Features of the love conflict in the play "At the bottom." Theme of love in the work

The play "At the bottom" is considered one of the peaks of Gorky's work. This work is one of the most famous of this writer. Consider the features of the love conflict in the play "At the bottom." In terms of genre, it is socially philosophical, but in this work it is multifaceted, connected, among other things, with the theme of love. This problem Maxim Gorky advocates as part of the social conflict. It is conjugated in the play primarily with the so-called "love triangle", which forms the thief Vaska Pepel, Vasilisa Kostyleva, as well as her sister Natalya.

Vasilisa's Life

The owner of the doss house, 54-year-old Kostylev, had Vasilissa's young wife, who was only 26 years old. The relationship between these two characters is dramatic. Vasilisa is not for love, but by calculation she married Kostylev, and he constantly reproaches the heroine with poverty ("pig", "beggar"). It is unlikely that the husband genuinely loves his wife. The love conflict in the play "At the bottom" does not concern him. It is a greedy, a greedy, a hypocrite, to whom pure, bright feelings are alien. "Poganaya," he calls her. For Vasilisa, life with such a person is hell, their relationship is far from love. Therefore, she betrays him with another hero, Vaska Ashes. It is around the latter that the features of the love conflict in the play "At the bottom" are constructed.

Vasilisa and Natasha

Vasilisa, this cruel, evil woman with a "devilish character", leads the struggle for Ashes, whose methods are very doubtful. She is jealous of him to Natasha, her powerless sister, who in everything depends on her. Natasha likes the inhabitants of the doss house, but they do not favor Vasilisa. Sister Kostyleva - "nice girl", "reliable person", and the wife of the owner of the doss house is a "poisonous viper". Natasha has many virtues, so Vaska Ashes is not indifferent to her. He rebukes his powerful sister in the absence of a soul. With Kostyleva, this hero is sincere and directly says that he never loved her, and lived with her only for the sake of entertainment, just like that. In the end Vaska leaves Vasilisa for Natasha's sake. Kostylev can not endure the love of this hero to his sister. This vindictive nature, seized with rage, constantly beats and torments Natasha. The latter, being in such unbearable conditions, is ready to escape with Ashes to the end of the world.

The relationship between him and Natasha enriches the hero, gives hope for a completely different, new life, as shown by M. Gorky ("At the bottom").

Does Vasilissa Vaska love Vaska?

Vasilisa is shown in the play as a self-interested person. In her connection with Ashes, she sees not just the opportunity to find female happiness. Kostyleva hoped that Vaska would help her get rid of her husband, after which she would be the sovereign master of his institution. The play of Maxim Gorky "At the bottom" makes you think about many things. A logical question arises: "Does Vasilisa Ashes really love?" It seems that no. Would she push him otherwise to commit a crime, condemning herself to an inevitable separation from her beloved? Would she incite him to steal, and then buy stolen goods? At the last moment Vasilisa still thinks to persuade Ash to conspire with her. She even agrees to marry him with Natasha, promises Vaska a cash reward.

The Essence of Crutchwalk

Features of the love conflict in the play "At the bottom" reveal the true essence of Vasilisa. Ash feels it. He says that Vasilisa needs only money and will "to corrupt". Vaska could even love this heroine, go for anything for her happiness, but the passion for money pushed him away. He can not reconcile with this in the character of Vasilisa.

Kostylev puts Ashes in a dead end. Once interceded for Natasha, who was boiled with boiling water and brutally beaten by her husband and wife, Vaska kills the owner of the doss house in a fight. Vasilisa wanted this. There was nothing human in it, only a complete moral fall, which undoubtedly shows Maxim Gorky's play "At the bottom".

Prostitute Nastya

Speaking about the love topic in the work, you need to say a few words about another heroine of the play - prostitute Nastya. It is not accidentally introduced into the narrative by M. Gorky ("At the bottom"). The Baron and Bubnov mock, laugh at Nastya, over her fictional love story. This heroine dreams of Raoul, an imaginary admirer, thinking that he loves her loftily and passionately. Nastya read romance novels, representing herself as their heroine. This is the only thing that is good in her hard life. By trading her body, she still reaches out to the warmth, light, participation and kindness. Behind this fiction lies the deep need for the heroine in love. Nastya does not lose hope, does not stop believing that a great and pure feeling would change her whole life, lifting her from the bottom.

These are the features of the love conflict in the play "At the bottom". Maxim Gorky in this play shows how a person cripples inhuman conditions of existence, disfiguring sublime feelings, leading to the degradation and destruction of the human "I". Spiritually-moral and social are closely linked in the work of this writer, which once again proves in the work of M. Gorky. "At the bottom" is therefore rightly considered a social and philosophical play.