Each person is the one and only world, with his actions, character, habits, honor, morality, self-esteem.

It is the problem of honor and dignity that Ostrovsky raises in his play The Thunderstorm.

In order to show the contradictions between rudeness and honor, between ignorance and dignity, two generations are shown in the play: people of the older generation, the so-called "dark kingdom", and people of the new trend, more progressive, not

Those who want to live according to the old laws and customs.

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

So who are Dikoy and Kabanova? First of all, these are the richest people in the city, in their hands is the “supreme” power, with the help of which they oppress not only their serfs, but also their relatives. Kuligin said well about the life of the townspeople: more money to make money ... ", and again:" In the bourgeoisie, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness ... "And so they live, knowing nothing but money, ruthless exploitation, immense profit

At someone else's expense. It was not without intent that Ostrovsky created these two types. Wild is a typical merchant, and his social circle is Kabanikha.

The images of Dikoy and Kabanova are very similar: they are rude, ignorant people. They only do selfishness. Wild is annoyed by his relatives, who accidentally caught his eye: “... Once I told you, I told you twice: “Don’t you dare to meet me”; you get it all! Is there enough space for you? Wherever you go, here you are! .. "And if someone comes to ask for money from Dikiy, then there's no way to do without swearing:" I understand this; what are you going to tell me to do with myself when my heart is like that! After all, I already know what I need to give, but I can’t do everything with good. You are my friend, and I must give it back to you, but if you come and ask me, I will scold you. I will give, I will give, but I will scold. Therefore, just give me a hint about money, my whole interior will be kindled; it kindles the whole interior, and that's all ... "

Kabanova does not like it when Katerina defends her human dignity and tries to protect her husband from excessive scolding. The boar is disgusted that someone dares to argue with her, to do something against her command. But between Wild and Kabanova there is a slight difference in relation to relatives and the people around them. Dikoy swears openly, “as if he had broken the chain”, Kabanikha - “under the guise of piety”: “I know, I know that my words are not to your liking, but what can you do, I am not a stranger to you, I have a heart about you it hurts ... After all, from love, parents are strict with you, from love they scold you, everything

They think it's good to teach. Well, now I don't like it. And the children will go to people to praise that the mother is grumbling, that the mother does not give a pass, she shrinks from the light. And God forbid, you won’t please your daughter-in-law with any word, so the conversation began that the mother-in-law ate completely.

Greed, rudeness, ignorance, tyranny will always be in these. These qualities have not been eradicated, because they were brought up in such a way, they grew up in the same environment. Such as Kabanova and Dikoy will always be together, they cannot be separated. Where one ignorant and petty tyrant has appeared, another will appear there. Whatever the society, there will always be people who, under the guise of progressive ideas and education, hide, or rather, try to hide their stupidity, rudeness and ignorance. They tyrannize others, while not at all embarrassed and not afraid to bear any responsibility for this. Wild and Kabanova - this is the very "dark kingdom", remnants, supporters of the foundations of this "dark kingdom". That's who they are, these Wild and Kabanovs, stupid, ignorant, hypocritical, rude. They preach the same peace and order. This is the world of money, anger, envy and enmity. They hate everything new and progressive. The idea of ​​A. Ostrovsky was to expose the "dark kingdom", using the images of Wild and Kabanova. He denounced all rich people in lack of spirituality and meanness. Mainly in secular societies Russia of the 19th century had such Wild and Kabanovs, which the author showed us in his drama The Thunderstorm.

The curtain opens. And the viewer's eye sees the high bank of the Volga, the city garden, the inhabitants of the charming town of Kalinov walking and talking. The beauty of the landscape causes Kuligin's poetic delight and surprisingly harmonizes with the free Russian folk song. The conversation of the city dwellers slowly flows, in which the life of Kalinov, hidden from prying eyes, is already slightly revealed.

A talented self-taught mechanic Kuligin calls his manners "cruel". What does he see as a manifestation of this? First of all, in the poverty and rudeness that reigns in the philistine environment. The reason is extremely clear dependence of the working population on the power of money, concentrated in the hands of the wealthy merchants of the city. But, continuing the story of Kalinov's morals, Kuligin by no means idealizes the relationship of the merchant class, which, according to him, undermines trade from each other, writes "malicious slander". The only educated person, Kali-nova, draws attention to one important detail, clearly visible in the amusing story about how Dikoy explained to the mayor about the peasants' complaint against him.

Let us recall Gogol's "Inspector General", in which the merchants did not dare to utter a word under the mayor, but dutifully put up with his tyranny and endless requisitions. And in "Thunderstorm", in response to the remark of the main person of the city about his dishonest act, Wild

He only condescendingly pats the representative of authority on the shoulder, not even considering it necessary to make excuses. So, money and power have become synonymous here. Therefore, there is no uprava on the Wild, who offends the whole city. No one can please him, no one is immune from his violent abuse. Wild is self-willed and tyrannical, because he does not meet with resistance and is confident in his own impunity. This hero, with his rudeness, greed and ignorance, personifies the main features of Kalinov's "dark kingdom". Moreover, his anger and irritation especially increase in those cases when we are talking or about money that needs to be returned, or about something inaccessible to his understanding. That is why he scolds Boris's nephew so much, for his mere appearance

Reminds of the inheritance, which, according to the will, must be shared with him. That is why he lashes out at Kuligin, who is trying to explain to him the principle of the lightning rod. Diky is outraged by the idea of ​​a thunderstorm as electrical discharges. He, like all Kalinovtsy, is convinced that a thunderstorm is coming! people as a reminder of the responsibility for their actions. This is not just ignorance and superstition, it is a folk mythology passed down from generation to generation, before which the language of the logical mind falls silent. This means that even in the violent, uncontrollable tyrant Dick lives this moral truth, forcing him to publicly bow at the feet of the peasant, whom he scolded during fasting. Even if Diky has fits of remorse, the wealthy merchant widow Marfa Ignatyevna Kabanova seems at first even more religious and pious. Unlike Wild, she will never raise her voice, will not rush at people like a chain dog. But the despotism of her nature is not at all a secret for the Kalinovs. Even before the appearance of this heroine on the stage, we hear biting and well-aimed remarks of the townspeople addressed to her. "Prude, sir. She gives clothes to the poor, but she eats the household completely, ”Kuligin says to Boris about her. And the very first meeting with Kabanikha convinces us of the correctness of this

Characteristics. Her tyranny is limited to the sphere of the family, which she ruthlessly tyrannizes. The boar crippled her own son, turning him into a miserable, weak-willed person who only does what is justified before her for non-existent sins. The cruel, despotic Kabanikha turned the life of her children and daughter-in-law into hell, constantly torturing them, harassing them with reproaches, complaints and suspicions. Therefore, her daughter Barbara! , a brave, strong-willed girl, is forced to live by the principle: "... do what you want, if only it was sewn and covered." Therefore, Tikhon and Katerina cannot be happy.

”, A.N. Ostrovsky for the first time depicts the realistic world of the "dark kingdom". Who was in it? This is a large part of that society - petty tyrants who had the power of money in their hands, who wanted to enslave the poor and profit even more from their free labor. Ostrovsky for the first time opens the world of merchants with all the realities and true events. There is nothing humane or good in this world. There is no faith in a free person, in happiness, in love and decent work.

What is the play's conflict? In the clash of interests and morality of the obsolete and future generations of people. Complex images of the characters of this play are depicted with special meaning. A wealthy merchant - Wild - is quite an important person in the city. Curly, tobish Savel Prokofievich - presents himself as the arbiter of the world and the master of the life around him. Many characters are afraid of him and simply tremble before his image. Lawlessness in the behavior of the Wild is covered by the power and significance of his financial condition. He has the patronage of the state power.

Ostrovsky creates a rather ambiguous and complex image of the Wild. This character is faced with the problem of not external opposition of others to his person. He is experiencing an internal protest. The hero understands how callous his middle and his heart are. He tells a story about how, for nothing, he scolded a peasant who carried firewood. Dikoy pounced on him and nearly killed him for nothing. And then he began to repent and ask for forgiveness. And he admitted that he had such a “wild” heart.

It is in this image that we see the hidden meaning of the "dark kingdom". It redeemed itself from within. The inner protest of the petty tyrants of that time destroyed them themselves.

Analyzing another image of the play "The Dark Kingdom", one can notice other features of the petty tyrants of that time.

The person makes us confused. In her opinion, all relationships in the family should be subject to fear. She is despotic and hypocritical. She is used to living according to the old society. She completely ate all the household and does not give them a quiet life.

The secondary image of the wanderer Feklusha comes to the defense of the dying "dark kingdom". She enters into a conversation with Kabanikha and keeps preaching to her her thoughts about the imminent death of the "dark kingdom".

In his play, in order to convey to the reader all his thoughts and reasoning, Ostrovsky creates many symbolic images. Thunderstorm is one of them. The finale of the play conveys the author's thoughts that life in such a "dark kingdom" is unbearable and terrible. The reader understands that the world of tyrants is overcome by an awakened person who is filled with real, human feelings, who can overcome the falsity and hypocrisy of that “dark kingdom”.

"Dark Kingdom" in Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm"

Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" in accordance with the critical and theatrical traditions interpretation is understood as a social drama, since it attaches special importance to everyday life.

As almost always with Ostrovsky, the play begins with a lengthy, unhurried exposition. The playwright does more than introduce us to the characters and the scene: he creates an image of the world in which the characters live and where events will unfold.

The action takes place in a fictional remote town, but, unlike other plays by the playwright, the city of Kalinov is described in detail, concretely and in many ways. In The Thunderstorm, an important role is played by the landscape, described not only in the stage directions, but also in the dialogues. actors. One can see its beauty, others have looked at it and are completely indifferent. The high steep bank of the Volga and beyond the river introduce the motif of space and flight.

Beautiful nature, pictures of the nightly festivities of young people, songs that sound in the third act, Katerina's stories about childhood and her religious experiences - all this is the poetry of Kalinov's world. But Ostrovsky confronts her with gloomy pictures of the everyday cruelty of the inhabitants to each other, with stories about the lack of rights of the majority of the townsfolk, with the fantastic, incredible "lostness" of Kalinov's life.

The motif of the complete isolation of Kalinov's world is getting stronger and stronger in the play. Residents do not see anything new and do not know other lands and countries. But even about their past, they retained only vague, lost connection and meaning legends (talking about Lithuania, which “fell to us from the sky”). Life in Kalinovo freezes, dries up. The past is forgotten, "there are hands, but there is nothing to work." News from the big world is brought to the inhabitants by the wanderer Feklusha, and they listen with equal confidence both about countries where people with dog heads “for infidelity”, and about the railway, where “the fire serpent began to be harnessed” for speed, and about the time that “ began to diminish."

There is no one among the characters in the play who does not belong to Kalinov's world. Lively and meek, domineering and subordinate, merchants and clerks, a wanderer and even an old crazy lady prophesying hellish torments for everyone - they all revolve in the sphere of concepts and ideas of a closed patriarchal world. Not only Kalinov's obscure townsfolk, but also Kuligin, who performs some of the functions of the reasoning hero in the play, is also flesh and blood of Kalinov's world.

This character is depicted as an unusual person. The list of actors says about him: "... a tradesman, a self-taught watchmaker, looking for a perpetuum mobile." The hero's surname transparently hints at a real person - I.P. Kulibin (1735 - 1818). The word "kuliga" means a swamp with a well-established connotation of the meaning "far, deaf place" due to the wide famous saying"in the middle of nowhere."

Like Katerina, Kuligin is a poetic and dreamy nature. So, it is he who admires the beauty of the Trans-Volga landscape, complains that the Kalinovites are indifferent to him. He sings "Among the Flat Valley...", a folk song of literary origin. This immediately emphasizes the difference between Kuligin and other characters associated with folklore culture, he is also a bookish man, although of rather archaic bookishness. He confidentially informs Boris that he writes poetry "in the old way," as Lomonosov and Derzhavin once wrote. In addition, he is a self-taught mechanic. However, Kuligin's technical ideas are clearly anachronistic. The sundial, which he dreams of installing on Kalinovsky Boulevard, came from antiquity. Lightning rod - a technical discovery of the XVIII century. And his oral stories about judicial red tape are sustained in even earlier traditions and resemble old moralizing stories. All these features show his deep connection with the world of Kalinov. He, of course, is different from the Kalinovites. It can be said that Kuligin " new person”, but only its novelty has developed here, inside this world, which gives rise not only to its passionate and poetic dreamers, like Katerina, but also to its “rationalists” - dreamers, its own special, home-grown scientists and humanists.

The main business of Kuligin's life is the dream of inventing the "perpetuum mobile" and getting a million from the British for it. He intends to spend this million on Kalinov's society, to give work to the bourgeoisie. Kuligin is really a good person: kind, disinterested, delicate and meek. But he is hardly happy, as Boris thinks of him. His dream constantly forces him to beg for money for his inventions, conceived for the benefit of society, and it never occurs to society that there can be any benefit from them, for fellow countrymen Kuligin is a harmless eccentric, something like a city holy fool. And the main of the possible "philanthropists" of Dikaya even lashes out at the inventor with abuse, confirming the general opinion that he is incapable of parting with money.

Kuligin's passion for creativity remains unquenched: he pities his countrymen, seeing in their vices the result of ignorance and poverty, but he cannot help them in anything. With all the industriousness, creative warehouse of his personality, Kuligin is a contemplative nature, devoid of any pressure and aggressiveness. Probably, this is the only reason the Kalinovites put up with him, despite the fact that he differs from them in everything.

Only one person does not belong to the Kalinovsky world by birth and upbringing, does not look like other residents of the city in appearance and manners - Boris, "a young man, decently educated," according to Ostrovsky's remark.

But even though he is a stranger, he has already been taken prisoner by Kalinov, he cannot break ties with him, he has recognized his laws over himself. After all, Boris's connection with Wild is not even monetary dependence. And he himself understands, and those around him say that he will never give him Wild grandmother's inheritance, left on such "Kalinov" conditions ("if he is respectful to his uncle"). And yet he behaves as if he is financially dependent on Wild or is obliged to obey him as the eldest in the family. And although Boris becomes the subject of great passion for Katerina, who fell in love with him precisely because outwardly he is so different from those around him, Dobrolyubov is still right when he said about this hero that he should be attributed to the setting.

In a certain sense, the same can be said about all the other characters in the play, starting with Wild and ending with Kudryash and Varvara. All of them are bright and lively. However, compositionally, two heroes are put forward in the center of the play: Katerina and Kabanikha, representing, as it were, two poles of Kalinov's world.

The image of Katerina is undoubtedly correlated with the image of Kabanikha. Both of them are maximalists, both will never come to terms with human weaknesses and will not compromise. Both, finally, believe in the same way, their religion is harsh and merciless, there is no forgiveness for sin, and they both do not remember mercy.

Only Kabanikha is all chained to the ground, all her forces are aimed at holding, collecting, upholding the way of life, she is the guardian of the ossified form of the patriarchal world. The boar perceives life as a ceremonial, and she not only does not need, but is also afraid to think about the long-vanished spirit of this form. And Katerina embodies the spirit of this world, its dream, its impulse.

Ostrovsky showed that even in the ossified world of Kalinov, folk character of amazing beauty and strength, whose faith - truly Kalinov's - is nevertheless based on love, on a free dream of justice, beauty, some kind of higher truth.

For the general concept of the play, it is very important that Katerina did not appear from somewhere from the expanses of another life, another historical time (after all, the patriarchal Kalinov and contemporary Moscow, where bustle is in full swing, or the railway that Feklusha talks about are different historical time), but was born and formed in the same "Kalinov" conditions.

Katerina lives in an era when the very spirit of patriarchal morality - harmony between the individual and the moral ideas of the environment - has disappeared and the ossified forms of relations are based only on violence and coercion. Her sensitive soul caught it. After listening to her daughter-in-law's story about life before marriage, Varvara exclaims in surprise: "But it's the same with us." “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity,” Katerina drops.

All family relations in the Kabanovs' house are, in essence, a complete violation of the essence of patriarchal morality. Children willingly express their humility, listen to instructions without attaching any importance to them, and slowly violate all these commandments and orders. “Oh, I think you can do whatever you want. If only it was sewn and covered, ”says Varya

Katerina's husband in the list of characters follows directly Kabanova, and it is said about him: "her son." Such, indeed, is the position of Tikhon in the city of Kalinov and in the family. Belonging, like a number of other characters in the play (Barbara, Kudryash, Shapkin), to the younger generation of Kalinovites, Tikhon in his own way marks the end of the patriarchal way of life.

The youth of Kalinov no longer wants to adhere to the old ways of life. However, Tikhon, Varvara, Kudryash are alien to the maximalism of Katerina, and, unlike the central heroines of the play, Katerina and Kabanikha, all these characters stand on the position of worldly compromises. Of course, the oppression of their elders is hard for them, but they have learned to get around it, each according to his character. Formally recognizing the power of elders and the power of customs over themselves, they constantly go against them. But it is against the background of their unconscious and compromise position that Katerina looks significant and morally lofty.

Tikhon in no way corresponds to the role of a husband in a patriarchal family: to be the ruler and at the same time the support and protection of his wife. A mild-mannered and weak man, he is torn between the harsh demands of his mother and compassion for his wife. Tikhon loves Katerina, but not in the way that, according to the norms of patriarchal morality, a husband should love, and Katerina's feeling for him is not the same as she should have for him according to her own ideas.

For Tikhon, to break free from his mother's care means to go on a spree, to drink. “Yes, mother, I don’t want to live by my own will. Where can I live with my will! - he answers the endless reproaches and instructions of Kabanikh. Humiliated by his mother's reproaches, Tikhon is ready to vent his annoyance on Katerina, and only the intercession of her sister Barbara, who secretly lets him go to drink at a party, stops the scene.

"The Dark Kingdom" in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm"

It went to the extreme, to the denial of all common sense; more than ever, it is hostile to the natural requirements of mankind and, more fiercely than before, is trying to stop their development, because in their triumph it sees the approach of its inevitable death.

N. A. Dobrolyubov

Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky for the first time in Russian literature deeply and realistically depicted the world of the “dark kingdom”, painted colorful images of petty tyrants, their way of life and customs. He dared to look behind the iron merchant gates, was not afraid to openly show the conservative strength of "inertness", "numbness". Analyzing Ostrovsky’s “plays of life”, Dobrolyubov wrote: “There is nothing holy, nothing pure, nothing right in this dark world: the tyranny that dominates him, wild, crazy, wrong, drove out of him any consciousness of honor and right ... And it cannot be them where human dignity, freedom of the individual, faith in love and happiness, and the sacredness of honest labor have been crushed to dust and brazenly trampled on by tyrants.” And yet, many of Ostrovsky's plays depict "shakiness and the near end of tyranny."

The dramatic conflict in The Thunderstorm consists in the clash of the moribund morality of petty tyrants with the new morality of people in whose souls a feeling human dignity. In the play, the very background of life, the setting itself, is important. The world of the "dark kingdom" is based on fear and monetary calculation. The self-taught watchmaker Kuligin says to Boris: “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! Whoever has money, he tries to enslave the poor, so that he can make even more money on his free labors. Direct monetary dependence forces Boris to be respectful with the "scold" Wild. Tikhon is resignedly obedient to his mother, although in the finale of the play even he rises to a kind of rebellion. The clerk Wild Curly and Tikhon's sister Varvara are cunning and dodging. The penetrating heart of Katerina feels the falsity and inhumanity of the surrounding life. “Yes, everything here seems to be from bondage,” she thinks.

The images of petty tyrants in The Thunderstorm are artistically authentic, complex, devoid of psychological unambiguity. Wild - a wealthy merchant, a significant person in the city of Kalinov. At first glance, nothing threatens his power. Savel Prokofievich, according to Kudryash’s apt definition, “as if he had broken loose”: he feels himself the master of life, the arbiter of the destinies of people subject to him. Doesn't Diky's attitude towards Boris speak of this? The people around are afraid to anger Savel Prokofievich with something, his wife trembles before him.

Wild feels on his side the power of money, the support of state power. In vain are the requests to restore justice, with which the “peasants” deceived by the merchant turn to the mayor. Savel Prokofievich patted the mayor on the shoulder and said: “Is it worth it, your honor, to talk about such trifles with you!”

At the same time, as already mentioned, the image of the Wild is rather complicated. The tough disposition of the “significant person in the city” does not come up against some kind of external protest, not against the manifestation of discontent of others, but against internal self-condemnation. Savel Prokofievich himself is not happy with his "heart": He came for the money, he carried firewood ... He sinned: he scolded, so scolded that it was impossible to demand better, he almost nailed him. That's what my heart is! After forgiveness, he asked, bowed at his feet. This is what my heart brings me to: here in the yard, in the mud, I bowed; bowed to him in front of everyone.” This recognition of Dikoy contains a meaning that is terrible for the foundations of the “dark kingdom”: tyranny is so unnatural and inhuman that it outlives itself, loses any moral justification for its existence.

The rich merchant Kabanova can also be called a “tyrant in a skirt”. An exact description of Marfa Ignatievna was put into the mouth of Kuligin: “A hypocrite, sir! She feeds the poor, but eats the household completely.” In a conversation with his son and daughter-in-law, Kabanikha hypocritically sighs: “Oh, a grave sin! How long to sin!”

Behind this feigned exclamation lies an imperious, despotic character. Marfa Ignatievna actively defends the foundations of the "dark kingdom", trying to subdue Tikhon and Katerina. Relations between people in the family should, according to Kabanova, be regulated by the law of fear, the Domostroy principle “let the wife of her husband be afraid.” Marfa Ignatievna's desire to follow the old traditions in everything is manifested in the scene of Tikhon's farewell to Katerina.

The position of the hostess in the house cannot completely reassure the Kabanikha. Marfa Ignatievna is frightened by the fact that young people want to, that the traditions of hoary antiquity are not respected. “What will happen, how the old people will die, how the light will stand, I don’t know. Well, at least it’s good that I won’t see anything, ”Kabanikha sighs. In this case, her fear is quite sincere, not designed for any external effect (Marfa Ignatievna pronounces her words alone).

An essential role in Ostrovsky's play is played by the image of the wanderer Feklusha. At first sight before us minor character. In fact, Feklusha is not directly involved in the action, but she is a myth-maker and defender of the “dark kingdom”. Let us listen to the pilgrim's reasoning about the “Persian Saltan” and “Turkish Saltan”: “And they cannot ... judge a single case righteously, such a limit has been set for them. We have a righteous law, and they ... unjust; that according to our law it turns out that way, but according to theirs everything is the other way around. And all their judges, in their countries, are also all unrighteous...” main meaning of the above words is that “we have a righteous law ..:”.

Feklusha, anticipating the death of the “dark kingdom”, shares with Kabanikha: “ end times, mother Marfa Ignatievna, according to all signs, the last. The wanderer sees an ominous sign of the end in the speeding up of the passage of time: “Already, time has already begun to diminish ... smart people notice that our time is getting shorter.” And indeed, time is working against the “dark kingdom”.

Ostrovsky comes in the play to large-scale artistic generalizations, creates almost symbolic images (thunderstorm). Noteworthy is the remark at the beginning of the fourth act of the play: “In the foreground is a narrow gallery with the vaults of an old building that is beginning to collapse...” It is in this decaying, dilapidated world that Katerina’s sacrificial confession sounds from its very depths. The fate of the heroine is so tragic, primarily because she rebelled against her own Domostroy ideas of good and evil. The finale of the play tells us that living “in a dark kingdom is worse than death” (Dobrolyubov). “This end seems to us gratifying ... - we read in the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”, - ... it gives a terrible challenge to the self-righteous force, he tells her that it is no longer possible to go further, it is impossible to live longer with her violent, deadly beginnings." The irresistibility of the awakening of man in man, the rehabilitation of a living human feeling that replaces false asceticism, constitute, it seems to me, the enduring merit of Ostrovsky's play. And today it helps to overcome the force of inertia, numbness, social stagnation.

A gloomy picture of tyrannical relations: arbitrariness, on the one hand, lawlessness and oppression, on the other, is drawn by Ostrovsky in the drama Thunderstorm.
The action takes place in the district town of Kalinov, on the banks of the Volga. Deep ignorance, mental stagnation, senseless coarseness - this is the atmosphere in which the action develops.

Kalinov is truly a "dark kingdom", as Dobrolyubov aptly dubbed the whole world depicted by Ostrovsky. About what happens outside their town, and how people live there, Kalinovites learn mostly from various wanderers, like Feklusha. This information is usually of the most fantastic nature: about unjust judges, about people with dog heads, about a fiery serpent. Of the same nature and historical knowledge, for example, about Lithuania, which "fell from the sky." main role tyrant merchants are playing in the city, holding in their hands a powerless
a mass of philistines and enjoying, thanks to their money, the support of the county authorities.

Feeling their complete impunity, they oppress all those subject to them, push them around at will, and sometimes directly mock them. “Already such a scolder as Savel Prokofich is with us, look for more! For no reason will a person be cut off, ”one of the townsfolk says about Wild. However, he is a "scold" only in relation to dependent and unrequited people, like Boris and Kuligin; when the hussar scolded him on the ferry, he did not dare to say anything to him, but on the other hand, all the household for two weeks hid from him in attics and closets.

The inhabitants of Kalinov have no public interests, and therefore, according to Kuligin, they are all at home, locked up, sitting. “And they don’t lock themselves up from thieves, but so that people don’t see how they eat their own food, and tyrannize their family. And what tears flow behind these locks, invisible and inaudible! And what, sir, behind these locks is the debauchery of the dark, and drunkenness! "Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel!" - says the same Kuligin in another place.

The rudeness and ignorance of the Kalinovites is fully consistent with their conceit and complacency: both Dikoy and Kabanova are quite sure that it is impossible to live otherwise than they live. And they live in the old days, with distrust, even with hatred, regarding every innovation. They have complete contempt for science and knowledge in general, as can be seen from Diky's conversation with Kuligin about electricity. Considering themselves right in everything, they are imbued with confidence that only they keep the light. “Something will happen when the old people die,” says Kabanova, “I don’t know how the light will stand.” Lacking any firm moral concepts, they all the more stubbornly cling to their grandfather's customs and rituals, in which they see the very essence of life. For Kabanova, for example, it is not important that Katerina really loves her husband, but it is important that she shows it, for example, “howled” on the porch after he left. The religiosity of the Kalinovites is also distinguished by the same ritualism: they go to church, strictly observe fasts, receive wanderers and wanderers, but the inner, moral side of religion is completely alien to their souls; therefore, their religiosity bears the imprint of hypocrisy and is often associated with gross superstition.

All family relationships in Kalinov are based mainly on fear. When Kabanov tells his mother that he doesn’t need his wife to be afraid of him at all, it’s enough if she loves him, Kabanova indignantly objects: “How, why be afraid! How, why be afraid! Yes, you're crazy, right? You will not be afraid, and even more so me. What is the order in the house will be? After all, you, tea, live with her in law. Ali, do you think the law means nothing?” Therefore, when Katerina, at parting, throws herself on her husband’s neck, Kabanova strictly stops her and makes her bow at her feet: for her, in the relationship of her wife to her husband, it is the expression of fear and slavish subordination, and not true feelings, that is important.

In The Thunderstorm, Ostrovsky showed how such family despotism affects the oppressed. Stronger and more persistent natures try to deceive the vigilance of domestic tyrants, resort to pretense and all sorts of tricks; such, for example, is Varvara, the daughter of Kabanova; on the contrary, weak and soft natures, like her son Tikhon, finally lose all will, all independence; their only protest against constant oppression lies in the fact that, having temporarily escaped freedom, freed from supervision, they indulge in ugly revelry, they try "to take a walk for a whole year." In response to his mother’s reproaches that he doesn’t have “his own mind”, Tikhon even threatens: “I’ll take it, but I’ll drink the last one I have: then let my mother nurse me like a fool ...” And it is quite possible that he will someday carry out this threat.

But especially difficult in the "dark kingdom", like Kalinov, is the position of such persons who are endowed with considerable spiritual strength, which does not allow them to finally break under the yoke of despotism, to lose all consciousness of their personality, but who, at the same time, are too weak to stand up for themselves, and too pure in soul to resort to cunning and deceit; for them, a tragic outcome becomes almost inevitable. Katerina, the main heroine of The Thunderstorm, is in this exact position.