This is an automatically translated description

The Host is a social comedy by Ivan Karpenko-Kary written in 1900. In it, the playwright highlights the phenomenon of the formation of a new peasant Ukrainian bourgeoisie at the end of the 19th century. The author characterised the play as an evil satire on the human love of acquisition without any other purpose.

Karpenko-Kary nurtured the images of the rural millionaire Teryentiy Puzyry and his entourage for more than 10 years, since writing the play One Hundred Thousand. He completed the work on the play in the spring of 1900 at the Nadiia farm, named after his first wife, Nadiia Tarkovska. The prototypes of the play's protagonist, Terentiy Puzyry, were Ukrainian entrepreneurs like the Tereshchenkos and Kharytonenkos, whose formation took place in the context of the development of capitalism in the then Russian Empire and in Ukraine, in particular.

Through the image of Terentiy Puzyry, a peasant who quickly became rich by buying up land, Karpenko-Kary conveys the main idea of the work - the moral degeneration of a moneylender, for whom profit is above all else, and who does not stop at any scam just to multiply his wealth.