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Lermontov, Hero of our time. Taman

Pechorin left the fortress for some time to the Cossack village and witnessed the story with the officer Vylich, described in the short story "The Fatalist". Then five years pass. Pechorin, having retired, lives in St. Petersburg and, bored again, goes to Persia. Along the way, he meets with Maxim Maksimych. Their meeting is described in the story "Maxim Maksimych". From a brief preface to Pechorin's Journal, we learn that, returning from Persia, Pechorin died. Lermontov departed from such a chronology and built the composition of the novel in such a way that we first learn about Pechorin from the stories about him by Maxim Maksimych and a passing officer, and then from the diary "Pechorin's Journal". Thus, the character of Pechorin is revealed in various situations, in a collision with other characters in the novel. And each time some new facet of the complex and rich nature of Pechorin opens up.

"Taman" is the third story in order. With its problematics and the nature of the hero's environment, it seems to continue "Bela" and is a record of an episode from the past. The story is told in the first person (Pechorina). Describing an episode from the life of smugglers, Pechorin does not say anything about his thoughts and experiences. His attention is focused on showing the events themselves, their participants, and the situation. Landscape helps to create a mysterious and romantic mood of the story. With amazing skill, Lermontov describes the restless sea, the moon, clouds. “The shore fell like a cliff to the sea almost at its very walls, and below, with a continuous roar, dark blue waves splashed. The moon quietly looked at the restless, but submissive elements, and I could distinguish in the light of it, far from the coast, two ships, ”writes Pechorin. Around him is an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. The night, the reed roof and white walls of the new dwelling, the meeting with the blind boy - all this strikes Pechorin's imagination so much that he cannot fall asleep in a new place for a long time. Much in the boy's behavior seems incomprehensible and mysterious: how a blind man so easily descends a narrow, steep path, how he feels a person's gaze. An unpleasant impression on Pechorin is made by his barely noticeable smile. Pechorin's curiosity is spurred on by the boy's actions. Alone, in the middle of the night, with some kind of bundle, he descends to the sea. Pechorin began to watch him, hiding behind a protruding rock. He saw a white female figure approach him and speak to him. From the conversation it became clear that they were waiting for Yanko, who was to sail in a boat on a stormy sea, bypassing the coast guards. He delivered some cargo on a boat. Taking a bundle each, they set off along the shore and disappeared from view.

What kind of people live on the coast? What mysteries are hidden by their unusual behavior? These questions haunt Pechorin, and he boldly invades the unknown, boldly rushes towards danger. Pechorin meets an old woman and her daughter. Hearing the song, Pechorin looked up and on the roof of the roof he saw a girl in a striped dress, with loose braids, a real mermaid. Subsequently, he nicknamed her Undine. She was extraordinarily good-looking: “The extraordinary flexibility of the body, the special inclination of the head that is only peculiar to her, long blond hair, some kind of golden tint of her slightly tanned skin on her neck and shoulders, and especially the correct nose - all this was charming for me.” Having spoken to this girl, Pechorin told about the night scene on the shore, which he had witnessed, and threatened to report everything to the commandant. This was a great negligence on his part, and he soon repented. The poetic girl - “undine”, “real mermaid” - insidiously lures Pechorin into a trap, hinting at love: “She jumped up, wrapped her arms around my neck, and a moist, fiery kiss sounded on my lips. My eyes darkened, my head swam, I squeezed her in my arms with all the strength of youthful passion ... ”Ondine made an appointment for Pechorin at night on the shore. Forgetting about caution, Pechorin gets into the boat. Having sailed some distance from the shore, the girl hugged Pechorin, unfastened the pistol and threw it overboard. Pechorin realized that he could die, because he could not swim. This gave him strength, and a short fight ended with him throwing her into the waves. Hope for love turned out to be deceived, the date ended in a fierce struggle for life. All this causes the anger of Pechorin, who suffered because of his naivety and gullibility. But, in spite of everything, he managed to uncover the secret of "peaceful smugglers". This brings disappointment to the hero: “And why did fate throw me into a peaceful circle of honest smugglers? Like a stone thrown into a smooth spring, I disturbed their calmness and, like a stone, I almost sank myself. Returning, Pechorin discovers that in a bag the blind man carried his things ashore - a casket, a saber with a silver rim, a Dagestan dagger - a gift from a friend. “Wouldn’t it be funny to complain to the authorities that a blind boy robbed me, and an eighteen-year-old girl almost drowned me?” In the morning Pechorin leaves for Gelendzhik.

Pechorin realizes that he made a mistake by intruding into the lives of these people, and blames himself for invading their circle, which disrupted life. Yanko and the girl leave, leaving the boy and the old woman without a livelihood. Pechorin admits: “I don’t know what happened to the old woman and the poor blind man. Yes, and what do I care about human joys and misfortunes, me, a wandering officer, and even with a traveler for official needs.

"Taman" strikes with a masterful depiction of the characters of the heroes. The image of a smuggler girl is truly romantic. This girl is characterized by bizarre variability of mood, "rapid transitions from the greatest anxiety to complete immobility." Her speeches are mysterious and close in form to folk proverbs and sayings; her songs, reminiscent of folk, speak of her desire for a violent will. It has a lot of vitality, courage, determination, poetry of "wild freedom". A rich, peculiar nature, full of mystery, it is, as it were, created by nature itself for the free, risky life that she leads. No less colorful is the image of the smuggler Yanko, written in sparing but bright strokes. He is determined and fearless, not afraid of the storm. Having learned about the danger that threatens him, he leaves his native places to look for fishing in another place: “... and everywhere the road is dear to me, where only the wind blows and the sea rustles!” But at the same time, Janko shows cruelty and stinginess, leaving a blind boy on the shore with a few coins. Pechorin's personality is complemented by such qualities that manifest themselves in moments of danger: this is courage, determination, willingness to take risks, willpower.

At the end of the story, Pechorin peers into the white sail, which flickered between the dark waves in the light of the moon. This symbolic image is reminiscent of one of the most amazing in beauty and deepest in thought Lermontov's poems - "The lonely sail turns white ...". The same rebellious, restless was the life of the main character - Pechorin.

A smuggler cannot be honest because he is engaged in illegal activities. Why does Pechorin call the smugglers honest? The answer can be found in the chapter "Taman".

Grigory admits that he becomes sad at the end of the description of the story that happened to him in Taman. Pechorin sees the remaining one blind boy crying. Janko and Ondine are carried away into the sea. For his work and devotion, the boy received a coin for a gingerbread. The reader feels sorry for the blind man, scared for Ondine, hurt for Pechorin.

Gregory himself understands what he has done. He compares himself to a stone thrown into a smooth spring. The epithet smooth corresponds to clean, calm. Smugglers go about their business to survive. Their squalid housing proves poverty and scarcity. The "peace circle" consists of several people, all of them cause only pity.

Yanko can be condemned, but his fate is unenviable: not everyone can race through the raging sea on a dark night. What will become of the old woman and the blind man, where will they find food for themselves?

Honest smugglers "A hero of our time", honesty, in this case, is a concern. Janko and Ondine tried to alleviate the plight of the disadvantaged. Pechorin interferes in their lives and forces the smugglers to leave the city chosen for life. They will manage and be able to find a new home for themselves, and a blind boy is unlikely to meet the same friends. The only way to be full is broken on the stone of the human soul, busy looking for entertainment for its mind.

The meeting of Pechorin, the protagonist of Lermontov's novel "A Hero of Our Time", with "honest smugglers" is depicted in the story "Taman", the first in Pechorin's Journal. The composition of the novel is unusual: it consists of separate stories with their own completed plot, united by a common main character. Lermontov adheres not to the chronology of events, but to the logic of the gradual disclosure of the character of the protagonist. Related to this is the presence of three narrators. First, Maxim Maksimych tells about Pechorin's organization of Bela's abduction, his cooling towards her and the death of the girl, then the narrator, wandering around the Caucasus, conveys the impressions of the meeting he saw between Pechorin and Maxim Maksimych. Having received Pechorin’s notes at his disposal and learning about his death, the narrator allegedly publishes his diaries (“Pechorin’s Journal”) with the aim (as he reports in the preface) to show the “story of the soul” of a person called the hero of the time and described as a portrait made up of vices today's young generation.

From the story “Taman”, the reader learns that immediately upon arrival in the Caucasus from St. Petersburg, “for official reasons”, and not of his own free will, Pechorin ended up in the “bad town” of Taman. There is no detailed description of the town, only casual mention is made of dirty alleys and dilapidated fences, but that is not why it is called “nasty”. The epithet reflects, rather, Pechorin's attitude to the events taking place in this place. Summing up everything that happened, Pechorin writes in his diary: "... a blind boy robbed me, and an eighteen-year-old girl almost drowned me." Thus, ironically about what happened, the hero names the two main participants in the drama that has played out.

Creating "Taman", Lermontov relied on the literary tradition of the genre of the robber novel, romantic in nature of the depiction of heroes and circumstances. At first, one gets the impression that the author does not deviate from this genre. The plot of events - "vater", where it is "unclean", a blind man who is "not as blind as it seems", a lunar landscape, a storm at sea, a mysterious white figure, a brave swimmer - all this arouses Pechorin's interest, makes him stay awake at night, covertly monitor what is happening on the seashore. However, all this does not disturb and capture him so much that he forgets about what happened in the recent past: the monotonous sound of the sea reminds him of the “murmur of a sleeping city” and brings back sad memories. At the same time, the night adventure is not so important that, wanting to know the denouement, Pechorin postponed his departure for Gelendzhik. Having learned that the ship will not be there for another three or four days, he returns from the commandant "sullen and angry."

Subsequently, Pechorin will say that he has long been living not with his heart, but with his head. When going on a date with the "undine", he does not forget to take a pistol with him and warn the Cossack batman so that, upon hearing the shot, he runs ashore. The beauty, apparently, naively thought that, having charmed Pechorin, she would become the mistress of the situation. However, Pechorin is not like that and knows the price of female coquetry. And yet he is embarrassed, really worried, he gets dizzy when a girl kisses him. On the one hand, he calls her behavior "comedy", on the other hand, he succumbs to her charm. He is able to deeply feel and experience, but does not stop analyzing for a minute.

The climactic scene is a desperate struggle in the boat. Previously, Pechorin compared the girl with a romantic mermaid, admiring her long flowing hair, an unusually flexible figure, a golden tint of her skin, a correct nose, comparing her with a "bird, scared out of the bush." Like an educated aristocrat, he casually talked about the "little foot" and "Goethe's Mignon." Now he has to fight for his life, and the girl - for hers. And it is not at all strange that now he is talking about her: "... like a cat clung to my clothes ... her snake nature withstood this torture." However, it should be noted that, having got ashore, Pechorin was “almost delighted” when he recognized “his mermaid” in the white figure on the shore.

The denouement is not romantic at all. All the heroes are alive, but the “peaceful circle of honest smugglers” is disturbed, a half-deaf old woman, a blind boy is left to the mercy of fate. Pechorin sympathetically tells how long, for a long time the poor blind man cried, but immediately notices that "thank God, in the morning there was an opportunity to go." In the finale, he once again recalls the abandoned blind and old woman, but philosophically remarks: "... what do I care about human joys and misfortunes ...". But really he is indifferent to them or tries to convince himself of this, the reader must understand for himself, thinking about what he read and comparing what he learned about the hero in different parts of the novel.

Critic V.G. Belinsky praised Pechorin as a man with a "strong will, courageous, not blanching any danger, asking for storms and alarms." This is how we know Pechorin from the stories of Maxim Maksimych, and now, in Taman, he himself told about one of such cases. Yes, he is active, brave, resourceful, resolute, intelligent, educated, but he is driven only by idle curiosity. "Smugglers" still win against his background. They are also brave (Yanko) and resourceful (undine), and also evoke sympathy, pity (old woman, boy); they are fighting for life, and Pechorin plays with it, however, not only his own. The consequences of his intervention in other people's destinies are sad, and he understands this, comparing himself with a stone that disturbed the surface of the source, and then, in "Princess Mary", with an ax in the hands of fate. Pechorin, according to Maxim Maksimych, feels no less unhappy than those to whom he voluntarily or involuntarily does evil. In "Taman" this is indirectly confirmed.

In this part of the novel, Pechorin does not utter a single large monologue, his thoughts and feelings are still largely hidden from the reader, but they are already of great interest, thanks to omissions and omissions.

"Taman" was highly valued by Belinsky and Turgenev, Tolstoy and Chekhov for some special color, harmony, beautiful language.

Details

Analysis of the chapter "Taman" of the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time"

Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is one of the most enigmatic figures in Russian classical literature. Roman M.Yu. Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time" retains the best features of his romantic works and stands at the origins of Russian psychological realism. Having set as his task the image of the hero of the time with a strong will and a powerful soul, but with a tragic fate, the study of the negative and positive sides of his generation, the author creates an amazing work. “The history of the human soul is almost more curious and no more useful than the history of an entire people,” writes Lermontov. The composition of the work, built on the violation of chronology, is subject to the logic of psychological analysis. We learn about Pechorin from the lips of the simple and naive Maxim Maksimych, get acquainted with his psychological portrait, which is created by the author-narrator himself, but the introspection presented in Pechorin's journal becomes the leading way of organizing the story of the hero of time.

Pechorin's journal is opened by the short story "Taman", the "self-disclosure" of the hero begins with it. The beginning of the novel, at first glance, does not portend the romantic world that will be created later: “Taman is the nastiest town of all the coastal cities of Russia. I almost died of hunger there, and besides, they wanted to drown me.” However, the landscape of the very first pages of the novel is distinguished by its romanticism: “A full month shone on the reed roof… The shore descended like a cliff to the sea… The moon quietly looked at the restless, but submissive element…” With the help of personification, the author creates a lyrical picture. The poetics of the novel is contrasting: romantic landscapes are replaced by an accurate recreation of everyday life, the image of the exotic world of "honest smugglers" is an expression of the author's position.

Let's go with the hero into the hut. "... two benches and a table and a huge chest near the stove made up all of her furniture." This everyday sketch is interrupted by a completely romantic phrase: “The sea wind rushed through the broken window glass.” In fact, this phrase contains the hidden desire of the hero to plunge into the romance of adventure, and he will be satisfied.

Everything in the life of the people at whom Pechorin stopped alarms him. He has a "prejudice" against cripples, and here lives a blind boy. In the hut "not a single image on the wall is a bad sign." However, Pechorin seems to be acting contrary. He is already ready to plunge into the mysterious life of smugglers, instead of moving away from the world alien to him, and even glad of the opportunity given to him by fate. And the world of "honest smugglers" is not at all alien to the hero. It is no coincidence that, going down the path for the blind, the phrase of the Gospel suddenly comes to Pechorin's mind: "On that day the dumb will cry out and the blind will see." The situation in the novel is romantic, and the hero has some high spirits. His soul, rebellious, passionate, akin to the sea element, he is ready for danger and longs for worldly storms.

In the short story, Pechorin (after all, it is he who is the author of the text, according to Lermontov) creates an amazing image of an undine, a mermaid. In fact, the heroine of the novel is a simple poor girl. But Pechorin, constantly looking for a hidden meaning behind the phenomena of the world, sees in her an image inspired by romantic German poetry. “The extraordinary flexibility of the camp”, “long blond hair”, “something wild and suspicious” in her views, “mysterious speeches”, “strange songs” - these are the components of the image of the Pechorin undine. He memorizes the mermaid's song "from word to word", because it is about free people, people of risk, people of action. Such people are close to our hero!

True, during their duel in the boat, the undine turns into a completely real and dangerous opponent: “she clung to my clothes like a cat, and suddenly a strong push almost threw me into the sea.” Pechorin even realizes that he is inferior to her in dexterity, but he is grateful for the joy of the duel. In this duel, a detail that seems to discredit the strong Pechorin attracts attention - he cannot swim! But we are already prepared by the previous narrative for the oddities and contradictions of the hero's nature.

The symbolic images of the chapter "Taman": the sea, the sail - continue the romantic theme of the work. These poetic images embody the idea of freedom, liberty, to which the hero aspires. The game, pretense, posturing that reign in secular society are alien to him, he is looking for a lofty ideal. That is why the rebellious Yanko is close to him, to whom, in his own words, “there is a road everywhere, where only the wind blows and the sea is noisy.” Yanko lives a free life in harmony with the world, and Pechorin lacks it. But the freedom-loving Yanko leaves under a white sail along with a beautiful undine. The final scene of "Taman" is symbolic: the ideal to which Pechorin's soul so strives is elusive and unattainable. Reality destroys the romantic world again. Returning to the hut, Pechorin discovers that "honest smugglers" have robbed him corny. Perhaps that is why the last phrase of “Taman” sounds disappointed and ironic: “Yes, and what do I care about human joys and misfortunes, me, a wandering officer, and even with a traveler on official duty.”

The first part of Pechorin's journal reveals to the reader precisely the romantic side of his nature. Before us appears a rebellious hero, an outstanding personality, thirsting for storms and worries, a man of reckless courage, looking for his ideal. At the same time, we see how reality, the routine of life, destroys the romantic world created by the hero in his imagination. This eternal conflict of romantic poetry!

In artistic terms, "Taman" is an example of high art. Conciseness, accuracy and simplicity of narration, richness of language make the short story an unsurpassed example of romantic prose. V.G. Belinsky compared the story with a lyric poem. A.P. Chekhov admitted that he was in love with these Lermontov pages. Yes, and how not to admire the poetic skill with which Lermontov's prose work was written! “I wrapped myself in a cloak and sat down on a stone by the fence, looking into the distance; in front of me stretched the sea agitated by a night storm, and its monotonous noise, like the murmur of a city falling asleep, reminded me of the old years, transferred my thoughts to the north, to our cold capital. Excited by memories, I forgot ... "We will also forget, reading the lovely lines of Lermontov and enjoying the Word ...

The chapter "Taman" was included in the "Journal of Pechorin". Restoring the chronological sequence of events from the life of Pechorin, one should start reading the novel “A Hero of Our Time” from the story “Taman”, where Pechorin tells about the incident that happened to him when he first came from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus. Then follows the story "Princess Mary", where Pechorin tells about the events in which he participated, having arrived on the waters in Pyatigorsk. Then the story "Bela", the events of which take place in the fortress, where Pechorin was exiled for a duel with Grushnitsky. Pechorin left the fortress for some time to the Cossack village and witnessed the story with the officer Vylich, described in the short story "The Fatalist". Then five years pass. Pechorin, having retired, lives in St. Petersburg and, bored again, goes to Persia. Along the way, he meets with Maxim Maksimych. Their meeting is described in the story "Maxim Maksimych". From a brief preface to Pechorin's Journal, we learn that, returning from Persia, Pechorin died. Lermontov departed from such a chronology and built the composition of the novel in such a way that we first learn about Pechorin from the stories about him by Maxim Maksimych and a passing officer, and then from the diary "Pechorin's Journal". Thus, the character of Pechorin is revealed in various situations, in a collision with other characters in the novel. And each time some new facet of the complex and rich nature of Pechorin opens up.

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