Thunderstorm monologue with the key to read. Analysis of the monologue with the key is the key to understanding Man, not only in the drama "Thunderstorm"

The ninth phenomenon

The tenth phenomenon

A room in the Kabanovs' house.

The first phenomenon

Glasha (gathers the dress into knots) and Feklusha (enters).

Enter Katerina and Varvara.

The second phenomenon

Katerina and Barbara.

Glasha leaves.

Silence.

Silence.

Enter Kabanova and Kabanov.

The third phenomenon

The same . Kabanova and Kabanov.

Katerina lowered her eyes to the ground.

Katerina looks at him sternly.

They leave.

The fourth phenomenon

Kabanov and Katerina (standing, as if in a daze).

Fifth phenomenon

The same ones, Kabanova, Varvara and Glasha.

Katerina throws herself on his neck.

Katerina bows at her feet.

Kabanov leaves, followed by Katerina, Varvara and Glasha.

The sixth phenomenon

Enter Katerina and Varvara.

The seventh phenomenon

Kabanova, Katerina and Varvara.

Exeunt Kabanova and Varvara.

The eighth phenomenon

Enter Barbara.

The ninth phenomenon

Katerina and Barbara.

The tenth phenomenon

This work has entered the public domain. The work was written by an author who died more than seventy years ago, and was published during his lifetime or posthumously, but more than seventy years have also passed since publication. It can be freely used by anyone without anyone's consent or permission and without payment of royalties.

There are moments in people's lives when they are given a choice of path, one of two; it can lead to success or problems, or more importantly, to salvation or death, to heaven or hell. Saying "yes" or "no" can be difficult for a contradictory human personality, but the choice still has to be made.

In the drama A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm" such a choice is a turning point in the development of events, deciding the further fate of the main character, Katerina Kabanova.

Katerina's character is a place of clash between piety and sinful, illegal passions. She is a "husband's wife", but in love with another person; and the time comes for a choice - the heroine is given an alluring opportunity to commit this sin by meeting with her lover, to overstep what is permitted with the only condition that outsiders do not find out about it. This is the key stage.

What is permitted in Katerina's life is determined by Domostroy. According to her character, she is her own judge, and the law for her is not only the law of actions, but also the law of thoughts. Only one thing contradicts this - her mind is so freedom-loving that it is very difficult to set boundaries for it. She is ready for a rebellious escape when she becomes unbearable, but - at the same time, her mind is clear of lies; and God's grace for her is higher than anything else.

Trouble in her soul is brought by the environment of the "dark kingdom", the house of the Kabanovs. She feels cramped and stuffy in the midst of the forcibly imposed laws that burden her so much here; for her, this house is a disgusting prison. Here Domostroy does not become different, but the atmosphere of limited existence presses on Katerina's consciousness; she defines her condition sparingly, making a conclusion only once, in a conversation with Varvara: “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity ...”. In her desire to escape from captivity, her feelings seem to find an outlet in sincere love for a visiting person and the same victim of the "dark kingdom" as herself - Boris. Katerina understands that this is a sin and a violation of the rules of Domostroy, but she is unable to resist herself ...

“This is death! Here she is!" - exclaims Katerina, standing on the threshold of tragedy. The key to this trouble is given to her by Barbara.

This key only unlocks the gate in the Kabanovs' garden, but, crossing this threshold, Katerina goes on a date with Boris, crosses borders and laws, charters and foundations, destroys them inside herself and commits a sin, consciously, but unable to resist. She succumbs to temptation, following the principle of Barbara, who insisted that "... do what you want, if only it was sewn and covered."

The barbarian, who has no stable internal limitations, has grown into this dark world of ignorance, and behind the fog of self-deceptions she does not see sin or does not want to see it. She found her place here; she has enough intelligence and ability for all kinds of petty crimes. “Take it, he won’t bite you…,” she says to Katerina, giving the key, insisting on her calm and indifferent. She pushes Katerina to this act, contrary to the laws, without thinking about the consequences, without thinking about what is being done and how Katerina perceives it. Varvara easily organized a meeting between Katerina and Boris, because she was used to such "pranks"; but Varvara's "prank" is Katerina's sin.

This woman cannot lie to herself; either shame or a damning thought prompts her: “What am I saying, that I am deceiving myself?”. And, standing with the key and unable to make a decision, she understands her defenselessness in front of her weakness: “I can even die, but see him [Boris] ...”, discards prejudices - it’s a sin or not a sin, she doesn’t care anymore; she becomes too stuffy in captivity and dislike.

Katerina takes the key, she accepts her sin, she takes up the protest, she condemns herself to death from the very beginning. She accepts her sin, crosses over Domostroy and all other norms of piety, and follows her love. She can in many ways be compared with Katerina Lvovna from N. Leskov's story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"; both Katerinas do not think at the very last moment, and, having driven away doubts, they enter into a blind struggle with fate for their happiness as a woman, without repentance, without doubt, and finally deciding, as Katya Kabanova decides: “Come what may, but I will see Boris! ”, and are already rushing towards a ghostly dream: “Oh, if only the night would come sooner! ..”. Both Katerinas are waiting for death in a moment of emotions and feelings, in coldness and disappointment, in restlessness and despair - the hell of the soul.

Katerina takes the key, starting her journey into the abyss, which fate had planned for her for a long time. However, the inevitable tragedy was made by the overwhelming atmosphere of the “dark kingdom”, which is simply incompatible with the character of Katerina. After all, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district found a way out of longing in crazy love. They were driven to sin by loneliness and the coldness of relationships ... “What's next, it's worse. And now this sin is on me. If it wasn’t for the mother-in-law! .. ”- says Katerina, holding the ill-fated key in her hands, admits to herself -“ She crushed me ... ”.

And it turns out that the cold awakens in Katerina's soul the desire to live, awakens the locked feelings. She contradicts herself, one exclaiming in fright, “What!” determining that she could no longer resist the opportunity to go outside the gate at night; her monologue abounds with dots, because words are not able to contain all her thoughts; she is frightened, steps seem to her, but she is no longer afraid of heavenly punishment, but of her mother-in-law. In a monologue, she exclaims, reflects, is weary; she falls silent, asks herself ... repeats again and again the sentimental “Ah! ..” and other exclamations, compares the key with burning coal, calls the walls of the house disgusting ... In the remarks, the author especially notes her thoughtfulness and impulsiveness; Katerina's speech is peculiarly emotional, completely different from what is commonly used ... and this betrays her condition.

Her soul is overflowing with feelings and aspirations. Even if this desire ends up in the abyss and the waters of the Volga. Katerina takes the key and accepts her fate as a lonely ray of light, sinning for freedom and short-term happiness.

But what is sin here and what is redemption - remains a different global theme; the only thing that matters is that Katerina takes the key... dooming herself.

Sections: Literature

Katerina's monologue (Act 2, scene 10) is one of the key scenes in A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm". True, very often this scene remains outside the scope of school study. More often they analyze the scene of Katerina's confession, the scene of her death, etc. And yet, it seems that it is precisely such moments as a monologue with a key that should attract attention when analyzing the works of the classics, since it is the scenes that lift the veil of secrecy over human actions and psychology that can affect our young readers, arousing their interest not so much in the historical context of the works, as much as to that eternal, personal, which is inherent in every serious artistic creation.

Teaching literature at school should not be reduced to developing ready-made recipes for solving problems, to formulating a set of ready-made “correct” answers - this is an axiom. That is why in every work, it seems to me, the teacher, first of all, should see educational opportunities, and after that try to offer students such a work option in which the educational moment will be implemented with the greatest effect.

It seems to many that the study of A.N. Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm" is an anachronism: the merchant life has long gone into the past, there is not even a trace of orientation to the house-building orders, one can interpret the concept of freedom in accordance with one's ideas. And yet, let's take a closer look at one of the best monologues of a Woman from the point of view of psychology, look into her world, try to understand the motives of her actions, because the human essence does not depend on either class affiliation or time spent in the world.

How often in life we ​​are faced with idle judgments that the relationship in some family is destroyed, and the blame for everything is the new hobby of the wife or husband. The situation in the drama "Thunderstorm" seems recognizable, but at the same time intriguing, because it is impossible to destroy the bonds of marriage in the current situation, firstly, because the marriage of Katerina and Tikhon is consecrated by the church, and secondly, because even according to secular laws, Katerina cannot think about freedom from marriage. (“Where will you go? You are a husband’s wife,” Varvara says, reminding Katerina of the law). At the same time, it is Varvara who understands that Katerina is not free in her feelings, that love, which unexpectedly descended, frightening Katerina herself, can turn out to be a destructive force, because this is the first feeling in Katerina's life. It is Varvara, pitying Katerina, who tries to explain to her the reasons for her suffering and give advice on how best to arrange life: “They gave you away in marriage, you didn’t have to walk in the girls: your heart hasn’t left yet.”

We will try to invite fifteen or sixteen-year-old teenagers to think about the situation, to consider it from the point of view of everyday life: Katerina did not marry of her own free will, she did not choose her betrothed; they chose her, and Tikhon did not marry for love. Let's think together with our students how serious a step the choice of a life partner should be in the conditions of our freedom today, what a tragedy for a person himself a hasty decision to start a family can turn into. Let's also reflect on the fact that a person who makes decisions takes responsibility not only for himself, but also for those who will be around.

Varvara's words about the science of deceit do not suit Katerina. A sincere and pure person, she reacts unambiguously: “I will love my husband. Tisha, my dear, I won’t exchange you for anyone!

And yet the plan that instantly matured in Varvara's head is being implemented. Why, contrary to her own ideas about life, her own attitudes, does Katerina go to meet Boris?

We find the answer to this question in the scene with the key.

In terms of form, this work, as practice suggests, should be as visual as possible: you can give text on the screen, on an interactive whiteboard and offer to trace how Katerina's feelings and experiences change. If it is not possible to work with technology, you can work with a pencil in the margins of the book, and then arrange the entries in the notebook, writing out only the key phrases and short comments on them.

In a strong class, you can give preliminary homework: analyze Katerina's monologue, and then systematize the analysis data; in a class with an insufficient level of analytical skills, it is better to carry out this work as a collective search.

Having singled out the key phrases and realizing what feelings and experiences are hidden behind them, we will try to understand the subtext of this, at first glance, “understandable” monologue of the heroine. Katerina is presented here both as a thinking person and as a deeply feeling person.

Indeed, before the monologue with the key, we knew the heroine as a person of freedom-loving aspirations (memories of childhood and life in the parental home), as a decisive person ( Katerina . Eh, Varya, you don't know my character! Of course, God forbid this happens! And if it gets too cold for me here, they won't hold me back by any force. I'll throw myself out the window, I'll throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me! D. 2, yavl. 2) as a strong-willed person ( Katerina . I'd rather endure as long as I endure. D. 2, yavl. 2).

A monologue with a key opens up other aspects of the heroine's personality before the reader (viewer). First of all, we pay attention to the fact that the playwright conveys the actions of Katerina: from the complete denial of the way of life proposed by Varvara to the unconditional approval of the correctness of her own choice. Katerina’s monologue presents a whole range of experiences: from shame and anxiety, from doubts about one’s own rightness, through rejection of the idea that love is a sin, through attempts to find the culprit in the fact that human desires and feelings come into conflict with social attitudes – to understanding that the main thing for a person is to be honest with himself and be able to listen to his own heart.

1. thinking
2. Silence
3. Thinking.
4. He looks thoughtfully at the key.

The remarks constantly remind the reader that we have before us a thinking person, a person striving to live in accordance with those guidelines that come from the mind, from consciousness, from understanding the human laws of existence.

Everything changes the moment Katherine "Listening". It's reasonable to ask yourself: toWhat or who is she listening to?? According to the plot - “Oh, someone is coming! So the heart fell, ”actually a remark "Listening" can also mean something else: for the first time the heroine listens not to the voice of reason, but to the voice of her own heart, to the call of a feeling that suddenly sounded so unexpectedly. It seems that the playwright is not against such an interpretation, because it is here that the word first appears "heart"(Until this moment, another word was heard many times: “You never know what to the head something will come, ”the other is glad: so headlong and rush", "But how is it possible, without thinking, without arguing! How long to get into trouble!)

Katerina's inner liberation is connected precisely with the fact that she is learning to listen not only to the voice of reason, but also to the voice of her own soul. So before our eyes a personality is born, a Man is born in the high sense of the word. For such a person, the basis of life is freedom of thought and feeling, which has nothing in common with tyranny (unlimited freedom to express one's own emotions) wild, nor with hypocrisy Boars.

Everything that interferes with freedom, everything that fetters it, acts as an anti-human force. That is why Katerina does not accept the principle of lies ("Do whatever you want, as long as it is sewn and covered"). That is why she says with pride, with a sense of her own dignity: “If I am not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment?”

The monologue with the key ends with the complete victory of the human in man: harmony of rational and emotional principles.

This conclusion is also supported by the amazing phrase: “He is mine now ...” To whom or what are these words addressed? The context will not tell us the only correct solution: on the one hand, this phrase completes the reflections on the key, on the other hand, it embodies the passionate call of feeling in the word. "He's mine" can be applied with equal success to both the key and Boris. So the playwright himself connects the rational and emotional principles into an inseparable whole.

Why not talk with the guys about the fact that it is at such moments of the hero’s self-disclosure that readers who are not experienced in everyday problems can find answers to many exciting questions for themselves.

It's no secret that today's problems in family relationships, in gender relations in general, are associated with a misunderstanding of the place and role of women in the world. Someone believes that this role is limited to fulfilling the duties of a wife and mother, someone is convinced that a woman should to be in free flight, obeying only the call of feeling. The truth, however, can probably be revealed quite unexpectedly in the conclusions that Katerina's monologue dictates to us: any person achieves understanding of himself only when he listens and understands the voice of his own mind and the call of the heart. Otherwise, mistakes are inevitable in determining one's capabilities, one's path, self-identification, in the formulation of the Self-concept. The role of a woman and her place in the world of human relations is determined by nature itself as the role of a person who gives life not only physically, but also spiritually. (Is it any wonder that the finale of the play sounds like a hymn to liberation souls from the fetters of existence in the world of unfreedom. Is it any wonder that Kuligin openly announces the liberation of Katerina’s soul, that Tikhon is “seeing the light” and gaining a voice).

For many teenagers, such conclusions from “boring” classics become a revelation, because textbooks contain completely different thoughts, correct, fair, based on the opinions of venerable scientists, but out of touch with life.

I am not a supporter of a simplistic approach to the works of the classics, I do not think that the works of the masters of the word should be reduced to the everyday level, but it seems to me that the obvious educational possibilities of those books that many of our students read because they are "obliged" should not be left unnoticed. I would like the classic to become a good companion in life, an adviser, a friend after school study. And this is possible only with such a reading that will allow a young person to pass an artistic creation through the prism of personal experiences, to replenish his life experience, which is still not rich with the experience of previous generations.

A.N. Ostrovsky
(1823-1886)

Storm

Drama in five acts

Persons :

Savel Prokofievich Wild, merchant, a significant person in the city.
Boris Grigorievich, his nephew, a young man, decently educated.
Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova (Kabanikha), wealthy merchant, widow.
Tikhon Ivanovich Kabanov, her son.
Katerina, his wife.
Barbara, Tikhon's sister
Kuligin, tradesman, self-taught watchmaker looking for a perpetuum mobile.
Vanya Kudryash, young man, clerk Dikov.
Shapkin, tradesman.
Feklusha, wanderer.
Glasha girl in Kabanova's house.
The lady with two lackeys, old woman 70 years old, half crazy.
City dwellers of both sexes.

* All persons, except for Boris, are dressed in Russian.

The action takes place in the city of Kalinov, on the banks of the Volga, in the summer. There are 10 days between the 3rd and 4th acts.

STEP ONE

A public garden on the high bank of the Volga, a rural view beyond the Volga. There are two benches and several bushes on the stage.

PHENOMENON FIRST

Kuligin sits on a bench and looks across the river. Kudryash and Shapkin are walking.

K u l i g and n (sings). "In the midst of a flat valley, on a smooth height ..." (Stops singing.) Miracles, it must truly be said that miracles! Curly! Here, my brother, for fifty years I have been looking beyond the Volga every day and I can’t see enough.
K u d r i sh. And what?
K u l i g and n. The view is extraordinary! The beauty! The soul rejoices.
K u d r i sh. Something!
K u l i g and n. Delight! And you are "something"! Take a closer look, or you don’t understand what beauty is spilled in nature.
K u d r i sh. Well, what's the deal with you! You are an antique, a chemist.
K u l i g and n. Mechanic, self-taught mechanic.
K u d r i sh. All the same.

Silence.

K u l i g i n (points to the side). Look, brother Curly, who is waving his arms like that?
K u d r i sh. It? This Wild nephew scolds.
K u l i g and n. Found a place!
K u d r i sh. He has a place everywhere. Afraid of what, he of whom! He got Boris Grigoryevich as a sacrifice, so he rides on it.
Sh a p k i n. Look for such and such a scolder as Savel Prokofich among us! Will cut off a person for nothing.
K u d r i sh. A poignant man!
Sh a p k i n. Good, too, and Kabanikha.
K u d r i sh. Well, yes, at least that one, at least, is all under the guise of piety, but this one has broken loose from the chain!
Sh a p k i n. There is no one to take him down, so he is fighting!
K u d r i sh. We don’t have many guys like me, otherwise we would wean him to be naughty.
Sh a p k i n. What would you do?
K u d r i sh. They would have done well.
Sh a p k i n. Like this?
K u d r i sh. Four of them, five of them in an alley somewhere would talk to him face to face, so he would become silk. And about our science, I wouldn’t utter a word to anyone, if only I would walk and look around.
Sh a p k i n. No wonder he wanted to give you to the soldiers.
K u d r i sh. I wanted to, but I didn’t give it away, so it’s all one thing, that’s nothing. He will not give me away: he smells with his nose that I will not sell my head cheaply. He's scary to you, but I know how to talk to him.
Sh a p k i n. Oh is it?
K u d r i sh. What's here: oh! I am considered a brute; why is he holding me? So, he needs me. Well, that means I'm not afraid of him, but let him be afraid of me.
Sh a p k i n. Like he doesn't scold you?
K u d r i sh. How not to scold! He can't breathe without it. Yes, I don’t let it go either: he’s a word, and I’m ten; spit, and go. No, I will not be a slave to him.
K u l i g and n. With him, that eh, an example to take! It's better to be patient.
K u d r i sh. Well, if you are smart, then you should learn it before courtesy, and then teach us. It’s a pity that his daughters are teenagers, there aren’t any big ones.
Sh a p k i n. What would it be?
K u d r i sh. I would respect him. It hurts dashing for girls!

Pass Wild and Boris, Kuligin takes off his hat.

Shapkin (Kudryash). Let's go to the side: it will still be attached, perhaps.

Departure.

PHENOMENON TWO

The same. Dikoy and Boris.

D i k o y. Buckwheat, have you come here to beat? Parasite! Get lost!
B o r and s. Celebration; what to do at home.
D i k o y. Find the job you want. Once I told you, twice I said to you: "Do not dare to meet me"; you get it all! Is there enough space for you? Wherever you go, here you are! Pah you damned! Why are you standing like a pillar? Are you being told al no?
B o r and s. I'm listening, what else can I do!
DIKOY (looking at Boris). You failed! I don't even want to talk to you, to the Jesuit. (Leaving.) Here he imposed himself! (Spits and leaves.)

PHENOMENON THREE

Kulin, Boris, Kudryash and Shapkin.

K u l i g and n. What is your business with him, sir? We will never understand. You want to live with him and endure abuse.
B o r and s. What a hunt, Kuligin! Captivity.
K u l i g and n. But what kind of bondage, sir, let me ask you? If you can, sir, tell us so.
B o r and s. Why not say? Did you know our grandmother, Anfisa Mikhailovna?
K u l i g and n. Well, how not to know!
K u d r i sh. How not to know!
B o r and s. After all, she disliked the father because he married a noble woman. On this occasion, father and mother lived in Moscow. Mother said that for three days she could not get along with her relatives, it seemed very wild to her.
K u l i g and n. Still not wild! What to say! You must have a great habit, sir.
B o r and s. Our parents raised us well in Moscow, they spared nothing for us. I was sent to the Commercial Academy, and my sister was sent to a boarding school, but both suddenly died of cholera, and my sister and I remained orphans. Then we hear that my grandmother also died here and left a will so that our uncle would pay us the part that should be paid when we come of age, only with a condition.
K u l i g and n. With what, sir?
B o r and s. If we are respectful to him.
K u l i g and n. This means, sir, that you will never see your inheritance.
B o r and s. No, that's not enough, Kuligin! He will first break upon us, abuse us in every possible way, as his heart desires, but all the same will end up giving us nothing, or just a little. Moreover, he will begin to tell that he gave out of mercy, that this should not have been.
K u d r i sh. This is such an institution in our merchant class. Again, even if you were respectful to him, someone who forbids him to say something that you are disrespectful?
B o r and s. Well, yes. Even now he sometimes says: "I have my own children, for which I will give money to strangers? Through this I must offend my own!"
K u l i g and n. So, sir, your business is bad.
B o r and s. If I were alone, it would be nothing! I would drop everything and leave. And I'm sorry sister. He used to write her out, but mother's relatives did not let her in, they wrote that she was sick. What would her life here be - and it's scary to imagine.
K u d r i sh. Of course. Somehow they understand the appeal!
K u l i g and n. How do you live with him, sir, in what position?
B o r and s. Yes, none. "Live," he says, "with me, do what you order, and pay what I put." That is, in a year he will count as he pleases.
K u d r i sh. He has such an establishment. With us, no one even dare to utter a peep about a salary, scolds what the world is worth. “You,” he says, “why do you know what I have in mind? Somehow you can know my soul? Or maybe I will come to such an arrangement that you will have five thousand ladies.” So you talk to him! Only he had never in his entire life come to such and such an arrangement.
K u l i g and n. What to do, sir! You have to try to please somehow.
B o r and s. The fact of the matter, Kuligin, is that it is absolutely impossible. They cannot please him either; and where am I?
K u d r i sh. Who will please him, if his whole life is based on cursing? And most of all because of the money; not a single calculation without scolding is complete. Another is glad to give up his own, if only he would calm down. And the trouble is, how someone will make him angry in the morning! He picks on everyone all day long.
B o r and s. Every morning my aunt begs everyone with tears: "Fathers, don't make me angry! Dear friends, don't make me angry!"
K u d r i sh. Yes, save something! Got to the market, that's the end! All the men will be scolded. Even if you ask at a loss, you still won’t leave without a scolding. And then he went for the whole day.
Sh a p k i n. One word: warrior!
K u d r i sh. What a warrior!
B o r and s. But the trouble is when he is offended by such a person whom he does not dare not scold; stay at home here!
K u d r i sh. Fathers! What a laugh! Somehow he was scolded by hussars on the Volga. Here he worked wonders!
B o r and s. And what a home it was! After that, for two weeks everyone hid in attics and closets.
K u l i g and n. What's this? No way, the people moved from Vespers?

Several faces pass at the back of the stage.

K u d r i sh. Let's go, Shapkin, in revelry! What's there to stand?

They bow and leave.

B o r and s. Eh, Kuligin, it is painfully difficult for me here, without a habit. Everyone looks at me somehow wildly, as if I were superfluous here, as if I were disturbing them. I don't know the customs. I understand that all this is our Russian, native, but still I can’t get used to it.
K u l i g and n. And you'll never get used to it, sir.
B o r and s. From what?
K u l i g and n. Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! In philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and bare poverty. And we, sir, will never get out of this bark! Because honest labor will never earn us more daily bread. And whoever has money, sir, he tries to enslave the poor, so that he can make even more money from his free labors. Do you know what your uncle, Savel Prokofich, answered the mayor? The peasants came to the mayor to complain that he would not read any of them by the way. The mayor began to say to him: “Listen,” he says, “Savel Prokofich, you count the peasants well! Every day they come to me with a complaint!” Your uncle patted the mayor on the shoulder and said: “Is it worth it, your honor, to talk about such trifles with me! , I have thousands of this, so it is; I feel good!" That's how, sir! And among themselves, sir, how they live! They undermine each other's trade, and not so much out of self-interest, but out of envy. They quarrel with each other; they lure drunken clerks into their tall mansions, such, sir, clerks, that there is no human appearance on him, his human appearance is lost. And those, for a small blessing, on stamp sheets, malicious slander scribble on their neighbors. And they will begin, sir, the court and the case, and there will be no end to the torment. They are suing, they are suing here and they will go to the province, and there they are already expected and from, they splash their hands with joy. Soon the fairy tale is told, but the deed is not soon done; they lead them, they lead, they drag them, they drag them, and they are also happy with this dragging, that's all they need. “I,” he says, “will spend money, and it will become a penny for him.” I wanted to describe all this in verses ...
B o r and s. Are you good at poetry?
K u l i g and n. The old fashioned way, sir. After all, I read Lomonosov, Derzhavin ... Lomonosov was a wise man, a tester of nature ... But also from ours, from a simple title.
B o r and s. You would have written. It would be interesting.
K u l i g and n. How can you, sir! Eat, swallow alive. I already get it, sir, for my chatter; Yes, I can’t, I like to scatter the conversation! Here's something else about family life I wanted to tell you, sir; yes some other time. And also something to listen to.

Feklusha and another woman enter.

F e k l u sh a. Blah-alepie, honey, blah-alepie! Beauty is wondrous! What can I say! Live in the promised land! And the merchants are all pious people, adorned with many virtues! Generosity and alms by many! I'm so happy, so, mother, happy, up to the neck! For our failure to leave them even more bounty will be multiplied, and especially the house of the Kabanovs.

They leave.

B o r and s. Kabanov?
K u l i g and n. Hypnotize, sir! She clothes the poor, but eats the household completely.

Silence.

If only I, sir, could find a perpetual mobile!
B o r and s. What would you do?
K u l i g and n. How, sir! After all, the British give a million; I would use all the money for society, for support. Work must be given to the bourgeoisie. And then there are hands, but there is nothing to work.
B o r and s. Are you hoping to find a perpetuum mobile?
K u l i g and n. Certainly, sir! If only now I could get some money on the model. Farewell, sir! (Exits.)

PHENOMENON FOUR

B o r and s (one). Sorry to disappoint him! What a good man! Dreaming himself - and happy. And I, apparently, will ruin my youth in this slum. After all, I walk completely dead, and then another nonsense climbs into my head! Well, what's up! Should I start tenderness? Driven, beaten, and then foolishly decided to fall in love. Yes, to whom? In a woman with whom you will never even be able to talk! (Silence.) Still, I can't get it out of my head, no matter what you want. Here she is! She goes with her husband, well, and the mother-in-law with them! Well, am I not a fool? Look around the corner and go home. (Exits.)

From the opposite side enter Kabanova, Kabanov, Katerina and Varvara.

FIFTH PHENOMENON

Kabanova, Kabanov, Katerina and Varvara.

K a b a n o v a. If you want to listen to your mother, then when you get there, do as I ordered you.
K a b a n o v. But how can I, mother, disobey you!
K a b a n o v a. There is not much respect for elders these days.
V a r v a ra (to himself). Do not respect you, how!
K a b a n o v. I, it seems, mother, not a step out of your will.
K a b a n o v a. I would believe you, my friend, if I didn’t see with my own eyes and breathe with my own ears, what a reverence for parents from children has now become! If only they remembered how many diseases mothers endure from children.
K a b a n o v. I mama...
K a b a n o v a. If a parent that when and insulting, in your pride, says so, I think it could be transferred! What do you think?
K a b a n o v. But when did I, mother, not endure from you?
K a b a n o v a. Mother is old, stupid; well, and you, smart young people, should not exact from us, fools.
KABANOV (sighing, to the side). Oh you, sir. (To the mother.) Yes, mother, do we dare to think!
K a b a n o v a. After all, out of love, parents are strict with you, out of love they scold you, everyone thinks to teach good. Well, now I don't like it. And the children will go to people to praise that the mother is grumbling, that the mother does not give a pass, she shrinks from the light. And God forbid, you can’t please the daughter-in-law with some word, well, the conversation started that the mother-in-law completely ate.
K a b a n o v. Something, mother, who is talking about you?
K a b a n o v a. I didn’t hear, my friend, I didn’t hear, I don’t want to lie. If only I had heard, I would not have spoken to you, my dear, then. (Sighs.) Oh, a grave sin! That's a long time to sin something! A conversation close to the heart will go on, well, you will sin, get angry. No, my friend, say what you want about me. You won’t order anyone to speak: they won’t dare to face it, they will stand behind your back.
K a b a n o v. Let your tongue dry...
K a b a n o v a. Complete, complete, don't worry! Sin! I have long seen that your wife is dearer to you than your mother. Since I got married, I don’t see the same love from you.
K a b a n o v. What do you see, mother?
K a b a n o v a. Yes, everything, my friend! What a mother cannot see with her eyes, she has a prophetic heart, she can feel with her heart. Al wife takes you away from me, I don’t know.
K a b a n o v. No, mother! What are you, have mercy!
K a t e r i n a. For me, mother, it’s all the same that your own mother, that you, and Tikhon loves you too.
K a b a n o v a. You would, it seems, could be silent, if you are not asked. Do not intercede, mother, I will not offend, I suppose! After all, he is also my son; you don't forget it! What did you jump out in the eyes of something to poke! To see, or what, how you love your husband? So we know, we know, in the eyes of something you prove it to everyone.
V a r v a r a (to himself). Found a place to read.
K a t e r i n a. You are talking about me, mother, in vain. With people, that without people, I'm all alone, I don't prove anything from myself.
K a b a n o v a. Yes, I didn’t want to talk about you; and so, by the way, I had to.
K a t e r i n a. Yes, even by the way, why do you offend me?
K a b a n o v a. Eka important bird! Already offended now.
K a t e r i n a. It’s nice to endure slander!
K a b a n o v a. I know, I know that my words are not to your liking, but what can you do, I am not a stranger to you, my heart aches for you. I have long seen that you want the will. Well, wait, live and be free when I'm gone. Then do what you want, there will be no elders over you. Or maybe you remember me.
K a b a n o v. Yes, we pray to God for you, mother, day and night, that God will give you, mother, health and all prosperity and success in business.
K a b a n o v a. Okay, stop it, please. Maybe you loved your mother while you were single. Do you care about me: you have a young wife.
K a b a n o v. One does not interfere with the other, sir: the wife is in itself, and I have respect for the parent in itself.
K a b a n o v a. So will you trade your wife for your mother? I don't believe this for the rest of my life.
K a b a n o v. Why should I change, sir? I love both.
K a b a n o v a. Well, yes, it is, smear it! I can already see that I'm a hindrance to you.
K a b a n o v. Think as you wish, everything is your will; only I don’t know what kind of unfortunate person I was born into the world that I can’t please you with anything.
K a b a n o v a. What are you pretending to be an orphan? What did you nurse something dismissed? Well, what kind of husband are you? Look at you! Will your wife be afraid of you after that?
K a b a n o v. Why should she be afraid? It's enough for me that she loves me.
K a b a n o v a. Why be afraid! Why be afraid! Yes, you're crazy, right? You will not be afraid, and even more so me. What is the order in the house will be? After all, you, tea, live with her in law. Ali, do you think the law means nothing? Yes, if you keep such stupid thoughts in your head, you would at least not chatter in front of her sister, in front of the girl; she, too, to get married: that way she will hear enough of your chatter, so after that the husband will thank us for science. You see what other mind you have, and you still want to live by your will.
K a b a n o v. Yes, mother, I don’t want to live by my own will. Where can I live with my will!
K a b a n o v a. So, in your opinion, you need all the caress with your wife? And not to shout at her and not to threaten?
K a b a n o v. Yes, mama...
K a b a n o v a (hotly). At least get a lover! AND? And this, maybe, in your opinion, is nothing? AND? Well, speak!
K a b a n o v. Yes, by God, mama...
KABANOV (quite coolly). Fool! (Sighs.) What a fool to talk about! Only one sin!

Silence.

I'm going home.
K a b a n o v. And we now, only once or twice will pass along the boulevard.
K a b a n o v a. Well, as you wish, only you look so that I don't have to wait for you! You know I don't like it.
K a b a n o v. No, mother, God save me!
K a b a n o v a. That's it! (Exits.)

PHENOMENON SIX

The same, without Kabanova.

K a b a n o v. You see, I always get it for you from my mother! Here is my life!
K a t e r i n a. What am I to blame?
K a b a n o v. Who's to blame, I don't know
V a r v a r a. Where do you know!
K a b a n o v. Then she kept pestering: "Get married, get married, I would at least look at you as a married man." And now he eats food, does not allow passage - everything is for you.
V a r v a r a. So is it her fault? Her mother attacks her, and so do you. And you say you love your wife. I'm bored looking at you! (Turns away.)
K a b a n o v. Interpret here! What am I to do?
V a r v a r a. Know your business - keep quiet if you can't do anything better. What are you standing - shifting? I can see in your eyes what's on your mind.
K a b a n o v. So what?
In a r in a ra. It is known that. I want to go to Savel Prokofich, have a drink with him. What's wrong, right?
K a b a n o v. You guessed it brother.
K a t e r i n a. You, Tisha, come quickly, otherwise mamma will begin to scold again.
V a r v a r a. You are quicker, in fact, otherwise you know!
K a b a n o v. How not to know!
V a r v a r a. We, too, have little desire to accept scolding because of you.
K a b a n o v. I instantly. Wait! (Exits.)

PHENOMENON SEVENTH

Katerina and Barbara.

K a t e r i n a. So you, Varya, pity me?
V a r v a r a (looking to the side). Of course, it's a pity.
K a t e r i n a. So you love me, then? (Kissing her hard.)
V a r v a r a. Why shouldn't I love you.
K a t e r i n a. Well, thank you! You are so sweet, I love you to death myself.

Silence.

Do you know what came to my mind?
V a r v a r a. What?
K a t e r i n a. Why don't people fly?
V a r v a r a. I do not understand what you say.
K a t e r i n a. I say why don't people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you are drawn to fly. That's how it would have run up, raised its hands and flew. Try something now? (Wants to run.)
V a r v a r a. What are you inventing?
KATERINA (sighing). How frisky I was! I completely screwed up with you.
V a r v a r a. Do you think I can't see?
K a t e r i n a. Was I like that! I lived, did not grieve about anything, like a bird in the wild. Mother did not have a soul in me, dressed me up like a doll, did not force me to work; Whatever I want, I do it. Do you know how I lived in girls? Now I'll tell you. I used to get up early; if it’s summer, I’ll go to the spring, wash myself, bring water with me and that’s it, water all the flowers in the house. I had many, many flowers. Then we’ll go to church with mama, all of them are wanderers - our house was full of wanderers; yes pilgrimage. And we will come from the church, we will sit down for some work, more like gold velvet, and the wanderers will begin to tell: where they were, what they saw, different lives, or they sing poetry. So it's time for lunch. Here the old women lie down to sleep, and I walk in the garden. Then to vespers, and in the evening again stories and singing. That was good!
V a r v a r a. Yes, we have the same thing.
K a t e r i n a. Yes, everything here seems to be out of captivity. And I loved going to church to death! For sure, it used to happen that I would enter paradise and not see anyone, and I don’t remember the time, and I don’t hear when the service was over. Exactly how it all happened in one second. Mom said that everyone used to look at me, what was happening to me. And you know: on a sunny day, such a bright pillar goes down from the dome, and smoke moves in this pillar, like a cloud, and I see, it used to be that angels in this pillar fly and sing. And then, it happened, a girl, I would get up at night - we also had lamps burning everywhere - but somewhere in a corner and pray until the morning. Or, early in the morning, I’ll go into the garden, as soon as the sun rises, I’ll fall on my knees, pray and cry, and I myself don’t know what I’m praying for and what I’m crying about; so they will find me. And what I prayed for then, what I asked for, I don’t know; I don't need anything, I've had enough of everything. And what dreams I had, Varenka, what dreams! Or golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens, and invisible voices sing, and the smell of cypress, and the mountains and trees seem not to be the same as usual, but as they are written on the images. And the fact that I'm flying, I'm flying through the air. And now sometimes I dream, but rarely, and not that.
V a r v a r a. But what?
KATERINA (after a pause). I will die soon.
V a r v a r a. Completely you!
K a t e r i n a. No, I know that I will die. Oh, girl, something bad is happening to me, some kind of miracle! This has never happened to me. There is something so extraordinary about me. It's like I'm starting to live again, or ... I really don't know.
V a r v a r a. What is the matter with you?
KATERINA (taking her by the hand). And here's what, Varya: to be some kind of sin! Such a fear on me, such a fear on me! It’s as if I’m standing over an abyss and someone is pushing me there, but there’s nothing for me to hold on to. (He grabs his head with his hand.)
V a r v a r a. What happened to you? Are you well?
K a t e r i n a. I'm healthy ... It would be better if I were sick, otherwise it's not good. A dream comes into my head. And I won't leave her anywhere. If I start thinking, I can’t collect my thoughts, I can’t pray, I won’t pray in any way. I babble words with my tongue, but my mind is completely different: it’s as if the evil one is whispering in my ears, but everything about such things is not good. And then it seems to me that I will be ashamed of myself. What happened with me? Before trouble before any it! At night, Varya, I can’t sleep, I keep imagining some kind of whisper: someone is talking to me so affectionately, like a dove cooing. I no longer dream, Varya, as before, of paradise trees and mountains, but it’s as if someone is hugging me so hot and hot and leading me somewhere, and I follow him, I go ...
V a r v a r a. Well?
K a t e r i n a. What am I saying to you: you are a girl.
V a r v a r a (looking around). Speak! I'm worse than you.
K a t e r i n a. Well, what can I say? I'm ashamed.
V a r v a r a. Speak, there is no need!
K a t e r i n a. It will make me so stuffy, so stuffy at home, that I would run. And such a thought would come to me that, if it were my will, I would now ride along the Volga, in a boat, with songs, or in a troika on a good one, embracing ...
V a r v a r a. Just not with my husband.
K a t e r i n a. How much do you know?
V a r v a r a. Still not to know.
K a t e r i n a. Ah, Varya, sin is on my mind! How much I, poor thing, cried, what I did not do to myself! I can't get away from this sin. Nowhere to go. After all, this is not good, this is a terrible sin, Varenka, that I love another?
V a r v a r a. Why should I judge you! I have my sins.
K a t e r i n a. What should I do! My strength is not enough. Where should I go; I will do something for myself out of longing!
V a r v a r a. What you! What happened to you! Just wait, my brother will leave tomorrow, we'll think about it; maybe you can see each other.
K a t e r i n a. No, no, don't! What you! What you! Save the Lord!
V a r v a r a. What are you afraid of?
K a t e r i n a. If I see him even once, I will run away from home, I will not go home for anything in the world.
V a r v a r a. But wait, we'll see there.
K a t e r i n a. No, no, and don't tell me, I don't want to listen.
V a r v a r a. And what a hunt to dry something! Even if you die of longing, they will pity you! How about, wait. So what a shame to torture yourself!

The lady enters with a stick and two lackeys in three-cornered hats behind.

PHENOMENON EIGHT

The same and the Lady.

B a r y n i. What beauties? What are you doing here? Are you waiting for the good fellows, gentlemen? Are you having fun? Fun? Does your beauty make you happy? This is where beauty leads. (Points to the Volga.) Here, here, into the very pool.

Barbara smiles.

What are you laughing at! Don't rejoice! (Knocks with a stick.) Everything will burn inextinguishably in the fire. Everything in resin will boil unquenchable. (Leaving.) There, there, where beauty leads! (Exits.)

PHENOMENON NINE

Katerina and Barbara.

K a t e r i n a. Oh, how she frightened me! I tremble all over, as if she were prophesying something to me.
V a r v a r a. On your own head, old hag!
K a t e r i n a. What did she say, huh? What she said?
V a r v a r a. All nonsense. You really need to listen to what she is talking about. She prophesies to everyone. I have sinned all my life since I was young. Ask what they say about her! That's why he's afraid to die. What she fears, scares others. Even all the boys in the city are hiding from her, threatening them with a stick and shouting (mockingly): "You will all burn in fire!"
KATERINA (squeezing her eyes shut). Ah, ah, stop it! My heart sank.
V a r v a r a. There is something to fear! Fool old...
K a t e r i n a. I'm afraid, I'm scared to death. She is all in my eyes.

Silence.

V a r v a r a (looking around). That this brother is not coming, out, no way, the storm is coming.
KATERINA (with horror). Storm! Let's run home! Hurry!
V a r v a r a. What, are you out of your mind? How can you show yourself home without a brother?
K a t e r i n a. No, home, home! God bless him!
V a r v a r a. What are you really afraid of: the storm is still far away.
K a t e r i n a. And if it's far away, then perhaps we'll wait a little; but it would be better to go. Let's go better!
V a r v a r a. Why, if anything happens, you can’t hide at home.
K a t e r i n a. But all the same, it’s better, everything is calmer: at home I go to the images and pray to God!
V a r v a r a. I didn't know you were so afraid of thunderstorms. I'm not afraid here.
K a t e r i n a. How, girl, do not be afraid! Everyone should be afraid. It’s not so terrible that it will kill you, but that death will suddenly find you as you are, with all your sins, with all your evil thoughts. I'm not afraid to die, but when I think that suddenly I will appear before God the way I am here with you, after this conversation, that's what's scary. What's on my mind! What a sin! Terrible to say!

Thunder.

Kabanov enters.

V a r v a r a. Here comes the brother. (To Kabanov.) Run quickly!

Thunder.

K a t e r i n a. Oh! Hurry, hurry!

ACT TWO

A room in the Kabanovs' house.

PHENOMENON FIRST

Glasha (gathers the dress into knots) and Feklusha (enters).

F e k l u sh a. Dear girl, you are still at work! What are you doing sweetie?
glasha. I collect the owner on the road.
F e k l u sh a. Al is going where is our light?
glasha. Rides.
F e k l u sh a. How long, honey, is it going?
glasha. No, not for long.
F e k l u sh a. Well, the tablecloth is dear to him! And what, the hostess will howl or not?
glasha. I don't know how to tell you.
F e k l u sh a. Yes, she howls when?
glasha. Don't hear something.
F e k l u sh a. Painfully I love, dear girl, to listen, if someone howls well.

Silence.

And you, girl, look after the wretched, you wouldn’t pull off anything.
glasha. Whoever understands you, all of you are riveting each other. What's not good for you? It seems that you, strange, don’t have a life with us, but you all quarrel and change your mind. You are not afraid of sin.
F e k l u sh a. It is impossible, mother, without sin: we live in the world. Here's what I'll tell you, dear girl: you, ordinary people, each one embarrasses one enemy, but to us, to strange people, to whom there are six, to whom twelve are assigned; That's what you need to overcome them all. Difficult, dear girl!
glasha. Why do you have so many?
F e k l u sh a. This, mother, is an enemy out of hatred against us that we lead such a righteous life. And I, dear girl, am not absurd, I have no such sin. There is one sin for me for sure, I myself know what it is. I love sweet food. Well, so what! According to my weakness, the Lord sends.
glasha. And you, Feklusha, did you go far?
F e k l u sh a. No, honey. I, due to my weakness, did not go far; and hear - heard a lot. They say that there are such countries, dear girl, where there are no Orthodox tsars, and the Saltans rule the earth. In one land, the Turkish Saltan Mahnut sits on the throne, and in the other, the Persian Saltan Mahnut; and they do judgment, dear girl, on all people, and whatever they judge, everything is wrong. And they, my dear, cannot judge a single case righteously, such is the limit set for them. We have a righteous law, and they, my dear, are unrighteous; that according to our law it turns out that way, but according to theirs everything is the other way around. And all their judges, in their countries, are also all unrighteous; so to them, dear girl, and in requests they write: "Judge me, unjust judge!" And then there is the land where all the people with dog heads.
glasha. Why is it so - with dogs?
F e k l u sh a. For infidelity. I'll go, dear girl, wander around the merchants: will there be something for poverty. Farewell for now!
glasha. Goodbye!

Feklusha leaves.

Here are some other lands! There are no miracles in the world! And we're sitting here, we don't know anything. It's also good that there are good people: no, no, yes, and you will hear what is happening in the world; otherwise they would die like fools.

Enter Katerina and Varvara.

Katerina and Barbara.

V a r v a r a (Glashe). Drag the bundle into the wagon, the horses have arrived. (To Katerina.) You were married when you were young, you didn’t have to walk in the girls: now your heart hasn’t left yet.

Glasha leaves.

K a t e r i n a. And never leaves.
V a r v a r a. Why?
K a t e r i n a. This is how I was born, hot! I was still six years old, no more, so I did it! They offended me with something at home, but it was towards evening, it was already dark; I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat, and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they already found it, ten miles away!
V a r v a r a. Well, did the guys look at you?
K a t e r i n a. How not to look!
V a r v a r a. What are you? Didn't love anyone?
K a t e r i n a. No, I just laughed.
V a r v a r a. But you, Katya, don't like Tikhon.
K a t e r i n a. No, how not to love! I feel sorry for him very much!
V a r v a r a. No, you do not love. When it's a pity, you don't love it. And no, you have to tell the truth. And you're hiding from me in vain! I noticed a long time ago that you love another person.
KATERINA (with fright). What did you notice?
V a r v a r a. How funny you say! I'm small, right? Here is the first sign for you: as soon as you see him, your whole face will change.

Katherine lowers her eyes.

Is it a little...
KATERINA (looking down). Well, who?
V a r v a r a. But you yourself know what to call something?
K a t e r i n a. No, name it. Call by name!
V a r v a r a. Boris Grigorych.
K a t e r i n a. Well, yes, him, Varenka, him! Only you, Varenka, for God's sake...
V a r v a r a. Well, here's more! You yourself, look, do not let it slip somehow.
K a t e r i n a. I can't lie, I can't hide anything.
V a r v a r a. Well, but without this it is impossible; remember where you live! Our house is based on that. And I was not a liar, but I learned when it became necessary. I walked yesterday, so I saw him, talked to him.
KATERINA (after a short silence, looking down). Well, so what?
V a r v a r a. I ordered you to bow. It's a pity, he says that there is nowhere to see each other.
KATERINA (loosing still more). Where to see you! And why...
V a r v a r a. Boring like that.
K a t e r i n a. Don't tell me about him, do me a favor, don't tell me! I don't want to know him! I will love my husband. Tisha, my dear, I won’t exchange you for anyone! I didn't even want to think about it, and you're embarrassing me.
V a r v a r a. Don't think, who's forcing you?
K a t e r i n a. You don't feel sorry for me! You say: don't think, but remind yourself. Do I want to think about it? But what to do, if it doesn’t get out of your head. Whatever I think about, it's right there in front of my eyes. And I want to break myself, but I can not in any way. Do you know that the enemy troubled me again tonight. After all, I had left home.
V a r v a r a. You're kind of tricky, God bless you! But in my opinion: do what you want, if only it was sewn and covered.
K a t e r i n a. I don't want that. Yes, and what a good thing! I'd rather endure as long as I endure.
V a r v a r a. And if you don't, what are you going to do?
K a t e r i n a. What will I do?
V a r v a r a. Yes, what will you do?
K a t e r i n a. Whatever I want, I'll do it.
V a r v a r a. Do it, try it, they'll get you here.
K a t e r i n a. What to me! I'm leaving, and I was.
V a r v a r a. Where will you go? You are a husband's wife.
K a t e r i n a. Eh, Varya, you don't know my character! Of course, God forbid! And if it gets too cold for me here, they won't hold me back by any force. I'll throw myself out the window, I'll throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!

Silence.

V a r v a r a. You know what, Katya! As soon as Tikhon leaves, let's sleep in the garden, in the arbor.
K a t e r i n a. Why, Varya?
V a r v a r a. Is there something that doesn't matter?
K a t e r i n a. I'm afraid to spend the night in an unfamiliar place,
V a r v a r a. What to be afraid of! Glasha will be with us.
K a t e r i n a. Everything is kind of shy! Yes, I probably.
V a r v a r a. I wouldn’t call you, but my mother won’t let me in alone, but I need to.
KATERINA (looking at her). Why do you need?
V a r v a r a (laughs). We will tell fortunes with you there.
K a t e r i n a. You're kidding, must be?
V a r v a r a. You know, I'm joking; and is it really?

Silence.

K a t e r i n a. Where is this Tikhon?
V a r v a r a. What is he to you?
K a t e r i n a. No, I am. After all, it's coming soon.
V a r v a r a. They sit locked up with their mother. She sharpens it now, like rusting iron.
K a t e r i n. For what?
V a r v a r a. For nothing, so, teaches mind-reason. Two weeks on the road will be a secret matter. Judge for yourself! Her heart is aching that he walks of his own free will. Now she is giving him orders, one more menacing than the other, and then she will lead him to the image, make him swear that he will do everything exactly as ordered.
K a t e r i n a. And at will, he seems to be bound.
V a r v a r a. Yes, how connected! As soon as he leaves, he will drink. He is now listening, and he himself is thinking how he could break out as soon as possible.

Enter Kabanova and Kabanov.

The same, Kabanova and Kabanov.

K a b a n o v a. Well, you remember everything I told you. Look, remember! Kill yourself on the nose!
K a b a n o v. I remember, mother.
K a b a n o v a. Well, now everything is ready. The horses have arrived. Forgive you only, and with God.
K a b a n o v. Yes, mama, it's time.
K a b a n o v a. Well!
K a b a n o v. What do you want, sir?
K a b a n o v a. Why are you standing, haven't you forgotten the order? Tell your wife how to live without you.

Catherine rolled her eyes.

K a b a n o v. Yes, she, tea, knows herself.
K a b a n o v a. Talk more! Well, well, give orders. So that I can hear what you order her! And then you come and ask if everything is done right.
KABANOV (standing up against Katerina). Listen to your mother, Katya!
K a b a n o v a. Tell her not to be rude to her mother-in-law.
K a b a n o v. Do not be rude!
K a b a n o v a. To honor the mother-in-law as her own mother!
K a b a n o v. Honor, Katya, mother, as your own mother.
K a b a n o v a. So that she does not sit idly by, like a lady.
K a b a n o v. Do something without me!
K a b a n o v a. So that you don’t stare out the windows!
K a b a n o v. Yes, mother, when will she...
K a b a n o v a. Oh well!
K a b a n o v. Don't look out the windows!
K a b a n o v a. So that I don’t look at young guys without you.
K a b a n o v. What is it, mother, by God!
K a b a n o v a (strictly). There is nothing to break! You must do what your mother says. (With a smile.) It's getting better, as ordered.
Kabanov (embarrassed). Don't look at guys!

Katerina looks at him sternly.

K a b a n o v a. Well, now talk among yourselves, if necessary. Let's go, Barbara!

They leave.

Kabanov and Katerina (standing, as if in a daze).

K a b a n o v. Katia!

Silence.

Katya, are you angry with me?
KATERINA (after a short silence, shakes her head). Not!
K a b a n o v. What are you? Well, forgive me!
KATERINA (still in the same state, shaking her head). God be with you! (Hiding her face with her hand.) She offended me!
K a b a n o v. Take everything to heart, so you will soon fall into consumption. Why listen to her! She needs to say something! Well, let her say, and you miss the deaf ears, Well, goodbye, Katya!
KATERINA (throwing herself around her husband's neck). Hush, don't leave! For God's sake, don't leave! Dove, I beg you!
K a b a n o v. You can't, Katya. If mother sends, how can I not go!
K a t e r i n a. Well, take me with you, take me!
KABANOV (freeing himself from her embrace). Yes, you can't.
K a t e r i n a. Why, Tisha, not?
K a b a n o v. Where is it fun to go with you! You've got me here completely! I don't know how to break out; and you're still messing with me.
K a t e r i n a. Have you fallen out of love with me?
K a b a n o v. Yes, I didn’t stop loving, but with a sort of bondage, you will run away from whatever beautiful wife you want! Think about it: no matter what, I'm still a man; live like this all your life, as you see, you will also run away from your wife. Yes, as I know now that there will be no thunderstorm over me for two weeks, there are no shackles on my legs, so am I up to my wife?
K a t e r i n a. How can I love you when you say such words?
K a b a n o v. Words like words! What other words can I say! Who knows what you're afraid of? After all, you are not alone, you stay with your mother.
K a t e r i n a. Don't talk to me about her, don't tyrannize my heart! Oh, my misfortune, my misfortune! (Cries.) Where can I, poor thing, go? Who can I grab onto? My fathers, I am dying!
K a b a n o v. Yes, you are full!
KATERINA (goes up to her husband and clings to him). Tisha, my dear, if you would stay or take me with you, how I would love you, how I would love you, my dear! (caresses him.)
K a b a n o v. I will not understand you, Katya! You won’t get a word from you, let alone affection, otherwise you climb yourself.
K a t e r i n a. Silence, who are you leaving me to! Be in trouble without you! The fat is in the fire!
K a b a n o v. Well, you can't, there's nothing to do.
K a t e r i n a. Well, so that's it! Take some terrible oath from me...
K a b a n o v. What oath?
K a t e r i n a. Here’s the one: so that I wouldn’t dare to talk to anyone else without you, or see anyone else, so that I wouldn’t even dare to think about anyone but you.
K a b a n o v. Yes, what is it for?
K a t e r i n a. Calm my soul, do such a favor for me!
K a b a n o v. How can you vouch for yourself, you never know what can come to mind.
KATERINA (Falling to her knees). So as not to see me neither father nor mother! Die me without repentance if I...
KABANOV (lifting her up). What you! What you! What a sin! I don't want to listen!

The same ones, Kabanova, Varvara and Glasha.

K a b a n o v a. Well, Tikhon, it's time. Ride with God! (Sits down.) Sit down everyone!

Everyone sits down. Silence.

Well, goodbye! (Rises and everyone rises.)
KABANOV (going up to his mother). Farewell, mother! Kabanova (gesturing to the ground). To the feet, to the feet!

Kabanov bows at his feet, then kisses his mother.

Say goodbye to your wife!
K a b a n o v. Farewell, Katya!

Katerina throws herself on his neck.

K a b a n o v a. What are you hanging around your neck, shameless! Don't say goodbye to your lover! He is your husband - the head! Al order do not know? Bow down at your feet!

Katerina bows at her feet.

K a b a n o v. Farewell, sister! (Kissing Varvara.) Farewell, Glasha! (Kissing Glasha.) Farewell, mother! (Bows.)
K a b a n o v a. Goodbye! Far wires - extra tears.

Kabanov leaves, followed by Katerina, Varvara and Glasha.

K a b a n o v a (one). What does youth mean? It's funny to even look at them! If it weren't for her, she would have laughed to her heart's content: they don't know anything, there's no order. They don't know how to say goodbye. It’s good, whoever has elders in the house, they keep the house while they are alive. And after all, too, stupid, they want to do their own thing; but when they go free, they get confused in obedience and laughter to good people. Of course, who will regret it, but most of all they laugh. Yes, it’s impossible not to laugh: they will invite guests, they don’t know how to seat, and besides, look, they will forget one of their relatives. Laughter, and more! So that's the old something and displayed. I don't want to go to another house. And if you go up, you will spit, but get out more quickly. What will happen, how the old people will die, how the light will stand, I don’t know. Well, at least it's good that I don't see anything.

Enter Katerina and Varvara.

Kabanova, Katerina and Varvara.

K a b a n o v a. You boasted that you love your husband very much; I see your love now. Another good wife, after seeing her husband off, howls for an hour and a half, lies on the porch; and you see nothing.
K a t e r i n a. Nothing! Yes, I can't. What to make people laugh!
K a b a n o v a. The trick is small. If I loved, so I would have learned. If you don’t know how to do it, you could at least make this example; still more decent; and then, apparently, in words only. Well, I'll go pray to God, don't bother me.
V a r v a r a. I'll go from the yard.
K a b a n o v a (affectionately). What about me! Go! Walk until your time comes. Still enjoy!

Exeunt Kabanova and Varvara.

KATERINA (alone, thoughtfully). Well, now silence will reign in your house. Ah, what a bore! At least someone's children! Eco grief! I don’t have children: I would still sit with them and amuse them. I love talking to children very much - they are angels, after all. (Silence.) If I had died a little, it would have been better. I would look from heaven to earth and rejoice in everything. And then she would fly invisibly wherever she wanted. I would fly into the field and fly from cornflower to cornflower in the wind, like a butterfly. (Thinks.) But here's what I'll do: I'll start some work according to the promise; I will go to the Gostiny Dvor, buy canvas, and I will sew linen, and then I will distribute it to the poor. They pray to God for me. So we’ll sit down to sew with Varvara and we won’t see how time passes; And then Tisha will arrive.

Barbara enters.

Katerina and Barbara.

V a r v a ra (covers his head with a handkerchief in front of a mirror). I'll go for a walk now; and Glasha will make beds for us in the garden, mother allowed. In the garden, behind the raspberries, there is a gate, her mother locks it, and hides the key. I took it away, and put another one on her so that she wouldn't notice. Here, you may need it. (Gives the key.) If I see it, I'll tell you to come to the gate.
KATERINA (pushing away the key with fright). For what! For what! Don't, don't!
V a r v a r a. You don't need, I need; take it, it won't bite you.
K a t e r i n a. What are you up to, you sinner! Is it possible! Did you think! What you! What you!
V a r v a r a. Well, I don't like to talk a lot, and I don't have time either. It's time for me to walk. (Exits.)

PHENOMENON TENTH

KATERINA (alone, holding the key in her hands). What is she doing? What is she thinking? Ah, crazy, really crazy! Here is death! Here she is! Throw him away, throw him far away, throw him into the river, so that they will never be found. He burns his hands like coal. (Thinking.) This is how our sister dies. In captivity, someone has fun! Few things come to mind. The case came out, the other is glad: so headlong and rush. And how is it possible without thinking, without judging something! How long to get into trouble! And there you cry all your life, suffer; bondage will seem even more bitter. (Silence.) But bondage is bitter, oh, how bitter! Who does not cry from her! And most of all, we women. Here I am now! I live, toil, I don’t see a light for myself. Yes, and I will not see, know! What's next is worse. And now this sin is on me. (Thinks.) If it wasn't for my mother-in-law!.. She crushed me... she made me sick of the house; the walls are even disgusting, (Looks thoughtfully at the key.) Throw it away? Of course you have to quit. And how did he get into my hands? To temptation, to my ruin. (Listens.) Ah, someone is coming. So my heart sank. (Hides the key in his pocket.) No! .. Nobody! That I was so scared! And she hid the key ... Well, you know, there he should be! Apparently, fate itself wants it! But what a sin in this, if I look at him once, at least from a distance! Yes, even though I’ll talk, it’s not a problem! But what about my husband! .. Why, he himself did not want to. Yes, maybe such a case will never happen again in a lifetime. Then cry to yourself: there was a case, but I didn’t know how to use it. Why am I saying that I am deceiving myself? I have to die to see him. To whom am I pretending! .. Throw the key! No, not for anything! He's mine now... Come what may, I'll see Boris! Oh, if only the night would come sooner!..

ACT THREE

SCENE ONE

The street. The gate of the Kabanovs' house, there is a bench in front of the gate.

PHENOMENON FIRST

Kabanova and Feklusha (sitting on a bench).

F e k l u sh a. The last times, mother Marfa Ignatievna, the last, according to all signs, the last. You also have paradise and silence in your city, but in other cities it’s so simple sodom, mother: noise, running around, incessant driving! The people are just scurrying about, one there, the other here.
K a b a n o v a. We have nowhere to hurry, dear, we live slowly.
F e k l u sh a. No, mother, that’s why you have silence in the city, because many people, if only to take you, are decorated with virtues, like flowers: that’s why everything is done coolly and decently. After all, this running around, mother, what does it mean? After all, this is vanity! For example, in Moscow: people are running back and forth, it is not known why. Here it is the vanity. Vain people, mother Marfa Ignatievna, so they run around. It seems to him that he is running after business; in a hurry, poor man, he does not recognize people; it seems to him that someone is beckoning him, but he will come to the place, but it is empty, there is nothing, there is only one dream. And he will go in sorrow. And another imagines that he is catching up with someone he knows. From the outside, a fresh person now sees that there is no one; but to him everything seems to be from the vanity that he catches up with. It's vanity, because it seems to be foggy. Here, on such a fine evening, it is rare for anyone to come out of the gate to sit; and in Moscow now there are amusement and games, and through the streets there is an Indo roar, there is a groan. Why, mother Marfa Ignatievna, they began to harness the fiery serpent: everything, you see, for the sake of speed.
K a b a n o v a. I heard, honey.
F e k l u sh a. And I, mother, saw it with my own eyes; of course, others don’t see anything from the fuss, so he shows them a machine, they call him a machine, and I saw how he does something like this (spreads his fingers) with his paws. Well, and the groan that people of a good life hear like that.
K a b a n o v a. You can call it in every possible way, perhaps, at least call it a machine; people are stupid, they will believe everything. And even if you shower me with gold, I won’t go.
F e k l u sh a. What an extreme, mother! Save the Lord from such misfortune! And here's another thing, mother Marfa Ignatievna, I had a vision in Moscow. I walk early in the morning, it’s still a little dawning, and I see, on a tall, tall house, on the roof, someone is standing, his face is black. You know who. And he does it with his hands, as if pouring something, but nothing is pouring. Then I guessed that it was he who was shedding tares, and in the daytime, in his vanity, he would invisibly pick up the people. That’s why they run like that, that’s why their women are all so thin, they can’t work up their bodies in any way, but it’s as if they have lost something or are looking for something: there is sadness in their face, even a pity.
K a b a n o v a. Anything is possible, my dear! In our times, what to marvel at!
F e k l u sh a. Hard times, mother Marfa Ignatievna, hard times. Already, time began to come to belittlement.
K a b a n o v a. How so, my dear, in derogation?
F e k l u sh a. Of course, not we, where should we notice something in the hustle and bustle! But smart people notice that our time is getting shorter. It used to be that summer and winter dragged on and on, you couldn’t wait until they were over; and now you will not see how they fly by. Days and hours seem to have remained the same, but time, for our sins, is getting shorter and shorter. That's what smart people say.
K a b a n o v a. And worse than that, my dear, it will be.
F e k l u sh a. We just don't want to live to see this.
K a b a n o v a. Maybe we'll live.

Dikoy enters.

K a b a n o v a. What are you, godfather, wandering around so late?
D i k o y. And who will forbid me!
K a b a n o v a. Who will forbid! Who needs!
D i k o y. Well, then, there is nothing to talk about. What am I, under the command, or what, from whom? Are you still here! What the hell is a merman here!..
K a b a n o v a. Well, don't open your throat very much! Find me cheaper! And I love you! Go on your way, where you went. Let's go home, Feklusha. (Rises.)
D i k o y. Stop, motherfucker, stop! Do not be angry. You will still have time to be at home: your house is not far off. Here it is!
K a b a n o v a. If you are at work, do not yell, but speak plainly.
D i k o y. Nothing to do, and I'm drunk, that's what.
K a b a n o v a. Well, now you will order me to praise you for this?
D i k o y. Neither praise nor scold. And that means I'm crazy. Well, it's over. Until I wake up, I can't fix this.
K a b a n o v a. So go to sleep!
D i k o y. Where will I go?
K a b a n o v a. Home. And then where!
D i k o y. What if I don't want to go home?
K a b a n o v a. Why is this, may I ask you?
D i k o y. But because I have a war going on there.
K a b a n o v a. Who is there to fight? After all, you are the only warrior there.
D i k o y. Well, then, what am I a warrior? Well, what of this?
K a b a n o v a. What? Nothing. And the honor is not great, because you have been fighting with the women all your life. That's what.
D i k o y. Well, then, they must submit to me. And then I, or something, I will submit!
K a b a n o v a. I marvel at you a lot: there are so many people in your house, but they can’t please you for one.
D i k o y. Here you go!
K a b a n o v a. Well, what do you want from me?
D i k o y. Here's what: talk to me so that my heart passes. You're the only one in the whole city who knows how to talk to me.
K a b a n o v a. Go, Feklushka, tell me to cook something to eat.

Feklusha leaves.

Let's go to rest!
D i k o y. No, I won't go to the chambers, I'm worse in the chambers.
K a b a n o v a. What made you angry?
D i k o y. Since the very morning.
K a b a n o v a. They must have asked for money.
D i k o y. Precisely agreed, damned; either one or the other sticks all day long.
K a b a n o v a. It must be, if they come.
D i k o y. I understand this; what are you going to tell me to do with myself when my heart is like that! After all, I already know what I need to give, but I can’t do everything with good. You are my friend, and I must give it back to you, but if you come and ask me, I will scold you. I will give, I will give, but I will scold. Therefore, just give me a hint about money, my whole interior will be kindled; it kindles the whole interior, and that’s all; well, and in those days I would not scold a person for anything.
K a b a n o v a. There are no elders above you, so you are swaggering.
D i k o y. No, you, godfather, shut up! You listen! Here are the stories that happened to me. I was talking about something great about fasting, and then it’s not easy and slip a little peasant in: he came for money, he carried firewood. And brought him to sin at such a time! He sinned after all: he scolded, so scolded that it was impossible to demand better, almost nailed him. Here it is, what a heart I have! After asking for forgiveness, he bowed at his feet, right. Truly I tell you, I bowed at the peasant's feet. This is what my heart brings me to: here in the yard, in the mud, I bowed to him; bowed to him in front of everyone.
K a b a n o v a. Why are you bringing yourself into your heart on purpose? This, mate, is not good.
D i k o y. How so on purpose?
K a b a n o v a. I saw it, I know. You, if you see that they want to ask you for something, you will take it from your own on purpose and attack someone to get angry; because you know that no one will go to you angry. That's it, godfather!
D i k o y. Well, what is it? Who does not feel sorry for their own good!

Glasha enters.

glasha. Marfa Ignatyevna, it's time to have a bite to eat, please!
K a b a n o v a. Well, mate, come on in. Eat what God sent.
D i k o y. Perhaps.
K a b a n o v a. Welcome! (He lets Diky go ahead and goes after him.)

Glasha, with folded arms, stands at the gate.

glasha. No way. Boris Grigorievich is coming. Isn't it for your uncle? Does Al walk like that? It must be walking.

Boris enters.

Glasha, Boris, then K u l and g and n.

B o r and s. Don't you have an uncle?
glasha. We have. Do you need, or what, him?
B o r and s. They sent from home to find out where he was. And if you have it, then let it sit: who needs it. At home, they are glad-radehonki that he left.
glasha. Our mistress would have been behind him, she would have stopped him soon. What am I, a fool, standing with you! Goodbye. (Exits.)
B o r and s. Oh you, Lord! Just take a look at her! You cannot enter the house: the uninvited do not go here. That's life! We live in the same city, almost nearby, but we see each other once a week, and then in church or on the road, that's all! Here that she got married, that they buried - it doesn't matter.

Silence.

I wish I hadn't seen her at all: it would have been easier! And then you see in fits and starts, and even in front of people; a hundred eyes are looking at you. Only the heart breaks. Yes, and you can’t cope with yourself in any way. You go for a walk, but you always find yourself here at the gate. And why do I come here? You can never see her, and, perhaps, what kind of conversation will come out, you will introduce her into trouble. Well, I got to the town! (Goes, Kuligin meets him.)
K u l i g and n. What, sir? Would you like to play?
B o r and s. Yes, I'm walking myself, the weather is very good today.
K u l i g and n. Very well, sir, take a walk now. Silence, the air is excellent, because of the Volga, the meadows smell of flowers, the sky is clear ...

The abyss has opened, full of stars,
There is no number of stars, the abyss has no bottom.

Let's go, sir, to the boulevard, not a soul is there.
B o r and s. Let's go!
K u l i g and n. That's what, sir, we have a small town! They made a boulevard, but they don't walk. They walk only on holidays, and then they do one kind of walking, and they themselves go there to show their outfits. You will only meet a drunken clerk, trudging home from the tavern. There is no time for the poor to walk, sir, they have work day and night. And they only sleep three hours a day. And what do the rich do? Well, what would it seem, they do not walk, do not breathe fresh air? So no. Everyone's gates, sir, have been locked for a long time, and the dogs have been lowered ... Do you think they are doing business or praying to God? No, sir. And they don’t lock themselves up from thieves, but so that people don’t see how they eat their own home and tyrannize their families. And what tears flow behind these locks, invisible and inaudible! What can I say, sir! You can judge by yourself. And what, sir, behind these locks is the debauchery of the dark and drunkenness! Everything is sewn and covered - no one sees or knows anything, only God sees! You, he says, look, in people I am yes on the street, but you don’t care about my family; to this, he says, I have locks, yes constipation, and angry dogs. The family, they say, is a secret, a secret! We know these secrets! From these secrets, sir, he alone is cheerful, and the rest howl like a wolf. And what's the secret? Who does not know him! To rob orphans, relatives, nephews, beat up the household so that they would not dare to squeak about anything that he does there. That's the whole secret. Well, God bless them! Do you know, sir, who walks with us? Young boys and girls. So these people steal an hour or two from sleep, well, they walk in pairs. Yes, here's a couple!

Kudryash and Varvara appear. They kiss.

B o r and s. They kiss.
K u l i g and n. We don't need it.

Curly leaves, and Varvara approaches her gate and beckons Boris. He fits.

Boris, Kuligin and Varvara.

K u l i g and n. I, sir, will go to the boulevard. What's stopping you? I'll wait there.
B o r and s. Okay, I'll be right there.

K u l and g and n leaves.

V a r v a ra (covering himself with a handkerchief). Do you know the ravine behind the Boar Garden?
B o r and s. I know.
V a r v a r a. Come there early.
B o r and s. What for?
V a r v a r a. What a fool you are! Come, you'll see why. Well, hurry up, they are waiting for you.

Boris leaves.

Didn't know after all! Let him think now. And I already know that Katerina will not bear it, she will jump out. (Goes out the gate.)

SCENE TWO

Night. A ravine covered with bushes; upstairs - the fence of the Kabanovs' garden and the gate; above is a path.

PHENOMENON FIRST

K u d r i sh (enters with a guitar). There is no one. Why is she there! Well, let's sit and wait. (Sits down on a stone.) Let's sing a song out of boredom. (Sings.)

Like a Don Cossack, a Cossack led a horse to water,
Good fellow, he is already standing at the gate.
Standing at the gate, he thinks himself
Duma thinks how he will destroy his wife.
Like a wife, a wife prayed to her husband,
In a hurry, she bowed to him:
"You, father, are you a dear friend of the heart!
You do not beat, do not ruin me from the evening!
You kill, ruin me from midnight!
Let my little kids sleep
Little kids, all the neighbors."

Boris enters.

Kudryash and Boris.

K u dr i sh (stops singing). Look you! Humble, humble, but also went on a rampage.
B o r and s. Curly, is that you?
K u d r i sh. I am Boris Grigoryevich!
B o r and s. Why are you here?
K u d r i sh. Am I? Therefore, I need it, Boris Grigorievich, if I'm here. I wouldn't go if I didn't have to. Where is God taking you?
BORS (looks around the area). Here's the thing, Curly: I ought to stay here, but I don't think you care, you can go somewhere else.
K u d r i sh. No, Boris Grigoryevich, I see you are here for the first time, but I already have a familiar place here and the path I have trodden. I love you, sir, and I am ready for any service to you; and on this path you do not meet with me at night, so that, God forbid, no sin has happened. Deal is better than money.
B o r and s. What's wrong with you, Vanya?
K u d r i sh. Yes, Vanya! I know that I am Vanya. And you go your own way, that's all. Get yourself one, and go for a walk with her, and no one cares about you. Don't touch strangers! We don’t do that, otherwise the guys will break their legs. I'm for mine ... Yes, I don't know what I'll do! I'll cut my throat.
B o r and s. In vain you are angry; I don't even have a mind to beat you. I wouldn't have come here if I hadn't been told to.
K u d r i sh. Who ordered?
B o r and s. I didn't understand, it was dark. Some girl stopped me on the street and told me to come here, behind the Kabanovs' garden, where the path is.
K u d r i sh. Who would it be?
B o r and s. Listen, Curly. Can I talk to you to your heart's content, won't you chat?
K u d r i sh. Speak up, don't be afraid! All I have is dead.
B o r and s. I know nothing here, neither your orders, nor your customs; and the thing is...
K u d r i sh. Did you love who?
B o r and s. Yes, Curly.
K u d r i sh. Well, that's nothing. We are loose about this. Girls walk around as they want, father and mother do not care. Only the women are locked up.
B o r and s. That's my grief.
K u d r i sh. So did you really love a married woman?
B o r and s. Married, Curly.
K u d r i sh. Eh, Boris Grigorievich, stop the nasty!
B o r and s. It's easy to say quit! It may not matter to you; you leave one and find another. And I can't! If I love...
K u d r i sh. After all, that means you want to ruin her completely, Boris Grigoryevich!
B o r and s. Save, Lord! Save me, Lord! No, Curly, how can you. Do I want to kill her! I just want to see her somewhere, I don't need anything else.
K u d r i sh. How, sir, to vouch for yourself! And after all here what people! You know. They will eat them, they will hammer them into the coffin.
B o r and s. Oh, don't say that, Curly, please don't scare me!
K u d r i sh. Does she love you?
B o r and s. Don't know.
K u d r i sh. Did you see each other when or not?
B o r and s. I once only visited them with my uncle. And then I see in the church, we meet on the boulevard. Oh, Curly, how she prays if only you looked! What an angelic smile on her face, but from her face it seems to glow.
K u d r i sh. So this is young Kabanova, or what?
B o r and s. She is Curly.
K u d r i sh. Yes! So that's it! Well, we have the honor to congratulate!
B o r and s. With what?
K u d r i sh. Yes, how! It means that things are going well for you, if you were ordered to come here.
B o r and s. Is that what she said?
K u d r i sh. And then who?
B o r and s. No, you're kidding! This cannot be. (Grabs his head.)
K u d r i sh. What's wrong with you?
B o r and s. I'm going crazy with joy.
K u d r i sh. Botha! There is something to go crazy! Only you look - don’t make trouble for yourself, and don’t get her into trouble either! Suppose, even though her husband is a fool, but her mother-in-law is painfully fierce.

Barbara comes out of the gate.

The same Varvara, then Katerina.

V a r v a ra (at the gate he sings).

Across the river, behind the fast one, my Vanya walks,
My Vanyushka is walking there ...

K u dr i sh (continues).

The goods are purchased.

(Whistling.)
VARVARA (goes down the path and, covering his face with a handkerchief, goes up to Boris). You boy, wait. Expect something. (Curly.) Let's go to the Volga.
K u d r i sh. Why are you taking so long? Wait for you more! You know what I don't like!

Varvara hugs him with one arm and leaves.

B o r and s. It's like I'm dreaming! This night, songs, goodbye! They walk hugging. This is so new to me, so good, so fun! So I'm waiting for something! And what I'm waiting for - I don't know, and I can't imagine; only the heart beats and every vein trembles. I can’t even think of what to say to her now, it takes her breath away, her knees bend! That's when my stupid heart boils suddenly, nothing can calm it down. Here goes.

Katerina quietly descends the path, covered with a large white shawl, her eyes downcast on the ground.

Is that you, Katerina Petrovna?

Silence.

I don't know how to thank you.

Silence.

If only you knew, Katerina Petrovna, how much I love you! (Tries to take her hand.)
KATERINA (with fright, but without raising her eyes). Don't touch, don't touch me! Ahah!
B o r and s. Do not get angry!
K a t e r i n. Get away from me! Go away, damned man! Do you know: after all, I will not beg for this sin, I will never beg! After all, he will lie like a stone on the soul, like a stone.
B o r and s. Don't chase me!
K a t e r i n a. Why did you come? Why did you come, my destroyer? After all, I'm married, because my husband and I live to the grave!
B o r and s. You told me to come...
K a t e r i n a. Yes, you understand me, you are my enemy: after all, to the grave!
B o r and s. I'd rather not see you!
KATERINA (with emotion). What am I cooking for myself? Where do I belong, you know?
B o r and s. Calm down! (Takes them by the hand.) Sit down!
K a t e r i n a. Why do you want my death?
B o r and s. How can I want your death when I love you more than anything in the world, more than myself!
K a t e r i n a. No no! You ruined me!
B o r and s. Am I a villain?
KATERINA (shaking her head). Lost, ruined, ruined!
B o r and s. God save me! Let me die myself!
K a t e r i n a. Well, how did you not ruin me, if I, leaving the house, go to you at night.
B o r and s. It was your will.
K a t e r i n a. I have no will. If I had my own will, I would not go to you. (Raises her eyes and looks at Boris.)

A little silence.

Your will is over me now, can't you see! (Throws herself around his neck.)
BORS (embracing Katerina). My life!
K a t e r i n a. You know? Now I suddenly want to die!
B o r and s. Why die if we live so well?
K a t e r i n a. No, I can't live! I already know not to live.
B o r and s. Please don't say such words, don't make me sad...
K a t e r i n a. Yes, you feel good, you are a free Cossack, and I! ..
B o r and s. No one will know about our love. Can't I pity you?
K a t e r i n a. E! Why feel sorry for me, no one is to blame - she herself went for it. Don't be sorry, kill me! Let everyone know, let everyone see what I'm doing! (Hugs Boris.) If I'm not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment? They say it's even easier when you endure for some sin here on earth.
B o r and s. Well, what to think about it, since we are good now!
K a t e r i n a. And then! Think about it and cry, I still have time at my leisure.
B o r and s. And I was frightened; I thought you would drive me away.
KATERINA (smiling). Drive away! Where is it! With our heart! If you hadn't come, I think I would have come to you myself.
B o r and s. I didn't know that you love me.
K a t e r i n a. I love for a long time. As if to sin you came to us. When I saw you, I didn't feel like myself. From the very first time, it seems that if you had beckoned me, I would have followed you; even if you go to the ends of the world, I would follow you and not look back.
B o r and s. How long has your husband been away?
Katerina. For two weeks.
B o r and s. Oh, so we walk! Time is enough.
K a t e r i n. Let's take a walk. And there ... (thinks) how they will lock it up, here is death! If they don't lock me up, I'll find a chance to see you!

Enter Kudryash and Varvara.

The same, Kudryash and Varvara.

V a r v a r a. Well, did you get it right?

Katerina hides her face in Boris's chest.

B o r and s. We did it.
V a r v a r a. Let's go for a walk, and we'll wait. When necessary, Vanya will shout.

Boris and Katerina leave. Curly and Varvara sit down on a rock.

K u d r i sh. And you came up with this important thing, to climb into the garden gate. It is very capable for our brother.
V a r v a r a. All I.
K u d r i sh. To take you to it. And the mother is not enough?
V a r v a r a. E! Where is she! It won't hit her in the forehead either.
K u d r i sh. Well, for sin?
V a r v a r a. Her first dream is strong; here in the morning, so he wakes up.
K u d r i sh. But how do you know! Suddenly, a difficult one will lift her.
V a r v a r a. Well, so what! We have a gate that is from the yard, locked from the inside, from the garden; knock, knock, and so it goes. And in the morning we will say that we slept soundly, did not hear. Yes, and Glasha guards; just a little, she will now give a voice. You can't be without fear! How is it possible! Look, you're in trouble.

Curly takes a few chords on the guitar. Varvara lies close to Kudryash's shoulder, who, not paying attention, plays softly.

V a r v a r a (yawning). How would you know what time it is?
K u d r i sh. The first.
V a r v a r a. How much do you know?
K u d r i sh. The watchman beat the board.
V a r v a r a (yawning). It's time. Shout out. Tomorrow we will leave early, so we will walk more.
K u drya sh (whistles and sings loudly).

All home, all home
And I don't want to go home.

B o r and s (behind the scenes). I hear!
V a r v a r a (gets up). Well, goodbye. (Yawns, then kisses coldly, as if he had known him for a long time.) Tomorrow, look, come early! (Looks in the direction where Boris and Katerina went.) If you say goodbye, you won’t part forever, see you tomorrow. (Yawns and stretches.)

Katerina runs in, followed by Boris.

Kudryash, Varvara, Boris and Katerina.

K a terina (Varvara). Well, let's go, let's go! (They go up the path. Katerina turns around.) Farewell.
B o r and s. Till tomorrow!
K a t e r i n a. Yes, see you tommorow! What do you see in a dream, tell me! (Approaches the gate.)
B o r and s. Certainly.
K u d r i sh (sings to the guitar).

Walk, young, for the time being,
Until evening until dawn!
Ay leli, for the time being,
Until evening until dawn.

V a r v a r a (at the gate).

And I, young, for the time being,
Until morning until dawn,
Ay leli, for the time being,
Until morning until dawn!

They leave.

K u d r i sh.

How the dawn started
And I got up home ... and so on.