A. M. Gorky "At the Bottom"
The meaning of the play
Gorky about the meaning of the play: “The main question I wanted to pose is what is better - truth or compassion? What is more needed? Is it necessary to bring compassion to the point of using lies like Luke? This is not a subjective question, but a general philosophical one.
The play is philosophical, but everything universal in it is inseparable from the deeply vital and specifically historical. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the social and everyday obsession of the play. The fact that the characters previously known from Gorky's stories, tramps, are given in a reduced plan. Gorky saw and reflected in the play not the tragedy of the Russian people, but the tragedy of Russian life.
In the title, it was important for the author to highlight not the place of action, not the nature of the conditions, not even social status, but what the soul is filled with, what happens at the bottom human life at the bottom of the human soul.
Luke
Outwardly, Luke does not affect the life of the overnight stays in any way, but a serious work begins in their minds, so the subject of research in the play is social conditions reality and their reflection in people's minds. In each of the heroes, Luke saw the bright sides of his personality, all his conversations are aimed at supporting the person, his faith in the best. Therefore, he only talks to those who live the truth of hope; he has nothing to talk about with unbelievers. In an effort to comprehend human nature Luke makes a number of wise observations. The essence of these observations is that a person is worthy of respect, love and pity. The origins of such an attitude towards a person lie in Luke's conviction that a person is initially good, and only the social disorder of life makes him bad and imperfect. That is why the hostels reached out to Luka, who is kind and sincere with us and disinterested in his desire to help. He does not deceive anyone and does not lie to anyone about anything. Thus, Luke acts as the ideologist of passive consciousness, and in the dispute about the truth that arises between him and Bubnov, the Baron, Luke affirms the charity of a comforting lie. Parable about righteous land expresses the idea that it is impossible to deprive a person of hope, albeit meager.
The truth of Luke and the truth of Sateen
The sermon of Luke gave Satine the impetus for the emergence of a new life position, which is also based on respect for a person, but the emphasis is shifted towards the active participation of a person in life. Sateen's monologue is only the first step towards the formation of an active human consciousness. Gorky's attitude to Luka is ambiguous, in the development of the plot one can feel the author's reproach to Luka, because all illusions have been destroyed. On the other hand, the author blames not Luka, but the hostels themselves for what happened to people, and thereby reveals one of the main features of the Russian national character. Dissatisfaction with life, a critical attitude towards it and the inability to change something.
In the early stories of Maxim Gorky, such as "Old Woman Izergil", "Makar Chudra", "Chelkash", as well as in the play "At the Bottom", the author raises the most complex and deepest in its importance question about the meaning of life. Early stories more idealized, like a fairy tale, here Danko, in a fit of greatness, any one to the people tears out his heart - sacrifices his life for the sake of people, and proud Larra, cruelly paid for the desire to subjugate all people, imagined himself above everything earthly, doomed by his freedom. Larra did not like people, and his pride and thirst for freedom turned into a vice that led him to terrible loneliness and the search for death. Radda and Loiko Zobar from the story "Makar Chudra" put personal freedom above love and above own life. These Gorky stories confirm the idea that will and freedom are an integral part of life, this is a priceless gift, but people understand differently how to dispose of it, what to do, in the name of what and why it was given to you! For example, Danko gives his life to people. He accomplishes a great feat and it is in this that he sees the meaning of the Self of his life and his freedom. In the image of Danko, Maxim Gorky put the idealistic idea of a man who devotes all his strength to serving the people. His deed is disinterested, and even the memory of him cannot justify, pay for his death, because he does not need to be pitied. He chose his own path. Radda and Loiko Zobar love and value their freedom, put it above everything else and do not step back from it. Their fate is tragic, but they also made their own choice. The world always needs such people, without them there is no sun, they inspire. And to this day, the phrase Izergil: “In life, you know, there is always a place for exploits” is an undeniable truth. The heroes of the story "Chelkash" and the play "At the bottom" look more realistic. As a logical extension romantic works, they take us to the real world around us, to a world without decoration. Here true understanding Gorky showed freedom by creating the image of Chelkash. Wealth and property are alien to him, which burden a person, making him a slave to everything that he himself created. Chelkash abandoned his family in favor of freedom. Unlike Gavrila, Chelkash's understanding of freedom, in my opinion, is more correct. Real freedom implies not only rights, but also obligations, you can’t rely on someone, shift your problems to others and at the same time talk about your freedom, this is a false understanding of freedom, this is selfishness, the position of the owner, whose rights no one gave you . Maxim Gorky's play "At the Bottom" was written in 1902. This is a time of active transformation. Capitalism and entrepreneurship are rapidly developing in our country. All these changes are reflected in literary works. It was about such a life and about all the transformations in society that Maxim Gorky wrote his play.
Maksim Gorky - legendary writer, whose works have replenished the collection of classics of Russian literature. The writer departs from certain literary canons and turns the society of that time upside down with his writings. The most striking of the "innovative" works of Gorky, perhaps, can be called his sensational play "At the Bottom".
Indeed, Gorky's pen inhabits theater stage- the altar of the temple of Melpomene - " former people”: cheaters, fallen women, thieves, murderers ... Do they belong here? But Gorky tells people thrown overboard of life to "be."
"At the bottom" - social, philosophical and psychological play, reflecting actual problems modernity of both the writer himself and his descendants, problems that have not yet been resolved. Of course, it is impossible to list all the questions raised by the author: there are too many of them, especially if we consider the play with different points vision. But the most "bright", "conspicuous" problem can be called the problem of truth and the meaning of life.
The inhabitants of the rooming house are the inhabitants of the bottom. Once they were ordinary people, except, perhaps, for Vaska Pepel, who from childhood was accustomed to looking at theft and, having matured, he himself adapted to the same business. Each of the inhabitants has their own dream, which they want to fulfill, but do not make any efforts for this. Life, like a stormy sea, throws them against the stones of problems, overwhelms them with their heads, covers dark water eyes, making it impossible to understand who you are and what to do next. These people are lost, powerless, deprived of hope for the best. And suddenly in their dark kingdom”appears such a necessary “beam of light” for them - Luke.
The biblical name was interpreted in different time in different ways: someone claimed that Luke brings light with him; others believed that the elder, with his lies, only plunges the inhabitants of the bottom more into darkness. And then the question arises: is such a lie necessary? Is it for good or for harm?
Luke appears in the play as a comforter. He's drawing dying Anna Death is a deliverer, Death is a friend who will take with her soul all the pain of an unfortunate woman. The Drunkard-Actor gives hope for healing: “Today they are treating drunkenness, listen! Free, brother, they treat ... ". He gives advice to Ash to take Natasha and leave for Siberia to start a new life there. He, perhaps, is the only one who believes Nastenka, who tells fables about a student in love with her: “I know ... I believe! Your truth, not theirs ... If you believe, you had real love... so - she was! Was!". At some point, it really seems that the sun came out from behind the clouds and illuminated the faces and souls of people lost in the darkness. Each of those who are comforted has the meaning of life. They themselves begin to believe in what they could only dream of before! And is this not happiness?
But Luka disappears just as he appears. The clouds are gathering again. Leaving, he "forgot" to tell the Actor the name of the city in which "drunk treatment is free of charge." And he commits suicide. Ash kills Kostylev, and Natasha turns away from him. He is put in jail. Nastya's life does not change. She still reads tabloid novels, trying to at least draw those grains from there. true feeling which never descended on her. Only Anna dies in dreams of bliss after death. But are we allowed to know whether she received it? ..
Luke takes pity on the inhabitants of the rooming house. But his pity does not bring happiness to anyone, although the inhabitants of the bottom are grateful to him for it. Except, perhaps, the loafer Satin, who does not agree with Luke and even opposes him in some way. When the old man disappears, Satin, who was affected by the appearance of Luke "like acid on a dirty coin", is the only one who understands the meaning of all the words he said and tells his cohabitants about it:
“He lied to you ... but - this is out of pity for you, damn you!<…>Those who are weak in soul ... and who live on other people's juices need a lie ... it supports some, others hide behind it ... And who is his own master ... who is independent and does not eat someone else's - why does he need a lie? Lies are the religion of slaves and masters… Truth is the god of a free man!”
Satin preaches the freedom of man as supreme value. And Luke's pity jars him rather than makes him hope for a better future:
“That sounds… proud! Human! You have to respect the person! Do not pity ... do not humiliate him with pity ... you must respect!
So who is right anyway?
In the play, Gorky asks the reader and viewer a lot of questions, but does not give an unambiguous answer to any of them. He seems to open several doors in front of us, puts us at a crossroads and pushes us in the back: “Choose.” If I stood at such a crossroads, where the road to the left is Luke's pity, and to the right is Sateen's respect, then, in my opinion, it would be worth going straight, because pity as sympathy should be in our life, but without respect a person cannot be called human. In my opinion, there should be some symbiosis of both. Where would you go?..
/ / Social issues Gorky's play "At the Bottom"
Despite the fact that Maxim Gorky's play "" is already over a hundred years old, it continues to be staged in many theaters around the world. This work, which showed the life of people who have sunk to the bottom, has not lost its relevance in our time. Gorky showed us everyday life the poorest segment of the population in its usual terms.
The action of the play takes place in a rooming house, which sheltered people of different age categories, different professions. Many of them used to have another life, but now they are all at the bottom of this life.
Speaking of social conflict plays, it is worth noting that it is ambiguous and multifaceted. It is revealed in the confrontation between the inhabitants of the rooming house and its owners, and also manifests itself in the personal tragedy of each hero of the work and the reasons that made them sink to the bottom of life.
To understand the conflict between the inhabitants of the rooming house and its owners, it is necessary to understand what kind of people they were.
So, Mikhail Kostylev was the owner of the rooming house. He was a hypocritical and greedy person. On the one hand, he gave shelter to the needy, and on the other hand, he ripped off their last money for living.
His wife Vasilisa was also disgusted with the inhabitants of the rooming house. She was in love with Vaska Ash, and was constantly jealous of him for her sister Natalya. Over Natalia Vasilisa, together with her husband, were tormented with special zeal. Natalya, on the contrary, was a quiet girl and did not allow herself to argue with her sister and her husband.
In the relationship between two sisters, Gorky showed us how social status affects the relationship of two people, even though they were sisters.
Vaska Pepel was one of the inhabitants of the Kostylevo rooming house. He said to himself that since childhood he was called a thief. Therefore, all his life he did nothing more than steal. It should be noted that Vasilisa encouraged the occupation of Ash by buying stolen things from him.
An unenviable fate was another inhabitant of the rooming house - Anna. She was ill with a fatal disease and lived to last days. Her husband, a locksmith Kleshch, has been waiting for the death of his wife for a long time. She was a burden to him. He thought that after Anna's death he would be able to earn money and live new life. But this was not destined to happen. Anna lived and endured, endured daily humiliation, beatings from her husband. There was no place for joy and happiness in her life. The girl no longer remembered when she ate and dressed to the full, something different from old rags.
The person who could not find an application for his knowledge and skills, and now found himself in a rooming house with its other inhabitants, was Satin. WITH early age he worked at the telegraph office, was fond of reading. But now he has become a beggar, not expecting anything from life. From the old days, he had only a few intricate words on foreign language which he liked to show off to others.
Orphan Nastya was forced to sell her body in order to somehow make ends meet. She was a dreamer. Nastya was fond of romance novels and believed that someday true love would come to her. For her dreaminess and naivety, the girl endured daily ridicule from other inhabitants of the rooming house.
Another inhabitant of the rooming house was Bubnov. Here he found himself because he found out about the betrayal of his wife and, not finding the best option, went to the rooming house to Kostylev.
In my opinion, the most tragic fall to the bottom was the fall of the Baron. He was a former nobleman, held a high position. But now he is forced to spend time with those people whom he simply did not notice before. The baron often recalled his past "well-fed" years. From that life, he only had an arrogant manner of communicating with others.
The next inhabitant of the rooming house was a man of the scene, a man who was bathed in applause, but who, succumbing bad habit, rolled down. The worst thing is that the Actor understands the cause of his suffering, but he cannot do anything about it.
Now all these once different people equal in their injustice. They find themselves at the bottom of life and are forced to accept their fate. These people have no future, they only have memories of past life. All of them are united by one road - the road down into the abyss. Such a life destroyed everything in the inhabitants of the rooming house. human feelings and quality and gave rise not only to social, but also to moral degradation.
A ray of light for the inhabitants of the rooming house is the old man Luka, who tried to "stir up" them, giving them hope. Unfortunately, it was already too late, no one could find the strength to climb up again. The actor commits suicide, Vaska Pepel was exiled to Siberia, the rest of the inhabitants of the rooming house suffered a bad fate.
Maxim Gorky in his play "At the Bottom" tried to show us all the powerlessness of a person burdened social problems how important it is to be able to solve them in time in order to change your life.
At all times, man has sought to know his "I", the purpose and meaning of life. Eternal problems human being Pushkin and Gogol, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky tried to solve it. M. Gorky was no exception, but he developed his own understanding of man and his life purpose, which differs from the philosophical concepts of his predecessors. In this regard, Gorky's play "At the Bottom" is demonstrative.
This work is an indictment of a society that throws people to the "bottom of life", depriving them of honor, dignity, corroding high human feelings. But even here, “at the bottom”, the power of the “masters of life” continues, represented in the play by the sinister figures of the owners of the rooming house. Such a harsh, merciless truth about the life of the social lower classes, about their hopeless fate world dramaturgy didn't know yet.
Under the gloomy, dark vaults of the Kostylevo rooming house are people different characters who come from different social strata. In one room there are old and young, single and married, men and women, healthy and sick, hungry and full. Overcrowding and terrible poverty give rise to mutual irritation, quarrels, fights and even murder. People thrown back to a cave existence go berserk, lose their human appearance, shame and conscience, trample on moral norms.
The Kostylevs' doss house resembles a prison; it is not for nothing that its inhabitants sing the prison song "The Sun Rises and Sets." Those who got into their basement belong to different social strata, but everyone has the same fate - no one manages to get out of it. Locksmith Kleshch considers the rooming house only a temporary shelter, hoping that hard honest work will save him. At first, he even treats the overnight stays contemptuously, opposing himself to them: “I am a working person… I am ashamed to look at them… I have been working since I was young… do you think I won’t get out of here? I’ll get out ... I’ll tear off the skin, and I’ll get out. But Tick's dreams do not come true. Soon he is forced to become an ordinary inhabitant of the slum.
For most overnight stays, all the best is in the past: for the Baron, this is a prosperous life, for the Actor - creative work. However, as the former telegraph operator, and now a cheater, Satin, says, “you won’t go anywhere in the carriage of the past.”
Gorky does not acquaint readers with the history of the life of his heroes; the play speaks about it fluently. The present of the guests of the rooming house is terrible, but they have no future at all. The past has left an indelible mark on their personality.
But "At the Bottom" is not an everyday, but a socio-philosophical play, which is based on an ideological conflict. It contrasts different views on man, on the truth and lies of life, on imaginary and genuine humanism. Almost all the hostels take part in the discussion of these big questions to some extent. Gorky's dramaturgy is characterized by dialogue-disputes that reveal the social, philosophical and aesthetic positions of the characters. Verbal fights are also characteristic of the heroes of this play.
Many generally accepted truths are rejected by the outcasts of society. It is worth, for example, to tell Kleshch that the overnight stays live without honor and conscience, as Bubnov will answer him: “What is conscience for? I'm not rich, "and Vaska Pepel will quote Satina's words:" Every person wants his neighbor to have a conscience, but, you see, it’s not profitable for anyone to have one.
Disputes about a person are ongoing between the inhabitants of the rooming house throughout the play, but they become aggravated in connection with the disappearance of the wanderer Luke. The assessment of Luke's personality and his role in the life of the overnight stays is ambiguous. On the one hand: "He was a good old man!" (Nastya); “He was compassionate” (Tick); “The old man was good… he had a law to his soul!.. Don’t offend a person – that’s the law” (Tatarin); “Man - that's the truth ... He understood this ...” (Satin). On the other hand: "The old charlatan" (Baron); “He ... did not like the truth, the old man ...” (Tick), etc.
Both of these points of view are correct. The essence of Luke's position is revealed in two parables. The first is the story of a wanderer about how he took pity on two robbers who were plotting a murder, fed and warmed them, that is, responded to evil with good. The parable of the "righteous land" raises the question of what is more important for a person - truth or hope. Luke believes that, albeit false, but hope.
“I lied out of pity for you,” Satin says of the hero. This lie gave people the strength to live, resist fate and hope for the best. When the deception was revealed real life horrified the Actor - and he hanged himself, Nastya fell into despair, Vaska Pepel went to prison at the first attempt to change his fate.
Thus, the philosophy of Luke includes both Christian long-suffering, sensitivity to the suffering of others, and sober realism. This is one of the points of view in the dispute about a person - “white lie”. She is believed by weak, impressionable people, as they believe in "golden dreams". This is the Actor, Ashes, Nastya. Those who find support in themselves need neither pity nor soothing lies.
Bubnov has a different view of a person. He confesses the truth of the fact: one should not try to change something, one must come to terms with evil and go with the flow. The most crushing blow to the philosophy of Luka and Bubnov is dealt by Satin, who, too, however, will not go beyond his words about an omnipotent man, a Man with capital letter, but it is he who expresses the idea that the salvation of a person in him is a Sami.
Each of the last three acts of the play ends with the death of: Anna, Kostylev, Actor. These events testify by no means only to the moral and everyday foundations of "bossyatstva". Here is important philosophical overtones. At the end of the second act, Satin shouts: “Dead people don’t hear! Dead people don't feel... Shout... roar... Dead people don't hear! Vegetation in a rooming house is not much different from death. The “tramps” living here are as deaf, blind as dust buried in the ground. The movement of Gorky's drama is associated with the awakening of "living corpses", their hearing, emotions. In the fourth act, complex processes take place in the sleepy soul, and people begin to hear, feel, and understand something. The “acid” of unhappy thoughts is cleansed like an “old, dirty coin”, Sateen’s thought is tempered.
This is where it hides main point the final of the play. According to the author, only a person's faith in his own forces and his courage can change the world around him.
The play's ending is ambiguous. Putting forward in Sateen's monologue the idea strong personality, the author helps the characters feel something, understand something, realize something. But the answer to the author's question: "Which is better: truth or compassion?" - not in the play.
