Lessons 43–44
Ideological concept of the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov
"Hero of our time". Genre and composition
Objectives:to remind students about the characteristic features of the life of Russian society in the 30s of the XIX century, about the fate of the younger generation; to tell about the ideological concept of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" and about the responses to the publication of the work; find out the initial reader's impressions of the novel by Lermontov; dwell on the most important features of the composition (lack of a single plot, violation of the chronological order in the arrangement of parts of the work, the presence of three storytellers in the novel - the author, Maxim Maksimovich and Pechorin).
Lesson progress
Epigraph to the lesson:
A Hero of Our Time is by no means a collection of several novellas and short stories - it is a novel in which there is one hero and one basic idea, artistically developed.
V. G. Belinsky
I. Introductory speech of the teacher.
The novel "A Hero of Our Time" was conceived by Lermontov at the end of 1837. The main work on it began in 1838 and was completed in 1839. In the journal Otechestvennye zapiski appeared the story “Bela” (1838) with the subtitle “From the notes of an officer from the Caucasus”, at the end of 1839 the story “Fatalist” was published, and then “Taman”. Lermontov first named his novel “One of the Heroes of the Beginning of the Century”. A separate edition of the novel under the title "A Hero of Our Time" was published in 1840.
The 1830s-1840s in the history of Russia are the dark years of the Nikolaev reaction, the brutal police regime. The position of the people was intolerable, the fate of progressive thinking people was tragic. Feelings of sadness in Lermontov were caused by the fact that "the future generation has no future." Passivity, disbelief, indecision, loss of purpose in life and interest in it are the main features of the writer's contemporaries.
Lermontov in his work wanted to show what the Nikolayev reaction was doomed to the younger generation. The very title of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" is evidence of its importance.
In the image of Pechorin, Lermontov gave an expressive realistic and psychological portrait of "a modern man as he understands him and, unfortunately, met too often" (A. I. Herzen).
Pechorin is a richly gifted nature. The hero does not overestimate himself when he says: "I feel immense strength in my soul." With his novel, Lermontov answers why energetic and intelligent people do not find use for their remarkable abilities and "wither without a fight" at the very beginning of their life. The author's attention is drawn to revealing the complex and contradictory character of the hero.
Lermontov in the preface to the "Pechorina Journal" writes: "The history of the human soul, even the smallest soul, is almost more curious and not more useful than the history of an entire people ..."
Features of the genre... "Hero of Our Time" is the first Russian psychological novel.
II. Clarification of the initial impressions of students about the novel "A Hero of Our Time".
Here are some of the questions:
1. Which of the stories you read made the greatest impression on you?
2. Tell us about your attitude towards the main character.
3. What events in Pechorin's life did we learn from the chapter "Bela"?
4. In whose name is the story told? What role does this play?
5. Who is Maxim Maksimych? What do you learn about him?
6. Is Maxim Maksimych the person who is able to understand Pechorin?
7. What is your impression of the passing officer?
8. Read your favorite description of nature. What words help you feel the presence of the person painting the landscape?
III. Features of the composition of the novel.
Questions:
1. What is the plot of a work of art?
2. What elements of the plot do you know?
3. What is called a composition of a work of art? What compositional techniques have you encountered before when studying works?
4. What is the peculiarity of the composition "A Hero of Our Time"? Can you single out the elements of the plot that you know? (The peculiarity of the composition is the absence of a single plot line. The novel consists of five parts or stories, each of which has its own genre, its own plot and its own title. But the main character unites all these parts into a single novel.)
5. Let's try to imagine the difference between chronological and compositional order.
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Pechorin goes to his place of service, stops in Taman, then visits Pyatigorsk, where he was exiled to the fortress for a quarrel and a duel with Grushnitsky. In the fortress, the events described in the stories "Bela" and "Fatalist" take place with him. A few years later, Pechorin meets with Maxim Maksimych. Chronological order of the stories: 1. "Taman". 2. "Princess Mary". 3. Bela. 4. "Fatalist". 5. "Maxim Maksimych". |
Lermontov violates the order of the stories. In the novel, they follow: 1. "Bela". 2. "Maxim Maksimych". 3. "Taman". 4. "Princess Mary". 5. "Fatalist". The last three stories are the diary of the protagonist, |
Questions:
1) Why does Lermontov build his novel this way?
2) What makes you think about such a composition?
3) In what form were the first two stories written? the last three?
Findings.“Pechorin is the main character of the novel. The characters are in contrast. The point is to emphasize: Pechorin is the center of the story, the Hero of his time. The composition of the work (change of narrators, violation of the chronology of events, genre of travel and diary notes, grouping of characters) helps to reveal Pechorin's character, to reveal the reasons that gave birth to him "*.
IV. Responses to the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov “A Hero of Our Time
me. "
1. S. Burachek: Pechorin - "monster", "slander against a whole generation."
2. S. Shevyrev: "Pechorin - there is only one ghost thrown at us by the West."
3. V. Belinsky: "Pechorin ... a hero of our time."
4. A. Herzen: "Pechorin is" Onegin's younger brother. "
Questions:
1) Which of the critics is more objective in assessing Pechorin?
2) How does Lermontov himself speak of Pechorin in the preface?
Reading the preface.
("... The Hero of Our Time, my dear sirs, is like a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development ...")
Homework.
1. The stories "Bela", "Maxim Maksimych". (Heroes, content, features of composition and genre, attitude to Pechorin.)
2. Make a plan for the story "Bela", title the parts.
"A Hero of Our Time" can be described as a socio-psychological novel. M.Yu. Lermontov in his work shows the reader the era of changing ideals in Russian history. Grigory Pechorin (as well as the author himself) can be attributed to the so-called "lost generation", since after the Decembrist uprising, which failed, society has not yet acquired new ideals and goals.
Throughout the entire work, the character of Pechorin is revealed to the reader, and the composition of the novel serves to solve this artistic problem.
In The Hero of Our Time there is no traditional compositional division of the text. There is no exposition, since the reader knows little about the life of the protagonist before his arrival in the Caucasus. There is also no tie, and the action is represented by a number of episodes telling about the life of Pechorin. The combination of several plot lines forms the polyphonic structure of the novel, which consists of five separate stories. That is why the reader sees five culminations in the work at the same time. The denouement of the novel can be considered the moment of Pechorin's death, when the main character dies, returning from Persia. Thus, it can be noted that the overall storyline consists only of climaxes and denouements. But an interesting fact is that in each story separately one can note the presence of the traditional compositional division of the text. Let's take, for example, the first part of the novel "Bela", in which the plot of the story is a conversation between Bela's brother and Kazbich, which Pechorin accidentally learns about. The direct exposition is the moment when the officer-storyteller meets the retired staff captain Maxim Maksimovich. The climax is the scene of Bela's abduction by Pechorin. And the denouement is Bela's death at the hands of Kazbich, who is in love with her, whose mind was clouded with jealousy and a desire for revenge.
The first thing that catches the reader's eye is the violation of the chronological sequence in the course of the story. That is why the denouement is in the middle of the text. Thus, the author gradually revealed the character of the protagonist. At first, readers saw him through the eyes of an officer-narrator and Maxim Maksimovich, and then they got acquainted with Pechorin's diary, in which he was extremely frank.
The composition of "A Hero of Our Time" is also unique in that Lermontov characterizes his hero at moments of peak life experiences, such as the case with smugglers, a duel with his former comrade Grushnitsky, a fight with a drunken Cossack assassin Vulich.
In the novel "A Hero of Our Time", the method of a circular composition is traced, since we meet Pechorin in the fortress, where he served with Maxim Maksimovich, and there we also see the hero for the last time before leaving for Persia. It is also characteristic that at the beginning and at the end of the novel there are two heroes - Pechorin and Maxim Maksimovich. Also in the work we find other compositional techniques, such as a novel in a novel - this is the diary of the protagonist. Another technique is silence, namely, a story about some history, after which Pechorin was exiled to the Caucasus. There is also a flashback when the main character meets his longtime beloved Vera.
It should be noted that the composition of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" is interesting, unusual and carries a lot of innovation.
The novel "A Hero of Our Time", written by M. Yu. Lermontov, is considered the first lyrical and psychological novel in Russian literature. Readers of that time believed that the character traits of Lermontov himself were embodied in the image of Pechorin. But the author strove to create a portrait of a contemporary, as he himself admits, “it was just fun to draw a modern person as he understands him, and to him and your misfortune, I met too often. There will also be the fact that the disease is indicated, but how to cure it - God knows! "
The structure of the novel
The composition of the novel is far from classical. The classical structure of a literary work consists of a prologue (preface), exposition, set, main actions, climax, denouement and epilogue. The chronological sequence is also observed. In the novel "A Hero of Our Time" the composition is multicomponent, that is, it has several ties, expositions, climaxes and denouements. The chronology of events is also violated. There is a prologue in the novel. In it, Lermontov tries to explain the purpose of writing his novel. This is a kind of dialogue with the reader. The novel is divided into 5 parts.
Part one
In the 1st part of chapter 3. Connecting is the story of the author's trip and his acquaintance with Maxim Maksimych. Along with Pechorin, he is a key figure helping to understand the image of the novel's protagonist.
Chapter 1. Bela.
In this part, Lermontov begins the story on his own behalf, tells about a trip along the Georgian Military Highway, about his acquaintance with Staff Captain Maxim Maksimych. This part of the story is the exposition. And then he gives the floor to this old campaigner, and he tells about his acquaintance with Pechorin and the story of his love with Bela. The plot of this chapter and the entire novel begins with Maxim Maksimych's story about Pechorin. The action of the chapter takes on its development from the moment of abduction of Bela and her appearance in Pechorin's house. The culmination is the abduction of Bela by Kazbich, her injury and death. Pechorin was worried about the death of the girl, probably blaming himself for what happened.
Chapter 2. Maxim Maksimych
Exposition - the author arrives in Vladikavkaz and learns that he will have to stay here for 3 days waiting for an opportunity. He decides to record Bela's story. Setting - the next day a cart with Maxim Maksimych arrives. Development of the action - Maxim Maksimych learns about Pechorin's arrival, waits for him. The author sees Pechorin, describes his contradictory appearance. The culmination is the meeting of Maxim Maksimych with Pechorin, resentment. The denouement - the author receives Pechorin's notebooks and leaves on the same day, parting with the distressed Maxim Maksimych.
Pechorin's Journal
Lermontov did not number the chapter "Pechorin's Journal" like the first 2 chapters. Lermontov singled out the Pechorin notes. Thus, Pechorin's journal is a book within a book. This new book, which began in the first part of the novel, is preceded by a preface, in which Lermontov explains the reason for his desire to publish the Pechorin records. "Pechorin's Journal" begins with the first chapter, which only emphasizes the nesting of one work in another.
In the "Journal" the narration is from Pechorin's perspective. Chronologically, it goes back.
Chapter 1. Taman
The chapter tells about the adventures of the protagonist in Taman. Here fate brought him to the smugglers. Exposition - Pechorin's arrival in Taman and the search for an apartment. The plot of the plot from the moment of his acquaintance with the Blind. Events begin to unfold with the appearance of a girl on the roof. The culmination is the moment when the girl lured Pechorin and tried to drown him. But the man was stronger. Ondine was overboard. The child of the sea did not drown. Interchange - Pechorin leaves the smugglers' town - Taman. This concludes the first part.
Part two
The continuation of Pechorin's journal, or rather, its end, is in the second part of the novel. Part two begins with the second chapter, continuing the "Pechorin's Journal" which is called "Princess Mary".
Princess Mary
This part of the story is full of drama. The story of Princess Mary can be considered the culmination of the novel. The main characters of this story are Pechorin, Grushnitsky, Princess Mary. Supporting characters - Vera, Doctor Werner, captain. The heroes of the third plan are Mary's mother, Vera's husband, Mary's fans, the captain's comrades.
The exposition of the novel - Pechorin's arrival in Pyatigorsk, and morning exit to the city. The plot begins with a meeting with Grushnitsky, who introduces Pechorina to the princess and princess of the Ligovsky.
Events begin to develop from the moment when Pechorin protects Princess Mary from a drunken captain. The captain is angry with Pechorin and decides to take revenge on him, but take revenge with the hands of Grushnitsky. The duel, Mary's illness and the confession of Faith to her husband are the culmination of the story. The denouement is also filled with drama. Vera leaves, and Pechorin drives the horse, trying to catch up with her. Princess Ligovskaya offers Pechorin to marry his daughter, which he refuses, and confesses to Mary that he never loved her.
The story of Princess Mary was recorded in the fortress, therefore, her events took place before Pechorin met Bela.
Fatalist
And finally, the third chapter of the magazine "Fatalist" The events of this story also developed before meeting with Bela, but when Pechorin served with Maxim Maksimych. At the end of the novel, the reader once again meets this wonderful and simple-minded staff captain. In this story, Pechorin is not the main character. He is in the background, although he participates in a dispute with Vulich, one of the officers, witnesses his death and then disarms the Cossack. In the foreground in this story is Serb Vulich and a drunken Cossack. The culmination of this chapter of the novel is Vulich's shot and misfire. But the development of the action continues until the arrest of the Cossack, who hacked to death the Serb. The denouement - Pechorin's return to the fortress and a conversation with Maxim Maksimych about predestination.
Conclusion
Thus, the composition of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" has several characteristic features:
- violation of chronology;
- nesting one story into another;
- several storytellers: the author, Maxim Maksimych and Pechorin himself.
The composition of the novel is subordinated to the task of the most complete disclosure of the character and inner world of the protagonist. After reading the novel, one cannot but agree with V.G. Belinsky, who believed that "this is not a collection of several stories and novellas, but a novel in which there is one main character and one main idea."
The purpose of my essay is to get acquainted with the point of view of writers on the composition of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov's novel "A Hero of Our Time", to generalize the result obtained, to understand what is the purpose of violating the chronological principle.
To begin with, I looked into the "Great Soviet Encyclopedia" and found out the meaning of the word "composition".
Composition (from Lat. Compositio - composition, composition),
1) the construction of a work of art, due to its content, nature and purpose, and largely determines its perception. Composition is the most important organizing component of an artistic form, which gives a work of unity and integrity, subordinating its elements to each other and to the whole. The laws of composition that develop in the process of artistic practice, aesthetic cognition of reality are, to one degree or another, a reflection and generalization of objective laws and interconnections of phenomena of the real world. These patterns and relationships appear in an artistically embodied form, and the degree and nature of their implementation and generalization are associated with the type of art, the idea and material of the work, etc.
Composition in literature is the organization, arrangement and connection of heterogeneous components of the artistic form of a literary work. Composition includes: arrangement and correlation of characters (composition as a "system of images"), events and actions (plot composition), inserted stories and lyrical digressions (composition of non-plot elements), narrative methods or angles (narrative composition itself), details of the situation, behavior, experiences (composition of details).
Techniques and methods of composition are very diverse. Comparisons of events, objects, facts, details that are distant from each other in the text of a work sometimes turn out to be artistically significant. The most important aspect of composition is also the sequence in which the components of the depicted are introduced into the text - the temporary organization of a literary work as a process of discovering and deploying artistic content. And, finally, the composition includes the mutual correlation of different sides (planes, layers, levels) of the literary form. Along with the term "composition", many modern theorists use the word "structure" in the same sense.
Being itself "... an endless labyrinth of couplings ...", as Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy said, the composition completes the complex unity and integrity of the work, becoming the crown of the artistic form, which is always meaningful. "Composition is the disciplining force and organizer of the work. It is entrusted to ensure that nothing is pulled out of the way, into its own law, namely, it is conjugated into the whole and rotated in addition to his thought. Therefore, it usually does not accept any logical deduction and subordination. , nor a simple life sequence, although it is similar to it; its goal is to arrange all the pieces so that they are closed in the full expression of the idea "(" Theory of Literature ").
Each work combines both general, "typical" methods for a given genre, genre or direction of composition (for example, three-fold repetitions in fairy tales, recognition and silence in dramas of "intrigue", a strict stanza form of a sonnet, retardation in an epic and drama), and individual characteristic of a given writer or a separate work (for example, in Leo Tolstoy's story "Hadji Murad" the leading principle of the composition of characters and their system is polarity, including the deliberately imaginary one: Nicholas I - Shamil).
In modern literary criticism, there is also a more local use of the term "composition". In this case, the unit, the component of the composition is such a "segment" of the work (text), within which one method or perspective of the image is preserved - dynamic narration or static description, characterization, dialogue, lyrical digression, etc. The simplest units are compiled into more complex components (an integral sketch of a portrait, mental state, reproduction of a conversation, etc.). An even larger and more independent component is the scene (in the epic, drama). In the epic, it can consist of a number of forms of representation (description, narration, monologue); it can include a portrait, landscape, interior; but throughout its entire length, one perspective remains, a certain point of view is maintained - the author or the character-participant, or an outside observer - the narrator; otherwise: each scene is “depicted” by someone's eyes. It is the combination of presentation forms and certain "points of view", their interconnectedness and unity that make up the composition in this sense.
In the literature of the 20th century, the activity of the compositional principle is increasing, which is reflected in the emergence of the concept of montage (first in relation to cinema, then to theater and literature).
A Hero of Our Time is a novel consisting of five novellas and short stories, united by the protagonist, Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin. A very interesting and unusual person. Although at the same time he is the same as everyone else, with his vices, passions, feelings, desires, oddities, thoughts.
The content of the novel allows us to reconstruct the history of Pechorin's life. If we adhere to the sequence of events developing in the stories and stories of the "Hero of Our Time", then they are arranged approximately like this: Pechorin, perhaps, was exiled from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus for a duel. On the way to the place of his new service, he is delayed in Taman, where he accidentally encounters smugglers ("Taman"). After some military expedition he was allowed to use the waters in Pyatigorsk, then for a duel with Grushnitsky ("Princess Mary") he was sent under the command of Maxim Maksimych to the fortress. Having gone to the Cossack village for two weeks, Pechorin is going through a story with Vulich ("Fatalist"), and upon returning to the fortress, Bela is abducted. ("Bela"). ET Udodov expresses a number of convincing and interesting considerations in support of just such an understanding of the plot sequence in Lermontov's novel: first, what is told in "Fatalist" happens, and then the story with Bela. From the fortress Pechorin was transferred to Georgia, then he returned to St. Petersburg. After some time, once again finding himself in the Caucasus, on the way to Persia, Pechorin meets with Maksim Maksimych and an officer - the author of travel notes (“Maksim Maksimych”). Finally, on the way back from Persia, Pechorin dies (Preface to "Pechorin's Journal").
What can we say about the composition of the novel by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time"? What did the author want to show with this composition? Or maybe, by doing so, he wanted to bring some deeper, hidden meaning into the work? Although, perhaps, he simply wanted thereby to attract us, readers, to his work.
What is the main feature of the composition of this novel? Now I will try to answer this question.
Lermontov deliberately breaks the order of these events. And he talks about them not in chronological order. This principle of material arrangement made it possible to reveal Pechorin's contradictory image with the greatest completeness and objectivity. In each of the stories, the hero shows himself from completely different sides. He is placed in different life situations, events, his lifestyle changes. And in each of the stories he appears before us as completely different, but at the same time absolutely the same person. Mixing and rearranging the events of the novel in comparison with their “real” plot sequence introduced a fundamentally new artistic quality to the work - the book emphasized not the chronology of events, but the “chronology of the statement” about them. A double composition was created, which made possible things that were incredible from the point of view of the "usual" narrative logic.
This can be indicated by a table, in which the sequence of the novels is indicated on the left in the order in which Lermontov communicates them to the reader, and on the right - in numbers - the real sequence of the events described.
This arrangement of the parts of the novel, which violates the chronological (plot) order, increases the plot tension, makes it possible to maximize the interest of the reader in Pechorin and his fate, gradually revealing his character in all the contradictions and complexity.
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Subject order. |
Chronological (storyline) order |
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Preface (1841) to the entire novel Journey along the Georgian Military Highway of the narrator's officer with Maksim Maksimych Bela »The first part of Maksim Maksimych's story about Bela Crossing the Cross Pass The second part of Maxim Maksimych's story about Bela Bela's ending. Conclusion on behalf of the officer narrator "Maxim Meeting with Maxim Maksimych and Pechorin Maksimych "in Vladikavkaz Foreword With the exception of the message that Pechorin, to the "Journal returning from Persia, died Pechorin " "Taman" History in Taman before Pechorin got to caucasian Mineral Waters Pechorin's diary before the entry made the night before "Princess duel Mary "The end of" Princess Mary "- a recording made Pechorin from memory in the fortress "Fatalist" The story with Vulich in the Cossack village in winter, before bela's abduction |
In Lermontov's novel, composition and style are subordinated to one task: to reveal the image of the hero of his time as deeply and comprehensively as possible, to trace the history of his inner life because “... the history of the human soul,” as the author of the preface to “Pechorin's Journal” declares, “at least the smallest soul almost more curious and not more useful than the history of an entire people, especially ... when it ... was written without a vain desire to arouse participation or surprise. "
The image of Pechorin is revealed in two ways: from the point of view of an outside observer and in terms of his inner self-disclosure. That is why Lermontov's novel is clearly divided into two parts. Each of these parts has an inner unity. The first part acquaints the reader with the hero by means of external characteristics. The second part is prepared by the first. In the hands of the reader falls the "Pechorin Journal", in which he talks about himself in an extremely sincere confession.
The novel is structured in such a way that Pechorin and his story are consistently presented to the reader from three sides. The preface by the author, written in response to contradictory interpretations of criticism and included in the second edition of the book, explains the general concept and purpose of the work. Then there are the travel notes of the author, the story "Bela".
For all its seeming simplicity, Bela's story is complex both in composition and in style. The traditional romantic theme takes on a truthful, realistic character here.
Bela's tale begins with travel notes. Their author, a Russian officer wandering "for a state trip," looks at Caucasian nature and Caucasian life through the eyes of a Russian person: "... and it was fun to hear in the middle of this dead sleep of nature the snorting of a tired mail troika and the uneven rattling of a Russian bell."
Central to the story "Bela" is the story of Maxim Maksimych, included in the notes of a wandering officer. However, this story is interrupted by the description of the Cross Pass. Maksim Maksimych's story is complicated by the fact that the first part includes Kazbich's story about how he escaped from the Cossacks, and the second - Pechorin's auto-characterization. This composition of the story corresponds to its stylistic complexity. Each character has his own speech style. Maxim Maksimych cannot understand the strange, "extraordinary" actions of Pechorin, explain them all the more, so Maksim Maksimych does not try to retell Pechorin's reasoning, but only records his actions.
In the second story, linking Bela with Pechorin's Journal and entitled Maksim Maksimych, the old staff captain no longer tells anything. “We were silent. What else was there to talk about? ... He already told me everything that was interesting about himself ... ". Now Maksim Maksimych himself is an actor, and the author tells about him. All the reader's attention is directed to Maxim Maksimych. His behavior, his words, gestures receive an individual imprint and are noted by an observant author. But still, the most important tool in this story in the characterization of Pechorin is a psychological portrait.
In the story "Maksim Maksimych", the author of the novel only comes across Pechorin face to face. Lermontov did not consider it possible to put his portrait characterization into the mouth of Maxim Maksimych or any other hero of his novel. He took care of thoroughly motivating the meeting between the author and the hero of the novel, in order to draw on his behalf an accurate psychological portrait of the person whose fate the reader became interested in the story of Bela.
Pechorin's appearance is preceded by a description of his dandy carriage and spoiled footman. The servant's arrogance contrasts sharply with the undisguised joy of Maxim Maksimych, with his impatience to see Pechorin as soon as possible.
Before proceeding to characterize Pechorin, Lermontov specifically warns the reader: "Now I must draw his portrait."
Such an outwardly accurate and at the same time psychologically penetrating recreation of the portrait of the character was a true discovery in the history of literature. It is enough to compare this portrait with any portrait in Pushkin's prose to make sure that Lermontov followed the path of further detailing, a further more in-depth psychological analysis of the external appearance and internal content of his hero. He selects external details in a certain sequence and immediately interprets them in physiological, sociological and psychological terms.
After the author's meeting with Pechorin in Vladikavkaz, his notes fall into the hands of the author. In the Preface to the "Pechorin Journal" the author says what Pechorin himself could not have said: Pechorin died while returning from a trip to Persia. This is how the author's right to publish the "Pechorin Journal", consisting of three stories: "Taman", "Princess Mary" and "Fatalist" is substantiated.
In the novels of the Pechorin Journal, written in the first person, there appears a third narrator, the third author's "I" - Pechorin himself, whose fate the reader became interested in Maksim Maksimych's story and whose significance he appreciated by the portrait characteristics given by an observant author. And now the clever, secretive Pechorin, who knows how to accurately define every thought, every state of mind, both himself and his interlocutors, tells with merciless frankness about his life, about deep dissatisfaction with himself and everyone around him. In introspection, in "reflection" (in Belinsky's terminology) - the strength and weakness of Pechorin, hence his superiority over people and this is one of the reasons for his skepticism and disappointment.
The style of the Pechorin Journal is in many ways similar to the style of the author's narration in Bela and Maxim Maksimych. Belinsky also noted: "... although the author pretends to be a person completely alien to Pechorin, he strongly sympathizes with him, and there is an amazing similarity in their view of things."
With all the stylistic unity of the "Pechorin Journal", each of the three stories that make up this "Journal" has its own historical and literary genealogy.
"Taman" - an action-packed and at the same time the most lyrical story in the whole book - continues the traditions of romantic robbery stories in a new way and in a realistic manner; at the same time, the theme of the mermaid, the undine, widespread in the romantic ballad, is interwoven into this little story, but it is also translated into a real life plan: the undine turns into a seductive smuggler.
The reader, together with Pechorin, begins to understand that the smuggling girl only played the role of a passionately in love mermaid in order to free herself from an unwelcome officer. When it turns out that in the meantime the blind boy robbed Pechorin, the sad ironic exclamation of Pechorin sums up the truthful and bitter result of the whole incident: “... And what do I care about human joys and disasters, me, a wandering officer, and even on the road due to government necessity !. .. "
V.G.Belinsky highly appreciated Taman: “We did not dare to make extracts from this story, because it resolutely does not allow them: it’s like some kind of lyric poem, all the charm of which is destroyed by one verse released or changed not by the poet himself ; she is all in shape; if you write it out, you should write it out all from word to word; retelling its content will give the same concept about her as a story, albeit an enthusiastic one, about the beauty of a woman whom you yourself have not seen.
In Taman, Lermontov turns the storyline of Bela in a different direction. "Bela" and "Taman" are stories that are viewed one through the other. Lermontov's idea is understandable - if the hero's revival is impossible with the help of the love of a savage torn from the natural environment, then perhaps the hero's immersion in the wild, full of danger world of "honest smugglers", some semblance of the same natural state, will be salutary for Pechorin. However, the sobriety and vigilance of a great artist makes Lermontov not flatter himself with sweet Russoist-Byronic illusions. Firstly, the romantic world of smugglers itself is as far from its original naturalness as the wild, uninitiated Caucasian region.
The second story, which is part of the "Pechorin Journal", "Princess Mary", develops the theme of the hero of the time surrounded by the "water society".
The description of the Caucasian nature, life and customs of visitors to the Caucasian Mineral Waters in this story is uniquely combined with an ironic, if not satirical, depiction of the life of a noble "water society", surrounded by and in collision with which Pechorin is shown.
Princess Mary and her mother Princess Ligovskaya, her relative Vera and Vera's second husband, Semyon Vasilyevich, are all people of the same circle to which Pechorin belongs; he is associated with them by common Petersburg and Moscow acquaintances and memories.
In the story "Princess Mary" Pechorin appears before the reader not only as a memoirist-storyteller (as in "Taman" and "Fatalist"), but also as the author of a diary, a journal in which his thoughts and impressions are accurately recorded. This allows Lermontov to reveal the inner world of his hero with great depth.
Pechorin's diary opens with an entry made on May 11, the day after his arrival in Pyatigorsk. Detailed descriptions of subsequent events constitute, as it were, the first, "Pyatigorsk" part of the story. The June 10 entry opens the second, "Kislovodsk" part of his diary. In the second part, events develop more rapidly, consistently leading to the culmination of the story and the entire novel - to the duel between Pechorin and Grushnitsky. For a duel with Grushnitsky, Pechorin ends up in a fortress to Maxim Maksimych. This is how the story ends.
Thus, all the events of "Princess Mary" fit into a period of a little more than a month and a half. But the story of these few days makes it possible for Lermontov to reveal from the inside the contradictory image of Pechorin with exceptional depth and completeness.
It is in "Princess Mary" that the hopeless despair, the tragic hopelessness of the egoist Pechorin, an intelligent and gifted person, crippled by the environment and upbringing, are most deeply shown.
Pechorin's past, if not to talk about the earlier idea of \u200b\u200b"Princess Ligovskaya", within the "Hero of Our Time" is of little interest to Lermontov. The author is almost not busy with the question of the formation of his hero. Lermontov does not even consider it necessary to tell the reader what Pechorin did in St. Petersburg during the five years that passed after his return from the Caucasus and before his new appearance in Vladikavkaz ("Maxim Maksimych"), on his way to Persia. All Lermontov's attention is drawn to revealing the inner life of his hero.
Not only in Russian, but also in world literature, Lermontov was one of the first to master the ability to capture and depict the "mental process of the emergence of thoughts," as Chernyshevsky put it in an article about the early stories and stories of Leo Tolstoy. And if "the mental process itself, its forms, its laws, the dialectic of the soul" were fully revealed by the means of fiction only by Tolstoy, then with all the difference between Lermontov and Tolstoy, Chernyshevsky did not accidentally name among Tolstoy's predecessors the name of the author of "Hero of Our Time", in which "this side of psychological analysis is more developed."
In a conversation with Dr. Werner Pechorin says: “From the storm of life, I took out only a few ideas - and not a single feeling. I have long been living not with my heart but with my head. I weigh, analyze my own passions and actions with strict curiosity, but without participation. There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges him ... "
Pechorin consistently and convincingly discloses in his diary not only his thoughts and moods, but also the spiritual world and the spiritual image of those with whom he has to meet. Neither the intonation of the interlocutor's voice, nor the movements of his eyes, nor facial expressions elude his observation. Each spoken word, each gesture reveal to Pechorin the state of mind of the interlocutor. Pechorin is not only very smart, but also observant and sensitive. This explains his ability to understand people well. The portrait characteristics in "Pechorin's Journal" are striking in their depth and accuracy. We know that they were written by Lermontov, but it was no accident that Lermontov attributed them to Pechorin. So, about Dr. Werner Pechorin writes: “Werner is a wonderful person for many reasons. He is a skeptic and a materialist, like almost all doctors, and at the same time a poet, and in earnest, a poet in fact always and often in words, although he never wrote two poems in his life. He studied all the living strings of the human heart, as they study the veins of a corpse, but he never knew how to use his knowledge, ”and so on.
If Werner is Pechorin's companion, then Grushnitsky is his antipode. Pechorin meets Grushnitsky in the active detachment, and then meets him in Pyatigorsk. This meeting gives rise to a detailed portrait of Grushnitsky.
Having guessed Grushnitsky, Pechorin accurately reproduces his speech in his notes and thereby finally reveals his insignificance. Grushnitsky's false, overly upbeat, declamatory statements abound with exclamations, questions, emphasized by pauses and silences; Grushnitsky's speech is without any measure colored with sharp antitheses, comparisons and equivalents, for example: “My soldier's greatcoat is like a seal of rejection. The participation that she arouses is hard as alms. "
Nature, landscape in "A Hero of Our Time", especially in "Pechorin's Journal", very often not only a background for human experiences. The landscape directly clarifies the state of a person, and sometimes contrastingly emphasizes the discrepancy between the feelings of the hero and the surrounding environment.
The key to the ideological concept of "Fatalist" is Pechorin's monologue, which combines the first part of the novella with its second part, which deals with the death of Vulich.
Reflections of Pechorin in this monologue, as it were, sum up the entire "Pechorin Journal" and even the novel "Hero of Our Time" as a whole. As E.N. Mikhailova, “Lermontov, as it were, says with his novella: no one can finally decide whether predestination exists or not, since there is always room for chance, for subjective“ blunders of thought ”when explaining phenomena; but even if predestination does exist (to which the example of Vulich’s fate inclines), then in this case the person is left with one thing - to act, to tempt fate.
Action, struggle - this is Lermontov's last conclusion from the problem of rock. "
Valentin Ivanovich Korovin in his book "The creative path of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov writes that not one of Lermontov's works has expressed so many opposing, sometimes mutually exclusive judgments, as about the novel" Hero of Our Time. " The controversy about the "Hero of Our Time" revealed several contradictory points of view concerning not only the artistic method, but also the very interpretation of the image of the protagonist. Lermontov's novel revealed such ideological and artistic layers that were not discovered and illuminated by his first genius interpreter - V.G. Belinsky. The central questions of the study of the novel remain two: 1) what is the artistic method of Lermontov in "A Hero of Our Time?" Is romance a romantic or realistic work? Perhaps the novel contains a synthesis of romanticism and realism? And 2) Who is Pechorin? Does he consciously or unwillingly choose the position of an egoist? These or those answers to these questions are explained by different readings of the famous novel. And, of course, the question of the composition of the novel is closely related to one or another point of view on the novel.
The time of the creation of the novel is rich in significant events in the social and literary life. The Russian reader began to understand the ideas of Hegel, the works of the utopians - Fourier and his followers. They naturally superimposed on previous ideas - above all Rousseau. The Russian public closely followed the new trends coming from the West and sought to comprehend the course of historical development in Russia from the proposed points of view. Neither the views of French historians, nor the most important changes taking place in literature, in particular the deepening psychologism in the works of writers of the early nineteenth century, escaped her.
Lermontov's novel is rightly attributed to philosophical prose and associated with its traditions, but this is not a philosophical novel in the traditional sense. "A Hero of Our Time" has much in common with essay literature, with a travel novel, but it is not ethnographic observations or documentary accurate descriptions accompanied by lyrical comments that become the subject of the author's attention. Lermontov's work can be compared with a confession novel, but it does not fit into this framework either. Finally, "A Hero of Our Time" appears as a cycle of novellas or stories, united by one hero and the extraordinary nature of the adventures that fell to his lot. But why did Lermontov need to collect disparate stories into one novel?
"A Hero of Our Time" emerged from the intersection of many genre formations. Cyclization of stories, according to B.M. Eichenbaum, was a characteristic stage in Russian literature of the 30s. First of all, here, of course, should be called "Belkin's Tale" by A.S. Pushkin. However, it is precisely the stories that are united in Pushkin, which do not make up the whole novel. In the cases when Pushkin turned to the genre of the novel, the composition of his works was not novelistic. Pushkin's task was to present the extraordinary as ordinary everywhere, in order to affirm the primacy of the objective course of life. Each random, extraordinary episode in the life of the heroes turned into a natural one, due to external reasons beyond the control of the heroes.
The romantic passions of the heroes were placed under the control of reality, unremitting and hidden for the characters themselves.
Lermontov, undoubtedly, was full of attention to the extraordinary, uncommon personality of the noble intellectual. What is the measure of freedom granted to the individual by circumstances beyond his control? What internal driving springs determine human behavior and what is their relationship with objective conditions that cannot be established by the person himself? Lermontov's hero is initially extraordinary, "strange", and all the events in which he participates are just as extraordinary and strange. Lermontov is interested not so much in an ordinary hero as in an extraordinary hero, a powerful, titanic personality. Even Pechorin's meeting with his old friend Maksim Maksimych looks strange, unlike the usual meeting of friends who served in the same fortress. However, external strangeness receives internal motivation everywhere.
Continuing Pushkin's perspective and arguing with Pushkin, Lermontov defined his novel line in the depiction of a man of the 1930s. For him, the personality of an advanced noble intellectual in terms of his spiritual inclinations is by no means devastated. Boredom and selfishness are explained not by the original inner emptiness of Pechorin, but by deeper reasons that distorted the nature of the heroic personality. Lermontov's "modern man" is being rehabilitated, a significant part of the guilt is removed from him. The romantic character is seen not only from the point of view of his external actions, but also internal incentives. Lermontov, as it were, gives his hero complete freedom of choice, but Pechorin's actions in an imperceptible way for the hero demonstrate not only his will, but also the power of circumstances behind them.
Lermontov's task was to make the conditioning of the personality by external circumstances appear through the intimate world, through the contradictions of restless consciousness. The inner world of Pechorin contains the contradictions of reality. Pechorin's soul is equal to the surrounding life. The world of the soul is proportionate to reality, which, however, exists objectively. This essentially romantic principle of approach to character depiction is complicated by the hero's fatal dependence on circumstances outside of him, which appear in the novel as fate, fate, premonition, prediction. At the same time, Pechorin's attitude to life as a game, the feeling of doom he experiences, the contradictory course of the hero's thoughts are everywhere presented as a philosophical and psychological generalization of life experience, and not arising independently of reality. In Lermontov, it is as if a reverse move is made in comparison with the subsequent realistic novel, not reality determines the inconsistency of Pechorin, but the contradictions of the hero hint at the essence of life; but since these contradictions are everywhere given through the generalization of life events, in the end, Pechorin's dependence on conditions established by him is revealed.
Thus, the hero acts as a tool for learning about life, its predetermined, disastrous, fatal course. This throws light on reality itself. But as an instrument of knowledge, the hero himself obeys the same fatal laws, independent of his personal will. The hero simultaneously imposes his will on life's circumstances and is forced to admit that this will is not only his own will, that it ultimately reflects his subordination to the prevailing conditions. Pechorin is presented as a historically natural hero of the time; it objectifies the type of consciousness, the type of thinking, molded into strictly defined forms. Since reality is initially contradictory, since it separates people, and each union ends in death or loss of spiritual values, the general law of life manifests itself regardless of the sequence of events or their cause of conjugation. The events taking place with Pechorin clearly demonstrate the fatal course of life, and their fragmented nature only emphasizes the power of circumstances that are not dependent on the hero's personal will. In exactly the same way, the hero is "taken out" from the constantly acting everyday connections. The hero is thrown into a whirlpool of life, where different circumstances, identical in their deep essence, lead to similar eventual results. For Lermontov, it was extremely important, on the one hand, to show the established hero in diverse life situations, and on the other, to limit the manifestation of a contradictory, restless nature in a strictly outlined novelistic plot. Life appeared in its diverse manifestations, in the alternation of various situations and at the same time in their utmost isolation. Situations exist in isolation, outside of any causal connection between themselves. However, in general, they confirm some general laws of life. In the same way, Pechorin remains himself everywhere, in his worldview there are no breaks. The type of consciousness is the same everywhere, the character of the hero does not change, but the psychological motivation of the hero of the time deepens from short story to short story. Pechorin really "chases" life, which only confirms his established knowledge about it. All Pechorin's collisions with people are accidental, but each case convinces him of the laws of those concepts about life that were given to him by previous experience. At the same time, plot events are organized in such a way that they introduce new and essential elements into the foundations of the hero's psychology. New moral and psychological questions arise before him, but the episodes, deepening the psychology of the hero, do not contribute to the process of Pechorin's spiritual growth. Pechorin's life experience, extracted by philosophical generalization from each situation, is essential not because it is new every time, but because it is always the same. And this sameness, accompanying unexpected, extraordinary adventures of the hero, demonstrates the constancy of fate, the triumph of inhuman laws that reign in life.
It is not only reality that is devoid of integrity, it is episodically closed. Pechorin is also deprived of integrity. His life is composed of a chain of unrelated events, and internal contradictions torment his soul. The composition of the novel reflects this rupture of the hero's life, caused by the contradictory, winding course of reality, throwing the hero into the arms of Bela, then into a foreign country.
This is the first time in Russian literature that such a merciless exposure of a hero to his personality appears. The habit of introspection is combined with continuous observation of others.
The unusual composition of "A Hero of Our Time" still causes controversy and serves as the subject of literary studies.
Korovin writes that in Lermontov's novel A Hero of Our Time, the author, who has not yet completely separated from the image he created, follows the same path as Pechorin. The "incompleteness" of the era appeared in a sharp aggravation of the personal principle and at the same time in the recognition of social determinism. Both ideas came from different ideological and artistic systems and required reconciliation. It was necessary to put personal will under the control of reality, to find a place for personal will within the framework of social determinism. This significantly complicated Lermontov's creative task. Without eliminating Pechorin's personal will, he nevertheless put internal and external limits to it. The characters of the novel appeared as independent persons, separate from the author's gaze, capable of self-development. Reality is perceived by the heroes as something objectively given, independent of them, not absorbed by their subjective worlds. The realistic principle of the depiction in The Hero of Our Time won out. This is evidenced by the developed motivational sphere, an objective analysis of characters that does not allow direct author's interference, this was also facilitated by the composition of the novel.
Lermontov leads Pechorin to the consciousness that life is one. It brings suffering, is fraught with tragedies, is unbearably "boring", but only in her can a person find happiness, experience the joy of struggle, outside this, given, concrete reality, but in it itself. But such a misunderstanding of life is inherent only in 19th century realism.
Lermontov's simultaneous appeal to realistic and romantic writing contains his ideological and artistic originality, which determined the composition of the novel, reflected the "incompleteness" of his creative evolution and due to the "incompleteness" of Lermontov's time.
The composition became a means of expressing Lermontov's artistic intention, a means of depicting the character of the hero.
Notes
Retardation, 1) in linguistics - a kind of phonetic analogy phenomenon, which is reduced to a change in the appearance of a word (lexeme) under the influence of the sound type of another lexeme that precedes it in the context. Typical for numerals, cf. Taj. shonzdah - "sixteen" (instead of the expected shazdah;) by analogy with ponzdah; -- "fifteen". The opposite phenomenon is anticipation: cf. Russian "nine" (instead of "not faint") under the influence of "ten". 2) In poetics - a compositional method of delaying the development of plot action; carried out through lyrical digressions, various descriptions (landscape, interior), repetition of homogeneous episodes, etc.
A plot is a set of events in their natural chronological order. The plot is opposed to the plot: the same events, but in their presentation, that is, in the order in which the author reports about them, in other words, the plot is "what really happened."
List of references
1. Alpatova T.A. "History of the Human Soul" in the Mirror of Narration // "Literature at School" magazine. - 2008. - No. 1
2. Belinsky V.G. Articles and reviews. Moscow: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1971.
3. Belinsky V.G. Selected articles. Moscow: Children's Literature, 1980.
4. Great Soviet Encyclopedia. http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/bse.
5. Egorov O.G. Nervous character in Russian literature // Journal "Literature at school". - 2005. - No. 3.
6. Zurov L. F. "Taman" by Lermontov and "L" Orco "Georges Sand.
7. Korovin VI The creative way of M. Yu. Lermontov. M .: Prostration, 1973
8. Lermontov M.Yu. "Hero of our time".
9. Manuylov V. A. Roman M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time" - Comments. M .: Education, 1966.
10. Mikhailova E. N. Prose of Lermontov. M., Goslitizdat, 1957.
11. Chernyshevsky NG Complete Works, vol. III. M., Goslitizdat, 1947.
Before you is an essay on the theme "Compositional features of M. Lermontov's novel" A Hero of Our Time ". Let us, before we start writing an essay, recall and name the compositional features of the novel "A Hero of Our Time".
Do you remember? Excellent! let's get down to writing an essay.
Composition COMPOSITIONAL FEATURES OF THE NOVEL "HERO OF OUR TIME".
“Desires? What is the use of wanting in vain and forever?
And the years go by - all the best years. "
M. Yu. Lermontov
"A Hero of Our Time" is one of the first attempts to create a psychological realistic novel in Russian literature. Purpose, idea of \u200b\u200bM.Yu. Lermontov - to show the person of his day, his psychology, as the author himself notes, “ a portrait made up of the vices of our generation, in their full development ".
In order to realize his idea, to reveal the character of the hero most fully, objectively, the writer uses an unusual compositional structure of the novel: here the chronological sequence of events is broken. It is not only the composition of the novel that is unusual. This work is a unique genre fusion - a combination of various genres already mastered by Russian prose: travel notes, a secular story, and a history diary, beloved by romantics, are used here.
Lermontov's novel is social-psychological and moral-philosophical. " The main idea of \u200b\u200bthe novel is an important modern question about the inner man "- writes Belinsky. The author's desire to achieve maximum objectivity and versatility in the portrayal of the protagonist forces him to resort to a non-standard narrative structure: the author, as it were, entrusts the story of his hero to a wandering officer, then Maxim Maksimych, or Pechorin himself.
If we want to restore the chronology of the events described in the novel, then we should start with the incident in Taman, through which the hero's path to the Caucasus passes. In Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk Pechorin will stay for about a month ("Princess Mary"), from where he will be exiled for a duel with Grushnitsky in the fortress. From the fortress Pechorin leaves for the Cossack village ("Fatalist"). Upon his return to the fortress, the story of Bela's abduction is played out. Then there is the last meeting of the reader with Pechorin, no longer a military man, but a secular man leaving for Persia ("Maxim Maksimych"). And from the foreword by the officer-narrator, we learn about the death of the hero. These are the events in the life of Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin in their chronological sequence. But Lermontov determined the order of the arrangement of the parts following each other outside the chronology of real events, because each of the stories played its own special significant role in the system of the entire work.
Reading the story "Maksim Maksimych", we get acquainted with the portrait of Pechorin, so psychologically subtle and deeply written by an educated and familiar with writing officer-narrator. He notices the whiteness of Pechorin's skin, and the unlaughing eyes full of sadness, and the “noble forehead”, and the “thoroughbred” beauty, and the coldness of Pechorin. All this simultaneously attracts and repels the reader. A direct glance at the portrait of the hero makes him incomparably closer to the reader than the system of narrators through which we meet Pechorin in the chapter “Bela”. Maksim Maksimych tells a story to a traveler-officer, who keeps travel notes, and already from them the reader learns about everything.
Then the author opens before us the confessional pages of the Pechorin Journal. We see the hero again in a new perspective - such as he was alone with himself, as he could appear only in his diary, but would never open up to people. This is confirmed by the words from the preface to the "Pechorin Journal", from which it is clear that it was not intended for someone else's eye, and even more so for printing. It was "a consequence of the observation of the mature mind over itself," and it was written "without a vain desire to excite, sympathy or surprise." So Lermontov, using a similar "arrangement" of chapters of his novel, brings the protagonist as close as possible to the reader, allows him to look into the very depths of his inner world.
Carefully turning over the pages of "Taman", "Princess Mary" and "Fatalist", we finally comprehend the character of Pechorin in its inevitable duality. And, learning the causes of this "illness", we delve into the "history of the human soul" and reflect on the nature of the time. The novel ends with a "fatalist", this story plays the role of an epilogue. And it's so wonderful that Lermontov built his novel just like that! It ends optimistically. The reader learns about the death of Pechorin in the middle of the novel and by the time of the conclusion manages to get rid of the painful feeling of death or the end. This feature in the composition of the novel enabled the author to end the work with a “major intonation”: “the novel ends with a prospect into the future - the hero's emergence from the tragic state of inactive doom. Instead of a mourning march, congratulations on the victory over death sound. "
Creating the novel "A Hero of Our Time", M. Yu. Lermontov found new artistic means, which literature did not know and which delight us to this day by combining a free and wide image of faces and characters with the ability to show them objectively, revealing one hero through the perception of another.