Pechorin is a tragic hero. What is the tragedy of Pechorin’s existence? Which cell does Pechorin start a love affair with?

Pechorin's tragedy

The novel "A Hero of Our Time" was written in 1837-1840 during the era of government reaction, when every free thought and every living feeling was suppressed. This was a transitional era after the collapse of the ideas of Decembrism, when the ideals of the past were destroyed, and new ideals had not yet had time to form. The post-Decembrist decade was a difficult period in Russian life. People were overcome by deep despair and general despondency.

This dark decade gave birth to a new type of people - disillusioned skeptics, "suffering egoists", devastated by the purposelessness of life. Through the prism of such ideas, inspired by Lermontov’s era, the tragedy of Pechorin, “the hero of our time,” is depicted.

The central problem of the novel is the problem of the personality of the protagonist. The fate of one person worried the author because it was a reflection of the fate of many. Drawing the main character of the novel, he created a portrait composed “of the vices of the entire ... generation, in their full development.”

Lermontov posed the question of why exactly such heroes appeared in those years, why their lives were joyless, and who was to blame for the tragic fate of an entire generation. The author reveals this main theme of the novel by deeply and comprehensively exploring the life, actions, and character of the main character of the novel.

The relevance of the topic I have chosen lies in the fact that by understanding the tragedy of Pechorin, we will be able to understand the sad fate of an entire generation. We will also be able to more deeply and fully perceive and feel the lyrics and other works of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov dedicated to this topic. At the same time, Lermontov’s hero can teach us a lot; by reading about Pechorin, we learn to appreciate the fullness of life.

The purpose of my work is to answer the question: why is it that a thinking person, who feels “immense powers in his soul,” could not find his way and place in this world and is forced to spend an empty, aimless life, burdened by it.

To achieve the goal, the essay sets the following task: to deeply and comprehensively explore the life, character, and actions of the main character of the novel.

Features of the composition and plot of the novel

The novel consists of five parts, five stories, each with its own genre, its own plot and its own title. But the main character combines all these stories into a single novel.

Moving from chapter to chapter, we gradually get to know the hero; the author makes us think about his mysteries and the reasons for the “great oddities” of his character. We find the key to them by putting together the whole puzzle of Pechorin’s life story.

For the same purpose - to reveal the character’s inner world as deeply as possible, the main character is shown to us from the point of view of three people.

In each story, Lermontov places Pechorin in a different environment, shows him in different circumstances, in clashes with people of different social status and mental makeup.

Each time Pechorin reveals himself to the reader from a new side, discovering new and new facets of his character.

Pechorin's tragedy

Who is Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin? He is a strong-willed nature, thirsty for activity. The natural talent of the main character, expressed in his deep intelligence, strong passions and steely will, is strikingly striking to the readers of the novel. But for all his talent and wealth of spiritual powers, he, according to his own fair definition, is a “moral cripple.” His character and all his behavior are extremely contradictory.

It is revealed in the novel in its entirety, revealing, according to Lermontov’s definition, the “disease” of the generation of that time. “My whole life,” Pechorin himself points out, “was only a chain of sad and unsuccessful contradictions to my heart or mind.” How do they manifest themselves?

Firstly, in his attitude to life. 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.

Secondly, rationality struggles with the demands of feelings, mind and heart.

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. But Pechorin didn’t

such a heartless egoist. His heart is capable of feeling deeply and strongly, and his attitude towards Faith tells us this.

He deceives himself, because in fact he is young, he can do everything: love and be loved, but he himself gives up hope, joys, convincing himself that they are impossible for him. These inconsistencies do not allow Pechorin to live a full life.

The origins of Pechorin's individualism

Pechorin's individualism was formed in a transitional era - in an era of the absence of social ideals: and life devoid of high goals is meaningless. The main character realizes this. Not striving for wealth, honors, or a career, he openly despises the world and, having come into conflict with his environment, becomes “superfluous,” because he is a person in the conditions of the impersonal Nikolaev reality.

Pechorin feels superior to his environment. A disgust is brewing in his soul for these people among whom he is forced to live. But at the same time, he is formed by this very environment. Two elements exist in it at the same time - the natural, natural and the social, distorting it, and the natural principle in Pechorin encounters a social limit everywhere.

“Pechorin's Journal” reveals the tragedy of a gifted person who strived for active action, but was doomed to forced inaction. In his confession, he explains it all this way: “Everyone read on my face signs of bad qualities that were not there; but they were anticipated - and they were born. I was modest - I was accused of guile: I became secretive..."

This confession sounds not only reproach, condemnation of secular society, which insults a person in his best feelings and motives, likens him to himself, makes him envious, hypocritical, but also self-condemnation and pain for the ruined better half of the soul.

Life positions and moral principles

Having lost faith in life, Pechorin tries to develop a position in life, formalize the principles of relationships with people, substantiate his system of views, taking into account the peculiarity that lies in his “immense forces” that require action.

But what to do if life does not provide the opportunity to realize this energy and strength? In this situation, Pechorin's normal state is boredom. Even under Chechen bullets, Pechorin never ceases to be bored: in the world, in the Caucasus, the protagonist is tormented and tormented by the emptiness of life, but none of his attachments saves Pechorin from boredom and loneliness.

Why? The main value for Pechorin is personal freedom. However, human freedom from society, an absolutely impossible thing in itself, turns out to be different. The personality is fenced off not only from the official world that it hates, but also from reality in general.

Happiness, according to Pechorin, is “saturated pride”: “If I considered myself better, more powerful than everyone else in the world, I would be happy, if everyone loved me, I would find endless sources of love in myself.”

It is impossible to agree with this statement by Pechorin. Why should a person be “the cause of suffering and joy” of someone who is dear to him? We would not be able to comprehend this at all if we did not understand that he was destitute. Fate has given him so little activity and expenditure of mental energy that even a small game with Princess Mary pleases his vanity and creates the illusion of a meaningful life.

Pechorin wants to first receive from people, and then give to them. Even in love.

Pechorin is also incapable of making friends. Doctor Werner and Maxim Maksimych are sincerely attached to him, but Pechorin, no matter how much he would like, cannot call these people his friends. He is convinced that “of two friends, one is always the slave of the other.” Pechorin evokes pity for himself, because having such ideas about friendship, he will never be able to feel the joy of mutual assistance and understanding.

Pechorin, with his own life, refutes his own thesis that “happiness is intense pride.” Selfishness, individualism, indifference are not innate qualities, but a kind of moral code, a system of beliefs from which Pechorin never deviated in his life.

Character traits

Characteristics are aggravated by the pain of disappointment, constant, hopeless loneliness. The awareness of a life lived in vain gives rise to indifference to it, as a result of which an internal crisis, pessimism, and even death do not frighten the main character.

This indifference to death pushes the main character to try his luck, enter into confrontation with it, and this time emerge victorious. The story “Fatalist” brings together Pechorin’s spiritual quest; it synthesizes his thoughts on personal will and the meaning of circumstances independent of man. It also reveals the titanic capabilities of the protagonist for feats. The hero experiences trust in fate for the first and last time, and fate not only spares him, but also elevates him.

Action and struggle, resistance to unfavorable circumstances, and not blind submission to fate - this is the hero’s life credo. And Pechorin’s physical death turns into his spiritual immortality: he is directed forward in search of the true meaning of life.

Who is guilty?

The tragedy, according to Belinsky’s definition, “between the depth of nature and the pitifulness of actions,” the freedom-loving ideas adopted by people of the Pechorin type in their early youth from the Decembrists, made them irreconcilable with the surrounding reality. The Nikolaev reaction deprived these people of the opportunity to act in the spirit of these ideas and even called them into question. And the ugliness of their upbringing and life in a secular society did not allow them to rise to moral standards.

Lermontov clearly points out the reason that made Pechorin and other thinking people of that time unhappy. He saw it in “insignificant disputes over a piece of land or for some fictitious rights,” in quarrels that divided people into masters and slaves, into oppressors and the oppressed.

Lermontov shifts part of the blame onto society, but at the same time does not relieve responsibility from the main character. He pointed to the disease of the century, the treatment of which is to overcome individualization generated by timelessness, bringing deep suffering to Pechorin himself and destructive to those around him.

Roman Lermontov Pechorin

Conclusion

The story of Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is the story of the futile attempts of an extraordinary person to realize himself, to find at least some satisfaction to his needs, attempts that invariably turn into suffering and losses for him and those around him, the story of his loss of powerful vitality and an absurd death from having nothing to do, from his uselessness to anyone and to yourself.

With his own life, he refuted his own thesis that “happiness is intense pride.”

Well, truth is an expensive thing. Sometimes they pay for it with their lives. But on the other hand, every life that was a real search for this truth forever enters into the spiritual experience of humanity.

That is why Pechorin is always needed and dear to us. Reading Lermontov's novel, we begin to realize things that are very important for us today. We come to understand that individualism contradicts the living nature of man, its actual needs; that cruelty, indifference, the inability to act and work - all this is a heavy burden for a person. It turns out that it is human nature to strive for goodness, truth, beauty, and action. Pechorin did not have the opportunity to fulfill his aspirations, so he is unhappy. Nowadays, people control their own destinies; it is up to us to make our lives full or empty. Reading Lermontov's novel, we learn to appreciate the fullness of life.

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What is the tragedy of Pechorin’s existence? (Based on the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov “Hero of Our Time”)

In the novel “Hero of Our Time” M.Yu. Lermontov created the image of his contemporary, a man of the era of the 30s, a complex, contradictory, deeply tragic image.

And the portrait of the hero itself is unusual. “At first glance at his face, I would not have given him more than twenty-three, although after that I was ready to give him thirty,” the narrator notes. He describes Pechorin’s strong physique and at the same time immediately notes the “nervous weakness” of his body. A strange contrast is presented by the hero’s childish smile and his cold, hard gaze. Pechorin's eyes "did not laugh when he laughed." “This is a sign of either an evil disposition or deep, constant sadness,” the narrator notes.

Pechorin is a romantic hero, a man of exceptional abilities, an extraordinary nature, a strong, strong-willed character. He surpasses those around him with his intellect, versatile education, knowledge in the field of literature and philosophy. He is endowed with a deep analytical mind and critically evaluates all social phenomena. Thus, about his generation, he notes: “We are no longer capable of great sacrifices, either for the good of humanity, or even for our own happiness.” He is not satisfied with the life that modern society offers. Mary Ligovskaya notes that it is better to get caught “in the forest under a killer’s knife” than to become the object of Pechorin’s evil jokes. The hero is bored in the company of empty, petty envious people, gossips, intriguers, devoid of decency, nobility, and honor. A disgust for these people appears in his soul, he feels like a stranger in this world. But at the same time, Pechorin is just as far from the world of “ordinary people.”

Revealing the inconsistency of Pechorin’s inner appearance, the writer shows that he is deprived of the spontaneity and integrity of feelings characteristic of ordinary people, “children of nature.” Invading the world of the mountaineers, he destroys Bela and destroys the nest of “honest smugglers.” He offends Maxim Maksimych. At the same time, Pechorin is not without good impulses. At an evening at the Ligovskys’, he “felt sorry for Vera.” On his last meeting with Mary, compassion gripped him with such force that “another minute” - and he would have “fell at her feet.” Risking his life, he was the first to rush into the house of the killer Vulich. The hero sympathizes with the Decembrists exiled to the Caucasus.

However, his good impulses remain impulses. Grigory Aleksandrovich always brings his “atrocities” to their logical conclusion. He disturbs Vera’s family peace and insults Mary’s dignity. In a duel, he kills Grushnitsky, specially choosing a place for the duel so that one of them would not return. Pechorin manifests himself primarily as an evil, egocentric force, bringing people only suffering and misfortune. “Born for a high purpose,” he wastes his strength on actions unworthy of a real person. Instead of active, meaningful activity, Pechorin fights with individuals who meet on his way. This struggle is fundamentally petty and aimless. When the hero evaluates his actions, he himself comes to a sad conclusion; “In this futile struggle, I exhausted both the heat of my soul and the constancy of will necessary for real life.” Passionately thirsting for an ideal, but not having found it, he asks: “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 did not guess the 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.”

The hero reveals his views in his diary. Happiness for him is “saturated pride.” He perceives the suffering and joy of others “only in relation to himself” as food that supports his spiritual strength. Pechorin’s life is “boring and disgusting.” Doubts devastated him to the point that he was left with only two beliefs: birth is a misfortune, and death is inevitable. The feeling of love and the need for friendship, in Pechorin’s view, have long lost their value. “Of two friends, one is always the slave of the other,” he believes. For the hero, love is satisfied ambition, “sweet food... pride.” “To arouse feelings of love, devotion and fear—isn’t this the first sign and triumph of power?” - writes Pechorin.

The position and fate of the hero is tragic. He does not believe in anything, cannot find a life goal, unity with people. Selfishness, self-will, lack of creativity in life - this is Pechorin’s true tragedy. But the moral image of the hero is shaped by his contemporary society. Like Onegin, he is a “superfluous person,” a “reluctant egoist.” This is exactly what Lermontov's novel talks about. “Pechorin’s soul is not rocky soil, but earth dried up from the heat of a fiery life: let suffering loosen it and water it with blessed rain, and it will grow from itself lush, luxurious flowers of heavenly love...” wrote V.G. Belinsky. However, Pechorin’s “suffering” itself is precisely impossible for him. And this is not only the paradox of this image, but also its tragedy.

Revealing the inner appearance of the hero, the author uses various artistic means. We see a detailed portrait of the hero and read his diary. Pechorin is depicted against the background of other characters (highlanders, smugglers, “water society”). Pechorin’s speech is replete with aphorisms: “Evil begets evil,” “Of two friends, one is the slave of the other,” “Women love only those they do not know.” The author emphasizes the poetry of the hero and his love for nature with the help of landscapes (description of an early morning in Pyatigorsk, description of the morning before a duel). Revealing the originality of Pechorin’s nature, Lermontov uses characteristic epithets: “immense forces”, “restless imagination”, “insatiable” heart, “high” purpose.

Creating the image of Pechorin, Lermontov wrote “a portrait made up of the vices of an entire generation.” It was both a reproach to the best people of his era, and at the same time a call to activism. This is the author's position in the novel.

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School essay

The main theme of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" is the depiction of the socially typical personality of the noble circle after the defeat of the Decembrists. The main idea is the condemnation of this individual and the social environment that gave birth to him. Pechorin is the central figure of the novel, its driving force. He is Onegin's successor - "an extra man." He is a romantic in character and behavior, by nature a person of exceptional abilities, outstanding intelligence and strong will.

Lermontov paints a portrait of Pechorin with psychological depth. Phosphorically dazzling, but cold shine of the eyes, a penetrating and heavy gaze, a noble forehead with traces of intersecting wrinkles, pale, thin fingers, nervous relaxation of the body - all these external features of the portrait testify to the psychological complexity, intellectual talent and strong-willed, evil power of Pechorin. In his “indifferently calm” look “there was no reflection of the heat of the soul,” Pechorin was indifferent “to himself and others,” disappointed and internally devastated.

He was characterized by the highest aspirations for social activities and a passionate desire for freedom: “I am ready for all sacrifices... but I will not sell my freedom.” Pechorin rises above the people of his environment with his versatile education, wide awareness of literature, science, and philosophy. He sees the inability of his generation “to make great sacrifices for the good of humanity” as a sad shortcoming. Pechorin hates and despises the aristocracy, therefore he becomes close to Werner and Maxim Maksimych, and does not hide his sympathy for the oppressed.

But Pechorin’s good aspirations did not develop. The unrestrained socio-political reaction, which stifled all living things, and the spiritual emptiness of high society changed and stifled its capabilities, disfigured its moral image, and reduced its vital activity. Therefore, V. G. Belinsky called the novel a “cry of suffering” and a “sad thought” about that time. Chernyshevsky said that “Lermontov - a deep thinker for his time, a serious thinker - understands and presents his Pechorin as an example of what the best, strongest, noblest people become under the influence of the social situation of their circle.”

Pechorin fully felt and understood that under conditions of autocratic despotism, meaningful activity in the name of the common good was impossible for him and his generation. This was the reason for his boundless skepticism and pessimism, the conviction that life was “boring and disgusting.” Doubts devastated Pechorin to such an extent that he had only two convictions left: the birth of a person is a misfortune, and death is inevitable. He diverged from the environment to which he belonged by birth and upbringing. Pechorin denounces this environment and cruelly judges himself; this, according to V. G. Belinsky, is the “strength of spirit and power of will” of the hero. He is dissatisfied with his aimless life, passionately searches and cannot find his ideal: “Why did I live? For what purpose was I born?..” Internally, Pechorin moved away from the class to which he rightfully belonged by birth and social status, but the new system He did not find a social relationship that would suit him. Therefore, Pechorin does not pass any laws other than his own.

Pechorin is morally crippled by life, he has lost his good goals and turned into a cold, cruel and despotic egoist who is frozen in splendid isolation and hates himself.

According to Belinsky, “hungry for anxiety and storms”, tirelessly chasing life, Pechorin manifests himself as an evil, egocentric force that brings people only suffering and misfortune. Human happiness for Pechorin is “saturated pride.” He perceives the suffering and joy of other people “only in relation to himself” as food that supports his spiritual strength. Without much thought, for the sake of a capricious whim, Pechorin tore Bela from her home and destroyed her, greatly offended Maxim Maksimych, ruined the nest of “honest smugglers” due to empty red tape, disturbed Vera’s family peace, and grossly insulted Mary’s love and dignity.

Pechorin does not know where to go and what to do, and wastes the strength and heat of his soul on petty passions and insignificant matters. Pechorin found himself in a tragic situation, with a tragic fate: neither the surrounding reality nor the individualism and skepticism characteristic of him satisfied him. The hero has lost faith in everything, he is corroded by dark doubts, he longs for meaningful, socially purposeful activity, but does not find it in the circumstances around him. Pechorin, like Onegin, is a suffering egoist, an involuntary egoist. He became this way because of the circumstances that determine his character and actions, and therefore evokes sympathy for himself.

THE TRAGICITY OF PECHORIN'S IMAGE. The main theme of the novel “A Hero of Our Time” is the depiction of the socially typical personality of the noble circle after the defeat of the Decembrists. The main idea is the condemnation of this individual and the social environment that gave birth to him. Pechorin is the central figure of the novel, its driving force. He is Onegin's successor - "an extra man." He is a romantic in character and behavior, by nature a person of exceptional abilities, outstanding intelligence and strong will.

Pechorin fully felt and understood that under conditions of autocratic despotism, meaningful activity in the name of the common good was impossible for him and his generation. This was the reason for his boundless skepticism and pessimism, the conviction that life was “boring and disgusting.” Doubts devastated Pechorin to such an extent that he had only two convictions left: the birth of a person is a misfortune, and death is inevitable. He diverged from the environment to which he belonged by birth and upbringing. Pechorin denounces this environment and cruelly judges himself; this, according to V. G. Belinsky, is the “strength of spirit and power of will” of the hero. He is dissatisfied with his aimless life, passionately searches and cannot find his ideal: “Why did I live? for what purpose was I born?..” Internally, Pechorin moved away from the class to which he rightfully belonged by birth and social status, but he did not find a new system of social relationships that would suit him. Therefore, Pechorin does not pass any laws other than his own.

Pechorin is morally crippled by life, he has lost his good goals and turned into a cold, cruel and despotic egoist who is frozen in splendid isolation and hates himself.

According to Belinsky, “hungry for worries and storms”, tirelessly chasing life, Pechorin manifests himself as an evil, egocentric force that brings people only suffering and misfortune. Human happiness for Pechorin is “saturated pride.” He perceives the suffering and joy of other people “only in relation to himself” as food that supports his spiritual strength. Without much thought, for the sake of a capricious whim, Pechorin tore Bela from her home and destroyed her, greatly offended Maxim Maksimych, ruined the nest of “honest smugglers” due to empty red tape, disturbed Vera’s family peace, and grossly insulted Mary’s love and dignity.