of prevailing self-interest and deception. " Ostrovsky's approach to depicting reality, different from that of Gogol, is, of course, explained by the originality of his talent, the "natural" properties of the artist, but (this, too, should not be overlooked) changed time: increased attention to the individual, to her rights, recognition of her value.
Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko in his book "The Birth of Theater" shrewdly points out what makes Ostrovsky's plays especially scenic: "the atmosphere of kindness", "clear, firm sympathy on the side of the offended, to which the theater hall is always extremely sensitive."
“Oh, don't cry; they are not worth your tears. You are a white dove in a black flock of rooks, so they peck you. Your whiteness, your purity is offensive to them, "says Sasha Negina in Narokov's Talents and Admirers.
1. Brief biographical note.
2. The most famous plays by Ostrovsky; characters and conflicts.
3. The value of Ostrovsky's work.
The future playwright A. N. Ostrovsky was born in 1823. His father served in the city court. At the age of eight, Ostrovsky lost his mother. The father married a second time. Left to himself, the boy was carried away by reading. After graduating from the gymnasium, A. N. Ostrovsky studied for several years at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, then served in the judiciary. It should be noted that the professional experience gained played a large role in the subsequent literary work of Ostrovsky. The deep knowledge of folk life, which we find in Ostrovsky's plays, is associated with childhood impressions; Apparently, the playwright owes much to his unmarried wife Agafya Ivanovna, with whom he became friends in the mid-1950s, for the expansion of ideas about the life of Muscovites. After her death, Ostrovsky remarried (1869).
Ostrovsky during his lifetime achieved not only fame, but also material wealth. In 1884 he was appointed head of the repertoire section of Moscow theaters. A. N. Ostrovsky died in 1886 at his Shchelykovo estate. However, interest in Ostrovsky's works did not fade away after his death. And to this day, many of his plays are successfully performed on the stages of Russian theaters.
What is the secret of the popularity of Ostrovsky's plays? Probably, in the fact that the characters of his heroes, despite the flavor of a certain era, at all times remain modern in their essence, in their deep essence. Let's look at some examples.
One of the first plays that brought wide fame to Ostrovsky is the play "Our people - we will be numbered", which was originally called "Bankrut". As already mentioned, Ostrovsky served at one time in court. The plot of "Bankrut" was developed on the basis of real cases from judicial practice: the fraud of the merchant Bolshov, who declared himself insolvent in order not to pay debts, and the reciprocal fraud of his son-in-law and daughter, who refused to buy the "tyatenka" out of the debt hole. Ostrovsky in this play clearly shows the patriarchal way of life and customs of the Moscow merchants: “Mama has seven Fridays a week; Tatienka, as not drunk, is so silent, but as drunk, so will beat, so look. " The playwright discovers a deep knowledge of human psychology: the portraits of the tyrant Bolshov, the rogue Podkhalyuzin, Lipochka, imagining herself “an educated young lady, and other characters, are very realistic and convincing.
It is important to note that Ostrovsky raised a theme in the play "Our People - Let Us Numbered" that has become cross-cutting for all of his work: this is the theme of the destruction of the traditional patriarchal order, a change in the essence of human relations, a change in value priorities. Interest in folk life also manifested itself in a number of Ostrovsky's plays: "Don't get into your sleigh," "Poverty is not a vice," "Don't live the way you want to."
It should be noted that not all of Ostrovsky's plays have a plausible, realistic ending. The happy resolution of the conflict sometimes looks deliberate, not quite corresponding to the characters of the characters, as, for example, in the plays Poverty is Not a Vice, Bulk Apples. However, such utopian "happy ends" do not diminish the high artistic level of Ostrovsky's plays. However, one of Ostrovsky's most famous works was the drama "The Thunderstorm", which may well be called a tragedy. In fact, this play is deeply tragic not only because of the death of the main character in the finale, but because of the insolubility of the conflict shown by Ostrovsky in The Thunderstorm. You can even say that in "The Thunder" there is not one, but two conflicts: the antagonism of Katerina and her mother-in-law Marfa Ignatievna (Kabanikha), as well as Katerina's internal conflict. Usually, literary critics, following N. A. Dobrolyubov, call Katerina "a ray of light in the dark kingdom", contrasting her with Kabanikha and other characters in the play. There is no doubt that there are worthy qualities in Katerina's character. However, these qualities become the cause of the internal conflict of the heroine of Ostrovsky. Katerina is not able to resign herself to her fate without complaint, patiently waiting for the time when she could become the second Kabanikha and give free rein to her character, nor enjoy secret meetings with her beloved, outwardly showing an example of obedience to her husband and mother-in-law. The main character of "Storm" surrenders to her feeling; however, in her heart she considers it a sin and suffers from remorse. Katerina lacks the strength to resist a step that she herself considers sinful, but her voluntary confession of her misdemeanor in the eyes of her mother-in-law does not diminish her guilt in the least.
But are the characters of Katerina and her mother-in-law so different? Kabanikha, of course, is a type of complete tyrant who, despite his ostentatious piety, recognizes only his own will. However, you can say about Katerina that she does not take into account anything in her actions - neither with decency, nor with prudence, nor even with the laws of religion. “Eh, Varya, you don’t know my character! Of course, God forbid this to happen! And if I get disgusted here, they won't hold me back by any force, ”she sincerely confesses to her husband's sister. The main difference between Katerina is that she does not want to hide her actions. “You are kind of tricky, God bless you! But in my opinion: do what you want, as long as it is sewn and covered, ”- says Varvara. But it is unlikely that the girl herself came up with it. Obviously, she caught this worldly "wisdom" in the hypocritical environment of her mother's house. The theme of the collapse of the traditional way of life in The Thunderstorm sounds especially poignant - both in Katerina's ominous forebodings, and in Kabanikha's melancholy sighs dedicated to the outgoing “antiquity”, and in the terrible prophecies of the mad lady, and in the dark stories of the wanderer Feklusha about the approaching end of the world. Katerina's suicide is also a manifestation of the collapse of patriarchal values, which she betrayed.
The theme of the collapse of the values of "antiquity" in many of Ostrovsky's plays is refracted into the theme of careerism and greed. The hero of the play "Enough for Every Wise Man," the cunning cynic Glumov, is even charming in his own way. In addition, one cannot fail to recognize his intelligence and ingenuity, which, of course, will help him extricate himself from the unpleasant situation that has arisen as a result of the exposure of his machinations. The images of calculating businessmen are found more than once in Ostrovsky's plays. These are Vasilkov from Mad Money and Berkutov from Wolves and Sheep.
In the play "The Forest" the theme of decline is again heard, but not the patriarchal merchant way of life, but gradually the destruction of the foundations of the life of the nobles. We see the nobleman Gurmyzhsky in the guise of the provincial tragedian Neschastlivtsev, and his aunt, instead of taking care of the fate of her nephew and niece, thoughtlessly spends money on the subject of her late love interest.
It should be noted the plays of Ostrovsky, which can rightfully be called psychological dramas, for example, "Dowry", "Talents and admirers", "Guilty without guilt". The characters in these works are ambiguous, multifaceted personalities. For example, Paratov from "Dowry" is a brilliant gentleman, a secular man who can easily turn the head of a romantic young lady, the "ideal of a man" in the eyes of Larisa Ogudalova, but at the same time he is a calculating businessman and cynic for whom there is nothing sacred: Me, Mokiy Parmenych, there is nothing cherished; I will find a profit, so I will sell everything, whatever. " Karandyshev, Larisa's fiancé is not just a petty official, a “little man”, a “straw” that Larisa was trying to grab onto in despair, but also a person with painfully hurt pride. And about Larisa herself, we can say that she is a delicate, gifted nature, but she does not know how to soberly assess people and calmly, pragmatically treat them.
Finally, it should be noted that Ostrovsky firmly entered literature and the performing arts as a writer who laid down realistic traditions in Russian theater, a master of everyday and psychological prose of the 19th century. The plays "Columbus Zamoskvorechye", as Ostrovsky was called by critics, have long become classics of Russian literature and theater.