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Role of Woman in Slavic Literature It is common knowledge, that in every culture, in every literature there are some aspects, characters, kinds of heroes it is notable for. Now I was given a task to speak about the role of woman in Slavic literature and I shall do that with pleasure as the literature of Slavic people is considered to be very rich on beautiful and deep characters. This literature is also notable for the role of woman it describes. Some great writers like Leo Tolstoy, Fedor Dostoyevsky, Oleksandr Pushkin and a ukrainian outstanding poet Taras Schevchenko created such woman representations, that everyone who read about them and drawer the heroines in his imagination would never forget that characters. They are beautiful and it is really so. Generally, there are some points, according to which one can start a talk about the womans role in Slavic literature.
Speaking about an Old Slavic literature, one can remember some telling's about Princess Olga. She had a great warrior esprit, courage and wisdom. This wise woman had, to my mind, also some violence, because a person, who is not violent can not have such power, as she had, rule over the country and kill her enemies. That is a part of a Slavic culture of that time if a ruler was man, his female relatives were also considered to be a part of a ruling group. Thus, in case of the death of a ruler they even could inherit the power of their man relative. Of course, if they wanted.
Once the Drevlians, a Slavic tribe which lived adjacently, cached and finally killed her husband, Prince Igor. After that they even wanted her to marry their ruler. As Olga ruled in Kiev, the ruler of the Drevlians in this way planned to move to Kiev too. Nothing was so simple as they thought as Princess Olga did not gave up.
Olga didnt forget about the tragical death of her beloved husband. She invented an horrible revenge for the Drevlians and turned it into reality. The Drevlians were burned alive. Thus, Olga ruled during next 27 years. It is said, that the best ruler must always be someone who knows how to rule. As Olga was a strong woman, who always knew what she wanted.
She became a ruler in a year 945 and moreover, she was the first woman ruler of Kievan Rus'. This legend could be found in an old chronicle which is called The Story of the ancient Times and is written by Nestor Litopisets in the XIIth century. By the way, touching upon the history of Slavic literature, it should be mentioned that a fact as such chronicles, called lycoris were an uncommon phenomenon for that times, because nowhere in Europe one could find anything alike. Of course, today there are a lot of discussions on the question of authenticity of this work, but still, it exists and tells us many historical facts. Moreover, Lytopis give us not only the facts, but the facts with an opinion and a description of the personal attitude to the event of an annalist himself.
Then, just talking about Russias history, it can be a depiction of a woman in Old Russia, in Russia in the Soviet times, Post-Soviet period, the depiction of woman character in Russian Folklore and so on. Talking about the life of Soviet woman it is necessary to outline, that it is not known much about that. Perhaps, only soviet people know that very good, but as far as it is seen they dont prefer to talk about that very much. However, I guess the life of a woman in such conditions and in such grave atmosphere as it was during the soviet period couldnt be good.
As in the past, the Russian political landscape has certainly not been good for life in general and a fortiori it couldnt be so for a simple woman, who wanted, like every normal person in this world, bring up her children, keep a peace and calm atmosphere in her house, love and be loved. I suppose it was horrible, but a soviet woman endured it. They must have a strange power, a power in their hearts and souls. That is a Slavic woman a person, strange by nature and very strong in life. Besides, like every woman she is a mother. I suppose it is almost impossible to talk about Russian literature without mentioning the period of XIXth century.
It is a well known fact, that the representation of a woman in literature is like a mirror of a social picture as it reflects legal and social attitudes toward a woman. The question of a womens role is a widely discussed one in the literature of this period. The topic was touched upon by Chernyshevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Chekhov and many others. But personally I liked most the plays of Ostrovsky.
I liked the language he used to open a tragedy of womans soul. The heroines of Ostrovsky are expressive and after reading his work once, his heroines continue to live in ones imagination and memory. First of all Ostrovsky expressed in them his dreams and hopes, comparing them with prejudices, passions and alterations of the whole country. It is possible to learn much about an personality of woman, her place and role in her family and society from Ostrovsky's plays. Friendly speaking, the plays of Ostrovsky seems to be a deep ocean, where one can lose in order to look for some answers on the questions of a soul. His plays are like the lessons, which are so necessary in our contemporary life.
The problems, the writer touched upon in the XIX century are still relevant. A life of any person cant be imagined beyond some society. The author makes us to imagine and to understand the social life of a woman of his time. In one of his works the author describes a provincial city Kalinov, where people lived in accordance with the old canons and religious rites. (Unlike it was in the capital with the progressing of absolutely new ideas there. ) The people live there aloofly, without having any idea about what is going on in the world. A circle of their interests is limited with the scopes of house keeping. The people seem to be placid, but really they have baleful thoughts.
They do not recognize a mans dignity. In such an abhorrent atmosphere the author creates a flower. Catherine is a young lady, whose inner life is beautiful. She loves liberty, she is a poetic and dreamy person. The world of her feelings and moods were formed in the parents' house, where she was surrounded with mothers care.
Catherine is a very fair person, so she is afraid to shoot down the husband even in her thoughts. She sincerely afraid's to do something like that. But it turns out, that the heart of her husband is like a peace of an ugly stone, her doesnt answer her feelings. Thus, Catherine turned her love to another person. His name is Boris and hi is unlike to everybody she have ever met before.
This Catherina's love was very powerful and finally it became the main part of her life. Here one can observe a strong conflict between a duty (she knows well, that it wouldnt be good to lie to her husband) and a new feeling. This breaks the destiny of her. Catherine is getting into conflict not only with a social sphere, but also with her own personality.
That is a real tragedy. Another work of Ostrovsky depicture's us almost the same atmosphere, but still, there is a little difference. A small provincial city called Bryakhimov seems to be as gloomy, as Kalinov was. There were nothing special among entertainments in Bryakhimov. But people just prefered to spend the time in the evening with drinking some tea and then to make a paseo. Among the people it was also very popular to visit the restaurants in the morning and to order champagne in a tea-pot.
Why in such manner? Well, just because the social opinion considered to be something very important and it was not very conventional to drink such beverages in the morning. So, nobody can say that civilized or just clear-minded people lived there. For a young girl there were only two things she should have to live in the society like this. So, a girl had to be able to entertain the guests and to have dowry. Of course, she also had to marry successfully.
If a girl didnt have some of these components, she had to wait for the happiness for a long-long time A main heroine, Larisa, is in the centre of the plot. Her soul estate is not interesting to those men, who surround her. It is said in the work, that she had never here good, pleasant words and never felt compassion. Nobody actually interested in communication with Larisa. The girl has no dowry and the men look at her only like on a good, which could be gifted.
Finally one of the men dies and an interesting and very important scene id describe. The man explains her that she is only a good, that she is just a good and nothing more. He is dying. Larisa understood, that in this life she is just a good. She comes it again for some times and the man shoots her. In such way dies a woman with a hot heart, who didnt find somebody worth being loved.
Well, how does the writer explore the role of woman as a wife? That is not a secret, that a social position of a woman depends completely from her role in family. A family is like a small alveoli of the society and the moods and the views of the people influence the atmosphere in the family. Ostrovsky, like a great psychologist, described different aspects of a family life.
He wanted to say many things to the reader, and, what is the most fantastic he said almost everything, he wanted to. Talking about the wife in the house, he wanted to outline the position of a wife. Frequently the wife does not have any rights. Before the marriage a girl could do what she want and go for a walk with everybody she wants. But after the marriage a girl belonged completely to one man husband, like Catherina did. Normally the wife was not supposed to lie to her husband, but the attitude to her was very strong and she automatically looses all her rights.
Practically, it must not be so, but, as one can say, the world is not perfect and sometimes it is possible to meet different strange things, no matter how bad or good for the humans dignity they are. Catherina is described to be a pretty girl with a clear mind and beautiful open soul. She was not able to lie. She simply did not know what is it. So, she was bringing up in a good family, saving all the best features of a russian character. Her eyes were full of pureness and opened and it was almost impossible to believe that such a person could have something so heavy on her mind.
In her last monologue Catherina said many important and strange things. It turned out, that during some time she just amassed in herself different emotions and, finally, couldnt help saying everything she thought of the world, of the society and on some concrete people that surrounded her. She said, that now everything seems nasty for her. In such moments one can see the despair the heroine emotes. These moments are fantastic they are not always very pleasant or happy, but open us something new, show us the life and some new aspects to it which we didnt know before. Catherina decided to cause herself a suicide.
She decided to do that in order to find a pacification. Talking so much about the women representations in Ostrovsky's creation, nothing was said about the mens role. Generally, looking through more that forty original plays of Ostrovsky, one shall make a conclusion, that practically, there are no good men representations. There are no heroes, who has a central place in some play. Instead of them Ostrovsky prefers to create beautiful heroines who love and suffer. There are two opinions: somebody say, that the author endued his heroines with weak characters, another people consider that, on the contrary, he depicted them as strong and violent individuals.
Really, Catherina and Larisa can be spoken about at the same time like weak and a very strong woman that can suffer everything. Both points of view have its pro et contra and both are right in its own way. What is more, as Slavic literature is often very deep intellectually, psychically, emotionally. It provokes us some kind of intellectual stimulation. And that is great! As far as I remember, when a person reads some book, the first thing the person expects is to receive some feelings and to emote.
Thus, if the person while reading received such emotions and feelings, a book was O. K. Moreover, after the books like these one always has some memories and that is fantastic, because at any time those memories can provoke new thoughts, feelings and minds. It will mean, that thanks to the book a person will have a lot of things to think about. Why is it so important?
Well, let us remember the words of Plato Cogito ergo sum.
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