The main characters of M. Gorky's play “At the Depths” and their characteristics

A very short retelling

The Kostylev couple, Mikhail and Vasilisa, are the owners of the shelter. This is a cave-like basement. People living here are homeless, unemployed, impoverished, drunkards, living by theft and prostitution. Such are the sharper Satin, the unemployed Kleshch and his hopelessly ill wife, the former aristocrat Baron, the drinking Actor, the thief Vaska Ash, Nastya. They all live in sight of each other and eat at a common table.

Vasilisa Kostyleva is in a relationship with Vaska Ash behind her elderly husband’s back. Ash quickly cools down towards the selfish and cruel Vasilisa; he likes her sister Natasha, quiet and kind. The girl has a hard life: jealous Vasilisa beats her. The Kostylevs are engaged in buying stolen things from Ash, and the policeman, who is related to them, turns a blind eye to this.

Disputes and quarrels do not stop between the guests; no one thinks how difficult it is for Anna to die. Neither does her husband care about her. Only the newcomer Luka finds words of consolation for the woman. The old man knows how to console every desperate person in a shelter. He gives hope to the drunken Actor, Nastya, who dreams of love, as in the novel, advises Ash to go to Siberia for another life.

Anna dies, and Kleshch, who sold the instrument to raise money for his wife’s funeral, is left without the opportunity to earn money. Luka is expelled from the shelter. Vaska invites Natasha to run away with him and promises to change the thief’s life that has disgusted him. The girl, having listened to Luka, agrees to the experienced guy’s proposal if he does not beat her. Vasilisa overheard their conversation and severely beat Natasha. Vaska accidentally killed Kostylev, he is awaiting trial. Luke disappeared. The shelter continues its sad existence, the Actor takes his own life.

Characters of the work

Mikhail Ivanovich Kostylev
is a 54-year-old man, the owner and keeper of a rooming house.
Vasilisa Karpovna
is Kostylev’s wife, the woman is 26 years old. She was the mistress of Ash's guest.
Natasha
is the sister of the owner, the girl is 20 years old.
Medvedev
is the uncle of the owner and her sister, a policeman, 50 years old.

Basement residents:

Vaska Pepel
- thief, 28 years old.
Klesch Andrey Mitrich
- working man - mechanic, 40 years old.
Anna
is his wife, a sick woman of 30 years old.
Nastya
is a slutty girl, 24 years old.
Kvashnya
- trades at the market, about 40 years.
Bubnov
is a former aristocrat, cohabiting with Nastya, 45 years old.
Baron
- 33 years old.
Satin and Actor
are about 40 years old.
Luke
- old man, sage, wanderer, 60 years old.

The main characters of the play and their brief descriptions

Main characters

Mikhail Ivanovich Kostylev - owner of the shelter, 54 years old, greedy, does not hesitate to buy stolen goods, takes the last penny from the guests. Kostylev is a hypocrite: he tries to look pious, but his soul is far from Christianity. He is jealous of his wife, who is his daughter’s age.

Vasilisa Karpovna Kostyleva—the owner’s wife, 26 years old. The woman is heartless, greedy, plays tricks with Vaska Ash, tyrannizes her sister.

Natasha is Vasilisa’s younger sister, 20 years old. A meek, kind girl. She endures Vasilisa’s bullying, her life is joyless, and she often imagines her death.

Luka is a wandering old man of 60 years old, he has seen a lot in life, he takes pity on people, tries to console them, to reassure them in some way.

Vaska Pepel is a young man, 28 years old, engaged in theft, and is in a relationship with Vasilisa Kostyleva, whose cruelty and greed disgust him. Ash likes Natasha because she is “strict, good... a reliable person.” For her sake, I’m even ready to change my lifestyle.

Klesch Andrey Mitrich - unemployed, 40 years old, by trade - a mechanic. He considers himself better than other guests at the shelter because he loves to work. The tick is confident that it will get out of poverty. He is hardworking, but gloomy and hard-hearted towards his sick wife.

Bubnov is a cap-maker who once had his own business. He is 45 years old, lost everything because of his wife and her lover. He doesn’t expect anything good from life, he’s indifferent to everything.

The Baron is a bankrupt aristocrat, 33 years old. He led a thoughtless, empty life, ended up in a poor house, and became the partner of a prostitute. Sometimes he remembers the past and boasts of his origins. He no longer hopes for changes for the better. The Baron is passive, unable to change anything.

Satin is a sharpie, 40 years old. He served time in prison for murder (defending his sister), where he learned to play cards. I once worked in a printing house, read a lot, and compared to the inhabitants of the shelter, I was quite educated. The character often indulges in abstract reasoning and uses bookish words. In his monologue “Man—that sounds proud!..” the author expresses his position.

Nastya is a 24-year-old girl, the baron’s live-in wife, who earns money through prostitution. She reads low-grade French novels, dreams of true love, talks about her beloved Gaston or Raoul, and believes in it herself.

The actor is a drunken man who has even lost his name. He is about forty, in the past he was a provincial actor with the stage name Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky. He is a harmless person and can show compassion. Having lost hope of changing his life, he hanged himself.

Minor characters

Medvedev Abram is a middle-aged policeman, uncle of Vasilisa and Natasha. He unprincipledly does not interfere in the “family matter” when Vasilisa beats Natalya, and turns a blind eye to the business relationship between Kostylev and the thief Ash.

Anna is Kleshch’s wife, 30 years old. She fell ill with consumption from her husband’s beatings and malnutrition. When I was dying, I didn’t see any sympathy from my husband.

Alyoshka is a shoemaker, 20 years old, already a drinker, often in jail.

Kvashnya is an enterprising woman of about 40 who makes a living selling dumplings. Not long ago I became a widow, which made me incredibly happy: my husband was giving up. I didn’t want to hear any more about marriage. Yielding to Medvedev’s persuasion, she got together with him, but she herself began to beat her husband.

Tatar is a hook maker. A hard-working person, he believes that one must always be honest. His hand is crushed and will have to be cut off.

Main characters and their characteristics:

Andrey Kleshch was once a mechanic, but he lost his job and ended up in a shelter. Doesn't want to come to terms with his fate.
Satin was once a telegraph operator, went to prison for murder (he stood up for his sister). In prison he learned to play cards and became a sharper. One of the main philosophers of the shelter.
Vaska Pepel is a professional thief. Born and raised in prison. He is dissatisfied with his life - he is constantly being encouraged to do evil deeds, murder. At the end of the third act, he hit the owner of the shelter, but did not calculate the force, and it turned out to be a murder. The result is prison.
Bubnov was once a cap holder and a family man. When his wife cheated on him, he went to the shelter. Lazy, likes to drink.
An actor who once shone on stage, later became an alcoholic and ended up in a shelter. He doesn’t remember his name, because he managed to lose it. At the end of the play he hanged himself.
The Baron was once a nobleman, but went bankrupt and fell “to the bottom.” From time to time, lordly habits make themselves felt. Unlucky cheater.
Luke is a mysterious wanderer. I am always ready to support the inhabitants of the shelter with a kind word. Satin liked his philosophy.
Alyoshka is a shoemaker, loves to play the harmonica and start drunken brawls (“Give me a million - I don’t want it!”).
Crooked Zob and Tatarin are hook workers, incompetent gamblers.
Anna is Kleshch's wife, sick with consumption. He dies during the second act of the play.
Mikhail Ivanovich Kostylev is the owner of the shelter. In the third act he dies at the hands of Ash.
Vasilisa Karpovna is Kostylev’s wife. He longs to get rid of his husband with someone else’s hands, incites Vaska Pepel to kill him and gets his way. Almost kills his sister, then ends up in prison.
Nastya is a girl who dreams of true love.

Brief summary of the play “At the Depths” in detail by act

A wanderer came to a shelter for homeless people who no longer expected anything good from life. He consoled those he could, gave hope to the desperate, and then left. It soon became clear that hopes had no basis; people themselves were not ready to change and rise from the bottom of life.

Act 1

The action takes place on a spring morning in a dirty rooming house, in the basement. In the center there is a table, hosted by Kvashnya, a dumplings seller. A woman talks about her boyfriend who is wooing her, but she is not going to marry him. Not long ago, Kvashnya’s husband, who tyrannized her during her lifetime, died. Now she is happy and does not want to lose her freedom. The tick objects that she will still get married. Kvashnya is outraged; she accuses her interlocutor of his wife’s fatal illness.

Analysis of the work

Gorky conceived the drama in 1900. The writer had a desire to try his hand at dramaturgy under the influence of the plays of A.P. Chekhov. Gorky worked on the drama from the end of 1901 to the beginning of 1902. Through the mouths of the characters in the play, Gorky touched on important issues and expressed his view of life. The events in the shelter take place against the backdrop of the economic crisis of the late 19th century, which affected the destinies of people, so the drama takes on a social resonance. The literary direction of the play “At the Bottom” is critical realism.

The theme of the play: people who find themselves at the bottom of the social hierarchy are outcasts.

The main idea of the play

A person may find himself at the bottom of his life due to personal fault or objective reasons. He can be helped to rise, if only he wants it so much that he does not allow himself to be weak, that is, to be a slave to his sins and passions.

Someone will always give the right advice, but something usually prevents you from following it. In essence, Luka made the right move in trying to help the Actor, even if the hospital did not actually exist. He told him that before treatment he needed to be patient, that is, not drink for some time. The actor started, but due to weakness he lost his nerve.

Issues

Main problems:

Comforting lies and bitter truth. Luke's consolations are considered false. It is called crumb for the toothless. A strong person does not need illusions. Here Gorky expresses his point of view. What does he call a lie? What is true? By lie, Satin means Christianity, which, in his opinion, is needed by slaves for comfort and by masters for cover. Did Luke deceive Anna when he promised her relief after death? Satin, and therefore Gorky, calls man the truth and places him above all else. Is this true? For a Christian, the unconditional truth is Christ, and not a fallen man mired in passions.
Problem of choice. Each hero believes that he is able to change his life for the better. Luke's advice is like a hint from above for them. But no one takes the decisive step. The actor committed suicide because it was simpler and easier than controlling himself and undergoing treatment for a long time. Nastya dreams of love, hates the Baron, but does not leave him. Ash is disgusted with the life of a thief, but he continues to steal and sell stolen goods to Kostylev.
People are people everywhere. And at the very bottom of life they love, suffer, talk about lofty topics, think deeply. The social bottom was, is and will be; anyone can end up there.

Composition

The composition of the play is linear, as events develop in chronological order. The plot: the appearance of Luka among the inhabitants of the shelter in the first act. The development of events takes place in the second and third acts. The fourth act is the climax and denouement. The climax is a dialogue about truth and lies. The denouement is the suicide of the Actor as a sign of hopelessness for the inhabitants of the shelter, who not only cannot, but also have no desire to get out of the bottom.

Genre

Genre of the work: social and philosophical drama.

The action in the play is static, everything takes place in the shelter from the first to the last act. The plot develops due to the conflict of opposing points of view, the play is filled with philosophical reflections and disputes.

At the Bottom (play)

The play takes place in a rooming house that belongs to Mikhail Ivanovich Kostylev. It is inhabited by degenerate people, from the very bottom of society: the poor, thieves, prostitutes, laborers. Among the guests of the “bottom”: Satin (a gambler and sharper, a former telegraph operator), an Actor (a drunken theater actor who forgot even his name), a Baron (a nobleman who squandered his entire fortune) - completely degraded and broken people. The relationship between them is complex, squabbles and quarrels constantly break out, and the main object of bullying is the girl Nastya, who is trying to find solace in romance novels and inventing scenes of romantic love with herself. Locksmith Kleshch is still a “new” person at the shelter, and therefore often throws hysterics. He is waiting for the death of his sick wife Anna, whom he blames for his fall to the “bottom”. Periodically, its owner Kostylev comes to the shelter to remind the residents of their debt and buy stolen goods from the thief Vaska Pepla. His family often visits the shelter: Vasilisa, Kostylev’s wife, Natasha, her sister, and policeman Medvedev, their uncle. Natasha comes to Vaska Pepl's room at the shelter, with whom she is in love; Vasilisa often comes to Vaska’s rooming house as a lover, hoping in him to find salvation from her tyrant husband. Medvedev comes to his friend Bubnov. Ash loves Natasha much more, which is why Vasilisa is constantly jealous of Vaska and beats her.

Ivan Moskvin as Luka and Vasily Kachalov as the Baron. Production of the Moscow Art Theater, 1902.

One day, the wanderer Luke appears at the shelter. He takes pity on the tramps and reassures them with his “lies”: He tells the actor about a clinic where alcoholics are treated for nothing; Vaska, whom Vasilisa directly begs to kill her husband, orders him to go with Natasha to Siberia and seek happiness; he tells the dying Anna just before her death that peace awaits her; stands up for Nastya. The brewing conflict in the Kostylev family ends in a family fight, in which Natasha’s legs are scalded with boiling water, and Ash, apparently, accidentally kills Kostylev. He and Vasilisa are arrested. At the most intense moment of the fight, Luka disappears, leaving those who believed him without hope. Satin tells everyone that the old man “lied” and that one must live in truth, “simply burdening the earth.” The actor angrily replies to his roommates laughing at him that he will still leave the shelter and rise from the “bottom”, after which he actually leaves with Nastya. Satin, during another drinking session with tramps, pronounces a monologue in which the now catchphrase “Man sounds proud” sounds. In his monologue, he explains: Luke sincerely pities people and therefore “lies” to them, but a proud Man does not need compassion: A Man is worthy only of respect, and compassion offends him. Lies, as Satin says, are “the religion of slaves and masters,” but you need to live according to the “truth,” which is the new proud Man, and in order to live according to the “truth,” you need to free yourself from everything and become completely independent. Satin's speech, however, does not make a strong impression on the tramps - they continue to drink and start a song. She is interrupted by the appearance of Baron and Nastya, who say that the Actor hanged himself in the backyard of the flophouse. Satin says: “Eh... ruined the song... fool!”

Criticism

D.V. Filosofov considers the drama “At the Lower Depths” to be the pinnacle of Gorky’s work, after which the fall began.

Adrianov S.A. called Luka M. Gorky one of the attempts to create a type of “wise heart expert” who appeals to human conscience. Great Russian writers sought to create such an image. For Tolstoy it is Akim (“The Power of Darkness”), for Dostoevsky it is Elder Zosima (“The Brothers Karamazov”). Luka Gorky also joins them.

I. F. Annensky compared the points of view of Gorky and Dostoevsky: “...with Gorky... everything is for man and everything is in man... And if for Dostoevsky the motto was - humble yourself and let God speak, then for Gorky he sounds proud...”.

Productions and film adaptations

The first production of the drama “At the Lower Depths” took place in 1902. Until 1905, it was allowed with banknotes, but in 1903 it was held in seven theaters (in the provinces and in the capital). In subsequent years, “At the Lower Depths” was staged by many provincial and metropolitan theaters. Productions abroad took place in Berlin, Helsingfors, Krakow, Paris, Tokyo, New York, London and many significant cities of the West and East.

The first film adaptation of Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” in the USSR was a film-performance (MKhAT) in 1952.

In 1972 - a film adaptation of the play of the Moscow Sovremennik Theater.

In 1987 - “Without the Sun” (Yu. Karasik) and “At the Bottom” (A. Petrosyan). In 2014 - “At the Lower Depths” (V. Kott), a free interpretation.

The play was filmed abroad in Hungary, Japan (twice), France, and China.

Film adaptations

1910s - Hungary.
1921 - “Rojo no Reikon” (“Spirits on the Road”, directed by Minoru Murata, Japan).
1936 - “Les bas-fonds” (dir. Jean Renoir, France; starring Louis Jouvet, Jean Gabin), script written by Evgeny Zamyatin and Jacques Companeets[fr].
1952 - film-play “At the Lower Depths” staged by the Moscow Art Theater. Gorky (directors: Andrey Frolov, Vasily Orlov, Joseph Raevsky; Mosfilm).
1956 - “Donzoko” (“The Very Bottom”, directed by Akira Kurosawa), with the realities of Tsarist Russia replaced by the realities of feudal Japan.
1972 - film adaptation of the play “At the Lower Depths” staged by the Moscow Sovremennik Theater (directors: Galina Volchek, Leonid Pchelkin; production of TO “Ekran”).
1987 - “Without the Sun” (dir. Yuli Karasik).
1987 - “At the Lower Depths” (dir. Petrosyan), t/f studio “Yerevan”.
2014 - “At the Lower Depths” (dir. Vladimir Kott), in a modern adaptation.