At the Bottom - Audiobook

Main characters

Mikhail Kostylev is a 54-year-old owner of a shelter.

Vasilisa is Kostylev's 26-year-old wife and Vaska Pepel's lover.

Natasha is Vasilisa's 20-year-old sister, who dreams of a better future. After being beaten by her sister, she was hospitalized and then disappeared.

Luke is a 60-year-old wanderer who preaches comforting lies.

Vaska Pepel is a 28-year-old thief who awakens a desire to change his life.

Andrey Mitrich Kleshch is a 40-year-old mechanic, a “working man” who hopes to return to his former life.

Bubnov is a 45-year-old cap maker who is convinced that all people on Earth are superfluous.

The Baron is a 33-year-old former aristocrat, Nastya's cohabitant, who is confident that everything is "in the past" for him.

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Satin is a lodger, about 40 years old, and is convinced that a person should be spiritually free.

An actor, a former theatre artist, suffering from alcoholism, finds no way out and commits suicide.

Other characters

Medvedev Abram - a 50-year-old policeman, Vasilisa and Natasha's uncle, is sure that "a person should behave quietly."

Anna - Kleshch's wife, 30 years old, a kind and calm soul, died in a shelter.

Alyoshka is a shoemaker, 20 years old.

Tatar, Crooked Zob - loaders.

Nastya is a girl of easy virtue, 24 years old, dreaming of true love.

Kvashnya is a woman of about 40 years old who sells dumplings.

Summary

Act One

The dawn was barely breaking through the dim window into the damp basement of the flophouse, which resembled the womb of the earth.

 

Kleshch was bending over a pile of old locks near the wall, fiddling with his master keys. In the center, at a greasy table, Kvashnya was in charge. Opposite, Baron was thoughtfully devouring stale bread. Nastya was sitting next to him, immersed in a tattered volume. Anna's painful cough could be heard from behind the dirty curtain that hid the corner with the bed. The Actor was bustling about near the stove. Bubnov was sitting on the bunk, preparing to sew a cap.

 

- Just know, - said Kvashnya, turning to the Baron, - after marriage I won’t come within a cannon shot of freedom! Not for anything!

 

“You’re lying,” Kleshch chuckled, squinting sarcastically. “I would have gone for Medvedev, he did propose.”

 

- He almost drove his granny crazy! - Kvashnya flared up.

 

The Baron snatched the book from Nastya and burst out laughing: “Fatal Love!”

 

- Be quiet! - Anna moaned from behind the curtain. - At least let me die in peace...

 

The characters engage in a leisurely dialogue. Satin admits that he used to be a cultured person. Bubnov mentions that he was a furrier and had his own business. The actor believes that talent is more important in life than education.

 

Kostylev appears, looking for his wife. He knocks on Pepel's door, but Pepel drives him away. It is obvious that Pepel hasan affair with the hostel owner's wife, Vasilisa.

 

Satin beretmoney from Ash and talks about work and money. He believes that life is good when work brings pleasure and is not a duty that turns life into slavery.

 

The actor and Satin leave.

 

Natasha enters the doss house, accompanied by an unfamiliar old man, Luka. Pepel, trying to attract the girl's attention, begins to make playful remarks about her, but Natasha remains cold to his advances.

 

Alyoshka appears, already quite drunk. He is confused, does not understand why everyone is driving him away, why they treat him worse than the others.

 

Ash, addressing Kleshch, says that he is "squealing in vain", to which Kleshch replies that he will definitely break out of this place, that he does not want to live like everyone else here, "without honor and conscience". Ash is sure that the people in the doss house are no worse than Kleshch himself. The argument is interrupted by Ash and the Baron leaving.

 

Vasilisa enters. She throws out the drunk Alyoshka and starts scolding the lodgers for the mess and dirt. Having calmed down, she asks Kvashnya whether Natasha came and talked to Vasily. Having received an answer, she leaves.

 

Shouts and the noise of a fight can be heard from the entryway: Vasilisa is beating up Natasha. Medvedev, Kvashnya and Bubnov rush to separate the sisters.

 

Act Two

The setting of the play remains unchanged. Several guests are engaged in an exciting card game, which the Actor and Kleshch are watching. At the same time, Medvedev and Bubnov are enthusiastically playing checkers, and Luka is sitting by Anna's bed.

 

During a conversation with Luke, Anna shares her sorrows and complains about her difficult life. The wise old man tries to calm her down, promising heavenly bliss and rest after death.

 

When the Actor is about to "recite the verses" to Luka, he discovers that he has forgotten the verses. He laments that it is all over for him, since he "drank away his soul." But Luka convinces the Actor that not all is lost: there are free clinics for those who suffer from alcoholism, although, unfortunately, he does not remember which city they are in. Luka persuades the Actor to gather his strength and abstain from drinking, because, in his opinion, "a person is capable of anything if he only wants to."

 

Gloomy Pepel enters the room with a heavy gait. He throws a short question at Medvedev, wanting to know how much his sister suffered from Vasilisa's beatings. He remains silent, muttering that it is not his, the thief's, concern. In response, Pepel threatens to report to the investigator that "Mishka Kostylev and his wife" drew him into theft and sold the stolen goods.

 

Luka tries to calm the brewing conflict, but Pepel abruptly interrupts him, accusing him of lying and empty promises of universal well-being. Luka, ignoring the reproaches, convinces Vasily that instead of looking for the truth in this swamp, he should go to the "golden side", to Siberia, where he can start a new life.

 

Vasilisa's appearance interrupts their conversation. A tense dialogue takes place between her and Pepel, in which he admits that he is sick of her, that there is "not a drop of soul" in her. Vasilisa, not wanting to lose Pepel, pushes him to kill her husband, reminding him that Vaska has already been imprisoned twice because of Kostylev and that he is torturing Natasha.

 

Kostylev enters, having had an argument with Vasily, but Luka prevents the fight from breaking out in time. He advises Pepel to stay away from Vasilisa and instead leave the flophouse with Natasha, who he likes.

 

The wanderer, looking behind the curtain where Anna lies, discovers that she has died.

 

Gradually, all the residents of the flophouse gather at the bedside of the deceased Anna.

 

Act Three

The action takes place in an abandoned, weed-overgrown yard of a flophouse.

 

Nastya shares the story of her love with those gathered. Bubnov and Baron doubt her story, but the girl passionately insists that she experienced true love and bursts into tears. Luka reassures her, saying that if she believes it herself, then it was true, and her roommates laugh because there was nothing genuine in their lives.

 

The inhabitants of the flophouse discuss truth and lies.

 

Natalia explains that she also invents and waits for someone "exceptional" or something "incredible". However, she does not understand what she is waiting for, because "everyone is having a hard time".

 

Bubnov believes that people often lie in order to “embellish their souls,” but he himself does not see the point in lying, preferring to “lay out the whole truth as it is! What is there to be ashamed of?”

 

The tick hates people and does not attach importance to the truth. Having said this, he runs away.

 

Ash appears and joins the conversation. He asks Luka why he lies, claiming that everything is good everywhere. Luka replies that "the truth does not always heal the soul", so the person should be pitied. He says that he will soon leave the shelter.

 

Pepel invites Natalia to leave with him, confesses his love to her, promises to give up stealing. He feels that it is time to change his life, "to live in such a way that I can respect myself." Natalia doubts, but still decides to believe him.

 

Kostylev and his wife enter the doss house. Vasilisa, who overheard Pepel's conversation with Natasha, tries to set her husband on his rival, but Luka calms the enraged Kostylev.

 

Kostylev starts a conversation with Luka about how order and law are above all else, and every decent person should have a passport. Luka, without hiding his opinion, retorts: Kostylev can't change, he's like wasteland, unable to yield a harvest.

 

The hosts of the flophouse, unable to bear Luka's insolence, drive him away. Luka promises to leave before dark.

 

Bubnov, agreeing with Luka, notes that “getting away in time is always a blessing,” and shares his story.

 

Satin and the Actor, caught up in their argument, head to the basement. Satin insists that the Actor will not go anywhere and demands to know what Luka promised him. The Wanderer asks how Satin ended up in the flophouse. Satin reluctantly explains that he was imprisoned because of his sister: "in a fit of anger and irritation, I killed the scoundrel," and after his release all paths were closed to him.

 

A gloomy Kleshch appears: he was forced to sell all his tools to bury Anna, and now does not know how to live on.

 

Natasha's scream is heard from the Kostylevs' apartment: "They're beating me! They're killing me!" The actor and Satin go out to sort out the situation. Fragments of lines are heard, from which it is clear that the lodgers are trying to separate Vasilisa and Natasha.

 

Kvashnya and Nastya appear from the darkness, helping Natasha, who is beaten and scalded with boiling water. Kostylev, Vasilisa and the inhabitants of the flophouse follow them. Pepel, seeing Natasha, deals Kostylev a strong blow, and he falls. Vasilisa screams that her husband was killed, pointing at Pepel. However, Vasily declares that it was Kostyleva herself who incited him to kill her husband.

 

In hysterics, Natasha accuses her sister and Ash of collusion and, losing consciousness, asks to be sent to prison.

 

Act Four

On an early spring night, Kleshch, Nastya, Satin, and Baron are sitting at a table in the basement of a flophouse. The Actor is lying on the stove. In the corner where Ash used to be (the partitions are now broken), there is the Tatar.

 

The basement dwellers remember Luka with nostalgia, who disappeared during the commotion around Natasha and Kostylev. Nastya believes that he understood and saw everything. Kleshch agrees: the old man was a kind and sympathetic person. Tatarin believes that Luka lived by the principle "Do no harm to man."

 

For Satin, the "old man" looks like "a crumb for the toothless", and besides, Luka has confused the minds of the inhabitants of the flophouse.

 

The Baron calls Luka a charlatan.

 

Nastya, who is sick of both life and people, wants to go "to the ends of the earth." The Baron, offering the girl to take the Actor with her, mocks his dream of being cured.

 

Kleshch notes that the wanderer Luka "called somewhere, but did not show the way." In his opinion, he "rebelled greatly against the truth. Perhaps it was hard to breathe without it."

 

Beside himself with rage, Satin pounces on those around him with the demand "not to dare speak ill of the old man." He alone saw in Luka not just an eccentric old man, but a sage who, knowing the bitter truth - "man himself is the truth" - preferred to console people with sweet lies out of compassion. The meeting with the Wanderer became a real revelation for Satin, like how "strong acid corrodes the many years of lies and indifference on an old, dirty coin."

 

The rumor of Kostylev's murder hangs in the air like a heavy weight. Natasha, exhausted by her sister's beatings and hopelessness, disappeared without a trace after the hospital. The cynical inhabitants of the flophouse are sure that the cunning Vasilisa will manage to get out of it, but Pepel will not escape a harsh fate - hard labor or, at best, prison.

 

Satin continues his reflections on the fact that respect is more important to a person than a pitiful handout of compassion. The Baron, as if awakening from a long sleep, admits that his life is devoid of meaning and resembles wandering in a fog.

 

Suddenly, a stifled sob is heard from the stove bench - the Actor, unable to bear the mental torment any longer, jumps off the stove and runs away from this gloomy place.

 

Medvedev and Bubnov appear, followed by a string of lodgers. Someone is getting ready for bed, somewhere a song is quietly playing. Suddenly the door swings open, and the Baron appears on the threshold with chilling news: the Actor hanged himself in the vacant lot.

 

Like a tipsy guslar, Satin interrupts the melody: “Oh, you ruined the whole song, you blockhead!”

 

So what's the bottom line?

Mikhail Kostylev meets his death in a fight with Vaska Pepel.

 

Vasilisa finds herself behind bars, caught in the web of her own intrigue directed against her husband.

 

Natasha, crippled by her sister's cruelty, disappears without a trace after Kostylev's death, as if dissolving into the fog.

 

Luka leaves the walls of the flophouse, which became his temporary refuge, after Kostylev's death; most likely, his path lies further, towards the endless Ukrainian expanses.

 

Vaska Pepel - is sent to prison for committing a murder, while simultaneously exposing Vasilisa as his accomplice in this dark deed.

 

Andrey Mitrich Kleshch continues to drag out his existence in the flophouse, having become accustomed to the fate of an inhabitant of this gloomy place.

 

An actor puts a tragic end to his life by finding solace in a noose in a vacant lot.

 

Abram Medvedev loses his position as a law enforcement officer, links his fate with Kvashnya and plunges into the abyss of drunkenness.

 

Anna passes away, struck down by a serious illness.

 

Kvashnya - accepts the offer to become the wife of former police officer Medvedev.

 

Conclusion

Gorky's play "The Lower Depths" has not lost its relevance for more than a century, attracting readers and viewers with the versatility of the questions posed, prompting them to reflect again and again on what faith and love mean to a person and what opportunities he has. A brief retelling of the plot of the work only gives a general idea of ​​it, but for a deeper understanding it is necessary to turn to the full text of the drama.