Pavel Vlasov - characteristics of the hero (character) (Mother Gorky M.). Pavel Vlasov (Mother Gorky) Revolutionary activities of Pavel

“Mother” by Gorky M.Yu.

Gorky in his drama “At the Lower Depths” continues the traditions of Russian critical realism. But already in the novel “” (1906) the aesthetics of a new creative method was artistically affirmed, which much later, in the mid-30s, received the name socialist realism. Criticism of the second half of the 80s revised both the term “socialist realism” itself and the aesthetic, artistic phenomenon that stands behind it. But, as already mentioned in the introduction, it is pointless to deny the presence of this artistic movement in the literature of the 20th century, just as it is pointless to declare it the only fruitful one in the literary process. For our topic, the obvious fact is sufficient that in the novel “Mother” Gorky substantiates a new quality of realism. What does it consist of?

The writer shows the spread of socialist ideas among workers and tries to reveal how promising and relevant they are, whether they are capable of enriching the individual, awakening him to formation and internal growth. The subject of the depiction in the novel genre is the history of the formation of a person as an individual, his private life and fate. In this sense, Gorky is trying to reveal how promising the ideas of socio-political struggle and the renewal of society in a revolutionary way are for a person who joins them. In other words, before us is a socio-political novel.

But its problematics are not limited to socio-political meaning. The writer affirms a new concept of personality, that is, those ideas about the essence of human character, its positive and negative qualities, and the assessment criteria with which he approaches the hero.

Gorky perceives a person differently than he did before, and judges him according to different laws than those judged before him. This is primarily the manifestation of the new quality of realism declared in the novel “Mother.” The artist discovers and substantiates a new type of relationship between personality and typical circumstances that shape character. Remember again that the question of the relationship between characters and typical circumstances is central to the realistic method. The realist writer asserts the connection between the formation of character and typical circumstances that have a decisive influence on the development of personality.

But the new quality of realism that emerged in Gorky is realized primarily in the fact that he asserts not only the possibility and inevitability of the influence of reality on man, but also substantiates the inevitability and necessity of the opposite influence: man on reality. Remember that the typical circumstances themselves are interpreted by the writer in an extremely broad manner. This is not only the environment in which the hero lives, not only the situations in which he finds himself as part of his everyday, everyday life. Gorky claims historical time as typical circumstances. Gorky's hero turns out to be personally responsible to his time, which requires an active attitude towards oneself, active interaction with oneself. History does not allow a person to “hide” within the narrow class framework of his environment. The requirement for personal contact, personal interaction with the most important historical patterns of the era is universal: according to Gorky, no one can avoid it.

In this extreme expansion of the framework of the environment, the typical circumstances that influenced the hero, there is a huge trust in him, but also a huge burden of historical responsibility placed on him. Will it be possible for an ordinary person to enter into personal contact with historical time? It is this question that mainly determines the problematic of the novel “Mother”.

The novel is largely built on contrasts. Exposition and denouement are sharply contrasted, and the character system is built on contrasts. Moreover, these contrasts are caused by time itself, which can be represented as the movement of both society and an individual person from sleep to wakefulness, from ignorance and misunderstanding of the world to its recognition and understanding, as the movement of a person from dull indifference to himself to the awareness of his human dignity, his indissoluble ties with the world.

The extreme points of this process, which marks the movement of history in Gorky’s novel, are the images of Mikhail and Pavel Vlasov, given in the exhibition. Mikhail Vlasov, “sullen, with small eyes; they looked suspiciously from under thick eyebrows, with a nasty grin”; he carries within himself “a wild force, ready to strike mercilessly.” His trouble is his isolation in the narrow world of the settlement, his inability to comprehend the surrounding existence. His life is presented in the novel as stopped in its development, unfulfilled.

The lack of development and forward movement emphasizes the image of frozen time: when describing a workers' settlement, the writer emphasizes the predetermination of a certain rhythm, repetition, inevitable and inescapable: every day, year after year, the factory whistle gathers people, and after the shift throws them out of its stone depths, every evening people spend in taverns, every Sunday is also determined once and for all. The closedness of time in movement in a circle and the closedness of a person in himself is interpreted by Gorky as an unrealized life: “a day is erased from life without a trace, a person has taken another step towards his grave.” The monotony of days and years characterizes the past in the novel, which is measured not by years, but by the equally, monotonously lived lives of people, entire generations.

Pavel Vlasov initially finds himself drawn into the general movement of life, based on repetition: he “did everything a young guy needed: he bought a harmonica, a shirt with a starched chest, a bright tie, galoshes, a cane and became the same as all the teenagers of his age.” The development of the plot begins at the moment when the mother notices that “her son is becoming unlike the factory youth... that he is concentrated and stubbornly floating somewhere to the side from the dark stream of life.”

This is the exposition of the novel. Further development of the plot leads to the destruction of the original situation and the justification of the possibility and necessity of a different existence, the embodiment of which becomes the image of Pavel Vlasov - a conscious, competent revolutionary. From this moment the true story begins, the true passage of time. However, the process of Paul’s formation as a revolutionary occurs, as it were, behind the scenes of the novel’s narrative and fits into just a few lines of the third chapter: “So weeks and months passed, and two years of a strange, silent life passed unnoticed, full of vague thoughts and fears, ever increasing.” In the next, fourth chapter, we see Pavel Vlasov as a fully formed person with his own convictions. “I read forbidden books,” he tells his mother. “They are forbidden to read them because they tell the truth about our working life... They are published quietly, secretly, and if they are found on me, they will put me in prison, in prison because I want to know the truth.”

We do not see the full complexity of the path traversed by Paul; this path is largely hidden from the reader. And Pavel does not become the main character of the work; his image embodies, rather, the goal of the final development of man, as it is conceived by the writer. So, there are two poles, two opposite points in the system of characters in the novel: Mikhail and Pavel Vlasov. Mikhail is lonely, powerless in his embitterment, opposed to everyone and everything, hostile to everything around him. Paul - surrounded by comrades, associates, comrades.

Gorky placed his mother at the center of the work. This made it possible to compare social ideas determined by the specific historical period of development of society with the eternal ideals of motherhood. The ideas that Pavel brings are perceived by Nilovna not as an abstract truth, but as the closest and most understandable truth of life brought by her son: “all this touches the heart, filling it with a sense of pride for the son, who correctly understood the life of his mother, tells her about her suffering, feels sorry for her.” Even fear for his fate recedes into the background, supplanted by pride for him, an irresistible desire to stand next to him, to continue his work in the revolutionary struggle.

But it's not just that. The writer was interested in the very process of transition from one state to another, from blindness to insight, from isolation in one’s own shell to active unity with the world.

This reveals the actual novelistic aspect of the genre content: the entire poetics of the novel “Mother” is determined by the comprehension of the process of continuous human growth. The narrative (except for the exposition, the first two chapters) is subjectivized, focused on the heroine’s point of view: we see what is happening as if through her eyes - this explains the naive figurative perception of the ideas of socialism, their translation into a concrete sensory form. In the third chapter, where Gorky seems to justify his right to switch the reader’s attention to the plane of subjective narration, he emphasizes this several times: “she knew,” “it seemed to her,” “she noticed,” “some new words that were incomprehensible to her.” , “she liked it,” “sometimes she thought” - the text is replete with references to the subject of the narrative, to the consciousness of the mother, which now becomes the main object of artistic research.

In the novel, two compositional planes arise, practically inseparable in a literary text: objective reality and consciousness, striving to comprehend this reality in all its completeness and complexity.

The novel tells how the world accessible to Nilovna’s consciousness expands geographically, grows from a settlement with smoky oily air, where the factory whistle trembled and roared, to a global scale, when the heroine understands how in her “cramped room a feeling of spiritual kinship was born among the workers of the whole lands” when “they talked about the French, English and Swedes as their friends, about people close to their hearts.” The emotional attitude to the events of a distant and completely different life, which suddenly turns out to be close and needed by Pavel’s comrades, is a very important moment for Gorky. “Sometimes my mother was struck by a mood of exuberant joy that suddenly and unanimously took possession of everyone. Usually this was on those evenings when they read newspapers about working people abroad. Then everyone’s eyes sparkled with joy, everyone became strangely, somehow childishly happy, laughed with a cheerful, clear laugh, and affectionately patted each other on the shoulders.

- Well done, comrades Germans! - someone shouted, as if intoxicated with his joy.

- Long live the workers of Italy! - they shouted another time.

And, sending these cries somewhere into the distance, to friends who did not know them and could not understand their language, they seemed to be sure that people unknown to them heard and understood their delight.”

This scene is given through the eyes of the mother, as if passed through the prism of her consciousness. She amazes, but also pleases her, because the world opens up before her, as well as before Paul’s comrades; she feels the opportunity to change and improve it, standing next to her son, next to his comrades, next to German and Italian workers, far from her, but close to her. If we translate the heroine’s thoughts from the figurative plane, in which she perceives socialist ideas, into the plane of philosophical terminology, we can say that the heroine is captured by the opportunity that has opened up for her as a person, an individual, to feel and comprehend herself not as an object, but as a subject of history; she is shocked by the prospect of historical creativity that is gradually opening up before her.

The world for the heroine expands not only geographically, but also socially - she goes from an illiterate, downtrodden woman to a conscious revolutionary; It is now possible for her to comprehend her time, to feel herself in the past, present and future, for in the name of the future she lives now, and not in the troubles of one day, which is like two peas in a pod to yesterday and tomorrow.

The focus of the narrative on the consciousness of the heroine is due to Gorky’s creative plan: to show the growth of personality through active contact with history, with one’s era. This was reflected in the composition of the novel. In its most general form, it can be imagined as an inverted pyramid: its base will be an exhibition where contacts between the individual and the surrounding existence are reduced to a minimum, a person is alienated from a reality hostile to him, from the true flow of time, captured in the cycle of gray, identical everyday life. The emergence of “socialists”, the germination of new, free thoughts leads to a constant expansion of spheres of contacts, interaction between the individual and the world, and their mutual influence on each other. The highest ideological and compositional plan of the work is the moment of complete unity of the hero with his era, with his time, the moment of the final overcoming of alienation from the world.

The heroine's gradual movement towards the ideal occurs under the influence of very specific, specific events in the life of a working-class settlement. “The days slipped one after another, like beads of a rosary, adding up to weeks and months. Every Saturday, comrades came to Paul, each meeting was a step in a long, gentle staircase - it led somewhere into the distance, slowly raising people.”

In Gorky’s work, any human personality, no matter how suppressed by the burden of everyday life, finds himself face to face with historical time: man and history are given, as it were, on the same artistic scale, are equal in their rights, and historical time requires a person to actively interact with himself . This demand presented to the hero contains Gorky’s discovery. For the first time in literature, he deprived a person of the right to live in the world of people and at the same time, as if outside it, “to live all in poor thoughts about oneself, like a chicken in a shell,” - this is how one of the writer’s heroes, Matvey Kozhemyakin, comprehends his life. If earlier such a person, an internal exile, could even earn the respect of an artist, then Gorky views his life as failed: he is erased from time and doomed to wander in a vicious circle of “poor thoughts about himself.”

The human essence of the hero, according to Gorky, lies in the process of his continuous growth and formation. Pelageya Nilovna Vlasova understands herself as a person only after she ceases to be the “little person” that we see her in the exhibition. The “little man” becomes a continuously growing person in Gorky. In the novel, Gorky affirms trust in the human personality, which manifests itself in the affirmation of the possibility and necessity of interaction between man and history.

The equality of scale in which the heroine’s personality and historical time are presented in the novel “Mother” is possible due to the fact that the situation in which the author places Nilovna - collaboration with her son in his struggle - reveals and multiplies all her best human qualities, first of all the ability and need to love inherent in every woman, in every mother. It is this feeling that helps Nilovna become a person capable of continuing her son’s just struggle. “You have a great maternal touch,” says Andrei Nakhodka to Nilovna. Thanks to the interaction of universal and specific historical principles, the heroine’s connections with the world expand. There is a unification of private human life with historical time as a whole.

The final scene—the scene of the arrest—contains the culmination of the philosophical plot of the novel: a person comes into contact with the leading positive historical patterns of his era and discovers the ability to unite people with his will and, in the future, lead them. This is how Gorky approaches the new quality of realism declared in the novel: revolutionary struggle is conceived not as a form of violence and destruction, but as the ability of an individual to actively influence circumstances and change, shape them for their own purposes.

How Western “democracy” loves to call us “unwashed Russia.” We may be quietly offended or loudly indignant in response, but do we think that this definition stuck to us with the light hand of Lermontov, our compatriot? I’m such a meanie, I’m offended when Western authors, if they happen to write about our country, make all Russians look like fools, always drinking vodka, living in the dirt, alien to kindness and beauty, greedy, mean, evil, always using their hands. Why am I actually offended by foreigners, when our home-grown writers, in this case Gorky, see us exactly like that. And he portrays. For the whole world. And we erect monuments to him, rename cities in his honor, and go to schools. Bravo, they say, master! How did you get the essence? Yes, we are all rednecks (applause in the audience); dirty, embittered, stupid, always drunk redneck (there is applause in the hall and shouts of approval from the back rows).

Next is a little scientific theory. Among the cattle, suddenly, out of nowhere, the spark of revolution flares up. And it immediately transforms everyone it touches. And whoever it doesn’t touch, it also transforms! The evil, stupid and always drunken masses of Russians are not to blame for their anger, drunkenness, or stupidity; they simply don’t know that you can dream of a revolution, which means not being angry, stupid and drunk! But when they find out... When the revolution happens, and communism is handed over to everyone, then the Russians will suddenly stop drinking, beating and being stupid, and will become a model of humanity for all humanity. (“The reason why I was harmful was because I didn’t have a bicycle. And now I’ll immediately start to become kinder.” ©)

But I still believe that everything depends on the person. If he wants to see dirt, drunkenness and meanness around him, he will always see only them. And if he wants to see the bright in people, even in the most difficult times he will see this – the bright. You just need to want to see not a crowd of people, but the individuals that make up this crowd: people with their own emotions, thoughts, fears and aspirations - everyone has them. Gorky wanted to see the unwashed herd, and among this herd he created his artificial superheroes: pure-hearted revolutionaries... Snatched them out, painted their souls... And the more colors were spent on these “snatched” heroes, the darker, dumber and more unnecessary the remaining herd of extras turned out to be. Therefore, Gorky’s godlike heroes were never touched. Precisely because of its artificial animation against the backdrop of the denial of everything human in those around us.

And, let’s be honest, it’s implausible. Gray trash around, stupid downtrodden people. And suddenly - here you go! - one of these cattle, a semi-literate Domostroev housewife, is imbued with the ideas of the revolution. Having been inspired, he begins to love his son’s ideas more than the son himself, becoming more and more intoxicated by his importance in the world of “smart” people. And in this book, the word “mother” is nothing more than a party nickname for an activist, but in no way a woman’s social status, which imposes on her the obligation to blindly love her child and suffer for him. Here: no love, no suffering. Some kind of dope. If not, it’s a waste.

The only advantage of the book is that it once had a powerful educational moment.

Rating: 4

Spoilers!

M. Gorky - Mother. This work is worthy of the highest praise. I really liked it. The beauty of this work is in its scale and globality of the problems raised. The people are at a turning point. Something needs to change in the life of the people, because it is no longer possible to live like Pavel Vlasov’s father. So Paul decides it's time for a change. He becomes a socialist revolutionary. Pavel faces a difficult fate; he has to defend the rights of workers oppressed by the heavy hand of the current government. But the main character does not give up, carried away by the purest thoughts of doing good, he, with a banner in his hands, proudly steps towards the weapon raised at him. While reading, you become imbued with true love for Pavel, empathize with him, and understand him. It was not for nothing that Maxim Gorky called the novel “Mother”; the main character’s mother is a real heroine. Having learned that her son was engaged in a forbidden activity in the name of the people, she did not turn away from him, but, on the contrary, supported him in all his endeavors. She brought him news and food during his imprisonment, and joined the ranks of the revolutionaries in his place. Pavel Vlasov is overcome by feelings of pain for the people, for the injustice towards ordinary workers. The most important thing is that Pavel Vlasov acquired the meaning of life, and therefore, there is no doubt that he will not live this life in vain. The novel is easy and interesting to read, at ease. Although a whole century has passed since the book was written, the work is still relevant. This work raises many issues, if you think about these topics, a year will not be enough to get to the point, this novel is so deep. Love for his homeland helped Gorky write this novel, inspired him, and directed his thoughts.

This work helps to understand and more clearly analyze a very difficult period in the life of our country.

Rating: 9

I think I read excerpts from “Mother” as a teenager. I wonder how this book could have been on the school curriculum at the turn of the century. But nevertheless, this work was almost forgotten by me (it’s a dubious thing to get acquainted with a book in fragments). Thanks to the forum members for helping me remember her. Now I read it during a break between nonfiction, like most long-form books lately. But the novel is short, I devoured it in a week.

I now agree that it was a “very timely book” when it was written. Although by the second half of the century it became outdated and became more of a literary monument, now it is becoming relevant again.

Briefly about the plot. Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The worker's mother, following her son, becomes involved in underground revolutionary activities. All this completely changes the seemingly already mature woman. Despite the lack of a happy ending, the book leaves a surprisingly bright impression. The life of the heroes is difficult and dangerous, but it evokes envy because they have a clear goal.

P.S. As I wrote in my review of Ariel, a hundred years ago writing “nod your head” was the norm. This phrase appears frequently in the book.

Rating: 8

Composition

Gorky's novel is called "Mother", and this already suggests that Nilovna is, along with Pavel, its central character. If “Mother” is in many ways a work about the painful process of overcoming slavish feelings of obedience and fear in people, about the complex process of transforming a person from a victim into a fighter, then Nilovna in this regard is the most striking and convincing example. Nilovna's path to the new is complex and contradictory. It was not so easy for a person, especially a woman, who experienced particularly heavy oppression, who lived most of her life in fear and obedience, to understand the truth of the new people, and to free herself from the old. The image of Nilovna shows a complex interweaving of contradictory feelings and aspirations. Almost the main role, especially in the first part of the novel, is played by overcoming old ideas - faith in God, disbelief in people and fear of them. For the past taught her that people hate each other, or at least they should hate each other, according to the laws of the possessive world. Fear of people became a familiar feeling for her. And only other people - not the ones her mother had known until now - were able to instill in her different feelings, a different faith.

Recognizing Pavel’s comrades, Nilovna thought about what they said, “and got used to agreeing with their thoughts.” But these are only the first steps along a new, unbeaten road. Agreeing, she still “in the depths of her soul did not believe that they could rebuild life in a new way and that they would have the strength to attract the working people to their fire.” But then she saw how worried the authorities were about the leaflets distributed by Pavel and his friends, and to the mother’s fear for her son’s fate, pride in him was added. And this is not only a maternal feeling.

Listening to Pavel’s speech at a meeting about the “swamp penny”, observing the respectful attitude towards him from the workers, the mother gradually began to get used to the idea that these brave people would be able to rally the working people around them. And again, Nilovna’s words to Pavel, depressed by his failure, were not simple maternal consolation: “Today they didn’t understand, tomorrow they will understand.”

After Pavel’s arrest, while delivering leaflets to the factory, Nilovna saw with what greed the workers read the fervent word of truth. She increasingly hears from ordinary people the words that once frightened her - “rebellion”, “socialists”, “politics”, and her faith in revolutionaries has strengthened, moreover, it has merged with faith in the people. At the same time, having faith in the people and their leaders, Nilovna finally believed in the possibility of victory of the revolution. This discovery transformed her.

And here at the May Day demonstration she is next to her son. The writer fixes his attention on a very important visual detail: is the mother constantly looking? at Paul and the banner above him, proudly says: “The one who carries the banner is my son!” It seems that at this moment she sees nothing - only the banner of the revolution and next to it - her son. And after the demonstration was dispersed, Nilovna picks up a piece of the staff with a piece of the red banner and carries it away from the battlefield. And people, “obeying an unclear force pulling them after their mother, slowly followed her.” In this symbolic scene, which concludes the first part of the novel, the mother appears as a comrade of the revolutionaries, raising the banner that was dropped in battle.

The division of the novel into two parts is largely connected with Nilovna’s spiritual growth, and this does not contradict what was said above: after all, the renewal of the entire people by the revolution is revealed in the image of the mother. If at the end of the first part Nilovna still believes in Christ, then already in the first chapter of the second part Gorky talks about a symbolic dream of her mother, which opened her eyes to the priests and the church. The priest in Nilovna’s dream appeared as a guardian of the old order; she saw him next to the soldiers pointing bayonets at her. And when she woke up, for the first time in her life she did not pray. The psychological state of a woman who was freed not from a simple, but from a spiritual burden is well conveyed: “her heart was empty.” If Gorky had said “easy,” it would have been false, because it was not easy for Pelageya Nilovna to part with religion, which is why she felt the emptiness.

As we see, the spiritual turning point did not happen soon, the process of overcoming the old was long and difficult, but from that moment Nilovna finally cast her lot in with Paul’s comrades-in-arms. She is directly involved in the revolutionary struggle, through her communication with the village is established. From that ‘; There was no trace left of the timid, intimidated woman who even walked sideways, as Nilovna is shown at the beginning of the novel. The apotheosis of the revolutionary mother was her extremely laconic, passionate speech at the station during her arrest - a call to the people to unite for a decisive battle with tsarism.

The image of Nilovna is Gorky’s great success. It can be said without exaggeration that all world literature has not even made an attempt to show such colossal spiritual growth of a simple woman. Only after Gorky’s novel did we see something similar in M. Andersen-Nexe, A. Zegers, J. Amadou and other writers. Gorky saw such a woman in the midst of the people and revealed her character as a symbol of the resurrection of the masses. It was not so easy to notice such people among women, much less it was not easy to show Nilovna as a typical phenomenon. Even the Bolshevik critic V. Borovsky questioned not only Nilovna’s revolutionary character, but also the very existence of such mothers, finding in his view of Gorky’s novel an understanding of the typical as mass-formed. (Note that in an article about Bunin (1911), reflecting on the hero of “The Village” Tikhon Krasov, Borovsky correctly interpreted the problem of artistic generalization). In the article “Maxim Gorky” (1910), the critic wrote: “Nilovna’s revival and all her activities are determined entirely and exclusively by love for her son.” On this basis, Borovsky refuses to consider Nilovna a revolutionary, considering her only as a mother, and this even explains the failure (!?) of the novel: “... the focus of attention is transferred from the actual direct figures to the mediocre figure”

Indeed, Nilovna entered the fight out of love for her son. This was the first incentive. But soon the most important thing for her becomes the cause of Paul and his comrades, the cause of the entire people. Sometimes the arrest of her son is considered the first impetus for Nilovna’s revolutionary activities. However, we have already seen that even before Pavel’s arrest she becomes his assistant, even before his arrest she saw his truth. Nilovna is directly involved in the “case” as a fighter who replaced someone who had dropped out of the ranks, although she embarked on this path with the timidity and uncertainty that is natural for a beginner, especially a woman.

Gorky often resorts to leitmotifs in his works. In revealing Nilovna’s spiritual world, this technique is used especially interestingly. The writer’s appeal to the same word, the description of the same feeling of the mother at different stages of her journey helps to show the internal movement of character, since the feeling acquires new content, the word is filled with new meaning.

One of the leitmotifs in the depiction of Nilovna is the motif of fear and overcoming it. And now take a closer look at what happens to the timid woman as her son gets involved in the business. At first she was afraid of everything, “she lived in fear all her life,” her usual state was “anxious anticipation of beatings,” so she was always tense, moving somehow sideways... And now - the first new impulse. The mother learns that Pavel has joined the fight: “She straightened up, became wary, expecting something important,” and “she became afraid - for her son.” But immediately the feeling of fear is joined by a feeling of pride. And soon the feeling of fear acquires new content - the writer increasingly uses the word “anxiety”.

So, fear for the son is transformed into anxiety for the son, for his comrades, for the common cause. Fear of enemies is replaced by a feeling of contempt for them. The mother's feelings are conveyed especially well in the court scene. In Pavel and his party comrades, Nilovna saw true life and spiritual health. Those who judged are perceived by her as dead, and she feels disgust towards them. It was after the trial that she made an important conclusion for herself: “Now it’s no longer scary...”

Other works on this work

Neither in the work of Gorky himself before 1905, nor in the work of any other Russian or foreign writer, was there such a heartfelt depiction of the process of soul renewal, such a subtle disclosure of all the nuances of the formation of a new revolutionary consciousness, which we find in the novel “Mother”.

The above applies primarily to the image of Nilovna. She is the main, main character of the novel. The decisive importance of this image in the structure of the book is already clear from its title.

The most remarkable thing in Nilovna’s story seems to be the harmonious combination of the theme of the mother’s heart with the theme of social and political.

A kind of psychological chronicle unfolds before us. And how many emotional nuances are captured in it! The quiet and submissive sadness of a woman beaten down by a degenerate, wild husband; the same submissive and painful sadness caused by the fact that the young son seemed to have moved along his father’s - wild and inhuman - path; the first joys in her life that she experienced when her son managed to overcome the cheap temptations of drunken and wild entertainment; then a new anxiety in the mother’s heart at the sight of her son “concentratedly and stubbornly floating somewhere to the side from the dark stream of life”...

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The author is in no hurry. He knows that there are no instant renewals of the soul, And day after day passes before us in the life of a mother; we observe both her doubts and the alienation that arose in individual moments from her son and from his friends - and we observe how new moods and concepts are gradually formed in her spiritual world. And how complex, how rich her spiritual world turns out to be!

In Gorky's novel, the eternal takes on a new meaning and a new poignancy, for it is shown in a very complex dramatic social context; and the ideological quests and insights of women at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries become vibrantly alive, because they are permeated with the eternal light of maternal feeling.

The advent of a new historical era and a new literary era was announced to the world by the image of Pavel Vlasov, not as rich in psychological nuances as the image of the Mother, but also charming, monumental, and filled with deep meaning. This was the first image in world literature of a political leader of the workers, bringing to the masses the ideas of scientific socialism, organizing the masses for a living, practical, revolutionary cause.

The image of Paul, like the image of the Mother, is drawn simultaneously in sober realistic and elevated romantic tones. These colors are suggested to the writer by life itself. The revolutionary struggle of the working class required a scientific comprehension of social reality, a strict consideration of all its factors, and it also demanded that spiritual uplift, that enthusiasm, without which victory would have been impossible. Therefore, Pavel Vlasov is shown as a sober analyst, as a highly restrained person, reaching “monastic severity” in his understanding of his duty, and he is also shown in the dramatic moments of his life, when he wanted to “throw people his heart, lit by the fire of a dream of truth.” " Reading such lines, we remember Danko. But if the hero of the legend was tragically lonely, then the hero of the novel is strong due to his ever-growing connection with the working collective, with the advanced intelligentsia. The era of historical creativity of the broadest strata of the working people - workers and peasants - has arrived, an era that brought forward a completely new type of hero. And this is perfectly shown in the novel.

Gorky's innovation was also evident in revealing the beneficial changes that were introduced by the socialist ideal into family relationships. We see how the friendship of Pelageya Vlasova and Pavel Vlasov arises and develops, a friendship that was generated not only by maternal love and filial love, but also by joint participation in a great historical cause. The complex dialectic of the relationship between these two remarkable people is very subtly and soulfully revealed by Gorky. Pavel has a strong spiritual influence on Nilovna. Communication with her son re-opens her eyes to the world. However, she also influences her son. And its influence, as Gorky shows with the help of subtle psychological and everyday nuances, was no less significant. Maybe even more significant! Communication with his Mother was for the stern, at first somewhat straightforward and harsh Pavel, a school of heartfelt kindness, modesty and tact. He became softer towards people close to him, his soul became more flexible, sensitive and wise. Thanks to communication with the Mother, he achieved that high humanity, without which a true revolutionary is unthinkable.

Sources:

• Gorky M. Selected / Preface. N. N. Zhegalova; Il. B. A. Dekhtereva.- M.: Det. lit., 1985.- 686 pp., ill., 9 l. ill.
annotation: The volume includes selected works by M. Gorky: the stories “Childhood” and “In People”, the stories “Makar Chudra”, “Chelkash”, “Song of the Falcon”, “Once in the Autumn”, “Konovalov”, “Former People” and etc.

Image of Pavel Vlasov

Novel"Mother" reveals a completely clear position of the author in relation to social transformations; the work is imbued with the pathos of the struggle for the reconstruction of life, which for a long time gave rise to a very one-sided assessment of it within the framework of Soviet ideology. Behind the “heroic struggle of the new generation of revolutionaries” they did not notice / or did not want to notice / living people, with their internal contradictions, suffering, and moral quests. And it was precisely the inner spiritual world of man that interested the greatest Russian writers, whose works are recognized as classics of world literature. A one-sided approach to this work, imposed by communist ideology, undoubtedly cannot satisfy the modern reader.

It would probably be more appropriate to consider this work by exploring the spiritual world of the heroes. Thus, the best feelings arising in the hearts call people to the service of a high and bright idea. But when this idea overshadows everything else, enslaving a person, it suppresses in his soul the very feelings that prompted him to serve it.

This paradox is tragic. And it manifests itself most clearly in the image of Pavel Vlasov, who until recently was considered as unconditionally positive. But it is here that the “obsession with an idea” manifests itself most strongly, and it is here that this phenomenon takes on the most destructive forms. The desire for his own high goal, developing into fanaticism, suppresses in his soul such eternal human feelings as sons, love, love for home, for a woman. Cruelly, unfilially, he tells his mother that he is doomed to die for his idea, he does not want to listen to it before the demonstration.

The image of Pavel Vlasov, a revolutionary worker, largely determines the innovative essence of M. Gorky's novel. This image embodies the main meaning of historical time, those trends that are directed into the future.

In our opinion, analyzing the image of Paul cannot be limited to just searching for an answer to the question: how did an ordinary working guy master the theory and practice of revolutionary struggle? After all, Paul’s path is connected with internal growth, with the formation of character, with decisive changes in the psychology of the working man.

Let's consider one of the most striking episodes where the greatness of the spirit of the young revolutionary, the strength of his ideological conviction, and unshakable determination are fully revealed. There is a situation in the novel “Mother”: during the May Day demonstration, there comes a moment when the head of the crowd “as if hit something”: the street was blocked by a gray wall of soldiers. From this silent, motionless wall, a cold breath blew across the workers, and people backed away, began to move to the side, pressing themselves against houses and fences. But Pavel’s voice still sounded clear and distinct.

“Comrades!” said Pavel. “All our lives forward - there is no other road for us!”

Next to Pavel at the demonstration are his comrades - people who consciously chose the path of struggle and did not flinch when meeting the soldiers. Why is Pavel still ahead? Why does he insist on his right to carry the banner? Of course, he is not guided by ambitious considerations, but by the interests of the cause he serves: he was the first to begin the work of educating the masses in the settlement, he stood at the head of the Social Democratic circle, people came to him for advice, they believed in him. He represented the party of revolutionaries, and when the party led the political struggle of the workers, he had to stand in the most visible and dangerous place. The attitude of the workers to revolutionary propaganda, the truth that was dearer to Paul than life, depended on this.

The first bid for independence was a protest against the beatings of his father. The fourteen-year-old teenager stopped the hand raised above his head and firmly stated: “I won’t give in again...”.

More serious evidence of the birth of personality is the dissatisfaction with the usual life of factory youth and the search for a different path. When Pavel tells Nilovna that he is reading forbidden books, that he can be put in prison for this, the mother, measuring with her heart all the troubles that threaten her son, will sigh: “You have changed dangerously, oh my God!”

An independent, bold mind and great courage were needed in order to, contrary to centuries-old traditions, contrary to the rules and customs to which both fathers and grandfathers obeyed, leave the beaten path, choose the difficult path to the kingdom of justice. Didn't this mean taking that step forward that only heroic natures can do?

And Paul will always be ready to face danger in the name of the Truth that he understood. When there is unrest at the factory because of the “swamp penny,” Vlasov will stand next to the director and, on behalf of the workers, loudly demand that the order to deduct the penny be canceled. But for this they could be kicked out of work or arrested.

When the wall of soldiers bristling with bayonets “evenly and coldly” moves towards the demonstrators and Andrei involuntarily rushes forward to block Pavel, he sharply demands: “Come alongside, comrade!,.. There is a banner ahead!”

When his comrades suggested that Pavel escape from prison, he rejected this plan: he had to “stand up to his full height,” openly, loudly proclaim the slogans of Social Democracy, and set out the program of his party.

A portrait of Pavel is almost always given through the perception of his mother, who, worrying about him, still cannot help but admire and be proud of him: “The son’s eyes burned beautifully and brightly,” “His blue eyes, always serious and stern, now burned so softly and affectionately,” “he was the most beautiful of all,” “The mother looked into his face and saw only his eyes, proud and bold, burning,” “she saw her son’s face, his bronze forehead and eyes, burning with the bright fire of faith.” The depiction of a son through the mother’s perception is one of the methods of expressing the author’s position. By infecting the reader with the feelings of his mother, making him proud and admire Pavel, Gorky affirms his aesthetic ideal.

Looking at the portrait characteristics of Pavel, one cannot help but notice that they repeat the same definitions that describe Danko.

The fire of love for people also burns in Pavel’s heart, and the main motive of his activities is the same as that of the hero of the legend - “What will I do for people?”

The hero of Gorky's legend is a symbol that reflected the thirst for heroic deeds, which was felt more and more clearly in advanced Russian society, in the proletarian environment at the turn of two centuries.

In real life circumstances, the determination to change the world in the name of the triumph of Truth and Justice led proletarians to the ideas of socialism. In specific historical conditions, a new type of figure was formed - a conscious worker, a fighter for socialism. In the novel "Mother" Gorky creates a realistic image of a revolutionary worker, showing a hero of the new time in typical life circumstances. The character of Pavel Vlasov is given in development, in formation, in internal growth.

Here Pavel listens to his mother’s gentle reproaches and seems to see her for the first time, tortured by work, humiliated by fear of growing old prematurely, and for the first time he thinks about her fate. This pity for the mother, thoughts about her life are so natural, so humanly understandable. At the same time, perhaps, from this moment Paul’s spiritual awakening begins, the work of consciousness that will lead him to the revolutionary path: from thoughts about the suffering of a loved one - to thoughts about the life of a workers’ settlement - to an awareness of the historical role of the class with whose hands everything is done All.

Here is the first speech about the truth. Both the conviction and youth of Pavel are felt very well in it. He speaks excitedly, passionately, rejoicing that he found words understandable to his mother - “young pride with the power of words elevated his faith in himself.”

And after an unsuccessful attempt to organize a strike, Pavel walks around gloomy, tired: “I’m young, I’m weak, that’s what! They didn’t believe me, they didn’t follow my truth, which means I didn’t know how to tell it!..” But he doesn’t back down, he believes: today If they don’t understand, they will understand tomorrow. In communicating with people, with the mass of workers, he verifies the truth of the knowledge obtained from books, acquires the necessary experience, and develops as a leader. And here before us is a revolutionary with an established worldview, an active fighter against the evil that exists in the world. His speech at the trial not only ignites, it convinces with irrefutable logic.

Among the techniques for creating character, dialogues and debates play an important role, in which the reader involuntarily gets involved: he compares the positions of the disputants, ponders the thoughts they express, and looks for arguments for or against. One of the issues discussed in the pages of the novel is the power of the mind and heart. “Only reason will free a person!” Paul said firmly. “The mind does not give strength!” Rybin objected loudly and persistently. “The heart gives strength - not the head...”

Who is right? What is the strength of the mind and what is the strength of the heart?

The power of reason, in Paul’s understanding, is, first of all, the power of advanced social ideas, revolutionary theory, which allows you to see the deep processes of life, understand its patterns, like a searchlight, illuminating the path to the future. However, advanced theories are not the fruit of cold calculations of the mind. They appear on the basis of the difficult experience of many generations, often paid for by the feat of self-denial, selfless sacrifices.

Nilovna, thinking about people who “suffer for the people, go to prison and go to Siberia,” says: “They love! They love purely!” And the workers followed Paul, because his heart was turned to them.

It was noted above that Paul often appears before the reader, illuminated by maternal love, and in this way the author expresses his attitude towards the hero. But the mother’s perception of her son and his work is also verified by popular opinion: the workers’ settlements have recognized him as their leader, his fate worries the people unfamiliar to his mother gathered at the courthouse, his name is pronounced with pride and admiration by members of workers’ circles in the city (“He was the first to openly raise the banner our party!"), leaflets with his words are greedily snatched from Nilovna's hands by people at the station.

The novel does not contain a love affair, which was often the driving force of the plot in Russian novels of the 19th century known to students. However, the question of what place love and family occupy in the life of a revolutionary arises more than once during the narration of the life of Pavel and his comrades.

A person who has chosen the path of struggle must know what awaits his family, his children, and must find the strength to endure the longing for his loved ones and fear for them. No less moral strength is needed in order to put business above all else and abandon the family. But such self-denial does not at all indicate inferiority, or deafness of heart. Not many pages of the novel talk about love, but from these pages comes the light of high humanity and moral purity. The love of Pavel and Sashenka is chaste and strict. The words in which pent-up tenderness breaks through are rare and stingy, but these words are precious because they are genuine. Worried about Pavel's health and life, Sashenka understands that the most important thing for him is business, and, allowing herself to dream a little about how she will settle in Siberia with Pavel and maybe have children, she returns to reality, ready for new partings: after all, Pavel will not live in Siberia, he will definitely leave to continue the fight. “He should not take me into account, and I will not embarrass him. It will be difficult for me to part with him, but, of course, I can handle it.”

As we see, the image of Paul is the image of a man who makes, although not out of malice, unhappy those to whom he is dear. This is especially evident from his love story. In life, he constantly faces a choice between an idea and a living soul. And he chooses an idea... Therefore, the image of Pavel Vlasov, in our opinion, is tragic. In the soul of this man there was a discord between the deepest, root, vital foundations and the idea, the goal set by him.

Image of Andrey Nakhodka

Understanding the character of Pavel, it is impossible to ignore Andrei Nakhodka. By placing these characters side by side, the writer encourages readers to compare and contrast them, and through this comparison, the meaning of the artistic picture and the assessment of life phenomena contained in it is more deeply comprehended.

The find is usually liked by readers. He is simpler, more understandable than Paul.

Readers usually have a good idea of ​​Andrei’s appearance: an awkward long figure, in which there was something funny and inviting, a round cropped head, soft light blue eyes and a smile so wide that it seemed as if “the ears had moved to the back of the head.” Nakhodka attracts readers with its warmth, sensitivity, attentive attitude towards people, and readiness to help them.

Nakhodka rejects a world in which anger and hatred triumph. He lives a dream of a time when there will be no wars, hostility, cruelty, or lies on earth, “when people will begin to admire each other, when each will be like a star in front of the other.” But is it bad that in his soul the idea of ​​“a future holiday for everyone on earth” lives so clearly, so palpably, that he so wants to see people kind, strong, free and proud? After all, it is this bright dream, the “amazing” that is in his soul, that makes him strong and persistent, helps him on the thorny revolutionary path.

We see how Nakhodka suffers from the fact that he did not prevent the murder of the vile and pathetic spy Isaika, his heart rebels against cruelty. However, Andrei immediately says that for the sake of his comrades, for the sake of the cause, he can do anything: “If Judas stands in the way of the honest, waiting to betray them, I will be Judas myself when I do not destroy him!”

He knows that the revolution will not be bloodless, that victory can only be achieved with weapons in hand, and in this struggle there is no place for pity for the enemies of the people: after all, “every drop of their blood is washed in advance by lakes of the people’s tears...”

In the novel, Nakhodka is shown as a consistent and persistent fighter. He had been persecuted more than once, spent many days in prison, but did not retreat, was not afraid of danger. None of Nakhodka’s comrades doubt the purity, sincerity of his convictions, his reliability and loyalty. Rybin speaks of this gentle and kind man like this: “Sometimes I listen to him speak at the factory, and I think - you can’t doubt this, only death will overcome him. A wiry man!”

Pavel and Andrey are two different characters. However, they are not opposed by the writer. What underlies the strong friendship of these very different people? Of course, sympathy, interest in another person, the need to communicate with him can arise unconsciously. But true friendship requires mutual understanding, similarity of basic life positions. Pavel and Andrey are like-minded people, comrades-in-arms. Disputes often arise between them, but in disputes the commonality of their views only strengthens. Most importantly, they understand each other and trust each other. They are nearby everywhere. During the May Day demonstration, Andrei is ready to carry the banner in order to take the main blow. And although Pavel defended his right to go ahead, Nakhodka does not lag behind him. In the general chorus of voices singing a revolutionary song, Andrei’s soft and strong voice merges with Pavel’s thick, bass voice. Together they walk towards the menacingly bristling line of soldiers. “As long as we are together, we will go everywhere side by side, just know that!” - says Andrey Nilovna.

Perhaps the most touching moment in the history of their relationship is the “explanation of friendship” after Andrei “gave a beating” to Pavel, who had offended his mother with a harsh word (chapter XXIII of the first part). Pavel, embarrassed, admits his guilt, Nilovna is touched, in whose heart the resentment towards her son lingered for a short time. Shocked by the power of his mother's love, Andrei especially acutely feels how dear these people are to him - both his son and his mother. And then comes the moment of complete spiritual unity, when three hearts, overflowing with love and gratitude, merge into one. Andrey “looked at the mother and son with slightly reddened eyes and, blinking, said quietly:

Two bodies - one soul... In the context of the work and in this image, as well as in general the storyline of “Paul and Andrei”, the unity of workers of different nations is affirmed, that international brotherhood, which Pavel Vlasov’s comrades spoke with such enthusiasm in the classes of the circle.

Two destinies, closely intertwined in the plot of the novel, unfolded with almost equal completeness, suggest that both heroes are necessary in the sound of the main theme - the theme of revolution. Pavel's tenacity and will, his mind, striving to understand the causes of all phenomena, looking for a connecting thread in the diversity of facts, the iron logic of his accusations are complemented by Andrei's ardent aspiration for the future, his bright dream of the kingdom of kindness of heart.

If with the image of Paul the writer proves the regularity of the revolution and the achievability of the future, then the main meaning of the image of Nakhodka is that the socialist ideal, the image of the future, will be tangibly, concretely presented to the readers in its entirety.

Image of Pelageya Nilovna

The central image of the novel"Mother" is the image of Pelageya. Nilovna participates in all the events of the novel. The title of the novel follows from this compositional role of the image. It is she who is “entrusted” with her heart to judge Rybin, Fedya Mazin, and Sophia. Her assessments of people in the novel are extraordinary; she feels what others do not yet see; Her “dreams” in the novel are subtle and symbolic. In the novel “Mother,” Gorky shows the process of enriching a mother’s natural love for her child with a sense of spiritual closeness. The theme of the resurrection of the human soul, the theme of the second birth of man, is connected with the image of the mother. Gorky takes the most difficult version of this resurrection. Firstly, Nilovna is 45 - a “woman’s age”, for a woman of that time it was a lot. Take the difficult option of rebirthing an old person with an already established fate and character. Secondly, Gorky chooses a religious woman as his heroine; the writer sees in the mother’s faith a certain system of values ​​and views on the world that helps her live; that is why she is so afraid of the destruction of her faith in God. This means that the process of mother’s rebirth is associated with changes in worldview. Thirdly, Nilovna is a woman, and according to traditional ideas, the role of a woman was limited to family and children, and this also complicates her inclusion in active work. The main source of the rebirth process is maternal love. From the desire to be closer to the son, or at least not to anger him, grows the desire to understand him and help him. But this is only the beginning, then she was captured by the idea itself. Nilovna's fate is proof of the fruitfulness of revolutionary ideas.

The main change in Nilovna is overcoming the fear of life. She was afraid of the new appearance of her son. Participation in her son’s affairs and expanding her circle of acquaintances helps her better understand and love people. It is this love and goodwill that lead Nilovna to the point that she ceases to be afraid of people. She becomes a mother to all her close friends and even distant people. Nilovna’s state of mind is visible in her portraits: “She was tall, slightly stooped, her body, broken by hard work and beatings from her husband, moved silently and somehow sideways, as if she was afraid of hurting something... She was all soft, sad, submissive ..."

A hero who carries a spiritual principle, in whom the best human feelings are strong, is undoubtedly Nilovna. The mighty power of her maternal love keeps Paul from complete immersion and fanatical madness. It was in the image of the mother that faith in a high goal and the richest spiritual world were most organically combined. Here, of course, it is necessary to note Nilovna’s deep and strong connection with the people, which has always been assessed in Russian literature as the wealth of a person’s soul, his closeness to the origins, the roots of national culture. The idea inspires Nilovna, allows her to rise up and gain faith in herself, but does not develop in her mind into a goal for fanatical service. This does not happen, probably because Nilovna’s connection with folk roots is very strong. Obviously, it is this connection that determines a person’s inner resilience. Let us note that Andrei Nakhodka, Paul’s comrade-in-arms, is much deeper than him spiritually. This image is also close to the people, this is evidenced by his attitude towards Nilovna: tenderness, care, affection. Paul doesn't have this. The author shows how dangerous it is for a person to move away from his folk roots when all true spiritual values ​​are lost.

The name of the novel was not chosen by chance by the writer. After all, it is the mother /eternal image/ who is the true, humane, loving, sincere image.

Peasantry in the novel

One of the main meaning- and plot-forming ideas of the novel is the idea of ​​uniting people in the revolutionary struggle.

An important aspect of the unity of people in the revolutionary cause is overcoming distrust of people, especially among people of different social groups, especially the distrust of workers and peasants in intellectuals. Gorky soberly sees the difficulties arising during the revolutionary process, and with the instinct of an artist he predicts ways to overcome them.

The theme of the peasantry occupied Gorky, because Russia, a primordially peasant country, is taking the path of revolutionary struggle and introducing into this struggle the traditions of peasant ideology and behavior.

In the conversation between Pavel and Andrei, Gorky’s attitude towards this clearly manifests itself: “We must follow our path, without stepping aside one step,” Pavel said firmly.

And along the way we will stumble upon several tens of millions of people who will greet us as enemies...

The mother understood that Pavel did not like the peasants, and the Little Russian stood up for them, proving that the peasants also needed to be taught goodness... She understood Andrei more, and he seemed right to her..."

As the central image, Gorky chooses Mikhail Rybin, a seemingly atypical figure for peasants: he is a worker who has already found his place in the working environment. But Rybin has a typically peasant psychology, not altered even by a proper stay in the city; Gorky puts him at the center of “peasant” events.

In the novel, Rybin’s appearance is vividly created: a respectable, sedate man with burning, piercing eyes and a black beard, he evokes both respect and at the same time fear.

Every word of Rybin is weighed and filled with inner strength. Rybin loves people who “don’t jump too fast,” he says about Pavel. It is this inner strength and significance that makes others listen to him and allows him to become a propagandist among the peasants. Rybin pays a high emotional price for every word. Rybin says rightly that “the beginning is not in the head, but in the heart!”, “the heart gives strength, not the head.”

Rybin has a unique view of people. At the beginning of the novel, he proceeds from a distrust of people in general. Man, according to Rybin, is “unkind”; he has a lot of anger, resentment, and “jags” that prevent people from uniting together. Rybin, not without reason, believes that “theirs,” in the narrow sense of the word, is too dear to people and, not seeing the prospects, they can refuse to greatly enrich themselves in the future in the name of the “short” present. He bases his reasoning on this when the strike fails because of the “swamp penny.” Rybin's ideal is the moral renewal of a person through suffering, which gives him the right to influence others.

But on his path to renewal, Rybin, who stands up for justice, is ready to use forms and methods that are by no means from the arsenal of conscience. Gradually Rybin overcomes his mistrust of man and reason. It is he who asks Pavel and takes from Nilovna books and leaflets for the peasants, using books to influence their consciousness.

The strength of Rybin’s image lies in its non-one-dimensionality and non-linearity. the writer clearly reveals in him the power of the earth, so strong in the peasant. Gorky gives Rybin a difficult and complex fate not only in the background, but also in the plot of the novel. And this is natural, since different people have different paths to revolution. For people like Rybin, it could not be simple. Gorky led his heroes to revolution, each in his own way.

It is important to find the universal and eternal in the fish and in the peasants. Psychologically, it is important for peasants to have predecessors and followers in order to be included in the new. Only a few are able to pave the way (Paul). The path of Rybin and many others to the revolution is different from that of Pavel.

They go not through book ideas to the “deed”, but through the “deed” - to the book. It is more important for them to verify the facts and create a theory. It is important for them to have their own point of view - someone else’s experience, three times good, is not as important to them as their own, hard-won experience. The difficulties of such people’s path to revolution cannot be ignored.

The images of the peasant Peter, who came to listen to Nilovna after Rybin’s arrest, are noteworthy; he will follow the path of the revolution to the end.

It is curious how Gorky paints rural landscapes. It would seem that after urban scenes, rural landscapes should be light. However, this is not the case. Gloomy pictures of nature fit more accurately into the general ideological and artistic concept of Gorky’s worldview

Depiction of the old world in the novel "Mother"

One of the key problems of analysis, most closely related to with the aspirations of modern man - the theme of personality formation.

For Gorky, one of the incentives for staging it was the process of “destruction of personality” he observed in Russia under capitalism, when the majority of people from top to bottom become slaves to private property.

In the novel "Mother" Gorky draws on his artistic experience.

Gorky notes that both in a large capitalist city and in a workers' settlement a person is a slave. It is important to highlight several groups of enemies in the novel. After all, this world is “not sterile.” The first group is the tsar, the provincial prosecutor, judges, officers, army officers, soldiers, spies.

The second group - people from the same sphere as the main characters of the novel, but defending the ideology of the ruling class - master Vavilov, spy Isaik Gorbov, innkeeper Beguntsov.

It is characteristic that the first group remains nameless, and the enemies “from below” are given a last name. In addition to these characters, there is a nameless environment of people who are hostile or wary of the activities of the revolutionaries. It should be noted that in the novel, in addition to real figures, there is another image of the enemy, a collective one - what Pavel, Andrei, Nikolai Vesovshchikov, Rybin, Samoilov think and say about enemies - the image of the enemy in the minds of revolutionaries. This is important for understanding the novel.

All the “enemies” and their servants depicted by Gorky are shown precisely as “mechanical people”, parts of the state machine: gendarme, judge, prosecutor, tsar. Everyone has functions: to judge, arrest, monitor, but they are not individuals, “even their faces have been erased.”

It is no coincidence that the description of enemies is dominated by details of external appearance, the most noticeable, superficially observed, mustache, beard, saber, spurs. The gray color of the dust accompanies the description of the enemies. With this, Gorky emphasizes the escheat of his enemies. We don’t see a soul in any of them, nor in any of them is the inner world shown. It’s as if their souls have been eaten. Under capitalism, “the murder of the soul” constantly occurs, as Paul calls it.

Anger towards enemies and fear for oneself, calm, indifferent, even lazy performance of one’s duties, this is what Bitter notes among the servants of capital. They don't have a big idea to inspire them.