Pechorin's citation plan by chapter. Characteristics of the hero Pechorin, Hero of our time, Lermontov

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Hero of our time

Pechorin Grigory Alexandrovich is the main character of the novel. It is him Lermontov calls "the hero of our time." The author himself notes the following: "The Hero of Our Time ... is like a portrait, but not of one person: it is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development." This character cannot be called positive or negative. He is rather a typical representative of his time.

P. is smart and well educated. He feels in his soul great strength, which he wasted in vain. "In this futile struggle, I exhausted both the heat of the soul and the constancy of will necessary for real life; I entered this life, having already experienced it mentally, and I became bored and disgusting, like someone who reads a bad imitation of a book he has known for a long time" . The author expresses the inner qualities of the hero through his appearance. P.'s aristocracy is shown through the thinness of his pale fingers. When walking, he does not swing his arms - this is how the secrecy of his nature is expressed. P.'s eyes didn't laugh when he laughed. This can be called a sign of constant mental drama. The inner throwing of the hero was especially clearly reflected in his attitude towards women. He steals the young Circassian Bela from her parents' house, enjoys her love for some time, but then she bothers him. Bela is dying. He long and methodically attracts the attention of Princess Mary. They are driven only by the desire to completely possess someone else's soul. When the hero seeks her love, he says that he is not going to marry her. At Mineralnye Vody, P. meets Vera, a woman who has loved him for many years. We learn that he tore out her entire soul. P. is sincerely interested, but he gets bored extremely quickly, and he leaves people like a flower plucked along the way. This is the deep tragedy of the hero. Finally realizing that no one and nothing can make up the meaning of his life, P. is waiting for death. He found her on the road, on his return from Persia.

Pechorin is a hero of his time. In the 30s, such a person does not find a place where he can apply his strength, and therefore is doomed to loneliness. The tragedy of this personality, doomed to inaction and loneliness, is the main ideological meaning of the novel "A Hero of Our Time". Truthfully, convincingly Lermontov draws his contemporary Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin. Pechorin received a secular upbringing, at first he pursues secular entertainment, but then he will be disappointed, attempts to do science and cooling towards it. He is bored, indifferent to the world and is deeply dissatisfied with his life. Pechorin is a deep character. "A sharp chilled mind" is combined with him, with a thirst for activity and with willpower. He feels immense strength in himself, but wastes them on trifles, on love adventures, without doing anything useful. Pechorin makes the people around him unhappy. So he interferes in the life of smugglers, takes revenge on everyone indiscriminately, plays with the fate of Bela, the love of Vera. He defeats Grushnitsky in a duel and becomes a hero of the society he despises. He is above the environment, smart, educated. But internally devastated, disappointed. He lives "out of curiosity", on the one hand, and on the other, he has an ineradicable thirst for life. The character of Pechorin is very contradictory. He says: "For a long time I have been living not with my heart, but with my head." At the same time, having received Vera's letter, Pechorin, like a madman, rushes to Pyatigorsk, hoping to see her at least once more. He painfully looks for a way out, thinks about the role of fate, seeks understanding among people of a different circle. And he does not find a sphere of activity, application of his forces. The complex aspects of the hero's mental life are of interest to the author. This helps us understand the ideological and spiritual life of Russian society in the 1930s. This was reflected in the skill of Lermontov, the creator of the first psychological novel. The tragedy of Pechorin is the tragedy of many of his contemporaries, who are similar to him in their way of thinking, in their position in society.

Pechorin Grigory Alexandrovich - the main character of the novel, in his type associated with the characters of psychological novels by R. Chateaubriand, B. Constant (the origin of the surname Pechorin from the name of the Pechora River, as well as the surname Onegin - from the name of the Onega River, was noted by V. G. Belinsky) The history of his soul is the content of the work. This task is directly defined in the Preface to Pechorin's Journal. The history of the disappointed and dying Pechorin soul is set forth in the confessional notes of the hero with all the ruthlessness of introspection; being both the author and the hero of the "magazine", P. fearlessly speaks of his ideal impulses, and the dark sides of his soul, and the contradictions of consciousness. But this is not enough to create a three-dimensional image; Lermontov introduces other narrators into the narrative, not of the "Pechorinsky" type - Maxim Maksimych, a wandering officer. Finally, Pechorin's diary contains other reviews about him: Vera, Princess Mary, Grushnitsky, Dr. Werner. All descriptions of the hero's appearance are also aimed at displaying the soul (through the face, eyes, figure and clothing details). Lermontov treats his hero not ironically; but the very type of Pechorin's personality, which arose at a certain time and in certain circumstances, is ironic. This sets the distance between the author and the hero; Pechorin is by no means an alter ego of Lermontov.

The history of P.'s soul is not presented sequentially chronologically (the chronology is just fundamentally shifted), but is revealed through a chain of episodes and adventures; The novel is built as a cycle of short stories. The plot is closed by a circular composition: the action begins in the fortress (Bela), and ends in the fortress (Fatalist). Such a composition is characteristic of a romantic poem: the reader's attention is focused not on the external dynamics of events, but on the character of the hero, who never finds a worthy goal in life, returning to the starting point of his moral quest. Symbolically - from fortress to fortress.

P.'s character is set from the very beginning and remains unchanged; he does not grow spiritually, but from episode to episode, the reader plunges deeper into the psychology of the hero, whose inner appearance, as it were, has no bottom, is fundamentally inexhaustible. This is the story of the Pechorin soul, its mystery, strangeness and attractiveness. Equal to itself, the soul cannot be measured, does not know the limits of self-deepening and has no development prospects. Therefore, P. constantly experiences "boredom", dissatisfaction, feels the impersonal power of fate over himself, which puts a limit to his mental activity, leads him from catastrophe to catastrophe, threatening both the hero himself (taman) and other characters.

M.Yu. Lermontov called his work "The Hero of Our Time". In the title, the word "hero" is used in the sense of "typical representative". By this, the author wanted to say that Pechorin absorbed in his image the features of young people of that time.

Historians call the thirties of the nineteenth century the time of "stagnation". Then many talented people became inert, not finding a worthy application for themselves. Pechorin himself says about himself: "I was ready to love the whole world - no one understood me: and I learned to hate." This is the reason for the bifurcation of his soul. Two people live in it at once: one lives with feelings, and the other judges him. This inconsistency does not allow Pechorin to live a full life. With a bitter feeling, he evaluates himself as a “moral cripple”, whose better half of the soul “dried up, evaporated, died”.

The image of Pechorin, to some extent, is a repetition of the image of Onegin. Even their surnames, formed from the names of two primordially Russian rivers, are consonant. Both Onegin and Pechorin are real "heroes of time". They are very similar to each other, and their tragedies are similar. In the whole world there is no shelter for them, they are destined to suffer all their lives and seek peace. Belinsky remarked: “This is the Onegin of our time, the hero of our time. The dissimilarity between them is much less than the distance between Onega and Pechora.

Pechorin embodies the typical features of many people of the time when the novel was written: disappointment, lack of demand, loneliness.

Pechorin is an ambiguous personality

The image of Pechorin in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" by Lermontov is an ambiguous image. It cannot be called positive, but it is not negative either. Many of his actions are worthy of condemnation, but it is also important to understand the motives of his behavior before making an assessment. The author called Pechorin a hero of his time, not because he recommended to be equal to him, and not because he wanted to ridicule him. He simply showed a portrait of a typical representative of that generation - the "extra person" - so that everyone could see what the social structure that disfigures the personality leads to.

Qualities of Pechorin

Knowledge of people

Can such a quality of Pechorin as an understanding of the psychology of people, the motives of their actions, be called bad? Another thing is that he uses it for other purposes. Instead of doing good, helping others, he plays with them, and these games, as a rule, end tragically. This was the end of the story with the mountain girl Bela, whom Pechorin persuaded her brother to steal. Having achieved the love of a freedom-loving girl, he lost interest in her, and soon Bela fell victim to the vengeful Kazbich.

Playing with Princess Mary also did not lead to anything good. Pechorin's intervention in her relationship with Grushnitsky resulted in a broken heart of the princess and death in a duel by Grushnitsky.

Ability to analyze

Pechorin demonstrates a brilliant ability to analyze in a conversation with Dr. Werner (chapter "Princess Mary"). He absolutely logically calculates that Princess Ligovskaya was interested in him, and not her daughter Mary. “You have a great gift for thinking,” Werner notes. However, this gift again does not find a worthy application. Pechorin, perhaps, could make scientific discoveries, but he was disappointed in the study of sciences, because he saw that no one needed knowledge in his society.

Independence from the opinions of others

The description of Pechorin in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" gives many a reason to accuse him of spiritual callousness. It would seem that he acted badly towards his old friend Maxim Maksimych. Upon learning that his colleague, with whom they ate more than one pood of salt together, stopped in the same city, Pechorin did not rush to meet him. Maxim Maksimych was very upset and offended by him. However, Pechorin is to blame, in fact, only for not living up to the old man's expectations. "Am I not the same?" - he reminded, nevertheless embracing Maxim Maksimych in a friendly way. Indeed, Pechorin never tries to portray himself as someone he is not, just to please others. He prefers to be rather than seem, always honest in the manifestation of his feelings, and from this point of view, his behavior deserves all approval. He also does not care what others say about him - Pechorin always does as he sees fit. In modern conditions, such qualities would be invaluable and would help him quickly achieve his goal, to fully realize himself.

Bravery

Courage and fearlessness are character traits due to which one could say “Pechorin is the hero of our time” without any ambiguity. They also appear on the hunt (Maxim Maksimych witnessed how Pechorin “went on a boar one on one”), and in a duel (he was not afraid to shoot with Grushnitsky on conditions that were obviously losing for him), and in a situation where it was necessary to pacify the raging drunken Cossack (chapter "Fatalist"). “... nothing will happen worse than death - and you can’t escape death,” Pechorin believes, and this conviction allows him to move forward more boldly. However, even the mortal danger that he faced daily in the Caucasian War did not help him cope with boredom: he quickly got used to the buzz of Chechen bullets. Obviously, military service was not his vocation, and therefore Pechorin's brilliant abilities in this area did not find further application. He decided to travel in the hope of finding a remedy for boredom "through storms and bad roads."

pride

Pechorin cannot be called conceited, greedy for praise, but he is proud enough. He is very hurt if a woman does not consider him the best and prefers another. And he strives by all means, by any means, to win her attention. This happened in the situation with Princess Mary, who at first liked Grushnitsky. From the analysis of Pechorin, which he himself does in his journal, it follows that it was important for him not so much to achieve the love of this girl as to recapture her from a competitor. “I also confess that an unpleasant, but familiar feeling ran lightly at that moment through my heart; this feeling - it was envy ... it is unlikely that there will be a young man who, having met a pretty woman who riveted his idle attention and suddenly clearly distinguished another, who is equally unfamiliar to her, I say, there is hardly such a young man (of course, who lived in high society and accustomed to indulge his vanity), who would not be unpleasantly struck by this.

Pechorin loves to achieve victory in everything. He managed to switch Mary's interest to his own person, make the proud Bela his mistress, get a secret date from Vera, and outplay Grushnitsky in a duel. If he had a worthy cause, this desire to be the first would allow him to achieve tremendous success. But he has to give vent to his leadership in such a strange and destructive way.

selfishness

In the essay on the topic “Pechorin - the hero of our time”, one cannot fail to mention such a trait of his character as selfishness. He does not really care about the feelings and fates of other people who have become hostages of his whims, for him only the satisfaction of his own needs matters. Pechorin did not even spare Vera, the only woman whom he believed he really loved. He put her reputation at risk by visiting her at night in the absence of her husband. A vivid illustration of his dismissive, selfish attitude is his beloved horse, driven by him, who did not manage to catch up with the carriage with the departed Vera. On the way to Essentuki, Pechorin saw that “instead of a saddle, two ravens were sitting on his back.” Moreover, Pechorin sometimes enjoys the suffering of others. He imagines how Mary, after his incomprehensible behavior, "will spend the night without sleep and will cry", and this thought gives him "immense pleasure". “There are moments when I understand the Vampire…” he admits.

Pechorin's behavior is the result of the influence of circumstances

But can this bad character trait be called innate? Is Pechorin flawed from the very beginning, or was the living conditions made him so? Here is what he himself told Princess Mary: “... such was my fate from childhood. Everyone read on my face signs of bad feelings, which were not there; but they were supposed - and they were born. I was modest - I was accused of slyness: I became secretive ... I was ready to love the whole world - no one understood me: and I learned to hate ... I spoke the truth - they did not believe me: I began to deceive ... I became a moral cripple.

Finding himself in an environment that does not correspond to his inner essence, Pechorin is forced to break himself, to become what he is not in reality. This is where this internal inconsistency comes from, which left its mark on his appearance. The author of the novel draws a portrait of Pechorin: laughter with non-laughing eyes, a daring and at the same time indifferently calm look, a straight figure, limp, like a Balzac young lady, when he sat down on a bench, and other "inconsistencies".

Pechorin himself realizes that he makes an ambiguous impression: “Some revere me worse, others better than I really am ... Some will say: he was a kind fellow, others a bastard. Both will be false." But the truth is that under the influence of external circumstances, his personality has undergone such complex and ugly deformations that it is no longer possible to separate the bad from the good, the real from the false.

In the novel A Hero of Our Time, the image of Pechorin is a moral, psychological portrait of a whole generation. How many of its representatives, having not found a response in the surrounding “soul to wonderful impulses”, were forced to adapt, become the same as everyone around, or die. The author of the novel, Mikhail Lermontov, whose life ended tragically and prematurely, was one of them.

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Man is always driven by the desire to know his destiny. Should you go with the flow or resist it? What position in society will be correct, should all actions comply with moral standards? These and similar questions often become the main ones for young people who actively comprehend the world and the human essence. Youthful maximalism requires clear answers to these problematic questions, but it is not always possible to give an answer.

M.Yu. tells us about such a seeker of answers. Lermontov in his novel A Hero of Our Time. It should be noted that with the writing of prose, Mikhail Yuryevich was always on "you" and the same position remained until the end of his life - all the novels he started in prose were never completed. Lermontov had the courage to bring the matter with the "Hero" to its logical conclusion. Perhaps that is why the composition, the manner of presentation of the material and the style of narration look, against the background of other novels, rather unusual.

"A Hero of Our Time" is a work imbued with the spirit of the era. The characterization of Pechorin, the central figure in Mikhail Lermontov's novel, makes it possible to better understand the atmosphere of the 1830s, the time when the work was written. "A Hero of Our Time" is not in vain recognized by critics as the most mature and philosophically large-scale novels by Mikhail Lermontov.

Of great importance for understanding the novel is the historical context. In the 1830s, Russian history was reactive. In 1825, the Decembrist uprising took place, and the following years contributed to the development of a mood of loss. The Nikolaev reaction unsettled many young people: young people did not know which vector of behavior and life to choose, how to make life meaningful.

This was the reason for the emergence of restless personalities, superfluous people.

Origin of Pechorin

Basically, in the novel, one hero is singled out, who is the central image in the story. It seems that this principle was rejected by Lermontov - based on the events told to the reader, the main character is Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin - a young man, an officer. However, the style of narration gives the right to doubt - the position in the text of Maxim Maksimovich is also quite weighty.

In fact, this is a delusion - Mikhail Yuryevich repeatedly emphasized that in his novel the main character is Pechorin, this corresponds to the main goal of the story - to talk about typical people of the generation, to point out their vices and mistakes.

Lermontov gives rather scarce information about childhood, upbringing conditions and the influence of parents on the process of forming Pechorin's positions and preferences. Several fragments of his past life open this veil - we learn that Grigory Alexandrovich was born in St. Petersburg. His parents, according to existing orders, tried to give their son a proper education, but young Pechorin did not feel a burden for the sciences, they “quickly got bored” with him and he decided to devote himself to military service. Perhaps such an act is not connected with the emerging interest in military affairs, but with the special disposition of society towards military people. The uniform made it possible to brighten up even the most unattractive deeds and character traits, because the military was loved already for what they are. In society, it was difficult to find representatives who did not have a military rank - military service was considered honorable and everyone wanted to “try on” honor and glory along with their uniform.

As it turned out, military affairs did not bring due satisfaction, and Pechorin quickly became disillusioned with her. Grigory Alexandrovich was sent to the Caucasus, as he was involved in a duel. The events that happened to a young man in this area form the basis of Lermontov's novel.

Characteristics of the actions and deeds of Pechorin

The reader gets his first impressions of the protagonist of Lermontov's novel by meeting Maxim Maksimych. The man served with Pechorin in the Caucasus, in the fortress. It was the story of a girl named Bela. Pechorin did badly with Bela: out of boredom, while having fun, the young man stole a Circassian girl. Bela is a beauty, at first cold with Pechorin. Gradually, the young man kindles a flame of love for him in Bela's heart, but as soon as the Circassian fell in love with Pechorin, he immediately lost interest in her.

Pechorin destroys the fate of other people, makes others suffer, but remains indifferent to the consequences of his actions. Bela and the girl's father die. Pechorin remembers the girl, regrets Bela, the past resonates in the hero’s soul with bitterness, but does not cause repentance in Pechorin. While Bela was alive, Gregory told his friend that he still loves the girl, feels gratitude for her, but boredom remains the same, and it is boredom that decides everything.

An attempt to find satisfaction, happiness pushes the young man to experiments that the hero puts on living people. Psychological games, meanwhile, turn out to be useless: the same emptiness remains in the soul of the hero. The same motives accompany the exposure of the “honest smugglers” by Pechorin: the hero’s act does not bring good results, only leaving the blind boy and the old woman on the verge of survival.

The love of a wild Caucasian beauty or a noblewoman does not matter to Pechorin. The next time, for the experiment, the hero chooses an aristocrat - Princess Mary. The handsome Grigory plays with the girl, evoking love for him in Mary's soul, but then leaves the princess, breaking her heart.

The reader learns about the situation with Princess Mary and the smugglers from the diary that the main character started, wanting to understand himself. In the end, even the diary bothers Pechorin: any activity ends in boredom. Grigory Alexandrovich does not bring anything to the end, not enduring the suffering from the loss of interest in the subject of his former passion. Pechorin's notes accumulate in a suitcase, which falls into the hands of Maxim Maksimych. The man has a strange affection for Pechorin, perceiving the young man as a friend. Maxim Maksimych keeps Grigory's notebooks and diaries, hoping to give the suitcase to a friend. But the young man is indifferent to fame, fame, Pechorin does not want to publish notes, so the diaries turn out to be unnecessary waste paper. In this secular disinterest of Pechorin is the peculiarity and value of the hero Lermontov.

Pechorin has one important feature - sincerity towards himself. The actions of the hero arouse antipathy and even condemnation in the reader, but one thing must be admitted: Pechorin is open and honest, and the touch of vice is from weakness of will and the inability to resist the influence of society.

Pechorin and Onegin

Already after the first publications of Lermontov's novel, both readers and literary critics began to compare Pechorin from Lermontov's novel and Onegin from Pushkin's work among themselves. Both characters are related by similar traits of character, certain actions. As the researchers note, both Pechorin and Onegin were named according to the same principle. The names of the heroes are based on the name of the river - Onega and Pechora, respectively. But the symbolism does not end there.

The Pechora is a river in the northern part of Russia (the modern Komi Republic and the Nanets Autonomous Okrug), by its nature it is a typical mountain river. Onega - located in the modern Arkhangelsk region and more calm. The nature of the flow has a relationship with the characters of the heroes named after them. Pechorin's life is full of doubts and active searches for his place in society, he, like a seething stream, sweeps away everything without a trace in his path. Onegin is deprived of such a scale of destructive power, complexity and inability to realize himself cause in him a state of dull melancholy.

Byronism and the "Extra Man"

In order to holistically perceive the image of Pechorin, to understand his character, motives and actions, it is necessary to have knowledge about the Byronic and superfluous hero.

The first concept came to Russian literature from England. J. Baynov in his poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" created a unique image endowed with the desire to actively search for one's destiny, the characteristics of egocentrism, dissatisfaction and desire for change.

The second is a phenomenon that arose in Russian literature itself and denotes a person who was ahead of his time and therefore alien and incomprehensible to others. Or one who, based on his knowledge and understanding of worldly truths, is higher in the development of the others and, as a result, he is not accepted by society. Such characters become the cause of suffering for the female representatives who fell in love with them.

Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin is a classic representative of romanticism, who combined the concepts of Byronism and the superfluous person. Despondency, boredom and spleen are the product of such a combination.

Mikhail Lermontov considered the life history of an individual more interesting than the history of a people. Pechorin's "superfluous person" is made by circumstances. The hero is talented and intelligent, but the tragedy of Grigory Alexandrovich lies in the absence of a goal, in the inability to adapt himself, his talents to this world, in the general restlessness of the individual. In this, Pechorin's personality is an example of a typical decadent.

The forces of a young man are not spent in search of a goal, not in self-realization, but in adventure. Sometimes, literary critics compare the images of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin and Lermontov's Grigory Pechorin: Onegin is characterized by boredom, and Pechorin - suffering.

After the Decembrists were exiled, progressive trends and trends also succumbed to persecution. For Pechorin, a progressive-minded person, this meant the onset of a period of stagnation. Onegin has every opportunity to take the side of the people's cause, but refrains from doing so. Pechorin, having a desire to reform society, is deprived of such an opportunity. Grigory Alexandrovich ruins the wealth of spiritual forces for trifles: he hurts girls, Vera and Princess Mary suffer because of the hero, Bela dies ...

Pechorin was ruined by society and circumstances. The hero keeps a diary, where he notes that, as a child, he spoke only the truth, but adults did not believe in the boy's words.

Then Gregory became disillusioned with life and former ideals: the place of truth was replaced by lies. As a young man, Pechorin sincerely loved the world. Society laughed at him and this love - Grigory's kindness turned into malice.

The secular environment, literature quickly bored the hero. Hobbies were replaced by other passions. Only travel saves from boredom and disappointment. Mikhail Lermontov unfolds on the pages of the novel a whole evolution of the protagonist's personality: Pechorin's characteristic is revealed to the reader by all the central episodes in the formation of the hero's personality.

The character of Grigory Alexandrovich is accompanied by actions, behavior, decisions that more fully reveal the personality of the character. Pechorin is also evaluated by other heroes of Lermontov's novel, for example, Maxim Maksimych, who notices the inconsistency of Grigory. Pechorin is a strong, strong-bodied young man, but sometimes the hero is overcome by a strange physical weakness. Grigory Alexandrovich turned 30 years old, but the hero’s face is full of childish features, and the hero looks no more than 23 years old. The hero laughs, but at the same time, sadness is visible in Pechorin's eyes. Opinions about Pechorin, expressed by different characters in the novel, allow readers to look at the hero, respectively, from different positions.

The death of Pechorin expresses the idea of ​​Mikhail Lermontov: a person who has not found a goal remains superfluous, unnecessary for the environment. Such a person cannot serve for the benefit of mankind, is of no value to society and the fatherland.

In "A Hero of Our Time", the writer described the entire generation of his contemporaries - young people who have lost the purpose and meaning of life. Just as the Hemingway generation is considered lost, so the Lermontov generation is considered lost, superfluous, restless. These young people are subject to boredom, which turns into a vice in the context of the development of their society.

Appearance and age of Pechorin

At the time the story begins, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin is 25 years old. He looks very good, well-groomed, so in some moments it seems that he is much younger than he really is. There was nothing unusual about his height and build: average height, strong athletic build. He was a man with pleasant features. As the author notes, he had a "unique face", one that women are madly in love with. Blond, naturally curly hair, a “slightly upturned” nose, snow-white teeth and a sweetly childish smile - all this favorably complements his appearance.

His brown eyes seemed to have a life of their own—they never laughed when their owner laughed. Lermontov names two reasons for this phenomenon - either we have a person of an evil disposition, or one who is in a state of deep depression. Which explanation (or both at once) is applicable to the hero Lermontov does not give a direct answer - the reader will have to analyze these facts for himself.

The expression on his face is also incapable of expressing any emotion. Pechorin does not restrain himself - he is simply deprived of the ability to empathize.

The heavy, unpleasant look finally lubricates this look.

As you can see, Grigory Alexandrovich looks like a porcelain doll - his sweet face with childlike features seems to be a frozen mask, and not the face of a real person.

Pechorin's clothes are always neat and clean - this is one of those principles that Grigory Alexandrovich follows impeccably - an aristocrat cannot be an untidy slob.

Being in the Caucasus, Pechorin easily leaves his usual outfit in the closet and puts on the national Circassian male attire. Many note that this clothing makes him look like a true Kabardian - sometimes people who belonged to this nationality do not look so impressive. Pechorin is more like a Kabardian than the Kabardians themselves. But even in these clothes he is a dandy - the length of the fur, the trim, the color and size of the clothes - everything is chosen with extraordinary care.

Characteristics of character traits

Pechorin is a classic representative of the aristocracy. He himself comes from a noble family, who received a decent upbringing and education (he knows French, dances well). All his life he lived in abundance, this fact allowed him to start his journey of searching for his destiny and such an occupation that would not let him get bored.

At first, the attention shown to them by women pleasantly flattered Grigory Alexandrovich, but soon he was able to study the behavioral patterns of all women and therefore communication with the ladies became boring and predictable for him. He is alien to the impulses of creating his own family, and as soon as it comes to hints about the wedding, his ardor for the girl instantly disappears.

Pechorin is not diligent - science and reading make him even more depressed than secular society. A rare exception in this regard is given to the works of Walter Scott.

When secular life became too painful for him, and travel, literary activity and science did not bring the desired result, Pechorin decides to start a military career. He, as is customary among the aristocracy, serves in the Petersburg guard. But even here he does not stay long - participation in a duel dramatically changes his life - for this offense he is exiled to serve in the Caucasus.

If Pechorin were the hero of a folk epic, then his constant epithet would be the word "strange." All the characters find in him something unusual, different from other people. This fact is not related to habits, mental or psychological development - it's just the ability to express one's emotions, to adhere to one and the same position - sometimes Grigory Aleksandrovich is very contradictory.

He likes to bring pain and suffering to others, he is aware of this and understands that such behavior does not paint not only him specifically, but also any person. And yet he does not try to restrain himself. Pechorin, compares himself with a vampire - the realization that someone will spend the night in mental anguish is incredibly flattering to him.

Pechorin is persistent and stubborn, this creates many problems for him, because of this he often finds himself in not the most pleasant situations, but here courage and determination come to his rescue.

Grigory Alexandrovich becomes the cause of the destruction of the life paths of many people. By his grace, a blind boy and an old woman remain abandoned to their fate (an episode with smugglers), Vulich, Bella and her father die, Pechorin's friend dies in a duel at the hands of Pechorin himself, Azamat becomes a criminal. This list can still be replenished with many names of people whom the main character insulted, became a reason for resentment and depression. Does Pechorin know and understand the full severity of the consequences of his actions? Quite, but this fact does not bother him - he does not value either his own life, or the fate of other people.

Thus, the image of Pechorin is contradictory and ambiguous. On the one hand, it is easy to find positive character traits in him, but on the other hand, callousness and selfishness confidently reduce all his positive achievements to nothing - Grigory Alexandrovich destroys his own fate and the fate of those around him with his recklessness. He is a destructive force that is difficult to resist.

Psychological portrait of Grigory Pechorin

Lermontov helps to present the character traits of the character by referring to the appearance and habits of the hero. For example, Pechorin is distinguished by a lazy and careless gait, but at the same time, the hero’s gestures do not indicate that Pechorin is a secretive person. The forehead of the young man was marred by wrinkles, and when Grigory Alexandrovich sat, it seemed that the hero was tired. When Pechorin's lips laughed, his eyes remained motionless, sad.

Pechorin's fatigue was manifested in the fact that the hero's passion did not linger for a long time on any object or person. Grigory Alexandrovich said that in life he is guided not by the dictates of the heart, but by the orders of the head. This is coldness, rationality, periodically interrupted by a short-term riot of feelings. Pechorin is characterized by a trait called fatality. The young man is not afraid to go to the wild boar, looking for adventure and risk, as if trying his luck.

The contradictions in Pechorin's characterization are manifested in the fact that, with the courage described above, the hero is frightened by the slightest crackling of window shutters or the sound of rain. Pechorin is a fatalist, but at the same time convinced of the importance of human willpower. There is a certain predestination in life, expressed at least in the fact that a person will not escape death, so why then are they afraid to die. In the end, Pechorin wants to help society, to be useful by saving people from a Cossack killer.

Why Pechorin is a "hero of our time"

The novel "A Hero of Our Time" was written by Mikhail Lermontov in the 30s of the XIX century. It was the time of the Nikolaev reaction, which came after the dispersal of the Decembrist uprising in 1825. Many young, educated people did not see a purpose in life at that time, did not know what to apply their strength to, how to serve for the benefit of people and the Fatherland. That is why such restless characters arose as Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin. The characteristic of Pechorin in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" is, in fact, a characteristic of the entire generation contemporary to the author. Boredom is his characteristic feature. “The Hero of Our Time, my gracious sirs, is definitely a portrait, but not of one person: it is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development,” writes Mikhail Lermontov in the preface. “Are all the youth there like that?” - asks one of the characters in the novel, Maxim Maksimych, who knew Pechorin closely. And the author, acting in the work as a traveler, answers him that "there are many people who say the same thing" and that "now those who ... are bored try to hide this misfortune as a vice."

We can say that all the actions of Pechorin are motivated by boredom. We begin to be convinced of this practically from the first lines of the novel. It should be noted that compositionally it is built in such a way that the reader can see all the character traits of the hero as best as possible, from different angles. The chronology of events here fades into the background, or rather, it is not here at all. From the life of Pechorin snatched pieces that are interconnected only by the logic of his image.

Characteristics of Pechorin

deeds

For the first time we learn about this man from Maxim Maksimych, who served with him in the Caucasian fortress. He tells a story about Bela. Pechorin, for the sake of entertainment, persuaded her brother to steal the girl - a beautiful young Circassian. While Bela is cold with him, she is interesting to him. But as soon as he achieves her love, he immediately cools off. Pechorin does not care that because of his whim, destinies are tragically destroyed. Bela's father is killed, and then herself. Somewhere in the depths of his soul he feels sorry for this girl, any memory of her makes him bitter, but he does not repent of his act. Even before her death, he confesses to a friend: "If you want, I still love her, I am grateful to her for a few rather sweet minutes, I will give my life for her - only I'm bored with her ...". The love of a savage turned out to be little better for him than the love of a noble lady. This psychological experiment, like all the previous ones, did not bring him happiness and satisfaction with life, but left one disappointment.

In the same way, for the sake of idle interest, he intervened in the lives of “honest smugglers” (chapter “Taman”), as a result of which the unfortunate old woman and the blind boy found themselves without a livelihood.

Another fun for him was Princess Mary, whose feelings he shamelessly played with, giving her hope, and then admitting that he did not love her (chapter "Princess Mary").

We learn about the last two cases from Pechorin himself, from a journal that he kept at one time with great enthusiasm, wanting to understand himself and ... kill boredom. Then he cooled down to this occupation. And his notes - a suitcase of notebooks - remained with Maxim Maksimych. In vain did he carry them with him, wishing, on occasion, to hand them over to the owner. When such an opportunity presented itself, Pechorin did not need them. Consequently, he kept his diary not for the sake of fame, not for the sake of publication. This is the special value of his notes. The hero describes himself without worrying about how he will look in the eyes of others. He does not need to prevaricate, he is sincere with himself - and thanks to this we can learn about the true reasons for his actions, understand him.

Appearance

A traveling author was a witness to the meeting between Maksim Maksimych and Pechorin. And from him we learn what Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin looked like. There was contradiction in his whole appearance. At first glance, he was no more than 23 years old, but the next minute it seemed that he was 30. His gait was careless and lazy, but he did not wave his arms, which usually indicates a secrecy of character. When he sat down on the bench, his straight frame bent, limp, as if there was not a single bone left in his body. There were traces of wrinkles on the forehead of this young man. But the author was especially struck by his eyes: they did not laugh when he laughed.

Character traits

The external characteristic of Pechorin in "A Hero of Our Time" reflects his internal state. “For a long time I have been living not with my heart, but with my head,” he says about himself. Indeed, all his actions are characterized by cold rationality, but the feelings are no-no and break out. He fearlessly goes alone to the wild boar, but shudders from the knock of the shutters, he can spend the whole day hunting on a rainy day and is terribly afraid of a draft.

Pechorin forbade himself to feel, because his real impulses of the soul did not find a response in those around him: “Everyone read signs of bad feelings on my face that were not there; but they were supposed - and they were born. I was modest - I was accused of slyness: I became secretive. I deeply felt good and evil; no one caressed me, everyone insulted me: I became vindictive; I was gloomy - other children are cheerful and talkative; I felt superior to them—I was placed inferior. I became envious. I was ready to love the whole world - no one understood me: and I learned to hate.

He rushes about, not finding his calling, purpose in life. “It’s true, I had a high appointment, because I feel immense strength in myself.” Secular entertainment, novels - a passed stage. They brought him nothing but inner emptiness. In the study of the sciences, which he took up in the desire to be useful, he also did not find any point, because he realized that the key to success in dexterity, and not in knowledge. Boredom overcame Pechorin, and he hoped that at least the Chechen bullets whistling over his head would save him from it. But in the Caucasian War, he was disappointed again: “A month later, I got so used to their buzzing and to the proximity of death that, really, I paid more attention to mosquitoes, and I became more bored than before.” What was he to do with his unspent energy? The consequence of his lack of demand was, on the one hand, unjustified and illogical actions, and on the other, painful vulnerability, deep inner sadness.

Attitude towards love

The fact that Pechorin did not lose the ability to feel is also evidenced by his love for Vera. This is the only woman who understood him completely and accepted him as he was. He does not need to embellish himself in front of her or, conversely, seem impregnable. He fulfills all conditions, just to be able to see her, and when she leaves, he drives his horse to death in an effort to catch up with his beloved.

In a completely different way, he treats other women who meet on his way. There is no longer a place for emotions - one calculation. For him, they are just a way to dispel boredom, at the same time showing their selfish power over them. He studies their behavior like guinea pigs, coming up with new twists in the game. But even this does not save him - often he knows in advance how his victim will behave, and he becomes even more dreary.

Attitude towards death

Another important point in the character of Pechorin in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" is his attitude towards death. It is demonstrated in its entirety in the chapter "The Fatalist". Although Pechorin recognizes the predestination of fate, he believes that this should not deprive a person of will. We must boldly move forward, "after all, nothing worse than death will happen - and death cannot be avoided." It is here that we see what noble actions Pechorin is capable of if his energy is directed in the right direction. He bravely rushes out the window in an effort to neutralize the killer Cossack. His innate desire to act, to help people, finally finds at least some use.

My attitude to Pechorin

How does this person deserve to be treated? Condemnation or sympathy? The author called his novel so with some irony. "Hero of our time" - of course, not a role model. But he is a typical representative of his generation, forced to waste the best years aimlessly. “I am a fool or a villain, I do not know; but it is true that I am also very pitiful, ”Pechorin says about himself and names the reason:“ In me, the soul is corrupted by light. He sees the last consolation for himself in traveling and hopes: "Maybe I'll die somewhere along the way." You can treat it differently. One thing is certain: this is an unfortunate person who has not found his place in life. If the society of his day had been arranged differently, he would have manifested himself in a completely different way.

Artwork test

Talking surname Pechorin

The surname Pechorin is speaking, it clearly indicates his resemblance to the hero of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Eugene Onegin. Their surnames are formed in the same way: the names of the rivers (Onega and Pechora) are used as the root, and the surname Pechorin in this case hints that these characters are similar in character, Pechorin, like Onegin, can be called "an extra person".

Pechorin's appearance

Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin is a young officer of 25 years old, the protagonist of Mikhail Yuryevich's novel "A Hero of Our Time".

Pechorin's appearance suggests that he is a favorite of women: attractive, slender, but with broad shoulders, blond hair and a black mustache.

Origin, character, image of Pechorin

Pechorin's character is very contradictory: immoral, impudent, but smart, brave and persistent, he understands that he often behaves incorrectly, although he does not want to change. Pechorin comes from a wealthy noble family, he serves in St. Petersburg, but after one incident with a duel, he is transferred to the Caucasus. He has lived most of his life in a secular society, but sincerely hates it, including women from this society, whom he literally sees through. Pechorin is well educated, knows French, but practically does not read books. He is a secretive person who is well versed in people, but he opens up to few people. He is selfish, determined and believes that he has no friends, only buddies. He is greatly spoiled by his wealth and therefore does not value his life at all, nothing pleases him and almost nothing interests him. He dies at the age of 30 on the way from Persia to Russia.

Updated: 2018-03-03

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