At the bottom: Anna's characteristics. The image and characteristics of Anna in the play at the bottom of gorky composition Anna's dream in the play at the bottom

  • 05.08.2021

The play "At the Bottom" was conceived by Gorky as one of four plays in a cycle showing the life and worldview of people from different strata of society. This is one of the two purposes of creating a work. The deep meaning that the author laid in it is an attempt to answer the main questions of human existence: what is a person and whether he will preserve his personality, having descended to the “bottom” of moral and social life.

The history of the play

The first evidence of work on the play dates back to 1900, when Gorky, in a conversation with Stanislavsky, mentions his desire to write scenes from the life of a flophouse. Some sketches appeared at the end of 1901. In a letter to the publisher K. P. Pyatnitsky, to whom the author dedicated the work, Gorky wrote that in the planned play all the characters, the idea, the motives of the actions are clear to him, and "it will be scary." The final version of the work was ready on July 25, 1902, published in Munich, and went on sale at the end of the year.

Things were not so rosy with the staging of the play on the stages of Russian theaters - it is practically prohibited. An exception was made only for the Moscow Art Theater, the rest of the theaters had to receive special permission for staging.

The title of the play was changed at least four times in the process of work, and the genre was never determined by the author - the edition read “At the bottom of life: scenes”. The shortened and now familiar name for the first time appeared in the theatrical playbill at the first production at the Moscow Art Theater.

The first performers were the star cast of the Moscow Art Academic Theater: K. Stanislavsky performed the role of Satin, V. Kachalov as Baron, I. Moskvin, Luke, O. Knipper, Natasha and M. Andreeva.

The main plot of the work

The plot of the play is tied to the relationship of the heroes and in the atmosphere of universal hatred that reigns in the shelter. This is the outer canvas of the work. Parallel action explores the depth of a person's fall “to the bottom”, the measure of insignificance of a socially and spiritually descended individual.

The action of the play begins and ends with the storyline of the relationship between two characters: the thief Vaska Ash and the wife of the owner of the shelter Vasilisa. Ash loves her younger sister Natasha. Vasilisa is jealous, constantly beats up her sister. She also has another interest in her lover - she wants to free herself from her husband and pushes Ash to murder. During the play, Ash actually kills Kostylev in a quarrel. In the last act of the play, the lodgers of the shelter say that Vaska will have to go to hard labor, and Vasilisa will “get out” anyway. Thus, the action is looped through the fates of the two heroes, but is far from limited to them.

The play is scheduled for several weeks in early spring. The season is an important part of the play. One of the first titles given by the author to the work, "Without the Sun". Indeed, there is spring around, a sea of ​​sunlight, and darkness in the shelter and in the souls of its inhabitants. Luka, a tramp, whom Natasha brings one day, became a ray of the sun for the lodgers. Luke brings hope for a happy outcome to the hearts of people who have fallen asleep and have lost faith in the best. However, at the end of the play, Luka disappears from the shelter. The characters who trust him lose faith in the best. The play ends with the suicide of one of them - the Actor.

Analysis of the piece

The play describes the life of a Moscow shelter. The main characters, respectively, were its inhabitants and the owners of the establishment. Also in it there are persons related to the life of the institution: a policeman, who is also the uncle of the hostess of the hostel, a vendor with dumplings, loaders.

Satin and Luca

The sharper, the former convict Satin and the vagabond, the wanderer Luke are carriers of two opposing ideas: the need for compassion for a person, a saving lie out of love for him, and the need to know the truth, as proof of a person's greatness, as a sign of trust in his strength of mind. In order to prove the falsity of the first worldview and the truth of the second, the author also built the action of the play.

Other characters

All other characters are the backdrop for this battle of ideas. In addition, they are designed to show, measure the depth of fall to which a person is able to descend. The drunkard Actor and the terminally ill Anna, people who have completely lost faith in their strengths, fall under the power of a wonderful fairy tale, into which Luke takes them. They are most dependent on him. With his departure, they physically cannot live and die. The rest of the inhabitants of the shelter perceive the appearance and departure of Luke, as a play of the sun's ray of spring - appeared and disappeared.

Nastya, selling her body "on the boulevard", believes that there is a light love, and she was in her life. Tick, husband of dying Anna, believes that he will rise from the bottom and start earning a living from work again. The toolbox remains the thread that connects him to his working past. At the end of the play, he is forced to sell them in order to bury his wife. Natasha hopes that Vasilisa will change and stop torturing her. After another beatings, after leaving the hospital, she will no longer appear in the shelter. Vaska Pepel strives to stay with Natalia, but cannot get out of the networks of the imperious Vasilisa. The latter, in turn, expects the death of her husband to untie her hands and give her long-awaited freedom. The Baron lives his aristocratic past. The gambler Bubnov, the destroyer of "illusions", the ideologue of misanthropy, believes that "all people are superfluous."

The work was created in conditions when, after the economic crisis of the 90s of the XIX century, factories stood up in Russia, the population was rapidly becoming poorer, many found themselves at the bottom rung of the social ladder, in the basement. Each of the heroes of the play in the past experienced a fall “to the bottom”, social and moral. Now they live with the memory of this, but they cannot rise “into the light”: they cannot, they have no strength, they are ashamed of their insignificance.

main characters

Luke became the light for some. Gorky gave Luka a “telling” name. It refers both to the image of St. Luke and to the concept of "guile". Obviously, the author seeks to show the inconsistency of Luke's ideas about the beneficial value of Faith for a person. Gorky practically reduces Luka's compassionate humanism to the notion of betrayal - according to the plot of the play, the tramp leaves the shelter just when those who trusted him need his support.

Satin is a figure designed to voice the author's worldview. As Gorky wrote, Satin is not a very suitable character for this, but there is simply no other with the same powerful charisma in the play. Satin is the ideological antipode of Luke: he does not believe in anything, sees the ruthless essence of life and the situation in which he and the rest of the inhabitants of the shelter found themselves. Does Satin believe in Man and his power over the power of circumstances and mistakes? The passionate monologue that he utters, arguing in absentia with the departed Luka, leaves a strong but contradictory impression.

There is also a carrier of the "third" truth in the work - Tambourines. This hero, like Satin, "stands for the truth", only he is somehow very scary. He is a man-hater, but, in fact, a murderer. Only they die not from the knife in his hands, but from the hatred that he harbors for everyone.

The drama of the play increases from act to act. Luke's comforting conversations with those suffering from his compassion and the rare remarks of Satin, which indicate that he listens attentively to the vagabond's speeches, become a connecting canvas. The culmination of the play is Satin's monologue, delivered after Luke's departure and flight. Phrases from it are often quoted because they look like aphorisms; "Everything in a person is everything for a person!", "Lies are the religion of slaves and masters ... Truth is the god of a free person!"

Conclusion

The bitter result of the play is the triumph of the freedom of a fallen person to perish, disappear, leave, leaving no trace or memories behind. The inhabitants of the shelter are free from society, moral norms, family and livelihood. By and large, they are free from life.

The play At the Bottom has been living for over a century and continues to be one of the most powerful works of Russian classics. The play makes one think about the place of faith and love in a person's life, about the nature of truth and lies, about a person's ability to withstand moral and social decline.

Anna is a character in the play "At the Bottom", a woman with consumption who is living out her last days, the wife of the laborer Klesh. She is tired of a life in which she shakes over every piece of bread and walks in rags. At the same time, Anna constantly endures her husband's abuse. Anyone but her husband sympathizes with the poor thing. He only insults and humiliates her, and sometimes beats her. She only causes indifference and irritation in him.

It seems that in the image of Anna all women are shown who endure a rude attitude in family life. It even becomes scary that she so calmly endures eternal humiliation. At the same time, she continues to take care of her husband and is ready to give everything to him. So, in one episode, she says that Kvashnya left her dumplings for him to take and eat. He grumbles at her all the time and does not take her requests in any way. When she, panting, asks to open the door, he refuses, fearing that he will catch a cold. It is not surprising that there is only one way out of such a life - death. And she is only thirty years old. Before dying, Luke somehow comforts her. He says that in the next world she can take a break from her joyless existence. After all, these torments are compensated by bliss in heaven. She soon dies.

Anna is one of the female characters of the work, which makes it possible to more subtly feel the inferiority of the world of the inhabitants of the hostel.

The writer presents the image of Anna as a terminally ill woman of thirty years old, infected with consumption, realizing that she will soon die and humbly accepting this fact.

Anna lives in a shelter with her husband Tick, who has lost his job. The woman feels terrible fatigue from a hard and impoverished life, which annoyed Anna with her intolerance, where she is forced to save, shake over a piece of bread, dress in rags.

Anna personifies in the play the image of pure and bashful suffering, not clouded by vicious desires and violent passions. A young woman feels like an ancient old woman and realizes her uselessness to the world around her.

Residents of the shelter provide minimal assistance and express sympathy to the dying woman, only her husband remains indifferent to Anna's torment, constantly insulting, humiliating her, and sometimes raising his fists at her.

Anna is patient with her husband's irritations, calmly trying to take care of him further, since she is ready for a lot for the sake of Tick. However, the selfish and indifferent to his wife's illness, Tick refuses Anna even to let some fresh air into the open door, fearing that he will catch a cold himself.

The downtrodden and hunted woman considers death the only way out of the hopeless hellish life and is only afraid that in another dimension she will also be doomed to torment, although she dreams of getting at least a little blissful rest from her woeful existence.

The author reveals the image of the heroine, depicting her as an unnecessary thing in this world. Throughout the play, Anna's character does not receive any movement, she is moved around the stage, forgotten in the kitchen, carried, taken out. Even after dying, they are in no hurry to send a woman to the churchyard, after a while they take her out like a props.

In the last minutes of her life, the wanderer Luke brings consolation to Anna, telling the woman that in the next world she will receive both pleasure and a long-awaited rest, so Anna dies, thinking only of her pipe dreams.

Telling about the difficult and unjust fate of a young woman, the author vividly illustrates a period in the life of Russia when disadvantaged people forced to sink to the social bottom lead a miserable existence, while remaining capable of wise thinking, the desire to think and dream about a wonderful future.

The composition of Anna in the play At the bottom

Anna is one of the minor characters in the masterpiece of Russian classics, the play "At the Bottom" by Maxim Gorky. Her image is the most tragic in the work.

She is 30 years old, she is married to a simple mechanic, Andrey Klesh. The woman is seriously ill with consumption, pulmonary tuberculosis. She feels the imminent approach of death and is very weak due to her illness. Anna practically does not eat anything, mostly lies in bed all the time, since she does not have enough strength for anything else, she suffers from constant attacks of a suffocating cough.

The husband treats her coldly and indifferently, with obvious irritability and reproaches, sometimes a woman even has to endure beatings from him. The tick refuses even to open the door at the request of his wife, arguing that he is afraid of getting sick like her. Despite this, Anna continues to look after him, gives her husband all the best and humbly endures his cruelty. The author embodies in her character all women with a difficult fate and unhappy marriages. It would seem that she is still so young, but Anna no longer has any vitality left, illness, lack of money and moral exhaustion have crippled her, she has long come to terms with the established state of affairs and believes that it is too late to try to change anything.

The couple are very poor, they live in a poor house owned by the Kostylev couple. Throughout her life, a woman is malnourished, wears old clothes that look more like rags, denies herself all kinds of material benefits. All guests sincerely sympathize and feel sorry for Anna, except for her own husband. He does not show any care and human understanding towards her. The constant cruelty on his part only worsened her already deplorable state, both moral and physical.

The wanderer Luke is trying to alleviate Anna's painful fate. He resorts to deception in order to somehow console and calm the unfortunate woman. She promises that in heaven she will have a much better life and peace of mind, that she will be richly rewarded for her hardships and suffering on earth.

Soon, the disease wins and Anna's strength leaves, she dies without knowing family well-being and simple human happiness.

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Anna is one of the characters in M. Gorky's play At the Bottom. Her heroine, thirty years old, is terminally ill with consumption and realizes that she will soon die. She lives with her husband Andrey Klesh, an unemployed mechanic. Anna is tired of living in poverty, a life in which you have to save on everything and wear rags.

She embodies innocent suffering, untainted by sinful passions and aspirations. An old woman that no one needs - this is how Anna feels, despite her young age. She subtly feels how flawed is the world of the inhabitants of the bed-house, who, despite this, sincerely sympathize and in every possible way try to help the girl, in contrast to her indifferent and irritable husband. He only insults, humiliates and hits her. Anna is very humble about her illness and her husband's similar attitude. She continues to surround him with care. For the sake of this indifferent egoist, she is ready for anything, she will even give him the last piece of bread, and he, fearing that he will catch a cold even in a breath of fresh air, refuses her. His behavior only aggravates the state of the exhausted Anna.

Anna is so downtrodden and persecuted that death is the only way out of this hell for her, only one thing scares her - to be doomed to torment in another world too. She understood that nothing could be changed and simply resigned herself. She dreams of only one thing - at least there to find the long-awaited peace and rest from the hardships of earthly existence.

Anna's only consolation before her death is the wanderer Luke, who convinces her that in the other world she can finally rest. Luke promises that for all the torment she will be rewarded. Her pipe dreams are the only thing she thinks about while dying.

The author characterizes the image of the heroine as a thing that no one needs in the world. During the entire play, her character is immobilized, she is moved around the stage, she can easily be forgotten in the kitchen, moved if necessary. Even after her death, they are in no hurry to bury her and only after some time they carry her out as if she were just a props.

The image of Anna is tragic and embodies the fate of all women who have failed to find happiness in marriage, all women offended by fate and morally exhausted. Having told about how unfair fate is in relation to a young girl, the author tells about a period in the life of Russian society, when people deprived of everything, sinking to the social bottom, lead a miserable life, but at the same time they do not stop dreaming of a bright future.

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The play "At the Bottom" is a rather complex, but very interesting work of Gorky. The author managed to combine in it everyday specifics and generalized symbols, real human images and abstract philosophy. Gorky's skill was especially manifested in the description of the inhabitants of the flophouse, so dissimilar to each other. Female images play an important role in the work.

Natasha, Vasilisa, Nastya, Anna, Kvashnya are very interesting and peculiar characters. These women have sunk to the very bottom of life, their appearance is depressing and causes bitter feelings in the reader. Usually, a woman is a symbol of beauty, pure and light. The female image is the image of tenderness, love and motherhood. However, Gorky shows the reader a completely different side of life. When a woman finds herself in terrible and cruel conditions, she is forced to behave a little differently.

Someone will try to survive by selling themselves, while someone will break down and become mortally ill, unable to withstand the heavy oppression. Consider specific images from the play.

Kvashnya is a trader in dumplings, a free and strong woman, she does not allow any man to freely handle her. Her attitude towards marriage is sharply negative. It turns out that Kvashnya was already married once, but this bitter experience left an indelible mark on her soul for the rest of her life. You can imagine how cruel her husband was, and how unhappy their family life was, if the woman was so happy about the death of her husband that she simply could not believe her happiness. But, in spite of everything, Kvashnya remained sensitive to the grief of others and did not lose her humanity. She takes pity on the dying Anna and tries to feed her with dumplings. But she will not marry again, even for a prince, that's enough, she suffered.

The next heroine of the play is an unfortunate woman named Anna. She is seriously ill and is dying. Many sympathize with her, regret and try to ease the torments of the last days of life. Only Tick, her husband, is still rude and indifferent to Anna. She is used to his cruelty and patiently accepts such behavior of her husband. Anna symbolizes all women who consider rudeness to be the norm in family relations. Even being on the verge of death, she takes care of her indifferent and callous husband (offers to eat dumplings that Kvashnya left for her). Anna is only thirty years old, she is dying, and there is nothing bright in her existence.

The girl Nastya reads tabloid romances, dreams of lofty feelings, of light love, but in life she is surrounded by meanness and filth, vulgarity and rudeness. She tells her roommates sweet tales of love that are born in her imagination. They frankly mock her, because Nastya is an ordinary prostitute, she can only dream of pure and true love. The only way for her to forget about all this is to get drunk.

Vasilisa is a representative of the "masters of life", because she is the wife of the owner of the hostel. But the owners of the “bottom” differ little from its inhabitants. It is almost impossible to preserve human appearance if you are constantly in the menagerie. Vasilisa is a domineering, insensitive and cruel woman who only loves money. Her lover Vaska Ash, a thief who lacks moral principles, and he notices that this woman has no soul. Its external beauty is contrasted with its internal ugliness. She swears her love to Ash and pushes him to steal. Then he finds out that he loves her sister Natasha and promises to give her to him if Ash kills Kostylev, Vasilisa's wife. Then the hostess begins to cruelly mock her sister. She is angry with Natasha and takes revenge on her for leaving her lover. Natasha cannot answer her anything, she, by nature, is a kind and gentle person, capable of sympathizing with someone else's grief. Seeing once Natasha with Ash, Vasilisa becomes furious and, locking her sister in the house, beats her to a pulp. Natasha is already ready to go even to prison for Ashes, just not to return to Vasilisa's house. She ends up in a clinic, and from there disappears in an unknown direction, fleeing the cruelty of her own sister.

Vasilisa, for sure, will be able to get out and avoid prison. She will continue her former life, because only with such a character as hers, it is possible to survive in these monstrous conditions.

Each heroine of the play is interesting in its own way. It is through female images that the reader is best able to feel the inhuman conditions of life in which the inhabitants of the shelter find themselves.