The plot conflict is the philosophical meaning of the play at the bottom. Composition “External and internal conflicts in the drama “At the bottom

The creative concept of the play “At the Bottom” dates back to the very beginning of 1900. M. Gorky was going to create a "cycle of dramas" of four plays, each of which is dedicated to the image of a certain layer of Russian society. In the middle of 1901, he wrote about the last of them to K. P. Pyatnitsky: “One more thing: tramps. Tartar, Jew, actor, hostess of a lodging house, thieves, detective, prostitutes. It will be scary. I have already prepared plans, I see faces, figures, I hear voices, speeches, motives for actions - everything is clear, everything is clear! in which the main thing is the conflict of people who find themselves at the bottom of life with the outside world. In one of the manuscript editions, the play was called: “At the bottom of life.” But at the same time, these people are also at the bottom of feelings, thoughts, each of them has to fight the decline in himself. These conflicts develop in parallel throughout the play.

At the beginning of the play, we see the inhabitants of the rooming house, dissatisfied with life, with themselves, with each other. Many of them used to live better, but they got here because of some kind of misfortune. So, the Baron and Satin ended up here after prison, Bubnov left his wife, leaving her his workshop, the Actor drank himself. Some, like Nastya, have never seen another life. Some have already come to terms with this situation and understand that it is impossible to rise from the bottom, while others hope that all this is happening to them temporarily. So, Kleshch thinks that after the death of his wife, he will work hard and be able to secure a better existence for himself. He believes that if you live “by honor”, ​​then you can achieve everything. The actor, on the contrary, is trying to find solace in alcohol, thereby further aggravating his plight. He no longer expects to leave this rooming house and bitterly recalls his former life. And among these oppressed people, an outsider appears - Luka, a wandering old man without a passport. Full of compassion for all people, he brings hope to many inhabitants of the rooming house. Anna, the wife of Kleshch, lies near death and experiences terrible suffering. And this old man makes her last hours easier. Expecting the same torment after death, she hopefully hears his words: “Nothing will happen! Nothing! You - believe! Calm and - nothing else! ..” He tells the actor about the existence of a free clinic for alcoholics, and he even refrained from drinking for one day and worked sweeping the street. Luka advises Peplu to leave with Natasha for Siberia and start a new life there. In the inhabitants of the rooming house, there is confidence that they can escape from the captivity of a hard life to freedom. And here the author raises a deeply philosophical question: “Do these people need a lie?” After all, most of Luke's words are lies uttered out of pity, with the aim of comforting, helping. He also supports Nastya in her stories about “true love”, although it is quite obvious that nothing like this happened to her, that all this was read from books. The answer to this question is in the words of Satin: “Whoever is weak in soul ... and who lives on other people's juices - those need a lie ... she supports some, others hide behind it ... And who is his own master ... who is independent and does not eat someone else's - why should he lie? Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man!” The answer is the whole development of the action. We see the collapse of all hopes: Anna dies, and Klesh's tools are sold for her funeral - he is left without a livelihood; Vaska Pepel kills Kostylev in a fight, which will apparently land him in jail; The Tatar crushed his hand and lost his job. It seems that Luke brought only worse changes to their lives, since after his departure the situation in the rooming house becomes even more deplorable than at the beginning of the play. These tramps plunged even deeper into the “bottom”, they lost another clash with their fate, finally lost faith in their strength. All this is emphasized at the end of the play. The actor, deprived of Luka's support and constantly convinced by Satine that all the talk about a free clinic for alcoholics is a lie, commits suicide. And, as an illustration of the hopelessness of the situation of the shelters, Sateen’s ordinary words sound: “Eh ... ruined the song ... fool-cancer!”

Taking the conflict of the lower classes of society with their difficult life as the basis of his play, Gorky managed to fulfill the main task - to show all the facets of the existence of these people, who remain “at the bottom” for a long time or forever, all possible manifestations of their characters. We see the practical impossibility of any positive changes in their lives, despite all their efforts and hopes, since they are not free people. A free man, according to Gorky, must boldly face the truth, and not find solace in a beautiful lie, being content with his position. And only when a person becomes free, he will be able to overcome difficulties and escape from the abyss of a rooming house. Only then can the hopes for a better life be realized not only for one person, but for the whole society.

Homework for the lesson

2. Collect material for each inhabitant of the rooming house.

3. Think about how you can group the actors.

4. What is the nature of the conflict in the play?

The purpose of the lesson: to show Gorky's innovation; identify the elements of genre and conflict in a play.

The main question I wanted to ask is what is better, truth or compassion. What is 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.

Maksim Gorky

The history of the creation of the play

For more than 80 years, performances based on the play "At the Bottom" have not left the domestic stage. She also went around the largest theaters in the world, and interest in her does not wane!

In 1901, Gorky said about the concept of his play: "It will be scary." The author repeatedly changed the name: “Without the sun”, “Nochlezhka”, “Bottom”, “At the bottom of life”. The title "At the Bottom" first appeared on the posters of the art theater. It is not the place of action that is singled out - "a rooming house", not the nature of the conditions - "without the sun", the "bottom", not even the social position - "at the bottom of life". The phrase "At the bottom" is much broader in meaning than all of the above. What's going on "at the bottom"? "At the bottom" - what, only life? Maybe souls?

The ambiguity of the Gorky play led to its various theatrical productions.

The most striking was the first stage incarnation of the drama (1902) by the Art Theater by renowned directors K.S. Stanislavsky, V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko with the direct participation of A.M. Gorky.

In 1903, the play was awarded the honorary Griboedov Prize.

Composition features

Question

Where does the play take place?

Answer

In a cave-like basement in which people are forced to lead an antediluvian existence. Separate strokes of the description introduce the symbolism of hell here: the rooming house is located below ground level, people are deprived of the sun here, the light falls “from top to bottom”, the characters feel like “dead”, “sinners”, “thrown into a pit, “killed” by society and in these vaults buried.

Question

How is the scene depicted in the play?

Answer

In the author's remarks. In the first act, it is "a cellar that looks like a cave," "heavy, stone vaults, sooty, with crumbling plaster." It is important that the writer gives instructions on how the scene is illuminated: “from the viewer and from top to bottom”, the light reaches the bed-lodges from the basement window, as if looking for people among the basement inhabitants. Thin partitions fence off Ash's room. Everywhere on the walls - bunks. Except for Kvashnya, Baron and Nastya, who live in the kitchen, no one has their own corner. Everything is for show in front of each other, a secluded place only on the stove and behind the cotton canopy that separates the bed of the dying Anna from the others (this way she is already, as it were, separated from life). There is dirt everywhere: “dirty chintz curtains”, unpainted and dirty tables, benches, stools, tattered cardboard, pieces of oilcloth, rags.

Question

List the characters in the play with their brief characteristics. What groups can conditionally divide all the characters?

Answer

All the inhabitants of the rooming house can be conventionally grouped into four groups, depending on the place they occupy in the clash of different positions, in the philosophical conflict of the play.

The first group includes Actor, Nastya, Ash, Natasha. These characters are predisposed to meeting the wanderer Luca. Each of them lives some kind of dream or hope. So the Actor expects to recover from alcoholism, to return to the stage, where he had the theatrical name Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky. Now, however, there is no name left, but he is striving in his thoughts to artistic glory. Nastya is dreaming of a French student whom she supposedly loves passionately. Ashes dreams of a free and parting life, "so that you can ... respect yourself." Natasha vaguely hopes for a happy fate, when Vasily will be her strong support. Each of these characters is not too firm in their aspirations, internally bifurcated.

Luke, which we will talk about in detail in the next lesson, is designed to bring out the essence of each.

Baron and Bubnov - the third group. The first of them constantly lives in the past, remembering hundreds of serfs, carriages with coats of arms, coffee with cream in the morning in bed. Completely devastated, he no longer expects anything, dreams of nothing. The second - Bubnov - also sometimes refers to the past years, when he suffered from life, but mostly he lives in the present and recognizes only what he sees and touches. Bubnov is an indifferent cynic. For him, only facts are clear, they are “stubborn things”. The truth of Baron and Bubnov is a harsh, wingless truth, far from the true truth.

The fourth position is occupied by Satin in the play. For all its originality, it is also distinguished by its inconsistency. First, the words spoken by this hero are in sharp contrast to his essence. After all, a swindler by occupation, a prisoner and a murderer in the past, speaks about the truth. Secondly, in a number of cases, Satin turns out to be close to Luka. He agrees with the wanderer that “people live for the best”, that the truth is connected with the idea of ​​​​a person, that one should not interfere with him and belittle him (“Do not offend a person!”)

The images should be arranged along the “ladder” of ranks and positions, since we have before us a social cross-section of the life of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century: Baron, Kostylev, Bubnov, Satin, Actor; Ashes, Nastya.

Question

What is the drama's conflict?

Answer

The conflict of this drama is social. Each of the overnight stays experienced their own social conflict in the past, as a result of which they found themselves in a humiliating position. Life has dispossessed the people gathered in this hell. She deprived the right to work for Kleshch, for the family - for Nastya, for the profession - for the Actor, for the former comfort - for the Baron, doomed Anna to a hungry existence, to theft - Ash, a deep drinking bout - Bubnov, prostitution - Nastya.

A sharp conflict situation, played out in front of the audience, is the most important feature of drama as a kind of literature.

Question

How is the social conflict related to the dramatic one?

Answer

The social conflict is taken out of the scene, relegated to the past, it does not become the basis of the dramatic conflict. We observe only the result of off-stage conflicts.

Question

What kind of conflicts, besides the social one, are highlighted in the play?

Answer

There is a traditional love conflict in the play. It is determined by the relationship between Vaska Pepel, Vasilisa, the wife of the owner of the hostel, Kostylev and Natasha, Vasilisa's sister. The exposition of this conflict is the conversation of the roomers, from which it is clear that Kostylev is looking for his wife Vasilisa in the rooming house, who is cheating on him with Vaska Pepel. The plot of this conflict is the appearance of Natasha in the rooming house, for the sake of which Pepel leaves Vasilisa. As the love conflict develops, it becomes clear that the relationship with Natasha revives Ash, he wants to leave with her and start a new life. The culmination of the conflict is taken offstage: at the end of the third act, we learn from the words of Kvashnya that the girl’s legs were boiled with boiling water” – Vasilisa knocked over the samovar and scalded Natasha’s legs. The murder of Kostylev by Vaska Ash turns out to be a tragic outcome of a love conflict. Natasha ceases to believe Ash: “They are at the same time! Damn you! You both…"

Question

What is the peculiarity of the love conflict in the play?

Answer

Love conflict becomes a facet of social conflict. He shows that inhuman conditions cripple a person, and even love does not save a person, but leads to tragedy: to death, injury, murder, penal servitude. As a result, Vasilisa alone achieves all her goals: she takes revenge on her former lover Pepl and her sister-rival Natasha, gets rid of her unloved and disgusted husband and becomes the sole owner of the rooming house. There is nothing human left in Vasilisa, and this shows the enormity of the social conditions that have disfigured both the inhabitants of the rooming house and its owners. The shelters do not directly participate in this conflict, they are only bystanders.

Question

What does this hostel remind you of?

Answer

The nochlezhka is a kind of model of that cruel world from which its inhabitants were thrown out. Here, too, there are their own "owners", the police, the same alienation, enmity, the same vices are manifested.

Final word of the teacher

Gorky depicts the consciousness of the people of the “bottom”. The plot unfolds not so much in external action - in everyday life, but in the dialogues of the characters. It is the conversations of the roommates that determine the development of the dramatic conflict. The action is transferred to the non-event series. This is typical for the genre of philosophical drama.

So, the genre of the play can be defined as a socio-philosophical drama.

Homework

Prepare for the discussion lesson about Luke. To do this: mark (or write out) his statements about people, about truth, about faith. Determine your attitude to the statements about Luke Baron and Satin (IV act).

Determine the compositional elements of the play. Why did Chekhov consider the last act superfluous?

Literature

D.N. Murin, E.D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11 program. Thematic lesson planning. St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001

E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the XX century / St. Petersburg: Paritet, 2002

N.V. Egorova. Lesson developments in Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11. I semester. M.: VAKO, 2005

Topic: Features of the genre and conflict in M. Gorky's play "At the Bottom"

Goals:

Tutorials:

1) study the history of the creation of the play;

2) to reveal the genre nature of the play;

3) identify the features of the conflict.

Developing:

• improve the skills of a system-complex analysis of a dramatic work;
• develop the skills of independent search for information on this topic;

Educational

• to educate the culture of mental work of students on the basis of such mental operations as analysis, synthesis, grouping, comparison.

Lesson type: lesson-lecture with elements of conversation on the plot and genre originality of the play.

Equipment:

• computer (presentation in Microsoft Power Point 2007-2010);
• video projector, screen.

During the classes

Organizing time.

1. Introduction.

Today you got acquainted with the novel by M. Gorky "Mother", which has become, perhaps, the main work of Gorky the novelist. Now we will get acquainted with the dramatic work of M. Gorky. Your homework was reading the play "At the bottom". Let's turn to her.

1. A word about the creation of the play.

In 1900, when artists from the Art Theater traveled to the Crimea to show Chekhov his plays The Seagull and Uncle Vanya, they met Gorky. The head of the theater, Nemirovich-Danchenko, told them that the theater had the task of not only "captivating Chekhov with its art, but also infecting Gorky with the desire to write a play."

The following year, Gorky handed over to the Art Theater his play "The Petty Bourgeois". The first performance of the Gorky play by the Art Theater took place on March 26, 1902, in St. Petersburg, where the theater went on a spring tour. For the first time, a new hero appeared on the scene: the revolutionary worker, the machinist Neil, a man conscious of his strength, confident in victory. And although the censorship crossed out all the "dangerous" places from the play, also crossed out Neal's words: "The owner is the one who works!" .

The government feared that the play had turned into a revolutionary demonstration. During the dress rehearsal of the play, the theater was surrounded by police, and disguised policemen were placed in the theater; mounted gendarmes rode around the square in front of the theatre.

Almost simultaneously with the play "Petty Bourgeois" Gorky worked on the second play, "At the bottom". In August 1902, Gorky gave the play to Nemirovich-Danchenko. Rehearsals began, and Gorky now often had to visit Moscow. The actors and the director worked with enthusiasm, went to the Khitrov market, to the rooming houses where the tramps lived, and Gorky talked a lot about the life of his heroes, helping to better understand their lives and habits.

O. L. Knipper-Chekhova recalled how Gorky said at one of the rehearsals:“I read“ At the bottom ”in the rooming house, to the real Baron, to the real Nastya. You see! They cried in the rooming house, shouted:“ We are worse! .. . They kissed me, hugged me ... ”.On December 18, 1902, the premiere of the play took place. Actors, directors, author were endlessly called. The performance turned into a stormy celebration of A. M. Gorky; he went on stage excited, confused - he did not expect such a success. Big, slightly stooped, he frowned and, out of embarrassment, forgot to drop the cigarette he was holding in his teeth, he forgot to bow.

1. Conversation on the content of the play (oral):

Questions for the class:

1. What is the storyline based on?
2. Who are the inhabitants of the doss house? Name them.
3. Who is Klesh? What is known about him?
4. Who is Luca? Satin?

Luke

An elderly man (60 years old), a wandering preacher who comforts everyone, promises deliverance from suffering to everyone, says to everyone: “You hope!”, “You believe!” Luka is an outstanding personality, he has a lot of life experience and a keen interest in people. He does not believe in anything, but he feels sorry for suffering people, so he says various comforting words to them. His whole philosophy is contained in the saying: "What you believe is what you are."

satin

Unemployed man (40 years old). He loves incomprehensible, rare words, because previously served in the telegraph office, read a lot and was an educated person. The hero expresses the author's position, he is far from the philosophy of Christian patience, for him there is one proud-sounding word - a person who “pays for everything himself: for faith, for unbelief, for love, for the mind - a person pays for everything himself, and therefore he free." Understands social injustice more clearly than others. He claims that a person needs the truth, whatever it may be!

Kostylev and Vasilisa

The figure of the owner of the rooming house, Kostylev (54), one of the "masters of life", who is ready even to squeeze the last penny out of his unfortunate and disadvantaged guests, causes disgust. His wife Vasilisa (26 years old) is just as disgusting because of her immorality, she has “no soul”, she is “greedy for money”.

Vaska Pepel

A young man (28 years old) is a hereditary thief, longing for a right life, he wants to become an honest and decent person, because for a living, Ash earns dishonest labor, he wants to fix it all. Vaska dreams of a free life in Siberia. And he thinks that by marrying Natasha, he will get what he wants. But in the end, having killed Kostylev, he ends up in prison.

Natasha

Natasha - 20 years old, Vasilisa's sister. Quiet, kind girl. She is full of passionate dreams of the future. Natasha wants to leave the rooming house, to get out of this "bottom of life", but she can't. They want to marry Natasha to Pepel, but the girl understands that nothing good will come of this. After all, Vaska treated her sister badly, which means that he can do the same with her. She never got married, because. after beating his sister, he ends up in the hospital, and from there he leaves in an unknown direction.

Baron and Nastya

Nastya is a young girl (20 years old) who longs for great, true love. True, her dreams in others cause malicious mockery. Even her roommate, the Baron, makes fun of her. Nastya suffers from her hopelessness and wants to go to the ends of the world.

The Baron (33) is the only person who has no illusions about liberation. But he has a thread: “Everything is in the past!” If there is nothing ahead, then at least there is something behind. The baron often recalled his origin (his old surname, houses in Moscow and St. Petersburg, carriages with coats of arms, etc.). But Nastya mocks him, says that none of this happened. “Understood what a person is when they don’t believe him?”

Tick ​​and Anna

Andrei Mitrich (40 years old) is a locksmith who dreams of honest work. He most of all hopes to escape from this hole (“I’ll get out ... I’ll tear off my skin, but I’ll get out!”), that this is not the end, but a temporary fall. Tick ​​thinks that after the death of his wife, his life will become easier. He awaits her death as a release!

Anna (30 years old) - his wife, seriously ill, near death. Considers herself the most unfortunate woman. She is crushed by life, full of suffering and useless to anyone.

Actor

In the past he was a famous actor, but soon he went down, drank himself and even forgot his name! He is often preoccupied with memories of his already past glory. His only dream is to find the city that Luka was talking about, where there is a free clinic for alcoholics. After all, he still hopes to return to the stage. But having learned that there is no “righteous land” and there is no hospital, the actor commits suicide, because. cannot bear the collapse of his last hope.

1. Have you noticed the similarities between Gorky's "bottom people" and the "little man"? What is it? How are they different?

(There are similarities. Both “little people” and people of the “bottom” are social types “humiliated and offended” by life. However, the position of the heroes of Gorky’s play is much worse. The “little people” had hope (remember Gogol’s Bashmachkin or the ideologists F .M. Dostoevsky), "people of the bottom" have no such hope. There is nowhere to fall further).

1. What is the similarity between the “people of the bottom” and the heroes of “tramp stories”, for example, the story “Chelkash”, with which you are familiar?

(The heroes of the play are also tramps. But there is no romance here anymore. Chelkash is a romantic image, he is a strong, strong-willed character. For him, the main thing is the sea and freedom. In the play, there is no romanticism. they don't know what it is.)

1. Who really argues with Luka: Satin or the author himself?

1. Is the play “At the Bottom” an innovative work?
2. How would you define the genre? What dramatic genres do you know?

Comedy, drama, tragedy, vaudeville, melodrama. "At the Bottom" is a drama. In tragedy, d.b. ideological heroes. Their conflict with society must become ideological. Recall, for example, the conflict between Katerina Kabanova and the "dark kingdom" (Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm") or the conflict between Larisa Ogudalova and the world of predatory merchants ("Dowry" by Ostrovsky). There is no such thing here. The actor shot himself - despair and disbelief in his own strength. Luke leaves.)

1. What do you think is the salvation of people who have fallen “to the bottom” of life?

(Either go into the world of illusions, or fight for social injustice. Their salvation is social changes in Russia, and Gorky led the viewer to this. Soon 1917 will come. The proletariat will enter the stage of history).

1. Lecture part:

In this new play, the protest against capitalist society sounded even more sharply and boldly. Gorky showed in it a new, unfamiliar world - the world of tramps who have sunk to the very bottom of life.Gorky's play "At the Bottom" was written in 1902 for the troupe of the Moscow Public Art Theater. The name itself has a lot of meaning. People who have fallen to the bottom will never rise to the light, to a new life. The theme of the humiliated and offended is not new in Russian literature. Here Gorky continues the traditions of Pushkin, Gogol, Nekrasov, Dostoevsky. However, the position of Gorky's "bottom people", in contrast to the "little people", is more depressing.

In the play, Gorky outlined the need for socio-historical changes that the revolution would bring.The play is based on an acute social conflict: the contradiction between the actual position of a person in society and his high purpose; the contradiction between the masses and the autocratic regimes of landlord Russia, which reduce people to the tragic fate of vagabonds.

The play by M. Gorky is an innovative literary work. In the center of it are not only human destinies, but a clash of ideas, a dispute about a person, about the meaning of life.

Social conflict is expressed at several levels:

1. The conflict between the owners of the rooming house, the Kostylevs, and the inhabitants of this rooming house
2. Each of their heroes in the past experienced their own social. conflict. But the background of each remains in the past. Gorky leaves her backstage. Their life dramas do not become the basis of the dramatic conflict.
3. The love line in the play is connected with the social one. Kostylev is looking for Vasilisa, who is cheating on him with Vaska Ash. The plot of a love conflict is Natasha's arrival at the rooming house. Vaska Ash's love for Natasha brings him back to life. Gorky shows that the anti-human conditions of the “bottom” cripple a person. Vasilisa takes revenge on her lover. Social inequality wins.

In terms of genre, the play is a drama.There are no ideological conflicts with society. Philosophical reflections of the inhabitants of the rooming house do not lead anywhere, they do not become a revolt against the social. inequalities. The actor shot himself - despair and disbelief in his own strength. Luka leaves.

The heroes of the play “At the Bottom” turned out to be generalized, collective images, although typical. Under the vaults of the Kostylevo rooming house there were people of the most diverse character and social status. All of them are social types. All the characters have nicknames instead of names.

M. Gorky offers readers two possible answers to the question of rescuing overnight shelters:

1) go into the world of illusions and deceive yourself (but a lie can only aggravate the situation of outcast people.

2) fight social injustice (but there are no capable fighters “at the bottom”. The most they can do is cut out the truth - the truth about a person!)

The two main problems in the play are:

philosophical problems were reflected in the disputes of the heroes about man, goodness and truth, which raise the problem of humanism:

• human problem;
• truth problem

Conclusion.

The play “At the Bottom” is imbued with an ardent and passionate call to love a person, to make this name really sound proud. The play had a huge political resonance, called for the reorganization of society, throwing people "to the bottom."

Homework:

1. write out character quotes

The revival of the name of Maxim Gorky after the revision of the place of his work in Russian literature and the renaming of everything that bore the name of this writer must definitely happen. It seems that the most famous of Gorky's dramatic legacy, the play "At the Bottom", will play a significant role in this. The drama genre itself suggests the relevance of the work in a society where there are many unresolved social problems, where people know what a rooming house and homelessness are. M. Gorky's play "At the Bottom" is defined as a socio-philosophical drama. The drama of the work is determined by the presence in it of an acute conflict affecting the relationship of a person with the environment, with society. In addition, the drama, as a rule, is characterized by the veiled position of the author. Although it may seem that the material of the play is too difficult to perceive, however, the realism of the conflict, the lack of moralizing are the virtues of a truly dramatic work. All of the above is present in the Gorky play. It is interesting that "At the Bottom" is perhaps Gorky's only book where there is no open didacticism, where the reader himself is invited to make a choice between two "truths of life" - the positions of Luke and Sateen.

Among the features of the play, we can name the presence in it of several conflicts expressed in varying degrees at once. Thus, the presence among the heroes of people from different strata of society determines the development of social conflict. However, it is not very dynamic, since the social status of the owners of the Kostylevs' rooming house is not much higher than that of its inhabitants. But the social conflict in the play has another facet: each of the rooming houses carries a lot of contradictions related to their place in society, each hero has his own social conflict, which threw them to the "bottom" of life.

The development of a love conflict is connected with the relationship between Vaska Pepel and Natasha, in which Vasilisa and her husband's claims to love interfere. Vaska Pepel, without the slightest doubt, leaves Vasilisa, who cheated on her husband, for the sake of a truly high feeling for Natasha. The heroine seems to return the thief Vaska to the true values ​​of life, relations with her, of course, enrich his inner world and awaken dreams of an honest life. But the envy of the older sister interferes with the successful outcome of this love story. The culmination is the dirty and cruel revenge of Vasilisa, and the denouement is the murder of Kostylev. Thus, the love conflict is resolved by the triumph of the disgusting Vasilisa and the defeat of two hearts in love. The author shows that at the "bottom" there is no place for true feelings.

The philosophical conflict in the drama is the main one; it affects all the heroes of the work in one way or another. Its development provokes the appearance of the wanderer Luke in the rooming house, who brings a new view of the world to the inhabitants of the "bottom". Two positions in life come into conflict: a white lie and the truth without embellishment. What turns out to be more necessary for people? Luke preaches pity and compassion, he inspires hope for the possibility of a different, better life. Those heroes who believed him began to dream again, make plans, they had an incentive to live on. But the old man did not tell them about the difficulties that are inevitable on the way to a brighter future. It seems to give an impetus to the beginning of a new life, but then a person must go on his own, but will he have enough strength for this? Can illusions always become support in difficulties? The antipode hero Satin believes that pity humiliates a person, for life a person needs the truth, no matter how cruel it may seem.

All philosophical thoughts in the play are expressed by the characters in direct dialogues and monologues. From the lips of Luke it sounds: “She, really, is not always due to illness to a person ... you can’t always cure the soul with the truth ...”. Satin, on the other hand, utters: “Lie is the religion of slaves and masters ... Truth is the god of a free man!” Yes, the exclamations that “only man exists are very attractive to us, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! It sounds…proud! Human! You have to respect the person! The author's position in the drama is hidden. Gorky does not give a direct assessment of the words of his heroes. True, in his other prose work, The Life of Klim Samgin, the author says that we love people for the good we have done to them, and we do not love for the evil brought to them. When a person is deceived, they hide something from him, they, of course, bring harm to him, since they deprive him of the right to information and, consequently, to an objectively made choice. From this point of view, Luke's philosophy cannot be saving, his pity and compassion are not identical with love for a person. But Satin is also powerless to help the inhabitants of the rooming house, since he has nothing to respect even himself for, in fact, he does not see a person in himself, his words are not supported by action. This is the common tragedy of all heroes. Words and dreams hang in the air without finding support in the people themselves.

At the end of the drama, there is one murder and one suicide. But the author does not pass judgment on any of the life philosophies underlying the play. Rather, one can feel a general regret about the passivity and weakness of people who find themselves at the “bottom”, see their own guilt in what happened and realize the futility of helping someone who is not ready for it himself. The ambiguity and diversity of the play are connected with the depth of the problems raised. You can’t see in Luka a stupid “crafty” old man who lies all the time, but you can’t idealize his compassionate love either. At the same time, Satin, at first glance, pronounces his monologue, as if in a delirium, phrases that he picked up from different places pop up in his inflamed brain. But with his enthusiasm he is trying to infect the people, to raise them to the revolution. Although in his words the substitution of values ​​is obvious. And perhaps in this way Gorky warned us about the substitution of values ​​that has always existed in the revolution, which is its tragedy.

True drama is always contemporary. The relevance of the play "At the Bottom" will never die, in my opinion, because when reading or watching it on stage, we think about the eternal problems of choosing our path. Today's pathos of the work, in my opinion, is connected with the attempt of our entire society to rise from the "bottom", to understand why some people manage to get out, while others do not. Unfortunately, not everyone succeeds in a positive desire to raise their heads. And some don't even try. This is also a philosophy of life. Thus, the vitality of the drama "At the Bottom" is due to its truthfulness.

1. The realism of the play "At the Bottom".
2. Heroes of the work.
3. The attitude of the author to the inhabitants of the "bottom".

M. Gorky's play "At the Bottom" is a vivid example of a realistic work. The writer is already abandoning the romantic tendencies that were characteristic of his work. The realistic beginning attracts the writer, he pays much attention to socio-philosophical conflicts. Gorky himself can be called one of the most talented writers of his time. He brilliantly depicted human characters, we have not the slightest reason to doubt their veracity. No less vividly Gorky portrayed the life against which events unfold. Life for Gorky is not just a collection of various details in the description of the situation. No, everyday life acquires special significance, grows to global proportions. It is no coincidence that life and being are words of the same root. The living conditions in which a person happened to live necessarily affect his character and worldview.

The play "At the Bottom" is very interesting primarily for its characters. These are typical inhabitants of the "bottom", as the name itself says. The life of all the inhabitants of the rooming house has developed far from the best way. They have nothing good, bright, joyful. These people occupy the lowest rung of the social ladder. They have no illusions about their life, on the contrary, they are aware of the hopelessness of their existence. The peculiarity of the play "At the Bottom" is that it does not have a plot and denouement, which, in essence, contradicts this genre. There is no main plot conflict in the play. But there is a socio-philosophical conflict. And it is revealed not in actions, but in conversations. There is much more talk in the play than action. It can even be said that there are practically no actions as such.

We understand well the philosophy of all the inhabitants of the “bottom”. They do not hide their beliefs. The limitedness, wretchedness, insignificance of their characters is obvious. The inhabitants of the "bottom" are cruel towards each other. We don’t see any sympathy, respect, or even friendly attachments among them. Such a phrase as “you are a fool, Nastya ...” looks like something taken for granted and quite normal for them. Ordinary human compassion is alien to the heroes of the play. Tick's wife dies, but no one tries to say at least a kind word to the unfortunate. All the heroes of the work are cruel both to themselves and to others. And unhappy in this cruelty. Each hero has his own truth, or, conversely, its absence.

The tick says: “What is the truth! Where is the truth? Here is the truth! There is no work... there is no power! Here is the truth! Shelter... there is no shelter! You need to breathe ... here it is, really! Devil! On ... what is it to me - really? Let me breathe... let me breathe! What am I to blame for?.. Why do I need the truth? To live—the devil—it is impossible to live... here it is the truth!.. Speak here—the truth! You, old man, console everyone... I'll tell you... I hate everyone! And this truth... damn it! Understood? Understand! Damn her! Social contradictions give rise to such an attitude to life. The Tick has nothing - no job, no shelter, no future. He does not need the truth, he does not see the point in his life. The bearer of a different philosophical principle is Luke. He does not try to seek the truth, he has enough faith in God. Such a worldview enables the old man to put up with the hardships of life.

The play "At the Bottom" can be interpreted in two ways. On the one hand, the work can be interpreted as a harbinger of revolution. It was this perception that was traditional quite recently. The play was viewed through the prism of social transformations. Unfortunate destitute people were considered the bearers of revolutionary ideas. After all, their life was very bad, and the revolution could bring something good. The revolution would entail social changes, which would have a beneficial effect on the inhabitants of the “bottom”.

Now this interpretation of the work no longer seems unambiguous. After all, Gorky does not use direct calls for revolution. It only shows the unfortunate destitute people. They have neither the strength nor the desire to change something in life. If attempts are made, as, for example, by the Actor, then they still turn out to be useless. The inhabitants of the "bottom" do not have any moral values. They are closed on themselves, they are not interested in the people around them. They mockingly laugh at each other, as if they do not understand that by doing so they humiliate themselves. Society has rejected all the inhabitants of the “bottom”, they do not have a moral principle that could become a support for further revival. The outcasts of society are not able to revive, their destiny is further degradation. The disputes about life that the heroes of the play lead are speculative and abstract. They don't know real life because it has passed them by. They do not know the beautiful, sublime, pure and bright. Gorky calls the heroes of the play "former people." And he says that the work was the result of his “almost twenty years of observation of the world of“ former people ”. The author has no sympathy and sympathy for his characters. And those have no high aspirations. And any attempts to save your inner world, at best, can be a retreat into the world of dreams and illusions. Nastya reads romance novels so as not to notice the wretchedness of real life. The absence of high aspirations reveals the wretchedness and degradation of the tramps, the inhabitants of the bottom. Using their example, Gorky shows that lack of ideas, lack of will can never bring positive results. The life of the inhabitants of the "bottom" is meaningless, and they have no future.