THE ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION OF FEMALE PSYCHOLOGY IN A.N. OSTROVSKY’S “THE DOWRYLESS GIRL” AND G.B. SHAW’S “MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION”

The article examines the artistic interpretation of female psychology in A.N.Ostrovsky’s “The Dowryless Girl” (1878) and G.B.Shaw’s “Mrs Warren’s Profession” (1893), focusing on female fate and socio-moral conflict, the comparative psychology of the heroines, and the poetics of dramatic form. Using comparative-typological, historical-contextual, psychological, structural-semiotic and poetics-of-drama methods, the study shows that Ostrovsky constructs female fate as an almost irreversible verdict of the dowry-based marriage market, while Shaw constructs it as a reversible condition rooted in the exploitation of female labour. Larisa Ogudalova’s psychology is organised around feeling and expressed through song and silence; the psychology of Vivie Warren and Mrs Warren is organised around calculation and expressed through argument and extended stage directions. The results extend existing scholarship on both playwrights.