Event sequence at the bottom. Event series

Goals: consider the characters’ understanding of Gorky’s play “truth”; find out the meaning tragic collision different points of view: the truth of a fact (Bubnov), the truth of a comforting lie (Luke), the truth of faith in a person (Satin); determine the features of Gorky’s humanism.

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Lesson topic:

“THREE TRUTHS” IN GORKY’S PLAY “AT THE BOTTOM”

Goals: consider the characters’ understanding of Gorky’s play “truth”; find out the meaning of the tragic collision of different points of view: the truth of a fact (Bubnov), the truth of a comforting lie (Luke), the truth of faith in a person (Satin); determine the features of Gorky’s humanism.

Lesson progress

Gentlemen! If the truth is holy

The world doesn’t know how to find a way,

Honor the madman who inspires

A golden dream for humanity!

I. Introductory conversation.

– Restore the sequence of events of the play. What events take place on stage and what events take place “behind the scenes”? What is the role of the traditional “conflict polygon” - Kostylev, Vasilisa, Ashes, Natasha - in the development of dramatic action?

The relationships between Vasilisa, Kostylev, Ash, and Natasha only externally motivate the stage action. Some of the events that make up the plot outline of the play take place off stage (the fight between Vasilisa and Natasha, Vasilisa’s revenge - overturning a boiling samovar on her sister, Kostylev’s murder takes place around the corner of the flophouse and is almost invisible to the viewer).

All the other characters in the play are not involved in the love affair. The compositional and plot disunity of the characters is expressed in the organization stage space– characters are dispersed in different corners of the stage and “closed” in unconnected microspaces.

Teacher. Thus, the play contains two actions in parallel. First, we see on stage (supposed and real). Detective story with conspiracy, escape, murder, suicide. The second is the exposure of “masks” and the identification of the true essence of a person. This happens as if behind the text and requires decoding. For example, here is the dialogue between Baron and Luke.

Baron. We lived better... yes! I... used to... wake up in the morning and, lying in bed, drink coffee... coffee! – with cream... yes!

Luke. And everyone is people! No matter how you pretend, no matter how you wobble, if you were born a man, you will die a man...

But Baron is afraid to be “just a man.” And he does not recognize “just a person.”

Baron. Who are you, old man?.. Where did you come from?

Luke. Me?

Baron. Wanderer?

Luke. We are all wanderers on earth... They say, I heard, that the earth is our wanderer.

The culmination of the second (implicit) action comes when the “truths” of Bubnov, Satin and Luka collide on the “narrow everyday platform”.

II. Work on the problem stated in the topic of the lesson.

1. The philosophy of truth in Gorky’s play.

– What is the main leitmotif of the play? Which character is the first to formulate the main question of the drama “At the Bottom”?

The dispute about truth is the semantic center of the play. The word “truth” will be heard already on the first page of the play, in Kvashnya’s remark: “Ah! You can’t stand the truth!” Truth – lie (“You’re lying!” – Kleshch’s sharp cry, sounded even before the word “truth”), truth – faith – these are the most important semantic poles that define the problematics of “At the Bottom”.

– How do you understand Luke’s words: “What you believe is what you believe”? How are the heroes of “At the Depths” divided depending on their attitude to the concepts of “faith” and “truth”?

In contrast to the “prose of fact,” Luke offers the truth of the ideal—the “poetry of fact.” If Bubnov (the main ideologist of literally understood “truth”), Satin, Baron are far from illusions and do not need an ideal, then Actor, Nastya, Anna, Natasha, Ashes respond to Luke’s remark - for them faith is more important than truth.

Luke’s hesitant story about hospitals for alcoholics sounded like this: “Nowadays they are curing drunkenness, listen! They treat you for free, brother... this is the kind of hospital built for drunkards... They recognized, you see, that a drunkard is also a person...” In the actor’s imagination, the hospital turns into a “marble palace”: “An excellent hospital... Marble.. .marble floor! Light... cleanliness, food... everything for free! And marble floor. Yes!" The actor is a hero of faith, not the truth of fact, and the loss of the ability to believe turns out to be fatal for him.

– What is truth for the heroes of the play? How can their views be compared?(Working with text.)

A) How does Bubnov understand “truth”? How do his views differ from Luke's philosophy of truth?

Bubnov’s truth consists in exposing the seamy side of existence, this is the “truth of fact.” “What kind of truth do you need, Vaska? And why? You know the truth about yourself... and everyone knows it...” he drives Ash into the doom of being a thief when he was trying to figure himself out. “That means I’ve stopped coughing,” he reacted to Anna’s death.

After listening to Luka’s allegorical story about his life at his dacha in Siberia and the harboring (rescue) of escaped convicts, Bubnov admitted: “But I... I don’t know how to lie! For what? In my opinion, tell the whole truth as it is! Why be ashamed?

Bubnov sees only the negative side of life and destroys the remnants of faith and hope in people, while Luka knows that in a kind word the ideal becomes real:“A person can teach goodness... very simply,”he concluded the story about life in the country, and in setting out the “story” of the righteous land, he reduced it to the fact that the destruction of faith kills a person.Luka (thoughtfully, to Bubnov): “Here... you say it’s true... It’s true, it’s not always due to a person’s illness... you can’t always cure a soul with the truth...” Luke heals the soul.

Luka’s position is more humane and more effective than Bubnov’s naked truth, because it appeals to the remnants of humanity in the souls of the night shelters. For Luke, a person “no matter what he is, is always worth his price.”“I’m just saying that if someone hasn’t done good to someone, then they’ve done something bad.” "To caress a person– never harmful."

Such a moral credo harmonizes relations between people, abolishes the wolf principle, and ideally leads to the acquisition of internal completeness and self-sufficiency, the confidence that, despite external circumstances, a person has found truths that no one will ever take away from him.

B) What does Satin see as the truth of life?

One of the climaxes of the play is Satin’s famous monologues from the fourth act about man, truth, and freedom.

A trained student reads Satin's monologue by heart.

It is interesting that Satin supported his reasoning with the authority of Luke, a man in relation to whom at the beginning of the play we imagined Satin to be an antipode. Moreover, Satin's references to Luke in Act 4 prove the closeness of both."Old man? He’s a smart guy!.. He... acted on me like acid on an old and dirty coin... Let’s drink to his health!” “Man – that’s the truth! He understood this... you don’t!”

Actually, the “truth” and “lies” of Satin and Luke almost coincide.

Both believe that “one must respect a person” (emphasis on the last word) is not his “mask”; but they differ on how they should communicate their “truth” to people. After all, if you think about it, it is deadly for those who fall into its area.

If everything has faded away and one “naked” person remains, then “what’s next”? For the actor, this thought leads to suicide.

Q) What role does Luke play in addressing the issue of “truth” in the play?

For Luke, the truth is in “comforting lies.”

Luke takes pity on the man and entertains him with a dream. He promises Anna an afterlife, listens to Nastya’s fairy tales, and sends the Actor to a hospital. He lies for the sake of hope, and this is perhaps better than Bubnov’s cynical “truth,” “abomination and lies.”

In the image of Luke there are allusions to the biblical Luke, who was one of the seventy disciples sent by the Lord “to every city and place where He Himself wanted to go.”

Gorky's Luka makes the inhabitants of the bottom think about God and man, about the “better man,” about the highest calling of people.

“Luka” is also light. Luka comes to illuminate the Kostylevo basement with the light of new ideas, forgotten at the bottom of feelings. He talks about how it should be, what should be, and it is not at all necessary to look for practical recommendations or instructions for survival in his reasoning.

Evangelist Luke was a doctor. Luke heals in his own way in the play - with his attitude to life, advice, words, sympathy, love.

Luke heals, but not everyone, but selectively, those who need words. His philosophy is revealed in relation to other characters. He sympathizes with the victims of life: Anna, Natasha, Nastya. Teaches, giving practical advice, Ashes, Actor. Understandingly, meaningfully, often without words, he explains with the smart Bubnov. Skillfully avoids unnecessary explanations.

Luke is flexible and soft. “They crumpled a lot, that’s why it’s soft...” he said in the finale of Act 1.

Luke with his “lies” is sympathetic to Satin. “Dubier... keep quiet about the old man!.. The old man is not a charlatan!.. He lied... but it’s out of pity for you, damn you!” And yet Luke’s “lies” do not suit him. “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters! Truth is the god of a free man!”

Thus, while rejecting the “truth” of Bubnov, Gorky does not deny either the “truth” of Satin or the “truth” of Luke. Essentially, he distinguishes two truths: “truth-truth” and “truth-dream”.

2. Features of Gorky’s humanism.

The Problem of Man in Gorky’s play “At the Depths” (individual message).

Gorky put his truth about man and overcoming the dead end into the mouths of Actor, Luka and Satin.

At the beginning of the play, indulging in theatrical memories, Actor selflessly spoke about the miracle of talent - the game of transforming a person into a hero. Responding to Satin’s words about books read, education, he divided education and talent: “Education is nonsense, the main thing is talent”; “I say talent, that’s what a hero needs. And talent is faith in yourself, in your strength...”

It is known that Gorky admired knowledge, education, and books, but he valued talent even more highly. Through the Actor, he polemically, maximalistically sharpened and polarized two facets of the spirit: education as a sum of knowledge and living knowledge - a “system of thought.”

In Satin's monologues the ideas of Gorky's thoughts about man are confirmed.

Man – “he is everything. He even created God"; “man is the receptacle of the living God”; “Faith in the powers of thought... is a person’s faith in himself.” So in Gorky’s letters. And so - in the play: “A person can believe and not believe... that’s his business! Man is free... he pays for everything himself... Man is the truth! What is a person... it's you, me, them, the old man, Napoleon, Mohammed... in one... In one - all the beginnings and ends... Everything is in a person, everything is for a person! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain!”

The Actor was the first to speak about talent and self-confidence. Satin summarized everything. What is the role Bows ? He carries the ideas of transformation and improvement of life, dear to Gorky, at the cost of human creative efforts.

“And that’s all, I see, smarter people They’re becoming more and more interesting... and even though they live, they’re getting worse, but they want to be better... stubborn!” - the elder confesses in the first act, referring to the common aspirations of everyone for a better life.

Then, in 1902, Gorky shared his observations and moods with V. Veresaev: “The mood for life is growing and expanding, cheerfulness and faith in people are becoming more and more noticeable, and - life is good on earth - by God!” The same words, the same thoughts, even the same intonations in the play and the letter.

In the fourth act Satin remembered and reproduced Luke’s answer to his question “Why do people live?”: “And - people live for the best... For a hundred years... and maybe more - they live for the better person!.. That’s it, dear , everyone, as they are, lives for the best! That’s why every person must be respected... We don’t know who he is, why he was born and what he can do...” And he himself, continuing to talk about a person, said, repeating Luke: “We must respect a person! Don’t feel sorry... don’t humiliate him with pity... you have to respect him!” Satin repeated Luke, speaking about respect, did not agree with him, speaking about pity, but something else is more important - the idea of ​​​​a “better person”.

The statements of the three characters are similar, and, mutually reinforcing, they work on the problem of the triumph of Man.

In one of Gorky’s letters we read: “I am sure that man is capable of endless improvement, and all his activities will also develop with him... from century to century. I believe in the infinity of life...” Again Luka, Satin, Gorky - about one thing.

3. What is the significance of the 4th act of Gorky’s play?

In this act, the situation is the same, but the previously sleepy thoughts of the tramps begin to “ferment.”

It started with Anna's death scene.

Luke says over the dying woman: “Much merciful Jesus Christ! Receive the spirit of your newly departed servant Anna in peace...” But last words Anna had words about life : “Well... a little more... I wish I could live... a little more! If there is no flour there... here we can be patient... we can!”

– How should we regard these words of Anna – as a victory for Luke or as his defeat? Gorky does not give a clear answer; this phrase can be commented on in different ways. One thing is clear:

Anna spoke for the first timeabout life positively thanks to Luke.

In the last act, a strange, completely unconscious rapprochement of the “bitter brethren” takes place. In the 4th act, Kleshch repaired Alyoshka’s harmonica, after testing the frets, the already familiar prison song began to sound. And this ending is perceived in two ways. You can do this: you can’t escape from the bottom - “The sun rises and sets... but it’s dark in my prison!” It can be done differently: at the cost of death, a person ended the song of tragic hopelessness...

The actor's suicide interrupted the song.

What prevents homeless shelters from changing their lives for the better? Natasha’s fatal mistake is in not trusting people, Ash (“I somehow don’t believe... any words”), hoping together to change fate.

“That’s why I’m a thief, because no one ever thought of calling me by another name... Call me... Natasha, well?”

Her answer is convinced, mature:“There’s nowhere to go... I know... I thought... But I don’t trust anyone.”

One word of faith in a person could change the lives of both, but it was not spoken.

The Actor, for whom creativity is the meaning of life, a calling, also did not believe in himself. The news of the Actor’s death came after Satin’s famous monologues, shading them with contrast: he couldn’t cope, he couldn’t play, but he could have, he didn’t believe in himself.

All the characters in the play are in the zone of action of the seemingly abstract Good and Evil, but they become quite concrete when it comes to the fate, worldviews, and relationships with the lives of each of the characters. And they connect people with good and evil through their thoughts, words and deeds. They directly or indirectly affect life. Life is a way of choosing your direction between good and evil. In the play, Gorky examined man and tested his capabilities. The play is devoid of utopian optimism, as well as the other extreme - disbelief in man. But one conclusion is indisputable: “Talent is what a hero needs. And talent is faith in yourself, your strength...”

III. The aphoristic language of Gorky's play.

Teacher. One of characteristic features Gorky's creativity is aphoristic. It is characteristic of both the author’s speech and the speech of the characters, which is always sharply individual. Many aphorisms of the play “At the Bottom,” like the aphorisms of the “Songs” about the Falcon and the Petrel, became popular. Let's remember some of them.

– Which characters in the play do the following aphorisms, proverbs, and sayings belong to?

a) Noise is not a hindrance to death.

b) Such a life that you get up in the morning and howl.

c) Expect some sense from the wolf.

d) When work is a duty, life is slavery.

e) Not a single flea is bad: all are black, all jump.

e) Where it is warm for an old man, there is his homeland.

g) Everyone wants order, but there is a lack of reason.

h) If you don’t like it, don’t listen, and don’t bother lying.

(Bubnov - a, b, g; Luka - d, f; Satin - g, Baron - h, Ash - c.)

– What is the role of the aphoristic statements of the characters in the speech structure of the play?

Aphoristic judgments receive the greatest significance in the speech of the main “ideologists” of the play - Luka and Bubnov, heroes whose positions are indicated extremely clearly. The philosophical dispute, in which each of the characters in the play takes its own position, is supported by general folk wisdom, expressed in proverbs and sayings.

IV. Creative work.

Write a reflection expressing your attitude to the work you read.(Answer to one question of your choice.)

– What is the meaning of the dispute between Luke and Satin?

– Which side do you take in the “truth” debate?

– What problems raised by M. Gorky in the play “At the Lower Depths” did not leave you indifferent?

When preparing your answer, pay attention to the speech of the characters and how it helps to reveal the idea of ​​the work.

Homework.

Select an episode for analysis (oral). This will be the topic of your future essay.

1. Luke’s story about the “righteous land.” (Analysis of an episode from the 3rd act of Gorky’s play.)

2. Dispute between shelters about a person (Analysis of the dialogue at the beginning of the 3rd act of the play “At the Depths.”)

3. What is the meaning of the ending of Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths”?

4. Luka's appearance in the shelter. (Analysis of a scene from the 1st act of the play.)

Identifying facts and events. Event sequence of the play.

An event is a change in the actions of all the characters in the play. After the event occurs, the action begins to develop in a new direction. Each event is the cause of the subsequent one, and the consequence of the previous one. One event gives rise to another.

Fact - changes the action of an individual character or several characters, but does not have the significant impact that the event has on the entire course of the play.

Identification of facts and events is divided into 2 stages.

Studying the proposed circumstances is the first and most important stage in analyzing the play; we must explore all the facts and events that subsequently influenced the course and development of the play. This includes an analysis of the entire background of the play:

Exploring the era

The era in art that dominated at the time the play was written

Setting, surrounding characters, character, way of life, way of life

A thorough study of the past of each of the characters

The present of heroes

It is necessary to study those events, facts and circumstances in the lives of the characters that immediately preceded the beginning of the play, and which served as the impetus for the development of the action.

Main events and their relationships.

The sequence of events is the definition of events in the play itself.

The event, in general opinion, is an exponent of the conflictual development of the play, therefore the main feature that distinguishes the event will be the identified fact, which in turn causes conflictual relations and encourages them to action. This stage of identifying events, their sequence and interaction K.S. Stanislavsky called it the beginning of a “systematic study of the play.” “Determining events and actions, the actor involuntarily captures more and more broad layers of the proposed circumstances of the life of the play.”

But the proposed circumstances alone are not enough and are not enough to begin the action of the play, because... it is only the environment from which the main action is born.

The initial event is a certain push, an impulse that will give movement to all circumstances, twisting them into a certain knot, into a single and rapid action, directing them forward to the desired resolution.
The search for a single, conflicting fact common to all persons opening the action of the play will, according to A.M. Polamishev (1), be the definition of the “initial event.” Since, in his opinion, the very term “event” sets up a search for something large, large-scale, but often the action of the play begins with a trifle, an insignificant fact, hence its definition as “the first conflict fact.” The “first conflict fact” tells us about a certain effective incident that creates a conflict situation for all the characters in the play at the level of action (directly psychophysical). But at the initial moment of the beginning of the play, in addition to the action, it is extremely important to take into account other layers: ideological-thematic, philosophical, actant, etc. All these levels cannot be fully involved in the concept of the “first conflict fact”. The “first conflict fact” is included in the structure of the “initial event”.

The next step in analyzing the action of the play will be to search for the “main conflicting facts.” They, as A.M. writes. Polamishev (1), “one should consider those facts that are the cause of the conflicting facts that follow them.” HELL. Popov calls the following conflict fact “the main event.” It is “main” because here (it is here, and not in the “original”), two equal, opposing sides collide and from this moment the plot of the play itself begins.

1. A.M. Polamishev - book “The Craft of a Director” ch. effective analysis of the play.

The relationship between these two events (initial and main) gives rise to a certain relationship of actions, which is usually called the “event series”. We can also say this: an event series is a definite, interdependent series of events.

All these events have different forms, volumes, and meanings, but among them one major event can be distinguished - the “central one.” A.M. Polamishev calls it “the main conflict fact.” The central event is the highest point in the development of the action of the play, the peak of the struggle and, naturally, a turning point in the action, after which it moves towards the finale, the denouement. In this event, the author’s idea, the entire depth of the conflict underlying the play, is most clearly revealed. This event does not necessarily lie in the middle of the play; it is often closer to the end, because The action, constantly growing, moves towards its denouement.

The result of this movement becomes the “final event” (or “last conflict fact”), it is essentially the denouement of the action, the finale, where the conflict finds its resolution and where the plot itself ends.

But the end of the plot is not yet the end of the play itself. The “final” event is followed by the “main”, which is the main semantic unit of the play. In it, the author fully expresses the idea of ​​the play, his attitude to the events that took place, and a certain summary.

Event sequence.

All the events listed above are the “main events of the play”, on which the action is built and organized, the plot is based on them, but they do not exhaust all the events in the play. An event series usually consists of several dozen events (they are what make up the plot). Therefore, the next step (after searching and highlighting the main events) will be to determine all the events of the play, i.e. event series.

To define an event, Aristotle invented good method- “method of exclusion”. Subsequently, it was introduced into the practice of director K.S. Stanislavsky. Its essence is as follows: it is necessary to exclude any action or incident from the play and see if anything has changed in the action of the play. If so , then this is an event; if not, then this is a fact. “The parts of events must be put together in such a way that with the rearrangement or removal of one of the parts, the whole would change and be upset, for something, the presence or absence of which is imperceptible, is not part of the whole.”

All events are interconnected by a cause-and-effect mechanism: each event is the cause of the subsequent one and the consequence of the previous one; one event gives rise to another, etc. This is the main feature of the event series. The main events that we talked about above are parts of a series of events, the most significant parts, while the facts fill the internal space of the play, creating its original composition, its features and atmosphere.

What can you notice already in the poster? The owners of the shelter have a last name, first name and patronymic, and the night shelters most often have either a last name (Satin, Bubnov), or a first name (Anna, Nastya), or nicknames - the loss of a name (Kvashnya, Actor, Ashes, Baron). The “former” people are still quite young: from 20 (Alyoshka) to 45 years old (Bubnov).

In his stage directions, Gorky continues the tradition of Chekhov. The description of the setting of Act 1 contains a contrast: “A basement like a cave,” all the darkest tones, the characters “coughing, fiddling, growling” in inhumane conditions- and at the end: “The beginning of spring. Morning". Maybe all is not lost? It’s not animals here, but people, passions run high here and real life. It’s interesting that each hero does what is most characteristic of him: Kleshch makes crafts, Kvashnya manages the house, Nastya reads, etc. Later in the play, the stage directions are short and usually only indicate the action or state of the hero. There are only two pauses in Act 1: when Kostylev asks Kleshch about his wife and when Ash asks Kleshch about Anna (moments of awkwardness).

Exposition - until Luke appears in the middle of Act 1. All the leading themes are outlined here: the heroes’ past, talent, work, honor and conscience, dreams and dreams, love and death, illness and suffering, attempts to escape from the “bottom” (in low-lying situations they talk and argue about the lofty and eternal). Everyone has their own philosophy, it is expressed not only through dialogues, but also through aphorisms. BUBNOV: 1) The noise of death is not a hindrance, 2) What is conscience for? I'm not rich..., 3) He who is drunk and smart has two lands in him. SATIN: 1) You can’t kill twice, 2) Tired of... all human words..., 3) There are no people in the world better than thieves, 4) Many people get money easily, but few easily part with it, 5) When work is pleasure, life is good ! When work is a duty, life is slavery.

Each of the characters gradually opens up, speaking on their favorite topic. Kostylev talks all the time either about his wife, whom he is jealous of, or about money. Klesch talks about his plans to step over his dying wife and “get out.” Ashes are about conscience and dreams. Natasha - about dying Anna. Satin - about “new words”, about work (he speaks more than anyone else, and in his cynical irony one feels the greatest hopelessness, because he seems to be the smartest).

The plot and the beginning of the development of the action are with the appearance of Luke, who speaks in jokes, sayings, and sayings. The future conflict between Ash and Vasilisa immediately becomes clear. Luka's sympathy, his words about love for people almost immediately angered even such skeptics as Bubnov and Baron, calm Nastya and Anna. It is no coincidence that Act 1 ends with Luke’s remark: further development actions will have a lot to do with it.

Homework for the lesson

2. Collect material for each inhabitant of the shelter.

3. Think about how you can group the characters.

4.​ What is the nature of the conflict in the play?

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

The main question I wanted to pose is what is better, truth or compassion. What is more necessary? Is it necessary to take compassion to the point of using lies, like Luke? This is not a subjective question, but a general philosophical one.

Maxim Gorky

History of the play

For more than 80 years, performances based on the play “At the Lower Depths” have not left the national stage. It has also visited the largest theaters in the world, and interest in it does not wane!

In 1901, Gorky said about the concept of his play: “It will be scary.” The author changed the title several times: “Without the Sun”, “Nochlezhka”, “The Bottom”, “At the Bottom of Life”. The title “At the Lower Depths” first appeared on art theater posters. It is not the place of action that is highlighted - “the shelter”, not the nature of the conditions - “without the sun”, “the bottom”, not even the social position - “at the bottom of life”. The phrase “At the Bottom” has a much broader meaning than all of the above. What's going on at the bottom? “At the bottom” – what, just life? Maybe even souls?

The ambiguity of Gorky's play led to its various theatrical productions.

The most striking was the first stage adaptation of the drama (1902) by the Art Theater by the famous directors K.S. Stanislavsky, V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko with the direct participation of A.M. Gorky.

In 1903, the play was awarded the honorary Griboyedov Prize.

Features of the composition

Question

Where does the play take place?

Answer

In a cave-like basement in which people are forced to lead an antediluvian existence. Separate strokes of the description introduce the symbolism of hell here: the shelter is located below ground level, people are deprived of the sun here, the light falls “from top to bottom”, the characters feel like “dead people”, “sinners”, “thrown into a pit, “killed” by society and in these vaults buried.

Question

How is the scene depicted in the play?

Answer

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: “dirty chintz canopy”, unpainted and dirty tables, benches, stools, tattered cardboards, pieces of oilcloth, rags.

Question

List the characters in the play with their brief characteristics. What groups can all the characters be divided into?

Answer

All the inhabitants of the shelter can be conditionally united into four groups, depending on the place they occupy in the clash of different positions, in the philosophical conflict of the play.

The first group includes Actor, Nastya, Ash, Natasha. These characters are predisposed to meeting the wanderer Luke. Each of them lives with some kind of dream or hope. So the Actor hopes to recover from alcoholism, return to the stage where he had theatrical name Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky. Now, however, there is no name left, but his thoughts are directed towards artistic glory. Nastya dreams of a French student whom she supposedly loves passionately. Ash dreams of a free and free life, “so that you can... respect yourself.” Natasha vaguely hopes for a happy fate when Vasily will be her strong support. Each of these characters is not too firm in their aspirations and is internally divided.

Luke, which we will talk about in detail in the next lesson, is designed to reveal the essence of everyone.

Baron and Bubnov are the third group. The first of them constantly lives in the past, remembering hundreds of serfs, carriages with coats of arms, coffee with cream in bed in the morning. Completely devastated, he no longer expects anything, dreams of nothing. The second - Bubnov - also sometimes turns to past years, when he suffered from life, but mostly lives in the present and recognizes only what he sees and touches. Bubnov is an indifferent cynic. For him, only facts are clear; they are a “stubborn thing.” The truth of Baron and Bubnov is a hard, wingless truth, far from the real truth.

Satin occupies the fourth position in the play. For all its originality, it is also distinguished by its inconsistency. Firstly, the words spoken by this hero are in sharp contrast to his essence. After all, a swindler by occupation, a prisoner and a murderer in the past speaks about the truth. Secondly, in a number of cases Satin turns out to be close to Luke. He agrees with the wanderer that “people live for the best,” that truth is connected with the idea of ​​a person, that one should not interfere with him and humiliate him (“Do not offend a person!”)

The images should be arranged along the “ladder” of ranks and positions, since we have before us a social cross-section of life in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century: Baron, Kostylev, Bubnov, Satin, Actor; Ashes, Nastya.

Question

What is the conflict of the drama?

Answer

The conflict in this drama is social. 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. Life has deprived the people gathered in this hell. She deprived Kleshch of the right to work, Nastya to have a family, Actor to have a profession, Baron to have her former comfort, Anna was doomed to starvation, Ash to theft, Bubnov to endless drinking, Nastya to prostitution.

A sharp conflict situation, playing out in front of the audience, is the most important feature of drama as a type of literature.

Question

How is social conflict related to dramaturgical conflict?

Answer

The social conflict is taken off stage, pushed into the past, it does not become the basis of the dramatic conflict. We are only observing the result of off-stage conflicts.

Question

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

Answer

The play contains a traditional love conflict. It is determined by the relationships between 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 Vaska Pepl. 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 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 Vaska Ash turns out to be a tragic denouement of a love conflict. Natasha stops believing Ash: “They are at the same time! Damn you! Both of you..."

Question

What is unique about the love conflict in the play?

Answer

A love conflict becomes a facet of a social conflict. He shows that inhuman 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 rival sister 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.

Question

What does this shelter remind you of?

Answer

Nochlezhka is a kind of model of how cruel world, from which its inhabitants were thrown out. Here, too, there are “masters”, the police, the same alienation, hostility, and the same vices are manifested.

Teacher's final words

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.

So, the genre of the play can be defined as a socio-philosophical drama.

Homework

Prepare for a debate lesson about Luke. To do this: note (or write down) his statements about people, about truth, about faith. Determine your attitude towards statements about Luke by Baron and Satin (Act IV).

Identify the compositional elements of the play. Why did Chekhov consider the last act unnecessary?

Literature

D.N. Murin, E.D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the twentieth century. 11th grade program. Thematic lesson planning. St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001

E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the 20th century / St. Petersburg: Parity, 2002

N.V. Egorova. Lesson developments on Russian literature of the twentieth century. 11th grade. I half of the year. M.: VAKO, 2005