Alexander OstrovskyCritiques

a social melodrama and a tragic love story….

Katrina, married to a mama’s boy Tikhon–(I wander they existed in the seventeenth century it seems that they were always there)

KABANOVA ( the worst mother-in-law ever )destroyed their relationship.drive her at the end to commit suicide to escape her miserable and unbearable life….
Katrina has alove affair with Boris, a young man ,his uncle, controls his inheritance.....
she confess committing adultery to her husband infront of his mother
her feeling of guilt and despair poison her life and make her put an end to it…

one of the scene before her husband leaves ...

MME. KABANOVA.
Why are you standing about? Don't you know the way to do things? Lay your
commands upon your wife, exhort her how she is to live in your absence.

_Katerina looks on the ground

KABANOV.
But she knows quite well without that.

MME. KABANOVA.
The way you talk! Come, come, give your commands, that I may hear what
commands you lay upon her! And then when you come back, you can ask if she
has performed everything exactly.

KABANOV (_standing opposite Katerina_).
Obey mamma, Katia.

MME. KABANOVA.
Tell her not to be saucy to her mother-in-law.

Don't be saucy!

MME. KABANOVA.
To revere her mother-in-law as her own mother.

KABANOV.
Revere mamma, Katia, as your own mother.

MME. KABANOVA.
Not to sit with her hands in her lap like a fine lady.

KABANOV.
Do some work while I am away!

MME. KABANOVA.
Not to go staring out of window!

KABANOV.
But, mamma, whenever has she....

MME. KABANOVA.
Come, come!

KABANOV.
Don't look out of window!

MME. KABANOVA.
Not to stare at young fellows while you are away!

KABANOV.
But that is too much, mamma, for mercy's sake!

MME. KABANOVA (_severely_).
Enough of this nonsense! It's your duty to do what your mother tells you.

KABANOV.
Good-bye, Katia! [_Katerina falls on his neck_

MME. KABANOVA.
What do you want to hang on his neck like that for, shameless hussy! It's
not a lover you're parting from! He's your husband--your head! Don't you
know how to behave? Bow down at his feet! [_Katerina bows down to his
feet_.

After katia committed suicide…..
,
Here is your Katerina. You may do what you like with her. Her body is
here, take it; but her soul is not yours now; she is before a Judge more
merciful than you are, now!

MME. KABANOVA.
Hush! It's a sin even to weep for her!

KABANOV.
Mother, you have murdered her! you! you! you!

letzter Kulturtermin mit RP 1992