At the bottom of the bitter who Anya used to be. Heroes of the play "At the bottom" by Gorky: characteristics, images and fates. Some interesting essays

Anna is a character in the play “At the Bottom”, a consumptive woman living out her last days, the wife of the hard worker Klesch. She is tired of a life in which she shakes over every piece of bread and walks in rags. At the same time, Anna constantly endures her husband's abuse. Anyone sympathizes with the poor thing, but not her husband. He only insults and humiliates her, and sometimes beats her. It causes him only indifference and irritation.

One gets the feeling that the image of Anna shows all the women who endure a rude attitude in family life. It even becomes scary that she so calmly endures eternal humiliation. At the same time, she continues to take care of her husband and is ready to give him everything. So, in one episode, she says that Kvashnya left her dumplings for him to take and eat them. He grumbles at her all the time and does not perceive her requests in any way. When she, breathless, asks to open the door, he refuses, fearing that he himself will catch a cold. Not surprisingly, the only way out of such a life is death. And she's only thirty years old. Before her death, she is somehow consoled by Luke. He says that in the next world she will be able to rest from her bleak existence. After all, these torments are compensated by bliss in heaven. She dies soon after.

There are five female characters in the play. Anna is the wife of Kleshch, who humbly dies in the second act, the compassionate and economic Kvashnya, the young Vasilisa is the wife of the owner of the rooming house and the lover of Vaska Pepel, the young and downtrodden Natasha and Nastya, indicated in the author's remark with the bashful word "maiden".

In the semantic context of the work, female images are represented by two pairs of opposite characters: Kvashnya - Nastya and Vasilisa - Natasha. Outside of these pairs is Anna, who personifies pure suffering in the play. Her image is not clouded by passions

And wishes. She patiently and meekly dies. He dies not so much from a mortal disease, but from the consciousness of his uselessness to the world. She is one of those "naked people" for whom the truth of life is unbearable. “I feel sick,” she confesses to Luca. The only aspect of death that worries her is: "And how is it - also flour?" Clogged, fit for nothing in this world, it resembles a thing. She does not move around the stage - she is moved. Take out, leave in the kitchen, forget. Just like with a thing, it is treated even after death. "You have to get out! “We’ll pull it out ...” She passed away - as if the props had been taken away. “Coughing means it has stopped.”

Not so with the rest. In the first pair, Kvashnya represents the semantic dominant. She is almost always doing housework. He lives from his labors. Makes dumplings and sells them. What these dumplings are made of and who eats them, only God knows. She lived married, and now for her that she is married, that she is in a loop: “I did it once - I remember it for the rest of my life ...” And when her husband “died”, she “sat alone” all day with happiness and joy. She is always alone in the play. Conversations and events are touched by the edge, as if the inhabitants of the rooming house are afraid of her. Even Medvedev, the personification of law and power, her cohabitant, talks to Kvashnya respectfully - there is too much inquisitive reason, common sense and hidden aggression in her.

Her opposite, Nastya, is not protected and accessible. She does nothing, does nothing. She is a "girl". She almost does not react to the realities of the world around her. Her mind is not burdened with reflection. She is as self-sufficient as Kvashnya. Gorky implanted in her a strange, not invented by him world of "women's novels", a meager and meaningless dream of a beautiful life. She is literate and therefore reads. “There, in the kitchen, the girl is sitting, reading a book and crying,” Luka is surprised. This is Nastya. She weeps over a fiction that miraculously feels like her own life. She resembles a little girl who dreamed of a toy. Waking up, she pulls her parents, demands this toy for herself. At a tender age, children do not separate dream from reality. This happens later, in the process of growing up. Nastya not only does not grow up - she does not wake up. She wakingly dreaming of these confectionary, sinless dreams: “And his left-hander is huge, and loaded with ten bullets ... My unforgettable friend ... Raoul ...” The baron rolls over her: “Nastka! Why ... after all, the last time - Gaston was! Nastya behaves like a child. Having stuck her nose into reality, she is capricious, gets excited, throws a cup on the floor, threatens the inhabitants: "I'll get drunk today ... I'll get drunk." Getting drunk means getting away from reality again. Forget yourself. Judging by indirect hints, the Baron is with her in gigolos, but she is not aware of this either. Rays of reality only glare on the surface of her consciousness, not penetrating inside. Once Nastya opens up a little, and it becomes clear that her life is powered by the energy of hatred. Running away, she shouts to everyone: “Wolves! For you to breathe! Wolves! She utters this remark at the end of the fourth act, and, consequently, there is a hope of waking up. Vasilisa represents the imperious beginning of the play. She is Pallas Athena of the rooming house, her evil genius. She alone acts - all others exist. The criminal and melodramatic intrigues of the plot are connected with her image. There are no internal prohibitions for Vasilisa. She, like everyone in the rooming house, is a “naked person”, she is “allowed everything”. And Vasilisa takes advantage of this while the others are just talking. The author gave her a cruel and merciless character. The concept of "impossible" lies outside of her moral consciousness. And she thinks consistently: "To enjoy - to kill in order to enjoy." Her antipode Natasha is the purest and brightest image of the play. Out of jealousy for Vaska Pepl, Vasilisa constantly beats and torments Natasha, her husband, old Kostylev, helps her. The instinct of the pack kicks in. Natasha is one of all who believes and still hopes, she is waiting not for haberdashery, but for true love, she is looking for it. But, unfortunately, the geography of its search takes place on that section of the bottom, on which the Spanish galleons loaded with gold do not rest. The dim light coming "from above, from the viewer" allows you to see only the faces of permanent residents. Natasha doesn't trust anyone. Neither Luka nor Ashes. It's just that she, like Marmeladov, "has nowhere to go." When Kostylev is killed, she shouts: “Take me too ... put me in prison!” It is clear to Natasha that Ashes did not kill. All the fault. Everyone was killed. This is her truth. Her, not Satin. Not the truth of a proud, strong man, but the truth of the humiliated and offended.

The female images in Gorky's play "At the Bottom" carry a serious semantic load. The flawed world of the inhabitants of the rooming house, thanks to their presence, becomes closer and more understandable. They are, as it were, guarantors of its authenticity. It is with their voices that the author openly speaks of compassion, of the unbearable boredom of life. They have their own bookish forerunners, many literary projections from the previous artistic tradition converged on them. The author does not hide it. Another thing is more important: it is they who evoke the most sincere feelings of hatred or compassion in the readers and viewers of the play.

Anna is one of the characters in M. Gorky's play "At the Bottom". Her thirty-year-old heroine is mortally ill with consumption and understands that she will die soon. She lives with her husband Andrey Kleshch, an unemployed mechanic. Anna is tired of living in poverty, a life in which you have to save on everything and wear rags.

She embodies immaculate suffering, untainted by sinful passions and aspirations. Nobody needs an old woman - this is exactly how, despite her young age, Anna feels herself. She subtly feels how flawed the world of the inhabitants of the doss house is, who, despite this, sincerely sympathize and try in every possible way to help the girl, unlike her indifferent and irritable spouse. He only insults, humiliates and beats her. Anna is very humbly related to her illness and to a similar attitude of her husband. She continues to surround him with care. For the sake of this indifferent egoist, she is ready for anything, she will even give him the last piece of bread, and he, fearing that he will catch a cold, even refuses her a breath of fresh air. His behavior only exacerbates the condition of the exhausted Anna.

Anna is so downtrodden and harassed that death is the only way out of this hell for her, only one thing scares her - to be doomed to torment in another world too. She understood that nothing could be changed and simply resigned herself. She dreams of only one thing - at least there to find the long-awaited peace and rest from the hardships of earthly existence.

Anna's only consolation before her death is the wanderer Luke, who convinces her that in another world she can finally rest. Luke promises that for all the torment she will be rewarded. Her unfulfilled dreams are the only thing she thinks about when she dies.

The author characterizes the image of the heroine as a thing that no one needs in the world. For the duration of the whole play, her character is immobilized, she is moved around the stage, she can easily be forgotten in the kitchen, moved if necessary. Even after death, they are in no hurry to bury her, and only after some time they carry her out as if she were just a prop.

The image of Anna is tragic and embodies the fate of all women who failed to find happiness in marriage, all women offended by fate and morally exhausted. Having told about how unfair fate is towards a young girl, the author talks about a period in the life of Russian society, when people deprived of everything, sinking to the social bottom, lead a miserable life, but at the same time they do not stop dreaming about a brighter future.

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The drama "At the Bottom" is a landmark work in Gorky's creative biography. The description of the heroes will be presented in this article.

This work was written at a critical time for the country. In Russia in the 90s of the 19th century, a serious outbreak broke out. Masses of impoverished, ruined peasants after each crop failure left the villages in search of work. Plants and factories were closed. Thousands of people found themselves without livelihood and shelter. This led to the fact that a large number of "tramps" appeared, who sank to the bottom of life.

Who lived in hostels?

Enterprising slum owners, taking advantage of the fact that people were in a hopeless situation, found how to make use of the stinking basements. They turned them into bunkhouses, where the poor, the unemployed, thieves, vagabonds and other representatives of the "bottom" lived. This work was written in 1902. The heroes of the play "At the Bottom" are just such people.

Maxim Gorky throughout his career was interested in personality, man, the secrets of his feelings and thoughts, dreams and hopes, weakness and strength - all this is reflected in the work. The heroes of the play "At the Bottom" are people who lived at the beginning of the 20th century, when the old world collapsed and a new life arose. However, they differ from the rest in that they are rejected by society. These are people of the "bottom", outcasts. The place where Vaska Pepel, Bubnov, Actor, Satin and others live is unattractive and scary. According to Gorky's description, this is a basement that looks like a cave. Its ceiling is stone vaults with crumbling plaster, sooty. Why did the inhabitants of the rooming house find themselves "at the bottom" of life, what brought them here?

Heroes of the play "At the bottom": table

What ruined the lives of these people?

Addiction to alcohol killed the Actor. By his own admission, he used to have a good memory. Now the Actor believes that everything is over for him. Vaska Pepel is a representative of the "thieves' dynasty". This hero had no choice but to continue his father's business. He says that even when he was little, even then he was called a thief. The former furrier Bubnov left the workshop because of his wife's infidelity, and also out of fear of his wife's lover. He went bankrupt, after which he went to serve in one "state chamber", in which he committed embezzlement. One of the most colorful figures in the work is Satin. He was a telegraph operator in the past, and went to prison for the murder of a man who insulted his sister.

Whom do the inhabitants of the rooming house blame?

Almost all the heroes of the play "At the Bottom" tend to blame the current situation not on themselves, but on life circumstances. Perhaps, if they had developed differently, nothing would have changed significantly, and all the same, the overnight stays would have suffered the same fate. The phrase that Bubnov uttered confirms this. He admitted that he actually drank the workshop away.

Apparently, the reason for the fall of all these people is their lack of a moral core, which makes up the personality of a person. You can cite the words of the Actor as an example: "Why did he die? I had no faith ..."

Was there a chance to live another life?

Creating images of the heroes of the play "At the Bottom", the author gave each of them the opportunity to live a different life. That is, they had a choice. However, for everyone, the first test ended in the collapse of life. The baron, for example, could improve his affairs not by stealing state funds, but by investing in profitable business that he had.

Satin could teach the offender a lesson in another way. As for Vaska Pepel, would there really be few places on earth where no one would know anything about him and his past? The same can be said about many of the inhabitants of the rooming house. They have no future, but in the past they had a chance not to get here. However, the heroes of the play "At the Bottom" did not use it.

How do heroes comfort themselves?

Now they can only live with unrealizable hopes and illusions. The Baron, Bubnov and the Actor live Dreams of true love amuse the prostitute Nastya. At the same time, the characterization of the heroes of the play "At the Bottom" is supplemented by the fact that these people, rejected by society, humiliated, are endlessly arguing about moral and spiritual problems. Although it would be more logical to talk about because they live from hand to mouth. The author's characterization of the heroes of the play "At the Bottom" suggests that they are occupied with such issues as freedom, truth, equality, labor, love, happiness, law, talent, honesty, pride, compassion, conscience, pity, patience, death, peace and much more. They are also concerned about an even more important problem. They talk about what a person is, why he is born, what is the true meaning of being. Philosophers of the rooming house can be called Luka, Satina, Bubnov.

With the exception of Bubnov, all the heroes of the work reject the "bedroom" way of life. They hope for a successful turn of fortune, which will bring them from the "bottom" to the surface. A tick, for example, says that he has been working since an early age (this hero is a locksmith), so he will certainly get out of here. "Here, wait... the wife will die..." he says. The actor, this chronic drunkard, hopes to find a luxurious hospital in which health, strength, talent, memory and applause of the audience will miraculously return to him. Anna, the unfortunate sufferer, dreams of bliss and peace in which she will finally be rewarded for her torment and patience. Vaska Pepel, this desperate hero, kills Kostylev, the owner of the rooming house, because he considers the latter to be the embodiment of evil. His dream is to go to Siberia, where he and his girlfriend will start a new life.

The role of Luke in the work

Luke, the wanderer, supports these illusions. He has the skill of a comforter and a preacher. Maxim Gorky depicts this hero as a doctor who considers all people to be terminally ill and sees his vocation in alleviating their pain and hiding it from them. However, at every step, life refutes the position of this hero. Anna, to whom he promises a divine reward in heaven, suddenly wants to "live a little more ...". Believing at first in a cure for alcoholism, the Actor takes his own life at the end of the play. Vaska Pepel determines the true value of all these consolations of Luke. He claims that he "tells fairy tales" pleasantly, because there is so little good in the world.

Satin's opinion

Luka is full of sincere pity for the inhabitants of the rooming house, but he cannot change anything, help people live a different life. In his monologue, Satin rejects this attitude, because he considers it humiliating, suggesting the failure and wretchedness of those to whom this pity is directed. The main characters of the play "At the Bottom" Satin and Luka express opposite opinions. Satin says that it is necessary to respect a person and not humiliate him with pity. These words probably express the position of the author: "Man!.. That sounds... proud!"

The further fate of the heroes

What will happen to all these people in the future, will the heroes of Gorky's play "At the Bottom" be able to change something? It is not difficult to imagine their future fate. For example, Klesh. He tries to get out of the "bottom" at the beginning of the work. He thinks that when his wife dies, things will magically change for the better. However, after the death of his wife, Kleshch is left without tools and money and gloomily sings along with others: "I won't run away anyway." In fact, he will not run away, like the other inhabitants of the rooming house.

What is salvation?

Are there any ways of salvation from the "bottom", and what are they? A decisive way out of this difficult situation is perhaps outlined in Sateen's speech when he speaks of the truth. He believes that the purpose of a strong person is to eradicate evil, and not to comfort the suffering, like Luke. This is one of the firmest convictions of Maxim Gorky himself. "From the bottom" people can rise only by learning to respect themselves, gaining self-esteem. Then they will be able to bear the proud title of Human. It still needs to be earned, according to Gorky.

Declaring his faith in the creative forces, abilities and mind of a free person, Maxim Gorky affirmed the ideas of humanism. The author understood that in the mouth of Satin, a drunken tramp, the words about a free and proud man sound artificial. However, they should have sounded in the play, expressing the ideals of the writer himself. There was no one to say this speech to, except for Sateen.

Gorky in the work refuted the main principles of idealism. These are the ideas of humility, forgiveness, non-resistance. He made it clear what beliefs are the future. This is proved by the fate of the heroes of the play "At the bottom". The entire work is permeated with faith in man.

Anna is one of the female characters of the work, which allows you to more subtly feel the inferiority of the world of the inhabitants of the doss house.

The writer presents the image of Anna as a terminally ill woman of thirty years old, infected with consumption, realizing that she will soon die and humbly accepting this fact.

Anna lives in a rooming house with her husband, Kleshch, who has lost his job. The woman feels terribly tired from a hard and impoverished life, which Anna is disgusted with her intolerance, where she is forced to save, shake over a piece of bread, dress in rags.

Anna personifies in the play the image of pure and bashful suffering, not clouded by vicious desires and violent passions. A young woman feels like an ancient old woman and realizes her uselessness to the world around her.

Residents of the overnight shelter provide minimal assistance and express sympathy for the dying woman, only her husband remains indifferent to Anna's torment, constantly insulting, humiliating her, and sometimes raising her fists at her.

Anna is patient with her husband's irritations, calmly tries to continue to take care of him, because for the sake of the Tick she is ready for a lot. However, selfish and indifferent to his wife's illness, Kleshch refuses Anna even to let in some fresh air through the open door, fearing that he himself will catch a cold.

A downtrodden and harassed woman considers death the only way out of a hopeless hellish life and is only afraid that in another dimension she will also be doomed to torment, although she dreams of getting at least a small blissful rest from her woeful existence.

The author reveals the image of the heroine, depicting her as an unnecessary thing in this world. Throughout the play, Anna's character does not receive any movement, she is moved around the stage, forgotten in the kitchen, transferred, taken out. Even after dying, the woman is not in a hurry to be sent to the churchyard, after a while she is taken out like a prop.

In the last moments of her life, the wanderer Luke brings consolation to Anna, telling the woman that in the next world she will receive both pleasure and a long-awaited rest, so Anna dies, thinking only about her unfulfilled dreams.

Narrating the difficult and unfair fate of a young woman, the author vividly illustrates the period in the life of Russia, when destitute people forced to sink to the social bottom lead a miserable existence, while remaining capable of wise reflection, the desire to think and dream of a wonderful future.

Composition Anna in the play At the Bottom

Anna is one of the minor characters in the masterpiece of Russian classics, Maxim Gorky's play "At the Bottom". Her image is the most tragic in the work.

She is 30 years old, she is married to a simple locksmith, Andrey Kleshch. The woman is seriously ill with consumption, pulmonary tuberculosis. She feels the imminent approach of death and is very weak due to her illness. Anna practically does not eat anything, mostly lies in bed all the time, since she does not have enough strength for anything else, she suffers from constant bouts of suffocating cough.

The husband treats her coldly and indifferently, with obvious irritability and reproaches, sometimes a woman even has to endure beatings from him. The tick refuses to even open the door at the request of his wife, arguing that he is afraid of getting sick, like her. Despite this, Anna continues to care for him, gives her husband all the best and dutifully endures his cruelty. The author embodies in her character all women with a difficult fate and unhappy marriages. It would seem that she is still so young, but Anna no longer has any vitality left, illness, lack of money and moral exhaustion knocked her down, she has long resigned herself to the established state of affairs and believes that it is too late to try to change anything.

The spouses are very poor, they live in a rooming house for the poor, which is owned by the Kostylevs. All her life a woman is malnourished, wears old clothes, more like rags, denies herself all kinds of material goods. All the guests sincerely sympathize and feel sorry for Anna, except for her own husband. He does not show any care and human understanding towards her. Constant cruelty on his part only worsened her already deplorable condition, both moral and physical.

The wanderer Luke is trying to alleviate the painful fate of Anna. He resorts to deceit in order to somehow console and calm the unfortunate woman. She promises that a much better life and peace of mind awaits her in heaven, that she will be richly rewarded for her hardships and suffering on earth.

Soon the disease wins and Anna's strength leaves, she dies, never having known family well-being and simple human happiness.

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