The dark kingdom in the play “Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky is an allegorical statement familiar to everyone from the light hand of his contemporary, literary critic Dobrolyubov. This is precisely how Nikolai Ivanovich considered it necessary to characterize the difficult social and moral atmosphere in Russian cities at the beginning of the 19th century.
Ostrovsky - a subtle connoisseur of Russian life
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky made a bright breakthrough in Russian drama, for which he received a worthy review article. He continued the traditions of the Russian national theater, laid down by Fonvizin, Gogol, Griboedov. In particular, Nikolai Dobrolyubov praised the deep knowledge and truthful reflection of the specifics of Russian life by the playwright. The Volga city of Kalinov, shown in the play, has become a peculiar model of all of Russia.
The deep meaning of the allegory of "the dark kingdom"
The Dark Kingdom in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is a clear and capacious allegory created by the critic Dobrolyubov, which is based on both a broad socio-economic explanation and a narrower literary one. The latter is formulated with respect to the provincial city of Kalinov, in which Ostrovsky depicted the average (as they say now - the average) Russian town of the late XVIII century.
The broad meaning of the concept of "dark kingdom"
First, we characterize the broad meaning of this concept: the dark kingdom in Ostrovsky’s play “Thunderstorm” is a figurative characteristic of the socio-political state of Russia at a certain stage of its development.
After all, a thoughtful reader who is interested in history has a clear idea of what kind of Russia (the end of the 18th century) we are talking about. The huge country, a fragment of which was shown by the playwright in the play, lived in the old fashioned way, at a time when industrialization was dynamically taking place in the countries of Europe. The people were socially paralyzed by serfdom (which was abolished in 1861). Strategic railways have not yet been built. The masses of the people were illiterate, uneducated, superstitious. In fact, the state was not engaged in social policy.
Everything in the provincial Kalinov, as it were, "is boiled in its own juice." That is, people are not involved in large projects - production, construction. Their judgments betray complete incompetence in the simplest terms: for example, in the electrical origin of lightning.
The Dark Kingdom in Ostrovsky’s play “Thunderstorm” is a society devoid of a development vector. The class of the industrial bourgeoisie and the proletariat has not yet taken shape ... The financial flows of society have not been formed insufficient for global socio-economic transformations.
The Dark Kingdom of Kalinov
In the narrow sense, the dark kingdom in the play The Storm is a way of life inherent in philistinism and merchants. According to the description given by Ostrovsky, wealthy and arrogant merchants absolutely dominate this community. They constantly carry out psychological pressure on others, not paying attention to their interests. There is no council for these ghouls who "eat by eating." For these tyrants, money is equivalent to social status, and human and Christian morality are not a decree in their actions. In fact, they do what they please. In particular, realistic, artistically-completed images - the merchant Savel Prokopyevich Dikoy and the tradeswoman Marfa Ignatyevna Kabanova - initiate the "dark kingdom" in the play "Thunderstorm". What kind of characters are these? Consider them similar.
The image of the merchant Savely Prokofich the Wild
The merchant Wild is the richest man Kalinov. However, its viability does not border on breadth of soul and hospitality, but on “cool temper”. And he understands his wolf nature, and wants to somehow change. “About fasting somehow, about the great, I spoke ...” Yes, tyranny is his second nature. When a "little man" comes to him with a request to borrow money, Wild rudely humiliates him, moreover, it almost comes to the beating of the unfortunate.
Moreover, this psychotype of behavior is always characteristic of him. (“What can I do, I have such a heart!”) That is, he builds his relations with others on the basis of fear and his dominance. This is his usual pattern of behavior regarding people with a lower
social status.This man was not always rich. However, he came to power through a primitive aggressive prevailing social model of behavior. He builds relations with others and relatives (in particular, with his nephew) on one principle only: to humiliate them, formally - to deprive social rights, and then use them himself. However, having felt a psychological rebuff from a person with equal status (for example, from the widow of the merchant Kabanikh, he begins to treat him more respectfully, without humiliating him). This is a primitive, bivariate pattern of behavior.
Behind rudeness and suspicion (“So you know that you are a worm!”) Is hidden greed and self-interest. For example, in the case of a nephew, he actually deprives him of his inheritance. Savel Prokofich harbors hatred for everything around him. His motto is to crush all reflexively, crush everyone, clearing living space for himself. If we had lived at that time, such an idiot (sorry for being straightforward) would have been able, just in the middle of the street, to beat us for nothing, just so that we would cross the other side of the street and clear the way for him! But such an image was familiar to serf Russia! Not for nothing that the dark kingdom in the play “The Storm” was called by Dobrolyubov a sensitive and truthful reflection of Russian reality!
The image of the tradeswoman Martha Ignatievna Kabanova
The second type of wild customs of Kalinov is the rich merchant widow of Kabanikh. Her social model of behavior is not as primitive as that of the merchant Wild. (For some reason, an analogy with respect to this model is recalled: “Poor vision of a rhino is a problem of those around it, not the rhino itself!) Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, unlike the merchant Wild, builds her social status gradually. The instrument is also humiliation, however - a completely different kind. She mainly affects members of her family: son Tikhon, daughter Varvara, daughter-in-law Katerina. At the core of her dominance over others, she puts both her material superiority and moral superiority.
Bigotry is her key to manipulating people. The merchant has a double morality. Following formally and externally following the Christian cult, it is far from the real merciful Christian consciousness. On the contrary, she interprets her status of churching as a kind of deal with God, believing that she was given the right not only to teach everyone around everything, but also to indicate how they should act.
She does this constantly, completely destroying her son Tikhon as a person, and pushing her daughter-in-law Katerina to commit suicide.
If the merchant Wild, having met on the street, you can get around, then the situation is different with respect to Kabanikh. If I may say so, then it continuously, constantly, and not occasionally, like Wild, “generates” the dark kingdom in the play “Thunderstorm”. Quotes of the characterization of the Cabanih testify: she zombies her loved ones, demanding that Katerina bow to her husband when he enters the house, suggesting that “mother cannot be argued with”, that the husband gives strict orders to his wife, and in case of punishment ...
Weak attempts to resist tyrants
What contrasts the community of the city of Kalinov with the expansion of the two aforementioned tyrants? Yes, practically nothing. Those are in a comfortable society. As Pushkin wrote in Boris Godunov: "The people are silent ...". Someone educated, trying to timidly express their opinions, as an engineer Kuligin. Someone, like Varvara, mutilated himself mentally, living a double life: assenting to tyrants and doing what she pleases. And someone is waiting for an internal and tragic protest (like Katerina).
Conclusion
Does the word "tyranny" occur in our everyday life? We hope that for most of our readers - much less than for the inhabitants of the fortress city of Kalinov. Accept sympathy if your boss or someone from the family circle is a tyrant. Nowadays, this phenomenon does not immediately apply to the whole city. However, it exists in some places. And you should look for a way out of it ...
Let's get back to the play by Ostrovsky. Representatives create the “dark kingdom” in the play “Thunderstorm”. Their common features are the presence of capital and the desire to dominate society. However , this dominance is not based on spirituality, nor on creativity, nor on enlightenment. Hence the conclusion: it is necessary to isolate the tyrant, depriving him of the ability to lead, as well as depriving communication (boycott). Samodur is strong as long as he feels the indispensability of his beloved and the demand for his capital.
You just need to deprive him of such "happiness." In Kalinov, this was not possible. Nowadays it is real.