The genre of the play is our own people. Analysis “Our people - we will be numbered” Ostrovsky. Fathers and sons: the problem of generations and the eternal question of whose truth

One of the striking examples of dramatic Russian literature is considered to be the comedy by Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky “Our People - We Will Be Numbered.” In it, the author, with his characteristic humor, describes the problems of relationships in the merchant environment, endowing his characters with bright and original features. We offer a literary analysis of the play according to a plan that will be useful to 10th grade students in preparing for a literature lesson.

Brief Analysis

Year of writing– 1849.

History of creation– The play was published in the magazine “Moskvityanin”, and was very warmly received in literary circles. However, due to the themes raised, the work was banned, and the play could be staged in the theater only after the death of Emperor Nicholas I.

Subject– A conflict between two generations that occurs in a merchant environment that lives by the principle “if you don’t cheat, you won’t sell.”

Composition– The peculiarity of the composition of the play is the absence of exposition. The premise is that the merchant Bolshov borrows a large sum of money, his daughter Lipochka dreams of marriage. Development of events - Bolshov declares himself bankrupt, and transfers all his money to Podkhalyuzin, and to strengthen the deal, marries him to Lipochka.

Climax- Lipochka’s refusal to pay the debts of her father, who ended up in debtor’s prison. The denouement is the logical outcome - the deceiver deceived the deceiver.

Genre- A play. Comedy.

Direction– Realism.

History of creation

Alexander Nikolaevich’s first serious work was the play “We Will Be Our Own People,” written in 1849. Ostrovsky worked hard for three years on a comedy, the name of which changed throughout the creative process: “Insolvent Debtor”, “Bankrupt”, the final version was called “Our People - We Will Be Numbered”.

The play was first published in 1850 in the March issue of the Moskvityanin magazine. Its appearance caused great excitement in Russian literary circles, as the young author raised serious problems of society in an ironic form. It is not surprising that the acutely social play was banned by censors, and Ostrovsky found himself under secret police surveillance.

Only after the death of Emperor Nicholas I in 1859, the production of the play became possible, but only under the condition of a more “softened” version of it. The original version of the comedy was presented to the public only in 1881.

Subject

For his work, Ostrovsky chose one of the themes popular in the 19th century - confrontation between two generations, "fathers" and "children". However, he chose a powerful social layer in Russia - the merchants - as the background for the development of the conflict. Through the prism of the relationships between the main characters, the author managed to fully reveal the pressing problems of society.

Ostrovsky depicts the merchant environment, in which vulgarity and ignorance reign, in all its ugliness. It is noteworthy that none of the main characters in the play evoke positive emotions. Bolshov repels with his greed and difficult character, and his daughter Lipochka sees education as just a tribute to fashion and dreams of only one thing - to get married successfully and get rid of the oppression of her tyrant father.

Seeing the meaning of life only in making money and considering it absolutely normal to live according to the principle “if you don’t cheat, you won’t sell,” Bolshov himself is left with nothing. For him, a terrible blow comes from the betrayal of Lipochka, who refuses to pay his debts and indifferently leaves him to “rot” in a debtor’s prison.

Main thought The work lies in the simple truth - “what goes around comes around.” It is impossible to demand from your children to be honest, noble and spiritually sensitive if you yourself do not possess these qualities.

Composition

When conducting an analysis of the composition in the play “Our People - We Will Be Numbered,” it should be noted that there is no exposition in the work. The author does not reveal the background of the events to the reader, and immediately begins the story.

In the beginning Ostrovsky introduces the reader to the tyrant merchant Bolshov, who borrows a large sum of money, but is in no hurry to return it. His daughter Lipochka passionately dreams of getting married successfully and forever leaving the house in which life is so difficult under her father’s oppression.

Action Development The play boils down to the fact that Bolshov, who does not want to fulfill his debt obligations, decides to declare himself bankrupt. He transfers his entire huge fortune to the clerk Podkhalyuzin, and marries Lipochka to him, in order to thus ensure the safety of his capital. Bolshov is sent to a debtor's prison, but he has no doubt that Lipochka and Podkhalyuzin will free him from there.

Climax plays - Lipochka's decisive refusal, satisfied with her new life, to pay her father's loans.

Genre

Alexander Nikolaevich classified his work as a comedy, although, according to many literary critics, it has a number of tragic features. Direction - realism.

Work test

Rating analysis

Average rating: 4.8. Total ratings received: 49.

Students of grade 10 “b” were given a very interesting creative task: to conduct research on the topic “The role of speaking surnames in the works of A.N Ostrovsky.” It turned out that this topic is very voluminous and interesting; Sometimes I heard very unusual interpretations of this or that surname. It's amazing how much meaning the author put into the names of his characters. After this work, many works became clearer and more interesting, moreover, Ostrovsky’s own point of view on the characters became obvious.

We, of course, will not talk about all the works of the great playwright, since this would take more than a dozen pages, but we will give some examples of the work of 10th grade students.

I. N. Ostrovsky himself considered the comedy “Forest” to be his best work. Indeed, it perfectly shows the reader Russia in the 19th century: depraved landowners and poor, and therefore rejected by society, but talented people. In his essay, Mikhail Grushev gives the following explanations for some of the names and characters of the characters in the comedy “Forest”:

Evgeny Apolonych Milonov is a wealthy landowner, Gurmyzhskaya’s neighbor. His surname is reminiscent of the word “million”, which characterizes him well: having his own capital, he does not care about anything else, he is a meaningless person, a “dead soul”. Ivan Petrov Vosmibratov merchant selling timber. A representative of merchant Russia (Vosmibratov - eight brothers, there are many like him; the surname also indicates that he is sociable, knows how to use this for the purpose of enrichment): slippery and cunning; strives to “cheat” everyone with whom he deals.

Alexey Sergeevich Bulanov is a young man who dropped out of high school. Bulanov from the word bulanovy, which means the motley color of the horse; he does not have his own distinct “coloring”; it is difficult to call him a personality. Bulanov is a thing in the hands of Gurmyzhskaya, he does not have his own judgment about the events happening around him, he agrees with his “mistress” in everything.

According to Mikhail, the culminating line of the entire work belongs to Neschastlivtsev: “Arkady, they are persecuting us.” And in fact, brother Arkady, why did we come in, how did we get into this forest, into this dense forest? Why did we, brother, scare away the owls and eagle owls? What's to stop them? Let them live as they want! Everything is fine here, brother, as it should be in the forest. Old women marry high school students, young girls marry out of bitter life with their relatives: forest, brother.

Another famous play by Ostrovsky, Guilty Without Guilt, became his penultimate work. He began work on this play in the summer of 1883. “This,” wrote Ostrovsky, “is almost my fiftieth original work, and very dear to me in many respects: a lot of work and energy was spent on finishing it... In her work, Anastasia Svidzinskaya presents the following interpretations of the characters in this work:

Arriving in her hometown, actress Kruchinina meets young Grigory Neznamov. He is a “podzabornik”, as they call him, a man without a passport, who does not know the names of his parents, rejected by people and life. Seeing the surname Neznamov, the reader immediately understands that we are talking about a person who does not know his past. Unknown in Dahl's dictionary is interpreted as an unknown person.

Dudkin and Milovzorov are minor characters about whom little is said, but when you see their last names, you can easily characterize these characters. Dudkin is a talkative man whose word cannot be trusted. Milovzorov is an ideal surname for a first lover.

Another thing is a surname like Shmaga. It has a very interesting history. Shmaga is a nickname not invented by Ostrovsky, but taken by him from a document of 1705, which told about a certain Vasily Telenkov, nicknamed Shmaga drunk. This man sought to be subjected to “dishonor” (insult) in order to collect a reward from the offender. For his roguish tricks, the drunken comedian Shmaga was ordered to be flogged with batogs. Ostrovsky used this historical name because he knew the custom of giving nicknames to minor theater workers, which often completely replaced the real surname.

Alexander Tyvin in his essay very interestingly reveals the image of Lazar Elizarych Podkhalyuzin from the play “We Will Be Our People!” He writes that, undoubtedly, the name and surname of this hero can be explained quite unambiguously. First of all, they have a pronounced negative connotation: the name Lazarus is associated with the expression “Sing Lazarus.” Ozhegov defines this phrase as common, disapproving and gives it the following interpretation: “to complain, trying to pity someone.” I remember the scene when Podkhalyuzin tries to pity Bolshoi so that he marries his daughter Lipochka to him, dreaming of receiving a dowry and inheritance. As for his last name, Vladimir Dal gives it a fairly clear definition: “Podkhalyuza is a crawler, a clever rogue; a crafty, secretive and flattering person.” According to Alexander, such a description fully corresponds to the behavior of the owner of such a name.

Melina Kazaryan writes interestingly about another hero of this work - Sysoye Psoich Rispozhensky: “Rispolozhensky Sysoy Psoich - a characteristic seminary surname speaks of origin from a clergy, but it is distorted: it is written not according to the meaning, but according to the pronunciation; direct communication has been lost. At the same time, the surname hints at the well-known idiom: to get drunk “to the point of a vestment,” which this character fully justifies, since his irresistible craving for a bottle is played out many times in the play: “I, Samson Silych, will drink vodka!” The bizarre patronymic, which in merchant houses is readily changed to “Psovich,” emphasizes the motive of servanthood and insignificance. Dependence on the favor of rude merchant clients who loved to show off their power developed a characteristic type of behavior - at the same time humbly respectful and somewhat buffoonish.

Talking about another work by Ostrovsky, “Talents and Admirers,” Andrei Semenov very fully described the personalities of the main characters: “This play by A.N. Ostrovsky talks about the life of a young actress from a provincial theater, Alexandra Nikolaevna Negina. By the name of the heroine, we immediately understand that she is a fragile, gentle, vulnerable person. Negina has a fiancé, Pyotr Yegorych Meluzov, a young man who has completed a course at the university and is waiting for a teaching position. The surname Meluzov comes from the words: small, small fry; or from the verb to flicker - to ripple, flicker. His last name emphasizes his position in society - he is not rich, no one respects him. Negina cannot receive protection and support from Meluzov and therefore suffers greatly from the proposals of people like Irakli Stratonych Dulebov - an important gentleman of the old type, an elderly man.”

Alexander Pykholov also writes about the heroes of the same play: “Towards the end of the work, Negina leaves Meluzov, since he cannot fulfill all her desires. One of her admirers is Irakli Stratonych Dulebov. According to the dictionary of V.I. Dalia, the word “duleb” means a dunce, a simpleton, an ignoramus. He expresses his thoughts about Alexandra Nikolaevna rudely and discourteously. Irakli Stratonych wants to make her his kept wife and mistress, but is refused. Dulebov's follower is Grigory Antonich Bakin. Tank is a container for liquids. Grigory Antonich is “empty” inside, he has no real feelings. One of the main characters of this comedy is Ivan Semenych Velikatov. His surname comes from the word “great” - surpassing the general level, the usual measure, meaning; outstanding. Ivan Semenych owns a huge fortune, has an enterprising character, he is smart and courteous, any girl wants to marry him. Alexandra Nikolaevna falls in love with him. She is seduced by acting in the Moscow theater; it seems to her that such a life is better than the simple “life of working people” with Meluzov.”

Thus, using several examples (which are only a small part of this vast topic), we were able to quite clearly imagine how seriously and carefully the authors of the 19th century (in particular, A.N. Ostrovsky) treated each character, each line of their works. Perhaps this is why, after more than a hundred years, reader interest in the works of these authors does not wane.

Zakharov Anatoly 10B class.

One of the central characters in Ostrovsky's play is the clerk Lazar Podkhalyuzin. He tries to make his desires come true gradually. At the beginning of the play, the clerk helps his master, Samson Silych Bolshov, in everything. Ostrovsky gives him special remarks that exclusively express his agreement with everything that the merchant says. Without difficulty, he manages to win the trust of Samson Bolshov. He even manages to marry the merchant's daughter. Podkhalyuzin’s love for is real. He is ready to do anything for her.

When he finds out what kind of scam his owner wants to pull off, he thinks about how to profit from this business, to find the greatest benefit for himself. Podkhalyuzin convinces himself that Bolshov himself is deceiving everyone, and there is nothing wrong with the fact that now is his time to deceive others.

Ostrovsky's character is ambiguous. He does not want to pay the creditors who put Bolshov in prison. However, later the clerk begins to feel sorry for the merchant. Lazar agrees to ask the creditors to accept a few kopecks, but he does not agree to more. The clerk clearly feels more sorry for the money than for his owner.

Lazar Podkhalyuzin has worked for Samson Bolshov for 20 years. There are hints in the play about the fate of Judas. However, this does not scare the clerk. At the end of the play, he invites everyone to his new store, no longer feeling remorse.

It can be noted that he himself provokes such behavior of Lazarus. In the image of Podkhalyuzin, the reader feels a new image of a modern merchant. Even in his name, Alexander Ostrovsky conceived a complex associative game. Most likely, the playwright, by calling his hero Lazarus, had in mind the Russian phraseology “to sing Lazarus,” which means to pretend to be unhappy. This assumption follows from that episode of the play where Podkhalyuzin himself, as if by chance, invites Bolshov to marry his daughter to his clerk. He goes on to say that he can only dream about it. This person is only chasing his own success. Lazar tries to come up with an excuse for his action. He justifies himself by saying that faithful service to Bolshov should bear fruit. And right now the opportunity arose for the clerk to live for his own pleasure.

In the very development of Ostrovsky’s play “Our People – Let’s Be Numbered!” The role of Lazar Podkhalyuzin is constantly changing. At the beginning of the comedy, it is Bolshov who creates the intrigue, and then it is the clerk. Lazar develops a plan that is very close to the merchant's scam. Podkhalyuzin tries to please everyone only in order to get some benefit for himself from this.

Thus, Lazar Podkhalyuzin is the hero of A. Ostrovsky, who shows the vices of modern youth. The older generation certainly influenced the way the clerk behaves. He tries to find his own benefit everywhere. However, his feelings for the Olympics are very real, he sees in it his ideal of education and sophistication. The clerk believes that it is the merchant’s daughter who will be able to raise him to a higher level of development.

Genres of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy

Our people - we will be numbered. Poverty is not a vice. Wolves and sheep
Storm. Simplicity is enough for every wise man. Warm heart. Forest. Snow Maiden, Don’t live the way you want - definitely.

The short list for the 2nd year exam includes: Poverty is not a vice, Don’t live the way you want, We are our own people, Wolves and sheep

Wolves and sheep

http://www.briefly.ru/ostrovskij/volki_i_ovcy/

http://www.briefly.ru/ostrovskij/groza/

http://www.briefly.ru/ostrovskij/les/

Poverty is not a vice

http://www.briefly.ru/ostrovskij/bednost_ne_porok/

Our people - let's count

http://www.briefly.ru/ostrovskij/svoi_ljudi/

Of his 47 original plays, he named

"comedies" - 22,

"scenes", "paintings", "sketches"("An Unexpected Case") - 17,

"drams" – 4(including “Don’t live the way you want. Folk drama in three acts"),

"dramatic chronicles" – 3,

There is "spring tale"("Snow Maiden").

*Two editions of the play "Voevoda" (Dream on the Volga)" have different subtitles: the first - "comedy in five acts, in verse" second – "pictures from folk life of the 17th century, in five acts, with a prologue".

Ostrovsky's theater is primarily a comedy theater - not only because he called half of the plays comedies. The comedy principle is also expressed in other works of the playwright, the genre definition of which puzzled him.

“According to my concepts of grace, considering comedy the best form for achieving moral goals and recognizing in myself the ability to perceive life primarily in this form, I had to write a comedy or write nothing” (Ostrovsky about his first comedy, “Bankrupt”, aka “Our people - we will be numbered”).

Genre features (for each of the completed works)

"Wolves and Sheep" is a "sad comedy."

The action of the comedy takes place within a few days in one of the provincial cities. Murzavetskaya, the owner of a large, but already rather disorganized estate, one of the most respected persons, took great power in the province. Her authority is unquestionable. They say that her “female mind is enough for five men.” Strong, powerful, she is reputed to be a righteous woman, a guardian of morals, and in every possible way emphasizes her detachment from everything earthly, from the vanity of life. But behind the imaginary good behavior and meekness hides a brave, assertive adventurer. In order to improve her financial affairs, she plans to take over the inheritance of the rich widow Evlampiya Kupavina, who is under her care, and to accommodate her dissolute nephew Apollo.

The comedy “Wolves and Sheep” is modern, as if written yesterday. Ostrovsky reveals amazing coincidences and similarities of seemingly different eras: post-reform Russia of the century before last and a turning point. Real life easily fits into the framework of the classical plot, and the play is filled with a burning modern meaning. And in terms of genre, it is original and unique. Ostrovsky moves away from everyday verisimilitude and boldly uses bright techniques of stage convention.

The essence

The conflict that arises within a certain environment does not serve as a means of developing the characters of the main characters in a clash with the environment, but reveals the negative moral properties of the depicted environment. This is comedy in the proper sense of the word. In them, unexpected, “cool”, outwardly successful endings hide the depth of the contradiction of real life, where people of a predatory nature and victims disadvantaged by them collide. Hence the name of the play.

"The Thunderstorm" is a drama. If we turn to the tradition of interpretation of this play, we can identify two main trends. One of them is dictated by the understanding of “The Thunderstorm” as a social and everyday drama. It is characterized by special attention to everyday life, the desire to convey its “density” and, at the same time, a unique alignment of characters, the attention of the audience is equally distributed between the participants in the action.

Another interpretation, and it seems to us more profound, is determined by the understanding of “The Thunderstorm” as a tragedy. There is a high probability that the playwright’s definition of the genre as drama was a tribute to tradition. There were no examples of tragedy where the heroes were private individuals, and not history. figures or legendary figures. “The Thunderstorm” in this sense remained unique both in Ostrovsky’s work and for subsequent Russian literature of the 19th century. In this case, the key significance is not “the social status of the heroes (residents of the city of Kalinov, by the way, fictional), but precisely the nature of the conflict. If we consider Katerina’s death to be the result of a collision with her tyrant mother-in-law Kabanikha, and see her as a victim of family oppression, then the scale of the heroes will indeed be too small for the tragedy. But if you see that Katerina’s fate was determined by the collision of two historical eras (the destruction of patriarchal orders is combined with the spirit of modernity, which does not recognize the previous way of life - in the case of Katerina we are talking about the secluded life of a woman, full of household chores and religious dreams), then the “heroic” interpretation her character will turn out to be quite legitimate.

Thus, for the first time, through the love-domestic conflict, the epochal turning point taking place in the popular consciousness was shown. Patriarchal values ​​are outdated. They were replaced by a new attitude to the world, based on individual expression of will.

"The Forest" is a satirical comedy. The genre of A. N. Ostrovsky's play "The Forest" is a satirical comedy, the purpose of which is to expose vice. The playwright raises the problem of impoverishment of the privileged classes. The play depicts a rather acute moral and social conflict.
The originality of the play lies in the unity of the realistic and romantic plan. Real life is petty, vulgar, unnatural, unnatural. The world of art is great and beautiful. Only in it, from the point of view of Ostrovsky’s democratically minded heroes, can one experience the joy of sacrificing oneself to people, feel the necessity and justification of one’s life, and see how human souls open up and straighten out. Art is humane, it is the personification and embodiment of humanity.

The play is dominated by the phenomenon of “theater within a theater.” All the main characters of the play are involved, as it were, in a double external action: on the one hand, by the author, on the other, by Gurmyzhskaya. Gurmyzhskaya plays the role of a kind aunt, taking part in her “neighbors,” caring for the poor and unfortunate. She admits to herself that she is an “actor.” “You play and play a role, and then you get carried away.” Gurmyzhskaya forces Aksyusha to play the role of Bulanov’s bride. “...I will feed and clothe you and make you perform a comedy,” she tells her. Bulanov consistently has to play two roles: Aksyusha’s groom, and then, as Schastlivtsev puts it, the role of Gurmyzhskaya’s “first lover”. Neschastlivtsev also takes part in this “comedy”. He takes on the role of a rich gentleman who is passing through to visit his aunt, and forces the actor Schastlivtsev to play the role of his servant.

The variety of Ostrovsky’s laughter is clearly visible here: sarcastic, slyly good-natured, mixed with compassion. It is important to note that the funny and the sublime in Ostrovsky’s world are not opposed, one does not exclude the other.

“Our people – we’ll be numbered.” Ostrovsky's earliest comedy.

The intrigue of the comedy, which was banned from production for 11 years, was very traditional. Ostrovsky did not strive for plot novelty at all; he wrote: “The playwright does not invent plots... They are given by life, history, the story of a friend, sometimes a newspaper article. From me... all the plots are borrowed.”

At the center of the comedy “Our People - We Will Be Numbered” is a rich owner, a clever clerk, and a treacherous daughter. The merchant Bolshov started a false bankruptcy to deceive creditors, and the clerk Podkhalyuzin ultimately deceived him - he appropriated his fortune and “conquered” his daughter Lipochka. The action develops according to the hourglass principle: Bolshov’s power gradually weakens, his power “leaks”, at some point the clock turns over - and Podkhalyuzin appears at the top...

Classicism prescribed strict rules for the comedian. What is Ostrovsky’s novelty? The intrigue was not new. It was not the principle of choosing names that was new. The author's approach to heroes. In order for the viewer to immediately, without wasting time, become involved in the course of events and respond emotionally to them, the characters must be recognized as having common, typological traits. Of course, into these recognizable roles, as into a kind of cones, the artist “pours” new content, endowing the heroes with individuality and character. But Ostrovsky focused on a different task from the very beginning. It was not for nothing that he took lessons from the “natural school”.

Early Ostrovsky related his characters not to theatrical types, not with theatrical masks (a clever maid, a deceived husband, a stingy master, an intelligent peasant woman), but with social types. In the image of Bolshov, the viewer immediately recognized the features of a modern merchant, a “model” of the 1850s. It’s the same with Podkhalyuzin. The playwright's everyday observations were condensed, concentrated, focused in his characters. And only then were these fresh observations set off by an easily recognizable literary background. (In Podkhalyuzin one can recognize Molchalin’s type; some scenes with the suffering Bolshov resemble a parody of Shakespeare’s King Lear.)

The famous Russian playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky, who received a law degree, worked for some time in the Moscow Commercial Court, where property disputes between close relatives were dealt with. This life experience, observations, knowledge of the life and psychology of the bourgeois-merchant class were the basis for the work of the future playwright.

Ostrovsky’s first major work was the play “Bankrupt” (1849), later called “Our people – we will be numbered”, under which it is now staged in all theaters of the country and the world. However, then, in 1850, after publication in the magazine “Moskvityanin”, the play was prohibited from being staged; Moreover, for writing this work, Ostrovsky was placed under secret police surveillance.

It was this circumstance that later gave the basis to V.F. Odoevsky, a writer and public figure, to classify Ostrovsky’s play as a Russian tragedy: “I consider there to be three tragedies in Rus': “The Minor,” “Woe from Wit,” “The Inspector General.” On “Bankrut” I put number four.” Readers of "Moskvityanin" put Ostrovsky's play on a par with Gogol's works and even called them "Dead Souls" by the merchants.

What tragic thing happens in a work that the author himself classified as a comedy? Already this first comedy demonstrates the features of poetics that will be inherent in all Ostrovsky’s plays that make up the repertoire of the new Russian drama: a focus on moral issues helps not only to analyze the social aspects of life, but also to understand family and everyday conflicts, in which the bright character traits of the heroes are manifested.

In the play "Bankrupt" there is a complex compositional a structure that combines an essay-like description of everyday life with intense intrigue. The slow-motion exposition includes morally descriptive episodes that help the reader understand the “cruel morals” of the family of the merchant Bolshov. Small skirmishes between Lipochka (the merchant's daughter) and her mother, visits from the matchmaker, meetings of Samson Silych Bolshov with his daughter's potential suitors - all these scenes lead to almost no action, but provide an opportunity to penetrate into the closed merchant world, which actually reflects the processes in the entire Russian society.

The playwright chose a plot based on a common case of fraud among merchants at that time. Samson Silych borrows a large sum from his fellow merchants. But now he doesn’t want to repay his debts, and he can’t think of anything better than declaring himself bankrupt - a failed debtor. He transfers his decent fortune (both the surname Bolshov and the patronymic Silych indicate this) to the name of his clerk Lazar Podkhalyuzin, and to strengthen the deal he gives his only daughter Olympiada for him. Bolshov is sent to a debtor's prison, but he is calm, because he believes that Lazar will pay for him the required amount of debt from the money he received. Yes, that's just it "our people", Podkhalyuzin and his own daughter Lipochka, do not give him a penny.

In the comedy of the young playwright there is a war of all against all. The conflict between “fathers” and “sons”, traditional for literature of the 19th century, acquires true scope: the author depicts a vulgar merchant environment worthy only of ridicule. At first, none of the characters in the play evoke a positive attitude. Lipochka dreams only of a “noble” groom and argues with her mother on any occasion. The tyrant father, who himself determined his daughter’s groom, justifies his action with the following words: “For whomever I command, he will go for him. My brainchild: I want to eat it with porridge, I want to churn butter... Was it for nothing that I fed her!”

However, the generation of “fathers” in the person of Samson Silych evokes more sympathy than the “children”. The hero's surname comes from the word "bolshak" - that is, the head of the family. This is significant, because he himself is a former peasant, and a merchant only in the first generation. Having become a merchant, he learned the trading law: “If you don’t cheat, you won’t sell”. Bolshov decides to commit fraud for the sake of his daughter’s future and sincerely believes that there can be no trick on the part of Lipochka and her fiancé, because they “our own people will be numbered”. But life is preparing a cruel lesson for him.

The younger generation in the play is not presented in the best light. Lipochka talks to the matchmaker about enlightenment and emancipation, but does not even know the meaning of these words. She does not dream of equality or freedom of personal feelings - her ideal boils down to the desire to get rich and "live according to your own will". Education for her is just a tribute to fashion and contempt for customs, so she prefers "bearded" grooms "noble" gentlemen.

The author of the comedy, showing “fathers” and “children,” pits two merchant generations against one another. But sympathies remain on the side of the eldest - Bolshov. After all, he still believes in the sincerity of family feelings and family relationships: their people will count, that is, they will not let each other down. The epiphany comes in the finale: a tyrant with the telling name Samson becomes a victim of his own scam. Having conceived a forgery, he believes that it is possible to deceive a stranger, because if you don’t deceive, you won’t live. But he doesn’t even imagine that such a philosophy can also be applied to him. Having entrusted the money to Podkhalyuzin, the naive and simple-minded merchant remains deceived.

But if a naive, simple-minded faith in people still lives in Bolshov, then for the former clerk there is nothing sacred, and with a light heart he destroys the last moral stronghold - the fortress of family ties. All that remains in him is the resourcefulness and flexibility of a rogue businessman. Previously, he only had to assent and please his master, but now the quiet clerk turns into an arrogant and cruel tyrant. The student surpassed his teacher - justice is restored, but not in relation to the merchant.

Her own daughter, in response to her father’s request to pay her debts, reproaches her father for living with him until she was 20 and not seeing the world. And then he becomes indignant: they say, why now give away all the money and wear cotton dresses again? The newly-made son-in-law generally reasons like this: “We can’t be left with nothing. After all, we are not some kind of philistines".

When the only daughter spares ten kopecks to creditors and with a light heart sends her father to prison, Bolshov has an epiphany. A suffering person awakens in him, and the comedy turns into tragedy. It is no coincidence that many performers of the role of Bolshov (M. Shchepkin, F. Burdin) saw the image of a merchant scolded by children, deceived and expelled