It's out of love that parents are severe with you, out of love they scold
even--they're always thinking how to train you in the right way. To be
sure, that's not in favour nowadays. And children go about among folks
proclaiming that their mother's a scold, that their mother won't let them
stir, that she's the plague of their life. And if--Lord save us--some word
of hers doesn't please her daughter-in-law, then it's the talk all over
the place, that the mother-in-law worries her to death.

KABANOV.
You don't mean that anyone talks about you, mamma?

MME. KABANOVA.
I haven't heard so, my son, I haven't; I don't want to tell a lie about
it. If I had, indeed, I shouldn't be talking to you like this, my dear.
(_Sighs_) Ah, sin is a heavy burden! Sin is never far off! Something said
goes to the heart, and there, one sins, one gets angry. No, my son, say
what you like about me, there's no forbidding anyone to talk; if they
don't dare before one's face, they'll do it behind one's back.

KABANOV.
May my tongue wither up and...

MME. KABANOVA.
Hush, hush, don't swear! It's a sin! I've seen plain enough for a long
time past that your wife's dearer to you than your mother. Ever since you
were married, I don't see the same love for me that I did in you.

KABANOV.
In what way do you see me changed, mamma?