The work of A. M. Gorky "At the bottom" stands apart in the work of the writer. Unusual characters inhabiting the pages of the play, the inhabitants of a damp dark rooming house. The circumstances of life forced people to lead a beggarly life, to lose hope.

Past

Brief replicas of the hero introduce the reader to the history of life. The representative of the middle class, a former telegraph operator, was cheerful and happy. Beloved sister, good friends, decent work. Life was going well. The man loved to sing, dance, was a member of an amateur theater, dreamed of getting married.

The plans were destroyed by a fatal accident. Defending the honor of his sister, Satin commits murder.

What followed was a rapid downward descent. Four years in prison changed his character: he learned to lie, play cards, steal. Sister died, friends turned away. Having freed himself, he lost everything: his job, his home, his family. He failed to find application for his abilities, gradually sliding to the bottom. The nochlezhka became the only shelter, a habitat.

Character

Sateen is an unusual person. He is different from the rest of the inhabitants of the basement. The man is educated. He used to like to read books, now he likes to use unfamiliar foreign words. Deliberate distortion of the sound of smart phrases is bitter self-irony.

Separate replicas of the hero say that Satin has his own philosophy of life.

Work, in his opinion, should be a pleasure, and not be a means of material well-being.

Satan always tells the truth. Opposes comforting lies. I am sure that the person is worthy of respect. Pity deprives freedom, humiliates.

He is proud, proud, secretive. He tries to forget the past, the memories of which make him suffer.

Neighbors consider Konstantin evil, insensitive, rude. In fact, deliberate swagger hides a kind, sympathetic heart. He fondly remembers his sister, tries to save Natasha, understands, justifies Luka's actions.

The fiery speeches of the character remain empty words. He prefers to mess around, get drunk, swear with neighbors. Circumstances turned out to be stronger, there is no more hope to escape, to become free. Satin is aware of the extent of the fall, trying to maintain a human appearance.

By the image of Satin, M. Gorky denounces the unfair structure of the existing social order. People like Sateen deserve a different fate.

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Gorky's play "At the Bottom" was a breakthrough in the world of literature of that time. The exposed “bottom” of society shocked many, even those who realized that not everything is so good in society and there are people who have completely degraded. However, for the first time in literature, Gorky showed these people not as a faceless rabble, but as individuals who became so under the influence of certain events in their lives, they could not resist life's troubles and found themselves overboard. All their attempts to change their lives for the better were doomed to failure from the very beginning. For them, a prosperous life has become a utopia. One of these "bottom" characters is Satin.

Satin's life path

Sateen did not always belong to the dregs of society.
Once upon a time (in his youth), he was “a decent person and worked as a telegraph operator:
When I was a boy... I served on the telegraph.

In his youth, Satin was a cheerful and sociable person, he loved to sing and dance and did it masterfully:
I, brother, young - was busy! Remember well! .. The shirt-guy ... danced magnificently, played on stage, loved to make people laugh ... nice!
Sateen was not alone in this world - he had a sister. It was the events associated with her personality that became fatal in the life of a young man.
Once he stood up for the honor of his sister. In a skirmish, he accidentally killed his opponent.

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For this act, Satin was convicted and imprisoned for four years. After leaving prison, the young man was no longer able to realize himself in life and began to descend to the bottom:
Because of my own sister... And... all this was a long time ago... Sister - died... already nine years... it has passed... Glorious, brother, I had a little human sister!..

For a scoundrel ... killed a scoundrel in anger and irritation
I spent four years and seven months in prison ... and after prison - no way.
In prison, Satine learned to play cards and cheat:
In prison, I also learned to play cards ...

Characteristics of the personality of Satin

Satin definitely stands out among the "bottom" of society. He has his own philosophy. In many moments related to the vision of life and its arrangement, Sateen has skirmishes with another character of the "bottom" - the Actor. It is in such small discussions that his life position and philosophy become clear.

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Sateen likes to pronounce different words of foreign origin. He doesn't even try to remember their meaning. At the same time, he does not give them out as smart sayings, but rather as a parody in relation to the person who announces them, while Satin deliberately distorts their pronunciation:
Organism... organon...
Sicambre…
Macrobiotics… ha!
Satin. And then there is - trance-scendental ...
Bubnov. What's this?
Satin. I don't know...forgot...
So ... I'm tired, brother, of all human words ... all of our words - tired! I heard each of them… probably a thousand times…
I love incomprehensible, rare words ...
At one time, Satin was an educated person, he liked to read books:
I read a lot of books...
There are very good books... and many interesting words... I was an educated person...

Satin believes that work for a person should not be a burden. It should bring a person not only money, but also moral pleasure:
Many people get money easily, but few easily part with it ... Work? Make the work pleasant for me - maybe I will work ... yes! May be! When work is pleasure, life is good! When work is a duty, life is slavery!
Satin often plays cards and constantly cheats during the game - he learned this in prison:

You know we are crooks.
Tatar. We must play fair!
Satin. Why is this?
Tatar. What do you mean why?
Satin. And so... Why?
Tatar. You do not know?
Satin. Don't know. Do you know?

Often Satin's card games end in a fight:
Satin. Who beat me yesterday?
Bubnov. Don't you care?..
Satin. Let's put it like that ... And why did they beat you?
Bubnov. Did you play cards?
Satin. Played…
Bubnov. That's why they beat...

Being in prison made Sateen rude, he realized that sometimes defending personal interests and justice is punishable:
Do not offend a person - that's the law!
Satin. It's called the Code of Punishments for Criminal and Correctional...
Well, yes ... the time has come and gave the "Punishment Code" ... A strong law ... you will not wear out soon!

Sateen does not like to talk about his life:
I don't like being questioned

Satin does not recognize suicide, he thinks that it is better to go with the flow of life than to die:
I'll give you advice: do nothing! Just - burden the earth!

Over time, Satin ceased to be ashamed of his low position in society, he noticed that many people live like this, and they are not at all embarrassed by their poverty:
Drop it! People are not ashamed of the fact that you live worse than a dog ... Think - you will not work, I will not ... hundreds more ... thousands, that's all! - understand? everyone stops working! Nobody wants to do anything - what will happen then?

Satin never pities people, not because he does not feel sorry for anyone, but because he sees no point in pity:
What good is it to you if I pity you? Satin believes that much in life depends on the person himself.
Everything is in a person, everything is for a person! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! It sounds… proud! Human! You have to respect the person! Do not pity ... do not humiliate him with pity ... you must respect!

Satin is not afraid to tell the truth about others, even if it is the most unattractive:
You are all cattle!
You are dumb as bricks
You, Baron, are the worst of all!.. You don't understand anything... and you're lying!
What are you complaining about? After all, you have not a penny, I know ...
Sateen knows how to express himself beautifully:
Why can't a sharper sometimes speak well, if decent people ... speak like a sharper? Yes ... I forgot a lot, but - I know something else!

Alcohol helps Satin forget about the unsightly reality:
When I'm drunk... I like everything
Satin believes that food is not the most important goal in a person's life:
I have always despised people who care too much about being fed.

Those around him condemn Sateen and consider him a robber, society does not even try to understand the reasons for his degradation and give him a chance for a full life:
I am a prisoner, a murderer, a card sharp… well, yes! When I walk down the street, people look at me like I'm a swindler ... and they step aside and look around ... and often say to me - “Bastard! Charlatan!

Satin has a high opinion of the old man who lived with them. He was always skeptical about the position of the old man and his encouragement to take active steps to change the life of the representatives of the "bottom", but after his death, he was able to realize the full significance of his person:
Old man? He is smart! .. He ... acted on me like acid on an old and dirty coin

Sateen values ​​freedom highly. He used to be a free man and is aware of all the delights of such a life:
It's good... to feel human!

Satin believes that a person must pay for everything in this life. Nothing is given to a person for free, according to Sateen, this is what makes a person free:
he pays for everything himself: for faith, for unbelief, for love, for intelligence - a person pays for everything himself, and therefore he is free!

Satin believes that there are many varieties of lies in the world, and each of them has the right to exist and is needed for people with a weak spirit. Only a strong-willed person, the master of his life, does not need a lie:
There are many people who lie out of pity for their neighbor ... I - I know! I read! There is a comforting lie, a reconciling lie... A lie justifies the heaviness that crushed the worker's hand... and blames those who are dying of hunger... I know the lie! Those who are weak in soul ... and who live on other people's juices - those need a lie ... it supports some, others hide behind it ... And who is his own master ... who is independent and does not eat someone else's - why does he need a lie?

The image of Satin is unusual and unique.

Summarize: Sateen's image is unusual and unique. He clearly stands out from the general crowd of the "bottom". Satin was not always on the side of the road. In his youth, he was quite a successful and promising person, but by a coincidence, his life went downhill.

Satin knows how to analyze and draw conclusions from their situations, but no longer believes that his life will change for the better, since society does not give him the slightest chance to gain his former freedom and considers him a scoundrel.

In the play "At the Bottom" Gorky wanted to describe the real life of people who had descended to the lowest rung of society. To do this, the writer visited shelters, rooming houses, communicated with lost personalities. All of his characters are based on real people whom Gorky met during his travels in Russia. In Moscow at that time there was a Khitrov market, which was a gathering of beggars, thieves, prostitutes and murderers. He became the prototype of the rooming house. In the play, people with different characters and outlooks on life meet under one roof: the gullible Actor, the dreamy Nastya, the terminally ill Anna, the hard-working Kleshch, the compassionate Luka, and the skeptical Satin. Gorky wrote "At the Bottom" to show the life of the lower classes, their hopelessness.

Mistakes of the past and no future

Previously, Satin was a very cheerful and sociable guy, he played on stage, loved to dance, make people laugh. A smart and well-read person could have a wonderful future, but fate decreed otherwise. Defending his sister, Satin killed a man, for which he went to prison, which crossed out his whole life, because no one needs him with a criminal record. The hero does not consider himself alive, he simply exists in Kostylev's rooming house. Drunk, addicted to cards, lost interest in life - that's how Satin ended up at the bottom.

The characteristic of Konstantin shows how apathetic and passive he is in life. Its main motto is "Do nothing". This hero was not just thrown to the bottom, he himself came here, ruined life with his own hands. Hiding from everyone, hiding in the basement, playing cards, drinking money is much more convenient and easier than trying to make your way into the world of normal people, but Konstantin himself wished to stay at the bottom. Sateen's characterization shows that this is a character with a special philosophy of a "free man", for him the truth is most important.

Confrontation of bitter truth and sweet lies

Konstantin Satin is the antagonist of Luke, a wanderer who takes pity on all the inhabitants of the rooming house and invents his own truth for everyone. The new resident instills in others faith in a better future, although he himself does not believe that life can be somehow changed. Luka promises the Actor to give the address of a free hospital for alcoholics, calms the dying Anna, and supports Nastya's illusions. He pities the people who find themselves at the bottom for some reason. Satin, whose characteristic betrays a sane person in him, calls everything a "mirage". It seems that he alone understands the hopelessness of such a life and does not believe the sweet speeches of the wanderer.

The truth sets a man free

From the speeches of the hero and his actions, we can conclude that Satin ended up at the bottom quite by accident. The characterization shows how kind he is in his soul, because he loved his sister, he was the first to run to protect Natasha. The hero does not accept lies, believing that it humiliates him and makes him a slave. Konstantin speaks the right speeches, but it is so difficult to be strong, courageous and independent, because it is much easier to meet Luka and succumb to the temptation to invent an illusory world for yourself. Human weaknesses and what they can lead to are discussed in Gorky's play "At the Bottom". Satin (the characterization speaks of him as a smart, but skeptical person looking at the world) does not build an illusory world for himself, he would be happy to believe Luke, but he has no hope for a better future.

Maxim Gorky wrote his play "At the Bottom" in 1902. In this work, a “naked” person appears before the reader. It is deprived of all external layers (cultural, class, professional) acquired in human society. The study of the behavior of a “naked” person, faced with the need to live and act in extremely difficult circumstances for him, is the play “At the Bottom”.
The “bottom” itself is a place, as it were, outside the world of people. The rooming house resembles hell: “A basement that looks like a cave. The ceiling is heavy, stone vaults, sooty, with crumbling plaster. The shelter is below ground level. The heroes of the play are supposedly already dead people. This is emphasized at the beginning of the work by Sateen's remark: "You cannot kill twice."

In Gorky's "hell" Satin plays a very important role. It is no coincidence that his name is consonant with the name "Satan". The first sounds that this character makes on stage is a growl. Satin says about himself that in the past he was an educated person, worked as a telegraph operator. From the very beginning of the play, such words as “macrobiotics”, “Sardanapal”, etc. are heard from his lips.
This hero is different from the rest of the inhabitants of the "bottom". About himself, he says: “Brother, I'm tired of human words ... all our words are tired! I heard each of them… probably a thousand times…”, “I was an educated person…”, “I read a lot of books…”.
So what happened to him? How did he become a rooming house dweller? “I spent four years and seven months in prison ... and after prison - no way!” We learn that Satin was in prison for murder, he killed the offender of his own sister. And then a dearly beloved sister died.

By his own will, having sunk to the very bottom of life, Satin burns through his abilities and opportunities. This hero contributes to the final death of some characters. Satin half-jokingly persuades Vaska Pepel to kill Kostylev, and then in many ways provokes this murder. He beat Kostylev himself, urged, inflaming passions: "Beat him ... Beat them! ..".
Satin is indifferent to people, he preaches contempt for moral values. Reinforced work is the only way for the overnight stays to earn their livelihood in an honest way. Satine rejects the job. He is a card sharper, he lives on this. Satin covers up his corrupting influence on his cohabitants with lofty phrases: “Work? For what? To be full?.. Man is higher! Man is above satiety! ..».
This character says the following about his moral character: “Those who have power and strength need honor-conscience ... the rich need honor-conscience, yes!” Apparently, it was not in vain that Gorky made his hero a sharper. With his phrases, Satin helps the roomers to justify their own immorality.

Satin himself is a strong man who has at least some education. He could, if not get out of the bottom, then at least earn his living by honest work. He neglects this opportunity, consciously choosing criminal activity. Satin preaches the philosophy of the "free man", bringing it to an extreme. In his case, this is already a person free from everything. Therefore, this hero affirms the “bottom” as the norm of existence, the only one worthy of a real person.

It is very interesting that this particular character gets the role of a preacher. It is he who pronounces the famous monologue about Man: “There is only man, everything else is the work of his hands and brain! Human! It's great! It sounds… proud!”; “What is a person?.. It’s not you, not me, not them… no! - it's you, me, them, the old man, Napoleon, Mohammed ... in one! “You have to respect the person! Do not regret ... do not humiliate him with pity ... "; “Lie is the religion of slaves and masters…”; “Truth is the god of a free man!”; "man - that's the truth!". Sateen's monologues are separated from his image. It is unusual that the truth is sung by none other than a sharpie, a person who lives a lie. To this the hero himself replies: “Why can’t a sharper sometimes speak well, if decent people ... speak like a sharper?”

Satin largely expresses the author's position. Gorky himself wrote that, except for this character, there is simply no one to say all this in the play. It is important to note that the image of Sateen is similar to a number of heroes of Gorky's early works. These heroes contemptuously turned away from human society with its dullness, dirt, petty fuss. Above all, they put their own freedom, including freedom from morality. Satin is similar to them, but he not only voluntarily sinks to the bottom of life, but also prevents other characters from throwing off the shackles of poverty and moral decay. He corrupts the overnight stays, hinders their attempts to leave the “bottom”. Satin is indeed similar to Satan in many ways. So, through the image of this character, Gorky, as it were, settles scores with his former heroes.

Of course, the image of Sateen is extremely important. Sateen's monologues carry a grain of truth, but they all contradict the lifestyle of this hero. The importance of this character is also emphasized by the fact that it is he who owns the last terrible phrase - the reaction to the death of the Actor: "Ruined the song ... fool!".

Satin is one of the central images of M. Gorky's play "At the Bottom", the opposite of the wanderer Luka. Before the rooming house, Satin worked as a telegraph operator, performed on stage, then spent 4 years in prison for standing up for his sister: “I spent four years and seven months in prison ... and after prison, I don’t go.”

Now he is a card cheat. From the replicas of the hero and the comments of other characters, it is clear that Satin is more educated than the others, smarter, read and knows a lot.

He is cruel in his assessments of the “neighbors”, exposes Luke’s “fictions”: Tick, who sold all the tools (and with them the hope for a normal life), is advised to calm down and simply “burden the earth”, he says to the Actor that there are no free hospitals for alcoholics. However, Satin ardently stands up for Luka when the roomers accuse the elder of lying. The hero admits that the wanderer had an effect on him, like acid on an old rusty coin.

Characteristics of the hero

(K.S. Stanislavsky in the role of Satin, a scene from the performance of the Moscow Art Theater based on the play by M. Gorky "At the Bottom", 1902)

Unlike others, Satin no longer dreams of changing something, he understands the depth and hopelessness of the fall. Therefore, he is cheerful, does not whine or complain, is indifferent to people: “People are not ashamed that you live worse than a dog ...” - which means that there is nothing to be ashamed of them: live as you like.

It seems that Satin sees little difference between the rooming house and the rest - prosperous - world. In a rooming house, people suffer from idleness, homelessness, the consciousness of their worthlessness. In a “prosperous” world, people are slaves, slaves of conventions, orders, work: “Work? Make it so that the work is pleasant for me - maybe I will work ... When work is pleasure, life is good! When work is a duty, life is slavery!”

Satin is tired of the whole world order - too monotonous, unfair, predictable. This is manifested symbolically in his play with words: he likes to pronounce little-used words, change them: “I’m tired of all human words, brother… I heard each of them… probably a thousand times… I love incomprehensible, rare words…”

(Old postcard with dialogues from the play "At the Bottom" by Gorky)

Satin is a reasoning hero who migrated from the plays of classicism to realism. Gorky, at that time a romantic, puts many lofty phrases into the hero's mouth, the apotheosis of which is: "Man - it sounds proud."

What kind of person is Sateen talking about? About Bubnov? About Nastya? About Tick? There are no “objects” for pride around him, and we are not talking about the inhabitants of the rooming house. Satin speaks of something else - a free and proud person who "pays for everything himself", "who is his own master."

High and - what is there to be ashamed of - empty so far the words are addressed to some distant future. In Satin - the beginnings of revolutionary sentiments, because the existing world and "people" are hopeless for the hero.

The image of the hero in the work

Satine is the only hero who is able to push off from the "bottom" in order to get to the surface. There is strength in him, he just doesn’t want to “rise” yet, unlike the others.

He is the only one who does not deceive himself about his position, does not dream in vain and does not despise others because of his troubles - he is simply indifferent to rooming houses. Luke Sateen is skeptical about the voluntary “mission”: “The dead do not feel ... Shout ... roar ... the dead do not hear!” But Luke interested him: the elder, encouraging others, indirectly awakens in Satine the already forgotten sense of his own significance and strength.

Then there are these monologues about the freedom, pride of man, about his limitless possibilities, about the desire for creative, not slave labor. Satin speaks for Gorky, expresses his romantic, yet airy and groundless, but inspiring thoughts.

Something in life must change so that people like Satin “break away” from the bottom, begin to work, create, and not just rob and deceive people.

What?.. The structure of society. Satin veiledly recites revolutionary slogans. And it is easy to imagine him in the ranks of sailors, soldiers, workers who will destroy the familiar world with its familiar words.