Philosophical conflict in Gorky's play at the bottom

Conflict in M. Gorky's play “At the Depths”

The play “At the Bottom” is based on a love affair that fits into two love triangles “Ashes - Vasilisa-Natasha”, “Ashes-Vasilisa-Kostylev”. Its development leads to the fact that:

Ash kills Kostylev and ends up in prison,
Natasha, crippled by Vasilisa, ends up in the hospital,
and Vasilisa becomes the sovereign mistress of the shelter.

But the originality of the play is that it is not the love plot that is decisive. Most of the heroes are not involved in his development, and he himself occupies a secondary position in relation to what Gorky portrays.

What comes first here is the social conflict between the masters of life, the Kostylevs, and the inhabitants of the shelter. And even more broadly between Russian reality and the fate of people who found themselves thrown out of active life to the bottom.

The social conflict of the work was perceived by contemporaries as a call for revolution, for a radical change in life. It was the conflict of the play that made it revolutionary - this clash between reality and the lives of the people of the shelter. But the most interesting thing is that even now the play has not lost its modern (universal) sound, the accents of the modern viewer and reader have simply changed.

The figurative system of the play in resolving the conflict “At the Bottom”

The inhabitants of the shelter are representatives of the bottom of life, vagabonds who were thrown there by society and who are no longer needed by this society.

Gorky shows that people find themselves at the bottom in different ways:

Satin - after prison,
The actor got drunk,
Tick - because of my wife's illness,
Baron is broke
Ash because he is a hereditary thief.

Thus, the reasons for the conflict between these people and reality are different. (The reasons that led people to this state have not lost their relevance today.)

The inhabitants of the shelter have different attitudes towards their situation, towards the fact that reality itself is such that it pushes them to the bottom and keeps them there. Some have come to terms with reality:

(“A person is a thing, you are superfluous everywhere... and all people are superfluous...”),

Natasha (dreams replace real life),
Baron (life replaced by memories of the past).

Others have a hard time experiencing their condition, hope or dream of changing it (Natasha, Ashes, Actor).

But neither the first nor the second know how to escape from here.

A modern reading of the play allows us to say that a person’s attitude towards his position determines his attitude towards reality.

Therefore, the third group of heroes is very important - Satin and Luka - they are the ones who seem to know what to do. The meaning of the images of Satin and Luke is that another

one conflict is the conflict between truth and compassion, between truth and white lies.

The humanitarian component of the conflict in Gorky's play

Luka is one of the central characters; with his appearance in the shelter, internal changes begin. According to the author, this character is rather negative

(“fanaticism of virtue”, “crafty old man”).

Luka feels sorry for the man: he consoles the dying Anna, he tells Ash about a wonderful life in Siberia, where he can do everything all over again, he tells the Actor about hospitals where he can recover from alcoholism. Gorky himself is sure that

“You shouldn’t feel sorry for a person.” The writer believes that “pity humiliates a person.”

However, it is Luke who influences people, it is he who makes them take a fresh look at their situation. It is he who remains at the bedside of dying Anna until the last minute. Consequently, the author’s rather unambiguous attitude towards the character does not make the image of Luke unambiguous, but defines its multidimensionality.

Satin stands out among others both in his attitude to life and his statements about it. His monologues about man and truth are Gorky’s credo. The image of this hero is ambiguous. He can be considered as a person provoking, for example, Ash to kill Kostylev. A person who deliberately refuses to do anything, whose monologues contradict his behavior. But you can consider his position from the point of view of Stoic philosophy: he consciously refuses to work for this society, which threw him to the sidelines of life, he despises it

(“Work? For what? To be well-fed?... Man is higher! Man is higher than satiety!”).

Thus, Satin is not unambiguous in the work.

The conflict in the play “At the Bottom” between compassion and truth is formally resolved in favor of truth: Luka’s consolations did not make the lives of the inhabitants of the shelter better (the Actor commits suicide, Ash goes to prison, Natasha goes to the hospital, Luka himself disappears). A person must know the truth about himself, says Gorky, then he can change this life. But the question posed by the writer remains a question, since the images of the characters do not provide an unambiguous solution, which is why the play has not lost its relevance.

The conflict between the inhabitants of the shelter and reality is also ambiguously resolved. On the one hand, as already mentioned, the very attitude of people determines their condition, their path in life. On the other hand, the masters of life (Kostylev and Vasilisa) are the type of exploiters who are alien to humanity, their thoughts are aimed at profit, they benefit from the existing system. In the images of the Kostylevs, Gorky condemns the existing system. It is not without reason that contemporaries accept the play as a call to change the existing system. Thus, according to Gorky, you need to change your life - then the person will change. The resolution of the conflict between the inhabitants of the shelter and reality is taken out of the work by the author.

Our presentation

The unusual plot for its time (the life of a flophouse) and the universal conflict in the play “At the Lower Depths,” with the author’s clear and definite position, give an ambiguous interpretation of the work and make it relevant for any time.

Materials are published with the personal permission of the author - Ph.D. O.A. Mazneva (see “Our Library”)

Source

What is the conflict of the drama in the play “At the Lower Depths” - an example of everyday conflict

In the everyday conflict of the play there are three characters - Natasha, Ash, Vasilisa. The owner of the rooming house married Vasilisa, but she does not love her husband. The main goal of marriage for her is to get out of poverty. The girl consoles herself by cheating on her husband with Ash. She is tormented by her lover's jealousy of Natasha, who is her sister.

Vasilisa constantly puts psychological pressure on Natalya, beats her, despite Ash’s confession. The man refused Vasilisa. He stays with Natasha. The defeat infuriates the sister, and she and her husband beat Natasha. Ash has to stand up for the girl and kill the owner of the shelter.

The widow immediately testified against her former lover, although she was not particularly worried about the loss of her husband. She completely got shelter; she had been talking with Ash for a long time about the murder of her hated husband. The domestic conflict in the work “At the Lower Depths” ended with the arrest of Ash and the hospitalization of Natalya.

Life of Vasilisa

The owner of the shelter, 54-year-old Kostylev, had a young wife, Vasilisa, who was only 26 years old. The relationship between these two characters is dramatic. Vasilisa married Kostylev not out of love, but out of convenience, and he constantly reproaches the heroine for her poverty (“pig”, “beggar”). It is unlikely that the husband sincerely loves his wife. The love conflict in the play “At the Lower Depths” does not concern him. This is a greedy person, a money-grubber, a hypocrite, to whom pure, bright feelings are alien. “Filthy,” he calls her. For Vasilisa, life with such a person is hell, their relationship is far from love. Therefore, she cheats on him with another hero, Vaska Ash. It is around the latter that the features of the love conflict in the play “At the Bottom” are built.

Vasilisa and Natasha

Vasilisa, this cruel, evil woman with a “diabolical character,” leads a fight for Ash, the methods of which are very questionable. She is jealous of Natasha, her powerless sister, who depends on her in everything. The inhabitants of the shelter like Natasha, but they do not like Vasilisa. Kostyleva’s sister is a “nice girl”, a “reliable person”, and the wife of the owner of the flophouse is a “poisonous viper”. Natasha has many advantages, which is why Vaska Ash is not indifferent to her. He reproaches his domineering sister for lacking a soul. With Kostyleva, this hero is sincere and directly says that he never loved her, but lived with her only for the sake of entertainment, just like that. In the end, Vaska leaves Vasilisa for Natasha. Kostyleva cannot stand this hero’s love for her sister. This vengeful nature, overcome with rage, constantly beats and torments Natasha. The latter, being in such unbearable conditions for herself, is ready to escape with Ash to the ends of the world.

The relationship between him and Natasha enriches the hero and gives hope for a completely different, new life, as shown by M. Gorky (“At the Depths”).

Author: M. Gorky
Artwork: At the bottom
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The revival of the name of Maxim Gorky after reconsidering the place of his work in Russian literature and renaming everything that bore the name of this writer must definitely happen. It seems that the most famous play from Gorky’s dramatic heritage, “At the Lower Depths,” will play a significant role in this. The genre of drama itself assumes the relevance of the work in a society where there are many unresolved social problems, where people know what it means to spend the night and be homeless. M. Gorky's play “At the Lower Depths” is defined as a socio-philosophical drama. The drama of a work is determined by the presence in it of an acute conflict affecting a person’s relationship with the environment, with society. In addition, drama, as a rule, is characterized by a veiled author’s position. Although it may seem that the material of the play is too difficult to comprehend, the realism of the conflict and the absence of moralizing are the advantages of a truly dramatic work. Gorky's play contains all of the above. It is interesting that “At the Lower Depths” is perhaps Gorky’s only book where there is no open didacticism, where the reader himself is invited to make a choice between two “truths of life” - the positions of Luke and Satin.

Among the features of the play, we will mention the presence in it of several conflicts expressed to varying degrees. Thus, the presence of people from different walks of life among the heroes determines the development of social conflict. However, it is not very dynamic, since the owners of the Kostylev shelter have a social status that is not much higher than that of its inhabitants. But there is one more facet to the social conflict in the play: each of the night shelters carries a lot of contradictions related to their place in society, each hero has his own social conflict within himself, which threw them to the “bottom” of life.

The development of a love conflict is connected with the relationship between Vaska Ash and Natasha, into which the claims for love of Vasilisa and her husband interfere. Vaska Pepel, without the slightest doubt, leaves Vasilisa, who cheated on her husband with him, for the sake of a truly high feeling for Natasha. The heroine seems to return the thief Vaska to the true values of life; a relationship with her, of course, enriches his inner world and awakens dreams of an honest life. But the envy of the older sister prevents the successful outcome of this love story. The culmination is Vasilisa’s dirty and cruel revenge, and the denouement is the murder of Kostylev. Thus, the love conflict is resolved by the triumph of the disgusting Vasilisa and the defeat of two loving hearts. The author shows that there is no place for true feelings at the “bottom”.

The philosophical conflict in the drama is the main one; it affects all the heroes of the work to one degree or another. Its development is provoked by the appearance of the wanderer Luke in the shelter, who brings a new view of the world to the inhabitants of the “bottom”. Two life positions come into conflict: a white lie and the truth without embellishment. What turns out to be more necessary for people? Luke preaches pity and compassion, he instills hope for the possibility of a different, better life. Those heroes who believed him began to dream again, make plans, they had an incentive to live on. But the old man didn’t tell them about the difficulties that were inevitable on the path to a bright future. It seems to give impetus to the beginning of a new life, but the person must go further on his own, but will he have enough strength for this? Can illusions always become a support in difficulties? The antipodean hero Satin believes that pity humiliates a person; to live, a person needs the truth, no matter how cruel it may seem.

All philosophical thoughts in the play are expressed by the characters in direct dialogues and monologues. From Luke’s lips it sounds: “It’s true, it’s not always because of a person’s illness... you can’t always cure a soul with the truth...”. Satin says: “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man!” Yes, exclamations that “only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain” are very attractive to us! Human! It's great! It sounds... proud! Human! We must respect the person!” The author's position in drama is hidden. Gorky does not directly evaluate the words of his heroes. True, in his other prose work, “The Life of Klim Samgin,” the author says that we love people for the good that we have done to them, and we do not love for the evil that we have brought to them. When a person is deceived, they hide something from him, they, of course, bring harm to him, since they are deprived of the right to information and, therefore, to an objectively made choice. From this point of view, Luke’s philosophy cannot be salutary; his pity and compassion are not identical to love for a person. But Satin is powerless to help the inhabitants of the shelter, since he has nothing to respect even himself, in fact, he does not see a person in himself, his words are not supported by action. This is the common tragedy of all heroes. Words and dreams hang in the air, unable to find support in the people themselves.

At the end of the drama, one murder and one suicide occur. But the author does not pass judgment on any of the life philosophies underlying the play. Rather, one can feel a general regret about the passivity and weakness of people who find themselves at the “bottom”, see their own guilt in what happened and realize the futility of helping someone who is not ready for it. The ambiguity and diversity of the play are associated with the depth of the problems raised. You can’t see Luka as a stupid “crafty” old man who lies all the time, but you can’t idealize his compassionate love. At the same time, Satin, at first glance, pronounces his monologue as if in delirium, phrases pop up in his fevered brain, which he picked up from different places. But with his enthusiasm he is trying to infect the people, to rouse them to revolution. Although the substitution of values is obvious in his words. And perhaps in this way Gorky warned us about the substitution of values that has eternally existed in the revolution, which is its tragedy.

True drama is always modern. The relevance of the play “At the Bottom” will never die, in my opinion, because when reading or watching it on stage we think about the eternal problems of choosing our path. The current pathos of the work, in my opinion, is associated with the attempt of our entire society to rise from the “bottom”, to understand why some manage to get out, while others do not. Unfortunately, not everyone succeeds in the positive desire to raise their head. And some people don’t even try. This is also a philosophy of life. Thus, the vitality of the drama “At the Bottom” is due to its truthfulness.

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Does Vasilisa love Vaska Pepel?

Vasilisa is shown in the play as a selfish person. In her connection with Ash, she sees not just an opportunity to find female happiness. Kostyleva hoped that Vaska would help her get rid of her husband, after which she would become the full owner of his establishment. Maxim Gorky's play “At the Depths” makes you think about a lot. A logical question arises: “Does Vasilisa really love Ash?” It seems not. Would she otherwise have pushed him to commit a crime, dooming herself to inevitable separation from her beloved? Would she encourage him to steal and then buy the stolen goods? At the last moment, Vasilisa is still thinking of persuading Ash into an agreement with her. She even agrees to his marriage to Natasha and promises Vaska a monetary reward.

Essence of Kostyleva

The peculiarities of the love conflict in the play “At the Lower Depths” reveal the true essence of Vasilisa. Ash feels her. He says that Vasilisa only needs money and will “to be debauched.” Vaska could even fall in love with this heroine and do anything for her happiness, but his passion for money pushed him away. He cannot come to terms with this in Vasilisa’s character.

Kostyleva puts Ash in a dead end. Having once stood up for Natasha, who was scalded with boiling water and brutally beaten by her husband and wife, Vaska kills the owner of the shelter in a fight. This is what Vasilisa wanted. There is nothing human left in her, only a complete moral decline, which, undoubtedly, shows Maxim Gorky’s play “At the Depths.”

Conflict in M. Gorky's play “At the Depths”

(333 words) Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” is considered the author’s main dramatic work. It is not surprising that to this day there are debates about the characters, the philosophical component and, of course, the social conflicts that are the basis of the production. To fully understand the text, it is necessary to understand what is the driving force of the plot?

First of all, it is worth noting the social contradiction. Kostylev and Vasilisa oppose themselves to the night shelters. These people found themselves at the bottom of their lives. Nobody needs them. There is no one to take care of them. Night shelters do not live, but simply exist. Yes, they have dreams, but they cannot achieve them. Even the gloomy and pitiful description of their “cave” makes us understand how bad things are. Vasilisa and Kostylev stand out sharply against their background. They appear to us as some kind of masters of life. If we take a closer look at this conflict, we will understand that it has a global scale. Ordinary people oppose the elite. They want decent living conditions and equality between classes. Many contemporaries perceived the play as an allegory of the revolutionary movement.

The philosophical conflict between truth and compassion is of great importance in the play. The first is presented in the form of Satin. This is an ambiguous hero, since all his statements contradict his behavior. Satin's monologue is a reflection of Gorky's own thoughts. According to the writer, life can be changed only when you know the whole truth. Compassion is represented by Luke, one of the main characters of the work. He feels sorry for Anna, Ash and Actor. Luke gives them imaginary hope for a better life. But all his merciful participation leads to nothing: the Actor commits suicide, Ash goes to prison, and Anna dies. The lie only made it easier for them to perceive these facts.

The love conflict is represented in the play by two intricate triangles - “Vasilisa – Ashes – Natasha” and “Kostylev – Vasilisa – Ashes”. But it is only a component of the social contradiction of the heroes. Relationships between people and a love line prove to us that in such cruel conditions this high feeling does not lead to anything good. It only maims and wounds.

So, as we see, Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” is built on social, philosophical and love conflicts. Using the example of his heroes, the author wants to show what life can be like and warn us against fatal mistakes that lead to the bottom.

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What is the conflict of the drama “At the Lower Depths” - Gorky

The play contrasts two concepts - truth and compassion. By the end of the story, it becomes clear that the truth gets the upper hand. Luke's compassion did not help the heroes in any way:

The actor, unable to bear the struggle with himself, hanged himself;
Ash ended up in prison;
Natalya was admitted to the hospital;
Comforter Luke has disappeared.

Separately, the writer examines the conflict between the inhabitants of the refuge and reality. There is no clear solution. The play says more than once: a person’s life and condition depend on his attitude and actions. However, having examined Kostylev and Vasilisa, one can see the lack of humanity. All their actions are predetermined by obtaining benefits and income. It is these heroes who are the masters of life.

According to contemporaries, the writer introduced the Kostylev characters to condemn government officials and the regulations of the existing system in the country.

Prostitute Nastya

Speaking about the love theme in the work, it is necessary to say a few words about another heroine of the play - the prostitute Nastya. It is no coincidence that M. Gorky (“At the Lower Depths”) introduces it into the narrative. Baron and Bubnov mock and laugh at Nastya, at her fictitious love story. This heroine dreams of Raoul, an imaginary admirer, thinking that he loves her sublimely and passionately. Nastya read romance novels, imagining herself as their heroine. This is the only good thing in her hard life. Selling her body, her soul still reaches out to warmth, light, participation and kindness. Behind this fiction lies the heroine’s deep need for love. Nastya does not lose hope, does not stop believing that a great and pure feeling would change her whole life, lifting her from the bottom.

These are the features of the love conflict in the play “At the Lower Depths”. Maxim Gorky in this play shows how a person is crippled by inhuman conditions of existence, disfiguring sublime feelings, leading to degradation and destruction of the human “I”. The spiritual, moral and social are closely connected in the work of this writer, which is once again proven in the work of M. Gorky. “At the Depths” is therefore rightfully considered a social and philosophical play.

Essay 2

Maxim Gorky's work “At the Depths” is one of his most dramatic works. The fact remains that to this day there are heated debates about the characters of the work, about the philosophy and hidden meaning in it, about the social conflicts that are an integral part of the production. To fully understand what the conflict in the work is, it is necessary to turn to the plot.

First of all, I would like to say that there is a contradiction here in social terms. Here Vasilisa and Kostylev are contrasted with the guests of the shelter. Her guests found themselves at the very bottom, in the position of useless people, with no one to take care of them. The guests of this establishment are not looking for ways to improve their positions in life, but are only trying and hoping to live another day. Although they have certain goals and dreams, it does not seem possible to realize them. This place for temporary stay is called by the author with the caustic word “cave”, from which one can conclude that the conditions there are truly unbearable for normal living.

Against the background of these people, Vasilisa and Kostylev stand out very much. They appear to us as people who do not need anything; it seems that they have absolutely everything to be happy. And if you think more broadly, it is worth noting the entire global nature of the described phenomenon, all the injustice and inequality of social strata of society. It shows how poor people are dissatisfied with their situation and want to improve it. The writer's contemporaries perceived this work as a revolutionary spirit.

A philosophical conflict can be called the search for concepts such as compassion and truth. The truth is concentrated in the person of Satin, who is an ambiguous hero. He doesn't always behave as he says earlier. The character's monologue allegorically symbolizes the thoughts of Gorky, who believed that the world can be changed only when you own the truth. Compassion as a philosophical concept is conveyed by a character like Luke, one of the central characters of the work. He feels sorry for both Anna and the Actor with Ashes. He gives them hope for a bright future, but he fails to save them. In the end, the Actor ends his life by killing himself, Ash is imprisoned, and Anna soon dies. And in this case, the writer shows that lying does not help people solve their problems.

The love lines in the work are shown to be confusing and unclear. Here relationships are presented in the form of several “love triangles”. Characters such as Natasha, Ash and Vasilisa are related to the first, and Kostylev, Vasilisa and Ash are related to the second. This is shown only in order to once again convey to the reader the idea that such a life is a contradiction in the social strata of society. This relationship does not bring anything good to any of these characters. Such love only cripples and wounds their hearts.

Realism of the play “At the Bottom”

The play “At the Bottom” is a striking example of a realistic work. M. Gorky in it abandons the romantic traditions characteristic of his work. The writer is attracted by the realistic principle; he pays quite a lot of attention to socio-philosophical conflicts. M. Gorky himself is one of the most talented writers of his time. There is not the slightest reason to doubt the veracity of the human characters he depicts. The writer also vividly depicted the everyday life against which the events in the work take place. For Gorky, everyday life is not just a collection of different details in the description of the situation. His everyday life takes on a very special meaning, growing to a global scale. It is no coincidence that being and life are the same root words. The living conditions in which a person happens to live necessarily influence his worldview and character.

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