SOURCE: "Character and Conflict in Ostrovskij's Talents and Admirers," in Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. VIII, No. 1, 1964, pp. 26-36.

In this essay, Kaspin argues that Ostrovsky's plays typically involve characters whose complex natures are the source of the dramatic conflict.

A little over seventy-five years ago, in 1886, the critic and sociologist N. K. Mixajlovskij wrote in his obituary of A. N. Ostrovskij that it was difficult to assess the dramatist's literary activity, not because it created misunderstandings and was in need of untangling and clarification, but precisely because it was as obvious as the palm of one's hand.¹ In fact, the apparent artlessness, casualness of development, and pedestrian incidents that characterize almost all of Ostrovskij's plays create the illusion for the spectator of the reality of humdrum daily life. The problem of how Ostrovskij succeeds in making his works dramatic in a primary sense, that is, capable...