The last date between Katerina and Boris. Russian character of Katerina (“The Thunderstorm”) What attracts Katerina to Boris

Play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm" reveals many themes - the theme of fathers and sons, the theme moral choice, theme of religiosity, theme internal struggle with you, the theme of freedom and many others. But they are all revealed through the example of the most important line in the play - the theme of love.

Love is like freedom

It is love that for the heroine is synonymous with inner freedom, the opportunity to change the usual way of life. Brought up on prayers, the tales of praying mantises and admiring nature, Katerina knew what it was true love using the example of parental warmth and care.

Before her marriage, she lived as free as a bird, she was groomed and cherished. Katerina raised herself, watching the growth of flowers and the flight of butterflies. Her soul, strong and free, burned with divine light.

Kabanikha

Accustomed to freedom, the girl after the wedding ends up in the house of the despotic Marfa Kabanova. Their family is used to living differently: everything is done under pressure, the atmosphere is filled with fears and humiliation. Katerina's dreams of an ideal family did not come true.

She tried with all her might to love Tikhon, her husband. However, Kabanikha’s influence on her son was so strong that their relationship with mutual sympathy did not work out. Kabanov was so tortured by his mother that his only dream was to quickly run away from home and get drunk.

Tikhon

When things get really difficult for Katerina, and her husband has a long trip ahead on business, she practically begs him to take her with him. She seems to have a presentiment of impending trouble, and is ready to beg her husband on her knees. But he does not hear her pleas, does not feel her mental pain. He wants to quickly break free from this patriarchal hell, and his wife’s problems are of secondary importance to him.

Katerina sees and understands the weakness of her husband and therefore cannot respect him. Although she continues to love him as a human being. Without respect and freedom, true love is impossible for Katerina.

New love

During Tikhon’s departure, Katerina fell in love with the visiting Boris, Dikiy’s nephew. They started dating, and love with Boris for the heroine was a chance for a new happy life. For Katerina, Boris is a person unlike anyone else around. He is well-read, educated, intelligent. It seemed to her that it was he who was capable of turning the tide of events in her life and saving her from the uncontrollable hopelessness that filled her fate. However, Boris turned out to be completely different from what his girlfriend imagined. He turned out to be no stronger than Tikhon; he preferred to pretend for the sake of receiving an inheritance.

Due to the inability to love openly, to enjoy every minute spent next to her beloved, and the feeling of guilt before her husband, Katerina has severe contradictions inside her, which break out just during a thunderstorm - she confesses her affair to her husband and mother-in-law.

Epilogue

The weight of public opinion hanging over her does not allow her to calm down. She runs away from people and rushes into the Volga, which since childhood has personified freedom for her.

I think that Katerina is the only person in Kalinov capable of sincere and all-consuming love. Unfortunately, there was no one next to her who could give her a strong helping hand.

Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” stands out from the great variety of his plays precisely because of Katerina. “Live” happens very rarely in dramaturgy. goodie. As a rule, the author has enough colors to negative characters, but the positive ones always come out primitively schematic. Perhaps because there is so little truly good in this world. Katerina - main character Ostrovsky's dramas are the only thing good in that dark world, the “dark kingdom” of philistinism that surrounds her. The desire to fly is the main difference between Katerina and those people into whose trap she fell, thanks to her marriage. But, unfortunately, there was only one way out of the trap for her.
From Katerina's words we learn about her childhood and adolescence. The girl did not receive a good education. She lived with her mother in the village. Katerina's childhood was joyful and cloudless. Her mother “doted on her” and did not force her to do housework. Katya lived freely: she got up early, washed herself with spring water, watered flowers, went to church with her mother, then sat down to do some work and listened to wanderers and praying mantises, of which there were many in their house. Katerina had magical dreams in which she flew under the clouds. And how strongly it contrasts with such a quiet one, happy life the act of a six-year-old girl, when Katya, offended by something, ran away from home on the Volga in the evening, got into a boat and pushed off from the shore!..
We see that Katerina grew up happy, romantic, but limited girl. She was very devout and passionately loving. She loved everything and everyone around her: nature, the sun, the church, her home with wanderers, the beggars whom she helped. But the most important thing about Katya is that she lived in her dreams, apart from the rest of the world. From everything that existed, she chose only that which did not contradict her nature; the rest she did not want to notice and did not notice. That’s why the girl saw angels in the sky, and for her the church was a place where everything was light, where she could dream.
But if she encountered something on her way that contradicted her ideals, then a rebellious and stubborn nature manifested itself in her and she defended herself from that outsider, stranger, who dared to disturb her soul. This explains the incident with the boat.
After marriage, Katya's life changed a lot. From a free, joyful, sublime world in which she felt united with nature, the girl found herself in a life full of deception, cruelty and doom. The point is not even that Katerina married Tikhon not of her own free will: she didn’t love anyone at all and she didn’t care who she married. The fact is that the girl was robbed of her former life, which she created for herself. Katerina no longer feels such delight from visiting church; she cannot do her usual activities. Sad, anxious thoughts do not allow her to calmly admire nature. Katya can only endure as long as she can and dream, but she can no longer live with her thoughts, because cruel reality returns her to earth, to where there is humiliation and suffering.
Katerina is trying to find her happiness in her love for Tikhon: “I will love my husband. Silence, my darling, I won’t exchange you for anyone.” But sincere manifestations of this love are stopped by Kabanikha: “Why are you hanging around your neck, shameless woman? It’s not your lover you’re saying goodbye to.” Katerina has a strong sense of external humility and duty, which is why she forces herself to love her unloved husband. Tikhon himself, because of his mother’s tyranny, cannot truly love his wife, although he probably wants to. And when he leaves for a while,
leaves Katya to walk around to her heart's content, the woman becomes completely lonely.
Why did Katerina fall in love with Boris? After all, he did not flaunt his masculine qualities, like Paratov, and did not even talk to her. Probably the reason was that she lacked something pure in the stuffy atmosphere of Kabanikha’s house. And love for Boris was this pure, did not allow Katerina to completely wither away, somehow supported her. She went on a date with Boris because she felt like a person with pride and basic rights. It was a rebellion against submission to fate, against lawlessness. Katerina knew that she was committing a sin, but she also knew that it was still impossible to live any longer. She sacrificed the purity of her conscience to freedom and Boris.
In my opinion, when taking this step, Katya already felt the approaching end and probably thought: “It’s now or never.” She wanted to be satisfied with love, knowing that there would be no other opportunity. On the first date, Katerina told Boris: “You ruined me.” Boris is the reason for the disgrace of her soul, and for Katya this is tantamount to death. Sin hangs like a heavy stone on her heart. Katerina is very afraid of the approaching thunderstorm; considering it a punishment for what he did. Katerina has been afraid of thunderstorms ever since she started thinking about Boris. For her pure soul, even the thought of loving a stranger is a sin.
Katya cannot continue to live with her sin, and she considers repentance the only way to at least partially get rid of it. She confesses everything to her husband and Kabanikha. Such an act seems very strange and naive in our time. “I don’t know how to deceive; I can’t hide anything,” that’s Katerina. Tikhon forgave his wife, but did she forgive herself? Being very religious, Katya fears God, and her God lives in her, God is her conscience. A woman is tormented by two questions: how will she return home and look into the eyes of the husband she cheated on, and how will she live with a stain on her conscience. Katerina sees death as the only way out of this situation: “No, I don’t care whether I go home or go to the grave... It’s better in the grave... To live again? No, no, don’t... it’s not good.”
Haunted by her sin, Katerina leaves this life to save her soul. Dobrolyubov defined Katerina’s character as “decisive, integral, Russian.” Decisive, because she decided to take the last step, death, to save herself from shame and remorse. Whole, because in Katya’s character everything is harmonious, one, nothing contradicts each other, because Katya is one with nature, with God. Russian, because who, if not a Russian person, is capable of loving so much, capable of sacrificing so much, so seemingly obediently enduring all hardships, while remaining himself, free, not a slave.

In Katerina’s situation we see that all the “ideas” instilled in her from childhood, all the principles environment- rebel against her natural aspirations and actions. The terrible struggle to which the young woman is condemned takes place in every word, in every movement of the drama, and this is where the full importance of the introductory characters for which Ostrovsky is so reproached appears. Take a good look: you see that Katerina was brought up in concepts identical to the concepts of the environment in which she lives, and cannot renounce them, not having any theoretical education. Although the stories of wanderers and the suggestions of her family were processed by her in her own way, they could not help but leave an ugly trace in her soul: and indeed, we see in the play that Katerina, having lost her bright dreams and ideal, lofty aspirations, retained one thing from her upbringing a strong feeling - fear of some dark forces, something unknown, which she could not explain to herself well or reject. She is afraid for her every thought, for the simplest feeling she expects punishment; it seems to her that the thunderstorm will kill her, because she is a sinner, the pictures of fiery hell on the church wall seem to her to be a harbinger of her eternal torment... And everything around her supports and develops this fear in her: Feklushi goes to Kabanikha to talk about the last times; Dikoy insists that the thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment, so that we feel; the arriving lady, instilling fear in everyone in the city, appears several times in order to shout over Katerina in an ominous voice: “You will all burn in unquenchable fire.” Everyone around is full of superstitious fear, and everyone around, in agreement with the concepts of Katerina herself, should look at her feelings for Boris as the greatest crime. Even the daring Kudryash, the esprit-fort * of this environment, even finds that girls can hang out with guys as much as they want - that’s okay, but women should be locked up. This conviction is so strong in him that, having learned about Boris’s love for Katerina, he, despite his daring and some kind of outrage, says that “this matter must be abandoned.” Everything is against Katerina, even her own concepts of good and evil; everything must force her to drown out her impulses and wither in the cold and gloomy formalism of family silence and humility, without any living aspirations, without will, without love, or learn to deceive people and conscience.<…>

The environment in which Katerina lives requires her to lie and deceive; “You can’t live without this,” Varvara tells her, “remember where you live; Our whole house rests on this. And I wasn’t a liar, but I learned when it became necessary.” Katerina succumbs to her position, goes out to Boris at night, hides her feelings from her mother-in-law for ten days... You might think: here is another woman who has lost her way, learned to deceive her family and will be debauched on the sly, falsely caressing her husband and wearing a disgusting mask of a meek woman! It would be impossible to strictly blame her for this either: her situation is so difficult! But then she would have been one of the dozens of people of the type that has already become so worn out in stories that showed how “the environment eats up good people.” Katerina is not like that: the denouement of her love, despite all the homely surroundings, is visible in advance, even when she is just approaching the matter. She doesn't study psychological analysis and therefore cannot express subtle observations of himself; what she says about herself means that she strongly makes herself known to her. And she, at Varvara’s first proposal about a date with Boris, screams: “No, no, don’t! God forbid: if I see him even once, I’ll run away from home, I won’t go home for anything in the world!” It’s not reasonable precaution that speaks in her, it’s passion; and it is clear that no matter how she restrains herself, passion is higher than her, higher than all her prejudices and fears, higher than all suggestions. heard by her since childhood. Her whole life lies in this passion; all the strength of her nature, all her living aspirations merge here. What attracts her to Boris is not just that she likes him, that in appearance and in speech he is not like the others around her; She is drawn to him by the need for love, which has not found a response in her husband, and the offended feeling of a wife and woman, and the mortal melancholy of her monotonous life, and the desire for freedom, space, hot, unfettered freedom. She keeps dreaming of how she could “fly invisibly wherever she wants”; and then this thought comes: “if it were up to me, I would now ride on the Volga, on a boat, with songs, or on a good troika, hugging each other”... “Just not with my husband,” Varya tells her, and Katerina doesn’t can hide his feelings and immediately opens up to her with the question: “how do you know?” It is clear that Varvara’s remark explained a lot to her: while telling her dreams so naively, she did not yet fully understand their meaning. But one word is enough to give her thoughts the certainty that she herself was afraid to give them. Until now, she could still doubt whether this new feeling really contained the bliss that she was so painfully seeking. But once she has uttered the word of secret, she will not give up on it even in her thoughts. Fear, doubt, the thought of sin and human judgment - all this comes to her mind, but no longer has power over her; This is just a formality, to clear your conscience. In the monologue with the key (the last one in the second act) we see a woman in whose soul a decisive step has already been taken, but who only wants to somehow “talk” herself. She makes an attempt to stand somewhat aside from herself and judge the action she has decided to take as an extraneous matter; but her thoughts are all directed towards justifying this act. “Now,” he says, “how long will it take to die... In captivity, someone is having fun... Even though I’m living now, I’m toiling, I don’t see any light for myself... my mother-in-law crushed me”... etc. d. - all exculpatory articles. And then there are still relieving considerations: “it’s already clear that fate wants it this way. .. But what a sin is there in this, if I look at it once... Yes, even if I talk, it’s not a problem. Or maybe such a case will not happen in my entire life...” This monologue aroused in some critics the desire to sneer at Katerina as a shameless critic *; but we know of no greater shamelessness than to assure that we or any of our ideal friends are not involved in such transactions with conscience... In these transactions, it is not the individuals who are to blame, but those concepts that have been hammered into their heads from childhood and which so often they are contrary to the natural course of the living aspirations of the soul. Until these concepts are driven out of society, until the complete harmony of ideas and the needs of nature is restored in the human being, such transactions are inevitable. It’s also good if, when doing them, they come to what seems natural and common sense, and do not fall under the yoke of conventional instructions of artificial morality. This is precisely what Katerina gained strength for, and the stronger her nature speaks, the calmer she looks in the face of the childish nonsense that those around her have taught her to fear. Therefore, it even seems to us that the artist playing the role of Katerina on the St. Petersburg stage is making a small mistake, giving the monologue we are talking about too much heat and tragedy. She obviously wants to express the struggle taking place in Katerina’s soul, and from this point of view she conveys the difficult monologue perfectly. But it seems to us that it is more consistent with Katerina’s character and position in this case to give her words more calmness and lightness. The struggle, in fact, is already over, only a little thought remains, the old rags still cover Katerina, and little by little she throws them off. The end of the monologue betrays her heart. “Come what may, I will see Boris,” she concludes, and in the oblivion of foreboding, she exclaims: “Oh, if only the night would speed up!”

Such love, such a feeling will not live within the walls of Kabanov’s house, with pretense and deception. Although Katerina decided to go on a secret date, for the first time, in the delight of love, she says to Boris, who assures that no one will find out anything: “Eh, why feel sorry for me, it’s no one’s fault—she went for it herself. Don't be sorry, destroy me! Let everyone know, let everyone see what I am doing... If I was not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment?”

And for sure, she is not afraid of anything except being deprived of the opportunity to see her chosen one, talk to him, enjoy these summer nights with him, these new feelings for her. Her husband arrived, and life became difficult for her. It was necessary to hide, to be cunning; she didn’t want it and couldn’t do it; she had to return again to her callous, dreary life - this seemed to her more bitter than before. Moreover, I had to be afraid every minute for myself, for my every word, especially in front of my mother-in-law; one also had to be afraid of terrible punishment for the soul... This situation was unbearable for Katerina: days and nights she kept thinking, suffering, exalting her imagination, which was already hotter, and the end was one that she could not endure - despite everything the people crowded in the gallery of the ancient church, she repented of everything to her husband. His first movement was fear of what his mother would say. “Don’t, don’t say, mother is here,” he whispers, confused. But the mother has already listened and demands a full confession, at the end of which she draws out her moral: “What, son, where does the will lead?”

It is, of course, difficult to ridicule common sense more than Kabanikha does in her exclamation. But in the “dark kingdom” common sense means nothing: with the “criminal” they took measures that were completely contrary to him, but usual in that life: the husband, at the behest of his mother, beat his wife, the mother-in-law locked her up and began to eat. ..

The will and peace of the poor woman are gone: before, at least they couldn’t reproach her, even though she could feel that she was completely right in front of these people. But now, one way or another, she is guilty before them, she violated her duties to them, brought grief and shame to the family; Now the most cruel treatment of her already has reasons and justification. What remains for her?

<…>Another solution would have been less impossible - to flee with Boris from the tyranny and violence of the family. Despite the strictness of the formal law, despite the cruelty of rude tyranny, such steps do not represent an impossibility in themselves, especially for such characters as Katerina. And she does not neglect this way out, because she is not an abstract heroine who wants death on principle. Having run away from home to see Boris, and already thinking about death, she, however, is not at all averse to escaping; Having learned that Boris is going far away, to Siberia, she very simply tells him: “Take me with you from here.” But then a stone pops up in front of us for a minute, which holds people in the depths of the pool that we called “ dark kingdom " This stone is material dependence. Boris has nothing and is completely dependent on his uncle, Dikiy; Dikoy and the Kabanovs agreed to send him to Kyakhta, and, of course, they will not allow him to take Katerina with him. That’s why he answers her: “It’s impossible, Katya; I’m not going of my own free will, my uncle is sending me, the horses are ready,” etc. Boris is not a hero, he is far from worthy of Katerina, and she fell in love with him more in solitude. He has had enough “education” and cannot cope with the old way of life, nor with his heart, nor with common sense - he walks as if lost. He lives with his uncle because he must give him and his sister part of his grandmother’s inheritance, “if they are respectful to him.” Boris understands well that Dikoy will never recognize him as respectful and, therefore, will not give him anything; Yes, that's not enough. Boris reasons like this: “No, he will first break with us, scold us in every possible way, as his heart desires, but he will still end up not giving anything, or just some little thing, and will even begin to tell that he gave out of mercy, that even this should not have happened.” And yet he lives with his uncle and endures his curses; For what? - unknown. On her first date with Katerina, when she talks about what awaits her for this, Boris interrupts her with the words: “Well, what should we think about it, fortunately we are fine now.” And at the last date she cries: “Who knew that we would have to suffer so much with you for our love! It would be better for me to run then!” In a word, this is one of those very common people who do not know how to do what they understand, and do not understand what they do. Their type has been portrayed many times in our fiction - sometimes with exaggerated compassion for them, sometimes with excessive bitterness against them. Ostrovsky gives them to us as they are, and with his special skill he depicts with two or three features their complete insignificance, although, however, not devoid of a certain degree of spiritual nobility. There is no need to expand on Boris; in fact, he should also be attributed to the situation in which the heroine of the play finds herself. He represents one of the circumstances that makes her fatal end necessary. If it were a different person and in a different position, then there would be no need to throw yourself into the water. But the fact of the matter is that an environment subordinated to the power of the Wild and Kabanovs usually produces Tikhonovs and Borisovs, unable to perk up and accept their human nature, even when faced with characters such as Katerina. We said a few words above about Tikhon; Boris is essentially the same, only “educated”. Education took away from him the power to do dirty tricks, it’s true; but it did not give him the strength to resist the dirty tricks that others do; it has not even developed in him the ability to behave in such a way as to remain alien to everything disgusting that swarms around him. No, not only does he not resist, he submits to other people’s nasty things, he willy-nilly participates in them and must accept all their consequences. But he understands his position, talks about it and often even deceives, for the first time, truly living and strong natures, who, judging by themselves, think that if a person thinks so, understands so, then he should do so. Looking from their point of view, such natures will not find it difficult to say to “educated” sufferers moving away from the sad circumstances of life: “Take me with you, I will follow you everywhere.” But this is where the powerlessness of the sufferers turns out to be; it turns out that they did not foresee it, and that they curse themselves, and that they would be glad, but they cannot, and that they have no will, and most importantly, that they have nothing in their souls and that in order to continue their existence they must serve that to the Wild One, from whom we would like to get rid of...

There is nothing to praise or scold these people, but you need to pay attention to the practical ground on which the question moves; it must be admitted that it is difficult for a person expecting an inheritance from his uncle to shake off his dependence on this uncle, and then he must give up unnecessary hopes for his nephews expecting an inheritance. even if they were “educated” it is absolutely impossible. If we look at who is to blame here, then it will be not so much the nephews who are to blame as the uncles, or, better said, their inheritance.

Dobrolyubov N.A. "A ray of light in a dark kingdom"

Boris did not flaunt his masculine qualities. Probably the reason was that she lacked something pure in the stuffy atmosphere of Kabanikha’s house. And love for Boris was this pure, did not allow Katerina to completely wither away, somehow supported her. She went on a date with Boris because she felt like a person with pride and basic rights. It was a rebellion against submission to fate, against lawlessness. Katerina knew that she was committing a sin, but she also knew that it was still impossible to live any longer. She sacrificed the purity of her conscience to freedom and Boris.

Katerina has been trying for a long time to adapt to the way of life in the Kabanov family. But then he can’t stand it. Her love for Boris is a kind of protest against oppression, humiliation and slavery. How does Katerina see Boris? Of course, he seems to her to be completely different from Tikhon and most of the people around her. Every person, having fallen in love, tends to idealize the object of his love, and, of course, Katerina is no exception. She idealizes her beloved, he seems to her stronger, nobler and more sublime than he really is.
However, the young man compares favorably with the bulk of Ostrovsky’s characters. He looks smarter and more educated. He is cultured and educated. But at the same time, Boris is weak, and therefore is inactive and goes with the flow. He even brought misfortune to the woman he loved. Katerina gave him everything she could, sacrificed her honor, even her life. Boris did not have the courage to help the poor woman standing on the edge of the abyss.
From the very beginning, Boris knew that loving a married woman was a crime. He noticed Katerina a long time ago, but did not dare to get to know her. When Boris starts talking about love with Kudryash, he tells him about local customs: “We are free about this. The girls go out as they please, father and mother don’t care. Only women are locked up.” And then Boris admits that he is in love with married woman. Kudryash persuades him to give up this idea, because such love should be prohibited. “After all, this means,” says Kudryash, “you want to completely ruin her, Boris Grigoryich! ”
What is Boris's reaction to these words? He assures in every possible way that in no case does he want to destroy the woman he loves: “God forbid! Save me, Lord! No, Curly, how can you! Do I want to destroy her? I just want to see her somewhere, I don’t need anything else.”
Katerina is open to the world like a child. She gives her all without getting anything in return. Katerina’s trouble is that Boris turned out to be unworthy of her love. With apparent positive qualities he is actually a petty selfish person who only thinks about himself. Katerina's love for him is just entertainment, although he is trying to prove to her that he acts solely by succumbing to the power of passion. When Boris finds out that Katerina’s husband has left for two weeks, he rejoices: “Oh, so we’ll go for a walk! There’s plenty of time.” These simple phrases speak perfectly about his attitude towards Katerina and their connection.
Boris submits to the will of his uncle, who sends him to Siberia. The scene of Katerina’s farewell to her beloved shows how difficult it is for a woman and how restrained Boris behaves. He says: “What can you talk about me! I am a free bird.”
Boris’s words seem monstrous: “Well, God be with you! There is only one thing we need to ask God for: that she die as soon as possible, so that she does not suffer for a long time! Goodbye! " And these words are spoken by a man about the woman he loves! He doesn’t even try to ease her fate, or at least console her. Boris simply wishes her death. And this is Katerina’s retribution for happiness that lasted only ten days!

V. P. Botkin said wonderful and fair words about the play “The Thunderstorm” in his letter to A. N. Ostrovsky: “You have never revealed your poetic powers as much as in this play... In “The Thunderstorm” “You took a plot that is completely filled with poetry - a plot that is impossible for someone who does not have poetic creativity... Katerina’s love belongs to the same phenomena of moral nature as world cataclysms in physical nature belong to.. ."

So, Katerina is in love with Boris. After reading this line, you can only sigh: “Well, all ages are submissive to love...”, or you can think deeply, because love for Boris became a real tragedy for the heroine of “The Thunderstorm”, intensifying the drama that she was experiencing, finding himself in the “dark kingdom”.

Katerina is a subtle, dreamy, ethical girl. This is a highly moral person, simply soulful, unsophisticated in his relationships with people. She doesn't know how to lie, pretend, or hide her feelings. She feels deeply, therefore, once she sees Boris and falls in love with him, she can no longer help herself. “Do I really want to think about him? - she argues. “What can I do if I can’t get it out of my head?” No matter what I think about, he still stands before my eyes.” For married Katerina, faithful to her husband and pious, this love becomes a real moral torture. “It’s as if I’m standing over an abyss and someone is pushing me there, but I have nothing to hold on to,” this is how she describes her condition.

Being kind, Katerina feels sorry for her husband, whom she has never loved and does not love, with whom she can never be happy. He is a weak, weak-willed man who allows himself to be humiliated in front of his wife.

Boris and Katerina cannot see each other because married ladies are kept under seven locks in Kalinov. Tikhon’s sister, Varvara, for whom there have long been no moral barriers, takes on the task of solving the problem. “And I was not a liar,” she says about herself, “but I learned when it became necessary.” It is unlikely that Katerina would have been able to master this science.

Resisting at first, Katerina nevertheless accepts Varvara’s services. She can no longer be in the suffocating atmosphere of hypocrisy, lack of freedom, tyranny, and she is not able to overcome her love. The heroine commits a great sin - she decides to meet Boris. Fate favors this: Ka-banikha sends her son away from home. Katerina experiences the current situation painfully, but she cannot overcome it. Several meetings with Boris illuminate her life with rays of happiness, but not for long.

Boris is in a dependent position on his uncle, the merchant Dikiy. He is an orphan, and his grandmother in her will ordered that Boris receive a share of the inheritance only after coming of age and only on condition of respectful attitude towards his uncle, which is impossible in principle. Not because Boris is not respectful of elders, but because it is impossible to please a wild, domineering, rude, unscrupulous and cunning person. Nevertheless, Boris continues to live in his uncle’s house, patiently enduring all the insults. There is no strength in his character that would help him overcome circumstances.

Once in Kalinov, Boris, like Katerina, feels uncomfortable. “It’s painfully difficult for me here, without the habit! - he says. “Everyone looks at me somehow wildly, as if I’m superfluous here, as if I’m disturbing them.” Love becomes an unexpected misfortune for him. “Driven, downtrodden,” he exclaims, “and yet he foolishly decided to fall in love.”

Boris cannot overcome his feelings. “If I fell in love...” he says, revealing his secret to Kudryash, and does not finish the sentence, because everything is already clear. However, he cannot take the first step. Varvara turns out to be much more agile than him. Boris accepts her service, but does not know how to answer for what he has done. Punished by his uncle, he obediently goes to Siberia. Boris refuses Katerina’s request to take her with him - he is wary of his uncle. Boris actually betrays Katerina by leaving her in this position.

The heroine turns out to be stronger than Boris. It is she, who cannot lie, who speaks publicly about her love. She challenges the “dark kingdom” by throwing herself into the abyss. Boris, of course, sympathizes with Katerina, but the only way he is able to help her is to wish her death.

Ostrovsky showed Katerina as a woman who is “clogged by the environment,” but at the same time he endowed her with the positive qualities of a strong nature, capable of resisting despotism to the end. About Boris, the critic N. Dobrolyubov said that he was the same Tikhon, only “educated.” “Education took away from him the power to do dirty tricks... but it did not give him the strength to resist the dirty tricks that others do...”