Gun, pistol and daggers in the drama of A. N. Ostrovsky “The Dowerless Bride”

Abstract

The complex of “weapon” motives in the Ostrovsky drama “The Dowerless Bride” is considered. The relevance of the study is due to the lack of works that reveal the semantics of these elements of the playwright's artistic world. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that the weapon motives in the play “The Dowerless Bride” are analyzed systematically, taking into account their functioning in other texts of Ostrovsky. Particular attention is paid to the episodes of the play, in which the weapons motives are presented most concentrated and directly included in the development of the main plot - unhappy love and the death of the main character. In the course of the study, it was found that most of the motives considered in the drama have a unique semantics and are not found in other works of Ostrovsky. As the analysis of the drama “The Dowerless Bride” showed, the key characters in the play, guilty of the death of Larissa Ogudalova, are simultaneously conjoined with several weapon motives: Paratov - gun and pistol, Karandyshev - ax, pistol, dagger, and the final gesture of the heroine who picked up the pistol thrown by her killer, - a sign of her involvement in her own death, an indication of her willingness to share responsibility. The authors come to the conclusion that the interpretation of weapon motives makes it possible to significantly expand the existing understanding of the poetics and characterology of one of Ostrovsky's most famous plays.

Keywords

• «бесприданница»
• ostrovsky
• dramaturgy
• “the dowerless bride”
• the motive of the weapon
• pistol
• dagger
• murder
• suicidal behavior