What is Pechorin’s active nature? What is the contradictory character of Pechorin? Is Pechorin a tragic hero?

In the novel “Hero of Our Time” M.Yu. Lermontov showed Pechorin as a complex and deep person. His inner world is contradictory. It is impossible to guess the sequence of steps. He is a product of his era, arousing genuine interest. You can love and hate Pechorin at the same time, but still not give an exact answer as to who he really is, a scoundrel or an unhappy person.

What is the contradictory character of Pechorin? In actions, views from the outside, there is a hidden subtext, ambiguity, making his character mysterious, incomprehensible to society.

Pechorin is unhappy and makes people he meets along the path of life unhappy. This is Bela, Grushnitsky, Princess Mary, smugglers. He is well aware of the role of the executioner in their destinies and executes himself for it. He doesn't care what happens around him, but then, as if catching himself, he tries to make the most of life.

Pechorin does not deny the duality of his nature. He is strict with himself and often calls himself either a moral invalid or a person who is bored at the ball. Two people completely opposite to each other live in his body. One commits actions that lack logic and meaning, the other observes what is happening from the side and condemns.

Pechorin is a convinced fatalist, well aware of the futility of vanity. On the other hand, he is in a hurry to live, afraid of not being able to do something in time. In achieving his goal, Gregory is able to move mountains. Obstacles do not frighten the young man; on the contrary, they kindle the passion of the hunt.

At such moments, he does not think that he can hurt loved ones. He just doesn’t care about them, he’s too deep into himself. For him, self-examination is more important. He looks for answers to the questions posed and does not find them.

Sometimes, behind the mask of cold indifference and aloofness to what was happening, humanity appeared in him. Pechorin was having a hard time breaking up with Vera, the only woman he loved. Bela's death did not pass without a trace, leaving a scratch in a seemingly callous soul. After the tragedy that happened to her, he tried not to remember this story, not to disturb past wounds. Despite the outward indifference and feigned indifference, he was worried, but tried to do it unnoticed by those around him.

He punishes himself by engaging in moral masochism, trying to understand the meaning of life, the purpose of man in this mortal world. The worst thing is that Pechorin considers it his destiny to destroy other people’s hopes and he cannot be convinced of this.

Cruel times make people cruel. Proof of this is the main character of Lermontov's novel "Hero of Our Time" Grigory Pechorin, in which the author reproduced, in his words, "a portrait, but not of one person: this is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation in their full development." Pechorin is the image of a nobleman of the 30s, the era of the “dark decade”, the Nicholas reaction that came after the defeat of the Decembrist uprising, when any free thought was persecuted and every living feeling was suppressed. Pechorin is the bitter truth about an era of timelessness, in which all the best people of Russia, instead of directing their minds, energy and remarkable strength to achieve a high goal, became “moral cripples”, since they simply had no goal: time did not allowed it to arise.

A product of his age, a cold egoist who only causes suffering to everyone - this is how Pechorin became, and yet we see what a brilliant mind, extraordinary willpower, talent and energy this man has. Pechorin is an extraordinary personality, one of the best people of his time, and so: having refused to serve society, in the possibility of which he had completely lost faith, having not found a use for his powers, Lermontov’s hero is wasting his life aimlessly. Pechorin is too deep and original a nature to become only a reflective intellectual. Distinguished by his independence of mind and strength of character, he cannot stand vulgarity and routine and is certainly above his surroundings. He wants nothing - no ranks, no titles, no benefits - and he does nothing to achieve success. This alone makes him stand above his surroundings. And besides, his independence was the only possible form of expression of disagreement with the structure of life. There is a hidden protest in this position. Pechorin should not be reproached for inaction, since it stems from an unwillingness to serve “the Tsar and the Fatherland.” The tsar is a tyrant who does not tolerate the manifestation of thought and hates freedom, the fatherland is officials mired in slander, envy, careerism, idly spending their time, pretending to care about the good of the fatherland, but in fact are indifferent to it.

In his youth, Pechorin was overwhelmed with ideas, hobbies and aspirations. He was sure that he was born for a reason, that he was destined for some important mission, that with his life he would make a significant contribution to the development of his fatherland. But very quickly this confidence passed, over the years the last hopes also dissipated, and by the age of thirty all that was left was “only fatigue, as after a night battle with a ghost, and a vague memory full of regrets...”. The hero lives without a goal, without hope, without love. His heart is empty and cold. Life has no value; he despises it, as well as himself: “Perhaps I’ll die somewhere on the road! Well? To die like that. The loss for the world is small; and I’m already pretty bored myself.” These words contain tragedy from a meaningless life and bitterness from hopelessness.

Pechorin is smart, resourceful, insightful, but these qualities bring only misfortune to the people with whom fate brings him together. He took away from Kazbich the most precious thing he had - a horse, made Azamat a homeless abrek, he is guilty of the death of Bela and her father, he disturbed the peace in the soul of Maxim Maksimych, he disturbed the peaceful life of "honest smugglers." He is selfish, but he himself suffers from it. His behavior deserves condemnation, but one cannot help but feel sympathy for him; in the society where he lives, the forces of his rich nature do not find real use. Pechorin seems either a cold egoist or a deeply suffering person, by some evil will deprived of a worthy life and the possibility of action. Discord with reality leads the hero to apathy.

Speaking about the tragedy of extraordinary individuals, about the impossibility of finding an application for their strengths, the author also shows how detrimental withdrawal and distance from people have on them.

A strong will and a brilliant mind do not prevent Pechorin from becoming, as he himself puts it, a “moral cripple.” Having accepted such life principles as individualism and egoism, Lermontov’s hero gradually lost all the best in his character. In the story "Maksim Maksimych" Pechorin is not at all the same as he was in the first stories, in the first days of his appearance in the Caucasus. Now he lacks attention and friendliness, he is overcome by indifference to everything, there is no former activity, no desire for sincere impulses, no readiness to discover “endless sources of love” in himself. His rich nature is completely empty.

Pechorin is a contradictory personality. This manifests itself in character, behavior, and attitude to life. He is a skeptic, a frustrated man who lives “out of curiosity,” and at the same time he thirsts for life and activity. And his attitude towards women - isn’t this where the contradictory nature of his nature is revealed? He explains his attention to women only by the need for ambition, which “is nothing more than a thirst for power, and my first pleasure is to subordinate to my will everything that surrounds me: to arouse feelings of love, devotion and fear for myself - isn’t that the first sign And the greatest triumph of power? Having lost his horse, he even “fell on the wet grass and cried like a child.”

Lermontov's hero is characterized by a high degree of self-analysis. But it is painful for him. Since Pechorin made himself an object for observation, he almost lost the ability to surrender to direct feeling, to fully feel the joy of living life. Being analyzed, the feeling weakens or goes out altogether. Pechorin himself admits that two people live in his soul: one commits actions, and the other judges him. This strict judgment of himself does not allow Pechorin to be content with little, deprives him of peace, does not allow him to come to terms with the life that is determined for him by social conditions.

“The tragedy of Pechorin,” wrote V. G. Belinsky, “is primarily in the contradiction between the loftiness of nature and the pitifulness of actions.” Who is to blame for it? Pechorin himself answers this question this way: “My soul is spoiled by the light,” that is, by the environment, the society in which he happened to live.

What is the contradictory character of Pechorin? In actions, views from the outside, there is a hidden subtext, ambiguity, making his character mysterious, incomprehensible to society.

1. Pechorin in the perception of others.
2. How Pechorin himself evaluates himself.
3. Life internal and external.

I'm not for angels and heaven
Created by God Almighty;
But why do I live, suffering,
He knows more about this.
M. Yu. Lermontov

The title of M. Yu. Lermontov’s novel “Hero of Our Time” is, of course, no coincidence. The author wanted to emphasize that Pechorin’s character is a kind of collective image of a generation of noble youth, Lermontov’s peers: “A Hero of Our Time... exactly, a portrait, but not of one person: this is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development " The fate of a generation that thoughtlessly and senselessly squandered its strength and best movements of the soul is one of the significant themes in Lermontov’s work. For example, a ruthless description of the generation is given in the poem “Duma” (“Sadly I look at our generation...”). However, the difference lies in the fact that in “Duma” Lermontov generalizes and speaks about the generation as a whole. In “A Hero of Our Time” we are talking about the fate of a specific person, a representative of his time and generation.

The appeal to the image of an extraordinary and proud personality, whose outstanding abilities were not realized, is a continuation of the traditions of romanticism, primarily found in the work of J. Byron. At the same time, in Lermontov’s novel there is a strong tendency towards realism. “...There is more truth in him than you would wish,” the author emphasizes, speaking about the character of his hero. Indeed, Lermontov does not embellish his hero and does not seek to denigrate him beyond measure. In order to achieve the most objective, impartial portrayal of the personality traits of his hero, the author either shows Pechorin through the eyes of Maxim Maksimych, then introduces his own observations, or reveals to the reader the pages of his diary, in which Pechorin recorded not only events from his life, but also reflections that make it possible to compose an idea of the invisible movements of his soul.

The contradictory nature of Pechorin is noted by everyone who communicated with him even briefly or even just watched him from the side. Maxim Maksimych, who was friendly towards Pechorin, considered him a “nice fellow,” is sincerely perplexed about his oddities: “After all, for example, in the rain, in the cold, hunting all day; everyone will be cold and tired - but nothing to him. And another time he sits in his room, smells the wind, assures him that he has a cold; the shutter knocks, he shudders and turns pale; and with me he went to hunt wild boar one on one; It happened that you wouldn’t get the word out for hours at a time, but sometimes when he started talking, you’d burst your stomach with laughter...”

Lermontov writes about the secrecy of his hero and the strangeness in his facial expressions: Pechorin’s eyes “did not laugh when he laughed.” The author notes that “this is a sign of either an evil disposition or deep, constant sadness.”

As a person prone to introspection, Pechorin is well aware of the contradictory nature of his nature. In his diary, he notes, not without humor: “The presence of an enthusiast fills me with baptismal cold, and I think frequent intercourse with a sluggish phlegmatic would make me a passionate dreamer.” What is it - the desire to stand out from the crowd? Hardly... - Pechorin already has a high enough opinion of himself to bother with such trifles. Rather, the driving force here is the “spirit of doubt,” the motive of influence of which is generally quite strong in Lermontov’s work. “I like to doubt everything: this disposition of mind does not interfere with the decisiveness of character - on the contrary, as for me, I always move forward more boldly when I don’t know what awaits me,” Pechorin himself admits.

One of Pechorin's most striking contradictions is manifested in his attitude towards love. More than once he writes in his diary about the desire to be loved. We must admit that he knows how to achieve this. However, Pechorin himself is not capable of a strong reciprocal feeling. Having won Bela's ingenuous heart, he soon loses interest in her. Why did he so diligently seek Mary’s love? Pechorin himself cannot really answer this question. Probably because he enjoys the feeling of power over another person: “But there is immense pleasure in possessing a young, barely blossoming soul!.. I feel in myself this insatiable greed, absorbing everything that comes along the way; I look at the sufferings and joys of others only in relation to myself, as food that supports my spiritual strength.”

Pechorin had a fairly strong attachment to Vera, but this was revealed at the moment when he realized that he would not see her again. However, he also loved Vera “as a source of joys, anxieties and sorrows, replacing each other, without which life is boring and monotonous.” For Vera herself, this love brought more mental anguish than joy, because Pechorin did not value her love or the love of other women enough to sacrifice anything for them, to give up even the slightest of his habits.

So, Pechorin, on the one hand, dreams of being loved, believes that one strong attachment would be enough for him, and on the other, he realizes that he is unsuitable for family life: “No, I would not get along with this lot! I am like a sailor, born and raised on the deck of a robber brig: his soul has become accustomed to storms and battles, and, thrown ashore, he is bored and languishing...”

Another contradiction in Pechorin’s nature is constant boredom and thirst for activity. Apparently, at his core, Pechorin is a fairly active person: we see how he involves those around him in the whirlpool of events that he himself provoked. “After all, there are, really, such people who have it written in their nature that various extraordinary things should happen to them!” However, these adventures occur precisely thanks to the active position of the hero himself. But Pechorin’s activities do not have a solid foundation: everything he undertakes is aimed at combating boredom - and nothing more. And even this goal cannot be achieved by Lermontov’s hero. At best, he manages to drive away boredom for a short time, but soon it returns: “In me, the soul is spoiled by light, the imagination is restless, the heart is insatiable; I can’t get enough of it: I get used to sadness just as easily as to pleasure, and my life becomes emptier day by day...” Not only that, the lack of goals and an idle lifestyle contributed to the development of such negative qualities as cynicism, arrogance, and disregard for the feelings of others.

But Pechorin is endowed with many virtues: a sharp mind, insight, a unique sense of humor, willpower, courage, observation and charm. However, his life is devoid of inner meaning and joy: “I run through my entire past in my memory and involuntarily ask myself: why did I live? for what purpose was I born?.. And, it’s true, it existed, and, it’s true, I had a high purpose, because I feel immense strength in my soul... But I didn’t guess this purpose, I was carried away by the lures of empty and ungrateful passions ; I came out of their furnace hard and cold, like iron, but I lost forever the ardor of noble aspirations - the best color of life.”

Image of Pechorin

(Based on the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov “Hero of Our Time”)

I look sadly at our generation,

His future is either empty or dark.

M. Lermontov

“Hero of Our Time” is a work created in the post-Decembrist era. The novel raises the question of the fate of an extraordinary personality in an era of timelessness, about the hopelessness of the situation of the best young people from the nobility. In the image of Pechorin, Lermontov embodied the typical features inherent in the younger generation of that time. In the words of the author himself, “this is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development.” Pechorin is a strong, bright and at the same time contradictory and tragic personality.

Pechorin's rich powers cannot find use for themselves. In his diary the hero writes: “Why did I live? For what purpose was I born? And it’s true, it existed, and, it’s true, there was a great purpose for me, because I feel immense strength in my soul... But I didn’t guess this purpose, I was carried away by the lures of empty and ungrateful passions, from their crucible I emerged as hard and cold as iron, but has lost forever the ardor of noble aspirations, the best light of life.” Pechorin did not see the goal, did not find a use for himself. The old was alien to him, and the new unknown. Having lost the meaning in life, the hero became bitter, callous, and selfish. This inconsistency of Pechorin is revealed in the novel, revealing, according to Lermontov’s definition, the “disease” of the generation of his time.

The construction of the novel is peculiar. 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 writer first gives the opportunity to find out other people’s opinions about Pechorin, and then what this young nobleman thinks about himself.

Pechorin's character and all his behavior are extremely contradictory. This is clearly reflected in his appearance, which, according to Lermontov, reflects the inner appearance of a person. By drawing a portrait of Pechorin, the author emphasizes the oddities of his hero. Pechorin's eyes "they didn't laugh when he laughed". Gait “she was careless and lazy, but I noticed that he did not wave his arms - a sure sign of some secretiveness of character”. On the one hand, Pechorin has a “strong build,” and on the other, “nervous weakness.” Pechorin is about 30 years old, and “there is something childish in his smile.”

Maxim Maksimych was also amazed at Pechorin’s oddities: “In the rain, in the cold, hunting all day; everyone will be cold and tired, but nothing to him. And another time he sits in his room, smells the wind, assures him that he has a cold; knock on the shutter, he will tremble and turn pale, but with me he went to hunt a wild boar one on one...” The story with Bela also remains incomprehensible to Maxim Maksimych - Pechorin’s indifference, it seemed, despite such strong recent love. Pechorin steals the girl he likes, without thinking about the actions that may follow this act. He sincerely believes that he is in love with “maiden of the mountains” that this love will become a saving bridge along which the hero can move into a new life for him, full of meaning: “When I saw Bela in my house, when for the first time, holding her on my knees, I kissed her black curls, I, a fool, thought that she was an angel sent to me by compassionate fate...” But soon Grigory Alexandrovich realizes the futility of hopes: “I was wrong again: the love of a savage is little better than the love of a noble young lady.”“,” he admits to Maxim Maksimych.

While still young, Pechorin acutely feels his doom, which is probably why the fearless Pechorin is frightened by the knocking of the shutters, although he was hunting a wild boar alone, and is terrified of catching a cold. Doom developed in Pechorin during his life in the capital. The consequence of complete disappointment in everything was “nervous weakness”... Life in the Caucasus did not give him spiritual satisfaction, did not help him find the meaning of life. Pechorin lives without a goal, without hope, without love. He is tired of everything, the world has become boring, he even despises himself: “ Maybe I’ll die somewhere on the road. Well, die like that. The loss to the world is small; and I’m pretty bored myself.”(What hopelessness emanates from these words, what tragedy one feels from a wasted life.) He travels in the hope of somehow passing the century or finding his untimely end. To Maxim Maksimych’s question: “When will you be back?” - Pechorin made a hand sign that could be translated as follows: unlikely! And why?..” A bitter end to life.

The contradictions in Pechorin’s nature are also reflected in his attitude towards women. He himself explains his attention to women and the desire to achieve their love by the need of his ambition, which, according to his definition, “... “is nothing more than a thirst for power, and my first pleasure,” he says further, “is to subordinate to my will everything that surrounds me: to arouse for myself a feeling of love, devotion and fear - isn’t this the first sign and the greatest triumph of power?”

But Pechorin is not such a heartless egoist. He is capable of emotional outbursts. This is evidenced by his attitude towards Vera. Having received her last letter, Pechorin, like a madman, jumped out onto the porch, jumped on his Circassian... and set off at full speed, on the road to Pyatigorsk... “With the possibility of losing her forever,” he writes, “Faith became dearer to me than anything else in the world, dearer than life, honor, happiness!” Left without a horse in the steppe, he “fell on the wet grass and cried like a child.”

On the one hand, Pechorin is a skeptic, a disappointed person who lives "out of curiosity", on the other hand, he has a huge thirst for life and activity. But the most terrible contradiction: “immense powers of the soul” - and petty, unworthy actions of Pechorin. According to Belinsky, “he is madly chasing life,” but it all comes down to small and insignificant goals: to find out the secret of the smugglers, to make Princess Mary and Bela fall in love with him, to defeat Grushnitsky. So, in the hands of fate, Pechorin turns into an instrument of evil: the smugglers run away to another place, leaving the old woman and the poor blind boy to the mercy of fate; Bela's father and Bela herself die; Azamat takes the path of crime; Kazbich kills innocent people; Grushnitsky dies; Princess Mary's heart is "broken"; Maxim Maksimych is offended. Pechorin strives to “love the whole world” - and brings people only evil and misfortune. However, this does not make him happy; from the hero’s diary it is clear that before us is a man with a suffering soul.

Pechorin is self-critical. He admits that there are two people in him: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges him. Pechorin himself pronounces his verdict: “I was ready to love the whole world - no one understood me: and I learned to hate. My colorless youth passed in a struggle with myself and the world: fearing ridicule, I buried my best feelings in the depths of my heart: they died there... I became a moral cripple...” With bitter feeling he regards himself as "moral cripple", which one "dried up, evaporated, died" the better half of the soul. Pechorin, without sparing himself, reveals the reasons for his selfishness: “How many times have I already played the role of an ax in the hands of fate! Like an instrument of execution, I fell on the heads of the doomed victims... My love did not bring happiness to anyone, because I did not sacrifice anything for those I loved..." Pechorin comprehends and condemns his actions. He fights not only with others, but above all with himself. But this internal struggle also contains the strength of Pechorin’s personality; without it, he would not have been such an extraordinary character; struggle is the need of his nature.

Pechorin is a richly gifted and bright person. He is eager to take action, constantly feeling the need to find a sphere of application for his strength, but he does not find it. And wherever he appears, he brings people nothing but grief: Who is to blame for the fact that Pechorin has turned into a “superfluous man”? Pechorin himself answers this question as follows: "My soul is corrupted by light", that is, that secular society, by whose laws he lived and from which he could not leave. A product of society, Pechorin is at the same time a renegade, a seeker, deprived of soil, therefore he is not subject to either the traditions or the moral standards of the environment from which he came, or the one into which he finds himself. What he is looking for is not there. By placing the hero in different conditions, in different surroundings, Lermontov wants to show that they are alien to Pechorin, that he has no place in life, no matter what situation he finds himself in. He, like Lermontov’s “Sail,” is drawn to unusual anxieties and dangers, since he is full of effective energy. But the “wonderful world of anxiety and battles,” to which Lermontov’s other hero Mtsyri so strove, does not lie in the everyday life of the “water society” where Pechorin finds himself, it is not there. (chapter “Princess Mary”)

Among the many problems of the novel, there is one such as the relationship between a “natural” person and a “civilized” person. The contrast between Pechorin and the highlanders helps us understand some of his character traits. The highlanders (Bela, Kazbich) are solid, seemingly monolithic, and this is why they attract Pechorin. Unlike them, he is torn apart by passions and contradictions, although with the indomitability of his energy he is similar to the “children of nature.”

Does Pechorin have a goal? Yes, he is looking for happiness, meaning by it “saturated pride.” He probably means fame, that is, society's recognition of his worth and the value of his actions. But his deeds are small, and his goals are random and insignificant.

So, Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is an extremely contradictory personality. We are repelled by Pechorin's indifference to people, his inability for true love, for friendship, his individualism and selfishness. But we cannot help but see that Pechorin is head and shoulders above the people around him, that he is smart, educated, talented, brave, and energetic. Pechorin captivates us with his thirst for life, the desire for the best, and the ability to critically evaluate his actions. He is deeply unsympathetic to us because of his “pathetic actions,” the waste of his strength, and the actions by which he brings suffering to other people, but we see that he himself suffers deeply. Pechorin does not follow the beaten path of secular young people, he serves, but does not gain favor, but, unfortunately, becomes a natural link in the ranks of “superfluous people.” 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.