Grigory Pechorin and others, analysis of heroes. "A Hero of Our Time", a novel by M.Yu. Lermontov

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

Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov - a poet and prose writer - is often compared to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Is this comparison accidental? Not at all, these two lights marked with their work the golden age of Russian poetry. Both of them were worried about the question: “Who are they: the heroes of our time?” A brief analysis, you see, will not be able to answer this conceptual question, which the classics tried to thoroughly understand.

Unfortunately, the life of these most talented people ended early from a bullet. Fate? Both of them were representatives of their time, divided into two parts: before and after the uprising on Senate Square. In addition, as you know, critics compare Pushkin's Onegin and Lermontov's Pechorin, presenting readers with a comparative analysis of the characters. "A Hero of Our Time", however, was written after Pushkin's death.

The image of Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin

Analysis of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" clearly defines its main character, which forms the entire composition of the book. Mikhail Yuryevich portrayed in him an educated young nobleman of the post-Decembrist era - a person struck by unbelief - who does not carry good in himself, does not believe in anything, his eyes do not burn with happiness. Fate carries Pechorin, like water on an autumn leaf, along a disastrous trajectory. He stubbornly "chases … for life", looking for her "everywhere". However, his noble concept of honor is more associated with selfishness, but not with decency.

Pechorin would be happy to find faith by going to the Caucasus to fight. It has natural spiritual strength. Belinsky, characterizing this hero, writes that he is no longer young, but he has not yet acquired a mature attitude to life. He rushes from one adventure to another, painfully wanting to find the "inner core", but he does not succeed. Invariably, dramas take place around him, people die. And he rushes on like the Eternal Jew, Ahasuerus. If for Pushkin's image of Onegin the key is the word "boredom", then for understanding the image of Lermontov's Pechorin the key is the word "suffering".

Composition of the novel

In the beginning, the plot of the novel brings together the author, an officer sent to serve in the Caucasus, with a veteran who went through the Caucasian war, and now quartermaster Maxim Maksimovich. Wise in life, scorched in battles, this man, worthy of all respect, is the first, according to Lermontov's plan, to begin the analysis of the heroes. The hero of our time is his friend. The author of the novel (on whose behalf the narration is being conducted) Maxim Maksimovich tells about the "glorious little" twenty-five-year-old ensign Grigory Alekseevich Pechorin, a former colleague of the narrator. The narration of "Bela" follows first.

Pechorin, having resorted to the help of the brother of the mountain princess Azamat, steals this girl from her father. Then she bored him, experienced in women. With Azamat, he pays off with the hot horse of the horseman Kazbich, who, angry, kills the poor girl. A scam turns into a tragedy.

Maxim Maksimovich, remembering the past, got excited and handed over to his interlocutor the travel diary left by Pechorin. The following chapters of the novel are separate episodes of Pechorin's life.

The short story "Taman" brings Pechorin with smugglers: a flexible, like a cat, girl, a pseudo-blind boy and a "smuggling getter" sailor Yanko. Lermontov presented here a romantic and artistically complete analysis of the characters. "A Hero of Our Time" introduces us to a simple smuggling business: Yanko crosses the sea with cargo, and the girl sells beads, brocade, ribbons. Fearing that Grigory will reveal them to the police, the girl first tries to drown him by throwing him off the boat. But when she fails, she and Yanko swim away. The boy is left to beg without a livelihood.

The next fragment of the diary is the story "Princess Mary". Bored Pechorin is being treated after being wounded in Pyatigorsk. Here he is friends with the Junker Grushnitsky, Dr. Werner. Bored, Grigory finds an object of sympathy - Princess Mary. Tarests here with her mother, Princess Ligovskaya. But the unexpected happens - Pechorin's longtime sympathy, a married lady Vera, comes to Pyatigorsk, along with her aging husband. Vera and Gregory decide to meet on a date. They succeed, because, fortunately for them, the whole city is on the show of a visiting magician.

But the cadet Grushnitsky, wanting to compromise both Pechorin and Princess Mary, believing that she will be on a date, follows the main character of the novel, enlisting the company of a dragoon officer. Having caught no one, the junker and the dragoons spread gossip. Pechorin "according to the nobility" challenges Grushnitsky to a duel, where he kills him by firing the second one.

Lermontov's analysis of the heroes introduces us to pseudo-decency among officers. A hero of our time frustrates Grushnitsky's dastardly plan. Initially, the pistol handed to Pechorin was unloaded. In addition, having chosen the condition - to shoot from six steps, the cadet was sure that he would shoot Grigory Alexandrovich. But excitement prevented him. By the way, Pechorin offered his opponent to save his life, but he began to demand a shot.

Verin's husband guesses what's going on and leaves Pyatigorsk with his wife. And Princess Ligovskaya blesses his marriage to Mary, but Pechorin does not even think about the wedding.

The action-packed short story "The Fatalist" brings Pechorin to lieutenant Vulich in the company of other officers. He is confident in his luck and, for a dispute, warmed up by a philosophical argument and wine, he plays “hussar roulette”. And the gun does not shoot. However, Pechorin claims that he has already noticed on the face of the lieutenant "a signof death". He really and senselessly dies, returning to wait.

Conclusion

Where did Pechorins come from in 19th century Russia? Where has the idealism of youth gone?

The answer is simple. The 30s marked an era of fear, an era of suppression of everything progressive by the III (political) gendarmerie police department. Born by Nicholas I's fear of the possibility of a remake of the Decembrist uprising, it "reported on all matters", was engaged in censorship, perusal, and had the widest powers.

Hopes for the development of the political system of society have become sedition. Dreamers began to be called "troublemakers." Active people aroused suspicion, meetings - repressions. It's time for denunciations and arrests. People began to be afraid to have friends, to trust them with their thoughts and dreams. They became individualists and, like Pechorin, painfully tried to gain faith in themselves.