Night Asylum (Gorki)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Game scene from the Moscow premiere in 1902, Act 2.

Night Asylum - Scenes from the Deep ( Russian На дне / Na dne [literally: 'On the ground']) is Maxim Gorky's best-known and most successful play . It was written during the winter of 1901 and premiered in 1902 at the Moscow Art Theater, directed by Konstantin Stanislavsky . The German premiere took place on January 23, 1903 in the Berlin Deutsches Theater under the direction of Richard Vallentin .

The German first edition was printed in 1903 in the Herrose & Ziemsen printing house, Wittenberg, Lucas Cranach Str. 22 (today's headquarters of Stadtwerke Lutherstadt Wittenberg GmbH), in the authorized translation by August Scholz . Maxim Gorki was there himself to oversee the printing and proofreading.

content

Overview

place and time

The drama takes place in Russia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The “night asylum” is located in an unspecified provincial town.

Occurring persons

  • Kostylev, Mikhail Ivanovich, 54 years old, innkeeper
  • Vasilissa, his wife, 26 years old
  • Natascha, her sister, 20 years old
  • Medvedev, uncle of the two, policeman, 50 years old
  • Waska Pepel, 28 years old
  • Kleschtsch, Andrej Mitritsch, locksmith, 40 years old
  • Anna, his wife, 30 years old
  • Nastja, a girl, 24 years old
  • Kvaschnja, a Höker woman, around 40 years old
  • Bubnow, cap maker, 45 years old
  • Satin, around 40 years old
  • An actor, 40 years old
  • A baron, 32 years old
  • Luka, a pilgrim, 60 years old
  • Aljoschka, a shoemaker, 20 years old
  • Schiefkropf (in some translations also called "Schiefkopf", although this is a transcription error. In the Russian original, the figure is called Кривой Зоб, so 'Schiefer Kropf') load carrier, around 40 years old
  • A tartare, around 40 years old

overview

The location of the four acts of the drama is a Russian homeless shelter . The 54-year-old owner, Mikhail Ivanovich Kostylew, and his considerably younger wife, 26-year-old Vasilisa, rent a shabby basement room to failed livelihoods.

action

1st act

The first act, it is morning and the residents have just got up, begins with an argument: the baron mocks the prostitute Nastja, who reads a romance novel and dreams of great love, Kleschtsch and Bubnow tease the widowed Kwaschnja, but again marry. Kleschtsch's wife Anna, whom he had cruelly beaten, is dying.

The protagonists begin their day's work. The baron and Kvaschnja go to the market to sell pelmeni , the other residents argue about who should sweep the house. The landlord Kostylev appears, looking for his wife Vasilisa, who, however, has an affair with Waska Pepel. Satin and the severely alcoholic actor go to get drunk outside the house - meanwhile, the landlady's younger sister, Natascha, brings a new guest to the night's quarters, a good-natured old pilgrim named Luka. He immediately befriends various residents of the asylum, but at the same time clashes with the malevolent, imperious Wassilissa, who first threw the drunken Aljoschka out of the house and also threatened Bubnow to chase him away because of his debts. At the same time it was rumored that Pepel was planning to end his relationship with Vasilisa because he had fallen in love with her sister Natascha.

Luka decides to sweep the room and lovingly takes care of Anna, who was completely forgotten by the other residents. At the same time the policeman Medvedev appears, the uncle of Vasilisa and Natascha - just at the right time, because the helpless Kostylev rushes over and reports that Vasilisa brutally beats Natascha.

2nd act

The second act takes place in the evening of the same day. Most of the residents have returned to the night shelter. Satin, the Baron, Slanted goiter and the Tatar playing cards, but the game soon dissolves from mutual scams on. Medvedev is also present and is playing checkers with Bubnov. The actor wants to recite his former favorite poem to Luka and is horrified that he has forgotten even this because of the continued alcohol abuse. Luka comforts the actor and gives him hope for a free, luxurious rehab clinic. The actor, encouraged by this thought, resolves to start a new life. At the same time, Anna's condition continues to deteriorate. She is afraid of death and complains to Luka of her suffering. He knows how to calm her down, but is immediately mocked by Pepel, and Lukas mocks comforting words as lies and fantasies.

There was a debate between Pepel and Vasilissa. Pepel confesses to Vasilisa that he no longer loves her. Vasilissa decides to use Pepel's love for Natascha to her advantage. She offers him to arrange the relationship with Natascha and to give the two an additional 300 rubles so that they can leave the night shelter - in return, Pepel is said to murder Kostylew. In the middle of the conversation, Kostylew bursts in, who had suspected his wife's infidelity, which leads to fights with Pepel, which are only interrupted by Luka, who, by clearing his throat, shows that he had overheard the whole scene unnoticed. Luka tells Pepel that it was his intention to guard him against carelessness and recommends that he not enter into a trade with Vasilissa, but instead leave the area with his lover. He advises him to start a new life in Siberia . Pepel thanks Luka for his advice, even if he cannot understand the unselfishness with which Luka tries to help him.

Shortly afterwards Anna dies, which is taken up calmly by most of those present. Only Natascha and Luka go to the heart of their death, while the rest of them discuss the current whereabouts of the corpse as well as the upcoming funeral and the related financial problems.

3rd act

Final scene 3rd act at the Moscow premiere in 1902.

The third act, unlike the first two, does not take place inside the quarter, but in a dirty yard full of rubbish adjacent to it. Nastja tells a love story that she wants to have experienced, but which probably came from one of her romance novels. Bubnow and the baron mock Nastja, but Natascha and Luka understand them and ask them to continue the story.

There is a dispute about the value of truth. Bubnow takes the stand that there is no reason to lie, neither out of simplicity and longing like Nastja, nor out of good-naturedness and philanthropy like Luka. It is always appropriate to tell the truth. In contrast, Luka cites the story of a person whose hope in life was “the land of the righteous” and who could not bear the revelation of a scholar that this land did not exist and who committed suicide. That is why, according to Luka, you have to admit your own truth to people and give them something they want to believe in.

Pepel suggests to Natascha to go to Siberia with him to build a new life, which, after some hesitation, she accepts. They are overheard by Wassilissa and Kostylew, who mock Pepel and show Luka out of the house; however, the latter had already decided beforehand to go to Little Russia .

The subsequent conversation between Luka, Satin, Bubnow, the actor and Kleschtsch is interrupted by shouting. Kostylev and Vasilissa jointly abuse Natascha. The actor gets Pepel, who wants to defend his lover. While it succeeds in tearing the furious Wassilissa from her sister, Pepel beats Kostylev, who falls unhappy and dies in the process.

Wassilissa triumphs - her husband is dead and the now hated Pepel is the murderer; she scornfully urges that the perpetrator be arrested. Wassilissa's triumph makes Natascha doubt Pepel; In her pain she believes in a conspiracy by Vasilissa and Pepel to murder Kostylev, for which she was only a means to an end.

4th act

The scenery of the fourth act resembles that of the first two. Kleschtsch, who had to move most of his tools for Anna's funeral, repairs Aljoschka's harmonica while Satin, Nastja and the baron get drunk. The remaining residents mourn the friendly Luka. Those present learn from Nastja that Natascha disappeared without a trace after her discharge from the hospital. Pepel and Wassilissa are in custody . The baron talks about the glorious past of his family, but is laughed at by Nastja, who wants to return the favor for the numerous insults she had to endure while telling her own stories. This leads to an argument, the baron threatens to take action, and Nastja flees furiously.

The Tatar, as a Muslim, fulfills his duty of prayer , and the actor asks him to pray for him. At the same time Bubnov and Medvedev join the others with fresh brandy. To Aljoschka's harmonica accompaniment, Bubnow and Schiefkropf start a song, only to be interrupted by the baron, who informs the group that the actor has hanged himself.

interpretation

The building of the former Bugrov homeless shelter in Nizhny Novgorod , which served as a prototype of the “night shelter ”

The scenic plot is deeply pessimistic. The heavy and gloomy mood did not go unnoticed by Anton Chekhov , who wrote in a letter to Gorky that he would have to say goodbye to the reputation of an optimist. In contrast to other works by Gorky, Nachtasyl lacks any form of mobilization effect. Hopelessness and misery stifle the protagonists' rebellion. Some of the protagonists, the baron and the actor, have only dreams of an imaginary or real, previous life, which also have a personality-determining effect in the night asylum, so much so that instead of their names they only have their roles from this life.

The protagonists keep themselves afloat with menial activities, such as the porters Schiefkropf and the Tatar, or the locksmith Kleschtsch, who ultimately has to sell his tools, hang around in a criminal or semi-criminal environment, like the thief Waska Pepel or the prostitute Nastja , or have no recognizable activity at all, such as satin or acting. The senselessness of the days, the general misery and the resulting compulsion to be ruthless prevent the development of any form of togetherness.

The protagonists do not form a community, although they live together in a very confined space - even a hierarchy does not arise: "There are no masters here ... Only the naked person has remained", says Gorky Bubnow; Coexistence is characterized by violence, alcoholism and arguing. The most positive character of the drama, the friendly pilgrim Luka, remains in the memory of those who stayed behind, but has in fact achieved nothing and may even be responsible for the actor's suicide in the fourth act. Luka is not a revolutionary , his message is not a call for resistance against the oppressive conditions. The determining factor for Luke's character, which was adapted to the appearance of Lev Tolstoy in the first performances , is the pity he feels for people. Gorki's ambivalent attitude towards Christianity ensured that he distanced himself from night asylum in the 1930s because he believed that he had not worked out the critical aspects of Luke's consolation sharply enough.

Film adaptations

The play Nachtasyl was filmed several times:

literature

  • Armin Knigge: Maksim Gor'kij. The literary work . Erich Wewel, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-87904-111-3

Web links