The plot of the play “At the Bottom”. Creative history of the play “At the Lower Depths”

Literature lesson in 11th grade

Features of genre and conflict in M. Gorky’s play “At the Depths”

Lesson objectives: show Gorky's innovation; identify the components of genre and conflict in a play; prepare students for the Unified State Exam.

Methodical techniques: analytical conversation.

During the classes

I. Conversation on the content of the play “At the Depths”

Some of Nietzsche's philosophical and aesthetic ideas were reflected in Gorky's early romantic works. The central image of early Gorky is a proud and strong personality, embodying the idea of ​​freedom. Therefore, Danko, who sacrifices himself for the sake of people, is on a par with the drunkard and thief Chelkash, who does not perform any feats for the sake of anyone. “Strength is virtue,” Nietzsche asserted, and for Gorky, the beauty of a person lies in strength and even aimless feats: a strong person has the right to be “beyond good and evil,” to be outside of ethical principles, like Chelkash, but a feat, from this point view, is resistance to the general flow of life.

After a series of romantic works of the 90s, full of rebellious ideas, Gorky created a play that became, perhaps, the most important link in the entire philosophical and artistic system of the writer - the drama “At the Lower Depths” (1902). Let's see what heroes inhabit the “bottom” and how they live.

How is the scene depicted?

(The location of the action is described in the author’s notes. In the first act it is “a cave-like basement”, “heavy, stone vaults, smoked, 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 night shelters from the basement window, as if looking for people among the basement inhabitants. Thin partitions fence off Ash's room. "Everywhere along the walls there are bunks." Apart from Kvashnya, Baron and Nastya, who live in the kitchen, no one has their own corner whom. Everything is on display in front of each other, a secluded place is only on the stove and behind the chintz canopy separating the dying Anna’s bed from the others (by this she is already, as it were, separated from life). There is dirt everywhere: “dirty chintz canopy,” unpainted and dirty tables and benches , stool, tattered cardboard, pieces of oilcloth, rags.

The third act takes place in an early spring evening in a vacant lot, “littered with various rubbish and a yard overgrown with weeds.” Let's pay attention to the coloring of this place: the dark wall of a “barn or stable”, the “gray wall of a shelter covered with the remains of plaster”, the red wall of a brick firewall covering the sky, the reddish light of the setting sun, black elderberry branches without buds.

In the setting of the fourth act, significant changes occur: the partitions of Ash’s former room are broken, the Tick’s anvil has disappeared. The action takes place at night, and light from the outside world no longer penetrates into the basement - the scene is illuminated by a lamp standing in the middle of the table. However, the last “act” of the drama takes place in a vacant lot - there the Actor hanged himself.)

What kind of people live in the shelter?(People who have sunk to the bottom of life end up in a shelter. This is the last refuge for tramps, marginalized people, “former people”. All social strata of society are here: the bankrupt nobleman Baron, the owner of the shelter Kostylev, the policeman Medvedev, the mechanic Kleshch, the cap maker Bubnov, the merchant Kvashnya , the sharper Satin, the prostitute Nastya, the thief Ash. Everyone is equalized by the position of the dregs of society. Here live very young (shoemaker Alyoshka is 20 years old) and not yet old people (the oldest, Bubnov, is 45 years old). However, their life is almost over. The dying Anna is presented to us as an old woman , and she turns out to be 30 years old.

Many night shelters do not even have names, only nicknames remain, expressively describing their bearers. The appearance of the dumpling seller Kvashnya, the character of Kleshch, and the Baron’s ambition are clear. The actor once bore the sonorous surname Sverchkov-Zadunaisky, but now there are almost no memories left - “I forgot everything.”)

What is the subject of the play? What is the conflict of the drama?

Reference: A sharp conflict situation, playing out in front of the audience, is the most important feature of drama as a type of literature.

(The subject of depiction in the drama “At the Bottom” is the consciousness of people thrown as a result of deep social processes to the “bottom” of life. The social conflict in the play has several levels. The social poles are clearly indicated: on one - the owner of the rooming house Kostylev and his supporter the power is policeman Medvedev, on the other - essentially powerless night shelters. Thus, the conflict between the authorities and people deprived of rights is obvious. This conflict hardly develops, because the Kostylevs and Medvedev are not so far from the inhabitants of the night shelter.

^ Each of the night shelters experienced his own social conflict in the past, as a result of which he found himself in a humiliating position.)

What brought its inhabitants to the shelter - Satin, Baron,Klesch, Bubnov, Actor, Nastya, Ash? What is the backstory of these characters?

(Satin fell “to the bottom” after serving time in prison for murder: “He killed a scoundrel in passion and irritation... because of his own sister”; the Baron went broke; Klesh lost his job: “I” am a working man... I I’ve been working since an early age”; Bubnov left home “out of harm’s way” so as not to kill his wife and her lover, although he himself admits that he is “lazy” and also a heavy drinker, “he would have drank away the workshop”; The actor got drunk, “drank away soul,., died"; the fate of Ash was predetermined already at his birth: "I have been a thief since childhood... everyone always told me: Vaska is a thief, Vaska is a thief's son! " The Baron talks about the stages of his fall in more detail than others (action fourth): "It seems to me that all my life I just changed clothes... but why? I don’t understand! I studied - I wore the uniform of a noble institute... and what did I study? I don’t remember... I got married - I put on a tailcoat, then a robe.. But he took a nasty wife and - For what? I don’t understand... I lived through everything I had - I wore some kind of gray jacket and red trousers... and how did I go broke? I didn’t notice... He served in the government chamber. .. uniform, cap with a cockade... squandered government money - they put a prisoner's robe on me... then - put on this... And everything... like in a dream... huh? That's funny?" Each stage of the thirty-three-year-old Baron’s life seems to be marked by a certain costume. These changes of clothes symbolize a gradual decline in social status, and there is nothing behind these “changes of clothes”; life passed “like in a dream.”)

What is the peculiarity of the social conflict of each inhabitant of the shelter?

How is social conflict related to dramaturgical conflict?(These social conflicts are taken off stage, pushed into the past; they do not become the basis of a dramatic conflict. We observe only the result of off-stage conflicts.)

What kind of conflicts, other than social ones, are highlighted in the play?

(There is a traditional love conflict in the play. It is determined by the relationship between Vaska Pepla, Vasilisa, the wife of the owner of the shelter, Kostylev and Natasha, Vasilisa’s sister. The exposition of this conflict - a conversation between the shelters, from which it is clear that Kostshev is looking for his wife Vasilisa in the shelter, who is cheating on him with Vaska Pepl. The origin of this conflict - the appearance of Natasha in the rooming house, for whose sake Ashes 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 off stage: at the end of the third act, we learn from Kvashnya’s words that “they boiled the girl’s legs with boiling water.” - Vasilisa knocked over the samovar and scalded Natasha’s feet. The murder of Kostylev by Vaska Ash turns out to be the tragic outcome of a love conflict. Natasha stops believing Ash: “They are at the same time! Damn you! You both...")

What is unique about a love conflict?

(A love conflict becomes a facet of a social conflict. It shows that anti-human conditions cripple a person, and even love does not save a person, but leads to tragedy: death, injury, murder, hard labor. As a result, Vasilisa alone achieves all her goals: she takes revenge on her former lover Ash and her sister-rival Natasha, gets rid of her unloved and disgusted husband and becomes the sole mistress of the shelter. There is nothing human left in Vasilisa, and this shows the monstrosity of the social conditions that have disfigured both the inhabitants of the shelter and its owners. The shelterers are not directly involved in this conflict, they are only third-party spectators.)

^ P. The teacher's word

The conflict in which all the heroes participate is of a different kind. Gorky depicts the consciousness of people at 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 night shelters that determine the development of the dramatic conflict. The action is transferred to a 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.

^III Test yourself

Read the fragment below from M, Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” and complete tasks A11 -A15; AT 9 - AT 12.

Actor(stops, without closing the door, on the threshold and, holding the doorframes with his hands, shouts) - Old man, hey! Where are you? I remembered... listen.

(Staggering, he takes two steps forward and, assuming a pose, reads.)

Gentlemen! If the truth is holy

The world doesn't know how to find a way -

Honor the madman who inspires

A golden dream for humanity!

^ Natasha appears behind the Actor at the door.-

Actor. Old man!..

If tomorrow our land were the way

Our sun forgot to illuminate

Tomorrow I would illuminate the whole world

The thought of some madman...

Natasha (laughs) Scarecrow! Got drunk...

Actor(turning to her) Ah, is that you? Where's the old man?… dear old man? Apparently, there is no one here... Natasha, goodbye! Goodbye... - Yes!

Natasha(entering). You didn't say hello, but you said goodbye...

Actor(blocks her way). I'm leaving, I'm leaving. Spring will come - and I will no longer be...

Natasha. Let me go... where are you going?

Actor. Look for a city... get treatment... You, too, leave... Ophelia go to the monastery..- You see - there is a hospital for organisms for drunkards... An excellent hospital... Marble... marble floor! Light... cleanliness, food... everything for free! And marble floor, yes! I will find her, I will be cured and... I will be again...I on the way to rebirth... as said... King... Lear! Natasha... on stage my name is Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky... no one knows this, no one! I don't have them here. “Do you understand!” How offensive is it to lose your name? Even the dogs have nicknames...

^ Natasha carefully walks around the Actor, stops at Anna’s bed, and looks.

Actor. Without a name there is no person...

When completing tasks All-A15, in answer form No. 1, under the number of the task you are performing, put the sign “ X "in the box whose number corresponds to the number of the answer you chose.

A11 . What is the genre of M. Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths”?

political satire


comedy of manners


socio-philosophical drama
4)vaudeville

A12. This scene takes place

after Luka told the Actor about the hospital


just before Luka leaves the shelter


after Satin’s monologue “Man sounds... proud”


after the murder of Kostylev

A13. What influenced the change in the Actor?

threats from Kostylev and Vasilisa


"naked truth" Bubnova


Luke's stories about a better life


Satin's journalistic speeches

A14 . In this scene the main problem is

rich and poor


human dignity


the role of art in human life


present and past of Russia

A15 . The main means of creating characters' characters is?

portraits of heroes


speech of heroes


internal monologues

When completing tasks B9-B12, write down your answer in answer form No. 1 to the right of the number of the corresponding task, starting from the first cell. The answer must be given in the form of a word, phrase or numbers. Write each word or number legibly in a separate box. Write the words without spaces, punctuation marks or quotation marks, and place a comma between numbers in a separate box.

AT 9. The Actor's speech is a detailed statement. What is this type of utterance called in a dramatic work?

AT 10 O'CLOCK. The development of action in this scene is accompanied by the author's comments. Indicate the term used to denote author's comments in a dramatic work.

AT 11. The actor utters a bright, succinct, laconic phrase:« Without a name there is no person.” What is this type of saying called?

AT 12. In the Actor’s speech there are many hidden quotes from classical tragedies (a fragment from the words “Look for a city...”). Indicate the name of the great playwright whose works the Actor recalls.

IVHomework

Identify Luke's role in the play. Write down his statements about people, about life, about truth, about faith

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

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

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

Meaning of the name

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

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

Genre, direction, composition

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

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

The essence of the work

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

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

The main characters and their characteristics

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

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

Themes

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

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

Problems

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

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

The meaning of the play

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

Criticism

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

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

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

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Maxim Gorky is a versatile writer who tried to work in different genres and searched for new forms. He peered inquisitively at the world around him, trying to understand the reasons for the chaos that was happening, to explain to himself and others ways out of the current situation. At the turn of the century, the writer turned to dramaturgy - one of the most effective literary forms, in which direct communication with the audience occurs and the reaction to the work is visible. In the play “At the Depths,” written in 1902, Gorky raises one of the most acute
problems of contemporary reality - the life of outcasts, “former people”, thrown out of the active life of society, unnoticed by it. The writer is concerned about the life of these people, their sufferings and joys, thoughts, experiences.
It would seem that the play should be classified as a tragedy - the characters Anna and the Actor die, Natasha and Ash disappear. However, this is far from a great tragedy. Gorky shows these unfortunate and defenseless people as not so innocent victims. Each of the inhabitants of this terrible place came “to the bottom” in their own way, due to life circumstances. Many unfortunate people have not yet realized that they have no way out of here - this is their last refuge. The tick passionately hates the parasites and cheaters who live next to him, and dreams of finding his old life. He is a working man, it is impossible for him to even imagine that they exist here without working, that this will soon become his way of life.
Nastya tells others about her unearthly love with bitterness and tears. She believes her own fantasies, escaping into illusions, fleeing from a terrible and inevitable reality.
With the appearance of the wanderer Luke in the shelter, the inhabitants of the basement receive hope of deliverance. The actor passionately dreams of healing from drunkenness and returning to the stage. Ash persuades Natasha to go to Siberia and start an honest and happy life. But the author, unlike his heroes, knows for sure: there is no way out of here. “The Bottom” holds its inhabitants tightly; they only temporarily freed themselves from this terrible reality in their dreams, fantasized about a better fate, and the more terrible was the reality that was revealed to the Actor, Natasha, and Ash. “At the Depths” is a socio-philosophical drama, in which the author discusses the reasons and conditions that led these people to collapse, and explains the essence of the Russian national character, which is unable to change anything in the world around them. The heroes are only dissatisfied with the existing reality, but sooner or later they come to terms with it. Anna and Actor die not in a collision with the world of evil, but because of their own weakness, realizing the hopelessness of their situation. Ash ends up in prison without having time to take the path of an honest working life. Nastya has almost come to terms with the surrounding evil. She just helplessly curses everyone and everything. The tick has lost its last hope of getting out of the basement.
Gorky also shows other inhabitants of the shelter: Satin, Bubnov, Baron. They knew from the very beginning that it was impossible to get out of here, so they live with momentary problems, waste the rest of their lives in drinking and playing cards. According to Gorky, it is even worse to understand reality and do nothing to change life for the better. But the author sees the Russian mentality in this.
For the most part, the characters in the play do not yet see a way out of their terrible situation, just as Gorky himself did not see it. The author seems to stand above his heroes, not sharing their ideals and thoughts, suggesting that they themselves look for a way out of the current situation.

] The central image of early Gorky is a proud and strong personality who embodies the idea of ​​freedom . Therefore, Danko, who sacrifices himself for the sake of people, is on a par with the drunkard and thief Chelkash, who does not perform any feats for the sake of anyone. “Strength is virtue,” Nietzsche said, and for Gorky, the beauty of a person lies in strength and feat, even aimless ones: a strong person has the right to be “beyond good and evil”, to be outside of ethical principles, like Chelkash, and a feat, from this point of view, is resistance to the general flow of life.
After a series of romantic works of the 90s, full of rebellious ideas, Gorky created a play that became, perhaps, the most important link in the entire philosophical and artistic system of the writer - the drama “At the Lower Depths” (1902). Let's see what heroes inhabit the “bottom” and how they live.

II. Conversation on the content of the play “At the Depths”
- How is the scene of action depicted in the play?
(The location of the action is described in the author's remarks. In the first act it is “a cave-like basement”, “heavy, stone vaults, smoke-stained, with crumbling plaster”. It is important that the writer gives instructions on how the scene is lit: "from the viewer and from top to bottom" the light reaches the night shelters from the basement window, as if searching for people among the basement inhabitants. Thin partitions screen off Ash's room.
“Everywhere along the walls there are bunks”. Apart from Kvashnya, Baron and Nastya, who live in the kitchen, no one has their own corner. Everything is on display in front of each other, a secluded place is only on the stove and behind the chintz canopy separating the bed of the dying Anna from the others (by this she is already, as it were, separated from life). There is dirt everywhere: "dirty chintz canopy", unpainted and dirty tables, benches, stools, tattered cardboards, pieces of oilcloth, rags.
Third act takes place in an early spring evening in a vacant lot, “a yard littered with various rubbish and overgrown with weeds”. Let's pay attention to the coloring of this place: the dark wall of a barn or stable “gray, covered with remains of plaster” the wall of the bunkhouse, the red wall of the brick firewall blocking the sky, the reddish light of the setting sun, the black branches of the elderberry without buds.
In the setting of the fourth act, significant changes occur: the partitions of Ash’s former room are broken, the Tick’s anvil has disappeared. The action takes place at night, and light from the outside world no longer penetrates into the basement - the scene is illuminated by a lamp standing in the middle of the table. However, the last “act” of the drama takes place in a vacant lot - there the Actor hanged himself.)

- What kind of people are the inhabitants of the shelter?
(People who have sunk to the bottom of life end up in a shelter. This is the last refuge for tramps, marginalized people, “former people”. All social strata of society are here: the bankrupt nobleman Baron, the owner of the shelter Kostylev, the policeman Medvedev, the mechanic Kleshch, the cap maker Bubnov, the merchant Kvashnya , the sharper Satin, the prostitute Nastya, the thief Ashes. Everyone is equalized by the position of the dregs of society. Very young (shoemaker Alyoshka is 20 years old) and not very old people live here (the oldest, Bubnov, is 45 years old). However, their lives are almost over. Dying Anna introduces herself we are an old woman, and she, it turns out, is 30 years old.
Many night shelters do not even have names, only nicknames remain, expressively describing their bearers. The appearance of the dumpling seller Kvashnya, the character of Kleshch, and the Baron’s ambition are clear. The actor once bore the sonorous surname Sverchkov-Zadunaisky, but now there are almost no memories left - “I forgot everything.”)

- What is the subject of the image in the play?
(The subject of the drama “At the Bottom” is the consciousness of people thrown as a result of deep social processes to the “bottom” of life).

- What is the conflict of the drama?
(Social conflict has several levels in the play. The social poles are clearly indicated: on one, the owner of the shelter, Kostylev, and the policeman Medvedev, who supports his power, on the other, the essentially powerless roomies. Thus it is obvious conflict between government and disenfranchised people. This conflict hardly develops, because Kostylev and Medvedev are not so far from the inhabitants of the shelter.
Each of the night shelters experienced in the past your social conflict , as a result of which he found himself in a humiliating position.)
Reference:
A sharp conflict situation, playing out in front of the audience, is the most important feature of drama as a type of literature.

- What brought its inhabitants - Satin, Baron, Kleshch, Bubnov, Actor, Nastya, Ash - to the shelter? What is the backstory of these characters?
(Satin fell “to the bottom” after serving time in prison for murder: “I killed a scoundrel in passion and irritation... because of my own sister”; Baron went broke; Mite lost my job: “I’m a working person... I’ve been working since I was little”; Bubnov he left home out of harm’s way so as not to kill his wife and her lover, although he himself admits that he is “lazy” and also a heavy drunkard, “he would drink away the workshop”; Actor he drank himself to death, “drank away his soul... died”; fate Ashes was predetermined already at his birth: “I have been a thief since I was a child... everyone always told me: Vaska is a thief, Vaska’s son is a thief!”
The Baron talks in more detail about the stages of his fall (act four): “It seems to me that all my life I’ve only been changing clothes... but why? I don't understand! I studied and wore the uniform of a noble institute... and what did I study? I don’t remember... I got married, put on a tailcoat, then a robe... and took a nasty wife and - why? I don’t understand... I lived through everything that happened - I wore some kind of gray jacket and red trousers... and how did I go broke? I didn’t notice... I served in the government chamber... uniform, cap with a cockade... squandered government money - they put a prisoner’s robe on me... then I put on this... And everything... like in a dream. .. A? That's funny? Each stage of the thirty-three-year-old Baron’s life seems to be marked by a certain costume. These changes of clothes symbolize a gradual decline in social status, and nothing stands behind these “changes of clothes”; life passed “like in a dream.”)

- How is social conflict interconnected with dramaturgical conflict?
(The social conflict is taken off stage, pushed into the past; it does not become the basis of the dramatic conflict. We observe only the result of off-stage conflicts.)

- What kind of conflicts, other than social ones, are highlighted in the play?
(The play has traditional love conflict . It is determined by the relationships between Vaska Pepla, Vasilisa, the wife of the owner of the shelter, Kostylev and Natasha, Vasilisa’s sister.
Exposition of this conflict- a conversation between the shelters, from which it is clear that Kostylev is looking for his wife Vasilisa in the shelter, who is cheating on him with Vaska Ash.
The origin of this conflict- the appearance of Natasha in the shelter, for whose sake Ashes leaves Vasilisa.
During development of love conflict it becomes clear that the relationship with Natasha revives Ash, he wants to leave with her and start a new life.
Climax of the conflict taken off stage: at the end of the third act, we learn from Kvashnya’s words that “they boiled the girl’s legs with boiling water” - Vasilisa knocked over the samovar and scalded Natasha’s legs.
The murder of Kostylev by Vaska Ash turns out to be tragic outcome of a love conflict. Natasha stops believing Ash: “She’s at the same time! Damn you! You both…")

- What is unique about a love conflict?
(Love conflict becomes the brink of social conflict . It shows that anti-human conditions cripple a person, and even love does not save a person, but leads to tragedy: to death, injury, murder, hard labor. As a result, Vasilisa alone achieves all her goals: she takes revenge on her former lover Ash and her rival sister Natasha, gets rid of her unloved and disgusted husband and becomes the sole mistress of the shelter. There is nothing human left in Vasilisa, and this shows the monstrosity of the social conditions that disfigured both the inhabitants of the shelter and its owners. The night shelters are not directly involved in this conflict, they are only third-party spectators.)

III. Teacher's final words
The conflict in which all the heroes participate is of a different kind. Gorky depicts the consciousness of people at the “bottom”. The plot unfolds not so much in external action - in everyday life, but in the dialogues of the characters. Exactly the conversations of the night shelters determine development of dramatic conflict . The action is transferred to a non-event series. This is typical for the genre philosophical drama .
So, the genre of the play can be defined as a socio-philosophical drama .

Additional material for teachers
To record at the beginning of the lesson, you can offer the following: plan for analyzing a dramatic work:
1. Time of creation and publication of the play.
2. The place occupied in the playwright’s work.
3. The theme of the play and the reflection of certain life material in it.
4. Characters and their grouping.
5. The conflict of a dramatic work, its originality, the degree of novelty and acuteness, its deepening.
6. Development of dramatic action and its phases. Exposition, plot, twists and turns, climax, denouement.
7. Composition of the play. The role and significance of each act.
8. Dramatic characters and their connection with action.
9. Speech characteristics of the characters. The connection between character and words.
10. The role of dialogues and monologues in the play. Word and action.
11. Identification of the author's position. The role of stage directions in drama.
12. Genre and specific uniqueness of the play. Correspondence of the genre to the author's predilections and preferences.
13. Comedy means (if it's a comedy).
14. Tragic flavor (in the case of analyzing a tragedy).
15. Correlation of the play with the aesthetic positions of the author and his views on the theater. The purpose of the play for a specific stage.
16. Theatrical interpretation of drama at the time of its creation and subsequently. The best acting ensembles, outstanding directorial decisions, memorable embodiments of individual roles.
17. The play and its dramatic traditions.

Homework
Identify Luke's role in the play. Write down his statements about people, about life, about truth, about faith.

Lesson 2. “What you believe in is what it is.” The role of Luka in the drama “At the Bottom”
The purpose of the lesson: create a problematic situation and encourage students to express their own point of view on the image of Luke and his life position.
Methodical techniques: discussion, analytical conversation.

During the classes
I. Analytical conversation
Let us turn to the extra-event series of the drama and see how the conflict develops here.

- How do the inhabitants of the shelter perceive their situation before Luka appears?
(IN exposition we see people, in essence, resigned to their humiliating situation. The night shelters sluggishly, habitually quarrel, and the Actor says to Satin: “One day they will completely kill you... to death...” “And you are a fool,” Satin snaps. "Why?" - the Actor is surprised. “Because you can’t kill twice.”
These words of Satin show his attitude towards the existence that they all lead in the shelter. This is not life, they are all already dead. Everything seems clear.
But the Actor’s response is interesting: “I don’t understand... Why not?” Perhaps it is the Actor, who has died more than once on stage, who understands the horror of the situation more deeply than others. After all, it is he who commits suicide at the end of the play.)

- What is the meaning of using past tense in the self-characteristics of the heroes?
(People feel "former":
“Satin. I was educated person"(the paradox is that the past tense is impossible in this case).
“Bubnov. I'm a furrier was ».
Bubnov pronounces a philosophical maxim: “It turns out - don’t paint yourself how you look on the outside, everything will be erased... everything will be erased, Yes!")

- Which of the characters contrasts itself with the others?
(Only one The tick hasn't calmed down yet with your fate. He separates himself from the rest of the night shelters: “What kind of people are they? Ragged, golden company... people! I’m a working man... I’m ashamed to look at them... I’ve been working since I was little... Do you think I won’t break out of here? I’ll get out... I’ll rip off the skin, and I’ll get out... Just wait a minute... my wife will die...”
Kleshch's dream of a different life is associated with the liberation that his wife's death will bring him. He does not feel the enormity of his statement. And the dream will turn out to be imaginary.)

- Which scene is the beginning of the conflict?
(The beginning of the conflict is the appearance of Luke. He immediately announces his views on life: “I don’t care! I respect swindlers too, in my opinion, not a single flea is bad: all are black, all jump... that’s how it is.” And one more thing: “For an old man, where it’s warm, there’s a homeland...”
Luka turns out to be in the center of attention of guests: “What an interesting little old man you brought, Natasha...” - and the entire development of the plot is concentrated on him.)

- How does Luka behave with each of the inhabitants of the shelter?
(Luka quickly finds an approach to the shelters: “I’ll look at you, brothers - your life - oh-oh!..”
He feels sorry for Alyoshka: “Eh, guy, you’re confused...”
He does not respond to rudeness, skillfully avoids questions that are unpleasant for him, and is ready to sweep the floor instead of the bunkhouses.
Luka becomes necessary for Anna, he takes pity on her: “Is it possible to abandon a person like that?”
Luka skillfully flatters Medvedev, calling him “under,” and he immediately falls for this bait.)

- What do we know about Luke?
(Luka says practically nothing about himself, we only learn: “They crushed a lot, that’s why he’s soft...”)

- How does Luka affect night shelters?
(In each of the shelters, Luke sees a person, reveals their bright sides, the essence of personality , and it produces life revolution heroes.
It turns out that the prostitute Nastya dreams of beautiful and bright love;
the drunken Actor receives hope for a cure for alcoholism - Luke tells him: “A man can do anything, if only he wants to...”;
The thief Vaska Pepel plans to leave for Siberia and start a new life there with Natasha, becoming a strong master.
Luke gives Anna consolation: “Nothing, dear! You - hope... That means you will die, and you will be at peace... you won’t need anything else, and there’s nothing to be afraid of! Silence, peace - lie down!”
Luke reveals the good in every person and instills faith in the best.)

- Did Luka lie to the night shelters?
(There may be different opinions on this matter.
Luke selflessly tries to help people, instill in them faith in himself, and awaken the best sides of nature.
He sincerely wishes well shows real ways to achieve a new, better life . After all, there really are hospitals for alcoholics, Siberia really is the “golden side”, and not just a place of exile and hard labor.
As for the afterlife with which he beckons Anna, the question is more complicated; it is a matter of faith and religious belief.
What did he lie about? When Luka convinces Nastya that he believes in her feelings, in her love: “If you believe, you had true love... that means you had it! Was!" - he only helps her find the strength for life, for real, not fictitious love.)

- How do the inhabitants of the shelter react to Luke’s words?
(The lodgers are at first incredulous of Luka’s words: “Why are you lying all the time?” Luka doesn’t deny this, he answers the question with a question: “And... what do you really desperately need... think about it! She really can , butt for you..."
Even to a direct question about God, Luke answers evasively: “If you believe, he is; If you don’t believe it, no... What you believe in is what it is...")

- What groups can the characters of the play be divided into?
(The characters in the play can be divided into "believers" and "non-believers" .
Anna believes in God, Tatar believes in Allah, Nastya believes in “fatal” love, Baron believes in his past, perhaps invented. Kleshch no longer believes in anything, and Bubnov never believed in anything.)

- What is the sacred meaning of the name “Luke”?
(Name "Luke" double meaning: this name reminds Evangelist Luke, means "light", and at the same time associated with the word "sly"(euphemism for "crap").)

- What is the author’s position in relation to Luke?
(The author's position is expressed in the development of the plot.
After Luke left everything is not happening at all as Luke convinced and as the heroes expected .
Vaska Pepel does end up in Siberia, but only to hard labor, for the murder of Kostylev, and not as a free settler.
The actor, who has lost faith in himself and in his strength, exactly repeats the fate of the hero of Luke's parable about the righteous land. Luke, having told a parable about a man who, having lost faith in the existence of a righteous land, hanged himself, believes that a person should not be deprived of dreams, hopes, even imaginary ones. Gorky, showing the fate of the Actor, assures the reader and viewer that it is false hope that can lead a person to suicide .)
Gorky himself wrote about his plan: “ The main question I wanted to pose is what is better, truth or compassion. What is more necessary? Is it necessary to take compassion to the point of using lies, like Luke? This is not a subjective question, but a general philosophical one.”

- Gorky contrasts not truth and lies, but truth and compassion. How justified is this opposition?
(Discussion.)

- What is the significance of Luke’s influence on the shelters?
(All the characters agree that Luke instilled in them false hope . But he didn’t promise to lift them from the bottom of life, he simply showed their own capabilities, showed that there is a way out, and now everything depends on them.)

- How strong is the self-confidence awakened by Luka?
(This faith did not have time to take hold in the minds of the night shelters; it turned out to be fragile and lifeless; with the disappearance of Luka, hope fades away)

- What is the reason for the rapid decline of faith?
(Maybe it's in the weaknesses of the heroes themselves , in their inability and unwillingness to do at least something to implement new plans. Dissatisfaction with reality and a sharply negative attitude towards it are combined with a complete unwillingness to undertake anything to change this reality.)

- How does Luke explain the failures of the life of the night shelters?
(Luke explains failures in the lives of homeless shelters due to external circumstances , does not at all blame the heroes themselves for their failed lives. That’s why she was so drawn to him and became so disappointed, having lost external support with Luka’s departure.)

II. Teacher's final words
Gorky does not accept passive consciousness, whose ideologist he considers Luka.
According to the writer, it can only reconcile a person with the outside world, but will not encourage him to change this world.
Although Gorky does not accept Luka’s position, this image seems to be out of the author’s control.
According to the memoirs of I.M. Moskvin, in the 1902 production, Luka appeared as a noble comforter, almost a savior of many desperate inhabitants of the shelter. Some critics saw in Luke “Danko, to whom only real features were given,” “an exponent of the highest truth,” and found elements of Luke’s exaltation in Beranger’s poems, which the Actor shouts:
Gentlemen! If the truth is holy
The world doesn't know how to find a way -
Honor the madman who inspires
A golden dream for humanity!
K. S. Stanislavsky, one of the directors of the play, planned path "decrease" hero.“Luka is cunning”, “looking slyly”, “slyly smiling”, “ingratiatingly, softly”, “it’s clear that he’s lying.”
Luke is a living image precisely because he is contradictory and ambiguous.

Homework
Find out how the issue of truth is resolved in the play. Find statements from different characters about the truth.

Lesson 3. The question of truth in Gorky’s drama “At the Depths”
The purpose of the lesson: identify the positions of the characters in the play and the author’s position in relation to the issue of truth.
Methodical techniques: analytical conversation, discussion.

During the classes
I. The teacher's word
The philosophical question that Gorky himself posed: What is better - truth or compassion? The question of truth is multifaceted. Each person understands the truth in his own way, still keeping in mind some final, highest truth. Let's see how truth and lies relate in the drama “At the Bottom.”

II. Working with a dictionary
- What do the characters in the play mean by “truth”?
(Discussion. This word is ambiguous. We advise you to look in an explanatory dictionary and find out the meaning of the word “truth”.

Teacher's comment:
You can select two levels of "truth".
One is " private truth which the hero defends, assures everyone, and above all himself, of the existence of extraordinary, bright love. The Baron is in the existence of his prosperous past. Kleshch truthfully calls his situation, which turned out to be hopeless even after the death of his wife: “There is no work... no strength! That's the truth! Shelter... there is no shelter! You have to breathe... here it is, the truth!” For Vasilisa, the “truth” is that she is “tired” of Vaska Ash, that she mocks her sister: “I’m not bragging - I’m telling the truth.” Such a “private” truth is at the level of fact: it was - it wasn’t.
Another level of "truth" "worldview"- in Luke's remarks. Luke's "truth" and his "lies" are expressed by the formula: “What you believe in is what it is.”

III. Conversation
- Is the truth necessary at all?
(Discussion.)

- Which character's position contrasts with Luke's position?
(Luke’s position, compromise, consoling, Bubnov's position is opposed .
This is the darkest figure in the play. Bubnov enters into the argument implicitly, as if talking to myself , supporting the polyphony (polylogue) of the play.
Act 1, scene at the bedside of dying Anna:
Natasha (to the tick). If only you could treat her more kindly now... it won't be long...
Mite. I know...
Natasha. You know... It's not enough to know, you - understand. After all, dying is scary...
Ash. But I'm not afraid...
Natasha. How!.. Bravery...
Bubnov (whistles). And the threads are rotten...
This phrase is repeated several times throughout the play, as if

The play contains, as it were, two parallel actions. The first is social and the second is philosophical. Both actions develop in parallel, without intertwining. There are, as it were, two planes in the play: external and internal.
External plan. In the rooming house, owned by Mikhail Ivanovich Kostylev (51 years old) and his wife Vasilisa Karlovna (26 years old), live, according to the author’s definition, “former people,” that is, people without a solid social status, as well as working but poor people. These are: Satin and Actor (both under 40 years old), Vaska Pepel, thief (28 years old), Andrey Mitrich

Kleshch, a mechanic (40 years old), his wife Anna (30 years old), Nastya, a prostitute (24 years old), Bubnov (45 years old), Baron (33 years old), Alyoshka (20 years old), Tatarin and Krivoy Zob, hookmen (age not named). Kvashnya, a dumpling seller (about 40 years old) and Medvedev, Vasilisa’s uncle, a policeman (50 years old), appear in the house. The relationship between them is very complicated, scandals often arise. Vasilisa is in love with Vaska and persuades him to kill her elderly husband in order to be the sole mistress (in the second half of the play, Vaska beats Kostylev and accidentally kills him; Vaska is arrested). Vaska is in love with Natalya, Vasilisa’s sister (20 years old); Out of jealousy, Vasilisa beats her sister mercilessly. Satin and Actor (a former provincial theater actor named Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky) are completely degenerate people, drunkards, gamblers, Satin is also a sharper. The Baron is a former nobleman who squandered his entire fortune and is now one of the most pitiful people in the flophouse. Klesh tries to make money with his plumbing tools; his wife Anna falls ill and needs medication; at the end of the play, Anna dies, and Tick finally sinks “to the bottom.”
In the midst of drinking and scandals, the wanderer Luke appears in the shelter, feeling sorry for the people. He promises many an unrealistic bright future. He predicts happiness after death for Anna. He tells the actor about a free hospital for alcoholics. He advises Vaska and Natasha to leave home, etc. But at the most tense moment, Luka actually runs away, leaving behind hopeful people. This drives the actor to suicide. In the finale, the night shelters sing a song, and when Satin hears about the death of the Actor, he says with annoyance and bitterness: “Eh. Ruined the song. fool!"
Internal plan. In the play, two philosophical “truths” collide: Luke and Satine. The nochlezhka is a kind of symbol of humanity that finds itself in a dead end, which by the beginning of the 20th century. has lost faith in God, but has not yet gained faith in itself. Hence the general feeling of hopelessness, lack of perspective, which, in particular, is expressed by Actor and Bubnov (a pessimistic reasoner) in the words: “What’s next” and “And the threads are rotten.” The world is dilapidated, weakened, and coming to an end. Satin prefers to accept this bitter truth and not lie to himself or people. He suggests to Mite that he stop working. If everyone stops working, what will happen? “They will die of hunger.” - Kleshch answers, but thereby he only reveals the meaningless essence of work, which is aimed only at maintaining life, and not at bringing any meaning into it. Satin is a kind of radical existentialist, a person who accepts the absurdity of the universe in which “God died” (Nietzsche) and the Emptiness, Nothingness, was exposed. Luke has a different view of the world. He believes that it is precisely the terrible meaninglessness of life that should evoke special pity for a person. If a person needs a lie to continue living, then you need to lie to him and console him. Otherwise, the person will not be able to stand the “truth” and will die. So Luke tells a parable about a seeker of a righteous land and a scientist who, using a map, showed him that there is no righteous land.
The offended man left and hanged himself (a parallel with the future death of the Actor). Luke is not just an ordinary wanderer, a comforter, but also a philosopher. In his opinion, a person is obliged to live despite the meaninglessness of life, because he does not know his future, he is only a wanderer in the universe, and even our earth is a wanderer in space. Luka and Satin are arguing. But Satin somewhat accepts Luke’s “truth.” In any case, it is the appearance of Luke that provokes Satin into his monologue about Man, which he pronounces, imitating the voice of his opponent (a fundamental remark in the play). Satin does not want to pity and console a person, but, by telling him the whole truth about the meaninglessness of life, to encourage him to self-respect and rebellion against the universe. A person, having realized the tragedy of his existence, should not despair, but, on the contrary, feel his worth. The whole meaning of the universe is in it alone. There is no other meaning (for example, Christian). “Man – that sounds proud!” “Everything is in man, everything is for man.”
P. V. Basinsky

1. Gorky, with his play “At the Lower Depths,” acted as “the creator of a new type of social drama.” The play “At the Bottom” is an indictment of a society that throws people to the bottom of life, humiliating them, depriving them of honor and...
2. Drama, by its very nature, is intended to be staged and, therefore, is qualitatively different from other literary genres. For a drama, there are certain restrictions both in the number of acting characters and in...
3. It’s good when a book or theater performance you read leaves a mark on your soul. And if it, this trace, is bright, we think about what significance this work has for us, what it...
4. Before I start writing, I ask myself three questions: what I want to write, how to write and why to write. A. M. Gorky. I recently learned that Gorky contributed large sums to the party treasury...
5. What understanding of life and man does M. Gorky affirm in the story “Old Woman Izergil”? In my opinion, the story “Old Woman Izergil” is the most poetic and romantic of M. Gorky’s works that I have ever read....
6. The novel “Mother” played a huge role in the history of the Russian revolutionary labor movement; it has become a reference book for revolutionaries around the world fighting for victory over the forces of capitalist reaction. Even before the release...
7. Maxim Gorky is a great writer and playwright of the early 20th century, a materialist, a man of his era. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, during a turning point and crisis, in Russia, bankrupt, impoverished peasants wandered around...
8. Maxim Gorky comes to literature as a passionate romantic, calling for high and strong passions. Having paid tribute to romanticism, he will come to the truth of life, but his romantic heroes will remain with him forever. Reading...
9. M. Gorky’s novel “Mother” is one of the most significant works of Russian literature of the early twentieth century. On the pages of the novel, first of all, we see the Russian revolutionary movement as a movement of the masses...
10. The creative concept of the play “At the Lower Depths” dates back to the very beginning of 1900. M. Gorky was going to create a “cycle of dramas” of four plays, each of which was dedicated to depicting a certain layer of Russian society. ABOUT...
11. The problem of human strength and weakness is not the least important in literature. The very interpretation of these concepts is often ambiguous among different writers. Gorky faced these questions early. The past itself is difficult and...
12. “We sing glory to the madness of the brave! The madness of the brave is the wisdom of life!” M. Gorky In his early romantic works, Maxim Gorky resorted to the proven method of “story within a story.” The author listens to the wise Nadyr-Rahim-Ogly...
13. At the beginning of his creative career, A. M. Gorky wrote mainly romantic works. His heroes were free, brave, strong people generated by the writer's imagination. Gorky created most of his works in the 1900s...
14. His judgment on the village was swift and wrong in his article “On the Russian Peasantry” (1922), in which the Russian peasant was convicted of cruelty and “blindness of reason”, of the fact that in the village they are dominated...
15. It is characteristic of Gorky’s romantic stories that among people with strong characters, the writer distinguished between a force acting in the name of good and a force that brings evil. In Larra, selfishness goes beyond all boundaries, develops into...
16. What is the drama of Chelkash and Gavrila in Gorky’s story “Chelkash” The drama that played out between Cheklash and Gavrila was that Chelkash provoked, without meaning to, Gavrila’s attempt to kill him....
17. Gorky combined the journalistic works created abroad in 1906 into two cycles, based on their genre characteristics. The first cycle - “In America” consists of three essays: “City of the Yellow Devil”, “Kingdom...
18. In our minds today, M. Gorky (Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov, 16 28.III.1868, Nizhny Novgorod - 18.VI.1936, Gorki near Moscow, ashes buried in the Kremlin wall) is a difficult problem. Times, especially the present, testing...
19. An essay on the works of M. Gorky. Letter. Hello, Alexey Maksimovich, a fellow countryman from your small homeland, from the Nizhny Novgorod region, a student of the eleventh grade of a rural school, writes to you. We just finished studying at school...
20. The scene of the final explanation of Chelkash and Gavrila as the culmination of the narrative in M. Gorky’s story “Chelkash” The early period of Maxim Gorky’s work is characterized by the creation of a number of works of a romantic orientation. Romantic art is distinguished by its emphasized brightness...