The play "At the Bottom" by Maxim Gorky belongs to the works that are not readily readable and easily perceived. This is because it presents an unfamiliar environment in which social and philosophical issues are intertwined.
Maxim Gorky and the play "At the Bottom"
Maxim Gorky (real name Alexey Peshkov) is a famous writer of Russian and Soviet literature. In Soviet times, Gorky was one of the most published writers, was nominated for the Nobel Prize five times and stood on a par with Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
The play "At the Bottom" was written by Gorky in 1902, but the writer did not immediately find the title for the work. At first it was called "Nochlezhka", then "Without the sun", "Bottom", "At the bottom of life" and finally "At the bottom". A feature of the play is that it reliably depicts the life of the lodgers, depicts their life in all its depressing everyday life. But its main meaning is not everyday, but philosophical, and the author emphasizes this with the title of the work. Not a shelter, where losers gathered, degraded people who were unable to arrange their fate, but the "bottom of life", inevitably generated by the existing social system and circumstances. The social and philosophical meaning of the play was perceived sharply both during the years of writing the work and now.
Characters of the work
Mikhail Ivanovich Kostylev - the owner of the night-house, a man of 54 years old.
Vasilisa Karpovna - Kostylev's young wife, a 26-year-old woman. In the past - the mistress of the professional thief Vaska Pepla.
Natasha is the mistress's sister, a 20-year-old girl.
Medvedev is the uncle of the hostess and her sister Natasha, a policeman, 50 years old.
Vaska Ashes is a thief, 28 years old.
Klesh Andrey Mitrich - locksmith, 40 years old.
Anna is his sick wife, a 30-year-old woman.
Nastya is a slutty girl, 24 years old.
Kvashnya - a ravioli trader, 40 years old.
Bubnov - an aristocrat "from the former", is in a vicious relationship with Nastya, 45 years old.
Baron - a ruined nobleman, 33 years old.
Satin is a former telegraph operator who served time in prison for murder. After prison he became a card sharper.
The actor is a drunken actor who does not remember his name for about 40 years.
Kryvyi Zob and Tatarin are crochet workers, gamblers.
Alyoshka is a young shoemaker, 20 years old.
Luke - philosopher and wanderer, 60 years old.
Summary of I action
Events unfold in a house-house, owned by Mikhail Ivanovich Kostylev and his young wife Vasilisa Karlovna. Nine degraded people live in this shelter, from the very bottom of society. The play begins on a cool spring morning. The dumplings trader Kvashnya reflects on marriage issues, considering marriage a fortress. The Baron listens to her, eating bread. Mite interrupts their conversation, starting to argue with Kvashnya, they swear. The Baron snatches the book from reading Nastya, a girl of easy virtue. Laughing, he recites the title of the work - "Fatal Love". The girl begs to return the book, everyone shouts. Anna, sick with consumption, sick from malnutrition and beatings from her husband, begs not to make noise, but they do not hear her. Kvashnya sympathizes with Anna, offers to eat dumplings, but the woman refuses.
Satin wakes up, the rest of the guests argue about cleaning the flophouse. Then Bubnov, Satin, Actor and Mite are reminded of how they were "normal people." The owner Mikhail Ivanovich Kostylev comes to the shelter, he is looking for his young wife, who has an affair with the thief Vaska Ash. Kostylev listens attentively to what is happening behind the partition near Ash. Then he wakes up Ash. Satin, grinning, realizes that Mikhail Ivanovich is looking for his wife. But Ash is in love with Vasilisa's sister - Natasha. Natasha brings a strange guest named Luka to the shelter. The girl confesses to him that she is afraid of death. The tick harbors the hope of breaking out of the shelter. Two people remain in the room: Anna and old man Luka. He reminds Anna of her father, just as kind and gentle. Luka agrees, answering that he is soft, because he was "crushed" a lot in life. The action ends with a scandal. Behind the stage, Vasilisa beats Natalya, she is jealous of her lover, Vaska Ash. All tenants are in a hurry to separate the women.
Summary of action II
Evening has come, the tenants of the flophouse begin a game of cards. Bubnov plays checkers with police officer Medvedev, and other residents play cards for money. The Tatar asks everyone to play fair, but they don't know how. In the game, everyone is trying to deceive someone: to replace or hide the card. The players argue and shout. The Baron was caught hiding the card up his sleeve. The Tatar makes everyone laugh by talking about honesty. Goiter sings a song about a prison in which it is dark and there is no sun. The song has a depressing effect on everyone present. Luka talks to Anna. The woman laments her fate. She tells the elder that she always starved, lived in fear and cold. Anna asks the elder about life in the "next world." Luke answers her philosophically: "You will rest there." The actor invites the elder to read his favorite poems. But due to constant drunkenness, he cannot remember anything. Luke explains that forgetting what you love means losing your soul. The Elder invites the Actor to go to the hospital to get rid of drunkenness. Their conversation is interrupted by a sick Anna. Luka walks up to the sick woman. She asks the elder if she will recover? Luke answers: for what? To suffer again? "Death … is like a mother to little children." The woman is dying.
Ash enters, asks Medvedev how much Vasilisa beat Natalia. Medvedev, the uncle of Natalia and Vasilisa, calls Ash a thief and is indignant that he interferes with their family problems. Ashes promises to tell the police about receiving stolen goods and robberies. Medvedev does not understand what he did wrong to Vaska. Luke intervenes in the conversation, claiming that the one who does not do good is doing bad.
Ash asks the elder if God exists. Luka only smiles in return. The wife of the owner, Vasilisa, appears in the shelter, she invites Vaska to talk. The woman realized that she was bored with the thief and that he had never loved her. She offers Ash money to kill her husband. Vaska is indignant at Vasilisa's cunning and cunning.
Summary of III action
The characters go out into the courtyard. Nastya talks about love, the guests laugh at her. Luke tries to console the girl, everyone argues about truth and lies. Enter Tick, Satine, and Actor. Tick is upset that he sold his tools to pay for his wife's funeral. The actor worked all day to raise money for the trip. He decided to change his life and go to the hospital. Ash enters and nevertheless convinces Natasha to leave with him. Vasilisa hears this conversation and initiates a quarrel between her husband and her former lover. Luka pacifies the scandal, Vasilisa drives out the elder and beats up his sister Natasha. Vaska, in a state of passion, kills Kostylev.
Summary of action IV
The gathered residents of the flophouse discuss Luka. Some consider him kind and good, while others - two-faced, deceitful and soft-hearted. The baron calls the old man a charlatan, Nastya defends Luka, Satin supports her. Although the old man lied, he did it out of humanity. Lying is necessary for the weak-minded people. Residents believe that Vasilisa will escape retribution, and Ashes will be hanged or imprisoned. Nastya dreams of getting away from all people. Satin believes that you cannot humiliate people with indulgence and pity. The actor unexpectedly gets off the stove and runs out. The guests begin to sing. Medvedev enters, the Baron runs after him, saying that the Actor hanged himself. In complete silence, only Satin's sigh and soft words are heard: "Eh, ruined the song, you fool!"
