The main conflict of Gorky's play is at the bottom. External and internal conflicts in the drama based on the play At the Lower Depths (Gorky Maxim)

In the play "At the Bottom" M. Gorky explores the consciousness of people thrown to the "bottom" of life as a result of deep social processes. Researchers characterize this work as a social, everyday and socio-philosophical drama. In social conflict, three levels can be distinguished. Firstly, this is the problem of the relationship between the masters of life, endowed with power, and the powerless roomies. Secondly, this is the problem of human fate in an unjust society.

Thirdly, the problem of love as a facet of social conflict.

The conflict between the owners of the shelter, the Kostylev spouses, and its inhabitants is felt throughout the entire play.

Kostylev appears on stage in the first act, “humming something divine under his breath and suspiciously inspecting the shelter.” Already in this remark the author reveals the hypocrisy and falsehood of this hero. He is looking for his wife Vasilisa, suspecting her of treason. His selfishness and greed are shown in the dialogue with the former locksmith Kleshch. The owner is going to charge the guest “fifty dollars” for the place he occupies. The worker answers him rudely, without hiding his hatred: “You throw a noose over me and crush me... You’ll die soon, but you’re still thinking about fifty dollars.”

Kostylev behaves like Judas Golovlev: he pours out his affectionate, unctuous speech, using diminutive suffixes, often mentioning the name of God, hiding his greed behind his honeyed speech. Having praised the Actor for taking care of the sick Anna, the owner of the flophouse hypocritically declares: “In the next world, brother... there everything, every deed of ours is taken into account.” In response to his unctuous reasoning about kindness, the Actor remarks: “You are a rogue, old man.” Satin directly declares his dislike for the owner: “Who - except the devil - loves you? getting lost." It should be noted that another “crafty old man,” whom the residents of the shelter call both a “scoundrel” and a “charlatan,” is Luke. He also speaks of his special love for people: “I respect swindlers too, In my opinion, not a single flea is bad: all are black, all jump. .." Are these roll calls random? Perhaps the author wanted to emphasize by this that Luke is sowing a comforting lie. But Luke plants illusions in the souls of the night shelters, pitying them. Kostylev covers up selfish interests and the desire for profit with lies.

By exposing the exploitative nature of the owners, Gorky shows that they are not far from socially left the inhabitants of the shelter. Kostylev takes the stolen goods from the thief Vaska Pepel and resells them. The relationship between the owners and the night shelters only creates tension, but is not the basis of the dramatic conflict.

The fate of most of the residents of the shelter develops like a drama and ends like a tragedy. There is only one reason for this: indifference to people in a society based on the hypocrisy of bourgeois morality. People feel unwanted and rejected by society. “You are superfluous everywhere... and all the people on earth are superfluous...” - Bubnov declares to Nastya.

Each of the heroes experienced their own in the past. social conflict, as a result of which he ended up at the “bottom” of life, in a shelter.

Satin once worked at a telegraph office and read a lot of books. While defending his sister, in the heat of anger he accidentally kills the offender. loved one. So he ended up in prison, where he learned to play cards.

The actor once had the stage name Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky, and played a gravedigger in the drama “Hamlet”. But binge drinking began, and he lost his job in the theater.

Bubnov was a furrier and had his own establishment, but his wife got involved with the master. The hero leaves, leaving everything to his wife.

The tick has been working since an early age. He is proud to be a worker and at first considers himself superior to the rest of the night shelters. He has only been at the bottom for only six months, but hopes that after his wife’s death he will start a new life.

Anna trembled all her life over every bite, was afraid to eat too much, and endured beatings from her husband.

The Baron proudly reports that he belongs to “an old family from the time of Catherine,” and loves to remember how coffee with cream was served to him in bed in the morning. He graduated from the noble institute and got married. Having lost government money, he was forced to put on a prison robe.

Vaska Ash becomes a thief “by inheritance.” “...my parent spent his whole life in prison and ordered it for me too,” he says about himself.

Nastya - "a girl who lives on her own" - lives with dreams of beautiful love, about the feat of self-sacrifice.

These people are victims of social circumstances, and the events of the play confirm this. Vaska Pepel accidentally kills the owner of the shelter, Kostylev, in a fight, and hard labor awaits him in Siberia. He will go to the “golden side” not of his own free will, as Luke advised him. Her sister Natasha, mutilated by Vasilisa, goes missing more than once.

comforting the residents of the shelter. Anna, who was poor before her death, dies. After the death of his wife, Mite loses hope for a decent life as a worker: “the funeral ate up” the tool. Nastya becomes embittered against everyone because the kind Luka who knew how to support her is not around. The actor commits suicide, despairing and losing hope of a cure in a free hospital.

The fate and life of people at the bottom serves as irrefutable evidence of violence against the human person, which inevitably arises under the conditions of a bourgeois state based on the principles of lies and indifference to people.

A vivid accusation of this sounds in the speeches of Satin. “Make my work pleasant... When work is pleasure, life is good!” - he polemically objects to Klesh, who reproaches the residents of the shelter for not working.

In the finale, Satin makes a speech in defense of the freedom and dignity of man, no matter what level of the social ladder he is at. He rebels against the lies that justify “the weight that crushed the hand of the worker... and blames the man dying of hunger.” “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters,” says Gorky’s reasoner. He opposes obedience and humility, calls on people to fight for their rights.

The “love polygon” - the relationship between Kostylev, Vasilisa, Ash and Natasha - is a facet of social conflict. Vasilisa is cheating on her husband with Ash and hopes, with the help of her lover, to get rid of her old and boring husband. Ash leaves Vasilisa for Natasha. Love for a pure, modest girl fills his soul with hope for an honest working life. The culmination of the love conflict is taken off stage. We only learn from the remarks of the night shelters that the “beast woman” scalded her out of jealousy sister boiling water

The murder of Kostylev becomes tragic ending love conflict. We see that the inhumane conditions of the “bottom” cripple people’s souls. Love here does not lead to personal enrichment, but to injury and hard labor.

Thus, from this love conflict, it is the cruel hostess of the flophouse who achieves all goals at once: revenge ex-lover and her rival, gets rid of her unloved husband and becomes the sole owner of the shelter. Her moral impoverishment emphasizes her monstrosity social conditions, in which both the inhabitants of the shelter and its owners are located.

Man - it's true!
M. Gorky
Maxim Gorky is a talented artist who came to Russian classical literature with his own theme, view of the world, and the ability to interest the reader and viewer in an acute conflict, an urgent problem and its resolution. Bright
And the voice of Gorky the playwright also sounded boldly. In the play “At the Bottom” the author poses and tries to solve serious questions that fall into the category of “eternal”, each time confronting a new generation and its era. Questions of love and hate, the place of man in the world around him, problems of goodness and justice, truth and lies have always excited the minds of people and continue to excite them.
Gorky knows very well the traditions of Russian classical literature. He brings to readers and viewers the ideas of humanism, justice and truth. The play “At the Lower Depths” has not left the stages of Russian theaters for a century. Why is she so attractive? At the beginning of the twentieth century, the playwright revealed to the Russian audience an unfamiliar layer of life “ former people" And he didn’t just show the horrific living conditions of the night shelters, but took a philosophical look at the life of these outcasts of society. It turns out they ordinary people with your passions, joys and sorrows. The heroes of the play “At the Bottom” love and hate, suffer better life, cry and laugh. Each individual dreams of a different life, looking for an opportunity to get out of this world of darkness into freedom. The drunken Actor dreams of returning to the stage, Nastya is delirious with pure and selfless love, Ash strives for an honest life.
With the arrival of Luka in the shelter, the faith in its own rebirth grows stronger among its inhabitants, the illusion of the possibility of rebirth appears, and the more terrible and inevitable is the ending, when generally defenseless and naive people suffer a crushing defeat in this cruel and inhuman world.
Even the traditional love conflict in the play undergoes changes. It would seem sincere and deep love Vaska Ashes to Natasha turns into real hell and death for the heroine. In this world of “former people” a pure and selfless love. Everything here turns into evil, even a beautiful and sublime feeling.
In a musty basement there can be no revival of creativity and inspired WORK. Only robbery, slander, drunkenness and fights flourish here. Therefore, the inhabitants of the “bottom” are gradually dying or leaving: Anna and Natasha, Actor and Ash.
It seems that the author has found the cause of this evil - lies. Satin, in his passionate monologue, unites the carriers of this vice: slaves and masters. But everything is not so simple and unambiguous in the world and in Gorky’s play. Luke, who lies to people, is not a villain. He is pleasant to talk to and a necessary old man in the shelter, bringing comfort to the suffering. His philosophy of forgiveness and tolerance is rooted in Orthodoxy.
Rejecting the philosophy of Luke, they defend themselves in their own way and hide from life problems skeptics Bubnov and Baron. Cynicism and unbelief are their temporary refuge. But their death from drunkenness or in a random fight is inevitable.
Maxim Gorky brilliantly showed, when he was a night shelter, the hopelessness and fear of Russian society before reality in the pre-revolutionary era. A completely different truth was needed, one that could radically change the lives of these unfortunate people and bring them out of the “darkness.” The author saw a way out in the revolutionary reorganization of the world. He himself simultaneously feared and longed for this outcome. Being talented artist, Gorky could not help but feel and pass by new trends in society. All this was truthfully and boldly reflected in the writer’s work in general and in particular in the play “At the Bottom.”

The works of M. Gorky occupy a very special place in the history of Russian drama. The writer turned to the theater at the very beginning of the 20th century and became a true successor to the traditions of Russian drama XIX century. Gorky believed that the main purpose of drama is to depict “man and the people,” a reflection of the influence of fate on the development and formation of the human personality. In addition, Gorky’s works contain features characteristic of the genre philosophical drama. They were most vividly reflected in the play “At the Bottom,” which was written in 1902.

It was in this work that Gorky managed to combine the real destinies of people and abstract philosophical concepts.

Behind the external conflict of the work, an internal conflict is clearly visible, which becomes the main one and helps the best way reveal the characters' characters, and, in addition, contributes to the deepest perception of the main meaning of the play. External conflict shown through love triangle(Natasha – Ashes – Kostylevs). But this intrigue is only a backdrop for the development of action based on an internal philosophical conflict (Luke - roommates - Satin). It is the internal conflict that becomes the basis of dramatic action. This conflict is based on the philosophical reasoning of the inhabitants of the shelter about Man and his capabilities.

The writer was very deeply concerned with the idea of ​​what it should be like real man who he is on this planet.

Once in his letter to Chekhov, Gorky noted that it is very difficult to love, help and feel sorry for the “trashy midges with guts” that all people are. But at the same time, Gorky had an unshakable faith in Man, as well as in his strength of spirit. The writer called Man the best, most complex and most interesting creature on Earth. Author's reflections on the essence of Man, his morality and spiritual world became the basis for the internal conflict of the play.

The work captures the awakening human soul, albeit partial, completely timid. Speaking in a harsh manner, Bubnov speaks about himself and about other night shelters, expressing their common feature: once at the “bottom”, people are deprived of all the attributes of civilized life, leaving “one naked man", just the way he is. Maybe that's why tramps are drawn to some general principles and concepts. The author calls them “reluctant philosophers”; these unfortunate people are still capable of dreaming of a brighter future. Kleshch wants to achieve success through hard work, Nastya dreams of love as salvation, Natasha is waiting for a hero, Anna prays to God. In the simple and naive judgments of tramps are hidden the answers to the most difficult questions about the nature and fate of man.

There is another type of character in the play. Satin, Baron and Bubnov have come to terms with their own position as cheaters and do not seek to change anything in their fate. They talk deeply about the meaning of life, yearn for truth and freedom. These heroes are naturally endowed with a lively mind, but do not strive for action.

At the end of the second act of the play, Elder Luke appears. He is an intelligent and extraordinary person with vast experience and a keen interest in people. He strives to understand every person, sees not only the mistakes of other people, but is able to discern their bright qualities. Luka doesn’t just feel sorry for people, he believes in them and sincerely wants to help everyone.

However, Luke's position is such that he is ready to accept any life situation and adapt to it. Luke passively waits for good, without trying to correct the specific state of affairs. He offers the homeless shelters his help, which simply helps them adapt to need and misfortune. Luke gives people the illusory hope that everything will work out on its own. When these illusions collapse, the old man quietly disappears.

In the last act of the play, all the consequences of the experience are revealed. Gorky is especially interested in the fermentation of the lazy thoughts of the night shelters, so the question of Man is raised with particular force in the last act. Of course, the heroes of the play did not become different at one moment, the author simply showed their painful thoughts, which, meanwhile, will not change anything in their lives. However, this does not diminish the meaning of their words, because they have been accumulating in people’s souls for so long.

Satin’s words about Man resonate in a special way. This is a kind of anthem human capabilities and dignity. Despite the fact that Satin is usually indifferent to people and their misfortunes, he is firmly convinced that Man is a strong and wise creature worthy of respect. Satin opposes saving lie, which Luke used. He believes that truth is the only God free man. At the same time, Satin understands that his words do not apply to the specific inhabitants of the shelter, because these people are not able to fight for their honor and dignity. For Satin, Man is absolutely all the people on the planet.

What is the social conflict?

Even its title, “At the Bottom,” speaks of the presence of social conflict in the play. The stage directions placed at the beginning of the first act create a depressing picture of the shelter. “Cave-like basement. The ceiling is heavy, stone vaults, smoked, with crumbling plaster... There are bunks everywhere along the walls.” The picture is not pleasant - dark, dirty, cold. Next come descriptions of the residents of the shelter, or rather, descriptions of their occupations. What are they doing? Nastya is reading, Bubnov and Kleshch are busy with their work. It seems that they work reluctantly, out of boredom, without enthusiasm. They are all poor, pitiful, wretched creatures living in a dirty hole. There is also another type of people in the play: Kostylev, the owner of the shelter, and his wife Vasilisa. In my opinion, the social conflict in the play lies in the fact that the inhabitants of the shelter feel that they live “at the bottom,” that they are cut off from the world, that they only exist.

They all have a cherished goal (for example, the Actor wants to return to the stage), they have their own dream. They are looking for strength within themselves to confront this ugly reality. And for Gorky, the very desire for the best, for the Beautiful, is wonderful. 4) what is unique about the love triangle? Unlike other plays where the love triangle is the main driving force, here the course of events is not determined by intrigue of this kind. The relationship between Vasilisa, Ash and Natasha only externally motivates the action. The so-called “heroless” construction of the work arises.

The play is a cycle of small dramas in which traditional climaxes happen behind the scenes (Kostylev’s death, Vasilisa’s mockery of Natasha, the Actor’s suicide). The author deliberately removes all these events from our field of vision in order to focus attention on the conversations (this is the main thing in the play).

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

Goals:

Educational:

1) study the history of the creation of the play;

2) identify the genre nature of the play;

3) identify the features of the conflict.

Educational:

• improve the skills of systematically complex analysis of a dramatic work;
• develop skills independent search information on this topic;

Educational

• cultivate culture mental work students based on such mental operations, as analysis, synthesis, grouping, comparison.

Lesson type: lesson-lecture with elements of conversation on the plot and genre originality plays.

Equipment:

• computer (presentation in Microsoft program Power Point 2007-2010);
• video projector, screen.

During the classes

Organizing time.

1. Introduction.

Today you got acquainted with M. Gorky’s novel “Mother,” which became, perhaps, the main work of Gorky the novelist. Now we will get acquainted with the dramatic works of M. Gorky. Your homework was to read the play “At the Bottom.” Let's turn to her.

1. A word about the creation of the play.

In 1900, when artists from the Art Theater traveled to Crimea to show Chekhov his plays “The Seagull” and “Uncle Vanya,” they met Gorky. The head of the theater, Nemirovich-Danchenko, told them that the theater had the task of not only “captivating Chekhov with its art, but also infecting Gorky with the desire to write a play.”

The following year, Gorky donated his play “The Bourgeois” to the Art Theater. First performance of Gorky's play Art Theater took place on March 26, 1902, in St. Petersburg, where the theater went on a spring tour. Appeared on stage for the first time new hero: revolutionary worker, machinist Nile, a man aware of his strength, confident of victory. And although the censorship erased all the “dangerous” passages from the play, and also erased Neil’s words: “The master is the one who works!”, “rights are not given, rights are taken,” nevertheless, the play as a whole sounded like a call for freedom, struggle .

The government feared that the performance had turned into a revolutionary demonstration. During the dress rehearsal of the play, the theater was surrounded by police, and policemen in disguise were stationed in the theater; Mounted gendarmes were riding around in the square in front of the theater.

Almost simultaneously with the play "The Bourgeois" Gorky was working on a second play, "At the Depths". In August 1902, Gorky handed over the play to Nemirovich-Danchenko. Rehearsals began, and Gorky now often had to visit Moscow. The actors and the director worked with enthusiasm, went to the Khitrov market, to the shelters where tramps lived, and Gorky talked a lot about the lives of his heroes, helping to better understand their lives and habits.

O. L. Knipper-Chekhova recalled how at one of the rehearsals Gorky said:“I read “At the Lower Depths” in the rooming house, to the real Baron, the real Nastya. You understand! They cried in the rooming house, shouting: “We are worse!”... They kissed me, hugged me...”On December 18, 1902, the play premiered. They endlessly called actors, directors, and the author. The performance turned into a stormy celebration of A. M. Gorky; he went on stage excited, confused - he did not expect such success. Large, slightly stooped, he frowned and, out of embarrassment, forgot to throw away the cigarette he was holding in his teeth, forgot that he had to bow.

1. Conversation on the content of the play (orally):

Questions for the class:

1. What is it built on? story line works?
2. Who are the inhabitants of the shelter? Name them.
3. Who is Klesh? What is known about him?
4. Who is Luka? Satin?

Luke

An elderly man (60 years old), a traveling preacher who consoles everyone, promises everyone deliverance from suffering, says to everyone: “You hope!”, “You believe!” Luka is an extraordinary personality, he has a great life experience and a keen interest in people. He doesn’t believe in anything, but he feels sorry for suffering people, so he tells them various comforting words. His whole philosophy is contained in the saying: “What you believe is what you believe.”

Satin

Unemployed man (40 years old). He loves incomprehensible, rare words, because... I used to serve in the telegraph office, read a lot and was educated person. The hero expresses author's position, he is far from the philosophy of Christian patience, for him there is one thing proudly sound word- a person who “pays for everything himself: for faith, for unbelief, for love, for intelligence - a person pays for everything himself, and therefore he is free.” He understands social injustice more clearly than others. He claims that a person needs the truth, whatever it may be!

Kostylev and Vasilisa

The figure of the hostel owner Kostylev (54), one of the “masters of life”, who is ready to squeeze the last penny even from his unfortunate and disadvantaged guests, is disgusting. His wife Vasilisa (26 years old) is just as disgusting with her immorality, she “has no soul,” she is “greedy for money.”

Vaska Ash

A young man (28 years old) is a hereditary thief, thirsty right life, he wants to become an honest and decent person, because... for a living, Ash earns his living through dishonest labor, he wants to fix all this. Vaska dreams of a free life in Siberia. And he thinks that by marrying Natasha, he will get what he wants. But in the end, having killed Kostylev, he goes to prison.

Natasha

Natasha – 20 years old, Vasilisa’s sister. Quiet, kind girl. She is full of passionate dreams about the future. Natasha wants to leave the shelter, to get out of this “bottom of life,” but she cannot. They want to marry Natasha to Ash, but the girl understands that nothing good will come of this. After all, Vaska treated her sister badly, which means he can do the same to her. She never got married because... After beating his sister, he ends up in the hospital, and from there he leaves in an unknown direction.

Baron and Nastya

Nastya is a young girl (20 years old), passionately wanting something big, true love. True, her dreams cause malicious ridicule among those around her. Even her partner Baron makes fun of her. Nastya suffers from her hopelessness and still wants to go to the ends of the world.

Baron (33) – only person, having no illusions about liberation. But he has a thread: “It’s all in the past!” If there is nothing ahead, then at least there is something behind. The Baron often recalled his origins ( old surname, houses in Moscow and St. Petersburg, carriages with coats of arms, etc.). But Nastya mocks him and says that none of this happened. “I understand what a person is like when they don’t believe him?”

Klesh and Anna

Andrey Mitrich (40 years old) is a mechanic, dreams of honest work. He hopes more than anyone to escape from this hole (“I’ll get out... I’ll rip off my skin, but I’ll get out!”), that this is not the end, but a temporary fall. Klesh thinks that after his wife's death, his life will become easier. He awaits her death as liberation!

Anna (30 years old) – his wife, seriously ill, near death. She considers herself the most unhappy woman. She is crushed by life, full of suffering and useless to anyone.

Actor

Was in the past famous actor, but soon sank, drank himself to death and even forgot his name! He is often absorbed in memories of his past glory. His only dream is to find the city that Luke talked about, where there is a free hospital for alcoholics. After all, he still hopes to return to the stage. But having learned that there is no “ righteous land” and there is no hospital, the actor commits suicide, because... cannot bear the collapse of his last hope.

1. Have you noticed the similarities between Gorky’s “people of the bottom” and the “little man”? What is it? How are they different?

(There are similarities. Both “little people” and people of the “bottom” - “humiliated and insulted” by life social types. However, the situation of the heroes of Gorky's play is much worse. The “little people” had hope (remember Gogol’s Bashmachkin or the hero-ideologists F.M. Dostoevsky), the “people of the bottom” have no such hope. There is nowhere to fall further).

1. What is the similarity between “people of the bottom” and the heroes of “vagrant stories”, for example, the story “Chelkash”, with which you are familiar?

(The heroes of the play are also tramps. But there is no romance here anymore. Chelkash - romantic image, this is a strong, strong-willed character. For him, the main thing is the sea and freedom. There is no romanticism in the play. reality. The people of the doss house argue about the truth, but they themselves don’t know what it is.)

1. Who really argues with Luke: Satin or the author himself?

1. Is the play “At the Bottom” an innovative work?
2. How would you define genre? What dramatic genres do you know?

Comedy, drama, tragedy, vaudeville, melodrama. “At the Bottom” is a drama. In the tragedy d.b. heroes and ideologists. Their conflict with society must become ideological. Remember, for example, the conflict between Katerina Kabanova and “ dark kingdom(Ostrovsky’s “The Thunderstorm”) or Larisa Ogudalova’s conflict with the world of predatory merchants (“Dowry” by Ostrovsky). There is no such thing here. The actor shot himself - despair and disbelief in own strength. Luke leaves.)

1. What do you think is the salvation of people who have fallen “to the bottom” of life?

(Either go into the world of illusions, or fight for social injustice. Their salvation is social changes in Russia, this is what Gorky was leading the viewer to. 1917 will soon come. The proletariat will appear on the stage of history).

1. Lecture part:

In this new play, the protest against capitalist society sounded even more sharply and boldly. Gorky showed in it a new, unfamiliar world - the world of tramps who have sunk to the very bottom of life.Gorky's play “At the Lower Depths” was written in 1902 for the troupe of the Moscow Art Public Theater. The name itself already has a huge meaning. People who have fallen to the bottom will never rise to the light, to a new life. The theme of the humiliated and insulted is not new in Russian literature. Here Gorky acts as a continuer of the traditions of Pushkin, Gogol, Nekrasov, Dostoevsky. However, the situation of Gorky’s “people of the bottom”, in contrast to the “little people,” is more depressing.

In the play, Gorky outlined the need for socio-historical changes that the revolution would bring.The play is based on an acute social conflict: the contradiction between a person’s actual position in society and his high purpose; the contradiction between the masses and the autocratic orders of landowner Russia, which reduce people to the tragic fate of vagabonds.

M. Gorky's play is innovative literary work. In its center - not only human destinies, so much a clash of ideas, a dispute about man, about the meaning of life.

Social conflict is expressed at several levels:

1. Conflict between the owners of the shelter, the Kostylev spouses, and the inhabitants of this shelter
2. Each of their heroes experienced their own social situation in the past. conflict. But everyone's backstory remains in the past. Gorky leaves her behind the scenes. Their life dramas do not become the basis of a dramatic conflict.
3. The love line in the play is connected with the social one. Kostylev is looking for Vasilisa, who cheats on him with Vaska Ash. The beginning of a love conflict is Natasha’s arrival at the shelter. Vaska Pepel's love for Natasha revives him to life. Gorky shows that the anti-human conditions of the “bottom” cripple a person. Vasilisa takes revenge on her lover. Social inequality is winning.

In terms of genre, the play is a drama.There are no ideological conflicts with society. Philosophical reflections the inhabitants of the shelter are not led anywhere, they do not become a rebellion against social. inequalities. The actor shot himself - despair and lack of faith in his own strength. Luka leaves.

The heroes of the play “At the Bottom” turned out to be generalized, collective images, albeit typical. Under the arches of the Kostylevo doss house there were people of very different characters and social status. They are all social. types. All heroes have nicknames instead of names.

M. Gorky offers readers two possible answers to the question of saving the night shelters:

1) go into the world of illusions and deceive yourself (but lies can only worsen the situation of rejected people.

2) fight social injustice (but there are no capable fighters “at the bottom”. The most they are capable of is cutting out the truth – the truth about a person!)

Two main problems in the play:

philosophical issues are reflected in the heroes’ disputes about man, goodness and truth, which raise the problem of humanism:

• human problem;
• the problem of truth

Conclusion.

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 the reconstruction of society, which was throwing people “to the bottom.”

Homework:

1. write out quotation characteristics heroes