Why is the hero of our time called psychological? Why is the novel a hero of our time called psychological?

17.3.Why is the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov's “Hero of Our Time” is called socio-psychological in criticism? (based on the novel “A Hero of Our Time”)

“A Hero of Our Time” is the first socio-psychological novel in Russian literature. It is also full of genre originality. Thus, the main character, Pechorin, displays the traits of a romantic hero, although the generally recognized literary direction of “A Hero of Our Time” is realism.

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The novel combines multiple features of realism, such as the conscious separation of oneself from the hero, the desire for maximum objectivity of the narrative, with a rich description of the hero’s inner world, which is characteristic of romanticism. However, many literary critics emphasized that Lermontov and Pushkin and Gogol differed from the romantics in that for them the inner world of the individual serves for research, and not for authorial self-expression.

In the preface to the novel, Lermontov compares himself to a doctor who makes a diagnosis of modern society. He considers Pechorin as an example. The main character is a typical representative of his time. He is endowed with the traits of a man of his era and his social circle. He is characterized by coldness, rebellion, passion of nature and opposition to society.

What else allows us to call the novel socio-psychological? Definitely a feature of the composition. Its specificity is manifested in the fact that the chapters are not arranged in chronological order. Thus, the author wanted to gradually reveal to us the character and essence of the main character. First, Pechorin is shown to us through the prism of other heroes (“Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”). According to Maxim Maksimych, Pechorin was “a nice fellow... just a little strange.” Then the narrator finds “Pechorin’s journal,” where the character’s personality is revealed from his side. In these notes, the author finds many interesting situations in which the main character managed to visit. With each story we dive deeper into the “essence of the soul” of Pechorin. In each chapter we see many actions of Grigory Alexandrovich, which he tries to analyze on his own. And as a result, we find a reasonable explanation for them. Yes, oddly enough, all his actions, no matter how terrible and inhumane they may be, are logically justified. To test Pechorin, Lermontov pits him against “ordinary” people. It would seem that only Pechorin stands out for his cruelty in the novel. But no, everyone around him is also cruel: Bela, who did not notice the affection of the staff captain, Mary, who rejected Grushnitsky, who was in love with her, the smugglers who abandoned the poor, blind boy to his fate. This is exactly how Lermontov wanted to portray the cruel generation of people, one of the brightest representatives of which is Pechorin.

Thus, the novel can reasonably be classified as socio-psychological, because in it the author examines the inner world of a person, analyzes his actions and gives them an explanation.

Updated: 2018-03-02

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Roman M.Yu. Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time" is considered the first Russian socio-psychological and philosophical novel. Due to the author’s desire to reveal the “history of the human soul,” Lermontov’s novel turned out to be rich in deep psychological analysis. The author explores the “soul” not only of the main character, but also of all the other characters. Lermontov's psychologism is specific in that it acts not as a form of self-expression of the writer, but as an object of artistic depiction. The appearance of the hero, his customs, his actions, and his feelings are analyzed. Lermontov is attentive to the nuances of experiences, a person’s condition, his gestures and postures. The author's style can be called psychological-analytical.

Pechorin's self-analysis is very deep, every state of mind is written out in detail and thoroughly, his own behavior and psychological reasons, motives and intentions of actions are analyzed. Pechorin admits to Dr. Werner: “There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges him...” Behind the visible in the work the essential is revealed, behind the external - the internal. Psychologism here serves as a way of discovering and cognizing what at first perception seems mysterious, mysterious and strange. An important place in the novel, where the action takes place in different geographical points (by the sea, in the mountains, in the steppe, in a Cossack village), is occupied by the landscape. The perception of nature in a work helps to reveal the hero’s inner world, his state, his sensitivity to beauty. “I remember,” Pechorin writes in his journal, “this time more than ever before, I loved nature.” The hero of the novel is close to nature with all its diversity, and it affects his inner world. Pechorin is convinced that the soul depends on nature and its forces. The landscape of each part of the novel is subordinated to the idea that is realized in it. Thus, in “Bel” Caucasian nature is sketched (rocks, cliffs, Aragva, snowy mountain peaks), which is contrasted with northern nature and a disharmoniously structured society.

The beautiful and majestic nature contrasts with the petty, unchanging interests of people and their suffering. The restless, capricious element of the sea contributes to the romance in which the smugglers from the chapter “Taman” appear before us. The morning landscape, full of freshness, including golden clouds, makes up the exposition of the chapter “Maksim Maksimych”. Nature in “Princess Mary” becomes a psychological means of revealing Pechorin’s character. Before the duel - by contrast - the radiance of sunlight is introduced, and after the duel the sun will seem dim to the hero, and its rays no longer warm. In "Fatalist" the cold light of shining stars on a dark blue vault leads Pechorin to philosophical reflections on predestination and fate.

In general, this work is a socio-psychological and philosophical novel, akin to a travel novel, close to travel notes. The genre of psychological novel required the creation of a new novel structure and a special psychological plot, where Lermontov separated the author from the hero and arranged the stories in a special sequence. "Bela" is a work that combines a travel essay and a short story about the love of a European for a savage.

"Maksim Maksimych" is a story with a central episode shown in close-up.

"Taman" is a synthesis of a short story and a travelogue with an unexpected ending.

"Princess Mary" is a "secular story" of a psychological nature with the hero's diary and a satirical sketch of the mores of the "water society".

"The Fatalist" is a philosophical story combined with a "mystical story" about a fatal shot and a "mysterious incident."

But all these genre forms, individual narratives became parts of a single whole for Lermontov - research into the spiritual world of the modern hero, whose personality and fate unite the entire narrative. Pechorin's background is deliberately excluded, which gives his biography an air of mystery.

It is interesting to know what the second person in Pechorin is like, thinking and condemning himself first of all. In "Pechorin's Journal" the character of the hero is revealed as if "from the inside", it reveals the motives of his strange actions, his attitude towards himself, and self-esteem.

For Lermontov, not only a person’s actions were always important, but their motivation, which for one reason or another could not be realized.

Pechorin compares favorably with other characters in that he is concerned about questions of conscious human existence - about the purpose and meaning of human life, about his purpose. He is worried that his only purpose is to destroy the hopes of others. He is even indifferent to his own life. Only curiosity, the expectation of something new excites him.

However, asserting his human dignity, Pechorin actively acts and resists circumstances throughout the novel. Pechorin judges and executes himself, and this right of his is emphasized by the composition in which the last narrator is Pechorin. Everything important that was hidden from the people around him, who lived next to him, who loved him, was conveyed by Pechorin himself.

With the creation of the novel “A Hero of Our Time,” Lermontov made a huge contribution to the development of Russian literature, continuing Pushkin’s realistic traditions. Like his great predecessor, Lermontov summarized in the image of Pechorin the typical features of the younger generation of his era, creating a vivid image of a man of the 30s of the 19th century. The main problem of the novel was the fate of an extraordinary human personality in an era of timelessness, the hopelessness of the situation of gifted, intelligent, educated young nobles.

The main idea of Lermontov's novel is connected with its central image - Pechorin; everything is subordinated to the task of comprehensively and deeply revealing the character of this hero. Belinsky very accurately noticed the originality of the author’s description of Pechorin. Lermontov, in the critic’s words, portrayed “the inner man,” acting as a profound psychologist and realist artist. This means that Lermontov, for the first time in Russian literature, used psychological analysis as a means to reveal the character of the hero, his inner world. A deep penetration into Pechorin's psychology helps to better understand the severity of the social problems posed in the novel. This gave Belinsky grounds to call Lermontov “a solver of important contemporary issues.”

The unusual composition of the novel is noteworthy. It consists of separate works in which there is no single plot, no permanent characters, no narrator. These five stories are united only by the image of the main character - Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin. They are arranged in such a way that the chronology of the hero’s life is clearly disrupted. In this case, it was important for the author to show Pechorin in various settings, communicating with a variety of people, to select the most important, significant episodes of his life for description. In each story, the author places his hero in a new environment, where he encounters people of a different social status and mental make-up: mountaineers, smugglers, officers, the noble “water society.” And each time Pechorin reveals himself to the reader from a new side, revealing new facets of character.

Let us remember that in the first story “Bela” we are introduced to Pechorin by a man who served with Grigory Alexandrovich in the fortress and was an involuntary witness to the story of Bela’s kidnapping. The elderly officer is sincerely attached to Pechorin and takes his actions to heart. He pays attention to the external oddities of the character of the “thin ensign” and cannot understand how a person who easily endures both rain and cold, who went one-on-one with a wild boar, can shudder and turn pale from the random knock of a shutter. In the story with Bela, Pechorin’s character seems unusual and mysterious. The old officer cannot comprehend the motives of his behavior, since he is not able to comprehend the depths of his experiences.

The next meeting with the hero takes place in the story "Maksim Maksimych", where we see him through the eyes of the author-narrator. He is no longer the hero of some story, he utters several meaningless phrases, but we have the opportunity to take a close look at Pechorin’s bright, original appearance. The author's keen, penetrating gaze notes the contradictions of his appearance: the combination of blond hair and black mustache and eyebrows, broad shoulders and pale, thin fingers. The narrator's attention is attracted by his gaze, the strangeness of which is manifested in the fact that his eyes did not laugh when he laughed. “This is a sign of either an evil disposition or deep, constant sadness,” notes the author, revealing the complexity and inconsistency of the hero’s character.

Pechorin's diary, which unites the last three stories of the novel, helps to understand this extraordinary nature. The hero writes about himself sincerely and fearlessly, not afraid to expose his weaknesses and vices. In the preface to Pechorin's Journal, the author notes that the history of the human soul is perhaps more useful and more interesting than the history of an entire people. In the first story, “Taman,” which tells about the hero’s accidental encounter with “peaceful smugglers,” the complexities and contradictions of Pechorin’s nature seem to be relegated to the background. We see an energetic, courageous, determined person who is full of interest in the people around him, thirsts for action, and tries to unravel the mystery of the people with whom fate accidentally encounters him. But the ending of the story is banal. Pechorin's curiosity destroyed the established life of the “honest smugglers,” dooming the blind boy and old woman to a miserable existence. Pechorin himself writes with regret in his diary: “Like a stone thrown into a smooth spring, I disturbed their calm.” In these words one can hear pain and sadness from the realization that all of Pechorin’s actions are petty and insignificant, devoid of a high goal, and do not correspond to the rich possibilities of his nature.

The originality and originality of Pechorin’s personality, in my opinion, is most clearly manifested in the story “Princess Mary”. It is enough to read his apt, precise characteristics given to representatives of the noble “water society” of Pyatigorsk, his original judgments, amazing landscape sketches, to understand that he stands out from the people around him with strength and independence of character, deep analytical mind, high culture, erudition, developed aesthetic feeling. Pechorin's speech is full of aphorisms and paradoxes. For example, he writes: “After all, nothing worse than death can happen—and you cannot escape death.”

But what does Pechorin waste his spiritual wealth, his immense strength on? For love affairs, intrigues, clashes with Grushnitsky and dragoon captains. Yes, he always comes out victorious, as in the story with Grushnitsky and Mary. But this brings him neither joy nor satisfaction. Pechorin feels and understands the inconsistency of his actions with high, noble aspirations. This leads the hero to a split personality. He becomes isolated in his own actions and experiences. Nowhere in his diary will we find even a mention of his homeland, people, or political problems of modern reality. Pechorin is only interested in his own inner world. Constant attempts to understand the motives of his actions, eternal merciless introspection, constant doubts lead to the fact that he loses the ability to simply live, to feel joy, fullness and strength of feeling. He made himself an object for observation. He is no longer able to experience anxiety, because, as soon as he feels it, he immediately begins to think about the fact that he is still capable of worry. This means that a merciless analysis of his own thoughts and actions kills Pechorin’s spontaneity of perception of life, plunges him into a painful contradiction with himself.

Pechorin in the novel is completely alone, since he himself pushes away those who are able to love and understand him. But still, some entries in his diary indicate that he needs a loved one, that he is tired of loneliness. Lermontov's novel leads to the conclusion that the tragic discord in the hero's soul is caused by the fact that the rich powers of his soul have not found worthy use, that the life of this original, extraordinary nature is wasted on trifles and is completely devastated.

Thus, the story of Pechorin’s soul helps to better understand the tragedy of the fate of the younger generation of the 30s of the 19th century, makes us think about the causes of this “disease of the century” and try to find a way out of the moral impasse into which the reaction led Russia.

The hero of our time represents several frames nested in one large frame, which consists of the title of the novel and the unity of the heroes.

V. Belinsky Every literary hero (if we are talking about great literature) is always the favorite creation of his author. Any writer puts a piece of his soul, his views, beliefs, and ideals into his hero. And each literary hero invariably bears the features of his era and his environment: he lives in harmony with his own kind or “breaks out” from generally accepted patterns of social behavior. Thus, in Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” a young man of the 20s lives and acts: smart, educated, belonging to the highest aristocracy, but dissatisfied with the existing reality, who spent the best years of his life on a meaningless and aimless existence. The appearance of such a hero caused a whole storm of passions in society and literary circles of the twenties. Before they had time to subside, a new hero was born, but already a hero of the thirties of the 19th century - Grigory Pechorin from the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time".

Why is it that debates about Onegin and Pechorin are still very topical, although the way of life is currently completely different. Everything is different: ideals, goals, thoughts, dreams. In my opinion, the answer to this question is very simple: the meaning of human existence concerns everyone, regardless of what time we live in, what we think and dream about.

The central part of the novel, “Pechorin’s Diary,” is characterized by especially in-depth psychological analysis. For the first time in Russian literature such a merciless exposure of the hero’s personality appears. The hero’s experiences are analyzed by him with “the rigor of a judge and a citizen.” Pechorin says: “I am still trying to explain to myself what kind of feelings are boiling in my chest.” The habit of self-analysis is complemented by the skills of constant observation of others. In essence, all of Pechorin’s relationships with people are a kind of psychological experiments that interest the hero with their complexity and temporarily entertain him with luck. This is the story with Bela, the story of the victory over Mary. The psychological “game” with Grushnitsky was similar, whom Pechorin fools, declaring that Mary is not indifferent to him, in order to later prove his deplorable mistake. Pechorin argues that “ambition is nothing more than a thirst for power, and happiness is just pompous pride.”

If A.S. Pushkin is considered to be the creator of the first realistic novel in verse about modernity, while Lermontov is the author of the first socio-psychological novel in prose. His novel is distinguished by its depth of analysis of the psychological perception of the world. Depicting his era, Lermontov subjects it to deep critical analysis, without succumbing to any illusions or seductions. Lermontov shows all the weakest sides of his generation: coldness of hearts, selfishness, fruitlessness of activity.

Pechorin's rebellious nature refuses joy and peace of mind. This hero is always "asking for a storm." His nature is too rich in passions and thoughts, too free to be content with little and not demand great feelings, events, and sensations from the world. Self-analysis is necessary for a modern person in order to correctly correlate his destiny and purpose with real life, in order to understand his place in this world. Lack of convictions is a real tragedy for the hero and his generation. Pechorin's Diary reveals a living, complex, rich, analytical work of the mind. This proves to us not only that the main character is a typical figure, but also that in Russia there are young people who are tragically lonely. Pechorin considers himself among the pitiful descendants who wander the earth without convictions. He says: “We are no longer capable of making great sacrifices, either for the good of humanity, or even for our own happiness.” The same idea is repeated by Lermontov in the poem “Duma”:

We are rich, barely out of the cradle,

By the mistakes of our fathers and their late minds,

And life already torments us, like a smooth path without a goal,

Like a feast at someone else's holiday.

Every truly Russian person feels uneasy at the thought that M.Yu. Lermontov died so early. While solving the moral problem of the purpose of life, the main character of his work, Grigory Pechorin, could not find use for his abilities. “Why did I live? For what purpose was I born... But, it’s true, I had a high purpose, since I feel immense powers in my soul,” he writes. This dissatisfaction with oneself lies the origins of Pechorin’s attitude towards the people around him. He is indifferent to their experiences, therefore, without hesitation, he distorts other people's destinies. Pushkin wrote about such young people: “There are millions of two-legged creatures, for them there is only one name.”

Using Pushkin’s words, one can say about Pechorin that his views on life “reflect the century, and modern man is depicted quite correctly, with his immoral soul, selfish and dry.” This is how Lermontov saw his generation.

M. Yu. Lermontov was not only a great poet, but also a prose writer, whose work reflected the darkness of reaction and changes in people’s psychology. The main goal of the young genius was the desire to deeply reveal the complex nature of his contemporary. The novel “A Hero of Our Time” became a mirror of the life of Russia in the 30s of the 20th century, the first Russian socio-psychological novel.

The author's intention determined the unique construction of the novel. Lermontov deliberately violated the chronological sequence so that the reader's attention shifted from events to the inner world of the characters, to the world of feelings and experiences.

The main attention in the novel is paid to Pechorin. Lermontov first gives the opportunity to find out other people’s opinions about Pechorin, and then what this young nobleman thinks about himself. Belinsky said about the hero of the novel: “This is the Onegin of our time, the hero of our time.” Pechorin was a representative of his era, his fate is more tragic than the fate of Onegin. Pechorin lives in a different time. The young nobleman had to either lead the life of a social slacker, or be bored and wait for death. The era of reaction left its mark on people's behavior. The tragic fate of the hero is the tragedy of an entire generation, a generation of unrealized possibilities.

The influence of light was reflected in Pechorin's behavior. An extraordinary personality, he soon became convinced that in this society a person could achieve neither happiness nor fame. Life has become devalued in his eyes (he is overcome by melancholy and boredom - faithful companions of disappointment. The hero is suffocating in the stuffy atmosphere of the Nicholas regime. Pechorin himself says: “The soul in me is spoiled by light.” These are the words of a man of the 30s of the 20th century, a hero of his time .

Pechorin is a gifted person. He has a deep mind, capable of analysis, a steely will, and a strong character. The hero is endowed with self-esteem. Lermontov speaks of his “strong build, capable of enduring all the difficulties of nomadic life.” However, the author notes the strangeness and inconsistency of the character of the hero. His eyes, which “did not laugh when he laughed,” suggest how deeply the hero has lost faith in all the seductions of the world, with what hopelessness he looks at his own life prospects.

This doom developed in him during his life in the capital. The result of complete disappointment in everything was “nervous weakness.” Fearless Pechorin was frightened by the knocking of the shutters, although he was hunting a wild boar alone and was terrified of catching a cold. This inconsistency characterizes the “disease” of an entire generation. In Pechorin, it’s as if two people live, rationality and feeling, mind and heart are fighting. The hero states: “I have long lived not with my heart, but with my head.” I weigh and examine my own passions and actions with strict curiosity, but without participation.”

The hero's attitude towards Vera shows Pechorin as a person capable of strong feelings. But Pechorin brings misfortune to both Vera and Mary and the Circassian Bela. The tragedy of the hero is that he wants to do good, but only brings evil to people. Pechorin dreams of the fate of a person capable of great deeds, and commits actions that diverge from ideas about high aspirations.

Pechorin longs for the fullness of life, looking for an ideal that was unattainable at that time. And it is not the hero’s fault, but his misfortune, that his life was fruitless, his strength was wasted. “My colorless youth passed in a struggle with myself and the light; Fearing ridicule, I buried my best feelings in the depths of my heart: they died there,” Pechorin says bitterly.

In the novel, the main character is contrasted with all other characters. Good Maxim Maksimych is noble, honest and decent, but he cannot understand Pechorin’s soul due to his lack of education. Against the backdrop of the scoundrel Grushnitsky, the richness of Pechorin’s nature and the strength of character of the protagonist are revealed even more strongly. Only Doctor Werner is somewhat similar to Pechorin. But the doctor is not completely consistent, he does not have the courage that distinguishes Pechorin. Supporting the hero before the duel with Grushnitsky, Werner did not even shake hands with Pechorin after the duel, he refused friendship with the one who “had the courage to take on the full burden of responsibility.”

Pechorin is a person who is distinguished by tenacity of will. The psychological portrait of the hero is fully revealed in the novel, reflecting the socio-political conditions that shape the “hero of the time.” Lermontov is little interested in the everyday, external side of people's lives, but is concerned about their inner world, the psychology of the actions of the characters in the novel.

“A Hero of Our Time” was the predecessor of Dostoevsky’s psychological novels, and Pechorin became a logical link in the series of “superfluous people,” “Onegin’s younger brother.” You can have different attitudes towards the hero of the novel, condemn him or feel sorry for the human soul tormented by society, but one cannot help but admire the skill of the great Russian writer, who gave us this image, a psychological portrait of the hero of his time.

Following them, a whole gallery of heroes of their time appears in literature: Turgenev's Bazarov, a nature completely opposite to Onegin and Pechorin, Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov - the best representatives of the progressive nobility from L. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace". Why is it that debates about Onegin and Pechorin are still very topical, although the way of life is currently completely different. Everything is different: ideals, goals, thoughts, dreams. The answer to this question is simple: the meaning of human existence concerns everyone, regardless of what time we live in, what we think and dream about.

In Lermontov's novel, for the first time in Russian literature, the hero's merciless exposure of his personality appears. The central part of the novel, “Pechorin’s Diary,” is characterized by especially in-depth psychological analysis. The hero's experiences are analyzed by him with "the rigor of a judge and a citizen." Pechorin says: “I am still trying to explain to myself what kind of feelings are boiling in my chest.” The habit of self-analysis is complemented by the skills of constant observation of others. In essence, all of Pechorin’s relationships with people are a kind of psychological experiments that interest the hero with their complexity and temporarily entertain him with luck. This is the story with Bela, the story of the victory over Mary. The psychological “game” with Grushnitsky was similar, whom Pechorin fools, declaring that Mary is not indifferent to him, in order to later prove his deplorable mistake. Pechorin argues that “ambition is nothing more than a thirst for power, and happiness is just pompous pride.”

If A.S. Pushkin is considered to be the creator of the first realistic poetic novel about modernity, then, in my opinion, Lermontov is the author of the first socio-psychological novel in prose. His novel is distinguished by its depth of analysis of the psychological perception of the world. Depicting his era, Lermontov subjects it to deep critical analysis, without succumbing to any illusions or seductions. Lermontov shows all the weakest sides of his generation: coldness of hearts, selfishness, fruitlessness of activity. Pechorin's rebellious nature refuses joy and peace of mind. This hero is always "asking for a storm." His nature is too rich in passions and thoughts, too free to be content with little and not demand great feelings, events, and sensations from the world.

Lack of convictions is a real tragedy for the hero and his generation. Pechorin's Journal reveals a living, complex, rich, analytical work of the mind. This proves to us not only that the main character is a typical figure, but also that in Russia there are young people who are tragically lonely. Pechorin considers himself among the pitiful descendants who wander the earth without convictions.

He says: “We are no longer capable of making great sacrifices, either for the good of humanity, or even for our own happiness.” The same idea is repeated by Lermontov in the poem “Duma”:

We are rich, barely out of the cradle,

By the mistakes of our fathers and their late minds,

And life already torments us, like a smooth path without a goal,

Like a feast at someone else's holiday.

While solving the moral problem of the purpose of life, the main character, Pechorin, could not find use for his abilities. “Why did I live? For what purpose was I born... But, it’s true, I had a high purpose, since I feel immense powers in my soul,” he writes. This dissatisfaction with oneself lies the origins of Pechorin’s attitude towards the people around him. He is indifferent to their experiences, so he, without hesitation, distorts other people's destinies. Pushkin wrote about such young people: “There are millions of two-legged creatures, for them there is only one name.” Using Pushkin’s words, one can say about Pechorin that his views on life “reflect the century, and modern man is depicted quite correctly, with his immoral soul, selfish and dry.” This is how Lermontov saw his generation.

The realism of "A Hero of Our Time" is in many ways different from the realism of Pushkin's novel. Moving aside everyday elements and the life history of the heroes, Lermontov focuses on their inner world, revealing in detail the motives that prompted this or that hero to take any action. The author depicts all kinds of overflows of feelings with such depth, penetration and detail that the literature of his time has not yet known. Many considered Lermontov to be the predecessor of Leo Tolstoy. And it was from Lermontov that Tolstoy learned techniques for revealing the inner world of characters, portraiture and speech style. Dostoevsky also proceeded from Lermontov’s creative experience, but Lermontov’s thoughts about the role of suffering in the spiritual life of man, about the split consciousness, about the collapse of the individualism of a strong personality turned into Dostoevsky’s depiction of the painful tension and painful suffering of the heroes of his works.

The novel “A Hero of Our Time” can be called the first psychological novel, because the image of Pechorin - a typical image of a person in the 1830s - is revealed both from the external and from the internal, psychological side.

M. Yu. Lermontov posed the question of why exactly such heroes appeared in those years, why their life was joyless, who is to blame for the tragic fate of an entire generation. The novel was created in the era of government reaction after the Decembrist Uprising.

In portraying the hero, the author followed the truth of life, he showed the “disease” of the century not in direct accusatory speeches against the Nicholas regime, but in artistic images, and, above all, through the depiction of Pechorin’s fate and life. Yes, Lermontov was a subtle psychologist, a connoisseur of human souls. In the preface to the novel, he writes that his novel is “a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation in their full development,” and not a portrait of one person.

Lermontov's novel differs from other works of the same genre in that it does not have one plot, it is characterized by “episodic fragmentation.” All “episodes” are connected by the image of one hero - Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin. All stories are not in chronological order. Why did Lermontov need to resort to such a composition?

First of all, in order to reveal the character of his hero with the greatest objectivity and completeness, his goal is to “reveal the story of one soul, even the smallest one,” to “tell about the dreams, deeds and adventures” of the hero. The author introduces us to the hero in various circumstances, confronts him with different people, and in each story one or another character trait of Pechorin is revealed.

Pechorin is an extraordinary person, with an original character, a gifted nature. He is distinguished from others by his deep analytical mind. His speech is full of aphorisms, decisive and specific: “Evil begets evil”, “Without fools the world would be very boring.” And yet Pechorin does not find use for his extraordinary abilities.

He is looking for the use of his strengths, wants to find something to do, creating conditions for struggle: For him, “life is boring when there is no struggle.” However, no matter what he does, it brings trouble and suffering to the people around him.

Where Pechorin is, there is destruction. According to Maxim Maksimych, he is a person to whom “various extraordinary things” must happen: “... he caused me trouble, otherwise he will be remembered! After all, there are, really, these people who have it written in their nature that all sorts of extraordinary things should happen to them!”

Pechorin, by his own admission, invariably plays “the role of an ax in the hands of fate,” but his self-criticism does not bring any relief either to him or to the people who encounter him, who find themselves as toys in his hands. He caused the death of Bela, destroyed the lives of “peaceful smugglers,” won Mary’s love and abandoned her, loved Vera, but did not make her happy, and offended Maxim Maksimych with his lack of attention.

Pechorin is a moral cripple. His activity is fruitless, Pechorin is deeply unhappy. Even such positive and valuable qualities and aspects of his character as willpower, courage, resourcefulness, determination do not bring joy to the hero, since he does not have a high goal for the sake of which they are needed.

Pechorin is an individualist and an egoist. He lives for himself, without sacrificing anything for others. Pechorin is incapable of love and friendship. But it is impossible to call Pechorin simply an egoist; he, according to V. G. Belinsky’s definition, is a “suffering egoist.” “... This is not selfishness,” writes the critic. “Egoism does not suffer, does not blame itself...” Pechorin is a hero of his time, a time of search and doubt, and this could not but affect his character.

His heart and mind are at odds with each other, he criticizes and analyzes himself: “From the storm of life I brought only a few ideas - and not a single feeling. For a long time now I have been living not with my heart, but with my head. I weigh and examine my own passions and actions with strict curiosity, but without participation. There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges it,” says Pechorin.

He has no moral principles in the usual sense for us, no social ideals. “Of two friends, one is always the slave of the other,” he says. Hence his inability to make true friendship. An egoist and indifferent person, Pechorin looks at “the suffering and joy of others only in relation to himself.”

He does not believe in fate, but creates it himself, both in relation to others and in relation to himself. In the hero's diary one can often find words about boredom and readiness to die, although in his soul lies a huge thirst for life.

On the eve of the duel, Pechorin asks himself: “... why did I live? For what purpose was I born? Sooner or later, every person asks himself this eternal question and cannot always immediately find the answer.

Pechorin is a victim of a society where gifted individuals suffocate, so Lermontov does not condemn his hero, inviting him to do it himself.

Pechorin judges not only himself, but also his generation: “And we, their pitiful descendants, wandering the earth without convictions and pride, without pleasure and fear, except for that involuntary fear that squeezes the heart at the thought of the inevitable end, we are no longer capable of great sacrifices neither for the good of humanity, nor even for our own happiness, therefore we know its impossibility and indifferently move from doubt to doubt, as our ancestors rushed from one error to another, having, like them, neither hope nor even that uncertain, although and true pleasure that the soul encounters in every struggle with people or fate...”

"A Hero of Your Time" is the first realistic socio-psychological novel. According to N. G. Chernyshevsky, in this novel the character of Pechorin is “developed and outlined.”

The image of Pechorin is, indeed, a portrait of the entire generation of the 30s. The novel is still relevant today, as it makes you think about the meaning of life.