What heroes are the inhabitants of the rooming house. Was there a chance to live another life? The figurative system of the play in resolving the conflict "At the Bottom"

Essay on literature.

Gorky's play "At the Bottom", written in 1902, belongs to a new type of social drama for that time. Her heroes are the inhabitants of the rooming house, people thrown to the bottom of life.

“The sun rises and sets, but it’s dark in my prison,” sing the night shelters. Nochlezhka really resembles a prison. In the basement, "like a cave", there were representatives of various strata of society, but everyone has the same fate. None of them can get out of here. And even here, at the bottom, the power of the "masters of life" continues, represented by the sinister figures of the owners of the rooming house - the old man Kostylev and his wife Vasilisa.

The heroes of the play say little about how they lived before. But even in a few words their fates are revealed. “I don’t remember when I was full… All my life I went around in rags,” says Anna. “The furrier was ... he had his own establishment,” says Bubnov about himself. “I’ve been a thief since childhood,” Pepel admits. "An educated person" was considered a former telegraph operator, and now a cheat Satin. The secured life of the Baron remained in the past, creative work Actor.

Gorky is a connoisseur of the language of many estates, he is fluent in the art of describing dialogue. Every roommate has a speech characteristics. Satin loves foreign and intricate words, his language is labeled and expressive. Baron, mindful of his noble birth, arrogantly talking to Luke. Kostylev's speech is saturated with deliberately affectionate words: "fifty dollars", "butter", "lamp".

There is no clearly defined plot in the play, and driving force there is a confrontation between the social and philosophical views of the characters. There are often heated arguments between the characters in the play.

The inhabitants of the rooming house reject many generally accepted truths. “Honour-conscience is needed for those who have power and strength,” Ashes replies to the reproach of the Mite. “What is conscience? I am not rich,” confirms Bubnov. When Kleshch notes that "money is easy for thieves... they don't work," Satin retorts: "Make my work pleasant... When work is a duty, life is slavery."

The roomers talk a lot about lies and truth. "Bring down the whole truth as it is!" - says Bubnov. His words infuriate Tick: “Why do I need the truth? Damn her! Nastya leaves the cruel reality in illusory world fictional love, passing off fantasies as reality.

At the very bottom of life, in the most cruel circumstances, a dispute arises about a person. Here, Luka and Satin come to the fore. Luka is a passportless tramp, smart and with a lot of experience. He tries to calm and encourage the person by comforting him with lies. Luke's humanism is compassionate, Luke calls for pity for a person, but does not fight to change his fate. Satin, on the contrary, is sure that one should not reconcile a person with hard reality, but force reality itself to serve a person. Luke's comforting lie he calls "the religion of slaves and masters." “Do not pity, do not humiliate him with pity, you must respect!” - Satin says about the Man.

IN last act the play becomes visible hopelessness of the life of overnight stays. Vaska Pepel is imprisoned for the murder of Kostylev. The "comforter" Luke disappeared, and the Actor, unable to withstand the exposure of the lie "for salvation", hanged himself. Anna's funeral "ate" Mite's tool, the locksmith turned into an unemployed slum dweller.

Unsightly pictures like those depicted in Gorky's play can be found more than a century later, in our day. The images of the heroes of the play, taken by the playwright a century ago from contemporary reality, are not outdated at all. Full life truth, these images will attract the attention of readers to the work for a long time to come.

Young people tend to build "castles in the air", dream about something. Few people in their youth come up with the idea that they will not achieve anything in life, will drag out a miserable existence, or even sink to the very "bottom" of life. Most people dream about eternal love, glory, a comfortable life, serving the people and about simple human happiness. M. Gorky's play "At the bottom" is just about such people, people who were "at the bottom".

Initially, the play had another no less telling name "Without the Sun". Then this name was transformed into "Nochlezhka". But this option was also rejected by the author. After much deliberation, a new version is approved - "At the bottom of life." Just before the play's release, in 1902, the title was shortened by one word. IN final version The name turned out to be the most appropriate of all previously announced. The play reflects many of the contradictions of the early twentieth century. It reflects both social and philosophical conflict. There is a place and love drama. The action of the play takes place in the Kostylevs' rooming house, where "everything is unpainted and dirty", "stone vaults ... with fallen off plaster". The inhabitants of the "bottom" - the inhabitants of the Kostylevo rooming house - were thrown out of their ranks by society. The “bottom” threatens stumbled, weak, unsettled people with moral or physical death. Here were people with different characters, destinies and different social background: a worker and a thief, a ruined baron and a drunken actor, lung woman behavior and righteousness. At the first meeting with the inhabitants of the rooming house, it is clear that suffering and very lonely people appear before us. Gorky deliberately does not give complete biography heroes. We can build it only by individual replicas. So what can we say about each hero?

In general, all the inhabitants of the rooming house can be divided into three groups. The first are those who have come to terms with the status quo. Having found a saving dream, false and unrealizable in its essence, they found an excuse for themselves in refusing to actively life position. The second are those people who would like to start new life, get out of the "bottom". And the third, last image is Satin, taken separately from the others. Let's now consider each group separately.

Representatives of the first group are Bubnov, Nastya, Baron, Actor and Anna. We learn about Bubnov from his stories: once he was the owner of a dyeing workshop. His wife soon got along with the master, and Bubnov, fearing for his life, chose to simply leave. According to his theory, the very environment in which a person is placed forms the latter, makes him completely dependent on himself. The truth of Bubnov is the truth of external circumstances, in which a person is denied personal initiative. Here we see a true adherent of fatalism. The environment that surrounds him is vile and dirty. There are no good people here, and therefore there is nothing to "paint" yourself.

Nastya - lung girl behavior. Despite all the cruelty, humiliation and insults, she did not despair, did not become cruel and soulless. On the contrary, she sincerely dreams of a big and bright love. But in the real, surrounding reality, there is no place for pure love, except for its face value on paper. Not wanting to take a sober look at reality, she created a past for herself, in which a large and pure love. She presents her created world as real.

Baron - just like Nastya lives in the past, but unlike her, it really took place. From time to time, remembering his former state, his famous family, the Baron is unable to deal with the difficult reality. He finds salvation from memories and bitterness of loss at the bottom of a glass. Author's attitude to such a hero is expressed by the following phrase: "You cannot go far in the carriage of the past." So it is: the Baron's "carriage" stands still, and he himself does not take any steps to change his life.

The actor is another inhabitant of the rooming house. The real name of the hero is not known. In the past, he was a representative creative intelligentsia, and now it's just a man "without a name". Remembering the former glory, each time he paints it in brighter colors than it really was. Saved from the bitter "truth of life" as well as the previous hero - drunkenness.

The most pathetic and tragic character, in my opinion, is Anna. She is the hardest of all: she is sick and fading away every day. Gorkovskaya Anna is collective image ordinary woman of the early twentieth century. She describes her life as follows: “I don’t remember when I was full ... I was shaking over every piece of bread ... I was trembling all my life ... I was tormented ... how not to eat more than others ... I went all my life in rags ... my whole unhappy life. "Most likely she was born in normal poor family. Then she got married, not so much out of love, but out of necessity. The image of Anna is rather neutral, characterizing the total mass gray people: those who do not create evil in life, but also do not represent a bright image. She is completely at peace with surrounding reality hoping only for happiness in the afterlife.

All these people, having sunk to the very “bottom” after many hardships, became ruthless both to themselves and to others. In response to their complaints, they receive only laughter and bullying from others. The Baron, who lives at the expense of Nastya, is amused by her fantasies and tears. Everyone is closed in his grief and leads an endless story about him, not listening to those who may also need help.

The only one who believes in the ability to escape, to escape from the "bottom" is Kleshch, a representative of the second group. Yes, he is angry with people, sometimes cruel with Anna - his wife. But the only one who sees salvation in exhausting, hard, but honest work: "I'm a working person... I'm ashamed to look at them... I've been working since I was young... Do you think I won't get out of here? I'll get out... I'll take off my skin and get out."

And finally, the third last group. Its only representative is Konstantin Satin. Why does he stand out from the rest? He is the bearer of the philosophy of the truth of life in a dispute with Luke. In his opinion, one should not give up, it is necessary to openly look at troubles and try to solve them. All we know about him is that in the present he is a card sharper. Previously, he worked as a telegraph operator, but after the crime committed by him, he ended up at the "bottom". In many ways, he stands out against the background of the general mass of "gray" rooming houses: with his remarks, education and intelligence. In a dispute with Luke, they are united by the fact that both stand on positions of respect for a person. But everyone sees it differently. Satin, in his fiery monologue, claims that "falsehood is the religion of slaves and masters. Truth is God free man". He is also against any compassion for a person: "You must respect a person! Do not feel sorry ... do not humiliate him with pity. "And therefore, apparently, he opens everyone's eyes to Luka's deception: The actor assures that there are no free hospitals for alcoholics, Vaska Pepla jokingly pushes him to a crime. And what eventually led Is this the truth? To the death of the Actor and Ash's exile to Siberia. That's the whole truth of Konstantin Satin.
Bed-and-breakfasts appear before us miserable and miserable. None of them could get out of the "bottom", could not change anything in themselves. And so they all remained to live out their short life "at the bottom".

M. Gorky's play "At the Bottom" raises the theme of the social and moral nature of the relationship between people who have been rejected by society. the inhabitants of the rooming house treat each other with a manifestation of rudeness, unwillingness to help, indifference and oppression. Everyone's attitude is different. They can be divided into two groups: Actor, Ashes, Natasha, Satin, Klesch and Luka. And Anna Baron, Nastya Bubnov. Luca believed that you can change your life if you want to.

Before getting into a rooming house, Satin was a telegraph operator. He considers himself an educated person. Bubnov said that he, too, was once a furrier, had a workshop. The actor considered the most important thing is talent, and education is nonsense.

The actor did not remember his name, due to heavy drinking and numerous change of appearances. He thought that his whole life was full of dressing up...

His neighbor Pepel was always a thief and got money the easy way. From the moment he started stealing, he was in this "ditch". A tick is a thief who considers the inhabitants of the rooming house to be rags and scum, because he does not see better way earn a living. Thinking that when his wife dies, he will break out of here. The tick thinks they have no conscience. Ashes are indifferent to this, because conscience and honor are needed for those who have power, Bubnov agrees with him. The actor wants to start a new life - get rid of drunkenness. Luke helps him think about pleasant things in this. He listens to Anna, helping her to speak out.

Luke also offers Ash to go to Siberia. Ash reproaches him for lying to everyone, Luke avoids answering and says if you believe in God, he exists and vice versa ...

Luke gives advice to Pepl so that he does not help Vaselisa to kill her husband, he says that she herself will kill him from the light. He tells him to take Natasha and run away from here. kind old man Luka, who recently came to their rooming house, is trying to help all those in need, he is ready to lend a shoulder, listen, reassure. The inhabitants of the bottom do not show concern for each other, when Anna dies, no one pities her, her husband thinks about how much the funeral will cost.

Kindness and cordiality distinguish Luka from the rest. Showing mercy, he protects Nastya from the laughter of Baron and Bubnov, believing that it is easier for her to live, “better lies than bitter truth,” which is why he supports her. His support gives strength to those who need it. Luke a kind person. He does everything to help others. But in the case of the Tick, Luka believes that not every truth can help a person. After all, Nastya used lodges as protection from the outside world, and he presented himself with all the shortcomings.

On the advice of Luke, Pepel wanted to respect himself, stop stealing, correct himself, leave with Natasha for Siberia. Prison will not teach good, but a person will teach.

“Who seeks, he will find”, having taught the night shelters to fight, Luka leaves and the life of its inhabitants changes with him. He showed them how to live and led them to better side. The actor strives to save money and go for treatment, now he knows exactly what he wants. Ash begins to respect himself, Satin, replacing the rest of Luke, argues sensibly and tries to give advice. Life in the hostel is getting better. People change, because when work is a pleasure, life is good, and when work is a duty, life is slavery.

Updated: 2014-10-17

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It was written in 1902. The characters of this play are people who, as a result of social processes that took place at the turn of the century, were thrown to the very bottom of life.
The social conflict is present in the play primarily in the form of a confrontation between the owners of the rooming house, the Kostylevs, and its inhabitants. Kostylev appears in the eyes of the overnight stayers as a rich man who thinks only about money, seeks to ask as much as possible for a place. At the same time, Kostylev pretends to be a pious person and firmly believes that he will use the extra money received from the inhabitants of the rooming house for a good cause. “I’ll throw a half a ruble on you, I’ll pour oil into the lamp ... and my sacrifice will burn in front of the holy icon ...,” he insinuatingly says to Kleshch. However, the hostels themselves are kinder and more sympathetic than Kostylev: The actor helps the dying Anna, Vaska Pepel sincerely loves Natalya. And Kostylev is sure that “kindness of the heart” cannot be equated with money in any case, which he tells the Actor about: “Kindness is above all blessings. And your debt to me - this is the debt! So you have to pay me back…”
Vasilisa, Kostylev's wife and hostess of the hostel, loves to show her superiority over the hostels. Allegedly keeping order in the rooms, she threatens to call the orderlies who “will come and impose a fine”, and after that she will expel all the inhabitants of the rooming house. But her superiority and power are imaginary, about which, after her angry tirade, Bubnov reminds her: “And what will you live on?”
Thus, there is practically no difference between the owners of the hostel and their guests. Kostylev buys a stolen watch from the thief Vaska Ash, his wife Vasilisa had an affair with the same Vaska. Therefore, the conflict between the Kostylevs and the overnight stays is not so much social as moral basis: after all, Kostylev and his wife are people without a heart and conscience. Vasilisa persuades Vaska Pepel to kill Kostylev, who, according to her, is torturing her and her sister. Ash condemns her: "... you have no soul, woman."
Policeman Medvedev, the uncle of Vasilisa and Natalya, also does not look like a harsh representative of the law. He complains about his restless service, regrets that it is necessary to constantly separate the fighters: “Let them beat each other freely, as much as everyone likes ... they would fight less, because the beatings would be remembered longer.” With a rooming house Bubnov, he comes to play checkers, and the dumpling merchant Kvashnya proposes to marry him. In the play "At the Bottom" social differences between all the characters are erased. The concept of the bottom expands and captures everyone actors, and not just the inhabitants of the rooming house.
Each of the heroes who found themselves at the bottom experienced their own conflict with society in the past. The actor is brought to the rooming house by drunkenness, he admits that he "drank away his soul." Because of this, the Actor loses faith in himself and his talent. Only with the arrival of Luka, a wonderful old man who manages to restore faith in the future to many shelters, the Actor remembers his name “on the stage”: Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky. However, in the rooming house he has no name, just as there is no past or future. Although the Actor constantly quotes the lines of immortal plays, he misrepresents their words, adjusts them to the overnight life: “I get drunk - like ... forty thousand drunkards ...” (a modified line from Hamlet), the Actor commits suicide, being unable to resist the oppressive and the sucking, depersonalizing reality of the bottom of life.
Rarely remembers his past life sharper Bubnov. Previously, he was a furrier, "had his own establishment." His wife "contacted" with the master, a "dodger", according to Bubnov himself, and a great fighter. Bubnov planned to kill his wife, but left in time, escaping from hard labor. But for the fact that now he has to lead such a lifestyle, Bubnov blames not his insidious wife, but himself: his drinking and laziness. He looks with surprise at his hands, which, as it seemed to him, will never be washed off from yellow paint, and sees that now they are just dirty. If earlier his hands were the hallmark of his profession, now he belongs entirely to the faceless brotherhood of rooming houses, which he himself says: “It turns out - outside, no matter how you paint yourself, everything will be erased ... everything will be erased, yes!”
Satin, when he was a boy, worked at the telegraph office. The baron was a real aristocrat, he studied, "wore the uniform of a noble institute", and then went to prison for embezzlement. The whole life of the baron appears to readers as a change of several costumes, several masks: from a noble uniform, a dressing gown, a cap with a cockade to a prisoner's dressing gown and clothes of a rooming house.
Together with these heroes, the cheat Satin, the thief Pepel, the walking girl Nastya, the market cook Kvashnya, and Tatarin live under the same roof. However, in the rooming house, social differences between them are erased, they all become just people. As Bubnov notes: “... everything faded, one naked man remained…". Social conflicts that determined their fate, remain in the past, are excluded from the main action of the play. We see only the result of social troubles that have so tragically affected people's lives.
However, the very title of the play "At the Bottom" suggests the presence of social tension. After all, if there is a bottom of life, there must be something above this bottom; there must also be a swift current of light, bright, happy life. The overnight stays do not hope to ever have such a life. All of them, with the exception of Klesh, are turned to the past or are immersed in worries about the present. But the Tick is not so much full of hope as of impotent malice. It seems to him that he lives in a dirty rooming house only for the sake of Anna, his dying wife, but nothing changes after her death. The faith of the inhabitants of the rooming house in the possibility of a new life is restored by Luke, the "crafty old man", but it turns out to be fragile and quickly fades away.
"At the Bottom" is not just a social, but a socio-philosophical drama. What makes a person a person, what helps and prevents him from living, gaining human dignity- the author of the play "At the Bottom" is looking for answers to these questions. Thus, the main subject of the image in the play is the thoughts and feelings of the overnight stays in all their inconsistency. shows that those who, by the will of fate, fell to the very bottom of life, their situation does not seem tragic, unbearable, hopeless. The fact that their environment, the oppressive atmosphere of the rooming house pushes people to theft, drunkenness, murder, seems to its inhabitants a normal course of life. But the author's point of view differs from the position of his characters. He shows that the inhuman conditions of the bottom lead to impoverishment spiritual world man, even such an exalted feeling as love leads to hatred, fight, murder, hard labor. Among the inhabitants of the rooming house, only Satin "awakens" to life, utters a furious monologue about the greatness of man. However, the speech of this hero is only the first step towards changing the consciousness of people who have fallen to the bottom of life, the first attempt to overcome social conditions that put pressure on a free individual.

Innovation of AM Gorky For the first time before the viewer appeared the previously unseen world of thieves, vagabonds and prostitutes, and in it is a reflection of the world from which these people were cast out. Image of this scary world- an indictment against an unjust social order.

Inhabitants of the flophouse Inhabitants of the bottom are thrown out of life due to the conditions prevailing in society. Their destinies are indicated by a few words. People are mutilated, broken by life and doomed to death, although they deserve a better fate. Before us are deeply suffering and lonely people. Everyone is closed in his grief Photograph sent by Gorky to the Moscow Art Theater

Kleshch and Anna Kleshch - locksmith. I went to the "bottom", losing my job. He dreams of getting out of the rooming house and doing honest work. He lives in the hope of liberation, which will bring him the death of his wife. Dying Anna all her life "shook over every piece of bread" and constantly worries, "how not to eat more than another." Act I. Artist S. Gonkov.

Baron Ruined nobleman. All his property is memories of the former greatness of his kind. He lives at the expense of Nastya, but her tears and fantasies only amuse him. He mocks everyone and quickly loses his human appearance. Baron: “Ah… for some reason I was born… huh?” Baron V. Kachalov. Performance of the Moscow Art Theater.

Actor Former theater actor. Once he played on stage and bore the sonorous surname Sverchkov-Zadunaisky, but now he drank himself. Lives in memories of beauty. Of all the overnight stays, he is distinguished by a fine mental organization. Actor E. Reiher. Performance "Kleines Theatre", Berlin.

Vaska Pepel Thief. Son of a thief. Born in prison and doomed to walk this road. But he yearns right life: dreams of marrying Natasha, getting out of Vasilisa's power. “... you have to live ... otherwise! It is better to live! ... so that I can respect myself ... " Vaska Pepel I. Skanke. Performance by the Alma and Johan Falstram Theatre. Christiania (now Oslo), Norway.

Luke Name - the duality of the image: Luke means "bright" (the name of one of the 4 canonical evangelists) and evokes associations with the word "evil". Finds an approach to each overnight stay. In anyone he sees a person, his bright sides, instills in people faith in the best and in themselves. Luka I. Moskvin. Performance of the Moscow Art Theater

“A man is free… he pays for everything himself: for faith, for disbelief, for love, for intelligence – a man pays for everything himself, and therefore he is free!..” “Don't offend a man! And if I was offended once - and for the rest of my life at once! How to be? Forgive? “After all, you ... you live with me, like a worm with an apple!”

Satin's Philosophy Satin does not believe in man, weak and small, but in humanity. Instead of "love of neighbor." He offers "love for the distant" person, the dream person. Satin: “Lie is the religion of slaves and masters… Truth is the god of a free man” “Man is the truth! Human! That sounds…proud!” Act IV. Artist S. Gonkov.

Philosophy of Luke Luke is the bearer of the philosophy of faith. He believes in every person. The essence of his philosophy: faith can change the real truth, as it helps to get away from the terrible reality into the world of beautiful illusions. Luke's truth is expressed in a simple formula: "What you believe is what you are." Act II. Artist S. Gonkov.

The philosophy of the author A.M. Gorky argues with Luka: one cannot live in captivity of illusions, and insight is always tragic. And the worst thing is that a person can come to terms with his hopeless life. This reconciliation must not be allowed. The composition of the play exposes Luke's philosophy.