(314 words) The novel “A Hero of Our Time” is considered a transitional link between romanticism and realism in Lermontov’s work. In it, the author diagnosed his generation with restlessness, a disease of the soul. The hero of that time is Pechorin - a tired, slightly cynical man who hides his tormented heart under a mask of detachment.

In his main character, Lermontov portrays a representative of the brooding, aloof, but talented and capable youth, whose image many writers have strived to convey but few have ever surpassed. Guided by the author's frank narration, the reader follows Pechorin through a series of dramatic adventures in which gamblers, smugglers, Circassian partisans and pistol-wielding duelists play their roles. Page by page, with unmistakable psychological insight, Lermontov reveals his protagonist as a master manipulator who plays both men and women. With callous indifference, Pechorin takes pleasure at the expense of the worries and suffering of others, as his “exploits” destroy the lives of many characters: Bela, the innocent Circassian maiden whom Gregory buys with a horse; Grushnitsky, a madly in love cadet whose romantic hopes are pinned on Princess Maria Ligovskaya, a fragile, beautiful young woman. Struck by his own destructive power, Pechorin tries to comprehend both his motives and his destiny, but all to no avail. In his radical egoism, Pechorin fascinates and repels. He is both a vile swindler, and, in the words of Maxim Maksimych, “ wonderful person, just a little weird.”

Why is this man the hero of his time? Firstly, because he is an idle nobleman who has not found a worthy calling. Almost all the young people of that era surrounding Lermontov fit this description. He was like that himself. Therefore, all of Pechorin’s problems are what worried all thinking young men who were lost in the endless tsarist Russia. Secondly, because Gregory follows the fashion for romanticism, which ascribes to all “exceptional” people to drive themselves into depression, wander around the world and not burden themselves with either work or family. At that time, many readers professed this way of thinking. Pechorin is depicted even in front of himself, and the author condemns this desire to fit life into a beautiful template. Thus, Lermontov’s hero truly personifies an entire generation, because all his characteristic features are embodied in him.

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Grigory Pechorin - central character M. Yu. Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time,” which appeared in the late 30s and early 40s of the 19th century and caused ambiguous and very diverse reactions among readers. This is the first socio-psychological novel in Russian classical literature and all the plot twists, events and minor characters shown in order to fully reveal Pechorin’s character and personal characteristics.

The novel includes five stories, representing some stages in the development of Pechorin's personality and revealing all the depths of his complex and ambiguous character to the reader.

Characteristics of the hero

Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is a young attractive aristocrat and officer from St. Petersburg, a typical representative of the youth of the 30s of the nineteenth century. He has received proper education and upbringing, is rich and independent, has an attractive appearance and is popular with people of the opposite sex. At the same time, he is dissatisfied with his life and is spoiled by luxury. He quickly gets bored with everything and sees no opportunity for himself to become happy. Pechorin is in perpetual motion and in search of himself: now he is in a Caucasian fortress, now on vacation in Pyatigorsk, now with smugglers in Taman. Even death awaits him when he travels from Persia to his homeland.

By using detailed description By looking at the hero's appearance, the author tries to reveal his character to us. Pechorin is not deprived of masculine attractiveness, he is strong, slender and fit, the military uniform suits him very well. He has curly blond hair, expressive brown eyes, cold and arrogant, they never laugh and it is impossible to read thoughts from their expression. Blonde hair combined with a dark mustache and eyebrows give his appearance individuality and originality.

(Pechorin on horseback, drawing)

Pechorin's soul burns with a thirst for activity, but he does not know where to apply himself and therefore, wherever he appears, he sows evil and sadness around him. Because of a stupid duel, his friend Grushnitsky dies, through his fault the daughter of the Caucasian Circassian prince Bela dies, for the sake of entertainment he falls in love with himself, and then leaves Princess Mary without regret. Because of him, the only woman he loved, Vera, suffers, but he also cannot make her happy and she is doomed to suffer.

The image of the main character

Pechorin is drawn to people, longs for communication, but does not see a response in their souls, because he is not like them, their thoughts, desires and feelings do not coincide at all, which makes him strange and unlike others. Pechorin, like Pushkin’s Evgeny Onegin, is burdened by his calm and measured life, but unlike Pushkin’s hero, he is constantly looking for ways to add spice to his life, and not finding it, he suffers greatly from it. His own whims have always been and will be in the first place for him, and he is ready to do anything to satisfy his desires. He likes to manipulate people and subjugate them, he enjoys power over them.

At the same time, Pechorin also has positive qualities and in addition to reproaches and censure, he fully deserves sympathy and sympathy. He's different sharp mind and judging others, he is quite self-critical and demanding of himself. Pechorin is no stranger to poetry and lyrical moods; he subtly feels nature and admires its beauty. During a duel, he shows enviable courage and bravery, he is not a coward and does not retreat back, his cold-bloodedness is at its best. Despite his own egoism, Pechorin is capable of real feelings, for example in relation to Vera; it turns out that he can also be sincere and knows how to love.

(M.A. Vrubel "Duel of Pechorin with Grushnitsky" 1890-1891)

Pechorin's personality is so complex and ambiguous that it is impossible to say with certainty what feelings he evokes in readers: sharp condemnation and hostility, or sympathy and understanding. The main features of his character are the inconsistency between his thoughts and actions, opposition to surrounding circumstances and turns of fate. The hero is seething with desires to act, but most often his actions result either in empty and useless actions, or, on the contrary, bring pain and misfortune to his loved ones. Having created the image of Pechorin, a unique hero of his time, whose prototypes Lermontov met at every step, the author wanted to focus on the moral responsibility of each person for his thoughts and actions, for life choices and how they can affect the people around him.

Introduction.

The novel “A Hero of Our Time” made a huge impression on me. Pechorin is a very interesting object to study from a psychological point of view. He is always sincere with himself, but rarely tells the truth to others. All his actions seem to be logical, but this logic of his is extraordinary in itself. It’s as if he’s experienced everything he wanted in this life and he’s already bored here. He is able to indifferently experience his falls and failures, which is perhaps why he does not particularly sympathize with other people.

Pechorin has enormous potential for achievements. He can sacrifice himself for the sake of a cause, but not a public one, but in which he is interested. The author himself regrets this. People like his hero could contribute greatly, greatly huge contribution into the life of society. But alas... The time era, society and public policy greatly influence the character and actions of a person. Expressing through Pechorin the “present time” in which Lermontov lived, he collected in his hero an innumerable number of vices. Consequently, he wanted to say that the circumstances of his era make people such. Who is called a hero in “our time” (Lermontov’s time)? Who deserves this title? Let's consider Pechorin: he is fearless, no one can tell him, they are trying to imitate him (Grushnitsky), he is a hero! But what lies behind this title, behind the image of a “hero”? An unlimited number of vices for which the title of hero will not be awarded. How the author wants to see a real hero and how he sees him in reality. This is what my essay will be about.

Pechorin as a hero of his time.

I look sadly at our generation!

His future is either empty or dark,

Meanwhile, under the burden of knowledge and doubt,

It will grow old in inactivity.

M.Yu. Lermontov

“Hero of Our Time” is one of Lermontov’s works, in which the writer’s intense thoughts about the general laws of the historical development of mankind and the historical destinies of Russia were refracted. But in the novel, as in the poem “Duma,” Lermontov’s attention is focused on his contemporary era. The novel "Hero of Our Time", like the poem "Duma", is written in a tragic tone. “Our time” is conceptualized in it as a “transitional period.” The latter is considered as an era of national prehistory, as a time when the people have not yet entered the age of maturity, have not mastered the centuries-old gains of world culture, and therefore are not yet ready for great achievements of universal significance in the field of culture.

PECHORIN - main character novel by M.Yu. Lermontov “Hero of Our Time” (1838-1840). Contemporaries, including Belinsky, largely identified Pechorin with Lermontov. Meanwhile, it was important for the author to distance himself from his hero. According to Lermontov, Pechorin is a portrait made up of the vices of an entire generation - “in their full development.” It is quite clear why “Pechorin’s Journal” is “someone else’s work” for Lermontov. If not the best, then the central part of it is Pechorin’s diary entries, entitled “Princess Mary”. Nowhere does Pechorin so correspond to the image revealed by the author in the preface. “Princess Mary” appeared later than all the other stories. The preface that Lermontov wrote for the second edition of the novel, with its critical acuity, is primarily associated with this story. The hero he introduces to the reader is exactly the Pechorin as he is shown on the pages of “Princess Mary.” The critical pathos of the last period of Lermontov's life manifested itself especially clearly in this story. The character of the main character was obviously influenced by the different times in which the stories were written. Lermontov's consciousness changed very quickly. His hero also changed. Pechorin in “Princess Mary” is no longer quite the same as what appears first in “Bel”, then in “Fatalist”. At the end of work on the novel, Pechorin acquired the expressiveness that was supposed to complete the promised portrait. Indeed, in “Princess Mary” he appears in the most unsightly light. Of course, this is a strong-willed, deep, demonic nature. But it can only be perceived through the eyes of a young woman. Princess Mary and blinded by it Grushnitsky. He imitates Pechorin unnoticed by himself, which is why he is so vulnerable and funny to Pechorin. Meanwhile, even this Grushnitsky, a nonentity, according to Pechorin, arouses in him a feeling of envy. And at the same time, how much courage Pechorin showed at the climax of the duel, knowing that his own pistol was not loaded. Pechorin really shows miracles of endurance. And the reader is already lost: who is he, this hero of our time? The intrigue came from him, and when the victim got confused, it was as if he was not to blame.

Pechorin is called strange person all the characters in the novel. Lermontov paid a lot of attention to human oddities. In Pechorin he summarizes all his observations. Pechorin’s strangeness seems to elude definition, which is why the opinions of those around him are polar. He is envious, angry, cruel. At the same time, he is generous, sometimes kind, that is, capable of giving in good feeling, nobly protects the princess from the encroachments of the crowd. He is impeccably honest with himself, smart. Pechorin is a talented writer. Lermontov attributes the wonderful “Taman” to his careless pen, generously sharing the best part of his soul with the hero. As a result, readers seem to get used to excusing a lot of things about Pechorin, and not noticing some things at all. Belinsky defends Pechorin and actually justifies him, since “in his very vices something great glimmers.” But all the critic’s arguments skim on the surface of Pechorin’s character. Illustrating the words of Maxim Maksimych: “A nice fellow, I dare you, he’s just a little strange...”, Lermontov looks at his hero as an exceptional phenomenon, so the original title of the novel - “One of the heroes of our century” - was discarded. In other words, Pechorin cannot be confused with anyone, especially with the poet himself, as I. Annensky categorically formulated: “Pechorin - Lermontov.” A. I. Herzen, speaking on behalf of the “Lermontov” generation, argued that Pechorin expressed “the real sorrow and fragmentation of Russian life at that time, the sad fate of an extra, lost person.” Herzen put the name of Pechorin here with the same ease with which he would have written the name of Lermontov.

According to V.G. Belinsky, Lermontov’s novel is “a sad thought about our time.” The work raises the problem of the fate of a strong-willed and gifted individual in an era of timelessness. According to the fair statement of B. M. Eikhenbaum, “the subject of Lermontov’s artistic study... is a personality endowed with heroic traits and entering into a struggle with his age.”

The hero goes through the entire book and remains unrecognized. A man without a heart - but his tears are hot, the beauty of nature intoxicates him. He commits bad acts, but only because they are expected of him. He kills the person he slandered, and before that the first one offers him peace. Expressing multiple traits, Pechorin is truly exceptional. Anyone can do bad things. To recognize oneself as an executioner and a traitor is not given to everyone. The role of the ax that Pechorin recognizes among people is not a euphemism at all, not a veiled world sorrow. It is impossible to make allowances for the fact that this was stated in the diary. Confessing, Pechorin is horrified by his “pathetic” role of being an indispensable participant in the last act of a comedy or tragedy, but there is not a shadow of repentance in these words. All his complaints are reminiscent of the “pathetic” style of Ivan the Terrible, lamenting over his next victim. The comparison does not seem exaggerated. Pechorin's goal is undivided power over those around him. All the more insistently he emphasizes that we suffer from boredom and are “very worthy of regret.” The poet of Lermontov's school, A. Grigoriev, tried to poeticize and develop Pechorin's boredom, and the result was Moscow melancholy with gypsy guitars. Pechorin says directly that he is bored - his life is “emptier day by day,” speaking as if in tone with the tyrant who calls himself a “stinking dog.” Of course, Pechorin’s victims are not so bloody; they are primarily destroyed morally. The decoding of the idea of ​​the hero of our time must be sought in individual demonism: “The collection of evils is his element.” Lermontov placed the thirst for power, which destroys personality, at the forefront of Pechorin’s worldview. Of course, this is only outlined by Lermontov, and that is why his hero does not have sharp outlines. There is nothing predatory about him, on the contrary, there is a lot of feminine. Nevertheless, Lermontov had every reason to call Pechorin a hero of the future. It’s not scary that Pechorin sometimes “understands the vampire.” For Pechorin, a field of activity has already been found: the philistine environment, in fact, is this field - the environment of dragoon captains, princesses, romantic phrase-mongers - the most favorable soil for cultivating all kinds of “gardener-executioners”. This will be exactly what Lermontov called the complete development of vices. To crave power and find the highest pleasure in it is not at all the same as involuntarily destroying the life of “honest” smugglers. This is the evolution of the image of Pechorin from “Bela” and “Taman” to “Princess Mary”. When Belinsky admires the sparks of greatness of Pechorin’s vices, he thereby, as it were, strives to cleanse his image from petty interpretations. After all, Pechorin so picturesquely likens himself to a sailor born and raised on the deck of a robber brig. In this reading, Pechorin is bad, because the others are even worse. Belinsky softens Pechorin's features, not noticing the question asked by the hero to himself: “Is evil really so attractive?” The attractiveness of evil - this is how Lermontov accurately described the disease of his age.

The image of Pechorin is not painted with any black paint. In the end, Pechorin lost his worse half. He is like a man from a fairy tale who has lost his shadow. Therefore, Lermontov did not turn Pechorin into a vampire, but left him as a man capable of even composing “Taman”. It was this man, so similar to Lermontov, who overshadowed Pechorin’s shadow. And it is no longer possible to make out whose steps are sounding on the flinty path. Lermontov sketched a portrait consisting not of vices, but of contradictions. And most importantly, he made it clear that the thirst that this man suffers cannot be quenched from a well with mineral water. Destructive for everyone except himself, Pechorin is like Pushkin’s anchar. It is difficult to imagine him among the yellowing fields, in the Russian landscape. It is increasingly somewhere in the east - the Caucasus, Persia.

The novel “A Hero of Our Time” is “composed” of separate independent short stories. In general, it represents a system of seemingly unrelated episodes from the life of the main character.

The novelistic principle of narration contributes to in-depth psychological characteristics hero. “Novella” in translation means “news”, “new”: this is how, from Klava to Klava, new facets of the hero’s contradictory character and the complex world of the era of the 30s of the 19th century are revealed - an era of timelessness. The personal initiative of the hero, acting as a kind of experimenter in each chapter, moves the plot and, despite all the “discontinuity” of the narrative, organizes it into a single whole, forming a unity of thought and unity of feeling.

The fragmentary discreteness of the novel, its construction as loosely interconnected episodes and periods of the hero’s life in its own way reflects the “discontinuity” of this life. It (this life) happens at crossroads, each time in pursuit of some new goal, in the hope of completeness. human life. Lermontov was looking for an organic form of storytelling, internally corresponding to the character of the main character.

The discrete nature of the narrative structure gave the author the opportunity to change the perspective of the image, to “bring together” positions, opinions, assessments, at the intersection of which not only the mysterious Pechorin became accessible, but also the phenomena of reality were illuminated in a diversified way.

Lermontov's novel is a work born of the post-Decembrist era. The heroic attempt of the “one hundred warrant officers” to change the social system in Russia turned into a tragedy for them. The post-Decembrist decade was a difficult period in Russian history. These were the years of reaction and political oppression. But during this period, thought worked hard. We can say that all the energy accumulated in Russian society and potentially capable of turning into action was switched to the sphere of intellectual life. Russian educated people set themselves the goal of developing a broad view of the world, comprehending the universal connection of phenomena, and understanding patterns historical life peoples and the meaning of existence of an individual. Their attention was attracted by the achievements of German classical philosophy (Schelling during the “System of Transcendental Idealism”, Hegel’s objective idealism) and the latest conquests historical science. In the decade after December 14, 1825, the desire for knowledge in Russian society was so great that it allowed its prominent representatives, having mastered the achievements of European socio-philosophical and historical thought, to become on par with it and independently turn to solving pressing problems of Russian life.

Pechorin's life, as it is given in the novel, has no general direction. It consists of a series of disparate, episodic skirmishes with fate, which do not add up to a single “plot”, nor do they contribute to the process spiritual growth hero. One stage of Pechorin’s biography does not serve as psychological preparation for another, does not contribute to the hero’s accumulation of life experience, which would persist at the subsequent stage of its development.

Pechorin's life is, by his own admission, a chain of constant contradictions that raise before his consciousness, in general, the same questions. Infinitely varying. Changing, I accept each time, due to changing circumstances new uniform, these questions never receive a final answer on the pages of the novel.

The subject of analysis of the novel can be these questions tormenting Pechorin, the solution to which he gave his life.

Why M. Lermontov called Pechorin a “hero of the time”

The novel “A Hero of Our Time” is one of the masterpieces of Russian literature. It continues to remain modern today, although more than one hundred and sixty years have passed since it was written. But the role of this work was especially great in Lermontov’s era. And to better understand this, you need to have a good understanding of the socio-political situation in Russia in the thirties of the nineteenth century.

The Decembrist uprising seemed to divide the life of the then Russia into “before” and “after” it. The time that followed 1825 was dark and cruel, and this was due to the increased reaction from the tsarist government. The barracks routine of life that had developed in the country took away any hope of the majority of young educated people for the possibility of any changes for the better, destroyed faith in the need to serve good, in its obligatory triumph. Russia seemed to be numb, living thoughts were mercilessly pursued. That is why the era we are considering became a time of deep doubt in all moral values. It is not surprising that the fates of the majority of thinking people in the state turned out to be extremely similar. Each time gives birth to its own dominant type of personality. A distinctive feature of timeless eras, especially those that lasted a long time and were distinguished by heavy gloom, has always been the type human personality, which received the sad name “superfluous person” in the history of Russian social thought.

Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin is a prominent representative of this category of people. Before us is a young twenty-five-year-old man, a nobleman by birth. But he is not at all proud of his family name and belonging to high society; he is little attracted to the privileged position in society characteristic of the aristocracy. Pechorin is “a person who has taken the path of separation from his social environment. His fate and position in life are characterized by a discrepancy between what he represents according to formal characteristics and what he really is,” notes literary critic E. Mikhailova. He is rich, generous and wasteful, aimlessly wasting his life in “empty and ignoble passions,” asking himself one painful question: “...why did I live? For what purpose was I born?.. And, it’s true, it existed, and, it’s true, I had a high purpose, because I feel immense strength in my soul; but I didn’t guess this purpose...”

Lermontov sends his hero to the Caucasus. This was a typical path for the quarrelsome noble youth of that time. E. Mikhailova in critical article, dedicated to this novel, notes that “it was like a double test: will this new, real Caucasus withstand... the test of the requirements of reality, the “hero of the time” not put on stilts.” And vice versa, the hero himself, deprived of romantic makeup, who will he turn out to be in comparison with the “children of nature”, what aspects of his personality will appear more clearly in him from this proximity? "

Pechorin always remains true to himself. He is an officer, he serves, but does not earn his way. The modest rank of ensign does not burden him at all and testifies to our hero’s attitude towards military service. And he came to the Caucasus in the hope that “boredom does not live under Chechen bullets.”

“Superfluous” people could not find a worthy use for their strengths, their abilities. M. Yu. Lermontov set himself the task of showing in the novel a contemporary person as he really is, without hiding his vices and shortcomings. At the same time, the author includes himself among those who are going to be subjected to careful analysis and discussion: “Enough people have been fed with sweets; This has spoiled their stomach: they need bitter medicine, caustic truths. But don’t think... that the author of this book has... a dream of becoming a corrector of human vices. God save him from such ignorance! He just had fun drawing a modern person as he understands him, and... has met him too often. It will also be that the disease is indicated, but God knows how to cure it!”

Pechorin is a true son of his era - a time of doubts and searches, intense work of thought, subjecting everything to careful analysis, trying to penetrate into the origins of good and evil. He is constantly in a state of duality of spirit, his every step is accompanied by careful introspection: “There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges him...”.

Pechorin always gives an account of his actions, and he himself formulates the program of his life behavior: “... I look at the suffering and joy of others only in relation to myself, as food that supports my spiritual strength.” He quite consciously follows this path only in order to at least temporarily forget about the boredom that overcomes him, about the oppressive emptiness of his existence. Pechorin “doesn’t sacrifice anything” for the sake of other people, even for those he loves, because he also loves for himself, for his own pleasure. Our hero laughs at everything in the world, for him there are no shrines, no faith, no ideal. But let's not forget that Pechorin himself suffers from this. And no matter how immoral his actions are, one cannot fail to notice in them the consistency of the principle he chose. He will not hide the true nature of his actions from himself or others, will not humiliate himself with hypocrisy, and will not blame himself on someone else or on unfortunate circumstances. There is something truly heroic in this, which makes you feel respect for the hero.

Why does M. Yu. Lermontov call Pechorin “a hero of our time”? The answer to this question is given by the author of the novel himself: “ This book has experienced... the unfortunate credulity of some readers... in the literal meaning of words. Some were terribly offended... that such an immoral person was being set as an example for them... others... noticed that the writer painted his own portrait...

Hero of Our Time... a portrait, but not of one person: this is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development».

Thus, the author himself leads us to a true understanding of the “heroism” of his character: Pechorin is not a role model at all, he is only a bright representative of his difficult era, in this sense, perhaps, he is a real hero of his time.

Is Pechorin really a hero of his time?

I think yes, in Pechorin we can see a hero of his time. Moreover, a hero is not in the sense of a person performing feats, but a person, a character, as one of the episodes of life.

He, as a character, is very symbolic; I see in him not only a personality, but a reflection of the era, of the entire society. It seems to me that the author tried to fit everything into one person, both advantages and disadvantages: intelligence, insight, fatalism, love, rivalry, envy, jealousy - in a word, absolutely everything that is inherent in society and each individual individually. Thanks to this incarnation, it is much easier to understand and see what the “world” in which everyone lives is, and I think this is a huge merit.

The hero himself is very interesting. He is individual, apparently, and this is why he attracts strong attention. He went against the system, against the crowd, the framework, one could call it nihilism, however, everything is quite understandable on his part. Completely incompatible qualities coexist in him: practicality, rationality, calculation, and the habit of relying only on himself and, at the same time, faith in fate and destiny. It seems as if such people appear with some frequency, when society especially needs them, in order to understand that something is wrong, it is necessary to turn around, change life... The author does not seek to show attitude or set up the reader, he simply narrates, and with from different points of view, on behalf of different heroes, so that everyone has their own associations, and everyone understands that in his time there will definitely be a “hero”.

I think yes, of course he was, is and will remain a hero not only of his time, but also of our time.