Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district is the story of love and crimes of Katerina Izmailova. H

Character in "Lady Macbeth" Mtsensk district". A young childless merchant, languishing from idleness and boredom. Starts an affair with a clerk, kills his father-in-law, husband and young nephew. Later, on the way to hard labor, he commits suicide.

History of creation

Nikolai Leskov began working on the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" in 1864, and published it for the first time in the winter of 1865. The text was published in the literary and political journal Epoch, and the first version of the story differed significantly from the final one. After additional stylistic processing, the story ended up in a collection published in 1867.

The author himself spoke of the story as a gloomy sketch in strict colors, which depicts a passionate and strong female image. Leskov was going to create a cycle of texts where characteristics Russian women different estates. It was supposed to create another story about a noblewoman, about an old-world landowner, about a peasant schismatic and about a midwife.

Leskov was going to publish these texts in the Epoch magazine, but the magazine quickly closed. Probably, this was the reason that of all the planned texts for the cycle, only the first one was completed - “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”.

Plot

The main character is a young woman, a merchant. The appearance of the heroine emphasizes a passionate character - she has blue-black hair and white skin, black eyes.

The heroine lives in big house, Katerina's husband is rich and busy with work, constantly away. The heroine herself does not know what to do with herself, and languishes from boredom, loneliness and idleness within four walls. Katerina has no children due to the infertility of her husband. At the same time, both the husband and the father-in-law constantly reproach Katerina for the lack of offspring. Life in her husband's house does not bring satisfaction to the heroine.

The Izmailovs have a clerk Sergei, a young handsome man. Katerina becomes interested in him and becomes his mistress. A bored woman is seized by an unhealthy passion, she is ready for anything for her lover, including murder.

One day, circumstances develop in such a way that Katerina's father-in-law locks Sergei in the cellar. To save her lover, the heroine poisons her father-in-law. Then the lovers together kill Katerina's husband. Then the young nephew Fedor appears. The boy can lay claim to the inheritance that Katerina expects to get her hands on, and the heroine suffocates the child with a pillow.

The last murder does not get away with the heroine. At the moment when she is strangling the boy, a man looks into the window from the yard and sees this scene. A mob of angry people breaks into the house and grabs the killer. Then the results of the autopsy of the murdered boy appear, which confirm that the cause of death was strangulation.

During the investigation, Katerina's lover confesses to the crimes committed. Investigators inspect the basement of the Izmailovs' house and find the buried corpse of Katerina's husband there. The murderers are tried, then, according to the verdict, they are beaten with whips and sent to hard labor.

On the way to hard labor, the true nature of Sergei is revealed. Having lost her wealth, Katerina instantly ceases to be of interest to him. Among other prisoners going to hard labor, Sergei finds a new passion - Sonetka, and twists from that trick in front of former mistress. Sergei taunts Katerina, she falls into a state of passion and rushes from the ferry to the Volga, taking with him a new mistress of Sergei.

Critics compare Katerina Izmailova with the heroine of the play "Thunderstorm". There are many similarities between the characters. Both Katerinas are young women and merchants' wives, whose life takes place within four walls. Both are boring monotonous life as a burden, due to unfulfillment, women rush to extremes and become victims of love passions.

Critics see the difference between the heroines in the fact that Katerina from The Thunderstorm perceives her own love interest as a sin, while Katerina Leskova is seized by primitive passions, and the woman does not resist this. Katerina Izmailova, on the one hand, is a murderer, and on the other, a victim of the merchant environment and lifestyle, a woman with a sick soul. life path both heroines end in suicide in the same way.

Productions

The composer wrote an opera of the same name based on Leskov's story to his own libretto. The first performance took place in the Leningrad Small opera house in the winter of 1934 and lasted two and a half hours. The opera was then condemned and censored and for a long time was not set.

In 1966, the film-opera Katerina Izmailova was filmed in the USSR, based on a censored version of Shostakovich's opera. The role of Katerina was played by Opera singer. The original version of the opera was staged in London in 1978.

In 1962, a Polish film adaptation directed by Andrzej Wajda was released. The film is called "Siberian Lady Macbeth", the role of Katerina is played by Serbian actress Olivera Markovic. The filming location was Yugoslavia (now Serbia). The film features music from Shostakovich's opera.

In 1989, director Roman Balayan filmed the drama "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" with the role of Katerina Izmailova.

In 1994, a tape of joint Franco-Russian production was released. A film called "Moscow Nights" was shot by the director, and the actress played the role of Katerina. This is not a literal film adaptation, but a modern interpretation of the story.

Katerina works as a typist in this film. Heroine's employer famous writer and part-time mother-in-law of Katerina herself. One day, the mother-in-law sees that Katerina is tired, and offers to go together to relax at a dacha in the suburbs. The heroine's husband cannot go with them because of his busy schedule.

At the dacha, Katerina discovers Sergei, a furniture restorer who comes to work there. The heroine starts an affair with him. This becomes known to the mother-in-law, and the women quarrel. The mother-in-law becomes ill, and Katerina deliberately does not give that medicine, so that the woman eventually dies.

After the writer, there remains a just finished novel, which she was going to hand over to the publisher. The merry lovers study the manuscript and decide to rewrite the ending the way they like best. Meanwhile, Katerina's husband arrives, gets into a fight with his lover and dies as a result.

The restorer Sergei quickly cools down to Katerina and returns to his previous passion Sonya. Katerina surrenders to the authorities and asks to be sent to prison, but there is no material evidence, but only one oral story the heroine from the point of view of the investigator is not enough.

Returning home, Katerina finds Sergei and Sonya there. Former lover Came to collect my own passport. The heroine invites the young people to stay overnight and promises to give them a lift in the morning. In the morning, all three arrive at the pier. Katerina asks Sergei to get out and see what's wrong with the wheel, he gets out - and at that moment the woman presses on the gas, thus dumping the car along with herself and Sergei's new mistress into the water.

In 2016, British director William Oldroyd directed the drama film Lady Macbeth based on Leskov's story. Location - England II half of XIX century, and the heroine's name is Katherine. The girl was given in marriage, and she turned out to be a hostage of a stiff and unpleasant family. Katherine is not allowed out of the house, while her husband is not interested in her as a woman and treats the heroine with disdain. The husband and father-in-law constantly insult the heroine.

One day, when her husband is not at home, Katherine finds a disgusting scene in the backyard. Farm workers bully a black maid. Katherine intervenes in this scene and at the same time meets her husband's new employee, Sebastian. The heroine violates her husband's ban and walks around the neighborhood while he is away. During these walks, Katherine crosses paths with Sebastian, and one day he comes straight to her bedroom.

A love breaks out between young people, which all the servants know about. Then the husband's father returns to the house. There is a skirmish between him and Sebastian, and Katherine's father-in-law orders to lock up young man. Katherine finds out that her lover is locked up and goes to her father-in-law, demanding that he let Sebastian go, but in response she receives only a slap.

The next day, another skirmish occurs between Katherine and her father-in-law, and the heroine ends up locking him in a room and telling the servants not to let the owner out. Then Katherine releases her lover, and the fate of the father-in-law, who was locked up, remains unclear. From the dialogues of the characters it follows that he is dead.

Catherine's husband does not return home, and the heroine, feeling impunity, openly lives with Sebastian and orders him to be called the master of the house.

One night, her husband suddenly returns and takes Katherine out to clean water- she is cheating on him and it is not possible to hide it. A scuffle ensues, during which Katherine kills her husband with a poker. The lovers drag the corpse into the forest to feign the attack.

It is then revealed that the "missing" husband has a small relative and heir, the boy Teddy. This heir, together with his grandmother, moves into the house where Katherine lives. A series of plot twists and turns lead to the fact that Sebastian and Katherine kill the boy as well. Unable to bear this series of murders, Sebastian confesses everything to the investigator, who arrived to investigate the boy's death.

At the end of the film, the biography of the heroine makes sharp turn. Katherine puts the blame on her lover and maid Anna, while she herself remains unharmed and gets the house at her own disposal. The role of Katherine is played by actress Florence Pugh.

Quotes

“Katerina Lvovna lived a boring life in a rich mother-in-law's house for five whole years of her life with an unkind husband; but no one, as usual, paid her the slightest attention to this boredom.

“Katerina Lvovna, pale, almost not breathing at all, stood over her husband and lover; in her right hand there was a heavy cast candlestick, which she held by the upper end, with the heavy part down. On the temple and cheek of Zinovy ​​​​Borisych scarlet blood ran in a thin cord.

In the image of the most ordinary woman Katerina Lvovna, who comes from an ordinary, petty-bourgeois environment, the writer shows how a passionate feeling that has flared up completely transforms her and she rebels against the conventions of the world in which she had previously spent her whole life. From the very beginning of the essay, the author writes that Katerina's life in the house of her wealthy husband was extremely boring, the young woman was literally strangled by monotony and melancholy.

While still a very young and inexperienced girl, she was married to the merchant Zinovy ​​Borisovich, she never had any feelings for him, her parents gave Katerina in marriage only because this particular groom was the first to woo her, and they considered him a suitable party. Since then, a woman has actually been spending five years of her life in a dream, every day reminds the previous one up to a minute, she has no friends or even acquaintances, Katerina is increasingly seized by such longing, from which she literally wants to “choke herself”.

A woman dreams of a child, because with a baby in the house she will at least have something to do, joy, a goal, but in her dull marriage, fate never brings her children.

But after these five years, in the life of Katerina, an ardent love for the worker, her husband Sergei, suddenly arises. This feeling is considered to be one of the brightest and most sublime, but for Izmailova it becomes the beginning of her death and leads a too passionate and ardent woman to a sad ending.

Katerina, without hesitation, is ready for any sacrifices and violations of all moral norms for the sake of her dear person. A woman, without any remorse, kills not only her father-in-law and husband, who have long been disgusted with her, but also the boy Fedya, who has not caused any harm to anyone, an innocent and pious child. The all-consuming passion for Sergey destroys in Katerina the feeling of fear, compassion, mercy, because before they were inherent in her, like almost any representative of the weaker sex. But at the same time, it is this boundless love that gives rise to her previously unusual courage, resourcefulness, cruelty and the ability to fight for her love, for her right to constantly be with her beloved and get rid of any obstacles that prevent the fulfillment of this desire.

Sergei, Izmailova's lover, also appears as a man without any moral rules and principles. He is capable of committing any crime without hesitation, but not out of love, like Katerina. For Sergei, the motive for his actions is that he sees in this woman the opportunity to ensure a further comfortable existence for himself, because she is the wife and legitimate heiress of a wealthy merchant, coming from a higher, wealthy and revered class in society than himself. His plans and hopes really begin to come true after the death of his father-in-law and Katerina's husband, but another obstacle suddenly arises, a little nephew of a merchant named Fedya.

If before Sergey served only as an assistant in the murders, now he himself offers his mistress to get rid of the child, which remains the only obstacle for them. He inspires Katerina that in the absence of the boy Fedya and the birth of her child before the expiration of nine months after the disappearance of her husband, all the money of the late merchant will go entirely to them, and they will be able to live happily without any worries.

Katerina agrees with her lover, his words actually have a hypnotic effect on her, the woman is ready to do literally everything that Sergey wants. Thus, she turns into a real hostage of her feelings, a trouble-free slave of this man, although initially Izmailova occupies a more significant social status than her spouse's worker.

During the interrogation, Katerina does not hide the fact that she committed several murders solely for the sake of her lover, that her passion pushed her to such terrible deeds. All her feelings are focused only on Sergey, the born baby does not cause any emotions in her, the woman is indifferent to the fate of her child. Everything around is absolutely indifferent to Katerina, only a gentle look or a kind word from her beloved can have an impact on her.

On the way to hard labor, the woman notices that Sergei is clearly growing cold towards her, although she is still ready for anything, just to see him once again. However, the man feels deeply disappointed both in Katerina and in life in general, because he never achieved what he wanted, he will never have to see any wealth with the help of the merchant Izmailova. Sergei, without embarrassment, meets with the depraved Sonetka in front of his mistress, he openly showers Katerina with insults and humiliations, trying to take revenge on her for the fact that she, as he believes, broke his fate and completely ruined him.

When Katerina sees that her lover, for whom she sacrificed everything she had before, is flirting with another woman, her mind does not stand the test of cruel jealousy. She does not even understand the meaning of bullying by other prisoners, primarily Sonetka and Sergei, but they have a profound destructive effect on her already completely broken psyche.

Her victims appear before Katerina's mind, the woman is unable to move, speak, live on, almost unconsciously she decides to commit suicide in order to get rid of the unbearable torment that her whole existence has become. Without hesitation, she also kills Sonetka, believing that it was this girl who stole her lover from her. In their last minutes Katerina believes that she has nothing more to do in the world, because her love, the meaning of her life, is completely lost to her. Because of the boundless passion, the personality of a woman is completely destroyed, Katerina Izmailova becomes a victim of her own feelings and inability to manage them.

In this work by Leskov, such a character as Sergei does not cause me any doubt. In my opinion, he is a classic narc. All stages of his destructive behavior are clearly visible in his behavior from instant "intelligence" and "seduction" to "utilization" and "dance on the bones."

But such a character as Katerina Lvovna Izmailova arouses my interest in connection with the “sorting” of destructives that has emerged in our community.

Who is she? Inverted narcissist? Codependent? Or psychiatric?

First. Before contacting Sergei, she did not seem to have been seen in some impudent abuse. She married Zinovy ​​Borisovich against her will. In marriage, she walked around the yard, but she missed her. Out of boredom, I wanted to have a child, but it didn’t work out. Leskov has no mention of her malicious destructiveness.

Second. Everything changes as soon as she fell in love with Sergei. She does not feel any remorse for cheating on her husband. And in general, as if she lives one day, without thinking at all about what will happen when her husband returns from the trip.

Sergey, of course, these moods are warming her up. He obviously does not want to be just a clerk, he is aiming for the place of Katerina Lvovna's husband, and at the same time with Zinovy ​​Borisovich's money.

Third. The first victim of Katerina Lvovna's reckless love is her father-in-law, Boris Timofeevich. He ate mushrooms and died, as the rats in their barn died. And Katerina Lvovna herself was in charge of the poisoning.

He paid the price for beating her beloved Seryozhenka, and for threatening to tell everything to her husband and beat Katerina Lvovna herself.

Fourth. The second victim is the husband himself. Moreover, Katerina Lvovna herself becomes the organizer and inspirer of the murder. Seryozha only helps her in this.

Fifth. The third victim of Katerina Lvovna is the young nephew of her husband, Fyodor Lyamin.

Sergei only hints to the merchant that the presence of another heir is unpleasant for him. Katerina Lvovna herself conceived and took an active part in the murder. Again - if only her beloved Seryozhenka were well, if only he loved her as before.

Seryozha only held the boy, and Katerina Lvovna herself strangled him with a pillow.

Sixth. It turned out that a bunch of people are witnessing the murder of a nephew. Sergei also confesses to the murder of the merchant.

Katerina Lvovna immediately also confesses to the murder, since her beloved Seryozhenka so wants. And he refuses them common child, which can also be regarded as a kind of fourth victim. “Her love for her father, like the love of many too passionate women, did not pass any of its part to the child.”

Seventh. “However, for her there was no light, no darkness, no evil, no good, no boredom, no joys; she understood nothing, loved no one, and did not love herself. She looked forward only to the performance of the party on the road, where she again hoped to see her Seryozhka, and she forgot to even think about the child.

“A person gets used to every disgusting position as much as possible, and in each position he retains, as far as possible, the ability to pursue his meager joys; but Katerina Lvovna had nothing to adapt to: she sees Sergei again, and with him her hard labor blooms with happiness.

But at this time, the disposal of Katerina Lvovna is already in full swing. And she, trying to return Sergei's love, spends her pennies on dates with him and gives him her woolen stockings, which later go to Sergei's new passion - Sonetka.

Eighth. When Sergei begins to "dance on the bones", Sonetka becomes another victim. Katerina Lvovna drowned herself in it in the river. She did not harm Seryozhenka.

So who is she? Inverted or codependent?

And everything would not be so difficult if it were not for something resembling hallucinations.

The first is a dream or not a dream before the murder of Zinovy ​​Borisovich.

“Katerina Lvovna sleeps and doesn’t sleep, but only so she smears her, so her face is covered with sweat, and she breathes so hot and painful. Katerina Lvovna feels that it’s time for her to wake up; it’s time to go to the garden to drink tea, but she can’t Finally the cook came up and knocked on the door: "The samovar," she says, "is stalling under the apple tree." Katerina Lvovna rushed over with difficulty and caressed the cat. And the cat rubs between her and Sergei, so nice, gray, tall and fat, fat. .. and a mustache like that of a quitrent steward. Katerina Lvovna stirred in his fluffy fur, and he climbs up to her with a snout: he pokes his blunt muzzle into firm breasts, and he sings such a quiet song, as if he were talking about love with it. “And why else did this cat come here? - thinks Katerina Lvovna. - Here I put the cream on the window: without fail, he, the vile one, will spit it out from me. Drive him out, ”she decided and wanted to grab the cat and throw it away, but he, like fog, passes her fingers like that. “However, where did this cat come from? - Katerina Lvovna argues in a nightmare. “We never had a cat in the bedroom, but here you see what kind of climbed in!” She wanted to take the cat by hand again, but again he was gone. “Oh, what is it? That's enough, isn't it a cat? thought Katerina Lvovna. The shock suddenly seized her, and sleep and drowsiness completely drove her away. Katerina Lvovna looked around the room - there was no cat, only handsome Sergey and with his mighty hand presses her breast to his hot face.

“I overslept,” Katerina Lvovna said to Aksinya, and sat down on the carpet under a blossoming apple tree to drink tea. - And what is it, Aksinyushka, mean? - she tortured the cook, wiping the saucer herself with a tea towel. - What, mother?

So what is it? Dream or hallucinations?

And the second is a vision of the dead before her suicide.

“Katerina Lvovna did not stand up for herself: she looked more and more intently into the waves and moved her lips. Between Sergei's vile speeches, she heard a rumble and a groan from the opening and flapping shafts. And then suddenly, from one broken shaft, the blue head of Boris Timofeevich was shown to her, from another her husband looked out and swayed, embracing Fedya with his drooping head. Katerina Lvovna wants to remember the prayer and moves her lips, and her lips whisper: “how we walked with you, we spent the long autumn nights, escorted people out of the wide world with a fierce death.”

Katerina Lvovna was trembling. Her wandering gaze focused and became wild. Hands once or twice, it is not known where, stretched out into space and fell again. Another minute - and she suddenly swayed all over, not taking her eyes off the dark wave, bent down, grabbed Sonetka by the legs and in one fell swoop threw herself over the side of the ferry with her.

What do you think about such a character as Katerina Lvovna Izmailova?

Katerina Izmailova

KATERINA IZMAILOVA - the heroine of N.S. Leskov's story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (1864, the author's designation of the genre is an essay). No information about possible real prototypes K.I. not preserved. Most likely, Leskov, who worked for some time in the judicial criminal chamber, created this image using the materials of criminal cases. Giving his "essay" to the press, Leskov presented it as "the 1st issue of a series of essays exclusively of typical female characters our (Oka and part of the Volga) area. K.I., as Leskov wrote about her at the beginning of the story, “a merchant’s wife who played a once terrible drama, after which our nobles, with someone’s easy word, began to call her Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district.” The writer directly points to literary prototype K.I. is Lady Macbeth of W. Shakespeare. Both that, and another kill in aspiration to the purpose of those who hinder them; both perish under the weight of their crimes. However, unlike the prototype K.I. - a peasant woman who became a "merchant's wife"; in a blind passion for her lover, the clerk Sergei, she kills her husband and father-in-law, and then her nephew, goes to prison and hard labor, experiences all the bitterness of betrayal by her accomplice-lover, and in the finale drowns her rival Sonetka with her in the waters of an icy river. Perhaps Leskov, when creating the image of K.I. used English folk ballads, very popular in Russia XIX "Sw. In particular, the ballad "The Lord of Waristoun", which tells about a wife who killed her husband. The plot of the "essay" is largely built on the basis of the plots of the popular popular print in Russia "About a merchant's wife and a clerk".

K.I. became a symbol of Shakespearean passions on Russian soil: in her image, Leskov made an attempt to explore "rough and uncomplicated forms" in which "slavish obedience to one's passions and the pursuit of bad, unworthy goals in simple, soiled, unrestrained people" are manifested. In the character of the heroine, the pagan, bodily beginning is sharply opposed to the spiritual beginning. K.I. very strong physically, Leskov strongly emphasizes her "outlandish heaviness", bodily "excess". Spiritual requests of K.I. practically reduced to zero, which is further aggravated by “Russian boredom, boredom merchant's house, from which it is fun, they say, even hang on. The house has a Bible and the "Kiev Patericon" (the lives of saints and great martyrs Kievan Rus), but K.I. doesn't even open them. "Kyiv Patericon" Leskov attaches symbolic meaning- before his death, nephew K.I. Fedya reads in this patericon the life of "his angel"" Shv. great torment. Theodore Stratilates.

Flashed in K.I. passion for the clerk Sergei makes her "excessiveness" unfold to the fullest extent of her pagan strength. She begins to live, as it were, in accordance with the words of Macbeth: "I dare everything that a man dares, / And only a beast is capable of more." The actions committed by K.I. under the influence of this “pagan force”, at first they seem to not even cause much disgust (the first two victims of K.I. are unsympathetic characters), inevitably lead the heroine to a failure into “the worst evil”, to an absolute contradiction to Christianity. Leskov emphasizes all the horror and baseness of what is happening by the fact that the murder of the boy Fedya is committed by the pregnant K.I. on the night before the feast of the Entrance of the Virgin into the Temple. "God's punishment" catches up with the criminals right there: they are caught and put on trial.

The question of the justification of K.I. Leskov completely rejects the fact that she committed crimes “in the name of love”, which later rose in criticism more than once. This is not love, but “dark passion”: “Remember how you and I walked at night and saw off your relatives to the next world,” Sergey K.I. not afraid of human eyes. Leskov himself later recalled that he felt terrified at times when he wrote "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District."

Russian criticism of the XIX and XX centuries, considering Leskov's essay in the tradition of "organic literature" (Ap.Grigoriev's term), refers the image of K.I. to the so-called. "predatory type". Many researchers in this regard (for example, B.M. Eikhenbaum) contrast K.I. the image of Katerina Kabanova from the "Thunderstorm" by A.N. Ostrovsky, who in Ap. Grigoriev's classification personifies both "humble" and "passionate" types. Katerina Ostrovsky's love drama "grows into a tragedy of a high spirit", and Leskov's - into a tragedy of "roughly set passions", in many ways reminiscent of Leo Tolstoy's "Power of Darkness". The Garden of Eden of Ostrovsky's heroine is opposed by the "animal" paradise of K.I., where "it was breathed with something languishing, conducive to laziness, to bliss, to dark desires." Having created the image of K.I., Leskov, as it were, completed the literary chain of research on the “dark passions” of characters belonging to various social and class groups, characteristic of the 19th century: Tsar Boris Godunov, landowner Yudushka Golovlev and merchant K.I. They all perish, haunted by the shadows of their victims. The epithet “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district”, which is used, as a rule, with a touch of irony, has firmly entered the phraseological use of the Russian language.

Until the 1930s, Leskov's essay was in a kind of literary shadow. In 1931, the constructivist poet Nikolai Ushakov in his book "30 Poems" published the poems "Lady Macbeth", in which "under the Leskovsky epigraph" described bloody history- this time the forest rangers. The poem ends in an ironic tone: ... It’s not a forest at the gate, lady, I don’t want to hide, then the mounted police are riding behind us, lady.

The image of K.I. Artists have not been spared either. In 1930, illustrations for the essay were made by B.M. Kustodiev, and in the 70s by I.S. Glazunov.

Lit .: Annensky L. world celebrity from the Mtsensk district // Annensky L. Leskovskoe necklace. M., 1986; Guminsky V. Organic interaction // In the world of Leskov. M., 1983.

A.L. Tsukanov Leskov's story had a number of incarnations on the dramatic stage and on the movie screen - artistically little significant. A completely different scale is the image of K.I. acquired in the opera by D.D. Shostakovich (1932, the author's title is the same as in the story; the name "Katerina Izmailova" was introduced by V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko in his production of the 30s; later it was used in the second, censored, edition of the opera imposed on the composer in the 60s). In the opera, the genre of the original source is transformed into a "tragedy-satire". The character of K.I. is rethought: it is not the predatory passion of the merchant’s wife, stupefied with satiety and five years of “imprisonment”, but the all-consuming love that owns the heroine. K.I. is a victim of a spiritually impoverished society, but at the same time also its executioner. Shostakovich's music conveys various feelings of the heroine: love confusion, pangs of conscience, consciousness of hopelessness. Shostakovich fundamentally excludes the gravest sin of K.I. - the murder of a child for the sake of an inheritance. In the opera K.I. more humane, more spiritual than the literary prototype, the motive of her actions is a dream of love as the highest goal of existence, family, motherhood. However, the more terrible her crime, the deeper the tragedy. The truly tragic image of K.I. was created by G.L. Vishnevskaya (1966), which reflected the richest range of feelings of the heroine. In her interpretation, K.I. appears as the personification of the strength and pain of the female soul.

To the question Write a description of Ekaterina Lvovna from Leskov's story "Lady Macberet. Mtsensk District". given by the author Alexey Selyutin the best answer is It is very difficult for Katerina Izmailova to endure life in her husband's house, mainly because the life of a woman in a merchant's house is boring. What to do with the wife of a rich merchant? Katerina wanders from corner to corner in her big house, sleeping and toiling from idleness.
Katerina is being tortured unfair accusations. The silent reproach to the heroine is that she does not have children from her elderly husband, although the Izmailov family is really looking forward to the heirs. The writer emphasizes that married life behind locked doors "strangles" the heroine, destroys her potential, all the good that is in her. Izmailova regretfully tells what she was like as a girl - cheerful, full of joy of life, energy, happiness. And how unbearable it is for her to live in marriage.
Katerina Izmailova does not even think about treason. All of her is completely absorbed in feeling for the clerk Sergei and is ready for anything for him. This passionate nature I completely surrendered to my feeling, which knows no boundaries: neither physical, nor moral, nor moral.
Katerina Izmailova dies - trying to drown her happier rival: “Katerina Lvovna was trembling. Her wandering gaze focused and became wild. Hands once or twice, it is not known where, stretched out into space and fell again. Another minute - and she suddenly swayed all over, not taking her eyes off the dark wave, bent down, grabbed Sonetka by the legs and in one fell swoop threw herself over the side of the ferry with her.
The heroine understands that she will die along with another girl, but this does not stop her: why should she live if Sergey no longer loves her?
In her animal, godless love, Izmailova reaches the limit: the blood of three innocent people, including a child, is on her conscience. This love and all crimes devastate the heroine: “... for her there was no light, no darkness, no evil, no good, no boredom, no joys; she did not understand anything, she did not love anyone and did not love herself.
Katerina Izmailova lived with passions, obeying only the call of her flesh.

Answer from Ўliya[guru]
Izmailova Katerina Lvovna is a young (twenty-three years old) wife of a wealthy merchant Zinovy ​​Borisovich Izmailov. In the portrait of I., the attractiveness and sensuality of the heroine are expressed: “in appearance, the woman is very pleasant.<...>She was not tall, but slender, her neck was carved as if made of marble, her shoulders were round, her chest was strong, her nose was straight, thin, her eyes were black, lively, her high white forehead and black, even blue-black hair. Passionately in love with the worker Sergei, I., fearing exposure and separation from her beloved, kills her father-in-law and husband with his help, and then takes the life of her husband's minor relative, Fedya Lyamin. Heartlessness and willpower, readiness for the sake of their goals to transcend all moral norms are combined in the character of I. with insane passion and selfless devotion to his beloved. The inhumanity of I. is emphasized thanks to the methods of contrast: I., who is expecting a child from Sergei, calmly strangles little Fedya, committing murder on the eve of the great Christian holiday of the Entry into the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos.
The fate of I. after the arrest is presented as a terrible retribution for committed crime; I. loses the most precious thing in life - the love of Sergei, who at the hard labor stage converges with another convict, Sonetka. At the crossing, I. dumps Sonetka into the river, drowns her and drowns herself.
In the title of the story, Leskov likens I. Lady Macbeth, the heroine of Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth", prompting her husband to commit treacherous murders. The image of I. is polemically correlated with the image of the heroine of the drama by A. N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm" by Katerina Kabanova. Both heroines have the same name, both are merchants, both cheat on their husbands with lovers. The difference lies in the fact that I. does not experience family oppression, is not a victim in her husband's house.
The heroine Leskov meaningful name. On the one hand, I., seized by a dark, "infernal" passion, is opposed to the "bright" and "quiet" Katerina from Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm. At the same time, the very name "Catherine" in Greek means "always pure" and, as it were, personifies the sacrificial principle in the love of Leskov's heroine. I.'s patronymic emphasizes the firmness and masculine strength of her character. The surname I. testifies to the black, demonic sources of the heroine’s passion: “Ismaelites” in ancient Russian literature were called eastern, Turkic peoples who professed Islam. The story of I. served as the basis for the opera Katerina Izmailova by D. D. Shostakovich.
Sergei is a young worker, lover, and then the husband of Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, who, together with her, kills her relatives. The last of the three crimes (the murder of the boy Fedya Lyamin, who received the main part of the Izmailovs' fortune), Katerina Izmailova commits for the sake of S., who longed to become the sole heir. Willpower, selfless passion and Katerina's concern for S. are opposed to his weak will and selfish and shallow nature. During the investigation, he calls I. an accomplice in all crimes, at the hard labor stage he neglects I.'s love, mocks her and converges with Sonetka.
Sonetka is a young convict with whom Sergei converges at the stage, leaving Katerina Izmailova. Izmailova drowns S, in the river, dying with her. Selfish S., receiving gifts from Sergei, contrasts with selflessly loving Izmailova. Cruelly mocking the humiliated Izmailova, S. is opposed to the soldier Fiona, Sergei's fleeting mistress, compassionate Katerina. Evidence of a cruel, evil disposition is a miniature figure, thinness of S. (Thinness is presented as a sign of an evil character in some other works of Leskov.)