M. Gorky - playwright. The play “At the Lower Depths” is a socio-philosophical drama

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Luke (thoughtfully, Bubnov). Here... what you say is true. It’s true, it’s not always because of a person’s illness... you can’t always heal a soul with the truth... There was something like this: I knew one person who believed in a righteous land...

Bubnov. What?

Luke. To the righteous land. There must, he said, be a righteous land in the world... in that, they say, land - special people inhabit... good people! They respect each other, they simply help each other... and everything is fine with them! And so the man kept getting ready to go... to look for this righteous land. He was poor, his life was bad... and when it was so difficult for him that he could even lie down and die, he did not lose his spirit, and everything happened, he just grinned and said: “Nothing! I'll be patient! A few more - I’ll wait... and then I’ll give up this whole life and go to the righteous land...” He had only one joy - this land...

Ash. Well? Are you going?

Bubnov. Where? Ho-ho!

Luke. And to this place - it was in Siberia - they sent an exile, a scientist... with books, with plans, he is a scientist, and with all sorts of things... The man says to the scientist: “Show me, do me a favor, where the righteous land lies.” and how is the way there?” Now this scientist has opened his books, laid out his plans... he looked and looked - there is no righteous land anywhere! That’s right, all the lands are shown, but the righteous one is not!..

Ash. Well? No?

(Bubnov laughs.)

Natasha. Wait a minute... well, grandpa?

Luke. The man doesn’t believe... There must be, he says... look better! Otherwise, he says, your books and plans are of no use if there is no righteous land... The scientist is offended. My plans, he says, are the most correct, but there is no righteous land anywhere. Well, then the man got angry - how could that be? Lived, lived, endured, endured and believed everything - there is! but according to plans it turns out - no! Robbery!.. And he says to the scientist: “Oh, you... such a bastard! You’re a scoundrel, not a scientist...” Yes, in his ear - once! Moreover!.. ( After a pause.) And after that I went home and hanged myself!..

(Everyone is silent. Luka, smiling, looks at Ash and Natasha.)

Ash(quietly). Damn it... the story is not fun...

Natasha. Couldn't stand being lied to...

Bubnov (gloomily). Everything is a fairy tale...

Ash. Well... these are the righteous land... it didn’t turn out, that means...

Natasha. It's a pity... the man...

Bubnov. Everything is fiction... too! Ho-ho! Righteous land! Same way! Ho-ho-ho!

(Disappears from the window.)

(M. Gorky. “At the Bottom”)

IN 1 What type of literature does the play “At the Lower Depths” belong to?

AT 2 What are the heroes of the play “At the Lower Depths” arguing about? (Give your answer in the nominative case.)

AT 3 Replies from Luke talking about the righteous land are large in volume. What are such detailed statements of one character in a literary work called?

AT 5 In the episode you can see how the characters react differently to Luke’s story about the righteous land, which emphasizes the difference in their views and life principles. In a dramatic work, what is the acute clash of characters and circumstances that forms the basis of the stage action called?

AT 6 The Righteous Land is a conventional, allegorical image of the play, which has many meanings and has significant semantic capacity. What is this image called in literary criticism?

AT 7 To what genre can a story about a righteous land be classified if it is characterized by allegory, instructive meaning, the significance of the idea contained in it, and a small volume?

C1 What features of romanticism and realism are there in the story about the righteous land and the play “At the Bottom” as a whole?

C2 What ideological and compositional similarities with Russian literature of the 19th century can be found in Luke’s story about the righteous land?

Alexey Maksimovich Gorky (1868-1936) (Peshkov)

1892 story “Makar Chudra”

1895 story “Old Woman Izergil”

1895 story "Chelkash"

1899 novel "Foma Gordeev"

1901 play "The Bourgeois"

1902 play “At the Bottom”

1904 play "Summer Residents"

1905 plays “Children of the Sun”, “Barbarians”

After January 9, 1905, G. wrote an angry appeal in which he called for the overthrow of the autocracy, for which he was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

1907 novel "Mother"

1913-1916 autobiographical stories “Childhood”, “In People”

1917-1918 series of articles “Untimely Thoughts” in the newspaper. "New life"

1925 autobiographical story “My Universities”

1925 novel “The Artamonov Case”

The epic “The Life of Klim Samgin” remained unfinished.

Gorky's early stories (“Makar Chudra”, “Old Woman Izergil”, “Chelkash”) are of a romantic nature. ( Romanticism - a special type of creativity, the characteristic feature of which is the display and reproduction of life outside the real-specific connections of a person with the surrounding reality, the image of an exceptional personality, often lonely and not satisfied with the present, striving for a distant ideal and therefore in sharp conflict with society , with people.)

At the center of Gorky's narrativeusually a romantic hero -a proud, strong, freedom-loving, lonely person, a destroyer of the sleepy vegetation of the majority. A distinctive feature of Gorky’s romantic images is proud disobedience to fate and daring love of freedom, integrity of nature and heroic character. The romantic hero strives for unfettered freedom, without which there is no true happiness for him and which is often dearer to him than life itself. The romantic stories embody the writer’s observations of the contradictions of the human soul and the dream of beauty.

For the romantic consciousness, the correlation of character with real life circumstances is almost unthinkable - this is how the most important feature of the romantic artistic world is formed:the principle of romantic duality. The ideal world of the hero is contrasted with the real, contradictory and far from the romantic ideal. A large role in romantic works is played by the landscape, expressing the indomitable power of the elements, its beauty and exclusivity. The landscape becomes animated and, as it were, emphasizes the originality of the hero’s character.

Some of Nietzsche's philosophical and aesthetic ideas were reflected in Gorky's early romantic works.

The story "Old Woman Izergil"

Heroes ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The play “At the Bottom” (1902)

In the public life of the country, it is time for reaction. After the abolition of serfdom in Russia, capitalism developed rapidly: industry grew, a wealthy part of the peasantry emerged in the countryside, profiting from the labor of others - the kulaks. The oppression of the landowners and bourgeoisie, the tyranny of officials and landowners, and autocratic despotism aroused the indignation of the broadest sections of the population. A bourgeois-democratic revolution was brewing, and at the same time the movement of the proletariat against the capitalist order was growing. M. Gorky became the spokesman for the ideas of the proletariat rising to the revolutionary struggle.

Gorky's dramatic innovation

G. created the genre of socio-philosophical drama.

Primary attention is paid to the ideological side of human life. Every action, every word reflects the characteristics of his consciousness. Therefore, the dramas of the city are ideological.

G.'s plays were declared by modern criticism to be non-stage. The driving force of the play is the struggle of ideas. The external events of the plays are determined by the attitude of the characters to the question of man. The private dramas of individual characters, intertwined, create exceptional tension in the action and lead the reader to a super idea - the need to change the existing system, the need for struggle. G. defined this construction of drama as symphonism

G. brings out a new hero - a proletarian, a revolutionary fighter.

G. brought all social strata of society onto the stage.

G. continues the traditions of Chekhov.

Genre - socio-philosophical and social-everyday drama.

G. conceived a series of dramas: - about the intelligentsia (“Summer Residents”)

About the proletariat (“Enemies”)

About tramps (“At the Bottom”)

About the village (did not materialize)

The invasion of “capitalist progress” into the provincial wilderness (“Barbarians”)

General loop task- to show in each play a certain social layer of Russian society so that in the end all of Russia is revealed to the reader - modern Russia, experiencing the beginning of a social upsurge, Russia on the eve of a revolutionary explosion.

G. was intensely searching for a title for his play about tramps:“Without the Sun” - “Nochlezhka” - "In the lodging house"- "At the bottom" .

main topic – the theme of truth and lies.

Gorky: “The main question The question I wanted to pose is – which is better, truth or compassion? What is more needed? Is it necessary to take compassion to the point of using lies, like Luke?”

The main image of the play- the image of the “bottom of life”. The subject of depiction in G.'s drama is the consciousness of people thrown to the bottom of life as a result of social processes. From the “bottom of life” not only a cry of despair began to be heard, but also a voice of active protest.

Before the reader there are several dramas connected by a common place of action, the general conditions of the “bottom of life”:

1) relationships between Kostylev, Vasilisa, Ash and Natasha.

2) Mite and Anna

3)Baron and Nastya

4) Kvashnya and Medvedev

5) The fates of Actor, Bubnov, Alyoshka and others play an independent plot role.

Conflicts – social (each of the heroes experienced their own social conflict in the past, as a result of which they found themselves at the “bottom” of life), love (the edge of the social)

The exhibition is a depiction of people who have come to terms with their tragic situation at the bottom of their lives

The plot - the appearance of Luke

Climax

The author addresses the main accusation not to Luke, but to the heroes who are unable to find the strength to oppose their will to reality. Thus, Gorky manages to reveal one of the characteristic features of the Russian national character: dissatisfaction with reality, a sharply critical attitude towards it and a complete unwillingness to do anything to change this reality.

Heroes ______________________________________________________________________________

Questions.

1. “Bitter” pseudonym of the writer. Give his real name.

2. In what works did Gorky tell about his childhood and youth? Which writer wrote about childhood?

3.What is the name of Gorky’s first printed story? When and where was it printed?

4.Which of the characters in Gorky’s stories did people punish for pride, for the fact that he considered himself the first on earth and saw nothing but himself?

5.Which play by Gorky, according to the artist Kachalov, was greeted by the audience “stormily and enthusiastically, like a petrel play that foreshadowed the coming storms and called to the storms”?

6.Whose portrait is this: “Time bent her in half, her once black eyes were dull and watery. Her dry voice sounded strange and crunched, as if the old woman was speaking with bones..."

7. “... a handsome and strong young man... his eyes were cold and proud, like those of the king of birds... He was dexterous, predatory, strong, cruel and did not meet people face to face.”

8.Who “teared his chest with his hands and tore out his heart from it,” blazing with “a torch of great love for people,” and “lighting their way,” led people out of the stinking, impenetrable forest?

9. Who, when the girl pushed him away, he hit her, and when she fell, “stood with his foot on her chest, so that blood sprayed from her mouth to the sky”?

10. In which story by M. Gorky does the heroine tell legends and stories of her life?

11.What is the name of Gorky’s work, in which there is a dispute about the truth?

12.What is the name of the creative method, in line with which G. created the image of an exceptional hero striving for absolute freedom?

13. Name what natural image, personifying the free element, unites Gorky’s stories “Chelkash”, “Makar Chudra”, “Old Woman Izergil”?

14.What traditional genre of folklore do the stories of the old woman Izergil relate to?

15.Name a compositional technique that allows the writer to contrast the heroes of the story “Old Woman Izergil” - Danko and Larra.

16.What word becomes the key word to determine the essence of Larra’s character?

17.What quality does Larra lack?

18.What element of the composition of the story “Old Woman Izergil” allows the author to create a lyrical description of the steppe: “The night grew and grew stronger, filling with strange, quiet sounds. In the steppe gophers whistled sadly, the glassy chirping of grasshoppers trembled in the leaves of the grapes?

19.What artistic device does the author use to enhance the expressiveness of the characters’ speech (“they told him... that they are honored, they are obeyedthousands like him, and thousands twice his age»)?

20.What is the name of the artistic technique of animating nature used by the author (“and the forest still sang its gloomy song”)?

21.What is the name of the type of description of nature in a literary work used by the author: “There were swamps and darkness, because the forest was old, and its branches were so densely intertwined that the sky could not be seen through them, and the rays of the sun could hardly make their way through to the swamps through the dense foliage...")?

22.What artistic device does the writer use in the given example: “Danko looked at those for whom he had labored, and saw that they- like animals?

23.Indicate the term that in literary criticism is used to describe the image of the hero’s appearance (“his eyes were cold and proud...”)

24.What is the name of the means of representation used by Gorky: “the glass chirping of grasshoppers trembled”?

25.What visual technique allows Gorky to paint nature as a living being: “the foliage sighed and whispered”?

26.What visual device does the writer use when talking about the death of the girl: “she wriggled like a snake and died”?

27.What is the original title of the play “At the Bottom”.

28.a) What genre of drama does Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” belong to?

B) What is the name of the genre of literature to which the play belongs...?

29.Name the symbolic image reflected in the title of the play about the “bedroom” life.

30. The first act of the play “At the Bottom” opens with the author’s explanation: “A basement like a cave. The ceiling is heavy stone vaults, smoked, with fallen plaster..." What is the name of the author's explanation that precedes or accompanies the course of action in the play?

31. Which of the characters in the play “At the Bottom” declares that he “seems to have no character”?

32. Who doesn’t want to come to terms with life on the “bottom” and declares: “I am a working man... I’ve been working since I was little... I’ll get out... I’ll rip off my skin, but I’ll get out”?

33. Who dreamed of such a life “so that you could respect yourself”?

34. Who lives the dream of great, true human love?

35. Who believes that she will be better off in the next world, but still wants to live in this world at least a little longer?

36. Who “lay down in the middle of the street, plays the accordion and yells: “I don’t want anything, I don’t want anything”?

37. Who says to the man who asked her to marry him: “... getting married for a woman is like jumping into an ice hole in winter”?

38. Who, under the guise of serving God, robs people: “And I’ll throw half a buck at you, I’ll buy oil for a lamp... and my sacrifice will burn in front of the holy icon...”?

39. Who is indignant: “And why do they separate people when they are fighting?.. If only they were allowed to beat each other freely... they would fight less, because they would remember the beatings longer...”?

40. Who ended up in a shelter because he left his wife, afraid to kill her, jealous of another?

41. Who consoled everyone with beautiful lies, and in difficult times “disappeared from the police... like smoke from a fire...”?

42. Who, beaten, scalded with boiling water, asks to be taken to prison?

43. Who claimed: “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man!”?

44.Which hero of the play “At the Lower Depths” owns the following words: “You can’t always cure your soul with truth”?

45.Which character in the play speaks about his past: “When I was a boy...I served in the telegraph office...I read a lot of books...”?

46.Who owns the following statement: “Prison will not teach you good, and Siberia will not teach you... but man will teach you... yes! A person can teach goodness... very simply!”?

47.Which of the characters in the play quotes Beranger:

Gentlemen! If to the truth, holy Honor to the madman who brings

The world does not know how to find a way. Humanity has a golden dream!

48.What song do the night shelters sing in the drama “At the Lower Depths”?

49.Most of the residents of the shelter are single. Name a hero who lost his only loved one before our eyes.

50.What is the main debate in the play “At the Bottom”?

51.What event ends with the play “At the Bottom”?

52.Which of the inhabitants of the shelter is haunted by the nickname “thief”, “son of a thief”?

53. The development of the internal action of the play begins at the moment when the characters discover in themselves the ability to dream of a new and better life. Who awakened this ability?

54.Which of the characters in the play does Luke advise to go to Siberia?

55.To whom Luke gives advice: “You...get healed! Nowadays they are treating for drunkenness... For free, brother, they are treating... this is the kind of hospital built for drunkards... to treat them for nothing..."

56.Which of the heroes was a telegraph operator, educated, played in the theater, and was imprisoned for murder?

57. One of the most dramatic moments of the play is Satin’s speech about the proud name of Man. What is the moment of highest tension in a dramatic action called?

58.What is the culmination of the external plot taken off stage?

59.Who did the Actor play in Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet”?

60.Luke tells the story of a man who believes in a righteous land. “He had one joy - this land... He lived, lived, endured, endured and believed everything - there is! But according to the plans, no! Robbery!.. And after that he went home and hanged himself!..” Which of the characters in the play almost literally repeats the fate of the hero of Luke’s story?

61. Which of the characters in the play pronounces the famous monologue about Man: “Man is the truth! What is a person!... it's you, me, them, the old man, Napoleon, Mohammed... in one! Everything is in man, everything is for man! Human! It sounds... proud1 We must respect the person! Don’t feel sorry... don’t humiliate him with pity... you need to respect him!”?

62.Where do the events described in the play “At the Bottom” take place?

63.What artistic device does the author use to contrast Satin’s two statements: “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man”

64.Write down the term used in literary criticism to designate a statement that has become popular and turned into a saying: “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man.”

65.What means of artistic representation does the author use in Satin’s speech: “He affected me, like acid on an old and dirty coin"?

66.Write the term that in literary criticism is used to describe the detailed statement of a hero in a play, for example, Satin’s speech.

67.What is the exchange of remarks between the characters in a dramatic work called?

68.What are the names of stable combinations characteristic of Satin’s speech, for example, “You cannot kill twice”?

69.What are the names of heroes called in literary criticism, reflecting the characteristics of their personality and character?

70.What is the name in literary criticism for the author's indications of gestures, facial expressions, intonation, and movements of actors in a dramatic work?

71.What is the name in dramaturgy for a character who does not appear on stage, but is talked about?

72.What is the name of the acute conflict between the positions of the characters in a work?

73. In the Actor’s speech there are many hidden quotes from classical tragedies (for example, “Look for the city... Ophelia... go to the monastery...”). Indicate the name of the great playwright whose works the Actor recalls.

75.Why did Gorky make the tramp the main character of his works?

76.What brings together the life positions of Luke and Satin?

77. Which hero – Luke or Satin – does Gorky take?

78. Why is the ending of Gorky’s drama “At the Bottom” so tragic?

79. Why does Satin defend Luka in a dispute with the night shelters?

80.What is unique about the disclosure of the theme of love in the play “At the Bottom”?

81.What is the significance of Luke's parable of the "righteous land"?

82.What is the concept of life in Gorky’s story “Old Woman Izergil”?

Tasks with detailed answers of limited scope.

1.What are the problems of the story about Larra?

2. What was so disgusting about Larra’s character and behavior to people that the tribe expelled him?

3. What does the story of the “son of an eagle” in the story “Old Woman Izergil” make you think about and which heroes of Russian literature had a sense of superiority over others?

4.What feeling or quality becomes the leading one in Danko’s character and determines his actions?

6. What, in your opinion, is Danko’s heroism and in which heroes of Russian literature is the active transformative principle embodied?

7. In what works of Russian literature do the heroes have philosophical conversations and how can they be compared with the dispute between Satin and Luke?

The play “At the Lower Depths” was conceived by Gorky as one of four plays in a cycle showing the life and worldview of people from different walks of life. This is one of the two purposes of creating a work. The deep meaning that the author put into it is an attempt to answer the main questions of human existence: what a person is and whether he will retain his personality, having sunk “to the bottom” of moral and social existence.

History of the play

The first evidence of work on the play dates back to 1900, when Gorky, in a conversation with Stanislavsky, mentioned his desire to write scenes from the life of a flophouse. Some sketches appeared at the end of 1901. In a letter to the publisher K. P. Pyatnitsky, to whom the author dedicated the work, Gorky wrote that in the planned play all the characters, the idea, the motives for the actions were clear to him, and “it will be scary.” The final version of the work was ready on July 25, 1902, published in Munich and went on sale at the end of the year.

Things were not so rosy with the production of the play on the stages of Russian theaters - it was practically banned. An exception was made only for the Moscow Art Theater; other theaters had to obtain special permission for the production.

The title of the play changed at least four times during the work, and the genre was never determined by the author - the publication read “At the Bottom of Life: Scenes.” The shortened and familiar name to everyone today first appeared on the theater poster during the first production at the Moscow Art Theater.

The first performers were the star cast of the Moscow Art Academic Theater: K. Stanislavsky played the role of Satin, V. Kachalov - Barona, I. Moskvin - Luke, O. Knipper - Nastya, M. Andreeva - Natasha.

The main plot of the work

The plot of the play is tied to the relationships of the characters and the atmosphere of general hatred that reigns in the shelter. This is the outer outline of the work. A parallel action explores the depth of a person’s fall “to the bottom,” the measure of insignificance of a socially and spiritually degraded individual.

The action of the play begins and ends with the storyline of the relationship between two characters: the thief Vaska Pepel and the wife of the owner of the rooming house Vasilisa. Ash loves her little sister Natasha. Vasilisa is jealous and constantly beats her sister. She also has another interest in her lover - she wants to free herself from her husband and pushes Ash to murder. During the course of the play, Ash actually kills Kostylev in a quarrel. In the last act of the play, the guests of the shelter say that Vaska will have to go to hard labor, but Vasilisa will still “get out.” Thus, the action loops around the destinies of the two heroes, but is far from limited to them.

The time period of the play is several weeks of early spring. The time of year is an important component of the play. One of the first titles given by the author to the work is “Without the Sun.” Indeed, there is spring all around, a sea of ​​sunshine, but in the shelter and in the souls of its inhabitants there is darkness. The ray of sunshine for the overnight shelters was Luka, a tramp whom Natasha brings in one day. Luke brings hope for a happy outcome to the hearts of people who have fallen and lost faith in the best. However, at the end of the play, Luka disappears from the shelter. The characters who trusted him lose faith in the best. The play ends with the suicide of one of them - the Actor.

Play Analysis

The play describes the life of a Moscow flophouse. The main characters, accordingly, were its inhabitants and the owners of the establishment. Also in it appear people related to the life of the establishment: a policeman, who is also the uncle of the hostess of the rooming house, a dumpling seller, loaders.

Satin and Luka

Schuler, the former convict Satin and the tramp, wanderer Luke are carriers of two opposing ideas: the need for compassion for a person, a saving lie out of love for him, and the need to know the truth, as proof of a person’s greatness, as a sign of trust in his strength of spirit. In order to prove the falsity of the first worldview and the truth of the second, the author built the action of the play.

Other characters

All the other characters form the background for this battle of ideas. In addition, they are designed to show and measure the depth of the fall to which a person is capable of falling. The drunkard Actor and the terminally ill Anna, people who have completely lost faith in their own strength, fall under the power of a wonderful fairy tale into which Luke takes them. They are the most dependent on it. With his departure, they physically cannot live and die. The rest of the inhabitants of the shelter perceive Luka's appearance and departure as the play of a spring sunbeam - he appeared and disappeared.

Nastya, who sells her body “on the boulevard,” believes that there is bright love, and it was in her life. Kleshch, the husband of the dying Anna, believes that he will rise from the bottom and begin to earn a living by working again. The thread that connects him with his working past remains a toolbox. At the end of the play, he is forced to sell them in order to bury his wife. Natasha hopes that Vasilisa will change and stop torturing her. After another beating, after leaving the hospital, she will no longer appear in the shelter. Vaska Pepel strives to stay with Natalya, but cannot get out of the networks of the powerful Vasilisa. The latter, in turn, expects that the death of her husband will untie her hands and give her the long-awaited freedom. The Baron lives on from his aristocratic past. The gambler Bubnov, the destroyer of “illusions,” the ideologist of misanthropy, believes that “all people are superfluous.”

The work was created in conditions when, after the economic crisis of the 90s of the 19th century, factories shut down in Russia, the population was rapidly becoming poor, many found themselves on the bottom rung of the social ladder, in the basement. Each of the characters in the play experienced a fall to the bottom, social and moral, in the past. Now they live in the memory of this, but they cannot rise “to the light”: they don’t know how, they don’t have the strength, they are ashamed of their insignificance.

Main characters

Luke became a light for some. Gorky gave Luka a “speaking” name. It refers both to the image of St. Luke and to the concept of “cunning.” It is obvious that the author seeks to show the inconsistency of Luke’s ideas about the beneficial value of Faith for man. Gorky practically reduces Luka’s compassionate humanism to the concept of betrayal - according to the plot of the play, the tramp leaves the shelter just when those who trusted him need his support.

Satin is a figure designed to voice the author’s worldview. As Gorky wrote, Satin is not quite a suitable character for this, but there is simply no other character with equally powerful charisma in the play. Satin is the ideological antipode of Luke: he does not believe in anything, he sees the ruthless essence of life and the situation in which he and the rest of the inhabitants of the shelter find themselves. Does Satin believe in Man and his power over the power of circumstances and mistakes made? The passionate monologue that he delivers, arguing in absentia with the departed Luka, leaves a strong but contradictory impression.

There is also a bearer of the “third” truth in the work - Bubnov. This hero, like Satin, “stands for the truth,” only it is somehow very scary for him. He is a misanthrope, but, in essence, a murderer. Only they die not from the knife in his hands, but from the hatred that he has for everyone.

The drama of the play increases from act to act. The connecting outline is Luke's comforting conversations with those suffering from his compassion and Satin's rare remarks, indicating that he listens attentively to the speeches of the tramp. The climax of the play is Satin’s monologue, delivered after Luke’s departure and flight. Phrases from it are often quoted because they have the appearance of aphorisms; “Everything in a person is everything for a person!”, “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free person!”, “Man - this sounds proud!”

Conclusion

The bitter result of the play is the triumph of the freedom of fallen man to perish, disappear, leave, leaving behind neither a trace nor memories. The inhabitants of the shelter are free from society, moral standards, family and livelihood. By and large, they are free from life.

The play “At the Lower Depths” has been around for more than a century and continues to remain one of the most powerful works of Russian classics. The play makes you think about the place of faith and love in a person’s life, about the nature of truth and lies, about a person’s ability to resist moral and social decline.

The turn of the 19th-20th centuries in the development of Russian literature was marked by the emergence of new trends, trends, a non-standard approach to solving the problems posed in the work, and the originality of artistic forms. And if A.P. Chekhov became a recognized innovator in drama, he developed and improved his innovative principles, such as: subtext, veiling of the main conflict, abundance of plot lines, organization of stage performances.
of Russian action based on the principle of “disunity” of characters, - another Russian writer and playwright Maxim Gorky. He created a number of bright and serious plays, among which the play “At the Lower Depths” occupies a special place, rich and diverse not only in ideological content, but also in artistic embodiment, which became a literary monument to the author’s dramatic skill.
The play became a kind of completion of Gorky’s cycle of works about tramps and represents an excerpt from the life of the inhabitants of the shelter. The author himself defined the genre of the play as “pictures,” that is, sketches, scenes; however, the conventionality, generality of images, allegorical nature, and subtext speak of the deeper, philosophical content of the play, which is a complex combination of dramatic, tragic and even comic elements. The fate of almost all the heroes who sank to the “bottom” of life is dramatic; the insoluble conflict in the souls of some of them (Actor), as well as death (Anna, Actor), is tragic. There are also comic episodes, for example the scene of the life of Kvashnya and Medvedev together. Genre originality also lies in the fact that excerpts from various genres are introduced into the fabric of the play: parables (Luke’s monologues about the “righteous land” and detained thieves), a love story retold by Nastya as part of her biography; Beranger's poems, folk songs, reminiscences from Dante and Shakespeare. Nevertheless, all these, so different, passages are masterfully, organically combined by M. Gorky and form a single artistic whole.
Continuing the traditions of Chekhov, Gorky built the play not on one, but on several conflicts: love, social, philosophical. The love triangle (Ashes, Vasilisa, Natasha) and the development of relationships in it are the main intrigue; social conflict - between the owners and inhabitants of the shelter. However, as Gorky said, “the main question that I wanted to pose is - what is better, truth or compassion?”, that is, the main conflict in the play is philosophical: the humanism of Luke and the humanism of Satin are opposed, two points of view on the essence of truth, faith, on a person and attitude towards him, for the future. In this conflict, the author's position is most expressed: Gorky clearly thinks like Satin, in other words. Satin is the author's reasoner. In general, drama is a type of literature in which it is very difficult for the author to express his point of view; Gorky uses Satin’s monologues and the very course of events, the development of action for this; It is no coincidence that in the finale all those who believed in Luke die or tragically leave the stage (Natasha disappears, Ash is sent to hard labor), and supporters of Satin’s theory, having adapted to the terrible living conditions, continue to go with the flow. The plot itself amazes with the abundance of different lines; each character tells his own backstory, there are many comments simultaneously with the stage action (stories about Ash and Natasha in the finale, before that - about the connection between Vasilisa and Ash). The off-stage action and characters significantly expand the scope of the depicted time, and also have another important meaning: the entire play appears as an excerpt taken from the monotonous life of the night shelters. This is also reflected in the peculiarity of the composition: all acts begin with everyday
depictions of everyday life, this gives the play a mood of hopelessness, the hopelessness of the situation, the impossibility for tramps to escape from this world. Three of the four acts (II, III, IV) end in death (of Anna, Kostylev and Actor, respectively); the tragedy of these scenes makes a heavy and overwhelming impression on the viewer.
Gorky really subtly thought through the stage organization and staging of the play, as evidenced by the detailed stage directions and detailed descriptions of the scene of action and the appearance of the characters. The poster indicates the exact age of the characters, on average - 30 years; at this age, people are usually at the peak of their career, and the heroes of the play “At the Bottom,” on the contrary, find themselves at the “bottom” of society and life; The symbolism of the name is subtly thought out by the author. The stage details are also symbolic, such as: the window in the first and fourth acts, disappearing like the heroes’ hope for a better life; the partition that separated Ash's room at the beginning disappears in the finale. Unlike Chekhov, Gorky leads the heroes to spiritual unity in the end: disunity is replaced by mutual understanding. In general, the principles of constructing a system of characters are also a Chekhovian tradition: the heroes are divided into groups, firstly - into the owners and inhabitants of the shelter; the inhabitants of the shelter, in turn, against the supporters of Luke and the supporters of Satin.
The images created by Gorky are vivid and multifaceted; That is why, due to the difference in interpretations, there are still several points of view on the possible reading of the play. Characters are created in a play primarily through a poster giving name and age; secondly, the images are inextricably linked with the interior: in the “cave-like basement,” people growl, grunt, hiss and make other animal sounds. Next, everyone tells their biography. Also, the impression of the hero is formed thanks to the stylistic coloring of his speech: Luka has many proverbs, Bubnov has “thieves’ aphorisms” (for example, the people “were honest, but the spring before last...”). The characters often characterize each other, complementing the images; Thus, almost everyone describes Luka after his disappearance. The images are revealed, for example, through the parallelism of the parable of the “righteous land” and the tragedy of the Actor; In general, Gorky endows his heroes with the gift of foresight and prediction: Natasha, near the bed of the dead Anna, prophesies the same end for herself (“in the basement, crammed ...”), Ash is predicted that Natasha will disappear “through him.” With the help of these artistic means, Gorky creates a painful atmosphere, enhances the feeling of hopelessness, creates clearer and more scenic images, and intrigues the viewer.
According to documents, the audience who came to the premiere of the play “At the Lower Depths” at the Moscow Art Theater in 1903 wept. The reaction to the play from different literary schools was varied, there was debate about the issues and the author's position, but no one could refute the perfection of the artistic form chosen by Gorky, which most fully reflected his plan, making the play bright, multifaceted, deep, and exciting.

Homework for the lesson

2. Collect material for each inhabitant of the shelter.

3. Think about how you can group the characters.

4.​ What is the nature of the conflict in the play?

Purpose of the lesson: to show Gorky’s innovation; identify the components of genre and conflict in a play.

The main question I wanted to pose is what is better, truth or compassion. What is more necessary? Is it necessary to take compassion to the point of using lies, like Luke? This is not a subjective question, but a general philosophical one.

Maksim Gorky

History of the play

For more than 80 years, performances based on the play “At the Lower Depths” have not left the national stage. It has also visited the largest theaters in the world, and interest in it does not wane!

In 1901, Gorky said about the concept of his play: “It will be scary.” The author changed the title several times: “Without the Sun”, “Nochlezhka”, “The Bottom”, “At the Bottom of Life”. The title “At the Lower Depths” first appeared on art theater posters. What is highlighted is not the location of the action - “the shelter”, not the nature of the conditions - “without the sun”, “the bottom”, not even the social position - “at the bottom of life”. The phrase “At the Bottom” has a much broader meaning than all of the above. What's going on at the bottom? “At the bottom” – what, just life? Maybe even souls?

The ambiguity of Gorky's play led to its various theatrical productions.

The most striking was the first stage adaptation of the drama (1902) by the Art Theater by the famous directors K.S. Stanislavsky, V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko with the direct participation of A.M. Gorky.

In 1903, the play was awarded the honorary Griboyedov Prize.

Features of the composition

Question

Where does the play take place?

Answer

In a cave-like basement in which people are forced to lead an antediluvian existence. Separate strokes of the description introduce the symbolism of hell here: the shelter is located below ground level, people are deprived of the sun here, the light falls “from top to bottom”, the characters feel like “dead people”, “sinners”, “thrown into a pit, “killed” by society and in these vaults buried.

Question

How is the scene depicted in the play?

Answer

In the author's remarks. In the first act it is a “cave-like basement”, “heavy, stone vaults, sooty, with crumbling plaster.” It is important that the writer gives instructions on how the scene is illuminated: “from the viewer and from top to bottom,” the light reaches the shelters from the basement window, as if looking for people among the basement inhabitants. Thin partitions screen off Ash's room. Everywhere along the walls there are bunks. Apart from Kvashnya, Baron and Nastya, who live in the kitchen, no one has their own corner. Everything is on display in front of each other, a secluded place is only on the stove and behind the chintz canopy separating the dying Anna’s bed from the others (by this she is already, as it were, separated from life). There is dirt everywhere: “dirty chintz canopy”, unpainted and dirty tables, benches, stools, tattered cardboards, pieces of oilcloth, rags.

Question

List the characters in the play with their brief characteristics. What groups can all the characters be divided into?

Answer

All the inhabitants of the shelter can be conditionally united into four groups, depending on the place they occupy in the clash of different positions, in the philosophical conflict of the play.

The first group includes Actor, Nastya, Ash, Natasha. These characters are predisposed to meeting the wanderer Luke. Each of them lives with some kind of dream or hope. So the Actor hopes to recover from alcoholism and return to the stage, where he had the theatrical name Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky. Now, however, there is no name left, but his thoughts are directed towards artistic glory. Nastya dreams of a French student whom she supposedly loves passionately. Ash dreams of a free and free life, “so that you can... respect yourself.” Natasha vaguely hopes for a happy fate when Vasily will be her strong support. Each of these characters is not too firm in their aspirations and is internally divided.

Luke, which we will talk about in detail in the next lesson, is designed to reveal the essence of everyone.

Baron and Bubnov are the third group. The first of them constantly lives in the past, remembering hundreds of serfs, carriages with coats of arms, coffee with cream in bed in the morning. Completely devastated, he no longer expects anything, dreams of nothing. The second - Bubnov - also sometimes turns to past years, when he suffered from life, but mostly lives in the present and recognizes only what he sees and touches. Bubnov is an indifferent cynic. For him, only facts are clear; they are a “stubborn thing.” The truth of Baron and Bubnov is a hard, wingless truth, far from the real truth.

Satin occupies the fourth position in the play. For all its originality, it is also distinguished by its inconsistency. Firstly, the words spoken by this hero are in sharp contrast to his essence. After all, a swindler by occupation, a prisoner and a murderer in the past speaks about the truth. Secondly, in a number of cases Satin turns out to be close to Luke. He agrees with the wanderer that “people live for the best,” that truth is connected with the idea of ​​a person, that one should not interfere with him and humiliate him (“Do not offend a person!”)

The images should be arranged along the “ladder” of ranks and positions, since we have before us a social cross-section of life in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century: Baron, Kostylev, Bubnov, Satin, Actor; Ashes, Nastya.

Question

What is the conflict of the drama?

Answer

The conflict in this drama is social. Each of the night shelters experienced their own social conflict in the past, as a result of which they found themselves in a humiliating position. Life has deprived the people gathered in this hell. She deprived Kleshch of the right to work, Nastya to have a family, Actor to have a profession, Baron to have her former comfort, Anna was doomed to starvation, Ash to theft, Bubnov to endless drinking, Nastya to prostitution.

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

Question

How is social conflict related to dramaturgical conflict?

Answer

The social conflict is taken off stage, pushed into the past, it does not become the basis of the dramatic conflict. We are only observing the result of off-stage conflicts.

Question

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

Answer

The play contains a traditional love conflict. It is determined by the relationships between Vaska Pepla, Vasilisa, the wife of the owner of the shelter, Kostylev and Natasha, Vasilisa’s sister. The exposition of this conflict is a conversation between the night shelters, from which it is clear that Kostylev is looking for his wife Vasilisa in the rooming house, who is cheating on him with Vaska Pepl. The beginning of this conflict is the appearance of Natasha in the shelter, for whose sake Ashes leaves Vasilisa. As the love conflict develops, it becomes clear that the relationship with Natasha revives Ash, he wants to leave with her and start a new life. The culmination of the conflict is taken off stage: at the end of the third act, we learn from Kvashnya’s words that they boiled the girl’s legs with boiling water” - Vasilisa knocked over the samovar and scalded Natasha’s legs. The murder of Kostylev by Vaska Ash turns out to be the tragic outcome of a love conflict. Natasha stops believing Ash: “They are at the same time! Damn you! You both…"

Question

What is unique about the love conflict in the play?

Answer

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

Question

What does this shelter remind you of?

Answer

The shelter is a unique model of the cruel world from which its inhabitants were thrown out. Here, too, there are “masters”, the police, the same alienation, hostility, and the same vices are manifested.

Teacher's final words

Gorky depicts the consciousness of people at the “bottom”. The plot unfolds not so much in external action - in everyday life, but in the dialogues of the characters. It is the conversations of the night shelters that determine the development of the dramatic conflict. The action is transferred to a non-event series. This is typical for the genre of philosophical drama.

So, the genre of the play can be defined as a socio-philosophical drama.

Homework

Prepare for a debate lesson about Luke. To do this: note (or write down) his statements about people, about truth, about faith. Determine your attitude towards statements about Luke by Baron and Satin (Act IV).

Identify the compositional elements of the play. Why did Chekhov consider the last act unnecessary?

Literature

D.N. Murin, E.D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the twentieth century. 11th grade program. Thematic lesson planning. St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001

E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the 20th century / St. Petersburg: Parity, 2002

N.V. Egorova. Lesson developments on Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11. I half of the year. M.: VAKO, 2005