A notable phenomenon in Russian literature at the beginning of the 20th century was Gorky's play "At the Bottom". What explains its exceptional success? Strong impression on the viewer produced a combination of extremely realistic image people who have reached the last degree of misery, despair and lack of rights, with the glorification of Man and his truth. Before the eyes of the public, for the first time, the hitherto unseen world of thieves, tramps, cheaters, that is, people who have sunk to the "bottom" of life, appeared for the first time. And in it, as in an overturned mirror, the world from which these people were overthrown was reflected. Gorky's play was imbued with a protest against the social unrest of capitalist society and a passionate call for a just and peaceful life. "Freedom at all costs - that's 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.
The gloomy life of the Kostylevo rooming house is depicted by Gorky as the embodiment of social evil. The fate of the inhabitants of the "bottom" is a formidable indictment against the unjust social order. The people living in this cave-like basement are the victims of an ugly and cruel order in which a person ceases to be a person, turning into a powerless creature, doomed to drag out a miserable existence. The inhabitants of the "bottom" are thrown out of normal life due to the wolf laws that reign in society. Man is left to himself. If he stumbled, got out of a rut, then he faces imminent moral, and often physical death. Disbelief in justice forced Satine to independently take revenge on the villain who killed his sister. This revenge led him to prison, which determined him further fate. Bubnov is forced to leave home, leaving the workshop to his wife and her lover, as he did not hope for protection from representatives of the law. They make mistakes, do stupid things, but they don't deserve to be thrown to the "bottom" of life by society without any support. Vaska Pepel, the son of a thief, born in prison, is doomed to follow in the footsteps of his parent, for a different path is ordered for him. The industriousness and perseverance of Tick, who does not want to accept the fate of a rooming house, did not help him rise from the "bottom" of life.
Turning to the image of the life of the urban lower classes, the playwright touched actual problem modernity: what is the way out of the current situation, what is the salvation of the people of the "bottom"? According to Gorky himself, the main question of the play is what is better: truth or compassion? Is it necessary to use lies like Luke? Will the passive-compassionate humanism of a comforting lie be healing for the inhabitants of the rooming house? Its bearer, pitying and consoling people, is the wanderer Luke in the play. He sincerely sympathizes with the victims of life, humiliated and offended people, disinterestedly seeks to alleviate their suffering, to help them. Dying Anna he promises after death life in paradise, where she will rest from earthly suffering. Ash and Natasha, the old man advises to start new life in the golden land of Siberia. He tells the actor about a free hospital for alcoholics, the address of which he has forgotten, but he will definitely remember, giving this drunk person hope for a return to his former life.
Luke's position is the idea of compassion for man, the idea of sublime deceit that allows man to bear the burden" low truths"meeting on his thorny path. Luke himself formulates his position. Turning to Ash, he says: "... why do you really need it painfully? .. Think about it, the truth, maybe it will blow up for you." Then he talks about righteous land". Luka does not believe in her, he knows that she does not exist. He is too short-sighted to see this land that Satin foresees. Luka is ready to welcome any idea, if it is capable of comforting a person, alleviating even for a minute his suffering. He does not think about the consequences of a lie that will sooner or later be revealed.In an effort to protect a person, Luke at the same time does not believe in him, for him all people are insignificant, weak, pitiful, in need of consolation: "I don't care! I respect crooks too, in my opinion, not a single flea is bad: they are all black, they all jump.
Thus, the main feature of Luke's ideology is the feature of slavery. And in this, Luka is similar to Kostylev, the philosophy of patience echoes the philosophy of oppression, the point of view of a slave - from the point of view of the owner, Gorky puts this thought into the mouth of Satin: "Whoever is weak in soul and who lives on other people's juices, they need a lie ... supports, others hide behind it ... And who is his own master, who is independent and does not take someone else's - why should he lie? Luke's humanism is based on passive compassion, which, bringing momentary relief, deepens the gap between a person's dream of happiness and his real hopeless situation. This gap could not be endured by the Actor, who learned that the old man had lied and there was no hospital, which means there was no hope for the future. There is only one way out - suicide. Instead of happy life in Siberia, which Peplu Luka promised, he ends up in hard labor for the murder of Kostylev. So Luke's comforting lies only make things worse for the outcasts.
Luke's lies lead the roommates into a world of illusion that deprives them of last strength to fight social evil, social injustice, because of which there are Kostylevskie bunkhouses. The antipode of Luke - Satin verbally refutes the philosophy of comforting lies: "Lie is the religion of slaves and masters", "Truth is God free man". He believes in a person, in his ability to endure the truth, no matter how bitter it may be. "A man is the truth," the hero claims. Unlike Luka, Satin is demanding of a person and believes that a person can do anything, since everything depends from his deeds and ideas. He does not need to be comforted by lies born of pity. To pity a person means to humiliate him with disbelief in the ability to achieve his happiness, means to seek support in all kinds of deceit and lies that replace the missing will to live. Under the dark and gloomy doss house vaults, among miserable, unfortunate, homeless tramps sound solemn hymn words about Man, about his vocation, strength and beauty. "Man - this is true! Everything is in a person, everything is for a person! There is only a person, everything else is the work of his hands and brain! Man! This is magnificent! It sounds ... proud!"
Man himself is the creator of his own destiny, in him are hidden forces with the help of which he is able to overcome the most cruel hardships, the treachery of fate, the injustice of the world, his mistakes and the social troubles of society. Pity and compassion are wonderful, very necessary qualities for all of us, but only a truthful, adequate understanding of one's mistakes and opportunities can give a person a chance to overcome the evil fate and become truly free and happy.
The central point in Gorky's socio-philosophical play (the play "At the Bottom" received a great response abroad as well, the display of the underside of the capitalist world was so burning) was the dispute about Man and the attitude towards him. This dispute, which arose (although not in a direct confrontation) between the wanderer Lukou and the former telegraph operator Satin, was reflected in the statements of other characters about truth, conscience, lies.
Gorky was the first to raise here the question of two types of humanism: humanism, calling for compassion and pity towards a person in order to console and somehow reconcile him with an unjust life, and humanism, rebelling against this injustice in the name of the indisputable rights of a person to be a Man, and not passive sacrifice.
The writer more than once called his Luka a crook, but I. Moskvin, who first and with great success played this role in the Moscow Art Theater, and then repeated it many times, rightly argued that Luka, who appeared in "At the Bottom", does not correspond to the judgment of playwright.
The artistic embodiment, apparently, did not coincide with the author's intention in everything. Luka is a "crook" not in everyday life (he does not derive any benefits for himself), but in a more general social sense. He is an unfounded comforter, and this consolation turned into a social lie.
Preachers of this type - and there were many of them in literature, in journalism, and in life - sought to muffle the feeling of protest ripening among the people, while life demanded the appearance of humanists calling for a radical restructuring of the world. To be true to the truth of life, Gorky could not bring out the social antagonist Luka in the play (see Gorky's letter to the Red Army soldiers in 1928 on this subject). They became Satin, who opposed consolation and reconciliation with reality with a new attitude towards people.
In his famous monologue, Satin stated that the name Man “sounds proudly”, that the truth “Everything is in a person, everything is for a person!” Should be recognized, and in this regard, it is necessary to respect, not pity him.
The production of "At the Bottom" was accompanied by a huge success. At the center of the passionate debate that flared up around the play in 1902-1903 was the interpretation of the characters named above. Some critics claimed that the author sided with Luke, and not with Sateen. Such judgments, largely due to the talented acting of Moskvin-Luka (the production of "At the Bottom" preceded the publication of the text of the play), were unexpected for the author.
In response to a distorted interpretation of the central idea of the play, which caused a decrease in its social emphasis - it was well understood by a democratic audience - Gorky delivered the already mentioned poem "Man", in which, repeating the words of Sateen "Everything is in a person, everything is for a person! ”, revealed his understanding of the meaning of life.
It was a hymn to the rebellious, tirelessly advancing Man, armed with the power of Thought. Man acted as the creator of life, called upon to “destroy, trample on everything old, everything cramped and dirty, everything evil, and create something new on the unshakable foundations of freedom, beauty and respect for people forged by Thought!” The reactionaries called this poem a "criminal proclamation."
Criticism, hostile or wary of Gorky's social and artistic position, often reproached the writer for his lack of interest in "eternal themes", in common problems being. However, this was a distorted view of the writer. For Gorky, as for the previous classical literature, "eternal themes" are associated with ethical and aesthetic problems.
At the center of Gorky's work was one of the most profound "eternal themes" - the meaning of human existence, and in connection with it the problem of human responsibility to himself and the world. The coverage of this “eternal theme”, correlated with the problem of the existent (man) and the desired (Man with capital letter), was given by the writer both in a generalized symbolic way (the legend of Danko, the poem "Man"), and in conjunction with specific life material ("Mother", "Tales of Italy", etc.).
No less significant (especially for pre-October creativity) was for Gorky " eternal theme”- a person in his connections with nature, with the universe.
Gorky's plays (before October he completed 13 plays) affected sharp questions modern life. They talked about the social and moral foundations of bourgeois society, about the degradation of the individual in it, about the struggle in the world of labor and capital, about the fate of the Russian intelligentsia.
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983
Never be useless
submit to influence that may
awaken noble feelings in you.
D. Ruskin
I The miserable life of representatives of the "bottom" of the play by M. Gorky.
II Everyone is given the right to choose between the life of a Human and the life of a tradesman,
thief, swindler.
- what is the salvation for people who have fallen to the "bottom"
1. Carriers of theories - Luke, Satin:
a) "... a person must respect himself ...";
“You have to respect the person! Do not regret ... do not humiliate with pity ... "
(A. M. Gorky)
b) “… do nothing! Just burden the earth!..”;
c) "... whoever wants hard - will find it! ..".
- cannot tolerate social injustice
2. Bubnov - the bearer of the "truth of the fact" and the inhabitants of the "bottom":
a) “... people all live ... like chips floating down the river ... building a house,
and the chips away ... ";
b) “all people on earth are superfluous…”;
c) “and I will die ... and you ... why be sorry?”
3. “There must be a righteous land in the world ...” And if not? (Actor, Ashes, Tick...)
- the world of the "bottom" is devastated
- the way of reconciliation with reality is untenable
III “Everything is in Man, everything is for Man! "(M. Gorky)
Quotes for essay.
1. "... my task is to arouse in a person pride in himself, to tell him that he is the best, most significant, most expensive in life and that apart from him there is nothing worthy of attention."
A. M. Gorky
2. "... from the consolations of the cunning Luke, sateen concluded about the value of every person."
A. M. Gorky
3. “Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! That sounds…proud!”
A. M. Gorky
Drama as a kind of literature implies the obligatory staging of a work on stage. At the same time, the orientation towards stage interpretation, at first glance, limits the playwright in the means of expressing his position. He cannot directly address the reader, express his attitude towards his own heroes. The author's position is expressed in remarks, in the development of the play, in the monologues and dialogues of the characters. The duration of the action is also limited, because the performance cannot last long.
In 1902, thanks to innovative productions based on the plays of A.P. Chekhov, Maxim Gorky became interested in the Moscow Art Theater. He wrote to Chekhov that it was “impossible not to love the theater, not to work for it is a crime.” However, the first plays - "The Philistines" (1901) and "At the Bottom" (1902) - showed that Gorky was not just an innovative playwright, but also the creator of a new kind of social drama . Critics call him dramatic works debate plays. The fact is that a special load in the play falls on dramatic conflict- a sharp clash of heroes. It is the conflict that drives the plot, forcing the viewer to tensely follow its development. For Gorky, the leading role is played by ideological conflicts, a sharp opposition of social, philosophical and aesthetic views characters.
Image subject in M. Gorky's play "At the bottom" becomes the consciousness of people who find themselves on "day of life" as a result of deep processes in the society of the early twentieth century. Analysis of the play shows that social conflict develops on several levels. Firstly, the confrontation of the hosts of the rooming house, Kostylev, and inhabitants - disenfranchised rooming houses. Secondly, each of the overnight stays experienced in his past a personal social conflict, because of which he ended up in such a miserable position.
satin ended up in the Kostylevs' rooming house after prison, having committed a murder "scoundrel" because of my sister. Mite, who had been a mechanic all his life, lost his job. Bubnov ran away from home "away from sin" so as not to inadvertently kill his wife and her lover. Actor, who previously had the sonorous pseudonym Sverchkov-Zadunaisky, drank himself, being unclaimed.
The fate of a thief Vaska Ash was predestined from birth, because he, being the son of a thief, himself became the same. Tells all the details about the stages of his fall Baron: his life passed as if in a dream, he studied at a noble institute, served in the state chamber, where he squandered public money, for which he was arrested for two weeks.
Is there some more love conflict: appearance in the rooming house Natasha, Vasilisa's 20-year-old sister, forces Vaska Pepla to abandon his mistress Vasilisa, the wife of the owner of the rooming house, 54-year-old Kostylev, for which she subsequently severely takes revenge on both her and him.
The turning point is the appearance wanderer Luke. This "passportless tramp" I am sure that a person is first of all worthy of pity, and now he is trying to console everyone, including the inhabitants of the rooming house. Dying from consumption Anna the old man convinces her not to be afraid of death: only she will bring her long-awaited peace, which the poor woman has never known. Luka, who drank himself from despair, gives hope for healing in a free hospital for alcoholics. He advises Vaska Pepl to start a new life with his beloved Natasha in Siberia.
At the same time, Luka does not say anything about himself: the reader knows little about him, only that “they crushed a lot, that’s why it’s soft ...”. However, the name Luke is associated with the evil one, with the concept of "dissemble", that is, "deceive, lie." And the attitude of the author towards him is ambiguous: it is expressed in the development of the plot. When Luka disappears under very unpleasant circumstances (at the moment when Kostylev is killed, and Vasilisa scalds Natasha with boiling water), further events unfold in a completely different way than Luka predicted. Ash actually ends up in Siberia, but not of his own free will, but as a convict, allegedly for the murder of Kostylev. The actor learns that there is no free hospital where they treat alcoholism, and, not believing in his own strength, repeats the fate of the hero of Luke's parable of the righteous land - hangs himself in a wasteland.
It is the fate of the Actor that becomes the key issue in the assessment of criticism. For a long time it was believed that Luke preaches a "comforting lie" that makes a person give up the fight, which means that it only brings harm. Allegedly, the hero gave everyone false hope. But after all, he did not promise to raise them from the bottom of life, he demonstrated their own capabilities, showed that there is a way out, and it depends only on the person what it will be.
Therefore, the main accusation Gorky puts forward not to Luka, but to the heroes who are not able to find the strength in themselves to oppose their will to harsh reality. Thus, it reveals one of the most important features of our national character- dissatisfaction with reality, a critical attitude towards it, but at the same time the inability to somehow change this reality for the better.
Another hero, Satin, becomes the successor of the author's thought. In the last act, as if continuing the conversation with the old man, he utters his famous monologue, in which the phrase becomes the most famous: "Man - that sounds proud!".
Yes, this phrase sounds optimistic, but as before, people find themselves at the “bottom” of life, not only due to external circumstances, but also because of their weakness and unbelief. And M. Gorky's play "At the Bottom" even after more than a hundred years is still relevant.
A notable phenomenon in Russian literature at the beginning of the 20th century was Gorky's play "At the Bottom". What explains its exceptional success? 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 lack of rights, with the glorification of Man and his truth. Before the eyes of the public, for the first time, the hitherto unseen world of thieves, tramps, cheaters, that is, people who have sunk to the "bottom" of life, appeared for the first time. And in it, as in an overturned mirror, the world from which these people were overthrown was reflected. Gorky's play was imbued with a protest against the social unrest of capitalist society and a passionate call for a just and peaceful life. "Freedom at all costs - that's 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.
The gloomy life of the Kostylevo rooming house is depicted by Gorky as the embodiment of social evil. The fate of the inhabitants of the "bottom" is a formidable indictment against an unjust social order. The people living in this cave-like basement are the victims of an ugly and cruel order in which a person ceases to be a person, turning into a powerless creature, doomed to drag out a miserable existence. The inhabitants of the "bottom" are thrown out of normal life due to the wolf laws that reign in society. Man is left to himself. If he stumbled, got out of a rut, then he faces imminent moral, and often physical death. Disbelief in justice forced Sateen to independently take revenge on the villain who killed his sister. This revenge led him to prison, which determined his 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 the representatives of the law. Of course, the people who find themselves in Kostylev's rooming house are not at all ideal. They make mistakes, do stupid things, but they don't deserve to be thrown to the "bottom" of life by society without any support. Vaska Pepel, the son of a thief, born in prison, is doomed to follow in the footsteps of his parent, for a different path is ordered for him. The industriousness and perseverance of Tick, who does not want to accept the fate of a rooming house, did not help him rise from the "bottom" of life.
Turning to the depiction of the life of the urban lower classes, the playwright touched upon an urgent problem of our time: what is the way out of the current situation, what is the salvation of the people of the "bottom"? According to Gorky himself, the main question of the play is what is better: truth or compassion? Is it necessary to use lies like Luke? Will the passive-compassionate humanism of a comforting lie be healing for the inhabitants of the rooming house? Its bearer, pitying and consoling people, is the wanderer Luke in the play. He sincerely sympathizes with the victims of life, humiliated and offended people, disinterestedly seeks to alleviate their suffering, to help them. He promises the dying Anna after death life in paradise, 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 he will definitely remember, giving this drunk person hope for a return to his former life.
Luke's position is the idea of compassion for a person, the idea of a lofty deceit that allows a person to bear the burden of "low truths" encountered on his thorny path. Luke himself formulates his position. Turning to Ash, he says: "... why do you really need it painfully? .. Think about it, the truth, maybe it will blow up for you." Then he talks about the "righteous land". Luka doesn't believe in her, he knows she doesn't exist. He is too short-sighted to see this land that Satine foresees. Luke is ready to welcome any idea, if it is capable of comforting a person, alleviating his suffering even for a minute. He does not think about the consequences of a lie that will sooner or later be revealed. In an effort to protect a person, Luka at the same time does not believe in him, for him all people are insignificant, weak, pitiful, in need of consolation: “I don’t care! I respect crooks, in my opinion, not a single flea is bad: all black, everyone is jumping."
Thus, the main feature of Luke's ideology is the feature of slavery. And in this, Luka is similar to Kostylev, the philosophy of patience echoes the philosophy of oppression, the point of view of a slave - from the point of view of the owner, Gorky puts this thought into the mouth of Satin: "Whoever is weak in soul and who lives on other people's juices, they need a lie ... supports, others hide behind it ... And who is his own master, who is independent and does not take someone else's - why should he lie? Luke's humanism is based on passive compassion, which, bringing momentary relief, deepens the gap between a person's dream of happiness and his real hopeless situation. This gap could not be endured by the Actor, who learned that the old man had lied and there was no hospital, which means there was no hope for the future. There is only one way out - suicide. Instead of a happy life in Siberia, which Luka promised Pepel, he ends up in hard labor for the murder of Kostylev. So Luke's comforting lies only make things worse for the outcasts.
Luka's lie takes the bed-shops into a world of illusions, which deprives them of their last strength to fight against social evil, social injustice, because of which Kostylev's bed-houses exist. The antipode of Luke - Satin verbally refutes the philosophy of comforting lies: "Lie is the religion of slaves and masters", "Truth is the god of a free man." He believes in man, in his ability to endure the truth, no matter how bitter it may be. "Man - that's the truth," says the hero. Unlike Luke, Satin is demanding of a person and believes that a person can do everything, since everything depends on his deeds and ideas. He does not need to be comforted by lies born of pity. To pity a person means to humiliate him with disbelief in the ability to achieve one's happiness, it means to seek support in all kinds of deceit and lies that replace the missing will to live. Under the dark and gloomy vaults of the rooming house, among miserable, unfortunate, homeless vagrants, the words about Man, about his vocation, strength and beauty, sound like a solemn hymn. "Man - this is true! Everything is in a person, everything is for a person! There is only a person, everything else is the work of his hands and brain! Man! This is magnificent! It sounds ... proud!"
Man himself is the creator of his own destiny, in him are hidden forces with the help of which he is able to overcome the most cruel hardships, the treachery of fate, the injustice of the world, his mistakes and the social troubles of society. Pity and compassion are wonderful, very necessary qualities for all of us, but only a truthful, adequate understanding of one's mistakes and opportunities can give a person a chance to overcome the evil fate and become truly free and happy.
