Boris and Katerina. Katerina's internal struggle. The last date of Katerina and Boris The storm is a date of Katerina and Boris

Katerina and Boris in the play “The Thunderstorm” are the characters at whose level the love conflict of the work is realized. The feelings of the young people were initially doomed, the love of Katerina and Boris was tragic: Katerina was married, cheating on her husband and running away with another person was below her moral principles. The author does not talk about the first meeting of Katerina and Boris, the reader learns about it from Boris’s words: “And then he foolishly decided to fall in love. Who? A woman with whom you will never even be able to talk! She goes with her husband, and her mother-in-law with them! Well, am I not a fool? Look around the corner and go home.” It was not love, but rather falling in love at first sight. For Katya, feelings meant much more. In such a passion, the girl saw the very real and sincere love that her heart dreamed of. Therefore, the girl, whose upbringing did not allow her to cheat on her husband, desperately tried to calm her heart. Katya's decision to go out to Boris's garden was fatal. After ten nights of secret meetings, Katerina confessed to her husband and mother-in-law what she felt for Boris. Last date Katerina and Boris happened after Katya’s conversation with Tikhon and Kabanikha.

Each of the characters is looking for a meeting with each other, each has a feeling that they should say something to each other. But both are silent. And there’s really nothing to talk about. It must be said that before the meeting Katya was in a kind of borderline state. Snatches of thoughts and phrases, as if Katya wants to confess something important. The idea of terrible lynching seemed to be in the air, not yet taking clear forms, but after meeting with Boris the decision was finally made. What happened during their conversation?

Katya still hopes that she can be happy with this person, she begins to make excuses for her actions, apologize, ask for forgiveness. Her question about whether he has forgotten her makes readers understand that there have been some changes in Katya's feelings. Boris responds to all the girl’s remarks detachedly, showing that he doesn’t need anything. Katya finds out that Boris is going to Siberia. And so, the last thing the girl decides to do is: “Will you take me with you?”

The replica once again proves Katya’s strength of character, steadfastness and faith in this love. The girl desperately hopes for a positive answer. This issue actually focused on dozens of other, more important ones. “Do you love me?”, “What do our feelings mean to you?”, “Am I mistaken about you?” - and many others. Katya talks about herself, and Boris, at such an important moment for the girl, remembers his uncle: “I just asked my uncle for a minute, I wanted to at least say goodbye to the place where we met.”

Note, say goodbye to the place, not Katya. At this moment, Katerina receives answers to all her unasked questions, having finally decided to commit suicide. It was after these words that such a sharp and painful insight sets in, which the girl was so afraid and at the same time waiting for.

Despite this, the girl thinks about saying something important. Really important. But Boris is rushing Katya; he doesn’t have much time. The girl is silent about the fact that she has already decided to give up her life - this is a sacrifice not for the sake of Boris, but for herself. Death is not because of unhappy love (that would vulgarize everything), but because of the inability to live honestly.
There is one remarkable detail in Katerina’s farewell to Boris: Boris begins to guess what is on Katya’s mind and wants to come closer and hug the girl. But Katerina pulls away. No, this is not resentment, not pride. Katya asks Boris to give alms to everyone who asks her, to pray for her sinful soul. The girl finally lets Boris go. And Boris leaves, not understanding the scale and significance of this conversation for Katya.

Katerina and Boris in the play “The Thunderstorm” are the characters at whose level the love conflict of the work is realized. The feelings of the young people were initially doomed, the love of Katerina and Boris was tragic: Katerina was married, cheating on her husband and running away with another person was below her moral principles. The author does not talk about the first meeting of Katerina and Boris, the reader learns about it from Boris’s words: “And then he foolishly decided to fall in love. Who? A woman with whom you will never even be able to talk! She goes with her husband, and her mother-in-law with them! Well, am I not a fool? Look around the corner and go home.” It was not love, but rather falling in love at first sight. For Katya, feelings meant much more. In such a passion, the girl saw the very real and sincere love that her heart dreamed of. Therefore, the girl, whose upbringing did not allow her to cheat on her husband, desperately tried to calm her heart. Katya's decision to go out to Boris's garden was fatal. After ten nights of secret meetings, Katerina confessed to her husband and mother-in-law what she felt for Boris. The last meeting between Katerina and Boris took place after Katya’s conversation with Tikhon and Kabanikha.

In Katerina’s situation we see that all the “ideas” instilled in her from childhood, all the principles environment- rebel against her natural aspirations and actions. The terrible struggle to which the young woman is condemned takes place in every word, in every movement of the drama, and this is where the full importance of the introductory characters for which Ostrovsky is so reproached appears. Take a good look: you see that Katerina was brought up in concepts identical to the concepts of the environment in which she lives, and cannot renounce them, not having any theoretical education. The stories of the wanderers and the suggestions of her family, although she processed them in her own way, could not help but leave an ugly trace in her soul: and indeed, we see in the play that Katerina, having lost her bright dreams and ideal, lofty aspirations, retained one thing from her upbringing strong feeling- fear of some dark forces, something unknown, which she could not explain to herself well, nor reject. She is afraid for her every thought, for the simplest feeling she expects punishment; It seems to her that the thunderstorm will kill her, because she is a sinner, the pictures of fiery hell on the church wall seem to her to be a harbinger of her eternal torment... And everything around her supports and develops this fear in her: Feklushi go to Kabanikha to talk about the last times; Dikoy insists that the thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment, so that we feel; the arriving lady, instilling fear in everyone in the city, appears several times in order to shout over Katerina in an ominous voice: “You will all burn in unquenchable fire.” Everyone around is full of superstitious fear, and everyone around, in agreement with the concepts of Katerina herself, should look at her feelings for Boris as the greatest crime. Even the daring Kudryash, the esprit-fort * of this environment, even finds that girls can walk with guys as much as they want - that’s okay, but women need to sit locked up. This conviction is so strong in him that, having learned about Boris’s love for Katerina, he, despite his daring and some kind of outrage, says that “this matter must be abandoned.” Everything is against Katerina, even her own concepts of good and evil; everything must force her to drown out her impulses and wither in the cold and gloomy formalism of family silence and obedience, without any living aspirations, without will, without love, or learn to deceive people and conscience.<…>

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

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

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

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

The freedom and peace are over poor woman: before, at least they couldn’t reproach her, although she could feel that she was completely right in front of these people. But now, one way or another, she is guilty before them, she violated her duties to them, brought grief and shame to the family; now it's time ill-treatment with her already has reasons and justification. What remains for her?

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

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

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

Tests on the drama "The Thunderstorm". 1 option

1) To which literary movement should the drama “The Thunderstorm” be classified?

romanticism

classicism
sentimentalism

2) The action of the drama “The Thunderstorm” takes place

in Moscow

in Kalinov

in St. Petersburg

in Nizhny Novgorod

3). Determine the climax of the drama "The Thunderstorm"

key scene

meeting Katerina with Boris at the gate

Katerina's repentance to the city residents

farewell of Tikhon and Katerina before his trip

4). What invention did the self-taught mechanic Kuligin want to introduce into the life of his city?

telegraph

lightning rod

microscope

printing press

5). What was the name of Katerina's husband?

6). Determine the main conflict of the drama "The Thunderstorm"

love story of Katerina and Boris

love story of Tikhon and Katerina

clash between tyrants and their victims

description friendly relations Kabanikha and Wild

7). Which of the heroes of the drama “The Thunderstorm” was “envious” of the deceased Katerina, considering his own life to be an impending torment?

9) What type of literary heroes did Kabanikha belong to?

1. hero-reasoner

2. "tyrant"

3. “extra person”

4. "little man"

10. What character are we talking about?

He has such an establishment. With us, no one dares say a word about salary, he’ll scold you for what it’s worth. “Why do you know,” he says, “what I have in mind? How can you know my soul? Or maybe I’ll be in such a mood that I’ll give you five thousand.” So talk to him! Only in his entire life he had never been in such a position.

3. To bring the play to life

12) What character are we talking about?

13) A.N. Ostrovsky reveals the social-typical and individual properties of the characters of a certain social environment, which one:

1. Landlord-noble

2. Merchant

3. Aristocratic

4. Folk

14) Who owns the words

Everyone should be afraid! It’s not so scary that it will kill you, but that death will suddenly find you as you are, with all your sins, with all your evil thoughts.

Kabanikha

Katerina

Option 2

1) What was the name of Katerina’s lover?

1. Kuligin

2) Who arranged the meeting between Katerina and Boris by stealing Kabanikha’s key?

2.Kuligin

3. Varvara

3) Who owns the phrase: “Do whatever you want, as long as it’s safe and covered”?

Katerina
Kabanikha

4) What did the self-taught mechanic Kuligin invent?

telegraph

lightning rod

sundial

perpetuum mobile

5) What phrase ends the drama “The Thunderstorm”?

Mama, you ruined her, you, you, you...

Thank you, good people, for your service!

Good for you, Katya! Why did I stay in the world and suffer!

Do what you want with her! Her body is here, take it; but the soul is now not yours: it is now before a judge who is more merciful than you!

6) What character are we talking about?

He will first break with us, abuse us in every possible way, as his heart desires, but he will still end up not giving anything, or just some little thing. Moreover, he will say that he gave it out of mercy, and that this should not have been the case.

7) Who said:

“Our parents in Moscow raised us well, they spared nothing for us. I was sent to the Commercial Academy, and my sister to a boarding school, but both suddenly died of cholera, and my sister and I were left orphans. Then we hear that my grandmother died here and left a will so that my uncle would pay us the portion that should be paid when we come of age, only on the condition...”

8) Who said:

“Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! In philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and stark poverty. And we, sir, will never escape this crust.”

Boris Grigorievich

9) The play “The Thunderstorm” shows the life of the patriarchal merchants, wild, limited, ignorant. Is there a person in Kalinov capable of resisting the laws of this life? Name it:

1.Kuligin

3.Varvara

5.Katerina

11) Katerina confesses her “sin” to Tikhon in public. What made her do this?

1. Feeling of shame

2.Fear of mother-in-law

4. The desire to leave with Boris

12) A.N. Ostrovsky reveals the social-typical and individual properties of the characters of a certain social environment, which one:

1. Landlord-noble

2. Merchant

3. Aristocratic

4. Folk

13) The play “The Thunderstorm” was written in

14) The city in which the action of “The Thunderstorm” takes place is called

Nizhny Novgorod

Kostroma

Option 3

1) A.N. Ostrovsky reveals the social-typical and individual properties of the characters of a certain social environment, which one:

1. Landlord-noble

2. Merchant

3. Aristocratic

4. Folk

2) To what literary genre can the play “The Thunderstorm” be classified (as defined by the author):

1.Comedy

3. Tragedy

4.Lyrical comedy

5. Tragicomedy

3) Name the main conflict in the play “The Thunderstorm” (according to Dobrolyubov):

1. This is a conflict between generations (Tikhon and Marfa Ignatievna)

2. This is an intra-family conflict between a despotic mother-in-law and a rebellious daughter-in-law

3. This is a clash between the tyrants of life and their victims

4. This is a conflict between Tikhon and Katerina

4) The play “The Thunderstorm” begins with a lengthy, somewhat drawn-out exposition in order to:

1.Intrigue the reader

2.Introduce the heroes directly involved in the intrigue

3.Create an image of the world in which the heroes live

4.Slow down stage time

5) The action of the play “The Thunderstorm occurs in the city of Kalinov. Do all the heroes belong (by birth and upbringing) to Kalinov’s world? Name a hero who is not one of them:

1.Kuligin

5.Varvara

6) Which characters are (from the point of view of conflict) central in the play:

1.Boris and Katerina

2.Katerina and Tikhon

3.Dikoy and Kabanikha

4. Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova and Katerina

5.Boris and Tikhon

7) N.A. Dobrolyubov in the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom” called Boris “educated Tikhon” because:

1.Boris and Tikhon belong to the same class

2.Boris differs only in appearance from Tikhon

3.Boris is very different from Tikhon

8) The play “The Thunderstorm” shows the life of the patriarchal merchants, wild, limited, ignorant. Is there a person in Kalinov capable of resisting the laws of this life? Name it:

1.Kuligin

3.Varvara

1.Feklusha

2.Kuligin

5.Katerina

10) Why do the events in the play “The Thunderstorm” take place in a fictional city?

11) Savel Prokofievich Dikoy does not participate in the main conflict of the play “The Thunderstorm”. Why did Ostrovsky introduce this character?

1. To contrast Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova

2.To create a holistic image of the “dark kingdom”

3. To bring the play to life

4.To emphasize the prowess and scope of the Russian merchants

12) To what class did Katerina Kabanova’s parents belong?

1.Nobles

3. Peasants

5. Raznochintsy

13) Katerina confesses her “sin” to Tikhon in public. What made her do this?

1. Feeling of shame

2.Fear of mother-in-law

3. The desire to atone for guilt before God and torment of conscience by confession

4. The desire to leave with Boris

14) N.A. Dobrolyubov called one of the heroes of the play “The Thunderstorm” “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” This:

1.Kuligin

2. Marfa Ignatievna

3.Katerina

Question no.

1 option

Option 2

Question no.

Option 3

Question no.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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