At the bottom of Vaska is the ashes of a profession. Heroes of the play "At the bottom" by Gorky: characteristics, images and fates

Introductory lesson on Gorky's play "At the bottom".

Getting to know the characters. Conflict and Issues. Analysis of the 1st action.

Lesson Objectives:

educational: to promote the development of cognitive interest in Gorky's work; develop the ability to carefully read the list of characters in a dramatic work; bring up attention to the word; to promote the development of new forms of search, processing and analysis of information; organize the activities of students to identify the predictive power of Gorky's play in comparison with other works;

developing : to promote the formation of communicative competence among high school students; create conditions for the development of creativity in the classroom; use pedagogical techniques to increase motivation with the subsequent development of cognitive activity; consolidate the ability to analyze, explore and evaluate a work of art and its characters;

educational: to introduce students to moral values; promote a sense of collective cooperation and civic responsibility.

Equipment:

Projector (presentation for the lesson, slides);

Portrait of M. Gorky;

Illustrations for the novel;

Table: characterization of heroes;

Lesson type : work on a new topic with a comprehensive application of students' knowledge, a lesson-thinking (talk on questions, associative thinking, filling out a table about heroes, extracting quotes-aphorisms).

Dictionary: drama, play, conflict, polylogue.

Methodical methods:

Study of the poster: (title of the play, meaning of names, professions, ages of heroes; prototypes of heroes);

Comprehension of the title of the work "At the bottom", work with the word;

Filling in the table: quotes about heroes, language features; - expressive reading of the roles of the 1st act.

Textbook: "Russian Literature of the 20th Century" edited by Yu.I. Lyssogo

The main question that

I wanted to put in a play

"At the bottom" - which is better:

Truth or Compassion?

M Gorky

Gorky piled up the mountain

greatest suffering...

and united with a burning desire

to truth and justice.

L. Andreev about the play "At the Bottom"

During the classes

Organizational moment. Message of the topic of the lesson: "The study of the philosophical drama about the purpose and capabilities of Man, about the essence of the human relationship to Man." Referring to the epigraphs of the lesson, commenting on them.

Repetition . Dramatic works. What is the nature of drama? Why is this the most difficult kind of art to perceive?

Student responses.

Drama (Greek) . - "action") - the most effective kind of literature. It is meant to be staged. Therefore, the playwright, unlike the author of an epic work, cannot directly express his position - the only exceptions are the author's remarks, which are intended for the reader or actor, but which the viewer will not see. The playwright is also limited in the volume of the work (the performance can go on for two or three hours) and in the number of characters (all of them must fit on the stage and have time to realize themselves).

Teacher . Therefore, in the drama, a special burden falls on the conflict - a sharp clash between the characters on a very significant occasion for them. Otherwise, the characters simply will not be able to realize themselves in the limited amount of drama and stage space. The playwright ties such a knot, when unraveling it, a person shows himself from all sides. At the same time, there can be no superfluous heroes in the drama - all heroes must be included in the conflict.

Before you start studying the piece, explain your association with the word "bottom".

Student response options:the bottom is rubbish, a pit, the dregs of society, a fall, bankruptcy, hopelessness.

Teacher: What does it mean to be at the "bottom"?

Students: to be powerless, to do nothing, not to work, to become a beggar.

Teacher: Gorky wrote this play at the beginning of the last century. Has anything changed?

Students : Hardly ever. There are rooming houses, the poor, the homeless.

Teacher: thus, the topic that the author identified is still relevant.

And now let's dwell on the poster, get acquainted with the characters. The presence of a conflict is already indicated in the title of the play and the poster.

Projector:

• Gorky rejected the original titles of the play - "Without the Sun", "Nochlezhka", "Bottom", "At the Bottom of Life".
• The decisive word on the choice of the name "At the bottom" belonged to L. N. Andreev.
• . On December 18, 1902, the premiere of Gorky's play "At the Bottom" took place.
• For the first time, the audience saw on the stage the terrible world of "former people", tramps.

Teacher adds: the tense silence, interrupted at times by either sobs or angry cries, testified to how shocked the hall was ... , caused such a frantic reaction from the audience that Nemirovich-Danchenko whispered to the actors from behind the scenes to play "easier". He feared that the police would not let the play end.

• What could attract the audience to the title of the play?

"Bottom" was called Khitrov market. Every intelligent person should be familiar with this, Gorky believed. Conflict , of course, is already indicated in the title. After all, the very fact of the existence of the "bottom" of life implies the presence of an "upper stream", to which the characters strive.

Question : Why are some actors named only by their last names,

others - by name, others - in full, with an indication of the occupation?

• The very name of the play and the list of characters speak of social conflicts, the victims of which were the heroes of the play, who found themselves at the "bottom" of life, in a rooming house.

Hero Prototypes

• As Gorky himself pointed out, he observed the prototypes of heroes in Nizhny Novgorod. Almost every hero had their own prototype:
• artist Kolosovsky-Sokolovskyserved as the prototype of the Actor;
• Bubnova Gorky wrote not only from his tramp acquaintance, but also from one intellectual, his teacher;
• In Nizhny Novgorod, and in other places, Gorky saw many wanderers, so that the writer had accumulated a huge amount of material for creating image of Luke.
• satin also written from a specific person.
  The heroes of the play "At the Bottom" turned out to be generalized, collective images, although they are no doubt typical, they are familiar and close to Gorky.

Let's talk about first names

What associations do you have in connection with the surname LUKA?

One of the evangelists, Gorky, gives him a name that is dear to him. (Newspaper "Moskovskie Vedomosti", December 23, 1902: "This wanderer entered the basement like a ray of bright sun, illuminating everything bad in it ... and ... awakening to life the sprouts of goodness.")

First name Luka comes from the word "evil". This is exactly how Gorky's contemporaries see the old man (D. Merezhkovsky: "The religion of the evil old man is a religion of lies").

A contemporary of M. Gorky, Archbishop Luka (1877-1961) lived in Krasnoyarsk. He was a famous priest and surgeon, a man worthy of respect. Of course, he was known to Gorky. Archbishop Luka of Krasnoyarsk spent twelve years in Stalin's camps. In October 2002, in honor of the 125th anniversary of his birth, a monument was unveiled in Krasnoyarsk. A priest and a surgeon in a padded jacket - this is how the sculptor saw him.

What associations do you have in connection with the surname Satin?

• Satin - in this name the sound of the word "Satan". But what test will he come up with? Maybe Satin is testing a person with the possibility of a new faith?

What does the occupation of the characters indicate?

Tick ​​- locksmith,

Kvashnya - a seller of dumplings,

Alyoshka - shoemaker,

Krivoy Goiter and Tatarin are key keeper.

Answers: All these are necessary professions, that is, these people can earn a living. But they don't work. This is also a social conflict. The very title of the play and the list of characters speak about social conflicts the victims of which were the heroes of the play, who found themselves at the "bottom" of life, in a rooming house.

Part of the social conflict islove conflict(it is indicated on the poster by the difference in the age of the Kostylevs, the presence of a girl with the tender name Natasha).

It is clear that here, in the conditions of the "bottom", the most exalted feelings will not bring happiness.

Let's turn to the heroes. What is the age of the overnight stays? What does it say?

Klesch and Kvashnya are 40 years old, Anna is 30, Bubnov is 45. This is the most productive age. And this is also the age at which a person should already develop, have something behind him. But these people are in a rooming house, they have nothing.

Baron is 33 years old. This is the age of Jesus Christ. Why does Gorky (and we know that nothing happens by chance with a great artist) gives the age of Christ to one of the unloved heroes with the nickname Baron? Perhaps, by analyzing the play, revealing the image of the hero, we will answer this question.

Teacher: before Before you start reading on the roles of the 1st act, I will ask you to give a brief information about the characters. (Individual messages) Students fill out a table about the characters, continue to work at home, draw conclusions and pass after studying the work.

Table-study of the fate of the heroes in Gorky's play "At the Bottom".

Getting to know the characters. Mite.

• Only six months is in a rooming house.

• It is most painful for him, a working man, to realize that he is doomed to live among people who are without work.

• The tick lives by one desire to escape to the surface.

• In the 1st act - twice the remark "sullenly". This is the darkest figure. He soberly looks at life and gloomily in front of him.

• His fate is tragic, because. at the end of the play, he comes to terms with life: “There is no work ... there is no strength! There is no shelter. You need to breathe…”

Actor.

• In the past, an intelligent person, an artist. He is kind and responsive.
• The poetic nature of the Actor is confronted with the rudeness and vulgarity of the overnight stays.
• at this time, a drunkard, constantly remembering his acting past. He is harmless, does no harm to anyone, helps Anna, takes pity on her. His citation of classical works speaks in favor of the hero.
• He prefers solitude, the company of himself, or rather, his thoughts, dreams, memories. The remarks to his remarks are characteristic: "after a pause", "suddenly, as if waking up."
• He has no name (his name was Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky, but "no one knows this"). Like a drowning man, he clutches at any straw if it creates the illusion of this name, individuality. "My body is poisoned by alcohol." The remark "with pride" explains a lot: here I have something that others do not have.

Bubnov.

• He reached the "dead point" of the fall, finally crushed by life.
• Rude, cynical. To the request of the dying Anna to stop screaming, the abuse calmly answers: “Noise is not a hindrance to death.”
• Indifferent to the fate of his comrades. His indifference is manifested at the moment of Anna's death. “I stopped coughing,” he says.
• Once had a workshop ... drunk.
• “I'm lazy. I don’t like the passion of working.”
• From the first remarks, slow-wittedness and indifference are manifested.

Baron

• A descendant of rich and noble nobles, but in the rooming house he sank below everyone. There is not a single bright human quality in this person.
• He is still young, he is 33 years old, but he lives at the expense of Nastya, Kvashnya feeds him. Nastya is called “fool”, “whore”, “scum” - and immediately hurries to put up, cynically explaining: “If you don’t make peace, you won’t give me a drink.”
• “A lost soul, an empty man,” the tramps say about him.

Vaska Pepel.

• A hero in his strength and spiritual generosity;
• Full of protest against the "wolf life", out of anger at her, he became a thief;
• Stealing not out of greed. To him, a strong man, an idle life is boring;
• With all his soul he is drawn to the pure, so he fell in love with the honest Natasha.

Nastya.

• In the 1st act appears with the novel "Fatal Love". (Newspapers wrote that such tabloid novels constituted the traditional "culture" of the city prostitute.)
• She had already found the "uplifting deceit" before Luke arrived.

Satin.

• Appears not with words, but with a growl. His first line is that he is a card cheat and a drunkard.
• He once served on the telegraph, was an educated person.
• Came here because I killed a villain.
• He served 4 years in prison, learned to play cards.
• He pronounces words incomprehensible to others. Organon in translation means "tool", "organ of knowledge", "mind". (Perhaps Satin means that it is not the human body that is poisoned, but the very rationality of life.) Sicambre is an ancient Germanic tribe, meaning "dark man." In these words, the superiority of Satin over the rest of the rooming houses is felt.
• Gorky's dream of transforming life sounds in his monologue.
• Monologue about Man: “Man! It's great. That sounds...proud!”

Luke.

• Appears with the words: “Good health, honest people. To Vasilisa’s question: “Who are you? - answers: "Passing ... wandering."
• It is known that he had a chance to "try" Siberia.
• In the rooming house, he tries to call everyone to a frank conversation, he is ready to give advice.
• For everyone he finds an affectionate word, consolation.

But do the inhabitants of the rooming house need it? We will answer this question later.

Reading the 1st action by roles. Text on the projector.

(in a drama, the appearance of heroes, their first lines, is important).

The action of the 1st act is preceded by a detailed description of the cellar. The author wanted to introduce the viewer into this cellar. It looks like a cave. But this is the house of the overnight stays, they are tied to their dwelling. From another world breathes cold. “Cold,” says Bubnov, it’s cold for Alyoshka, Klesch.

The task was set before the students: when reading, convey the character of their hero with intonation.

Conclusions after reading.

In the 1st act, we met with all the heroes of the play. These people are mostly indifferent to each other, often do not hear what others say, do not try to understand. In the 1st act, all the characters speak, but each, almost not listening to others, talks about his own.

The author conveys the mutual alienation of the guests of Kostylev's rooming house, the atmosphere of spiritual separation of people in the original form of a polylogue. (A polylogue is a form of speech organization in a drama, a combination of replicas of all the participants in the scene.) The characters are deliberately scattered by Gorky - each speaks about his own. Whatever the hero of the play starts talking about, he will still talk about what hurts. In the speech of the characters there are words, phrases that have a symbolic meaning. (Bubnov: "And the threads are rotten..."; Bubnov - Nastya: "You are superfluous everywhere.") These words reveal the "subtextual meaning": the imaginary connections, the uselessness of these people.

Despite the abundance of replicas, the action of the 1st act is slow, "sleepy". The development of the conflict begins with the appearance of Luke.

The main theme of the play:which is better: truth or compassion? What is more needed?

Teacher: this is homework, answer orally, based on the text, images of Satin and Luke, citing quotes (fill in the table).

Reflection: compose a syncwine on the topic of the lesson.

The drama "At the Bottom" is a landmark work in Gorky's creative biography. The description of the heroes will be presented in this article.

This work was written at a critical time for the country. In Russia in the 90s of the 19th century, a serious outbreak broke out. Masses of impoverished, ruined peasants after each crop failure left the villages in search of work. Plants and factories were closed. Thousands of people found themselves without livelihood and shelter. This led to the fact that a large number of "tramps" appeared, who sank to the bottom of life.

Who lived in hostels?

Enterprising slum owners, taking advantage of the fact that people were in a hopeless situation, found how to make use of the stinking basements. They turned them into bunkhouses, where the poor, the unemployed, thieves, vagabonds and other representatives of the "bottom" lived. This work was written in 1902. The heroes of the play "At the Bottom" are just such people.

Maxim Gorky throughout his career was interested in personality, man, the secrets of his feelings and thoughts, dreams and hopes, weakness and strength - all this is reflected in the work. The heroes of the play "At the Bottom" are people who lived at the beginning of the 20th century, when the old world collapsed and a new life arose. However, they differ from the rest in that they are rejected by society. These are people of the "bottom", outcasts. The place where Vaska Pepel, Bubnov, Actor, Satin and others live is unattractive and scary. According to Gorky's description, this is a basement that looks like a cave. Its ceiling is stone vaults with crumbling plaster, sooty. Why did the inhabitants of the rooming house find themselves "at the bottom" of life, what brought them here?

Heroes of the play "At the bottom": table

What ruined the lives of these people?

Addiction to alcohol killed the Actor. By his own admission, he used to have a good memory. Now the Actor believes that everything is over for him. Vaska Pepel is a representative of the "thieves' dynasty". This hero had no choice but to continue his father's work. He says that even when he was little, even then he was called a thief. The former furrier Bubnov left the workshop because of his wife's infidelity, and also out of fear of his wife's lover. He went bankrupt, after which he went to serve in one "state chamber", in which he committed embezzlement. One of the most colorful figures in the work is Satin. He was a telegraph operator in the past, and went to prison for the murder of a man who insulted his sister.

Whom do the inhabitants of the rooming house blame?

Almost all the heroes of the play "At the Bottom" tend to blame the current situation not on themselves, but on life circumstances. Perhaps, if they had developed differently, nothing would have changed significantly, and all the same, the overnight stays would have suffered the same fate. The phrase that Bubnov uttered confirms this. He admitted that he actually drank the workshop away.

Apparently, the reason for the fall of all these people is their lack of a moral core, which makes up the personality of a person. You can cite the words of the Actor as an example: "Why did he die? I had no faith ..."

Was there a chance to live another life?

Creating images of the heroes of the play "At the Bottom", the author gave each of them the opportunity to live a different life. That is, they had a choice. However, for everyone, the first test ended in the collapse of life. The baron, for example, could improve his affairs not by stealing state funds, but by investing in profitable business that he had.

Satin could teach the offender a lesson in another way. As for Vaska Pepel, would there really be few places on earth where no one would know anything about him and his past? The same can be said about many of the inhabitants of the rooming house. They have no future, but in the past they had a chance not to get here. However, the heroes of the play "At the Bottom" did not use it.

How do heroes comfort themselves?

Now they can only live with unrealizable hopes and illusions. The Baron, Bubnov and the Actor live Dreams of true love amuse the prostitute Nastya. At the same time, the characterization of the heroes of the play "At the Bottom" is supplemented by the fact that these people, rejected by society, humiliated, are endlessly arguing about moral and spiritual problems. Although it would be more logical to talk about because they live from hand to mouth. The author's characterization of the heroes of the play "At the Bottom" suggests that they are occupied with such issues as freedom, truth, equality, labor, love, happiness, law, talent, honesty, pride, compassion, conscience, pity, patience, death, peace and much more. They are also concerned about an even more important problem. They talk about what a person is, why he is born, what is the true meaning of being. Philosophers of the rooming house can be called Luka, Satina, Bubnov.

With the exception of Bubnov, all the heroes of the work reject the "bedroom" way of life. They hope for a successful turn of fortune, which will bring them from the "bottom" to the surface. A tick, for example, says that he has been working since an early age (this hero is a locksmith), so he will certainly get out of here. "Here, wait... the wife will die..." he says. The actor, this chronic drunkard, hopes to find a luxurious hospital in which health, strength, talent, memory and applause of the audience will miraculously return to him. Anna, the unfortunate sufferer, dreams of bliss and peace in which she will finally be rewarded for her torment and patience. Vaska Pepel, this desperate hero, kills Kostylev, the owner of the rooming house, because he considers the latter to be the embodiment of evil. His dream is to go to Siberia, where he and his girlfriend will start a new life.

The role of Luke in the work

Luke, the wanderer, supports these illusions. He has the skill of a comforter and a preacher. Maxim Gorky depicts this hero as a doctor who considers all people to be terminally ill and sees his vocation in alleviating their pain and hiding it from them. However, at every step, life refutes the position of this hero. Anna, to whom he promises a divine reward in heaven, suddenly wants to "live a little more ...". Believing at first in a cure for alcoholism, the Actor takes his own life at the end of the play. Vaska Pepel determines the true value of all these consolations of Luke. He claims that he "tells fairy tales" pleasantly, because there is so little good in the world.

Satin's opinion

Luka is full of sincere pity for the inhabitants of the rooming house, but he cannot change anything, help people live a different life. In his monologue, Satin rejects this attitude, because he considers it humiliating, suggesting the failure and wretchedness of those to whom this pity is directed. The main characters of the play "At the Bottom" Satin and Luka express opposite opinions. Satin says that it is necessary to respect a person and not humiliate him with pity. These words probably express the position of the author: "Man!.. That sounds... proud!"

The further fate of the heroes

What will happen to all these people in the future, will the heroes of Gorky's play "At the Bottom" be able to change something? It is not difficult to imagine their future fate. For example, Klesh. He tries to get out of the "bottom" at the beginning of the work. He thinks that when his wife dies, things will magically change for the better. However, after the death of his wife, Kleshch is left without tools and money and gloomily sings along with others: "I won't run away anyway." In fact, he will not run away, like the other inhabitants of the rooming house.

What is salvation?

Are there any ways of salvation from the "bottom", and what are they? A decisive way out of this difficult situation is perhaps outlined in Sateen's speech when he speaks of the truth. He believes that the purpose of a strong person is to eradicate evil, and not to comfort the suffering, like Luke. This is one of the firmest convictions of Maxim Gorky himself. "From the bottom" people can rise only by learning to respect themselves, gaining self-esteem. Then they will be able to bear the proud title of Human. It still needs to be earned, according to Gorky.

Declaring his faith in the creative forces, abilities and mind of a free person, Maxim Gorky affirmed the ideas of humanism. The author understood that in the mouth of Satin, a drunken tramp, the words about a free and proud man sound artificial. However, they should have sounded in the play, expressing the ideals of the writer himself. There was no one to say this speech to, except for Sateen.

Gorky in the work refuted the main principles of idealism. These are the ideas of humility, forgiveness, non-resistance. He made it clear what beliefs are the future. This is proved by the fate of the heroes of the play "At the bottom". The entire work is permeated with faith in man.

M. Gorky's play “At the Bottom” (1902), defocused in terms of plot and composition, makes it easy to introduce characters who have not previously been involved in disputes-polylogues of the stage action. In this sense, a dedicated closet with a separate entrance-door, located (according to the author’s note) on the opposite side from

side of the "dirty" kitchen, pre-exposition allows co-opting a new - alternative to the "lower" ones (the merchant Kvashnya, the prostitute Nastya, etc.) - a hero-type, close and familiar from Gorky's early prose. Vaska Pepel reveals similarities with the romantic image of Chelkash - "an inveterate drunkard and a clever, bold thief", who "despite his appearance as a crook", enjoys "fame and trust".

The individualistic traits that make up the character of the romanticized short story Chelkash are softened by Gorky in the image of the stage Ash. If Chelkash is about forty, he is an “old poisoned wolf” with still black, but already “with gray” hair, then Pepel is young, he is twenty-eight. Moreover, he is youthfully in love - and prefers not a fatal passion for the beautiful Vasilisa, but tender care for the soft and pure Natasha. In the play “At the bottom”, in connection with the image of the Ashes, Satin says: “There are no people in the world better than thieves!” .

A signal for the convergence of the images of Ash and Chelkash is a dream that the hero sees "At the Bottom":

“... as if I was catching fish, and I got - a huge bream! Such a bream - only in a dream there are such ... And so I drive it on a fishing rod and I'm afraid - the forest will break off! And I prepared a net ... now, I think, now ... ".

Exactly how fishing was described by Chelkash to shoulder-man Gavrila in the early story “Chelkash” the peculiarity of the forthcoming work: “- What [work]? Chelkash replied: - We'll go fishing. You will row ... ". The connotations of the image of the predatory and fearless, handsome and desperate Chelkash are inherited by Ash, a priori explicating the characteristic features of the image of Gorky's "proud man", which became the central type of both early stories and Gorky's early dramaturgy.

Behind the most superficial, actually Gorky level of autocitation, other - sacred - meanings of the dream seen by the hero are read. The symbolism of the fish incorporates many diverse and sometimes polar opposite meanings. Since ancient times, the fish has been associated with the image of the Teacher, the world Savior, the progenitor, and in a broader non-personalized sense - with wisdom. The symbolism of the fish, of course, is directly related to the Christian Jesus. In early Christianity, the fish embodied the symbol of Christ, the sign of the fish was the first monogram of the Son of God. It was the fishermen who became the first disciples of Jesus, assuring him that they would be “fishers of men.” In this mythopoetic context, Ash's dream takes on the scope of an ideologeme-symbol, a sign-signal about the coming "fishing", about capturing the soul of the Man Gorky is looking for. The Dream of Ashes with all openness and frankness reveals the installation writer's tendency, focused on the search for the "majestic image of Man" (poem

"Human").

Meanwhile, the philosophical meaning of sleep in the play “At the Bottom” by Gorky leads into subtext, highlighting the interpretation of it by unenlightened rooming houses as the conquest of a mistress by Ash (“It’s not a bream, but Vasilisa was ...”). The deep meaning of the parable is veiled, the understanding of the philosopheme is reduced to the level of philistine reading. The love motif "levels" the image of Ash in comparison with the image of Chelkash, reducing its symbolic potential, but enhancing its realistic interpretation. Those. in the text “At the Bottom”, the image of Ash does not sound as “proud” as it was manifested in the image of a tramp with a predatory hawk appearance in an early story, his remarks about truth and lies are heard in the play, but “crayons”, mainly relate to the love theme. Only once does the hero touch upon the fundamental aspect of Gorky's philosophical alternative "truth - lies", touching on the question of God, following Luke and at the same time talking about respect for man:

“I have to live like this ... so that I can respect myself ...” .

Supports the idea of ​​\u200b\u200b"failed" in the Ashes of Chelkash and the name of the hero. The nickname Ashes can mean the incineration of the “former person” in him, but, perhaps, the sparks of humanity that have not yet died out in him. Wed in the poem “Man”: “After all, sparks are the mothers of fires! I - in the future - a fire in the darkness of the universe! .. to burn as brightly as possible and illuminate the darkness of life more deeply ... ". However, in the philosophical context of Plato's ideas, which are characteristic of the "basic level" of the semantic content of the play "At the Bottom", the name Ashes can also symbolize the remnants, cinders, ashes of the past - as it sounds in the poem

"Man", "fragments of old truths", "ashes of old truths".

Semantically significant is the name of the hero - Vasily, from the Greek. basileus, i.e. "king, royal". It is no coincidence that Satin addresses Ashes: “You, Sardanapal!” - named after the hero of ancient Greek mythology, the mythical king of Assyria.

Ash finds himself in a dispute about the truth. The former "king" is allowed to throw Bubnov: "You're lying! .." - in an attempt to defend the sincerity of feelings for Natasha. However, the nickname-surname Pepel destroys the royal semantics of the proper name, actualizing the "former" and "past" of the character's fate. The image of Vaska Pepla was relegated by Gorky from the height of the position of a royal person or the romanticized image of Chelkash in order to step by step indicate the evolution of humanity (“incarnation”) in the play, to illustrate more fully and in more detail the variability of Platonic (under) people and the procedural nature of philosophy and the very act of maturation of a Man (= Proud Man). ). Ashes, who from childhood unambiguously and straightforwardly accepted the path outlined for him (“My path is marked for me! My parent spent all my life in prisons and ordered me too ... When I was little, that’s what they called me a thief at that time, son of thieves .. ."), according to Bubnov's observations, - "a chip man": "People all live ... like chips floating down the river ...". And in this motif (in part) the truth of the extinct truths of Ash, the hero-king, overthrown from his royal-romantic heights, is explicated.

It is customary to think that Pepel accidentally killed the owner of the rooming house in a fight. However, regarding the murder of Kostylev, the author's remarks contain some secret and undisclosed details. So, during the fight, in addition to Ash, the villain Kostylev is beaten by Crooked Goiter (“Oh, and I gave him one time!”), And Satin (“I also hit the old man three times ...”). After a strong blow from Ash, who came running to the wasteland, the owner of the rooming house falls. But Gorky, for some reason, reports in a remark: “Kostylev falls so that only the upper half of his body is visible from around the corner,” making him practically invisible to the participants in the events in the wasteland. The author's remark looks very mysterious.

According to the stage arrangement of the characters, only Vasilisa remains next to the fallen Kostylev, who, according to Luka, not only wanted, but was determined to "destroy" her husband. Moreover, Vasilisin's cry about the death of Kostylev - "They killed ..." - is heard not immediately. Before him, Gorky introduces into the scene a dialogue between Ash, who rushed to help Natasha, Kvashnya and Tatarin, where each character has his own line. Those. Gorky "plays for time", leaves Vasilisa alone for a moment - thereby giving rise to a hypothetical probability that the "devil" Vasilisa herself "cleverly" (= cleverly) dealt with her husband. It is no coincidence that in response to Natasha's accusations, Vasilisa almost (according to Freud) “lets slip”: “You're lying! She's lying... I... He, Vaska, killed!" (Ed. by me. - O. B.).

Meanwhile, against the background of Luka's previous impudent and decisive behavior, another assumption is born - Kostylev could have been killed by a fugitive convict hiding from the police, Luka without a passport (Siberia, the lack of documents, Luka's "mysteriousness" ran through the whole play).

“Coincidence” - the announced departure, the fallen old man Kostylev, invisible to anyone, the feeling of impunity for the murder (“It’s always better to leave on time ...”) - give reason to assume that Luka could also take on the role of the killer.

It can be assumed that Gorky deliberately preserves the secret of the death of the old bloodsucker, on the one hand, explaining the rapid disappearance of the passportless old wanderer by plot, mysterious and tragic circumstances, on the other hand, introducing "exculpatory" arguments in favor of Pepel's innocence and reproach towards the modern " rotten" state system, which is unlikely to fairly judge the hero and reveal his true role in the tragic events.

For more than ten years - starting from early romantic stories and up to the creation of the play "At the Bottom" - Gorky invariably returned to reflection on the same - ontological - theme of Man, invariably fed on the principles of the romantic paradigm, trying to infiltrate life, but preaching the ideals of non-objective-abstract philosophical theorizing. In this sense, the hero who would ideologically motivatedly proclaim Gorky's ideology in the last monologue of the play "At the Bottom" could be Pepel, who is related in life to the romantic tramp Chelkash. It is no coincidence that even at the time of the appearance of the play (1903), the critic S. A. Adrianov wrote: "Ash should have been the true hero of the play." In this sense, just as Luke's line was supported and partly shaped by the image of the Actor, so Ashes could support the ideological power of Satin's (Gorky's) glorifications of Man.

But the circumstances of the plot and ideological plan (Vaska's arrest and the desire to keep the secret of the intrigue with the mysterious death of Kostylev) prevented the playwright from making Ash the herald of a new (in fact, "old" for Gorky himself) philosophical abstraction. Meanwhile, the "acquittal" of Pepel, (probably, indeed) not guilty of Kostylev's death, allows us to speak of "protective" tendencies in relation to the type of hero beloved by the writer. The playwright himself understood that “Satin’s speech about a man-truth is pale”, felt that it “sounds alien to his language”, however, he believed that “except for Satin, there is no one to say it to” (letter to K. P. Pyatnitsky, 14 or 15/27 or July 28, 1902). The appearance in the finale of the play of a certain (unrealized as a result) artistic version of the image of Chelkash (or another Gorky tramp) could give greater consistency, motivation and logical predictability to both the play and the philosophy of the Proud Man.

Bibliography

1. Adrianov S. A. “At the bottom” by Maxim Gorky // Maxim Gorky: pro et contra: an anthology / insert. Art., comp. and approx. Yu. V. Zobnina. St. Petersburg: Izd-vo RKHGI, 1997. S. 630–642.

2. Gorky M. At the bottom // Gorky M. Selected works. M.: Fiction, 1986. S. 890–951.

3. Gorky M. Chelkash // Gorky M. Selected works. M.: Fiction, 1986. S. 20–130.

4. Gorky M. Man // Maxim Gorky: pro et contra: an anthology / vst. Art., comp. and approx. Yu. V. Zobnina. St. Petersburg: Izd-vo RKHGI, 1997, pp. 43–48.

Characteristics of a literary hero

Inhabitant of a rooming house, a hereditary thief. P. is the lover of the hostess' wife, Vasilisa. This is a very cruel woman who constantly pushes him to steal. But P. was tired of such a life. He wants to be an honest person. He falls in love with Vasilisa's sister Natasha, a good girl, a victim of the masters of life. P. confesses his love to the girl and invites her to leave together. Luke encourages P. to go to work in Siberia. There P. wants to become decent and honest. Vasilisa is jealous of P., locks her at home and beats Natasha. Later, in the ensuing fight, P. kills Kostylev. We understand that now he has a direct path to prison or hard labor.

Essay on literature on the topic: Vaska Pepel (At the bottom of Gorky)

Other writings:

1. In the 90s, M. Gorky turned to the topic of tramps, wrote realistic stories in which he displays a number of images of tramps, people thrown out of life by life itself. In 1902, Gorky wrote the play "At the Bottom", which was a denunciatory act against the capitalist Read More ......
2. Hosts Characteristics of a literary hero This is the owner of the rooming house Kostylev and his wife Vasilisa. K. is a hypocritical, cowardly, disgusting old man who squeezes profit from the living and the dead, from every breath of his victims. In this character, we will not see a drop of sympathy. Standing in Read More ......
3. At the bottom, the piece contains, as it were, two parallel actions. The first is social and everyday and the second is philosophical. Both actions develop in parallel, not intertwined. There are, as it were, two planes in the play: external and internal. External plan. In an overnight stay owned by Read More ......
4. Actor Characteristics of a literary hero One of the inhabitants of the rooming house, whose real name is unknown to the reader. In the past, he was an actor, played on stage under the pseudonym Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky. Now he is a drunkard who has sunk to the very bottom of life. He often recalls his past, tries to quote the classics, but Read More ......
5. Bubnov Description of the literary hero Kartuznik, one of the inhabitants of the rooming house. We learn that in the past he was the owner of a dyeing workshop. But circumstances changed, his wife got along with the master, and in order to stay alive, he had to leave. Now this man is down on Read More......
6. Luka Characteristics of a literary hero A notable phenomenon in Russian literature of the early 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 image of people who have reached the last degree of squalor, despair and lack of rights, with Read More ......
7. Truth is the god of a free man. M. Gorky, “At the Bottom” Gorky's play “At the Bottom” became a notable phenomenon in Russian literature of the early 20th century. What explains its exceptional success? A strong impression on the viewer was made by the combination of an extremely realistic image of people who have reached the last degree. Read More ......
8. Ashes The time of the novel is 1797-1812, fifteen years after the failed uprising of Tadeusz Kosciuszko and the third (1795) partition of Poland between Prussia, Austria and Russia. In the center of the story is the young Rafal Olbromsky, the son of a poor old gentry. At Shrovetide in his father's house, he Read More ......

Each character in the play "At the Bottom" is an indicator of the state of a certain stratum of society in Tsarist Russia, therefore, in order to understand the book, it is very important to know the history of each character.

1. Mikhail Ivanov Kostylev. 54 years old, owner of a rooming house. Husband of Vasilisa Karpovna. Mercantile. The past is unknown. Sadist, bloodsucker. He suspected that his wife was cheating on him. He adhered to authoritarian views on human rights - "it is impossible for people like cockroaches to live ... A person must determine himself to the place." He was killed by Vaska Ash.
2. Vasilisa Karpovna. 28 years. Kostylev's wife, Natasha's sister, Vaska Pepel's former lover. She hates her husband - he beat her. Luke compared her to a viper. She beat her sister.
3. Natasha. 20 years. Vasilisa's sister, Ash's mistress. Kostylev beat her. I often quarreled with my sister. Rejects Ash's advances. Disappeared without a trace after the death of Kostylev.
4. Medvedev. 50 years. Police officer. Uncle of Natasha and Vasilisa. Suitor Kvashnya. Hot-tempered. Not located on the "Day".
5. Vaska Pepel. 28 years. Thief, son of a thief. Sells stolen goods from Kostylev. His parent spent his whole life in prison, leaving him the family "craft" by inheritance. Vasilisa's former lover, Natasha is a boyfriend who is ready to sacrifice his way of life for her. Interested in religion. Does not tolerate the sight of the dead. His story ends when he ends up in jail for the (unintentional) murder of Kostylev.
6. "Tick", Andrey Mitrich. 40 years. Locksmith, alcoholic. Anna's husband. He beat his wife, even though he loved her. I drank my fortune and tools. A materialist and a workaholic, he tried to rise from the "Bottom" with honest work. Rejects foreign ideology. He ended his life as a beggar.
7. Anna. 30 years. Klesh's wife. In the past, she lived a hungry, hard life. Her husband beat her. For a moment she wanted to get well, but succumbed to Luke's eloquence and gave up. Waited for death as deliverance. She died of a fatal lung disease at the end of Act 2.
8. Luke. 60 years. Wanderer leading a wandering lifestyle. He professes peculiar religious views: "What you believe is what you are." Interested in the personalities and stories of the guests of the rooming house. He adheres to the idea of ​​lying for the good, trying to alleviate the suffering of those around him with false hope: “It’s not about the word, but why is the word spoken?”. Disappears between 3-4 acts, probably having gone into the “Khokhly”, becoming interested in their faith.
9. Nastya. 24 years. An ordinary girl who is fond of romantic stories. Emotional. Empathizes with Luca, sticking to his point of view regarding lies. Works as a prostitute, has a relationship with the Baron.
10. Kvashnya. 40 years. Selling dumplings. Sympathizes with Medvedev. She was married to an unloved person, adheres to feminist views. Her story ends untold, she remains in good health.
11. Bubnov. 45 years old, kartuznik, furrier. Previously, he had his own establishment. Can't lie, can't understand lies. Always sincere, therefore pessimistic. Ends life in poverty.
12. Baron. 33 years. Former aristocrat, now bankrupt. Hot-tempered. He lived his whole life meaninglessly, as if in a fog. He does not understand the reason for lying, but is prone to it.
13. Satin. 40 years. Previously, he performed on stage, danced. Was a telegrapher. Became a card player. Charlatan, alcoholic, unemployed. He was in prison for the murder of a scoundrel who insulted his sister. A very witty and reasonable person who opposes lies, insulting human dignity with pity.
14. Actor. 40 years old, alcoholic, neurotic. According to the stage, his name is Sverchkov Zavolzhsky. The past is unknown. Deep in debt. He chose to believe Luke's story about the alcohol-poisoned-organisms-free clinic and was going to go looking for her. He committed suicide by hanging himself.