The subject of the depiction in Gorky's drama At the Bottom is the consciousness of people thrown as a result of deep social processes going on in Russian society at the turn of the century, to the bottom of life. In order to embody such an object of depiction by stage means, he needs to find an appropriate situation, an appropriate conflict, as a result of which the contradictions of the consciousness of the night lodges, its strengths and weaknesses, would appear. Is a social, social conflict suitable for this?
Indeed, the play presents social conflict on several levels. Firstly, there is a conflict between the owners of the shelter, the Kostylevs, and its inhabitants. It is felt by the heroes throughout the entire play, but it turns out to be as if static, devoid of dynamics, not developing. This is because the Kostylevs themselves have not gone so far in the public sense from the inhabitants of the shelter and the relationship between them can only create tension, but not become the basis dramatic conflictcapable of "tying" the drama.
In addition, each of the heroes in the past experienced his own social conflict, as a result of which he ended up at the “bottom” of his life, in a shelter.
But these social conflicts are fundamentally taken out of the scene, relegated to the past and therefore do not become the basis of a dramatic conflict. We see only the result of social troubles that have so tragically affected people's lives, but not the clashes themselves.
The presence of social tension is already indicated in the title of the play. After all, the very fact of the existence of the “bottom” of life also presupposes the presence of a “rapid”, its upper course, to which the characters are striving to approach. But even this cannot become the basis for a dramatic conflict - after all, this tension is also devoid of dynamics, all attempts of the heroes to leave the “bottom” turn out to be futile. Even the appearance of the policeman Medvedev is not an impulse for the development of a dramatic conflict.
Perhaps a traditional love conflict is organizing the drama? Indeed, he is present in the play. It is determined by the relationship between Vaska Pepla, Kostylev's wife Vasilisa, the owner of the hostel and Natasha.
It will turn out to be the appearance of Kostylev in the shelter and the conversation of the shelters, from which it is clear that Kostylev is looking for his wife Vasilisa in the shelter, who is cheating on him with Vaska Ash. An outset is a change in the initial situation that entails the emergence of a conflict. The plot turns out to be the appearance of Natasha in the shelter, for the sake of which Ash leaves Vasilisa. In the course of the development of a love conflict, it becomes clear that relations with Natasha enrich Ash, revive him to a new life.
The culmination, the highest point in the development of the conflict, is fundamentally taken out of the scene: we do not see exactly how Vasilisa scalds Natasha with boiling water, we only learn about it from the noise and screams behind the stage and the conversations of the night lodgers. The murder of Kostylev by Vaska Ash turns out to be a tragic denouement of a love conflict.
Of course, a love conflict also becomes a facet of social conflict. He shows that the anti-human conditions of the “bottom” cripple a person and the most lofty feelings, even such as love, lead not to the enrichment of the individual, but to death, injury, murder and hard labor. Having thus unleashed a love conflict, Vasilisa emerges victorious from it, achieves all her goals at once: she takes revenge on her former lover Vaska Peplu and her rival Natasha, gets rid of her unloved husband and becomes the sole owner of the hostel. There is nothing human left in Vasilisa, and her moral impoverishment shows the enormity of the social conditions in which both the inhabitants of the shelter and its owners are immersed.
But a love conflict cannot organize stage action and become the basis of a dramatic conflict, if only because, unfolding in front of the night lodgers, it does not include themselves. They are keenly interested in the twists and turns of these relations, but do not participate in them, remaining only outside viewers. Consequently, a love conflict also does not create the situation that can form the basis of a dramatic conflict.
We repeat once again: the subject of the depiction in Morky's play turns out to be not only and not so much social contradictions of reality or possible ways of their resolution; he is interested in the consciousness of the night lodgers in all its contradictions. Such a subject of the image is characteristic of the genre of philosophical drama. Moreover, it also requires unconventional forms. artistic expression: the traditional external action (series of events) gives way to the so-called internal action. Everyday life is reproduced on the stage with its petty quarrels between the hostels, one of the heroes appears and disappears again, but these circumstances are not the plot-forming ones. Philosophical perspective forces the playwright to transform the traditional forms of drama: the plot manifests itself not only in the actions of the heroes, but in their dialogues. It is the conversations of the lodgers that determine the development of the dramatic conflict: Gorky translates the action into an extra-event series.
In the exposition we see people who, in essence, have come to terms with their tragic position at the “bottom” of life. Everyone, with the exception of Tick, does not think about the possibility of getting out of here, but are occupied only with thoughts of today or, like the Baron, are turned to nostalgic memories of the past.
The plot of the conflict turns out to be the appearance of Luke. Outwardly, it does not in any way affect the lives of the night lodgers, but intense work begins in their minds. Luca immediately becomes the center of their attention, and the entire development of the plot focuses on him. In each of the heroes, he sees the bright sides of his personality, finds the key and approach to each of them - and this makes a real revolution in the lives of the heroes. The development of internal action begins at the moment when the heroes discover in themselves the ability to dream of a new and better life... It turns out that the bright sides that Luke guessed in each of Gorky's characters constitute his true essence. It turns out that the prostitute Nastya dreams of beautiful and light love; An actor, a drunken man, a lowered alcoholic, recalls creativity and seriously thinks about returning to the stage; “Hereditary” thief Vaska Ashes reveals in himself a desire for an honest life, wants to go to Siberia and become a strong master there. Dreams reveal true human essence heroes of Gorky, their depth and purity. This is another facet of social conflict: the depth of the characters' personality, their noble aspirations are in blatant contradiction with their current social position. The structure of society is such that a person does not have the opportunity to realize his true essence.
From the first moment of his appearance in the shelter, Luka refuses to see crooks in the shelters. “I also respect crooks, in my opinion, not a single flea is bad: everyone is black, everyone is jumping ...” - so he says, justifying his right to call his new neighbors “honest people” and rejecting Bubnov's objection: “ Was honest, but the spring before last ”. The origins of this position are in the naive anthropologism of Luke, who believes that a person is initially good and only social circumstances make him bad and imperfect.
Luka's position appears in the drama as very complex, and the author's attitude towards him looks ambiguous. Luke is absolutely disinterested in his preaching and in his desire to awaken in people the best, hidden for the time being, sides of their nature, which they did not even suspect: they contrast so strikingly with their position at the very bottom of society. Luke sincerely wishes the good things to the interlocutors, shows the real ways to achieve nona, a better life. And under the influence of his words, the heroes really experience a metamorphosis. The actor stops drinking and saves money in order to go to a free hospital for alcoholics, not even suspecting that he does not need it: the dream of returning to creativity gives him the strength to overcome his illness, and he stops drinking. Ashes subordinates his whole life to the desire to go with Natasha to Siberia and there to get on his feet, to become a strong master. The dreams of Nastya and Anna, the wife of the Tick, are quite illusory, but even these dreams give them the opportunity to feel happier. Nastya imagines herself a heroine of tabloid novels, demonstrating in her dreams of the nonexistent Raoul or Gaston the feats of self-sacrifice that she is really capable of; dying Anna, dreaming of an afterlife, also partly escapes the feeling of hopelessness. Only Tambourines and Baron, people completely indifferent to others and even to themselves, remain deaf to Luke's words. Luka's position is exposed by a dispute about what truth is, which arose between him and Bubnov and Baron, when he mercilessly exposes Nastya's baseless dreams about Raoul: "Here ... you say it's true ... She's really not always due to an ailment to a person ... you cannot always cure a soul with truth ... ". In other words, Luke affirms the life-givingness of a comforting lie for a person. But is it the only lie that Luke claims?
Our literary criticism has long been dominated by the concept that Gorky unequivocally rejects Luke's comforting sermon. But the position of the writer is more complicated.
The author's position is expressed primarily in the development of the plot. After Luka left, everything happens quite differently from what the heroes expected and what Luka convinced them of. Vaska Pepel will indeed go to Siberia, but not as a free settler, but as a convict accused of murdering Kostylev. The actor, who has lost faith in himself, will exactly repeat the fate of the hero of the parable of the righteous land, told by Luke. Trusting the hero to tell this plot, Gorky himself in the fourth act will beat him, drawing directly opposite conclusions. Luke, having told a parable about a man who, having lost faith in the existence of a righteous land, strangled himself, believes that a person cannot be deprived of hope, albeit an illusory one. Gorky, showing the fate of the Actor, assures the reader and viewer that it is a false hope that can lead a person to a noose. Ho back to the previous question: in what way did Luke deceive the heroes of the play?
The actor accuses him of not leaving the address of the free hospital. All heroes agree that Luke has instilled false hope in their souls. But he did not promise to take them out of the “bottom” of life - he simply instilled in them the hope that there is a way out and that it is not ordered for them. That belief in herself, which awoke in the minds of the night lodgers, turned out to be too fragile and unviable, and with the disappearance of the hero who was able to wake her up, it immediately died out. The point is the heroes 'weakness, their inability and unwillingness to do even a little in order to withstand the ruthless social circumstances that doom them to the Kostylevs' shelter. Therefore, he addresses the main accusation not to Luka, but to heroes who are unable to find the strength in themselves to oppose their will to reality. So Gorky manages to open one of characteristic features Russian national character: dissatisfaction with reality, a sharply critical attitude towards it and a complete unwillingness to do anything in order to change this reality. That is why Luke finds such a warm response among the night shelters: after all, he explains the failures of their lives by external circumstances and is not at all inclined to blame the heroes themselves for their failed lives. And the thought of trying to somehow change these circumstances does not occur to either Luka or his flock. That is why the heroes experience the loss of Luke so dramatically: the hope awakened in their souls cannot find an inner support in their characters; they will always need the external support of even such a helpless person in a practical sense as the “beggarless” Luke.
Luke is an ideologue of passive consciousness, so unacceptable for Gorky.
According to the writer, a passive ideology can only reconcile the hero with his current situation and will not prompt him to try to change this situation, as happened with Nastya, Anna, the Actor, who, after the disappearance of Luka, lost all hope and the inner strengths were acquired for its realization - and laid the blame not on himself, but on Luke. But who could object to this hero, who could oppose at least something to his passive ideology? There was no such hero in the shelter. The bottom line is that the “bottom” cannot develop a different ideological position, which is why Luke's ideas are so close to its inhabitants. But his preaching gave an impetus for a certain antithesis, for the emergence of a new life position. Satin became its spokesman.
He is well aware that his state of mind is a reaction to Luke's words:
“Yes, it was he, the old yeast, who fermented our roommates ... Old man? He is a clever fellow! .. The old man is not a charlatan! What is truth? Man - that's the truth! He understood this ... you - no! .. He ... acted on me like acid on an old and dirty coin ... ”.
And his famous monologue about a man, in which he asserts the need for respect, but not pity, but pity he considers as humiliation, asserts a different life position... However, this is only the birth, only the very first step towards the formation of an active consciousness capable of changing social circumstances, of opposing them, and not a simple desire to fence off them and try to get around them, which Luke insisted on.
The tragic ending of the drama (the Actor's suicide) also raises the question of the genre nature of the play "At the Bottom".
Do we have any reason to view At the Bottom as a tragedy? Indeed, in this case, we will have to define the Actor as a hero-ideologist and consider his conflict with society as ideological, for the hero-ideologist by death affirms his ideology. Tragic doom is the last and often the only way not to bow before the opposing force and to validate ideas.
I think not. His death is an act of despair and disbelief in his own strength and rebirth. Among the heroes of the “bottom” there are no obvious ideologues opposing reality. Moreover, their own situation is not comprehended by them themselves as tragic and hopeless. They have not yet reached the level of consciousness when a tragic outlook on life is possible, because it presupposes a conscious opposition to social or other circumstances.
Gorky clearly does not find such a hero in Kostylev's little house, at the “bottom” of his life. Therefore, it would be more logical to regard At the Bottom as a social-philosophical and social-everyday drama.
Reflecting on the genre nature of the play, one must turn to its conflict, show which collisions are in the center of the playwright's attention, which becomes the main subject of the depiction. In our case, the subject of Gorky's research is the social conditions of Russian reality at the turn of the century and their reflection in the minds of the heroes. In this case, the main, the main subject of the image is precisely the consciousness of the night-lodgers and the sides of the Russian national character that manifested themselves in it.
Gorky tries to determine what are the social circumstances that influenced the characters of the heroes. To do this, he shows the backstory of the characters, which becomes clear to the viewer from the dialogues of the characters. But it is more important for him to show those social circumstances, the circumstances of the “bottom” in which the heroes find themselves now. It is this their position that equates the former aristocrat Baron with the sharper Bubnov and the thief Vaska Pepl and forms the common features of consciousness: a rejection of reality and at the same time a passive attitude towards it.
Inside Russian realism since the 40s. XIX century, with the emergence of the "natural school" and the Gogol trend in literature, a trend emerges that characterizes the pathos of social criticism in relation to reality. It is this direction, which is represented, for example, by the names of Gogol, Nekrasov, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Pisarev, that received the name critical realism... In the drama At the Bottom, Gorky continues these traditions, which is manifested in his critical attitude to the social aspects of life and in many respects to the heroes immersed in this life and shaped by it.
Often, when analyzing a play, the director confuses events with facts, proposed circumstances, and actions.
Event we call what affects everyone actors and breaks the further course of the further storyline of the play. In connection with the event, a certain train of thought of the actors is born, as a result of which certain wants, desires, tasks appear, and as a result of the latter, certain actions are performed Events should be built in an event series, according to which it is possible to clearly trace the development of the plot and its compositional construction. The event series should include:
initiating events,
tie events,
nodal events that drastically change events in each act,
climactic event action,
final event resolving the conflict.
The initiating event often ends before the curtain opens. The action begins when the heroes are already talking about something, doing something. It is necessary to realize what event gave rise to the initial action. The events are based on the first seeds from which the future performance is born. The exposition and the eventual connection are inextricably merged events of a single initial stage. The exposition action prepares the plot, the plot realizes the conflict events inherent in the developing ones in the exposition. If in the exposition the author acquaints us with the alignment of forces, then a dramatic struggle opens up. A tie should be considered not just a line of action, but an event containing a conflict.
Nodal events
In every picture, in every act, there is a key event that moves the dramatic action forward. Of these, it is necessary to single out the most important ones, which will be called nodal events. Among the nodal, it is necessary to define the culmination, which brings the dramatic action to the highest tension. Usually, the culminating action tends to the finale, since after it there comes a decline in the development of the dramatic action. The culmination is the line at which the nature of the struggle changes and the denouement approaches. The precisely found culmination is the guarantee of the correct ideological sound of the performance. The climax is an expression of the essence of the social meaning of the play. After the climactic action, there is a denouement. In the denouement, the ideological and moral meaning of the play is openly revealed. The conflict is over. The opposition of one of the parties is broken, someone wins and the balance is established that was violated in the tie. The denouement takes us to a new moral height in which we re-examine the entire course of the dramatic battle, re-evaluate the ideas and principles that drove the heroes, and evaluate their true values. The moral effect of the finale is prepared by the entire course of the dramatic action, the course of the struggle, and is resolved by the course of the struggle. In the denouement, an end is put in the development of the conflict. This point can be found and defined as the final event of the piece. An event can be an incident, incident, message, news, or discovery, an unexpected act of a hero, or his decision to do something. An event is a qualitative change in circumstances, or a situation that contributes to the emergence of a new one. In the development of the action, the event, as a rule, changes the line of action of the hero, sometimes several or all of the characters in the play. The event develops a dramatic action, determines plot twists, creates activity and intensity of action.
Revealing facts and events. Event series of the play.
Event - a change in the actions of all characters in the play. After the event is completed, the action begins to develop in a new direction. Each event is the cause of the next, and the consequence of the previous one. One event generates another.
Fact - changes the action of an individual character or several characters, but does not have the same significant effect as the event on the entire course of the play.
Revealing facts and events is divided into 2 stages.
Examining the proposed circumstances is the first and most important step in the analysis of the play; we must examine all the facts and events that subsequently influenced the course and development of the play. This includes an analysis of the entire backstory of the play:
Study of the era
The era in art that prevailed at the time of writing the play
The situation, the surrounding heroes, disposition, way of life, way of life
Thorough study of the past of each of the heroes
Real heroes
It is necessary to study those events, facts and circumstances in the lives of the heroes that immediately preceded the beginning of the play, and which served as an impetus for the development of the action.
Major events and their relationship.
Event series - the definition of events in the play itself.
The event, in the general opinion, is the expression of the play's conflict development, therefore the main feature that distinguishes the event will be the revealed fact, which in turn causes conflict relations and prompts them to action. This stage of identifying events, their sequence and interaction K.S. Stanislavsky called the beginning of the "systematic study of the play." "Determining events and actions, the actor involuntarily captures more and more wide layers of the proposed life circumstances of the play."
But the proposed circumstances alone are not enough and not enough to start the play, since it is only the environment from which the main action is born.
The initial event is a kind of push, an impulse that will give movement to all circumstances, twisting them into a kind of knot, into a single and swift action, directing them forward to the desired resolution.
The search for a single conflict fact, common for all persons who open the action of the play, will, according to A.M. Polamishev (1), define the “initial event”. Since, in his opinion, the very term "event" sets up the search for something large, large-scale, but often the action of the play begins with a trifle, an insignificant fact, hence its definition as "the first conflicting fact". The "first conflict fact" tells us about some kind of effective incident that creates a conflict situation for all the characters in the play at the level of action (directly psychophysical). But at the initial moment of the beginning of the play, in addition to the action, it is extremely important to take into account other layers: ideological-thematic, philosophical, actant, etc. All these levels cannot be fully involved in the concept of "first conflicting fact". The “first conflicting fact” is included in the structure of the “initial event”.
The next step in analyzing the action of the play will be the search for "basic conflicting facts." They, as A.M. Polamishev (1), "the facts that are the cause of the conflicting facts that follow them should be considered." HELL. Popov calls the following conflicting fact - "the main event." It is “basic” because here (exactly here, and not in the “original”), two equal, opposing sides collide and from that moment the plot of the play itself begins.
- A.M. Polamishev - the book "The skill of the director" ch. effective analysis of the play.
The relationship between these two events (initial and main) generates a certain relationship of actions, which is commonly called the "event series". We can also say this: a series of events is a definite, interdependent sequence of events.
All these events have a different shape, volume, meaning, but among them one major event can be distinguished - the "central" one. AM Polamishev calls it "the main conflict fact." The central event is the highest point in the development of the play's action, the peak of the struggle and, naturally, a turning point in the action, after which it moves to the final, denouement. In this event, the author's idea is most clearly revealed, the whole depth of the conflict underlying the play. This event does not necessarily lie in the middle of the play, often it is closer to the end, because the action, constantly growing, moves towards its denouement.
The result of this movement is the “final event” (or “the last conflicting fact”), it is essentially the denouement of the action, the end, where the conflict finds its resolution and where the plot itself ends.
But the end of the plot is not yet the end of the play itself. The “final” event is followed by the “main”, which is the main semantic unit of the play. In it, the author fully expresses the idea of \u200b\u200bthe play, his attitude to the events that have taken place, a kind of summary.
Event series.
All the events listed above are the "main events of the play" on which the action is built and organized, the plot is based on them, but they do not exhaust all the events in the play. The event series usually consists of several dozen events (it is they that make up the plot). Therefore, the next step (after searching for and highlighting the main events) will be to determine all the events of the play, i.e. event series.
To define an event, Aristotle invented a good method - the “method of exclusion.” Later, KS Stanislavsky introduced it into the routine of directorial practice. If yes, then this is an event; if not, then this is a fact. “The parts of events should be put together so that with the rearrangement or removal of one of the parts the whole would change and upset, for that, the presence or absence of something imperceptibly, not part of the whole. "
All events are connected with each other by a causal mechanism: each event is the cause of the next and the consequence of the previous one; one event spawns another, etc. This is the main feature of the event series. The main events, which we spoke about above, are parts of the event series, the most significant parts, while facts fill the inner space of the play, creating its original composition, its features and atmosphere.
Homework for the lesson
2. Collect material on each inhabitant of the shelter.
3. Think about how you can group the characters.
4. What is the nature of the conflict in the play?
The purpose of the lesson: to show the innovation of Gorky; determine the components of the genre and conflict in the play.
The main question I wanted to pose was which is better, truth or compassion. What is more needed. Is it necessary to bring compassion to the point of using lies like Luke? This is not a subjective question, but a general philosophical one.
Maksim Gorky
The history of the play
For more than 80 years, performances based on the play "At the Bottom" have not left the national stage. She has bypassed the largest theaters in the world, and interest in her does not wane!
In 1901, Gorky said about the idea of \u200b\u200bhis play: "It will be scary." The author has repeatedly changed the title: "Without the sun", "Nochlezhka", "Bottom", "At the bottom of life". The title “At the bottom” first appeared on the posters of an art theater. It is not the place of action that is highlighted - "the shelter", not the nature of the conditions - "no sun", "bottom", not even social status - "at the bottom of life." The phrase "At the bottom" is much broader in meaning than all of the above. What is happening “at the bottom”? “At the bottom” - what, only life? Maybe - and souls?
The ambiguity of Gorky's play led to her various theatrical performances.
The most striking was the first stage incarnation of the drama (1902) by the Art Theater by the renowned directors K.S. Stanislavsky, V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko with the direct participation of A.M. Gorky.
In 1903, the play was awarded the honorary Griboyedov Prize.
Features of the composition
Question
Where does the play take place?
Answer
In a cave-like basement in which people are forced to lead an antediluvian existence. Separate strokes of the description introduce the symbolism of hell here: the shelter is located below ground level, people are deprived of the sun here, the light falls "from top to bottom", the characters feel themselves "dead", "sinners", "thrown into a pit," killed "by society and in these vaults buried.
Question
How is the scene depicted in the play?
Answer
In the author's remarks. In the first act, it is "a cave-like basement", "heavy, stone vaults, smoked, with fallen plaster." It is important that the writer gives instructions on how the scene is illuminated: "from the viewer and from top to bottom", the light reaches the night shelters from the basement window, as if looking for people among the basement inhabitants. Thin partitions line Ash's room. There are bunks all over the walls. Except for Kvashnya, Baron and Nastya, who live in the kitchen, no one has their own corner. Everything is for show in front of each other, a secluded place only on the stove and behind the chintz canopy separating the dying Anna's bed from the others (by this, she seems to be separated from life). There is dirt everywhere: "dirty chintz curtains", unpainted and dirty table, benches, stool, tattered cardboard boxes, pieces of oilcloth, rags.
Question
List the characters in the play with their brief characteristics... What groups can you conventionally divide all the characters into?
Answer
All the inhabitants of the flophouse can be conventionally grouped into four groups, depending on the place they occupy in the clash of various positions, in the philosophical conflict of the play.
The first group includes the Actor, Nastya, Ash, Natasha. These characters are predisposed to meet the wanderer Luke. Each of them lives with some kind of dream or hope. So the Actor expects to recover from alcoholism, return to the stage, where he had the theatrical name Sverchkov-Zavolzhsky. Now, however, there is no name left, but he is striving in his thoughts towards artistic glory. Nastya is dreaming of a French student whom she supposedly loves passionately. Ash dreams of a free and free life, "so that you can ... respect yourself." Natasha vaguely hopes for a happy fate when Vasily will be her strong support. Each of these characters is not too firm in their aspirations, internally divided.
Luke, which we will talk about in detail in the next lesson, is designed to reveal the essence of each.
Baron and Bubnov are the third group. The first of them constantly lives in the past, remembering hundreds of serfs, carriages with coats of arms, coffee with cream in the morning in bed. Completely devastated, he no longer expects anything, does not dream of anything. The second - Tambourine - also sometimes refers to the past years, when he suffered from life, but basically lives in the present and recognizes only what he sees and touches. Bubnov is an indifferent cynic. For him, only the facts are clear, they are a "stubborn thing." The truth of the Baron and Bubnov is a tough, wingless truth, far from the true truth.
The fourth position is occupied by Satin in the play. For all its originality, it is also distinguished by its inconsistency. First, the words spoken by this hero are in stark contrast to his essence. After all, a swindler by occupation, a prisoner and a murderer in the past speaks about the truth. Secondly, in a number of cases, Satin turns out to be close to Luka. He agrees with the stranger that “people live for the better”, that the truth is connected with the idea of \u200b\u200ba person, that one should not interfere with him and belittle him (“Do not offend a person!”)
The images should be placed on the "ladder" of ranks and positions, since we have a social cut of the life of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century: Baron, Kostylev, Bubnov, Satin, Actor; Ash, Nastya.
Question
What is the conflict of the drama?
Answer
The conflict in this drama is social. Each of the lodgers has experienced in the past his own social conflict, as a result of which he found himself in a humiliating position. Life has deprived the people gathered in this hell. She deprived the right to work of Klesh, to the family - Nastya, to the profession - the Actor, to the former comfort - the Baron, doomed Anna to a hungry existence, to theft - Ash, the unrestrained binge - Bubnov, prostitution - Nastya.
A sharp conflict situation playing out in front of the audience is the most important feature of drama as a kind of literature.
Question
How is social conflict related to dramatic conflict?
Answer
Social conflict has been taken out of the scene, pushed back into the past; it does not become the basis of dramatic conflict. We see only the result of non-stage conflicts.
Question
What kind of conflicts other than social conflicts are highlighted in the play?
Answer
There is a traditional love conflict in the play. It is determined by the relationship between Vaska Pepla, Vasilisa, the wife of the owner of the hostel, Kostylev and Natasha, Vasilisa's sister. The exposition of this conflict is a conversation between the hostels, from which it is clear that Kostylev is looking for his wife Vasilisa in the shelter, who is cheating on him with Vaska Ash. The plot of this conflict is the appearance of Natasha in the shelter, for the sake of which Ash leaves Vasilisa. In the course of the development of a love conflict, it becomes clear that relations with Natasha revive Ash, he wants to leave with her and start new life... The culmination of the conflict is taken off stage: at the end of the third act, we learn from Kvashnya's words that they boiled the girl's legs with boiling water ”- Vasilisa knocked over the samovar and scalded Natasha's legs. The murder of Kostylev by Vaska Ash turns out to be a tragic denouement of a love conflict. Natasha stops believing Ash: “They are at the same time! Damn you! You both…"
Question
What is the originality of the love conflict in the play?
Answer
A love conflict becomes a facet of social conflict. He shows that antihuman conditions cripple a person, and even love does not save a person, but leads to tragedy: death, injury, murder, hard labor. As a result, one Vasilisa achieves all her goals: she takes revenge on Ash's former lover and her rival sister Natasha, gets rid of her unloved and disgusted husband and becomes the sole mistress of the hostel. Nothing human remains in Vasilisa, and this shows the enormity of the social conditions that disfigured both the inhabitants of the shelter and its owners. Nightcrawlers do not directly participate in this conflict, they are just outside spectators.
Question
What does this shelter remind you of?
Answer
The shelter is a kind of model of the cruel world from which its inhabitants were thrown out. Here, too, there are "masters", the police, the same alienation, hostility, the same vices are manifested.
Final words of the teacher
Gorky depicts the consciousness of people of the "bottom". The plot unfolds not so much in external action - in everyday life, as in the dialogues of the characters. It is the conversations of the lodgers that determine the development of the dramatic conflict. The action is transferred to an extra-event series. This is typical of the genre of philosophical drama.
So, the genre of the play can be defined as a socio-philosophical drama.
Homework
Prepare for the lesson-debate about Luke. To do this: mark (or write out) his statements about people, about truth, about faith. Determine your attitude to the statements about Luke Baron and Satin (IV act).
Determine the compositional elements of the piece. Why did Chekhov consider the last act unnecessary?
Literature
D.N. Murin, E. D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11 program. Thematic lesson planning... St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001
E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the XX century / St. Petersburg: Parity, 2002
N.V. Egorova. Lesson developments in Russian literature of the XX century. Grade 11. 1st half of the year. M .: VAKO, 2005
Event development is the most important part of a director's concept. An event is the basic structural unit of stage life, an indivisible atom of an effective process. Action is the basic law of drama.
Event - this is a psychological incident that radically changes the attitude of all actors to what is happening, gives rise to a new balance of forces. The system of relationships between characters in a certain period of time. The event determines the movement and development of the play's conflict and its resolution.
Stanislavsky wrote about the technique of the so-called "intelligence with the mind" and "intelligence with the body." This technique is based on the ability of theater artists to perceive reality in an eventful manner. At the stage of “intelligence intelligence”, the director forms an idea of \u200b\u200bhow the play will develop - from the initial event, through the main, central, final - to the main event. The chain of events selected by the director at the stage of "intelligence with the mind" is the path to the staged solution of the performance.
Stanislavsky proposed to identify in the analysis the most important events that determine the movement of the play.
The initial event is the origin of the conflict;
The main event is its essence;
The main event is conflict resolution.
Tovstonogov believed that the play in its development is based on five such events:
1. The initial event is the emotional "inception" of the performance. It begins outside the performance and ends before the eyes of the viewer; reflects the original proposed circumstance.
2. The main event - here begins the struggle for the through action, the leading proposed circumstance of the play comes into force.
3. The central event is the culminating peak in the performance of the struggle in cross-cutting action.
4. The final event - here the struggle for end-to-end action ends, the leading proposed circumstance is exhausted.
5. The main event is the very last event of the performance, which contains the "seed" of the super task; the idea of \u200b\u200bthe work in it becomes clear; here the fate of the original proposed circumstance is decided (it either changes or remains the same).
An event is a complex, long-term continuous process that, in addition to physical living, has a mental one. An event can change the goal of the hero, his line of behavior, and be a catalyst for action.
There is a kind of diagram by which you can follow the process of event deployment:
direct action.
perception;
Or otherwise - as Stanislavsky said: "I saw - I got scared - I ran."
The original event of the play - Theft of the Snow Maiden by Koschei ( The main villain - Koschey steals the granddaughter of Santa Claus. And now New Year will never come).
The main event of the play is the Fight for the release of the Snow Maiden (Masha and Vitya go to the fairy-tale forest, where they meet Babu-Yaga, Leshy, and the Wild Cat Matvey on their way. Friendship, kindness and mutual assistance help to cope with the traps of evil spirits and find a way to the kingdom of Koscheevo).
The central event of the performance is the release of the Snow Maiden (Masha undertakes to save Koshchei from a toothache if he releases the Snow Maiden to freedom. Koschey, unable to endure the pain any longer, goes to a deal with Masha)
The final event of the play - Masha and Vitya win a battle with evil spirits (Koschey, having gotten rid of the pain, decides to take revenge on Masha. Vitya comes to the girl's aid. A fight ensues, in which Vitya wins. residents: Pechka, Yablonya, Starichok-Lesovichok).
The main event of the performance is the New Year's Eve (Back at school, the children are greeted by Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden. The performance ends with the New Year celebration).