The problem raised in the work of Foma Gordeev. Analysis of the work of Gorky Foma Gordeev
On the eve of 1900, Gorky published the novel Foma Gordeev. In Tolstoy's Anna Karenina it was said that everything had turned upside down, but had not yet settled into post-reform times. In “Foma Gordeev” the “laying down” that has begun is depicted.
As a participant in the populist circles of the 80s, Gorky was critical of the teachings of the populists, but echoes of his influence can still be found in early works writer; These are, for example, the motives of sacrifice in the legend of Danko and in the “Song of the Falcon.” The novel “Foma Gordeev” testified to the obsolescence of such hobbies. This is the largest anti-populist work, which left no doubt that Gorky began to master the Marxist knowledge of social development.
After the appearance of Foma Gordeev, readers and critics began to talk about him as a Marxist writer. Thus, the future People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G.V. Chicherin wrote to a comrade in 1901: “Instead of the worldview of the era of natural economy, a completely new worldview of the urban proletariat is emerging<...>Marxism and Gorky are the main phenomena in our country. last years. (And in “Foma Gordeev” - big influence Marxism)".
Gorky built his great works (from “Foma Gordeev” to “The Life of Klim Samgin”) as chronicle novels, which allowed him to show not only the development of human life over time, as N. Leskov did in his chronicles, but also the movement of time itself as a historical category.
The heroes turned out to be correlated with the historical steps of Russia. Some of them became active figures, others convinced that a person and “his time” are not always the same values. The tendency towards such a correlation was clearly manifested already in the first novel, the hero of which did not hear the true calls of his time.
The greatest attention in the novel is paid to two figures: the guardian and affirmer of bourgeois consciousness - Yakov Mayakin and the renegade of his class, who becomes a "side" to him - Foma Gordeev. In the 90s capitalism has taken a strong position in the country.
The image of the “grimy”, so expressively captured in the works of Shchedrin, Uspensky and Ostrovsky, was becoming a thing of the past, giving way to money tycoons and factory owners. Gorky’s predecessors in creating the image of the offensive bourgeois (P. Boborykin - “Vasily Terkin”, Vas. Nemirovich-Danchenko - “Wolf’s Fill”, etc.) noted the emergence of a new type of merchant, “who begins to realize his strength,” but did not create a typical figure his.
Yakov Mayakin - social type, who embodied potential strength bourgeoisie at the end of the century. Class, master consciousness permeates the entire life activity of a successful merchant, all his moral principles. This is a merchant who thinks not only about himself, but also about the fate of his class.
Capitalism began to penetrate into all areas of social and economic activity, and it turned out that it was no longer enough for Mayakin to dominate only in the field of economics. He is striving for power on a larger scale. Noteworthy is the review of the Volga millionaire Bugrov, who told Gorky that he had not met the Mayakins on his way, but felt: “this is how a person should be!”
The author of “Foma Gordeev” learned from the classics a comprehensive understanding of human characters and the determination of their native environment and society as a whole. But, penetrating deeper and deeper as an artist into the class structure of society, he introduced something new into his study of man.
In his works, the social dominance of the heroes’ worldview was strengthened, and in connection with this, their class coloring became more noticeable. inner world. The organic fusion of the class with the peculiar allowed Gorky to create a large gallery of related, but nevertheless so different from each other, heroes.
Modern criticism has caught on characteristic feature Gorky psychologist. The critic L. Obolensky wrote, referring to Yakov Mayakin, that Gorky “grabs”, along with the individual traits of the hero, also traits “family, hereditary, formed under the influence of the profession (class), and strengthens these latter to such brightness that we already see not an ordinary figure, which we would not even notice in life, but a half-real, half-ideal, almost symbolic statue, a monument to an entire class in its typical features.”
Along with the merchant, who traces his ancestry back to the 18th century, “Foma Gordeev” also shows one of the first accumulators of capital in the post-reform era. Despite all the limitations of the reform of 1861, it gave the opportunity to manifest the dormant energy and ingenuity of the people. Hence Gorky’s enormous interest in capitalists who emerged from the people’s environment and have not yet completely broken ties with it. Ignat Gordeev, Savely Kozhemyakin, Yegor Bulychev - all these are rich people, endowed not only with the desire for money, but also with “insolence of heart”, which prevents them from completely merging with the world of their masters.
Gorky's novel spoke about the development of capitalism in Russia and at the same time about the instability of the new way of life. Evidence of this is the emergence of protest among the workers, as well as the emergence of those who disagree with bourgeois practice and morality in the ranks of the bourgeoisie itself.
At first, Gorky wanted to create a novel about the prodigal son of capitalism. The break with one's environment, breaking out of it, became an increasingly remarkable phenomenon in life, attracting the attention of other writers. The hero of Chekhov's story “Three Years” stands on the threshold of such a breaking out. However, in the process creative work Gorky came to the conclusion that Thomas “is not typical as a merchant, as a representative of a class” and, in order not to violate the “truth of life,” it is necessary to place another, more typical figure next to him.
This is how an equal-sized image of the second central hero arose. These are characters that mutually condition each other. Fearing that the typical image of a merchant, striving not only for economic, but also for political power, would cause a censorship ban, and trying to preserve this new figure in Russian literature, Gorky, in his words, “blocked” her with the figure of Thomas (“I blocked Thomas Mayakin, and the censorship did not touch him").
Mayakin and Foma are opposing heroes. For one of them, everything is subordinated to the desire to get rich and rule. At the heart of his ideal is an economic principle. He subordinates everything to him, including the lives of people close to him. For another, the attitude towards life is connected with social and moral knowledge of it. The master's principle will manifest itself more than once in the behavior and consciousness of Thomas (he is the son of his environment), but it is not what dominates his inner world.
And if the “prodigal son” of the bourgeoisie Taras Mayakin, quickly forgetting his former opposition, returns to his father’s house in order to increase what his father has earned, then Thomas, endowed with pure moral sense and with an unsleeping conscience, he acts as an accuser of the masters of life - a return to his father’s house is impossible for him.
The novel is permeated with the idea of the need to awaken the consciousness of the people. This idea, manifested in the depiction of the character of the leading character, in the disputes of the characters in the novel, in the author’s thoughts about the fate of the homeland, holds together the heterogeneous material of life. IN early work Gorky showed himself to be a master of the bright southern landscape. In “Foma Gordeev” there are equally impressive pictures of the Volga nature, reminiscent of the greatness and painful slumber of the Russian people.
“Everything around bears the imprint of slowness; everything - both nature and people - lives clumsily, lazily, but it seems that behind laziness lies a huge force - an irresistible force, but still devoid of consciousness, which has not created clear desires and goals for itself... And the absence of consciousness in this half-asleep life casts shadows of sadness over its entire beautiful expanse.” The lack of clear consciousness is also characteristic of the young Gordeev. Foma has a warm heart. He does not accept Mayakin’s everyday commandments; he is concerned about the humiliation and poverty of some and the unjust power of others.
But, like early heroes Gorky, he does not understand the causes of social inequality. Like the tramp rebels, he is socially blind, and this makes his anger less effective. Radical-minded journalist Yezhov, who observes the growth of Gordeev’s spontaneous indignation against those in power, tells him: “Drop it! You can't do anything! There is no need for people like you... Your time, the time of the strong but stupid, has passed, brother! You're late..."
Thomas’s spontaneous, “internal” rebellion is painted in romantic tones, and this has given rise to a number of literary scholars to argue that Gorky created romantic image. But Gorky set himself the task not to approve, but to debunk a romantic of this type. He was already an anachronism. Thomas is above his environment in the world moral values, but his intellect is low, and his dreams are chaotic.
The frenzied heart of young Gordeev longs to overthrow social evil, but he is incapable of social generalizations. His mind is asleep, and Gorky emphasizes this many times in the novel. The revealing speech on the ship is the highest expression of the angry rebellion of the prodigal son of the bourgeoisie and at the same time evidence of the archaic nature of his rebellion.
The hero, freedom-loving by nature, suffers defeat not only because those exposed take up arms against him, but primarily because he himself is not yet ripe for effective social protest. Gorky's novel was last novel centuries about the lonely romantic hero as a hero who does not meet the requirements of modern times.
Gorky combines recognition of the futility of spontaneous rebellion with the search for carriers of effective social protest. He finds them in the proletarian environment. The workers depicted in the novel “Foma Gordeev” had not yet embarked on the path of revolutionary struggle, but the dispute between the journalist Yezhov and the worker Krasnoshchekov about the “spontaneous” and “conscious” beginning in the labor movement testified to the workers’ desire for such a struggle.
This will be said more clearly in the story about three comrades looking for their path in life (“Three”, 1900). One of them dies, choosing the path of non-resistance. The second one also dies, trying not to change, but only somewhat to soften the ugliness of the possessive world. And only the third, the worker Grachev, will find the true path, drawing closer to the revolutionary circle.
Gorky could not yet create a full-blooded image of a hero-worker - this hero had only just begun to manifest himself in life, but he captured the ever-deepening revolutionary spirit of social aspirations. A romantic call to heroism, which always has a place in life, was heard in “Old Woman Izergil.” The Song of the Falcon called for heroism. In 1899, the author strengthened its revolutionary sound by creating a new ending with the famous slogan:
We sing glory to the madness of the brave!
The madness of the brave is the wisdom of life!
In Foma Gordeev, Yezhov talks about an approaching storm. Soon many heroes of Russian literature will be gripped by a premonition of the storm. Chekhov's Tuzenbach (“Three Sisters”) will say: “The time has come, a mass is approaching all of us, a healthy one is preparing, strong storm", which is coming, is already close and will soon blow away laziness, indifference, prejudice towards work, rotten boredom from our society."
In the prose poem “Lights” V. Korolenko will remind you that, no matter how dark life is, “there are still lights ahead!..”. Chekhov's play is fraught with a premonition of impending changes; in "Ogonki" hope for these changes is manifested. It was a response to the burning problems of the day, but both artists do not yet feel the immediate breath of the menacing storm.
This breath is embodied in the famous “Song of the Petrel” (1901), in which not only a call for revolution was heard, but also the confidence that it would win. This song gained even greater popularity than the Song of the Falcon, which glorified the revolutionary feat.
The image of the storm to which the Petrel called went back simultaneously to two literary sources: to the tradition of freedom-loving poetry (Yazykov, Nekrasov, etc.) and to the socialist journalism of the turn of the century. The new song was widely used in revolutionary propaganda, it was read at student parties, and distributed in the form of leaflets.
Gorky began to be perceived as a singer of the revolution, as a writer calling for active revolutionary resistance. The revolutionary romanticism that permeates “The Petrel Song” was an expression of a new ideal, a new historical perspective.
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983.
In Gorky’s realistic work, one of the recurring motifs is that of a representative of the bourgeoisie breaking away from his environment, “breaking out” from it.
Foma Gordeev - son of a merchant, one of richest people on the Volga he rebelled against the morality of bourgeois society, against its inhuman laws. Gorky traces the history of the formation of Thomas's character and views. Both the father, the predatory, intelligent Ignat Gordeev, and Yakov Mayakin saw in the younger Gordeev the heir and successor of the business. They instilled in Thomas their philosophy of life: be closer to those who can be useful; only money gives power - it is the strength and intelligence of a person, one should not “fight” for someone else’s, “a person must be able to stand up for himself... for his own blood”; “Whoever wants to get some sense out of life is not afraid of sin”; “Either bite everyone, or lie in the dirt.” Observations of life gradually debunk the humanity of such morality. At first, Thomas begins to doubt his father's justice. Then he sees that all the people in his circle were equally “greedy for money, always ready to deceive each other.” It becomes difficult for Foma to live next to them. He feels first boredom and apathy, then attacks of angry melancholy, mental pain. Foma finds happiness neither in his father's business nor in love. He wants to live freely, and he imagines freedom as liberation “from the shackles of his wealth.” He takes the first step towards this by talking to Yakov Mayakin.
A feeling of discontent and protest pushes Foma Gordeev out of the merchant world. He is looking for the meaning of life and his place in it. But among the typesetters, among the loaders, Foma feels alien and unnecessary. He sees the hard work of some and the satiety of others, and doubts the legitimacy of the lives of those “who are in command.” Thomas hurls a sharp accusatory speech at the merchants: “Bloodsuckers! You live by someone else’s power... you work with someone else’s hands!” Thomas is alone in his own environment and his rebellion is suppressed. Material from the site
A metaphor for his spiritual quest is an episode from his childhood when he scared an owl during the day, and it, blinded by daylight, darted helplessly along a ravine. “Another person, just like an owl during the day, rushes about in life... He searches, searches for his place, fights, fights - only feathers fly from him, but nothing is of any use.” Thomas looks like this owl. He is looking for meaning and purpose in life, but has no positive ideal. He has no idea what he wants. He protests against bourgeois morality, but his protest is spontaneous and emotional. Foma Gordeev is the “prodigal son” of the bourgeoisie, whose tragedy lies in the lack of a specific goal.
Gorky historically correctly reflected the process of splitting bourgeois society, showing the guardians of its morality and the spontaneous rebel.
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The action of the story takes place in a city on the Volga, in late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century.
About sixty years ago, Ignat Gordeev served as a waterman on one of the barges of the rich merchant Zaev. Strong, handsome and intelligent, he was one of those people who do not think about the choice of means and do not know any other law than their desire. At the age of forty, Ignat Gordeev himself was the owner of three steamships and a dozen barges. On the Volga he was respected as a rich man, but they gave him the nickname “Shaly”, because his life did not flow in a straight direction, but every now and then it boiled over rebelliously, rushing out of the rut. It was as if three souls lived in Ignat’s body. One of them, the most powerful, was greedy, and when Ignat obeyed her, he became a man gripped by an indomitable passion for work. But, devoting a lot of energy to the pursuit of the ruble, he was not petty, and sometimes showed sincere indifference to his property. From time to time, usually in the spring, a second soul woke up in him - the violent and lustful soul of an animal irritated by hunger. It was as if a volcano of dirt was boiling inside him, he drank, debauched, got others drunk and lived like this for weeks. Then he would suddenly come home, meek and dumb as a sheep, listen to his wife’s reproaches and stand on his knees for several hours in a row in front of the images - this was the third soul taking power over him. But in all three lanes Ignat's life was haunted by one passionate desire - to have a son. His wife, a fat, well-fed woman, bore him four daughters during their nine years of marriage, but they all died in infancy. After each birth, Ignat took pleasure in beating his wife because she did not bear him a son.
One day, while on business in Samara, he received news of his wife’s death. Ignat instructed godfather Mayakin to bury her, then served a memorial service in the church and decided to get married as soon as possible. At that time he was forty years old. There was much healthy and rugged beauty throughout his powerful figure. Less than six months had passed since Ignat married Natalya Fominishna, the daughter of a Ural Cossack Old Believer. He loved his tall, slender, beautiful wife and was proud of her, but soon began to look carefully at her. Natalya was thoughtful and indifferent to everything; nothing interested this strange woman. She was always thoughtful and distant, as if she was looking for some meaning in her life, but could not find it. Only godfather Mayakin, a clever and joker, sometimes made her smile palely.
When Natalya announced her pregnancy, Ignat began to follow his wife like a small child. Pregnancy made Natalia even more focused and silent. She could not bear the difficult birth and died, giving birth to Ignat's long-awaited son. Ignat christened his son Foma and gave him to the family of his godfather Mayakin, whose wife had also recently given birth. Mayakin lived in a huge two-story house, whose windows were shaded by mighty old linden trees, which is why strict twilight always reigned in the rooms. The family was pious - the smell of wax and incense filled the house, penitential sighs and prayerful words floated through the stuffy atmosphere, they moved silently through the rooms female figures in dark dresses. The family of Yakov Tarasovich Mayakin consisted of himself, his wife Antonina Ivanovna, a daughter and five relatives, the youngest of whom was thirty-four years old. Mayakin also had a son, Taras, but his name was not mentioned in the family - Yakov disowned his son after he left for Moscow and married there against his father’s will. Yakov Mayakin - thin, nimble, with a fiery red beard - was the owner of a rope factory and had a shop in the city. Among the merchants, he enjoyed respect and fame as a “brain” man and was very fond of recalling the antiquity of his family.
Foma Gordeev lived in this family for six years. The big-headed, broad-chested boy seemed older than his six years, both in height and in the serious look of his almond-shaped dark eyes. Foma tinkered with toys all day long with Mayakin’s daughter, Lyuba. Foma lived amicably with the girl, and quarrels and fights strengthened the children’s friendship even more. Thomas's life was monotonous; his only entertainment was reading the Bible in the evenings. Until the age of six, the boy had not heard a single fairy tale. Soon Ignat summoned his sister Anfisa, and the boy was taken to his father’s house. Anfisa, a funny, tall old woman with a long hooked nose and a large mouth without teeth, did not like the boy at first, but then he saw tenderness and affection in her black eyes. This old woman introduced Thomas into a new world, still unknown to him. Every night he fell asleep to the velvety sounds of Anfisa’s voice telling a fairy tale, of which she had an inexhaustible supply. Thomas was afraid of his father, but he loved him. Because of his enormous height and trumpet voice, Thomas considered his father a fabulous robber and was very proud of it.
When Thomas was eight years old, Ignat instructed his sister to teach him to read and write. The boy mastered the alphabet very easily, and soon he was reading the Psalter. Foma's life rolled forward easily. Being his teacher, his aunt was also his playmate. The sun shone kindly and joyfully on the old, worn-out body, which retained a young soul within itself, old life, decorated, to the best of her ability and skill, life path children. Sometimes Ignat came home drunk, but Foma was not afraid of him. And if Foma was not well, his father would drop everything and stay at home, boring his sister with stupid questions.
Spring came - and, fulfilling his promise, Ignat took his son with him on the ship. A new life unfolded before Foma. He spent whole days on the captain's bridge next to his father, looked at the endless panorama of the shores, and it seemed to him that he was riding along a silver path in those fairy kingdoms, where sorcerers and heroes live. But wonderful kingdoms did not appear. Cities floated by, exactly the same as the one in which Thomas lived. Real life was opening up before him, and Thomas was a little disappointed by it. He began to look into the distance less often and not so persistently with the questioning gaze of his black eyes. The ship's crew loved the boy, and he loved these nice guys who fussed with him when Ignat went to town on business.
One day in Astrakhan, when fuel was being loaded onto the ship, Foma heard the driver scolding Ignat for his greed. In the evening, Foma asked his father if he was really greedy, and told him the driver’s words. In the morning the boy learned that there was a new driver on the ship. After this, Foma felt that he was disturbing everyone, the sailors looked at him unkindly. The incident with the driver awakened in the boy a desire to understand what threads and springs control the actions of people.
If you see a strong, capable person, have pity, help him. “And if someone is weak, not inclined to work, spit on him, pass by,” Ignat told his son, and then he talked about his youth, about people and their terrible strength and weakness.
In the fall, Thomas was sent to school. On the first day school life Foma singled out two boys from among them who seemed more interesting to him than the others. Fat, red-haired African Smolin was the son of a tanner, and small, nimble and smart Nikolai Yezhov was the son of a watchman from the government chamber, a poor man. Yezhov was the first student in the class, he let Foma and Smolin copy homework in exchange for food. Ignat did not see much benefit in teaching.
You have to learn from life itself,” he said. - A book is a dead thing. And life, as soon as you take the wrong step, will scream at you with a thousand voices, and even hit you, knock you off your feet.
On Sundays, the guys gathered at Smolin's, chased pigeons and raided other people's gardens. Thomas poured his heart into such robber raids more than into all other adventures and games, and behaved with courage and recklessness, which amazed and angered his comrades. The danger of being caught in the act of crime did not frighten him, but excited him.
So, day after day, Thomas’ life, not rich in excitement, slowly unfolded. The boy’s soul was still a quiet lake, and everything that touched him disappeared, briefly disturbing the sleepy water. After spending five years in the district school, Foma graduated from four classes and emerged as a brave, black-haired guy, with a dark face and large dark eyes that looked thoughtfully and naively. Lyubov Mayakina at that time was studying in the fifth grade of some boarding school. When she met Foma on the street, she condescendingly nodded her head at him. Lyuba knew some high school students, and although Yezhov was among them, Foma was not attracted to them; in their company he felt embarrassed. However, he did not want to study.
“I’ll be in my place even without science,” Foma said mockingly. - Let the hungry study, I don’t need it.
Thomas began to learn the beauty of loneliness and the sweet poison of dreams. Sitting somewhere in a corner, he conjured up before him images of fairy-tale princesses, they appeared in the form of Lyuba and other young ladies he knew. He wanted to cry, he was ashamed of tears, and yet he cried quietly. Father patiently and carefully introduced Foma into the circle of trading affairs, took him with him to the stock exchange, and talked about the characters of his comrades. And yet, even at nineteen years old, there was something childish and naive in Foma, which distinguished him from his peers.
As if he was waiting for something, like there was some kind of veil before his eyes. His mother groped on the ground in the same way,” Ignat said sadly, and soon decided to try his son in action.
In the spring, Ignat sent Thomas with two barges of bread to the Kama. The barges were driven by the steamship "Prilegny", commanded by Efim Ilyich, a judicious and strict captain. Having sailed in April, the ship already arrived at its destination in early May. The barges stood opposite the village, and early in the morning a noisy crowd of women and men arrived to unload grain. Foma looked at the deck, covered with a briskly working crowd of people, and then the face of a woman with black eyes smiled tenderly and enticingly at him. His heart was beating rapidly. Being physically pure, he already knew, from conversations, the secrets intimate relationships men to women, but hoped that there was something purer, less rude and offensive to a person. Now, admiring the dark-eyed worker, Foma felt precisely a rough attraction to her; it was shameful and scary.
Efim noticed this and arranged for Foma to meet the worker. A few days later, a cart drove up to the shore and on it the black-eyed Palageya with a chest and some things. Efim tried to object, but Foma shouted at him, and the captain submitted - he was one of those people who like to feel a master over them. Soon the barge sailed to Perm. The passion that flared up in Thomas burned out everything clumsy from him and filled his heart with young pride, consciousness of his human personality. This passion, however, did not distract him from his work; it aroused in him with equal strength a thirst for work and love. Palageya treated him with the intensity of feeling that women of her age invest in their hobbies. She was truly selfless.
Foma was already thinking about marrying Palageya when he received a telegram from his godfather: “Leave as a passenger immediately.” A few hours later, pale and gloomy Foma stood on the gallery of the ship leaving the pier, and looked into the face of his sweetheart, sailing away from him into the distance. A caustic feeling of resentment against fate arose in his soul. He was too spoiled by life to take it easy on the first drop of poison in a freshly opened cup.
Foma was met by the excited Mayakin and declared that Ignat had lost his mind. It turned out that Sofya Pavlovna Medynskaya, the wife of a rich architect, known to everyone for her tirelessness in organizing various charitable undertakings, persuaded Ignat to donate seventy-five thousand for a shelter and a public library with a reading room. Sofya Pavlovna was considered the most beautiful woman in the city, but people spoke ill of her. Thomas did not see anything wrong with this donation. Arriving home, he found Medynskaya there. In the front corner of the room, sitting with her elbows on the table, was a small woman with voluminous blond hair; on her pale face stood out sharply dark eyes, thin eyebrows and plump, red lips. When she silently passed by Foma, he saw that her eyes were dark blue and her eyebrows were almost black.
Once again, Thomas’s life flowed slowly and monotonously. His father began to treat him more strictly. Foma himself felt something special in himself that distinguished him from his peers, but he could not understand what it was and watched himself suspiciously. He had a lot of ambition, but he lived alone and did not feel the need for friends. Foma often remembered Palageya, and at first he felt sad, but gradually her place in his dreams was taken by the small, angelic Medynskaya. In her presence, Foma felt clumsy, huge, heavy, and this offended him. Medynskaya did not arouse sensual attraction in the young man; she was incomprehensible to him. At times he felt a bottomless emptiness within himself that could not be filled with anything.
Meanwhile, Ignat became more and more restless, grouchy and increasingly complained of being unwell.
Death is guarding me somewhere nearby,” he said gloomily, but humbly. And indeed, she soon knocked his large, powerful body to the ground. Ignat died on Sunday morning without receiving absolution. The death of his father stunned Thomas. Silence poured into his soul - heavy, motionless, absorbing all the sounds of life. He didn’t cry, didn’t grieve, and didn’t think about anything; gloomy, pale, he listened intently to this silence, which devastated his heart and, like a vice, squeezed his brain. Mayakin directed the funeral. At the wake, Foma looked with resentment in his heart at the fat lips and jaws chewing delicious dishes; he wanted to drive out all these people who had recently aroused respect in him.
What are they eating here? Did you come to the tavern or what? - Foma said loudly and angrily. Mayakin began to fuss, but he was unable to make amends for the offense. The guests began to leave.
Life tugged at Thomas from all sides, not allowing him to concentrate on his thoughts. On the fortieth day after Ignat’s death, he attended the ceremony of laying the foundation of a lodging house. The day before, Medynskaya informed him that he had been elected to the committee supervising the construction and to an honorary member of the society over which she chaired. Foma began to visit her often. There he met the secretary of this society, Ukhtishchev. He spoke in a high tenor and his entire body - a plump, small, round-faced and cheerful talker - looked like a brand new bell. Foma listened to his chatter and felt pitiful, stupid, and funny to everyone. And Mayakin sat next to the mayor and said something briskly to him, playing with his wrinkles.
Foma understood that he had no place among these gentlemen. He was offended and sad from the realization that he could not speak as easily and as much as all these people. Lyuba Mayakina has laughed at him more than once for this. Foma did not love his godfather’s daughter, and after he learned about Mayakin’s intention to marry them, he even began to avoid meeting her. Nevertheless, after the death of his father, Foma visited the Mayakins almost every day. Soon their relationship took on a somewhat strange friendship. Lyuba was the same age as Foma, but she treated him like an older woman treated a boy. At times she was simple and somehow especially friendly and affectionate towards him. But no matter how much time they spent talking, it only gave them a feeling of dissatisfaction with each other, as if a wall of misunderstanding was growing and separating them. Lyuba often persuaded Thomas to continue his studies, read more, and reproached him for his narrow-mindedness.
I don't like this. Fiction, deception,” Foma answered dissatisfied.
Lyuba was dissatisfied with her life. Her father did not allow her to study, believing that a woman’s destiny was marriage, and she did not have the courage to run away. She often repeated that she lived in prison, that she dreamed of equality and happiness for all people. Foma listened to her speeches, but did not understand, and this angered Lyuba. Godfather Mayakin instilled in Foma something completely different.
Every human deed has two faces. One in plain sight is fake, the other hidden is the real thing. “We need to find him in order to understand the meaning of the matter,” he insisted. Speaking against the construction of the shelter, Mayakin said:
Now we have come up with an idea: to lock the beggars in such special houses and so that they do not walk the streets, they would not awaken our conscience. That's why these houses are different, they are to hide the truth.
Thomas was stupefied by these speeches from his godfather. His ambivalent attitude towards Mayakin strengthened: listening to him with greedy curiosity, he felt that every meeting with his godfather increased his hostility, close to fear, towards the old man. Mayakin's laughter, similar to the squeal of rusty hinges, sometimes aroused physical disgust in Foma. All this strengthened Foma’s confidence that his godfather had firmly decided to marry him to Lyuba. He both liked Lyuba and seemed dangerous; it seemed to him that she was not living, but was delirious in reality. Foma's antics at his father's wake spread among the merchants and created an unflattering reputation for him. Rich people seemed to him greedy for money, always ready to cheat each other. But Mayakin’s monotonous speeches soon achieved their goal. Thomas listened to them and understood the purpose of life: you need to be better than others. The ambition awakened by the old man ate deep into his heart, but did not fill it, for Thomas’s attitude towards Medynskaya took on the character that it should have taken. He was drawn to her, but in front of her he became timid, became clumsy and suffered from it. Foma treated Medynskaya with adoration; the consciousness of her superiority over him always lived in him. Medynskaya played with the young man like a cat with a mouse, and enjoyed it.
One day, Thomas and his godfather were returning from the backwater after inspecting the ships. Mayakin told Foma what kind of reputation Medynskaya had in the city.
You go to her and say directly: “I want to be your lover, I’m a young man, don’t take it dearly,” he taught his godson. At these words, Foma’s face fell, and there was a lot of heavy and bitter amazement in his longing gaze.
Foma came to the city, overwhelmed by melancholy and vengeful anger. Mayakin, having thrown Medynskaya into the mud, made her available to his godson, and the thought of the woman’s availability increased the attraction to her. He went to Vera Pavlovna, intending to tell her directly and simply what he wanted from her.
What am I to you? - she told him. - You need a different friend. I'm already an old woman. Don't listen to anyone but your heart. Live as it tells you.
Thomas walked home and seemed to be carrying this woman in his chest - her image was so bright. His house, six large rooms, was empty. Aunt Anfisa went to the monastery and, perhaps, will never return from there. He should get married, but Foma did not want to see any girl he knew as his wife.
A week has passed since the conversation with Medynskaya. Day and night her image stood before Thomas, evoking an aching feeling in his heart. Work and melancholy did not prevent him from thinking about life. He began to listen sensitively to everything that people said about life, and felt that their complaints aroused distrust in him. Silently, with a suspicious look, he looked at everyone, and a thin wrinkle cut his forehead. One day Mayakin sent Thomas on business to Anania Savvich Shchurov, a large timber merchant. There were terrible rumors about this tall old man with a long gray beard. They said that he sheltered a convict in his bathhouse, who worked counterfeit money for him, and then killed him and burned him along with the bathhouse. Foma also knew that Shchurov had outlived two wives, then he took his wife away from his son, and when his daughter-in-law-lover died, he took a mute beggar girl into his house and she gave birth to a stillborn child. Going to Shchurov, Foma felt that he had become strangely interesting to him.
Shchurov had a bad opinion of Mayakin and called him a damned pharmacist.
At your age, Ignat was as clear as glass,” Shchurov said to Foma. - And I look at you - I don’t see - what are you? And you yourself, guy, don’t know this, and that’s why you’ll disappear.
That evening, Foma went to the club and met Ukhtishchev there. From him, Foma learned that Sofya Pavlovna was going abroad tomorrow for the whole summer. Some fat and mustachioed man intervened in their conversation and spoke ill of Medynskaya, calling her a cocotte. Foma growled quietly, grabbed the curly hair of the mustachioed man and began to roll him around the floor, experiencing burning pleasure. At these moments he experienced a feeling of liberation from the boring heaviness that had long been oppressing him. Foma was forcibly torn away from this man, who turned out to be the son-in-law of the vice-governor. However, this did not frighten Thomas. Everything that Foma did that evening aroused Ukhtishchev's big interest to him. He decided to shake things up and entertain the guy and took him to his familiar young ladies.
On the third day after the scene at the club, Foma found himself seven miles from the city, on the forest pier of the merchant Zvantsev, in the company of this merchant’s son, Ukhtishchev, some gentleman with sideburns and four ladies. Foma's lady was a slender, dark-skinned brunette with wavy hair named Alexandra. Foma had been partying with them for three days already, and still couldn’t stop. His outrages were written about in the newspaper. Yakov Mayakin scolded him with the last words, but could not stop him. Love listened silently to her father. As she grew older, she changed her attitude towards the old man. Lyuba saw his loneliness and her feelings for her father became warmer. Mayakin told Lyuba about writers:
Russia is confused, and there is nothing stable in it, everything is shaken! People have been given great freedom to think, but they are not allowed to do anything - because of this, a person does not live, but rots and stinks. The girl was silent, stunned by her father’s speeches, unable to object or free herself from them. She felt that he was turning her away from what seemed so simple and bright to her.
That same morning, Efim, the captain of the Ermak, came to Mayakin. He reported that drunken Thomas ordered him to be tied up, took control of the barge himself and crashed it. After this, Efim asked to be released, saying that he could not live without his owner.
Foma recalled his experiences during recent months, and it seemed to him that he was being carried somewhere by a muddy, hot stream. Among the hustle and bustle of revelry, Sasha alone was always calm and even. Foma was attracted by some secret hidden in this woman, and at the same time he felt that he did not love her, that he did not need her. Parting with Foma, Sasha told him:
You have a difficult character. Boring. You were born from exactly two fathers.
Foma watched as they pulled the barge out of the river and thought: “Where is my place? Where is my business? He saw himself as the odd man out among people who were confident in their strength and who were ready to lift for him several tens of thousands of pounds from the bottom of the river. Foma was overcome by a strange excitement: he passionately wanted to join in this work. Suddenly he rushed towards the gate in big leaps, pale with excitement. For the first time in his life he experienced such an inspiring feeling; he became intoxicated with it and poured out his joy in loud, jubilant shouts in harmony with the workers. But after a while this joy disappeared, leaving behind an emptiness.
The next morning, Foma and Sasha stood on the gangway of a steamship approaching the pier at Ustye. Yakov Mayakin met them at the side of the pier. Having sent Sasha to the city, Thomas went to his godfather’s hotel.
Give me complete freedom, or take my whole business into your own hands. Everything, up to the ruble!
This came out of Foma unexpectedly; he suddenly realized that he could become completely a free man. Until that moment he had been entangled in something, but now the fetters themselves fell off him so easily and simply. An anxious and joyful hope flared up in his chest. But Mayakin refused and threatened to put him in a mental hospital. Foma knew that his godfather would not regret him. Yakov Tarasovich’s self-confidence blew up Foma, he spoke, gritting his teeth:
What do you have to boast about? Where is your son? What is your daughter? Tell me - why do you live? Who will remember you?
Having said that he would spend his entire fortune, Thomas left. Yakov Mayakin was left alone, and the wrinkles on his cheeks trembled with alarm.
After this quarrel, Foma went on a spree with embitterment, full of vengeful feelings towards the people who surrounded him. Of course there were women. He laughed at them, but never raised a hand to them. Sasha left Foma and entered the care of the son of some vodka manufacturer. Foma was glad of this: he was tired of her, and her cold indifference frightened him. This is how Thomas lived, cherishing the vague hope of moving away somewhere to the edge of life, away from this hustle and bustle, and looking around. At night, closing his eyes, he imagined a huge, dark crowd of people crowded somewhere in a basin full of dusty fog. This crowd circled in confusion in one place, noise and howling can be heard, people are crawling, crushing each other like blind people. Over their heads like the bats, money is rushing around. This picture became stronger in Thomas’s head, becoming more and more colorful each time. He wanted to stop this senseless fuss, to direct all the people in one direction, and not against each other, but he didn’t have it in him. the right words. The desire for freedom grew in him, but he could not escape the shackles of his wealth.
Mayakin acted in such a way that Foma felt every day the weight of the responsibilities that lay upon him, but Foma felt that he was not the master of his business, but only a small part of it. This irritated him and pushed him further away from the old man. Thomas increasingly wanted to break out of the case, at least at the cost of his death. He soon learned that his godfather had started a rumor that Thomas was out of his mind and that guardianship would have to be established over him. Thomas resigned himself to this and continued his drunken life, and his godfather kept a watchful eye on him.
After a quarrel with Foma, Mayakin realized that he had no heir, and instructed his daughter to write a letter to Taras Mayakin, calling him home. Yakov Tarasovich decided to marry Lyuba to African Smolin, who studied abroad and recently returned to hometown to start your own business. Behind Lately Lyuba increasingly came up with the idea of marriage - she saw no other way out of her loneliness. She had long since outlived the desire to study; the books she had read left a cloudy residue in her, from which a desire for personal independence developed. She felt that life was passing her by.
And Foma was still carousing and chattering. He woke up in a small room with two windows and saw a small black man sitting at a table and scratching a pen on paper. In the little man, Foma recognized his school friend Nikolai Yezhov. After high school, Yezhov graduated from university, but did not achieve much - he became a feuilletonist in a local newspaper. For his failures, he blamed not himself, but the people whose kindness he took advantage of. He said that there is no person on earth more disgusting and disgusting than the one who gives alms, there is no person more unhappy than the one who receives it. In Foma, Yezhov felt “great audacity of heart.” Yezhov’s speeches enriched Thomas’s language, but poorly illuminated the darkness of his soul.
Mayakin’s decision to marry off his daughter was firm, and he brought Smolin to dinner to introduce him to his daughter. Lyuba's dreams about her husband-friend, educated person, were strangled in her by the unyielding will of her father, and now she is getting married because it’s time. Lyuba wrote a long letter to her brother in which she begged him to return. Taras answered dryly and briefly that he would soon be on business on the Volga and would not fail to visit his father. This businesslike coldness upset Lyuba, but the old man liked it. Lyuba thought of her brother as an ascetic who, at the cost of his youth lost in exile, gained the right to judge life and people.
Smolin has changed little - the same redhead, covered in freckles, only his mustache has grown long and lush, and his eyes seem to have become larger. Lyuba liked his manners and appearance, his education, and this seemed to make the room brighter. A timid hope for happiness flared up more and more brightly in the girl’s heart.
Having learned from Yezhov what events were happening in his godfather’s house, Thomas decided to visit him and witnessed the meeting of the father and the prodigal son. Taras turned out to be a short, thin man, similar to his father. It turned out that Taras was not in hard labor. He spent about nine months in a Moscow prison, then was exiled to Siberia for a settlement and lived for six years in the Lena mountain district. Then he started his own business, married the daughter of the owner of the gold mines, became a widower, and his children also died. Yakov Tarasovich was unusually proud of his son. Now he saw the heir in him. Lyuba did not take her admiring eyes off her brother. Foma did not want to go to the table where three people were sitting happy people, he understood that he did not belong there. Going out into the street, he felt resentment towards the Mayakins: after all, these were the only people close to him. From every impression, Thomas immediately had the thought of his inability to live, and this fell like a brick on his chest.
In the evening, Foma went to see the Mayakins again. The godfather was not at home, Lyuba and her brother were drinking tea. Foma also sat down at the table. He didn't like Taras. This man admired the British and believed that only they had real love to work. Foma said that work is not everything for a person, but then he saw that his thoughts were not interesting to Taras. Foma became bored with this indifferent man. He wanted to say something offensive to Lyubov about her brother, but he couldn’t find the words and left the house.
The next morning, Yakov Mayakin and Foma attended a gala dinner with the merchant Kononov, who was dedicating a new ship that day. There were about thirty guests, all respectable people, the cream of the local merchant class. Thomas did not find a comrade among them, and stayed away, gloomy and pale. He was haunted by the thought of why his godfather was so kind to him today, and why he persuaded him to come here. Among these people there was almost not a single one about whom Thomas did not know something criminal. Many of them were at enmity with each other, but now they merged into one dense mass, and this repelled Thomas and aroused timidity in him in front of them.
During lunch, Yakov Tarasovich was asked to make a speech. With his usual boastful self-confidence, Mayakin began to talk about how the merchant class is the guardian of culture and the stronghold of the Russian people. Thomas could not bear it. Baring his teeth, he silently looked at the merchants with burning eyes. At the sight of his wolfishly evil face, the merchants froze for a second. Thomas looked at the faces of his listeners with inexpressible hatred and exclaimed:
It's not your life that you've made, it's a prison. You didn’t create order - you forged chains for a person. It’s stuffy, cramped, there’s nowhere for a living soul to turn. Do you understand that you live only by human patience?
One by one, the merchants began to disperse from the ship. This irritated Thomas even more: he would have liked to chain them to the spot with his words, but could not find such words in himself. And then Gordeev began to remember everything he knew about these criminal people, without missing a single one. Thomas spoke and saw that his words had a good effect on these people. Addressing everyone at once, Foma realized that his words did not touch them as deeply as he would like. But as soon as he spoke about each individually, the attitude towards his words changed dramatically. He roared joyfully, seeing how his words worked, how these people writhed and thrashed under the blows of his words. Thomas felt like a fairy-tale hero beating monsters.
A crowd gathered around Yakov Tarasovich Mayakin and listened to his quiet speech, nodding their heads angrily and affirmatively. Foma burst into loud laughter, throwing his head high. At that moment, several people rushed at Foma, crushed him with their bodies, tied him tightly hand and foot, and dragged him to the side. A crowd of people stood above him and said evil and offensive things to him, but their words did not touch his heart. Something big was growing in the depths of his soul. bitter feeling. When Foma's legs were untied, he looked at everyone and said quietly with a pitiful smile:
I took yours.
Foma became shorter and lost weight. Mayakin spoke quietly with the merchants about guardianship. Thomas felt crushed by this dark mass of strong-willed people. He did not understand now what he had done to these people and why he had done it, and he even felt something akin to shame for himself in front of him. It was as if some kind of dust had showered my heart in my chest. The merchants looked at his suffering face, wet with tears, and silently walked away. And so Thomas was left alone with his hands tied behind his back at the table, where everything was overturned and destroyed.
Three years have passed. Yakov Tarasovich Mayakin died after a brief but very painful agony, leaving his fortune to his son, daughter and son-in-law Afrikan Smolin. Yezhov was expelled from the city for something shortly after the incident on the ship. A major trading house"Taras Mayakin and African Smolin." Nothing was heard from Thomas. They said that after leaving the hospital, Mayakin sent him beyond the Urals to his mother’s relatives.
Recently Foma appeared in the city. Almost always after drinking, he appears either gloomy or smiling with the pitiful and sad smile of a blessed one. He lives with his godsister in the yard, in an outbuilding. Merchants and townspeople who know him often laugh at him. Thomas very rarely approaches those who call him; he avoids people and does not like to talk to them. But if he approaches, they tell him:
Come on, say a word about the end of the world, eh, prophet.
At the turn of the century, in 1899, Gorky published his novel Foma Gordeev. This is a broad, meaningful picture of modernity, which tells the story of the growing strength of the Russian bourgeoisie.
The writer broadly and vividly depicts representatives of the entrepreneurial species. He introduces us to merchants of the patriarchal type, big tycoons, such as Ananiy Shchurov. Once this “cunning, old devil” was a counterfeiter and a murderer, now he has become a timber merchant and a steamship operator, having accumulated substantial capital from robberies and deceptions, and he feels like a ruler. He does not accept anything new, the spread of machines, and hates all kinds of freedoms. According to Mayakin, he looks like a cunning and treacherous fox: “... He will lift his eyes to heaven, and he will put his paw in your bosom and pull out your wallet...”
Next to him is the smart, strong-willed Ignat Gordeev, a former waterman, and now the owner of three steamships and a dozen barges. He is obsessed with a passion for profit, is distinguished by enormous vital energy with which he rushes about trade affairs, catching gold, but Ignat knew the hard work of barge haulers, he comes from the people, he has a thirst for activity. He has an uncontrollable thirst for life. And most importantly, his soul boils up rebelliously and sometimes throws him aside from profit. And then he begins to drink and womanize, throwing away his wealth, be it a steamship, a barge or money.
A striking figure is Yakov Mayakin, who believes that the value of every person is determined by cash capital. Mayakin considers merchants to be the first force in the state; he is very smart, calculating and cynical. He divides people into masters and into a dumb mass - simple bricks, building material in the hands of the masters.
The young generation of merchants is also shown in the novel. Taras and Lyubov Mayakin and African Smolin belong to it. They must inherit Jacob's work and ideas at a new stage. But they only outwardly differ from their fathers in education, European culture. But Taras Mayakin said goodbye to the dreams of his youth and is the owner of a ship production facility in Siberia. And one cannot expect anything progressive from Afrikan Smolin, a “swindler of the first degree.”
But Gorky set the task of showing a person who is looking for a job within his strength and wide open space for a free and honest life. Such a person is Foma Gordeev. He inherited a lot from his silent, withdrawn mother, who was acutely aware of falsehood. He inherited his violence and uncontrollability from his father. The nanny introduced the boy into the world wonderful tales and legends. Communication with sailors also affected him. And so those around him begin to notice something not their own in Foma, “after all, you are terribly unlike a merchant,” notes Lyuba. “There is something special about you,” says Sophia. This is something that scares Ignat terribly. But reality took its toll. Yakov Mayakin inspired him: “...either bite everyone or lie in the mud.” Looking at Foma, the captain of the Diligent remarked: “... a good breed of puppy, a good dog from the very first hunt.” But Foma experiences dissatisfaction with himself and a tendency to riot. A life built on deception and greed plunge him into despair; he sees no way out of the impasse. Thoughts of pure love were destroyed when he lost faith in Sophia Medynskaya. He experiences delight only during the raising of the sunken barge. “It’s stuffy for me,” Foma exclaims. “Is this really life? Is this how people live? My soul hurts! And that’s why it hurts because it can’t be tolerated!” Thomas becomes prodigal son in your environment. Finding himself on the ship Ilya Muromets, surrounded by eminent merchants, he feels the immensity of the claims and begins to rebel, he utters words of disgust: “You have not made life - a prison ...” he is defeated, ties with the merchants are severed.
Thomas is tied up and declared crazy. But one can feel his triumph in the words: “You can’t tie the truth, you’re lying!” The tragedy of Foma Gordeev is that he did not want to live according to wolf laws, he believed that joyful, honest work. And according to Yezhov, “the future belongs to people of honest labor.”
Ananiy Shchurov personifies the yesterday of Russian capitalism with its outright predation, backwardness, and straightforward reactionism. He is the enemy of technological progress. Having become rich at the cost of crimes, he appears in the novel as a fierce and vicious enemy of the people.
The image of the breeder Yakov Mayakn is more complex. Gorky writes that Mayakin enjoyed respect among the merchants, “the fame of a “brain” person and was very fond of showing off the antiquity of his family.” Mayakin is a kind of ideologist of the bourgeoisie, striving for political power. He divides people into slaves, doomed to always obey, and masters, called to command. In his opinion, the rulers of the country should be capitalists. Life philosophy Mayakin is revealed in his aphorisms.
“Life, Brother Thomas,” he says to his pupil, “is very simple: either gnaw at everyone, or lie in the dirt... Here, brother, when approaching a person, hold honey in your left hand, and a knife in your right...”
Foma Gordeev- an extraordinary personality. He turned out to be a stranger in the merchant world. An honest, sincere man who strives for justice, he tries to break free, but this only happens at the cost of death. Faced with a reality built on deception, crime, and greed, Foma Gordeev falls into even greater despair and sees no way out of the impasse.
He inherited a lot from his mother, who felt some kind of falseness in life.
5. Problems, conflict in M. Gorky’s play “Philistines”.
Gorky's first play was "Philistines"(1901). The author himself initially defined his work as a dramatic sketch in 4 acts with the title “Bourgeois. Scenes in Bessemenov's house." Over time, this play, staged by K.S. Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theater, acquired all the features of a real drama, especially since the actors, according to the recollections of contemporaries, were in a hurry with the premiere: they needed to play “The Bourgeois” so that “Gorky felt like a playwright and wrote further.” As you know, everything turned out this way - Alexey Maksimovich later created many worthy plays that made the glory of Russian and world theater.
Already the title of the play - “The Bourgeois” - indicates a very specific class in Russia. This is the lower class of ordinary people, descended from artisans and small traders: this class was lower than the merchants in terms of their position in society.
In the center of the image is the family of Vasily Bessemenov, a wealthy tradesman, foreman of the painting shop. It was no coincidence that this dignified man, who wanted to become a deputy to the city duma from the guild organizations, bore such a surname. His daughter Tatyana, school teacher, at 28 years old, is still not married, and hopes of getting heirs to the family are fading every day. Son Peter - former student, expelled from the university for participating in student unrest.
All this, of course, does not please the father, who had pinned his hopes on his children, so scandals constantly occur in the house between him and his children, who do not want to live according to their father’s orders. The hero himself is in a state of gloomy alertness and sees the reason for his children’s failures in life in the pride that has taken possession of them. The author, on the contrary, emphasizes that the education received by the children did not make them happier: the usual bourgeois guidelines for them are outdated, and they lack their own will to make any changes, so their interest in life is weakened.
Of course, the mood in the protagonist’s house is largely due to the philistine boredom characteristic of any provincial town. But in Gorky everything is complicated by the multifaceted nature of human relationships. Many people live in the Bessemenovs’ house: this includes the pupil of the head of the family, Neil, a young assistant driver, with whom his daughter Tatyana is hopelessly in love. This is a distant relative, and a young widow of a prison warden who rents a room, and parasites - the singer Teterev and student Shishkin.
Such a number of people in the house should, apparently, diversify the boring life of a bourgeois family, concerned only with making money. Indeed, everything in the house is subordinated to the cult of money, because it is the basis comfortable existence. At the same time, there is no faith in the best, in any changes. It is no coincidence that Tatyana, who has lost faith in the reciprocity of her feelings for Neil, complains to her friend: “I was born without faith in my heart”.
The author is sure that their uncertainty is generated by the fear of responsibility for their future, fear of change, and the inability to change anything even in their own life. In this sense, Neil, the hero, is opposed to everyone "progressive" and, as Vasily Vasilyevich clearly hints, "future socialist-revolutionary". He is used to struggle: even in the forge he likes to forge, not because he likes to work, but because he likes to fight with unruly metal and suppress its resistance.
However, in general the attitude towards the Nile is ambiguous. It emphasizes hidden strength and calmness, but behind all this hides an insensitive nature, incapable of understanding beauty. For example, in the first Moscow Art Theater production, the actor who played Neil portrayed him as a rude and uncouth dork to emphasize the lack of emotional experiences.
Bessemenov himself involuntarily contrasts his son and pupil, and the comparison turns out to be not in Peter’s favor. Father says to son: “I learned contempt for everything living, but did not acquire size in my actions.”. And he speaks of Nile almost with love: “He is daring, he is a robber, but a man with a face”. Only even "humanity" the young driver is not saved from the tragic outcome of the play: Tatyana, realizing that the sympathies of her loved one are going to her younger rival, the seamstress Polya, tries to commit suicide.
After a failed suicide attempt, Tatyana understands her doom, so the play ends with a scene where she falls onto the piano keys, making a loud discordant sound. A little later, A. Chekhov in the play “The Cherry Orchard”, with the help of the sound of a broken string, will emphasize the break with his former life.
Gorky's entire play is permeated with accusations against philistinism. Residents, observing everyday boredom, reproach the owners for having "You'll die of boredom", because they do nothing, have no inclinations. And the young widow, in a fit of despair, shouts: “You are some kind of rust, not people!”
Later, in Soviet time, the word “philistine, philistine” will become an abusive word, a synonym for philistinism. Consider, for example, the words of the heroine of the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears”: “That’s it, the bourgeois swamp has sucked us in!”
Maxim Gorky's story "Foma Gordeev" symbolizes the beginning of a new stage in creative activity author. It reflected the most important social and political events in the life of the country at that time. In particular, the story pays attention to such a phenomenon as the growth of the labor movement in the second half of the 90s. It also sets out the writer’s subjective point of view and his impressions of the changes taking place in the country.
Gorky feels the full force of the blows from clashes of a moral, economic and social nature with representatives of the bourgeoisie. At the same time, the author often had to deal with working people, as well as establish communication directly with the labor movement itself. Gorky’s impressions of all these people and his interaction with them formed the basis of this story.
Gorky presented his work to the public in 1900. Readers were shown a vivid picture of Russian life, including all the ins and outs of the Russian bourgeoisie with all its positive and negative features. The latter is very clearly shown in the example of the image of Anania Izurov, who achieved material well-being through his criminal activities. Also far from in the best possible way Characterizes Russian bourgeois society by the character of Yakov Malenin, who dreams that in the hands of capitalists there will be not only economic influence, but also political power.
Thus, Special attention The novel focuses on a prominent representative of the bourgeois class, Yakov Malenin, and directly on the main character, Foma Gordeev, who is an example of rejection and resistance to all bourgeois ideas. He is not interested in questions of profit and hoarding, he strives for truth and justice, does not want to pretend and deceive. His ideal is free life outside the framework of possessive relations, thirst for profit and the like. Foma Gordeev represents a clear contrast to the modern world of the masters, which characterizes its instability and the possibility of changing the situation in the near future.
However, the hero himself is not capable of making serious changes in the existing social order or influencing their formation. He is far from the advanced intelligentsia, yet the craving for a similar lifestyle and worldview is present in his soul. He thinks quite a lot about life, and yet Thomas has no real desire for knowledge and, accordingly, for education. At the end of the novel, Gordeev finds himself unable to resist the bourgeois way of life, remaining defeated and humiliated in the face of the merciless world of capitalists.
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I have a friend. His name is Lyosha. He studies with me in the same class. After school we go for a walk. Sometimes we play in my yard, we have sports equipment there. We also love to play football
