Alexander Ostrovsky’s "The Storm," a summary Automatic translate

This play is a five-act drama written in 1859. It meticulously depicts the stifling atmosphere of the merchant class in the fictional Volga town of Kalinov, where fear, hypocrisy, and blind obedience to one’s elders reign supreme. The text won the prestigious Uvarov Prize. The work has been successfully adapted for film: the most famous are the 1933 feature film directed by Vladimir Petrov and the 1977 television play.

The outbreak of conflict in the city of Kalinov

The events unfold in summer on the high banks of the Volga. Kuligin, a tradesman and self-taught watchmaker, sincerely admires the beauty of nature. Shapkin, a tradesman, and Ivan Kudryash, a clerk, discuss the local merchant, Savel Prokofievich Dikiy. He loudly scolds his nephew, Boris Grigorievich. Boris confesses to Kuligin: he and his sister are orphans. Their grandmother left them an inheritance on the condition that they treat their uncle with respect. Boris understands perfectly well the illusory nature of any hope of receiving money.

However, he endures daily humiliation to protect his sister from the tyranny of a wealthy relative. Kuligin complains about the cruel customs of the townspeople: the wealthy enslave the poor, and within families, secret atrocities are constantly perpetrated behind strong castles. The wanderer Feklusha hypocritically praises the piety of the local merchants.

The wealthy merchant Marfa Ignatyevna Kabanova, known to the people as Kabanikha, appears. She despotically lectures her son Tikhon. Kabanikha reproaches him for not being strict enough with his wife, Katerina. Tikhon weakly agrees with his authoritarian mother’s every word. Katerina tries unsuccessfully to defend herself. The girl declares her absolute sincerity before man and God. Tikhon’s sister, Varvara, sympathizes with her poor daughter-in-law.

Left alone, Katerina recalls her happy, free childhood. She joyfully tended flowers, listened to the stories of pilgrims, and went to church, seeing angels in the sunlight. Now life seems like a cruel bondage. She shares frightening thoughts with Varvara: she is overcome by sinful fantasies about another man. A half-crazed seventy-year-old lady appears with her footmen. The old woman ominously prophesies the girls’ inevitable death in a whirlpool and the fires of hell. Katerina panics before the approaching storm, seeing it as heavenly punishment for her wicked thoughts.

Getting ready for the trip and temptation

In the Kabanovs’ house, the maid Glasha and the wanderer Feklusha discuss various tall tales about distant lands. Feklusha confidently tells tales of people with dogs’ heads and unjust sultans. Tikhon is preparing to travel to Moscow on business. Varvara suspects Katerina’s secret feelings for Boris. She promises to arrange a meeting for them. Katerina firmly refuses, terrified of sinning.

Kabanikha forces her son to give his wife strict, humiliating instructions before her imminent departure. Tikhon obediently orders Katerina to honor her mother-in-law, not sit idle, and not to look at young men. The girl is physically hurt by these hurtful words.

Left alone with her husband, Katerina begs him to take her with him. Tikhon firmly refuses, longing to escape his mother’s oppression and have a restful break from the incessant domestic squabbles. Then, upset, his wife asks him to bind her with a terrible oath of fidelity. Tikhon considers this sheer folly and hastily leaves.

Kabanikha chides her daughter-in-law for not ostentatiously weeping on the porch, considering it a violation of the old customs. Soon, Varvara hands Katerina the key to the garden gate so she can slip out unnoticed at night. Katerina hesitates long and painfully. She’s about to throw the key deep into the river. Suddenly, the thought of long-awaited freedom overcomes her suffocating fear. The girl puts the key in her pocket, finally deciding to meet her lover.

Secret night dates

Marfa Ignatyevna and Feklusha are quietly chatting on the street near the Kabanov Gate. The wanderer tells of the bustle in other cities, where the "fiery serpent" is harnessed to trains. A drunken Dikoy approaches. He complains to his godmother about the insolent people asking him for payment. The merchant confesses: he deliberately gets angry and curses so as not to repay honestly earned debts. Kabanikha kindly leads him into the house for supper.

Boris appears, hoping to catch a glimpse of Katerina at least from a distance. Varvara discreetly tells him to come late that evening to the ravine behind the garden. Kuligin invites the young man for a stroll along the empty boulevard. He bitterly laments the total ignorance of the locals, who diligently hide their vices behind high fences.

That night, Kudryash waits for Varvara in a densely overgrown ravine, singing a song to his guitar. Boris arrives hastily. The clerk sternly warns the young man about the dangers of frivolously courting a married woman. Soon, Varvara and Katerina emerge from an inconspicuous gate. Varvara and Kudryash prudently depart for the Volga.

Katerina initially pushes Boris away, blaming him for her inevitable fall from grace. She weeps bitterly and begs him to leave. However, intense love quickly prevails over religious fear. Katerina impulsively throws herself on Boris’s neck, declaring her readiness to suffer any severe punishment for her actions. They agree to see each other every night until Tikhon returns.

Fear of heavenly punishment

A heavy downpour begins. Frightened residents hide in a narrow, vaulted gallery of an ancient, dilapidated building. Paintings depicting the Lithuanian devastation and the fiery pit of hell are barely visible on the crumbling walls. Dikoy also takes refuge there.

Kuligin politely persuades him to donate a paltry ten rubles to install a reliable lightning rod for the common good. The indignant merchant calls the inventor a Tatar and flatly refuses to listen to scientific facts about electricity. Dikoy considers thunderstorms to be nothing but divine punishment, from which one absolutely cannot defend oneself with steel poles. Kuligin is forced to meekly retreat.

Varvara intercepts Boris right under the gallery’s vaults. She anxiously reports Tikhon’s sudden return. Katerina is on the verge of complete madness, crying incessantly and deathly afraid to look at her lawful husband. Varvara is deeply apprehensive about her daughter-in-law’s unexpected public confession.

Soon, Katerina herself appears, closely followed by Tikhon and her cruel mother-in-law. The girl trembles with all-consuming fear. The thunder grows louder. The frightened crowd whispers quietly about the inevitable death of someone by lightning strike. The old, half-crazed lady reappears, loudly shouting terrifying threats of hellfire.

Katerina’s frayed nerves give way under the strain. She falls heavily to her knees before her husband and mother-in-law. She loudly, in front of everyone, confesses to the ten nights she secretly spent with Boris Grigorievich. Kabanikha openly gloats, and a crushed Tikhon desperately tries to silence his wife. Katerina faints.

A tragic ending on the banks of the Volga

Late one evening on a public boulevard, Tikhon shares his overwhelming grief with Kuligin. In Moscow, he drank heavily, greedily enjoying his brief freedom. Returning home, Tikhon, on his mother’s direct orders, lightly beat his wife, but deep down he continues to sincerely love her. He feels unbearably sorry for Katerina, whom the merciless Kabanikha now constantly humiliates, making her melt like wax.

Tikhon reports: Varvara couldn’t stand the domestic tyranny and ran away forever with Ivan Kudryash. Boris’s enraged uncle sends him to distant Kyakhta for three years to live with the Chinese. The worried maid Glasha comes running with news of Katerina’s sudden disappearance. The men rush off to search for her, seriously fearing the worst.

Katerina wanders slowly nearby, completely alone. Life in the hateful house has become unbearable, and fervent prayers no longer bring relief. She desperately calls for Boris. Her beloved quietly appears to bid a quick farewell before the long, arduous journey. Katerina tearfully begs him to take her with him to Siberia. Boris refuses, meekly citing the arbitrary will of his uncle.

He bids the girl farewell forever, heartily wishing her a swift death to escape endless earthly torment. Left completely alone, Katerina contemplates her future grave beneath a green tree. She finds it physically repugnant to continue living. Having bidden her beloved farewell from afar, she plunges headlong from a high cliff into the Volga.

Alarmed people come running with bright flashlights. Hearing cries about a woman in the water, Tikhon instinctively tries to rush after her. Marfa Ignatyevna holds her son’s hand tightly, menacingly threatening him with a maternal curse. Kuligin single-handedly pulls the drowned girl’s body from the dark pool. Only a tiny wound and a single drop of blood are visible on her temple.

Kuligin sternly rebukes everyone assembled — Katerina’s body belongs to them, but her pure soul now stands before a far more merciful judge. A tearful Tikhon falls heavily upon his wife’s corpse. He openly, in front of everyone, blames his overbearing mother for Katerina’s death, bitterly envying his dead wife’s peaceful sleep and cursing his own empty life.