At the bottom as a socially philosophical work. The play "At the Bottom" as a socio-philosophical work
Read also
“At the bottom” of M. Gorky as a social philosophical drama... Gorky's play "At the Bottom" not only has not left the stages of Russian theaters for about a hundred years, but also bypassed major theaters the world. To this day, it excites the minds and hearts of readers and viewers, there are more and more new interpretations
images (especially Luke). All this suggests that M. Gorky managed not only to look at tramps with a fresh, truthful eye - people who have sunk into the very mud, “to the bottom” of life, deleted from active life society " former people”, Rogue. But at the same time, the playwright sharply poses and tries to solve serious questions that worried and will worry every new generation, all thinking humanity: what is a person? what is truth and in what form do people need it? is there an objective world or “what you believe is what you believe”? and, most importantly, what is this world like and can it be changed?
In the play, we come across people who are useless outcasts in society, but they are the ones who are interested in questions about a person's place in the world around them. The heroes of the play do not resemble each other either in looks, or thoughts, or life principles nor by the way of life itself. What unites them is that they are superfluous. And at the same time, almost each of the inhabitants of the shelter is the bearer of a certain philosophical concept, on which they try to build their lives.
Bubnov believes that the world is vile and dirty, there is no kind people, everyone is just pretending, painting themselves, but "outside, no matter how you paint yourself, everything will be erased."
The tick is angry with people, cruel to his wife Anna, but believes that hard, exhausting, but honest work can bring him back to his “real” life: “I am a working person ... I am ashamed to look at them ... I have been working since my early years ... Do you think I won't get out of here? I’ll get out… I’ll rip off my skin, but I’ll get out. ”
The Actor, drunk and having lost his name, hopes that his gift will return to him: "... the main talent ... And talent is faith in oneself, in one's own strength."
Nastya, a woman selling her body, dreams of a genuine, sublime love which in real life unattainable.
Satin - a sharper philosopher - has an opinion opposite to the principles of the Tick: “Work? For what? To be full? " It seems to him senseless to be spinning in a wheel all his life: food is work. Satin owns the final monologue in the play, elevating man: "Man is free ... he pays for everything himself: for faith, for unbelief, for love, for intelligence ... Man is the truth!"
Inhabitants of the little house, brought together in a cramped room, at the beginning of the play are indifferent to each other, they hear only themselves, even if they all talk together. But serious changes in the inner state of the heroes begin with the appearance of Luke, an old wanderer who managed to awaken this sleepy kingdom, console and encourage many, inspire or support hope, but at the same time, was the cause of many tragedies. Luke's main desire: "I want to understand human affairs." And he, indeed, very soon understands all the inhabitants of the shelter. On the one hand, endlessly believing in a person, Luka believes that it is very difficult to change life, therefore it is easier to change yourself, to adapt. But the principle “what you believe in is what you believe in” makes a person come to terms with poverty, ignorance, injustice, and not fight for a better life.
The questions raised by M. Gorky in the play "At the Bottom" are timeless, they arise in people different eras, ages, religions. That is why the play evokes a keen interest among our contemporaries, helping them to understand themselves and the problems of their time.
The genre of the play "At the Bottom" can be defined as a socio-philosophical drama. The main philosophical problem of the play is the dispute about the truth. The dispute about the truth is revealed, first of all, in the conversation of the heroes, when the word “truth” is used in its direct meaning as the opposite of the word “lie”. However, this does not exhaust the meaning of this philosophical problem. The dispute about the truth implies a clash of different life and philosophical positions of the heroes, first of all Luka, Bubnov, Satin. It is the clash of the worldviews of these heroes that determines the development of the philosophical conflict.
Is a salvation lie justified? Gorky poses this question, revealing the image of Luke. Appearing in a shelter, Luka has a great influence on all of its inhabitants. Luke engenders faith in many heroes. For example, after a conversation with Luca, Anna begins to believe that with the death of the body, the soul departs into better world and dies peacefully. Luke takes pity on the inhabitants of the shelter and, consoling them, ”often tells a lie. The actor believes in Luke's fictional stories about a hospital where alcoholism is being treated. Luka makes Natasha and Ashes believe in the possibility of their joint clean life in Siberia. For the kind person, driven by love for the people of Luke, the main thing is that faith and hope live in a person, and it does not matter which way this will be achieved. Luke believes in a person, in the possibility of his resurrection with the help of faith. And this is the philosophical position of Luke, his truth, which is opposed in the play by the position of Bubnov. “Here ... I don’t know how to lie! What for? In my opinion - you the whole truth as it is! Why be ashamed? " -- is talking; Bubnov. Bubnov recognizes only a bare fact, everything else for him is a lie. He does not understand why Luke deceives the inhabitants of the shelter with his beautiful stories why regrets them. Bubnov's truth is cruel, ruthless, it is based on indifference to people, it excludes any hope of changing a person. In comparison with the truth of Bubnov, of course, Luka's position wins.
In the play, truth is related to faith. A person's faith, if he really believes, becomes his truth, the truth of his life. Nastya believed that she had true love, and Baron and Bubnov laughed at her, believing that she was lying and just wanted to “embellish her soul”. Luka is the only one who understood Nastya. "Your truth, not theirs ... if you believe, you had real love... so - there was she! " The loss of such faith can turn into a tragedy for a person, Luke says about this, telling the parable of the righteous land. However, the same thing happens to the Actor as to a person who believed in a righteous land. Luka disappears from the shelter at the most important moment for its inhabitants, when many of them have a belief in something better. The heroes lose their newly acquired faith, and this turns into a tragedy for many. The actor commits suicide. The ashes are sent to prison, Natasha ends up in the hospital. By the development of the plot of the play, its sad ending, Gorky shows that Luka was wrong. Luke could not fully save and revive the inhabitants of the shelter, since his truth, that is, the position of consolation, was based on pity for people, on mercy, it did not give the heroes faith in themselves. Listening to Luka, the inhabitants of the flophouse begin to believe in something. But as soon as the person who comforted them, made them believe disappears, they immediately lose this faith and descend again. However, Luca still changed many of the inhabitants of the flophouse in better side, made them think about their life. Luke's strongest influence was on Satin. “He worked on me; like acid on an old and dirty coin ... ”- says Satin about Luke. From an immoral, indifferent to everything, a person who hates people, Satin has turned into an author's resonator. Satin speaks his monologues in the last act only under the influence of Luke. Satin is the only one who fully understood: Luke's position. From philosophy. Luke Satin takes faith in man ("Man is the truth! He understood that ..."), but faith without pity and mercy. A person must be respected, not pitied - this is what is now becoming the main thing for Satin. Satin says that you have to believe in own strength a person, for a strong, proud person pity and mercy are not needed, they are needed only for the weak. "Lies are the religion of slaves and masters ... Truth is God free man"- this is how the philosophical dispute about the truth in the play" At the Bottom "is resolved.
The play by M. Gorky "At the Bottom" is rightfully one of the best dramatic works of the writer. This is evidenced by its incredible success for a long time in Russia and abroad. The play caused and still causes contradictory interpretations about the characters depicted and its philosophical basis. Gorky acted as an innovator in drama, raising an important philosophical question about a person, about his place, role in life, about what is important to him. “Which is better: truth or compassion? What is more needed? ”- these are the words of M. Gorky himself. Incredible success and the recognition of the play "At the Bottom" was also facilitated by its successful staging on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater in 1902. VN Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote to M. Gorky: “The appearance of the“ Bottom ”in one blow paved the way for theater culture... Having in At the Bottom a sample of a truly folk play, we consider this performance the pride of the theater. "
M. Gorky acted as the creator of a new type social drama... He correctly, truthfully portrayed the environment of the inhabitants of the shelter. This is a special category of people with their own destinies and tragedies.
Already in the first author's remark, we come across a description of the shelter. This is a “cave-like basement”. A beggar environment, dirt, light coming from top to bottom. This further emphasizes that it comes about the very “bottom” of society. At first the play was called “At the Bottom of Life”, but then Gorky changed the name - “At the Bottom”. It more fully reflects the idea of the work. Sharpie, thief, prostitute - representatives of the society depicted in the play. The owners of the shelter are also at the “bottom” of moral rules, they do not have any moral values, carry a destructive beginning. Everything in the flop takes place far from general flow life, events in the world. “The bottom of life” does not capture this course of life.
The characters in the play previously belonged to different strata of society, but now all of them are united by one thing - their present, hopelessness, inability to change their fate, and some unwillingness to do this, a passive attitude to life. At first, the Tick differs from them, but after Anna's death, he becomes the same - he loses the hope of getting out of here.
Different origins determine the behavior, speech of the characters. The Actor's speech contains quotes from literary works... Former intellectual Satin's speech is saturated in foreign words... Luke's quiet, unhurried, soothing speech is heard.
There are many different conflicts in the play, plot lines... This is the relationship of Ash, Vasilisa, Natasha and Kostylev; Baron and Nastya; Tick and Anna. We see tragic fates Bubnov, Actor, Satin, Alyoshka. But all these lines seem to run parallel, there is no common, pivotal conflict between the heroes. In the play, we can observe a conflict in the minds of people, a conflict with circumstances - this was unusual for the Russian audience.
The author does not tell in detail the story of each bed-lodger, and yet we have enough information about each of them. The life of some, their past, for example, Satin, Bubnov, Actor, is dramatic, in itself worthy a separate work... Circumstances forced them to sink to the bottom. Others, such as Ash, Nastya, learned the life of this society from birth. There are no main characters in the play, all occupy approximately the same position. In the future, they have no improvement in life, which is depressing for its monotony. Everyone is used to the fact that Vasilisa beats Natasha, everyone knows about the relationship between Vasilisa and Vaska Ash, everyone is tired of the suffering of dying Anna. Nobody pays attention to how others live; there are no connections between people; no one is able to listen, sympathize, help. No wonder Bubnov repeats that "the strings are rotten."
People no longer want anything, they do not strive for anything, they believe that everything on earth is superfluous, that their life has already passed. They despise each other, each considers himself superior, better than others. Everyone is aware of the insignificance of their position, but they do not try to get out, stop dragging out a miserable existence and start living. And the reason for this is that they got used to it and put up with it.
But not only social and everyday problems are raised in the play, the characters also argue about the meaning human life, about its values. The play "At the Bottom" is a deep philosophical drama. People thrown out of life, sank to the bottom, argue about philosophical issues being.
M. Gorky posed in his work the question that more useful to a person: the truth of real life or a comforting lie. It was this question that caused so much controversy. Luke serves as a preacher of the idea of compassion and lies, who comforts everyone, speaks kind words to everyone. He respects * ^ each person (“not a single flea is bad, all are black”), sees a good beginning in everyone, believes that a person can do anything if he wants. He is naively trying to awaken in people faith in themselves, in their strengths and capabilities, in a better life.
Luke knows how important this faith is for a person, this hope for the possibility and reality of the best. Even just a kind, affectionate word, a word that supports this faith, is capable of giving a person support in life, a solid foundation under their feet. Belief in your ability to change, improve own life reconciles a person with the world, as he plunges into his fictional world and lives there, hiding from the frightening one the real world, in which a person cannot find himself. And in reality this person is inactive.
But this applies only to a weak person who has lost faith in himself.
Therefore, such people are drawn to Luke, listen to him and believe him, because his words are a miraculous balm for their tormented souls.
Anna listens to him because he alone sympathized with her, did not forget about her, told her kind word, which she may have never heard. Luke gave her the hope that she would not suffer in another life.
Nastya also listens to Luka, because he does not deprive her of the illusions from which she draws her vitality.
He gives the ashes the hope that he will be able to start life anew where no one knows either Vaska or his past.
Luca tells the actor about a free clinic for alcoholics, in which he can recover and return to the stage again.
Luke is not just a comforter, he substantiates his position philosophically. One of the ideological centers of the play is the story of a wanderer about how he saved two escaped convicts. the main idea Gorky's character here is that it is not violence, not prison, but only good that can save a person and teach good: "A man can teach good ..."
The other denizens don't need Luke's philosophy, support for non-existent ideals, because it's more strong people... They understand that Luke is lying, but he lies out of compassion, love for people. They have questions about the need for this lie. Everyone thinks, and everyone has their own position. All the lodgers participate in the debate about truth and lies, but do not take each other very seriously.
In contrast to the philosophy of the wanderer Luka, Gorky presented the philosophy of Satin and his judgments about man. "Lies are the religion of slaves and masters ... Truth is the god of a free man!" While pronouncing monologues, Satin does not expect to convince others of anything. This is his confession, the result of his long reflections, a cry of despair and a thirst for action, a challenge to the world of the well-fed and a dream of the future. He speaks with admiration about the power of man, about the fact that man was created for the better: "man - it sounds proud!" This monologue, spoken among the ragged, deserted inhabitants of the shelter, shows that faith in genuine humanism, in the truth, does not fade away.
The play by M. Gorky "At the Bottom" is an acute social and philosophical drama. Social, since it presents the drama caused by the objective conditions of the life of society. The philosophical aspect of the drama is rethought by each generation in a new way. For a long time, the image of Luka was assessed unequivocally negatively. Today, in view of historical events last decade, the image of Luke is read in many ways differently, he became much closer to the reader. I believe that there is no definite answer to the author's question. It all depends on the specific situation and the historical era.