The circle of problems at the bottom are examples. Social problems raised in the drama based on the play At the Lower Depths (Gorky Maxim)

The play “At the Lower Depths” by Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, better known to us under the pseudonym of Maxim Gorky, was created more than eighty years ago. And all these years it has caused controversy among readers. This can be explained by the fact that many of the problems posed by the author in different time become relevant, some statements - catchphrases, and Satin’s monologue about man is even learned by heart at school.

The main thing in the work is not so much human destinies as the clashes of opposing ideas, disputes about man, about the meaning of life among people of the same social level. The center of this dispute is the problem of truth and lies, the perception of life as it really is, with all its hopelessness and difficulties, or life with illusions, with the hope that someday something will happen and everything will be fine. This dispute begins long before the wanderer Luke appears in the shelter and continues after his departure.

Already at the very beginning of the play, Kvashnya consoles herself with thoughts that she is a free woman in every sense, and Nastya with dreams of a beautiful and wonderful feeling for Gaston, which in fact only exists in the book “Fatal Love”. And from the very beginning, reality bursts into this pink world. It shows who is who in the shelter. These people are cruel to each other because life made them this way, and they were unable to correct the situation in time. And this cruelty is manifested, first of all, in the way they destroy the illusions of other people: they do not give peace to the dying Anna, they stop the Tick with his hopes of getting out of the bottom of life.

Among these embittered people, the wanderer Luke appears. And with his appearance, the already begun dispute about man, about truth and lies intensifies. It is Luke who causes the most serious controversy. He doesn’t do anything bad, doesn’t humiliate people, as many basement residents liked to do, he just consoles people, gives people at least some hope. But it is impossible to help people who no longer need anything in this life. They have already been erased from society, no one needs them and they don’t even hope for a bright future. And then, having understood all this, Luka begins to lie in order to somehow soften the pain that life brings to these people. He instills illusions in the inhabitants of the shelter. Luka, as a psychologist, feels people very subtly, knows what is most important to each of them at this very moment. And he unmistakably gives them advice, promising Anna peace and rest in the next world, the Actor - free hospitals for alcoholics, and Ash - free life in Siberia. Why is Luke lying? His very name is associated with the word “evil,” which means something deceitful and dishonest. Luke can be accused of tempting people with his lies, and it is he who is to blame for the death of the Actor. However, if you look closely at what Luke does, understand his speech and actions, you understand that he does all this not out of some whim of his own, but because he simply has not hardened his soul, human feelings are still preserved in him . Moreover, one cannot but agree with the assessment that Satin gives to Luke: “He lied... But this is only out of pity for you.” Luke not only deceives, but by doing so he does good. It is Luka who prevents Ash from killing Kostylev. And he advises Ash to leave for Siberia as soon as possible, because he foresees that this matter will not end well, and his foresight turns out to be correct. Luka doesn’t just lie to the Actor about free hospitals for alcoholics, he persuades him: “Just this: get ready for now! Refrain... pull yourself together and be patient...” And it is not the wanderer Luke who is to blame for the death of the Actor, but the Actor himself, who could not pull himself together and cope with his problems. Luke not only consoles, he also substantiates his position with the same story about how he saved two escaped convicts when he worked as a watchman. With all this he wants to say that only good can save a person from all problems and teach goodness.

In the play, as I have already seen, the main bearer of good is Luke; he takes pity on people, sympathizes with them and tries to help them in word and deed. Luke's main opponent in the dispute about truth is Satin. However, it is Satin who not only stands up for the old man, forbidding everyone else to speak badly about him, but also pronounces his famous monologue about the man. But the last event of the play - the death of the Actor - confirms the words of Luke: “A man believed, then he lost faith and hanged himself.”

The play “At the Bottom” proved that saving lie It will not save anyone that you cannot live forever in illusions, and the way out of them into reality is always difficult or even tragic, and most importantly, that a person living in dreams resigns himself to his hopeless life and cannot do anything.

In the play "At the Bottom" M. Gorky explores the consciousness of people thrown to the "bottom" of life as a result of deep social processes. Researchers characterize this work as a social, everyday and socio-philosophical drama. In social conflict, three levels can be distinguished. Firstly, this is the problem of the relationship between the masters of life, endowed with power, and the powerless roomies. Secondly, this is the problem of human fate in an unjust society.

Thirdly, the problem of love as a boundary social conflict.

The conflict between the owners of the shelter, the Kostylev spouses, and its inhabitants is felt throughout the entire play.

Kostylev appears on stage in the first act, “humming something divine under his breath and suspiciously inspecting the shelter.” Already in this remark the author reveals the hypocrisy and falsehood of this hero. He is looking for his wife Vasilisa, suspecting her of treason. His selfishness and greed are shown in the dialogue with the former locksmith Kleshch. The owner is going to charge the guest “fifty dollars” for the place he occupies. The worker answers him rudely, without hiding his hatred: “You throw a noose over me and crush me... You’ll die soon, but you’re still thinking about fifty dollars.”

Kostylev behaves like Judushka Golovlev: he pours out his affectionate, unctuous speech, using diminutive suffixes, often mentioning the name of God, hiding his greed behind his honeyed speech. Having praised the Actor for taking care of the sick Anna, the owner of the flophouse hypocritically declares: “In the next world, brother... there everything, every deed of ours is taken into account.” In response to his unctuous reasoning about kindness, the Actor remarks: “You are a rogue, old man.” Satin directly declares his dislike for the owner: “Who, except the devil, loves you?..” But Kostylev is not offended by the rudeness and hypocritically says: “And I love you all... I understand, you are my unfortunate, useless brothers getting lost." It should be noted that another “crafty old man,” whom the residents of the shelter call both a “scoundrel” and a “charlatan,” is Luke. He also speaks of his special love for people: “I respect swindlers too, In my opinion, not a single flea is bad: all are black, all jump. .." Are these roll calls random? Perhaps the author wanted to emphasize by this that Luke is sowing a comforting lie. But Luke plants illusions in the souls of the night shelters, pitying them. Kostylev covers up selfish interests and the desire for profit with lies.

By exposing the exploitative nature of the owners, Gorky shows that they are not far from socially left the inhabitants of the shelter. Kostylev takes the stolen goods from the thief Vaska Pepel and resells them. The relationship between the owners and the night shelters only creates tension, but is not the basis of the dramatic conflict.

The fate of most of the residents of the shelter develops like a drama and ends like a tragedy. There is only one reason for this: indifference to people in a society based on the hypocrisy of bourgeois morality. People feel unwanted and rejected by society. “You are superfluous everywhere... and all the people on earth are superfluous...” - Bubnov declares to Nastya.

Each of the heroes experienced their own social conflict in the past, as a result of which they found themselves at the “bottom” of life, in a shelter.

Satin once worked at a telegraph office and read a lot of books. While defending his sister, in the heat of anger he accidentally kills the offender. loved one. So he ended up in prison, where he learned to play cards.

The actor once had the stage name Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky, played a gravedigger in the drama “Hamlet”. But binge drinking began, and he lost his job in the theater.

Bubnov was a furrier and had his own establishment, but his wife got involved with the master. The hero leaves, leaving everything to his wife.

The tick has been working since an early age. He is proud to be a worker and at first considers himself superior to the rest of the night shelters. He has only been at the bottom for only six months, but hopes that after the death of his wife he will begin new life.

Anna trembled all her life over every bite, was afraid to eat too much, and endured beatings from her husband.

The Baron proudly reports that he belongs to “an old family from the time of Catherine,” and loves to remember how coffee with cream was served to him in bed in the morning. He graduated from the noble institute and got married. Having lost government money, he was forced to put on a prison robe.

Vaska Ash becomes a thief “by inheritance.” “...my parent spent his whole life in prison and ordered it for me too,” he says about himself.

Nastya - "a girl who lives on her own" - lives with dreams of beautiful love, about the feat of self-sacrifice.

These people are victims of social circumstances, and the events of the play confirm this. Vaska Pepel accidentally kills the owner of the shelter, Kostylev, in a fight, and hard labor awaits him in Siberia. He will go to the “golden side” not of his own free will, as Luke advised him. Her sister Natasha, mutilated by Vasilisa, goes missing more than once.

comforting the residents of the shelter. Anna, who was poor before her death, dies. After the death of his wife, Mite loses hope for a decent life as a worker: “the funeral ate up” the tool. Nastya becomes embittered against everyone because the kind Luka who knew how to support her is not around. The actor commits suicide, despairing and losing hope of a cure in a free hospital.

The fate and life of people at the bottom serves as irrefutable evidence of violence against human personality, which inevitably arises under the conditions of a bourgeois state based on the principles of lies and indifference to people.

A vivid accusation of this sounds in the speeches of Satin. “Make my work pleasant... When work is pleasure, life is good!” - he polemically objects to Klesh, who reproaches the residents of the shelter for not working.

In the finale, Satin makes a speech in defense of the freedom and dignity of man, no matter what level of the social ladder he is at. He rebels against the lies that justify “the weight that crushed the hand of the worker... and blames the man dying of hunger.” “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters,” says Gorky’s reasoner. He opposes obedience and humility, calls on people to fight for their rights.

The “love polygon” - the relationship between Kostylev, Vasilisa, Ash and Natasha - is a facet of social conflict. Vasilisa is cheating on her husband with Ash and hopes, with the help of her lover, to get rid of her old and boring husband. Ash leaves Vasilisa for Natasha. Love for a pure, modest girl fills his soul with hope for an honest working life. The culmination of the love conflict is taken off stage. We only learn from the remarks of the night shelters that the “beast woman” scalded her out of jealousy sister boiling water

The murder of Kostylev becomes the tragic outcome of a love conflict. We see that the inhumane conditions of the “bottom” cripple people’s souls. Love here does not lead to personal enrichment, but to injury and hard labor.

Thus, from this love conflict, it is the cruel hostess of the flophouse who achieves all goals at once: revenge ex-lover and her rival, gets rid of her unloved husband and becomes the sole owner of the shelter. Her moral impoverishment emphasizes the monstrous social conditions in which both the inhabitants of the shelter and its owners find themselves.

Topic: The problem of humanism in M. Gorky’s play “At the Bottom”.

Goals:

educational:

Improving text analysis skills; formation of universal educational actions in the process of text analysis dramatic work;

Satisfying intellectual interest;

developing:

Development of speech culture, monologue and dialogic speech skills;

Development of logic of thinking;

Development of creative thinking;

Acquiring the ability to conduct a discussion and speak in public;

raising:

Establishing new connecting threads with classmates and the teacher in the process of joint actions;

Instilling a sense of goodwill, attention and respect for the interlocutor;

Acquisition of moral values;

Permission is personal significant problems in the process of considering situational problems;

Activation of students' creative abilities.

Tasks:

- create a problematic situation

Encourage students to express their own point of view on various issues.

Form of organizing the lesson:heuristic conversation, literary discussion, elements of theatrical play.

Methods:

Reproductive: verbal, visual;

Productive: creating diagrams, filling them with observational results and personal judgments, creating a multimedia presentation for students about Luke; use of multimedia presentation for the lesson, dramatization, reflection, group work.

Means of education: portrait of M. Gorky, illustrations for the play “At the Lower Depths”, multimedia presentation, computer equipment, books with the text of the play “At the Lower Depths”, textbooks, co-creation, mutual responsibility for the results of work, shared experience of success, interpretation literary work.

Form of organization of work in the classroom:frontal, group, individual, creative.

During the classes

The first learning situation is motivational

Teacher reports the topic of the lesson: The collision of heterogeneous worldviews in M. Gorky’s play “At the Depths”. The problem of humanism. (Presentation, slide No. 1.)

Students work collectively in groups, interpret each word of the lesson topic, developing speech and mental activity, writing down variants of semantic findings in notebooks:

Teacher.

What are the goals of our lesson?

Students intuitively perceive goals: understanding the author's intention, realizing it, identifying problems, discovery spiritual world author, enrichment of one’s spiritual world, personal development in the process educational activities, development of speech culture and others. (Presentation, slide No. 2.)

Teacher if necessary, complements and generalizes the answers: the formation of universal educational actions in the process of analyzing the text of a dramatic work, the resolution of personally significant problems in the process of considering situational problems, the activation of students’ creative abilities.

Teacher.

What is the main theme of M. Gorky’s work at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries?

Students.

IN late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, the main theme of M. Gorky’s work was the theme of exposing the vices of capitalist reality.

Teacher. What problems is the author performing in the play “At the Lower Depths”?

Students They name the problems of the struggle of life and death, human oppression, spiritual and material poverty, loneliness, the tragedy of society and man, humanism, inhumanity of society, truth and lies. (Presentation, slide No. 3.)

The second learning situation is educational and cognitive

Teacher.

A notable phenomenon of Russian literature at the beginning of the 20th century was Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” (1902). What explained its exceptional success? (Presentation, slide No. 4.)

Students.

• A strong impression on the viewer was made by the combination of an extremely realistic depiction of people who have reached the last degree of squalor, despair and lawlessness, with the glorification of Man and his truth. For the first time, an unprecedented world of thieves, tramps, cheaters, that is, people who had sunk to the “bottom” of life, appeared before the eyes of the public. It, like an overturned mirror, reflected the world from which these people were overthrown. (Presentation, slide No. 5, No. 6.)
• Gorky's play is directed against the social unrest of capitalist society and is permeated with a passionate call for a just life. “Freedom at any cost is its spiritual essence,” this is how K. S. Stanislavsky defined the idea of ​​the play, who staged it on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater (1903). (Presentation, slide No. 7.)

Teacher.

The main rule of a literature lesson: you cannot competently defend your point of view without knowledge of the work itself. I offer you a little warm-up. I read a line from the play, and you decide who says it. (Presentation, slide No. 8.)

• “What is conscience for? I'm not rich." (Bubnov.)
• “A person lives in any way... as his heart is adjusted, so he lives...” (Luke.)
• “Education is nonsense, the main thing is talent!” (Actor.)
• “It’s not enough to know, you understand...” (Natasha.)
• “I’m tired, brother, of all human words... all our words are tired!” (Satin.)
• “Can kindness of heart be compared with money? Kindness is above all good things.” (Kostylev.)
• “We must love the living, the living.” (Luke.)
• “It turns out that no matter how you paint yourself on the outside, everything will be erased!” (Bubnov.)
• “When work is a duty, life is slavery!” (Satin.)
• “I don’t have a name here... Do you understand how offensive it is to lose a name? Even dogs have nicknames...” (Actor.)
• “And all the people! No matter how you pretend, no matter how you wobble, if you were born a man, you will die a man...” (Luke.)
• “What kind of people are they? Ragged, golden company... Do you think I won’t break out of here? Just wait…the wife will die.” (Mite.)

Teacher comments on the level of knowledge of the text.

The third educational situation is educational and cognitive

Teacher.

What images and associations arise when perceiving the play? (Presentation, slide No. 9.)

Students They conduct observations in groups and record the search results in table format. Students creatively express their understanding and perception of the play by exchanging opinions in groups, then representatives of the groups perform in front of their classmates.

The fourth learning situation is intellectual-reflective

Teacher.

What is the cause of human destruction? Why have people stooped to this level? Who is guilty? Students.

• The inhabitants of the “bottom” are thrown out of normal life due to the wolf laws that reign in society. Man is left to his own devices. If he stumbles, gets out of line, then he faces inevitable moral, and often physical death.
• People feel like they have been. Some of them don't even have a name.
• Lack of faith in justice forced Satin to take revenge on the scoundrel who killed his sister. This revenge brought him to prison, which defined him future fate. Bubnov is forced to leave home, leaving the workshop to his wife and her lover, since he did not hope for protection from representatives of the law.
• Of course, the people who find themselves in the Kostylevo shelter are not at all ideal. They make mistakes, do stupid things, but they do not deserve to be thrown to the “bottom” of life by society without providing any support. Vaska Pepel, the son of a thief, born in prison, is doomed to follow in the footsteps of his parent, because no other path has been ordered for him. The hard work and perseverance of Kleshch, who did not want to accept the fate of a homeless shelter, did not help him rise from the “bottom” of life.

The fifth educational situation is educational and cognitive

Teacher. What questions arise when meeting tragic fate inhabitants of the shelter?

Students. Can a person rise to the surface? What is the way out of this situation, what is the salvation of the people at the bottom?

Teacher.

Let's try to understand these complex philosophical questions. Which scene sets up the conflict?

Students. The beginning of the conflict is the appearance of Luke.

Teacher. Which is better: truth or compassion? Should we use comforting lies like Luke?

Students analyze the episode of the play associated with the appearance of Luke, write down the results of observations in notebooks, and share their thoughts with classmates. (Presentation, slides No. 13, No. 14, No. 15, No. 16, created by one of the students, demonstrated by him.)

The sixth learning situation is intellectual-reflective

Teacher.

What kind of person is Luke? Which moral values gain by getting to know Luka?

Students work with the text, observe, lead a discussion, giving examples, write down their thoughts and interesting findings of others.

The seventh learning situation is educational-cognitive, reflective.

Teacher. (Presentation, slide No. 18.)

The development of the plot focuses on how Luka behaves with each of the inhabitants of the shelter. What does Luke bring to people?

Students worked at home with the text, selected required material and recorded their observations in table format; during the lesson, communicating in groups, they supplemented their notes; representatives of the groups spoke with the results of the generalization.

Teacher.

What kind of man is he, the old man, the wanderer Luke, who, according to Satin, “leavened his roommates” and who disturbed in his soul what they had not believed in for a long time and what they did not love?

Students about reflection.

• Luka is a rather subtle psychologist, a tireless observer, an optimist. His advice was not implemented not because they were bad, but because the inhabitants of the shelter did not have enough energy and will to implement them. But the souls of the inhabitants of the shelter were excited by the wanderer, their minds began to work more intensely. For example, Vaska Pepel utters the words: “I don’t repent... I don’t believe in conscience... But I feel one thing: I have to live differently! We need to live better! I have to live in such a way that I can respect myself…” (Presentation, slide No. 20.)
• Luke sincerely sympathizes with the victims of life, humiliated and insulted people, selflessly strives to alleviate their suffering and help them. He promises the dying Anna life in paradise after death, where she will rest from earthly suffering. The old man advises Ash and Natasha to start a new life in the golden country of Siberia. He tells the actor about a free hospital for alcoholics, the address of which he has forgotten, but will definitely remember, giving this drunken person hope of returning to his former life.
• Luke is active and caring.
• Luke, a traveling preacher, consoles everyone, promises everyone deliverance from suffering, says to everyone: “You hope!”, “You believe!”/
• Luka is an extraordinary personality, he has a great life experience and a keen interest in people. He doesn’t believe in anything, but he feels sorry for suffering people, so he tells them various comforting words. His whole philosophy is contained in the saying: “What you believe is what you believe.”
• Luka is cunning, resourceful, resourceful.
• Luka is humane, kind, affectionate, gives advice, and shows concern. However, there is a lot of contradictory and incomprehensible things in it.
• Luke's humanism is based on passive compassion, which, while bringing momentary relief, deepens the gap between a person's dream of happiness and his real hopeless situation. This means that Luke’s comforting lie only worsens the situation of the outcasts, leads them into the world of illusions, deprives them last bit of strength to fight social evil, social injustice, because of which Kostylev’s shelters exist.
• Luke's position is the idea of ​​compassion for man, the idea of ​​a "sublime deception" that allows a person to bear the burden of the "low truths" encountered in his life. thorny path. Luke himself formulates his position. Turning to Ash, he says: “... what do you really need badly... think about it, maybe it’s just for you.” Then he talks about the “righteous land.” Luka doesn’t believe in her, he knows that she doesn’t exist. Luke is ready to welcome any idea if it can console a person, alleviate his suffering even for a minute. He does not think about the consequences of a lie that will sooner or later be revealed. Trying to protect a person, Luke at the same time does not believe in him; for him, all people are insignificant, weak, pitiful, and in need of consolation.
• The main feature of Luke's ideology is the feature of slavery. The philosophy of patience echoes the philosophy of oppression, the slave’s point of view echoes the master’s point of view. Gorky puts this thought into Satin’s mouth: “Whoever is weak at heart and who lives on other people’s juices needs a lie... Some people are supported by it, others hide behind it... But whoever is his own master, who is independent and does not take someone else’s - why should he lie?"

Eighth learning situation - intellectual-transformative, reflective

Teacher. We invite you to watch a scene from Act 4 prepared by our students. (From the beginning of act 4 to the words: “Truth is the god of a free man!”).

Teacher.

Students.

• The writer does not accept naive faith in miracles. It reveals the universal significance (even for the outcasts) and the elusiveness of genuine spiritual values. A combination of the eternal and the momentary, the stability and instability of familiar ideas, a small stage space (a dirty flophouse) and thoughts about big world humanity allowed the writer to embody complex life problems in everyday situations.
• The author puts into Satin’s mouth his point of view of “improving the spirit”: “Man is the truth!”, “Everything is in man, everything is for man!” Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! It sounds...proud! Human! We must respect the person! Don’t feel sorry... don’t humiliate him with pity... you need to respect him!”
• In the text of the drama we find aphorisms that carry an ethical charge, help to evaluate the sincerity or falsehood of the characters’ remarks, understand the reasons that caused it, force us to understand the connection between word and character in dramatic work, evoke thoughts about oneself, living here and now: “A person can teach goodness... very simply!”, “You can’t always cure a soul with truth,” “Under a lying stone... water does not flow” and others.
• The writer idealizes not tramps, insulted and humiliated by failures in life, but a proud freedom-loving force.
• M. Gorky's play is an innovative literary work. At its center is not only human destinies, but a clash of ideas, a dispute about man, about the meaning of life, about truth. (Presentation, slide No. 21.)

The ninth educational situation is educational and cognitive

Tenth educational situation “Lesson summary” - reflective

Teacher.

What impact did the search work on the topic of the lesson have on you?

Students about reflection.

• Reading the text of the play, commenting on it, talking about the characters, we identify the most important features of a socio-philosophical drama. The characters talk and argue a lot. Their conversations are the subject of depiction in the play. The clash of ideas, life views, and the struggle of worldviews determine the main conflict of the play.
• People of the “bottom” are not villains, not monsters, not scoundrels. They are people just like us, they just live in different conditions. This amazed the first viewers of the play and shocks new readers.
• Gorky himself saw in the play “a signal for an uprising” and wrote that “this signal can be heard in the words of Satin, in his assessment of man.” When unusual stage fate, with the persistent popularity of the play on stages around the world, it has caused and continues to cause great amount the most contradictory interpretations.
• Gorky the thinker continues the debate about humanism, about those “truths” that exclude each other. He is our contemporary, a fighter for a person striving for happiness and believing in the future.
• Gorky sincerely believes in Man, in the noble qualities of his soul, in happiness.

No wonder he said: “It is an excellent position to be a man on earth.” But there is no, and there cannot be, happiness while a person is not free, while injustice dominates at every step. A person deserves happiness and freedom because he is a Human. This is Gorky's humanism. (Presentation, slide No. 22.)

• Maxim Gorky awakens in us the idea of ​​what to be like in the world of people. Finishing the lesson, we do not put an end to it, but continue to actively work on ourselves.

Teacher.

Today, various opinions have been voiced about Luke, about his life position, about his worldview. While talking about this character, we touched on many issues that go beyond the scope of a literary work and literary criticism in general.

When we see a beggar, a ragged person on the street, we often don’t think about the fact that in front of us is a person who has lost faith in himself and in people (there is no one on earth who would want to support this faith), we pass by and respond to a request for help with a contemptuous, condemning look. But this is either an old man whom we did not protect, or a child whom no one warmed, or an adult who found himself in difficult life situation. Shouldn't we take pity on the disadvantaged, as Luke does? Shouldn't we remember the words of Satin: “We must respect a person!” The main thing: do not pass by, help the person!

Be merciful

Homework.

1) Make a sample of the characters’ statements on the following questions:

• The place and role of a person in life.
• Does a person need the truth?
• Is it possible to change your life?

2) Prepare a statement on one of the identified issues.

3) Learn by heart Satin’s famous monologues about truth and man (Act 4).

Student, prepared for the lesson independently,reads N. Zabolotsky’s poem “Don’t let your soul be lazy.”

The action of the play "At the Bottom" takes place in a gloomy, semi-dark basement, like a cave, with a vaulted, low ceiling that presses on people with its stone weight, where it is dark, there is no space and it is difficult to breathe. The furnishings in this basement are also wretched: instead of chairs there are dirty stumps of wood, a roughly knocked together table, bunks along the walls

Thieves, cheaters, beggars, cripples - everyone who was thrown out of life - gathered here; different in their habits, life behavior, past fate, but equally hungry, exhausted and useless to anyone: the former aristocrat Baron, the drunken Actor, the former intellectual Satin, the mechanic-craftsman Kleshch, the fallen woman Nastya, the thief Vaska. They have nothing, everything has been taken away, lost, erased and trampled into the dirt.

The motley gallery of characters in the play are victims of a soulless public order. Even here, at the very bottom of life, exhausted and completely destitute, they serve as an object of exploitation, even here the owners, the philistine owners, do not stop at any crime and try to squeeze a few pennies out of them.

The fates of all these people and the very existence of the “bottom” serve as a formidable indictment of the bourgeois world.

A. M. Gorky in one of his interviews spoke about the problems of the play as follows: “The main question that I wanted to pose is - what is better, truth or compassion? What is more necessary? Is it necessary to bring compassion to the point of using lies, like Luke? "

A. M. Gorky attacked the bourgeois philosophy of comforting lies with great force. Luke considers all people insignificant, pitiful, weak, incapable of actively fighting for their rights and in need of condolences and consolation. Luke is a sower of illusions, comforting fairy tales, which desperate, weak people greedily grabbed. “White lies” is the principle that Luke follows. He inspires Vaska Pepl with the idea of ​​going to Siberia, where he can start a new, honest life; The actor promises to name the city where he is cured of alcoholism in a luxurious hospital; He calms the dying Anna with the hope that for her unbearable torment on earth, after death she will find peace and eternal bliss in heaven. Luke's comforting lie meets with sympathy from the night shelters. They believe him because they want to believe in the existence of another truth, because they passionately want to break out of the shelter and make their way to another life, even though the path to it is unclear.

A. M. Gorky in one of his interviews spoke about the problems of the play as follows: “The main question that I wanted to pose is - what is better, truth or compassion? What is more necessary? Is it necessary to bring compassion to the point of using lies, like Luke? "

In the play “At the Bottom” the author combined many of his theories, thoughts, and assumptions. The problem of cruel truth and saving lies plays a very important role in the work. The philosophy of humane deception in the play is preached by the wanderer Luke. He appears, and with him pity and compassion enter the lives of the night shelters. This old man has a warm, affectionate word for everyone. The Wanderer believes that one should approach a person only through kindness and pity. With his story about two escaped convicts who broke into a dacha, Luka confirms the connection between pity for a person and goodness: “If I had not had pity for them, they might have killed me... or something else... Prison will not teach goodness, but a person will teach... Yes!" Here Luka is contrasted with Bubnov. This hero says: “In my opinion, throw out the whole truth as it is! Why be ashamed? But the truth he calls for is not within everyone's reach. And in this dispute, Mite opens up in a new way. He “trembles with excitement”, “screams” about his hatred of the truth: “I must breathe out... here it is, the truth! She doesn’t let you breathe, you can’t live with her...” A kind of culmination in this dispute between the heroes is Luke’s parable about the righteous land. One man kept getting ready to go in search of a righteous land, where “good people live... they respect each other, they help each other for simple things... and everything is nice and good with them!” For this he was ready to endure everything. The only thing he could not stand was the scientist’s explanation that the righteous land was not on the maps. After this news, he “went home and hanged himself!..” Faith in the ideal of goodness helps to live, “gives joy.” Trying to find out the truth, a person becomes convinced that its embodiment is in reality impossible, and this deprives him of vitality and the ability to fight fate. Satin, in turn, said: “man is the truth!” significant place occupies a dispute about a person. Bubnov says that “no matter how you paint yourself, everything will be erased... everything will be erased, yes!” Luke doesn’t see much difference between people: “I don’t care! I respect swindlers too; in my opinion, not a single flea is bad: they are all black, they all jump...” Satin, in his famous monologue, proclaims: “What is a person?.. It’s not you, not me, not them... no! - it’s you, me, them, the old man, Napoleon, Mohammed... in one!.. Everything is in a person, everything is for a person! Human! It's great! That sounds… proud!”

With his play “At the Lower Depths,” A. M. Gorky refuted idealistic ideas: the ideas of non-resistance, forgiveness, humility. The whole play is imbued with faith in a real person, a Man with a capital M.

Maxim Gorky's play "At the Lower Depths" is still the most successful drama in the collection of his works. She won the favor of the public during the author’s lifetime; the writer himself even described the performances in other books, ironizing about his fame. So why did this work captivate people so much?

The play was written at the end of 1901 - beginning of 1902. This work was not an obsession or a gust of inspiration, as usually happens with creative people. On the contrary, it was written specifically for a troupe of actors from the Moscow art theater, created to enrich the culture of all classes of society. Gorky could not imagine what would come of it, but he realized the desired idea of ​​​​creating a play about tramps, where about two dozen would be present characters.

The fate of Gorky's play cannot be called the final and irrevocable triumph of his creative genius. There were different opinions. People were delighted or criticized such a controversial creation. It survived bans and censorship, and to this day everyone understands the meaning of the drama in their own way.

Meaning of the name

The meaning of the title of the play “At the Bottom” personifies social status all the characters in the work. The title gives an ambiguous first impression, since there is no specific mention of what day we are talking about. The author gives the reader the opportunity to use his imagination and guess what his work is about.

Today, many literary scholars agree that the author meant that his heroes are at the bottom of life in social, financial and moral sense. This is the meaning of the name.

Genre, direction, composition

The play is written in a genre called “social and philosophical drama.” The author touches on precisely such topics and problems. Its direction can be designated as " critical realism“, although some researchers insist on the wording “socialist realism”, since the writer focused the public’s attention on social injustice and the eternal conflict between the poor and the rich. Thus, his work took on an ideological connotation, because at that time the confrontation between the nobility and common people things were just heating up in Russia.

The composition of the work is linear, since all actions are chronologically consistent and form a single thread of the narrative.

The essence of the work

The essence of Maxim Gorky's play lies in the depiction of the bottom and its inhabitants. Show readers in the play's characters the marginalized, people humiliated by life and fate, rejected by society and severed ties with it. Despite the smoldering flame of hope - having no future. They live, argue about love, honesty, truth, justice, but their words are just empty words for this world and even for their own destinies.

Everything that happens in the play has only one purpose: to show the clash of philosophical views and positions, as well as to illustrate the dramas of outcast people to whom no one lends a helping hand.

The main characters and their characteristics

The inhabitants of the bottom are people with different life principles and beliefs, but they are all united by one condition: they are mired in poverty, which gradually deprives them of dignity, hope and self-confidence. She corrupts them, dooming the victims to certain death.

1. Mite– works as a mechanic, 40 years old. Married to Anna (30 years old), who suffers from consumption. The relationship with his wife is the main characterizing detail. Kleshch's complete indifference to her well-being, frequent beatings and humiliation speak of his cruelty and callousness. After Anna's death, the man was forced to sell his work tools in order to bury her. And only the lack of work unsettled him a little. Fate leaves the hero without a chance to get out of the shelter and without prospects for a further successful life.
2. Bubnov- a 45-year-old man. Previously the owner of a fur workshop. He is dissatisfied with his current life, but tries to maintain his potential to return to normal society. Lost possession due to divorce, as the documents were issued in the name of his wife. Lives in a shelter and sews hats.
3. Satin- about 40 years old, drinks until he loses his memory and plays cards where he cheats for a living. I read a lot of books, which I constantly remind not so much of my neighbors as of myself as a consolation that all is not lost. Served 5 years in prison for manslaughter committed during a fight over his sister's honor. Despite his education and occasional fall, he does not recognize honest ways of living.
4. Luke- a wanderer aged 60 years. He appeared unexpectedly for the residents of the shelter. He behaves intelligently, consoles and calms everyone around, but as if he came with a specific purpose. He tries to improve relations with everyone by giving advice, which incites even more disputes. A hero of a neutral character, despite his kind tone, always makes one want to doubt the purity of his intentions. According to his stories, it can be assumed that he served time in prison, but escaped from there.
5. Ash– name is Vasily, 28 years old. He constantly steals, but, despite the dishonest way of earning money, he has his own philosophical point vision, like everyone else. He wants to get out of the shelter and start a new life. He was imprisoned several times. He has a certain position in this society due to his secret relationship with the married Vasilisa, which everyone knows about. At the beginning of the play, the heroes separate, and Ash tries to look after Natasha in order to take her away from the shelter, but in a fight he kills Kostylev and goes to prison at the end of the play.
6. Nastya– young girl, 24 years old. Based on her treatment and conversations, we can conclude that she works as a call girl. Constantly wants attention, to be needed. She has a connection with the Baron, but not the one she comes up with in her fantasies after reading romance novels. In fact, she endures rudeness and disrespect from her boyfriend, while giving him money for alcohol. All her behavior is continuous complaints about life and requests to be sorry.
7. Baron– 33 years old, drinks, but due to unfortunate circumstances. He constantly reminds of his noble roots, which once helped him become a wealthy official, but were not of particular significance when accused of embezzlement of public funds, which is why the hero went to prison, remaining a beggar. It has love relationship with Nastya, but treats them for granted, shifts all his responsibilities to the girl, and constantly takes money for drinking.
8. Anna– Kleshch’s wife, 30 years old, suffers from consumption. At the beginning of the play is in near death, but does not live to the end. For all the heroes, the flophouse is an unsuccessful piece of “interior”, making unnecessary sounds and taking up space. Until her death she hopes for a manifestation of her husband’s love, but dies in the corner from indifference, beatings and humiliation, which may have given rise to the disease.
9. Actor– male, approximately 40 years old. Just like all the residents of the shelter, he always remembers his past life. A kind and fair person, but excessively sorry for himself. He wants to quit drinking, having learned from Luke about a hospital for alcoholics in some city. He begins to save money, but, not having time to find out the location of the hospital before the wanderer leaves, the hero despairs and commits suicide.
10. Kostylev– Vasilisa’s husband, a 54-year-old shelter owner. He perceives people only as walking wallets, loves to remind people of debts and assert himself at the expense of the baseness of his own residents. Tries to hide his true attitude behind a mask of kindness. He suspects his wife of cheating with Ash, which is why he constantly listens to sounds outside his door. He believes that he should be grateful for the overnight stay. Vasilisa and her sister Natasha are treated no better than the drunkards who live at his expense. Buys things that Ash steals, but hides it. Due to his own stupidity, he dies at the hands of Ash in a fight.
11. Vasilisa Karpovna - Kostylev's wife, 26 years old. She is no different from her husband, but she hates him with all her heart. She secretly cheats on her husband with Ash and persuades her lover to kill her husband, promising that he will not be sent to prison. And he doesn’t feel any feelings towards his sister except envy and malice, which is why she gets the worst of it. Looks for benefit in everything.
12. Natasha– Vasilisa’s sister, 20 years old. The “purest” soul of the shelter. Endures bullying from Vasilisa and her husband. She cannot trust Ash with his desire to take her away, knowing all the meanness of people. Although she herself understands that she will be lost. Helps residents selflessly. He is going to meet Vaska halfway to leave, but he ends up in the hospital after Kostylev’s death and goes missing.
13. Kvashnya– a 40-year-old dumpling seller who experienced the power of her husband, who beat her during 8 years of marriage. Helps the residents of the shelter, sometimes trying to put the house in order. She argues with everyone and is not going to get married anymore, remembering her late tyrant husband. Over the course of the play, their relationship with Medvedev develops. At the very end, Kvashnya marries a policeman, whom she herself begins to beat due to her addiction to alcohol.
14. Medvedev- uncle of sisters Vasilisa and Natasha, policeman, 50 years old. Throughout the entire play he tries to woo Kvashnya, promising that he will not be like her ex-husband. She knows that her niece is being beaten by her older sister, but does not intervene. Knows about all the machinations of Kostylev, Vasilisa and Ash. At the end of the play, he marries Kvashnya and begins to drink, for which his wife beats him.
15. Alyoshka- shoemaker, 20 years old, drinks. He says that he doesn’t need anything, that he is disappointed in life. He drinks out of despair and plays the harmonica. Due to riotous behavior and drunkenness, he often ends up in the police station.
16. Tatar- also lives in a shelter, works as a housekeeper. He loves to play cards with Satin and Baron, but is always indignant at their dishonest play. Fair man and doesn't understand swindlers. Constantly talks about laws, honors them. At the end of the play, Crooked Craw hits him and breaks his arm.
17. Crooked Goiter- another little-known inhabitant of the shelter, the housekeeper. Not as honest as Tatar. He also likes to pass the time playing cards, is calm about the cheating of Satin and Baron, and finds excuses for them. He beats Tatarin, breaks his arm, which causes him to have a conflict with policeman Medvedev. At the end of the play he sings a song with the others.

Themes

Despite the seemingly fairly simple plot and the absence of sharp climactic turns, the work is replete with themes that provide food for thought.

1. Theme of hope stretches through the entire play until the very denouement. She hovers in the mood of the work, but not once does anyone mention her intention to get out of the shelter. Hope is present in every dialogue of the inhabitants, but only indirectly. Just as each of them once fell to the bottom, so someday they dream of getting out of there. In everyone there glimmers a small opportunity to return again to a past life, where everyone was happy, although they did not appreciate it.
2. Fate theme is also quite important in the play. It defines the role of evil fate and its meaning for the heroes. Fate may be in the work of that driving force, which could not be changed, which brought all the inhabitants together. Or that circumstance, always subject to change, which had to be overcome in order to be able to achieve great success. From the lives of the inhabitants, one can understand that they have accepted their fate and are trying to change it only in the opposite direction, believing that they have nowhere to fall lower. If one of the residents tries to make an attempt to change their position and get out of the bottom, they collapse. Perhaps the author wanted to show in this way that they deserved such a fate.
3. Theme of the meaning of life looks quite superficial in the play, but if you think about it, you can understand the reason for such an attitude towards the life of the shack’s heroes. Everyone considers the current state of affairs to be the bottom from which there is no way out: neither down, nor, especially, up. Heroes, despite being different age categories, disappointed in life. They lost interest in her, and stopped seeing any meaning in their own existence, let alone sympathy for each other. They do not strive for another fate because they cannot imagine it. Only alcohol sometimes adds color to existence, which is why sleepovers love to drink.
4. Theme of truth and lies in the play is the main idea of ​​the author. This topic is a philosophical question in Gorky’s work, which he reflects on through the lips of the characters. If we talk about truth in dialogues, then its boundaries are erased, because sometimes the characters say absurd things. However, their words contain secrets and mysteries that are revealed to us as the plot of the work progresses. The author raises this topic in the play, as he considers the truth as a way to save the inhabitants. Show the heroes the real state of affairs, opening their eyes to the world and their own life, which they lose every day in the hut? Or hide the truth under the guise of lies and pretense, because it’s easier for them? Everyone chooses the answer independently, but the author makes it clear that he likes the first option.
5. Theme of love and feelings touches in the work because it makes it possible to understand the relationships between the inhabitants. There is absolutely no love in a shelter, even between spouses, and it is unlikely to have the opportunity to appear there. The place itself seems to be saturated with hatred. All were united only by a common living space and a sense of injustice of fate. There is indifference in the air, both towards healthy and sick people. Only squabbles, like dogs squabbling, amuse the night shelters. Along with interest in life, the colors of emotions and feelings are lost.

Problems

The play has a rich range of issues. Maxim Gorky tried in one work to indicate the current, at that time, moral problems, which, however, still exist today.

1. The first problem is conflict between the inhabitants of the shelter, not only with each other, but also with life. From the dialogues between the characters you can understand their relationship. Constant quarrels, differences of opinion, basic debts lead to eternal squabbles, which is a mistake in in this case. The homeless shelters need to learn to live under one roof in harmony. Mutual assistance will make life easier and change the general atmosphere. The problem of social conflict is the destruction of any society. Poor people united common problem, but instead of solving it, they create new ones through joint efforts. The conflict with life lies in the lack of an adequate perception of it. Former people they are offended by life, which is why they do not take further steps towards creating a different future and simply go with the flow.
2. Another problem can be identified as a pressing question: “ Truth or Compassion?. The author creates a reason for reflection: to show the heroes the realities of life or to sympathize with such a fate? In the drama, someone suffers from physical or psychological abuse, and someone dies in agony, but receives his share of compassion, and this reduces his suffering. Each person has his own view of the current situation, and we react based on our feelings. The writer, in Satin’s monologue and the disappearance of the wanderer, made it clear whose side he was on. Luka acts as Gorky's antagonist, trying to bring the inhabitants back to life, show the truth and console the suffering.
3. Also raised in the play problem of humanism. More precisely, its absence. Returning again to the relationship between the inhabitants, and their relationship to themselves, we can consider this problem from two positions. The lack of humanity on the part of the heroes towards each other can be seen in the situation with the dying Anna, to which no one pays attention. During Vasilisa’s bullying of her sister Natasha and Nastya’s humiliation. An opinion is emerging that if people are at the bottom, then they don’t need any more help, it’s every man for himself. This cruelty to themselves is determined by their current lifestyle - constant drinking, fights, which carry disappointment and loss of meaning in life. Existence ceases to be the highest value when there is no goal towards it.
4. The problem of immorality rises in connection with the lifestyle that residents lead based on social location. Nastya's work as a call girl, playing cards for money, drinking alcohol with the ensuing consequences in the form of fights and being taken to the police, theft - all these are the consequences of poverty. The author shows this behavior as a typical phenomenon for people who find themselves at the bottom of society.

The meaning of the play

The idea of ​​Gorky's play is that all people are absolutely the same, regardless of their social and financial status. Everyone consists of flesh and blood, the differences lie only in upbringing and character, which give us the opportunity to react differently to current situations and act based on them. No matter who you are, life can change in an instant. Any of us, having lost everything we had in the past, having sunk to the bottom, will lose ourselves. There will no longer be any point in keeping oneself within the bounds of social decency, looking appropriate and behaving accordingly. When a person loses the values ​​​​established by others, he becomes confused and falls out of reality, as happened with the heroes.

The main idea is that life can break any person. Make him indifferent, bitter, having lost any incentive to exist. Of course, an indifferent society will be to blame for many of his troubles, which will only push the falling one. However, the broken poor are often themselves to blame for the fact that they cannot rise up, because it is difficult to find someone to blame for their laziness, depravity and indifference to everything.

Gorky's author's position is expressed in Satin's monologue, which scatters into aphorisms. “Man – sounds proud!” - he exclaims. The writer wants to show how to treat people in order to appeal to their dignity and strength. Endless regret without concrete practical steps will only harm the poor man, because he will continue to feel sorry for himself rather than work to get out of the vicious circle of poverty. That's what it is philosophical meaning dramas. In the debate about true and false humanism in society, the winner is the one who speaks directly and honestly, even at the risk of incurring indignation. Gorky in one of Satin’s monologues connects truth and lies with human freedom. Independence comes only at the cost of comprehension and search for truth.

Conclusion

Each reader will draw his own conclusion. The play “At the Bottom” can help a person understand that in life it is always worth striving for something, because it gives strength to move on without looking back. Don't stop thinking that nothing will work out.

Using the example of all the heroes, one can see absolute inaction and disinterest in their own fate. Regardless of age and gender, they are simply mired in their current situation, making the excuse that it is too late to resist and start all over again. A person himself must have the desire to change his future, and in case of any failure, do not blame life, do not be offended by it, but gain experience by experiencing the problem. The inhabitants of the shelter believe that suddenly, for their suffering in the basement, a miracle should fall on them that will bring them a new life, as it happens - Luka appears to them, wanting to cheer up all the despairing, help with advice to make life better. But they forgot that words cannot help the fallen man; he extended his hand to them, but no one took it. And everyone is just waiting for action from anyone, but not from themselves.

Criticism

It cannot be said that before the birth of his legendary play, Gorky did not have any popularity in society. But, it can be emphasized that interest in him intensified precisely because of this work.

Gorky managed to show everyday, everyday things surrounding dirty, uneducated people from a new angle. He knew what he was writing about, since he himself had experience in achieving his position in society; after all, he was from the common people and an orphan. There is no exact explanation why the works of Maxim Gorky were so popular and made such a strong impression on the public, because he was not an innovator of any genre, writing about everything famous things. But Gorky’s work was fashionable at that time, society liked to read his works and visit theatrical performances according to his creations. It can be assumed that the degree of social tension in Russia was rising, and many were dissatisfied with the established order in the country. The monarchy had exhausted itself, and popular actions in subsequent years were harshly suppressed, and therefore many people gladly looked for disadvantages in the existing system, as if reinforcing their own conclusions.

The peculiarities of the play lie in the way of presentation and presentation of the characters, in the harmonious use of descriptions. One of the problems raised in the work is the individuality of each hero and his struggle for it. Artistic tropes and stylistic figures very accurately depict the living conditions of the characters, because the author saw all these details personally.

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