- Essays
- On literature
- Ostrovsky
- The image and characterization of Boris in the play The Thunderstorm
One of the minor characters in the work is a young man named Boris, who came to a provincial town from the capital for some time.
Boris is presented by the writer as a well-educated, well-read man, distinguished by a fashionable clothing style and a modern metropolitan character with shades of snobbery. Local residents consider Boris to be a foreign dandy based on his tone of communication and manner of dressing.
His arrival in the province was caused by mercantile motives of receiving a monetary inheritance from his uncle Dikiy. True, the uncle does not at all intend to part with his wealth for the sake of his nephew and, due to his rude and cruel nature, tries in every possible way to ridicule and insult Boris in the hope that he will leave his house. However, Boris steadfastly endures and endures the bullying of the greedy merchant, since wealth for him is the main meaning of life, although he clearly understands that he will apparently never receive an inheritance. Due to his weak character and weak will, the man is constantly humiliated and curries favor with the uncontrollable uncle, being unable to carry out independent actions.
The writer introduces the image of Boris in the work to illustrate the depth and tragedy of the personality of the main character of the play, Katerina, who falls in love with Boris.
In this love affair, the main negative qualities of the hero are revealed - cowardice and pettiness. The girl is full of courage and determination to reveal the truth about their relationship to her family, but Boris feels fear and does not want their secret to be revealed. It only seems to him that he is in love with Katerina, but in fact the young man has nothing to do with her. Boris is unable to take responsibility and protect Katerina, who is in love with him, but he does not forget to repent and regret what happened. By nature, he is a selfish person who, even in the most tragic moments, continues to think only about himself, and not about Katerina’s state of mind.
After the death of Katerina, forgetting about moral principles and human feelings, Boris decides to leave the city. He could have taken the girl with him earlier, supporting her choice, but he is afraid of the anger of his family.
The writer draws the reader's attention to the fact that one of the reasons that pushed Katerina to suicide was precisely the cowardice of Boris, who was ready to meekly accept the current situation, incapable of making a decision and sacrificial actions for the sake of real feeling.
Option 2
The characters in Ostrovsky's play "The Thunderstorm" are divided into two categories: heroes representing the "dark kingdom" and heroes who are victims of this kingdom. The first includes Dikoy, Kabanikha, the second - Katerina, Tikhon, Boris. But can we say with complete confidence that Boris is a victim?
The image of Boris can be revealed in just a few lines: he is a cowardly, spineless young man who recently arrives in Kalinov and wants to get big money, for which he is ready to sacrifice all his moral principles.
Boris's appearance also requires few words. He came from Moscow, dressed better than the locals, like a foreigner. Boris has a different worldview and, unlike the Kalinovites, he is proud of it and constantly flaunts it. The hero also thinks that he is better than the Kalinovites because he has a good education. But the villagers are accustomed to evaluating people not by standards such as education, clothing or worldview, but by such standards as nobility, attitude towards other people, purity and sincerity of motives, and so on.
Boris is Dikiy’s nephew, but he came to Kalinov not to see a relative whom he had not seen for a long time, but to earn more money. Dikoy is a stingy and immoral person who will never give his inheritance to Boris for anything in the world. The hero, realizing that the Wild One cannot be defeated by honest means, decides to take him by cunning, namely, to displease his uncle, to awaken in him kindred love through cunning. But on the fronts of family love, everything is bare, both for Boris and for Dikiy.
Boris hates Kalinov, does not want to be there anymore, but the desire for profit overcomes him.
Also, a love line runs through the image of Boris. He falls in love with Katerina. At least that's what he thinks. But Tikhon arrives and secret meetings with Katerina stop. This is where the true face of the character, vile and pathetic, is revealed to the reader. Katerina fell madly in love with Boris and wanted to tell everyone, including her relatives, about her happiness, that she wanted to marry Boris and live happily with him all her life. But Boris had a different opinion on this matter. He was afraid of just the thought that their secret would be revealed, that her husband would find out about their walks, and therefore he tried his best to persuade the girl not to talk about such things.
Thus, Boris cannot be considered a victim, because he is an infantile, cowardly and immoral person, just like Kabanikha and others like her.
Character
Often in the characteristics of the image of Boris there is an opinion that the young man has a weak character. As if that’s why he endures his uncle’s bullying and because of this he breaks up with the woman he loves. In fact, it cannot be said directly that the young man has a weak character; he really loves money, for which he is ready to do anything.
He doesn't love Katerina at all. For him, she was a short-term entertainment that brightened up the dreary stay of the Moscow rake in a boring town.
Boris is a person who is afraid of responsibility, choosing an easier way to solve his problems. It is not for nothing that Ostrovsky writes in the stage directions that Boris is “decently educated.” This man is not very smart if he chose the only way to receive his own inheritance - to please a merchant who has gone mad from his impunity. While he could have tried to challenge the will legally.
One can say about Boris that he is cowardly. He is very afraid that Katerina will tell her husband and mother-in-law about their meetings, so he tries to curry favor with Kabanikha and Tikhon by leaving the crowd and bowing to them.
More than anything else, Boris values comfort. This is evidenced by his manner of dressing. This is evidenced by his reluctance to leave with Katerina. He needed the woman only for short-term meetings. He is not at all ready to join his destiny with her, much less leave with her, and thereby certainly lose his inheritance, comfort and peace of mind.
His repentance at his last meeting with Katerina once again confirms the frivolity of his intentions. Perhaps she touched some strings of his soul, but Boris comes to the place of their meeting in secret from her, saying goodbye, and does not see Katerina’s nervous state. Even at this moment, he thinks, first of all, about himself, dreaming of strength and power.
Essay Boris in the story Thunderstorm
The play “The Thunderstorm” by the great Russian playwright A.N. Ostrovsky was written at the end of the nineteenth century. The events described in the plot of the work take place in a provincial town on the banks of the great Volga River.
One of the central characters of the play is Boris, the nephew of the merchant Dikiy. Ostrovsky sparingly describes Boris's appearance. It is only known that the young man came to the city of Kalinov from Moscow itself. Its appearance strongly contrasts with the appearance of the local residents. The hero is dressed in high-quality suits, tailored to a fashionable cut. As a person who has received an education, he stands above the Kalinovites in terms of his level of development. The difference in education and existing worldview gives him a reason to be proud of himself.
But the residents of Kalinov will not be surprised by their education. They don't need it. Here, among ordinary people and townsfolk, only those who own an impressive fortune are held in high esteem. But Boris Grigorievich did not have any fortune. He, in fact, came here, to his uncle Dikiy, to receive the inheritance due to him. After the death of his parents, the hero of the play was left without a means of subsistence. And according to Dikoy’s will, he had to give money to his nephew if Boris treated him respectfully.
Not wanting to part with the money, Dikoy behaves unforgivably rudely. And Boris, overstepping himself and his pride, tries to please his stingy and dishonest relative. The hero feels neither love nor respect for his uncle. He is only interested in the issue of receiving an inheritance.
Having met Katerina by chance, Boris became interested in her. She stood out in some way among the local residents and therefore was closer to him than everyone else. The young woman also reciprocates the hero’s feelings. She is even ready to confess to her husband that she has cheated. But Boris is not ready for decisive action and is not ready to bear responsibility. Partly, his weakness and indecision pushed Katerina to suicide. For all his outward prosperity, Boris turned out to be a useless person.
Characteristic 4
In A.N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm,” Boris is presented as the lover of the main character, Katerina. A young man comes to the city of Kalinov to receive the inheritance that he and his sister inherited from their grandmother. The author describes Boris as “dressed like a dandy,” that is, in the latest fashion, a well-mannered and far from stupid character. An obstacle to receiving the inheritance is Boris’s strict and demanding uncle, the merchant Dikoy, so the hero has to stay in Kalinov.
From the first pages of the work we understand that Boris is a timid, weak-willed hero. The young man is unable to contradict his demanding uncle, and therefore obediently indulges his every whim. Even realizing that he may not get the money at all, Boris does not want to give up a possible inheritance and endures until the last.
In the city of Kalinov, Boris contrasts sharply with other residents. He is educated, dressed in a European style, brand new. Often a Moscow dandy has to languish in boredom in the provinces; the young man thinks about returning to Moscow, but only until he meets Katerina, a married girl with whom Boris falls in love.
The relationship with Katerina is the second relationship in which Boris shows selfishness and weakness of character. Unfortunately, the only thing that interested the hero was his own comfort. The young man did not care too much about his beloved’s emotional experiences or preserving her honor. At the most crucial moment, which decided the outcome of Katerina’s future fate, Boris turns away from the girl with the words: “Oh, if only there was strength!”, thereby admitting not only to Katerina, but also to himself that he is incapable of heroism, does not have sufficient courage in order to defend their love, to withstand all tests in its name, which disappoints the beloved and pushes her to take a tragic step.
Thus, Boris is a character who represents the last hope of the main character, Katerina. The girl never knew great and bold love, she languished in family life with an unloved husband, but Boris, who was supposed to save her from this, turns out to be spiritually immature, and therefore no better than Katerina’s husband, Tikhon, who is unable to disobey his mother. Like Tikhon, Boris strictly follows the demands of his despotic uncle, listens to public opinion and adapts to it, and therefore never becomes a person capable of saving and making Katerina happy, who needed genuine love, protection and strength.
Arguments: fidelity and betrayal in the play “The Thunderstorm” (A. Ostrovsky)
In the drama “The Thunderstorm” by A. N. Ostrovsky, the theme of betrayal and fidelity is revealed through several plans, since it was important for the author to show that the tragedy of the situation he described does not lie only at the everyday level. Therefore, it is important to analyze not only the main plot, but also the images of the characters, trying to understand their motivation and characters.
- Treason that can be justified . Thinking about devotion and betrayal, first of all, the reader immediately draws attention to Katerina, since she violates marital fidelity. Being married to Tikhon, the heroine never had strong feelings for him. But Boris, young, handsome, intelligent, seemed ideal to her, especially in comparison with her husband, and she fell in love, deeply and sincerely. And this love, although the fearful and very pious Katerina saw it as criminal, ultimately won: after painful tossing and turning, the girl succumbs to it and decides to cheat. At least in her judgment, the mere thought of feelings for another man was tantamount to betrayal. But in fact, the heroine’s acute desire for love is closely intertwined with the dream of returning the freedom lost after marriage, with a feeling of liberation from the weak-willed Tikhon, from endless family oppression, from an unfair, harsh and grumpy mother-in-law. It is not surprising that Katerina, who previously did not react to the attention of fans, falls in love with Boris, because in him she saw a man freer than the inhabitants of the “dark kingdom”. Thus, her betrayal can be justified, because she initially entered into marriage not of her own free will, and the new family only put pressure on the woman, never becoming her home.
- Devotion to yourself and your beliefs . Violating marital fidelity, Katerina remains true to herself. Imprisoned in the chain of an ignorant society, she does not become hardened in soul, and still continues to dream about how she would fly if she were a bird. She is capable of deep and all-consuming feelings. Almost at the beginning of the work, the heroine already talks about her death: “I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me!” And it’s true - Katerina does not agree to tolerate the suffocating, slave way of society, which is firmly established in Kalinov. That is why she has a conflict with her mother-in-law, who is trying to accustom her to the way of life of the “dark kingdom”, which seems to be the only correct one for the residents of Kalinov. Thus, the heroine’s last choice is proof of loyalty to her ideals and principles. If she accepted the cruel morals from Domostroi, it would mean betraying herself.
- Betrayal of your word and the woman you love . The traitor in the play turned out to be Boris, Katerina's lover. The young man seems to be different from the inhabitants of the “dark kingdom”, but is this true? The hero works for his tyrant uncle, who must leave him an inheritance, but Boris has no confidence, because he is not even paid. However, he endures and does not show any resistance, citing the fact that he needs to take care of his sister. In the scene of Katerina’s last meeting with her lover, Boris tells her that he is a “free bird,” but he is leaving her for Siberia on behalf of his uncle and cannot take the poor girl with him. It’s interesting that earlier he said that he loved Katerina more than life itself, but during a difficult period for the heroine, he runs away; when saying goodbye, he constantly repeats that he doesn’t have time and it’s time for him to go, although he sees that his beloved is suffering. Katerina immediately realized that he was leaving her, but she was not angry; her feelings are strong and sublime, but, unfortunately, Boris still betrays her.
- Loyalty is to your detriment . One of the reasons for Katerina’s unhappy life is the loyalty of the townspeople of Kalinov to their way of life. Here there is a place of tyranny, cruelty, slave labor, slander - in general, a suffocating, rotten place. The older generation, represented by Kabanova and Dikiy, oppresses the younger ones represented by Katerina, Boris and Varvara. Tikhon also gets it - he is too weak and weak-willed to try to resist his mother. Throughout the entire work, Kabanova put pressure on her son and his wife, lectured them, and indicated what kind of relationship should be between the spouses. But she did this not only out of her whims - Kabanova firmly believes in what she says. She herself was raised this way and believes that this way of life should remain. Ignorance, rudeness and oppression reign in the city of Kalinov, but many residents are sure that this is how it should be and contribute to the preservation of the “dark kingdom.” Unfortunately, loyalty to one’s convictions is not always a positive quality, because time passes, the world changes, and each person must develop, and not stagnate on one principle, which over the years is refuted by life itself.
- Loyalty is to your detriment. In the drama N.A. Ostrovsky has another hero who remains true to himself. This is Tikhon Kabanov. He lives in the “kingdom of tyrants” and understands this, but does not make any attempts to change anything. He has learned to survive in such a society, and if he feels that he has no strength to endure anymore, then he will go for a drink with his friends, and then continue to live as he did before. Tikhon will not contradict his mother; in the play there is even a humiliating scene for him and Katerina, when Kabanova tells him what he must tell his wife before he leaves, what instructions to give her. And he dutifully repeats everything after her. At the end of the work, when Katerina was found drowned, Tikhon rushes at his mother and accuses her of his wife’s death, to which Kabanova replies that she will talk to him at home. It is unlikely that the hero’s accusatory phrases mean that he has changed: the final remark belongs specifically to Tikhon, but it is clear that he only feels sorry for himself: “Good for you, Katya! Why did I stay in the world and suffer?”
- Loyalty to your beliefs. Mechanic Kuligin also coexists with the Kabanovs and Dikiys, but in his heart he remains a staunch supporter of progress and enlightenment. He is the only warrior in the field, and yet he is trying to change the life of the city, to introduce new trends and scientific discoveries into it. He is not afraid to contradict the powers that be and says that a thunderstorm is just electricity, and not Elijah the prophet on a chariot. The hero understands that no one supports him, and that ordinary people do not need change, and yet he does not betray himself, but follows his own thorny path to help society begin to develop.
Thus, the conflict in the play “The Thunderstorm” is a conflict of different times and generations. The tragedy is that young people do not want and can no longer live as their elders teach them, as is written in Domostroi, but they will not be able to live “in a new way” yet: the old laws are too strong, too strong the convictions of their defenders, the oppression is too heavy. It is interesting that in the work such concepts as fidelity and betrayal, which usually have a certain connotation, acquire a double meaning: betrayal is not always from sinful thoughts, being true to oneself is not always evidence of a strong character.
Author: Albina Ismailova
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