The work, which appeared in 1902, was innovative in its genre. There is no traditional plot in this socio-philosophical drama; the action develops in the dialogues of the characters. The place of events is a shelter for “former” people who found themselves “at the bottom” of life.
Maxim Gorky defined the main question of the play as follows: “What is better, truth or compassion? What is more necessary? . The problems of the drama are diverse: the place of man and his role in life, faith in man, the legitimacy of the existence of a comforting lie, the opportunity to change one’s own life.
After reading summary“At the Bottom”, based on the actions, you can get an idea of the characters and main conflicts of the play. The play is included in the 11th grade literature curriculum.
Main characters
KostylevMichael, 54 years old, owner of a lodging house.
Vasilisa- Kostylev’s wife, 26 years old, Ash’s mistress.
Natasha– Vasilisa’s sister, 20 years old. Dreams of a wonderful future. Because of his sister's beatings, he ends up in the hospital, after leaving it, he disappears.
Luke– a wanderer, 60 years old, preaches a comforting lie.
Vaska Ash- thief, 28 years old, the desire to change his life awakens in him.
Klesch Andrey Mitrich- “working man”, a 40-year-old mechanic, hopes to return to his former life.
Bubnov– cap-maker, 45 years old. I am convinced that all people on earth are superfluous.
Baron- a 33-year-old former aristocrat, Nastya’s roommate, is sure that “everything is in the past” for him.
Satin– a guest, about 40 years old, believes that a person should be spiritually free.
Actor- drunkard, former actor, not seeing the possibility of change, commits suicide.
Other characters
Medvedev Abram- a 50-year-old policeman, uncle of Vasilisa and Natasha. I am convinced that “a person must behave quietly.”
Anna– Kleshch’s wife, 30 years old, kind-hearted and calm, died in a shelter.
Alyoshka– shoemaker, 20 years old.
Tatar, Crooked Zob– loaders.
Nastya, a girl of easy virtue, 24 years old, dreams of true love.
Kvashnya– a woman about 40 years old, selling dumplings.
Act one
The action takes place in the morning early spring in the basement of a cave-like shelter.
Sitting near one of the walls, Kleshch picks up the keys to the old locks. In the center, at a large dirty table, Kvashnya is “hosting”, Baron is eating bread, Nastya is reading a tattered book. Behind the unwashed curtain on the bed in the corner, Anna is coughing. The Actor is tossing and turning on the stove. Sitting on his bunk, Bubnov is getting ready to sew a cap.
Turning to the Baron, Kvashnya claims that, having been married, she will never give up her freedom again. Klesch teases the woman with the words that she is lying and will be glad to marry Medvedev, who proposed to her. Kvashnya responds by saying that he drove his wife half to death.
The Baron, snatching the book from Nastya, and reading the title - “Fatal Love” - bursts out laughing.
Anna asks to stop screaming and quarreling, to let her die in peace.
Satin, Bubnov, Actor and Kleshch are having a leisurely conversation. Satin says that he was before cultured person. Bubnov recalls that his profession is a furrier and that he once had “his own establishment.” The actor thinks that the most important thing in life is not education, but talent.
Kostylev appears, looking for his wife. He knocks on the door of Ash's room (the room is fenced off with thin boards in the corner of the shelter), intending to talk, but Ash drives him away. Kostylev leaves.
From the further conversation of the inhabitants of the basement, it becomes clear: Ash is having an affair with the wife of the owner of the rooming house, Vasilisa.
Satin asks Ash for money, he gives it, and Satin talks about money and work. He believes that life is good when work is pleasure, and if work is a duty, then life turns into slavery.
The actor and Satin leave.
Natasha appears, with her new guest, Luka. Ash flirts with Natasha, but she does not accept advances.
Alyoshka, drunk, enters; he cannot understand why he is worse than others, why he is driven everywhere.
Ash, turning to Mite, says that he “creaks in vain.” Kleshch says that he will break out of here, he does not want to live like everyone else here - “without honor and conscience.” Ash believes that the people in the shelter are no worse than the Tick. Ash and Baron leave.
Vasilisa appears, she kicks out the drunken Alyoshka and scolds the guests for being dirty. Then he asks if Natasha came in and talked to Vasily. Leaves.
Noise and screams are heard in the entryway: Vasilisa is beating Natasha. Medvedev, Kvashnya and Bubnov run to separate the sisters.
Act two
The play takes place in the same setting. Several guests are busy playing cards, and the Actor and the Tick are watching them. Medvedev and Bubnov play checkers. Luka is sitting next to Anna's bed.
Talking to Luka, Anna complains about her life. The elder calms her down, promising paradise and rest after death.
The actor is about to “recite the verses” to Luka, but discovers that he has forgotten the verses. He laments that it’s all over for him - he “drank away his soul.” Luka replies that not everything in the Actor’s life is lost: there are free hospitals for drunks, but he doesn’t remember in which city. He persuades the Actor to be patient and refrain from drinking. “A person can do anything... if only he wants to,” says Luka.
A gloomy Ash enters. He turns to Medvedev, asking if Vasilisa beat her sister badly. He refuses to speak, noting that this is none of his business, the thief. Ash in response threatens to tell the investigator that “Mishka Kostylev and his wife” tricked him into stealing and bought stolen goods.
Luka tries to intervene in their conversation, but Ash asks why Luka is lying, telling everyone that everything is good everywhere. Luka convinces Vasily that instead of searching for the truth, he needs to go to the “golden side”, Siberia, that is where he can find his way.
Vasilisa enters. She talks to Ash, and he admits that he is tired of Vasilisa - she “has no soul.” Vasilisa invites Ash to marry his sister in exchange for killing her annoying husband.
Kostylev enters, a quarrel breaks out between him and Vasily, but Luka prevents the fight. He advises Ash not to deal with Vasilisa, but to leave the shelter with the one the thief likes - Natasha.
The wanderer, looking behind the curtain where Anna lies, discovers that she has died.
Gradually, all the residents of the shelter gather around Anna’s bed.
Act three
The action takes place in a “wasteland”, a cluttered and overgrown yard of a shelter.
Nastya tells listeners her love story. Bubnov and Baron laugh at her story, not believing, and the girl passionately proves what she experienced true love. She's crying. Luka calms her down, says that since she herself believes, then there was such love, and her roommate laughs, because there was nothing real in his life.
The inhabitants of the “bottom” talk about truth and lies.
Natasha says that she too is inventing and waiting for someone “special” or something “unprecedented”. Although, what to expect - she doesn’t understand, “life is bad for everyone.”
Bubnov believes that people often lie in order to “touch up their soul,” he himself sees no point in lying, it’s better for him to “tell the whole truth as it is!” Why be ashamed?
The tick hates people and really has no use for it. Having said this, he runs away
Ash appears and joins the conversation. He asks Luka why he is lying, saying that it’s good everywhere. Luke replies that “you can’t always cure a soul with truth,” so you should feel sorry for the person. He says that he will soon leave the shelter.
Ash calls Natasha to leave with him, confesses his love, and promises to give up stealing. He feels that he needs to change his life, “to live in such a way that I can respect myself.” Natasha is thoughtful, but still decides to believe him.
Kostylev and his wife approach. Vasilisa (she heard Ash and Natasha’s conversation) tries to push Ash and her husband apart, but Luka calms Vasily.
Kostylev talks to Luka, says that a person must live according to the rules, and that’s all good people have a passport. Luka openly says that he thinks: Kostylev will never change, because he is like land unsuitable for harvest - good for nothing.
The owners of the shelter drive Luka away, and he promises to leave at night.
Bubnov tells Luka that “it’s always better to leave on time” and tells his story.
Satin and Actor, arguing about something, go into the basement. Satin says that the Actor will not go anywhere and demands to know what Luka promised the Actor. The wanderer asks how Satin could have ended up in the shelter. He reluctantly says that he went to prison because of his sister: “he killed the scoundrel in his passion and irritation,” and after prison all roads are closed.
A gloomy Tick enters - he was forced to sell all the tools to bury Anna and does not understand how to live on.
Natasha’s scream can be heard from the Kostylevs’ apartment: “They’re beating me!” They are killing! . The actor and Satin go out to figure out what is happening. Individual voices are heard, and it is clear from the remarks that the guests are trying to separate Vasilisa and Natasha.
Kvashnya and Nastya appear and help Natasha walk - she is beaten and her legs are scalded with boiling water. Behind them come Kostylev, Vasilisa, and the inhabitants of the shelter. Ash, who appears, sees Natasha and hits Kostylev with a swing. He falls. Vasilisa shouts that they killed her husband and points to Ash. Vasily says that Kostyleva herself persuaded him to kill her husband.
Natasha, in hysterics, accuses her sister and Ash of conspiracy and, almost losing consciousness, asks to be taken to prison.
Act Four
Early spring. Night. Basement of the shelter. At the table are Kleshch, Nastya, Satin, Baron. On the stove - Actor. In the corner where Ash's room was (now the partitions are broken), lies Tatar.
The inhabitants of the basement remember Luka, who disappeared during the turmoil around Natasha and Kostylev. Nastya believes that he understood everything and saw everything. He called his interlocutors “rust.” Mite agrees - the old man is good and compassionate. The Tatar believes that Luke lived by the law “Do not offend a person.”
For Satin, the “old man” is “like crumb for the toothless,” and besides, Luka confused the minds of the inhabitants of the shelter.
The Baron calls Luka a charlatan.
Nastya, who has become disgusted with both life and people, wants to go “to the ends of the world.” The Baron, inviting the girl to take the Actor with her, mocks his dream of being cured.
Kleshch notices that the wanderer Luka “beckoned somewhere, but did not tell him the way.” In his opinion, he “revolted very much against the truth. That’s right - and without her there’s nothing to breathe.”
Satin, in excitement, orders to “keep quiet about the old man” - he, unlike everyone else, understood that “the truth is a person,” and he deceived out of pity for people. The Wanderer influenced his attitude to the world like “acid on an old and dirty coin.”
Conversation about the murder of Kostylev. Having ended up in the hospital after being bullied by her sister and leaving it, Natasha disappeared. Everyone thinks that Vasilisa will get out of it, and Ash will end up, if not in hard labor, then in prison - for sure.
Satin argues that a person should be respected, and “not humiliated with pity.” The Baron admits that he lives as if in a dream, not seeing or understanding the meaning of life.
The actor suddenly gets off the stove and runs out of the basement.
Medvedev and Bubnov enter, followed by other inhabitants of the shelter. Someone settles down for the night, several people sing. The door swings open. The Baron shouts from the doorway - the Actor has hanged himself in the vacant lot.
Satin says: “Oh, I ruined the song, you fool!”
Conclusion
Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” has lived and found its readers and viewers for more than a century, attracting with the ambiguity of the questions posed, prompting us to think again and again about what faith, love is in a person’s life and what human capabilities are. Giving only general idea about the play brief retelling“At the Bottom” assumes the reader’s further work with full text dramas.
Play test
After reading the summary of Gorky’s work, try to answer the questions:
Retelling rating
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Download in full (73.64 Kb)Description of work
M. Gorky's play “At the Depths” is rightfully one of the best dramatic works writer. This is evidenced by its incredible success over a long period of time in Russia and abroad. The play has caused and still causes conflicting interpretations about the characters depicted and its philosophical basis. Gorky acted as an innovator in dramaturgy, posing an important philosophical question about a person, about his place, role in life, about what is important to him.
The ambiguity of Gorky's play led to different theatrical productions. Often deep, interesting, sometimes controversial.
The most striking was the first stage incarnation drama (1902) by the Art Theater, famous directors K.S. Stanislavsky, V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, with the direct participation of A.M. Gorky.
Content
Introduction. About M. Gorky’s drama “At the Lower Depths”………………………………………………………2
The history of stage interpretations of M. Gorky’s play “At the Depths”.……………..2
Performance-manifesto: “At the Depths” at the Moscow Art Theater (1902)………………………………………………………………………………...2
Romantic drama by Leonid Vivien (1956)…………………………………
Psychological drama of the “sixties”………………………………………………………
Modern reading of the drama. Productions by Anatoly Efros (1984) and the version of the “theater of the absurd” by Georgy Tovstonogov (1987)………………………...
Conclusion. The place of M. Gorky’s play in Russian drama…………………..
Notes………………………………………………………………………………………
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………
For a long time there was a simplified interpretation of Gorky's play as a social-critical play. Of course, drama was not denied philosophical content, but the conversation about him was often limited to a ritual reference to the dispute with Luke’s “consolation” and quoting Satin’s final monologue. The most common topic for essays on this play in school was the topic “Exposure of capitalist reality in M. Gorky’s drama “At the Depths” (the formulations may not have been so straightforward, but their general meaning boiled down precisely to Gorky’s social criticism). The inertia of such an interpretation is still evident in the written work of those entering the university.
Of course, Gorky's play is not devoid of sociality. At first glance, the title of the drama (if understood as “At the Bottom of Life”), and the choice of location, and the system of characters with its widest social “representation” (former nobleman, former intellectual, former workers and peasants) - all this indicates about the significance for the author social issues. The distorted fates of the characters are direct evidence of the social ill-being of Gorky's contemporary society. Finally, if you wish, you can identify in the play the socially significant opposition of “masters” and “slaves” by contrasting the Kostylevs with the flophouses.
However, let us think: do social differences play a decisive role in the fate of the characters? Is the border between the hostess of the flophouse and her temporary lover, the flophouse Ash, or between the “representative of the authorities” Medvedev and the market cook Kvashnya, to whom he is wooing, so impassable? Is it by chance that one of the inhabitants of this very shelter turns out to be the sister of the owner Vasilisa? Doesn’t what’s happening in the shelter resemble the “normal” situation for Russia of the 20th century of living in a communal apartment or in a hostel “for limit workers”?
In the end, we will try to simulate some other not too far-fetched dramatic situation in which it would be possible to bring together a former official in the treasury chamber and a country caretaker, a telegraph operator and a furrier, a mechanic and an artist. It could be a station, a market, a cheap tavern or a provincial hospital - in a word, some place where people meet against their will different professions and approximately identical destinies. But all of the above-mentioned options for a “gathering point” are dramaturgically less convenient than a shelter - albeit temporary and not very well equipped, but still a home for a motley group of Gorky’s characters.
It is fundamentally important that most of the characters in the play are “former people.” At one time each of them was included in its own system social relations, fulfilled his social role. Now, in the shelter, the social differences between them have been erased, now they are just people. Gorky is interested not so much in social certainty as in the most important, common to the majority, features of human consciousness. What makes a person human, what helps and hinders him to live, what are the ways to gain human dignity - these are the questions he seeks answers to in his play. A play whose content is determined primarily by philosophical and ethical issues.
The uniqueness of the drama is that the most complex philosophical problems are discussed in it not by masters of philosophical debates, but by “people of the street”, uneducated or degraded, tongue-tied or unable to find the “right” words. The conversation is conducted in the language of everyday communication, and sometimes in the language of petty squabbles, kitchen battles, and drunken skirmishes. It is in a prosaic, deliberately mundane context that the word that will become its leitmotif and the most important semantic category is first uttered in the play. This word “truth”, sounding already on the first page of the play, is in Kvashnya’s remark addressed to Klesh: “A-ah! You can’t stand the truth!” The sharp cry of the Tick - “You’re lying!” - sounded in this scene a little earlier than the word “truth”. Truth and lies are one of the two most important semantic oppositions of the play. Another such opposition, which defines the problematics of “At the Depths,” is formed by the conceptual pair “truth” and “faith.”
It is precisely the different understanding of “truth” and different attitude to “faith” and “dream” the positions of the inhabitants of the shelter are determined. The place of each of them in the character system depends not so much on his social biography, how much depends on the peculiarities of his thinking.
With all the diversity of personal destinies, most of the characters in the play are deprived of something most important to them. Actor - opportunities to create on stage and even own name(his stage name- Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky); mechanic Kleshch - permanent work; young woman Nastya - love. However, they still timidly hope for the opportunity to find what they have lost or desired, they still believe that their lives can miraculously be transformed. Passive daydreaming and timid faith in “salvation” unites Actor, Anna, Natasha, and Nastya into one group. Two other characters are also close to this group - Vaska Ash and Tick. This faith, no matter how illusory it may seem to others, is the main thing that supports them in life, their last clue. This is their “truth”: the truth of each of them’s individual dreams, the truth of hope for justice.
The real situation of the “believers” is in blatant contrast with their hopes, with their personal “mirages”. The facts show the groundlessness of their faith. This diagnosis is made by the smartest of the night shelters - the skeptic Bubnov, who is supported by two more educated “non-believers” - Baron and Satin. They are happy to expose the illusions of those suffering salvation, each time reminding them of the ugly “truth” of the night life. The truth of dreams and the truth of reality - these are the semantic facets that already at the beginning of the play turn into its central problem. If Bubnov (the main ideologist of literally understood “truth”), Satin and Baron are far from illusions and do not need an ideal, then for Actor, Nastya, Anna, Natasha, Ashes, faith is more important than truth. That is why they are the ones who warmly respond to Luke’s remark: “What you believe is what you believe.”
Before Luka’s appearance in the doss house, the relationship between the two groups of characters is clearly in favor of the “insensitive” truth-seekers: for example, the Baron behaves boorishly towards Nastya, forcing her to clean the doss house in his place (in this “hostel” there is a system of “duties”) ; the unsympathetic Bubnov rudely brushes aside the complaints of Anna and Kleshch (“noise is no hindrance to death”). In general, the “dreamers” suffer, they are dependent, crave compassionate kindness, but do not find sympathy from supporters of the “truth of fact.” They will find such sympathy in the wanderer Luke.
This person is, first of all, kind: he is lenient towards weaknesses, tolerant of the sins of others, and responsive to requests for help. Another attractive feature of Luka is his genuine interest in life, in other people, in each of whom he is able to discern an individual “zest” (by the way, wandering and interest in the “eccentric” -common features Luke and the hero-narrator of Gorky's early stories). Luka does not at all impose his views on others, and is not eager to share life experience with the first person you meet or demonstrate your extraordinary mind. That’s why he doesn’t try to convert Bubnov and Baron to his faith - they simply don’t need him, and “to impose” is not in his character.
The “sufferers” need it: they need consolation and encouragement - a kind of anesthesia from life’s troubles and a stimulator of interest in life. Like an experienced psychoanalyst, Luka knows how to listen carefully to the “patient.” The tactics of his spiritual “healing” are interesting: in order to console his interlocutor, he does not come up with any own recipes, but only skillfully supports the dream that has developed in each of them (let us repeat Luke’s motto once again: “What you believe in is what you believe in”).
In this regard, his recommendations to the Actor are especially interesting. The fact is that even before Luke’s arrival, the Actor turned to a real doctor, who made an accurate diagnosis of his disease (alcoholism). It is difficult to imagine a doctor who would not advise a patient to go to the appropriate medical institution. So the vague idea of a hospital most likely already existed in the Actor’s mind when he confided his troubles to the wise old man. And he only reminded him again about hospitals for alcoholics (by the way, they actually existed in Russia since late XIX V.
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The play “At the Lower Depths” was conceived by Gorky as one of four plays in a cycle showing the life and worldview of people from different walks of life. This is one of the two purposes of creating a work. The deep meaning that the author put into it is an attempt to answer the main questions human existence: what a person is and whether he will retain his personality, having sunk “to the bottom” of moral and social existence.
History of the play
The first evidence of work on the play dates back to 1900, when Gorky, in a conversation with Stanislavsky, mentioned his desire to write scenes from the life of a flophouse. Some sketches appeared at the end of 1901. In a letter to the publisher K. P. Pyatnitsky, to whom the author dedicated the work, Gorky wrote that in the planned play all the characters, the idea, the motives for the actions were clear to him, and “it will be scary.” Final version The work was ready on July 25, 1902, published in Munich and went on sale at the end of the year.
Things were not so rosy with the production of the play on stages Russian theaters- it is practically prohibited. An exception was made only for the Moscow Art Theater; other theaters had to obtain special permission for the production.
The title of the play changed at least four times during the work, and the genre was never determined by the author - the publication read “At the Bottom of Life: Scenes.” The shortened and familiar name to everyone today first appeared in theater poster at the first production at the Moscow Art Theater.
The first performers were the star cast of the Moscow Art Theater academic theater: K. Stanislavsky played the role of Satin, V. Kachalov played Barona, I. Moskvin played Luke, O. Knipper played Nastya, M. Andreeva played Natasha.
The main plot of the work
The plot of the play is tied to the relationships of the characters and the atmosphere of general hatred that reigns in the shelter. This is the outer outline of the work. A parallel action explores the depth of a person’s fall “to the bottom,” the measure of insignificance of a socially and spiritually degraded individual.
The action of the play begins and ends storyline the relationship between two characters: the thief Vaska Pepel and the wife of the owner of the rooming house Vasilisa. Ash loves her little sister Natasha. Vasilisa is jealous and constantly beats her sister. She also has another interest in her lover - she wants to free herself from her husband and pushes Ash to murder. During the course of the play, Ash actually kills Kostylev in a quarrel. In the last act of the play, the guests of the shelter say that Vaska will have to go to hard labor, but Vasilisa will still “get out.” Thus, the action loops around the destinies of the two heroes, but is far from limited to them.
The time period of the play is several weeks of early spring. The time of year is an important component of the play. One of the first titles given by the author to the work is “Without the Sun.” Indeed, it’s spring and the sea all around sunlight, and in the shelter and in the souls of its inhabitants there is darkness. The ray of sunshine for the overnight shelters was Luka, a tramp whom Natasha brings in one day. Luke brings hope for a happy outcome to the hearts of those who have fallen and lost faith in best people. However, at the end of the play, Luka disappears from the shelter. The characters who trusted him lose faith in the best. The play ends with the suicide of one of them - the Actor.
Play Analysis
The play describes the life of a Moscow flophouse. The main characters, accordingly, were its inhabitants and the owners of the establishment. Also in it appear people related to the life of the establishment: a policeman, who is also the uncle of the hostess of the rooming house, a dumpling seller, loaders.
Satin and Luka
Schuler, the former convict Satin and the tramp, the wanderer Luke - bearers of two opposing ideas: the need for compassion for man, saving lie out of love for him, and the need to know the truth, as proof of the greatness of a person, as a sign of trust in his strength of spirit. In order to prove the falsity of the first worldview and the truth of the second, the author built the action of the play.
Other characters
All the other characters form the background for this battle of ideas. In addition, they are designed to show and measure the depth of the fall to which a person is capable of falling. The drunkard Actor and the terminally ill Anna, people who have completely lost faith in their own strength, fall under the power of a wonderful fairy tale into which Luke takes them. They are the most dependent on it. With his departure, they physically cannot live and die. The rest of the inhabitants of the shelter perceive Luka's appearance and departure as the play of a spring sunbeam - he appeared and disappeared.
Nastya, who sells her body “on the boulevard,” believes that there is bright love, and it was in her life. Kleshch, the husband of the dying Anna, believes that he will rise from the bottom and begin to earn a living by working again. The thread that connects him with his working past remains a toolbox. At the end of the play, he is forced to sell them in order to bury his wife. Natasha hopes that Vasilisa will change and stop torturing her. After another beating, after leaving the hospital, she will no longer appear in the shelter. Vaska Pepel strives to stay with Natalya, but cannot get out of the networks of the powerful Vasilisa. The latter, in turn, expects that the death of her husband will untie her hands and give her the long-awaited freedom. The Baron lives on from his aristocratic past. The gambler Bubnov, the destroyer of “illusions,” the ideologist of misanthropy, believes that “all people are superfluous.”
The work was created in conditions when, after the economic crisis of the 90s of the 19th century, factories in Russia shut down, the population was rapidly becoming poor, many found themselves on the bottom rung of the social ladder, in the basement. Each of the characters in the play experienced a fall to the bottom, social and moral, in the past. Now they live in the memory of this, but they cannot rise “to the light”: they don’t know how, they don’t have the strength, they are ashamed of their insignificance.
Main characters
Luke became a light for some. Gorky gave Luka a “speaking” name. It refers both to the image of St. Luke and to the concept of “cunning.” It is obvious that the author seeks to show the inconsistency of Luke’s ideas about the beneficial value of Faith for man. Gorky practically reduces Luka’s compassionate humanism to the concept of betrayal - according to the plot of the play, the tramp leaves the shelter just when those who trusted him need his support.
Satin is a figure designed to voice the author’s worldview. As Gorky wrote, Satin is not quite a suitable character for this, but there is simply no other character with equally powerful charisma in the play. Satin is the ideological antipode of Luke: he does not believe in anything, he sees the ruthless essence of life and the situation in which he and the rest of the inhabitants of the shelter find themselves. Does Satin believe in Man and his power over the power of circumstances and mistakes made? The passionate monologue that he delivers, arguing in absentia with the departed Luka, leaves a strong but contradictory impression.
There is also a bearer of the “third” truth in the work - Bubnov. This hero, like Satin, “stands for the truth,” only it is somehow very scary for him. He is a misanthrope, but, in essence, a murderer. Only they die not from the knife in his hands, but from the hatred that he has for everyone.
The drama of the play increases from act to act. The connecting outline is Luke's comforting conversations with those suffering from his compassion and Satin's rare remarks, indicating that he listens attentively to the speeches of the tramp. The climax of the play is Satin’s monologue, delivered after Luke’s departure and flight. Phrases from it are often quoted because they have the appearance of aphorisms; “Everything in a person is everything for a person!”, “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is god free man!”, “Man - that sounds proud!”
Conclusion
The bitter result of the play is the triumph of the freedom of fallen man to perish, disappear, leave without leaving behind a trace or memories. The inhabitants of the shelter are free from society, moral standards, family and livelihood. By and large, they are free from life.
The play “At the Lower Depths” has been around for more than a century and continues to remain one of the most powerful works of Russian classics. The play makes you think about the place of faith and love in a person’s life, about the nature of truth and lies, about a person’s ability to resist moral and social decline.
At the play. M. Gorky "At the Lower Depths" (1902) difficult, but lucky fate- a fate that only the most ambitious author can wish for his brainchild: for more than a century it has not left the theater stage. It was staged by the best directors in the world and played by the most brilliant artists. Since the first production of "At the Lower Depths" at the Moscow Art Theater, heated debates have not ceased among critics about artistic originality and characters of the play, features author's position, ambiguity ideological content. Prominent figures wrote about the play “At the Lower Depths” national culture: L. Tolstoy, Chekhov, I. Annensky, Blok, Bunin, Zamyatin, Rozanov, Remizov... The drama (and its author) was praised and scolded, extolled and reviled, but there were and are not indifferent. Did not have one-to-one relationship to his own brainchild and from the author. Even at the very peak of the popularity of “At the Lower Depths,” he expressed his dissatisfaction not only with critics and “reviews” who “didn’t understand” the play, but also with himself - as if he was unable to cope with the implementation of the creative plan (however, he often admitted that he did not masters the art of dramaturgy). In his declining years, M. Gorky even argued that his play was “unsuccessful,” “weak in plot,” and called it “outdated and perhaps even harmful in our days” (1933). And yet L. Andreev was right when he pointed out deep meaning play, which cannot be fully expressed in an analytical, rational word: “Not a single article, not a single conversation could cover the drama in all its width and depth; every time there remains something uncaught, some residue, which is the very essence ".
The drama "At the Depths" arose as a result of M. Gorky's extensive life observations and intense philosophical quests, the result of almost twenty years of observations of the world " former people", to which the writer included not only wanderers, inhabitants of the night shelters, but also part of the intelligentsia - "demagnetized", disappointed, insulted and humiliated by failures in life. "I felt and understood very early," the writer recalled, "that these people are incurable . The Konovalovs are capable of admiring heroism, but they themselves are not heroes, and only in rare cases are they “knights for an hour” (1933).
The following testimony from M. Gorky has been preserved about the origins of the plan “At the Lower Depths”: “The end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties can be called the years of justifying powerlessness and consoling those doomed to death. Literature chose a “non-hero” as its hero... The slogan of the time was framed in these words : “Our time is not a time of great tasks” - the “non-heroes” eloquently proved to each other the correctness of this slogan and consoled themselves with the verses: “My friend, my brother, tired, suffering brother! / Whoever you are, don’t lose heart! / Believe: the time will come, and Baal will perish!”
The play "At the Bottom" was first published in Munich in 1902. On January 10, 1903, the play premiered in Berlin. The performance was performed 300 times in a row; in the spring of 1905, the 500th performance of the play was celebrated. In Russia, “At the Lower Depths” was published by the publishing house “Znanie” in 1903.
The play was received by the censor on August 27, 1902, and on September 25 a conclusion was given about it, according to which “in the entire play, individual phrases and harsh, rude expressions should be excluded...”. Thus, the censor S. Trubachev demanded that “the city Medvedev be turned into a simple retired soldier, since the participation of a “police official” in many of the pranks of night shelters is unacceptable on stage.” The song “The Sun Rises and Sets...”, which later gained wide popularity, was also banned. The censorship also insisted on removing from the text the arguments of the night shelters on religious topics. In particular, it is indicative next example. A short dialogue between the Actor and the Tatar at the end of Act IV:
Actor. Tatar! Prince! For me... pray...
Tatar. What?
Actor. Pray for me!..
Tatar. Pray yourself... - was crossed out. Later, through the efforts of V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, it was restored, but with the remark: “It is possible, but so that the Tatar does not pray!”
The text of the play was so distorted by censorship that the author forbade it to be staged in the theater in this form. “I had to go to St. Petersburg, defend almost every phrase, reluctantly make concessions and in the end achieve permission for only one Art Theater, - recalled V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko is the first director of the Gorky drama. “From a series of conversations with the then head of the Main Directorate for Press Affairs, Professor Zverev, I was left with the impression that “At the Lower Depths” was allowed only because the authorities counted on the decisive failure of the play." Moreover, before the play was staged on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater, a special a circular from the Main Directorate for Press Affairs prohibited making announcements about it until the entrepreneurs presented censored copies - the production was allowed only by the Moscow Art Theater (initially, for several months, M. Gorky's plays were completely prohibited from production in a letter dated November 23). 1902 M. Gorky noted: “The censorship restored some of the banknotes, and although this is the majority, I am dissatisfied.” On November 29, Nemirovich-Danchenko filed a petition for permission to stage “At the Lower Depths” on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater.
The premiere took place on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater in Moscow on December 18, 1902. “The first performance of this play was a complete triumph,” recalled Moscow Art Theater actress M.F. Andreeva. “The audience went wild.” At the premiere, the author was called more than 15 times. “Something indescribable happened when M. Gorky finally went out alone to the calls,” noted the newspaper correspondent “ Russian word". - We will not remember such a success of a playwright..."
At the bottom. - M. Gorky spent a long time looking for a suitable name for the drama. At the beginning of work on the play (December 1900), Gorky informed Stanislavsky: “I am slowly weaving a four-story dramatic stocking with poetry, but not in verse.<...>I feel that one scene was a success - thanks to the fact that the main thing in it actor is the sun..." In next letter M. Gorky admitted to the same addressee: “I really want to write well, I want to write with joy.<...>I want to put the sun on stage, a cheerful sun, a kind of Russian - not very bright, but loving everything, embracing everything...” "at the Moscow theater "Soprichastnost" in the late 90s of the XX century). The following versions of the title of the play are known: "Nochlezhka", "In a shelter house", "The Bottom", "At the Bottom of Life". The name "At the Bottom" first appeared only on the posters of the Art Theater.
Such a long search for a suitable title for an already written play testifies to the enormous and, of course, symbolic meaning, which the author gave it. It is worth remembering the words of the hero of M. Gorky’s unfinished story “The Peasant” (written almost in parallel with the play - in 1900): “...I came from below, from the bottom of life, from where there is dirt and darkness, where man is still a half-beast, where "All life is just work for bread." He, talking about chance meetings with former comrades, notes that their greetings seem to him something “like a voice from the other world.” Note that the bottom of life and that light actually act as synonyms. Describing hellish torment, Saint Dmitry of Rostov points to the following signs of the underworld: “There will also be great anguish there, such a fierce one, as if it were possible to die, then they would embrace its sweetness (death) with care, but they would never die.”