Treason in the work of bitter at the bottom. The ideas of Luke in the play "At the bottom

In the drama "At the Bottom" Gorky did not forget about the love intrigue (Ashes
  Kostylev-Vasilisa)
  Gorky’s love conflict is a facet of social conflict.

Kostylev, fifty-four-year-old landlord, has twenty-six-year-old wife Vasilisa. His relationship with Vasilisa is dramatic. Vasilisa went out of love for Kostylev not by love, but by calculation, and he reproaches her endlessly with poverty (“Beggar ... Pig ...”). Hardly Kostylev himself truly loves his spouse. She cheated on him with Vaska Ash. Vasilisa is an evil, cruel woman, she has a “devilish character” and she leads the fight over Ash. Methods Vasilisinoy struggle very doubtful.
  Kostyleva is jealous of Vaska for Natasha, his sister, powerless, in all of her dependent girl. The inhabitants of the doss house speak positively about Natasha, but do not favor Vasilisa. Natasha is full of virtues, and therefore Ash is not indifferent to her. He rightly reproaches Vasilisa: “.. your soul is not in you, woman .... in a woman, the soul should be ... ".
  Vaska is sincere with Kostyleva. Directly he tells her that he never lay
  his heart to her, that he lived with her just like that, for the sake of entertainment.
  For the sake of Natasha, Vaska leaves Vasilisa. This can not stand Vasilisa.
  She is very vindictive, and, seized by this feeling, does not cease to torture and brutally beat Natasha. Natasha, being in such unbearable conditions, is ready to go for Ash even to the ends of the earth. Relations with Natasha enrich Ashes, give him hope for a new, very different life.

Vasilisa is a mercenary man. She hoped that her lover would help her get rid of her husband, after which she would become the sole owner of the doss house.
  Does Vasilisa Ash truly? It seems that no. Would she have become
  then push him to a crime, thereby condemning himself to separation from his beloved? Would you push him to theft and then buy the stolen goods from him?
  At the last moment Vasilisa hopes to persuade Ash to come to an agreement with her.
  She even consents to his marriage with Natasha and promises to Ash the cash reward. Vaska understood the essence of Kostylevo well. “She needs money ... and
  will be necessary .. and the will of her is to pervert, ”he says.
  Ash could love Vasilisa, could go for anything for the sake of her happiness, but
  her passion for money pushed Vaska away.
Vasilisa pushes Ash into the final deadlock. Having stood up for Natasha, who was mercilessly beaten and scalded Kostyleva with boiling water, Ash in a fight kills the owner of the doss house. “Vaska killed. I-saw! ”- shouts Vasilisa and poisonously sentences:
  “What, Vasya, my dear friend? From the fate you will not escape. . "

The female half of the “bottom” until the end of the play will be accompanied by a leitmotif of love,
  in its different versions. But it is the love triangle-Ash, Natasha, Vasilisa-will determine the denouement of the play, which begins as a “picture” and ends as a “drama”.

june 14, 2011

Gorky's play "At the Bottom" was written in 1902. Gorky for a long time could not find the exact title of his work. Initially, it was called “Sleeping”, then “Without the sun” and, finally, “At the bottom”.

In Gorky, for the first time, the audience saw an unfamiliar world of the outcast. The world drama has not yet known such a harsh, merciless truth about the life of the social lower classes, about their hopeless fate. In the doss house were people of very different nature and social status.

A special burden in the drama falls on the conflict, the sharp clashes of the heroes on important occasions for them. In this drama can not be extra people - all the characters should be involved in the conflict. The presence of social tension is already indicated in the title of the play. But we cannot say that social conflict organizes drama. This tension is devoid of dynamics, all attempts of the heroes to leave the "bottom" are in vain. Perhaps the drama organizes a love conflict, traditional for many plays. It would seem strange the emergence of such a pure feeling in such an atmosphere of dirt and poverty. But the heroes of Gorky do not pay attention to the dirt and stench, they are accustomed to such a life, to each other and almost do not notice others. Each hero exists as if by himself, living his own life. Therefore, at the beginning of the play, all those present speak at once, not waiting for a response, reacting weakly to the comments of those around them. She is proud that she is a free woman, not bound by marriage, and this causes bitterness in Tick. He has a dying wife in his arms, Nastya, a fallen woman, reading “Fatal Love”, which causes Baron’s ironic laugh. The prostitute Nastya dreams of bright and pure love, but this causes only the laughter of others. The girl is trying to get out of the vicious circle, leave the doss house and start a new one, but these are just her dreams.

But the play really has a love line. It is created by the relationship of Vasilisa, Vaska Ash, the wife of Kostylev, the owner himself, and Natasha.

The plot of the love story begins when Kosta the Lion appears in the doss house. From the conversation with the inhabitants it is clear that he is looking for his wife Vasilisa there, who is cheating on him with Vaska Ash. With the advent of Natasha, the love story begins to develop. For her sake, Vaska Ash leaves Vasilisa. In the course of the development of this conflict, it becomes clear to us that his relationship with Natasha enriches Vaska, revives him to a new life. Vaska Ash never had a profession. For him there are no ideals, he does not seek to work, because he lives by theft. However, in this man kindness, naivety remained, he is drawn to purity and goodness. But Vaska Ash goes into slavery of the “mighty of this world.” The owner of the doss house Kostylev turns out to be an even lower man: he does not give Vasily any money for a stolen watch, believing that Ash is obliged to him so much. His wife Vasilisa is also in bondage with her husband, who is twice her age. She is also unhappy, and her love for Vaska Ash is a challenge to family despotism. For Vasilisa, the thief is ready to commit - to kill Kostilev. A terrible hatred inflamed Vasilisa to her sister Natalia when she learns about the lover's treason. She is ready to kill her, just to keep Basil for herself. The climax, the highest point in the development of the conflict, is fundamentally taken by the author behind the scenes. We do not see how Vasilisa scalds boiling water. We learn about this by the noise and cries behind the scenes and the conversations of the hostels.

The love conflict in the play, of course, is one of the facets of the social conflict. The love line shows that the antihuman conditions of the “bottom” cripple a person, and the most sublime feelings in such conditions lead not to enrichment of the personality, but to death or hard labor.

Having unleashed a love conflict in such a terrible way, Vasilisa reaches all her goals at once. Avenges Vaska Ash’s former lover and his rival Natasha, gets rid of her unloved husband and becomes the sole owner of the doss house. There is nothing human left in Vasilisa, and this shows us the enormity of the social conditions in which the inhabitants of the shelter are forced to live.

But the love conflict cannot become the basis of the dramatic conflict of the play, since, unfolding before the eyes of the hostages, it does not affect them. They do not participate in them, remaining only outsiders.

"Love your neighbor as yourself." “You have heard that it is said:“ Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. ” And I tell you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who offend you and persecute you ... ”Thus Jesus taught his disciples. He spoke about mercy, about love towards one’s neighbor and towards the enemy. And even the inhabitants of a dark gray orphanage living in a gray basement with terrible walls must love and respect each other, even their dark lost souls are able to rise and be resurrected. In this dark dock, a new life may arise, alien to malice and hatred. For the power of love is great, and this power is capable of conquering the whole world. Many prominent individuals tried to capture the entire planet.

Napoleon, Alexander of Macedon, Hitler, Stalin - they invented super-powerful weapons, assembled giant armies, developed ingenious strategies, but in vain. All their attempts were far from success. And only He, the savior, alone conquered all of humanity with love, and his power, the power of love, everything grows stronger every day, minute, second. To resurrect the soul, you do not need armies, technologies, but a few kind words, spoken by a kind, sensitive person, are enough. And there will always be such a person who will pull the other out of darkness and chaos. And chaos is a “basement that looks like a cave,” these are “heavy stone arches, smoked, with stucco stucco,” this is a basement, this is the very “bottom.” Is it possible to call the inhabitants of this basement people? Yes, but only on physiological factors.

They lost themselves, they lost their purpose in life. Their communication is not like a human conversation, these hostages have forgotten that they are human. Or, most likely, have forgotten who such people are. Their past, in which everything is present, is more like some kind of ghostly dream, like something strange and incomprehensible. Nothing is left of him, everything is forgotten. The actor has forgotten his favorite poem, the meaning of all these abstruse words uttered by Satin is forgotten, Bubnov’s past has nothing but dirt on his hands, and the Tick has nothing left but never has. There is nothing n

And in the past, in the present - only dust, dirt, and alcohol, and the future - emptiness. But in this darkness, in this horror into the soul, probably every one of the nightmares, and everybody on the Earth, even if the soul is frozen with ice, love can melt, just as bright flame can melt solid ice. Only a small spark of love, only a little respect is needed for a person. Luka, what did he bring with him?

He brought with him what Jesus taught. This poor wanderer with a knapsack over his shoulders, a kettle and a teapot at the belt is the inhabitants of the orphanage in the form of the savior of their souls. He resurrects their souls. He sows the seeds of love and respect in their hearts, he helps those who need it. Anna goes into another world, it would seem that Luke did not save her, did not help her, did not prevent her death. But he cleansed her soul with his speeches, eased her deathbed sufferings, instilled in her the belief that peace awaits her in that world. Yes. The actor hanged himself, but he hung himself not just as an Actor, but as Sverchkov-Zavolozhsky. It was already another person, it was really a person, not a drunkard. The ideas of Luke are extremely simple, they are based on humanism, on the love of man, but it is in these ideas, in my opinion, that the whole meaning of life lies. And Satin says about Luke: “Man - that's the truth! He understood that ... " And while everyone does not realize this, until they realize that it is easier to love than to hate, it is easier to respect a person than to despise, we will live in a dark basement of the world. And it’s not for nothing that Luka said: “We don’t regret the living ... we don’t regret ourselves ...”

For everyone is in this dock, and everyone in this world cares only about himself, and there is neither mercy nor compassion. Only dryness, hardness, hardness. Inhumans inhabit this basement, they have neither happiness nor the future, but only darkness ahead. But there is still hope, there is an opportunity to rise from its knees, there is an opportunity to rise from the bottom, there is a possibility of the resurrection of the soul. This hope carries love. And only when we realize that “one should respect a person, do not regret ... do not destroy him with pity ...”, that a person is the highest truth, can we live a real life, and not just exist! After all, a man, "he is whatever he is, and his price is always worth it ..."

The play “At the Bottom” is a deep, ambiguous work, in which the author poses complex philosophical and moral problems. Among them - the problem of truth and lies, true and false compassion, the problem of degradation of the individual, the problem of human relationships. Revealing the last problem, the author cannot but turn to the topic of love, which even in such inhuman conditions as life in a doss house, still exists and makes the characters perform insane acts to prove their feelings.

Life in the doss house, whose inhabitants are trying to somehow exist, seems unreal and fantastic, because people were initially put in conditions where nothing normal can be. “A cave-like basement. The ceiling - heavy stone arches, smoked, with collapsed plaster. Light - from the viewer and, from top to bottom - from a square window on the right side. The right corner is occupied by the Ashes room, which is fenced off by thin bulkheads. In the left corner is a large Russian stove; in the left, stone wall - the door to the kitchen where Kvashnya, Baron, Nastya live ”, the author describes the place of the events. Dirt, crowded, crowded, damp, miserable, men in the same room with women - this is the interior, against which the characters' love unfolds. The hostess Vasilisa’s wife runs on dates with the thief Ash, which causes her hypocritical and greedy husband to be constantly jealous, Ash ashes her sister Natasha, and Nastya, the daily breadmaker in the world, dreams of pure, disinterested love. Human feelings did not die even in such terrible conditions: here too there is a place for compassion, sympathy, hopes and love.

Perhaps the most significant for the development of the plot of the play are the relationship of Ash and Natasha. Ash, a thief, the son of a thief, sees a modest and kind Natasha, over whom her sister constantly mocks, a symbol of something beautiful, bright, for which it is not a pity to give life: “Though now - I will die! You take a knife, strike against the heart ... die - not ohnu! Even - with joy, because - from a pure hand ... ”At the same time, Ash does not understand that Vasilisa, an imperious and evil woman, will not give her up so easily. The first act of the play ends with Vasilisa beating up Natasha. Vasilisa tries to persuade Ash to kill her husband, to free her from him, and for this she promises to give him Natasha in marriage. And Natasha herself doesn’t like Ash, she also lives with dreams: “I think tomorrow ... someone will come ... someone ... special ... Or something will happen ... too - unprecedented ... I wait for a long time ... always - I wait ... And so ... in fact - what can we expect? ”

The elder Luka persuades Ash to pick up Natasha from the shelter and go with her to Siberia, which he presents to Ash as an earthly paradise. Ashes, trusting Luka, believes that life can be changed, he is ready for anything for the sake of his love: “I said, I will give up stealing! By God, I'll leave! If he said - I will do it! I am literate ... I will work ... Do you think my life does not hate me? But - I feel one thing: we must live ... otherwise! Better live! We must live like this ... so that I can respect myself myself ... ”Natasha is also not averse to leaving with Ash, knowing that she has no other way out. But the heroes do not have time: the third action ends with the fact that Vasilisa overthrows a boiling samovar at his sister, and Ash in this turmoil kills Kostylev with one blow. At the end of the play, we learn that Natasha has disappeared from the hospital, and Ash is waiting for prison. What is the fate of these heroes is not known, but they are unlikely to find their happiness in a world of violence and oppression.

But the fate of another play of the heroine, Nastya, unfortunately, is quite definite. Nastya earns her bread on the street, all the nightmares laugh at her, everyone despises her. Nastya goes into dreams, fantasies of great love, which she did not have and never will have. She is the only one of the hostels who reads books, however, these are the gutter novels from which she draws the plots of her fantasies: “By God ... that was it! Everything was! He was a student ... a Frenchman was ... Gostoshi was called ... with a black beard ... he walked in lacquer boots ... thundered me at this place! And so he loved me ... he loved me so much! ”Only Luka sympathizes with Nastya, saying:“ If you believe you had real love ... it means she was there! ”In this terrible world, Nastya can only dream, forgetting about humiliation and insults that fall to her share in the real world.

In his play, Gorky shows how tragic are the fates of people who, by their nature, cannot be predators. In the world of profit, they get the role of the victim, and all their human feelings, including love, are broken about the terrible reality. But people remain people, because they cannot but suffer, sympathize with each other and not love.