Attitude to the work of Ostrovsky. Features of the Ostrovsky style he opened to the world

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"I've been working all my life."

Slide 1 and 2.

Lesson objectives: introduce students to a new author; determine the originality of his work, expressed in the reflection of the problems of the era; show innovation and tradition in the work of A.N. Ostrovsky, the originality of his style.

Slide 3.

During the classes

I. Teacher lecture with presentation.

slide 4.

1. Pages of the history of the Russian theater before A.N. Ostrovsky (information). The originality of the themes of dramatic works; features of heroes (estates); character development principles. A. Ostrovsky's predecessors: D.I. Fonvizin, A.S. Griboedov, A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol.

Slide 5.

2. Features of Ostrovsky's plays. A new hero, whom Russian literature did not know before him. "He opened to the world a man of a new formation: an Old Believer merchant and a capitalist merchant, a merchant in an Armenian coat and a merchant in a troika, traveling abroad and doing his own business. Ostrovsky opened wide the door to the world, hitherto locked behind high fences from prying eyes" - wrote V.G. Marantsman. The new hero of Ostrovsky determines the originality of the problems and themes of the plays, the features of the characters of the characters.

Slides 6-13

3. Pages of the biography of the playwright: family, Zamoskvorechie, study, service. Life in Zamoskvorechye, work in conscientious and commercial courts, where the main "clients" are merchants, allowed the playwright to observe the life of the merchant class. All this is reflected in Ostrovsky's plays, the characters of which seem to be taken from life. The incredible work capacity of the writer contributed to the birth of 48 works in which 547 heroes act.

Slides 14-19

4. Beginning of literary activity.

The creative path of A. Ostrovsky.

The first work - the play "Insolvent Debtor" - appeared in 1847 in the newspaper "Moscow city sheet". In 1850, the same work, modified by the author, was published in the Moskvityanin magazine. Then it was under arrest for 10 years, because in it, according to Dobrolyubov, "... human dignity, freedom of the individual, faith in love and happiness and the shrine of honest labor" were crushed to dust and brazenly trampled on by tyrants.

“This is what I am doing now, combining the high with the comic,” Ostrovsky wrote in 1853, defining the emergence of a new hero, a hero with a “hot heart”, honest, straightforward. One after another, the plays "Poverty is not a vice", "Do not sit in your own sleigh", "Profitable Place", "Forest", "Hot Heart", "Talents and Admirers", "Guilty Without Guilt" and others appear. “And such a spirit has become in me: I’m not afraid of anything! It seems that cut me into pieces, I’ll still put it on my own,” says the heroine of the play “The Pupil”. "I'm not afraid of anything" - that's the main thing in the new hero of Ostrovsky.

Slide 20

The Thunderstorm (1860) is a play about an awakening, protesting personality who no longer wants to live by the laws that suppress personality.

slide 21

"Forest" (1870) - the play raises the eternal questions of human relationships, tries to solve the problem of moral and immoral.

slide 22

"The Snow Maiden (1873) is a look at the ancient, patriarchal, fairy-tale world, in which material relations also dominate (Bobyl and Bobylikha).

slide 23

"Dowry" (1879) - the playwright's look 20 years later on the problems raised in the drama "Thunderstorm".

II. Student performances. Individual assignments for the lesson.

Slides 24-38

1. Features of Ostrovsky's style (Individual tasks)

1. Speaking surnames;
2. An unusual presentation of the characters in the poster, defining the conflict that will develop in the play;
3. Specific author's remarks;
4. The role of the scenery presented by the author in determining the space of the drama and the time of action
5. The originality of names (often from Russian proverbs and sayings);
6. Folk moments;
7. Parallel consideration of compared heroes;
8. The significance of the first replica of the hero;
9. "Prepared appearance", the main characters do not appear immediately, others first talk about them;
10. The peculiarity of the speech characteristics of the characters.

Final questions

Slide 39

• Can we talk about the modernity of Ostrovsky's plays? Prove your point.
• Why do modern theaters constantly turn to the playwright's plays?
• Why is it so difficult to "modernize" the plays of A. N. Ostrovsky?

III. Lesson summary.

Slides 40-42

A.N. Ostrovsky opened a page unfamiliar to the viewer, bringing a new hero onto the stage - a merchant. Before him, Russian theatrical history consisted of only a few names. The playwright made a huge contribution to the development of the Russian theater. His work, continuing the traditions of Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Pushkin, Gogol, is innovative in the depiction of heroes, in the language of characters and in the socio-moral problems raised.

Homework:

Drama Storm. The history of creation, the system of images, methods of revealing the characters of the characters. The nature of the conflict. The meaning of the name.

Group 1. History of the play. Student messages (homework with additional literature).

Group 2 The meaning of the play's title is "Thunderstorm".

Group 3. The system of characters in the play

Group 4. Features of the disclosure of the characters of the heroes.

For 1847 - 1886 Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (see his brief and biography on our website) wrote about forty plays in prose and eight more in blank verse. They are all of different merit, but on the whole they undoubtedly represent the most remarkable collection of dramatic works that is in the Russian language. Griboyedov and Gogol wrote great and completely original plays, and their genius surpassed Ostrovsky, but it was Ostrovsky who was destined to create a Russian drama school, a Russian theater worthy of standing next to the national theaters of the West, if not as an equal, then as comparable with them.

Portrait of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky. Artist V. Perov, 1871

The limitations of Ostrovsky's art are obvious. His plays (with a few exceptions) are not tragedies or comedies, but belong to the average, bastard genre of drama. The dramatic plan of most of them, sacrificed to the method of "sections of life", is devoid of the solid consistency of classical art. With few exceptions, there is no poetry in his dramas, and even where it is present, as in Thunderstorm, this is the poetry of the atmosphere, not of words and texture. Ostrovsky, though a marvelous master of typical and individualized dialogue, is not a master of language in the sense in which Gogol and Leskov were. In a sense, even his very rootedness in Russian soil is limited, because his plays are always narrowly local and do not have universal significance. If not for this limitation, if he were all-human, remaining national, his place would be among the greatest playwrights.

Russian literature of the nineteenth century. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. Video lecture

However, the breadth, scope, diversity of his vision of Russian life is almost limitless. He is the least subjective of Russian writers. His characters are in no way an emanation of the author. These are genuine reflections of "others". He is not a psychologist, and his characters are not Tolstoy's, into whose inner world we are introduced by the mighty power of the author's intuition - they are just people as other people see them. But this superficial realism is not the outward, painterly realism of Gogol and Goncharov, it is truly dramatic realism, because it represents people in their relations with other people, which is the simplest and oldest way of characterization, accepted both in narration and in drama - through speech and action; only here this method is enriched by an enormous abundance of social and ethnographic details. And, despite this superficiality, Ostrovsky's characters have individuality and originality.

These general remarks refer mainly to Ostrovsky's early and most characteristic works, written before about 1861. The plots of these plays are taken, as a rule, from the life of the Moscow and provincial merchants and the lower strata of the bureaucracy. The broad, versatile picture of the old-fashioned, non-Europeanized life of the Russian merchant class impressed Ostrovsky's contemporaries most of all in his work, because they were interested in the reality embodied in literary work, and not in its transformation in art. Critics of the 1850s shed a lot of ink, clarifying Ostrovsky's attitude to the old-time Russian merchant class. He himself provided abundant food for such discussions and for any kind of interpretation, because his artistic sympathies are distributed differently in different plays. Any interpretation, from the most enthusiastic idealization of unshakable conservatism and patriarchal despotism to the furious denunciation of the merchant class as an incorrigible dark kingdom, could find support in the text of his plays. The true attitude of Ostrovsky to all this simply was not always the same, the moral and social position were essentially secondary circumstances for him. His task was to build plays from elements of reality as he saw it. Questions of sympathy and antipathy were for him a matter of pure technique, of dramatic expediency, for, although he was an “anti-artist” and a realist, he very keenly felt those internal laws, according to which, and not according to the laws of life, he had to build each new play. Thus, for Ostrovsky, the moral assessment of the merchant father of the family, who tyrannizes his loved ones, depended on his dramatic function in this play. But apart from this, it is extraordinarily difficult to form an idea of ​​Ostrovsky's social and political outlook. He was the most objective and unbiased of writers, and the interpretation given to his plays by his friend and propagandist Apollon Grigoriev - "unbridled admiration for the organic forces of an undefiled national life" - is just as alien to the real Ostrovsky as the anti-traditional and revolutionary propaganda that he squeezed out of which Dobrolyubov.

The technically most interesting plays by Ostrovsky are the first two: bankrupt(written 1847–1849 and published under the title Our people - let's count in 1850) and poor bride(published in 1852 and staged in 1853). The first was the most striking and sensational beginning of the activity of a young author, which was only in Russian literature. Gogol in getting married set an example of a characteristic image of the merchant environment. In particular, the type of matchmaker practicing among the merchants was already widely used. Depicting only unpleasant characters, Ostrovsky followed in the footsteps of Gogol in Auditor. But he went even further and abandoned the most venerable and ancient of comedy traditions - poetic justice, punishing vice. The triumph of vice, the triumph of the most shameless of the characters in the play, gives it a special note of bold originality. This is what angered even such old realists as Shchepkin, who found Ostrovsky's play cynical and dirty. Ostrovsky's realism, despite the obvious influence of Gogol, is essentially the opposite of him. He is alien to expressiveness for the sake of expressiveness; he does not fall into either caricature or farce; it is based on a thorough, deep, first-hand knowledge of the described life. Dialogue strives for the truth of life, and not for verbal wealth. The ability to use realistic speech unobtrusively, without falling into the grotesque, is an essential feature of the art of Russian realists, but with Ostrovsky it has reached perfection. Finally, the non-theatrical construction of the plays is absolutely not Gogol's, and by consciously refusing any tricks and calculations for the stage effect, Ostrovsky reaches the top from the very beginning. The main thing in the play is the characters, and the intrigue is completely determined by them. But the characters are taken in the social aspect. These are not men and women in general, these are Moscow merchants and clerks who cannot be torn away from their social situation.

AT bankrupt Ostrovsky almost fully showed the originality of his technique. In his second play, he went further in the direction of the de-theatricalization of the theatre. poor bride both in tone and in atmosphere it is in no way similar to bankrupt. The environment here is not merchant, but petty bureaucratic. The unpleasant feeling that she evokes is redeemed by the image of the heroine, a strong girl who is not at all lower and much more lively than the heroines of Turgenev. Her story has a characteristic ending: after her ideal romantic admirer leaves her, she submits to fate and marries the lucky boor Benevolensky, who alone can save her mother from inevitable ruin. Each character is a masterpiece, and Ostrovsky's ability to build the action entirely on the characters is on top here. But the last act is especially remarkable - a bold technical novelty. The play ends with a mass scene: the crowd is discussing Benevolensky's marriage, and here an amazing new note is introduced with the appearance of his former mistress in the crowd. The restraint and inner content of these last scenes, in which the main characters hardly appear, were really a new word in dramatic art. The power of Ostrovsky in creating a poetic atmosphere first manifested itself precisely in the fifth act. poor bride.

Ostrovsky never stopped and always continued to look for new ways and methods. In his last plays ( Dowry, 1880) he tried a more psychological method of creating characters. But in general, his last plays testify to a certain drying up of creative forces. By the time of his death he dominated the Russian stage by the sheer quantity of his works. But the heirs he left behind were mediocre and uncreative people, capable only of writing plays with "grateful roles" for excellent actors and actresses, grown up in the school of Shchepkin and Ostrovsky, but unable to continue the living tradition of literary drama.

Ostrovsky drama dowry psychological

The merits of Ostrovsky before Russian dramaturgy, before the national theater are enormous. For almost forty years of creative activity A.N. Ostrovsky created the richest repertoire: about fifty original plays, several pieces written in collaboration. He was also engaged in translations and adaptations of plays by other authors. At one time, welcoming the playwright in connection with the 35th anniversary of his career, I.A. Goncharov wrote: “You brought a whole library of works of art as a gift to literature, you created your own special world for the stage. You alone completed the building, at the foundation of which you laid the cornerstones of Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol. But only after you, we, Russians, can proudly say: “We have our own Russian, national theater. It should rightly be called the "Ostrovsky Theatre" Zhuravlev A.I., Nekrasov V.N. Theater A.N. Ostrovsky. - M.: Art, 1986, p. eight..

The talent of Ostrovsky, who continued the best traditions of classical Russian dramaturgy, asserting the dramaturgy of social characters and mores, deep and broad generalization, had a decisive influence on the entire subsequent development of progressive Russian dramaturgy. To a greater or lesser extent, L. Tolstoy and Chekhov both learned from him and proceeded from him. It is precisely with the line of Russian psychological dramaturgy that Ostrovsky represented so splendidly that Gorky's dramaturgy is connected. Ostrovsky's dramatic skill is being studied and will be studied for a long time by modern authors.

It is fair to say that even before Ostrovsky, progressive Russian dramaturgy had magnificent plays. Let us recall Fonvizin's "Undergrowth", Griboyedov's "Woe from Wit", Pushkin's "Boris Godunov", Gogol's "Inspector General" and Lermontov's "Masquerade". Each of these plays could enrich and embellish, as Belinsky rightly wrote, the literature of any Western European country.

But these plays were too few. And they did not determine the state of the theatrical repertoire. Figuratively speaking, they towered above the level of mass dramaturgy like lonely, rare mountains in an endless desert plain. The vast majority of the plays that filled the then theater scene were translations of empty, frivolous vaudeville and sentimental melodramas woven from horrors and crimes. Both vaudeville and melodrama, terribly far from real life, especially from real Russian reality, were not even its shadow.

The rapid development of psychological realism, which we observe in the second half of the 19th century, also manifested itself in dramaturgy. Interest in the human personality in all its states forced writers to look for means to express them. In the drama, the main such means was the stylistic individualization of the characters' language, and it was Ostrovsky who played the leading role in the development of this method.

In addition, Ostrovsky, in psychologism, made an attempt to go further, along the path of providing his heroes with the maximum possible freedom within the framework of the author's intention - the result of such an experiment was the image of Katerina in The Thunderstorm. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky considered the beginning of his literary path in 1847, when he read the play "Family Picture" with great success in the house of a professor and writer of the joint venture. Shevyreva. His next play “Own people - let's settle!” (original name "Bankrupt") made his name known to all reading Russia. From the beginning of the 50s. he actively collaborates in the journal of the historian M.P. Pogodin "Moskvityanin" and soon, together with A.A. Grigoriev, L.A. Meem and others formed the “young editorial board” of Moskvityanin, which attempted to make the journal an organ of a new trend in social thought, close to Slavophilism and anticipating the soil movement. The magazine promoted realistic art, interest in folk life and folklore, Russian history, especially the history of the underprivileged classes.

Ostrovsky came to literature as the creator of a nationally distinctive theatrical style, based in poetics on the folklore tradition. This turned out to be possible because he began with the image of the patriarchal layers of the Russian people, who preserved the pre-Petrine, almost non-Europeanized family and cultural way of life. It was still a “pre-personal” environment, for its depiction, the poetics of folklore could be used as widely as possible with its extreme generalization, with stable types, as if immediately recognizable by listeners and viewers, and even with a recurring main plot situation - the struggle of lovers for their happiness. On this basis, the type of Ostrovsky's folk psychological comedy was created Russian literature of the 19-20th centuries / Comp. B.S. Bugrov, M.M. Golubkov. - M.: Aspect Press, 2000, p. 202..

It is important to understand what predetermined the presence of psychological drama in the work of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky. First of all, in our opinion, by the fact that he originally created his works for the theater, for stage incarnation. The play was for Ostrovsky the most complete form of publishing a play. Only when performed on stage does the author's dramatic fiction take on a completely finished form and produce precisely that psychological effect, the achievement of which the author set himself as the goal of Kotikova P.B. The voice of the viewer - a contemporary. (F.A. Koni about A.N. Ostrovsky) / / Literature at school. - 1998. - No. 3. - S. 18-22 ..

In addition, in the era of Ostrovsky, the theater audience was more democratic, more “variegated” in terms of their social and educational level than the readers. According to Ostrovsky, for the perception of fiction, a certain level of education and the habit of serious reading are needed. The spectator can go to the theater simply for entertainment, and it is up to the theater and the playwright to make the performance both a pleasure and a moral lesson. In other words, the theatrical action should have the maximum psychological impact on the viewer.

Orientation to the stage existence of the drama also determines the author's special attention to the psychological characteristics of each character: both the main and the secondary character.

The psychologism of the description of nature predetermined the future scenery of the scene.

A.N. Ostrovsky assigned a significant role to the title of each of his works, also focusing on further stage production, which in general was not typical for Russian literature of the era of realism. The fact is that the viewer perceives the play at once, he cannot, like the reader, stop and think, return to the beginning. Therefore, he must immediately be psychologically attuned by the author to one or another type of spectacle that he is about to see. The text of the performance, as you know, begins with a poster, that is, the title, the definition of the genre and the list of multiple characterized characters. Already the poster, thus, told the viewer about the content and about “how it ends”, and often also about the author’s position: who the author sympathizes with, how he evaluates the outcome of the dramatic action. Traditional genres in this sense were the most definite and clear. Comedy means that for the characters whom the author and the viewer sympathize with, everything will end happily (the meaning of this well-being can, of course, be very different, sometimes at odds with the public idea) Zhuravleva A.I. Plays by A.N. Ostrovsky on the theater stage//Literature at school. - 1998. - No. 5. - S. 12-16 ..

But with the complication of life depicted in the play, it became increasingly difficult to give a clear genre definition. And often refusing the name "comedy", Ostrovsky calls the genre "scene" or "picture". "Scenes" - such a genre appeared with Ostrovsky in his youth. Then he was associated with the poetics of the "natural school" and was something like a dramatized essay, drawing characteristic types in the plot, which is a separate episode, a picture from the life of the characters. In the "scenes" and "pictures" of the 1860s and 1870s, we see something else. Here we have a fully developed plot, a consistent development of dramatic action leading to a denouement that completely exhausts the dramatic conflict. The line between "scenes" and comedy is not always easy to define during this period. Perhaps there are two reasons for Ostrovsky's rejection of the traditional genre definition. In some cases, it seems to the playwright that the amusing incident referred to in the play is not typical and “large-scale” enough for deep generalization and important moral conclusions - namely, Ostrovsky understood the essence of the comedy in this way (for example, “Not all carnival for a cat”). In other cases, in the life of the heroes there was too much sad and difficult, although the ending turned out to be prosperous (“Abyss”, “Late Love”) Zhuravleva A.I. Plays by A.N. Ostrovsky on the theater stage//Literature at school. - 1998. - No. 5. - S. 12-16 ..

In the plays of the 1860s and 1870s, a gradual accumulation of drama takes place and a hero is formed, which is necessary for the genre of drama in the narrow sense of the word. This hero, first of all, must have a developed personal consciousness. As long as he does not internally, spiritually feel himself opposed to the environment, does not separate himself from it at all, he can evoke sympathy, but he cannot yet become the hero of a drama that requires an active, effective struggle of the hero with circumstances. The formation of personal moral dignity and the extra-class value of a person in the minds of poor workers, the urban masses attracts Ostrovsky's keen interest. The upsurge in the feeling of personality caused by the reform, which captured quite a wide section of the Russian population, provides material and forms the basis for the drama. In the artistic world of Ostrovsky, with his bright comedic gift, a conflict that is dramatic in nature often continues to be resolved in a dramatic structure. “Truth is good, but happiness is better” just turns out to be a comedy, literally standing on the threshold of drama: the next “big play”, referred to in the letter quoted above, is “Dowry”. Initially conceived of "scenes", which he did not attach much importance to, Ostrovsky in the course of work felt the importance of characters and conflict. And it seems that the point here is primarily in the hero - Platon Zybkin.

A friend of Ostrovsky's youth, a remarkable poet and critic A.A. Grigoriev saw "one of the lofty inspirations" of Ostrovsky in Chatsky. He also called Chatsky "the only heroic person in our literature" (1862). At first glance, the critic's remark may surprise you: Griboyedov and Ostrovsky portrayed very different worlds. However, at a deeper level, the unconditional correctness of Grigoriev's judgment is revealed.

Griboyedov created in Russian drama the type of "high hero", that is, a hero, through a direct, lyrically close word to the author, revealing the truth, evaluating the events taking place in the play and influencing their course. He was a personal hero who had independence and resisted circumstances. In this respect, Griboedov's discovery influenced the entire subsequent course of Russian literature of the 19th century and, of course, Ostrovsky.

The focus on a wide audience, direct in their perceptions and impressions, determined the pronounced originality of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy. He was convinced that the people's audience in dramas and tragedies needs "a deep sigh, for the whole theater, they need unfeigned warm tears, ardent speeches that would flow straight into the soul."

In the light of these requirements, the playwright wrote plays of great ideological and emotional intensity, comic or dramatic, plays that "capture the soul, make one forget time and place." Creating plays, Ostrovsky proceeded mainly from the traditions of folk drama, from the requirements of strong drama and big comedy. “Russian authors want to try their hand,” he said, “in front of a fresh audience, whose nerves are not very malleable, which requires strong drama, big comedy, causing frank, loud laughter, hot, sincere feelings, lively and strong characters.”

The famous theater critic F.A. Koni, famous for his open-mindedness and courage, immediately appreciated the high quality of Ostrovsky's works. Koni considered simplicity of content to be one of the merits of a dramatic work, and he saw this simplicity, elevated to artistry, in Ostrovsky's comedies in the delineation of faces. Koni wrote, in particular, about the play “The Muscovites”: “The playwright made me fall in love with the characters he created. made me fall in love with Rusakov, and Borodkin, and Dunya, despite their inherent clumsiness, because he managed to reveal their inner human side, which could not but affect the humanity of the audience ”Koni A.F. On the play "Moskvitians" // Repertoire and pantheon of the Russian stage. - 1853. - No. 4. - S. 34//See. Kotikova P.B. The voice of the viewer - a contemporary. (F.A. Koni about A.N. Ostrovsky) / / Literature at school. - 1998. - No. 3. - S. 18-22 ..

Also A.F. Koni noted the fact that before Ostrovsky “even contrasts (psychological) are not allowed in Russian comedy: all faces are on the same block - without exception, all scoundrels and fools” Koni A.F. What is the Russian nationality? // Repertoire and pantheon of the Russian stage. - 1853. - No. 4. - S. 3//See. Kotikova P.B. The voice of the viewer - a contemporary. (F.A. Koni about A.N. Ostrovsky) / / Literature at school. - 1998. - No. 3. - S. 18-22 ..

Thus, we can say that already in the time of Ostrovsky, critics noted the presence in his dramatic works of subtle psychologism, which could influence the audience's perception of the heroes of the plays.

It should be noted that in his comedies and dramas, Ostrovsky was not limited to the role of a satirical accuser. He vividly, sympathetically depicted the victims of socio-political and domestic despotism, workers, truth-seekers, enlighteners, warm-hearted Protestants against arbitrariness and violence. These heroes of his were in the dark realm of autocracy "bright rays" announcing the inevitable victory of justice Lakshin V.Ya. Ostrovsky Theatre. - M.: Art, 1985, p. 28..

Punishing those in power, "oppressors", petty tyrants with a formidable court, sympathizing with the disadvantaged, drawing heroes worthy of imitation, Ostrovsky turned dramaturgy and theater into a school of social morals.

The playwright not only made people of labor and progress, bearers of the people's truth and wisdom, the positive heroes of his plays, but also wrote in the name of the people and for the people. Ostrovsky portrayed in his plays the prose of life, ordinary people in everyday circumstances. But he framed this prose of life in the frame of artistic types of the greatest generalization.

Introduction 3-8

Chapter 1. General characteristics of A.N. Ostrovsky.

Milestones in the life of a playwright. 9-28

Chapter 2 The history of the creation of the play "Abyss". 29-63

§ 1. Analysis of the most important discrepancies in the original

and final handwritten versions. 34-59

§ 2. The work of A.N. Ostrovsky over remarks. 60-63

Conclusion 63-72

Bibliography 73-76

Whichever way we look at

activities of Mr. Ostrovsky, we must

we will recognize her as the most brilliant,

most enviable activity in modern

to us Russian literature.

/A.Druzhinin/

Introduction .

The work of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky is an exceptional phenomenon in the history of Russian literature and theater. In terms of the breadth of coverage of life phenomena and the variety of artistic means, A.N. Ostrovsky knows no equal in Russian dramaturgy. He wrote about 50 plays. A contemporary of the playwright I.A. Goncharov believed that A.N. Ostrovsky created his own special world, created the Russian national theater.

The role of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky in the history of the development of Russian drama can hardly be overestimated. His contribution to Russian culture is compared with such well-known names as Shakespeare (England), Lope de Vega (Spain), Molière (France), Goldoni (Italy), Schiller (Germany).

Among the plays of the first half of the 19th century, such masterpieces of realistic dramaturgy as Griboedov's Woe from Wit, Boris Godunov and Pushkin's "little tragedies", Gogol's The Government Inspector and Marriage were especially prominent. These outstanding realistic plays clearly outlined the innovative trends in Russian dramaturgy.

The vast majority of the works that filled the theatrical stage were translations and adaptations of Western European plays. Now no one knows the names of M.V. Kryukovsky (“Pozharsky”, 1807), S.I. Viskovaty (“Xenia and Temir”, 1810?)

After the defeat of the Decembrists (A.N. Ostrovsky, the future famous playwright, was only two years old), hastily sewn works appeared in the theatrical repertoire, in which the main place was occupied by flirting, farcical scenes, anecdote, mistake, chance, surprise, confusion, dressing up, hiding . Under the influence of social struggle, vaudeville changed in its content. At the same time, along with vaudeville, melodrama was very popular.

The melodrama of V. Ducange and M. Duno "Thirty Years, or the Life of a Player", translated from French, was first staged in Russia in 1828. This melodrama, enjoying success, was often staged both in metropolitan and provincial theaters. Her exceptional popularity was also testified by Ostrovsky in the drama "Abyss". Guardians of moral purity from the "Northern Bee" and other organs of the reactionary press were outraged that the usual norms of morality were broken in the melodrama: the crime was justified, sympathy was aroused for seemingly negative characters. But it couldn't be banned. It strengthened the autocratic-feudal order more.

In the 19th century, translations of the works of progressive playwrights of Western European romanticism, such as Schiller (Deceit and Love, 1827, Carlos, 1830, William Tell, 1830, The Robbers, 1828, 1833, 1834) and V .Hugo ("Angelo, Tyrant of Padua", 1835-1836, the play was staged in the translation of M.V. Samoilova under the title "Venetian Actress"). During these years, Belinsky and Lermontov created their own plays, but in the first half of the 19th century they did not go to the theater.

N.V. Gogol contributed to the establishment of realistic and national identity in the theater, and A.N. Ostrovsky in the field of dramaturgy. The playwright not only made the positive heroes of his plays the people of labor, the bearers of the people's truth and wisdom, but also wrote in the name of the people and for the people.

Welcoming the playwright in connection with the 35th anniversary of his career, Goncharov wrote that A.N. Ostrovsky donated a whole library of works of art to literature, and created his own special world for the stage. The writer also appreciated the significant role of the playwright in the creation of the Russian national theater.

A.N. Ostrovsky had an impact not only on the development of domestic drama and theater, but on his roles the great talents of A.E. Martynov, L.P. Kositskaya-Nikulina, K.N. Rybakov, M.N. Ermolova and many others.

N.S. Vasilyeva recalled: “Ostrovsky gave each face of the play such an outline that it was easy for the actor to reproduce the author’s intention. The characterization was clear. And how figuratively, with what enthusiasm and variety of intonation he read folk scenes! The artists reverently listened to him!”

For almost half a century, A.N. Ostrovsky was a chronicler of Russian life, he quickly responded to the newly emerging social phenomena, brought to the stage, just emerging characters.

Reading his plays, there is an interest in the history of their creation. As you know, L.N. Tolstoy rewrote his works many times, F.M. Dostoevsky also did not immediately build the plots of his novels. And how did A.N. Ostrovsky work?

In the Russian State Library, in the Department of Manuscripts, manuscripts of many plays by A.N. Ostrovsky are stored, such as “Thunderstorm”, “Our people - we will settle”, “Dowry”, “Wolves and Sheep” and others, including the manuscript of the drama "Abyss", the most significant among the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky about modernity after "Thunderstorm".

The purpose of this work is, in the process of analyzing the manuscript of the play “Abysses”, first of all, to show the path that the playwright made, making changes and additions to the original text of the play, and to determine its place in the dramaturgy of A.N. Ostrovsky.

Before proceeding to characterize the manuscript, a few words should be said about A.N. Ostrovsky's work on the plays. The work of a playwright is conditionally divided into three stages. At the first stage, A.N. Ostrovsky observed the surrounding people and their relationships. I didn’t make any sketches, I kept everything in my head. Almost all the main characters in many plays by A.N. Ostrovsky have at least two prototypes, and he himself pointed to them. This once again emphasizes the fact that the playwright did not invent his characters and situations, but focused on life's conflicts. For example, the actor N.Kh. Rybnikov was the prototype of Neschastlivtsev in the play "Forest". Provincial actors, in whom A.N. Ostrovsky saw talent, were also prototypes.

After the accumulation of sufficient information, A.N. Ostrovsky proceeded to comprehend everything he saw, believing that the writer should be at the level of the advanced requirements of the era. It should be noted that at this stage of his work, the playwright also did not make sketches of plays.

Only after the ordering of impressions did A.N. Ostrovsky proceed to compiling the script. Almost always there was only one draft, but new thoughts always appeared in the process of work. Therefore, when revising the draft, inserts appeared, certain points were crossed out, and an already fully designed and deliberate work went to print.

Turning to the literary and research works on the work of A.N. Ostrovsky by such authors as L.R. Kogan, V.Ya. Lakshin, G.P. Pirogov, A.I. complete information about the drama "Abyss", not to mention the fact that its manuscript was left without attention and is not described from a research point of view in any work.

Of great interest is the work of N.P. Kashin “Etudes about A.N. not a vice” and many others. But even by this author, the play “Abyss” was left without attention, although in terms of its drama and psychological characteristics of the images, as well as in its idea, it is in no way inferior to the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky, which have already become textbooks. It is no coincidence that in 1973, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of A.N. Ostrovsky, the theater that bears his name staged the play “Abyss”, as one of the most significant and not deservedly forgotten works of the great playwright. The play was a huge success and ran for several seasons at the Maly Theatre.

The author of this work took upon himself the task of “going through with A.N. Ostrovsky” the creative path of creating the play “Abyss” from conception to the final version and determining its place in the work of the playwright. So, step by step, page by page, a creative laboratory for creating a play was opened.

The textological research method described in the works of D.S. Likhachev, E.N. Lebedeva and others was used in the work on the manuscript. This method allows you to identify discrepancies, to understand the movement of the author's thought from the idea to its implementation, that is, to trace the gradual formation of the text.

There are two purposes of textual study:

1.Preparation of the text for publication.

2. Literary analysis of the text.

The purpose of the study in this work is a literary analysis of the text of the play "Abysses", associated with clarifying its history of creation for a deeper understanding of the author's intention, the content and form of the work, the playwright's work technique on the manuscript of the play.

Textual analysis involves the following steps:

1. The study of the creative history of the creation of the work.

2. Comparison of all variants of drafts.

3. Acquaintance with the responses, in the event that the work was read before publication.

4. Comparison of plans, sketches, draft and white manuscripts.

In this work, only the first stage of textual analysis was used, since there is a single draft of A.N. Ostrovsky's play "Abyss", which became the subject of the study.

The result of this painstaking, but very interesting work was the present work, which is an attempt at the first (perhaps the only) study of the manuscript of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky "Abyss".

Chapter 1 General characteristics of the work of A.N. Ostrovsky.

Milestones in the life of a playwright.

Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was born in Moscow on March 31 (April 12), 1823, in the family of an official Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky. He was the eldest in the family. Alexander Nikolaevich's father was an educated man, he graduated from the theological academy, quickly advanced in his career and successfully engaged in private practice: he was a lawyer, handled the affairs of merchants. This gave him the opportunity to build his own house in Zamoskvorechye, where he could invite home and visiting teachers for his children.

In 1825, he first became the staff secretary of the 1st department of the Moscow Chamber of the Civil Court, then he was promoted to titular councilors, and as a result he received the rank of collegiate assessor. This gave him the right to hereditary nobility.

Nikolai Fedorovich, who wrote poetry in his youth, followed the latest in literature, subscribed to all the leading magazines: Moscow Telegraph, Domestic Notes, Library for Reading, Sovremennik. He had a solid library, which was later used by Alexander Nikolayevich. An important event in the life of the young playwright was the appearance in the house of his stepmother, Baroness Emilia Andreevna von Tessin. Together with her, new tastes and habits entered the Ostrovskys' house, special attention was paid to teaching children music, languages, and the education of secular manners.

In 1835, Alexander Nikolaevich entered the third grade of the first Moscow gymnasium, and in 1840 he graduated with honors. Then, In the same year, at the insistence of his father, he applied for admission to the law faculty of Moscow University.

The future playwright attended and successfully passed general education disciplines taught by brilliant professors: D.L. Kryukov (ancient history), P.G. Redkin (history of Russian jurisprudence), T.N. Granovsky (middle and modern history) and many others.

In the second year, highly specialized subjects were already taught, which did not interest Ostrovsky. Having received a negative score during the transition to the third year, the young playwright dropped out of his studies at the university.

The father was upset and appointed his son as an official of the Commercial Court.

The service did not captivate Alexander Nikolaevich, but gave him rich material for creativity.

In the 40s, A.N. Ostrovsky began to perform with his first works. It was in this decade that realism finally took shape and won as the leading literary trend.

“Forming in the 1940s under the influence of Belinsky and Herzen, who defended the ideas of denying the then-dominant feudal-serf regime, Ostrovsky saw the highest expression of the people in a accusatory satirical direction, in the works of Kantemir, Fonvizin, Kapnist, Griboyedov and Gogol. He wrote: “The more elegant the work, the more popular it is, the more this denunciatory element in it ... The public expects from art to clothe in a living, elegant form of its judgment on life, it expects to combine into full images the modern vices and shortcomings noticed in the century” .

The first dramatic works of A.N. Ostrovsky - “Family Picture” (1847) and “Own People - Let's Settle!” (1850) are mainly devoted to negative types and criticism of despotic arbitrariness in family and domestic relations.

Dobrolyubov wrote that A.N. Ostrovsky "found the essence of the general (requirements) of life even at a time when they were hidden and expressed very weakly."

The ideas of utopian socialism, atheism and revolution enjoyed particular success among young people during these years. This was a manifestation of the liberation movement associated with the struggle against serfdom.

Like his closest friends, A.N. Ostrovsky in the second half of the 40s was influenced by the views of his time.

At that time, the public danger was bankruptcy, the struggle for money, neglecting both family ties and moral rules. All this was reflected in the plots of works such as “Own people - we will count!”, “Poverty is not a vice”, “Abyss”, “Wolves and sheep”, “Labor bread”, “Profitable place”.

A vivid expression of A.N. Ostrovsky's deep admiration for the people is his love for oral poetry, caused in childhood by fairy tales and songs of the nurse. In the future, it strengthened and developed under the influence of the general aspirations of the playwright, his interest in the peasantry. A.N. Ostrovsky later shared some of his recordings of folk songs with P.I. Yakushkin, P.V. Shein and other folklore collectors.

Giving primary attention to Russian literature, the playwright was also interested in the best examples of foreign literature: in the gymnasium he read Sophocles, and in 1850-1851 he translated Plautus' Asinaria and Seneca's Hippolytus. Also, A.N. Ostrovsky closely followed the current Western European literature. In the late 1940s, he read the novels The Misdemeanor of Mr. Antoine by George Sand, Martin the Foundling by E. Xu, and Dombey and Son by C. Dickens.

In his youth, A.N. Ostrovsky got acquainted not only with Russian and foreign literature, but also with works devoted to the history of culture and aesthetics. Especially much for the development of literary and aesthetic tastes were given to him by the articles of Belinsky and Herzen. Following Belinsky, Ostrovsky considered a serious study of the history of culture and the latest aesthetic theories to be mandatory for the writer.

In the late 1940s, A.N. Ostrovsky collaborated in the Moskvityanin, where he wrote critical articles about the stories of E. Tur and A.F. Pisemsky, in which he defended the principles of realism. Realism was not conceived by the playwright outside the nationality, and therefore the defining principle of the aesthetics of A.N. Ostrovsky was the nationality in its democratic understanding. Based on the realistic traditions of progressive literature, demanding from modern writers a true reproduction of life, he defended the principle of historicism in his judgments.

A.N. Ostrovsky considered the first condition for the artistry of a work to be its content. With the totality of his ideological and aesthetic principles, the playwright affirmed the view of literature as a wonderful "school of morals", as a powerful moral transforming force.

A.N. Ostrovsky entered the literature immediately as a well-established writer: the comedy “Our people - let's settle!” brought him all-Russian fame, originally called “Bankrupt” and published in 1850 in the magazine “Moskvityanin”.

In the 1850s, A.N. Ostrovsky began to arrange literary evenings in his house, where he read his own plays. At first, such evenings were held in a close friendly circle, but then the number of guests increased. As a rule, they gathered on Saturdays, when there were no performances in theaters. These readings began as early as 1846 with scenes from the comedy "Our people - let's settle!", but the circle of listeners expanded only in the 50s.

N.F. Ostrovsky was often dissatisfied with his son, but even more displeasure was caused by the fact that Alexander Nikolayevich, having fallen in love with a simple girl from a bourgeois environment, brought her into his house as a wife. An angry father deprived his son of any material assistance. From that time on, a difficult life began for the playwright, in material terms.

The difficult situation of the family (by that time A.N. Ostrovsky had already had four children) was the main content of the playwright's life in the 1850s. Thanks to Agafya Ivanovna, “with limited material resources, in the simplicity of life there was contentment of life. Everything that was in the oven was placed on the table with playful greetings, affectionate sentences,” notes the writer S.V. Maksimov. She, according to Maksimov, well understood “and Moscow merchant life in its particulars, which undoubtedly served her chosen one in many ways. He himself not only did not shy away from her opinions and opinions, but willingly went to meet them, listened to advice and corrected a lot after he read what was written in her presence and when she herself had time to listen to the contradictory opinions of various connoisseurs. A large share of participation and influence is attributed to her by probable rumors when creating the comedy “Our people - let's get along!”, At least regarding the plot and its external environment.

In the mid-60s, A.N. Ostrovsky was captured by the theme of "power and people." He devoted his historical works to this topic: the chronicle "Kozma Zakharyich Minin - Sukhoruk", "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" and "Tushino". In his letters, the playwright noted that he created these works under the influence of Pushkin's "Boris Godunov".

By the end of the 60s, productions of twenty-two plays by A.N. Ostrovsky were a huge success in all theaters of Russia. The plays were not staged in their entirety, as the censors cut out pieces of text from the works, “cut them to the quick,” as L.A. Rozanova notes.

The playwright was in for a terrible blow: all the children born in this marriage died. In 1867, the playwright's beloved wife, Agafya Ivanovna, died, and in 1869 he married an actress of the Moscow Maly Theater, Maria Vasilievna Vasilyeva.

In 1867, the playwright, together with his brother Mikhail, bought the Shchelykovo estate from his stepmother. “A special mention should be made of Shchelykov in the fate of Ostrovsky. Just as it is impossible to imagine the life and work of A.S. Pushkin without Mikhailovsky, L.N. Tolstoy without Yasnaya Polyana, I.S. Turgenev without Spassky-Lutovinov, so the life of A.N. Kineshma".

For the first time, the playwright was struck by the beauty of this land back in 1848 and every year he came to visit his father and stepmother. He spoke about the house as follows: “The house is surprisingly good both from the outside with the originality of architecture and the internal convenience of the premises ... The house stands on a high mountain, which is pitted on the right and left with such delightful ravines covered with curly pines and lindens that you can’t imagine anything like that.” Every year, from spring to late autumn, A.N. Ostrovsky, together with his family and friends, lived in Shchelykovo. Here he could afford to walk around in a Russian costume: in harem pants, a loose shirt and long boots.

These memorable places for the playwright were reflected in his works. For example, in The Snow Maiden, the village of Subbotino and the meadow adjacent to it were described. Some of the most significant plays were written in Shchelykovo: “Each sage is quite simple”, “There was not a penny, but suddenly Altyn”, “Hot heart”, “Forest”, “Dowry”, “Talents and admirers”, “Without Guilty Guilty” and many others.

“Ostrovsky called his appointment happiness, as he received a practical opportunity to carry out transformations in life. Such vigorous activity in less than a year undermined Ostrovsky's strength.

“In his declining years, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky left in the album of M.I. Semevsky, the editor of the Russkaya Starina magazine, a record of the most significant facts and events experienced by him. “The most memorable day for me in my life: February 14, 1847,” he wrote. “From that day on, I began to consider myself a Russian writer, and I believed in my vocation without doubt or hesitation.” On this day, A.N. Ostrovsky finished the comedy "Pictures of Family Happiness", his first complete and complete work.

Then there were created: “Own people - let's settle”, “Poor bride”, “Profitable place”, “Thunderstorm” and many, many other plays.

On May 31, 1886, the terminally ill A.N. Ostrovsky set to work on the translation of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.

Burial took place at the Nikolo-Berezhki cemetery. Above the open

Kropachev delivered an excited farewell speech to the grave, and his last words were: Your premonition has come true: "the last act of your life drama is over"!”... A cross with the inscription: “Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky” was placed on the grave.

travellers, not described…” – this is how the great playwright wrote in his Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident.

“... This country, according to official reports, lies directly opposite the Kremlin... Until now, only the position and name of this country was known; as for the inhabitants of it, that is, their way of life, language, manners, customs, degree of education - all this was covered with the darkness of the unknown.

A.N. Ostrovsky spent his childhood, adolescence and youth in Zamoskvorechye. He knew its inhabitants well and as a child he could observe the manners, customs and characters of the heroes of his future plays. When creating images of the “dark kingdom”, A.N. Ostrovsky used his childhood, long-remembered impressions.

And who, if not A.N. Ostrovsky, was destined to remove the veil of uncertainty from this part of Moscow - Zamoskvorechye.

Initiation of A.N. Ostrovsky to the artistic word began mainly with his native literature. The first comedy that he read and made an indelible impression on him was the comedy by N.R. Of the Russian playwrights of the 18th century, A.N. Ostrovsky especially appreciated Ablesimov, the creator of the comic opera The Miller the Sorcerer, the Deceiver and the Matchmaker.

How did the playwright hatch the ideas of his works?

For several years, A.N. Ostrovsky wrote down only the words characteristic of the philistine-merchant environment with which he had to face: “himself” (master, head of the family), “lover”, “rusak” and others. The playwright then took an interest in recording the proverbs, discovering their deeper meaning. This was reflected in the titles of his works: “Don’t get into your sleigh”, “Not everything is Shrovetide for a cat”.

The first of the well-known works of A.N. Ostrovsky in prose is “The legend of how the quarter warden started dancing, or from the great to the ridiculous, there is only one step.” Gogol's trends are felt in it, especially in the pictures of everyday life.

In 1864 - 1874, A.N. Ostrovsky displays as the main characters people who are not able to fight the “well-fed”, but who have a sense of human dignity. Among them: the clerk Obroshenov (“Jokers”), the honest official Kiselnikov (“Abyss”) and the hardworking teacher Korpelov (“Labor Bread”). The playwright sharply contrasted the main characters with the environment in which they live in order to make the reader and the viewer think and draw conclusions about the existing orders.

In his plays, A.N. Ostrovsky describes the reality of the time in which he himself lived. The playwright believed that reality is the basis of art, the source of the writer's creativity.

Living in Zamoskvorechye, A.N. Ostrovsky not only managed to sufficiently study the characters of merchants, merchants and their families, but also truthfully show them in his works.

In total, A.N. Ostrovsky created 47 original plays, wrote 7 together with other writers, translated more than 20 dramatic works from other languages. Back in 1882, I.A. Goncharov wrote to him: “You alone completed the building, at the base of which the cornerstones of Fonvizin, Griboedov, Gogol were laid ... I greet you as the immortal creator of the endless system of poetic creations ... where we see with our own eyes and we hear the primordial, true Russian life...”1

The first period of creativity of A.N. Ostrovsky (1847 - 1860).

Literary activity of A.N. Ostrovsky began in 1847 with the publication of stories and essays under the general title “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky resident” in the Moscow City List, a dramatic excerpt “Pictures of Moscow Life” (“Insolvent Debtor” and “Picture family happiness). However, the earliest literary experience of A.N. Ostrovsky dates back to 1843 - this is “The Tale of How the Quarter Warden Started to Dance, or There is Only One Step From the Great to the Ridiculous”. The first literary publications were prosaic - the unfinished story “They didn’t get along” (1846), essays and stories “Yasha’s Biography”, “Zamoskvorechye on a Holiday” and “Kuzma Samsonych” (1846-1847). "Notes of Zamoskvoretsko

1 Goncharov I.A. Sobr. op. in 8 vols., v. 8., M.: 1980, p. 475

"Familiarity with the Maly Theater, its repertoire, personal friendship with many of the actors contributed to the fact that Ostrovsky left prose classes and began to write plays."

A.N. Ostrovsky served in the commercial court when he began to think about a new work. The fruit of a long internal work was the play "Bankrupt", which later received the title "Our people - we will settle!" The driver is the conflict of fathers and children on the basis of "enlightenment", "education". It is surprising that the play has not yet been published, and rumors about it spread throughout Moscow. It was read in Moscow literary salons and home circles, and the first author's reading took place in the second half of 1849 at the apartment of M.N. Katkov, in Merzlyakovsky Lane. (At that time, M.N. Katkov was an adjunct in the Department of Philosophy of Moscow University). The young playwright was just beginning his journey and could not yet get used to the praise that excited him pleasantly. Among the listeners of the new play by A.N. Ostrovsky were S.P. Shevyrev, A.S. Khomyakov, T.N. The reviews were all unanimously enthusiastic.

In 1849, A.N. Ostrovsky was invited to read a new play to M.P. Pogodin, the editor and publisher of The Moskvityanin. M.P. Pogodin liked the new play by A.N. Ostrovsky so much that he soon (1850) published it in his journal, in the section “Russian Literature”. From that moment, the playwright's cooperation with this magazine began.

Soon after reading his play by M.P. Pogodin, A.N. Ostrovsky decided to introduce his friends to him. And in the literary environment of Moscow and St. Petersburg they started talking about the "young edition" of "Moskvityanin", which was then already ten years old. Among the authors were the names of A.N. Ostrovsky, A.A. Grigoriev, T.I. Filippov and others, along with N.V. Gogol, V.A. many others.

Communication with M.P. Pogodin and his friends - Slavophiles did not pass without a trace for A.N. Ostrovsky, it had an impact on the work of the playwright (the plays “Do not get into your sleigh”, “Poverty is not a vice”, “Do not live like this, as you like"). But there were also contradictions between the publisher and the "young editors", who wanted to have greater independence. MP Pogodin did not believe that young people could keep the legends of Karamzin and Pushkin in the journal. In the early 1950s, such plays as The Poor Bride (1852), Don’t Get into Your Sleigh (1853), and Don’t Live as You Want (1855) were already printed in the Moskvityanin. A valuable acquisition of the "Moskvityanin" was the collaboration in it of P.I. Melnikov and Pisemsky.

Soon M.P. Pogodin began to point out the weaknesses of the magazine. One of his friends advised in a friendly way: “You always have a lot of typos. Even other magazines began to imitate you in this. Appearance Muscovite not graceful, the fonts are hackneyed and ugly: not at all

it would be bad for you to imitate in this case Contemporary, the most foppish Russian magazine.

In October 1857, Apollon Grigoriev was approved as the editor of Moskvityanin, but by that time he was already in Italy, and Moskvityanin had to be closed.

On January 14, 1853, the comedy Do not get into your sleigh, the first play that was played in the theater, took place. Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya, already well-known by that time, agreed to play the main role. Lively, rich in everyday colors, the speech struck the audience. M.P. Lobanov writes about it this way: “But what followed was what was already the pinnacle of the performance, what remained forever, for life in the memory of those who had the good fortune to see Sergei Vasiliev. In a conversation with Rusakov, who asks why he, Ivanushka, is sad, Borodkin replies: "Something got a little sad." He said this as if by chance, but with an inexpressible feeling, ”as critics later noted, finding no words to express the longing that was heard in Borodkin’s voice. Modest, seemingly ordinary remarks suddenly lit up with such significance and depth of feeling that it was a whole revelation for the audience, which struck them and caused a stunning impression.

“The actors entered their roles so enthusiastically, with such self-forgetfulness, that the impression was created of the complete vitality of what was being done on stage. There was something that Ostrovsky himself would later call "a school natural and expressive games".

Ivan Aksakov wrote to Turgenev that the impression produced by the play

A.N. Ostrovsky on stage, "it can hardly be compared with any previously experienced impression."

Khomyakov wrote: "The success is huge and well deserved."

This success of the playwright opened the doors to the emerging Ostrovsky Theater.

With the advent of A.N. Ostrovsky to the Maly Theater, the theater itself has changed. Ordinary people appeared on the stage in undershirts, oiled boots, cotton dresses. Actors of the older generation spoke negatively about the playwright. From the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky, the principles of realistic national-original dramaturgy are affirmed in the Russian theater. “In front of the viewer should not be a play, “but life, so that there is a complete illusion, so that he forgets that he is in the theater” - this is the rule that the playwright followed. The high and the low, the comic and the dramatic, the everyday and the unusual were all combined realistically in his plays.”

A new stage in the work of the playwright was cooperation with the Sovremennik magazine. Frequent trips of A.N. Ostrovsky from Moscow to St. Petersburg brought him to the literary salon of I.I. Panaev. It was here that he met L.N. . For quite a long time, A.N. Ostrovsky collaborated with Sovremennik, in which the plays “A Festive Dream Before Dinner” (1857), “The Characters Didn’t Agree” (1858), “An Old Friend is Better than Two New Ones” (1860), “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk" (1862), "Hard days" (1863), "Jokers" (1864), "Voevoda" (1865), "In a crowded place" (1865). After the closure of the journal in 1866, the playwright published almost all of his plays in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, which became his successor, edited by N.A. Nekrasov, and then by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, G. Eliseev and N. Mikhailovsky.

In 1856, A.N. Ostrovsky took part in the Ethnographic Expedition of the Naval Ministry, and he went to study the way of life, living conditions, culture, fishing in the Volga cities from the upper Volga to Nizhny Novgorod. The trip along the Volga gave such rich material that A.N. Ostrovsky decided to write a cycle of plays under the general title “Nights on the Volga”. The main idea of ​​the cycle was to be the idea of ​​continuity in the life and culture of the Russian people, but these plans remained unrealized. At the same time, A.N. Ostrovsky began work on the Volga Dictionary, which later developed into the Dictionary of the Russian Folk Language. After the death of the playwright, his vocabulary research was transferred to the Academy of Sciences and partially used in the academic dictionary of the Russian language, published since 1891 under the editorship of Ya.K. Grot.

The second period of creativity of A.N. Ostrovsky (1860 - 1875).

If at the first stage of his career A.N. Ostrovsky painted mostly negative images (“Poverty is not a vice”, “Don’t live as you want”, “Your people - we’ll settle!” and others), then on the 2nd - the main in a positive way (falling into the cloying idealization of the merchant class, patriarchy, religion; at the 3rd stage, starting from 1855, he finally comes to the need for an organic fusion in his plays of denial and affirmation) - these are the people of labor.

The second period of 60-75 years includes such plays as “An old friend is better than two new ones”, “Hard days”, “Jokers”, “Not everything is a carnival for a cat”, “Late love”, “Labor bread”, “In a lively place” , “There was not a penny, but suddenly an altyn”, “The Trilogy about Balzaminov”, “Dogs squabble” and “Abyss”.

The themes of A.N. Ostrovsky's plays expanded; he becomes a representative of all the main classes of his era.

“Educated Moscow in the 1940s had two favorite offspring of which it was proud, with which it united its main hopes and sympathies: the university and the theatre. The Bolshoi Theater reigned supreme: in tragedy - Mochalov, in comedy - the great Shchepkin. A.N. Ostrovsky was also seared by the whirlwind of enthusiasm for Mochalov. Later, he expressed the idea that the need for tragedy among the “young public” is greater than the need for comedy or family drama: “She needs a deep sigh on stage, for the whole theater, she needs unfeigned, warm tears, hot speeches that would flow straight into the soul ". 20 years later, in the drama "Abysses", A.N. Ostrovsky will depict a walk in the Neskuchny Garden, familiar to him firsthand, and put into the mouths of strolling merchants and students a stormy approval of Mochalov's performance in Ducange's melodrama "Thirty Years, or the Life of a Player":

"Merchant. Hey, yes Mochalov! Respected.

Wife. Only these performances to watch is very

pitifully; so it's even too much.

Merchant. Well, yes, you understand a lot!”

“In The Deep, the devilish temptation of a bribe will be especially strongly and somehow personally described: life pushes the judicial clerk under the arm and leaves him no clue to maintain honesty. Here is a clear evidence that “everyone takes”, and the mother’s lamentations that the family is disappearing from hunger, and the reasoning of the merchant-father-in-law in the spirit that whoever needs to go to court, he still prepares money: “You won’t take so another will take from him. All this, as you might expect, ends with the hero doing a little clean-up in the case and taking a big jackpot from the client, and then going crazy with remorse.”

“In the year of the liberation of the peasants (1861), A.N. Ostrovsky finished two plays: a small comedy “What you go for, you will find”, where, finally, he married his hero, Misha Balzaminov, and thus completed the trilogy about him; and the fruit of 6 years of work - the historical drama in verse "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk". Two things are polar in genre, style and objectives. It would seem, what do they have to do with what society lives and breathes? Some heroes act, while others only reason and, in a very Russian way, everyone dreams that happiness itself will fall on their heads.

About the people, the national character, how it developed and manifested itself in history, A.N. Ostrovsky also ponders over the pages of the Minin manuscript. The playwright wanted, referring to history and poetic instinct, to show a man of conscience and internal duty, capable of rousing the people to a feat in a difficult moment. It was a fresh topic at the time.

Following Minin, A.N. Ostrovsky wrote a drama in verse from the life of the 17th century Voevoda, or a dream on the Volga (1865). It contained amazingly successful pages, and, after reading it, I.S. Turgenev exclaimed: “What poetry in places, like our Russian grove in summer, is poetry! Oh, master, this bearded man!”

This was followed by the chronicles "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" (1866) and "Tushino" (1867).

“I never knew how to bow and run, to flatter the authorities; they say that with age, under the yoke of circumstances, the consciousness of one's own dignity disappears, that the need will teach kalachi to eat - with me, thank God, this did not happen, ”wrote A.N. Ostrovsky in a letter to Gedeonov. The playwright was aware that behind him was the Russian theater, Russian literature.

No matter how autumn ripened, a new play was written, played in the theater, the following dates were marked by this:

1871 - "There was not a penny, but suddenly Altyn";

1872 - "Rabbit of the 17th century";

1873 - "The Snow Maiden", "Late Love";

1874 - "Labor bread";

1875 - "Wolves and Sheep", "Rich Brides" and so on...

The third period of creativity of A.N. Ostrovsky (1875 - 1886).

It should be noted that the plays of the playwright of the third period are dedicated to the tragic fate of a woman in the difficult conditions of Russia in the 70s and 80s. This theme includes such plays as The Last Victim (1877), The Dowry (1878), The Heart Is Not a Stone (1879), Slaves (1880), Guilty Without Guilt (1883) and others. The heroines of the plays by A.N. Ostrovsky of the third period are the image of slaves. The heroines go through the torments of unfulfilled hopes, unrequited love... Only a few of these women manage to rise above the environment. A vivid example of such a strong personality is the heroine of the play "Guilty Without Guilt" - Kruchinina.

Once someone remarked to A.N. Ostrovsky that he idealizes a woman in his plays. To this the playwright replied: “How can one not love a woman, she gave birth to God to us.” Also in the plays of the third period, the image of a predator-predator behind women appears before the reader. A.N. Ostrovsky reveals spiritual emptiness, cold calculation and selfishness behind the noble appearance of such a predator. In the plays of the last period, many episodic faces appear to help convey the atmosphere, for example, of a noisy fair.

In the last play of the playwright "Not of this world", as in the previous ones, important moral and psychological questions are raised - love, relationships between husband and wife, moral duty and others.

In the late 70s, A.N. Ostrovsky created a number of plays in collaboration with young playwrights: with N.Ya. "Shines, but does not warm" (1880); with P.M. Nevezhin - “Whim” (1880), “The Old in a New Way” (1882).

In the 70s, A.N. Ostrovsky willingly turned to the plots of the criminal chronicle. Just at that time, he was elected an honorary justice of the peace in the Kineshma district, and in Moscow in 1877 he served as a juror in the District Court. Plots lawsuits gave a lot. There is an assumption that the plot of "Dowry" was suggested to the playwright by the case of murder out of jealousy, which was heard in the Kineshma Magistrate's Court.

In 1870, through the efforts of A.N. Ostrovsky, a meeting of Russian dramatic writers was established, of which he was the chairman. To understand the aesthetic positions of the playwright, it is important to note that A.N. Ostrovsky tried to stop the decline of theatrical art in Russia. Many people recalled with admiration about A.N. Ostrovsky reading his plays, about his work with actors on the role. A.Ya. Panaeva, P.M. Nevezhin, M.I. Pisarev and others wrote about relations with Moscow actors, about their warm feeling for the playwright

Chapter 2. The history of the creation of the play "Abyss".

Thanks to hard work, A.N. Ostrovsky created a new play every year, however, back in 1857, critics assured readers that there was nothing more to be expected from A.N. Ostrovsky, that his talent had faded. The inconsistency of such statements was refuted by the appearance of new talented plays, in particular, the play "Abyss".

In May 1865, A.N. Ostrovsky made a trip along the Volga. Returning from a trip, he is finishing a new play “In a Busy Place”, continues to translate from W. Shakespeare, and is working on a historical play “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky”. In the second half of December, he finishes the play “Abyss”, summing up with it a peculiar result of the theme of Zamoskvorechye in the 60s.

It can be seen from the above that during this period the literary activity of A.N. Ostrovsky was versatile and extremely intense.

For the first time the play "Abyss" was published in the newspaper "St. Petersburg Vedomosti" in January 1866 (No. 1, 4, 5, 6, 8). For some of its prints, preliminary censorship was required. In January of the same year, A.N. Ostrovsky read the play in the Artistic Circle, and in March The Abyss was already approved by the Theater Censorship. In April, the audience saw a new play by A.N. Ostrovsky on the stage of the "Maly Theatre", and in May the play "Abyss" was first presented at the Alexandrinsky Theater in the benefit performance of Vasiliev 1st.

The audience greeted the play with noisy approval. It should be noted that during this period, A.N. Ostrovsky's relations with the directorate of the imperial theaters were more tense. This is also noted by F. Burdin in one of his letters to A.N. Ostrovsky: “In general, you need to explain with great chagrin that the Higher spheres do not favor your works. They are disgusted by their accusatory pathos, ideological spirit ... it has reached the point that the "Abyss" has aroused enormous displeasure in the authorities and they are afraid to put it on.

This is confirmed by the table of productions of plays by A.N. Ostrovsky from 1887 to 1917. Interestingly, the first place in this table is occupied by the play "Forest" - 160 performances a year. The play "Abyss" - less than 15 performances a year. The plays “There was not a penny, but suddenly an altyn”, “A warm heart”, “Enough simplicity for every wise man” were subjected to the same “discrimination”.

In his work, A.N. Ostrovsky, following N.V. Gogol, continued the theme of the “little man”. This is also confirmed by the main character of the play “Abyss” - Kiselnikov. He is unable to fight and goes with the flow of life. Finally, the abyss of life sucks him in. Through this image, A.N. Ostrovsky shows that in the existing

in reality, one cannot remain a passive observer that one must fight, otherwise the abyss will swallow it up and it will be impossible to get out of it. The plays of A.N. Ostrovsky both educate and make the viewer think about the surrounding reality. As A.I. Revyakin notes in his work, the playwright believed that any kind of art must necessarily educate and be a weapon in the public struggle.

A.N. Ostrovsky not only draws the types of inhabitants of Zamoskvorechie, he maximally reveals to readers and viewers the social system that determined the behavior of these people. how

noted A.V. Lunacharsky: “... his creative eyes quickly penetrated into the souls of crippled, sometimes proud, sometimes humiliated creatures, full of deep feminine grace or sadly waving their broken wings of high idealism. ... From the depths of their mighty breasts bursts sometimes almost comical in its formal eccentricity, but such an infinitely human cry about straightened life...”

The playwright did not consider such a bold and truthful reflection of reality to be his merit. For A.N. Ostrovsky, the truth of life is not a dignity, but an indispensable condition for a work of art. This is the most important principle of art.

In the play "Deeps" A.N. Ostrovsky did not depart from the main theme of his works and showed the "bottom" of post-reform life. At the same time, the play turned out to be unusual for the author in terms of genre: not a drama - an episode, but a drama - fate, a kind of romance in the faces. Many researchers of A.N. Ostrovsky spoke about the influence of Western European literature on him, in particular about his plot borrowings from foreign sources. A.I. Revyakin draws attention to the influence of Schiller (“Robbers” - and “Voevoda”, “Dmitry the Pretender” - and “Dmitry the Pretender”), R.B. Sheridan (“School of Scandal” - and “On Every the sage of quite simplicity"), Shakespeare ("A Midsummer Night's Dream" - and "The Snow Maiden"), V. Dukanzha and Dino ("Thirty Years, or the Life of a Player" - and "Abyss")".

The hero of the play, Kiselnikov, goes from an idealist student in the 1930s to a petty judicial official in the 1940s. Each action of the play takes place in 5 - 7 years and depicts the path of a young man who graduated from the university, entering into life with hopes and hopes for a brighter future. What is the result? Marrying a Zamoskvoretskaya girl, he falls into everyday life, as if into an abyss. Purity of thoughts ends with a crime - a large bribe, which the hero sees as the only way to escape from poverty.

Almost every play by A.N. Ostrovsky was subject to a theatrical censorship ban, as the playwright again and again raised questions about the pressing problems of our time. But nothing could force the playwright to change the subject of his plays.

It is necessary to give a general description of the manuscript of the play "Abyss".

The manuscript of the play, kept in the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library, contains 54 sheets. The text is written in pencil. Some places are difficult to read, as time has left an imprint on the text of the manuscript (the result of long-term storage and repeated reference to the text). The manuscript has no margins. All notes are made by A.N. Ostrovsky in free places. When viewing the manuscript, a large number of inserts and additions are found, most often they are made directly in the text. Large inserts are taken out to free places or given below with the mark “F”. There are few crossed-out places in the manuscript; the original version is most often crossed out with a bold line. There are also crossed out pieces of text. There are sheets in which there are no corrections.

It can be assumed that these fragments were found by A.N. Ostrovsky immediately. However, it is possible that after a large number of changes and amendments, these sheets could be rewritten. It is impossible to make a categorical statement in favor of the first or second assumption.

The entire manuscript is written in even, small handwriting. As for the inserts, it is often possible to disassemble them only with the help of a magnifying glass, since there was no special place for them, and Ostrovsky was forced to place them in scanty free places.

Attention is drawn to the numbers affixed above the words, which allowed the author to achieve great expressiveness of the text.

For example:

Glafira

Now I will not be afraid of you, because you will enter our house.

Of particular interest in characterizing the manuscript is its first leaf.

After the first three lines:

"Abyss"

"Scenes from Moscow Life".

Scene I.”

Immediately there are columns of text written in small, illegible handwriting, “for myself”. With careful study, some words from these records were able to be read. In these notes, A.N. Ostrovsky arranged the main events of the play into scenes. During the final processing, all these entries were crossed out, since later they became unnecessary. In general, there are a lot of author's notes and sketches on the first sheet. All of them are also crossed out. This is a general brief description of the appearance of the manuscript of A.N. Ostrovsky's play “Abyss”.

Now let's move on to the additions and changes made by A.N. Ostrovsky during the final edition, of which there are a lot in the manuscript. Since the nature of this work does not provide for a complete and thorough study of the manuscript, only those passages that have undergone changes during the creation of the play will be analyzed. It is necessary to analyze and establish the purpose and significance of these amendments, some of which make significant changes in the character of the characters, others help to better reveal the situation in the play.

§ 1. Analysis of the most important discrepancies in the original and final manuscripts.

Researchers (A.I. Revyakin, G.P. Pirogov, V.Ya. Lakshin and others) of the work of A.N. Ostrovsky found that the playwright rarely succeeded at the beginning of the play right away. For a long time and hard he worked out the first lines, the arrangement of the characters. A.N. Ostrovsky tried to make the first lines of the characters in the play look like an ongoing dialogue.

Very often, his plays begin with a reciprocal remark that makes it easy to imply previous actions that took place before the curtain went up. It is this beginning that is observed in the “Abyss”.

SceneI.

The action begins with a discussion of Ducange's new translated play Thirty Years, or the Life of a Gambler. The discussion is led by merchants and their wives.

A.N. Ostrovsky succeeded in the first phenomenon right away, since the playwright studied the merchants very well and he had to hear the judgments of such “connoisseurs of art” more than once.

The second appearance of "Abyss" was originally conceived as a discussion of the same play, but already by students. A.N. Ostrovsky contrasted the opinion of the merchants with the opinion of the students. In the first version, the students not only talked about the play, but also talked about the theater "as the highest pleasure." "Player's Life" was discussed by three students and two other characters who were not noted in the composition of the characters in the play. These characters are listed by A.N. Ostrovsky under the names Alb and Galosh. Apparently, the author gave their names in an abbreviated form.

In this phenomenon, perhaps, the largest number of corrections. A.N. Ostrovsky almost completely reworks the text of this phenomenon: he removes the statement of the first student about the theater, instead of three students, only two students participate in the conversation; a new person is introduced - Pogulyaev.

True, Pogulyaev utters only one phrase, but his idea is developed by students. The author also removes the long arguments of Alb and Galosh.

Thus, after the changes made, two students and Pogulyaev remain in the second phenomenon.

What could have caused such a rethinking of this phenomenon? Yes, apparently, by the fact that A.N. Ostrovsky himself did not consider it necessary to talk a lot about the play “The Player's Life”, especially since the statement of Pogulyaev and students gives a fairly complete assessment of this play.

Pogulyaev

And how good Mochalov was today. It's just a pity that the play is bad.

1st student

Dry play. Naked morality.

..................................................... .

What a play this is! This is nonsense that is not worth talking about.

Long and general arguments could only scatter the viewer's attention.

In the third phenomenon, initially there were only two characters: Kiselnikov and Pogulyaev. The conversation went on between friends throughout the apparition. Kiselnikov's life was not very successful, and therefore it is not surprising that Kiselnikov willingly tells his friend Pogulyaev about everything.

With such an arrangement of actors, the action turned out to be somewhat monotonous. The conversation “tete a tete” does not suit A.N. Ostrovsky and in the new edition he introduces two more students who studied together with Kiselnikov. Now three people are asking questions, and Kiselnikov only manages to answer them.

The fact that Kiselnikov tells about his life not only to Pogulyaev, but also to the students present, characterizes him as an open and sociable person. When editing, A.N. Ostrovsky does not alter the phrases belonging to Pogulyaev and does not add new text. The playwright breaks these phrases into lines. Now, in a new version, they are already pronounced by students.

In the original version, A.N. Ostrovsky does not indicate how long Pogulyaev did not see Kiselnikov, this clarification appears only in the corrected version.

Interestingly, in the original version, Kiselnikov himself spoke about his life. With the introduction of two more characters, the number of questions increases and, consequently, Kiselnikov's long answers are divided into smaller ones. Kiselnikov now more often answers in monosyllables. By this, A.N. Ostrovsky, as it were, makes it clear that, after all, Kiselnikov does not have a great desire to talk about himself.

A new phrase appears, with which Kiselnikov is trying to justify everything that has been said.

Kiselnikov

However, I can still do it all.

But, since there is no real action behind this phrase, the subsequent dialogue moves on to another topic.

Kiselnikov

My father was a strict, capricious old man...

The constant presence of his father oppressed Kiselnikov.

The fourth and fifth phenomena were left by A.N. Ostrovsky in their original form. In the fifth phenomenon, new actors appear. Their speech characteristic was found by the playwright at once.

In the sixth phenomenon, inserts with the “F” mark appear for the first time, there are many changes and additions to the text itself. Noteworthy is the insert in Glafira's answer to Pogulyaev's question about her studies.

In the original version, to the question of Pogulyaev, what she does, Glafira answered:

Glafira

I do embroidery.

In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky adds:

Glafira

Usually what young ladies do. I do embroidery.

In her opinion, all the young ladies are only engaged in embroidering and are not interested in anything else.

There is no doubt that A.N. Ostrovsky, by this additional phrase in Glafira's answer, emphasizes the narrowness of her interests. Perhaps, with this additional phrase, the playwright simultaneously contrasts Kiselnikov's education with the narrow-mindedness of his bride.

Now let's turn to another scene in which Kiselnikov convinces Pogulyaev that there is no better family than the Borovtsovs, that nothing can be better than their family pleasures. In the original version of the manuscript, Pogulyaev silently listens to Kiselnikov and thus, as it were, largely agrees with him. But when editing the original text, A.N. Ostrovsky is not satisfied with this behavior of Pogulyaev, and a new line appears in which the author, through the mouth of an old comrade Kiselnikov, expresses his attitude to the way of life of the Borovtsovs.

Pogulyaev

No, there is something better than this.

Instead of tacit consent, Pogulyaev's protest is visible.

To show the limited interests and views of Borovtsova, A.N. Ostrovsky immediately introduces her remark.

Borovtsov

This is dancing, right? So well them. Husband can't stand it.

Thus, in the sixth appearance of the first scene, the two short inserts (the words of Glafira and the words of Borovtsova) significantly reveal the characteristics of the Borovtsov family, emphasizing their individuality and contrast with Kiselnikov.

In the seventh, last appearance of the first scene, there are no significant changes in the text.

SceneII

Seven years pass. Kiselnikov's life after marriage is not changing for the better. The father-in-law does not give him the promised inheritance, Glafira turns from a meek girl into a greedy and hysterical woman.

The first appearance of the second scene begins with a scandal between Kiselnikov and Glafira.

In the original version of the manuscript, when the scandal reaches its peak, we read:

Kiselnikov(covers ears)

In the final version:

Kiselnikov(covering ears, screaming)

You are my tyrants, you!

Just one replica, but how the character of the image changes! In the first version, Kiselnikov is a passive nature in which any ability to fight has been destroyed. In the final version - we have before us a man whom fate forced to live among hated people, he has to adapt, but the hero is not afraid to say his opinion about others. At the end of the apparition, A.N. Ostrovsky introduces Kiselnikov’s long monologue, in which he almost repents of his behavior.

With this remark of Kiselnikov, reinforced by the addition of just one word to the remark: “screams” and an additional monologue at the end of the phenomenon, A.N. Ostrovsky shows that in the soul of the protagonist of the play, who has lived in the realm of merchant obscurantism for seven years, the struggle between the passive and active beginnings of his nature, but the passive beginning begins to gain the upper hand and suck him into the abyss of merchant life.

The image of Glafira is obtained from A.N. Ostrovsky not immediately. In the final version, the playwright draws the attention of readers to her rudeness and greed. In the original version of the manuscript we read:

Glafira

How many times have I told you to rewrite the house in my name...

Kiselnikov

It's her own house, isn't it?

Glafira

So what's her? I give her my dresses, I do not regret for

It turned out that Glafira treats Kiselnikov's mother well - she gives her her dresses. But these words contradicted the character of the greedy Glafira.

When editing the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky corrects this discrepancy. But at the same time, the playwright does not change the text of the speech of the heroes, but only in the last words of Glafira, before the word “dresses”, he inserts the definition “old”. Now Glafira's response looks like this:

Glafira

So what's her? I give her my old dresses, I don’t regret it for her, ...

So, with just one word, introduced during editing, A.N. Ostrovsky reveals the insignificant soul of Glafira and reveals new features in her character: callousness, callousness.

In the second apparition, the Borovtsovs come to visit Kiselnikov. Glafira has a name day, and her parents congratulate her. It turns out that Kiselnikov has already pawned Glafira's earrings, which were given to her as a dowry. Glafira's parents are outraged. But Kiselnikov had no other choice. The money he receives in the service is too little to feed a large family. Borovtsov teaches Kiselnikov to take bribes. He draws him a rich life.

In the original version, Borovtsov's teaching does not completely reveal his views on life. In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky adds:

Borovtsov

You live for the family - here you are good and honest, and fight with others, as in a war. What you managed to grab, and drag home, fill and cover your hut ...

In these added words, the image of a greedy predator, who cares only about his own good, looms before the reader. If such is the head of the Borovtsov family, then the rest of its members are the same. A.N. Ostrovsky once again emphasizes the impossibility, incompatibility of the views on life of Kiselnikov and the Borovtsovs.

In the third phenomenon, A.N. Ostrovsky does not make any special changes when editing.

In the fourth scene of the second scene, while editing the first version of the manuscript, in order to reveal the characters as fully as possible, A.N. Ostrovsky makes additions to their speech.

Guests are gathering in Kiselnikov's house. Pereyarkov and Turuntaev come to Glafira's name day. In the first version of the manuscript, when Anna Ustinovna delays tea for the guests and Glafira shouts at her mother-in-law in front of everyone, we read:

Glafira

Why did you fail there with tea!

................................................

Stomp only in the house, but there is no sense.

Borovtsov

Well, be quiet, be quiet! Hello, bridesmaid!

In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky emphasizes the duplicity of Borovtsova.

Borovtsov

Well, be quiet, be quiet! Don't shout in front of people! Not good. Hello, bridesmaid!

From this addition, it becomes clear that Borovtsova cares only about outward decency, she is not at all opposed to Glafira yelling at her mother-in-law, but not in public. The conclusion involuntarily suggests itself that a new phrase in Borovtsova's speech was added by A.N. Ostrovsky not only to promote her character, but also the character of Glafira. It becomes clear that Glafira's meekness before the wedding was ostentatious, but by her nature and upbringing she was rude and greedy.

This small addition reveals the character of two characters at once.

In the original version, when Pogulyaev arrives, Glafira greets him quite kindly.

Pogulyaev (Glafira)

I have the honor to congratulate you. (bows to everyone)

Glafira

Thank you humbly.

From the dialogue it is clear that Glafira accepts Pogulyaev without joy, but purely outwardly her behavior does not go beyond the bounds of decency. In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky adds one more phrase to Glafira's speech:

Pogulyaev (Glafira)

I have the honor to congratulate you. (bows to everyone).

Glafira

Thank you humbly. Only today we did not wait for strangers, we want to spend time between our own.

In the final version, the meaning of Glafira's response to Pogulyaev's greeting changes dramatically. She pronounces the first phrase as if with a mockery, and then emphasizes that Pogulyaev is a stranger to them. This reveals another trait of Glafira's character: indifference to "unnecessary" people.

When talking with Pogulyaev, Pereyarkov emphasizes that they (the Borovtsovs, Pereyarkov and Turuntaev) have tenderness among themselves; that "they live soul to soul." But as soon as Pereyarkov looks into his neighbor's cards (he does this without a twinge of conscience), Turuntaev calls him a robber in front of everyone.

A skirmish begins. Each of those present tries to insult his companion worse. When editing, A.N. Ostrovsky adds new replicas. Now all these "nice" people look like bazaar squabblers.

Pereyarkov

Pawnbroker! Koschey! Judas!

Turuntaev

Thief, day thief!

Borovtsov

What are you barking about!

Turuntaev

And what are you, a yardstick!

To these remarks, introduced at the end of the quarrel between Borovtsov and Turuntaev, when editing, A.N. Ostrovsky adds a phrase by Pogulyaev, which is a conclusion to this scene.

Pogulyaev

Here's to your soul!

At the end of the apparition, Pogulyaev gives Kiselnikov a loan. Kiselnikov is very grateful to him. In the original version it looked like this:

Kiselnikov

Thank you, brother, thank you, that's borrowed! Here's a friend, so a friend! If it weren't for him, I would have completely disgraced myself in front of my father-in-law.

After editing the original version, we read:

Kiselnikov

Here's a friend, so a friend! What is there to do, if not him! Where to go? This is for me, for my truth and meekness, God sent. If there were more such friends, it would be easier to live in the world! If it weren't for him, I would have completely disgraced myself in front of my father-in-law.

What does A.N. Ostrovsky want to draw our attention to? Does the meaning of Kiselnikov's words change in the final version?

In the first version, A.N. Ostrovsky does not reveal the word "friend" in the understanding of Kiselnikov. In the final version, it becomes clear that for him a friend is one who can lend money. The playwright emphasizes that need dulls all other feelings in Kiselnikov.

At the beginning of the play, Kiselnikov still tries to protest. Even though they were only words, they could also turn into deeds. Gradually, A.N. Ostrovsky brings the reader and viewer to the tragic finale of the play. At the end of the second scene, Kiselnikov is a weak, weak-willed person, incapable of protest, taking merit and patience to his credit.

SceneIII

In the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky begins to write the third scene of “Abysses” from the second appearance. Apparently, the playwright was not ready to present the first phenomenon and left it “for later”. The first phenomenon follows the second, then the third phenomenon follows, and so on.

In the first appearance of the third scene, A.N. Ostrovsky tells about the life of Kiselnikov over the past five years.

Another five years pass. Glafira died. The children are sick, but Kiselnikov has no money to treat them. The father-in-law, on whom Kiselnikov pinned his last hope, “declared himself insolvent.” But Kiselnikov continues to hope that Borovtsov will return to him at least part of the money taken. In order not to upset his mother, Kiselnikov tries to give her at least a little hope.

Kiselnikov

I'm going to visit my father-in-law tomorrow morning. I won’t give back, I’ll just take it by the collar.

Anna Ustinovna

Ask well...

The mother advises her son to first ask well, well, and then you can “behind the collar”. By nature, Kiselnikov is a weak-willed person. He will never be able to "take the gate." Anna Ustinovna knows this very well. After all, Kirill is easier to give in than to use force and pressure, even in a matter relating to his own money. In confirmation of this, A.N. Ostrovsky adds:

Anna Ustinovna

Well, where are you! You better ask well...

This inserted phrase once again, through the words of the mother, very figuratively reveals the weak-willed character of her son.

The second phenomenon needs to be considered in more detail. It is perhaps the most dramatic place in the play. In the second phenomenon, the main events take place that change the character of Kiselnikov, which will then become guiding in his subsequent actions.

Borovtsov and Pereyarkov come to Kiselnikov. Borovtsov is now poorly dressed, and he himself came to his son-in-law with a request. In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky introduces the appeal “BRAT” into Borovtsov’s words. Father-in-law calls Kiselnikov that not because he loves him, this is just Borovtsov's new trick to implement the vile plan he had conceived. A.N. Ostrovsky makes significant changes to the speech of Pereyarkov, who directs all the actions of Borovtsov in this meeting.

In the original version we read:

Pereyarkov

Cry! After all, you will cry in front of other creditors.

In the new edition, Pereyarkov gives Borovtsov more detailed and refined advice:

Pereyarkov

Cry! Why don't you cry? Now your business is like an orphan. After all, you will cry in front of other creditors. You have to bow at your feet.

In the new version, A.N. Ostrovsky emphasizes the cunning of Pereyarkov. Such words can pity any person, and even more so Kiselnikov. Borovtsov knows in advance that after all that has been said and played out, Kiselnikov will agree to help him and sign the necessary document.

The artless Kiselnikov is ready to trust Borovtsov and give up his own money. To emphasize the generosity of Borovtsov “in words”, a new remark appears in the final version.

Borovtsov

Yes, how can you not believe something, an eccentric! I'll tell you later ... I'll make you rich later ...

A.N. Ostrovsky draws attention to “later”, which here borders on “never”.

In the original version of the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky ended the second phenomenon with a successful deal. In an effort to reveal the state of mind of the protagonist, his despair and fear of life, in the new version, A.N. Ostrovsky introduces Kiselnikov's monologue.

Kiselnikov

My children, children! What have I done to you! You are sick, you are hungry; you are robbed, and your father helps. The robbers came and took away the last piece of bread, but I didn’t fight with them, didn’t cut myself, didn’t gnaw them with my teeth, but gave it myself, gave your last food with my own hands. I would rob people myself and feed you - people would forgive me, and God would forgive me; and I, together with the robbers, robbed you. Mommy, mommy!

In the third appearance, Kiselnikov tells his mother about everything that happened. Both are excited. In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky introduces short remarks that add dynamism to their conversation and further enhance the drama of the situation.

Anna Ustinovna

Do not grumble, Kirill, do not grumble!

Kiselnikov

Oh, to die now!

Anna Ustinovna

And the children, the children!

Kiselnikov

Yes, children! Well, what's gone is gone.

The last remark testifies to the prudence of Kiselnikov. He understands that tears will not help grief.

In the original version of the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky puts only the following words into Kiselnikov’s mouth:

Kiselnikov

When to rest! The thing is unbearable. You sit with me! I won't be so bored; and then one something worse longing for the heart sucks.

But from these words it is not clear how Kiselnikov is going to get out of this situation. Therefore, when editing the text, A.N. Ostrovsky inserts several new phrases into the quoted statement of Kiselnikov and thereby shows that he is not going to sit idly by.

Kiselnikov

When to rest! The thing is unbearable. Well, mama, let them enjoy! They won't get rich with our money. I'll get to work now. I will work day and night. You sit with me! I won't be so bored; and then one something worse longing for the heart sucks.

It seems interesting to trace how Kiselnikov's life developed.

Kiselnikov studied at the university, but did not finish it. Hope to keep learning. He meets Glafira, marries her for love and is sure that Glafira loves him too. Kiselnikov dreams of a happy and rich new life, as his father-in-law promises six thousand for Glafira.

However, in life everything turned out quite differently. Glafira turns into a scandalous and greedy merchant's wife. Kiselnikov not only does not receive the promised six thousand, but also loses his savings, given to his father-in-law against a credit receipt.

Glafira dies. Four sick children remain in Kiselnikov's arms. Kiselnikov has no money for treatment. All the children except Lisa die. In addition to everything, the rich father-in-law is "declared insolvent." Kiselnikov has the last hope that his father-in-law will return to him at least part of his own money, but the circumstances are such that Kiselnikov himself, out of pity for his father-in-law, "gives" him this last money. Such is the position of the desperate Kiselnikov before the fourth apparition.

The events of the fourth apparition foreshadow the play's denouement. An unknown person incites Kiselnikov to commit a forgery of a document. For this he offers a large amount. By nature, Kiselnikov is a very honest and noble person. He could never afford to accept a bribe, even when in a critical situation, although others did it without a twinge of conscience. But here comes the last hope. Father-in-law “robs” him. There is no money and will not be, but in the hands of an elderly mother and daughter, who still needs to be put on her feet. In desperation, Kiselnikov commits a forgery of the document. When editing the manuscript, wanting to emphasize the unconsciousness of Kiselnikov's act, A.N. Ostrovsky adds to the original version the following statements of his hero after the crime he committed in office:

Kiselnikov

God! What am I doing! (cries.)

...........................................................................

You won't kill me. Family-s!

In the fifth apparition, we see Kiselnikov rushing about, with eyes full of fear. His speech and actions are erratic. His condition is close to that of a patient in a fever. Most of all, Kiselnikov is afraid of losing the money he just had.

Kiselnikov

Oh my god! Well, through the cracks, behind the wallpaper, wrap it in rags.

In an effort to emphasize that Kiselnikov cares about money not for himself, but for his family, when working out this place, A.N. Ostrovsky expands the above remark more widely.

Kiselnikov

Oh my god! Well, through the cracks, behind the wallpaper, wrap it in rags. So that you have some money left than you have to live with children after me.

At the end of the fourth final scene of the third scene, while editing, A.N. Ostrovsky adds Kiselnikov's exclamation.

Kiselnikov

Mother, I'm within a hair's breadth of penal servitude... Tomorrow, maybe

This is Kiselnikov's last sober exclamation.

SceneIV

In the first appearance of the fourth scene, we have before us a completely ruined Borovtsov and a maddened Kiselnikov.

Another five years pass. The lives of the actors change, and so does their position. Now Kiselnikov and Borovtsov are selling old things on the square together. A powerful merchant, Kiselnikov's father-in-law, Borovtsov finds himself in the position of his poor son-in-law. That is life.

Anna Ustinovna, who has aged five years, remains the same devoted mother, trying to protect her beloved Kirill from any excitement. This character trait, when editing the text, A.N. Ostrovsky emphasizes in the new edition.

In the first version, when Borovtsov reminds Anna Ustinovna of her former life, we read:

Anna Ustinovna

Oh, shut up!

In the second version, after editing, we have:

Anna Ustinovna

Oh, shut up! What are you with him! Well, wake up and remember ...

Anna Ustinovna is constantly worried about Kirill. She believes that Kirill can wake up.

When editing the original version of the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky adds to Borovtsov’s speech the words about “talan-dol.” Why is this? He invents this proverb so that Kiselnikov could believe in something.

In the second phenomenon, we first meet Kiselnikov's eldest daughter, Lisa, and meet Pogulyaev again. In the first version, A.N. Ostrovsky does not specify who Pogulyaev has become over the past five years. But when comparing his life with the life of Kiselnikov, it becomes necessary. In the new edition, A.N. Ostrovsky introduces the following addition into Pogulyaev’s dialogue:

Pogulyaev

Now a lawyer, I am engaged in cooking.

This insert shows that Pogulyaev achieved a good position in society and received a seat in court. Anna Ustinovna tells him the story of Kiselnikov. It is noteworthy that in the original version of her story began with the words:

Anna Ustinovna

The service was not given to him - somehow he did not get used to it; ...

In the new version we read:

Anna Ustinovna

Family, father, and relatives ruined Kirill. The service was not given to him - somehow he did not get used to it; ...

In the new words of Anna Ustinovna, A.N. Ostrovsky once again emphasizes that the main reason for Kiselnikov's current position is not in the service, but in his environment.

Anna Ustinovna tells Pogulyaev that Kirill has gone mad. When editing, A.N. Ostrovsky adds: “out of fear.” What is this fear? This is the fear of an honest person before the law, the fear of the head of the family for his daughter and mother.

In the conversation between Lisa and Pogulyaev, A.N. Ostrovsky changes almost nothing. Only in the final version the theme of happiness is touched upon. It turns out that Pogulyaev has everything except happiness.

Pogulyaev is financially well-off, and he is happy to help his friend's family. In memory of an old acquaintance, he gives Anna Ustinovna a banknote. Kiselnikov's mother is very grateful to him.

Anna Ustinovna

We humbly thank you for remembering us orphans. You visit.

In order to reveal the psychology of a poor person, A.N. Ostrovsky makes an addition to the above words of Anna Ustinovna.

Anna Ustinovna

• If you don’t have happiness, then you have money; It means you can still live.

We humbly thank you for remembering us orphans. You visit.

For a poor person, happiness, sometimes, is not necessary when

have money.

When constructing the fourth phenomenon, A.N. Ostrovsky introduces semantic amendments to the arrangement of events.

In the original version, the fourth phenomenon began from the moment Kiselnikov arrived with a ten-ruble banknote, which was given to him by a gentleman neighbor for poverty. In the modified version, the action begins with Kiselnikov's incoherent words, which he had just heard from the master and haunted his shaken psyche.

Kiselnikov

Kennel, kennel...

...................................

A kennel, he says, a dog kennel...

Kiselnikov thinks over the words he heard, he is going to go to the master again. Lisa immediately understands what is at stake. She is in despair. Lisa can save the family if she goes to the maintenance of a rich neighbor. What should she do?

At the end of the apparition, Lisa utters words full of despair:

Lisa

Who will help me! I'm standing over the abyss, I have nothing to hold on to. Kind people!

In the process of editing the text, A.N. Ostrovsky makes changes to this part of the manuscript. Changed variant:

Lisa

Who will help me now! I'm standing over the abyss, I have nothing to hold on to. Oh, save me, good people! Grandma, talk to me something!

In the first version, Lisa talks about help in general, and in the final version, about help at the moment. This cry of a drowning man: “Save me!” - the climax of the current situation. Lisa asks for help, but from whom? Even her grandmother does not speak to her, as she is afraid to give her bad advice and deprive her family of a possible salvation. In the modified version, A.N. Ostrovsky enhances the drama of the current situation.

In the fifth appearance, Pogulyaev reappears. In the original version of the manuscript, the apparition begins with Liza's exclamation addressed to Pogulyaev:

Lisa

Help me!

This could be regarded as an unexpected straw, which Lisa clutches at, being in despair. She didn't care who to ask for help.

When editing the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky rejects this option. Of all the people around Lisa, only Pogulyaev can help her. Therefore, in the new edition, he concretizes Lisa's appeal.

Lisa

Oh, how timely you are! I need to ask for advice, not from anyone. Help me.

Pogulyaev proposes to Lisa, and she accepts. He reports this to Kiselnikov. Kiselnikov's reaction to this message undergoes a change when editing the manuscript.

In the first option:

Kiselnikov

Mommy!

Anna Ustinovna

True, Kiryusha, true!

What does this exclamation of Kiselnikov mean? Fear, joy? From this exclamation, Kiselnikov's reaction is not entirely clear.

When working out this scene, A.N. Ostrovsky feels that it is important that Kiselnikov come to his senses and realize, at that moment, what happiness has befallen his daughter. If A.N. Ostrovsky had changed only the words of Kiselnikov, then this would not have been enough either. Therefore, a new phrase appears in Anna Ustinovna's speech, testifying to Kiselnikov's common sense at this crucial moment.

Kiselnikov

Mommy! Lisa! Is he getting married? Truth?

Anna Ustinovna

Thank God I woke up! True, Kiryusha, true!

Reply of Anna Ustinovna: “Thank God, I woke up!” emphasizes the mother's double joy. Firstly, Kiryusha came to his senses and can be happy for his daughter, and secondly, she is glad that Liza is getting married so successfully.

In the sixth manifestation of the drama, we see that common sense does not leave Kiselnikov until the very end of the play. When Pogulyaev invites everyone to move in with him, Kiselnikov openly says that he is not worth it, that he is a fraudster, and now only his father-in-law can keep him company.

When editing the sixth appearance, the playwright makes a change to Kiselnikov's final monologue, amplifying it with an exclamation:

Kiselnikov

No, Pogulyaev, take them, take them; God will not leave you; and drive us, drive! ...

Kiselnikov is afraid that the abyss will suck his daughter. His life is already broken, so let Lisa not repeat his mistakes.

When examining and studying the manuscript of A.N. Ostrovsky “Abyss”, it is easy to establish two versions of its writing: the original and the final one.

In terms of composition, the play is conceived as follows.

Young Kiselnikov meets his old friend Pogulyaev. From the story of Kiselnikov we learn how he lived lately. Here we learn that Kiselnikov is going to marry Glafira. All these events are the exposition of the play.

Kiselnikov got married. His life has changed. A.N. Ostrovsky tells about all the misfortunes that have fallen on his head. Kiselnikov's marriage is the plot of the play.

A.N. Ostrovsky gradually brings us to the climax. First, Kiselnikov is deprived of the promised inheritance, then he gives his father-in-law his own money. The highest point of climax is the forgery of the document.

The play has a dramatic denouement - Kiselnikov loses his mind.

On which fragment of the play did A.N. Ostrovsky work more carefully? Leafing through the manuscript again, it is clear that A.N. Ostrovsky had to make equal changes in all parts of the play. If we take into account that the exposition is the smallest in volume, and there are a large number of corrections and additions to it, then we can say that A.N. Ostrovsky worked on the exposition more carefully.

The work of the playwright on the main characters deserves attention. All images are almost immediately outlined by the author in their final version. A.N. Ostrovsky adds phrases and remarks to the speech of some characters, emphasizing new character traits. This is especially true for the images of Kiselnikov and Glafira. The image of Pogulyaev remains in its original form, and the new phrases in Anna Ustinovna's speech do not affect her image in any way. They serve to reveal the images and characters of other characters. A.N. Ostrovsky also makes changes to the characterization of the images of Borovtsov and Borovtsova.

§ 2. A.N. Ostrovsky's work on remarks.

The work of A.N. Ostrovsky on remarks should be discussed separately. To begin with, you should refer to the explanatory dictionary of S.I. Ozhegov and find out the meaning of the word "REMARK":

In the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky, and in this case in the play "Abyss", remarks play an important role. And this follows, first of all, from the fact that in the process of work the playwright made significant changes not only to the main text of the work, but also to the remarks.

In the play "Abyss" there are three types of remarks: remarks concerning the characters, remarks that reveal the situation in the life of the characters, and remarks that reveal the characters through speech and emotional state.

There are few remarks relating to the characters in the manuscript.

In the final version of the play, A.N. Ostrovsky replaces the surname Gulyaev with Pogulyaev. What could have caused such a change, it is difficult to say. The author adds to Pogulyaev's characterization: "graduated from the course."

After editing the list of characters, A.N. Ostrovsky removes the maiden name of Borovtsova, in the play she appears not as Firsova, but as Borovtsova.

After making changes to the composition of the characters in the play, A.N. Ostrovsky crosses out everything, apparently in the hope of returning to this again. However, there is no new version of the characters in the manuscript, therefore, the original version was given for printing.

There are no changes in the remarks of the characters before the second scene.

In the third scene, Glafira was included in the original version of the characters. It doesn't exist in the final version.

A.N. Ostrovsky attached great importance to the description of the situation surrounding the characters on the stage. The playwright paid much attention to the work on remarks of this type.

In the first scene, after describing the characters in the initial version of the manuscript, we read:

"Boring Garden".

This is the setting in which the first scene should take place.

Such a short remark does not satisfy the playwright. In the final version, A.N. Ostrovsky reveals to the viewer a panorama of a boring garden.

"A boring garden. A meadow between trees; ahead is a path and a bench; in the depths there is a path, behind the path there are trees and a view of the Moscow River ..." Why does the author reveal to readers the panorama of a boring garden, near which the merchants lived? It can be assumed that A.N. Ostrovsky is trying to achieve greater figurativeness, he pays attention to details: a bench, paths, trees ... The nature of Zamoskvorechie appears before the reader and viewer (an abundance of trees, a view of the Moscow River). These descriptions are given by the author also for greater reliability of the action.

In the 2nd scene of the play, there are no stage directions in the original version. When processing and editing the manuscript, a remark appears in the text:

"A small room in Kiselnikov's apartment."

This remark alarms the reader and the viewer. After all, Kiselnikov hoped to get rich, and the atmosphere of the second scene suggests otherwise. This remark very clearly and frankly introduces the content of the unfolding action.

In the third scene, in the original version, there was a short remark:

"Poor Room"

But what does A.N. Ostrovsky mean by such a definition?

In the new edition, after the changes and additions made, A.N. Ostrovsky reveals the concept of "poor". The playwright gives this definition a concrete and one-way interpretation:

"A poor room; a painted table and several chairs; on the table is a tallow candle and a pile of papers..."

This clarification shows that the protagonist of the play, Kiselnikov, is already on the verge of poverty. Again, A.N. Ostrovsky pays attention to the details, and does not look at the picture in general. The candle on the table is precisely “greasy”, which causes the reader to empathize with the hero, the disorder is emphasized: “a pile of papers” on the table.

The cases discussed above show that scene setting remarks help to reveal the content and create a certain mood.

Finally, the third type of remarks: emotional remarks and remarks indicating to whom the character is specifically addressing.

So, for example, in a dialogue with Glafira (scene II, first appearance), Kiselnikov, unable to bear insults, plugs his ears. In the original version, after editing, A.N. Ostrovsky endows Kiselnikov's passive behavior with a response coming from the depths of his soul and expands the remark with the word "SCREAMING".

In the fifth appearance of the second scene, when Kiselnikov, being in distress, tells Pogulyaev a dream with consolation and the hope of getting rich, A.N. Ostrovsky adds:

"through tears"

These tears reveal Kiselnikov's state of mind, his despair. The playwright educates the reader and viewer on the example of his hero, teaches empathy.

In the scene where Kiselnikov receives a bribe for forging a document, to Kiselnikov's words:

"Lord! What am I doing!".

A.N. Ostrovsky adds the remark "(crying)".

Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that all the new remarks introduced by the author when editing the first version of the manuscript carry a great psychological and emotional load in the play and help the reader, the audience and the actors to better understand the characters, look into their soul, and arouse sympathy for the main character. .

Conclusion.

In the play "Abyss" A.N. Ostrovsky reveals to the reader and viewer the life of a merchant family. Removing the usual external gloss, the author shows that rudeness, humiliation and deceit lie behind the external attractiveness of rich families in their lives.

A.N. Ostrovsky asserted the principle of truthful depiction of reality.

In the play “Abyss”, he draws the image of a typical representative of the Russian merchant class - Borovtsov. The story of Borovtsov's life is the story of the life of a greedy and stingy merchant who began with exorbitant wealth and ended in poverty.

In the play, A.N. Ostrovsky poses a big social question, the question of life in the merchant class. A.N. Ostrovsky was able to deeply reveal and draw broadly the pictures of merchant life only thanks to personal acquaintance and observations of the life of this society.

The image of the merchant class remained a paramount theme in his work. However, A.N. Ostrovsky did not limit himself to this and painted the life of bureaucracy (“Our people - we will settle”, “Poor bride”, “Abyss”), the nobility (“Don’t get into your sleigh”) and philistinism (“Do not live like this as you like").

As A.I. Revyakin rightly noted: “The versatility of thematic interests, the development of the most important topical problems of his era made A.N. Ostrovsky a national writer of great social significance.”

Among the petty officials, A.N. Ostrovsky always singled out honest workers who were bent from overwork. The playwright treated them with deep sympathy.

Experiencing extreme material deprivation, feeling their lack of rights, these heroes-workers tried in word and deed to bring goodness and truth into life. Not sharing Kiselnikov's intention to live on Glafira's dowry and on interest from capital, the student from the play "Abysses" confidently declares: "But in my opinion, there is nothing better than living on your labor." (sc.1, yavl.3).

In "Abyss" A.N. Ostrovsky deliberately brings to the fore an unremarkable personality. The main negative features of the protagonist, the author makes the passivity and inability to fight the environment, its morals.

In the opinion of the Borovtsovs and others like them, Kiselnikov's main shortcomings are honesty and poverty.

The work of A.N. Ostrovsky is consonant with the work of F.M. Dostoevsky, in revealing the problem of the moral quest of the individual. The heroes of Dostoevsky Svidrigailov and Stavrogin languish in the emptiness of existence and, in the end, end up committing suicide. The search leads them to the problem of the inner moral "abyss". In "Hard Days" one of the heroes of A.N. Ostrovsky remarks: "In a word, I live in the abyss" and to the question: "where is this abyss?" - replies: “Everywhere: you just have to go down. It borders the northern ocean to the north, the eastern ocean to the east, and so on.

The playwright revealed the depth of these words in the play "Abyss". And with such artistic power he revealed that the restrained Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wrote with an enthusiasm unusual for him: “The play is amazing. The last act is something I wouldn't write for a million. This act is a whole play, and when I have my own theater, I will stage only this one act.

Like Zhadov from “Profitable Place” and other people who came out of “university life” with its “concepts”, “advanced convictions”, Kiselnikov begins to realize that he is “nothing better than others” once he agrees to forge a document. Starting with the accusation of bribe-takers, Kiselnikov ends with a moral decline, as he says about himself: “We sold everything: ourselves, conscience ...” and the reason for this is seen in the ideal that people like Kiselnikov aspired to in their youth.

The ideal was only loud declarations, but not actions. At the very first test of life, the Kiselnikovs are ready to serve any idea, as long as it is profitable.

“... the playwright does not burn with hatred,” notes A.I. Revyakin, “but sympathizes, regrets, gently mourns, seeing the ruined human life, because the “power of grace” sees further, and she forgives more, because she loves deeper.”

Kiselnikov perishes in the abyss of merchant life. For a weak personality, such an end is inevitable.

Summing up the work on the analysis of the manuscript of A.N. Ostrovsky’s drama “Abyss”, it should be noted that the material contained in the draft manuscript made it possible to comprehensively trace the birth of the play and the finishing of its images.

All the noted changes and additions were made by A.N. Ostrovsky to enhance the emotional impact of the play, the desire to arouse compassion in the reader and viewer for the main character - Kiselnikov.

The fact that in the process of creative work A.N. Ostrovsky did not have to rewrite the draft manuscript twice or several times, and all the changes, insertions and additions were made by him in the first version of the manuscript, indicates that the author knew the material presented well, the images were they considered that they only needed to be artistically designed and conveyed to the reader and viewer. Classics does not oppose modernity, but gives us the opportunity to see ourselves in a historical perspective. As E. Kholodov noted: “Without a sense of the past, there is no sense of the present - one who is indifferent to the past is indifferent to the future, no matter how much he swears in words to be faithful to the ideals of this very bright - bright future. Classics just cultivates in us a sense of personal involvement in the historical movement of mankind from the past to the future.

Plays take on a modern sound, depending on how much the theater managed to convey to the audience what can excite everyone today. It should be noted that in one era the interest of theaters and spectators is attracted by some classical plays, and in other eras by other classical plays. This is due to the fact that the classic enters into complex ideological and aesthetic mutual relations with modernity. In our theater studies, there is the following periodization of the repertoire of A.N. Ostrovsky:

1 period years of civil war. Ostrovsky is staged and played in the old fashioned way.

2 period- 20s. Formalistic experiment on Ostrovsky's dramaturgy.

3 period- the end of the 20s and 1 half of the 30s. Influence of sociology. In the work of Ostrovsky, only satirical colors are emphasized.

4 period- the years of the Second World War and the first post-war years. In Ostrovsky's dramaturgy, both dark and light sides of the image of life were sought.

In 1923, the country widely celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian playwright. That year, a monument to the great Russian playwright was laid in front of the facade of the Maly Theatre. Also in this year, 10 volumes of the first Soviet Collected Works of A.N. Ostrovsky, completed in 1923, were published. During the jubilee year in Moscow, Petrograd, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Vladikavkaz, more than a dozen books dedicated to the life and work of the playwright were published. And, of course, performances of the great playwright were staged.

In the 60s, Ostrovsky again began to win the attention of theaters and critics. Performances were staged during these years not only in Moscow and Leningrad, but also in many other cities: in Kyiv, Gorky and Pskov - "For every wise man ...", in Novosibirsk and Sverdlovsk - "Thunderstorm", in Minsk and Kaluga - "The Last Sacrifice ”, in Kaunas - “Profitable Place”, in Vilnius - “Balzaminov’s Marriage”, in Novgorod - “Abyss”, in Tambov - “Guilty Without Guilt”. It should be noted that each era brought its own new vision of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy, therefore, precisely those questions that interested the modern viewer were brought to the fore.

A.N. Ostrovsky has several plays in the center of which is the image of a young man choosing his own path in life. The most popular plays are Profitable Place, Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man and Abyss. In these plays, three paths of a young intellectual in the contemporary reality of A.N. Ostrovsky can be traced. What unites the main characters (Zhadov, Glumov and Kiselnikov) is that they are young people, that is, people who begin their lives, choosing life paths.

“The ideals of Zhadov from Profitable Place are not crushed by some kind of “terrible, soul-shattering drama” - they are undermined day by day, day by day by the vile prose of life, tirelessly repeating the irresistibly vulgar arguments of common sense - today, as yesterday and tomorrow like today."

The play "Abyss" reminds the modern viewer of the old theater, not even from Ostrovsky's time, but from an era even more distant. Recall that the first scenes take place, according to the author's remark, "about 30 years ago", and the play itself was written in 1865. The play begins with the audience talking about Ducange's melodrama "Thirty Years Later, or the Life of a Player" with the participation of Mochalov himself.

Kholodov notes that “the performance of the melodrama Thirty Years Later, or the Life of a Player” is, as it were, opposed to the presentation of the drama of Kiselnikov’s life, which could be titled “Seventeen Years, or the Life of a Loser.” The essence of The Deep is that, having taken as a basis the plot scheme typical of melodrama, the playwright refutes the melodramatic concept of personality and society with the whole logic of his play. A.N. Ostrovsky contrasts life with the theatre.

"Abyss" - the only one of the plays by A.N. Ostrovsky, which is based on a biographical, "hagiographic" principle - we get acquainted with Kirill Filippych Kiselnikov when he is 22 years old, then

we meet him at 29, at 34, and finally at 39. With regard to Zhadov and Glumov, the viewer can only guess how their lives will turn out, while Kiselnikov's life unfolds before the viewer for 17 years. Kiselnikov is aging before our eyes - at 39 he is already an old man.

In the plays "Abyss" and "Profitable Place" the same metaphor appears - the image of a driven horse. Zhadov: " Need, circumstances, the lack of education of my relatives, the depravity surrounding me can drive me like a mail horse is driven ...» Kiselnikov: « You know, mother, they drive the mail horse, it trudges leg by leg, hanging its head, does not look at anything, if only it could somehow drag itself to the station; this is how I became". Circumstances can still “drive Zhadov”, but they have already driven Kiselnikov (“this is how I have become”). Kiselnikov, as Kholodov notes, is Zhadov, driven by life.

The role of Kiselnikov is usually entrusted to experienced actors, who are closer in age to Kiselnikov in the last scenes, therefore, in the performance of the first scene by such actors, when the hero is only 22 years old, there is always a certain stretch.

“Kiselnikov’s trouble is in Kiselnikovism,” Kholodov notes, “in mental inertia, inactive beautiful soul, in spinelessness, in lack of will. Trouble or guilt? This question is raised at the beginning of the play by the playwright himself. After the presentation of Ducange's melodrama "Thirty Years, or the Life of a Gambler", the audience exchanges opinions about the tragic fate of the hero. The viewer is presented with several points of view:

« With whom you behave, you yourself will be»

« Everyone is to blame for himself ... Stand firm, because you alone will answer».

One position: Yes, it's a pity". Another position: Nothing to regret. Know the edge, don't fall! That's why reason is given to man».

The Abyss is an amazing play, because the playwright does not give an exact answer: is the protagonist guilty or not. The theater, following A.N. Ostrovsky, replies that this is the hero’s misfortune, but also guilt.

Unlike Zhadov, Kiselnikov commits a crime, and we are witnessing the final fall of the hero.

It should be noted that the drama "Abyss" currently attracts more viewers than readers and researchers. I dare to suggest that researchers are not very interested in studying the only version of the manuscript with all the corrections and additions made to it. In artistic terms, "Abyss" is weaker than the drama "Thunderstorm", for example.

Well, the reader is not interested in this drama, in my opinion, because he cannot find a love affair, and the theme of the “little man” is no longer interesting, since it was comprehensively disclosed in the works of N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky, A.P. Chekhov.

However, the play "Abyss" is always present in the repertoire of the Maly Theater, which bears the name of the great playwright.

Until 2002, the play was directed by Yuri Solomin, and now it is being staged in a new production by Korshunov.

The play is relevant in our time, as it raises an acute psychological question - how to survive in this world if you are an honest person? In my opinion, each of the readers should find for himself the answer to the question posed by A.N. Ostrovsky.

Excerpts from "Memoirs of the Artist N.S. Vasilkvoy". "Yearbook of the Imperial Theatres", 1909, No. 1, p.4.

Revyakin A.I. "Dramaturgy of A.N. Ostrovsky" (To the 150th anniversary of his birth), M .: Knowledge, 1973, p.36

Lakshin V.Ya. "Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky" - 2nd ed., Rev. and additional - M .: Art, 1982, p. 63.

Kholodov E.G. "A playwright for all time"; All-Russian Theater Society, M., 1975, p. 260-261.

3 ibid. 321

There with. 321General characteristics of A.N. Ostrovsky. General characteristics of A.N. Ostrovsky.

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Referat

Life and artistic originality of the playsA.N.Ostrovsky

Executed by D.R. Nikitin

"You brought literature as a gift a whole library of works of art, created your own special world for the stage ... I greet you as the immortal creator of an endless line of poetic creations, from "The Snow Maiden", "The Voyevoda's Dream" to "Talents and Admirers" inclusive, where we see with our own eyes and we hear the primordial, true Russian life in countless burning images, with its true appearance, warehouse and dialect"

With these words, I.A. Goncharov turned to Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky in 1882 - on the day of the thirty-fifth anniversary of the literary activity of the great Russian playwright.

Russian dramaturgy and Russian theater experienced an acute crisis from the 30s-40s of the 19th century. Despite the fact that many dramatic works were created in the first half of the 19th century (plays by A.S. Griboyedov, A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov, N.V. Gogol), the state of affairs on the Russian dramatic stage continued to remain deplorable. Many works of the named playwrights were subjected to censorship persecution and appeared on the stage many years after their creation.

The situation was not rescued by the appeal of Russian theatrical figures to Western European dramaturgy. The works of the classics of world dramaturgy were still not sufficiently known to the Russian public, and often there were no satisfactory translations of their works. That is why the position of the Russian drama theater caused anxiety among writers.

Ostrovsky noted: “Dramatic poetry is closer to the people than all other branches of literature. All other works are written for educated people, and dramas and comedies are for the whole people ... This proximity to the people does not in the least humiliate dramaturgy, but, on the contrary, multiplies its strength and does not lets her vulgarize and grind."

He began to write plays, knowing the capital's theater perfectly: its repertoire, the composition of the troupe, acting skills. It was the time of almost undivided power of melodramas and vaudeville. About the properties of that melodrama, Gogol aptly said that it "lies in the most shameless way." The essence of the soulless, flat and vulgar vaudeville is clearly revealed by the title of the first of them, which was shown at the Maly Theater in 1855: "They came together, got mixed up and parted."

Ostrovsky created his plays in a conscious confrontation with the invented world of protective-romantic melodrama and the flat snarling of naturalistic pseudo-realistic vaudeville. His plays radically updated the theatrical repertoire, introduced a democratic element into it and sharply turned the artists towards the burning dilemmas of reality, towards realism.

The poetic world of Ostrovsky is only diverse. The researchers were able to calculate and identify that in 47 plays - 728 (not counting secondary and episodic) good roles for actors of various talents; that all his plays are a vast canvas of Russian life in 180 acts, the place of action in which is Russia - in its main turning points in two and a half centuries; that in the works of Ostrovsky people of "different rank" and customs are represented - and in the most diverse actual manifestations. He created dramatic chronicles, family scenes, disasters, pictures of metropolitan life, and dramatic sketches. His talent is multidimensional - he is a romantic, a householder, a tragedian, and a comedian ...

Ostrovsky does not withstand a one-dimensional, one-dimensional approach, therefore, behind the brilliant satirical manifestation of talent, we see the depth of mental analysis, behind the accurately reproduced everyday-viscous life, we see narrow lyricism and romance.

Ostrovsky was most anxious to ensure that all faces were actual and psychologically reliable. Without this, they could lose their artistic credibility. He noted: “We are now trying to depict our standards and types, taken from life, as realistically and truthfully as possible to the smallest everyday details, and most importantly, we consider the first condition for artistry in the image of this type to be the correct transmission of its type of expression, i.e. language and even the tone of speech, which determines the very tone of the role.Now the stage production (decoration, costumes, make-up) in everyday plays has made great strides and has gone far in its gradual approach to the truth.

The playwright tirelessly repeated that life is richer than all the fantasies of an artist, that a real painter does not compose anything, but strives to understand the complex intricacies of reality. “The playwright does not compose plots,” Ostrovsky said, “all our plots are taken. They are given by life, history, the story of a friend, sometimes a newspaper article. What happened the playwright should not invent; his job is to write how it happened or could happen. Here is all his work When attention is called to this side, people will appear alive, and they themselves will speak.

But the depiction of life, based on a clear reproduction of the real, should not be limited to mechanical reproduction. "Naturality is not the main quality; the main advantage is expressiveness, expression." Therefore, we can safely talk about an integral system of actual, mental and sensual authenticity in the plays of the majestic playwright. Ostrovsky play playwright

History has left stage interpretations of Ostrovsky's plays, different in their own level. There were indisputable creative fortunes, and there were outright troubles caused by that. That the directors forgot about the main thing - about the actual (and, as it should be, sensual) authenticity. And this main thing was sometimes revealed in some ordinary and insignificant, at first glance, detail. A relevant example is Katherine's age. And in truth, it matters how old the main character is? One of the greatest figures in the Russian theater, Babochkin, wrote in this regard: “If Katerina is even 30 years old from the stage, then the play will acquire a new and unnecessary meaning for us. It is necessary to correctly find her age at 17-18 years. According to Dobrolyubov, the play catches Katerina at the moment of transition from youth to maturity. This is absolutely true and necessary. "

Ostrovsky's work is closely connected with the principles of the "natural school", which affirms "nature" as the starting point in artistic creativity. It is no accident that Dobrolyubov called Ostrovsky's plays "the plays of life." They appeared to critics as a new word in dramaturgy, he wrote that Ostrovsky's plays "are not comedies of intrigue and not comedies of manners in fact, but something new, which can be given the name "plays of life", if it were not very broad and therefore not completely accurate. ". Speaking about the originality of Ostrovsky's dramatic action, Dobrolyubov remarked: "We want to say that in his foreground there is always a general environment of life that does not depend on any of the characters."

This "general environment of life" is found in Ostrovsky's plays in the most daily, everyday facts of life, in the petty configurations of the human soul. Speaking about "the life of this dark kingdom", which became the main object of depiction in the playwright's plays, Dobrolyubov noted that "endless enmity reigns between its inhabitants. Everything is at war here."

To define and artistically reproduce this unceasing war, completely new methods of studying it were required, it was necessary, to use the words of Herzen, to introduce the use of the microscope into the moral world. In "Notes of an inhabitant outside Moscow" and in "Pictures of domestic happiness" Ostrovsky for the first time gave a true picture of the "dark kingdom".

But the true reproduction of the life and characters of Zamoskvorechye went beyond the boundaries of only a "physiological" description, the writer did not limit himself to only a true external picture of life. He seeks to find positive beginnings in Russian reality, which first affected the sympathetic portrayal of a "small" person. So, in the Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky inhabitant, a downtrodden man, clerk Ivan Erofeevich, sought: “Show me. How bitter I am, how unfortunate I am! kind heart, warm soul.

Ostrovsky acted as a successor to the humanistic tradition of Russian literature. Right behind Belinsky, the highest artistic aspect of artistry, Ostrovsky considered realism and folk. Which are unimaginable both without a sober, critical approach to reality, and without the affirmation of a positive popular principle. "The more elegant the work," the playwright wrote, "the more popular it is, the more this accusatory element in it."

Ostrovsky believed that the writer should not only become related to the people, studying their language, way of life and characters, but also should take possession of new theories of art. All this affected Ostrovsky's views on drama, which of all types of literature is closest to the broad democratic sections of the population. Ostrovsky considered comedy to be a more effective form and recognized in himself the ability to reproduce life to a greater extent in this form. Thus, Ostrovsky, the comedian, continued the satirical line of Russian drama, starting with the comedies of the 18th century and ending with the comedies of Griboyedov and Gogol.

Because of his closeness to the people, many contemporaries attributed Ostrovsky to the camp of the Slavophiles. But Ostrovsky only for a short time shared common Slavophile opinions, expressed in the idealization of patriarchal forms of Russian life. Ostrovsky later revealed his attitude to Slavophilism as a certain public phenomenon in a letter to Nekrasov: “You and I are only two true folk poets, only two of us know him, we know how to adore him and feel his needs with our hearts without armchair Westernism and childish Slavophilism. themselves tree peasants, well, they console themselves with them. You can do all sorts of experiments with pupae, they do not require food.

Nevertheless, the elements of Slavophile aesthetics had some positive impact on Ostrovsky's work. The playwright awakened an invariable enthusiasm for folk life, for oral poetic creativity, for folk speech. He tried to find positive beginnings in Russian life, sought to bring to the fore the good in the character of a Russian person. He wrote that "for the right to correct people, he needs to be shown that you know good behind him."

He also found reflections of the Russian state character in the past - at turning points in the history of the Russian Federation. The first plans on a historical theme date back to the end of the 40s. It was the comedy "Lisa Patrikeevna", which was based on actions from the era of Boris Godunov. The play remained unfinished, but the very fact of young Ostrovsky's appeal to history testified that the playwright made an attempt to find in history the key to modern troubles.

The historical play, according to Ostrovsky, has an indisputable advantage over the most honest historical writings. If the historian's task is to convey "what happened", then "the dramatic poet indicates how it was, transferring the viewer to the very place of the act and making him a participant in the action," the playwright noted in "Note on the position of dramatic art in RF at the current time" (1881).

This expression expresses the very essence of the historical and artistic thinking of the playwright. With greater clarity, this position was already reflected in the dramatic chronicle "Kozma Zakharyich Minin, Sukhoruk", built on a painstaking study of historical monuments, annals, folk legends and traditions. In a true poetic picture of the distant past, Ostrovsky was able to find genuine heroes who were ignored by official historical science and were considered only "material of the past."

Ostrovsky portrays the people as the main driving force of history, as the main force for the liberation of the motherland. One of the representatives of the people is the zemstvo leader of Nizhny Posad Kozma Zakharyich Minin, Sukhoruk, who acted as the organizer of the people's militia. Ostrovsky sees the majestic significance of the era of unrest in the fact that "people have awakened ... the dawn of liberation here in Nizhny Novgorod has taken over all of Russia." Emphasizing the decisive role of the people in historical events and portraying Minin as a truly statesman's hero caused the rejection of Ostrovsky's dramatic chronicle by official circles and criticism. The patriotic ideas of the dramatic chronicle sounded very modern. The critic Shcherbin wrote, for example, that Ostrovsky's dramatic chronicle practically does not reflect the spirit of that time, that there are practically no morals in it, that the main character seems to be a man who has read the contemporary poet Nekrasov. Other critics, on the contrary, wanted to build in Minin the predecessor of the Zemstvos. "... Now everyone has been overcome by veche fury," Ostrovsky wrote, "and in Minin they want to create a demagogue. There was nothing like that, and I don't agree to lie."

Rejecting countless criticisms that Ostrovsky was an ordinary copyist of life, a very impartial "poet without a standard" (as Dostoevsky said), Kholodov writes that "the playwright obviously had his own point of view. But this was the position of the playwright, in other words an artist who, by the very nature of the art form he has chosen, reveals his attitude to life not concretely, but mediocrely, in the most impartial form. Researchers have shown impressively different forms of expression of the author's "voice", the author's consciousness in Ostrovsky's plays. It is found in most cases not openly, but in the very principles of organizing material in plays.

The peculiarity of the dramatic act in Ostrovsky's plays determined the interaction of different parts in the structure of the whole, namely, the extraordinary function of the end, which is always structurally significant: it does not so much complete the development of an actual dramatic collision, but reveals the author's awareness of life. Disputes about Ostrovsky, about the connection between the epic and dramatic beginnings in his works, in one way or another, also affect the dilemma of the end, the functions of which in Ostrovsky's plays were interpreted differently by critics. Some considered. That the end of Ostrovsky usually translates the action into slow motion. Thus, the critic of "Russian Notes" wrote that in "The Poor Wife" the end is the 4th act, and not the 5th, which is needed "to determine the morals that were not determined in the first 4 acts", and turns out to be unnecessary for the development of the act , because "the action is already over." And in this discrepancy, the discrepancy between the "volume of the act" and the definition of morals, the critic saw a violation of the simple laws of dramatic art.

Other critics believed that the end in Ostrovsky's plays in most cases coincides with the denouement and does not in the least slow down the rhythm of the act. To prove this thesis, they usually referred to Dobrolyubov, who noted "the decisive need for that fatal end that Katerina has in The Thunderstorm." But the "fatal end" of the heroine and the end of the work are far from the same concepts. Pisemsky's famous expression about the last act of "The Poor Wife "("The last act was written by Shakespeare's brush") also cannot serve as a basis for identifying the end and the denouement, because Pisemsky is not talking about architectonics, but about pictures of life, colorfully reproduced by the artist and subsequent in his plays "one after another, like pictures in panorama.

The action in a dramatic work, which has temporal and spatial limits, is specifically related to the interaction of the initial and final conflict situations; it moves within these boundaries, but is not limited by them. In contrast to epic works, the past and future in the drama become in a special form: the prehistory of the characters in their own concrete form cannot be introduced into the structure of the drama (it can be given exclusively in the stories of the characters themselves), and their next fate is only in the most general form. looms in the finishing scenes and paintings.

In Ostrovsky's dramatic works, one can observe how the temporal sequence and concentration of the act are broken: the creator directly points to significant periods of time separating one act from another. But such temporary breaks are found in most cases in the chronicles of Ostrovsky, pursuing the goal of epic, and not dramatic, replaying of life. In dramas and comedies, the time intervals between acts help to reveal those facets of the morals of the characters that can only be found in new, changed situations. Broken by a significant time interval, the acts of a dramatic work acquire relative independence and enter the general structure of the work as separate steps in a continuously developing act and movement of morals. In some of Ostrovsky's plays ("Jokers", "Luminous Days", "Sin and bad luck does not live on anyone", "In a crowded place", "Voevoda", "Abyss", etc.), the isolation of a relatively independent structure of acts is achieved, namely, by the fact that in each of them a special list of actors is given.

But even with such a structure of the work, the end cannot be in an infinite distance from the climax and denouement; in this case, its organic connection with the main conflict will be broken, and the end will gain independence, without being properly subordinated to the action of the dramatic work. A more appropriate example of such a structural organization of material is the play "The Abyss", the last act of which was presented to Chekhov in the form of a "whole play".

The secret of Ostrovsky's dramatic writing lies not in the one-dimensional properties of human types, but in the desire to make full-blooded human mores, the internal contradictions and struggles of which serve as a massive impetus for the dramatic movement. Tovstonogov spoke excellently about this feature of Ostrovsky's creative manner, referring, namely, to Glumov from the comedy "For every wise man there is enough simplicity", the character is far from flawless: "Why is Glumov charming, although he commits a number of bad deeds? After all, if he is unsympathetic to us , then there is no spectacle. What makes it charming is hatred of this world, and we inwardly justify its method of retribution with it.

Striving for a comprehensive disclosure of morals, Ostrovsky seems to turn them in different ways, noting the different psychological states of the characters in the new "turns" of the act. This feature of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy was noted by Dobrolyubov, who saw in the 5th act of The Thunderstorm the apotheosis of Katerina's temper. The development of Katerina's sensual state can be conditionally divided into several steps: childhood and all life before marriage - a state of harmony; her zeal for true happiness and love, her spiritual struggle; the time of meeting with Boris is a struggle with the color of feverish happiness; a harbinger of a thunderstorm, a thunderstorm, the apogee of a desperate struggle and death.

The movement of character from the initial conflict situation to the final one, passing through a number of precisely defined mental stages, determined in The Thunderstorm the similarity of the external structure of the first and last acts. Both have a similar beginning - they open with Kuligin's poetic outpourings. Actions in both acts take place at a similar time of day - in the evening. But the changes in the alignment of the opposing forces, which led Katerina to a fatal end. They were emphasized by the fact that the action in the first act took place in the moderate glow of the sunset sun, in the last - in the oppressive atmosphere of the gathering twilight. The end of the topics created a sense of openness. The incompleteness of the very process of life and the movement of morals, because after the death of Katerina, i.e. after the resolution of the central conflict of the drama, there was revealed (in the words of Tikhon, for example) a certain new, albeit weakly expressed, shift in the minds of the characters, containing the potential for further conflicts.

And in "The Poor Wife" the end outside is a certain independent part. The denouement in "The Poor Wife" is not that Marya Andreevna gave her consent to marriage with Benevolensky, but that she did not renounce her own consent. This is the key to solving the difficulty of the end, the function of which can only be understood in view of the general structure of Ostrovsky's plays, which become "plays of life." Speaking of Ostrovsky's endings, one might say that an excellent scene contains more thoughts than a whole drama can offer events.

In Ostrovsky's plays, the setting of a certain artistic problem is preserved, which is proved and illustrated by live scenes and paintings. “I don’t have a single act ready until the last word of the last act is written,” the playwright noted, thereby asserting the internal subordination of all the scenes and paintings that are scattered at a glance to the general idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe work, not limited by the framework of the “cramped circle of personal life”.

Faces in Ostrovsky's plays are formed not according to the principle "one against the other", but according to the principle "each against at least one". Hence - not only the epic calmness of the development of the act and the panorama in the coverage of actual phenomena, but also the multi-conflict nature of his plays - as a typical reflection of the complexity of human relations and the impossibility of reducing them to a single collision. The inner drama of life, inner tension became evenly the main object of the image.

The "abrupt denouements" in Ostrovsky's plays, being structurally located far from the ends, did not eliminate the "lengthiness", as Nekrasov believed, but, on the contrary, contributed to the epic flow of the act, which lasted even after one of its cycles ended. After the climactic tension and denouement, the dramatic action at the end of Ostrovsky's plays seems to be gaining strength again, striving for some new culminating elevations. The action does not close in the denouement, although the final conflict situation undergoes significant changes in comparison with the initial one. Outwardly, the end is open, and the function of the last act is not reduced to an epilogue. The external and internal openness of the end will then become one of the distinctive structural features of the psychic drama.

The external and internal openness of the end was later especially pronounced in the dramatic works of Chekhov, who did not give ready-made formulas and conclusions. He deliberately focused on the fact that the "perspective of thoughts" caused by his work. By its own difficulty, it corresponded to the nature of modern reality, so that it led far, forced the viewer to abandon all "formulas", to re-evaluate and revise almost everything that seemed to be decided.

“Just as in life we ​​are better aware of people if we see the environment in which they live,” Ostrovsky wrote, “so on the stage, the truthful situation immediately acquaints us with the situation of the characters and makes the derived types livelier and more understandable for the audience.” In everyday life, in the outdoor environment, Ostrovsky seeks additional mental supports for revealing the morals of the characters. Such a principle of disclosing morals sought more and more new scenes and pictures, so that a feeling of their redundancy was immediately created. But, on the one hand, their purposeful selection made the author's point of view accessible to the viewer, on the other hand, it emphasized the continuity of the movement of life.

And because new scenes and pictures were introduced even after the denouement of the dramatic conflict had come, they themselves made it possible for new turns of the act, potentially containing future conflicts and clashes. What happened to Marya Andreevna at the end of "The Poor Wife" can be considered the psycho-situational plot of the drama "Thunderstorm". Marya Andreevna marries a hateful man. A difficult life awaits her, because her ideas about the future life are catastrophically inconsistent with Benevolevsky's dreams. In the drama "Thunderstorm" the whole prehistory of Katerina's marriage is left outside the play and only in the most general terms is indicated in the memoirs of the heroine herself. The creator does not repeat this picture at one fine moment. But in The Thunderstorm we see a typical analysis of the consequences of the final situation of The Poor Wife. Such a conclusion into new spheres of analysis is greatly facilitated by the 5th act of The Poor Wife, which not only contained the prerequisites for future clashes, but also outlined them in dotted lines. The structural form of the end in Ostrovsky, which turned out to be unacceptable for some critics, aroused the admiration of others precisely for this reason. What seemed like a "whole play" capable of living an independent life.

And this connection, the correlation of the conflict end situations of some works and the initial conflict situations of others, combined according to the principle of a diptych, allows you to feel life in its uninterrupted epic flow. Ostrovsky appealed to its mental turns, which, at each moment of its own manifestation, were connected by thousands of invisible threads with other similar or close moments. With all this, it turned out to be completely insignificant. That the situational linkage of works contradicted the chronological principle. Each new work of Ostrovsky seemed to grow on the basis of the previously made and at the same time add something, clarify something in this previously made.

This is one of the main features of Ostrovsky's work. To verify this again, let's take a closer look at the drama "Sin and failure does not live on anyone." The initial situation in this play is comparable to the final situation in the play "Rich Wives". At the end of the latter, major notes sound: Tsyplunov has found his beloved. He dreams about it. That he will live with Belesova "merrily and joyfully", in the beautiful features of Valentina he sees "childish purity and clarity." It was with this that it all began for another hero, Krasnov ("Sin and failure does not live on anyone"), who not only dreamed, but also strove to live with Tatiana "joyfully and cheerfully." And again, the initial situation is left outside the play, and the viewer can only guess about it. The play itself begins with "ready moments"; a knot is unraveled in it, which is typologically comparable to the finishing outline in the play "Rich Wives".

The characters of Ostrovsky's various works are psychologically comparable to each other. Shambinago wrote that Ostrovsky subtly and jeweler finishes his own style "according to the mental categories of characters": "For each temper, male and female, a special language is forged. to conclude that its owner, as a type, is a forthcoming development or a variation of a species already bred in other plays. Such a device opens up inquisitive abilities to understand the mental categories conceived by the creator. " Shambinago's observations on this peculiarity of Ostrovsky's style are directly related not only to the repetition of types in various plays by Ostrovsky, but also, as a result, to a certain situational repetition. Calling the psychic analysis in "The Poor Wife" "falsely narrow", I.S. Turgenev speaks with condemnation of Ostrovsky's manner "to climb into the soul of each of the faces he made." But Ostrovsky, apparently, thought differently. He realized that the ability to "get into the soul" of each of the characters in the chosen mental situation is far from being exhausted - and many years later he will repeat it in "Dowry".

Ostrovsky is not limited to depicting morality in the only possible situation; he refers to these mores repeatedly. This is facilitated by repetitive pictures (for example, the thunderstorm scenes in the comedy "The Joker" and in the drama "Thunderstorm") and the recurring names and surnames of the characters.

So, the funny trilogy about Balzaminov is a three-term construction of similar situations related to Balzaminov's attempts to find a wife. In the play "Dark Days" we again meet with "familiar strangers" - Tit Titych Bruskov, his wife Nastasya Pankratievna, son Andrey Titych, Lusha's maid, who first appeared in the comedy "Hangover at someone else's feast". We also recognize the lawyer Dosuzhev, whom we already met in the play "Profitable Place". It is also curious that these persons in various plays act in similar roles and act in similar situations. The situational and characterological closeness of Ostrovsky's various works also allows us to speak about the similarity of the ends: as a result of the beneficial effects of virtuous characters, such as the teacher Ivanov ("A hangover in someone else's feast"), the lawyer Dosuzhev ("The Dark Days"), Tit Titych Bruskov, not only does not resist, and indeed contributes to the accomplishment of a good deed - the marriage of the offspring to the beloved girl.

In such ends it is easy to see a hidden lesson: it should be so. "Random and apparent unreasonable outcomes" in Ostrovsky's comedies depended on the material that became the object of the image. "Where can one get rationality when it is not in life itself, portrayed by the creator?" Dobrolyubov noted.

But this was not and could not be in reality, and this became the basis for the dramatic act and the final decision in the plays of catastrophic, and not funny, coloring. In the drama "Dowry", for example, this was clearly heard in the final words of the heroine: "It's me myself ... I don't complain about anyone, I don't take offense at anyone."

Considering the ends in Ostrovsky's plays, Markov directs increased attention to their stage effectiveness. But from the logic of the researcher's reasoning, it is clear that under stage showiness, he assumed only bright, spectacular external means of finishing scenes and pictures. A very significant feature of the endings in Ostrovsky's plays remains unaccounted for. The playwright makes his works, taking into account the nature of their perception by the viewer. In this way, the dramatic action seems to be transferred to its new high-quality state. The role of interpreters, "transformers" of a dramatic act, usually makes the ends, which determines their extraordinary stage effectiveness.

Very often in research papers they say that Ostrovsky anticipated Chekhov's dramatic technique in almost everything. But this conversation often does not go beyond general statements and premises. At the same time, it will suffice to give certain examples of how this proposition acquires extraordinary weight. Speaking of polyphony in Chekhov, they usually cite an example from the first act of "3 Sisters" about how the dreams of the Prozorov sisters about Moscow are interrupted by the remarks of Chebutykin and Tuzenbakh: "Damn it!" and "Naturally, nonsense!". But we find a similar structure of dramatic dialogue with approximately the same multifunctional and psychological-emotional load much earlier - in Ostrovsky's "Poor Wife". Marya Andreevna Nezabudkina is trying to come to terms with her own fate, she hopes that she can make a decent person out of Benevolevsky: “I thought, thought ... but you know what I thought of? him, make a decent man out of him." Although here she expresses hesitation: “It’s stupid, isn’t it, Platon Makarych? After all, this is nothing, huh? Platon Makarych, isn’t it? The crooked hesitation does not leave her, although she tries to convince herself of the reverse. "It seems to me that I will be happy ..." - she says to her mother, and this phrase is like a spell. But the spell-phrase is interrupted by a "voice from the crowd": "Another, mother, self-willed, loves to be pleased. It's a well-known fact that they come home more intoxicated, they love it so much that they look after themselves, they don't let people near themselves." This phrase translates the attention and feelings of the audience into a completely different emotional and semantic sphere.

Ostrovsky was well aware that in the modern world life is made up of inconspicuous, outwardly unremarkable events and facts. With this awareness of life, Ostrovsky anticipated Chekhov's dramaturgy, in which everything spectacular and essential on the outside is fundamentally excluded. The image of everyday life becomes for Ostrovsky the fundamental basis on which the dramatic action is built.

The contradiction between the natural law of life and the inexorable law of everyday life that disfigures the soul of a person determines the dramatic action, from which various types of finishing decisions appeared - from comically comforting to hopelessly tragic. In the end, the deepest socio-psychological analysis of life lasted; at the ends, as in tricks, all rays converged, all the results of observations, finding consolidation in the didactic form of proverbs and sayings.

The image of a separate variant in its own meaning and essence went beyond the boundaries of the personal, acquired the character of a philosophical understanding of life. And if it is impossible to fully accept Komissarzhevsky's idea that Ostrovsky's way of life is "brought to the mark", then it is possible and necessary to agree with the statement that each image of the playwright "acquires the deepest, eternal, symbolic meaning". Such, for example, is the fate of the merchant's wife Katerina, whose love is catastrophically incompatible with the existing principles of life. But even the defenders of the Domostroy's concepts cannot feel relaxed, because the very foundations of this life are crumbling - a life in which "the living envy the dead." Ostrovsky reproduced Russian life in such a state that "everything turned upside down" in it. In this atmosphere of general disintegration, only dreamers like Kuligin or teachers Korpelov could still rely on finding at least an abstract formula for universal happiness and truth.

Ostrovsky "weaves the golden threads of romanticism into the grayish fabric of everyday life, creating from this combination a surprisingly artistic and truthful whole - a realistic drama."

The irreconcilable contradiction between natural law and the laws of everyday life is revealed at various characterological levels - in the poetic parable "The Snow Maiden", in the comedy "Forest", in the chronicle "Tushino", in the social dramas "Dowry", "Thunderstorm", etc. Depending on this, the content and character of the end changes. The central characters intensely do not accept the laws of everyday life. Often, not being spokesmen for a positive beginning, they still look for some new solutions, though not always where they should be found. In their own denial of the established law, they cross, sometimes unconsciously, the boundaries of the permissible, they cross the fatal line of the simple rules of human society.

So, Krasnov (“Sin and failure lives on someone”) in affirming his own happiness, his own truth, decisively breaks out of the closed sphere of established life. He stands up for his truth right to the disastrous end.

So, let's briefly list the features of Ostrovsky's plays:

All Ostrovsky's plays are deeply realistic. They truly reflect the life of the Russian people in the mid-19th century, as well as the history of the Time of Troubles.

All of Ostrovsky's plays grew on the basis of what had been done earlier and were combined according to the principle of a diptych.

The characters of Ostrovsky's various works are psychologically comparable to each other. Ostrovsky is not limited to depicting morals in the only possible situation; he refers to these mores repeatedly.

Ostrovsky is the creator of the genre of psychic drama. In his plays one can observe not only the external conflict, but also the internal one.

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Means and techniques of the comic. Peculiarities of the use of linguistic means of creating the comic in the works of Viktor Dyachenko. Speech characteristics and speaking names of the characters in the writer's plays. The originality and problems of the works of V.A. Dyachenko.

term paper, added 12/08/2010


Space and time in a work of art. Artistic space in the new drama. Cinema and drama of the twentieth century. The closeness of space, the relevance of indicators of the boundaries of this closeness, the shift of emphasis from the outer space in the plays of Botho Strauss.

thesis, added 06/20/2013


Research work on the work of A.N. Ostrovsky. Criticism of the playwright's works. Scientific works on symbolism in the dramas of the writer. The image of a ray of the sun and the sun itself, personifying God, the Volga River in the plays "Dowry" and "Snow Maiden".

term paper, added 05/12/2016


The ideological pathos of A.N. Ostrovsky. Determination of the place occupied by the plays "Thunderstorm" and "Dowry" in his literary work. The heroines of Kabanova and Ogudalov as a reflection of the Russian female national character. Comparative analysis of images.

term paper, added 05/08/2012


Biography and career of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky. Display of the merchant class, bureaucracy, nobility, acting environment in the works of the playwright. Stages of Ostrovsky's creativity. Original features of realism A.N. Ostrovsky in the drama "Thunderstorm".

presentation, added 05/18/2014


"Abyss" is one of Ostrovsky's most profound and wise plays - the story of the human soul, weak and kind, sinking in the abyss of the sea of ​​life. A string of living and diverse characters, characterization of the characters. The development of the conflict and the denouement of the play.

book analysis, added 01/10/2008


Jean Molière is the creator of the classic comedy genre. Years of life and work of the French playwright. Parisian period: ups and downs. Staging in the theater of the most mysterious, ambiguous plays and comedies directed by "Don Juan", "The Misanthrope" and many others.

presentation, added 04/29/2014


Creativity of the great French actor and playwright, who created and approved the genres of comedy and farce on the theater stage. The first works of Molière. The plots of the famous plays "The Funny Cossacks", "Tartuffe", "Don Juan, or the Stone Guest" and "The Misanthrope".