The Storm

KATERINA.

And every night the same…. (Sobs, Kabanov tries to embrace her).

MME. KABANOVA.

Let her be! With whom?

VARVARA.

She's raving, she doesn't know what she is saying.

MME. KABANOVA.

You be quiet! So this is the meaning of it! Well, with whom?

KATERINA.

With Boris Grigoritch. (A clap of thunder.) Ah!

[Falls unconscious in her husband's arms.

MME. KABANOVA. Well, son! You see what freedom leads to! I told you so, but you wouldn't heed me. See what you've brought on yourself!

ACT V

SCENE I

Scene same as Act I. Twilight.

KULIGIN (sitting on a bench).

KABANOV (walking along the parade).

KULIGIN (sings).

 'In dark of night are hid the skies

  In sleep now all have closed their eyes.'

(seeing Kabanov) Good-evening, sir, are you walking far?

KABANOV. No, I am going home. You have heard talk, I expect, about us? The whole household's upside down.

KULIGIN.

I have heard so, sir, yes, I have heard so.

KABANOV. I went away to Moscow, you know. Mamma sent me off with a sermon, oh, such a sermon, but as soon as I was well away, I went in for enjoying myself. I was glad to have escaped into freedom. And I was drinking all the journey, and in Moscow too I kept it up, and had a jolly time—as you may fancy! Of course I'd to get in fun enough to last me the whole year. I never once thought about home. Though, if I had thought of it, I never should have dreamed of what was going on here. You've heard about it?

KULIGIN.

Yes, sir.

KABANOV. I'm a miserable man now! And so, for nothing, my life's spoiled, for nothing I have done.

KULIGIN.

Your mother is terribly hard.

KABANOV. Yes, indeed, she's the cause of it all. And what am I suffering for, tell me that? Here I've just come from Dikoy's, and well, we drank a bit; I thought it would drown care; but it has only made me worse, Kuligin! Ah, the wrong my wife has done me! It couldn't be worse….

KULIGIN.

It's a difficult business, sir. It's difficult to judge between you.

KABANOV. No; nothing could be worse than what she's done! It wouldn't be much to kill her for it. There's mamma keeps saying: she ought to be buried alive to punish her! But I love her, I can't bear to lay a finger on her. I did give her a blow or two, but that was at mamma's bidding. It makes one wretched to see her, do you understand that, Kuligin. Mamma's just tormenting her to death, while she wanders about like a shadow, and makes no resistance. She only weeps, and she's wasting away like wax. It's simply breaking my heart to see her.

KULIGIN. You must make it up somehow, sir! You ought to forgive her, and never refer to it again. You are not without sin yourself, I daresay!

KABANOV.

I should think not!

KULIGIN. And you must never reproach her even when you're drunk! She would be a good wife to you yet, sir, better than any—believe me.

KABANOV. But understand me, Kuligin; I'd never say a word, but mamma … do you suppose one can get over her!…

KULIGIN.

It's time you were guided, sir, by your own good sense, sir.

KABANOV. My own good sense! I've got none, I'm told, and so I'm to live by other people's! I declare I'll drink away whatever sense I have left, and then mamma can look after me as much as she likes, when I'm crazy.

KULIGIN. Ah sir! there's a world of troubles! But, Boris Grigoritch, sir, what of him?

KABANOV. Oh, he, the scoundrel, is being sent off to Tiahta, to the Chinese. His uncle's sending him off to a merchant he knows there. He's to be there three years.

KULIGIN.

Well, what does he say to it, sir?