Characteristics and image of Vaska Ash in the play At the Bottom of Gorky, essay

• Essays
• On literature
• Bitter
• Characteristics and image of Vaska Ash in the play At the Bottom

Vaska Ash is one of the main characters of the work, who, by the will of fate, gathered in a rooming house.

The writer presents the hero as a young man, twenty-eight years old, a hereditary thief, whose father spent his life in prisons.

Vasily’s distinctive features are natural cheerfulness, kindness, gentleness, generosity, so the man dreams of changing his life and becoming a normal person. But being a weak-willed person, he cannot break with the past at once and break through to the cherished freedom.

Ash becomes the lover of the wife of the owner of the shelter, Kostylev, a cruel and greedy woman, Vasilisa, who constantly incites Vaska to steal and dreams of getting rid of her disgusted husband. Vasilisa keeps Vaska on a short leash, blackmailing her with the police, but Ash does not stop thinking about the need for changes in her life.

After some time, Vaska begins to experience tender feelings for his mistress’s sister Natasha, a good girl who is forced to endure Vasilisa’s bullying. Ash realizes that he is in love and wants to start a new happy life with Natasha. The wanderer Luka recommends that lovers go to the Siberian province to earn money, supposedly there they can experience a wonderful life.

Ash asks his former lover to let Natasha go with him; the cunning and vile woman, although she agrees to this, sets Vaska the condition of killing her husband. Ash, being an honest, open, decent person, incapable of base acts, looking into Vasilisa’s eyes, declares to her the meanness and vileness of what was proposed.

Vaska sincerely believes that he and Natasha will have a bright, wonderful future. But the dreams of the young people remain unfulfilled, since the jealous and vindictive Vasilisa brutally beats Natasha, scalding her with boiling water, and Vasily, in a random fight, unwittingly kills the owner of the shelter, Kostylev.

Natasha, who ended up in the hospital, does not believe Vaska Ash that he did not want Kostylev to die, considering Vasilisa and Ash to be accomplices in a criminal conspiracy, depriving Vaska of hope for compassion, the support and help he needs.

Revealing the image of Vaska Ash in the play, the writer portrays the hero as a positive character who has a predetermined tragic fate, who believes to the end in true human feelings and hopes for a better life.

Essay Vaska Ashes

Many characters, who each have their own history and their own views on life, are described by M. Gorky in his play “At the Bottom,” which reflects the problems of human society. Each of the heroes has a tragic fate, but one of the most tragic stories is the story of Vaska Ash.

Vaska Pepel is a young man who by nature has such qualities as kindness, gentleness and cheerfulness. He is only 28 years old, and it would seem that he has his whole life ahead of him, only he is a thief. Since childhood, he was accustomed to the fact that everyone called him the son of a thief, but he doesn’t need such a life, he wants to live normally. However, he is faced with the fact that society does not understand him. Even Satin tells Vaska that he doesn’t need another life, because everyone knows the truth about him, and he knows everything about himself.

However, Vaska does not stop fighting with herself. He falls in love with Vasilisa's sister, a kind girl Natasha. Vasilisa is a cruel woman who dreams of getting rid of her old husband Kostylev. Moreover, Vasilisa cheated on her husband with Vaska, but Vasily left her, since she brought out only the bad in him. But he truly fell in love with Natasha, she awakened all the good that was in him. And Vaska Ash decides to marry Natasha, and at the same time start a new, honest life.

However, all this remained only in Ash’s dreams, since, standing up for Natasha, in another quarrel he kills Kostylev and has to go to prison. And jealous Natasha decided that Ash and Vasilisa had arranged all this on purpose in order to be together. Because of this, Natasha ends up in the hospital and Vaska, at the most necessary moment for him, loses her support and trust.

It is a pity that Ash soon abandoned hope for a better life; he realized that he would no longer be able to get out of this world and would not become an honest person. And even if his dreams were not destined to come true, however, he did not accept his fate in silence, but tried to do at least something to change everything, and if not for the accident that fate had in store for him, everything could have been different.

Essay on the topic: Vasily Ashes in M. Gorky’s play “At the Depths”

Let's consider the image of one of the unusual characters in Maxim Gorky's play “At the Depths,” which became a famous bestseller of its time. This effect is due to the skill of the writer, who was able to portray the images of the characters “alive”, and at the same time with his own philosophy and sincerity. Each character in the work has a number of shortcomings and negative qualities.

So, Vaska Pepel, who makes his living as a thief. He is an example of what becomes of a person due to the psychological impact on his essence. He steals and lives in a shelter, and, in fact, for all his wanderings the blame is placed on us.

His life did not work out from the very beginning - he was born into a family of beggars, grew up downtrodden and intimidated, they often made fun of him and teased him as a thief. The reason for such negativity towards the guy was the fact that his father stole a lot, was convicted more than once and served a long sentence in prison for theft. This is what influenced the guy. Justifying his antisocial behavior, Vaska said that no one called him anything else, otherwise, that the shameful nickname became his name.

He lived at the expense of the owner of the brothel, who was also a buyer of stolen goods. They worked together, and Vaska Pepel had his own room, but his accomplice was unreliable - he could underpay, or even hand him over to the police. By the age of 28, the young man had two convictions. However, he took revenge on the merchant who betrayed him in a very unique way - he became the lover of this buyer’s wife, who was young and tried in every way to provoke Ash to kill her husband.

The residents of the shelter had different attitudes towards Vaska. Luka considered him a good young man, and Andrei Kleshch said that Ash was an unworthy and dishonest person. The hero himself believed that for a poor person, conscience and honor are not so necessary and important principles, that they cannot be put on their feet instead of boots. Although Vaska still had his own moral concepts and even dreams. After talking with Luka and listening to his advice, Ash is the only inhabitant of the shelter who decided to change his life for the better. Vaska dreams that one day he will move away from thieves and live a normal life. He falls in love with Natasha, his mistress's sister, and even invites her to run away to Siberia together. But this was not destined to come true. During another scandal with the Kostylev couple, Vaska, defending his bride, accidentally kills his mistress’s husband and for this ends up behind bars again.

Vasilisa, rejoicing at this coincidence of circumstances, decides to take revenge on Ash for the betrayal and places all the blame for what happened on him. Ash's bride Natasha does not believe the murder was an accident and turns away from him.

Vaska's fate is tragic and cruel.
It is predetermined by society, by people who are quick to kill. Even as a child, he suffered the punishment that his father received. Society did not give the hero the opportunity to prove himself in good and honest deeds, to find his place in life. The character does not experience a kind, compassionate attitude towards himself at all periods of his life from people and does not know how to change his fate, although he sincerely wants this. Interesting? Save it on your wall!

Option 3

In Maxim Gorky's play "At the Bottom" there are a large number of characters who have sunk to the very bottom of life. Vaska Pepel is very different from the whole rabble of people who rent housing from Kostylev in the rooming house. From birth, the boy’s fate was predetermined. His father was a thief, and he had been accustomed to this lifestyle since childhood. This was the norm for him. As a result, Vasya Ashes followed in his father’s footsteps. But, despite this, Vasily remained a kind person, not indifferent to the grief of others. He loves life and enjoys every new day. The guy is not happy with his life, he wants to become better. He understands that he is doing bad things. But, he can't do anything about it. He does not have the courage to erase the past in one fell swoop. He is afraid to start everything from scratch. Because of his hesitation to end his past life. He is being sucked deeper and deeper into this swamp of miserable existence.

Kostylev’s wife seduced Vaska and made him her lover. The Kostylev family uses Vaska for their own selfish purposes. They threaten him that they will tell the police about his affairs. That is why Ash is trying to follow their lead.

One day Vaska realized that he was beginning to fall in love with Natasha, who was the sister of Vasilisa (Kostylev’s wife). The girl is young, pure and innocent. To win her heart, Vasily is ready to do various things. Natasha is the only person who is able to pull Vaska out of the “bolt”. He is even ready to marry the girl. Vasilisa, having learned about Ash’s feelings for her sister, offers the guy a lucrative deal. She agrees to marry Natasha to Vaska if he kills Kostylev. Ash is considered a thief and a fallen man, but he is not capable of deliberately committing murder. He is truthful and open, for him Vasilisa’s request looks disgusting. Vaska became convinced of the vile disposition of his mistress. He refused to commit the crime.

Ash sincerely wants to become an ordinary person, he wants to improve. But this is not destined to happen. Having stood up for Natasha, he carelessly hit and killed Kostylev. By chance, Vaska becomes a killer. Beloved Natasha turned away from him. Ash was sent to prison and it was at that moment that all his dreams of becoming a normal person collapsed.

Heroes of the play “At the Bottom”: table

Several interesting essays

• Examples of Love from Literature for Essay
  Love has always had a place in every society and culture since time immemorial. Love connects people, love connects lives, love can lift someone into an incredible state of euphoria or break a heart in two.
• Essay Examples of happiness from literature
  Happiness does not come easy, you need to work on it. And this must be a decision in the mind: a decision to be happy. To be happy, no matter what troubles life brings. The topic of people's happiness has always been one of the most fruitful
• The image of Janusz In the bad society of Korolenko, essay
  Janusz is a gray-bearded beggar old man who took refuge in the basement of an abandoned castle because he did not have his own apartment, he was also a servant of the count. In the story itself, Janusz is considered a minor character
• Essay based on the painting by Borisov-Musatov Autumn Song (description)
• Essay Mathematics in my life (grades 5, 6)
  There are many disciplines that are significant in the life of every person. Mathematics is the basis of everything. Since ancient times, people

“At the Bottom”, Act 3 – summary

The residents of the shelter are sitting in the vacant lot next to it. Nastya tells Natasha a fictitious story about how student Raoul was passionately in love with her. The Baron laughs. Luke reproaches him: one should caress a person, and not mock him. (See Luke's Parable of the Two Thieves.)

The tick jumps up and ruffles his rags: “I wanted to work and live in truth. But there is no work, and there is no truth!” He runs away in great excitement. Luke tells the story of how one man believed that there was a “righteous land” and he would someday get there. Finding out later that there was no such land, he committed suicide.

Vaska Pepel sits down with Natasha and persuades her to marry him and help him start an honest life. Natasha hesitates in sadness and indecision. Vasilisa appears in the window. “So we got married! May you live happily ever after!" – she screams angrily.

Kostylev comes out of the house and begins to scold the “parasite” Natasha. Ash stands up for her, shouts at Kostylev, and becomes furious. Luka restrains Vaska again, and he leaves.

Satin talks about his youth: “I was a smart guy, I danced superbly, played on stage, loved to make people laugh. But then he went to prison for almost five years: he killed a scoundrel in a temper because of his own sister. I learned card cheating in prison.” Tick ​​returns with his head down. Satin advises him not to lose heart: “Don’t work! Do not do anything! Just burden the earth!”

Screams are heard from the house: Kostylev and Vasilisa are beating Natasha there. Everyone rushes to separate them. Soon the entire crowd runs out into the street, dragging Vasilisa away from Natasha. Ash also runs up. Kostylev tries to call the police, but Ash gives him such a deft blow that he immediately kills him. “He died! - Vasilisa screams. - Vaska killed! Vaska! “You set it all up yourself,” Ash rushes to her. “You tried to persuade me to kill him before!”

Natasha, hearing this, begins to rush about in despair and frenzy: “Ah! You, Vasily, were at one with my sister! Kind people! They are lovers. The husband interfered with them... and I interfered. Take them, judge them... Take me to prison too, for Christ’s sake!”