A.N. Ostrovsky created in 1859 the play "Thunderstorm" - a work in which the difficult questions of the turning point were raised public life, changing social patterns. Alexander Nikolaevich penetrated the essence of the contradictions of his time. He created colorful characters of petty tyrants, described their manners and way of life. Two images act as a counterbalance to tyranny - these are Kuligin and Katerina. Our article is devoted to the first of them. “The image of Kuligin in the play “Thunderstorm” is a topic that interests us. Portrait of A.N. Ostrovsky is presented below.

Brief description of Kuligin

Kuligin is a self-taught mechanic, a tradesman. In a conversation with Kudryash (first act), he appears before the reader as a poetic connoisseur of nature. admires the Volga, calls the extraordinary view that opened to him a miracle. The image of Kuligin in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm" can be supplemented with the following details. A dreamer by nature, however, this hero understands the injustice of the existing system, in which the brute power of money and strength decides everything. He tells Boris Grigorievich that there are "cruel morals" in this city. After all, whoever has money, he seeks to enslave the poor in order to make even more capital for himself on his labors. The hero himself is not like that. The characteristic of Kuligin's image is directly opposite. He dreams of well-being for the whole people, strives to do good deeds. Let us now present in more detail the image of Kuligin in the play "Thunderstorm".

Kuligin's conversation with Boris

Boris meets the character of interest to us on an evening walk in the third act. Kuligin again admires nature, silence, air. However, at the same time, he complains that a boulevard has not yet been made in the city, and people in Kalinovo do not walk: everyone has locked gates. But not at all from thieves, but so that others do not see how they tyrannize the family. There is a lot behind these locks, as Kuligin says, "drunkenness" and "dark debauchery." The hero is indignant at the foundations of the "dark kingdom", however, after an angry speech, he immediately says: "Well, God bless them!", as if deviating from the words spoken.

His protest remains almost mute, it is expressed only in objections. The image of Kuligin in the play is characterized by the fact that this character is not ready for an open challenge, like Katerina. Kuligin exclaims at the offer Boris makes to write poetry, that he will be "swallowed alive", and complains that he already gets it for his speeches.

Request addressed to the Wild

It is worth giving Kuligin credit for the fact that he persistently and at the same time politely asks Diky to give money for materials. He needs them to install a sundial on the boulevard "for the common good."

Kuligin, unfortunately, stumbles only on ignorance and rudeness on the part of this person. Then the hero tries to persuade Saveliy Prokofich, at least for thunderous bends, since thunderstorms are a frequent occurrence in the city. Having not achieved success in this matter either, Kuligin can do nothing more than, with a wave of his hand, leave.

Kuligin - man of science

The hero we are interested in is a man of science, respectful of nature, subtly feeling its beauty. In the fourth act, he addresses the crowd with a monologue, trying to explain to people in it that they should not be afraid of thunderstorms and any others. They should be admired, admired. However, the residents of the city do not want to listen to him. They live according to old customs, continue to believe that this is God's punishment, that a thunderstorm is sure to bring trouble.

The knowledge of people that Kuligin shows

The image of Kuligin in the play "Thunderstorm" is characterized by the fact that this hero is well versed in people. He is able to empathize and give practical, correct advice. The hero showed these qualities, in particular, in a conversation with Tikhon. He tells him that it is necessary to forgive enemies, and one should also live with one's own mind.

It was this hero who pulled out Katerina and brought her to the Kabanovs, saying that they could take her body, but her soul did not belong to them. She now appeared before the Judge, who is much more merciful than the Kabanovs. Kuligin runs away after these words. This hero, in his own way, experiences the grief that happened and is unable to share it with the people who are responsible for the suicide of this girl.

White crow

In Kalinov, the hero of interest to us is White crow. The image of Kuligin in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is characterized by the fact that this character's thinking is significantly different from the way of thinking of other residents. He has other aspirations and values. Kuligin is aware that the foundations of the "dark kingdom" are unfair, tries to fight them, strives to make better life ordinary people.

The hero we are interested in dreams of Kalinov's social reorganization. And probably, if he had found material support and like-minded people, he would have been able to significantly improve this city. The desire for the well-being of the people is perhaps the most attractive feature that, together with others, makes up the image of Kuligin in the play "Thunderstorm".

The Thunderstorm is one of the most tragic works of Russian literature. A. N. Ostrvsky invested in the images as much as possible bright characters and subtle depiction of life. One of the brightest characters is Kuligin. His characterization is distinguished by positive qualities, he is one of the brightest characters in the play, whom you want to be equal to.

General characteristics of Kuligin

Kuligin is one of the inhabitants of Kalinov. By age, he is about 50 years old. He is a mechanic, his delicate profession is a watchmaker. He devoted his whole life to the study of various mechanisms. Kuligin can be called a poet at heart. Everything he does, he does with love, selflessly. He loves nature, has a positive attitude towards reading books. He is able to support any conversation. He is a wise man and he gladly shares his wisdom with others.

Kuligin is a kind and sympathetic person. He loves to work for the benefit of society and can even be called an altruist. Kuligin installed a sundial in the city, he wants to install a lightning rod. But no one supports his ideas. He is modest, considers himself a small person. Constantly afraid of offending someone. But at the same time, he also has courage. He is not afraid to take responsibility for his actions and words. He is very honest and responsive. Appreciates these same qualities in people. Kuligin belongs to the bourgeois class. Takova general characteristics Kulign "Thunderstorm".

Kuligin's worldview

Kuligin is a representative of the "new views". He is progressive and ready for something new. He constantly invents something and tries to introduce something new into life that will make the life of the whole city more convenient and easier. The way he relates to the world, how and what he thinks, does not coincide with the worldview of the rest of the inhabitants of the city. He reads a lot of books, but this does not make him a conservative, but rather, on the contrary, gives him the opportunity to think, move forward, be progressive and bold in the emergence and implementation of various ideas. He is used to living not only for himself. This also distinguishes him from most residents of the city, for whom it is strange and wild that someone wants to do a good deed for the benefit of the people, and not just for their own interests.

Kuligin's dream

Kuligin dreams of building a perpetum mobile, or perpetual motion machine. He would like to get a million from the British for it. But unlike most people, he wants to spend this million not for himself, but for the benefit of the city. He wants to provide the bourgeoisie with work. But while his dream does not come true, and he is forced to create something for the benefit of the city. Since he does not have his own funds for this, he is forced to ask the wealthy of the city to sponsor his ideas. For example, he refers to the Wild. But he does not accept his ideas, rejects him, and even accuses him of trying to steal and embezzle finances. The whole city makes fun of him and considers him a real eccentric. Therefore, all of Kuligin's dreams cannot be realized while he is in Kalinov.

The play "Thunderstorm" shows people from different points of view. A different worldview makes them different from each other, gives rise to a clash of interests and misunderstanding. But Kuligin is one of the positive characters for whom honor, dignity, intelligence are not empty words. He believes in himself and has a zeal for the new, progressive. He sincerely wants to improve the lives of the townspeople who do not understand and do not accept him. Holding the dead body of Katerina in his hands, Kuligin addresses the residents of the city with disappointment.

Kuligin- a character who partially performs the functions of an exponent of the author's point of view and therefore is sometimes referred to as a reasoning hero, which, however, seems to be incorrect, since in general this hero is certainly distant from the author, is depicted quite aloofly, as an unusual person, even a little outlandish. In the list actors it is said about him: "a tradesman, a self-taught watchmaker, looking for a perpetuum mobile." The name of the hero transparently hints at a real person - I. P. Kulibin (1755-1818), whose biography was published in the journal of the historian M. P. Pogodin "Moskvityanin", where Ostrovsky collaborated.

Like Katerina, K. is a poetic and dreamy nature (thus, it is he who admires the beauty of the Trans-Volga landscape, complains that the Kalinovites are indifferent to him). He appears, singing "Among the flat valley ...", a folk song of literary origin (to the words of A. F. Merzlyakov). This immediately emphasizes the difference between K. and other characters associated with folklore culture, he is also a bookish man, although of rather archaic bookishness: he tells Boris that he writes poetry “in the old way ... I read Lomonosov, Derzhavin after all ... The wise man was Lomonosov, the tester of nature ... ". Even the characterization of Lomonosov testifies to the erudition of K. precisely in old books: not a “scientist”, but a “sage”, “tester of nature”. “You are an antique, a chemist,” Kudryash tells him. "Self-taught mechanic," corrects K. K.'s technical ideas are also an obvious anachronism. The sundial, which he dreams of installing on Kalinovsky Boulevard, came from antiquity. Lightning rod - a technical discovery of the XVIII century. If K. writes in the spirit of the classics of the 18th century, then his oral stories are sustained in even earlier stylistic traditions and resemble old moralizing stories and apocrypha (“and they will begin, sir, the court and the case, and there will be no end to the torment. They are suing, suing here, yes, they will go to the province, and there they are already waiting for them, but splashing their hands with joy ”- the picture of judicial red tape, vividly described by K., recalls stories about the torment of sinners and the joy of demons). All these features of the hero, of course, are given by the author in order to show his deep connection with the world of Kalinov: he, of course, differs from the Kalinovites, we can say that he is a “new” person, but only his novelty has developed here, inside this world that generates not only their passionate and poetic dreamers, like Katerina, but also their "rationalist" dreamers, their special, homegrown scientists and humanists.

The main business of K.'s life is the dream of inventing "perpetu-mo-bile" and getting a million from the British for it. He intends to spend this million on Kalinov's society - "the work must be given to the bourgeoisie." Listening to this story, Boris, who received modern education at the Commercial Academy, remarks: “It’s a pity to disappoint him! What a good man! Dreaming for himself - and happy. However, he is hardly right. K. is really a good person: kind, disinterested, delicate and meek. But he is hardly happy: 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 them K. is a harmless eccentric, something something like an urban holy fool. And the main of the possible "philanthropists" - Dikoy, completely lashes out at the inventor with abuse, once again confirming both the general opinion and Kabanikhe's own admission that he is not able to part with the 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. So, the advice that he gives (to forgive Katerina, but in such a way that he never remembers her sin) is obviously impracticable in the Kabanovs' house, and K. hardly understands this. The advice is good, humane, because it comes from humane considerations, but does not take into account the real participants in the drama, their characters and beliefs.

With all your hard work, creative beginning his personality K. - a contemplative nature, devoid of any pressure. Probably, this is the only reason the Kalinovites put up with him, despite the fact that he differs from them in everything. It seems that for the same reason it was possible to entrust him with the author's assessment of Katerina's act. "Here's your Katherine. Do with her what you want! Her body is here, take it; and the soul is no longer yours: it is now before the Judge, who is more merciful than you!”

In the literature of the classical period, each character of a particular work performs a special function, the image was introduced for a reason. This applies to both main and minor characters. IN dramatic works the same principles apply. For example, through the image of Molchalin in Griboyedov's comedy Woe from Wit, the falseness and stupidity of the noble society of the 19th century is shown. But for Ostrovsky, the image of Kuligin in the play "Thunderstorm" performs somewhat different functions. When analyzing the characters of The Thunderstorm, this hero should be given special attention. The playwright Kuligin from The Thunderstorm gave a more than memorable characterization.

Kuligin is not at all such a simple character as it might seem at first glance. The characterization of Kuligin in The Thunderstorm is a bit like the characterization of the Master from Bulgakov's novel. These are dreamy natures for whom the end result will not be happiness. Happiness for them is the way to this result.

Kuligin differs from Diky and Kabanikh, from Boris and Tikhon, even from Katerina. The role of Kuligin in the play "Thunderstorm" is somewhat different. From the author's definition in the list of characters, the reader learns that Kuligin is a self-taught mechanic. That is, he learned everything himself. The image and characterization of Kuligin in The Thunderstorm is complemented by phrases from the replicas of other characters. Kuligin is 50 years old. In addition to his passion for mechanics, one can speak with confidence about the high level of general erudition. He quotes Derzhavin and Lomonosov, which means that he read their works, in addition, one can talk about worldly wisdom: it is Kuligin who advises Tikhon to live by his own mind, getting rid of the influence of his mother. There are many in Kuligin positive qualities. He is conscientious, as evidenced by his desire to earn honest work; his disinterestedness and sincerity are manifested in conversations with Tikhon and Boris. By the way, his manner of communication differs from the habits of other residents of Kalinov. Kuligin gives advice, not orders. It does not at all have that causeless animal cruelty and anger that Wild and Boar have. And there is no hypocrisy, like Boris's, in Kuligin either. The mechanic is distinguished from Tikhon by the desire to do something, and from Katerina by the absence of active protest.

We meet Kuligin on the banks of the Volga, he is fascinated by the uniqueness of nature. Kuligin admires how everything breathes with life and beauty: “miracles, truly it must be said that miracles! Curly! Here, my brother, for fifty years I have been looking beyond the Volga every day and I can’t see enough of everything. In this phrase slips the lyricism with which Kuligin's soul is full. But what's next?

In the following actions, Kuligin talks about " cruel morals» Kalinov city. As if a tour guide, he says: “look to the left, there, behind closed doors, there are many examples of family tyranny. And here, a little further, you can see how the greedy merchant deceives ordinary people and is rude to the mayor.”

After all, in fact, apart from high-sounding words and expressions, Kuligin conducts for Boris something like an excursion about the life and customs of the city. At the same time, Kuligin himself behaves somewhat aloofly. A man knows how people live, he does not like this way of existence, but at the same time he himself is not going to change anything. Kuligin is incapable of the active protest that Katerina is capable of. Adapt and lie, like Barbara, Kuligin also can not. One gets the impression that Kuligin does not care at all about the rudeness and threats of Dikoy. The episode with the beginning of a thunderstorm is a clear confirmation of this. Kuligin does not understand the fear of the ordinary natural phenomenon, so he suggests installing a lightning rod:

“Savel Prokofich, after all, this, your degree, is beneficial for all the townsfolk in general.
Wild. Go away! What a use! Who needs this benefit?
Kuligin. Yes, at least for you, your degree, Savel Prokofich.

Kuligin continues to insist on his own even after the words of the merchant that Kuligin can be "crushed like a worm."

What aspects of character does this dialogue reveal? First, Kuligin stands up for the common good. The lightning rod will be useful to the residents of the city, but from a different point of view, it will allow the mechanics to implement some of their ideas. Secondly, in order to convince the merchant of the benefits of such a structure, Kuligin fawns and behaves in the same way as those who came to ask Wild for money.

Another feature is important for the characterization of Kuligin from the play "Thunderstorm": his daydreaming. After talking with Kuligin, Boris realizes that all the mechanic's dreams of the Perpetu Mobile and other inventions are destined to remain only dreams. Kuligin needs to constantly be on the lookout, fantasize about chimeras and the benefits that mechanisms can bring to society. It is difficult to imagine this character as a great or recognized inventor, if only because Kuligin is already 50 years old. That is, all this time, all his life, he studied mechanics on his own, but so far he has not achieved anything special. The image of Kuligin in The Thunderstorm cannot exist without connection with inventions and dreams about them. That is, without all these thoughts, Kuligin will simply lose his inner originality.
It turned out that people do not need his work, Kalinovites do not see any practical benefit in inventions. The situation with lightning rods and electricity can be looked at differently. Kuligin wants to bring light to the "dark kingdom", but its inhabitants deliberately refuse enlightenment and progress.

The rest of the faces in the drama are surprisingly full and vital. All of them are new, but some of them shine with special novelty in our literature. For example, Kuligin, a self-taught mechanic, or a lady with two lackeys. The latter, however, stops our attention not as a person, not as a character: it is only outlined by the author. It strikes you, rather, at the thought of bringing such a face to the stage and giving it a certain meaning. In fact, without him, the drama would be somehow incomplete. She would lose some colors, very necessary for the general tone of the picture.

Kuligin another thing. He is one of the main supporting characters in the play. Although he appears to us only from one side, from the side of a good-natured and dreamer, the author nevertheless puts a lot of life into him. He is remembered for his cuteness. On the stage you meet him with pleasure, you say goodbye to him with regret. This is a self-taught mechanic, a poet at heart, a dreamer. He looks for a perpetuum mobile and raves about it, admires the beauties of nature and recites Lomonosov's poems, starts philanthropic undertakings like sundials and lightning rods, and he is persecuted for this, and he is happy for it. Good people love him, but he escapes the evil ones in his perpetuum mobile, in his lightning rods - look for him there. His character is related to the character of Katerina. And he, in all likelihood, not without storms and not without heart wounds, lived to gray hair. And it is bitter for him to live among people who do not understand him and for whom he is "an antique, a chemist." But he has a perpetuum mobile, which Katerina did not have - if only he could "get some money on a model", and he will certainly find a perpetuum mobile. And when he finds it, he will receive a whole million rubles from the British and do something good. In the meantime, it’s better for you and don’t talk about this mobile: he will immediately slip away from you, either because he is already tired of talking with the profane about this, or he is simply afraid of disbelief and ridicule. Probably afraid.

Along with the old woman Kabanova, an elderly, callous and terrible formalist woman, stands another tyrant, an eminent face of the town, wealthy merchant of the Wild Uncle Boris. A face captured in an unusually artistic way. He is always fooling around and getting angry, but not because he was naturally angry. On the contrary, he is a wet chicken. Only family members tremble before him, and even then not all. Curly, one of his clerks, knows how to talk to him; that word, and this ten. Wild is afraid of him. When, in the first scene of his appearance, Boris answered him rather sharply, he only spat, and left. He is angry because a bad custom has started: all his workers need money and everyone climbs to him for them. Don’t even stutter about his salary: “With us, no one even dare to utter a word about salary,” says Kudryash, “he scolds what the world is worth. You, he says, how do you know what I keep in mind? maybe I will come to such an arrangement that five thousand ladies will be given to you. Only he had never come to such a position before. He also gets angry not because he could be angry all the time, because his bile spilled every now and then or his liver was spoiled. No, and so, for a warning, so that they don’t ask for money under an angry hand. It is not even easy for him to get angry; he will take into his head the suspicion that today they will ask him for money, so he finds fault with his family, boil his blood and go for the whole day: he will set such a joke that everyone is hiding from him in the corners and money, maybe not will be asked. He likes to drink, and if a Russian person drinks, then he is not an evil person.

Another thing is the old woman Kabanova. This exact woman with character. The same beliefs that poetic soul Katerinas evoke such bright images, they have completely dried up the already dry heart of the old woman by nature. Life has nothing living for her: for her it is a series of some strange and absurd formulas, before which she reveres and urgently wants others to revere them. Otherwise, in her opinion, the light will turn upside down. The most insignificant act in life is understandable for her and is permissible only in this case, if it takes the form of a certain ritual. Saying goodbye, for example, to a wife and husband, is not something as simple as everyone says goodbye. Save God; she has various ceremonies about this incident in which no place is given to feeling. A wife, after seeing off her husband, cannot simply cry and mourn in her room: in order to maintain decency, it is necessary to howl, so that everyone hears and praises. “I really love, dear girl, to listen, if someone howls well!”, - says the wanderer Feklusha (here is another main person in this drama).

Meanwhile, the old woman Kabanova also cannot be called an evil woman. She loves her son very much, but is jealous of his daughter-in-law. She sharpens everyone in the house: she has such a habit of sharpening, and most importantly, she is convinced that this is how the house is held together and that as soon as she stops keeping order, the whole house will fall apart. She looks at her son and daughter-in-law as children who cannot be released from custody. Then there will be no order, they will get completely confused "in obedience, but in laughter kind people". In one of her monologues (phenomenon VI, act II) she draws herself very aptly and sharply:

“But stupid people also want to go free: but when they go free, they get confused in obedience and laughter to good people. Of course, who will regret it, but everyone laughs more. they know how, and even, look, they will forget one of their relatives. Laughter and nothing more!

So that's what she's busy with, that's why she eats her son and daughter-in-law. True, she feels more than hostility towards the latter, but this is because, in her opinion, the son loves his wife more than her mother. This jealousy is very common in mothers-in-law. Pure in her opinion, in her life, which she narrowed down to the indispensable observance of various conditions and ceremonies of her life, she is inexorable to the weaknesses of others, and even more so to the weaknesses of her daughter-in-law; She only despises and admonishes the wild. He hates Katerina, but, again, not from anger, but from jealousy. She does not express the slightest pity at the sight of the poor drowned woman, but at the same time she is afraid for her son and does not let him go a step away from her. Kuligin in one place calls her a hypocrite. He is obviously wrong. She is not even a hypocrite, because she is sincere; at least the play does not show her to be cunning or hypocritical about her beliefs and habits.

In contrast to these two women, the third one is extremely bold and bold in the drama. female face - Varvara, daughter of the old woman Kabanova. This is a daring Russian girl, sometimes frank, sometimes sly, always cheerful, always ready to take a walk and have fun. And she loves, perhaps, the most daring guy in the town, Curly, the clerk Diky. This daring couple only makes fun of oppression and oppressors. Varvara seduces Katerina, arranges nightly dates for her and leads all the intrigue, but she is not the culprit of the disaster. Sooner or later, Katerina would have done the same without her. The barbarian in the play is needed only for Katerina's fate to be completed in a dramatic way (taking this word not in the sense of tragedy, but in the sense of a stage and entertainment). And in this respect, this person is necessary in the play. In general, in Mr. Ostrovsky's drama, all the characters, even the most secondary ones, are needed, because they are all entertaining, original and characteristic in the highest degree. Their dramatic processing is the height of perfection. Throw out one of them, the most insignificant, for example, even Feklusha, and it will seem to you that you have cut out a piece from the most lively part of the drama, and that the drama without this face does not represent a more harmonious whole. So the author was able to legitimize all these images.

Not only that, all faces new drama his faces are not in the least similar, they do not even in the least resemble the faces he has previously drawn. These are completely new characters and types. This quality of not being repeated anywhere, of deducing more and more new images with each new play, belongs, if we are not mistaken, among our contemporary writers, only to one Mr. Ostrovsky. If we consider his writings only from the side of types and characters<…>, then criticism will have to admit that it is not dealing with the Gostinodvorsky Kotzebue, not with a writer who can not be denied talent or speak about him carelessly, but with our most remarkable contemporary poet, possessing great creative power, which at present very few European writers can boast of.

<…>"Thunderstorm" is, without a doubt, one of his best [ Ostrovsky] works. In it, the poet took several new aspects from Russian life, which had not yet been opened before him. In this drama, in our opinion, he took a broader look at the life depicted by him and gave us from it full poetic images. If there are flaws in his play, they are completely redeemed by first-class beauties. In "Thunderstorm" new motives are heard, the charm of which is doubled precisely because they are new. Ostrovsky's gallery of Russian women has been adorned with new characters, and his Katerina, the old woman Kabanova, Varvara, even Feklusha will occupy a prominent place in it. In this play, we noticed another new feature in the talent of its author, although his creative methods remained the same as before. This is an attempt at analysis. It is difficult to judge by one work whether it is good or bad. We only doubt that analysis can get along with the dramatic form, which by its very nature is already alien to it. That is why we have not mentioned this until now. new feature in the drama of Mr. Ostrovsky. Perhaps we are mistaken in mistaking an accidental event for intention.

Dostoevsky M.M. ""Storm". Drama in five acts by A.N. Ostrovsky"