The meaning of the name on the bottom


The play “At the bottom” shows the reader the lowest level of life in which the characters of the work turned out to be. To the reader’s judgment are people who have fallen completely, they have nowhere to fall – they have no home, attachments, family, and some have lost even their own name – they are nicknamed. The composition of the play “At the bottom” must necessarily contain an indication of the social problem, which is already depicted in the title of the play.

The acting characters of the drama live in the doss house. They are not endowed with either prosperity or wealth. The play “At the bottom” shows how beggars, prostitutes, thieves, actors, individuals who are aware of the hopelessness of their situation and the impossibility of changing for the better, fight daily for a piece of bread.

From the conversations of doss-masters, one can know their destinies. Former aristocrat Debil – fumbled and imprisoned

baron, who became the pimp of a penny prostitute named Nastya. Satin is a telegraph operator who killed his sister’s husband and got into the doss house after the prison. Bubnov had a dye shop, used “a lot” and left all his wife’s condition, he left “where his eyes look”. Mite – a ruined locksmith, drunk and battered his wife before illness. The actor is an alcoholic who was kicked out of the theater.

The composition of Gorky’s play “At the bottom” should reveal the common features of the doss-lodgers – bitterness towards the whole world, contempt for life, indifference to one’s own present, the past and even the future.

The days of the orphanage proceed with friendship, quarrels and hatred between the inhabitants. The general atmosphere does not break either fatigue, or hidden despair, or depression.

But not only social meaning contains a play “At the bottom” – there is also the philosophical significance of the work. The characters of the drama, even in such a desperate situation, are capable of thinking,

they are talking about a person, freedom, truth. However, everyday reasoning all ends.

A measured way of life interrupts the arrival of Luke – a wanderer who brought a philosophical idea of ​​faith in God. This fact must certainly be included in the composition of the play “At the bottom”, as this event provokes the emergence of the main conflict of the work. The habitual interests of doss-mongers remain on the sidelines, and a clash of ideas of philosophical content comes to the forefront of events. The drama was written during the period of the loss of faith in religion and the absence of a new ideal (at the beginning of the 20th century), and this explains the desire of people to understand the meaning of life.

The play “At the bottom” shows several points of view on the life and truth of man. Kostylev is an opponent of the truth, which stirs people and threatens tranquility. Bubnov recognizes it, but without dreams and embellishment, which really reflects the situation of world events. Luke proves that truth is faith that comforts people. But Satin sees in the truth a call to creative work. After the killing of Kostylev, the doss-mongers are called a “charlatan” to Luke who escaped. Indifferent to their own lives, the perpetrators of their misfortunes, they see anyone but themselves.

The composition of Gorky’s play “At the bottom” must end with a conclusion about the significant title of the work.


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The meaning of the name on the bottom