As a realistic play, characters, plot and setting are crucial components of The Lower Depths. Socialist realism entails lifelike depiction of characters' behavior and speech for purposes of conveying a political message. In The Lower Depths, characters speak and behave in somewhat fragmented, lifelike patterns and what they do and say are not romanticized to elicit audience emotions. Instead their various words and behaviors, however unappealing, are aimed at being realistic and provoking an impulse toward change or revolution. In The Lower Depths, some characters provoke contempt, others compassion, but the general sense at the end of the play is that social change is necessary. For example, when Nastiah complains that she feels superfluous, and Bubnoff confirms that everyone is superfluous, the response of the reader or audience is reflexively that a world should.....
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