Female characters in the play "At the Bottom" There are five in the play female characters. Anna is the wife of Kleshch, who humbly dies in the second act, the compassionate and economical Kvashnya, the young Vasilisa is the wife of the owner of the shelter and the mistress of Vaska Pepla, the young and downtrodden Natasha, and Nastya, designated in the author’s remark by the bashful word “maiden”.
Kvashnya. Kvashnya represents the semantic dominant. She almost always does housework. He lives from his labors. Makes dumplings and sells them. What these dumplings are made of and who eats them, only God knows. She’s been married for a long time, and now it’s either a marriage or a noose for her: “I did it once, it’s memorable for the rest of my life. . . “And when her husband “died,” she “sat alone” all day with happiness and joy. She is always alone in the play. Conversations and events touch the edge, as if the inhabitants of the shelter are afraid of her. Even Medvedev, the personification of law and power, her roommate, talks with Kvashnya respectfully - there is too much incurious reason, common sense and hidden aggression in her.
Nastya. Nastya is unprotected and accessible. She's not busy, she's not doing anything. She is a "maiden". She hardly reacts to the realities of the world around her. Her mind is not burdened with reflection. She is as self-sufficient as Kvashnya. Gorky implanted in her a strange world not invented by him “ women's novels", a meager and meaningless dream beautiful life. She is literate and therefore reads. “There, in the kitchen, a girl is sitting, reading a book and crying,” Luka is surprised. This is Nastya. She weeps over a fiction that miraculously seems to her own life. She resembles a little girl who dreamed of a toy. Having woken up, she fiddles with her parents and demands this toy for herself. At a tender age, children do not separate dreams from reality. This happens later, in the process of growing up, Nastya not only does not grow up - she does not wake up.
Vasilisa. Vasilisa represents the authoritative beginning of the play. She is the Pallas Athena of the flophouse, her evil genius. She alone acts - all the others exist. The criminal and melodramatic intrigues of the plot are connected with her image. For Vasilisa there are no internal prohibitions. She, like everyone else in the shelter, is a “naked person”, “everything is allowed” to her. And Vasilisa takes advantage of this while the others are just talking. The author gave her a cruel and merciless character. The concept of “impossible” lies outside its moral consciousness. And she thinks consistently. “To enjoy is to kill to enjoy.
Natasha. Natasha is the purest and brightest image of the play. Natasha out of jealousy. Vasilisa constantly beats and torments Vaska Ash, her husband, old Korostylev, helps her. The pack instinct kicks in. Natasha alone believes and still hopes, waits not for haberdashery, but true love, looking for her. But, unfortunately, the geography of its search takes place on the part of the bottom where Spanish galleons loaded with gold do not rest. The dim light coming from “above the viewer” allows one to see only the faces of the permanent monasteries. Natasha doesn't trust anyone
Anna Anna, who personifies pure suffering in the play. Her image is not clouded by passions and desires. She dies patiently and obediently. He dies not so much from a mortal disease, but from the consciousness of his uselessness to the world. She is one of those people for whom the truth of life is intolerable.
The female characters in Gorky's play “At the Depths” carry a serious semantic load. Thanks to their presence, the damaged world of the inhabitants of the shelter becomes closer and clearer. They are like guarantors of its reliability. It is through their voices that the author openly speaks about compassion and the unbearable boredom of life. They have their own book predecessors; many literary projections from the previous one converged on them. artistic tradition. The author does not hide this. Another thing is more important: they are the ones that cause the most sincere feelings hatred or compassion among readers and spectators of the play
The beginning of the 20th century was a turning point in Russian literature. Old, “hackneyed” truths are completely rejected by the new generation, there is a move away from classical traditions: eroticism is not forbidden, sadness is sublime, and joy is personal. The change in political and social systems inevitably led to a change in the course of Russian literature.
Raising their heads, the people wanted literature to become a reflection of existing reality. The government supported this initiative; moreover, the majority of the reading public was from the lower strata of society; they would not have been able to appreciate the high flight of thought, poetic inspiration and the tossing of a contradictory soul. Time demanded new themes, new approaches, new writers.
Maxim Gorky became a master of socialist literature. Who doesn’t know his “Song of the Storm Petrel,” the harbinger of revolution? Who doesn't know him deeply contemporary to that time novel "Mother"? But Gorky received true fame and recognition for his play “At the Depths.”
In the work, the writer touches on the topic of social “lower classes”. No one before him had risked writing on this topic so sharply and realistically. Gorky did not engage in deep psychoanalysis and reveal the reasons for the collapse human personality. He took, so to speak, the “end result” of this disintegration. A terrible picture was revealed before the viewer, in which there is no place for hope. Yes, no one has any hope of salvation: Anna eventually dies, Kleshch and the Actor completely get drunk, Natalya becomes embittered, Vaska Pepel is sent to prison... But this is also only the result of the life that the heroes of the play “At the Bottom” live. The worst thing is that they all have no future, their lives are over long before physical death...
Such people don't have tomorrow, no matter how terrible it may sound. The author emphasizes the hopeless state of these people with a special situation female images in the play. Let’s not forget that a woman is a mother, and children are the future. And what kind of mothers can these unfortunate women make? And in this terrible situation, how can healthy children grow up? And what kind of character and aspirations might they have? This is how Gorky affirms the cruelty of the world of the “lower classes” and the impossibility of its future, its extinction.
But what are they like, women beggars? Let's take a closer look at them. The dumpling seller Kvashnya is one of the first women to appear on the scene. She assures that she will never marry anyone: “So that I,” I say, “ free woman, I am my own mistress, but I entered someone’s passport so that I would give myself to a man in a fortress - no!” Her rudeness no longer shocks anyone; everyone is used to it. Kvashnya is the image of a woman who chooses “commodity-money relations” instead of a family; she lives only for herself and does not want to care about anyone else. The future in her has died, she will not leave behind anyone who could remember her.
The next character is Anna. She is sick with consumption and will soon die, everyone understands this, even her husband. Klesh is sincerely convinced that her illness, and, ultimately, her life, is preventing him from getting out of poverty. He is waiting for his wife to die, and there is not a drop of pity in him: “Wait a minute... the wife will die...” And indeed, Anna has become very bad. Everyone is already tired of her annoying, sick cough. The only time the husband speaks tenderly to Anna is when she gives the dumplings left for her: “I don’t want... What do I need to eat? You are a worker... you need...” Anna could have been a good mother, she is kind, calm, patient, but the author shows her death, not allowing her to develop, and thus taking away hope from another family.
Nastya and Natasha strive to break free from the “bottom” of life, but they feel their own powerlessness before the confines of this “prison”. The girls strive to break out of the “bottoms” each in their own way: Nastya is saved by her fictional romance with a student, Natasha is saved by the expectation of some extraordinary event, which will change her whole life. But Nastya will remain with her illusions. By this, the author emphasizes the complete realism of what is being described. Nastya will never get out of this “swamp”, because, apart from fantasies, she has absolutely nothing.
Natasha is perhaps the brightest image of the play. She, too, will not be able to escape from the “bottom”, since the environment completely “absorbs” her. Initially, this girl is kind and sympathetic. It was she who brought the comforter Luka, it was she who discovered that Anna had died, since, apparently, only she really cared about the patient. But after some time, Natalya finds herself broken. At the end of the fourth act, she “throws around in unconsciousness” and predicts a sad end for herself: “Here I am... someday like this... in the basement... downtrodden.”
And the last female character in the play is Vasilisa, Natasha’s sister. Both heroines have a lot common features character - will, straightforwardness, pride. Obviously, Vasilisa was once the same as Natasha, but became a “beast”, a “reptile”. The author tries to explain her character with Nastya’s words: “You will become brutal in such a life... tie every living person to a husband like hers...” Vasilisa also cannot be a mother, since she hates her husband.
Gorky leads the reader through a line of female characters, but he deprives them of femininity, grace and beauty, claiming that “below” everyone is equal in their grief, and even strong women bend under this unbearable weight. The female images of this work emphasize the hopelessness of the “bottom”, its terrifying truth.
There are five female characters in the play. Anna is the wife of Kleshch, who humbly dies in the second act, the compassionate and economical Kvashnya, the young Vasilisa is the wife of the owner of the shelter and the mistress of Vaska Pepla, the young and downtrodden Natasha, and Nastya, designated in the author’s remark by the bashful word “maiden”.
In the semantic context of the work, female images are represented by two pairs of opposite characters: Kvashnya - Nastya and Vasilisa - Natasha. Outside of these pairs is Anna, who personifies pure suffering in the play. Her image is not clouded by passions and desires. She dies patiently and obediently. He dies not so much from a mortal disease, but from the consciousness of his uselessness to the world. She is one of those “naked people” for whom the truth of existence is intolerable. “I’m sick,” she admits to Luka. The only aspect of death that worries her is: “What’s it like there – is it also torment?” Downtrodden, unsuitable for anything in this world, it resembles a thing. She doesn't move around the stage - she gets moved. They take him out, leave him in the kitchen, and forget about him. Just like a thing, it is treated after death. “We have to drag it out!” “We’ll pull it out...” She passed away - as if a prop had been taken away. “That means I’ve stopped coughing.”
Not so with the others. In the first pair, Kvashnya represents the semantic dominant. She almost always does housework. He lives from his labors. Makes dumplings and sells them. What these dumplings are made of and who eats them, only God knows. She has been married for a long time and now it’s a no-brainer for her: “I did it once, it’s memorable for the rest of my life...” And when her husband “died,” she “sat alone” all day out of happiness and joy. She is always alone in the play. Conversations and events touch the edge, as if the inhabitants of the shelter are afraid of her. Even Medvedev, the personification of law and power, her roommate, talks with Kvashnya respectfully - there is too much incurious reason, common sense and hidden aggression in her.
Her opposite is Nastya - unprotected and accessible. She's not busy, she's not doing anything. She is a "maiden". She hardly reacts to the realities of the world around her. Her mind is not burdened with reflection. She is as self-sufficient as Kvashnya. Gorky implanted in her a strange, not invented by him, world of “women’s novels,” a meager and meaningless dream of a beautiful life. She is literate and therefore reads. “There, in the kitchen, a girl is sitting, reading a book and crying,” Luka is surprised. This is Nastya. She weeps over a fiction that miraculously seems to her to be her own life. She resembles a little girl who dreamed of a toy. Having woken up, she fiddles with her parents and demands this toy for herself. At a tender age, children do not separate dreams from reality. This happens later, in the process of growing up. Nastya not only doesn’t grow up, she doesn’t wake up. In reality she dreams of these confectionery, sinless dreams: “And his left-hander is huge, and loaded with ten bullets... My unforgettable friend... Raoul...” The Baron rolls over her: “Nastya! But... after all, last time it was Gaston! Nastya behaves like a child. Having poked her nose into reality, she becomes capricious, gets excited, throws a cup on the floor, threatens the inhabitants: “I’ll get drunk today... So I’ll get drunk.” Getting drunk means escaping reality again. Forget yourself. Judging by the indirect hints, the Baron is a gigolo with her, but she is not aware of this either. The rays of reality only glare on the surface of her consciousness, without penetrating inside. One day Nastya opens up, and it becomes clear that her life is fueled by the energy of hatred. Running away, she shouts to everyone: “Wolves! May you breathe out! Wolves! She says this line at the end of the fourth act, and therefore there is hope of waking up.
Vasilisa represents the authoritative beginning of the play. She is the Athena Payalada of the flophouse, her evil genius. She alone acts - all the others exist. The criminal and melodramatic intrigues of the plot are connected with her image. For Vasilisa there are no internal prohibitions. She, like everyone else in the shelter, is a “naked person”, “everything is allowed” to her. And Vasilisa takes advantage of this while the others are just talking. The author gave her a cruel and merciless character. The concept of “impossible” lies beyond her moral consciousness. And she thinks consistently: “To enjoy is to kill in order to enjoy.” Her antipode Natasha is the purest and brightest image of the play. Out of jealousy for Vaska Ash, Vasilisa constantly beats and tortures Natasha; her husband, old Kostylev, helps her. The pack instinct kicks in. Natasha alone believes and still hopes, waits not for haberdashery, but for real love, and searches for it. But. Unfortunately, the geography of its search takes place on the part of the bottom where Spanish galleons loaded with gold do not rest. The dim light coming “from above, from the viewer” allows one to see only the faces of the permanent inhabitants. Natasha doesn't trust anyone. Neither Luke nor Ash. It’s just that she, like Marmeladov, “has nowhere to go.” When Kostylev is killed, she shouts: “Take me too... put me in prison!” It is clear to Natasha that Ash did not kill. Everyone has wine. Everyone was killed. This is her truth. Hers, not Satina. Not really proud strong man, but the truth is humiliated and insulted.
Female images in Gorky's play "" carry a serious semantic load. Thanks to their presence, the damaged world of the inhabitants of the shelter becomes closer and more understandable. They are like guarantors of its reliability. It is through their voices that the author openly speaks about compassion and the unbearable boredom of life. They have their own book predecessors; many literary projections from the previous artistic tradition converged on them. The author does not hide this. Another thing is more important: it is they who evoke the most sincere feelings of hatred or compassion among readers and spectators of the play.
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Female characters in the playM. Gorky"At the bottom"
bitter bottom female suffering intrigue
There are five female characters in the play. Anna is the wife of Kleshch, who humbly dies in the second act, the compassionate and economical Kvashnya, the young Vasilisa is the wife of the owner of the shelter and the mistress of Vaska Pepla, the young and downtrodden Natasha, and Nastya, designated in the author’s remark by the bashful word “maiden”.
In the semantic context of the work, female images are represented by two pairs of opposite characters: Kvashnya - Nastya and Vasilisa - Natasha. Outside of these pairs is Anna, who personifies pure suffering in the play. Her image is not clouded by passions and desires. She dies patiently and obediently. He dies not so much from a mortal disease, but from the consciousness of his uselessness to the world. She is one of those “naked people” for whom the truth of existence is intolerable. “I’m sick,” she admits to Luka. The only aspect of death that worries her: “What’s it like there – is it also torture?” Downtrodden, unsuitable for anything in this world, it resembles a thing. She doesn't move around the stage - she is moved. They take him out, leave him in the kitchen, and forget about him. Just like a thing, it is treated after death. “We have to drag it out!” “We’ll pull it out...” She passed away - as if a prop had been taken away. “That means I’ve stopped coughing.”
Not so with the others. In the first pair, Kvashnya represents the semantic dominant. She almost always does housework. He lives from his labors. Makes dumplings and sells them. What these dumplings are made of and who eats them, only God knows. She has been married for a long time and now it’s a no-brainer for her: “I did it once, it’s memorable for the rest of my life...” And when her husband “died,” she “sat alone” all day out of happiness and joy. She is always alone in the play. Conversations and events touch the edge, as if the inhabitants of the shelter are afraid of her. Even Medvedev, the personification of law and power, her roommate, talks to Kvashnya with respect - there is too much incurious reason, common sense and hidden aggression in her.
Her opposite, Nastya, is unprotected and accessible. She's not busy, she's not doing anything. She is a "maiden". She hardly reacts to the realities of the world around her. Her mind is not burdened with reflection. She is as self-sufficient as Kvashnya. Gorky implanted in her a strange, not invented by him, world of “women’s novels,” a meager and meaningless dream of a beautiful life. She is literate and therefore reads. “There, in the kitchen, a girl is sitting, reading a book and crying,” Luka is surprised. This is Nastya. She weeps over a fiction that miraculously seems to her to be her own life. She resembles a little girl who dreamed of a toy. Having woken up, she fiddles with her parents and demands this toy for herself. At a tender age, children do not separate dreams from reality. This happens later, in the process of growing up, Nastya not only does not grow up, she does not wake up. In reality she dreams of these confectionery, sinless dreams: “And his left-hander is huge, and loaded with ten bullets... My unforgettable friend... Raoul...”
The Baron rolls over her: “Nastya! But... after all, last time it was Gaston! Nastya behaves like a child. Having poked her nose into reality, she becomes capricious, gets excited, throws a cup on the floor, threatens the inhabitants: “I’ll get drunk today... So I’ll get drunk.” Getting drunk means escaping reality again. Forget yourself. Judging by the indirect hints, the Baron is a gigolo with her, but she is not aware of this either. The rays of reality only glare on the surface of her consciousness, without penetrating inside. One day Nastya opens up, and it becomes clear that her life is fueled by the energy of hatred. Running away, she shouts to everyone: “Wolves! May you breathe out! Wolves! She utters this line at the end of the fourth act, and therefore there is hope of waking up.
Vasilisa represents the authoritative beginning of the play. She is Pallas Athena of the flophouse, her evil genius. She alone acts - all the others exist. The criminal and melodramatic intrigues of the plot are connected with her image. For Vasilisa there are no internal prohibitions. She, like everyone else in the shelter, is a “naked person”; “everything is allowed” to her. And Vasilisa takes advantage of this while the others are just talking. The author gave her a cruel and merciless character. The concept of “impossible” lies beyond her moral consciousness. And she thinks consistently. “To enjoy is to kill to enjoy.” Her antipode Natasha is the purest and brightest image of the play. Natasha out of jealousy. Vasilisa constantly beats and torments Vaska Ash, her husband, old Korostylev, helps her. The pack instinct kicks in. Natasha alone believes and still hopes, waits not for haberdashery, but for real love, and searches for it. But, unfortunately, the geography of its search takes place on the part of the bottom where Spanish galleons loaded with gold do not rest. The dim light coming from “above the viewer” allows one to see only the faces of the permanent monasteries. Natasha doesn't trust anyone. Neither Luke nor Ash. It’s just that she, Kaya Marmeladov, “has nowhere to go.” When Korostylev is killed, she shouts: “Take me too... put me in prison! For Christ’s sake... put me in prison!” It’s clear to Natasha that it wasn’t Ash who killed. Everyone has wine. Everyone was killed. This is her truth, not Satina's. Not the truth of a proud strong man, but the truth of the humiliated and insulted.
The female characters in Gorky's play “At the Depths” carry a serious semantic load. Thanks to their presence, the damaged world of the inhabitants of the shelter becomes closer and more understandable. They are like guarantors of its reliability. It is through their voices that the author openly speaks about compassion and the unbearable boredom of life. They have their own book predecessors; many literary projections from the previous artistic tradition converged on them. The author does not hide this. Another thing is more important: they are the ones who evoke the most sincere feelings of hatred or compassion among readers and spectators of the play.
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At the heart of Maxim Gorky's play “At the Depths” (1902) is a dispute about Man and his capabilities. The action of the work takes place in the Kostylevs' shelter - a place located outside the world of people. Almost all the inhabitants of the shelter are aware of their situation as abnormal: all the most important connections between them and the world are severed - social, professional, spiritual, public family. There is nothing connecting the night shelters themselves - they are just people who accidentally came together in one place and do not want to know anything about each other. Each of them knows the truth about themselves, and each has their own.
The characters in the drama conduct philosophical debates without ultimately coming to a single conclusion. Gorky’s work shows the “bottom” of human life and souls. And in this mud, in the darkness of hopelessness, women, glorified by many poets and writers, traditionally described as lovely, gentle and airy creatures, are forced to exist.
In the ongoing dispute about man, three positions are especially important - Bubnova, Luka and Satin. Bubnov's position is fatalistic. A person is powerless to change anything in his destiny. Hence, indifference not only to the suffering of others, but also to one’s own fate. In his opinion, all people are “superfluous”, since the world is dominated by ruthless laws that govern and dominate man. People float with the flow, like chips, powerless to change anything. Bubnov's truth is the truth of the external circumstances of life. Satin is an exponent of another life position: “Everything is in man, everything is for man. Only man exists; everything else is the work of his hands and brain.” A person must be respected, Satin believes, pity only humiliates. Luke is the most complex character in the play. It is with this that the main philosophical question of the work is connected: “What is better: truth or compassion? Is it necessary to take compassion to the point of using lies, like Luke?” In essence, Luke with his theory of pity is the main image of the play. With his appearance, the actual dramatic development of the plot begins. Luke stirred up the stagnant swamp of the “bottom” and made people think and reason.
And female characters in Gorky’s play also take part in this dispute. And they, too, must find the answer to the question “What is more important - the bitter truth or the hope-giving lie?”
In the play “At the Bottom”, five women stand out among the heroes. This is Vasilisa Karpovna, the wife of the owner of the shelter Kostylev, her sister Natasha, Kleshch’s wife Anna, the dumpling seller Kvashnya and the girl Nastya. Judging by the lines from “ Characters" plays, all these are young women - aged from 20 (Natasha) to 30 (Anna) years, with the exception of Kvashnya, who is 40 years old. What are they? Why are they included in the action of the play?
Vasilisa - her image is usually assessed with the following epithets: “immoral”, “cynical”, etc. Her behavior indeed seems to be like that. Vasilisa systematically beats her sister Natasha, she cheats on her husband and tries to persuade Ash to kill her husband, in the end she puts Ash under arrest, accusing him of murdering Kostylev, and scalds her sister Natasha with boiling water. But it’s worth re-reading the pages and wondering: is it only Vasilisa’s nature that is the reason for this? And at the very beginning we see that Vasilisa’s husband is 54 years old, she is 26, that is, almost thirty years of age difference. This to some extent explains Vasilisa’s infidelity.
From the pages of the play it becomes clear what the owner of the shelter, Kostylev, is like. He is the owner of the shelter and considers himself the master of life. From the description of the rooming house environment, we see what conditions he creates for his “stayers.” In general, as Nastya says, with a husband like Kostylev, everyone will go wild.
Natasha, Vasilisa’s sister, is tender and sincere pure creation. Natasha is kind, and this becomes clear from the pages of the play. Natasha says, “To Klesh, so that later he comes for Anna and is affectionate with her, she is dying and she is scared. When Anna dies, Natasha is surprised that no one feels sorry for her. Natasha is the only one who sympathizes with Nastya’s fantasies. She herself dreams, that tomorrow a special stranger will come and something completely special will happen. But unlike the romantic Nastya, she understands that there is nothing to expect - a miracle will not happen to her, no matter how much she wants it.
The final fate of the heroine remains in question. After Vasilisa scalded her legs, Natasha was taken to the hospital. And in the last act it turns out that Natasha left the hospital a long time ago and disappeared. Maybe she has found her happiness? But, unfortunately, such an outcome is hard to believe.
Anna, a woman sick with consumption and tired of life, dies. She says that “all my life I shook over every piece of bread... I suffered... All my life I walked around in rags.” For this heroine, Luke's theory paid off. Luke calms and encourages the dying woman with the hope that for her earthly torments, after death she will find peace and eternal bliss in heaven. The miserable, meaningless, joyless existence on earth is compensated by eternal bliss in heaven.
The fallen woman Nastya is naive, touching and helpless at heart. She dreams of pure and devoted love, and in these illusions she strives to hide from the surrounding dirt, darkness and hopelessness. Her fantasies do not evoke understanding. The Baron, who exists at her expense, only laughs in response to her tears and fantasies. Nastya loves to read novels, the content of which constitutes most of her dreams.
Kvashnya - Kvashnya, a forty-year-old dumpling seller, seems to be a kind of optimist. Perhaps she has already gotten used to the life of the “bottom”. But this woman is strikingly different from all the other heroines of the play. A refrain that runs through the entire play is her thought that she is a free woman and will never agree to “give herself up to the fortress,” that is, to get married. And in the finale, he begins to cohabit with Medvedev, Vasilisa and Natasha’s uncle, a policeman. Kvashnya is the only heroine who was not affected by the “coming” of Luke. The rest came under his influence in one way or another.
Anna dies, reassured by Luke’s lies about the bright and gentle “other world.” Nastya, even without Luka’s influence, created for herself “ saving lie- in your fantasies. And she still remains in the shelter, not outwardly striving for any achievements. Vasilisa is taken under arrest along with Vaska Pepl, and the night shelters are arguing about who will put whom behind bars for more long term. In essence, everything remains virtually unchanged. Only Natasha's fate seems incomprehensible. After leaving the hospital, she disappeared. But where and why? Maybe she decided to seek her happiness?
In my opinion, with the female characters in the play “At the Lower Depths,” Gorky sought to show both the depth of moral decline and the spiritual purity of “tender, lovely creatures.” Here, as in the entire play, polyphony sounds. Gorky does not have a single answer to the question of how to live, is it possible to get out of difficult situation? But even in difficult, gloomy conditions of life, not every of Gorky’s heroines finally sinks to the bottom. Someone is trying to adapt, someone does not lose faith in the future, trying to retain at least tiny particles of goodness and light and love.