Gorky's social and philosophical play at the bottom of the analysis. "At the Bottom" as a socio-philosophical drama. The meaning of the play's title. Innovation of Gorky - playwright. Stage fate of the play. The artistic world of V. Nabokov. Novel "The Defense of Luzhin"

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

Methodical techniques: lecture, analytical conversation.

Lesson equipment: portrait and photographs of A.M. Gorky from different years, illustrations “At the Bottom.”

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During the classes.

1. Conversation on the content of the play “At the Depths”.

Some of Nietzsche's philosophical and aesthetic works were reflected in Gorky's early romantic works. The central image of early Gorky is a proud and strong personality, embodying the idea of ​​freedom. Therefore, Danko, who sacrifices himself for the sake of people, is on a par with the drunkard and thief Chelkash, who does not perform any feats for the sake of anyone. “Strength is virtue,” Nietzsche asserted, and for Gorky, the beauty of a person lies in strength and even aimless feats: a strong person has the right to be “beyond good and evil,” to be outside of ethical principles, like Chelkash, but a feat, from this point view, is resistance to the general flow of life.

In 1902, Gorky created the drama “At the Lower Depths”.

How is the scene depicted?

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

The third act takes place in an early spring evening in a vacant lot, “littered with various rubbish and a yard overgrown with weeds.” Let's pay attention to the coloring of this place: the dark wall of a “barn or stable”, the “gray wall of a shelter covered with the remains of plaster”, the red wall of a brick firewall covering the sky, the reddish light of the setting sun, black elderberry branches without buds.

In the setting of the fourth act, significant changes occur: the partitions of Ash’s former room are broken, the Tick’s anvil has disappeared. The action takes place at night, and light from the outside world no longer penetrates into the basement - the scene is illuminated by a lamp standing in the middle of the table. However, the last act of the drama takes place in a vacant lot - the Actor hanged himself there.

What kind of people live in the shelter?

People who have sunk to the bottom of life end up in a shelter. This is the last refuge for tramps, marginalized people, “former people.” All social strata of society are here: the bankrupt nobleman Baron, the hostel owner Kostylev, the policeman Medvedev, the locksmith Kleshch, the cap maker Bubnov, the merchant Kvashnya, the sharpie Satin, the prostitute Nastya, the thief Ash. Everyone is equalized by the status of the dregs of society. Here live very young (shoemaker Alyoshka is 20 years old) and not yet old people (the oldest, Bubnov, is 45 years old). However, their life is almost over. Dying Anna appears to us as an old woman, and she is 30 years old.

Many night shelters do not have names; only nicknames remain, expressively describing their bearers. The appearance of the dumpling seller Kvashnya, the character of Kleshch, and the Baron’s ambition are clear. The actor once bore the sonorous surname Sverchkov-Zadunaisky, but now there are almost no memories left - “I forgot everything.”

What is the subject of the play? What is the conflict of the drama?

Reference: A sharp conflict situation that plays out in front of the audience is the most important feature of drama as a type of literature.

The subject of the drama is the consciousness of people thrown to the bottom of life as a result of deep social processes. Social conflict has several levels in the play. The social poles are clearly indicated: on one, the owner of the shelter, Kostylev, and the policeman Medvedev, who supports his power, on the other, the essentially powerless roomies. Thus, the conflict between the authorities and the disenfranchised people is obvious. This conflict hardly develops, because the Kostylevs and Medvedevs are not so far from the inhabitants of the shelter.

Each of the night shelters experienced their own social conflict in the past, as a result of which they found themselves in a humiliating position.

What brought its inhabitants - Satin, Baron, Kleshch, Bubnov, Actor, Nastya, Ash - to the shelter? What is the backstory of these characters?

Satin hit rock bottom after serving time in prison for murder; The Baron went bankrupt; Mite lost his job; Bubnov left home “out of harm’s way” so as not to kill his wife and her lover, although he himself admits that he is lazy, and even a heavy drunkard; The actor drank himself to death; Ash’s fate was predetermined already at his birth: “I have been a thief since childhood... everyone always told me: Vaska is a thief, Vaska’s son is a thief!” The Baron talks in more detail than others about the stages of his fall (act 4). Each stage of the life of the 33rd Baron seems to be marked by a certain costume. These changes of clothes symbolize a gradual decline in social status, and there is nothing behind these changes of clothes; life passed as in a dream.

What is the peculiarity of the social conflict of each inhabitant of the shelter?

How is social conflict related to dramaturgical conflict?

These social conflicts are taken off stage, pushed into the past, they do not become the basis of a dramatic conflict.

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

The play contains a traditional love conflict. It is determined by relationships

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

What is unique about a love conflict?

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

1. Teacher's word.

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

Bottom line. The genre of the play can be defined as a socio-philosophical drama.

D.Z.

Identify Luke's role in the play. Write down his statements about people, about life, about truth, about faith.

TOPICS OF PRACTICAL LESSONS

LESSON No. 1

LESSON No. 2

Historical novel by A.N. Tolstoy "Peter the Great".

The concept of personality and assessment of the activities of Peter I in the novel

1. The reasons for A. N. Tolstoy’s appeal to the era and personality of Peter I. The concept of the personality of Peter I in the story “The Day of Peter.”
2. The problem of “personality and era” in the novel. The idea of ​​the historical necessity of the reforms of Peter I. The image of Peter, his evolution.
3. Features of the depiction of a historical era in the novel. Friends of Peter I and opponents of his reforms (Lefort, Menshikov, Brovkins, Buinosovs, etc.). Female images in the novel.
4. Techniques for creating characters in a novel. Language and style of the novel.

1. Varlamov A. Alexey Tolstoy. – M., 2006.
2. Petelin V.I. The Life of Alexei Tolstoy: The Red Count. – M., 2002.
3. Polyak L.M. Alexey Tolstoy is an artist. Prose. – M., 1964.
4. Kryukova A.M. A.N. Tolstoy and Russian literature. Creative individuality in the literary process. – M., 1990.

LESSON No. 3

E. Zamyatin’s novel “We” as a novel – dystopia

1. Reasons for E. Zamyatin’s turn to a new genre. The genesis and main features of the novel are dystopian. Traditions of Russian and European literature.
2. Characteristics of the United State in the novel. Criticism of American-European civilization and any form of totalitarianism is the author’s main idea. The fate of art in the United State.
3. The conflict between the individual and the state in the novel “We”. Tragedy D-503, its causes. Image 1-330.
4. Features of expressionism in the novel.

1. Zamyatin E. We. Tomorrow. I'm afraid. About literature, revolution, entropy and other things - M., 1988.

2. Zverev A. When the last hour of nature strikes... // Questions of literature. 1989. No. 1.

3. Mikhailov O. Grandmaster of Literature // Zamyatin Evgeniy. Favorites. – M., 1989.

4. Sukhikh Igor. About the city of the sun, heretics, entropy and the last revolution // Zvezda. 1999. No. 2.

5. Shaitanov I. Master. // Questions of literature. 1988. No. 12.

6. Kostyleva I.A. Traditions and innovation in the work of E. Zamyatin (synthesis of realism and expressionism) // Creative heritage of E. Zamyatin: a view from today. Tambov, 1994.

LESSON No. 4

LESSON No. 5

LESSON No. 6

LESSON No. 7

The story by A. Platonov “The Pit”.

LESSON No. 8

“Quiet Don” by M. Sholokhov as an epic novel.

LESSON No. 9

LESSON No. 10

LESSON No. 11

“Summer of the Lord” by I. Shmelev

LESSON No. 12

The artistic world of V. Nabokov. Novel "The Defense of Luzhin"

Lesson No. 13

“Small Prose” by A. Solzhenitsyn. “One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich” and “Matrenin’s yard”. The theme of the tragic fate of man in the 20th century.

1. Description of camp life in the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” Portraits of prisoners.
2. The image of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. Traits of autobiography. The inner world of the hero, his moral and philosophical principles. Traditions of L.N. Tolstoy in depicting the character of the Russian peasant. Ivan Denisovich and Platon Karataev. The problem of real and imaginary freedom.
3. The image of the narrator in the work “Matrenin’s Dvor” and the theme of returning to a free life. Personality traits.
4. Image of a Russian village in a story.
5. The character and fate of Matryona Vasilievna. Portrait of the heroine. Her attitude towards the world. National and individual in the image. The meaning of the ending.

1. Niva Zh. Solzhenitsyn. - M., 1991.

2. Saraskina L. I. Alexander Solzhenitsyn. - M.: Young Guard, 2009.

3. Sarnov B. Solzhenitsyn’s phenomenon. - M.: Eksmo, 2012.

4. Chalmaev V. Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Life and art. – M., 1994.

5. Vinokur T. Happy New Year, sixty-second (about the style of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”) // Questions of Literature. 1991. No. 11-12.

LESSON No. 14

LESSON No. 15

TOPICS OF PRACTICAL LESSONS

1. M. Gorky's play “At the Lower Depths” as a socio-philosophical drama.
2. Historical novel by A.N. Tolstoy "Peter the Great". The concept of personality and assessment of the activities of Peter I in the novel.
3. E. Zamyatin’s novel “We” as a novel is a dystopia.
4. Creative evolution of S. Yesenin.
5. Poetic innovation of V. Mayakovsky.
6. Poetry of B. Pasternak. A wealth of ideas and images.
7. The story by A. Platonov “The Pit”. Search for the meaning of common and separate existence
8. “Quiet Don” by M. Sholokhov as an epic novel. The fate of the people and the fate of man in the revolutionary era.
9. M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” in the context of world fiction.
10. The theme of the “little man” in the works of M. Zoshchenko (humorous stories and “Sentimental stories”)
11. “The Summer of the Lord” by I. Shmelev and the theme of the loss and return of Orthodox Russia
12. The artistic world of V. Nabokov. The novel “The Defense of Luzhin” and the problem of gift in the writer’s work.
13. “Small Prose” by A. Solzhenitsyn. “One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich” and “Matrenin’s yard”. The theme of the tragic fate of man in the 20th century.
14. The skill of V. Shukshin - short story writer. “The history of the soul” of the Russian peasant as the main theme of the writer’s work.
15. Philosophical prose of V. Rasputin. The dramatic fate of Russia in the artist’s work (“Live and Remember”, “Farewell to Matera”)

LESSON No. 1

M. Gorky's play “At the Depths” as a socio-philosophical drama

1. Time and history of the creation of the play. “At the Bottom” as a socio-philosophical drama. Bottom theme. Images of homeless shelters, their “truth”.

2. Dispute about a person in the play. Theme of truth and lies. The complexity of Luke's image. A modern interpretation of this image.

3. The image of Satin, his philosophy. Is he an antagonist to Luke?

1. Basinsky P. Gorky. – M., 2005.

2. Bialik B.A. Gorky is a playwright. – M., 1977.

3. Gachev D. Logic of things and man. Debate about truth and lies in M. Gorky’s play “At the Depths.” – M., 1992.

4. Spiridonova L.M. M. Gorky: dialogue with history. – M., 1994.

5. Khodasevich V. Gorky // October. 1989. No. 12.

"At the Lower Depths" by M. Gorky as a socio-philosophical drama

Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists; everything else is the work of his hands and his brain!

Gorky's play "At the Lower Depths" not only has not left the stages of domestic theaters for about a hundred years, but has also gone around the largest theaters in the world. To this day, it excites the minds and hearts of readers and viewers; more and more new interpretations of images (especially Luke) arise. All this suggests that M. Gorky managed not only to look with a fresh, truthful look at tramps of people who had sunk to the very dirt, “to the bottom” of life, erased from the active life of society as “former people”, outcasts. But at the same time, the playwright sharply poses and tries to solve serious questions that have 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? Does the objective world exist or “what you believe in is what it is”? and, most importantly, what is this world like and can it be changed?

In the play, we encounter people who are useless outcasts in society, but they are the ones who are interested in questions about man’s place in the world around him. The heroes of the play are not similar to each other either in their views, or thoughts, or life principles, or the way of life itself. The only thing they have in common 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.

“no matter how you paint yourself on the outside, everything will be erased.”

“real” life: “I’m a working person... I’m ashamed to look at them... I’ve been working since I was little... Do you think I won’t break out of here? I’ll get out... I’ll rip off my skin, but I’ll get out.”

"... the main thing is talent... And talent is faith in yourself, in your strength."

Nastya, a woman who sells her body, dreams of genuine, sublime love, which is unattainable in real life.

"Work? For what? To be fed?" It seems pointless to him to spend his whole life spinning on a wheel: food is work. Satin owns the final monologue in the play, elevating man: “Man is free... he pays for everything himself: for faith, for disbelief, for love, for intelligence... Man is the truth!”

The inhabitants of the shelter, brought together in a cramped room, at the beginning of the play are indifferent to each other, they hear only themselves, even if they are all talking together. But serious changes in the internal state of the heroes begin with the appearance of Luke the elder wanderer, who managed to awaken this sleepy kingdom, console and encourage many, instill 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, having endless faith in people, Luka believes that it is very difficult to change life, so it is easier to change yourself and adapt. But the principle “what you believe in is what it is” forces a person to come to terms with poverty, ignorance, injustice, and not fight for a better life.

“At the bottom,” timeless, they arise among people of different eras, ages, and religions. That is why the play arouses keen interest among our contemporaries, helping them understand themselves and the problems of their time.

Department of Education, Science and Youth Policy of the Voronezh Region

GBPOU "Buturlinovsky Mechanics and Technology College"

Development of a lesson on literature

M. Gorky. The play “At the Bottom” as a social and philosophical drama.

System of images.

Prepared by teacher

Russian language and literature

Selivanova I. G.

2016

Subject. M. Gorky. The play “At the Bottom” as a social and philosophical drama.

System of images.

Lesson type – learning new material.

Type of lesson – combined lesson.

Goals:

educational :

Improving text analysis skills; the formation of universal educational actions in the process of analyzing the text of a dramatic work;

developing :

Development of speech culture, monologue and dialogic speech skills;

Development of logic of thinking;

Acquiring the ability to conduct a discussion and speak in public;

raising :

Instilling a sense of goodwill, attention and respect for the interlocutor;

Acquisition of moral values;

Activation of students' creative abilities.

Tasks:

- create a problematic situation

Encourage students to express their own point of view on various issues.

Form of organizing the lesson: conversation, role-play reading of the play, elements of theatrical play.

Methods:

Reproductive: verbal, visual;

Productive: creating diagrams, filling them with observation results and personal judgments, working in groups.

Means of education : portrait of M. Gorky, illustrations for the play “At the Lower Depths,” books with the text of the play “At the Lower Depths,” textbooks.

On the desk : portrait of A.M. Gorky, topic of the lesson, epigraph.

Man - that's the truth! We must respect the person!

M. Gorky

During the classes:

Org. moment, explanation of the goals and objectives of the lesson.

We continue to study the work of A. Gorky. In the previous lesson, we studied in detail the story “Old Woman Izergil”. And today our task will be to analyze in more detail A. Gorky’s play “At the Depths”.

Problematic issues:

1) What was the main theme of M. Gorky’s work at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century?

2) What is the storyline of the work based on?

3) Describe the characters in the play?

4) Who really argues with Luke: Satin or the author himself?

5) Is the play “At the Bottom” an innovative work?

6) What is the salvation of people who have fallen “to the bottom” of life?

7) What two problems were reflected in the heroes’ disputes about man and life, which raised the problem of humanism?

Conversation on the content of the play “At the Bottom”.

Gorky's play “At the Lower Depths” was written in 1902 for the troupe of the Moscow Art Public Theater. The name itself already has a huge meaning. People who have fallen to the bottom will never rise to the light, to a new life. The theme of the humiliated and insulted is not new in Russian literature.

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

The following year, Gorky donated his play “The Bourgeois” to the Art Theater. The first performance of Gorky's play by the Art Theater took place on March 26, 1902, in St. Petersburg, where the theater went on a spring tour.

For the first time, a new hero appeared on the scene: the revolutionary worker, the machinist Nile, a man aware of his strength, confident of victory. And although the censorship erased all the “dangerous” passages from the play, and also erased Neil’s words: “The master is the one who works!”, “rights are not given, rights are taken,” nevertheless, the play as a whole sounded like a call for freedom, struggle .

The government feared that the performance had turned into a revolutionary demonstration. During the dress rehearsal of the play, the theater was surrounded by police, and policemen in disguise were stationed in the theater; Mounted gendarmes were riding around in the square in front of the theater. “One might have thought that they were preparing not for a dress rehearsal, but for a general battle,” Stanislavsky later wrote.

Almost simultaneously with the play "The Bourgeois" Gorky was working on a second play, "At the Depths." In this new play, the protest against capitalist society sounded even more sharply and boldly. Gorky showed in it a new, unfamiliar world - the world of tramps, people who have sunk to the very bottom of life.

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

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

A huge crowd that did not attend the performance stood outside the theater for a long time. The police urged the public to disperse, but no one left - they were waiting for Gorky just to look at him.

And working on the play was difficult and intense. “Without the sun” - “Nochlezhka” - “In a shelter house” - “At the bottom” - this is how its name changed. The history of the title to some extent indicates the general contours of the author’s work on the play. There is evidence from contemporaries about this process. “I was in Arzamas with Gorky,” wrote L. Andreev, “and heard his new drama “In a Lodging House” or “At the Bottom” (he had not yet settled on one or the other title)... He piled up a mountain of the most severe suffering, threw dozens of different characters into a pile - and united them all with a burning desire for truth and justice."

What do you think is the meaning of this name?

(Gorky did not immediately come to this option; there were also “Without the Sun”, “Nochlezhka”, “In the Night House”).

What is itpeculiarity Andunusualness this work?

( Students will note that this is a dramatic work, not designated by the author by genre, that its characters are unusual (tramps ).

It’s good if they notice that the heroes act little, but talk a lot, even argue, that the debates are clearly on philosophical, “eternal” questions, this is very unexpected for tramps, but in M. Gorky this is presented logically, naturally).

How would you determinegenre this play? (The answer, of course, must be justified).

Disputes about a person, about the truth occupy a very large place, they make you think, so we understand: events are external, and most importantly - inside the heroes, and everything is not simple here.) By genre, this is most likelydrama .

Athe nature what is she like?

(Students will be allocatedsocial Problems (the situation of the night shelters, relations with the owners of the night shelter, the hopelessness of life at the “bottom”), perhaps they will notepsychologism the sound of these problems, and, of course,philosophical problems will be named (disputes about a person, about the truth).

Notes are made in the reference note .

Work with text.

The play was staged in1902 and clearly about that time. The stage directions clearly indicate that the action is taking place.in the shelter Andin a vacant lot near her (action 3). You can read the description of the shelter.

You need to pay attention to the words of the remarks, their meaning and special meaning (basement, similarto the cave , ceiling -heavy, stone vaults , sooty , with collapsed plaster, along the walls -bunks , in the middle of the shelter there is a large table, two benches, a stool, everything -unpainted and dirty a wide bed covered with a dirty chintz curtain).

Teacher's word : take a close look at the assembly point of these wretches gathered in the cramped area of ​​the basement-cave in the first act. Or to the “wasteland” - “a courtyard place littered with various rubbish and overgrown with weeds” - in act three. You will make an interesting discovery: this site is, in essence, divided into cells, into microspaces, holes, in which “former” people live separately and even alienated, deprived of business, of the past, living with their misfortune, even close to tragedy. Here is the room behind a thin partition in which the thief Vaska Pepel lives, selling stolen goods to the owner of the shelter Kostylev, the former lover of his wife Vasilisa, who dreams of leaving here with Natalya, the sister of the owner. The triangle Ash - Vasilisa - Natalya has an independent meaning in the play.

But for all the drama of the struggle within it - Vasilisa incites Ash to take revenge on her husband, slyly promises to give him money - for many other inhabitants of the shelter, the outcome of this struggle is not so important.

But behind the curtain there is a family.

Anna and the locksmith Kleshch, perhaps blaming himself for cruelty to his wife, have their own drama (an unhappily lived life, dying in the basement). Kvashnya and Nastya settled in the kitchen, by the stove, each with their own drama. Kvashnya was married, and this was enough for her that she was in no hurry to rejoice at the advances of the policeman Medvedev, a wealthy man who did not live in a shelter.

The prostitute Nastya, dreaming of the fatal Gaston or Raoul, and the Baron, remembering his noble grandfather, constantly “imitate” each other. The Baron, however, says to the “scoundrel” Nastya, who ridicules his dreams: “I am no match for you! You... are scum." But as soon as she runs away, not wanting to listen to him, he looks for her (“Run away... where? I’ll go and see... where is she?”).

In a certain sense, the hidden interconnection of these disparate human cells, the unity of the poor fellows, even those fighting and ridiculing each other, can be defined in the words of Nastya: “Oh, you unfortunate one! After all, you... you live on me, like a worm lives on an apple!”

So, Kostylev's shelter - This is, first of all, a symbol of homelessness, homelessness, a symbol of abnormal life. The play is based on an acute social conflict: the contradiction between a person’s actual position in society and his high purpose; the contradiction between the masses and the autocratic orders of landowner Russia, which reduce people to the tragic fate of vagabonds.

11 . Analysis image systems . Work in 3 groups .

Each group introduces our heroes, and we all make notes in notebooks, collecting all the material.

Heroes of the play “At the Bottom” turned out to be generalized, collective images, typical, but also quite individual. Under the arches of the Kostylevo shelter there were people of the most varied character and social status.

An elderly man (60 years old), a traveling preacher who consoles everyone, promises everyone deliverance from suffering, says to everyone: “You hope!”, “You believe!” Luka is an extraordinary person, he has a lot of life experience and a keen interest in people. He feels sorry for suffering people, so he tells them various comforting words. His whole philosophy is contained in the saying: “What you believe is what you believe.”

M. Gorky became interested in the Bogomil teaching (an ancient religious and philosophical teaching), according to which God, in order to save the world from Satan, sent Christ to earth. In M. Gorky's play, the teachings of Christ are represented by Luke, whose name clearly goes back to the name of the Apostle Luke. Before us is an experienced man, ready for long roads, for the vicissitudes of fate. The appearance of the wanderer exudes kindness and friendliness.

For Luke, all people are the same: “And all people! No matter how you pretend, no matter how you wobble, but you were born a man, you will die a man...” For Luka, any human life is valuable: “A man, no matter what he is, is always worth his price...”

In the second act, Luke preaches a certain philosophy of life even more actively. It consoles everyone. In all this he is close to his evangelical namesake; he can be called a worthy disciple of Christ. “Your faith has saved you, go in peace,” is the most important maxim of Christ.

But there is another interpretation of his name. According to V.I. Dahl, “evil” means cunning, secretive, contradictory, two-faced. “The evil one” is a demon, an unclean spirit. In the fourth act, the inhabitants of the shelter, discussing Luka, directly connect him with the evil one: “Disappeared from the police... like smoke from the face of fire!”

However, one way or another, the “good old man” changed the shelters.
Luke. M. M. Turkhanov. 1938

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

In Bogomilism (an ancient Slavic creed), the writer was attracted by the apocrypha about Satan, more precisely about Satanail. And it is with Satanail that the name Satina is associated. His bestial growl - the growl of a kind of Antichrist - opens the action of the play. According to the Bogomil doctrine of the world, it was Satanail who created the visible material world. He also created human flesh, but could not breathe a soul into a person. And then the Supreme God took pity and sent his divine spirit into man. Thus, the material world, human flesh is the creation of Satanael, and the human soul and the sun are the creation of God. Based on this, the meaning of the original title of the play “Without the Sun” is clear. It is directly connected with the song of the night shelters “The sun rises and sets...” and with the supposed optimistic ending: “... they sang songs and under the sun they forgot about hating each other.” It also becomes clear why Satin, at the end of the second act, calls the night shelters “dead men,” because they have no spirit: “Dead men do not hear! Dead people don’t feel!”

Among the “former people” Satin stands out for his firmness and determination. He strives for the truth, which is clearly seen in his relationships with the night shelters. Luka is perplexed why the intelligent, brave Satin ended up among the tramps: “You are so brave... Konstantin... intelligent... and suddenly.” Apparently, Satin’s inflexible nature, his reluctance to compromise, allowed M. Gorky to call this tramp Konstantin, which means “firm, constant.” Conducting an absentee dispute with Luka, Satin declares about himself: “Don’t offend a person!.. And if I was offended once and - for the rest of my life at once! What should I do? Forgive? Nothing. No one."

IT IS KNOWN THAT M. GORKY EXPRESSES MANY THOUGHTS IN THE DRAMA

EXACTLY SATIN

Satin. K. S. Stanislavsky. 1902

Bubnov (45 years old) occupies a special place among the night shelters. At one time, bitter scholars called him a philosopher of hopelessness, an indifferent cynic. From the very beginning of the action, Bubnov shows merciless sobriety in assessing the situation of the shelters.

For him, the inhabitants of the basement are a thief, a sharper, an alcoholic and nothing more. Bubnov’s truth is the truth of external circumstances, the truth of a person’s complete dependence on the world around him, clearly expressed in the formula: “What happened was, but only trifles remained... Everything faded, one naked man remained.” Such is Bubnov himself. Therefore, it is no coincidence that his surname is derived from the noun “tambourine” - a squandered person, reminiscent of the expressions “a goal like a tambourine”, “he started a lawsuit - he became like a goal like a tambourine”, etc.

On the one hand, Bubnov is a squandered man, and on the other, he is also a quarrelsome, reckless tramp, for whom nothing is sacred in life. According to the shoemaker Alyoshka, Bubnov “is only drunk and looks like a man.” The concepts of honor and conscience do not matter to him.

In addition, a “tambourine” is a person who loses at cards. In this case, a transfer occurred based on the name of the card suit. Playing cards is a favorite pastime of the night shelters, and sometimes they simply call Bubnov Buben. Also, the word “tambourine” has the meaning “lazy”, “parasite”. Bubnov declares about himself: “I’m lazy. I don’t like passion like work!”

This character in the play is a messenger of evil and personifies the lower world. The author's attitude towards him is clearly negative. M. Gorky reveals the coldness and darkness of the soul of the dispassionate recorder of reality. Bubnov was convinced that man is a superfluous creature on earth. “You are superfluous everywhere... and all the people on earth are superfluous,” he says to Nastya. And if a person is not needed by anyone and is a superfluous being, then he should not bind himself to anything and is free to live the way he wants.

Bubnov. V. V. Luzhsky. 1902

Vaska Ash

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

Ash. B. G. Dobronravov. 1938

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

Nastya is a young girl (24 years old) who passionately desires big, true love. True, her dreams cause malicious ridicule among those around her. Even her partner Baron makes fun of her. Nastya suffers from her hopelessness and still wants to go to the ends of the world. This heroine exclaims: “And why...why do I live here...with you? I’ll leave... I’ll go somewhere... to the ends of the world!” In this regard, Nastya’s behavior at the end of the drama is especially indicative. Upon hearing the news of the Actor's death, she "slowly, with her eyes wide open, walks towards the table." There is a single lamp on the table, illuminating the shelter. Nastya goes to the light. She is amazed by the new feelings and thoughts that have opened up to her, and finally realizes the need for a different life.

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

The Baron is also named according to his past social status, who “no, no, and will show himself to be a master.” The most weak-willed of the night shelters, he spent his entire life dressing up. He doesn't even remember how he ended up among the tramps. All the overnight stayers speak negatively about the Baron. But he is the only one who knows the genealogy of his family. Luka calls him a “spoiled baron”, and Nastya calls him a “nonentity”. For half a bottle of vodka offered by Ash, the Baron is ready to get on all fours and bark like a dog. At the same time, it is impossible not to notice that it was the Baron who came up with the idea of ​​wasting his life aimlessly. It is he who asks the question: “But... why was I born... huh?” He also wants, if only for a moment, to know his purpose.

Baron. Actor V.I. Kachalov. 1902

Nastya. O. L. Knipper. 1902

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

He has only lived in the shelter for six months and has not yet gotten used to his situation, hopes to get out of here and openly despises his fellow sufferers: “What kind of people are they? Ragged, golden company... Do you think I won’t break out of here? Wait a minute... my wife will die.” The selfish, embittered Kleshch is looking forward to the death of his wife, whom, according to Kvashnya, he “beat to death.” He is deprived of the slightest sympathy for his dying life partner. And she, despite the torment, dreams of still living:“Well... just a little more... I wish I could live... a little more! If there is no flour there... here we can be patient... we can!” Kostylev says about this, turning to Kleshch: “Eh, Andryushka, you are an evil man! Your wife has withered away from your villainy... no one loves you, no one respects you.” Hence the character's last name:A tick is an insect that burrows into the skin, a bloodsucker.

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

In the past he was a famous actor, but soon he fell into disrepair, became an alcoholic and even forgot his name! He is often absorbed in memories of his past glory. His only dream is to find the city that Luke talked about, where there is a free hospital for alcoholics. After all, he still hopes to return to the stage. But having learned that there is no “righteous land” and that there is no hospital, the actor commits suicide, because... cannot bear the collapse of his last hope. Named after his previous profession, since he really lost his name: “I don’t have a name here... Do you understand how offensive it is to lose a name? Even the dogs have nicknames...” Even here, in the shelter, inhabited by the most colorful, colorful inhabitants, he looks out of this world. The actor perceives life as a mirage: he believed in the existence of free hospitals, he believed in a “righteous city.”

The character in M. Gorky's drama is a former actor, but he is a servant of Melpomene. He came to the shelter from some special, other world and in a certain sense stands above other tramps. He is gifted and, undoubtedly, the most educated and cultured among all the night shelters, including Satin. In addition, he is kind, sympathetic, and has good taste. This image was highly appreciated by A.P. Chekhov.
Actor performed by N. G. Alexandrov. 1924

Kvashnya gives the action the first emotional impetus and causes emotional ferment in the basement. Her name is derived from the verb “ferment”, which means to ferment. Kvashnya is kind, responsive, and not without a sense of compassion. But most importantly, it is practical. It is she who becomes the new owner of the shelter. But the word “kvashnya” has another meaning: fermented dough, dough. Fermented dough rises quickly, you can’t hold it: “You can’t hold a kvashnya with a lid” (V. Dal). Finding herself in the shelter, Kvashnya felt not “at the bottom,” but at the “top.” She quickly adapts to circumstances, “grows.” From the top of her new position, Kvashnya begins to tyrannize those around her:“Look at me...slush! Don't spoil..."

The figure of the hostel owner Kostylev (54), one of the “masters of life”, who is ready to squeeze the last penny even from his unfortunate and disadvantaged guests, is disgusting. The owner of the shelter, Kostylev, is a worthless creature. This is an obvious hypocrite, he does not so much console as spiritually lull his guests to sleep, saying that “in the next world... every deed of ours is counted.”

All the inhabitants of the basement treat Kostylev with undisguised, outright disgust. As soon as the owner appears in the shelter, a kind of emptiness is created around him, a kind of moral vacuum. Kostylev seems to represent a different, lower world. His religiosity is a cover for an empty, cold soul, which is why his end is so absurd and pitiful.

For M. Gorky, hypocrisy is a stronger sin than rudeness.

Equally disgusting is hisVasilisa's wife (26l.) with her immorality, she has “no soul,” she is “greedy for money.”

The play "At the Bottom". Production of the Moscow Art Theater.

12. Compiling a table. The relationship between conflict and characters.

2 . The love conflict created a double triangle:

Ashes, Vasilisa and Kostylev; Ashes, Vasilisa and Natasha. But these relationships do not affect the other characters, they are only spectators.

Philosophical debates about truth, man and his dignity.

First of all, Luka, Satin, Bubnov, Kleshch, Vaska Ash and Baron argue.

13. Creative task: "Recognize the hero!"

2. “And why...why do I live here...with you? I’ll leave... I’ll go somewhere... to the ends of the world!

(Nastya)

3. “What happened was, but only trifles remained... Everything faded away, only one naked man remained.”

(Bubnov)

4. “But... why was I born... huh?”

(Baron)

5. “Wow! Wow! This - you cleverly came up with... a husband, that means in a coffin, a lover - in hard labor, and yourself ... "

(Ash)

6. “Don’t offend a person!.. And if I was offended once and for the rest of my life at once! What should I do? Forgive? Nothing. Nobody"

(Satin)

7. “Look at me...slush! Don't spoil..."

(Kvashnya)

8. “Well... just a little more... I wish I could live... a little bit! If there is no flour there...here you can be patient...you can!”

(Anna)

9. “And all the people! No matter how you pretend, no matter how you wobble, if you were born a man, you will die a man...”

(Luke)

10. “Here I am...someday like this...in the basement...clogged...”

(Natasha)

11. “in the next world...every deed is counted”

(Kostylev)

12. “What kind of people are they? Ragged, golden company... Do you think I won’t break out of here? Wait a minute... my wife will die"

(Mite)

VI . Summarizing the material studied.

QUESTIONS:

What is the play about?

What is the main idea of ​​Gorky's drama?

Why does a person lose his name?

Who are the heroes of the play? What are their fates?

What is the conflict of the play?

About the life of tramps. “Everything has faded away, only one person remains.” – About a world where there is no God.

2 . Question. What is the main idea of ​​Gorky's drama?

What is truth and what is man? “Man, that sounds proud!” The less a person is connected with the world of things, the more human he is. “A man is worth the price.” What do they live for? - For a better person.

3.Question. Why does a person lose his name?

He found himself at the bottom of his life, died, lost his profession.

4.Question. Who are the heroes of the play? What are their fates?

Satin is a drunken cheater who claims that people need the Truth

Luke is a wanderer. “The man is worth the price!” “How can you not trust a person.” "Love the Living"

Tick ​​- “I’ll get out when my wife dies” - “There are people everywhere.”

The actor - Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky - has lost his name. The motive of death.

5 Question. What is the conflict of the play?

The conflict is philosophical. Dispute about truth and man. The righteous land is not on the map, but in you.

VI. Reflection

– Today, you guys and I are convinced that every person has the truth.

Perhaps, at your age, you have not yet decided what life principles you will adhere to in later life, but for some reason I am confident that you will make the right choice. Thanks for the work.

VII. Homework

– Prepare factual material for a class essay on the topic “Truth in M. Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths”.”

Literature:

1. Text of M. Gorky’s play “At the Bottom”.

3.N.V. Egorova. Lesson developments on Russian literature of the twentieth century. M. "VAKO" 1 hour 2005 2 hours 2016

Application.

The play "At the Bottom" Meaning of the name

Reflection on the truth and debate about the purpose of man.

Mite

“There is no work... no strength! That's the truth! Shelter... there is no shelter! You have to breathe...here it is, the truth!”

Anna

“I don’t remember when I was full... I was shaking over every piece of bread... I was trembling all my life... I was tormented... so as not to eat anything else... All my life I walked around in rags... all my unhappy life..."

Actor (poems by Pierre Beranger)

Gentlemen! If the holy Honor of the madman, who will bring the world to the truth, does not know how to find the way, - Humanity will have a golden dream...

Luke

He believes that a person does not need the truth. For a person, the most important thing is consolation, or even deception - a “golden dream” (the true truth of life, because it is too harsh, “a pain for people”), one must be able to feel sorry for a person, especially when it is difficult for him, that one must bring him compassion.

Satin

Calls to open your eyes to life's contradictions and problems. According to the hero, one must live in the present, soberly assessing reality, but at the same time with a dream about the future, based on the present, without breaking away from real life. And this is the real Truth, “Man is the truth!” Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! That sounds... proud!” “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man!”

We are not talking about a specific person, now oppressed by need and oppression, but about man in general. This is a philosophical view of life.

Essay text:

Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists; everything else is the work of his hands and his brain!
M. Gorky. At the bottom
Gorky's play "At the Lower Depths" not only has not left the stages of domestic theaters for about a hundred years, but has also gone around the largest theaters in the world. To this day, it excites the minds and hearts of readers and viewers; more and more new interpretations of images (especially Luke) arise. All this suggests that M. Gorky managed not only to look with a fresh, truthful look at the tramps of people who had sunk to the very dirt, “to the bottom” of life, who had been erased from the active life of society as “former people”, outcasts. But at the same time, the playwright sharply raises and tries to resolve serious questions that have worried and will continue to worry every new generation, all thinking humanity: what is a person? What is truth and in what form do people need it? Does the objective world exist or “what you believe in is what it is”? and, most importantly, what is this world like and can it be changed?
In the play, we encounter people who are useless outcasts in society, but it is they who are interested in questions about man’s place in the world around him. The heroes of the play are not similar to each other either in their views, or thoughts, or life principles, or the way of life itself. The only thing they have in common 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 are no good people here, I’m just pretending, painting myself, but “no matter how you paint yourself on the outside, everything will be erased.”
Klesch is embittered with people, cruel to his wife Anna, but he believes that hard, exhausting, but honest work can return him to “real” life: “I am a working man... I’m ashamed to look at them... I’m with I’ve been working for 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.”
Having drunk himself and lost his name, the Actor hopes that his gift will return to him: “... the main thing is talent... And talent is faith in yourself, in your strength.”
Nastya, a woman who sells her body, dreams of genuine, sublime love, which is unattainable in real life.
Satin the sharp-philosopher has an opinion opposite to the principles of Kleshch: “Work? For what? To be happy?” It seems pointless to him to spend his whole life spinning on a wheel: food is work. Satin wrote 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!”
The inhabitants of the shelter, brought together in a cramped room, at the beginning of the play are indifferent to each other, they hear only themselves, even if they are all talking together. But serious changes in the internal state of the heroes begin with the appearance of Luke the wanderer elder, who managed to awaken this sleepy kingdom, console and encourage many, instill 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, having endless faith in people, Luka believes that it is very difficult to change life; it is easier for a lyricist to change himself and adapt. But the principle “what you believe in is what it is” forces a person to 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 Lower Depths” are timeless; they arise among people of different eras, ages, and religions. It is the lyricism of the play that arouses keen interest among our contemporaries, helping them understand themselves and the problems of their time.

The rights to the essay “At the Lower Depths” by M. Gorky as a Social and Philosophical Drama” belong to its author. When quoting material, it is necessary to indicate a hyperlink to