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 have been devoted to it, 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 famous actors plus the originality of the author's and director's decisions gave no one the expected 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 the contemporaries noted in the play feature 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 truth, and man is the receptacle of the living God. I understand God as an indomitable desire for perfection, for truth and justice. Therefore, a bad person is 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 combine faith in a person - "the receptacle of the living God", capable of "infinitely improving", faith in life - "movement towards the perfection of the spirit" - and vegetating "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”, pulling him out from 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: outside, no matter how you paint yourself, everything will be erased,” Bubnov stated, remembering the bright, painted in direct and figuratively his past, and soon, turning to the Baron, he 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 the description 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".
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 played 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 we are talking not only about the place to sleep, which looks like a cave and it 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.
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. Complete Analysis works can be useful to students in grade 11 in preparation 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.
Subject- 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.
Subject
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 heroes are in a dark basement and the dynamics is achieved through a collision opposite points vision. The genre of the work is usually defined as a socio-philosophical drama.
Artwork test
Analysis Rating
Average rating: 4.3. Total ratings received: 2394.
Initially, Maxim Gorky called the play "Without the Sun", among the options were "Nochlezhka", "Dno", "At the Bottom of Life", but he settled on the most suitable and meaningful title - "At the Bottom". Indeed, it is not as transparent as "At the bottom of life", because here not only the social status of the characters is considered, but also their state of mind.
The action of the play takes place in a rooming house, and its inhabitants are thieves, loafers, drunkards and even murderers, those who have long been abandoned by society. Of these, none, except for Kvashnya, a dumpling trader, had a job and did not want to work. The baron used to serve somewhere, was an aristocrat, but he stole and ended up in prison. Sateen, protecting his sister, killed her husband. Nastya is a big inventor who tells ridiculous stories about her lovers. The actor was kicked out of the theater for drunkenness.
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Bubnov owned a dyeing workshop, but, fearing that he might kill his wife and her lover, he left, leaving them all his property. Locksmith Kleshch sits without work and blames his wife for his miserable situation, whom he himself brought to death with eternal beatings and drunkenness. All these people once had something, but due to weakness or vices they could not keep it, and ended up at the “bottom”.
But, despite poverty, overcrowding and a suffocating atmosphere of indifference to others, each of the shelters dreams of something. Nastya, reading romance novels, with trepidation, is waiting for her prince, who will lead her to another, pure life. The actor somehow admits that it is hard for him to do without a name, as if he does not exist at all. He justifies his lifestyle with a “disease”, alcohol poisoning, but continues to dream of a stage and only thinks about how he will find a hospital, but he did not start searching. Tick is sure that his life is about to change for the better as soon as he is freed from his wife. But now Anna was gone, and the desired freedom brought him nothing but disappointment. They all wanted to escape from this environment, and with the arrival of Luke, they finally had hope. The old man made it clear to everyone that their fate is in their hands, you just have to try. Yes, the roomers were inspired by the opportunity to start everything from scratch, but, apparently, their hearts, indifferent to their lives, became a ballast that did not allow them to rise from this “bottom”. It is convenient for them to live like this, they are used to living almost without “oxygen”, they have forgotten what willpower is, therefore they were content with vague dreams and did nothing.
"Bottom" according to Gorky means not so much the social status, the place of residence of the heroes, but their way of life. All of them seem to be satisfied with the position of lumpen, a miserable and impoverished life, spiritual emptiness and moral baseness. At the bottom, sunlight is not visible - there is only darkness, cold and loneliness. And this is the life of the characters in the play.
Updated: 2018-01-10
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