Why did Gorky change the title of the play at the bottom? The meaning of the name “At the Bottom”
His work tells us about the night shelter where the heroes of the work gathered and at first the author called his masterpiece “Nochlezhka”. But this name would take us only to a specific place, namely to the place of lodging that Kostylev owned and where the heroes of the play gathered. It was a basement with a heavy ceiling, where there were no normal chairs, and instead of beds there were bunks. A small square window only occasionally let in light. In a word, the name Nochlezhka could not fully convey the meaning of the play. But Gorky wanted the work to be broader and deeper. It revealed more of the essence. The author was thinking about giving another name to his play. For example, the title Without the Sun would have been profound, but it didn't quite fit the theme. Although the heroes had little joy and warmth in their lives, sunlight they could see.
The meaning of the title of the play At the Bottom
What is the meaning of the title of the play At the Bottom?
When Gorky renamed his work, the meaning of the name began to play with different colors, and we will try to speculate a little about the meaning of the name of the play At the Lower Depths in ours.
Reading Gorky's work, we will get acquainted with the heroes of the shelter - embittered, weak-willed, sick people. From their stories and conversations, we conclude that they have already lost faith in life, have lost meaning and hope in it. These lost people no longer expect anything from life, and they don’t want to change anything in their existence. All this directly suggests that they are already at the very bottom of the social ladder. Heroes cannot live without drunkenness, scandals, and lies. They constantly scold, but still we see that people at the bottom are still capable of talking about truth and freedom. But each of them has its own truth. The title At the Bottom fully reveals the essence of the play. Thanks to a well-chosen title, the author showed that we're talking about not only about the place where you spend the night, which looks like a cave and it seems as if you are at the very bottom. But I was also able to convey the atmosphere that hovered in this shelter. The moral and ethical ugliness of the people who gathered there. Subsequently, Gorky’s “at the bottom” became symbolic and revealed not only the essence of the play, but also the lifestyle of some people in our society.
The meaning of the title of the play “At the Bottom”
“At the Lower Depths” dates back to the very beginning of 1900. In the spring of this year in Crimea, Maxim Gorky told K. S. Stanislavsky the content of the planned play. "In the first edition main role was the role of a footman from good home, who most of all took care of the collar of his tails shirt - the only thing that connected him with his former life. The shelter was crowded, its inhabitants were arguing, the atmosphere was poisoned with hatred. The second act ended with a sudden police raid of the shelter. At the news of this, the entire anthill began to swarm, hurrying to hide the loot; and in the third act spring came, the sun came, nature came to life, the night shelters came out of the stinking atmosphere into clean air, on earthworks, they sang songs and under the sun, on fresh air, we forgot about hating each other.”
In 1902, when pre-revolutionary sentiments appeared in Russia, Maxim Gorky wrote the play “At the Depths,” in which he reflected the “ferment in the minds”, the questions that arose before people in difficult times recent years reign of the Romanov dynasty.
“It was the result of my almost twenty years of observations of the world.” former people", to which I include not only wanderers, shelter dwellers and generally "lumpen proletarians", but also some of the intellectuals, "demagnetized", disappointed, insulted and humiliated by failures in life. I felt and realized very early that these people are incurable.”
reduce people to the insignificant fate of vagabonds. The social conflict is complicated philosophically: in the work, true, active, fighting humanism and false, compassionate, inactive humanism collide.
Gorky, in an interview in 1903, spoke about the main question posed in the play: “The main question that I wanted to pose is what is better, truth or compassion? What is more needed? Is it necessary to take compassion to the point of using lies, like Luke?” Depicting the “bottom”, M. Gorky shows society in miniature. The action takes place in the Kostylevs' rooming house - in a "cave-like basement" under "heavy stone arches." Here its inhabitants, formerly “former” tramps, eke out a miserable existence.
The characters in the play have lost their past. they don't have a real one. But sometimes "from a square window with right side“A ray of light enters their lives, and then hope arises in their thoughts for a future without oppression, with freedom and truth. This faith lives in Tick: “I’ll get out... I’ll rip off my skin, and I’ll get out...” Natasha and Ash dream of another, new life; O pure love the prostitute Nastya is dreaming. And the rest resigned themselves, submitted to circumstances and realized their uselessness. But, in fact, all people are buried here alive. M. Gorky mercilessly and truthfully draws his heroes, writes about them with pain and anger, sympathizes with them. The pitiful tragic Actor, who became an alcoholic and forgot even his name, the useless, suffering Anna, who is near death, Bubnov, indifferent to himself and others, the former telegraph operator Satin, smart, but cynical and embittered - they all found themselves in a dead end in life. The heroes strive to rise to the surface from the “bottom” of life, but they feel their complete powerlessness before the gates of this prison, which gives them a feeling of complete hopelessness.
people, to make their miserable lives easier. He feels sorry for the inhabitants of the shelter. But this pity humiliates a person, weakens his strength, reconciles him with the vile reality and does not call him to fight. Luke believes that the truth can be a “butt” for a person. Sometimes it is better to deceive a person with fiction, to instill in him faith in himself, in the future (“man lives for the best”). White lies are the very principle that Luke professes.
light over darkness, faith in a person with a capital letter.
Satins will exist in the “day”, the dream of the future will also live, based on the present and not breaking away from real life. After all, “man is the truth!” Everything is about the person, everything is for the person! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! This is great! That sounds... proud!” “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is god free man! Such a statement by Satin was perceived as a revolutionary call, as a “signal for an uprising.”
In the play, Satin becomes an exposer of society, which threw him to the “bottom” of life, like thousands of others like him, and forced him to eke out a miserable existence.
“The Bottom” for Maxim Gorky is not Kostylev’s flophouse, not a location, and not even social status. “Bottom” is a state of mind, it is a way of life for people killed and maimed human society with a non-human device. In them, good reconciles with evil, love with hatred, truth with lies.
“Without the Sun”, then “Nochlezhka”, “Bottom”, “At the Bottom of Life” and, finally, “At the Bottom”. Exactly last option more broadly reflected the ambiguity of life circumstances, actions and thoughts of people that lead to despair.
In articles and letters, M. Gorky repeatedly gave explanations for his play. “... Satin’s speech about the man of truth is pale,” he wrote to K. P. Pyatnitsky on July 15, 1902. “However, except Satin, there is no one to say it, and he cannot say it better, more clearly. Already this speech sounds alien to his language. But there’s not a damn thing you can do!”
“Freedom at any cost is its spiritual essence,” this is how K. S. Stanislavsky defined the idea of the play, who staged it on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. - “The performance was a stunning success. They endlessly called directors, all the artists and... Gorky himself.”
Literature lesson No. 41-42
11th grade
Date_________
Topic: "M. Gorky's play “At the Depths” as a socio-philosophical drama. The meaning of the play's title. System of images. The fate of the night shelters. »
Goals
Educational: determine the features of genre, composition and conflict in Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths”; show through analysis dramatic work writer's innovation; consider a solution social problems in the work; identify the life position of the characters in the play, characterizing their images,
Educational: develop monologue speech students,
Educational: to cultivate a culture of communication among students, qualities such as mercy, kindness, compassion, humanity.
Equipment:portrait, texts, slides
Lesson progress
I Org moment. greeting, checking attendance, announcing the topic of the lesson, setting goals and objectives.
II . Update of a new topic.
Opening remarks teachers.
Guys, we continue to get acquainted with the works of M. Gorky. I propose to devote today’s lesson to the issue of searching for the truth of life. I hope that this work, which was written more than a hundred years ago, has not lost its relevance to this day, and I think you and I will be convinced of this. Pay attention to the epigraph of today's lesson and write it down in your notebook. What's here keyword? This word is "truth". Yes, today we will talk about the truth, but the truth can be different - private, everyday, for oneself, and sometimes it can be ideological, i.e. it underlies life principles person. And today we will talk about the latter. I want not only to become your assistant literary text- the play itself, but also such words - mercy, kindness, compassion, humanity.
Please pay attention to the plan for analyzing the play (printed material on the work tables). On training session Multimedia materials will also help us.
Plan for the analysis of M. Gorky's play “At the Depths”
Genre work of art. The plot of the work. Features of the composition of the play.
The history of the creation of M. Gorky's play “At the Depths”.
The meaning of the title of the work.
Heroes of M. Gorky's play “At the Depths”. The inhabitants of the shelter, their life position, the dream and reality of the heroes.
Conflict in a work of art, types of conflict in a play.
The truth in Gorky's play "At the Depths". Dispute in the work. The problem of faith in the play.
Life philosophy of the play's characters (Luke, Satin, author).
Dramatic skill of M. Gorky: originality of dialogue and monologue, aphorism. Writer's innovation.
Problems of the play: humanism in the work, moral choice human, mercy, kindness, compassion, humanity.
Working on the topic of the lesson. Conversation.
Did you work at home? reference books, let's remember what a play is, what are its features, what is typical for a dramatic work???
The plot of a work of art is its core. Let's remember the plot of this work(retelling)
Teacher's word:
In the 1900s, a severe economic crisis broke out in Russia. After each crop failure, masses of ruined, impoverished peasants wandered around the country in search of income. And factories and factories were closed. Thousands of workers and peasants found themselves homeless and without a means of subsistence. Under the influence of severe economic oppression appears huge amount tramps who sink to the “bottom” of life. Taking advantage of the hopeless situation of impoverished people, enterprising owners of dark slums found a way to extract benefit from their fetid basements, turning them into flophouses where the unemployed, beggars, tramps, thieves and other “former people” found shelter. The play “At the Bottom”, written in 1902, depicted the life of these people. Gorky himself wrote about his play: “It was the result of my almost twenty years of observations of the world of “former people,” among whom I include not only wanderers, shelter dwellers and “lumpen proletarians” in general, but also some of the intellectuals, “demagnetized” , disappointed, insulted and humiliated by failures in life. I felt and realized very early that these people were incurable."
We can conditionally divide all the inhabitants of the shelter into owners and shelter residents. Let's analyze the situation in which it happens action of the play.
Teacher's word:
The action of the play "At the Bottom" takes place in a gloomy, semi-dark basement, like a cave, with a vaulted, low ceiling that presses on people with its stone weight, where it is dark, there is no space and it is difficult to breathe. The furnishings in this basement are also wretched: instead of chairs there are dirty stumps of wood, a roughly knocked together table, and bunks along the walls. Thieves, cheaters, beggars, cripples - everyone who was thrown out of life - gathered here; different in their habits, life behavior, past fate, but equally hungry, exhausted and useless to anyone.
All the inhabitants of the shelter were pushed by the “owners” to the bottom of life, but everything human in them was not trampled. In these people, deprived of the right to life, doomed to a hopeless existence, degraded, the feeling of self-esteem.
Teacher's word:
A. M. Gorky's play "At the Depths" was written in 1902, in turning point for Russia. Gorky introduces a new hero into Russian literature - the tramp. But he talks about it in a new way. The theme of people from the bottom is not new for Russian literature: Gogol, Dostoevsky, Gilyarovsky addressed this topic.
Gorky himself noted that the play was the result of his almost 20 years of observations of the world of “former people.”
Student presentation on the topic “The history of the creation of the work”
The meaning of the title of the work ( read the meaning of the word “bottom” from explanatory dictionaries, we express our opinion on this point).
Teacher's word:
It is known that M. Gorky rejected original names plays - “Without the Sun”, “Nochlezhka”, “The Bottom”, “At the Bottom of Life”.
Poster characters in the play. Who is he, the heroes of the shelter????
Women's images in the play.
Vaska is ashes.
Teacher's word:
Take a close look at the gathering point for orphans, unfortunates, marginalized people (people
from the sidelines of life), collected on the cramped area of the basement-cave in the first act.
Or to a “wasteland” - “a courtyard littered with various rubbish and overgrown with weeds”
in act three. You will make an interesting discovery: this site is essentially broken
into cells, into microspaces, holes in which “former” people live separately and even alienated, deprived of business, of the past, live with their misfortune, even close
to tragedy.
Conflict in a work of art, types of conflict in a play.
Let's remember what a conflict in a work of art is???
What types of conflict did you identify in the play?
Let's characterize them.
Teacher's word:
The drama unfolds two main conflicts. First, social- between the owners of the shelter and the tramps, the other - philosophical, touching on the basic questions of existence, unfolds between the inhabitants of the shelter. He is the main one. The world of the flophouse is the world of “former people”. Previously, they were people of different classes: here is a baron, a prostitute, a mechanic, an actor, a cap maker, and a merchant. And still in this scary world Outcasts, these people search for truth and try to solve eternal problems. How to bear the burden of life?
The truth in Gorky's play "At the Depths". Dispute in the work. The problem of faith in the play.
Let's read the meaning of the words truth, faith, dispute. (read out).
Dramatic skill of M. Gorky: originality of dialogue and monologue, aphorism. Writer's innovation.
What does aphorism mean?
Examples of aphorisms from the play. We read and discuss.
Innovation of a playwright. (notebook entries).
Teacher's word:
– Guys, now I suggest you “try on” the truth of M. Gorky’s heroes with our reality. Pay attention to the slide. What did you see??? What can you say??? (students' answers).
It's good when a book you read leaves a mark on your soul. And if it is bright, we suddenly think about what meaning this work has for us, what it gave us.
Many years have passed since the creation of Gorky's plays, but even now they are read and shown in theaters. Apparently, they are destined long life. We can say that this is an encyclopedia of pre-revolutionary Russia, a history captured masterfully and vitally, but we must not forget that they contain a lot of universal things that are suitable not only for the past, but also for present life.
The play “At the Bottom” is imbued with an ardent and passionate appeal to love a person, to make this name truly sound proud. The play had a huge political resonance, calling for a restructuring of society, which was throwing people “to the bottom.” There is and cannot be happiness as long as a person is not free, as long as injustice dominates at every step. A person deserves happiness and freedom because he is a Human!
Now, in an era when we are again talking about humanism and mercy, when we call for “mercy for the fallen,” Gorky’s play takes on a different meaning. This is not only a historical document, not just an outstanding creation of the human mind, it is also a work that will again and again turn people’s gaze to eternal problems goodness, mercy, social justice.
Today, you guys and I are convinced that each person has his own truth. Perhaps, at your age, you have not yet decided what life principles you will adhere to in life. later life, but for some reason I am confident that you will make the right choice. And such qualities will always accompany you like mercy, kindness, compassion, humanity.
Mercy - readiness to provide help, to show leniency out of compassion and philanthropy.
Kindness– emotional disposition towards people, benevolence, responsiveness, desire to do good to others.
Compassion- sympathy, pity caused by someone's suffering or misfortune.
Humanity – attentiveness, responsiveness and sensitivity to other people.
III Reflection (working with the questionnaire)
IV Assessment
V Homework Preparing to write an essay
