What is better is truth or compassion
Gorky’s play “At the bottom” was written in 1902, at the time of a bustling political life in Russia. In the country, capitalism, Russian entrepreneurship developed rapidly. Industrial, commercial activity was reflected in literary works, sometimes not the best. Nevertheless, the literature reflected the reality, really occurring events. Often these were the most ugly manifestations of developing capitalism. About this “the underside of life” was written Gorky’s play “At the bottom.” Gorky himself noted that the play was the result of his almost twenty-year observations on the world of “former people.”
Drawing the inhabitants of the Kostilev doss house and emphasizing in them human features worthy of compassion, Gorky at the same time resolutely reveals in the play the impotence of the tramps, their unfitness for the work of reorganizing Russia. Each of the doss house lives in hopes, but it is impossible to do anything
Gorky himself pointed out the main problem of the play: “The main question I wanted to put is what is better, the truth or compassion? What is more necessary? Do we need to bring compassion to use lies like Luke?” This phrase Gorky was made in the title of the essay. Behind the phrase of the author there is a deep philosophical thought, more precisely, a question: what is better is the truth or a lie for salvation. Perhaps, this question is just as complex as life itself. Over the resolution of it have fought for generations. Nevertheless, we will try to find the answer to it.
Wanderer Luke performs in the play the role of comforter. He comforts Anna with talking about blissful silence after death. Ashes, he seduces pictures of free and free life in Siberia. To the unfortunate
Luke’s intentions to help other people seem understandable. He tells a parable about a man who believed in the existence of a righteous land. When a certain scientist proved that there is no such land, a man hanged himself from grief. This Luke wants to confirm once again how much saving for people is sometimes a lie and how unnecessary and dangerous for them is the truth.
Gorky rejects this philosophy of justifying saving lies. The lie of the elder of Luke, Gorky emphasizes, plays a reactionary role. Instead of calling for a fight against unrighteous life, he reconciles the oppressed and the destitute with oppressors and tyrants. This lie, in the author’s opinion, is an expression of weakness, of historical impotence. So the author thinks. And how do we think?
The very composition of the play, its inner movement, expose the philosophy of Luke. We will follow after the author and his idea. At the beginning of the play, we see how each of the heroes is obsessed with his dream, his illusion. The appearance of Luke with his philosophy of consolation and reconciliation strengthens the dwellers of the doss house in the rightness of their obscure and ghostly hobbies and thoughts. But instead of peace and quiet in the Kostilev doss house, acute dramatic events are ripening, which reach their culmination in the murder scene of old Kostylev.
The very reality, the very cruel truth of life, refutes Luke’s consoling lie. In the light of what is happening on stage, the good ranting of Luka seems to be false. Gorky resorts to an unusual compositional device: he long before the finale, in the third act, removes one of the main characters of the play: Luka quietly disappears and in the last, fourth act no longer appears.
Luke’s philosophy is rejected by Satine, who is opposed to him. “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters, the truth is the god of a free man!” – he says. It does not follow from this that Satin is a positive hero. The main advantage of Satin is that he is clever and farther than all sees the lie. But Satin is unsuitable for the present case.
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