The Tragedy Spirit And Artistic Expression Of The Great Thunderstorm

Aleksandra Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was acknowledged to be one of the most influential dramatists in19th century of Russia. He inherited and developed the great traditions from Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol, making a great contribution to the development of Russian drama. He was known as the "Father of Russia drama" for his struggling to establish a kind of drama full of Russian unique characteristics all his life. He had written about50plays in his whole life, becoming one of the most prolific dramatists in Russia. His works reflected Russia from different aspects, providing us a series of vivid pictures of Russian life. Thus his plays were called "plays of life" by Dobrolyubov.Among Ostrovsky’s works, The Great Thunderstorm was his representative one. This tragedy was published before the1861Reform and reproduced the narrow, barbarous and dark life of Russia in19th century. The tragedy telled us a story about a pure, kind and freedom lover Katerina was persecuted to death for pursuing her own happiness. Her death was an indictment of dark Russian society, a resistance to the patriarchal clan system and also a pursuit of free will and independent personality, revealing deep, wide social and aesthetical meanings. Tragedy The Great Thunderstorm had attracted the attentions of scholars from different countries. Their research focused on characters, structure and performing art. Studying The Great Thunderstorm from the perspective of tragedy aesthetics had great significance and value. In this article, I have attempted to dig out the tragedy spirit of The Great Thunderstorm and expose the cause of the tragedy spirit. Lastly, artistic skills to express tragedy spirit in this play cannot be ignored. In order to dig out this drama’s tragedy spirit, this essay applied various research methods, including tragedy aesthetics, close reading, social and historical criticism, and also psychoanalysis.The article consists five parts, three chapters.The first part is introduction. In this part, I’ll mention the research situation at home and abroad, the significance of the study and the main research methods;In the second part, we discuss about the tragedy spirit contained in The Great Thunderstorm. The tragedy spirit is conveyed by the characters’ transcending consciousness and resisting activities. The resisting activities refer to the resistance to depressive living conditions and traditional ethics. The transcending consciousness reflects on the transcendence of reality and self-transcendence.The third part analyzes the causes of these tragedy spirit in The Great Thunderstorm and find out the resource of tragical characters’free will and rebelling movement in this play. Firstly, it relates to the contemporary circumstance and the situation of Katerina’s family. It might relate to her personality, of course. She was too young to resist the attack from evil powers. She also had a strong personality, once she decides to do something, she never returns. Russian unique geography, culture, history and religion should also be concerned. All these elements are undoubtedly affect the activities of tragical characters, and the tragedy spirit they conveyed.In the fourth part, we focus on how author express tragedy spirit in The Great Thunderstorm. Ostrovsky’s special plot conception and extraordinary skills make the conveying of the play’s tragedy spirit fully and completely.In the character set part, three kinds of characters have been well-designed. Throughout the drama’s structure, on one hand, The Great Thunderstorm has more than one line; On the other hand, this drama’s structure is not closed, it breaks the drama traditions in some ways. In the comparative part, we concern the contrast between new and old characters, two types of love, beautiful scenery and ugly social reality. In the symbolism part, we pay attention to the normal objects, scene and characters, such as the thunderstorm, family, vodka and an old, half mad lady.The last part is conclusion. This part is a statement summarizing the article’s main points and values. Furthermore, it shows deep concern and thinking towards Ostrovsky and his works in order to understand this tragedy completely and objectively.