home › Miscellaneous › The image of Pechorin in my understanding. The character of Grigory Pechorin in the novel "A Hero of Our Time": positive and negative features, pros and cons

The image of Pechorin in my understanding. The character of Grigory Pechorin in the novel "A Hero of Our Time": positive and negative features, pros and cons

Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, main character novel by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time", is an ambiguous figure and very interesting for analysis. A person who destroys other people's destinies, but who is respected and loved, cannot but be interested. The hero cannot be called unequivocally positive or negative, it seems that he is literally woven from contradictions.

Grigory Pechorin, a young man of more than twenty years old, immediately attracts attention with his appearance - neat, handsome, smart, he makes a very favorable impression on the people around him and almost immediately inspires deep trust. Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin was also famous for his developed physical data and could easily spend almost a whole day hunting and practically not get tired, but often preferred to do it alone, not being dependent on the need to be in human society.

If we talk about the moral qualities of Pechorin and directly about his character, then you can see how amazingly white and black are combined in one person. On the one hand, he is certainly a deep and wise person, rational and reasonable. But on the other hand, it does absolutely nothing to develop the data strengths- Grigory Pechorin is biased towards education, believing that it is essentially meaningless. Among other things, Grigory Alexandrovich is a brave and independent person, capable of making difficult decisions and defending his opinion, but these positive aspects of his personality also have a downside - selfishness and a tendency to narcissism. It seems that Pechorin is not capable of selfless love, to self-sacrifice, he simply strives to get from life what he wants in this moment without thinking about the consequences.

However, Grigory Pechorin is not alone in the specifics of his image. No wonder they say that his image can be called cumulative, reflecting a whole generation of people with broken destinies. Forced to adapt to the conventions and submit to the whims of other people, their personalities seemed to be divided into two parts - natural, given by nature, and artificial, the one that was created by social foundations. Perhaps this is the reason for the internal contradiction of Grigory Alexandrovich.

I believe that in the work "A Hero of Our Time" Lermontov sought to show his readers how terrible it is to become a person crippled morally. In fact, Pechorin's mild form you can observe what we would now call a split personality, and this, of course, is a serious personality disorder which you can't handle on your own. Therefore, the life of Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is like the life of a certain creature that rushes about in search of a home or shelter, but cannot find it in any way, just as Pechorin cannot find harmony in his own soul. This is the problem with the protagonist. This is the trouble of a whole generation, and if you think about it, then not just one.

Option 2

The protagonist of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" M.Yu. Lermontov - Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin. According to the author himself, Pechorin is a collective image of a representative of the generation of the 30s of the 19th century.

Pechorin is an officer. He is a gifted person, he tries to act in order to find a scope for his talents, but he does not succeed. Pechorin constantly asks himself the question why he lived, for what purpose he was born.

An important role is played by the portrait of Pechorin, written by the author himself. How sharp is the contrast between the appearance of the protagonist and his eyes (and the eyes are the mirror of the soul)! If in the whole appearance of Pechorin the childish freshness is still preserved, then the eyes betray an experienced, sober, but ... unfortunate person. They do not laugh when their owner laughs; Isn't this a sign of the inner tragedy of loneliness?..

Pechorin's soulless attitude towards Maxim Maksimych, who has become attached to him with all his heart, once again convinces us of the inability of the main character to experience real human feelings.

Pechorin's diary is not just a statement of daily events, but a deep psychological analysis. Reading these notes, we, oddly enough, think that Pechorin has the right to be indifferent to others, because he is indifferent ... to himself. Indeed, our hero is characterized by a strange split personality: one lives normal life, the other judges this first and all those around him.

Perhaps, fuller image the main character is revealed in the story "Princess Mary". It is here that Pechorin expresses his views on love, friendship, the meaning of life; here he explains each of his actions, and not biased, but objectively. “My soul is corrupted by light,” says Pechorin. This is the explanation of the character of the "hero of our time" as a "superfluous person." Dr. Werner Pechorin is not a friend, but a friend - because they have a lot in common; both are burdened by light, both have unconventional views on life. But Grushnitsky cannot even be a friend of our hero - he is very ordinary. The duel of heroes is also inevitable - the legitimate finale of the clash of philistine romanticism in the person of Grushnitsky and the outstanding character of Pechorin. Pechorin claims that he "despises women so as not to love them," but this is a lie. They play a big role in his life, take, for example, the fact that he sobbed from impotence and inability to help Vera (after writing to her), or his confession to Princess Mary: he let her into his soul so deeply, as he did not let anyone in explaining the reason and the essence of their actions. But this was a trick: he aroused compassion in the soul of the girl, and through this - love. What for?! Boredom! He didn't love her. Pechorin brings misfortune to everyone: Bela dies, Grushnitsky is killed, Mary and Vera suffer, smugglers leave their home. But at the same time, he himself suffers.

Pechorin - strong, bright and at the same time tragic personality. The author is completely sure that such a person is too extraordinary to live in a common "grave". Therefore, Lermontov had no choice but to "kill" Pechorin.

Essay 3

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov - a blinding star in the sky domestic literature. His works raise the problems of the meaning of life, loneliness and love. No exception and the novel "Hero of Our Time", main character which Pechorin reflects with amazing accuracy the author's philosophical reflections about life. But what is the most sinking into the soul of the reader after reading the novel? I will answer this question in my essay.

Pechorin is a character in which all the vices of the society of the Nikolaev era are collected. He is ruthless, indifferent, vicious and caustic. But why does the reader have a warm spiritual sympathy for Grigory Alexandrovich. Everything, oddly enough, is simple. Each of us sees a part of ourselves in Pechorin, which is why it is obvious negative character is seen by readers to some extent even as a hero. From an objective point of view, his decisions are so ridiculous that they arouse the approval of the reading public, at least his attitude towards the Faith.

Loving her and having the opportunity to be with her, Pechorin loses the only thing he was not indifferent to. Why? This question can be answered in two ways: the motive of eternal loneliness and spiritual emptiness - these are the main motives of Lermontov's work, but look into the very depths of the work? Pechorin cannot be with Vera for the reason that he is a real egoist. It is the egoist, and with his egoist and cold attitude towards her, he gives her pain, and his decision not to be with her is Noble act, because he could always call her, and he would come - Vera herself said so.

But at the same time, Pechorin loves faith. How can this happen? It's an obvious contradiction. But the book reflects life, and life is full of duality and contradictions, both internal and external, and since Lermontov was able to reflect this lousy, but at the same time wonderful essence of the world, he is rightfully considered a classic!

Each page of the novel shocked me, an unimaginably deep knowledge of the human soul is imprinted on each page of the work, and the closer to the end of the book, the more one can admire the image that Lermontov created.

Composition Image of Pechorin

Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov - brightest star Russian poetry 19th century, his works are filled with motifs such as loneliness, fate and unrequited love. The works of Lermontov very well reflected the spirit of the times. One of these is the novel "A Hero of Our Time", the key character of which is a collection of the main, prominent people of the Nikolaev era.

Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin - a young officer wandering around Russian Empire on duty. For the first time before the reader, he appears as the hero of the story of Maxim Maksimovich, and after from his own notes about life path. Lermontov endowed Pechorin with an irresistibly strong indifference to life and coldness to everything that happens around him. One of his main life beliefs is fatalism. This is especially well manifested in Pechorin's decision to go to war in Persia and in agreement to go to a deliberately dishonest duel with Grushnitsky.

careless attitude towards own destiny- this is one of the brightest vices of Pechorin. The feeling of love is also inaccessible to Pechorin: he not only cannot love someone with strong human love, but also have a long-term interest in something. Experiencing definitely positive feelings to Vera, Pechorin cannot afford to stay with her for a long time, although it seems to the reader that Grigory Alexandrovich wants to be with Vera. But why is this happening? The thing is that Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin is an undisguised personification of loneliness, it is not fate that makes him lonely, but he prefers to remain alone with his conscious decisions.

Closedness of one's own soul outside world and there is that very part of himself that Lermontov laid in his main character. Such a conclusion can be drawn by reading such poems by Lermontov as "I go out alone on the road", "Sail", "I look at the future with fear", "Both boring and sad."

But who is Pechorin? Why is the novel called "A Hero of Our Time"? Lermontov, seeing the frank, undisguised vices of society, mercilessly puts them in Pechorin. It was in the era of spiritual extinction, the prosperity of egoism and the tyranny of Nicholas that the novel was born. That is why many critics positively assessed Pechorin, they saw in him not only society, but also themselves. Also in Pechorin sees himself and everyone common man of our society, which indicates that with the growth of technology, the change in the structure of society, human relations and the person himself do not change.

Option 5

In the novel by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time" one of the main characters is Pechorin Grigory Aleksandrovich. Studying the text, we learn that he came from St. Petersburg. All that is known about his appearance is that he has brown eyes, blond hair, and a dark mustache and eyebrows. A man of average height, broad-shouldered. He is attractive and women like him. Pechorin knows them especially well, which, perhaps, is already boring. Lermontov allows his hero to meet Bela and Princess Mary. His fate turns out to be rather complicated. In his journal, the character describes the events and feelings at the time of his stay in the Caucasus.

Grigory Alexandrovich has both positive and negative qualities. We see that he is educated but doesn't really like to read books.

In the chapter Princess Mary, he meets his old lover. He gives in to feelings, and also, for fun, falls in love with Princess Ligovskaya. At first, he wanted to do this only because of his pride, and also, this would cause the jealousy of his "buddy". He hurt the innocent Mary. The punishment for this act was Vera's departure from Pyatigorsk. Pechorin was no longer able to catch up with her. On the other hand, in the duel, he gave Grushnitsky a chance to retract his words. We see that the hero is aware of the consequences.

After all the events with the Ligovskys and Grushnitskys in the chapter Bela, Grigory exchanges the princess for a horse. For him, she is like a thing. Not only does he destroy the family, he also evaluates her life as a horse. A person's life is priceless, and he takes such a step. The hero loved her, although, perhaps, it was only love, and soon it bored him. He understands that it is already impossible to fix anything and more and more often leaves her alone. The result was the tragic death of Bela. Fortunately, he gave the last glass of water to the dying heroine. This situation shocked him greatly.

Grigory Alexandrovich suffered from the fact that he brought misfortune to the people around him. He was looking for his joy, but he could not find it in any way. On the one hand, we scold him for everything that happened, but on the other hand, he himself understands this and suffers. In his example, you can see a person who could not achieve his happiness. He was confused, torturing himself with thoughts. In some situations, his character is weak, in others - strong. However, Gregory tried in any way to achieve his inner satisfaction. It's a pity that innocent girls suffered because of this. The reader can only understand him and, perhaps, forgive him.

Sample 6

The publication of the work "A Hero of Our Time" received different opinions among the reading public.

The image of Pechorin was unusual for them. The author has set for himself the main goal - to reveal this image. And although the stories are located in the novel not according to certain order, they accurately and vividly show all kinds of features of the Pechorin character. So, in Maxim Maksimych, Pechorin is shown in his original position, he has tried and exhausted everything. In Bel, everything is revealed negative traits character of our hero. By placing the character in different conditions, Lermontov wants to reveal to us the alienation of Pechorin. A young man, a renegade of society, did not obey the moral principles of the circle from which he came. He craves adventure and danger, as he is full of extraordinary energy.

And yet our hero is a richly gifted nature. Evaluating sensibly his own actions and the actions of others, he has the mind of an analyst. His diary is a self-disclosure. Pechorin has a warm heart, which is able to love passionately, hiding his truth under the guise of indifference. This is especially evident in the episodes of Bela's death and meeting with Vera. Our character is still a strong-willed and active person, and he is capable of action. But all his actions are destructive. In all the short stories, Pechorin acts as a destroyer of destinies. He is guilty of incidents with many people who met on his way. But, one cannot blame Pechorin for becoming such an immoral person. The people around him and the world are to blame here, where it was impossible to adequately apply the best qualities.

So, he learned to deceive, began to hide everything, and he buried his feelings in his heart long ago.

It seems to me that if Pechorin was born in a completely different time, he would be able to use his abilities for the benefit of himself and those around him. Therefore, this hero occupies the main place among literary characters « extra people". After all, in order for these people not to lose themselves in this world, we must try to understand them and help them.

For grade 9

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In 1840, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov wrote the novel A Hero of Our Time. What is the essence of this work, which is a classic of Russian literature? The image of the main character Pechorin Grigory Alexandrovich.

External characteristics of Pechorin. Reflection of the soul in the details

To pass appearance the main character, the narrator in this novel describes his view of Pechorin. The image of a selfish person is always emphasized by a special gloss and careless movements of the body. The hero of our novel, Pechorin, was a fairly tall and stately young man. He was heavily built. His beautiful broad shoulders were very favorably emphasized by a thin and embossed figure. Athletic figure. For the most part, lonely people are very scrupulous about their appearance. According to his physical data, it is noticeable that Pechorin is adapted to changing time zones and climate. The writer was surprised by thin and pale hands. Their owner had the thin fingers of an aristocrat. They were decorated with perfectly tailored gloves of high quality workmanship. His back arched like a snake's body as he sat down alone. A smile with whiter teeth. Velvet light skin. Wavy curly blond hair gave a childish immediacy. In contrast, there were traces of wrinkles on his forehead. All the lordship of his image is favorably emphasized by brown eyes and the black color of his eyebrows and mustache. He had a slightly upturned nose and an unusually sharp penetrating gaze. His eyes were frozen even when he laughed. As the author, who described him from the outside, noted, Pechorin's eyes shone with a phosphorescent brilliance, dazzling, but icy.

Pechorin tried to emphasize his superiority in everything. Dressed in the Petersburg fashion - a velvet frock coat, casually buttoned on the last two buttons. Rarely in the Caucasus you will meet a person in absolutely snow-white underwear that peeps through. The ladies paid attention to him. His walk reeked of independence, self-confidence and uniqueness.

The image of Pechorin at the second meeting with Maxim Maksimych

The protagonist of the novel does not see the expediency of friendship. The few who wanted to be friends with him were struck by indifference and lack of friendly feelings. After five years of parting with his friend Maxim Maksimych, Pechorin casually reacted to a meeting with an elderly staff captain. In vain Maxim Maksimych clung to his old friend, whom Pechorin considered. After all, they lived together for about a year and he helped him survive the tragedy with Bela. Maksim Maksimych could not believe that Grigory would say goodbye to him so curtly, so dryly, without even talking for ten minutes. He was very bitter that a person important to him did not have the value of their long-standing friendship.

Pechorin's characterization through his relationship with women

Petersburger - G.A. Pechorin has a great understanding of female nature. Magnificent, exactly according to the instructions, Bela falls in love with herself. Then he cools down to her. After, the death of the "maiden of the mountains" does not bring much suffering to Pechorin's life. It is so empty that there is not a single tear. He is even somewhat annoyed by the fact that he is guilty of the death of a Circassian woman.

Miss Mary. Pechorin falls in love with the Moscow daughter of the princess. Did he want mutual love, by no means. His vanity wanted to amuse itself at the expense of Grushnitsky. Pechorin needs other people's suffering, he feeds on them. At the end of his diary, he compares a woman to a blooming flower. And he tears it up to drink all the strength and juices and throw it on the road for someone to pick it up. Ruthless Executioner women's showers, not thinking about the consequences of their actions and games.

The faith he loved so deeply and truly became Once again a toy in the hands of this mentally depressed and unbalanced person. Despite his feelings for this woman, he specifically makes her jealous for the sake of intimacy. He doesn’t even want to think about how much she suffers, sometimes he just feels sorry for her. And when she leaves, Pechorin is like Small child weeping over the loss of the only woman who ever touched his cold heart.

Pechorin, through each hero with whom events took place, is revealed from different sides. They are like mirror reflection his inner emptiness. The novel is built by reflecting the internal contradictions of the main character, through relationships with each person described in it. Lermontov does not criticize or analyze the image of G.A. Pechorin. With it, the author displays the post-Decembrist reality of that time, with all its vices and shortcomings.

Almost everyone who wrote about Lermontov's novel mentions its special playful nature, which is associated with experiments and experiments conducted by Pechorin. The author (probably, this is his own idea of life) encourages the hero of the novel to perceive real life in its natural course of life in the form of a theatrical game, a stage, in the form of a performance. Pechorin, chasing funny adventures that should dispel boredom and amuse him, is the author of the play, the director who always puts on comedies, but in the fifth acts they inevitably turn into tragedies. The world is built, from his point of view, like a drama - there is a plot, a climax and a denouement. Unlike the author-playwright, Pechorin does not know how the play will end, just as the other participants in the performance do not know this, although they do not suspect that they are playing certain roles, that they are artists. In this sense, the characters of the novel (the novel involves the participation of many individualized persons) are not equal to the hero. The director fails to equalize the protagonist and the involuntary "actors", to open the same opportunities for them, while maintaining the purity of the experiment: the "artists" go on stage only as extras, Pechorin turns out to be the author, director, and actor of the play. He writes and sets it for himself. At the same time, with different people he behaves differently: with Maxim Maksimych - friendly and somewhat arrogant, with Vera - lovingly and mockingly, with Princess Mary - presenting himself as a demon and condescendingly, with Grushnitsky - ironically, with Werner - coldly, rationally, friendly to a certain limit and quite harshly, with an “undine” - interested and wary.

His general attitude towards all the characters is due to two principles: firstly, no one should be allowed into the secret of the secret, into his own inner world, for no one can open the soul wide open; secondly, a person is interesting for Pechorin insofar as he acts as his antagonist or enemy. Faith, which he loves, he devotes the fewest pages in his diary. This happens because Vera loves the hero, and he knows about it. She won't change and always will. On this score, Pechorin is absolutely calm. Pechorin (his soul is the soul of a disappointed romantic, no matter how cynic and skeptic he may present himself), people are interested only when there is no peace between him and the characters, there is no agreement, when there is an external or internal struggle. Tranquility brings death to the soul, unrest, anxiety, threats, intrigues give it life. This, of course, contains not only strong, but also weak point Pechorin. He knows harmony as a state of consciousness, as a state of mind and as behavior in the world only speculatively, theoretically and dreamily, but by no means practically. In practice, harmony for him is a synonym for stagnation, although in his dreams he interprets the word "harmony" differently - as a moment of merging with nature, overcoming contradictions in life and in his soul. As soon as calmness, harmony and peace sets in, everything becomes uninteresting to him. This also applies to himself: outside the battle in the soul and in reality, he is ordinary. His destiny is to look for storms, to look for battles that feed the life of the soul and can never satisfy the insatiable thirst for reflection and action.

Due to the fact that Pechorin is a director and actor on the stage of life, the question inevitably arises about the sincerity of his behavior and words about himself. The opinions of the researchers strongly differed. As for the recorded confessions to himself, the question is, why lie if Pechorin is the only reader and if his diary is not intended for publication? The narrator in the "Preface to Pechorin's Journal" has no doubt that Pechorin wrote sincerely ("I was convinced of sincerity"). The situation is different with Pechorin's oral statements. Some believe, referring to the words of Pechorin (“I thought for a minute and then said, taking on a deeply moved look”), that in the famous monologue (“Yes! That was my fate since childhood”) Pechorin acts and pretends. Others believe that Pechorin is quite frank. Since Pechorin is an actor on the stage of life, he must put on a mask and must play sincerely and convincingly. The “deeply touched look” “adopted” by him does not mean that Pechorin is lying. On the one hand, acting sincerely, the actor speaks not for himself, but for the character, so he cannot be accused of lying. On the contrary, no one would have believed the actor if he had not stepped into his role. But the actor, as a rule, plays the role of an alien and fictional person. Pechorin, putting on various masks, plays himself. Pechorin the actor plays Pechorin the man and Pechorin the officer. Under each of the masks he himself is hidden, but not a single mask exhausts him. Character and actor merge only partially. With Princess Mary Pechorin plays a demonic personality, with Werner he is a doctor to whom he advises: “Try to look at me as a patient obsessed with a disease that is still unknown to you - then your curiosity will be aroused to the highest degree: you can now do several important physiological things on me. observations… Isn’t the expectation of a violent death already a real illness?” So he wants the doctor to see him as a patient and play the part of the doctor. But even before that, he put himself in the place of the patient and, as a doctor, began to observe himself. In other words, he plays two roles at once - the patient who is sick, and the doctor who observes the disease and analyzes the symptoms. However, in playing the role of a patient, he is pursuing the goal of impressing Werner ("The thought startled the doctor, and he cheered"). Observation and analytical frankness in the game of the patient and the doctor are combined with cunning and tricks that allow one or another character to be placed in their favor. At the same time, the hero sincerely admits this every time and does not try to hide his pretense. Pechorin's acting does not interfere with sincerity, but it shakes and deepens the meaning of his speeches and behavior.

It is easy to see that Pechorin is woven from contradictions. He is a hero whose spiritual needs are limitless, boundless and absolute. His strength is immense, his thirst for life is insatiable, his desires too. And all these needs of nature are not Nozdrevskaya bravado, not Manilovian daydreaming and not Khlestakov's vulgar boasting. Pechorin sets a goal for himself and achieves it, straining all the forces of the soul. Then he ruthlessly analyzes his actions and fearlessly judges himself. Individuality is measured by immensity. The hero correlates his fate with infinity and wants to solve the fundamental mysteries of life. Free thought leads him to knowledge of the world and self-knowledge. These properties are usually endowed precisely with heroic natures, who do not stop in front of obstacles and are eager to realize their innermost desires or plans. But in the title "hero of our time" there is, of course, an admixture of irony, as Lermontov himself hinted at. It turns out that the hero can look and looks like an anti-hero. In the same way, he seems extraordinary and ordinary, an exceptional person and a simple army officer in the Caucasian service. Unlike the ordinary Onegin, a kind fellow who knows nothing about his inner rich potential forces, Pechorin feels and recognizes them, but life lives, like Onegin, usually. The result and meaning of adventures each time turn out to be below expectations and completely lose their halo of extraordinaryness. Finally, he is nobly modest and feels “sometimes” sincere contempt for himself and always for “others”, for the “aristocratic herd” and for the human race at all. There is no doubt that Pechorin is a poetic, artistic and creative person, but in many episodes - a cynic, insolent, snob. And it is impossible to decide what constitutes the grain of the personality: the wealth of the soul or its evil sides - cynicism and arrogance, what is a mask, whether it is consciously put on the face and whether the mask has become a face.

To understand where are the sources of disappointment, cynicism and contempt that Pechorin carries in himself as a curse of fate, the hints scattered in the novel about the hero’s past help.

In the story “Bela”, Pechorin explains his character to Maxim Maksimych in response to his reproaches: “Listen, Maxim Maksimych,” he answered, “I have an unhappy character; Whether my upbringing made me that way, whether God created me that way, I don’t know; I only know that if I am the cause of the unhappiness of others, then I myself am no less unhappy; Of course, this is a bad consolation for them - only the fact is that this is so.

At first glance, Pechorin seems to be a worthless person, spoiled by light. In fact, his disappointment in pleasures, in the "big world" and "secular" love, even in the sciences, does him credit. The natural, natural soul of Pechorin, not yet processed by family and secular education, contained high, pure, one might even assume ideal romantic ideas about life. IN real life Pechorin's ideal romantic ideas were wrecked, and he was tired of everything and became bored. So, Pechorin admits, “in my soul is spoiled by light, my imagination is restless, my heart is insatiable; everything is not enough for me: I get used to sadness just as easily as to pleasure, and my life becomes emptier day by day ... ". Pechorin did not expect that bright romantic hopes upon entering the social circle would come true and come true, but his soul retained purity of feelings, ardent imagination, insatiable desires. They are not satisfied. The precious impulses of the soul need to be embodied in noble actions and good deeds. This nourishes and restores the mental and spiritual strength spent on achieving them. However, the soul does not receive a positive response, and it has nothing to eat. It is fading, exhausted, empty and dead. Here the contradiction characteristic of the Pechorin (and Lermontov) type begins to clear up: on the one hand, immense mental and spiritual strength, a thirst for boundless desires (“everything is not enough for me”), on the other, a feeling of complete emptiness of the same heart. D. S. Mirsky compared the devastated soul of Pechorin with an extinct volcano, but it should be added that inside the volcano everything boils and bubbles, on the surface it is really deserted and dead.

In the future, Pechorin unfolds a similar picture of his upbringing in front of Princess Mary.

In the story “The Fatalist”, where he does not need to either justify himself to Maxim Maksimych or arouse the compassion of Princess Mary, he thinks to himself: “... I have exhausted both the heat of the soul and the constancy of the will necessary for real life; I entered this life, having already experienced it mentally, and I became bored and disgusted, like someone who reads a bad imitation of a book he has known for a long time.

Each statement by Pechorin does not establish a rigid relationship between education, bad character traits, developed imagination, on the one hand, and life's fate, on the other. The reasons that determine the fate of Pechorin still remain unclear. All three of Pechorin's statements, interpreting these reasons in different ways, only complement each other, but do not line up in one logical line.

Romanticism, as you know, assumed a dual world: a collision of the ideal and real worlds. The main reason for Pechorin's disappointment lies, on the one hand, in the fact that the ideal content of romanticism is empty dreams. Hence the merciless criticism and cruel, to the point of cynicism, persecution of any ideal idea or judgment (comparisons of a woman with a horse, a mockery of Grushnitsky's romantic attire and recitation, etc.). On the other hand, mental and spiritual impotence made Pechorin weak in the face of imperfect reality, as the romantics correctly claimed. The perniciousness of romanticism, speculatively assimilated and abstractly experienced ahead of time, lies in the fact that a person does not meet life fully armed, fresh and youthful of his natural forces. It cannot fight on equal terms with hostile reality and is doomed to defeat in advance. When entering into life, it is better not to know romantic ideas than to learn and worship them in youth. A secondary encounter with life gives rise to a feeling of satiety, fatigue, melancholy and boredom.

Thus, romanticism is subjected to decisive doubt in its good for the individual and its development. The current generation, Pechorin reflects, has lost its foothold: it does not believe in predestination and considers it a delusion of the mind, but it is incapable of great sacrifices, of exploits for the glory of mankind and even for the sake of its own happiness, knowing about its impossibility. “And we…,” continues the hero, “indifferently move from doubt to doubt…” without any hope and without experiencing any pleasure. Doubt, which signifies and ensures the life of the soul, becomes the enemy of the soul and the enemy of life, destroying their fullness. But the opposite thesis is also valid: doubt arose when the soul awakened to an independent and conscious life. Paradoxical as it may seem, life has given birth to its enemy. No matter how much Pechorin wants to get rid of romanticism - ideal or demonic - he is forced in his reasoning to turn to him as the starting point of his thoughts.

These discussions end with considerations about ideas and passions. Ideas have content and form. Their form is action. The content is passions, which are nothing but ideas in their first development. Passions are short-lived: they belong to youth and at this tender age usually break out. In maturity, they do not disappear, but acquire fullness and go into the depths of the soul. All these reflections are a theoretical justification for egocentrism, but without a demonic flavor. Pechorin's conclusion is as follows: only by plunging into the contemplation of itself and imbued with itself, the soul will be able to understand the justice of God, that is, the meaning of being. One's own soul is the only object of interest for a mature and wise man who attained philosophical calm. Or in other words: one who has reached maturity and wisdom understands that the only worthy subject of interest for a person is his own soul. Only this can provide him with philosophical peace of mind and establish agreement with the world. Evaluation of the motives and actions of the soul, as well as of all being, belongs exclusively to it. This is the act of self-knowledge, the highest triumph of the self-conscious subject. However, is this conclusion final, the last word of Pechorin the thinker?

In the story The Fatalist, Pechorin argued that doubt dries up the soul, that the movement from doubt to doubt exhausts the will and is generally detrimental to a person of his time. But here he is, a few hours later, called to pacify the drunken Cossack who hacked Vulich. The prudent Pechorin, who took precautions so as not to become an accidental and vain victim of a raging Cossack, boldly rushes at him and, with the help of the bursting Cossacks, ties up the killer. Being aware of his motives and actions, Pechorin cannot decide whether he believes in predestination or is an opponent of fatalism: “After all this, how would it seem not to become a fatalist? But who knows for sure whether he is convinced of something or not? .. And how often do we take for belief a deception of feelings or a mistake of reason! .. ”The hero is at a crossroads - he cannot but agree with the Muslim belief,“ in heaven," nor reject it.

Therefore, the disappointed and demonic Pechorin is not yet Pechorin in the full extent of his nature. Lermontov reveals other sides to us in his hero. Pechorin's soul has not yet cooled down, has not faded away and has not died: he is poetically, without any cynicism, ideal or vulgar romanticism, to perceive nature, enjoy beauty and love. There are moments when Pechorin is peculiar and dear to the poetic in romanticism, cleansed of rhetoric and declarativeness, of vulgarity and naivety. Here is how Pechorin describes his arrival in Pyatigorsk: “I have a wonderful view from three sides. To the west, the five-headed Beshtu turns blue, like “the last cloud of a scattered storm”, to the north, Mashuk rises like a shaggy Persian hat, and covers this entire part of the sky; it is more fun to look to the east: down below, in front of me, a clean, brand new town is full of colors; healing springs rustle, a multilingual crowd rustles, - and there, further, mountains are piled up like an amphitheater, bluer and foggier, and on the edge of the horizon stretches a silver chain of snowy peaks, starting with Kazbek and ending with the two-headed Elbrus. It's fun to live in such a land! A kind of comforting feeling flows through all my veins. The air is pure and fresh, like the kiss of a child; the sun is bright, the sky is blue - what would seem more? – why are there passions, desires, regrets?”

It is hard to believe that this was written by a person disappointed in life, prudent in experiments, coldly ironic towards those around him. Pechorin settled on the highest place so that he, a romantic poet in his soul, was closer to heaven. It is not without reason that a thunderstorm and clouds are mentioned here, to which his soul is related. He chose an apartment in order to enjoy the entire vast realm of nature 94 .

In the same vein, the description of his feelings before the duel with Grushnitsky is sustained, where Pechorin opens his soul and admits that he loves nature passionately and indestructibly: “I don’t remember a deeper and fresher morning! The sun barely emerged from behind the green peaks, and the merging of the first warmth of its rays with the dying coolness of the night inspired a kind of sweet languor on all the senses. A joyful ray has not yet penetrated into the gorge young day: he gilded only the tops of the cliffs hanging on both sides above us; thick-leaved bushes growing in their deep cracks showered us with silver rain at the slightest breath of wind. I remember - this time, more than ever before, I loved nature. How curiously I peered into every dewdrop fluttering on a wide grape leaf and reflecting millions of rainbow rays! how greedily my gaze tried to penetrate the smoky distance! There the path kept getting narrower, the cliffs bluer and more terrifying, and finally they seemed to converge like an impenetrable wall. In this description, one feels such love for life, for every dewdrop, for every leaf, which seems to look forward to merging with it and complete harmony.

There is, however, one more indisputable proof that Pechorin, as others have painted him and as he sees himself in his reflections, does not reduce either anti-romanticism or a secular Demon.

Having received a letter from Vera with a notice of an urgent departure, the hero “ran like crazy onto the porch, jumped on his Circassian, who was led around the yard, and set off at full speed on the road to Pyatigorsk.” Now Pechorin was not chasing adventures, now there was no need for experiments, intrigues, - then the heart spoke, and a clear understanding came that the only love was dying: “With the opportunity to lose her forever, Vera became dearer to me than anything in the world, dearer than life, honor, happiness! At these moments, soberly thinking and clearly, not without aphoristic grace, expounding his thoughts, Pechorin is confused by his overwhelming feelings (“one minute, one more minute to see her, say goodbye, shake her hand ...”) and unable to express them (“I prayed , cursed, cried, laughed ... no, nothing will express my anxiety, despair! ..”).

Here, a cold and skillful experimenter on other people's destinies turned out to be defenseless in front of his own sad fate - the hero is brought out bitterly crying, not trying to hold back tears and sobs. Here the mask of an egocentrist is removed from him, and for a moment his other, perhaps real, true face is revealed. For the first time, Pechorin did not think about himself, but thought about Vera, for the first time he put someone else's personality above his own. He was not ashamed of his tears (“However, I am pleased that I can cry!”), and this was his moral, spiritual victory over himself.

Born before the term, he leaves before the term, instantly living two lives - speculative and real. The search for truth undertaken by Pechorin did not lead to success, but the path he followed became the main one - this is the path of a free thinking person who hopes for his own natural forces and believing that doubt will lead him to the discovery of the true destiny of man and the meaning of being. At the same time, Pechorin's murderous individualism, fused with his face, according to Lermontov, had no life prospects. Lermontov everywhere makes it feel that Pechorin does not value life, that he is not averse to dying in order to get rid of the contradictions of consciousness that bring him suffering and torment. A secret hope lives in his soul that only death is the only way out for him. The hero not only breaks other people's destinies, but - most importantly - kills himself. His life is spent on nothing, goes into the void. He wastes his life force in vain, achieving nothing. The thirst for life does not cancel the desire for death, the desire for death does not destroy the feeling of life.

Considering the strong and weak, "light" and " dark sides» Pechorin, it cannot be said that they are balanced, but they are mutually conditioned, inseparable from each other and capable of flowing one into another.

Lermontov created the first psychological novel in Russia in line with emerging and victorious realism, in which the process of self-knowledge of the hero played a significant role. In the course of introspection, Pechorin tests for strength all spiritual values that are the inner property of a person. Such values in literature have always been considered love, friendship, nature, beauty.

Pechorin’s analysis and introspection concerns three types of love: for a girl who grew up in a conditionally natural mountain environment (Bela), for a mysterious romantic “mermaid” living near the free sea element (“undine”) and for an urban girl of “light” (Princess Mary) . Each time love does not give true pleasure and ends dramatically or tragically. Pechorin is again disappointed and bored. A love game often creates a danger for Pechorin that threatens his life. It outgrows the limits of a love game and becomes a game of life and death. This is what happens in Bel, where Pechorin can expect an attack from both Azamat and Kazbich. In "Taman" "undine" almost drowned the hero, in "Princess Mary" the hero shot with Grushnitsky. In the story "The Fatalist" he tests his ability to act. It is easier for him to sacrifice life than freedom, and in such a way that his sacrifice turns out to be optional, but perfect for the satisfaction of pride and ambition.

Embarking on another love adventure, Pechorin each time thinks that it will turn out to be new and unusual, refresh his feelings and enrich his mind. He sincerely surrenders to a new attraction, but at the same time he turns on the mind, which destroys the immediate feeling. Pechorin's skepticism sometimes becomes absolute: it is not love that matters, not the truth and authenticity of feelings, but power over a woman. Love for him is not a union or a duel of equals, but the subordination of another person to his will. And therefore, from each love adventure, the hero endures the same feelings - boredom and longing, reality opens up to him with the same banal, trivial - sides.

In the same way, he is incapable of friendship, because he cannot give up part of his freedom, which would mean for him to become a "slave." With Werner, he maintains a distance in a relationship. Maxim Maksimych also makes himself feel his sidelines, avoiding friendly embraces.

The insignificance of the results and their repetition forms a spiritual circle in which the hero is closed, hence the idea of death grows as the best outcome from a vicious and bewitched, as if predetermined, circulation. As a result, Pechorin feels infinitely unhappy and deceived by fate. He courageously bears his cross, not reconciling with it, and making more and more attempts to change his fate, to give a deep and serious meaning to his stay in the world. This intransigence of Pechorin with himself, with his share, testifies to the restlessness and significance of his personality.

The novel tells about the hero's new attempt to find food for the soul - he goes to the East. His developed critical consciousness was not completed and did not acquire harmonic wholeness. Lermontov makes it clear that Pechorin, like the people of that time, from whose features the portrait of the hero is composed, is not yet able to overcome the state of spiritual crossroads. Traveling to exotic, unknown countries will not bring anything new, because the hero cannot escape from himself. In the history of the soul of a noble intellectual in the first half of the 19th century. duality was initially concluded: the consciousness of the individual felt free will as an immutable value, but took painful forms. The personality opposed itself to the environment and faced such external circumstances that gave rise to a boring repetition of norms of behavior, similar situations and responses to them that could lead to despair, make life meaningless, dry up the mind and feelings, replace the direct perception of the world with cold and rational. To Pechorin's credit, he is looking for positive content in life, he believes that it exists and only it has not been revealed to him, he resists negative life experience.

Using the method “from the contrary”, it is possible to imagine the scale of Pechorin’s personality and guess in him the hidden and implied, but not manifested positive content, which is equal to his frank thoughts and visible actions.

The life and work of M. Yu. Lermontov fell on the reactionary period that began in Russia after the suppression of the Decembrist uprising. He creates a novel in which the protagonist tries to find himself. The novel "A Hero of Our Time" became the first psychological work in our literature, where the plot does not develop chronologically, but in accordance with the transformation of the character of the main participant in the events - Grigory Pechorin.

The image of Pechorin in the novel

The book consists of five chapters that describe new period Pechorin's life, his changes. This hero is often compared with Pushkin's Onegin - both of them hate the empty existence of high society. However, Pechorin does not obey the conditions of society, like Onegin, he seeks to put an end to the dull vegetative life, rushing about in search of a new, unbeaten one, constantly challenging fate.

How Pechorin lived before the Caucasus, why he ended up there, we do not know - Lermontov does not mention this. But historical facts testify that at that time there was a war with the highlanders in the Caucasus, and objectionable personalities were often exiled there. Maybe the hero, leaving everything and taking part in hostilities, wanted to find the meaning of existence among risky people and dangers.

Man without feelings

The novel shows us a hero who constantly tempts fate, exists violently and actively. However, no events can deeply excite him, hurt his soul. Love, adventure, friendship - everything leaves him indifferent, he predicts in advance that the result will be sad. Nevertheless, he is not inactive, he is constantly looking for something, because he becomes sad from everyday life.

Unwittingly, he always hurts those around him. Once in fortress N because of the murder of Grushnitsky in a duel, he meets the daughter of the Caucasian prince Bela. Carried away for some time by an inaccessible beauty, Pechorin negotiates with her younger brother Azamat to help him steal his sister. In return, he promised to assist in the theft of the horse of the robber Kazbich. The kidnapped girl soon falls in love with Pechorin, but he has already lost interest in her. He acts exactly the same way with Princess Mary - he makes him fall in love with himself, knowing in advance that he does not need this love.

Maxim Maksimych also suffered from the coldness of Pechorin's feelings, having met indifference on his part at the time of the meeting. A simple and poorly educated person, he cannot understand what the hero's restless soul needs.

In search of myself

Lermontov shows how the hero behaves in different environments - he moves him from one situation to another: either he serves in fortress N, where he meets the staff captain and Bela, then he ends up on healing waters, then he enters the service, where he lives in a house smugglers. He does not sit still and even dies while traveling to Persia.

The hero is trying to find something that will revive his interest in life, but fate did not give him this. In his confession, he says that the world spoiled him from his youth, because of distrust the young man learned to wear a mask of indifference, and the vices that he has were formed due to attribution by society.

Pechorin is not always indifferent, he is interested in what he encounters in life - the customs of Caucasians, new people, adventures. However, he does not meet with a response from people, because no one understands him. There was no such person nearby who would stand on the same level as he, who would also look for himself. Pechorin is not a passive person, but his energy is wasted. His environment does not give him a chance to show what he really is. good man. A hero can be condemned, but one can also sympathize with him - knowing how to love, he does not meet true love, knowing how to be a friend, remains without friendly support.

"And no one to give a hand"

In The Hero of Our Time, the author shows that if society cannot support a person, understand him, then the person is morally devastated. Lermontov brought out in his work the so-called type of superfluous people who are looking for themselves, suffering from this, but still remaining with nothing.

Describes some of the episodes adulthood hero when his character was already formed. First impression - Gregory strong personality. He is an officer, a physically healthy man of attractive appearance, active, purposeful, and has a sense of humor. Why not a hero? Nevertheless, Lermontov himself calls the main character of the novel so a bad person that it is even difficult to believe in its existence.

Pechorin grew up in a wealthy aristocratic family. Since childhood, he did not need anything. But material abundance also has back side- the meaning of human life is lost. The desire to strive for something, to grow spiritually, disappears. This also happened to the hero of the novel. Pechorin finds no use for his abilities.

He quickly got tired of the metropolitan life with empty entertainment. The love of secular beauties, although it comforted pride, did not touch the heart strings. The thirst for knowledge also did not bring satisfaction: all sciences quickly got bored. Even at a young age, Pechorin realized that neither happiness nor glory depended on the sciences. "Most happy people- ignorant, and fame is good luck, and to achieve it, you just need to be dexterous ".

Our hero tried to compose and travel, which many young aristocrats of that time did. But these studies did not fill the life of Gregory with meaning. Therefore, boredom constantly pursued the officer and did not allow him to escape from himself. Although Gregory tried his best to do it. Pechorin is always in search of adventure, daily testing his fate: in the war, in pursuit of smugglers, in a duel, breaking into the killer's house. He tries in vain to find a place in the world where his sharp mind, energy and strength of character could be useful. At the same time, Pechorin does not consider it necessary to listen to his heart. He lives by the mind, guided by a cold mind. And it always fails.

But the saddest thing is that people close to him suffer from the actions of the hero: Vulich, Bela and her father are tragically killed, Grushnitsky is killed in a duel, Azamat becomes a criminal, Mary and Vera suffer, Maxim Maksimych is offended and offended, smugglers flee in fright, leaving the fate of a blind boy and an old woman.

It seems that in search of new adventures, Pechorin cannot stop at nothing. He breaks hearts and destroys people's destinies. He is aware of the suffering of those around him, but he does not refuse the pleasure of deliberately torturing them. Hero calls "sweet food for pride" the ability to be the cause of happiness or suffering for someone without having the right to do so.

Pechorin is disappointed in life, in social activities, in people. A feeling of despondency and despair, uselessness and uselessness lives in him. In the diary, Gregory constantly analyzes his actions, thoughts and experiences. He tries to understand himself, exposing real reasons deeds. But at the same time, society blames everything, and not itself.

True, episodes of repentance and a desire to adequately look at things are not alien to the hero. Pechorin was able to self-critically call himself « moral cripple» and, in fact, he was right. And what is the passionate impulse to see and explain to Vera. But these minutes are short-lived, and the hero, again absorbed by boredom and introspection, shows spiritual callousness, indifference, and individualism.

In the preface to the novel, Lermontov called the protagonist a sick person. By this he meant the soul of Gregory. The tragedy lies in the fact that Pechorin suffers not only because of his vices, but also positive qualities, feeling how much strength and talent perishes in vain in him. Not finding the meaning of life in the end, Gregory decides that his only purpose is to destroy people's hopes.

Pechorin is one of the most controversial characters in Russian literature. In his image, originality, talent, energy, honesty and courage strangely coexist with skepticism, unbelief and contempt for people. According to Maxim Maksimovich, Pechorin's soul consists of nothing but contradictions. He has a strong physique, but it shows an unusual weakness. He is about thirty years old, but there is something childish in the face of the hero. When Gregory laughs, his eyes remain sad.

According to Russian tradition, the author experiences Pechorin with two main feelings: love and friendship. However, the hero does not withstand any test. Psychological experiments with Mary and Bela show Pechorin a connoisseur human souls and a cruel cynic. The desire to win the love of women, Gregory explains solely by ambition. Gregory is not capable of friendship either.

The death of Pechorin is indicative. He dies on the way, on the way to distant Persia. Probably, Lermontov believed that a person who brings only suffering to loved ones is always doomed to loneliness.