Two Katerinas from Aleksandr Ostrovsky's The Storm and Nikolai Leskov's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk: not as Similar as They Seem

Two Katerinas, two lives, two tragedies… These heartbreaking words about two characters of Russian literature: Katerina Kabanova from Aleksander Ostrovsky’s The Storm, and Katerina Ismailova from Nikolai Leskov’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. These women go through the most difficult trials in their lives. They have such hard fates due to coincidence, but they determine own destinies by their decisions. Katerinas represent two origins of the female tempers which are completely opposite, however, their depictions are eternal and are not tied to the era. Although many literary critics support the opinion that these two women have almost the same nature, the analysis of their behavior and tempers will show that two Katerinas are completely different women with a similar fate.

Katerina Kabanova, the main character of Alexander Ostrovsky's The Storm, is a young, intelligent, kind and open-minded person. Her parents raised her in love and freedom. She marries Tihon Kabanov not for love, so she is deeply unhappy. Her Mother-in-law – ruthless and evil Kabaniha – is constantly hurting defenseless Katerina. Tihon has not even stood up for his wife; moreover, he often offends her. One day, Katerina falls in love with young attractive Boris. She secretly meets with him several times while her husband is out of the city. Subsequently, she cheats with him on her husband. Katerina cannot lie about that, but Boris does not share her feelings and leaves the city, but does not take her with him, despite all her pleas. The woman decides to tell Tihon the truth about her adultery, but coincidentally all citizens hear her confession. Unable to bear the suffering, Katerina throws herself into the Volga River.

Another character, Katerina Ismailova from Nikolai Leskov’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, marries Zinoviy, who is constantly engaged in the work. The husband is infertile, but he and his father blame Katerina in childlessness. All this time she lives under their pressure. Katerina falls in love with the young handsome Sergey soon, who has tried to get her attention for a long time. Gradually, her passion turns into desire and obsession, and lovers spend the night together. The woman is ready for everything for her beloved. To be happy, Katerina poisons the father-in-law, then together with Sergey kills her husband, and then strangles with a pillow juvenile nephew Fedya who could have challenged her rights to inheritance. After all, they are caught, and Sergey confesses in all deeds, though Katerina denies everything for the sake of her beloved. She does not know that her beloved has betrayed her. Murderers are sent to exile to Siberia. Sergey instantly loses his interest to Katerina and begins an affair with the new lover, Sonetka. He even ridicules his ex-paramour l’s feelings. Katerina who feels as completely devastated soul throws herself and Sonetka to the cold waters of the Volga, where they die.

Their stories are absolutely unlike. Nevertheless, literary critics claim that similarities in characters’ fates are prominent. First, since marriage was considered as one of the most important aspects of women’s lives in the 19th century, and both women came from poor families, characters are challenged to marry up so not to be a burden for their parents. That is, both Katerina Kabanova and Katerina Ismailova had a joyful childhood, and they didn’t think that something would change after marriage. Conversely, things did not go as they hoped, so women yearn for their previous life. In addition, Katerinas live in the merchant houses, where they are bored, and childlessness aggravates tense situation in the family. They have the same reasons to marry up: the lack of money in the family and the parents' pressure. Also, two Katerinas had a similar gladsome childhood, which united them. Thus, these two women are highly alike in the way their stories develop. Even though some things, such as their similar life experience, made characters closer as two soul mates, they had more differences than similarities. It becomes noticeable by digging deeper into characters’ nature. As an illustration, both Katerinas fall in love with young men and decide to commit a sin – the adultery. Nevertheless, they show their love to paramours and express their feelings in two different ways. Specifically, Katerina Ismailova kills several people for her paramour, Sergey. She feels the passion for him because he makes her feel alive and young. She does everything for his pleasure and even goes to the murder of the child. On the contrary, after one “tet-a-tet” with Boris, paramour, Katerina Kabanova feels the torments of conscience. He is a passing infatuation, who has brought a lot of suffering to her character. Katerina regrets that she has succumbed to this fleeting passion because she realizes that it is not genuine love. Although both characters commit adultery, they show their feelings in different ways: passion has led one of them to the murder of innocent people.

Even more important, both Katerinas make the decision to die, but they have diverse causes. For example, after all Katerina Ismailova’s crimes, she and her paramour are sent to exile. It is hard for the woman to accept that her lover has used her for his own selfish purpose. Katerina realizes that Sergey is not her love and it was a big mistake for her. To avenge for his betrayal, Katerina throws herself and his new love, Sonetka, into the river. By contrast, Katerina from The Storm commits suicide because she wants to get rid of her horrible sin. She is brave enough to admit the adultery to her husband and then to jump off a cliff to the Volga River. Both characters decide to commit suicide, but one of them claims the life of another person.

Two Katerinas are completely different characters but with simultaneously the same stories. Both are in the same situation but make dissimilar decisions that determine their fates. One of them goes for the kill of several people, while another one is innocent and does not want to harm anyone. Katerinas have similar reasons to marry up and to commit the sin, but they have completely unlike ways of showing their feelings and dissimilar causes committing suicide. One throws herself to the river because she cannot live with the fact of her adultery, and the other one does it to take revenge on her paramour. Understanding these two origins of female tempers through their actions, which are mostly based on emotions, and behavior clarifies the significant differences between them, in spite of literary critics’ opinion.