His work tells us about a rooming house, where the heroes of the work gathered and at first the author called his masterpiece - Nochlezhka. But this name would take us only to a specific place, namely, to the place of lodging for the night, which Kostylev owned and where the heroes of the play gathered. It was a basement with a heavy ceiling, where there were no normal chairs either, and bunk beds instead of beds. A small square window let in only occasional light. In a word, the name Nochlezhka could not fully convey the meaning of the play. And Gorky wanted the work to be wider and deeper. Revealed the essence more. The author thought of giving another name to his play. For example, the title Without the Sun would be profound, but not quite relevant to the topic. Although the heroes had little joy and warmth in life, they could see the sunlight.

The meaning of the title of the play At the Bottom

What is the meaning of the title of the play At the Bottom?
When Gorky renamed his work, the meaning of the name sparkled with other colors, and we will try to speculate a little about the meaning of the name of the play At the Bottom in ours.

Reading the work of Gorky, we will get acquainted with the heroes of the rooming house - embittered, weak-willed, sick people. According to their stories and conversations, we conclude that they have already lost faith in life, have lost meaning and hope in it. These lost people no longer expect anything from life, and they do not want to change anything in their existence. All this directly indicates that they are already at the very bottom of the social ladder. Heroes cannot live without drunkenness, scandals, lies. They are constantly scolding, but still we see that the people of the bottom are still able to talk about truth and freedom. There is only one truth for each of them. The title At the bottom fully reveals the essence of the play. Thanks to the well-chosen title, the author showed that it is not only about a place to sleep, which looks like a cave and seems like you are at the very bottom. But he was able to convey the atmosphere that hovered in this rooming house. The moral and ethical ugliness of the people who gathered there. Subsequently, Gorky's "at the bottom" became symbolic and revealed not only the essence of the play, but also the way of life of some people in our society.

The meaning of the title of the play "At the Bottom"

“At the Bottom” refers to the very beginning of 1900. In the spring of this year, in the Crimea, Maxim Gorky told K. S. Stanislavsky the content of the planned play. "In the first edition the main role was the role of a lackey from a good house, who most of all took care of the collar of his tailcoat shirt - the only thing that connected him with former life. The rooming house was crowded, its inhabitants cursed, the atmosphere was poisoned with hatred. The second act ended with a sudden round of the rooming house by the police. With news of this, the whole anthill began to swarm, they hurried to hide the loot; and in the third act, spring came, the sun, nature came to life, the roommates from the stinking atmosphere went out into the clean air, to earthworks, they sang songs and under the sun, in the fresh air, they forgot about hatred for each other.

“At the bottom”, in which he reflected that “fermentation in the minds”, those questions that arose before people at a difficult time recent years reign of the Romanov dynasty.

Gorky wrote about his play: "It was the result of my almost twenty years of observation of the world" former people”, to which I include not only wanderers, inhabitants of bunkhouses and, in general, “lumpen-proletarians”, but also some of the intellectuals, “demagnetized”, disappointed, insulted and humiliated by failures in life. I felt and understood very early that these people - K are incurable.

reduce people to the insignificant fate of vagabonds. The social conflict is complicated philosophically: true, active, struggling humanism and false, compassionate, inactive humanism collide in the work.

Gorky, in an interview in 1903, spoke about the main question posed in the play: “The main question that I wanted to pose is - which is better, truth or compassion? What is more needed? Is it necessary to bring compassion to the point of using lies, like Luke? Depicting the "bottom", M. Gorky shows society in miniature. The action takes place in the Kostylevs' rooming house - in a "cave-like basement", under "heavy stone vaults". Here, its inhabitants drag out a miserable existence - in the past "former" - tramps.

The characters in the play have lost their past. they don't have a real one. But sometimes "from a square window with right side“A ray of light enters their lives, and then hope arises in their thoughts for a future without oppression, with freedom and truth. This faith lives in Klesche: “I’ll get out ... I’ll tear off my skin, and I’ll get out ...” Natasha and Ash are dreaming of a different, new life; about pure love the prostitute Nastya is dreaming. And the rest reconciled, submitted to circumstances and realized their uselessness. But, in fact, all people are buried alive here. Mercilessly and truthfully M. Gorky draws his heroes, writes about them with pain and anger, sympathizes with them. The pitiful tragic Actor, drunk and even forgotten his name, nobody needs, suffering Anna, who is dying, Bubnov, indifferent to himself and others, the former telegraph operator Satin, smart, but cynical and embittered - they all got into a life dead end. The heroes strive to rise to the surface from the "bottom" of life, but they feel their complete powerlessness in front of the gates of this prison, which gives them a feeling of complete hopelessness.

people to make life easier for them. He pities the inhabitants of the rooming house. But this pity humiliates a person, weakens his strength, reconciles him with vile reality and does not call him to fight. Luke believes that the truth can be a "butt" for a person. Sometimes it is better to deceive a person with fiction, instill in him faith in himself, in the future (“a person lives for the best”). White lies are the same principle that Luke professes.

light over darkness, faith in a man with a capital letter.

And, as long as satins exist at the “bottom”, the dream of the future will also live, based on the present and not detached from real life. After all, "man - that's the truth! All in man, all for man! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! That sounds... proud!” "Lie is the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man!" Such a statement by Satin was perceived as a revolutionary call, as a "signal for an uprising."

Satin in the play becomes a detractor of society, which threw him to the "bottom" of life, like thousands of people like him, and made him drag out a miserable existence.

"Dno" for Maxim Gorky is not a Kostylevo rooming house, not a location, and not even a social position. The “bottom” is a state of mind, it is a way of life of people killed and crippled by a human society with an inhuman device. In them, good is reconciled with evil, love with hate, truth with lies.

"Without the Sun", then "Nochlezhka", "Dno", "At the bottom of life" and, in the end, "At the bottom". It was the latter version that more broadly reflected the ambiguity of the circumstances of life, actions and thoughts of people that lead to despair.

“... Satin's speech about the man-truth is pale,” he wrote to K. P. Pyatnitsky on July 15, 1902. “However, except for Satin, there is no one to say it to, and he cannot say it better, brighter. Even so, this speech sounds alien to his language. But there's nothing you can do about it!"

"Freedom at all costs - that's its spiritual essence," - this is how K. S. Stanislavsky defined the idea of ​​the play, who staged it on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. “The performance was an amazing success. The directors, all the artists and ... Gorky himself were called endlessly.

30.03.2013 46617 0

Lessons 13-14
Socio-philosophical drama
M. Gorky "At the bottom"

Goals : give an initial idea of ​​the socio-philosophical drama as a genre of dramaturgy; to acquaint with the ideological content of Gorky's play "At the Bottom"; develop the ability to analyze a dramatic work.

Tasks : determine the philosophical meaning of the title of Gorky's play "At the Bottom"; find out the author's methods of conveying the atmosphere of spiritual separation of people, revealing the problem of imaginary and real overcoming of a humiliating situation, sleep and awakening of the soul.

Course of lessons

I. Opening remarks.

1. Teacher. Gorky became an innovator not only in Russian romanticism, but also in dramaturgy. Originally, he spoke of Chekhov's innovation, which "killed the realism" (of traditional drama), elevating the images to "a spiritualized symbol". But Gorky himself followed Chekhov.

Gorky's drama in 2007 turns 105 years old (the premiere took place on December 18 of the old style of 1902 in the Moscow Art Theater); since then, the play has been staged, filmed in Russia and abroad many times, dozens of critical, scientific works, but hardly anyone would dare to assert that even today everything is known about this work.

2. Individual message student " stage fate Gorky's play "At the Bottom".

The Moscow Art Theater archive contains an album containing over forty photographs taken by the artist M. Dmitriev in Nizhny Novgorod rooming houses. They served as visual material for actors, make-up artists and costume designers when staging the play at the Moscow Art Theater by Stanislavsky.

In some of the photographs, remarks were made by Gorky's hand, from which it follows that many of the characters in "At the Bottom" had real prototypes among the Nizhny Novgorod bosses. All this suggests that both the author and the director, in order to achieve the maximum stage effect, strove, first of all, for authenticity.

The premiere of "At the Bottom", which took place on December 18, 1902, was a phenomenal success. The roles in the play were played by: Satin - Stanislavsky, Luka - Moskvin, Baron - Kachalov, Natasha - Andreeva, Nastya - Knipper.

Such an inflorescence of famous actors, plus the originality of the author's and director's decisions, gave an unexpected result. The fame of "At the Bottom" itself is a kind of cultural and social phenomenon of the beginning of the 20th century and has no equal in the entire history of the world theater.

“The first performance of this play was a complete triumph,” wrote M. F. Andreeva. - The audience went wild. Called the author countless times. He resisted, did not want to go out, he was literally pushed onto the stage.

On December 21, Gorky wrote to Pyatnitsky: “The success of the play is exceptional, I did not expect anything like this ...” Pyatnitsky himself wrote to L. Andreev: “Maximych's drama is a delight! He will hit like a deafening blow on the foreheads of all those who talked about the decline of his talent. “At the Bottom” was highly appreciated by A. Chekhov, who wrote to the author: “It is new and undoubtedly good. The second act is very good, it is the best, the strongest, and when I read it, especially the end, I almost jumped with pleasure.

"At the Bottom" is the first work of M. Gorky, which brought world fame to the author. In January 1903, the play was premiered in Berlin at the Max Reinhardt Theater directed by director Richard Valletin, who played the role of Satine. In Berlin, the play ran for 300 performances in a row, and in the spring of 1905 its 500th performance was celebrated.

Many of his contemporaries noted in the play a characteristic feature of the early Gorky - rudeness.

Some called it a disadvantage. For example, A. Volynsky wrote to Stanislavsky after the play “At the Bottom”: “Gorky does not have that gentle, noble heart, singing and crying, like Chekhov’s. It is rough with him, as if not mystical enough, not immersed in some kind of grace.

Others saw in this a manifestation of a remarkable integral personality, who came from the lower ranks of the people and, as it were, "blew up" the traditional ideas about the Russian writer.

3. Teacher. “At the Bottom” is a programmatic play for Gorky: created at the dawn of the 20th century that has just begun, it expressed many of his doubts and hopes in connection with the prospects of man and mankind to change themselves, transform life and discover the sources of creative forces necessary for this.

This is stated in the symbolic time of the play, in the remarks of the first act: “The beginning of spring. Morning". The same direction of Gorky's thoughts is eloquently evidenced by his correspondence.

On the eve of Easter 1898, Gorky greeted Chekhov promisingly: “Christ is risen!”, And soon wrote to I. E. Repin: “I don’t know anything better, more difficult, more interesting than a person. He is everything. He even created God... I am sure that man is capable of infinite improvement, and all his activities will also develop along with him... from century to century. I believe in the infinity of life, and I understand life as a movement towards the perfection of the spirit.

A year later, in a letter to L. N. Tolstoy, he almost verbatim repeated this fundamental thesis for himself in connection with literature: “Even a great book is only dead, a black shadow of the word and a hint of the truth, and man is the receptacle of the living God. I understand God as an indomitable desire for perfection, for truth and justice. And therefore - and bad person better than a good book."

4. And what are your impressions of the read play by Gorky?

II. Work on the topic of the lesson. Work with the text of Gorky's play.

1. How do you understand the name of the play: "At the bottom"?

Teacher . How did Gorky connect faith in man - "the receptacle of the living God", capable of "infinitely improving", faith in life - "movement towards the perfection of the spirit" - and the vegetative life "At the bottom of life" (this is one of the options for the title of the drama)?

Do not his words seem like a mockery of a person in comparison with the characters of the play, and her characters against the background of these words - a caricature of humanity?

No, because before us are two sides of Gorky's single worldview: in letters - ideal impulses, in creativity - an artistic study of human capabilities.

The God-man and the “bottom” are contrasts, and the contrast forced us to look for invisible, but existing secret laws of being, spirit, capable of “harmonizing the nerves”, changing a person “physically”, tearing him out of the bottom and returning him “to the center of the life process”.

This philosophy is realized in the system of images, composition, leitmotifs, symbols, in the word of the play.

Bottom in the play is ambiguous and, like many things in Gorky, symbolic. The name correlates the circumstances of life and the soul of a person.

Bottom- this is the bottom of life, the soul, the extreme degree of falling, a situation of hopelessness, a dead end, comparable to the one about which Dostoevsky's Marmeladov spoke bitterly - "when there is nowhere else to go."

“The bottom of the soul” is the innermost, far hidden in people. “It turns out: on the outside, no matter how you paint yourself, everything will be erased,” Bubnov stated, recalling his bright past, painted in the literal and figurative sense, and soon, turning to the Baron, clarified: “What was - was, but what remained is nothing but nothing ..."

2. What can you say about the scene? What are your impressions of the environment in which the main events take place?

The Kostylevs' doss house resembles a prison; it is not for nothing that its inhabitants sing the prison song "The Sun Rises and Sets." Those who got into the basement belong to different strata of society, but everyone has the same fate, they are renegades of society, and no one manages to get out of here.

Important detail: inside the doss house is not as gloomy, cold and disturbing as outside. Here is a description of the outside world at the beginning of the third act: “A wasteland is a courtyard place littered with various rubbish and overgrown with weeds. In the depths of it is a tall brick firewall. It closes the sky... Evening, the sun sets, illuminating the firewall with a reddish light.

It's early spring, the snow has just melted. "Dog's coolness ...", - says, shivering, Kleshch, entering from the hallway. In the finale, the Actor hanged himself in this wasteland.

It's still warm inside and people live here.

- Who are they?

3. Quiz on the content of the work.

A) Which of the characters in the play "At the Bottom" ...

1) ...claims that he "doesn't seem to have a temper"? (Baron.)

2) ...does not want to reconcile with life on the "bottom" and declares:
“I am a working person ... and I have been working since I was young ... I’ll get out ... I’ll tear off my skin, and I’ll get out”? (Mite.)

3) ... dreamed of such a life, "so that you can respect yourself"? (Ash.)

4) ... lives in dreams of great, real human love? (Nastya.)

5) ... believes that she will be better off in the next world, but still wants to live at least a little more in this world? (Anna.)

6) ... “lay down in the middle of the street, plays the harmonica and yells: “I don’t want anything, I don’t want anything”? (Shoemaker Alyoshka.)

7) ... says to the man who offered her to marry him: “... marrying a woman is the same as jumping into an ice hole in winter”? (Korshnya.)

8) ... hiding behind the service of God, robs people! “...and I’ll throw a half a ruble on you, I’ll buy oil in a lamp... and my sacrifice will burn before the holy icon...”? (Kostylev.)

9) ... is indignant: “And why do people separate when they fight? Let them beat each other freely ... they would fight less, because the beatings would be remembered longer ... ”? (Policeman Medvedev.)

10) ... found himself in a rooming house because he left his wife, afraid to kill her, jealous of another? (Bubnov.)

11) ... he consoled everyone with a beautiful lie, and in a difficult moment "disappeared from the police ... like smoke from a fire ..."? (Wanderer Luke.)

12) ...beaten, scalded with boiling water, asks to be taken to prison? (Natasha.)

13) … asserted: “Falsehood is the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man!”? (Satin.)

B) What circumstances brought each of them to Kostylev's rooming house?

1) A former official in the state chamber? (The baron went to prison for embezzlement of state money, and then ended up in a rooming house.)

2) Watchman at the dacha? (The rooming house for Luka is only one of the points of his wanderings.)

3) Former telegraph operator? (Satin, because of his sister, "killed a scoundrel in temper and irritation", ended up in prison, after prison he ended up in a rooming house.)

4) A furrier? (Bubnov was once the owner of his own workshop; having left his wife, he lost "his establishment" and ended up in a rooming house.)

Teacher . These people are forced to live in the same room, which only burdens them: they are not ready to help each other in any way.

– Re-read the beginning of the play (before Luka appears in the rooming house).

1. Gorky conveyed the stability of the alienation of people in the form polylogue, composed of replicas that do not fit with each other. All the remarks sound from different angles - Anna's dying words alternate with the cries of the roomers playing cards (Satin and Baron) and checkers (Bubnov and Medvedev):

Anna . I don't remember when I was full... All my life I went around in rags... all my miserable life... For what?

Luca. Oh you baby! Tired? Nothing!

Actor (Crooked Zob). Knave go ... jack, damn it!

Baron. And we have a king.

Tick. They will always beat.

Satin. This is our habit...

Medvedev. King!

Bubnov. And I have... w-well...

Anna . I'm dying here...

2. In some replicas, words that have a symbolic sound stand out. Bubnov's words "but the threads are rotten" hint at the lack of ties between the shelters. Bubnov notices about Nastya's position: "You are superfluous everywhere." This once again indicates that the residents of Kostylev hardly "tolerate" each other.

3. Outcasts of society reject many generally accepted truths. It is worth, for example, to tell Kleshch that the overnight stays live without honor and conscience, as Bubnov will answer him: “What is conscience for? I’m not rich,” and Vaska Pepel will quote Sateen’s words: “Every person wants his neighbor to have a conscience, but, you see, it’s not profitable for anyone to have one.”

5. How does the atmosphere of the 2nd and 3rd acts differ from the 1st?

Students reflect on examples from the text.

The atmosphere of the 2nd and 3rd acts is different compared to the 1st. The situation changes with the appearance of the wanderer Luke, who, with his "fairy tales", revives dreams and hopes in the souls of the overnight stays.

The passportless tramp Luka, who was “crumpled” a lot in life, came to the conclusion that a person is worthy of pity, and generously bestows it on rooming houses. He acts as a comforter who wants to encourage a person or reconcile him with a bleak existence.

The old man advises the dying Anna not to be afraid of death: after all, she brings peace, which the eternally hungry Anna never knew. The drunken actor Luka inspires hope for a cure in a free clinic for alcoholics, although he knows that there is no such clinic. He speaks to Vaska Pepl about the possibility of starting new life together with Natasha in Siberia.

But all this is just a comforting lie, which can only temporarily calm a person, muffling the difficult reality.

The overnight stays understand this, but listen to the old man with pleasure: they want to believe his “fairy tales”, dreams of happiness wake up in them.

Bubnov. And why is it ... a person loves to lie so much? Always - as before the investigator stands ... right!

Natasha. It can be seen that a lie ... is more pleasant than the truth ... I, too ...

Natasha. I invent ... I invent and - I wait ...

Baron. What?

Natasha (smiling embarrassedly). So... Well, I think tomorrow... someone... someone... special will arrive... Or something will happen... also - unprecedented... I wait a long time... always - I'm waiting ... And so ... in fact - what can you wish for?

There is a deceptive liberation from circumstances in the replicas of the hostels. The circle of existence seems to have closed: from indifference to an unattainable dream, from it to real upheavals or death (Anna dies, Kostylev is killed). Meanwhile, it is in this state of the heroes that the playwright finds the source of their spiritual fracture.

III. Summary of lessons.

- Make a generalization: what are the features of Gorky's drama - in the development of the action, in the content?

That's an example socio-philosophical drama. How do you understand this definition?

In the play "At the Bottom" the author did not limit himself to depicting the characteristic social aspects of Russian reality. This is not an everyday, but a socio-philosophical play, which is based on a dispute about a person, his position in society and attitude towards him. And in this dispute (in one way or another) almost all the inhabitants of the rooming house participate.

individually : problem Human in Gorky's play "At the Bottom".

The play "At the Bottom" was conceived by Gorky as one of the four plays in the 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 is a person and whether he will retain his personality, sinking "to the bottom" of moral and social life.

The history of the creation of the play

The first evidence of work on the play dates back to 1900, when Gorky, in a conversation with Stanislavsky, mentions his desire to write scenes from the life of a rooming house. 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 are 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 Russian theaters- it is practically prohibited. An exception was made only for the Moscow Art Theater, the other theaters had to receive special permission to stage.

The name of the play changed at least four times in the course of work, and the genre was never determined by the author - the publication read "At the bottom of life: scenes." A shortened and familiar name to everyone today first appeared in theater poster at the first production at the Moscow Art Theater.

The first performers were the stellar composition of the Moscow Artistic academic theater: K. Stanislavsky acted as Satin, V. Kachalov as Baron, I. Moskvin as Luka, O. Knipper as Nastya, M. Andreeva as Natasha.

The main plot of the work

The plot of the play is tied to the relationship of the characters and in an atmosphere of general hatred that reigns in the rooming house. This is the outer canvas of the work. Parallel action explores the depth of a person's fall "to the bottom", the measure of the insignificance of a socially and spiritually descended individual.

The play begins and ends storyline the relationship between two characters: the thief Vaska Ash and the wife of the owner of the rooming house Vasilisa. Ash loves her younger sister Natasha. Vasilisa is jealous, constantly beating her sister. She also has another interest in her lover - she wants to get rid of her husband and pushes Ash to kill. In the course of the play, Pepel really kills Kostylev in a quarrel. In the last act of the play, the guests of the rooming house say that Vaska will have to go to hard labor, but Vasilisa will "get out" anyway. Thus, the action is looped by the destinies of the two heroes, but is far from being limited to them.

The time span of the play is several weeks of early spring. The season is an important part of the play. One of the first names given by the author to the work, "Without the sun." Indeed, spring is all around, a sea of ​​sunlight, and darkness is in the rooming house and in the souls of its inhabitants. Luka, a vagabond, whom Natasha brings one day, became a ray of sunshine for the overnight stays. Luke brings hope for a happy outcome to the hearts of those who have fallen and lost faith in best people. However, at the end of the play, Luka disappears from the rooming house. The characters who trust 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 rooming house. The main characters, respectively, were its inhabitants and the owners of the institution. Also, persons related to the life of the institution appear in it: a policeman, who is also the uncle of the hostess of a rooming house, a dumpling seller, loaders.

Satin and Luca

Schuler, the former convict Satin and the vagabond, the 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 fortitude. 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 other characters form the backdrop for this battle of ideas. In addition, they are designed to show, to measure the depth of the fall, to which a person is able to sink. The drunkard Actor and the mortally 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 him. With his departure, they physically cannot live and die. The rest of the inhabitants of the rooming house perceive the appearance and departure of Luke, as the play of a sunny spring ray - he appeared and disappeared.

Nastya, who sells her body "on the boulevard", believes that there is a bright love, and she was in her life. Kleshch, the husband of the dying Anna, believes that he will rise from the bottom and again begin to earn a living by working. The thread that connects him to 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 rooming house. Vaska Pepel strives to stay with Natalya, but cannot get out of the networks of the imperious Vasilisa. The latter, in turn, is waiting for the death of her husband to untie her hands and give her long-awaited freedom. The Baron lives on with 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 in Russia stood up, the population was rapidly impoverished, many found themselves at the bottom rung of the social ladder, in the basement. Each of the heroes of the play in the past experienced a fall "to the bottom", social and moral. Now they live in the memory of this, but they cannot rise "into the light": they do not know how, they have no 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 "deceit". Obviously, the author is trying to show the inconsistency of Luke's ideas about the beneficial value of the Faith for a person. Gorky practically reduces Luke's compassionate humanism to the concept of betrayal - according to the plot of the play, the tramp leaves the rooming house just when those who trusted him need his support.

Satin is a figure designed to voice the worldview of the author. As Gorky wrote, Satin is not quite a suitable character for this, but there is simply no other character with such 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 other inhabitants of the rooming house find themselves. Does Satin believe in Man and his power over the power of circumstances and mistakes made? The passionate monologue that he utters while arguing in absentia with the departed Luka leaves a strong, but contradictory impression.

There is also a carrier of the "third" truth in the work - Bubnov. This hero, like Satin, "stands for the truth", only she is somehow very scary in him. He is a misanthrope, but, in fact, a murderer. Only they die not from the knife in his hands, but from the hatred that he harbors for everyone.

The drama of the play increases from act to act. Luke's consoling conversations with those suffering from his compassion and Sateen's rare remarks, which indicate that he is attentively listening to the speeches of the tramp, become the connecting canvas. The culmination of the play is Sateen's monologue, delivered after Luke's departure-flight. Phrases from it are often quoted because they have the appearance of aphorisms; “Everything in a person is everything for a person!”, “Lie is the religion of slaves and masters ... Truth is the god of a free person!”, “Man - it sounds proud!”.

Conclusion

The bitter outcome of the play is the triumph of the freedom of a fallen person to die, disappear, leave, leaving no trace or memories behind. The inhabitants of the rooming house are free from society, moral norms, family and livelihood. By and large, they are free from life.

The play "At the Bottom" has been alive for more than a century and continues to be one of the most strong works Russian classics. The play makes one 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.

In the work of M. Gorky "At the Bottom" a huge layer of moral, ethical and spiritual problems of society will be touched upon. The author used the principle of the great minds of the past: truth is born in a dispute. His play - a dispute is designed to raise the most important questions for a person, so that he himself answers them. A complete analysis of the work can be useful for students in grade 11 in preparing for literature lessons, test tasks, creative work.

Brief analysis

Year of writing- end of 1901 - beginning of 1902.

History of creation- the play was created specifically for staging in the theater, Gorky put the most important questions of life into the mouths of his heroes, reflected his own view of life. The period of the late 19th century is shown, a deep economic crisis, unemployment, poverty, ruin, the collapse of human destinies.

Topic- the tragedy of outcast people who found themselves at the very bottom of life.

Composition- linear composition, the events in the play are built in chronological order. The action is static, the characters are in one place, the play consists of philosophical reflections and disputes.

Genre- socio-philosophical drama, debate play.

Direction- critical realism (socialist realism).

History of creation

The play was conceived by Gorky a year before its creation, once in a conversation with Stanislavsky he mentioned that he wanted to create a play about the inhabitants of a rooming house who had sunk to the very bottom. In 1900-1901 the author made some sketches. During this period, Maxim Gorky became seriously interested in the plays of A.P. Chekhov, their staging on stage and the acting of actors. This was decisive for the author in terms of working in a new genre.

In 1902, the play "At the Bottom" was written, and in December of the same year it was staged on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater Theater with the participation of Stanislavsky. It should be noted that the writing of the work was preceded by a crisis that occurred in Russia in the late 90s of the 19th century, factories and factories stopped, unemployment, ruin, poverty, hunger - all this is a real picture in the cities of that period. The play was created with a specific goal - to raise the level of culture of all classes of the population. Her production caused a resonance, largely due to the genius of the author, as well as the controversy of the voiced problems. In any case - the play was talked about, with envy, discontent or admiration - it was a success.

Topic

Intertwined in the work multiple topics: fate, hope, the meaning of life, truth and lies. The heroes of the play talk on lofty topics, being so low that it is no longer possible to go down further. The author shows that a poor person can have a deep essence, be highly moral, spiritually rich.

At the same time, any person can sink to the very bottom, from which it is almost impossible to rise, it is addictive, gives freedom from conventions, allows you to forget about culture, responsibility, upbringing and moral aspects. Gorky only voiced the sharpest Problems modernity, he did not solve them, did not give a universal answer, did not show the way. Therefore, his work is called a debate play, it is based on a dispute in which the truth is born, its own for each character.

Issues the works are diverse, the most burning, perhaps it is worth considering the dialogues of the characters about saving lies and bitter truth. The meaning of the name plays that the social bottom is a layer where there is also life, where people love, live, think and suffer - it exists in any era and no one is immune from this bottom.

Composition

The author himself defined the composition of the play as “scenes”, although its genius corresponds to the masterpiece plays of Russian and foreign classics. The linearity of the construction of the play is due to the chronological sequence of events. The plot of the play is the appearance in the rooming house of Luka with his dissimilarity and facelessness. Further, in several actions, the development of events takes place, moving on to the most powerful heat - a dialogue about the meaning of existence, about truth and lies. This is the climax of the play, followed by the denouement: the suicide of the Actor, the loss of hopes of the last inhabitants of the rooming house. They are not able to save themselves, which means they are doomed to death.

Genre

In the play “At the Bottom”, the analysis allows us to draw a conclusion about the uniqueness of the Gorky genre - the debate play. The main thing in the development of the plot is the conflict, it drives the action. The characters are in a dark basement and the dynamics is achieved through the clash of opposing points of view. The genre of the work is usually defined as a socio-philosophical drama.

Artwork test

Analysis Rating

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