Ways of expressing the author's position at the bottom. The role of remarks in a dramatic work on the example of the play “At the bottom

Directions help us understand the real motives and thoughts of the characters. A striking example is Luke: remarks indicate his insincerity, the hidden meaning of his words, the question arises: "Does he himself believe in what he says?" When talking with Anna, Luka replies: "They crushed a lot, that's why he is soft ..." But Gorky adds a remark: "Laughs with a rattling laugh." This is a sign of cunning, reticence, which makes us think about who Luka is, why he creates this "beautiful fairy tale" and what a real contribution he makes to the lives of the heroes. This role is clearly visible when talking with the actor about the hospital where drunkards are treated. The actor first thinks about Luka's words, then smiles and laughs, and then the author's important remark: "suddenly, as if waking up" says goodbye and leaves. The illusion dissipates, but hope remains in the soul of the actor, he remembers this conversation and dreams of such a place until the very end of the play.

But when the truth is revealed, he can't stand it and commits suicide. Remarks help to reveal the psychology of the characters, their state before and after the meeting with Luka. Satin often laughs - something awakened in him after talking with Luka, it was in the mouth of Satin that Gorky put his attitude to truth and lies. And in general, in the fourth act, the characters often laugh, and at this time the actor decides to hang himself. This is also the important meaning of the book: in such a society, everyone is indifferent, deaf to the grief of their neighbor. And with the help of remarks, we can follow this indifference.

Thus, with the help of remarks, Gorky shows us the state of the heroes, their thoughts and emotions.

Updated: 2017-10-11

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So, at the beginning of the essay, we formulated one of the problems that the author of the text was thinking about. Then, in a commentary, we showed exactly how this problem is revealed in the source text. The next step is to identify the position of the author.

Remember that if the problem of the text is a question, then the position of the author is the answer to the question posed in the text, what the author sees as a solution to the problem.

If this does not happen, the logic of the presentation of thoughts in the essay is violated.

The author's position is manifested, first of all, in the attitude of the author to the depicted phenomena, events, heroes and their actions. Therefore, when reading the text, pay attention to the language means in which the author's attitude to the subject of the image is expressed (see the table on the next page).

When identifying the author's position, it is important to take into account that the text can use such a technique as irony - the use of a word or expression in a context that gives the word (expression) the exact opposite meaning. As a rule, irony is a condemnation under the guise of praise: My God, what wonderful positions and services there are! How they uplift and delight the soul! But, alas! I do not serve and am deprived of the pleasure of seeing the subtle treatment of my superiors(N. Gogol). A literal reading of ironic statements leads to a distorted understanding of the content of the text and the author's intention.

In addition, proving their point of view, many authors start from various statements of their real or potential opponents, that is, they cite statements with which they do not agree: “Take care of honor from an early age,” Pushkin bequeathed in his “Captain’s Daughter”. "What for?" - asks another modern "ideologist" of our market life. Why save a product for which there is a demand: if I am well paid for this very “honor”, ​​then I will sell it (S. Kudryashov). Unfortunately, students often attribute such statements to the author himself, which leads to a misunderstanding of the author's position.

For example, in the text below by V. Belov, the author's position is not expressed verbally and can only be identified by carefully reading the fragment and a comparative analysis of all its parts.

Everything has already been learned two weeks after returning to his native village, everything has been bypassed, discussed with almost everyone. And only I try not to look at my own home and bypass it. I think: why reopen the past? Why remember what is forgotten even by my countrymen? Everything is gone forever - good and bad, - you don’t feel sorry for the bad, but you can’t return the good. I will erase this past from my heart, never return to it again.

You have to be modern.

We must be ruthless to the past.

Enough to walk through the ashes of Timonikha, sit on the stoves. We must remember that day and night on earth - as Hikmet said - reactors and phasotrons work. That one calculating machine operates faster than a million collective farm accountants, that ...

In general, you don’t need to look at your home, you don’t need to go there, you don’t need anything.

But one day I crumple my writing in my fist and throw it in a corner. I run up the stairs. In the alley, I look around.

Our house protruded from the settlement down to the river. As in a dream I approach our birch. Hello. Didn't recognize me? Has become tall. The bark has broken in many places. Ants run along the trunk. The lower branches are cut off so as not to obscure the windows of the winter hut. The top has become higher than the pipe. Please don't wear your jacket. When I was looking for you with my brother Yurka, you were frail, thin. I remember it was spring and your leaves were already hatching. They could be counted, you were so small then. My brother and I found you in the dirt on the Vakhrunin mountain. I remember the cuckoo cuckooed. We cut off two big roots from you. They carried it through the lava, and my brother said that you would wither, you would not take root under the winter window. Planted, poured two buckets of water. True, you barely survived, for two summers the leaves were small, pale. Brother was no longer at home when you got stronger and gained strength. And where did you get this power under the winter window? Gotta get it out like that! Already above the father's house.

You have to be modern. And I push off the birch like a poisonous tree. (According to V. Belov)

At first glance, the author calls for abandoning the past in favor of the present: “You have to be modern. You have to be ruthless to the past." However, the true attitude of the author to the past is manifested in his touching memories of the birch, which in fact represent a living dialogue with the tree. We see that behind the outward indifference (“You have to be modern. And I push off the birch like a poisonous tree”), there is a love for childhood, for the past, which cannot be erased from human life.

For a correct understanding of the text, it is also important to distinguish between the concepts of author and narrator (narrator). The author of a work of art can tell his story on his own behalf or on behalf of one of the characters. But the first person in whose name the work is written is still the narrator, even if the writer uses the pronoun "I": after all, when the author creates a work of art, he describes life, introducing his fiction, his assessments, his likes, likes and dislikes. . In any case, one should not put an equal sign between the author and the hero-narrator.

Such a discrepancy can be found, for example, in the following text.

I still remember that jar of ink. In the morning, she stood on the table near her father's drawings, and by noon, a huge black ink appeared on a piece of drawing paper from nowhere, through which the results of a painstaking week's work vaguely looked through ...

Sergey, tell me honestly: did you spill your mascara? the father asked sternly.

No. It's not me.

Who then?

I don't know... Probably a cat.

The cat Mashka, my mother's favorite, was sitting on the edge of the sofa and somehow frightened looked at us with her yellow eyes.

Well, she must be punished. From that moment on, the entrance to the house was ordered to her. Will live in a closet. However, maybe it's not her fault? My father looked at me searchingly.

Honestly! I have nothing to do with it! I answered, looking him straight in the eyes.

A couple of days later, Masha disappeared without a trace, apparently unable to endure the unjust expulsion from the house. Mom was upset. The father never mentioned the incident again. I forgot, probably. And I still washed my soccer ball from treacherous black spots ...

Then I was naively convinced that relationships between people are most important, the main thing is not to upset your parents. As for the cat... She's just an animal, she can't speak or think. And yet, until now, in any cat's eyes, I see a dumb reproach ... (G. Andreev)

The position of the author is not stated directly. However, in the reflections of the hero about his act, we hear the voice of a sick conscience. It is no coincidence that the punishment of the cat is called unfair, and in the cat's eyes Sergey reads a "mute reproach". Of course, the author condemns the hero, convincing us that it is dishonorable and low to shift the blame on another, especially on a defenseless creature who cannot answer and stand up for himself.

Typical designs

The author believes that...
The author leads the reader to the conclusion that ...
Arguing over the problem, the author comes to the following conclusion...
The position of the author is...
The position of the author, it seems to me, can be formulated as follows...
The author calls us (to what)
The author assures us that...
The author condemns (who / what, for what)
The attitude of the author to the problem posed is ambiguous.
The author's main goal is to...
Although the position of the author is not expressed explicitly, the logic of the text convinces us that...

Typical mistakes in formulating the position of the author

Adviсe

1) Usually the position of the author is contained in the final part of the text, where the author sums up what has been said, reflects on the above events, the actions of the characters, etc.
2) Pay attention to the evaluative vocabulary of the text, lexical repetitions, introductory words, exclamatory and incentive sentences - all these are means of expressing the author's position.
3) Be sure to highlight the wording of the author's position in a separate paragraph of your essay.
4) Try to formulate the author's position in your own words, avoiding complex metaphors.
5) When quoting, choose sentences in which the author's thought is expressed clearly and clearly, if possible. (Remember that not every text contains quotations that accurately express the opinion of the author!)

What does an expert check?

The expert checks the ability to adequately perceive and correctly formulate the position of the author: positive, negative, neutral, ambiguous, etc. attitude to what is told, the proposed response of the author to the questions posed by him in the text.

1 point is assigned by an expert if you correctly formulated the position of the author of the source text on the commented problem and did not make any factual errors related to understanding the position of the author of the source text.

Practice

In 1902, M. Gorky's play "At the Bottom" was first published in Munich. This drama arose as a result of life observations and philosophical searches of the author.
The paranoia depicted in the play was a major social phenomenon of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As Gorky himself pointed out, he observed the prototypes of heroes in Nizhny Novgorod. Almost every hero had his own prototype: the artist Kolosovsky-Sokolovsky served as the prototype of the Actor; Bubnov Gorky wrote not only from his tramp acquaintance, but also from one intellectual, his teacher; the image of Nastya is largely borrowed from the story of Claudia Gross. In Nizhny Novgorod, and in other places, Gorky saw many wanderers, so the writer accumulated a huge amount of material to create the image of Luke. Satin was 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.
Yes, Gorky again writes about “former people”, but now he has turned from a romantic with an unconscious role of a tramp into a philosopher, painfully looking for the meaning of existence. He brought together many diverse individuals, uniting them with a desire for justice.
The play is full of vivid characters and images. What did the author want to say? How did he see the characters?
Gorky himself defined the main problematic of the play: “... which is better: truth or compassion? What is more needed? Is it necessary to bring compassion to the point of using lies, like Luke? This question is not subjective, but general philosophical. Maxim Gorky admits that he failed to fully answer this question. Why? To do this, you need to consider two images: Luke and Satin. Satin, of course, expresses the author's position. The hero is very far from the philosophy of Christian patience, for him there is one proud-sounding word - a person who "pays for everything himself: for faith, for unbelief, for love, for the mind - a person pays for everything himself, and therefore he is free." In these words we hear the voice of Gorky himself. And many, reading "At the Bottom", gave up a comfortable life and went to the revolutionary barricades.
However, critics took the play differently. The main direction of the play was associated with the image of Luke. They wrote that Luke “brought to light all that good that had previously dozed soundly.” The main motive was interpreted as reconciliation with life and a feeling of pity for a person. The social basis was often ignored: there were attempts to reduce the conflict of the play to the psychological weakness of the characters, to the internal contradictions of their characters.
Gorky protested against such an interpretation. He wrote that Luke did not believe in anything, but he felt sorry for suffering people, so he said various comforting words to them.
Luke is a wandering preacher who comforts everyone, promises deliverance from suffering to everyone, says to everyone: “You hope!”, “You believe!” Luka is an outstanding personality, he has a lot of life experience and a keen interest in people. The whole philosophy of this man is expressed V one of his sayings: "What you believe is what you are." He is sure that the truth will never cure any soul, and a lie can alleviate the pain. In support of this, Luke tells a parable about the “righteous land”, about a man who committed suicide, the truth turned out to be so bitter for him.
The short dialogues of the old man with people living on the "bottom" give the play an inner movement: the ghostly hopes of the unfortunate are growing. Luka inspires Vaska Peplu with the idea of ​​a trip to Siberia, where he can start a new life; The actor promises to name the city where there is a hospital for alcoholics; dying Anna calms down with the hope that for her unbearable torments on earth, after death, she will find peace and eternal bliss in heaven. They believe the old man, because they want to gain faith in the existence of “another truth”, to escape from the rooming house and make their way to another life, although the paths to it are unclear.
Luke considers all people weak, pathetic, in need of sympathy and comfort. His words make people adapt to the existing order, they call for pity for a person, and not for fighting to change his fate.
The opposite opinion is expressed in the play by Satin, expressing the author's position. Satin is not a positive hero, but he is smart and respected by the roommates. Understands social injustice more clearly than others. This is the most intelligent person of the “bottom”. He claims that a person needs the truth, and in these words there is a call to fight for their rights. "Human! It's great! That sounds... proud!” About Luke, he expresses the following point of view: “He lied ... but - this is out of pity for you! There is a comforting lie, a reconciling lie...”
Satin's speeches testify to the fact that the spark of living life, the spark of the spirit has not been extinguished on the social "day". “You have to respect a person! Do not pity ... do not humiliate him with pity ... you must respect!” Satin says.
From the point of view of the author, Luke's theory is evidenced by the unfortunate fate of the overnight stays. He came, kindled hope in their hearts, but did not show them the way to a better life. Thus, Luke is just an inactive observer and comforter. The tragic denouement of the play is a kind of sentence to the preaching of patience and humility and, at the same time, an affirmation of the need to fight for the truth, for Man.
Putting the problem of humanism, the dispute about truth, at the center of the play, the author argues that a person should not live in a world of illusions. “If there is something truly sacred and great in the world, it is a continuously growing person,” wrote Gorky. Therefore, he condemns imaginary, compassionate humanism, which calls for pity for a person, and not for fighting to change his fate. “Lie is the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man!”

The genre of Maxim Gorky's play "At the Bottom" can be defined as a philosophical drama. In this work, the writer managed to raise many problematic questions about man and the meaning of his existence. However, the dispute about the truth in the play "At the Bottom" became a key one.

History of creation

The play was written in 1902. This time is characterized by a serious one, as a result of which, due to the closure of factories, the workers were out of work, and the peasants were forced to beg and beg. All these people, and with them the state, found themselves at the very bottom of life. To reflect the full extent of the decline, Maxim Gorky made his heroes representatives of all segments of the population. turned adventurer, former Actor, prostitute, locksmith, thief, shoemaker, tradeswoman, hostess, policeman.

And it is in the midst of this decline and poverty that the key age-old questions of life are being asked. And the basis of the conflict was a dispute about the truth in the play "At the bottom". This philosophical problem has long become insoluble for Russian literature; Pushkin, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov and many others took it up. However, Gorky was not at all frightened by this state of affairs, and he created a work devoid of didacticism and moralizing. The viewer himself has the right to make his choice, after listening to the different points of view expressed by the characters.

Argument about truth

In the play "At the Bottom", as mentioned above, Gorky not only portrayed a terrible reality, the answers to the most important philosophical questions became the main thing for the writer. And in the end, he manages to create an innovative work that has no equal in the history of literature. At first glance, the narrative seems fragmented, plotless and fragmented, but gradually all the pieces of the mosaic add up, and a clash of heroes unfolds before the viewer, each of which is the bearer of his own truth.

Multifaceted, ambiguous and inexhaustible is such a topic as the dispute about the truth in the play "At the Bottom". A table that could be compiled for a better understanding of it would include three characters: Bubnova, It is these characters that lead heated discussions about the need for truth. Realizing the impossibility of answering this question, Gorky puts into the mouths of these heroes different opinions that are equivalent and equally attractive to the viewer. It is impossible to determine the position of the author himself, therefore these three images of criticism are interpreted differently, and there is still no consensus as to whose point of view on the truth is correct.

Bubnov

Entering into a dispute about the truth in the play "At the Bottom", Bubnov is of the opinion that facts are the key to everything. He does not believe in higher powers and the high destiny of man. A person is born and lives only to die: “Everything is like this: they are born, they live, they die. And I will die ... and you ... What to regret ... ”This character is hopelessly desperate in life and does not see anything joyful in the future. The truth for him is that man cannot resist the circumstances and cruelty of the world.

For Bubnov, lies are unacceptable and incomprehensible, he believes that only the truth should be told: “And why do people like to lie?”; “In my opinion, bring down the whole truth as it is!” He openly, without hesitation, expresses his opinion to others. Bubnov's philosophy is truthful and ruthless to a person, he sees no point in helping his neighbor and caring for him.

Luke

For Luke, the main thing is not the truth, but consolation. In an effort to bring at least some meaning to the hopelessness of the daily life of the inhabitants of the rooming house, he gives them false hope. His help lies in lies. Luke understands people well and knows what everyone needs, based on this, he makes promises. So, he tells the dying Anna that after death she will find peace, the Actor inspires hope for a cure for alcoholism, Ash promises a better life in Siberia.

Luke appears as one of the key figures in such a problem as the dispute about the truth in the play "At the bottom". His remarks are full of sympathy, reassurance, but there is not even a word of truth in them. This image is one of the most controversial in the drama. For a long time, literary critics evaluated him only from the negative side, but today many see positive aspects in Luke's actions. His lie consoles the weak, unable to resist the cruelty of the surrounding reality. The philosophy of this character is kindness: "A person can teach good things... While a person believed, he lived, but lost faith - and hung himself." Indicative in this regard is the story of how the elder saved two thieves when he treated them kindly. The truth of Luke is in pity for the person and the desire to give him hope, albeit an illusory one, for the possibility of a better one, which would help to live.

satin

Sateen is considered the main opponent of Luke. It is these two characters who are leading the main dispute about the truth in the play "At the Bottom". Satine's quotes contrast sharply with Luke's statements: "Lie is the religion of slaves", "Truth is the god of a free man!"

For Sateen, a lie is unacceptable, since in a person he sees strength, stamina and the ability to change everything. Pity and compassion are meaningless, people do not need them. It is this character who pronounces the famous monologue about the man-god: “There is only man, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! It's great! It sounds proud!

Unlike Bubnov, who also recognizes only the truth and denies lies, Satin respects people and believes in them.

Conclusion

Thus, the dispute about the truth in the play "At the Bottom" is plot-forming. Gorky does not give a clear resolution to this conflict; each viewer must determine for himself who is right. However, it should be noted that Sateen's final monologue is heard at the same time as a hymn to man and a call to action aimed at changing the horrific reality.

Drama as a kind of literature implies the obligatory staging of a work on stage. At the same time, the orientation towards stage interpretation, at first glance, limits the playwright in the means of expressing his position. He cannot directly address the reader, express his attitude towards his own heroes. The author's position is expressed in remarks, in the development of the play, in the monologues and dialogues of the characters. The duration of the action is also limited, because the performance cannot last long.

In 1902, thanks to innovative productions based on plays by A.P. Chekhov, Maxim Gorky became interested in the Moscow Art Theater. He wrote to Chekhov that it was “impossible not to love the theater, not to work for it is a crime.” However, the first plays - "The Philistines" (1901) and "At the Bottom" (1902) - showed that Gorky was not just an innovative playwright, but also the creator of a new kind of social drama. Critics call his dramatic works debate plays. The fact is that a special load in the play falls on the dramatic conflict - an acute clash of characters. It is the conflict that drives the plot, forcing the viewer to tensely follow its development. In Gorky, the leading role is played by ideological conflicts, a sharp opposition between the social, philosophical and aesthetic views of the characters.

Image subject in M. Gorky's play "At the bottom" becomes the consciousness of people who find themselves on "day of life" as a result of deep processes in the society of the early twentieth century. Analysis of the play shows that the social conflict develops on several levels. Firstly, the confrontation of the hosts of the rooming house, Kostylev, and inhabitants - disenfranchised rooming houses. Secondly, each of the overnight stays experienced in his past a personal social conflict, because of which he ended up in such a miserable position.

satin ended up in the Kostylevs' rooming house after prison, having committed a murder "scoundrel" because of my sister. Mite, who had been a mechanic all his life, lost his job. Bubnov ran away from home "away from sin" so as not to inadvertently kill his wife and her lover. Actor, who previously had the sonorous pseudonym Sverchkov-Zadunaisky, drank himself, being unclaimed.

The fate of a thief Vaska Ash was predestined from birth, because he, being the son of a thief, himself became the same. Tells all the details about the stages of his fall Baron: his life passed as if in a dream, he studied at a noble institute, served in the state chamber, where he squandered public money, for which he was arrested for two weeks.
There is also a love conflict: an appearance in a rooming house Natasha, Vasilisa's 20-year-old sister, forces Vaska Pepla to abandon his mistress Vasilisa, the wife of the owner of the rooming house, 54-year-old Kostylev, for which she subsequently severely takes revenge on both her and him.

The turning point is the appearance wanderer Luke. This "passportless tramp" I am sure that a person is first of all worthy of pity, and now he is trying to console everyone, including the inhabitants of the rooming house. Dying from consumption Anna the old man convinces her not to be afraid of death: only she will bring her long-awaited peace, which the poor woman has never known. Luka, who drank himself from despair, gives hope for healing in a free hospital for alcoholics. He advises Vaska Pepl to start a new life with his beloved Natasha in Siberia.

At the same time, Luka does not say anything about himself: the reader knows little about him, only that “they crushed a lot, that’s why it’s soft ...”. However, the name Luke is associated with the evil one, with the concept of "dissemble", that is, "deceive, lie." And the attitude of the author towards him is ambiguous: it is expressed in the development of the plot. When Luka disappears under very unpleasant circumstances (at the moment when Kostylev is killed, and Vasilisa scalds Natasha with boiling water), further events unfold in a completely different way than Luka predicted. Ash actually ends up in Siberia, but not of his own free will, but as a convict, allegedly for the murder of Kostylev. The actor learns that there is no free hospital where they treat alcoholism, and, not believing in his own strength, repeats the fate of the hero of Luke's parable of the righteous land - hangs himself in a wasteland.

It is the fate of the Actor that becomes the key issue in the assessment of criticism. For a long time it was believed that Luke preaches a "comforting lie" that makes a person give up the fight, which means that it only brings harm. Allegedly, the hero gave everyone false hope. But after all, he did not promise to raise them from the bottom of life, he demonstrated their own capabilities, showed that there is a way out, and it depends only on the person what it will be.

Therefore, the main accusation Gorky puts forward not to Luka, but to the heroes who are not able to find the strength in themselves to oppose their will to harsh reality. Thus, he reveals one of the most important features of our national character - dissatisfaction with reality, a critical attitude towards it, but at the same time the inability to change this reality in any way for the better.

Another hero, Satin, becomes the successor of the author's thought. In the last act, as if continuing the conversation with the old man, he utters his famous monologue, in which the phrase becomes the most famous: "Man - that sounds proud!".

Yes, this phrase sounds optimistic, but as before, people find themselves at the “bottom” of life, not only due to external circumstances, but also because of their weakness and unbelief. And M. Gorky's play "At the Bottom" even after more than a hundred years is still relevant.

• "Childhood", a summary of the chapters of Maxim Gorky's story