The savage mother-in-law, who is to blame for the entire tragedy, sternly commands her son not to mourn for his dead wife, whom he has loved in the feeble way which such a tyrant has permitted.
This outline gives hardly an idea of the force of the play, and its value as a picture of Russian manners of the old school in general, and of the merchant class (who retained them long after they were much ameliorated in other classes of society) in particular.
But Ostrovsky did not confine his dramas within narrow limits.

On the contrary, they present a wonderfully broad panorama of Russian life, and attain to a universality which has been reached by no other Russian writer save Pushkin and Count L.N.Tolstoy.

There are plays from prehistoric, mythical times, and historical plays, which deal with prominent epochs in the life of the nation.

A great favorite, partly because of its pictures of old Russian customs, is "The Voevoda" or "The Dream on the Volga" (1865).

"Vasilisa Melentieff" is popular for the same reasons (1868).