Aleksandr Ostrovsky의 희곡 The Storm과
The Forest에 나타난 상징의 환경적 배경
柳英均*
THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT OF THE SYMBOLS AS SHOWN IN ALEKSANDR OSTROVSKY'S PLAYS THE STORM AND THE FOREST
Ryu, Yung-kyun
Contents |
|
1. Introduction |
6.
Religious Background |
1. INTRODUCTION
The Storm(1860) has a great thematic affinity with Ostrovsky's much later play The Forest(1871). The affinity we find in these two plays is perhaps greater than any other two plays written by Ostrovsky. Both plays have titles that symbolically represent the central theme. The title functions, in both cases, as the window to look into the depth of the play's symbolic implications.
F. D. Reeve defines this symbol of thunderstorm in The Storm as 'a poetic symbol of a total attitute."1 Thus, he differentiates this particular symbol from what he calls "a dramatic symbol of a total action or complete plot."
It is, in its
dramatic function, not like the pistols in Hedda Gabler2 and Uncle Vanya.3 it
is not like the birds in The Wild Duck4 and The Sea Gull5 either. It is obviously
not a dramatic device to enhance the plot development, nor is it something the
characters symbolically identify themselves with in the context of the play.
This symbol of the thunderstorm here is closer in its nature to the cherry orchard
in The Cherry Orchard or to the forest in Uncle Vanya:
_____________________
*문리학부 영어영문학과 전임강사
1) F.D. Reeve (ed.), Nineteenth Century
Russian Plays (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1973) Introduction p. 18.
2) Henrik Ibsen, Four major Plays (ed.) John Grube (New York: Airmont Publishing
Co., Inc., 1966) Act IV pp.217-18.
3) Anton Chekhov, Chekhov: The Major Plays. trans. Ann Dunnigan (New York: New
American Library, 1964) Act III p. 218.
4) Ibsen, Act V pp.150-151.
5) Chekhov, The Sea Gull Act II pp.131-32.
it is the symbol of the play itself. It could likely be called an atmospheric symbol since it represents the general atmosphere of the play. It sets up the overall mood of the play. It suggests allusively what the play is about.
In the case of The Forest, the symbol of the forest has in its function a much greater affinity to those symbols in the two plays mentioned above. Reeve explains this as "something that we, in the audience, appropriate as the general representation of the central conflict."
What is then the central conflict this thunderstorm represents in The Storm? In a broader sense, the central conflct implicit in this symbol is the conflict between men and nature. The conflict is established by contrasting two hypothetically opposing worlds--the mystical virgin world of nature and the corrupt and disintegrated human society that goes against it. Two images are projected here as representing the world of nature intact from degradation of human society--thunderstorm and the Volga. Infused with Christian mysticism of primitive Russia, these two natural elements bear profound symbolic implications.
Contrary to this, the symbol of the forest in The Forest shows different perspective in terms of its symbolic context. Rather than the conflict between men and nature, the imagery we get from the play is a picture of gradual and unmistakable degeneration of both men and nature. In The Storm, Ostrovsky contrasts men's degeneration against the primitive, intact, and mystical beauty of nature. In The Forest, however, he draws a parallel between the predatory jungle of the forest and the avaricous human jungle of a fictitious Russian town Kalinov. Thus, we find in The Forest that human society is part of a basically evil, perverse, and predatory universe of nature.
On the other hand, the predominant symbolic implication we find in The Storm is that nature and men are two separate incompatible entities that refuse to interact and harmonize with each other. It is the very reason why Kuligin, a man of foresight who also happens to have a strong belief in old-time Russia, is projected to us as such a pathetic, ineffectual, and self-contradictory character.6 His eulogy of nature -- the natural beauty of the river Volga presented here as the symbol of Old Russian values-- his scientific knowledge which forebodes the upcoming era of enlightenment never find a way to be blended together. In fact, these two elements inherent in his character -- his conviction of Old Russian values and his scientific insight-- can by no means be compatible with each other in such a hopeless "Kingdom of Darkness" depicted by Ostrovsky.
_______________
6) Reeve(ed.) The Storm Act IV pp.359-63
II. ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT AND HIS WORKS
Alexandr Nikolaivich Ostrovsky(1823-1886), a Russian dramatist, was born in Moscow on April 12, 1823. He studies law at the University of Moscow from 1840 to 1843. However, he left school before qualifying after a dispute with university authorities. He spent the next five years as a clerk in the Moscow Juvenile and Commercial Courts. The experience he had in these five years of work in the courts gave him considerable insight into the dark side of human relations and the attitudes of Moscow's merchant community. In 1851, he left the court and from then on devoted himself to literature and theatre. He first came into prominence in 1848 as the author of The Bankrupt, and outspoken commentary on the faked bankruptcy of certain commercial magnates. After this, Ostrovsky wrote a number of historical plays, a fairly-play which served as the basis for the libretto of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow-Maiden, and finally a series of realistic contemporary satires by which he best known. But the best-known of Ostrovsky's plays outside his own country is The Storm, a study of religious intolerance. It depicts Russian merchant-class life in a small fictional town name Kalinov in the mid-nineteenth century. In this town located on the banks of the Volga, Katerina, a young girl of religious, mystical, and poetic nature, is married to Tikhon, the son of Mme. Kabanova, a rich domineering merchant's widow who runs the lives of her children. Unable to oppose their mother, Tikhon tries to escape through drinking, and his sister Varvara through secret flirtations. Katerina becomes infatuated with Boris Grigoryevich, a man she has seen only in church. He is a nephew of the town's leading merchant Dokoy, who is a tyrant to his workers and his family. Boris is dependent on his uncle's whims for his inheritance. Discovering Katarina's infatuation, the spirited Varvara arranges a meeting between her and Boris. After a brief encounter they fall deeply in love, but Katerina, distraught with guilt, confesses to her family. As a result, Boris is to be sent away by his uncle and Katerina becomes more than ever the victim of Mme. Kabanova. Realizing that Boris will not take her with him and that Tikhon, though he forgives her, cannot oppose his mother, Katerina drowns herself in the Volga. The special problem and position of women in merchantile Russian society are portrayed here by Ostrovsky in a powerful tragedy of Katerina who could never have a chance to oppose Mme. Kabanova, a willful and utterly despotic character.
Such an absurdly domineering character type is also in The Forest, one of Ostrovsky's major comedies. The Forest is a comedy about Raisa Gurmyzhsky, a hypocritically pious old woman who enjoys running other people's lives under the guise of doing good. She has taken in Aksinya, a poor young niece, and wants her to marry Bulanov, a worthless young man to whom she herself has taken fancy. Aksinya loves Pyotr, but his father, Vosmibratov, demands a dowry of 3,000 rubles. Aksinya's problem is solved by Neschastlivtsev, a wandering actor and nephew of Raisa. He collects 1,000 rubles from his aunt and gives it to Aksinya: Vosmibratov accepts it as her dowry. Raisa decides to marry Bulanov, and Neschastlivtsev leaves, content with having done one good deed in his life. In this play, ostrovsky depicts the rich as the real actors in life and actors themselves as the only truly alive, fully human, beings. The major premise of the play is 'the world is a stage.' By creating the two traveling actors Neschastlivtsev and Schastlivtsev, Ostrovsky attempts to add some touch of saving grace to the gloomy and hopeless world in which petty tyrants, bred on superstition, ignorance, and cruelty, victimize their families and people around them.
3. THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS
The world of Ostrovsky's drama is often depicted as "the kingdon of darkness" since Russian critic N. A. Dobrolyubov coined the phrase for his article The Kingdom of Darkness. In most of his dramatic works, Ostrovsky mercilessly exposed the seamy side of 19th century Russian society. Indeed, we see in his plays a world of darkness - a world dominated by superstitition, ignorance, and cruelty.
Ostrovsky's most successful portrayals were those of "samodurs" (willful, absurdly despotic, intellectually and morally limited egotists) who did as they pleaseed and trampled on human dignity and freedom. Juxtaposed with the descriptions of natural beauty as the background, Ostrovsky sets up this degraded world of samodurs as what disrupts the law of nature. This kingdom of darkness has its foundation on the uncompromising desire of samodurs to attain pleasure and power by any means.
Social conventions, religious institutions, and family system are mercilessly exploited by human greed for money, power and lust. They are also manipulated by these samodurs in their efforts to rationalize such self-indulgence. What we see here is a stopped-up world where human stupidity and evil are built up so much that it is almost on the verge of a final explosion.
This peculiar world of Ostrovsky's drama can best be represented analogously by an image of a little puddle in a deserted land which hasn't been blessed by rain for a good while. The water in the puddle is already getting rotten as metabolism in it is getting stagnated. Yet, in this stagnant and decaying world, there are all kinds of little lives struggling to survive. Those samodurs can be compared to bigger fly who prey upon small lives in the puddle. The more these samodurs struggle in this puddle where the blessing of nature is suspended, the muddier they end up making its water.
Judging from the play's symbolic context, the retrogression of the human race from the primeval state of nature is what ultimately drives the heroine Katerina into the tragic end of jumping into the river. In such a hopeless situation, a storm can certainly be a blessing. Yet, even after the frequent and vociferous thunder, the storm doesn't come. Completely pounded by her moral storm, the only alternative left for Katerina is death. She plunges herself into the Volga river so that she finally becomes one entity with nature--the only possible solution for her to mitigate the rage of nature in such a treacherously perverse and evil human world.
4. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF OSTROVSKY'S SYMBOLS
In The Forest, this kingdom of darkness is represented in the symbolic image of the forest as well as in Ostrovsky's ingenious depiction of samodur characters. We realize here that the symbolism implicit in Ostrovsky's plays has its root more deeply in the time-hornored tradition of ancient Russia. James H. Billington's interpretive history of Russian culture The Icon and the Axe explains clearly that this symbolic image of the forest is not an invention of ostrovsky's own imagination but the one deeply imprinted in the Russian people's sense of spiritual intimacy with natural forces (perhaps best shown in Russian folklore or icons). Billington allots an entire chapter titled The Forest to the discussion of this forest image embedded in Russian culture.
According to his book, there was an important shift of the cultural and political center in Russia during the Mongol overlordship (1240-1480). This shift of power was made from the declining Kievan Russia sheltered around the river Dnieper to Moscow in the upper Volga region. Considering the geographical zones of Russia, the center of Russia's political power moved from the Dnieper surrounded mostly by the steppe to the upper Volga of the dense and marshy forest.
Just as the off-stage sound of an axe marks the end of Imperial Russia in Chehkov's Cherry Orchard, Ostrovsky's forest is being deforested by Madame Gurmyzhskaya's greed and hypocricy to mark the beginning of the degradation of the Old Russian tradition. This image of forest as allegoric to traditional Russian life is also found in Tolstoy's work Three Deaths: "The felled tree goes to its death more gracefully than dying man." In the light of this, it is an interesting fact that Tolstoy requested in his will to have a fresh green sapling planted over his grave. People who opposed revolution as the answer to Russia's problems (Old Believers and Slavophiles) often did so by playing back the old theme of the ravished forest eventually triumphing over the axes of men.
5. THE PHYSICAL SETTING OF HIS WORKS
The Storm (1860) takes place in a fictional town of Kalinov in the upper Volga region. As we discussed above, this physical setting of the play in the upper Volga area has an implication that goes even beyond the play's context in the light of the tradition of Russian culture. It is, therefore, also significant to note that Ostrovsky uses this same town as the physical background of his thirtieth original play The Forest (1871) published eleven years later. In both plays, the town Kalinov is depicted as the closed-off world of primitive, ignorant, self-indulgent, and spiritually corrupted people, which characterizes the backwardness of medieval Russian society.
Equally significant is the fact that the Volga was frequently referred to as "Mother of Russia" in Russian folk songs. As the largest and longest river in Russia (its main stream extends 2,293 miles) and even in Europe, the Volga well deserves being the mother image to Russian people. It was indeed --and still is-- the cradle of Russia that nourishes the Russian civilization.
6. RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND
Billington also mentions the important role of the icon in traditional Russian scenes. The icon screen can best be understood as the simplest method of making primitive believers familiar with the intricacies of a religion whose doctrinal complexities have been considered as beyond comprehension for the simple-minded and boorish Russian people. Thus, Christianity introduced to Russia was merely super-imposed upon the original amimalism of primitive Russian people and their fear of such natural elements as fire, forest, river and other aspects of nature. In this sense, the Russian conversion to Christianity was no more than nomimal. The threat of eternal damnation was one of the key doctrines that helped rivet people to the authority of the Church. Katerina's extraordinary reaction when she sees the icon painting on the cave wall -the Gehenna of Fire- could be best understood in this aspect.
7. PREDATORY SAMODURS IN THE RUSSIAN CONTEXT
Billington discusses, in Chapter Five of his book, the predators in peasant folklore of Russia. His discussion is so much illuminating to the symbolic context of Ostrovsky's plays--especially The Forest--that I decided it is worth quoting the entire paragraph that concerns me the most in my attempt to understand the symbolic context of his plays:
"The final conquest and colonization of southern Russia in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century has swollen the ranks of the peasant population; and the image of the steppe began to replace the more northerly image of the forest in the Russian imagination. There were two major forms that life of the average peasant. There was vegetable life, free from striving, passively accepting whatever nature sends. There was also the life of predators -- the insects, rodents, ponies from Mongolia, and grain collectors from the cities. Passive, vegetable existence was in many ways the peasant ideal; but many of the Russian peasants transformed themselves into predators through one of those metamorphoses in which peasant folklore abounds. Nothing was more brutal than the peasant who had become a landowner or state official. For he was a new and particularly hungry predator who knew the secrets of the vegetable kingdom: where the deep roots of the plants were kept, and how the silent vegetables managed to survive eldless atttacks from avaricious nomads. Many peasants secretly aspired to join the ranks of the predators; and when authority weakened or a prophet appeared, many seemingly happy vegetables suddenly turned into rabid animals. Many peasants went through the more peaceful form of metamorphosis which changed them into wealthy peasants who came to be designated by the Russian word for 'fist,' kulak." (The Icon and the Axe by J. H. Billington, Chapter Five, pp. 361-362)
8. CONCLUSION
The symbols in Ostrovsky's drama are deeply embedded in the milieu of Russian society. They are closely associated with historical, cultural, religious, and geographical aspects of Russia. Therefore, I have attempted in this article by examining literature on the subjects related to those particular aspects to look closely into the implications inherent in the symbols shown through two of Ostrovsky's major dramatic works The Storm and The Forest.
I have also pointed out that ostrovsky's symbols are 'atmospheric' ones intended not only to represent the general atmosphere of his plays but also to reflect symbolically the social milieu of the time in the late 19th century of Russia. Through such ingenious means, Ostrovsky mercilessly exposed the seamy side of Russian society depicting the bourgeoise, the merchants, landlords, and officials. He successfully revealed their hypocrisy and cynicism, their cruel morals and despotism, their commercial robbery and the oppression of human personality under the mask of charity and religion, their cynical family relationship, their stupidity and ignorance, and as a whole the moral disintegration of a life primarily motivated by greed for money. The world in which these samodurs live in is indeed a hopeless 'kingdom of darkness.'
The image of the forest as presented in Ostrovsky's drama is anlogous to our world--a world like a jungle full of predatory beasts. The problem lies in that this jungle of predators is getting stagnated as the metabolism in it no longer works out the way it should. Like the storm in King Lear, the image of the thunderstorm is meant to enlighten us from the pitch-black darkness of ignorance and to offer us a cathartic effect of getting liberated from such a hopelessly stopped-up situation.
Such a 'symbolic realism' we find in Ostrovsky's drama is, however, not the reality of life. However successfully it may be presented, we as the audience still need to make-believe a 'real' situation, a 'reality' analogous to life's. Ostrovsky was obviously successful in creating such a reality--what we call 'a theatrical reality'-- by employing those particular symbols that have long been deep-rooted parts of the social milieu of Russia.
參考文獻
1. F. D. Reeve (ed.), Nineteenth Century Russian Plays, W. W. Norton & Company, New York 1973.
2. Georg Brandes, Impressions of Russia, Thomasy Crowell Company, new York, 1966.
3. Phyllis Hartnoll (ed.), The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, Oxford University press, London, 1951.
4. J. H. Billington, The icon and the Axe, New York, 1969.
5. D. Magarshack (tr.), The Storm, and Other Russian Plays, New York, 1960.
6. Nikolai A. Gorchakov, The Theatre in Soviet Russia, translated by Edgar Lehrman, Columbia University Press, New York, 1963.
7. John Gassner (ed.), A Treasury of the Theatre, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1967.
8. Marc Slonim, Russian Theatre from the Empire to the Soviet, World Publishing Company, Cleveland, 1961.
9. B. V. Varnecke, History of the Russian Theatre, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1951.
10. Stark Young (tr.), Best Plays by Chekhov, The Modern Library, College Editions, Random House, Inc., New york, 1956.
11. Ann Dunnigan (tr.), Chekhov: The Major Plays, A Signet Classic, The New American Library, Inc., New York, 1964.
國文要約
문학중에서도 특히 희곡문학에서는 거의 에외없이 한 작품 전체가 그 작품이 궁극적으로 나타내고자 하는 아이디어를 일관성을 유지하는 단일한 상징적 구조를 통해 표현하고 있다. 그런 의미에서 본다면 한편의 흭곡작품은 그 자체가 바로 우리 현실을 반영하는 하나의 상징이라고 할 수 있다. 희곡작품을 읽을 때 그 작품이 지닌 상징적 구조를 파악함으로써 하나의 명확한 심상(心象)을 우리 마음속에서 그릴 수 있게 되고 그러한 [틀]을 통해서 우리는 그 작품이 지니고 있는 분위기나 아이디어를 보다 분명하고 쉽게 이해할 수 있게 되는 것이다.
하나의 아이디어가 뚜렷한 형태를 지니고 부각되어질 수 있게 하기 위해 희곡작가는 여러 가지 제반 요소들을 선별하여 구성함으로써 하나의 조화된 [틀]을 만들고 이를 통하여 집약적이고 함축성있는 의미를 창조해 내고자 애쓴다. 희곡작품에서 표현하려는 아이디어의 [틀]을 이루는 가장 중요한 요소가 바로 상징(imagery 혹은 symbol)이다.
본문에서는 Ostrovsky의 희곡작품에 나타나는 상징들이 다른 희곡들에서 흔히 보는 바와 같이 줄거리의 전개를 돕거나 극중인물의 갈등을 간접적으로 표현하는 가능적인 면을 지닐뿐만 아니라 더 나아가서 작품ㄷ전체의 분위기나 주제를 보다 포괄적으로 나타내주는 시적이며 총체적인 상징들이라는 점을 지적하였다.
Ostrovsky의 상징들이 이렇듯 포괄적이고도 깊은 함축성을 갖게 되는 이유로서는 이들이 단순히 극적효과를 높이기 위해 극작가가 임의로 창조해낸 기능적인 상징들이 아나라 오랜 세월동안 러시아의 제반 생활환경속에 깊이 뿌리를 내리고 잠재해온 전통의 일부분이라는 점을 들지 않을 수 없다. 이들 상징들이 갖는 함축성을 보다 구체적으로 깊숙히 파헤쳐보는 것이 Ostrovsky의 작품속에 답긴 상징성을 제대로 이해하는 지름길리라고 판단되어 참고자료가 부족한 실정이나마 몇몇 문헌들을 통해 러시아의 역사, 문학, 지리, 종교 등 제반분야에서 이 글의 주제와 관련되는 사실들을 찾아내어 Ostrovsky의 희곡에 나타난 상징들이 어떠한 환경적 배경을 갖고 있나 살펴보았다.