The main stages of creativity of the island essay. A.I

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is a great Russian playwright, author of 47 original plays. In addition, he translated more than 20 literary works: from Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, English.

Alexander Nikolaevich was born in Moscow in the family of a commoner official who lived in Zamoskvorechye, on Malaya Ordynka. This was the area where the merchants had settled for a long time. Merchant mansions with their blank fences, pictures of everyday life and peculiar customs of the merchant world from early childhood sunk into the soul of the future playwright.

After graduating from high school, Ostrovsky, on the advice of his father, entered the law faculty of Moscow University in 1840. But legal sciences were not his vocation. In 1843, he left the university without completing the course of study, and decided to completely devote himself to literary activity.

No playwright has shown pre-revolutionary life as fully as A. N. Ostrovsky. Representatives of various classes, people of different professions, origins, upbringing pass before us in artistically truthful images of his comedies, dramas, scenes from life, historical chronicles. Everyday life, customs, characters of the bourgeoisie, noblemen, officials and mainly merchants - from "very important gentlemen", rich bars and businessmen to the most insignificant and poor - are reflected with surprising breadth by A. N. Ostrovsky.

The plays were written not by an indifferent writer of everyday life, but by an angry denouncer of the world of the "dark kingdom", where for the sake of profit a person is capable of everything, where the elders rule over the younger, the rich over the poor, where the state power, the church and society in every possible way support the cruel customs that have developed for centuries.

Ostrovsky's works contributed to the development of social consciousness. Their revolutionary influence was perfectly defined by Dobrolyubov; he wrote: "By drawing to us in a vivid picture false relations with all their consequences, through this very thing he serves as an echo of aspirations that require a better arrangement." No wonder the defenders of the existing system did everything in their power to prevent Ostrovsky's plays on the stage. His first one-act "Picture of Family Happiness" (1847) was immediately banned by theatrical censorship, and this play appeared only 8 years later. The first big four-act comedy "Our people - we will be numbered" (1850) was not allowed on the stage by Nicholas I himself, imposing a resolution: "It has been printed in vain, we should ban play anyway." And the play, heavily altered at the request of the censorship, was staged only in 1861. The Tsar demanded information about Ostrovsky's way of life and thoughts and, having received the report, ordered: "Have it under supervision." The secret office of the Moscow governor-general opened the "Case of the writer Ostrovsky", and secret police surveillance was established behind him. The apparent "unreliability" of the playwright, who was then serving in the Moscow Commercial Court, so worried the authorities that Ostrovsky was forced to resign.

The comedy "Our people - we shall be numbered", which was not allowed on the stage, made the author widely known. It is not difficult to explain the reasons for such a great success of the play. As if alive, the faces of the tyrant master Bolshov, his unrequited, stupidly obedient wife, daughter Lipochka, warped by an absurd education, and the rogue clerk Podkhalyuzin, stand before us. "The Dark Kingdom" - this is how the great Russian critic N. A. Dobrolyubov described this musty, rough life based on despotism, ignorance, deceit and arbitrariness. Together with the actors of the Moscow Maly Theater Prov Sadovsky and the great Mikhail Schepkin, Ostrovsky read comedy in various circles.

The tremendous success of the play, which, in the words of N. A. Dobrolyubov, belonged to "the most vivid and consistent works of Ostrovsky" and conquered "the truth of the image and the correct sense of reality", made the keepers of the existing order wary. Almost every new play by Ostrovsky was banned by the censorship or was not approved for presentation by the theatrical authorities.

Even such a remarkable drama as The Thunderstorm (1859) was greeted with hostility by the reactionary nobility and the press. On the other hand, representatives of the democratic camp saw in the "Thunderstorm" a sharp protest against the feudal-serf system and fully appreciated it. The artistic integrity of the images, the depth of the ideological content and the accusatory power of "The Thunderstorm" allow us to recognize it as one of the most perfect works of Russian drama.

Ostrovsky is of great importance not only as a playwright, but also as the creator of the Russian theater. “To literature you donated a whole library of works of art,” wrote IA Goncharov to Ostrovsky, “you have created your own special world for the stage. You alone completed the building, at the base of which you put the cornerstones Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol. But only after you we, Russians, can proudly say: we have our own Russian national theater ”. Ostrovsky's creativity made up an entire era in the history of our theater. The name of Ostrovsky is especially strongly associated with the history of the Moscow Maly Theater. Almost all of Ostrovsky's plays were staged at this theater during his lifetime. Several generations of artists were brought up on them, who grew up into wonderful masters of the Russian stage. Ostrovsky's plays played such a role in the history of the Maly Theater that he proudly calls himself Ostrovsky's House.

To perform new roles, a whole galaxy of new actors had to appear and appeared, just as well as Ostrovsky, who knew Russian life. On the plays of Ostrovsky, the national-Russian school of realistic acting was established and developed. Starting with Provo Sadovsky in Moscow and Alexander Martynov in St. Petersburg, several generations of metropolitan and provincial actors, up to the present day, have grown up playing roles in Ostrovsky's plays. "Fidelity to reality, to the truth of life" - this is how Dobrolyubov spoke about Ostrovsky's works - has become one of the essential features of our national performing arts.

Dobrolyubov pointed out another feature of Ostrovsky's drama - "the accuracy and fidelity of the folk language." It was not for nothing that Gorky called Ostrovsky "the magician of the language." Each character of Ostrovsky speaks in a language typical of his class, profession, and upbringing. And the actor, creating this or that image, had to be able to use the necessary intonation, pronunciation and other speech means. Ostrovsky taught the actor to listen and hear how people speak in life.

The works of the great Russian playwright recreate not only the life of his day. They also depict the years of the Polish intervention at the beginning of the 17th century. ("Kozma Minin", "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky"), and the legendary times of ancient Russia (the spring fairy tale "Snow Maiden").

In the pre-revolutionary years, bourgeois spectators gradually began to lose interest in Ostrovsky's theater, considering it obsolete. On the Soviet stage, Ostrovsky's drama was revived with renewed vigor. His plays are also performed on foreign stages.

Leo N. Tolstoy wrote to the playwright in 1886: “I know from experience how people read, obey and remember your things, and therefore I would like to help you become now, in reality, as soon as possible, what you are, undoubtedly - a nationwide - in the broadest sense, a writer. "

After the Great October Socialist Revolution, A. N. Ostrovsky's work became public.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is a famous Russian writer and playwright who had a significant impact on the development of the national theater. He formed a new school of realistic play and wrote many wonderful works. This article will outline the main stages of Ostrovsky's work. And also the most significant moments of his biography.

Childhood

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky, whose photo is presented in this article, was born in 1823, on March 31, in Moscow, in the area of ​​His dad - Nikolai Fedorovich - grew up in a priest's family, graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy himself, but did not serve in the church. He became a judicial solicitor, dealt with commercial and court cases. Nikolai Fedorovich managed to rise to the rank of titular councilor, and later (in 1839) received the nobility. The mother of the future playwright - Savvina Lyubov Ivanovna - was the daughter of a sexton. She died when Alexander was only seven years old. Six children were growing up in the Ostrovsky family. Nikolai Fedorovich did everything to ensure that the children grow up in prosperity and receive a decent education. Several years after the death of Lyubov Ivanovna, he remarried. His wife was Emilia Andreevna von Tessin, a baroness, daughter of a Swedish nobleman. The children were very lucky with their stepmother: she managed to find an approach to them and continued to engage in their education.

Youth

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky spent his childhood in the very center of Zamoskvorechye. His father had a very good library, thanks to which the boy got acquainted with the literature of Russian writers early and felt a penchant for writing. However, the father saw only a lawyer in the boy. Therefore, in 1835, Alexander was sent to the First Moscow Gymnasium, after studying in which he became a student at Moscow University. However, Ostrovsky did not manage to get a law degree. He quarreled with the teacher and left the university. On the advice of his father, Alexander Nikolayevich went to serve in the court as a scribe and worked in this position for several years.

Attempt at writing

However, Alexander Nikolaevich did not give up trying to prove himself in the literary field. In his first plays, he adhered to the accusatory, "moral and social" direction. The first ones were published in a new edition, "Moscow City Leaflet", in 1847. These were sketches for the comedy "The Failed Debtor" and the sketch "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident". The publication bore the letters “A. O." and “D. G." The fact is that a certain Dmitry Gorev offered cooperation to the young playwright. It did not progress further than writing one of the scenes, but subsequently became a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky. Some ill-wishers later accused the playwright of plagiarism. In the future, many magnificent plays will come out from the pen of Alexander Nikolaevich, and no one will dare to doubt his talent. Further, the table below will be described in detail, will allow you to systematize the information received.

First success

When did this happen? The work of Ostrovsky gained great popularity after the publication in 1850 of the comedy "Our people - we will be numbered!" This work has received favorable reviews in literary circles. I. A. Goncharov and N. V. Gogol gave the play a positive assessment. However, an impressive fly in the ointment also fell into this barrel of honey. Influential representatives of the Moscow merchants, offended for the class, complained to higher authorities about the daring playwright. The play was immediately banned from production, the author was expelled from service and placed under the strictest police supervision. Moreover, this happened on the personal order of the Emperor Nicholas the First himself. Supervision was eliminated only after Emperor Alexander II ascended the throne. And the theater audience saw the comedy only in 1861, after the ban on its production was lifted.

Early plays

The early work of A. N. Ostrovsky did not go unnoticed, his works were published mainly in the magazine "Moskvityanin". The playwright actively collaborated with this publication both as a critic and as an editor in the years 1850-1851. Under the influence of the "young editorial board" of the magazine and the main ideologist of this circle, Alexander Nikolayevich composed the plays "Poverty is not a vice", "Don't get into your sleigh", "Don't live as you want." The themes of Ostrovsky's work during this period are the idealization of patriarchy, Russian ancient customs and traditions. These moods slightly muffled the accusatory pathos of the writer's work. However, in the works of this cycle, the dramatic skill of Alexander Nikolaevich grew. His plays became famous and in demand.

Cooperation with Sovremennik

Beginning in 1853, for thirty years, the plays of Alexander Nikolaevich were shown every season on the stages of the Maly (in Moscow) and Alexandrinsky (in St. Petersburg) theaters. Since 1856, Ostrovsky's work has been regularly covered in the Sovremennik magazine (works are published). During the social upsurge in the country (before the abolition of serfdom in 1861), the writer's works again acquired an accusatory acuteness. In the play "Hangover in a foreign feast" the writer created an impressive image of Bruskov Titus Titich, in which he embodied the rough and dark power of domestic autocracy. Here for the first time the word "tyrant" sounded, which later became attached to a whole gallery of Ostrovsky's characters. The comedy "Profitable Place" ridiculed the corruption of officials that had become the norm. The drama "Parent" was a lively protest against violence against a person. Other stages of Ostrovsky's work will be described below. But the peak of the achievement of this period of his literary activity was the socio-psychological drama "The Thunderstorm".

"Storm"

In this play, the "everyday man" Ostrovsky painted the dull atmosphere of a provincial town with its hypocrisy, rudeness, indisputable authority of the "elders" and the rich. In contrast to the imperfect world of people, Alexander Nikolaevich depicts breathtaking pictures of the Volga region. The image of Katerina is covered with tragic beauty and dark charm. The thunderstorm symbolizes the spiritual confusion of the heroine and at the same time personifies the burden of fear under which ordinary people constantly live. The kingdom of blind obedience is undermined, according to Ostrovsky, by two forces: common sense, which Kuligin preaches in the play, and Katerina's pure soul. In his "Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom," the critic Dobrolyubov interpreted the image of the main character as a symbol of deep protest slowly ripening in the country.

Thanks to this play, Ostrovsky's work took off to an unattainable height. The Thunderstorm made Alexander Nikolaevich the most famous and respected Russian playwright.

Historical motives

In the second half of the 1860s, Alexander Nikolaevich began to study the history of the Time of Troubles. He began to correspond with the famous historian and Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov. Based on the study of serious sources, the playwright created a whole cycle of historical works: "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky", "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk", "Tushino". Problems of Russian history were portrayed by Ostrovsky with talent and credibility.

Other pieces

Alexander Nikolaevich still remained faithful to his favorite topic. In the 1860s, he wrote many "everyday" dramas and plays. Among them: "Hard days", "Abyss", "Jokers". These works reinforced the motives already found by the writer. Since the late 1860s, Ostrovsky's work has been undergoing a period of active development. In his drama, images and themes of the “new” Russia, which survived the reform, appear: businessmen, acquirers, degenerating patriarchal moneybags and “Europeanized” merchants. Alexander Nikolayevich created a brilliant cycle of satirical comedies that debunk the post-reform illusions of citizens: "Mad Money", "Hot Heart", "Wolves and Sheep", "Forest". The moral ideal of the playwright is pure soul, noble people: Parasha from "Hot Heart", Aksyusha from "Forest". Ostrovsky's ideas about the meaning of life, happiness and duty were embodied in the play "Labor Bread". Almost all the works of Alexander Nikolaevich, written in the 1870s, were published in Otechestvennye zapiski.

"Snow Maiden"

The appearance of this poetic play was completely accidental. The Maly Theater was closed for renovations in 1873. Its artists moved to the building of the Bolshoi Theater. In this regard, the commission for the management of the Moscow imperial theaters decided to create a performance in which three troupes will be involved: opera, ballet and drama. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky undertook to write a similar play. The Snow Maiden was written by the playwright in a very short time. The author took a plot from a Russian folk tale as a basis. While working on the play, he carefully selected the size of the poems, consulted with archaeologists, historians, and connoisseurs of antiquity. The music for the play was composed by the young PI Tchaikovsky. The premiere of the play took place in 1873, on May 11, on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. KS Stanislavsky spoke of The Snow Maiden as a fairy tale, a dream, told in sonorous and magnificent verses. He said that the realist and everyday life writer Ostrovsky wrote this play as if he had not been interested in anything before, except for pure romance and poetry.

Work in recent years

During this period, Ostrovsky composed significant social and psychological comedies and dramas. They tell about the tragic fate of sensitive, gifted women in a cynical and selfish world: "Talents and admirers", "Dowry". Here the playwright developed new techniques of stage expressiveness, anticipating the work of Anton Chekhov. Keeping the peculiarities of his drama, Alexander Nikolaevich strove to embody the “inner struggle” of the heroes in an “intelligent subtle comedy”.

Social activity

In 1866, Alexander Nikolaevich founded the famous Artistic Circle. He subsequently gave the Moscow scene many talented figures. D. V. Grigorovich, I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, P. M. Sadovsky, A. F. Pisemsky, G. N. Fedotova, M. E. Ermolova, P. I. Tchaikovsky visited Ostrovsky , L. N. Tolstoy, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. E. Turchaninov.

In 1874, the Society of Russian Drama Writers and Opera Composers was created in Russia. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was chosen as the chairman of the association. Photos of the famous public figure were known to every lover of performing arts in Russia. The reformer made a lot of efforts to ensure that the legislation of the theater management was revised in favor of the artists, and thereby significantly improved their material and social situation.

In 1885, Alexander Nikolaevich was appointed to the post of head of the repertoire department and became the head of the theater school.

Ostrovsky Theater

The work of Alexander Ostrovsky is inextricably linked with the formation of a real Russian theater in its modern sense. The playwright and writer managed to create his own theater school and a special holistic concept for staging theatrical performances.

The peculiarities of Ostrovsky's work in the theater are in the absence of opposition to the acting nature and extreme situations in the action of the play. In the works of Alexander Nikolaevich, ordinary events take place with ordinary people.

The main ideas of the reform:

• the theater should be built on conventions (there is an invisible “fourth wall” that separates the audience from the actors);
• when staging a performance, the stake should be placed not on one well-known actor, but on a team of artists who understand each other well;
• the invariability of the attitude of the actors to the language: speech characteristics should express almost everything about the heroes presented in the play;
• people come to the theater to watch the actors play, and not to get acquainted with the play - they can read it at home.

The ideas that were invented by the writer Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich were later developed by M. A. Bulgakov and K. S. Stanislavsky.

Personal life

The playwright's personal life was no less interesting than his literary work. Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich lived in a civil marriage with a simple bourgeois woman for almost twenty years. Interesting facts and details of the marital relationship between the writer and his first wife are still worrying researchers.

In 1847, in Nikolo-Vorobyinovsky Lane, next to the house where Ostrovsky lived, a young girl, Agafya Ivanovna, settled with her thirteen-year-old sister. She had no family or friends. No one knows when she met Alexander Nikolaevich. However, in 1848 the young people had a son, Alexei. There were no conditions for raising a child, so the boy was temporarily placed in an orphanage. Ostrovsky's father was terribly angry that his son not only dropped out of a prestigious university, but also got in touch with a simple bourgeois woman living in the neighborhood.

However, Alexander Nikolaevich showed firmness and, when his father, together with his stepmother, left for the recently purchased Shchelykovo estate in the Kostroma province, he settled with Agafya Ivanovna in his wooden house.

The writer and ethnographer S. V. Maksimov jokingly called Ostrovsky's first wife "Martha the Posadnitsa", because she was next to the writer in times of severe hardship and hardship. Friends of Ostrovsky characterize Agafya Ivanovna as a person by nature very intelligent and heartfelt. She perfectly knew the manners and customs of merchant life and had an unconditional influence on the work of Ostrovsky. Alexander Nikolaevich often consulted with her about the creation of his works. In addition, Agafya Ivanovna was a wonderful and hospitable hostess. But Ostrovsky did not formalize his marriage with her even after the death of his father. All the children born in this union died very young, only the eldest, Alexei, briefly outlived their mother.

Over time, Ostrovsky developed other hobbies. He was passionately in love with Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya-Nikulina, who played Katerina at the premiere of The Thunderstorms in 1859. However, a personal breakup soon occurred: the actress left the playwright for a wealthy merchant.

Then Alexander Nikolaevich had a relationship with a young artist Vasilyeva-Bakhmetyeva. Agafya Ivanovna knew about this, but steadfastly carried her cross and managed to maintain Ostrovsky's respect for herself. The woman died in 1867, on March 6, after a serious illness. Alexander Nikolaevich did not leave her bed until the very end. The burial place of Ostrovsky's first wife is unknown.

Two years later, the playwright married Vasilyeva-Bakhmetyeva, who bore him two daughters and four sons. Alexander Nikolaevich lived with this woman until the end of his days.

Death of the writer

Tense public and could not but affect the health of the writer. In addition, despite the good fees from the production of plays and an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, Alexander Nikolaevich did not have enough money all the time. Exhausted by constant worries, the writer's body eventually failed. In 1886, on June 2, the writer died at his Shchelykovo estate near Kostroma. The emperor granted 3 thousand rubles for the funeral of the playwright. In addition, he assigned a pension of 3 thousand rubles to the writer's widow, and another 2,400 rubles a year for the upbringing of Ostrovsky's children.

Chronological table

The life and work of Ostrovsky can be briefly displayed in a chronological table.

A. N. Ostrovsky. life and creation

	A. N. Ostrovsky was born.
	The future writer entered the First Moscow Gymnasium.
	Ostrovsky became a student at Moscow University and began studying law.
	Alexander Nikolaevich left the university without receiving a diploma of education.
	Ostrovsky began serving as a scribe in the Moscow courts. He did this work until 1851.
	The writer has conceived a comedy called "The Picture of Family Happiness".
	In the "Moscow City List" there was an essay "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky resident" and an outline of the play "A Picture of Family Happiness".
	Publication of the comedy "Poor Bride" in the "Moskvityanin" magazine.
	Ostrovsky's first play was performed on the stage of the Maly Theater. It's a comedy called Don't Get In Your Sleigh.
	The writer has written an article "On Sincerity in Criticism." The premiere of the play "Poverty is not a vice" took place.
	Alexander Nikolaevich becomes an employee of the Sovremennik magazine. He also takes part in the Volga ethnographic expedition.
	Ostrovsky is finishing work on the comedy "We Did Not Agree". His other play - "A Profitable Place" - is prohibited from staging.
	The premiere of Ostrovsky's drama The Thunderstorm took place at the Maly Theater. The collection of the writer's works is published in two volumes.
	"Thunderstorm" is published in the press. The playwright receives the Uvarov Prize for her. The peculiarities of Ostrovsky's creativity are outlined by Dobrolyubov in the critical article "A ray of light in the dark kingdom."
	The historical drama Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk is published in Sovremennik. Work begins on the comedy "The Marriage of Balzaminov".
	Ostrovsky received the Uvarov Prize for the play "Sin and Trouble Lives on No One" and became a Corresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
1866 (according to some sources - 1865)	Alexander Nikolaevich created the Artistic Circle and became its foreman.
	The spring fairy tale "Snow Maiden" is presented to the audience.
	Ostrovsky became the head of the Society of Russian Drama Writers and Opera Composers.
	Alexander Nikolaevich was appointed to the post of head of the repertoire part of the theaters of the city of Moscow. He also became the head of the theater school.
	The writer dies on his estate near Kostroma.

Such events filled the life and work of Ostrovsky. The table, which indicates the main incidents in the fate of the writer, will help to better study his biography. It is difficult to overestimate the dramatic heritage of Alexander Nikolaevich. During the life of the great artist, the Maly Theater began to be called “Ostrovsky's House”, and this speaks volumes. Ostrovsky's work, a brief description of which is set out in this article, is worth studying in more detail.

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 "Deeps". 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 the remarks. 60-63

Conclusion 63-72

Bibliography 73-76

Whichever side we look at

activities of Mr. Ostrovsky, we must

we will recognize her as the most brilliant,

the most enviable activity in modern

new Russian literature to us.

/ A. Druzhinin /

Introduction .

The work of Alexander Nikolaevich 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 has no equal in Russian drama. He has written 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), Moliere (France), Goldoni (Italy), Schiller (Germany).

Among the plays of the first half of the 19th century, such masterpieces of realistic drama as Griboyedov's Woe from Wit, Boris Godunov and Pushkin's Little Tragedies, The Inspector General and Gogol's Marriage were especially prominent. These outstanding realistic plays clearly outlined the innovative tendencies of Russian drama.

The overwhelming number of works that filled the theatrical stage were translations and alterations of Western European plays. Now no one knows the names of MV Kryukovsky (Pozharsky, 1807), SI Viskovaty (Ksenia and Temir, 1810?)

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

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

In the 19th century, translations of the works of progressive playwrights of Western European romanticism, for example, Schiller ("Cunning and Love", 1827, "Carlos", 1830, "Wilhelm Tell", 1830, "The Robbers", 1828, 1833, 1834) and B . Hugo ("Angelo, Tyrant of Padua", 1835-1836, the play was staged in translation by MV Samoilova under the title "The Venetian Actress"). Belinsky and Lermontov created their plays during these years, 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 originality in the theater, and A.N. Ostrovsky in the field of drama. The playwright not only made the people of labor, 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.

Welcoming the playwright on the 35th anniversary of his career, Goncharov wrote that A.N. Ostrovsky had 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, on his roles the great talents of A.E. Martynov, L.P. Kositskaya-Nikulina, K.N. Rybakov, M.N. Ermolova and many others.

NS Vasilieva recalled: “Ostrovsky gave each person 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 listened to him with reverence! "

For almost half a century, A.N. Ostrovsky was a chronicler of Russian life, quickly responded to newly emerging social phenomena, brought characters to the stage that were still being formed.

Reading his plays, interest arises in the history of their creation. As you know, Leo Tolstoy rewrote his works many times, FM 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 kept, such as "The Thunderstorm", "Our People - Numbered", "Dowry", "Wolves and Sheep" and others, including the manuscript of the drama "The Deeps", the most significant among the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky about the present after the "Thunderstorm".

The purpose of this work is in the process of analyzing the manuscript of the play "The Abyss", first of all, to show the path that the playwright has done, making changes and additions to the original text of the play, and to determine its place in the drama of A.N. Ostrovsky.

Before proceeding to the characterization of the manuscript, a few words should be said about the work of A.N. Ostrovsky on the plays. The work of a playwright is conventionally divided into three stages. At the first stage, A.N. Ostrovsky observed the people around him and their relationships. I didn't make any sketches, I kept everything in my head. Almost all the main characters in many of Ostrovsky's plays 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 collisions. For example, the prototype of Neschastlivtsev in the play "The Forest" was the actor N.Kh. Rybnikov. Provincial actors, in whom A.N. Ostrovsky saw talent, were also prototypes.

After accumulating 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 ordering the impressions did A.N. Ostrovsky move on to composing the script. Almost always there was only one draft, but in the process of work there were always new thoughts. Therefore, when revising the draft, inserts appeared, certain moments were deleted, and a whole-formed and thoughtful work was already published in print.

Turning to literary and research works about the work of A.N. Ostrovsky, such authors as L.R. Kogan, V.Ya.Lakshin, G.P. Pirogov, A.I. Revyakin and others, the author of this work did not find enough complete information about the drama "The Abyss", not to mention the fact that its manuscript was ignored and not described from a research point of view in any work.

Of great interest is the work of N.P. Kashin "Sketches about A.N. Ostrovsky", where an analysis of the manuscripts of such plays as "Our people - we will be numbered", "Do not sit in your sleigh", "Thunderstorm", "Poverty - not a vice ”and many others. But even this author left the play "The Abyss" without attention, although in 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 accident that in 1973, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of A.N. Ostrovsky, the theater bearing his name staged the play "The 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 Theater.

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

In the work on the manuscript, the textual research method described in the works of D.S. Likhachev, E.N. Lebedeva and others was used. This method allows you to identify discrepancies, to understand the movement of the author's thought from concept 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 "The Abyss", associated with clarifying its history of creation for a deeper understanding of the author's intention, the content and form of the work, the technique of the playwright's work on the manuscript of the play.

Textual analysis includes the following stages:

1. Study of the creative history of the creation of the work.

2. Comparison of all draft versions.

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

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

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

The result of this painstaking, but very interesting work was a real work, which is an attempt at the first (perhaps the only) study of the manuscript of AN Ostrovsky's play "The Abyss".

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

Milestones in the life of a playwright.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born in Moscow on March 31 (April 12), 1823, in the family of the 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 promoted in the service and successfully engaged in private practice: he was a lawyer, dealt with 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 Civil Court, then he was promoted to titular adviser, and as a result he was promoted to the rank of collegiate assessor. This gave him the right to hereditary nobility.

Nikolai Fedorovich, who wrote poetry in his youth, followed the novelties of literature, subscribed to all the leading magazines: "Moscow Telegraph", "Otechestvennye zapiski", "Library for reading", "Contemporary". He compiled a solid library, which was later used by Alexander Nikolaevich. 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 upbringing of secular manners.

In 1835, Alexander Nikolayevich 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 listened to and successfully passed the 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, already highly specialized subjects were taught, which did not interest Ostrovsky. Having received a negative mark on the transition to the third year, the young playwright dropped out of university.

The father was upset and identified 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 performing with his first works. It was in this decade that realism finally took shape and triumphed as the leading literary trend.

“Forming in the 40s 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 nationality in the 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 of this accusatory element in it ... The public expects from the art of putting on a living, graceful form of its judgment over life, waiting for the combination of modern vices and shortcomings noted in the century in full images."

The first dramatic works by A.N. Ostrovsky - "A Family Picture" (1847) and "Our People - Let's Numbered!" (1850) are devoted mainly 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 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 under the influence of the views of his time.

At this 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 "Our people - we will be numbered!"

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

Giving priority 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's Asinaria and Seneca's Hippolytus. Also A.N. Ostrovsky closely followed the current Western European literature. At the end of the 40s, he read the novels "Misdemeanor of Mr. Antoine" by Georges Sand, "Martyn Naydenysh" by E. Su 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 a lot 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 for a writer to be obligatory.

At the end of the 40s, A.N. Ostrovsky collaborated in "Moskvityanin", where he wrote critical articles about the stories of E. Tour and A.F. Pisemsky, in which he defended the principles of realism. Realism was not conceived as a playwright outside the nationality, and therefore the defining principle of A.N. Ostrovsky's aesthetics was nationality in its democratic understanding. Relying on the realistic traditions of progressive literature, demanding from contemporary writers a truthful 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 meaningfulness. With the totality of his ideological and aesthetic principles, the playwright affirmed the view of literature as a wonderful "school of morals", as a mighty moral transforming force.

A.N. Ostrovsky entered literature immediately as an established writer: the comedy "Our people - we will be numbered!"

In the 1850s, A.N. Ostrovsky began to organize 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 those invited increased. As a rule, they gathered on Saturdays, when there were no performances in the theaters. These readings began as early as 1846 with scenes from the comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered!", But the circle of listeners only expanded in the 1950s.

N.F. Ostrovsky was often not happy with his son, but even more displeasure was caused by the fact that Alexander Nikolaevich, having fallen in love with a simple girl from a philistine environment, introduced her to his house as a wife. The angry father deprived his son of all material assistance. From that time on, a hard life began for the playwright, in material terms.

The plight of the family (A.N. Ostrovsky had already had four children by that time) 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 the contentment of everyday life. Everything that was in the oven stood on the table with humorous greetings, tender sentences, ”notes the writer S.V. Maksimov. She, according to Maksimov, well understood “and Moscow merchant life in its particulars, which, undoubtedly, largely served her chosen one. He himself not only was not shy of her opinions and reviews, but willingly went to meet them, listened to advice and corrected a lot after reading what he had written in her presence and when she herself had time to listen to the conflicting opinions of various connoisseurs. A large share of participation and influence is attributed to her by the likely rumors when creating the comedy "Our people - numbered!", At least regarding the plot and its external setting. "

In the mid-60s, A.N. Ostrovsky was captured by the topic 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 impression of Pushkin's "Boris Godunov".

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

A terrible blow awaited the playwright: all the children born in this marriage died. In 1867, the playwright's beloved wife, Agafya Ivanovna, died, and in 1869 he married Maria Vasilyevna Vasilyeva, an artist of the Moscow Maly Theater.

In 1867, the playwright, together with his brother Mikhail, bought the Shchelykovo estate from his stepmother. “Special mention should be made of Shchelykov in the fate of Ostrovsky. 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. Ostrovsky is inseparable from the Shchelykovo estate, located not far from Kostroma and 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. About the house, he spoke like this: "The house is amazingly good both from the outside with the originality of the architecture and the internal convenience of the premises ... The house stands on a high mountain, which is dug to the right and left with such delightful ravines, covered with curly pines and linden trees, that you cannot imagine anything like this." Every year, from spring to late autumn, A.N. Ostrovsky lived in Shchelykovo with his family and friends. Here he could afford to walk in a Russian suit: in trousers, an oversized shirt and long boots.

These memorable places for the playwright are reflected in his works. For example, in "The Snow Maiden" the village of Subbotino and the adjacent meadow were described. Some of the most significant plays were written in Shchelykovo: "Every wise man has enough simplicity", "There was not a penny, but suddenly an altyn", "Ardent heart", "Forest", "Dowry", "Talents and admirers", "Without guilty guilt ”and many others.

“Ostrovsky called his appointment happiness, since he got the practical opportunity to make transformations into reality. Such vigorous activity undermined Ostrovsky's forces in less than a year.

“In his declining years, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky left in the album of MI Semevsky, editor of the magazine“ Russian Starina ”, 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 without hesitation or hesitation I believed in my calling." On this day, A.N. Ostrovsky finished the comedy "Pictures of Family Happiness", his first complete and complete work.

Then there were created: "Our people - numbered", "Poor Bride", "A profitable place", "Thunderstorm" and many, many other plays.

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

The burial took place at the Nikolo-Berezhki cemetery. Over the open

Kropachev uttered an agitated 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 was installed on the grave with the inscription:" Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. "

travelers 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 a darkness of obscurity ”.

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

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

A.N. Ostrovsky's introduction to the literary word began mainly from his native literature. The first comedy he read and made an indelible impression on him was NR Sudovshchikov's comedy "The Unheard of Wonder, or the Honest Secretary." Among 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 nurture the ideas of his works?

Over the course of several years, A.N. Ostrovsky wrote down only words characteristic of the bourgeois-merchant environment that he had to face: "himself" (owner, head of the family), "lover", "hare"  and others. Then the playwright took an interest in writing proverbs, discovering their deep meaning. This is reflected in the titles of his works: "Do not sit in your sleigh", "Not all the carnival for the cat."

The first of Ostrovsky's well-known works in prose is "The Legend of How the Quarter Overseer Danced, or Only One Step From the Great to the Ridiculous." Gogol's influences are felt in him, especially in the pictures of everyday life.

In 1864 - 1874, A.N. Ostrovsky deduced as the main characters people who are not able to fight with the "well-fed", but have a sense of human dignity. Among them: the clerk Obroshenov ("Jokers"), the honest official Kiselnikov ("The 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 force the reader and viewer to reflect and draw conclusions about the existing order.

In his plays, A.N. Ostrovsky describes the reality of the time in which he 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, traders and their families, but also truthfully show them in his works.

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

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

A.N. Ostrovsky's literary activity began in 1847 with the publication in the Moscow City Leaflet of stories and essays under the general title "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident"; family happiness "). However, the earliest literary experience of AN Ostrovsky refers to 1843 - it is "The Legend of how the quarter warden started dancing, or From the great to the ridiculous, only one step." The first literary publications were prosaic - the unfinished story "They did not agree" (1846), essays and stories "Yasha's biography", "Zamoskvorechye on a holiday" and "Kuzma Samsonich" (1846-1847). "Notes of zamoskvoretsko

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

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

A.N. Ostrovsky served in a commercial court when he began to think about a new work. The fruit of long-term inner work was the play "Bankrupt", which later received the name "Our People - Let's Numbered!" The driving force is the conflict between fathers and children on the basis of "enlightenment", "education". It is surprising that the play was not yet 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 at Moscow University). The young playwright was just beginning his journey and still could not get used to the praises that excited him pleasantly. Among the listeners of the new play by A.N. Ostrovsky were S.P.Shevyrev, A.S. Khomyakov, T.N. Granovsky, S.M. Soloviev, F.I.Buslaev and many others. The reviews were all unanimously enthusiastic.

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

Soon after reading his play at M.P. Pogodin, A.N. Ostrovsky decided to introduce him to his friends. And so in the literary environment of Moscow and St. Petersburg they started talking about the "young editorial board" of "Moskvityanin", which was then already in its tenth year. Among the authors were named the names of A.N. Ostrovsky, A.A. Grigoriev, T.I. Filippov and others along with N.V. Gogol, V.A.Zhukovsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, K.S.Aksakov and many others.

Communication with M.P. Pogodin and his friends - Slavophiles did not pass without leaving a trace for A.N. Ostrovsky; as you want "). But there were also contradictions between the publisher and the “young editorial board,” which wanted to have greater independence. MP Pogodin did not believe that young people could keep the traditions of Karamzin and Pushkin in the magazine. In the early 1950s, the Moskvityanin already published such plays as The Poor Bride (1852), Don't Sit in Your Sleigh (1853), Don't Live As You Want to (1855). A valuable acquisition of "Moskvityanin" was the cooperation of PI Melnikov and Pisemsky in it.

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

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

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

On January 14, 1853, the comedy "Don't Get in Your Sleigh, Don't Sit", the first play that was played in the theater, was performed. Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya, already known by that time, agreed to play the main role. The lively speech, rich in everyday colors, amazed the audience. MP 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 asked why he, Ivanushka, was not happy, Borodkin replies: "Something is a little sad." He said it as if by chance, but with an indescribable feeling, "as criticism later noted, unable to find words to express the melancholy 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, amazed them and caused a stunning impression. "

“The artists entered their roles so enthusiastically, with such selflessness that they gave the impression of the complete vitality of what was being done on the stage. It was obvious what Ostrovsky himself would later call “the school natural and expressive games".

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

AN Ostrovsky on stage, "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 nascent Ostrovsky Theater.

With the arrival of A.N. Ostrovsky in the Maly Theater, the theater itself changed. On the stage, ordinary people appeared in jackets, greasy boots, and chintz dresses. Actors of the older generation spoke out negatively about the playwright. From the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky in the Russian theater, the principles of realistic nationally distinctive drama are affirmed. “Before the viewer there should be not 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 followed by the playwright. High and low, comic and dramatic, everyday and unusual were realistically combined in his plays. "

Cooperation with the Sovremennik magazine became a new stage in the playwright's creative work. 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. Tolstoy, I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, N.A. Nekrasov, N.A. Dobrolyubov and many other authors of the journal, which at that time was edited by N.A. Nekrasov ... For quite a long time, A.N. Ostrovsky collaborated with Sovremennik, in which the plays “A Festive Dream Until Noon” (1857), Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk "(1862)," Hard Days "(1863)," Jokers "(1864)," Voevoda "(1865)," In a Busy Place "(1865). After the journal was closed 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 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 provided 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 unfulfilled. At the same time, A.N. Ostrovsky began work on the Volga dictionary, which later grew 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 J.K. Grot.

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

If at the first stage of his creative path A.N. Ostrovsky painted mostly negative images ("Poverty is not a vice," "Don't live as you want," positive images (falling into the sugary idealization of the merchant class, patriarchy, religion; at the third stage, starting in 1855, he finally comes to the need for organic fusion in his plays of denial and affirmation) are people of labor.

The second period of the 60-75 years includes such plays as "An old friend is better than two new ones", "Hard days", "Jokers", "Not all the carnival for the cat", "Late love", "Labor bread", "In a busy place" , "There was not a penny, but suddenly altyn", "The Trilogy about Balzaminov", "The dogs are squabbling" and "The Abyss".

The theme of the plays by A.N. Ostrovsky was expanding; he becomes a representative of all the main estates of his era.

“The educated Moscow of the 1940s had two favorite brainchildren, which it was proud of, with which it connected its main hopes and sympathies: the university and the theater. The Bolshoi Theater reigned supreme: in tragedy - Mochalov, in comedy - the great Shchepkin. " A.N. Ostrovsky was also scorched 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 breath on the stage, for the whole theater, she needs genuine, warm tears, warm speeches that would pour straight into the soul ". Twenty years later, in the drama "The Abyss", A.N. Ostrovsky will depict a walk in Neskuchny Garden, which he knew firsthand, and put in the mouths of strolling merchants and students a stormy approval of Mochalov's play in Ducange's melodrama "Thirty Years, or the Life of a Player":

"Merchant. Ay, yes Mochalov! Respected.

Wife. Only these performances are very much to watch

pitiful; so it’s even too much.

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

“In The Abyss, especially the devilish temptation of a bribe will be described strongly and somehow personally: life pushes the referee's clerk under the arm and leaves him no clue to preserve his honesty. Here is the obvious evidence that “everyone is taking”, and the mother's complaints that the family is starving to death, and the reasoning of the merchant-father-in-law in the spirit that whoever needs to go to court prepares money anyway: “You won't take , so another will take from him. " All this, as one would expect, ends with the hero doing a little cleanup in the case and taking a big jackpot from the client, and then going crazy from the reproaches of his conscience. "

“In the year of the liberation of the peasants (1861) AN Ostrovsky finished two plays: a small comedy“ Wherever you go, you will find, ”where he finally 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 that 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.

AN Ostrovsky also ponders over the pages of the Minin manuscript about the people, the national character in which it took shape and manifested itself in history. The playwright wanted, referring to history and poetic instinct, to show a man of conscience and inner duty, capable of raising the people to feat in a difficult moment. This was a fresh topic at the time.

Following Minin, A. 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, IS Turgenev exclaimed: “What a smelly poetry in places, like our Russian grove in summer! Ah, master, this bearded man! "

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

“I have never been able to bow and run, I have never been able to flatter the authorities; they say that with the years, under the yoke of circumstances, the consciousness of self-worth disappears, that need will teach the rolls to eat - with me, thank God, this did not happen "- wrote AN Ostrovsky in a letter to Gedeonov. The playwright realized that behind his back there was a Russian theater, Russian literature.

Every autumn, a new play matured, was written, played in the theater, this marked the following dates:

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 A. N. Ostrovsky (1875 - 1886).

It should be noted that the plays of the playwright of the third period are devoted 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 Sacrifice" (1877), "Dowry" (1878), "The Heart is Not a Stone" (1879), "Slaves" (1880), "Guilty Without Guilt" (1883) and others. The heroines of the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky of the third period are the image of slaves. The heroines experience the torment of unfulfilled hopes, unrequited love ... Only a few of these women manage to rise above the environment. A striking 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 you not love a woman, she gave birth to God for us." Also, in the plays of the third period, the image of a predator-predator for women appears before the reader. A.N. Ostrovsky reveals spiritual emptiness, cold calculation and self-interest behind the noble appearance of such a predator. In the plays of the last period, many episodic characters appear, helping to convey the atmosphere, for example, of a noisy fair.

In the last play of the playwright "Out of this world", as in the previous ones, important moral and psychological questions are posed - love, relationship between husband and wife, moral duty and others.

At the end of the 70s, A.N. Ostrovsky created a number of plays in collaboration with young playwrights: with N.Ya.Soloviev - "Happy Day" (1877), "The Marriage of Belugin" (1877), "Wild Woman" (1879), "It shines, but it does not warm" (1880); with P.M. Nevezhin - "Blazh" (1880), "Old in a new way" (1882).

In the 70s, A.N. Ostrovsky willingly turned to the subjects of the criminal chronicle. It was at this time that he was elected an honorary justice of the peace in the Kineshemsky district, and in Moscow in 1877 he served as a jury at the District Court. The plots of the trials 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, heard in the Kineshma magistrate court.

In 1870, through the efforts of A.N. Ostrovsky, a collection of Russian dramatic writers was established, of which he was 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 remembered with admiration about A.N. Ostrovsky's reading of 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 feelings for the playwright

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

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

In May 1865 A.N. Ostrovsky made a trip along the Volga. Returning from his trip, he finishes a new play "In a Busy Place", continues to translate from W. Shakespeare, works on the historical play "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky." In the second half of December he finishes the play "The Abyss", summing it up a kind of conclusion to the theme of Zamoskvorechye in the 60s.

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

For the first time the play "The Abyss" was published in the newspaper "St. Petersburg Vedomosti" in January 1866 (№№ 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 Deeps" had already been approved by the Theater Censorship. In April the audience saw a new play by A. Ostrovsky on the stage of the Maly Theater, and in May the play Abyss was presented for the first time at the Alexandrinsky Theater in the benefit performance of Vasiliev the 1st.

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

This is confirmed by the table of performances of plays by A.N. Ostrovsky from 1887 to 1917. It is interesting that the first place in this table is taken by the play "Forest" - 160 performances a year. The play "The Abyss" - less than 15 performances a year. The plays “There was not a penny, but suddenly altyn”, “Ardent 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 confirmed by the main character of the play "The Abyss" - Kiselnikov. He is unable to fight and floats with the flow of life. Finally, the abyss of life sucks him in. Through this image, A.N. Ostrovsky shows that in the existing

reality cannot remain a passive observer that one must fight, otherwise the abyss will swallow and it will be impossible to get out of it. Plays by 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 social struggle.

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

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

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

In the play "The Abyss" A. N. Ostrovsky did not deviate from the main themes of his works and showed the "bottom" of the 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 novel in faces. Many researchers of A.N. Ostrovsky spoke about the influence of Western European literature on him, especially about his plot borrowings from foreign sources. A.I. Revyakin draws attention to ² ... the influence of Schiller (“Robbers” - and “Voevoda”, “Dmitry the Pretender” - and “Dmitry the Pretender sage of rather simplicity "), Shakespeare (" A Midsummer Night's Dream "- and" Snow Maiden "), V. Ducanj and Dino (" Thirty Years, or the Life of a Player "- and" Deeps ")".

The hero of the play Kiselnikov goes from being an idealist student of the 30s to a petty judicial official of the 40s. Each action of the play takes place 5-7 years later and depicts the path of a young man who graduated from the university, entering life with hopes and hopes for a brighter future. What is the bottom line? Marrying a girl from Zamoskvoretsk, he falls into everyday life, as if into the abyss. Purity of thoughts ends in crime - a large bribe, which the hero sees as the only way to escape from poverty.

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

A general description of the manuscript of the play "Deeps" should be given.

The manuscript of the play, kept in the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library, contains 54 leaves. The text is written in pencil. Some passages are difficult to read, since time has left an imprint on the text of the manuscript (the result of long-term storage and repeated access to the text). There are no margins in the manuscript. All notes were made by A.N. Ostrovsky in the empty spaces. When viewing the manuscript, a large number of insertions and additions are found, most often they are made directly in the text. Large inserts are placed in free spaces or given below with an “F” mark. There are few crossed out passages in the manuscript, while 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 again. It is impossible to make a categorical statement in favor of the first or second assumption.

The entire manuscript is written in an 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 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.

The first sheet of the manuscript is of particular interest for characterizing the manuscript.

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”. Upon careful examination, some of the words from these records could be read. In these recordings, A.N. Ostrovsky arranged the main events of the play by scenes. During final processing, all these entries were crossed out, as they subsequently 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 the play by AN Ostrovsky "The 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 places 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 that has developed in the play.

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

Researchers (A.I. Revyakin, G.P. Pirogov, V.Ya. Lakshin and others) of A.N. Ostrovsky's work have established that the playwright rarely succeeded in starting a play right away. For a long time and persistently he worked out the first remarks, the arrangement of the characters. A.N. Ostrovsky strove to ensure that the first remarks of the characters in the play were similar to an ongoing dialogue.

Very often, his plays begin with a response, which makes it easy to refer to the previous actions that took place before the curtain went up. It is precisely 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 Player. The discussion is led by merchants and their wives.

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

The second phenomenon of "The Abyss" was originally conceived as a discussion of the same play, but now 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”. “The Life of a Player” was discussed by three students and two other characters who were not included in the cast of the play. These characters appear with A.N. Ostrovsky under the names Alb and Galosh. Apparently, the author gave their names in an abbreviated form.

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

True, Pogulyaev utters only one phrase, but his ideas are developed by students. The author also removes the lengthy arguments of Alb and Galosch.

Thus, after the changes introduced, 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. Ostrovsky himself did not consider it necessary to talk a lot about the play “The Life of the Player”, especially since the statement of Pogulyaev and the 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 piece. Naked morality.

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

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

Long and general reasoning could only distract 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 entire phenomenon. 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 the characters, the action turned out to be somewhat monotonous. The conversation “tete a tete” does not suit AN Ostrovsky and in the new edition he introduces two more students who studied together with Kiselnikov. Now three people are already 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 replicas. Now, in a new version, students are already pronouncing them.

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

Interestingly, in the original version, Kiselnikov himself talked about his life. With the introduction of two more characters, the number of questions increases and, therefore, Kiselnikov's long answers are broken up 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, which Kiselnikov tries to justify in everything he has said.

Kiselnikov

However, I still have time for all this.

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

Kiselnikov

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

The constant presence of his father depressed Kiselnikov.

The fourth and fifth phenomena were left by A.N. Ostrovsky in their original form. In the fifth phenomenon, new characters appear. Their speech characteristics were immediately found by the playwright.

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

In the original version, to Pogulyaev's question about what she was doing, Glafira replied:

Glafira

I am engaged in embroidery.

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

Glafira

Usually what the young ladies do. I am engaged in embroidery.

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

There is no doubt that A.N. Ostrovsky with this additional phrase in Glafira's answer emphasizes the narrowness of her interests. Perhaps, with this additional phrase, the playwright simultaneously opposes Kiselnikov's education and the limitations 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 Borovtsovs' way of life.

Pogulyaev

Well, no, there is something better than that.

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.

Borovtsova

Is it dancing, or what? So well them. The husband hates it.

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

In the seventh, last phenomenon 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 from a meek girl turns into a greedy and hysterical woman.

The first appearance of the second scene begins with a scandal between Ki-Selnikov and Glafira.

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

Kiselnikov(pinches ears)

In the final version:

Kiselnikov(pinching his ears, screaming)

You are my tyrants, you!

Just one remark, and how the character of the image changes! In the first version, Kiselnikov is a passive nature, in which all ability to fight has been destroyed. In the final version - before us is 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 a long monologue of Kiselnikov, in which he almost repents of his behavior.

With this remark of Kiselnikov, reinforced by the addition of just one word to the remark: “shouts” and an additionally introduced monologue at the end of the phenomenon, A.N. Ostrovsky shows that in the soul of the protagonist of the play, who has already lived for seven years in the kingdom of merchant obscurantism, has not yet died out the struggle between the passive and active principles of his nature, but the passive principle begins to gain the upper hand and suck into the abyss of merchant life.

A.N. Ostrovsky does not immediately get the image of Glafira. In the final version, the playwright draws the readers' attention 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

After all, this is her house, her own? ...

Glafira

So what about her? I give her my dresses, I don’t regret for

It so happened that Glafira treats Kiselnikov's mother well - she gives her his 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 characters' speech, but only in the last words of Glafira, before the word “dresses”, he inserts the definition “old”. Now Glafira's answer looks like this:

Glafira

So what about 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 Glafira's insignificant soul and reveals new features in her character: heartlessness, callousness.

In the second appearance, the Borovtsovs come to visit Kiselnikov. Glafira has a name day, and her parents congratulate her. It turns out that Kiselnikov has already laid 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 from the service is too little to feed a large family. Borovtsov teaches Kiselnikov to take bribes. He paints a rich life for him.

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

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

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

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

Guests are gathering at Kiselnikov's house. Pereyarkov and Turuntaev come to Glafira's name day. In the first version of the manuscript, when Anna Ustinovna holds up 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 your tea!

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

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

Borovtsova

Well, you quieter, quieter! Hello daddy!

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

Borovtsova

Well, you quieter, quieter! Don't shout in front of people! Not good. Hello daddy!

From this addition it becomes clear that Borovtsova only cares about outward decency, she is not at all opposed to Glafira shouting 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, and 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 meets him quite kindly.

Pogulyaev (Glafire)

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 (Glafire)

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

Glafira

Thank you humbly. Only now we did not expect strangers, we want to spend time between ours.

In the final version, the meaning of Glafira's answer 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 is how one more character trait of Glafira is revealed: indifference to "unnecessary" people.

When talking with Pogulyaev, Pereyarkov emphasizes that they (the Borovtsovs, Pereyarkov and Turuntaev) have tenderness between themselves; that "they live in perfect harmony." But as soon as Pereyarkov glances at 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 is trying to insult his companion worse. When editing, A.N. Ostrovsky adds new lines. Now all these "nice" people look like bazaar squabblers.

Pereyarkov

Percentage! Koschey! Judas!

Turuntaev

Thief, day thief!

Borovtsov

Why are you barking!

Turuntaev

What are you, arshinnik!

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

Pogulyaev

So much for you!

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, I borrowed it! Here is a friend, so a friend! If it had not been for him, I would have completely disgraced myself in front of my father-in-law.

After editing the original version, we read:

Kiselnikov

Here is a friend, so a friend! What is there to do, if not he! Where to go? It was him, for my truth and meekness, God sent. There would be more such friends, so it would be easier to live in the world! If it had not been 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 the one who can lend money. The playwright stresses that need dulls all other feelings in Kiselnikov.

At the beginning of the play, Kiselnikov still tries to protest. Even if they were only words, they could also go 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 credit for meekness and patience.

SceneIII

In the manuscript, Ostrovsky begins to write the third scene of The Deeps 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 occurs, 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.

Five more years pass. Glafira died. The children are sick, but Kiselnikov has no money for their treatment. The father-in-law, on whom Kiselnikov had pinned his last hope, "turned out to be insolvent." But Kiselnikov continues to hope that Borovtsov will return him at least part of the money he had taken. In order not to upset his mother, Kiselnikov tries to instill in her at least a little hope.

Kiselnikov

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

Anna Ustinovna

Ask well ...

The mother advises her son to ask well first, and then it is possible and "out of the gate." By nature, Kiselnikov is a weak-willed person. He can never "take by the gate." Anna Ustinovna knows this very well. After all, Kiryusha will more easily yield than use force and pressure, even in a case involving his own money. In support 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.

It is necessary to dwell on the second phenomenon in more detail. It is perhaps the most dramatic passage 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 address “BROTHER” into Borovtsov's words. Father-in-law calls Kiselnikov so not because he loves him, this is just a new trick of Borovtsov to carry out his nefarious plan. A.N. Ostrovsky makes significant changes to the speech of Pereyarkov, who directs all actions of Borovtsov in this meeting.

In the original version, we read:

Pereyarkov

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

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

Pereyarkov

Cry! Why aren't you crying? Your business now is such an orphan. After all, in front of other creditors, you will cry. We'll have to bow at our feet.

In the new version, A.N. Ostrovsky emphasizes the cunning of Pereyar-kov. 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 ingenuous Kiselnikov is ready to believe Borovtsov and give up his own money. To emphasize Borovtsov's generosity “in words”, a new remark appears in the final version.

Borovtsov

How can you not believe something, eccentric! I'll make you gilded later ... I'll make you gilded later ...

AN 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 a 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 being robbed, and your father helps. The robbers came, took away the last piece of bread, and I did not fight with them, did not cut myself, did not gnaw them with my teeth, but gave them myself, gave your last food with my own hands. I myself would rob people and feed you - both people would forgive me, and God would forgive me; and I, along with the robbers, robbed you. Mamma, mamma!

In the third appearance, Kiselnikov tells his mother about everything that happened. Both are agitated. 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

Don't murmur, Kiryusha, don't murmur!

Kiselnikov

Oh, to die now!

Anna Ustinovna

And children, children!

Kiselnikov

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

The last remark testifies to Kiselnikov's prudence. He understands that tears cannot help grief.

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

Kiselnikov

When to rest! Business does not tolerate. You will sit with me! I won't be so bored; and then one is worse than longing for the heart sucks.

But it is not clear from these words 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! Business does not tolerate. Well, mamma, let them enjoy! They won't get rich with our money. I will now begin to work. I will work day and night. You will sit with me! I won't be so bored; and then one is worse than longing for the heart sucks.

It seems interesting to trace the development of Kiselnikov's life.

Kiselnikov studied at the university, but did not finish it. Hoped to continue teaching. He meets Glafira, marries her for love, and is sure that Glafira also loves him. 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. 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 children, except for Lisa, die. In addition, the rich father-in-law is "declared bankrupt." Kiselnikov has the last hope that his father-in-law will return 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 appearance.

The events of the fourth event foreshadow the play's denouement. An unknown person encourages Kiselnikov to make a forgery of the 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 in a critical situation, although others did it without a twinge of conscience. But now the last hope is crumbling. The father-in-law "steals" him. There is no money and will not be, but in the arms of an elderly mother and daughter, who still needs to be put on her feet. In desperation, Kiselnikov forges a document. When editing the manuscript, wishing to emphasize the unconsciousness of Kiselnikov's act, A.N. Ostrovsky adds the following statements of his hero to the original version after the service crime he committed:

Kiselnikov

God! What am I doing! (crying.)

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

You won't ruin me. Family, sir!

In the fifth apparition we have before us a rushing Kiselnikov, with eyes full of fear. His speech and actions are disorderly. His condition is close to that of a patient with a fever. Most of all, Kiselnikov is afraid of losing the money he just got.

Kiselnikov

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

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

Kiselnikov

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

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

Kiselnikov

Mamma, after all, I'm on the verge of hard labor ... Tomorrow, maybe

This is Kiselnikov's last sober exclamation.

SceneIV

In the first appearance of the fourth scene, we see Borovtsov completely ruined and Kiselnikov, who has lost his mind.

Five more years pass. The life of the actors is changing, and their position is changing. Now Kiselnikov and Borovtsov are selling old things together on the square. A mighty 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 Kiryusha 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 previous 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, he will wake up and remember ...

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

When editing the original version of the manuscript, A.N. Ostrovsky adds to Borovtsov's speech the words “talan is a share.” Why is this? The playwright shows us that even Borovtsov, who lives for himself and “wages war with others,” is trying to make Kiselnikov’s life easier. He comes up with this proverb so that Kiselnikov could believe in something.

In the second phenomenon, we first meet the eldest daughter of Kiselnikov, Liza, and again meet Pogulyaev. 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 to Pogulyaev's dialogue:

Pogulyaev

Now a lawyer, I'm concocting.

This insert shows that Pogulyaev achieved a good position in society and got a place in court. Anna Ustinovna tells him the story of Kiselnikov. It is noteworthy that in the original version, 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

The family, father, and relatives of Kiryusha were ruined. The service was not given to him - somehow he did not get used to it; ...

With the new words of Anna Ustinovna, AN 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 Kiryusha is 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 Liza and Pogulyaev, A.N. Ostrovsky changes almost nothing. Only the final version touches upon the topic of happiness. It turns out that Pogulyaev has everything except happiness.

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

Anna Ustinovna

We humbly thank you that we, orphans, have been remembered. You are visiting.

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 that you can still live.

We humbly thank you that we, orphans, have been remembered. You are visiting.

For a poor person, happiness is sometimes not necessary when

have money.

When constructing the fourth phenomenon, A.N. Ostrovsky makes semantic corrections to the arrangement of events.

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

Kiselnikov

Kennel, kennel ...

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

The kennel, he says, is the kennel ...

Kiselnikov ponders the words he heard, he is going to go to the master again. Lisa immediately understands what is at stake. She is desperate. Lisa can save her family if she goes to the rich master-neighbor for maintenance. What should she do?

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

Lisa

Who will help me! I am standing over an 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. Modified version:

Lisa

Who will help me now! I am standing over an 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 culmination moment in the current situation. Lisa asks for help, but from whom? Even the grandmother does not speak to her either, because she is afraid to give her bad advice and to deprive the family of possible salvation. In a modified version, A.N. Ostrovsky enhances the drama of the current situation.

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

Lisa

Help me!

This could be regarded as an unexpected straw, which Lisa grabbed, 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 Liza, only Pogulyaev can help her. Therefore, in the new edition, he concretizes Liza's appeal.

Lisa

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

Pogulyaev makes an offer to Lisa, and she agrees. He informs Kiselnikov about this. Kiselnikov's reaction to this message undergoes a change when editing the manuscript.

In the first option:

Kiselnikov

Mamma!

Anna Ustinovna

True, Kiryusha, true!

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

While working out this scene, A.N. Ostrovsky feels that it is important for Kiselnikov to come to his senses and realize, at that moment, what happiness fell to the lot of his daughter. If A.N. Ostrovsky had changed only the words of Kiselnikov, 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

Mamma! Lisa! Is he getting married? Truth?

Anna Ustinovna

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

Anna Ustinovna's remark: "Thank God, I woke up!" - emphasizes the mother's double joy. Firstly, Kiryusha has come to his senses and can be happy for her daughter, and secondly, she is glad that Liza is getting married so successfully.

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

When editing the sixth phenomenon, the playwright makes a change to the final monologue of Kiselnikov, reinforcing it with an exclamation:

Kiselnikov

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

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

When considering and studying the manuscript of AN Ostrovsky "The Abyss", it is easy to establish two versions of its writing: the initial and the final.

In compositional construction, the play is conceived as follows.

Young Kiselnikov meets his old friend Pogulyaev. From the story of Kiselnikov, we learn how he lived recently. 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. The marriage of Kiselnikov is the beginning of the play.

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

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

What fragment of the play did A.N. Ostrovsky work on more thoroughly? Having leafed through the manuscript again, it is clear that A.N. Ostrovsky had to make equal changes to all parts of the play. Considering that the exposition is the smallest in terms of volume, and there are a lot of corrections and additions in it, then we can say that A.N. Ostrovsky worked on the exposition more carefully.

Noteworthy is the work of the playwright on the main characters. All images are almost immediately outlined by the author in their final form. In the speech of some of the characters, A.N. Ostrovsky adds phrases and remarks that emphasize 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 in any way affect her image. They serve to reveal the images and characters of other heroes. A.N. Ostrovsky also introduces changes to the characterization of the images of Borovtsov and Borovtsova.

§ 2. The work of AN Ostrovsky on the remarks.

A.N. Ostrovsky's work on the 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 "REMARKA":

In the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky, and in this case in the play "The Abyss", the directions 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 directions.

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

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

In the final version of the play, A.N. Ostrovsky replaces the name of Gulyaev with Pogulyaev. It is difficult to say what could have caused such a change. To the characteristic of Pogulyaev, the author adds: "graduated from the course."

After editing the list of characters, A.N. Ostrovsky removes Borovtsova's maiden name, 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 everything out, apparently in the hope of returning to this once again. However, there is no new version of the characters in the manuscript, therefore, the original version was given to print.

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

In the third scene, Glafira was included in the original version of the characters. It is not 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 a lot of attention to work on the stage directions 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 the panorama of the boring garden.

"A boring garden. A meadow between trees; in front of a path and a bench; in the depths of a path, behind a path trees and a view of the Moscow River ..." Why does the author reveal to the 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 imagery, he pays attention to details: a bench, paths, trees ... The nature of Zamoskvorechye appears before the reader and the 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 second scene of the play, there are no 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 setting of the second scene suggests otherwise. This remark very clearly and frankly introduces into the content of the unfolding action.

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

"Poor room"

But what does A.N. Ostrovsky mean by this definition?

In the new edition, after the changes and additions made, A. Ostrovsky reveals the concept of "poor". The playwright gives this definition a specific and univariate interpretation:

"Poor room; a painted table and a few chairs; a tallow candle and a pile of papers on the table ..."

This clarification shows that the main character of the play, Kiselnikov, is already on the verge of poverty. Again, A.N. Ostrovsky pays attention to details, and does not look at the picture in general. The candle on the table is exactly "greasy", which makes the reader empathize with the hero, emphasizes the mess: the "pile of papers" on the table.

The cases examined show that stage design directions help to reveal the content and create a certain mood.

Finally, the third kind of remarks: emotional remarks and remarks that indicate to whom the character is specifically addressing.

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

In the fifth phenomenon 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 the state of mind of Kiselnikov, 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 the words of Kiselnikov:

"Lord! What am I doing!"

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

Based on all of the above, we can conclude: 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, spectators and actors to better understand the characters, look into their souls, and arouse sympathy for the main character. ...

Conclusion.

In the play "The Abyss" A. N. Ostrovsky reveals to the reader and the audience 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 a truthful depiction of reality.

In the play “The Abyss,” he draws the image of a typical representative of the Russian merchant class - Borovtsov. The life story of Borovtsov is the story of the life of a greedy and stingy merchant who started 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 paint pictures of merchant life only thanks to his personal acquaintance and observations of the life of this society.

The image of the merchant class remained the primary theme in his work. However, A.N. Ostrovsky did not limit himself to this and painted the life of the bureaucracy ("Our people - we will be numbered", "Poor Bride", "The Abyss"), the nobility ("Do not sit in your sleigh") and philistinism ("Do not live like this as you want ").

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

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

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

In "The Abyss" A. N. Ostrovsky specially brings to the fore an unremarkable person. The author makes the main negative features of the protagonist passivity and inability to fight the environment and its mores.

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

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

The playwright revealed the depth of these words in the play "The Abyss". And with such artistic force he revealed that the restrained Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wrote with uncharacteristic enthusiasm for him: “The play is amazing. The last act is something that 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. ”2

Like Zhadov from “Lucrative Place” and other people who left “university life” with its “concepts”, “advanced convictions,” Kiselnikov begins to realize that he is “no better than others” once he agrees to forge a document. Beginning with the accusation of the bribe-takers, Kiselnikov ends up with a moral collapse, as he says of himself: "We sold everything: ourselves, conscience ..." and the reason for this is seen in the ideal that such as Kiselnikov aspired to in their youth.

The ideal was just loud declarations, but not actions. At the very first test of life, the "Kisselnikovs" are ready to serve any idea, as long as it is beneficial.

“... the playwright does not burn with hatred,” A.I. Revyakin notes, “but sympathizes, regrets, mildly grieves, seeing the ruined human life, because the“ power of grace ”is seen further, and it forgives more, because it 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 AN Ostrovsky's drama "The 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 evoke compassion in the reader and viewer for the main character - Kiselnikov.

The fact that in the process of his creative work A.N. Ostrovsky did not have to rewrite the draft manuscript twice or several times, and all the changes, insertions and additions he made in the first version of the manuscript indicates that the author knew the material presented well, the images were they thought that they only needed to be artistically designed and conveyed to the reader and viewer. Classics do not oppose modernity, but give 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, indifferent to the future, no matter how much he swears in words of loyalty to the ideals of this brightest - brightest future. The classics just nurture in us a sense of personal involvement in the historical movement of mankind from the past to the future. "

Plays acquire a modern sound depending on how much the theater managed to convey to the audience something that 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 epochs by other classical plays. This is due to the fact that the classics enters into complex ideological and aesthetic mutual relations with modernity. In our theater studies, there is the following periodization of A.N. Ostrovsky's repertoire:

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

2 period- 20s. A formalistic experiment on Ostrovsky's drama.

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

4 period- the years of the Second World War and the first post-war years. In Ostrovsky's drama, they looked for both the dark and light sides of the depiction of life.

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 Theater. Also 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 were published devoted to the life and work of the playwright. And, of course, the performances of the great playwright were staged.

In the 60s, Ostrovsky again began to gain 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 Kiev, Gorky and Pskov - "On Every Wise Man ...", in Novosibirsk and Sverdlovsk - "Thunderstorm", in Minsk and Kaluga - "The Last Victim ", In Kaunas -" A profitable place ", in Vilnius -" The Marriage of Balzaminov ", in Novgorod -" Abyss ", in Tambov -" Guilty without guilt ". It should be noted that each epoch brought its own new vision of Ostrovsky's drama, 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 "A Profitable Place", "Enough for Every Wise Man," and "The Abyss". In these plays, three paths of a young intellectual in contemporary A.N. Ostrovsky are 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“ Lucrative Place ”are not crushed by some“ awful, soul-shaking drama ”- they are undermined day after day, day after day by the vile prose of life, tirelessly repeating the irresistibly vulgar arguments of common sense - today, as yesterday tomorrow is like today. "

The play "The Abyss" reminds the modern viewer of the old theater, not even of Ostrovsky's time, but of an even more distant era. 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 presentation 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 Abyss" is that, taking as a basis the plot scheme typical of melodrama, the playwright, with all the logic of his play, refutes the melodramatic concept of personality and society. A.N. Ostrovsky opposes life to the theater.

"The Abyss" is the only one of Ostrovsky's plays, which is based on the biographical, "hagiographic" principle - we meet Kirill Filippych Kiselnikov when he is 22 years old, then

we meet him at 29 years old, at 34 years old and finally at 39 years old. In relation to Zhadov and Glumov, the viewer can only guess how their life will turn out, while Kiselnikov's life has been unfolding in front of the viewer for 17 years. Kiselnikov is getting old before our eyes - at 39 he is already an old man.

In the plays "The Deeps" and "The Profitable Place" the same metaphor appears - the image of a driven horse. Zhadov: " Need, circumstances, lack of education of relatives, surrounding debauchery can drive me as they drive a mail horse ..."Kiselnikov:" You know, mamma, they are driving a mail horse, it trudges leg by leg, hanging its head, does not look at anything, just to drag it to the station; here I am". Zhadov's circumstances still "can drive him out", but they have already driven Kiselnikov ("here I am, too"). 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's 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 the Kiselnikov region, Kholodov notes,“ in his inertness, in inactive good-heartedness, in spinelessness, in lack of will. Trouble or fault? " 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 Player, the audience exchanges opinions about the tragic fate of the hero. Several points of view are presented to the viewer:

« Whoever you lead with, so you yourself will be»

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

One position: " Why, it's a pity". Another position: " Sorry for nothing. Know the edge, but don't fall! For this reason is given to man».

The Abyss is an amazing play, as the playwright does not give an exact answer as to whether the main character is guilty or not. The theater, following A.N. Ostrovsky, answers that it is the hero's trouble, but also the fault.

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

It should be noted that the drama "The Abyss" currently attracts more viewers than readers and researchers. I dare to assume that researchers are not interested in studying the only version of the manuscript with all the corrections and additions made to it. In artistic terms, "The Deeps" 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 intrigue, and the topic 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 "The Abyss" is always present in the repertoire of the Maly Theater, which bears the name of the great playwright.

Until 2002, the play was staged by Yuri Solomin, and now it is already staged in a new production - 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 themselves the answer to the question posed by A.N. Ostrovsky.

Excerpts from "Memories of the artist NS Vasilkva". "Yearbook of the Imperial Theaters", 1909, No. 1, p.4.

Revyakin A.I. "The 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.

E.G. Kholodov "Playwright for All Seasons"; All-Russian Theater Society, M., 1975, p. 260-261.

3 ibid. P. 321

Ibid. 321 General characteristics of A.N. Ostrovsky. General characteristics of A.N. Ostrovsky.

Ostrovsky from an early age was fond of fiction, was interested in theater. While still a schoolboy, he began to visit the Moscow Maly Theater, where he admired the play of M.S.Schepkin and P.S.Mochalov. The articles of V.G.Belinsky and A.I. Herzen had a great influence on the formation of the worldview of the young Ostrovsky. As a young man, Ostrovsky eagerly listened to the inspired words of professors, among whom were brilliant, progressive scientists, friends of great writers, about the fight against untruth and evil, about sympathy for "everything human", about freedom as the goal of social development. But the closer he got to know the law, the less he liked the career of a lawyer, and, not having a penchant for a legal career, Ostrovsky left Moscow University, where he entered at the insistence of his father in 1835, when he was transferring to the third year. Ostrovsky's art irresistibly attracted him. Together with his comrades, he tried not to miss a single interesting performance, read and argued a lot about literature, passionately fell in love with music. At the same time, he himself tried to write poetry and stories. Since then - and for all his life - Belinsky became the highest authority in art for him. The service did not fascinate Ostrovsky, but it proved invaluable to the future playwright, providing rich material for his first divisions. Already in his first works, Ostrovsky showed himself to be a follower of the "Gogol trend" in Russian literature, a supporter of the school of critical realism. Ostrovsky also expressed his adherence to ideological realistic art, the desire to follow the precepts of V. G. Belinsky in literary critical articles of this period, in which he argued that the peculiarity of Russian literature is its "accusatory character." The appearance of Ostrovsky's best plays was a public event that attracted the attention of the leading circles and aroused indignation in the reactionary camp. Ostrovsky's first literary experiments in prose were marked by the influence of the natural school (Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident, 1847). In the same year, the Moscow City Leaflet published his first dramatic work, A Picture of Family Happiness (in later publications, A Family Picture). Ostrovsky's literary fame was brought about by the comedy "Our people - we will be numbered", published in 1850. Even before publication, it became popular. The comedy was banned from being performed on stage (first staged in 1861), and the author, on the personal order of Nicholas I, was placed under police supervision.

He was offered to leave the service. Even earlier, censorship banned "The Picture of Family Happiness" and Ostrovsky's translation of the comedy by V. Shakespeare "Suppression of the Wayward" (1850).

In the early 1950s, during the years of increasing government reaction, Ostrovsky briefly rapprocheted with the "young editorial board" of the reactionary Slavophil magazine Moskvityanin, whose members sought to present the playwright as a singer of "the original Russian merchant class and its pre-construction principles." In the works created at this time ("Don't get into your sleigh", 1853, "Poverty is not a vice", 1854, "Don't live as you want", 1855) reflected Ostrovsky's temporary refusal from consistent and irreconcilable condemnation of reality. However, he quickly freed himself from the influence of reactionary Slavophil ideas. In the dramatic and final return of the playwright to the path of critical realism, an important role was played by revolutionary-democratic criticism, which came out with an angry rebuff to the liberal-conservative "admirers".

A new stage in Ostrovsky's work is associated with the era of social upsurge in the late 50s and early 60s, with the emergence of a revolutionary situation in Russia. Ostrovsky is moving closer to the revolutionary democratic camp. Since 1857, he has been publishing almost all of his plays in Sovremennik, and after its closure he moves to Otechestvennye zapiski, published by N. A. Nekrasov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The development of Ostrovsky's creativity was greatly influenced by the articles of N. G. Chernyshevsky, and later N. A. Dobrolyubov, the works of N. A. Nekrasov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Along with the merchant theme, Ostrovsky turns to the image of the bureaucracy and the nobility ("A profitable place", 1857, "Pupil", 1859). In contrast to liberal writers, who were carried away by superficial ridicule of individual abuses, Ostrovsky in the comedy "Profitable Place" deeply criticized the entire system of the pre-reform tsarist bureaucracy. Chernyshevsky praised the play, emphasizing its "strong and noble direction."

The strengthening of anti-serfdom and anti-bourgeois motives in Ostrovsky's work testified to a certain convergence of his worldview with the ideals of revolutionary democracy.

“Ostrovsky is a democrat writer, educator, ally of N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Nekrasov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Drawing us in a vivid picture, false relationships with all their consequences, through this very thing he serves as an echo of aspirations that require a better arrangement "- Dobrolyubov wrote in his article" A ray of light in a dark kingdom. " It is no coincidence that Ostrovsky constantly encountered obstacles in the publication and staging of his plays. Ostrovsky always looked at his writing and social activities as fulfilling a patriotic duty, serving the interests of the people. His plays reflected the most pressing issues of contemporary reality: the deepening of irreconcilable social contradictions, the plight of workers who are entirely dependent on the power of money, the powerlessness of women, the domination of violence and arbitrariness in family and social relations, the growth of self-awareness of the working intelligentsia, etc.

The most complete and convincing assessment of Ostrovsky's work was given by Dobrolyubov in the articles "The Dark Kingdom" (1859) and "A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom" (1860), which had a tremendous revolutionary influence on the younger generation of the 60s. In the works of Ostrovsky, the critic saw, first of all, a remarkably truthful and versatile depiction of reality. Possessing "a deep understanding of Russian life and a great ability to depict sharply and vividly its most essential aspects" Ostrovsky was, according to Dobrolyubov's definition, a real people's writer. Ostrovsky's work is distinguished not only by its deep nationality, ideology, bold exposure of social evil, but also by high artistic skill, which was completely subordinated to the task of realistic reproduction of reality. Ostrovsky has repeatedly emphasized that life itself is a source of dramatic collisions and situations.

Ostrovsky's activities contributed to the victory of the truth of life on the Russian stage. With great artistic power, he portrayed conflicts and images typical of contemporary reality, and this put his plays on a par with the best works of classical literature of the 19th century. Ostrovsky acted as an active fighter for the development of the national theater, not only as a playwright, but also as a remarkable theorist, as an energetic public figure.

The great Russian playwright, who created a truly national theatrical repertoire, was in need all his life, endured insults from the officials of the imperial theater directorate, met stubborn resistance in the ruling spheres to his cherished ideas about democratic transformations of theatrical business in Russia.

In Ostrovsky's poetics, two elements merged with remarkable skill: the cruel realistic element of the "dark kingdom" and the romantic, enlightened emotion. In his plays, Ostrovsky portrays fragile, gentle heroines, but at the same time strong personalities, capable of protesting forgiving the entire foundation of society.

In the preparation of this work were used materials from the site studentu.ru

4. The play "Thunderstorm"

5. The play "Dowry"

1. Periods and characteristics of A. Ostrovsky's creativity.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky (1823-1886) is one of the greatest playwrights of the second half of the 19th century. He wrote 54 plays, each of which reflected the versatility of his talent. Ostrovsky's career can be characterized as follows:

✓ first period(1847-1860), which has the following characteristics:

Using Gogol traditions;

Mastering the advanced aesthetics of its time;

Expansion of the subject matter and strengthening of the social acuteness of the play, as, for example, in the plays "The Parent" (1858), "Festive Sleep - Before Dinner" (1857), "We did not agree with the characters" (1858), "The Thunderstorm" (1856);

Creation of the plays "Our People - We Will Be Numbered!"

✓ second period(1860-1875), having the following characteristics:

Appeal to the traditions of the historical drama of A.S. Pushkin, increased interest in the past of the country;

Belief in the importance of literary coverage of history, as it helps to better comprehend the present;

Revealing the spiritual greatness of the Russian people, its patriotism, selfless devotion;

Creation of historical plays: "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk" (1862), "Voevoda" (1865), "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" (1867), "Tushino" (1867), "Vasilisa Melentieva" (1868);

The use of new images and motives that reflected both the new social relations in the country and the essence of the author's own worldview;

Development of the genre of chronicle and poetic tragedy;

Continuing the traditions of Pushkin and Gogol to develop the theme of the little man in plays such as "Jokers" (1864), "Abyss", "Labor Bread";

The development of a satirical comedy genre that reflected Russian life during the period of bourgeois reforms through the development of a motive for opposing "wolves" and "sheep", that is, characters - businessmen, predators and their disadvantaged victims, in plays such as "Enough for Every Wise Man." (1868), "Mad Money" (1869), "Forest" (1870), "Snow Maiden" (1873) and in the comedy "Wolves and Sheep" (1875), created in the third period of the author's work;

✓ third period(late 70s - early 80s of the XIX century), which has the following characteristics:

Continuation of the development of themes and motives outlined at the previous stages: satire on Russian bourgeois reality, themes of a little man;

Deepening psychologism in the study and disclosure of characters and in the analysis of the environment surrounding the heroes of Ostrovsky's plays;

Creation of the foundations of Chekhov's drama in such plays as "Dowry", "Slaves", "Shines, but does not warm", "Not of this world."

2. The originality of the work of AN Ostrovsky.

The originality and importance of Ostrovsky's work are as follows:

✓ innovation in themes, genres, literary style and images of plays;

✓ historicity: the events and plots of his plays cover a huge historical period in the development of Russia from Ivan the Terrible to the second half of the 19th century;

✓ everyday fulfillment, the immersion of the plot in family, private relations, since it is in them that all the vices of society are manifested, and through the disclosure of the essence of these family relations, the author also reveals common human vices;

✓ the disclosure of the conflict between two "parties": the elders and the young, the rich and the poor, the self-willed and obedient, etc., and this conflict is one of the central ones in Ostrovsky's drama;

✓ organic connection of drama and epic origin;

✓ wide use of the traditions of folklore, fairy tales both in the titles ("Not all the carnival for the cat", "Don't get into your sleigh", "The truth is good, but happiness is better"), and in stories ("Snow Maiden"), and the proverb often defines not only the title, but the whole concept and ideas of the play;

✓ the use of "speaking" names and surnames of heroes, often dictated by folklore images and literary traditions of previous authors (Tigriy Lvovich Lyutov from the play "There was not a penny, but suddenly altyn");

✓ individualization, richness and brightness of the language of the heroes and the plays themselves.

Ostrovsky's work and the dramatic traditions developed by him had a strong influence on subsequent generations of playwrights and writers of the 19th and 20th centuries, and in particular on such authors as L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, A.I. Yuzhin-Sumbatov, V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, E.P. Karpov, A.M. Gorky, A.S. Neverov, B.S. Romashov, B.A. Lavrenev, N.F. Pogodin, L.M. Leonov and others.

3. The play "Our people - we will be numbered!"

The play "Our people - we will be numbered!", Written in the first period of Ostrovsky's work, has the following peculiarities:

✓ exposure of despotism, tyranny and self-interest;

✓ orientation towards Gogol's traditions in literature, which is manifested in the highlighting of the theme of money through the description of property relations between heroes with a predominance of greed;

✓ the use of the traditions of the "natural school", which is manifested through the ramified image of the life of the merchant class;

✓ at the same time, a departure from Gogol's poetics of studying the nature and principles of the natural school, which is manifested in the following:

Focusing not only on the disclosure of the hero's psychology and description of his everyday life, but also on the study and analysis of the characteristics of the social environment around him;

The appearance of characters who are not related to the central conflict, but contribute to a vivid depiction of merchant life;

Refusal from deep consideration of the facts of reality, but the desire to generalize them;

Changing the essence and attitude to a love affair, which is subordinated to the main theme - monetary relations of benefit, and its appearance in the heroes is dictated by material interest;

✓ the novelty of the composition, the essence of which is the development of a story of one type at different stages;

✓ the novelty and originality of the plot, which is built on the principle of a swing, that is, the characters alternately rise and fall in their position;

✓ special expressiveness and individualization of the characters' language, which very accurately expresses the comic in this play.

4. The play "Thunderstorm"

Ostrovsky's play "The Thunderstorm" is one of the most interesting and popular in Russian drama. The play is based on Ostrovsky's real impressions of a trip along the Upper Volga in 1856, it expresses the customs of merchants, the customs of patriarchal antiquity, the most beautiful and richest landscapes of the Volga's nature. The dramatic action of the play takes place in the fictional city of Kalinov, which, according to the author's plan, is located on the banks of the Volga. "Thunderstorm" has the following artistic features:

✓ organic, masterful use of paintings of the Volga landscape, which fulfill the following important artistic functions:

They bring bright colors to the description of the scene of the play, helping the reader to understand the situation as clearly and clearly as possible;

Compositionally, they are of great importance, since they make the structure of the play complete, integral, starting and ending the action of the play with a steep bank of the river;

✓ plot and compositional originality, which is as follows:

The slowness of the tempo of the action at the beginning, which is due to the development of the exposition of the play, which fulfills the author's most important task to acquaint the reader in as much detail as possible with those circumstances, everyday life, morals, characters and conditions in which the action will subsequently unfold;

Introduction to the exposition of several "minor" characters (Shapkin, Feklusha, Kudryash, etc.), who later will play a major role in the development of the play's conflict;

The originality of the plot of the play, which consists in various versions of its definition, and at the same time, the plot of the play can be called threefold, which includes the condemning words of Kulagin at the beginning of the 1st act, determining the development of social struggle in the play, the dialogue between Katerina and Varvara (the seventh act ) and the last words of Katerina in the second act, which finally determine the nature of her struggle;

Development in action of a social and individual line of struggle and two parallel love intrigues (Katerina - Boris and Varvara - Kudryash);

The presence of "out-of-the-box" episodes, for example, the meeting of Kabanikha with Feklusha, which fulfill the function of completing the image of the "dark kingdom";

Development of the tension of dramatic action in each new act;

The climax in the middle of the play is in the 4th act, connected with the scene of repentance, and its function is to exacerbate the conflict between the heroine and the environment;

The true denouement in Act 5, where both intrigues come to an end;

The ring structure of the play: the events of the 1st and 5th acts take place in the same place;

✓ the originality, brightness and completeness of the images of the play by Katerina, Kabanikha, Diky, Boris, each of which has a certain integral character;

✓ using the technique of opposing characters (Kabanikha and Dikoy and other characters), landscapes of the 1st and 4th actions, etc .;

✓ disclosure of the tragic circumstances of the life of an educated, spiritually filled person in the society of the "dark kingdom";

✓ the symbolism of the title of the play, which is present in the play both as a natural phenomenon, and as a symbol expressing the idea of ​​the whole work, and here there is a roll call with Griboyedov's "Woe from Wit", Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time", and as having a figurative meaning, personifying a thunderstorm raging in Katerina's soul.

5. The play "Dowry"

The play "Dowry" (1878) is Ostrovsky's fortieth work and opens a new - the third stage in his work. The play has the following artistic features:

✓ echoes the "Groza" on the following points:

The scene is small towns on the banks of the Volga;

The main theme and main characteristics of the residents are monetary motives, benefit;

Both main characters do not correspond to the world in which they live, they are higher than it and come into conflict with this world, and this is their tragedy, the end of both heroines is the same - death, freeing them from the vices and injustices of the world around them;

✓ has significant differences from "Thunderstorm", which consist in changing the social status, morals and characters of the heroes, who are now modern educated industrialists, and not ignorant merchants, are interested in art, are active, ambitious, strive for development, but nevertheless have their own, albeit different, but also vices;

✓ has a connection with "The Snow Maiden", which is expressed in the characters of both the main characters - Larisa Ogudalova and Snegurochka, drawn by love for nature with a strong will and with the same strong passions, and this love is the cause of the death of both heroines;

✓ is a social and psychological drama in terms of genre;

✓ the techniques developed by Ostrovsky in this play influenced the work of A.P. Chekhov, and among the quiet techniques are the following:

The development of such motives as a pistol that was previously hung on the wall, a dinner during which the fates of the heroes are decided;

Deep analysis of the human soul;

Objective assessment and characterization of heroes;

Symbols of images;

Disclosure of the disorder of life in general.