The originality of the fate of Larisa and Katerina in the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky "Dowry" and "Thunderstorm"

It is probably no coincidence that in the center of two plays A.N. Ostrovsky, each of which is the pinnacle of a certain period of the playwright's work, are women's destinies.

"Dowry" is separated from "Thunderstorm" by almost two decades: time has changed, Russian life has become different, but the fate of Larisa is as tragic as that of Katerina. Moreover, if we ignore the particulars, it may seem that the same eternal drama is being played out before us. Indeed, the initial situations and the alignment of forces are largely similar.

Both Katerina and Larisa are sublime, poetic souls who “do not fit into their environment. “What an angelic smile she has on her face, but it seems to glow from her face,” says Boris about Katerina Ostrovsky A.N. "Dowry" - S. 31

And here is how one of the heroes of the play “Dowry” says about Larisa: “After all, in Larisa Dmitrievna there is no earthly, this worldly. Well, you understand, trivial ... After all, this is the ether, ”Knurov. “Ether, Moky Parmenych,” Ogudalova echoes him. "She's made to shine!" - “for shine, Moky Parmenych ...” Ibid., S. 32.

It is not surprising that Katerina and Larisa, who are cramped, stuffy in the vulgar world around them, fell in love with those who at least somehow stood out against this general gray background. And if the deeply believing Katerina was not afraid of sin, then how could Larisa not rush recklessly into “love, a beautiful country”? Both Katerina and Larisa are romantics in the true sense of the word. Love for them is the main thing in this life.

And in the conditions of the then Russia, it was also the only way to realize one's strong, outstanding personality. One should not be surprised - in the context of Russian literature - that both Boris and the “brilliant” Paratov turn out to be much lower and smaller than the women who love them.

Men, as always, are held in chains: one uncle sends, another marries in the gold mines, so there is no time for love! Katerina timidly asks her lover: “Take me from here with you!” Ostrovsky A.N. "Thunderstorm" - S. 17. Larisa, already living in a different era, is trying to fight for her love, but the result is equally tragic. Katerina: “But I don’t want to think about life. Live again? No, no, don't! To die now... Sin! Will they not pray? Whoever loves will pray” Ibid., p. 18 in parallel with Larisa’s words: “It’s a pitiful weakness: to live, at least somehow, but to live. When you can’t live, and you don’t need to ... Ostrovsky A.N. "Dowry" - S. 30

DI. Pisarev believed that in the article “A Ray of Light in dark kingdom" Dobrolyubov was carried away by sympathy for the character of Katerina and took her personality for a bright phenomenon ... Pisarev D.I. Motives of Russian drama - M., 1956, S. 231. According to Pisarev D.I., reading "Thunderstorm" or watching it on stage, you will never doubt that Katerina should have acted in reality exactly as she enters the drama. You will see and understand Katerina before you, but, of course, you will understand her one way or another, depending on the point of view from which you look at her. Every living phenomenon differs from dead abstraction precisely in that it can be viewed from different angles; and, starting from the same basic facts, one can come to different and even opposite conclusions.

Katerina experienced many different kinds of sentences; there were moralists who accused her of immorality, this was the easiest thing to do: one had only to compare each act of Katerina with the prescriptions of the positive law and take stock; for this work neither wit nor profundity was required, and therefore it was really performed with brilliant success by writers who do not differ in either of these virtues; then aestheticians appeared and decided that Katerina was a bright phenomenon; the aestheticians, of course, stood immeasurably higher than the inexorable champions of decency, and therefore the former were listened to with respect, while the latter were immediately ridiculed. At the head of the aestheticians was Dobrolyubov, who constantly persecuted aesthetic critics with his well-aimed and fair ridicule. In his verdict on Katerina, he agreed with his usual opponents and agreed that, like them, he began to admire the general impression, instead of subjecting this impression to calm analysis.

In each of Katerina's actions one can find an attractive side; Dobrolyubov found these sides, put them together, made up an ideal image from them, as a result he saw “a ray of light in a dark kingdom” and, like a person full of love, rejoiced at this ray with the pure and holy joy of a citizen and poet. If he had not succumbed to this joy, if he had tried for one minute to look calmly and attentively at his precious find, then the simplest question would immediately arise in his mind, which would immediately lead to the complete destruction of the attractive illusion.

Dobrolyubov would have asked himself: how could this bright image have been formed? In order to answer this question for himself, he would trace Katerina's life from childhood, all the more so since Ostrovsky provides some materials for this; he would have seen that upbringing and life could not give Katerina either a firm character or a developed mind; then he would look again at those facts in which one attractive side caught his eye, and then the whole personality of Katerina would appear to him in a completely different light. It is sad to part with a bright illusion, but there is nothing to do; this time too, one would have to be satisfied with the dark reality. Ibid., p. 234.

Goncharov I.A. believed that the drama The Thunderstorm undoubtedly occupies and probably will for a long time occupy the first place in terms of high classical beauties. From whatever side it is taken, whether from the side of the plan of creation, or the dramatic movement, or, finally, the characters, it is everywhere imprinted by the power of creativity, the subtlety of observation and the elegance of decoration. First of all, she strikes with the courage of creating a plan: the infatuation of a nervous, passionate woman and the struggle with duty, the fall, remorse and heavy expiation of guilt - all this is filled with the liveliest dramatic interest and is introduced with extraordinary art and knowledge of the heart.

Next to this, the author created another typical face, a girl falling consciously and without a struggle, on whom the stupid strictness and absolute despotism of the family and social life in which she was born and raised, acted, as one should expect, wrongly, that is, they led her merry way of vice, with the only rule learned from this upbringing: if only everything was sewn and covered.

The masterful juxtaposition of these two main characters in the drama, the development of their natures, the completeness of their characters - alone would give Mr. Ostrovsky's work the first place in dramatic literature. But the power of talent led the author further. In the same dramatic frame lay down a broad picture of national life and customs with unparalleled artistic fullness and fidelity. Every face in a drama is a typical character snatched straight from the environment. folk life, drenched in the bright color of poetry and artistic decoration, starting with the rich widow Kabanova, who embodies blind despotism bequeathed by legends, an ugly understanding of duty and the absence of any humanity, to the hypocrite Feklusha. The author gave a whole, diverse world of living personalities existing at every step Goncharov I.A. Review of the play "Thunderstorm" - M., 1986. S. 231

Lakshin V.Ya. believed that Katerina was raised high above the boring regularity of life, Kalinov's rough morals. “I ended up in a town,” Boris mutters bitterly and helplessly. And the point here is not only in the faces of the “tyrants”: the wild one is even picturesque in his ugliness, unbridled arrogance and drunkenness; The boar is both formidable and pitiful in her almost animal jealousy for her daughter-in-law, c. attempts to force everyone to build a life on their own. But the main thing is the feeling of stuffiness, the terrible pre-storm stuffiness of the city, which is so beautifully spread out on the Volga coast.

Katerina's "ideality" is not the girlish ideality of a naive soul. Behind her is the bitter experience of forcing herself: life with an unloved husband, obedience to an evil mother-in-law, getting used to abuse, reproaches, high blank fences, locked gates, stuffy featherbeds, long family tea parties. But the sharper and more dazzling are the flashes of her natural elevated attitude to life - the craving for beauty, for the religious ideal, for what is still glimmering in childhood impressions and for which there is neither price nor name. We can say that this play is about fear and a hostile feeling of freedom. A sudden desire to fly like a bird, and the memory of a pillar of light in the church, as if the clouds were walking and angels were singing, and the memory of the serene time of youth, when she ran "on the key" and watered the flowers ... Lakshin V.Ya. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. M., 1976

Maybe not so broad and intelligible are those concepts of beauty that Katerina’s heart feeds on, but this very possibility of the soul, its unfilled volume, its secret “valence”, the unfulfilled ability to absorb a lot into itself and combine with a lot, is important. Her exalted religiosity, unquenched desire for spiritual life - some kind of marvel in dead city Kalinov, where everyone needs fear, where there is a “thunderstorm” for all people.

The storm in the play is not only an image of a spiritual upheaval, but also of fear; punishment, sin, parental authority, human judgment.

“There will be no thunderstorm over me for two weeks,” Tikhon rejoices, leaving for Moscow. Of course, this is only one facet of the image, and the thunderstorm in the play lives with all the naturalness of a natural diva: it moves in heavy clouds, thickens with motionless stuffiness, bursts into thunder and lightning and refreshing rain - and with all this, a state of depression, moments of horror of public recognition and then the tragic release, relief in the soul of Katerina Ostrovsky A.N. "Thunderstorm", S. 15.

Such spiritual talent and such integrity, like Katerina, one reward is death. And love for Boris, honest, respectable, but not able to respond to this strength and brightness of feeling, the path to her death. and it cannot be otherwise: free feeling is doomed, retribution is already being prepared for it. What is to blame for this: tyrannical living conditions, traditional notions of "sin" or an existential sense of guilt? One way or another, the tragedy of The Thunderstorm is deep and genuine. Ostrovsky the comedian proved his right to be considered a dramatic poet. Ibid., p. 17.

This is something ... - the background of the play, revealing the precariousness and the near end of tyranny. Then the very character of Katerina, drawn against this background, also breathes new life into us, which opens up to us in her very death ... Ibid., p. and under domestic torture and over the abyss into which the poor woman threw herself ... Ibid., p. 22

If in The Thunderstorm, in the image of Katerina, the soul of Russian patriarchal antiquity perished, then in The Dowry, the gentle, sublime, poetic, truly incomparable (i.e., having no similarities, repetitions) Larisa was killed by the spirit of huckstering.

According to the critic K. Kostelyanets, A.N. Ostrovsky in Larisa draws the image of a girl who has no resemblance to herself, the incomparable Kostelyants B. O. “Dowry” A.N. Ostrovsky. -- L., 1982, p.56.

The drama The Thunderstorm (1859), written at the time of public upsurge on the eve of the Peasant Reform, crowned the first decade of the writer's activity, the cycle of his plays about petty tyrants, begun by "His people ...". The artist's imagination takes us to the small Volga town of Kalinov - with merchants' storehouses on the main street, with an old church where pious parishioners go to pray, with a public garden over the river, where the townsfolk walk decorously on holidays, with gatherings on benches at the boarded gate, behind which watchdogs bark furiously. The rhythm of life is slow, sleepy, boring, a match for that languidly stuffy summer day, which begins the action of the play.

Following the drama, gradually tied up on this ordinary, meager background with vibrant colors, listening to the replicas actors, we will soon notice that two impressions, two motives in the play argue, are at enmity with one another, creating a sharp contrast. Together with Kuligin, we admire the beauty of the view from the high bank of the Volga, we breathe deeply Fresh air from the river and we distinguish a faint aroma of wildflowers, flying from the Volga meadows ... Somewhere very close there is a world of nature, space, freedom. And here, in the city houses, there is semi-darkness, the musty spirit of merchants' rooms, and tyranny, intoxicated with unlimited self-will, power over dependent and "junior" Ostrovsky A.N. Thunderstorm, p. 18

A.N. Ostrovsky - "bytovik" carefully paints the whole way of the patriarchal-merchant life, closed in four walls. A.N. Ostrovsky - a dramatic poet - makes you feel the beauty and attraction of another world - naturalness, the expanse of life, primordial freedom. The touchstone in the play is again love. Four heroes, one way or another, compete, hoping to find the favor of Larisa Ogudalova. But in the play, oddly enough, there is least of all love, and one can speak of rivalry only conditionally.

They talk about Larisa, admire her, claim her attention, decide her future for her, and she herself - in a strange way - all the time seems to be on the sidelines: her desires, her feelings are of no interest to anyone. Larisa must recognize the correctness of Karandyshev's insulting, like a slap in the face, words: “They do not look at you as a woman, as a person - a person himself controls his own destiny; they look at you as a thing” Ostrovsky A.N. "Dowry" - S. 24. Yes, and the fiance of Larisa - Karandysheva - seems to think the same way. Like Dostoevsky's heroes, small people with painfully inflated "ambition" and hurt by their addiction, Karandyshev is obsessed with petty-bourgeois envy of wealth and success. He stretches with all his might to be level with the others. Ridiculous are his attempts to gather a “chosen society” around Larisa, his plebeian snobbery is pathetic, forcing him to start at least a poor carriage with a horse, which Vozhevatov mockingly calls a “camel”. And his attempt to arrange a dinner party is completely absurd and ridiculous, started for the sake of the desire to “make himself big” in front of Larisa’s former admirers and ending so shamefully Ibid, p. 26.

In this world of vanity and lovelessness, the impressionable Larisa feels cold and uncomfortable from the very beginning. Here she silently sits down in the first act at the railing of the fence and looks through binoculars over the Volga, deeply lost in her thoughts. Penny passions boil around, the struggle of vanities, petty lusts, and Larisa is alone, alone with her thoughts and dreams. Reluctantly, with difficulty, as if waking up, she returns to the world around her ... Ibid., p. 28

According to the complex picture of the hidden spiritual experiences, "Dowry" represents, but the first word in the work of Ostrovsky and in this capacity anticipates Chekhov's psychological drama. Ostrovsky himself, probably, was aware of its unusualness and wrote this way, sending the drama to St. Petersburg: "This play begins a new kind of my works." Larisa accepts Karandyshev's shot as a mercy, a beneficence: death will not allow her to sink further and die morally. She thanks Karandyshev and dies to the loud chorus of gypsies, sending her tormentors a farewell kiss. In all this - and in death in the midst of a gypsy revelry, there is some kind of sacrilege. From this scene, amazing in its tragic depth, one breathes with grave cold indifference, complete disappointment in life and good ... Ostrovsky A.N. "Dowry" - S. 24

The feat of A.N. Ostrovsky the playwright, who created the Russian folk theater, is supplemented and reinforced by his feat as the guardian and co-creator of the living Great Russian speech, as it developed by the middle of the 19th century.

From his plays, we learn how Russian people spoke, quarreled, reconciled, declared their love, mocked, confessed, denounced, swore, met and said goodbye a hundred and fifty years ago. What made his word luminous was not an exact copy from nature, but the creation of a lively, characteristic intonation and phraseology. We know, say, the expression: "the heart is not in the right place." But Ostrovsky also has something else: “the heart of the house”, that is, the soul is good, calm. “To understand one’s heart,” according to Ostrovsky, means to clarify one’s feelings, etc. This depth and variety of meanings, the richness of verbal overtones, give an idea of what can be called the philosophy of language of the playwright.

While there is an abundance of shades of living speech, while the process of expanding the lexical universe, enriching and rethinking concepts, while the language pleases with sudden discoveries and sharp inventions for the native mind, while it retains historical memory about the word of the ancestors, we can assume that the people - its bearer - are on the rise, folk soul does not dry out, but straightens out and is full of life. This means that in everyday life, in people's relationships, in their labor and trade activities, there is still enough real, not alienated from life, and this is clearly manifested in the images of Katerina and Larisa. Ostrovsky A.N. "Dowry" - S. 26

The aspirations and desires of the people around her are aimed precisely at likening her to other women, imposing on her a way of life that is alien to her desires, but corresponding to the real laws of the world around her Ostrovsky A.N. "Dowry" - S. 28.

Larisa cannot and does not want to obey these laws, therefore the play, which begins with “chatter in a coffee shop”, ends in a disaster, but Larisa’s soul flies away cleansed and enlightened by suffering, forgiving everyone and blessing - life. The merchants in The Dowry (1878) bear little resemblance to those with whom the playwright introduced us in The Thunderstorm.

There is not even a trace of patriarchal rudeness, Domostroevskoy hardiness in them. The owners of trading firms and shipping companies, and not shops and storehouses, they wear European suits instead of merchant undercoats, they no longer live in the fables of the wanderer Feklusha, but breaking news Parisian newspapers.

Russia enters civilization in a bizarre way, in its own way. The millionaire Knurov is so important that he is silent almost all the time, not finding worthy interlocutors for himself - he travels to St. Petersburg and abroad to talk. Vozhevatov’s “Europeanization” is expressed in the fact that instead of the traditional merchant’s tea from a samovar, he drinks champagne poured into teapots in a coffee shop in the morning, “so that people don’t say anything bad” Ostrovsky A.N. "Dowry" - S. 30. With these new merchants, whom the nobles had previously despised as miserable "altynniks", Paratov, the "brilliant gentleman", does not find it shameful to make friends. The strife of the estates is gradually being erased, a tight wallet begins to completely determine the wearing, and only a special chic, metropolitan elegance and “breadth of nature”, or, more simply, a propensity for extravagance, still distinguish Paratov from the Bryakhimov merchants Ostrovsky A.N. "Dowry" - S. 32.

It is no longer the power of authority and established traditions, as in The Thunderstorm, nor the fear of the "seniors" that decide the matter in this environment. Frank cynicism, cold prudence, which does not consider it necessary to disguise itself, brazenly going on the offensive, confident in the irresistibility of the arguments of banknotes and checkbooks - this is what determines the psychology of the heroes of "Dowry".

Thus, the main characters of two, probably, the most popular plays by A.N. Ostrovsky differ significantly in their social status, but they are very similar in their tragic destinies. Katerina in The Thunderstorm is the wife of a wealthy but weak-willed merchant who is completely under the influence of a despotic mother. Larisa in "Dowry" is a beautiful unmarried girl who lost her father early and was raised by her mother, a poor woman, very energetic, to tyranny, in contrast to her mother-in-law who terrorizes Katerina, who is not inclined. The boar cares about the happiness of her son Tikhon, as she understands him. In both cases, the heroines are destined to die, although relatives and friends seem to wish them only good. However, much more important is not the similarity of situations, but the deep difference in the characters of Katerina and Larisa.

Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky's play "The Dowry" is considered to be a true masterpiece of Russian dramaturgy. It compares favorably with deep psychologism, colorful images, and the acuteness of social and personal issues. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the literary analysis of the work according to the plan, which will be useful to students in grade 10 in preparation for a lesson in literature.

Brief analysis

Year of writing- 1874-1878 years.

History of creation- As the basis of the plot, Ostrovsky, who held the honorary position of a justice of the peace, took the real story of the death of a young woman who died at the hands of her own husband. The author worked on the play for four years, from 1874 to 1878. At first, the work did not receive recognition, but after a while it became a resounding success.

Subject- Distorted relationships in a society in which the principles of "purchase and sale" reign. Any person, any act can be bought, the only question is the price.

Composition– A work consisting of four acts is characterized by a linear composition. The first act is the exposition and application (Arrival of Paratov), the second act is the development of the plot (Larisa's strong love for Paratov, for which she is ready for great sacrifices), the third act is the culmination (lunch at Karandyshev's), the fourth act is the denouement (Larisa's death) .

Genre- A play. Socio-psychological drama.

Direction- Realism.

History of writing

In the 70s of the 19th century, Alexander Nikolayevich served as a magistrate of the Kineshma district. On duty, he took part in high-profile court hearings and was well acquainted with the criminal chronicle of that time. All this gave Ostrovsky, as a writer, rich literary material, which he often used in his works.

Presumably, the plot of "Dowry" was based on real history, which shook the entire Kineshma district, when a local resident Ivan Konovalov killed his own young beautiful wife.

Ostrovsky began writing the play in the fall of 1874. However, parallel work on other works delayed her writing for four long years. Having successfully passed the censorship, "Dowry" was published in 1879 in the literary magazine "Domestic Notes".

The first performances were a failure and caused sharp criticism in their address. Such rejection was due to the fact that the author managed to open painful ulcers on the body of society. Such courage was not to everyone's taste, and was received with hostility by both theater critics and ordinary readers.

And only in the 90s of the 19th century, almost 10 years after the death of the writer, the well-deserved success came to the play.

Subject

The essence of Ostrovsky's drama fully reflects the meaning of the title- "Dowry". Previously, this was the name of poor girls who did not have a penny for their souls. Their position was very humiliating and difficult - rarely did anyone want to create a family with a dependent, who had to be fully supported all his life. Only beauty, upbringing and inner qualities could attract the attention of a worthy groom, ready to turn a blind eye to the lack of a dowry from the bride.

Thus, the author draws one of the serious problems of a society in which a person appears as a commodity that can be bought or sold. Few people are interested in the personality of a person, his emotional experiences, since everyone pursues only one goal - not to sell too cheap.

Larisa Ogudalova is a sensitive, kind and vulnerable girl, a real beauty, who, nevertheless, has one significant drawback - the lack of a dowry. They see the meaning of their lives in the search true love, and soon finds her in the face of Sergei Paratov. She sees his image in a kind of halo, endowing him with virtues that do not exist in reality.

However, soon the romantic veil falls from the eyes of the heroine, and she sensibly assesses the current situation. The people around her, including her own mother, see in her only luxurious fun, an expensive toy that can be boasted in society. Even in close circle, no one seeks to look into her soul, to show sincere participation in her.

Larisa comes to the sad conclusion that she is a thing that should be sold at a higher price. The collision of a pure soul with a vicious material world invariably leads to a tragic denouement - the death of the main character. However, Larisa finds consolation in her death, as it gives her long-awaited freedom.

Composition

In The Dowry, the analysis includes a description compositional structure works. The composition of the play is sustained according to all classical laws, and consists of four acts:

first act contains an exposition and a plot (a description of the life of Larisa and her family, the arrival of Paratov);
in the second act a development of events takes place (Larisa is becoming more and more convinced that her personal happiness is possible only with Paratov, and for his sake she is ready to sacrifice a lot);
third act- climax (lunch at Karandyshev's, Larisa's singing, which, in fact, is pure and sincere recognition love for Paratov);
fourth act- denouement (the death of Larisa, who, at the moment of her death, from the bottom of her heart forgives all those who, one way or another, are guilty of her death).

All events take place during the day, which further enhances the drama of the story. The linear composition allows the author to convey the motives of the behavior of the main characters as accurately as possible. It becomes clear that their actions are largely determined not only by character traits, but also by the environment in which they live.

Main characters

Genre

The play "Dowry" is fully consistent with the genre of drama, since it presents the difficult fate of the main character, forced to live in a constant conflict of her soul and society.

The purpose of the socio-psychological drama, to which "Dowry" belongs, is to reveal to the reader all the hardships that a person has to face in an alien environment. As a rule, the main characters of the drama expect internal contradictions, spiritual suffering, and, as a result, a tragic fate. But at the same time, the drama fully reflects the realities of life around, making you think about many important problems that prevail in any society.

Ostrovsky "Dowry" - composition "The tragic fate of Larisa in the "dark kingdom" (based on the play by A. N. Ostrovsky "Dowry")"

The heroes of Ostrovsky's plays are most often women. Of course, these women are extraordinary and extraordinary personalities. Suffice it to recall the heroine of the drama "Thunderstorm" Katerina. She is so emotional, impressionable that she stands apart from other heroes of the play. The fate of Katerina is somewhat similar to the fate of another heroine of Ostrovsky. In this case we are talking about the play "Dowry".
Larisa Ogudalova had to experience the indifference and cruelty of those around her, endure a love drama, and as a result she dies, just like the heroine of Thunderstorm. But with a seeming similarity, Larisa Ogudalova is the owner of a completely different character than Katerina Kabanova. The girl received an excellent education. She is smart, sophisticated, educated, dreams of beautiful love, but initially her life is very different. She is a dowry. Larisa's mother is very mercenary. She trades in the beauty and youth of her daughters. Larisa's older sisters have already been “attached” thanks to the cares of a resourceful parent, but, unfortunately, their life is very, very tragic.
Larisa Ogudalova falls in love with the "brilliant gentleman" Sergei Sergeevich Paratov. She sincerely considers him the ideal of a man. The master has a fortune, he fully corresponds to the idea of a noble and educated person. Its inner essence is revealed later. Larisa is young and inexperienced, so she falls into Paratov's trap and destroys herself. She does not possess strong character and becomes a toy in the hands of others. It comes to the fact that the girl is played in a toss. People around her consider her a thing, expensive and beautiful fun, and her sublime soul, beauty and talent are not important. Karandyshev says to Larisa: "They don't look at you like a woman, like a person... they look at you like a thing."
She herself agrees with this: “Thing ... yes, thing! They are right, I am a thing, I am not a man...”.
Larisa has an ardent heart, she is sincere and emotional. She generously gives her love, but what does she get in return? For her loved one, Larisa is another entertainment, fun. Out of desperation, she even agrees to accept Knurov's conditions.
Death is a kind of salvation for Larisa, spiritual salvation, of course. Such a tragic ending saves her from the difficult choice that she is trying to make, saves her from moral death and falling into the abyss called depravity.

Ostrovsky's drama "Dowry" is built on the classical naturalness and simplicity of the characters' images, but at the same time on the complexity of their characters and actions. that they are simpler, easy to understand.

Goncharov, discussing the basis of Ostrovsky's drama, said that the playwright "as if he does not want to resort to the plot - this artificiality is below him: he must sacrifice to it part of the truthfulness, integrity of character, precious touches of morals, details of everyday life - and he more willingly lengthens the action, cools the viewer , if only to carefully preserve what he sees and smells alive and true in nature.

Ostrovsky's work does not fit into any of the classical genre forms, this gave Dobrolyubov a reason to speak of it as a "play of life". In "Dowry" Ostrovsky comes to the disclosure of complex, subtle, psychologically polyphonic human characters. He shows us a life conflict, the reader lives this short period of life as a resident of the same city of Bryakhimov, or, even more interesting, like any hero of the drama.

Larisa Ogudalova- main character dramas, all the action is around her, intrigues "roam".

Larisa is a girl, even more fragile, unprotected than it seems at first glance. In my opinion, it can be compared with a white noble rose. The girl is just as gentle and beautiful, it is not for nothing that she is called the "decoration of the city." But on the other hand, they say about Larisa that she is "an expensive piece of jewelry that requires a good jeweler." Maybe it would be nice, but here, in the play, these words sounded impudent and vulgar. After all, here Larisa is evaluated as a thing, in this case, as a precious stone. Of course, precious is flattering, but a stone is something cold, inanimate, insensitive, not at all suitable for Larisa's romantic nature.

Her soul is refined, bright, musical, sensitive and melodic. Larisa is like a spark in this city, like the heroine of one of the Russian romances that she loves to sing so much. After listening to romances in her own performance, she begins to dream of pure love, about a strong family, a loving wife.

But things don't work out the way the girl wants. At the core of the drama social theme. Larisa is poor, she is a girl without a material dowry, but at the same time she has a rich inner world, which we will not find in any of the heroes of the drama. Larisa lives in a world where everything is bought and sold, even girlish beauty and love. But, getting lost in her dreams, in her rainbow world, she does not notice the most disgusting sides in people, she does not notice an ugly attitude towards herself, Larisa sees only good everywhere and in everyone and believes that people are like that.

This is how Larisa made a mistake in Paratov. He leaves the girl in love for the sake of profit, destroys at his own will. After, Larisa is preparing to marry Karandyshev. The girl perceives him as a kind poor man who is not understood by others. But the heroine does not understand and does not feel the envious, proud nature of Karandyshev. Indeed, in his attitude towards Larisa, there is more complacency for owning such a precious stone as Larisa.

At the end of the drama, Larisa comes to a realization. She realizes with horror and bitterness that everyone around perceives her as a thing or, even worse, wants to make her a kept woman, such as Knurov and Vozhevatov.

And then the heroine utters the words: "Thing ... yes thing. They are right, I am a thing, not a person." Larisa, in desperation, tries to rush into the Volga, but she cannot, she is afraid to part with her life, no matter how useless and unhappy it may seem to her.

The frustrated girl finally understands that in this world everything is evaluated by "the rustle of banknotes", and then she decides: "If it is to be a thing, then one consolation is to be expensive."

Karandyshev's shot is salvation in Larisa's eyes, she is glad that she belongs only to herself again, they cannot sell or buy her, she is free. Larisa Karandysheva finds a shadow of nobility and a living human feeling in the imprudent accidental act of Karandysheva, and her spiritual drama finally ends, for the first time the heroine feels for real happy and free.

The drama of A. N. Ostrovsky "Dowry" is a remarkable play of the late period of the writer's work. It was conceived in 1874, completed in 1878 and staged in Moscow and St. Petersburg the same year.

M. Ermolova, M. Savina, and later V. Komissarzhevskaya - the best actors of the capital's theaters - took on the role of Larisa Ogudalova. What captivated them so this wonderful heroine?

The drama of A. N. Ostrovsky "Dowry" is a remarkable play of the late period of the writer's work. It was conceived in 1874, completed in 1878 and staged in Moscow and St. Petersburg the same year. M. Ermolova, M. Savina, and later V. Komissarzhevskaya - the best actors of the capital's theaters - took on the role of Larisa Ogudalova. What captivated them so this wonderful heroine?

Larisa Ogudalova is distinguished by her truthfulness, sincerity, directness of character, thus reminiscent of Katerina from Thunderstorm. According to Vozhevaty, there is no "cunning" in Larisa Dmitrievna. With the heroine of "Thunderstorm" brings her high poetry. Larisa is attracted by the trans-Volga distance, the forests across the river, the beauty itself is beckoning - the Volga with its spaciousness. "Earthly, this worldly is not" - notes Knurov. And in fact: it is all as if raised above the dirt of reality, above the vulgarity and baseness of life. In the depths of her soul, like a bird, which she herself looks like, beats a dream of a beautiful and noble, honest and quiet life, Translated from Greek, Larisa means "seagull", and this is no coincidence.

Shouldn't you prefer your mother's lifestyle? Harita Ignatievna, left a widow with three daughters, is constantly cunning and cunning, flattering and fawning, begging from the rich and accepting their handouts. She set up a real noisy "gypsy camp" in her house to create the appearance of beauty and brilliance of life. And all this in order to trade as living goods under the cover of this tinsel. She had already ruined two daughters, now it was the turn of the third to trade. But Larisa cannot accept this way of life of her mother, it is alien to her. The mother tells her daughter to smile, but she wants to cry. And she asks her fiancé to tear her out of this "bazaar" surrounding her, where there are a lot of "all sorts of rabble", to take her away, beyond the Volga.

However, Larisa is a dowry, a poor, penniless bride. She has to put up with it. In addition, she herself managed to catch a craving for external brilliance. Larisa is devoid of integrity of character, her mental life pretty controversial. She not only does not want to see the vulgarity and cynicism of the people around her, but - for quite a long time - she cannot see. All this distinguishes her from Katerina. Abandoning her mother's lifestyle, she exists among vulgar admirers.

First, an old man with gout appeared in the house. Larisa clearly does not want this unequal marriage, but "it was necessary to be amiable: mother orders." Then the wealthy manager of some prince, always drunk, would "run in". Larisa is not up to him, but in the house they accept him: "her position is unenviable." Then a certain cashier "appeared" who bombarded Kharita Ignatievna with money. This one repulsed everyone, but did not show off for long. Circumstances helped the bride here: in their house he was arrested with a scandal.

Larisa Ogudalova falls in love with the "brilliant gentleman" Sergei Sergeevich Paratov. She sincerely considers him the ideal of a man. The master has a fortune, he fully corresponds to the idea of a noble and educated person. Its inner essence is revealed later. Larisa is young and inexperienced, so she falls into Paratov's trap and destroys herself. She does not have a strong character and becomes a toy in the hands of others. It comes to the fact that the girl is played in a toss. People around her consider her a thing, expensive and beautiful fun, and her sublime soul, beauty and talent are not important. Karandyshev says to Larisa: "They do not look at you as a woman, as a person ... they look at you as a thing."

She herself agrees with this: "Thing ... yes, a thing! They are right, I am a thing, I am not a person ...".

Larisa has an ardent heart, she is sincere and emotional. She generously gives her love, but what does she get in return? For her loved one, Larisa is another entertainment, fun. Out of desperation, she even agrees to accept Knurov's conditions.

Death is a kind of salvation for Larisa, spiritual salvation, of course. Such a tragic ending saves her from the difficult choice that she is trying to make, saves her from moral death and falling into the abyss called depravity.

The only way out that Larisa finds is to leave this world. Larisa at first wanted to commit suicide herself. She went to the cliff and looked down, but unlike Katerina, she did not have the determination and strength to accomplish her plan. Nevertheless, the death of Larisa is a foregone conclusion and prepared by the whole play. Suddenly a shot is heard from the pier (this is what Larisa is frightened of). Then the ax in the hands of Karandyshev is mentioned. He calls certain death falling off a cliff. Larisa talks about Paratov's "indifferent shot" at the coin she was holding. She herself thinks that here on any knot "you can hang yourself", but on the Volga "it's easy to drown yourself everywhere." Robinson anticipates a possible murder. Finally, Larisa dreams: "What if someone killed me now?"

The death of the heroine becomes inevitable, and it comes. In an insane fit of the owner, doing a great good deed for her, Karandyshev kills her. This is the last and involuntary choice of the dowry. Thus ends the tragedy of the main character of Ostrovsky's play.

"Dowry" is a drama about the catastrophe of the individual in an inhuman world. This is a work about the tragedy of an ordinary Russian woman, a dowry with a warm loving heart.

Why is the seagull crying?

Combined lesson - reflection with elements critical thinking based on the play by A.N. Ostrovsky "Dowry" Grade 10 Teacher of the school-lyceum "Daryn", Petropavlovsk Demchenko Inna Nikolaevna
Subject: Causes of the tragic fate of Larisa in the drama of A.N. Ostrovsky "Dowry"
Goals:Educational: to determine the causes of the conflict in the play, to reveal its social and psychological conditioning, to find out the meaning of the title of the work; Developing: development of creative potential, search skills, reflection skills, communication skills; Educational: awakening attention to inner world of a person, the education of humanistic consciousness in understanding the topic of an act and responsibility for it, the education of moral sensitivity.
Equipment: multimedia equipment, episodes of the film " Cruel romance”, associative drawings, illustration of the artistic space of the play.

During the classes

I consider "Dowry" one of the best dram Ostrovsky, main point which - in the clash of love and cynicism, an eternal problem... E. Ryazanov 1. Organizational moment. Today we will reflect on the work of A.N. Ostrovsky "Dowry". We will try to find out the reasons for the tragic fate of Larisa, to assess the actions of the heroes of the play. 2. Word of the teacher."Dowry" was written in 1879. Why do we, people living in the 21st century, turn to this work with unflagging interest? Why is this drama still being staged on the stages of the leading theaters, why has the Soviet cinema repeatedly turned to it? The answer to these questions is in the words of the wonderful Russian director, director, actor, screenwriter Eldar Ryazanov. These words became the epigraph for today's lesson. Ostrovsky raises eternal problem clashes of love with arrogance, shamelessness, neglect. 3. Brain attack.What made you think about the piece? What feelings did it evoke in you? The students formulate the results of the primary comprehension as a continuation of the following sentences: I can say that...Captures…It can be assumed, that…Want to understand... You voiced those questions, the answers to which we will try to find in today's lesson.
4. Statement of the problem. Every person has disappointments, losses, partings, tragedies in his life. What helps a person in difficult times to endure and not break, not to reach the extreme point, to the last decision?
Building a cluster. Students name those phenomena that can be the meaning of human life. Meaning of life love family friends money work goal in life What of all these components was in the fate of Larisa Ogudalova?
5. Work in groups.1 group. Family. Harita Ignatievna Ogudalova.What can you say about a woman, judging by her name?What does the daughter of a “loving mother” teach?Does mother understand Larisa?What is the relationship between Kharita Ignatievna and Knurov?
The name of the heroine says that she strives for grace, beauty, luxury, but there is in her gypsy cunning, resourcefulness, the ability to adapt and even cheat. The Ogudalov family has become impoverished and now occupies an ambiguous position. For Kharita Ignatievna, ostentatious nobility and luxury are a necessity in order to successfully marry off their daughters. Knurov and Vozhevatov speak of her as “brisk”, “agile”, because She wants to make the most of everything. With rich people, she is flattering and cunning. This is what she teaches her daughter. She is sure that without cunning you will not live. To Larisa’s words about disgust for cunning, pretense and humiliation, she answers with irony: “Eco is a terrible word ...” (reading out an excerpt). Harita Ignatievna does not understand Larisa, does not approve of her decision to marry Karandyshev, makes fun of her desire to leave for the village, does not agree to her daughter's request to play a modest wedding. Throughout the work, Harita Ignatievna begs Knurov for money, and on the eve of the wedding, she agrees to the offer of a wealthy merchant to be Larisa's landlord, in the event that she leaves Karandyshev. In this conspiracy, Harita Ignatievna reached the extreme degree of greed, to complete disregard for the concepts of honor. Associations. Explanation by students of their associative drawings, which depict objects and animals with which they associate the image of Kharita Ignatievna. (Cuckoo, crow, chest, etc.) Conclusion: Larisa cannot get family support.
Friends: M.P. Knurov and V.D. Vozhevatov.How do merchants characterize their names?Are they friendly to Larisa?Rate their actions. The names of merchants speak of the baseness of their desires, the immorality of their behavior. These are merchants of a new formation, they have acquired an external gloss, they are educated, able to see and appreciate beauty. But they are pragmatists. Everything in this world is measured by profit. They treat Larisa like an expensive thing that needs a jeweler. Knurov is suitable for Larisa's father, but he treats her not paternally. He is not a spender and gives money to Harita Ignatievna for a reason. Knurov is counting on her help in dealing with Larisa, whom he wants to see as his kept woman. Vozhevatov laughs at Larisa's feelings, plays her toss and refuses her even sympathy. Associations.(Heart of ice, vultures, etc.) Conclusion: There are no friends next to Larisa.
2 group. Love: S.S. ParatovWhat is the etymology of the surname Sergei Sergeevich?Why doesn't Ostrovsky avoid Paratov's romance with Larisa?How does Paratov compare favorably with other merchants?Was there love for Larisa? Why, then, destroys it without hesitation?
"Porty" - lively, strong, hefty. We see physical and moral strength in S.S. Paratov. In the novel with Larisa, Paratov's nature is most fully revealed. The complexity, ambiguity of nature is manifested in courage, prowess, respect for working people (barge haulers) , but, on the other hand, in mockery of Karandyshev, disdain for Robinson, cruelty to Larisa. For Paratov, there is nothing cherished in life except profit. He differs from other merchants in that he is capable of lofty impulses, of falling in love, of taking off, but unfortunately this is chivalry for an hour. Overwhelmed by the desire to be with Larisa, he takes her away from Karandyshev's house, without thinking about the consequences. At this moment, selfishness and irresponsibility are manifested in him. Associations(Kite over a dove, hurricane, shiny coin) Conclusion: Love turns out to be a deceit, a betrayal.
Group 3: Yu.K.Karandyshev.Why does the character have such a strange name? Why did your attitude towards Karandyshev change while watching the film: at first you felt sorry for him, and then you felt hostility towards him? Did he love Larissa?What is the purpose of the dinner hosted by Julius Kapitonovich?What character traits of Karandyshev are revealed during lunch? In the "high" name - an application for greatness, the desire to appear significant, and the prosaic patronymic and surname betray a petty essence. Karandyshev is a tragicomic character. He was humiliated, insulted, ignored, and " small man' fell ill with vanity. He becomes disgusting, because he strives to imitate the strong, he even treats Larisa like a merchant, like a thing. Perhaps he was in love with Larisa, but stronger in him was the desire to assert himself next to her, to magnify himself, to enter the society of the rich and strong. Karandyshev reproaches Larisa with a "camp" and calls for a change in lifestyle, but he himself is in no hurry to leave for the village, because. reaching out for publicity. The dinner that Karandyshev arranges is necessary for him to emphasize his superiority, motivating him by the choice of Larisa. The toast uttered by Julius Kapitonych in honor of Larisa turned out to be a toast in honor of himself. Arrogance darkens his eyes to the point of stupidity. Associations(idol, inflated ant) Conclusion: Karandyshchev is not a savior. He also pursues his goals.

In the cluster, we crossed out all the components. There is nothing in life that would support Larisa in a moment of betrayal and disappointment. Larisa is a dowry not only because she has no money, but also because there is nothing that would make her stronger. Group 4: Larisa Ogudalova Watching an excerpt from the film.
Why does the author give the heroine this name?What traits of Larisa's character does the listened romance reveal?What internal conflict is present in Larisa?Why did Paratov become the chosen one of the heart?Can she be happy with Karandyshev?Can you justify Larissa's departure with the merchants to the Lastochka?How do you assess Larisa's decision to agree to Knurov's proposal?Can Larisa be called a romantic heroine?
Larisa is a seagull, a bird with a cry similar to crying, a bird tearing up from the ground. This is how the heroine appears before us. She is trusting, romantic, it is common for her to attribute non-existent virtues to people. Merchants note in her ingenuity, inability to live. Larisa hates the noise and brilliance that her mother seeks to create around her, but she herself reached out with all her heart to the same noisy and brilliant Paratov. She does not see meanness in him, but sees the breadth of the soul, masculinity, strength and intelligence. She cannot be happy with Karandyshev, because agreed to marry him out of desperation. In response to his reproaches by the “camps”, Larisa hurts his pride with frank words about marrying him out of hopelessness. Therefore, she went for Paratov, as soon as he called. Agreeing to Knurov's proposal, Larisa pronounces a sentence on herself worse than death: "I am a thing!" She is grateful to Karandyshev for doing what she did not have the courage to do.
Why does the play and the film often have the image of a temple, a bell ringing? How does this relate to the ending of the play?

Larisa Ogudalova had to experience the indifference and cruelty of those around her, endure a love drama, and as a result she dies, just like the heroine of Thunderstorm. But with a seeming similarity, Larisa Ogudalova is the owner of a completely different character than Katerina Kabanova. The girl received an excellent education. She is smart, sophisticated, educated, dreams of beautiful love, but initially her life is very different. She is a dowry. Larisa's mother is very mercenary. She trades in the beauty and youth of her daughters. Larisa's older sisters have already been “attached” thanks to the cares of a resourceful parent, but, unfortunately, their life is very, very tragic.
Larisa Ogudalova falls in love with the "brilliant gentleman" Sergei Sergeevich Paratov. She sincerely considers him the ideal of a man. The master has a fortune, he fully corresponds to the idea of a noble and educated person. Its inner essence is revealed later. Larisa is young and inexperienced, so she falls into Paratov's trap and destroys herself. She does not have a strong character and becomes a toy in the hands of others. It comes to the fact that the girl is played in a toss. People around her consider her a thing, expensive and beautiful fun, and her sublime soul, beauty and talent are not important. Karandyshev says to Larisa: "They don't look at you like a woman, like a person... they look at you like a thing."
She herself agrees with this: “Thing ... yes, thing! They are right, I am a thing, I am not a man...”.
Larisa has an ardent heart, she is sincere and emotional. She generously gives her love, but what does she get in return? For her loved one, Larisa is another entertainment, fun. Out of desperation, she even agrees to accept Knurov's conditions.
Death is a kind of salvation for Larisa, spiritual salvation, of course. Such a tragic ending saves her from the difficult choice that she is trying to make, saves her from moral death and falling into the abyss called depravity.

Composition Ostrovsky A.N. - Dowry

Topic: - The tragic fate of Larisa in the "dark kingdom" (based on the play by A. N. Ostrovsky "Dowry")

The heroes of Ostrovsky's plays are most often women. Of course, these women are extraordinary and extraordinary personalities. Suffice it to recall the heroine of the drama "Thunderstorm" Katerina. She is so emotional, impressionable that she stands apart from other heroes of the play. The fate of Katerina is somewhat similar to the fate of another heroine of Ostrovsky. In this case, we are talking about the play "Dowry".
Larisa Ogudalova had to experience the indifference and cruelty of those around her, endure a love drama, and as a result she dies, just like the heroine of Thunderstorm. But with a seeming similarity, Larisa Ogudalova is the owner of a completely different character than Katerina Kabanova. The girl received an excellent education. She is smart, sophisticated, educated, dreams of beautiful love, but initially her life is very different. She is a dowry. Larisa's mother is very mercenary. She trades in the beauty and youth of her daughters. Larisa's older sisters have already been “attached” thanks to the cares of a resourceful parent, but, unfortunately, their life is very, very tragic.
Larisa Ogudalova falls in love with the "brilliant gentleman" Sergei Sergeevich Paratov. She sincerely considers him the ideal of a man. The master has a fortune, he fully corresponds to the idea of a noble and educated person. Its inner essence is revealed later. Larisa is young and inexperienced, so she falls into Paratov's trap and destroys herself. She does not have a strong character and becomes a toy in the hands of others. It comes to the fact that the girl is played in a toss. People around her consider her a thing, expensive and beautiful fun, and her sublime soul, beauty and talent are not important. Karandyshev says to Larisa: "They don't look at you like a woman, like a person... they look at you like a thing."
She herself agrees with this: “Thing ... yes, thing! They are right, I am a thing, I am not a man...”.
Larisa has an ardent heart, she is sincere and emotional. She generously gives her love, but what does she get in return? For her loved one, Larisa is another entertainment, fun. Out of desperation, she even agrees to accept Knurov's conditions.
Death is a kind of salvation for Larisa, spiritual salvation, of course. Such a tragic ending saves her from the difficult choice that she is trying to make, saves her from moral death and falling into the abyss called depravity.

A remarkable play of the late period of A. N. Ostrovsky's work is the drama "Dowry". Conceived in 1874, it was completed in 1878 and staged in Moscow and St. Petersburg the same year. The best actors of the capital's theaters - M. Yermolova, M. Savina, and later V. Komissarzhevskaya took up the role of Larisa Ogudalova. Why did this heroine captivate them so much?

The heroine of Ostrovsky is distinguished by truthfulness, sincerity, directness of character. In this respect, she is somewhat reminiscent of Katerina from Thunderstorm. According to Vozhevaty, there is no "cunning" in Larisa Dmitrievna. With the heroine of "Thunderstorm" brings her and high poetry. She is attracted by the trans-Volga distance, the forests across the river, the Volga itself beckons with its expanse. Knurov notes that in Larisa "the earthly, this worldly is not." And in fact: it is all as if raised above the dirt of reality, above the vulgarity and baseness of life. In the depths of her soul, like a bird, beats the dream of a beautiful and noble, honest and quiet life. And yes, she does look like a bird. It is no coincidence that her name is Larisa, which means "seagull" in Greek.

What attracts me to Ostrovsky's heroine is her musicality. She plays the piano and the guitar, besides, she sings beautifully, she deeply experiences what she performs, so that she awes and delights her listeners. Gypsies are close to her, in whom she appreciates the thirst for will and a penchant for an exciting song. Ostrovsky portrayed Larisa in his play in such a way that in the mind of the reader her image is inextricably merged with the romance:

True, Larisa is still far from disappointed (this will come to her later), but she has many “seductions”, “temptations”. She, in her words, "stands at a crossroads", is in front of a "choice".

However, Larisa is a dowry, a poor, penniless bride. She has to deal with it. In addition, she herself managed to catch a craving for external brilliance. Larisa is devoid of integrity of character, her spiritual life is rather contradictory. She does not want to see the vulgarity and cynicism of the people around her and - for quite a long time - she cannot see. All this distinguishes her from Katerina. Abandoning her mother's lifestyle, she exists among vulgar admirers.

But here he appears on the stage as an admirer of Vozhevatov. Larisa clearly sympathizes with him, especially since he is a friend of her childhood. He is friendly, young, cheerful, rich. But can Larisa choose him? Of course not. The heroine feels in her heart that this young merchant will go far with his greed, prudence and complacency. Gavrila correctly compares him with Knurov: "He will enter summer - he will be the same idol." In front of his eyes, his heart is stale. This is clearly seen in his bullying of Robinson. Vozhevatov even now looks somehow pathetic next to others. And a little time will pass, and he will betray the perishing Larisa, referring to his vile merchant's word. No, the heroine of Ostrovsky will not choose this gentleman, who, in addition, has no love for her at all.

And here is Knurov in front of her. This one is much richer, he manages big things, reads a French newspaper and prepares to go to Paris, to an industrial exhibition. He is smart, not fussy, like Vasya Vozhevatov, thorough. And most importantly - he is very passionate about Larisa, passionately loves her and is ready to put a lot at her feet. She sees and feels it. But he is painfully unsociable and silent. Well, what will she talk to him about, what will she sing when he is completely devoid of any sentiment? They don't call him an "idol" for nothing. And then he cynically offers her to become a kept woman, that is, he simply buys her, convincing her: "Don't be afraid of shame, there will be no condemnations. There are boundaries beyond which condemnation does not go." She doesn't know yet that he just won her in toss. And he still does not know that it is he, Knurov, who has been playing the game and the whole performance for a long time, considering it as an "expensive diamond" that requires a frame, a jeweler and a buyer. Not knowing everything, Larisa still refuses this choice. In her monologue at the bars, she rejects "luxury, brilliance" and "debauchery", repeating the word "no" three times.

Larisa is drawn to the ideal with her whole being. She is looking for him, rushes to him, not really realizing what he is in her particular case. She sees Paratov as such an ideal. But does it correspond to her ideas about the ideal?

Paratov is a wealthy metropolitan gentleman who embarked on entrepreneurship in the shipping business. At first glance, it is unusual. It is distinguished by scope, brilliance, love of chic. He appreciates the song and "volushka", generous and daring. Gypsies do not have a soul in him. Loves him and Larisa. She can't look at him enough, at his male beauty and daring. Vozhevatov exclaims: "And how much she loved him, she almost died of grief. How sensitive! .. She rushed to catch up with him, her mother turned back from the second station." Here it was and Larisa chose it.

But Paratov is not at all what he seems to her. He beat off all her suitors, "and the trace of him caught a cold." And then he returned, again deceives, amused and entertained by her. Larisa becomes a toy in his hands. And he himself is prudent, cunning and cruel. His nobility and breadth of nature are ostentatious. Behind them is a depraved and cynical reveler who, in his extravagance, does not forget about the profitable sales of ships and a rich bride with gold mines. And when once again Larisa is deceived, she makes her desperate choice. She accepts the proposal of Karandyshev, who has been spinning in her house for a long time. Larisa marries him, suffering, tormented, not loving and despising this random groom.

Who is Karandyshev? This is a petty official, over whom in a cynical society everyone scoffs and laughs. But he did not reconcile himself and, being an envious and painfully proud person, he claims to be self-affirmation and even significance. And now this tradesman wants to win a "victory" over the rich by marrying the beautiful Larisa, to laugh at them and, perhaps, break out into the people. It is a pity for him, as a humiliated poor man, but he also evokes contempt, as a petty envious person, a pathetic avenger and an inflated "bubble". Perhaps he loves Larisa, but he cannot appreciate her. For this he has neither talent, nor soul, nor taste. He does not have the humanity and poetry that the heroine dreams of. What to do? She has to be content with this mediocre chosen one. Maybe he will still create a quiet life for her? But more and more she is disgusted by his pettiness, spitefulness and buffoonery. His very love became somehow wild and absurd, turning into tyranny. Therefore, when he falls to his knees in front of Larisa and swears his feelings, she says: "You lie. I was looking for love and did not find it ..." Larisa's betrayal and the realization that she is being played like a thing enlighten Karandyshev, sober him up, something changes in it. But he remains himself and takes revenge on the heroine, who did not want to get him, telling her the cruel truth.

But Larisa herself had just found out about Paratov's deceit, and experienced a new outrage against her. It turns out that she is a thing. It always seemed to her that she was choosing, but it turned out that they were choosing her. And they don’t just choose, but pass it on to each other, move it like a puppet, throw it like a doll.

What to do? Maybe agree with Knurov's proposal? She sends for him. She doesn't need him, of course. But maybe prefer gold? “Every thing has its own price,” she bitterly ironically. “Now I have gold glittering before my eyes, diamonds sparkling.” Since she has not found love, she will look for gold. After all, Paratov could have found gold mines. There is no other choice anymore^ But no, and Larisa refuses this outcome. The play ends with a not at all expensive setting for a diamond.

Leaving this world is the true way out. Larisa tries to end her own life first. She approaches the cliff and looks down, but unlike Katerina, she did not have the determination and strength to commit suicide. However, her death is a foregone conclusion. It is prepared by the whole play. At the beginning of it, a shot is heard from the pier (Larisa is frightened of him). Then the ax in the hands of Karandyshev is mentioned. He calls certain death falling off a cliff. Larisa talks about Paratov's "indifferent shot" at the coin she was holding. She herself thinks that here on every knot "you can hang yourself," but in the Volga "it's easy to drown yourself everywhere." Robinson talks about a possible murder. Finally, Larisa dreams: "What if someone killed me now?"

The death of the heroine becomes inevitable. And she comes. Karandyshev kills her in a mad attack of the owner, doing a great good deed for her. Such is the last involuntary choice of the dowry. Thus ends her tragedy.

The comedic buffoonery of the actor Robinson and the gypsy choir at the end of the play seem to set off the tragedy of what happened, simultaneously introducing the popular opinion about the catastrophe that happened. Shaking his fist, the visiting author says: "Oh barbarians, robbers! Well, I got into the company!"

E. Ryazanov tried to transfer this extraordinary play to the screen. In his book Unsummoned, he writes about his work on the film Cruel Romance, talks about the "tragic situation" of the play, about the introduction of fog into the picture, which aggravated the "tragedy of what happened", about the "ruthless story" in the drama. But the director staged his film as a melodrama, and by this, it seems to me, he distorted the meaning of the play. The miscalculation, in my opinion, lurks already in the intention to give the script a "novel form". This already doomed the picture to the disappearance of tragedy from it. And then there's a clear bust with romances. In addition, the characters are melodramatically monochromatic: the "snow-white" Paratov is excessively seductive and the "gray" Karandyshev is too disgusting.

It is not clear how such a colorless, unpoetic Larisa could charm all the heroes? And why does Paratov himself sing several songs? I would like to ask why the heroine of the film goes for Knur's gold and why does Karandyshev shoot her in the back? After all, this removes the theme of beneficence and Larisa's refusal to choose in the spirit of Knurov. And the last thing - why do the gypsies dance so cheerfully and famously at the moment when the heroine dies? This is no longer a chorus, not popular opinion, but wild blasphemy for the sake of outward beauty. The rejection of the tragedy revealed in the play, in my opinion, is not justified.

"Dowry" by the great Russian playwright A. N. Ostrovsky is a drama about the catastrophe of a person in an inhuman world. This is a play about the tragedy of an ordinary dowry with a warm heart.

Larisa Ogudalova is distinguished by her truthfulness, sincerity, directness of character, thus reminiscent of Katerina from Thunderstorm. According to Vozhevaty, there is no "cunning" in Larisa Dmitrievna. With the heroine of "Thunderstorm" brings her high poetry. Larisa is attracted by the trans-Volga distance, the forests across the river, the beauty itself is beckoning - the Volga with its spaciousness. "Earthly, this worldly is not" - notes Knurov. And in fact: it is all as if raised above the dirt of reality, above the vulgarity and baseness of life. In the depths of her soul, like a bird, which she herself looks like, the dream of a beautiful and noble, honest and quiet life is beating. Translated from Greek, Larisa means "seagull", and this is not accidental.

However, Larisa is a dowry, a poor, penniless bride. She has to put up with it. In addition, she herself managed to catch a craving for external brilliance. Larisa is devoid of integrity of character, her spiritual life is rather contradictory. She not only does not want to see the vulgarity and cynicism of the people around her, but - for quite a long time - she cannot see. All this distinguishes her from Katerina. Abandoning her mother's lifestyle, she exists among vulgar admirers.

She herself agrees with this: "Thing ... yes, a thing! They are right, I am a thing, I am not a person ...".

"Dowry" is a drama about the catastrophe of the individual in an inhuman world. This is a work about the tragedy of an ordinary Russian woman, a dowry with a warm loving heart.

1. What is the essence of Ostrovsky's play?
2. Acquaintance with the heroine.
3. The moral character of merchants.

4. The tragedy of the heroine.

essence dramatic work A. N. Ostrovsky "Dowry" is to show the contradictions of the surrounding reality through the fate of the characters. The writer, penetrating into the life of the described estates, depicts his heroes in action, revealing them character traits. main topic Ostrovsky's works are a drama of personality in society. All lines of the play are devoted to the disclosure of this theme. Speaking of a woman in bourgeois society, the playwright reveals to the reader the true state of affairs.

In a quiet town on the Volga, there lives a girl of marriageable age, Larisa Ogudalova. There are many enviable suitors around, but Larisa is a dowry. Therefore, despite her spiritual qualities She is at a disadvantage. These men claim Larisa only as a beautiful thing, talking about her as about another business. The lyrical nature of Larisa at first does not understand this, she is looking for love. If not mutual, then at least self-love. Therefore, in the absence of other candidates, she agrees to become the wife of Karandyshev, who loves her. With this decision, she crosses out a year of empty suffering for another person - Sergei Paratov, deciding that family responsibilities will help to forget about him. But Paratov reappears in her life. He decided to say goodbye to a free single life, maybe he hardly remembers Ogudalova, but Larisa is sure that Sergey Sergeevich came for her sake.

Larisa's mother, Harita Ignatievna, knows what her daughter expects, and her attitude towards her does not differ from the attitude of merchants - she also wants to profitably sell Larisa off her hands. She speaks with disdain to the poor Karandyshev, behaves a little familiarly with Paratov, she agrees with Knurov in everything, understands that he is ready to take his daughter as a kept woman and is glad of this, having received a wardrobe for her daughter and three hundred rubles.

Larisa has self-esteem, and she believes that the lack of a dowry will not stigmatize her. The conflict of the drama is in the contradiction between the girl's expectations and the harsh reality. When Larisa comes face to face with her, she rushes about, trying to maintain her dignity and pride. “Everyone loves themselves. When will someone love me? You will bring me to death ... ”, she says to her fiancé Karandyshev. Larisa cannot change her fate in any way - everything is decided in advance for her by others.

It is regrettable to realize this, but Karandyshev. even though he is in love with Larisa, he also treats her as a beautiful soulless thing. For Larisa, this is terrible. After all, she considers love the main advantage of her fiancé. He rejoices that she will become his wife, perceives this event as a profitable deal for himself. He now has something to boast about in front of these rich people! There is something to hurt them! But he is jealous and also hurt, because Larisa does not even hide that she loves Paratov! Because she believes that she waited for her love, having gone through suffering.

Karandyshev has one difference from other male heroes - he acts at the behest of his heart. He tells Larisa that for her sake he is ready for humiliation. How do others behave? What is experiencing for Larisa Paratov? Does she mean more to him than to others, or does he enjoy his power over a girl in love, as well as dexterity in deceiving the groom? How honest are those around her towards Larisa?

Judging by their actions, the main "moral" quality in the merchant environment is business acumen. They talk about everything from the point of view of profitability, and feelings have no place where there should be only calculation. Merchants keep their distance from the rest of the population, and they are quite distrustful even towards each other. We learn their moral character in relations with Larisa. The imperious and prudent Knurov is emphatically friendly with her, says that he is obliged to take part in her fate. In fact, this means that he will take advantage of the hopeless situation of the girl.

Paratov is ready for anything for the sake of money, and his relationship with Larisa is like a game of chance, because he believes that everything should be tried in life. Unfortunately, the girl in love does not see his selfishness. The moral image of Sergei Sergeevich Paratov manifests itself for Larisa only when he, having seduced the girl, tells her about his impossibility to marry her. What did he choose? A more financially advantageous marriage to millions. Everyone learns about this event at the very beginning of the play. But, seeing how Larisa rushes about, no one tells her about it, including her childhood friend Vasya Vozhevatov. Vozhevatov is a soulless egoist who is not touched by Larisa's fate. He cannot even offer her help in a critical situation, because he is bound by an honest merchant's word. He plays Larisa in a toss with Knurov.

Knurov is a cynical businessman, he can only say to Ogudalova for the sake of a red word that “I didn’t think for a single minute to offer my hand,” but he is married, so he is ready to give her such satisfaction that all critics of morality will be forced to shut up. That is, there are no immoral acts - there is little money.

So human relations, morality, love, friendship are crossed out for the sake of business relations, for the sake of profit. Here is how Larisa herself sums up her life: “I was looking for love and did not find it. They looked at me and look at me as if they were fun. No one ever tried to look into my soul, I did not see sympathy from anyone, I did not hear a warm, heartfelt word. But it's so cold to live. It's not my fault, I was looking for love and didn't find it... it doesn't exist in the world... there's nothing to look for. I did not find love, so I will look for gold. Larisa makes a choice - she is ready to become a beautiful thing for the rich man Knurov.

As usual, the truth comes from the mouth of the one whose words are not taken seriously. Robinson says to Paratov: merchants are ignorant. And this is the softest characterization that can be given. Karandyshev is the first to open the eyes of the bride to her surroundings, he tells her cruel, but truthful words about those whom she considers friends: “They do not look at you as a woman, as a person - a person controls his own destiny; they look at you like a thing." He believes that he is obliged to protect Larisa and punish her offenders. But a transformation also takes place with him - his love is defiled by jealousy and revenge. He envies merchants and also wants to feel like a master.

After everything that happened, Larisa remains to become a toy for Knurov or die. Therefore, she thanks Karandyshev for accidentally fulfilling her desire: “My dear, what a good deed you have done for me!” Perhaps she herself would not have dared to take her own life, and having become the kept woman of Mokiy Parmenych, she would have lost herself. She takes the blame for her death by covering up for Karandyshev, who spared her further disappointment and suffering.

The inevitability of the tragic ending was prepared by the fact that Larisa does not hold anything in life. Nobody needs her love, the girl is alone in this world. She has lost harmony in her soul and does not see compassion from anyone. The drama of Larisa is that she was born in a world in which only money and power matter.

Now the triumph of the bourgeoisie ... in the fullest sense, the golden age is coming.

A. Ostrovsky

Money, gold, material values at all times were of no small importance for man and society. But there are times in history when money begins to play a primary role. They crowd out all other values because everything becomes a commodity. And then "it's good for someone who has a lot of money," as Mokiy Parmenych Knurov says in "Dowry". Ostrovsky devoted this play to just one of these periods, when a new class of the bourgeoisie was being formed in Russia, capitalist relations were being formed. "Mean times", according to the playwright himself. But they are inevitable in the development of the economy and are repeated at every new turn of history. Today we live in the same time. Therefore, Ostrovsky's play is relevant and interesting for the modern reader.

The theme of money in "Dowry" is already in its very title. From the first pages of the play, money is the main subject of conversation. Their presence or absence determines a person's place in society, attitude towards him. The owner of a huge fortune, Mokiy Parmenych Knurov, has no one to talk to in the city. Even the barman Tavrilo understands that he can only speak with his equals. And there are two or three such rich people in the city. Among them is the young merchant Vozhevatov. Even on a holiday, during a walk, they talk about profitable deals, about new acquisitions. They speak with the same feelings about the brilliant four horses of the rich man Chirkov, and about Larisa Dmitrievna. After all, she is also a commodity, an “expensive diamond”, which is being looked at and asked the price. When you read the play, you get the feeling that you are in an unusual market where everything is sold and bought: Knurov and Vozhevatov buy pleasure - with small gifts they pay for the opportunity to be in the company of a charming girl, and her mother deftly and willingly sells her daughter's youth, talent and beauty . “You have to pay for pleasure” - this rule is accepted unconditionally, and non-compliance with it would be simply indecent. Paratov sells not only his beloved ship, but also his will. The steamer goes on the cheap, but the shipowner estimated his will at half a million. This is the dowry of the new bride. But he almost “didn’t make people laugh”, succumbing to feelings and marrying the dowry Larisa. But a business person should know that “every product has a price”, even if it is about love, beauty, happiness.

The poor official Karandyshev hates the rich and self-confident masters of the new life. But at the same time, he really wants to become his own person among them. And he finds a way: to marry the dowry Larisa with a good noble family name. Only he is not going to pay for his purchase, believing that his act itself is worthy of the poor bride's eternal love and gratitude. Marrying Larisa for him is compensation for the moral damage caused to the pride, pride and vanity of a poor person who wanted to live like a rich man.

Even the main character, desperate to find love and understanding, decides to look for money: “If you are a thing, then one consolation is to be expensive, very expensive.” But when Karandyshev's shot prevented her from carrying out her plan, she thanks him for the "good deed" he did for her.

There will always be people who cannot fit into new social relationships. They do not want to accept other people's rules, to live according to moral standards that are not characteristic of them. And they have a choice: to remain themselves or become like everyone else. And for this you need to “step over” your beliefs, give up your own life values, that is, make a deal with the time that dictates its conditions.

L. Tolstoy and F. Dostoevsky will write about the difficulties of choice. And the heroine of Ostrovsky leaves the stage, passes away. Now is not her time. The Golden Age is not for everyone.

Russian playwright Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky created a whole galaxy of Russian characters. Mostly they were merchants: sedate, with a bushy beard. And if in some plays of the playwright one can meet real "tyrants", then there are works where Ostrovsky continued the traditions of Turgenev in the image female characters. The "Turgenev" girl is resolute, she can be the first to confess her feelings and will never give up her words.

In Ostrovsky's plays "Hot Heart", "Thunderstorm", "Snow Maiden" images of such heroines are created - resolute and courageous, but with a tragic fate. Even among such bright girls with a “hot heart”, one can be singled out - Larisa Ogudalova, the main character of the play "Dowry". An outstanding personality, she stands out from her surroundings and is strikingly different from her mother, who is trying to find benefits in everything.

She, Kharita Ignatievna Ogudalova, can be understood: she alone raised three daughters. Yes, only the two elders, married, had an unfortunate fate: the first Caucasian husband stabbed to death out of jealousy, the second was at the mercy of a cheater. Larisa is her mother's last hope: she sings beautifully, performs Russian romances, plays music, and dances. And the mother hopes that she will be able to marry such a talented and beautiful daughter well, so that she lives like Christ in her bosom. Therefore, she teaches: "It is better to humiliate yourself from a young age, so that later you can live like a human being."

In the view of a woman with a gypsy name Harita, humanly, this is when there are many men in the house, wine flows like water, compliments sound. It is no coincidence that Larisa's current fiancé, a poor official, Julius Kapitonych Karandyshev, compares life in the Ogudalovs' house with a camp. Only all the tricks of the mother are in vain, because Larisa is a dowry. And in the society that surrounds the girl, there is only money. The new masters of life, unlike the heroes of "Thunderstorm", are no longer petty tyrants: their power is based on money. “I have nothing cherished; I will find a profit, so I will sell everything, ”says another hero of the play, Sergei Sergeyich Paratov,“ a brilliant gentleman, ”in the author’s assessment.

And this is true: Paratov, whom Larisa fell in love with so much that she “almost died of grief”, easily exchanged her for the “millionth” bride - the daughter of the owner of the gold mines. Having left her without explanation a year ago, now, when Larisa decides to marry the “first comer” Karandyshev, Paratov, having appeared again, accuses Larisa of treason. At a meeting, he reproachfully says that he would like to know “whether a passionately loved person is soon forgotten: on the next day after parting with him, in a week or a month ...”

And Larisa, who has already told her fiancé that "Sergei Sergeyich is the ideal of a man," loses her head again. She forgives her beloved, who disappeared unexpectedly a year ago, and "not a single letter." Larisa is a romantic person, so she does not notice obvious things. She proudly tells Karandyshev how a year ago Paratov shot in cold blood at the watch she was holding in her hand. But this fact, rather, suggests that Larisa does not mean anything to him. In addition, Paratov is vindictive: having barely met Karandyshev, he manages to hurt the pride of a poor official, but insists that it is Julius Kapitonich who apologizes to him, the master of life. And then, at a dinner party, he gets drunk on him in order to once again humiliate him in front of people who measure everything with money.

It just so happened in Ostrovsky's plays: against the backdrop of resolute and courageous heroines, men turn out to be lethargic and lifeless. In the play "Thunderstorm", the husband of Katerina Kabanova depends on her mother in everything, which as a result leads to tragedy: his young wife voluntarily passes away.

In "Dowry" the situation is similar: out of desperation, agreeing to marry Karandyshev, she begs him to leave for the village to start new life, little reminiscent of the former camp. But the petty official, who endured ridicule in the hope of waiting for reciprocity from Larisa, is now "spreading his wings." He wants to wipe out the representatives of the upper class, and he gives a dinner in honor of Larisa Dmitrievna to say: she chose the most worthy person for her suitors - him, Yuli Kapitonych. This is his revenge for the envy that he had to experience every time he saw Larisa's beautiful and successful fans.

But by this act, he even more causes contempt from those who are used to drinking champagne in the morning and having lunch in a restaurant. After all, he, a poor official, has enough money only for cheap liquor, the bottles from which are carefully sealed with labels from expensive wine. And if Larisa, in response to accusations of treason by Paratov, says that her fiancé has the most important advantage - he loves her, then in the final she is disappointed in him. She disgustedly tells her ex-fiance, who is kneeling before her: “You are too insignificant for me,” and then bitterly admits: “I was looking for love and did not find it.”

It is difficult to find love in a society where everything is just bought and sold. Paratov is selling his favorite ship, the Lastochka, because he found a profit - a bride with a million dollar dowry. But he commits a much more vile act: having humiliated her fiancé in the eyes of Larisa, he gives hope for the future and, taking advantage of the situation, seduces the poor girl, and then confesses that he is engaged - he has “golden chains”. That's when the epiphany comes to the heroine. She understands that everyone around her, even her own mother, looks at her as a thing, for fun.

She does not have the courage to commit suicide, as Katerina did in The Thunderstorm, but she finds the strength to admit that no one has ever tried to look into her soul, she has not seen sympathy from anyone, has not heard a warm word. Larisa passes a terrible sentence to herself: "I did not find love, so I will look for gold." And she is really ready to ride to an exhibition in Paris with the middle-aged merchant Knurov, who won her in the "toss" from a younger rival, she is ready to become his kept woman, that is, to sell herself at a higher price, because for her there is only one consolation: if you are to be a thing, then very Expensive.

The finale of this psychological play is a foregone conclusion. Sobered up, but rejected, Karandyshev shoots at Larisa, and for her this becomes a salvation. Now she cannot be bought or sold - she remains free and truly happy. She dies with words of forgiveness on her lips. Thus, the author shows that death is a tragic way out of the insoluble moral contradictions of time, a sentence to a society that is not able to preserve the treasure of a spiritual personality, beauty and talent.

Larisa Ogudalova is the main character of A. N. Ostrovsky's play "The Dowry", which was first published in " Domestic notes» in 1879. In the dramaturgy of Ostrovsky in the 1970s and 1980s, the theme of the power of money, property, wealth in the era of the “triumph of the bourgeoisie” becomes the main one. The playwright continues to look for forces in Russian life that could withstand the elements of unbridled predation, humiliation human dignity, cold calculation and selfishness. The writer's anxiety is especially felt for the fate of a person "with a warm heart", who, even at this prudent time, continues to live with feeling, looking for love, understanding, happiness. Such is the heroine of the play "Dowry".

Larisa has everything - intelligence, talent, beauty, sensitivity. She is pure in heart and selfless. She reaches out to people, trusts them, hopes for understanding and a reciprocal feeling. But Larisa is a dowry, and this predetermines her tragic fate.

Larisa's mother seeks to marry off her daughter more profitably, she tries to teach Larisa to live by the rules dictated by time, forcing her daughter to lie, to be nice to richer young people. But the heroine of the play cannot act according to calculation. She gives her heart to Sergey Sergeevich Paratov, handsome, smart and strong. But Paratov is a man of his time, living by the principle: "There is a price for every product." Larisa is also a commodity for him. And he is not ready to pay with his material well-being for love and happiness. Paratov marries a rich bride, or rather, in gold mines, which are given to her as a dowry.

Not finding love, Larisa tries to live "like everyone else." She decides to marry the poor Official Yuli Kapitonovich Karandyshev. In her chosen one, Larisa is looking for traits worthy of respect: “I should at least respect my husband,” she says. But it is difficult to respect Karandyshev. In his vain attempts to compare with Knurov and Vozhevatov, he looks ridiculous and pathetic. He does not hear Larisa's plea to leave for the village, where she hopes to find at least peace of mind. It is more important for Julius Kapitonovich to “in turn laugh” at those whose humiliations he endured for three years. He is not up to the torment of Larisa!

After breaking up with Karandyshev, after deceiving Paratov, Larisa is looking for simple human sympathy, turning to her childhood friend Vozhevatov: “Well, at least cry with me,” she asks him. However, Vozhevatov has already lost to Knurov the opportunity to influence the fate of Larisa. “I can’t, I can’t do anything,” is Vozhevatov’s answer to Larisa. material from the site

Finding no love, no respect, no simple compassion and understanding, Larisa loses the meaning of life. She says bitterly: “They looked at me and look at me as if they were fun. No one ever tried to look into my soul, I did not see sympathy from anyone, I did not hear a warm, heartfelt word. But it’s cold to live like that.”

Karandyshev's shot becomes for her deliverance from mental anguish, from the vulgar life of a "thing", a toy in the hands of those who can pay for it. “To die while there is nothing to reproach yourself with yet” is the best thing that remains for a “hot heart” in the world of calculation and vanity.

This is Larisa's personal tragedy. But this is also the tragedy of a society where money rules and a person's happiness is measured only by their quantity.

Didn't find what you were looking for? Use the search

On this page, material on the topics: