The famous proletarian writer Maxim Gorky, in his story "Foma Gordeev", continued the theme of exposing the inhuman craving for profit and enrichment at any cost, begun by the classics of Russian literature Saltykov-Shchedrin and Ostrovsky. During his work on the story, the writer designated it as "a new form of being in literature." After reading "Thomas Gordeev" the famous American writer Jack London described it as a "big" and "healing" book "affirming goodness."

In his work, Maxim Gorky with all sharpness and directness condemns the emerging new class of unprincipled "businessmen" in Russia who are ready to sacrifice the lives of millions of people for their own profit, condemning them to starvation and trampling on elementary human norms of mutual understanding and help. The writer showed how among the newly-born nouveau riche real "predators" are born, ready to destroy competitors.

In the story, Gorky focuses the readers' attention on the main human vices, which from the inside undermine the newly-made "masters of life." Their society is doomed, but with all its might it tries to retain its power by any available means. Why did the "new bourgeoisie" take the path of degeneration? This is beautifully described by Gorky using the example of the Gordeev family.

The father of the family is Ignat Gordeev, on whom the entire family business is supported. This man went from being a water-carrier to the owner of steamers. Ignat is a very strong and domineering man, inside of whom serious passions are raging. Three personalities live in it at the same time - an experienced, calculating businessman, an unrestrained drunkard and a devout Christian. His heart will not flinch when his barges are sunk as a result of the ice drift. Ignat can allocate a huge amount of money for the construction of a shelter for the homeless, but, at the same time, walk the fortune with friends and drinking companions. Senior Gordeev does not spare the capital he earned and believes that the money, as it came in, will go away.

Ignat's son Thomas grew up a lonely and unsociable young man. His father understands that the heir is not at all fit to continue the family business. Gordeev junior grows up as a lazy and uneducated youth, and after Ignat's death he does not know how to continue to live.

Foma has a godfather named Mayakin, who loves money very much and is trying to convince his godson that real happiness is in wealth. Because of this, Thomas is plagued by even greater doubts. He does not see a like-minded person in his godfather, since he is dismissive of money. For him it is useless rubbish.

Over time, Thomas becomes a rebel, protesting against the nouveau riche and money-grubbing around him. He often starts fights, destroys the property acquired by his father and even causes the death of people who work in family businesses.

Through the image of Foma Gordeev, the writer tried to show the senselessness of a rebellion that does not have an ideological basis. In the story, Gorky succeeded in showing in a fairly voluminous way the typical images of the capitalists of that time.

Ananiy Shchurov is an old school entrepreneur who treats money with trepidation, but cannot stand anything new. At one time he became rich as a result of his criminal acts. Gorky paints his image in the most negative tones, as an evil relic from the past.

The owner of the factories, Yakov Mayakin, who enjoys great prestige among the merchants, is much more controversial. He is appreciated for his intelligence and prudence. From time to time, Mayakin likes to boast of his ancient pedigree. This is a typical representative of the nascent bourgeoisie, which is not alien to political activity. For him, all people are divided into two categories - masters and slaves. To the first he classifies precisely the bourgeoisie. Rich people, in the event of a common danger, know how to rally to protect their capital.

Methods of ideological influence

As a result of long conversations with Foma Gordeev, he drives the young man to complete madness. Mayakin instills values ​​in the heir of capital that are absolutely alien to him. As a result, Thomas becomes a stranger in the "wolf pack of rulers of the world."

The main idea of ​​the book

The work of Maxim Gorky "Foma Gordeev" became a continuation of the traditions of Russian realism in the literature of the late 19th century. The main idea of ​​the story is to show the internal decay of the Russian bourgeoisie and the doom of the capitalist system. Gorky, with all cruel frankness, showed the new "masters of life", among whom were many representatives of the nascent capitalist class.
In the book, the main spokesman for their ideas is Yakov Mayakin. But, nevertheless, Foma Gordeev became the main character of the story. The summary of this work proves that a healthy and energetic young man who cannot find application for his ideas and thoughts is doomed to a tragic fate. Life will hurt him until it beats him to death. Thomas feels like a stranger, both among the representatives of the nascent bourgeoisie and in the society of ordinary people. Gorky showed the whole tragedy of this character, but not with malice, but with sympathy for him.

The writer continued the theme begun in Foma Gordeev in his iconic works Vassa Zheleznova, The Artamonovs Case and Essays on America.

Analysis of the work

Formally, the protagonist of the story belongs to the bourgeoisie, but unlike typical representatives of this new class for Russia, he did not become a "predator", but possesses many positive human qualities. The more Foma Gordeev communicates with the new "masters of life", the more he feels disgust for them. Over time, this feeling turns into protest.

At Kononov's holiday, the main character openly expresses all his thoughts directly into the eyes of merchants and breeders. He tells them that thanks to their "efforts" the people are starving and in poverty, at a time when the rich are swollen from overeating and drunkenness. Thomas reproaches them for their dishonesty and godlessness in relation to their workers. As a result, his godfather Mayakin calls Gordeev a touched mind.

With the help of the protagonist, Gorky tries to reveal all the problems that exist in bourgeois society. One of the important places in the book is occupied by the nascent proletariat, among which there are sincere and honest leaders who are ready to lead the people not just to a senseless rebellion, but to replace the existing way of life.

Maxim Gorky's story “The Old Woman Izergil” is not like other works of the author, since the plot contains a mystical theme.

In his play At the Bottom, Maxim Gorky depicts the life of the lowest strata of society, doomed to endure hardships and hardships.

After the first publication of Foma Gordeev, the wealthy merchant Bugrov from Nizhny Novgorod called the writer a dangerous person for the state, and the book was extremely harmful. In addition, he said that people like Gorky, the very place in Siberia.

On the other hand, among the workers, the work of the proletarian writer was re-read many times and used as propaganda literature. One of the old underground fighters, Berezovsky, recalled that during the meetings of their organization they had read excerpts from Foma Gordeev more than once.

The pages of this story are saturated with burning words of hatred for injustice and inhuman living conditions among the working class. Several generations of future Russian revolutionaries were brought up on this book.

Ticket 18. The problem of man and the environment in the works of Gorky (Foma Gordeev, Troy).

The novels show the internal disintegration of the bourgeois class, the historical doom of the existing world order. "Foma Gordeev" the first novel about the fate of generations. a string of first accumulators who became "masters of life." brought to the fore the bourgeois of the new formation, who inherited the money of their fathers and adopted new methods of handling capital. Yakov Mayakin is an "ideologist" and leader of the new merchant class, striving for power and social influence. He glorifies bourgeois progress, the merchant class is the life-giving force of Russian economic and cultural life. Mayakin demands a living "space" for the merchants, a share in governing the country. Gorky did not pin hopes on the younger generation of the merchant class either. Taras Mayakin, Afrikan Smolin, Lyubov Mayakina will not bring anything new to life. By blood and spirit, they are the children of Mayakin, who left him only for a while, and then return to their father's house. (Taras, a former revolutionary, follows the path of entrepreneurship; Lyubov enters into a profitable marriage with Smolin, the union of the old and young Mayakins in the Taras Mayakin and Afrikan Smolin case at the end). the contradictory nature of Yezhov's social psychology (journalist) and intelligence. Coming from the people, he does not fulfill his vocation, serving the interests of the people, disagreeing with the order of the "masters", he does not know "what to cling to with his soul." This is an intellectual at an ideological crossroads. The peculiarity of the composition is a chronicle novel, a family romance. Foma's father Ignat saves money, but the breadth of the soul remains in him, the subsequent merchants lose the breadth of the soul. Ignat Gordeev still felt the joy of creative work, the beauty of life and began to understand that he was becoming "not the master of his business, but his low slave." Foma takes more from mom and nanny. It is shown how it is formed: it is torn apart by its environment. Lives with yakov makin - either all gnaw, or lie in the mud. Thomas Gordeev - with a pure soul, a man of truth, and in the merchant environment, everyone comes to wealth through crimes. Thomas is not an accumulator. The internal theme of Thomas is the knowledge of people, oneself, the thought of unfreedom, the desire to understand how to live. The image of the Owl - blind during the day, stumbled across. Thomas also does not find an answer to his questions, but rebelles against the merchants. This is an energetic healthy person who is looking for things to do, the scope of his energy. Life crushes him, he sees that there is no place for heroes in it. Gorky contrasted Thomas Gordeev with the old and young generation of the merchant class. he is typical as the bearer of a moral ideal, before which the incompatibility of the human and proprietary principles of life was revealed. His subjective attempts to combine the human and the possessive are doomed in advance, just as his rebellion, the protest of a loner against the "masters of life", is doomed to defeat. Thomas discovers that all human values ​​are perverted in the world around him. The feeling of Medynskaya turns out to be false, the natural demand for humanity, with which Thomas addresses people, is perceived in the world of property owners as something abnormal - the “owners” declare Thomas to have gone mad.

Thomas cannot oppose anything to the immoral power of this world, his rebellion is doomed, it is the rebellion of a weak loner. The drama of Thomas is shown by Gorky against the broad background of Russian folk life, which carries the life-giving principles of the world. In the masses, Thomas is looking for bearers of moral ideals, the meaning of life. Landscape - The Volga, poeticized by the people, against the background of which the action unfolds, grows here into a symbol of the life of the people. "Three". the problem of inconsistency of the existing social and moral norms of life with the desire of a person “to live like a human being is becoming more acute. the life story of three young people from the same working environment, each of whom is looking for the "truth." In the center is the fate of Ilya Lunev, through her life events and the spiritual world of other heroes. The fates of the three friends were typical of the petty-bourgeois urban environment of the time. In the people of this environment, healthy feelings and aspirations coexisted with possessive dreams. the character of Lunev, in which the feelings of the owner and the worker are fighting. The first stage in Ilya's life is the path to "people". From a young age, he dreams, seeing the hardships of the environment, of a secure life and strives for enrichment, vaguely realizes that this path is associated with moral decline. And the closer Ilya is to his ideal, the lower he morally falls. The culmination of the story is the murder of the merchant Poluektov by Lunev. With his own life, he wanted to answer the question of how to live? Ilya understands that he and his friends are at a dead end: a childhood friend was sold to an old husband, yaks, in an attempt to explain life by the will of divine providence and slowly fading away, tortured by his father, a tavern keeper, Lunev's beloved woman becomes the kept woman of the wealthy merchant Poluektov. Poluektov became for Ilya the embodiment of the evil of life that befell them. Ilya killed him not out of jealousy, not for the purpose of robbery: this is an outburst of hatred towards those who "strangle" them, this is a challenge to fate. With the money of Poluektov, Ilya opened a small shop - another step towards destroying the illusions about the purity of the life of the "owners". purity and goodness are a mask that covers immorality, deception, crime. Ilya is rebelling against the world of "prosperous" "masters". The ending of the story, the scene of the party at which he confesses to the murder, denouncing the social and moral philosophy of the bourgeoisie, is a kind of variation of the scene on the steamer from Foma Gordeev. But Lunev's revolt is as fruitless as Thomas's revolt. He admits this himself: “If only I knew how hard I could crush you! Do not know!" This is the drama of Ilya. The dream of achieving human happiness within the framework of the existing world order turned out to be untenable. In the story, each of the three heroes goes his own way in search of the truth of life: Yakov Filimonov is the bearer of a peculiar doctrine of non-resistance, Christian humanism, there is no will to resist, but this position leads to the justification of evil (Yakov realizes the untruth of his father's life, robbing people, but obeys him, he also robs behind a tavern counter), Pavel Grachev - Under the influence of socialist ideas, a public consciousness awakens in the hero, which will determine his future fate - the path to revolution. Gorky asserts the possibility and right of a person to understand the laws according to which human life develops, to find a way out of its social dead ends based on reason, and not on religion.

Ticket 19. Disputes about Gorky's play "At the Bottom"

Disputes concern the image of Luke and the author's assessment of the hero: a liar or a healer of souls. Disputes about the truth of Luke, Satin, about the wingless truth of the inhabitants of the shelter, the genre of the play. Bitter's main question: which is better than truth or compassion? Do you need to bring compassion to use lies like Luke? L. Kolobaeva: Gorky grasped the tendency of compassion for illusions, the inner readiness of pity for collusion with lies, asserted the ideal of strong good, capable of relying on ruthless truth. Popov"Man can do anything": in Luke there is an essential compassion, kindness, mercy, independence, but he is not a fighter. But the preaching of good was not useless if it awakened at the bottom, in the self-consciousness of the heroes, a desire to live better, a sense of their own dignity. But life does not provide an opportunity to translate these advice into reality. Dolzhenkov“Only man exists”: Luke does not stake on the inner strength of man, but seeks support outside of him. Luke is the representative of compassion and lies, seduces reliable people and destroys them. The shelter hell - the devil - Luke, the evil one, Satan - Satin, who does not accept those around him as he is, but sings a man with a capital letter. Satin says the right things, but he himself is not like that, and Luke does not believe in a person. Genre - socio-philosophical drama (see ticket 11). + Luke: Anna begins to believe that with the death of the body, the soul departs to a better world, and dies peacefully. The actor believes in Luke's fictional stories about the asylum where alcoholism is being treated. Natasha and Ash believe in the possibility of their joint clean life in Siberia. For Luke, the main thing is that faith and hope live in a person, and it does not matter in what way this will be achieved. Antipode: Bubnov recognizes only a bare fact, everything else is a lie for him. Bubnov's truth is cruel, ruthless, it is based on indifference to people, it excludes any hope of changing a person. - Luke: The loss of faith can turn into a tragedy for a person, the parable of the righteous land, the Actor is the same. Luka disappears from the shelter at the most important moment for its inhabitants, when many of them have a belief in something better. Heroes lose faith. The actor commits suicide, Ashes is sent to prison, Natasha ends up in the hospital. as soon as the person who comforted them and made them believe disappears, they immediately lose this belief and descend again. + Luke: Changed many of the flophouse dwellers for the better, making them think about their lives. Influenced Satin. From the philosophy of Luke Satin takes faith in man ("Man is the truth! He understood this ..."), but faith without pity and mercy. A person must be respected, not pitied, one must believe in one's own strengths, for a strong, proud person pity and mercy are not needed, they are needed only for the weak - a reason.

At the turn of the century, in 1899, Gorky published his novel Foma Gordeev. This is a broad, meaningful picture of our time, it tells about the growing strength of the Russian bourgeoisie.

The writer broadly and vividly draws representatives of the entrepreneurial type. He introduces us to merchants of the patriarchal type, big tycoons, such as Ananiy Shchurov. Once this "cunning, old devil" was a counterfeiter and a murderer, now he has become a timber merchant and a steamer, who has accumulated considerable capital on robberies and deceptions, and he feels himself the ruler. He does not accept anything new, the proliferation of machines, he hates all kinds of freedoms. According to Mayakin, he looks like a cunning and cunning fox: "... He will raise his eyes to heaven, and he will put his paw in your bosom and then pull out your wallet ..."

Next to him is the clever strong-willed Ignat Gordeev, formerly a water-carrier, and now the owner of three steamers and a dozen barges. He is obsessed with a passion for profit, he is distinguished by a huge vital energy, with which he rushes about in commercial affairs, catching gold, but Ignat knew the hard work of a burlak, he came from the people, he has a thirst for activity. He has an irrepressible desire for life. And most importantly, his soul boils up rebelliously and sometimes throws him away from profit. And then he begins to drink and debauch, scatter his wealth, be it a steamer, a barge or money.

A striking figure is Yakov Mayakin, who believes that the value of every person is determined by the available capital. Mayakin considers merchants to be the first force in the state, he is very smart, calculating and cynical. He divides people into masters and into a dumb mass - simple bricks, building materials in the hands of the masters.

Shown in the novel and the younger generation of the merchant class. Taras and Lyubov Mayakins and Afrikan Smolin belong to him. They must inherit Jacob's work and ideas at a new stage. But they only outwardly differ from their fathers in education, European culture. But Taras Mayakin has said goodbye to the dreams of his youth and is the owner of shipbuilding in Siberia. And from Afrikan Smolin, a "swindler of the first degree", nothing advanced can be expected.

But Gorky set the task of showing a person who is looking for a job within his powers and a wide scope for a free and honest life. Foma Gordeev is such a person. He inherited a lot from the taciturn mother who was acutely aware of falsehood. Rampage and impetuosity he took over from his father. The nanny introduced the boy to the world of wonderful fairy tales and legends. Communication with the sailors also affected him. And so those around him begin to notice something that is not their own in Foma, "after all, you do not look terribly like a merchant," notes Lyuba. "There is something special about you," says Sophia. This is something that scares Ignat terribly. But reality has done its job. Yakov Mayakin instilled in him: "... either gnaw everyone or lie in the mud." Looking at Thomas, the captain of the "Prilezhny" remarked: "... a good breed of a puppy, from the very first hunt - a good dog." But Thomas is dissatisfied with himself, a tendency to revelry. A life built on deception, greed plunges him into despair, he sees no way out of the impasse. The thoughts of pure love were destroyed when he lost faith in Sophia Medynskaya. He experiences delight only during the lifting of the sunken barge. "It's stuffy to me," exclaims Thomas. "Isn't this life? Is this how they live? My soul hurts! And that's why it hurts because I can't put up with it!" Thomas becomes the prodigal son in his midst. Finding himself on the steamer Ilya Muromets, surrounded by eminent merchants, he feels the immensity of claims and begins to rebel, he throws words of disgust: "You did not make life - prison ..." he is defeated, ties with the merchants are interrupted.

Thomas is tied up and declared insane. But one can feel his triumph in the words: "You cannot bind the truth, you lie!" Foma Gordeev's tragedy is that he did not want to live according to wolf laws, he believed that it was joyful, honest work. And according to Yezhov, "the future belongs to people of honest labor."

Ananiy Shchurov personifies the yesterday of Russian capitalism with its outright predation, backwardness, straightforward reactionaryness. He is the enemy of technical progress. Having grown rich at the cost of crimes, he appears in the novel as a fierce and vicious enemy of the people.

The image of the breeder Yakov Mayaknn is more complex. Gorky writes that Mayaknn enjoyed respect among the merchants, "the glory of a" brain "man and was very fond of pretending to be the antiquity of his kind." Mayakin is a kind of ideologue of the bourgeoisie, striving for political power. He divides people into slaves, doomed to always obey, and masters, called to command. The masters of the country should be, in his opinion, the capitalists. Mayakin's philosophy of life is revealed in his aphorisms.

“Life, brother Thomas,” he says to his pupil, “is very simply staged: either gnaw at all, or lie in the mud ... Here, brother, approaching a man, hold honey in your left hand, and a knife in your right…”

Foma Gordeev- an outstanding personality. He turned out to be a stranger in the merchant world. An honest, sincere person striving for justice, he tries to break free, but this happens only at the cost of death. Faced with a reality built on deception, crime, greed, Foma Gordeev falls into even greater despair and sees no way out of the impasse.

He inherited a lot from his mother, who felt some kind of falsity in life.

5. Problems, conflict in the play by M. Gorky "Bourgeois".

Gorky's first play was "Bourgeois"(1901). The author himself originally defined his work as a dramatic sketch in 4 acts with the title “Bourgeois. Scenes in Bessemenov's House ". Over time, this play, staged by K.S. Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theater, acquired all the features of a real drama, especially since the actors, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, were in a hurry with the premiere: they had to play "Bourgeois" so that "Gorky felt like a playwright and wrote further." As you know, everything turned out like this - Alexey Maksimovich later created many worthy plays that made the glory of Russian and world theater.

Already the title of the play - "Bourgeois" - indicates a very definite class in Russia. This is the lower class of the townsfolk, who came from artisans and small traders: this class was below the merchant class in terms of its position in society.

In the center of the image is the family of Vasily Bessemenov, a wealthy bourgeoisie, foreman of the paint shop. This sedate man, who wanted to become a deputy to the city duma from shop organizations, did not accidentally bore such a surname. His daughter Tatiana, a schoolteacher, is still not married at the age of 28, and hopes of getting the heirs of the clan are dwindling every day. Son Peter is a former student expelled from the university for participating in student unrest.

All this, of course, does not please the father, who pinned his hopes on his children, therefore, scandals constantly occur in the house between him and his children, who do not want to live according to their father's orders. The hero himself is in a state of gloomy vigilance and sees the reason for the failures of his children in life in the pride that has possessed them. The author, on the contrary, emphasizes that the education received by the children did not make them happier: the usual bourgeois landmarks for them are outdated, and their own will to make any changes is not enough, therefore, their interest in life is weakened.

Of course, in many ways the mood in the house of the protagonist is due to the philistine boredom inherent in any provincial town. But with Gorky, everything is complicated by the multifaceted nature of human relationships. A lot of people live in the house of the Bessemenovs: this is the pupil of the head of the family, Neil, a young driver's assistant, in whom his daughter Tatyana is hopelessly in love. This is a distant relative, and a young widow of the warden of the prison, renting a room, and freeloaders - the song Teterev and the student Shishkin.

Such a number of people in the house should, apparently, diversify the boring life of a bourgeois family, concerned only with making money. Indeed, everything in the house is subordinated to the cult of money, because they are the basis of a comfortable existence. At the same time, there is no faith in the best, even in any changes. It is no coincidence that Tatyana, who has lost faith in the reciprocity of her feelings for the Nile, complains to her friend: "I was born without faith in my heart".

The author is sure that their uncertainty is generated by the fear of responsibility for their future, the fear of change, the inability to change anything even in their own life. In this sense, Neil is opposed to all - the hero "progressive" and, as Vasily Vasilyevich clearly hints, "Future socialist-revolutionary"... He is used to fighting: even in the forge, he loves to forge, not because he loves to work, but he loves to fight with naughty metal and suppress its resistance.

However, in general, the attitude towards the Neal is ambiguous. It emphasizes hidden strength, tranquility, but behind all this there is an insensitive nature, unable to understand the beautiful. For example, in the first Moscow Art Theater production, the actor who played Neil portrayed him as a rude and uncouth dork to emphasize the absence of emotional experiences.

Bessemenov himself involuntarily opposes his son and pupil, and the comparison is not in favor of Peter. The father says to his son: "I learned to contempt for everything living, but did not acquire size in actions"... And about Nile he speaks almost with love: "He is impudent, he is a robber, but a man with a face"... Only even "humanity" the young machinist is not saved from the tragic denouement of the play: Tatiana, realizing that the sympathies of her beloved go to her younger rival, the seamstress Pole, tries to commit suicide.

After a failed suicide attempt, Tatiana realizes her doom, so the play ends with a scene where she falls on the piano keys, making a loud discordant sound. A little later, A. Chekhov, in the play "The Cherry Orchard", with the help of the sound of a broken string, will emphasize the break with the old life.

The entire play by Gorky is imbued with accusations against the bourgeoisie. Residents, observing everyday boredom, reproach the owners that they have "You will die from longing" because they don’t do anything, they don’t have any inclination. And the young widow, in a fit of despair, cries out: "You are some kind of rust, not people!"

Later, in Soviet times, the word "philistine, petty-bourgeois" will become a dirty word, a synonym for philistine. For example, what are the words of the heroine of the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears": "That's it, the bourgeois swamp has been sucked in!"

In the realistic work of Gorky, one of the recurring motives is the motive of the breakdown of the representative of the bourgeoisie with his environment, “breaking out” of it.

Foma Gordeev, the son of a merchant, one of the richest people on the Volga, rebelled against the morality of bourgeois society, against its inhuman laws. Gorky traces the history of the formation of the character and views of Thomas. Both the father - the predatory, intelligent Ig-nat Gordeev, and Yakov Mayakin saw in the younger Gordeev the heir and successor of the business. They instilled in Thomas their philosophy of life: be closer to those who can be of benefit; only money gives power - it is human strength and intelligence, one should not “fight” for someone else's, “it is necessary that a person can stand up for himself ... for his own blood”; "Who wants to get meaning from life - he is not afraid of sin"; "Or all gnaw, or lie in the mud." Observations of life gradually debunk the humanity of such morality. At first, Thomas begins to doubt his father's justice. Then he sees that all the people in his circle were equally "greedy for money, always ready to cheat each other." It becomes difficult for Foma to live next to them. At first he feels boredom and apathy, then attacks of angry melancholy, mental pain. Thomas finds happiness neither in his father's work, nor in love. He wants to live freely, and he presents freedom as liberation "from the fetters of his wealth." He takes the first step towards this by talking to Yakov Mayakin.

The feeling of discontent, protest pushes Foma Gordeev out of the merchant world. He is looking for the meaning of life and his place in it. But among the typesetters, among the loaders, Foma feels like a stranger and unnecessary. He sees the hard work of some and the satiety of others, doubts the legitimacy of the life of those "who command." Thomas throws a sharp accusatory speech to the merchants: “Bloodsuckers! You live by someone else's power ... you work by someone else's hands! " Thomas is alone in his own midst and his rebellion is suppressed. Material from the site

The metaphor of his spiritual quest is an episode from childhood, when he scared an owl in the afternoon, and that, blinded by the daylight, helplessly rushed about the ravine. “Another person, just like an owl during the day, rushes about in life ... He is looking for, looking for his place, beats, beats - only feathers fly from him, but there is no sense.” Thomas is like this owl. He is looking for the meaning and purpose of life, but does not have a positive ideal. He has no idea what he wants. He protests against bourgeois morality, but his protest is spontaneous, emotional. Foma Gordeev is the “prodigal son” of the bourgeoisie, whose tragedy consists in the absence of a specific goal.

Gorky historically accurately reflected the process of the split in bourgeois society, showing the guardians of its morality and the spontaneous rebel.

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Composition

The beginning of a new stage in the work of Gorky is associated with his novel. "Foma Gordeev" (1899), dedicated to the depiction of the "masters of life", representatives of the Russian bourgeoisie - the merchants, with whom we have already met in some of Gorky's stories of the 90s. The writer especially deeply comprehended the world of capital when, as a correspondent for "Nizhegorodsky leaf" and "Odessa news", he spent several months at the All-Russian trade and industrial exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod in 896. It was at this time that his stories about the "owners" were written: "Tosca", "Touched", "Bell", etc.

In Foma Gordeev, Gorky brings to the fore the problem of morality. He sets himself the task of showing how a truly human element comes into conflict with the hypocritical, deceitful, and often frankly cynical morality of the capitalists. The novel shows a group of "owners" representing different socio-psychological types of Russian merchants. Among them there are also representatives of the old, patriarchal first accumulators and those who, feeling their economic strength, strive for political power. The merchants of the first type include the large timber merchant and steamship operator Ananiy Shurov, whose prototype, as the author testifies, was the Nizhny Novgorod merchant Gordey Chernov, who was distinguished by unbridled tyranny and cruelty. Shurov went to wealth through a whole chain of crimes. He became rich by making counterfeit money with the help of a fugitive convict, then he killed him and burned his corpse along with the bathhouse where the convict was hiding from people. Through crimes, Lup Reznikov, Kononov, Zubov, Robustov and other merchants, depicted or mentioned in the novel, came to wealth. "Among these people," writes Gorky, "there is almost not a single one about whom Foma would not know anything criminal."

These people are ready to commit any crime for the sake of money - this is the essence of capitalism, its “family trait”. This is how the capitalists are shown not only to Gorky. I. Franko back in the 80s in the story painted a vivid type of predator in the image of Herman Goldkremer, in whose soul a terrible fever gradually flared up, a blind thirst for money, it drowned out all other feelings, forced him not to see any obstacles and beckoned him to one only goals - wealth. " In the second edition of the story (907), Franco further sharpened the traits of a predator in the character of Herman, emphasizing that in order to expand his wealth, he did not stop before outright robbery, having joined a gang of robbery profits. It is not without reason that the idea that such a sharpening of the image of Franco was made under the influence of Gorky's novel, which he highly appreciated.

Another, although no less cruel and merciless, is represented in the novel by Yakov Mayakin. He is not only a wealthy merchant, a big businessman, but also an ideologist of the class. If Shurov is an enemy of enlightenment and technical progress, who believes that a machine corrupts people ("machines work, and people indulge in it"), then Mayakin is ready to replace a person with a machine: hassle ... And a man - he is restless. " Mayakin and for enlightenment, but one that would help level people, turn them into “simple bricks” of “one measure”, so that it is convenient to manage: “as I want, I will put it”. Mayakin loves to rant about the merchant as the bearer of culture. Well aware of the economic strength of the bourgeoisie, he believes that the merchants "today" have the right to demand political power, "freedom" in state affairs, "freedom of action."

However, for all his self-confidence, for all the optimism with which he looks at the future of the merchants, Mayakin, as a man of a sober and practical mind, could not help but feel that some changes were brewing in the world, that troubling days were coming for Russia, and life was becoming hectic. and unstable: "Russia is confused, and there is nothing stable in it: everything is shaken! .."

Russia is really “embarrassed”. Even among the merchant environment, people appeared who felt the falsity of the proprietary world. This is exactly what the protagonist of the novel is, the young merchant Foma Gordeev, who is breaking out of his class. However, Gorky and Yakov Mayakin considered the central character, and there are reasons for this: Mayakin and Foma are two poles in the novel, two centers, in them the struggle of two tendencies, two morals is embodied to the greatest extent - the morality of the capitalist and the morality of a person striving for a healthy the beginning of life. Mayakin even shields Foma with himself. At the same time, as Gorky noted in a letter to Chekhov (August, 1899), Foma “barred” Mayakin from censorship.

Not limiting himself to portraying the bourgeois class and people who are raising a revolt within this class, Gorky is trying to find those forces that could lead a conscious struggle to change life. And although the writer himself did not yet clearly understand these forces, his gaze more and more often turned towards working people, towards the working class. The images of workers in Foma Gordeev do not take up much space, but they play an important role in it. We hear the first protest against the owners from the lips of the sailors on the steamer Ignat Gordeev; sailor Yefim, calling the owner a bloodsucker, angrily says: “... to tear off my skin, which I have not sold ... This is no conscience! Look, what a master to squeeze juice out of people. "

The images of working people, especially typesetters, the most literate among the working class, whom the journalist Yezhov introduces to Foma during his outing in the countryside, give the novel a special revolutionary sound. "The future belongs to people of honest labor ... Great work lies ahead for you!" In these words of Yezhov, Gorky's faith in the strength and capabilities of the people is expressed.

Other compositions on this work

"Business is not a master, but a fierce enemy" (based on the novel "Foma Gordeev") "Merchant Power" (based on the novel "Foma Gordeev") The image of the merchants in the story "Foma Gordeev" The image of Foma Gordeev in the story of the same name by M. Gorky.