Reading the novel and considering its problems: "A Hero of Our Time", M.Yu, Lermontov

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Grigory Pechorin - this is the real "hero of our time" (and any other), because the questions raised by the author are beyond any era. They were, are and will always arise as long as the human race is alive. What are the problems of the work "A Hero of Our Time"? Reading and understanding.

Moral issues

Any work and fiction in general are designed not only to deliver an aesthetic experience, pleasure to the reader, but also to raise questions that are present in every person, to which we either do not have an unambiguous answer, or which we have never thought about at all. M. Yu. Lermontov is, one might say, an innovator of his era. He is the creator of the first novel in Russian literature with a deep philosophical content. “Why did I live, for what purpose was I born?” - this is the main question that the author asks himself and all of us through the mouth of the main character - Pechorin. It hears not only the questions “why”, “what for”, “for what”, but also other questions. Problems. The “Hero of Our Time” is trying to understand who he is, what he consists of, what virtues and vices, whether love and friendship can save him from inevitable darkness…

Philosophical reflections

We continue to talk on the topic "Hero of our time". The problems the novel raises are actually serious. What is Pechorin? Before us is a young man of twenty-five years old, an officer, an aristocrat, who stands out against the background of his contemporaries with his originality, sharp mind, subtle intuition, courage, endurance, and tremendous willpower. It would seem that these are all the components of a happy future. Such people are loved, adored and idolized. All doors are open to them. So it was, but it didn't happen. Why?

Every person has advantages and disadvantages. In everyone there is an irreconcilable struggle between good and evil. And it's natural. It is laid down by nature and God. But besides all this, there is also emptiness. It must be filled with either light or darkness, depending on which path we choose. Or it begins to grow and fill with itself every freed corner of the soul. This is exactly what happened to Pechorin. Whatever he undertook, no matter how far away he went, no matter who his fate brought him together, this gaping emptiness, the viscous meaninglessness, futility and aimlessness of existence followed him in everything.

M. Yu. Lermontov, "Hero of Our Time": problems of love and friendship

His active soul throughout the novel is looking for dangers, heroic deeds,sincere love and friendship. "Who seeks will always find". She also finds, but in an amazing, simply incomprehensible way, she destroys the creative principle inherent in these things. His love did not bring happiness to any of the women. He could not surrender to this feeling, he was not able to give at all, only to take, and even then superficially. In his soul, as if in a bottomless abyss, both vivid feelings and suffering disappeared without a trace. He did not get enough of them, and he did not try to get enough of them. He didn't care. The tragic stories of Bela and Mary are perfect proof of this.

The same thing happens in Pechorin's friendship with Dr. Werner. Believing that the relationship between two comrades should be reduced to only one thing: one is a slave, and the other is his master, he did not want to be either a slave or one who rules and rules. Both are boring and stupid. But simply, without any “buts”, it is impossible to let another into your world. Vicious circle.

Fatalism is the cause of the problem?

"A Hero of Our Time" is a novel not only about questions of the meaning of life directly posed by the author. In the last story - "The Fatalist" - another topic pops up that haunts neither the main character nor all of humanity. Is the fate of a person predetermined, or is each new step along the road of life a personal choice? Pechorin is bold and prefers to solve this issue, like other problems. The "hero of our time", Pechorin, independently, on his own experience, checks the truth of this or that judgment. And here suddenly the fatalist turns to the readerthe other side of your being. He disarms the drunken Cossack, who has already killed Vulich and is dangerous to those around him. He takes a deliberate risk, but for the first time not far-fetched, not out of "empty passions" and not in order to dispel boredom. And here the author does not give a definite answer. He, like his hero, believes that predestination, if it really exists, works miracles with a person, it makes him more active, bolder. And on the other hand, it turns a person - a higher creature, into a toy in the hands of fate, and this can neither offend nor humiliate.

In this article, we have considered the main problems. "A Hero of Our Time" is a book beyond all time, after reading which, everyone will surely find answers to their questions, which may not have been considered today.