On the way to Tiflis, the narrator meets a fellow traveler - a staff captain named Maxim Maksimovich, who tells him the following story. Five years ago he stood in a fortress beyond the Terek. One day in the fall, a transport with provisions arrived. He was accompanied by an officer whose name was Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin. This man belonged to that breed of people to whom, according to Maxim Maksimovich, various extraordinary things should happen. Pechorin's character was contradictory, he behaved strangely: he never froze, even being in the cold for a long time in the rain, and sitting in the room he was cold; I walked to the wild boar alone, shuddered from the knocking of the shutter.
A prince lived not far from the fortress. His son Azamat, a smart and nimble boy of about fifteen, very hungry for money, often visited the fortress. One day the prince invited Maxim Maksimovich and Pechorin to the wedding of his eldest daughter. The guests were seated in a prominent place and the prince’s youngest daughter, Bela, a thin, slender girl with black eyes like a mountain chamois, approached them. Pechorin did not take his eyes off her, and Bela looked at him from under her brows. Kazbich, who had a reputation as a robber and thief, was also at the wedding. This Kazbich owned the horse Karagyoz, which was famous throughout Kabarda. Many riders were jealous of Kazbich and tried to steal the horse several times, but to no avail. Azamat especially liked Karagez, he even offered Kazbich to steal his sister in exchange for a horse, but he refused.
Having learned about this, Pechorin laughed, and he himself thought of something. In conversations with Azamat, he tirelessly praised Karagez and finally offered: “I’ll get him for you, only on condition. You will own the horse, but you must give me sister Bela.” “I agree,” whispered Azamat, pale as death. This is how they settled this bad matter. Maxim Maksimovich tried to dissuade Pechorin, but he replied that the wild Circassian woman should be happy, having a husband like him, and Kazbich, the robber, should be punished.
At night, Azamat brought a woman thrown over the saddle; her hands and feet were tied. The next morning, Kazbich drove the sheep to sell. Having tied his horse at the fence, he drank tea, which Maxim Maksimovich treated him to. Suddenly Kazbich’s face changed and shouted: “My horse! Horse!" But Azamat was already riding his hot horse. Kazbich fell to the ground and sobbed. He lay on the ground for a whole day, and when he learned the name of the thief, he headed to the village to avenge Karagez.
Maxim Maksimovich began to shame Pechorin, but he was absolutely calm: “When do I like her?” Pechorin sought Bela’s love for a long time and gradually tamed her. “Listen, dear, kind Bela! – he told her. “You see how much I love you; I’m ready to give everything to cheer you up: I want you to be happy; and if you are sad, then I will die. Tell me, will you be more fun?” She thought for a moment, then smiled and nodded in agreement.
Bela became more affectionate, but more could not be achieved from her. Then Pechorin got dressed, got ready and went in to say goodbye to the girl.
“I am guilty before you,” he said, “and I must punish myself; goodbye, I'm going - where? How do I know! Perhaps I won’t be chasing a bullet or a saber’s blow for long: then remember me and forgive me.” As soon as he touched the door, Bela rushed to him. At this point in his story, Maxim Maksimovich fell silent. “Yes, I admit,” he said later, tugging at his mustache, “I was annoyed that no woman loved me so much.”
According to Maxim Maksimovich, Pechorin and Beloy were happy. Kazbich thought that the prince himself gave his consent to Azamat stealing Karagez and, having caught the old man on the road, killed him. The horses were ready to move; the interlocutors, Maxim Maksimovich and the narrator, set off. The narrator reflected on the amazing ability of Russians to adapt to foreign customs, understand and justify them. The dear horses stopped several times while climbing steep slopes, and the travelers were forced to help them. By nightfall they stopped to rest in a mountain hut, and Maxim Maksimovich finished his story about Bel.
Time passed and Pechorin began to disappear more and more often while hunting. During his absences, Kazbich appeared under the walls of the fortress, and Maxim Maksimovich told Pechorin about this. He told Bela not to leave the fortress. But it was clear from everything that his attitude towards Bela had changed. “This is not good,” thought Maxim Maksimovich, “surely a black cat slipped between them!” Bela began to noticeably dry out, her face became long, her large eyes dimmed, she sat on the bed all day, pale and sad. Maxim Maksimovich began to reproach Pechorin for his coldness, and in response he heard:
– “...I have an unhappy character: whether my upbringing made me this way, whether God created me this way, I don’t know; I only know that if I am the cause of the misfortune of others, then I myself am no less unhappy... From the moment I left the care of my relatives, I began to madly enjoy all the pleasures that can be obtained for money, and, of course, these pleasures disgusted me . Then I set out into the big world, and soon I also got tired of society; I fell in love with society beauties and was loved, but their love only irritated my imagination and pride, and my heart remained empty... I began to read, study - I was also tired of science; I saw that neither fame nor happiness depended on them at all, because the happiest people are ignorant, and fame is luck, and to achieve it, you just need to be clever. Then I became bored... Soon they transferred me to the Caucasus: this is the happiest time of my life. I hoped that boredom did not live under Chechen bullets, but in vain: after a month... I became more bored than before...”
Bela’s love seemed to him like the love of an angel, but it turned out that “the love of a savage is little better than the love of a noble lady; the ignorance and simple-heartedness of one are just as annoying as the coquetry of the other.” Pechorin admitted that he still loves Bela, but he is very bored with her. “Am I a fool or a villain, I don’t know; but it is true that I am also very worthy of pity, perhaps more than she: my soul is spoiled by light, my imagination is restless, my heart is insatiable; I’m not getting enough..."
Kazbich did not appear at the fortress again. One day Maxim Maksimovich went hunting with Pechorin. They drove not far from the fortress when they suddenly heard a shot. Maxim Maksimovich recognized Kazbich as the shooter. After the return shot, Kazbich jumped off his horse and the travelers saw that there was a woman in his arms. It was Bela. He began to shout something to the travelers and raised a dagger over Bela. But then, obviously, a bullet hit Kazbich in the shoulder and he started to run. Pechorin rushed to the girl, but she lay motionless, blood flowing from the wound. In vain Pechorin kissed her cold lips - Bela did not come to her senses. She suffered for several days. Before the morning she “felt the melancholy of death,” began to rush about, knocked off the bandage, and the blood began to flow again. When the wound was bandaged, Bela calmed down for a minute and began to ask Pechorin to kiss her. He knelt down next to the bed, lifted her head from the pillow and kissed her; Bela tightly wrapped her trembling arms around his neck, as if in this kiss she wanted to convey her soul to him.
- “No, she did well to die! Well, what would have happened to her if Grigory Alexandrovich had left her? And this would happen, sooner or later...”
Maxim Maksimovich tried to console Pechorin, but he unexpectedly laughed in response... Frost ran through his skin from this laughter. Pechorin was then unwell, lost weight, but they no longer started talking about the girl. A few months later, Pechorin was transferred to Georgia.
I recommend reading the retelling of the final part of the novel “A Hero of Our Time,” as it will significantly familiarize you with the fate of Pechorin. After some time, the narrator stopped at a hotel in Vladikavkaz, where he had to wait for an “opportunity” to go to Yekaterinograd. There he meets Maxim Maksimovich again. They were sitting by the window over a bottle of Kakhetian wine when they saw another stroller and learned that Pechorin was here. The staff captain ordered the footman to tell Pechorin that Maxim Maksimovich was waiting for him, but Pechorin did not appear. Maxim Maksimovich waited for him at the gate until nightfall, but he never arrived. He showed up only the next day.
The narrator saw Pechorin as a young man of “average height: his slender, thin figure and broad shoulders proved his strong build, the ability to endure all the difficulties of nomadic life and climate change, not defeated by either the depravity of metropolitan life or spiritual storms; his dusty velvet frock coat, fastened only by the bottom two buttons, made it possible to see his dazzlingly clean linen, revealing the habits of a decent man; his stained gloves seemed deliberately tailored to his small aristocratic hand, and when he took off one glove, I was surprised at the thinness of his pale fingers. His gait was careless and lazy, but I noticed that he did not swing his arms - a sure sign of some secretiveness of character... When he sat down on the bench, his straight waist bent, as if he did not have a single bone in his back; the position of his entire body depicted some kind of nervous weakness... At first glance at his face, I would not have given him more than twenty-three years of age, although after that I was ready to give him thirty. There was something childish in his smile. His skin had a certain feminine tenderness; blond hair, naturally curly, so picturesquely outlined his pale, noble forehead, on which, only after long observation, one could notice traces of wrinkles crossing one another...
Despite the light color of his hair, his mustache and eyebrows were black - a sign of the breed in a person... He had a slightly upturned nose, teeth of dazzling whiteness and brown eyes... They did not laugh when he laughed! This is a sign of either an evil disposition or deep, constant sadness. Because of their half-lowered eyelashes, they shone with some kind of phosphorescent shine, so to speak... it was a shine similar to the shine of smooth steel, dazzling, but cold; his gaze, short, but penetrating and heavy, left an unpleasant impression of an indiscreet question and could have seemed impudent if he had not been so indifferently calm.”
The narrator asks Pechorin to stay to wait for Maxim Maksimovich, who has gone to the commandant. Pechorin recalls that, indeed, yesterday they told him about an old friend. A few minutes later Maxim Maksimovich came running, he was in such a hurry that sweat was rolling off his face like a hail, “wet strands of gray hair stuck to the flask, his knees were trembling.” He wanted to throw himself on Pechorin’s neck, but he with a cold secular smile only extended his hand to him. Maxim Maksimovich, who still could not catch his breath from the rush, confusedly tries to ask Pechorin about his life, invites him to have lunch and talk, but Pechorin refuses, citing the need to travel. “Where to?” – asks Maxim Maksimovich. “To Persia – and further.” At the old man’s memories of the past, of Bela, Pechorin turned pale and turned away, almost immediately yawning forcedly.
Maxim Maksimovich, at first taken aback by such a meeting, was offended: “That’s not how I thought I’d meet you...” Pechorin hugged him and tried to console him: “Am I really not the same?” Maxim Maksimovich said that he had Pechorin’s papers, but he allowed him to do whatever he wanted with them. When asked when he would return, Pechorin made a hand sign that could mean: “Hardly! And there’s no need.”
The old man tried to pretend that nothing special had happened, but it was clear that he was very annoyed and offended. He grumbled something about Pechorin’s social life, his proud lackey, luggage, the strange need to go to Persia, about secular youth in general, suddenly turning into a “stubborn, grumpy staff captain.” He refused to go along and it turned out that he had not yet been to the commandant and, obviously, was looking for Pechorin instead. The narrator sadly summed up that only in youth can disappointments be experienced, but in the years of Maxim Maksimovich, such resentment cannot be replaced by anything. “Involuntarily, the heart will harden and the soul will close.”
Pechorin's Journal
The narrator heard rumors about Pechorin's death. This circumstance eased his doubts and gave him the right to print this man’s notes. “The history of the human soul, even the smallest soul, is perhaps more curious and useful than the history of an entire people, especially when it is the result of observations of a mature mind over itself and when it is written without a vain desire to arouse participation or surprise.” Answering the question about his own opinion about Pechorin, the author says that his “answer is the title of this book.”
Essay on literature on the topic: Retelling of Lermontov’s story “Hero of Our Time.” Bela
Other writings:
- Bela Characteristics of the literary hero Bela is a young Circassian woman, a prince’s daughter. Very beautiful. Pechorin becomes infatuated with a girl and kidnaps her from her parents' house with the help of her brother. At first B. is shy of Pechorin, refuses to look at him and accept gifts. Like all mountain dwellers, B. Read More ......
- Reading the first chapter of M. Yu. Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time,” we are captivated by the dramatic story of Pechorin’s love for the Circassian Bela. It is impossible to answer unequivocally why Pechorin fell in love with Bela, and did he really love her? Maybe he is “out of boredom” (like Read More......
- M. Yu. Lermontov’s novel “Hero of Our Time” can be called the first in Russian psychological prose. The narrative is determined not by the chronology of events, but by the logic of the development of the protagonist’s character. According to V.G. Belinsky, “his restless spirit requires movement, activity seeks food, his heart thirsts Read More ......
- Russian society learned the name of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov in the days of farewell to Pushkin, who was treacherously killed in a duel. Lermontov’s angry poem “The Death of a Poet”, like a clap of thunder, sounded over St. Petersburg, and its echoes swept across the entire country. The Emperor saw in Lermontov a direct successor Read More......
- The plot-compositional originality of Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time” is determined by the creative task that the author set for himself. The essence of this task is to depict a contemporary - a “hero of his time”, who, according to the author’s plan, is an intelligent, talented, spiritually gifted person, capable of both thinking and Read More ......
- M. Yu. Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time” is “the story of the human soul,” as the author himself defined the nature of his work. The novel consists of five stories: “Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”, “Taman”, “Princess Mary” and “Fatalist”. Each story is an independent work of art and Read More......
- Lermontov wrote that the history of a person’s life is sometimes more interesting than the history of an entire people. In the novel “Hero of Our Time,” he showed moments in the life of a man who was superfluous to his era. This person is Pechorin, who due to circumstances becomes an “extra person.” The writer reveals the reasons Read More ......
- Thoughts about life and death are probably almost the most important in the work of any writer. The attitude towards such things as love, kindness, and mercy depends on the ability to correctly evaluate these issues. Such reflections are a component of all great works of literature and art. Read More......
About the hero: the public received him with irritation. Some because they set such an immoral person as an example, others because the author allegedly painted a not very attractive portrait of himself. The hero of our time is a portrait, but not of one person, but a portrait made up of the vices of all our time. The writer’s task is to indicate the disease, but God knows how to cure it. Part 1 The narration is conducted on behalf of the author. The author travels by train from Tiflis. On the road he meets staff captain Maxim Maksimovich.
They stop for the night in the village. During the conversation, Maxim Maksimovich tells the author about Pechorin. Pechorin came to the fortress beyond the Terek to serve.
The character is contradictory, mysterious (“in the rain, in the cold, hunting all day; everyone will be cold, tired - but nothing to him. And another time he sits in his room, the wind smells, 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...") A local prince lived next door to the fortress. His son, about fifteen years old, Azamat, got into the habit of going to the fortress. Azamat had a very hot temper, despite his age, and many people deliberately teased him. One day the old prince invited Pechorin and Maxim Maksimych to his wedding: he was marrying off his eldest daughter. At the wedding, Pechorin saw the prince’s youngest daughter, Bela, and he liked her.
Kazbich was also present at the wedding (who, as they said, was engaged in not entirely clean affairs: he went with abreks across the Terek, stole cattle, etc. - there was a lot of suspicion).
Kazbich had a horse, Karagez, of extraordinary beauty. Because of Kazbich’s horse, many were jealous and tried to steal it more than once. Maxim Maksimych goes out into the air and accidentally overhears a conversation between Kazbich and Azamat. Azamat praises the horse, Kazbich in response tells how the horse saved his life when he was running away from the Cossacks. Azamat says that he will do whatever Kazbich wants for his horse. He even offers to steal his sister Bela for him. Kazbich refuses, although he likes Bela and makes fun of Azamat.
Azamat gets angry and a clash ensues. Azmat shouts that Kazbich wanted to stab him. There is a noise, Kazbich jumps on his horse and runs away.
Maxim Maksimych and Pechorin are returning. Maxim Maksimych tells Pechorin about the overheard conversation. Pechorin begins to tease Azamat, during his visits he specifically starts a conversation about Kazbich’s horse, driving the boy into a frenzy. Then he negotiates for Azamat to give him his sister Bela in exchange for the horse.
In the evening, Azamat brings his sister. The next day, Kazbich arrives in the morning and brings ten sheep for sale. While he is sitting in the house, Azamat jumps on his horse and disappears. Kazbich, heartbroken, lay on the road for almost a day, then he learned the name of the kidnapper and went to the village to take revenge. Maxim Maksimych tries to reassure Pechorin, but in vain (“What can I help myself if I like her?”). Pechorin gives Bela gifts every day, saying that he loves her, but in vain. Maxim Maksimych makes fun of Pechorin, he offers a bet that in a week Bela will be his.
I bought new gifts, but that didn’t help either. Then Pechorin pretends that he is leaving forever.
Bela throws herself on his neck and admits that she loves him too. Kazbich, meanwhile, kills Bela's father to avenge the stolen horse. The next morning the author and Maxim Maksimych set off. What follows is a description of Caucasian nature, wild, free, exuberant. Maxim Maksimych tells the tragic ending of the story. Maxim Maksimych got used to Bela as to his daughter.
They hid her father's death from her for a long time, then they told her. She “cried for two days and then forgot.” Meanwhile, Pechorin increasingly begins to leave the fortress for a long time (to hunt). Bela suffers from this. Walking along the fortress wall, Maxim Maksimych and Bela see Kazbich. When Pechorin returns, Maxim Maksimych tells him about this. Pechorin says that we need to be more careful and forbids Bela to leave the fortress.
Maxim Maksimych reproaches Pechorin for losing interest in Bela. Pechorin replies that he has an unhappy character - he himself is unhappy and brings misfortune to others. In his youth, he “enjoyed the pleasures that can be obtained for money,” and he became disgusted with them, he ended up in high society, and he was also tired of him, “the love of secular beauties inflamed his pride and imagination, but left his heart empty.”
Pechorin began to study, but he soon lost interest in the sciences, because he realized that “neither fame nor happiness depend at all on them.
To achieve success, you just need to be clever.” Then he got bored. I went to the Caucasus, but after a month I got used to the whistling of bullets. When he saw Bela, “it seemed to him that she was an angel.” But then he realized that “the love of a savage is little better than the love of a noble lady.
The ignorance and simple-heartedness of one are just as annoying as the coquetry of the other.” Soon Pechorin and Maxim Maksimych are leaving to hunt a wild boar. On their way back they hear a shot.
Kazbich made his way into the fortress and kidnapped Bela. The pursuit. Kazbich, realizing that he cannot escape on a wounded horse, wounds Bela with a dagger. Bela died 2 days later. She was very tormented, she called Pechorin, asked him to kiss her before his death, she regretted that in the next world they would not be together, because...
they are of different faiths. Maxim Maksimych loved her like a daughter, but she never remembered him before her death (“And who am I to remember about me before my death?”). After Bela's death, Maxim Maksimych and Pechorin go out onto the ramparts. Maxim Maksimych tries to console Pechorin, who unexpectedly laughs in response. Bela was buried.
Pechorin was unwell for a long time, and soon he was transferred to Georgia.
HISTORY OF THE CREATION OF THE WORK
The pinnacle of creativity of Lermontov the prose writer. Of course, Lermontov is, first of all, a poet. His prose works are few in number and appeared during the period of dominance of poetic genres in Russian literature.
The first prose work is the unfinished historical novel “Vadim” about the era of the Pugachev rebellion. This was followed by the novel “Princess of Lithuania” (1836) - another important stage in the development of Lermontov as a writer. If “Vadim” is an attempt to create an exclusively romantic novel, then in the subsequent work the main character Georges Pechorin is a completely full-fledged type, characteristic of realistic prose.
It is in “Princess Ligovskaya” that the name of Pechorin first appears. In the same novel, the main features of his character are laid down, as well as the author’s style is developed and Lermontov’s psychologism is born.
However, “A Hero of Our Time” is not a continuation of the novel “The Princess of Lithuania.” An important feature of the work is that the entire period of Pechorin’s St. Petersburg life is hidden from the reader. His metropolitan past is spoken of only in a few places with vague hints, which creates an atmosphere of mystery and enigma around the figure of the main character. The only work completed and published during the author's lifetime.
“A Hero of Our Time” is a book on which Lermontov worked from 1837 to 1840, although many literary scholars believe that work on the work continued until the death of the author. It is believed that the first completed episode of the novel was the story “Taman,” written in the fall of 1837. Then “Fatalist” was written, and the idea of combining the stories into one work arose only in 1838.
In the first edition of the novel there was the following sequence of episodes: “Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”, “Princess Mary”. In August - September 1839, in the second intermediate edition of the novel, the sequence of episodes changed: “Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”, “Fatalist”, “Princess Mary”. Then the novel was called “One of the heroes of the beginning of the century.”
By the end of the same year, Lermontov created the final version of the work, including the story “Taman” and arranging the episodes in the order familiar to us. “Pechorin's Journal”, a preface to it and the final title of the novel appeared.
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COMPOSITION
The plot of the novel (the sequence of events in the work) and its plot (the chronological sequence of events) do not coincide. The composition of the novel, according to the author’s plan, is as follows: “Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”, “Taman”, “Princess Mary”, “Fatalist”. The chronological order of events in the novel is different: “Taman”, “Princess Mary”, “Bela”, “Fatalist”, “Maksim Maksimych”. Five years pass between the events described in the story “Bela” and Pechorin’s meeting with Maxim Maksimych in Vladikavkaz.
The very last entry is the narrator's preface to Pechorin's journal, where he writes that he learned about his death. It is noteworthy that not only is the chronology of events disrupted in the work, but there are also several narrators.
The story begins with a mysterious narrator who does not give his name, but in the preface to the magazine he indicates that he “took the opportunity to put his name on someone else’s work.”
Then the whole story of Bela is told by Maxim Maksimych in the first person. The narrator returns again, who sees with his own eyes the first and only appearance of the “living” Pechorin throughout the novel. Finally, in the last three parts the protagonist himself narrates the story on his own behalf.
The composition is complicated by a technique called a novel within a novel: Pechorin’s notes are part of someone else’s work - a novel that the narrator writes. All the other stories were written by him, one of them is told from the words of the staff captain.
Such a complex multi-level composition serves to deeply reveal the image of the main character. First, the reader sees him through the eyes of a biased staff captain who clearly sympathizes with Pechorin, then through the objective gaze of the narrator, and finally the reader gets to know Pechorin “personally” - he reads his diary. It was not expected that anyone else would see Pechorin’s recordings, so his story is completely sincere.
As we gradually and more closely become acquainted with the main character, a reader's attitude towards him begins to form. The author tries to make the text as objective as possible, devoid of his own obsessive position, - one where only the reader has to give answers to the questions that have arisen and form his own opinion about Pechorin’s personality.
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The complex composition of the work also determined its genre. Lermontov chose the most unconventional option - mixing them both in form and content.
Small stories, short stories, and essays were combined into one solid work, turning small prose forms into a full-fledged large novel. Each story of “A Hero of Our Time” can act as an independent work: each has a complete plot, beginning and end, and its own system of characters.
What essentially unites them into a novel is the central character, officer Pechorin. Each of the stories is a reflection of a certain genre literary tradition and style, as well as its author’s processing. “Bela” is a typical romantic short story about the love of a European man for a savage woman.
This popular plot, which can easily be found in Byron and Pushkin in southern poems, and in a huge number of authors of that time, Lermontov transforms it using a narrative form. Everything that happens is passed through the prism of the perception of the kind, simple and even too straightforward Maxim Maksimych.
The love story takes on new meanings and is perceived differently by the reader. “Taman” reveals a typical plot of an adventure novel: the main character accidentally ends up in a smugglers’ den, but still remains unharmed. The adventure line prevails here, unlike the short story “Fatalist”. It also has a very exciting plot, but it serves to reveal the semantic concept.
“The Fatalist” is a philosophical parable with an admixture of romantic motifs: the characters talk about fate, fate and predestination - the cornerstone values of this literary movement.
“Princess Mary” is the author’s vision of the “secular” story genre. Pechorin's entire journal refers to a well-known problem raised by many authors - Lermontov's predecessors and contemporaries. It is no coincidence that the author himself, in the preface, recalls the work of J.-J. Rousseau "Confession". The image of Pechorin, of course, had prototypes in works of Russian classical literature, the most significant of which were “Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboyedov and “Eugene Onegin” by A. S. Pushkin.
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Portrait. Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is an officer of “medium height: his slender, thin figure and broad shoulders proved a strong build, capable of enduring all the difficulties of nomadic life and climate change, not defeated by either the depravity of metropolitan life or spiritual storms; His dusty velvet frock coat, fastened only with the bottom two buttons, made it possible to see his dazzlingly clean linen, revealing the habits of a decent man.
His gait was careless and lazy, but I noticed that he did not swing his arms - a sure sign of some secretiveness of character. At first glance at his face, I would not have given him more than twenty-three years, although after that I was ready to give him thirty. There was something childish in his smile.
His blond hair, naturally curly, so picturesquely outlined his pale, noble forehead, on which, only after long observation, one could notice traces of wrinkles crossing one another. Despite the light color of his hair, his mustache and eyebrows were black - a sign of the breed in a person; he had a slightly upturned nose, teeth of dazzling whiteness and brown eyes...”
Hero of our time.
The title of the work certainly hints at the central character. The entire novel is written about Pechorin, and his image continues the galaxy of heroes who reveal the literary theme of the “superfluous man.”
“Am I a fool or a villain, I don’t know; but it is true that I am also very worthy of pity, my soul is spoiled by light, my imagination is restless, my 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; I have only one remedy left: to travel” - these words strike Maxim Maksimych to the depths of his soul.
A man who is still so young and has his whole life ahead of him has already known light, love, and war - and he has already become tired of all this. However, Lermontov’s character differs both from foreign prototypes and from domestic literary brothers in misfortune.
Pechorin is a bright, extraordinary personality; he commits contradictory actions, but he cannot be called an inactive slacker. The character combines not only the traits of a “superfluous person”, but also a romantic hero, capable of heroic deeds, able to risk his life and valuing freedom above all good things.
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GRUSHNITSKY
Portrait. “Grushnitsky is a cadet. He has only been in the service for a year, and wears, out of a special kind of dandyism, a thick soldier’s overcoat. He has a soldier's cross of St. George. He is well built, dark and black-haired; he looks like he might be twenty-five years old, although he is hardly twenty-one.
He throws his head back when he speaks, and constantly twirls his mustache with his left hand, because he leans on a crutch with his right. He speaks quickly and pretentiously: he is one of those people who have ready-made pompous phrases for all occasions, who are not touched by simply beautiful things and who are solemnly draped in extraordinary feelings, sublime passions and exceptional suffering.”
The portrait of Grushnitsky is given through the eyes of the main character. Pechorin mockingly describes the external features and especially the internal properties of Grushnitsky’s soul. However, he also sees his advantages, notes in his diary his beauty, wit (“He is quite sharp: his epigrams are often funny, but they are never sharp and evil: he will not kill anyone with one word…”), courage and goodwill (“in those moments , when he casts off his tragic mantle, Grushnitsky is quite sweet and funny").
Reflection of Pechorin. Gregory writes about his friend: “I understood him, and he doesn’t love me for that. I don’t like him either: I feel that someday we will collide with him on a narrow road, and one of us will be in trouble.” Grushnitsky annoys Pechorin with his theatricality and posturing. In the officer's descriptions, the cadet looks like a typical hero of a romantic novel. However, the features of Pechorin himself are easily discernible in the image of his opponent.
The main character sees his own deteriorated and somewhat distorted, but still, reflection. That is why Grushnitsky arouses so much hostility in him and the desire to put him in his place. Pechorin’s egoism, as well as narcissism (let’s pay attention to his words about Grushnitsky: “He doesn’t know people and their weak strings, because he spent his whole life focusing on himself”) - traits also inherent in his antagonist, ultimately lead both characters to tragic events.
It is no coincidence that the main character does not ultimately experience triumph when he sees the bloody body of a man who wanted not only to laugh at him, but also to harm him in a vile way, if not kill him. Pechorin sees his future in the fate of the deceased Grushnitsky.
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MAXIM MAKSIMYCH
The hero has many positive traits; he immediately wins over the reader. This is a simple person, “does not like metaphysical debates at all,” but at the same time very friendly and observant.
Pechorin's cold, almost rude behavior at their last meeting deeply wounds the hero. Maxim Maksimych is the only unambiguously positive hero. He evokes sympathy and sympathy not only from the narrator, but also from the reader. However, this character is in many ways opposed to Pechorin.
If Pechorin is young, smart and well-educated, has a complex mental organization, then Maxim Maksimych, on the contrary, is a representative of the older generation, a simple and at times narrow-minded person, not inclined to dramatize life and complicate relationships between people. But it is worth paying attention to the main difference between the heroes.
The staff captain is kind and sincere, while Pechorin is always secretive and has malicious intent, as follows from the confessions in his diary entries. Maxim Maksimych is a character who helps reveal the essence and complexity of the protagonist’s nature.
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Werner is ugly, his natural ugliness is especially emphasized by Pechorin. Werner's appearance resembles the devil, and ugliness always attracts even more than beauty. The doctor is Pechorin's only friend in the novel.
“Werner is a wonderful person for many reasons. He is a skeptic and a materialist, like almost all doctors, and at the same time a poet, and in earnest - a poet in practice always and often in words, although he never wrote two poems in his life. He studied all the living strings of the human heart, as one studies the veins of a corpse, but he never knew how to use his knowledge.
Usually Werner secretly mocked his patients; but I once saw him cry over a dying soldier...” In Werner's conversations with Pechorin, one can feel how close their views on life are. Werner understands his friend’s nature very well. The doctor, like Grushnitsky, is a reflection of Pechorin, but he is a true friend (he finds out that ill-wishers want to load one pistol, settles matters after the duel).
But Werner was disappointed in Pechorin: “There is no evidence against you, and you can sleep peacefully... if you can.”
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WOMEN'S IMAGES
In all the short stories of the novel, except for the part “Maksim Maksimych”, there are female characters. The two largest stories are named after women - “Bela” and “Princess Mary”. All the women in the novel are beautiful, interesting and smart in their own way, and all, one way or another, are unhappy because of Pechorin.
The work presents several female characters: Bela - a Circassian girl, Vera - a married lady, Pechorin's old love, Princess Mary and her mother, Princess Ligovskaya, a smuggler from Taman, Yanko's lover. All the women in the novel “A Hero of Our Time” are bright personalities. But none of them could keep Pechorin next to them for a long time, tie him to themselves, make him better. He accidentally or intentionally caused them pain and brought serious misfortunes into their lives.
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Portrait. “A girl of about sixteen, tall, thin, black eyes, like those of a mountain chamois, and looked into your soul.” A young Circassian woman, the daughter of a local prince, is an amazingly beautiful, young and exotic girl.
Role in the novel. Bela is almost the wife of Pechorin, who is so afraid to forever connect his fate with a woman. As a child, a fortune teller predicted his death from his evil wife, and this greatly impressed him. Bela is the hero’s last lover, judging by the chronology and the facts that appear before the reader. Her fate is the most tragic.
The girl dies at the hands of a robber, from whom Pechorin helped steal a horse. However, he perceives the death of his beloved with some relief. Bela quickly bored him and turned out to be no better than the capital's social beauties. Her death made Pechorin free again, which for him is the highest value.
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Princess Mary
Portrait. The princess is young and slender, always dressed tastefully. Pechorin speaks about her like this: “This Princess Mary is very pretty. She has such velvet eyes - just velvet: the lower and upper eyelashes are so long that the rays of the sun are not reflected in her pupils. I love these eyes without shine: they are so soft, they seem to be stroking you...”
Role in the novel. The young princess becomes Pechorin's deliberate victim. To spite Grushnitsky, who is in love with her, and in order to have the opportunity to see his mistress and relative of the princess more often, the main character plans to make Mary fall in love with him. He succeeds in this easily and without a twinge of conscience. However, from the very beginning he did not even think about marrying the princess. “... I often, running through the past in my thoughts, ask myself: why didn’t I want to take this path, opened to me by fate, where quiet joys and peace of mind awaited me? No, I wouldn’t get along with this lot!” - this is Pechorin’s confession after describing his last meeting with the princess.
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Portrait. Werner, in a conversation with Pechorin, mentions the woman he saw at the Ligovskys’, “a relative of the princess by marriage.” The doctor describes her like this: “she is very pretty, but she seems to be very sick... She is of average height, blonde, with regular features, her complexion is consumptive, and there is a mole on her right cheek: her face struck me with its expressiveness.”
Role in the novel. Vera is the only woman whom Pechorin says he loves. He understands that she loved him more than other women. He rushes to her at full speed to see her for the last time, but his horse dies, and they never have time to meet.
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PSYCHOLOGISM IN THE NOVEL
“A Hero of Our Time” is the first psychological novel in Russian literature. Increased interest in the personality, the inner world of the character, the depiction of his soul in order to reveal the essence of human nature - these were the tasks facing Lermontov.
Self-analysis in Pechorin's journal. The notes made by the main character are a transition to a direct psychological depiction. There are no longer any barriers between Pechorin and the reader; now it is an open dialogue between them. Confession to your interlocutor. In his remarks addressed to Werner and Princess Mary, Pechorin sincerely admits his feelings and thoughts.
Retrospective assessment. Pechorin recalls previously committed actions and analyzes them. This technique of introspection first appears at the end of “Taman,” where the hero talks about his role in the fate of other people, in particular “honest smugglers.” Psychological experiment. Pechorin checks from his own experience the reactions of other people and himself. This is how he reveals himself as a man of action and as a person with deep analytical abilities.
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On the way from Tiflis, the narrator meets a staff captain named Maxim Maksimych. They make part of the journey together. In the evenings, Maxim Maksimych shares interesting stories about life in the Caucasus and talks about the customs of the local residents. One of these stories begins at the wedding of the daughter of a local prince.
A young officer, Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin, served under the command of the staff captain. Maxim Maksimych became friends with him. They were invited to a wedding in the village. The prince’s youngest daughter, Bela, approached Pechorin at the holiday and “sang him something like a compliment.” Pechorin also liked the pretty princess. The local robber Kazbich was also at the festival. Maxim Maksimych knew him because he often brought sheep to the fortress and sold them cheaply. There were various rumors about Kazbich, but everyone admired his horse, the best in Kabarda.
That same evening, Maxim Maksimych accidentally witnessed a conversation between Kazbich and Azamat, Bela’s brother. The young man begged to sell him a beautiful horse. He was even ready to steal his sister for him, because he knew that Kazbich liked Bela. However, the wayward robber was adamant. Azamat got angry and a fight broke out. Maxim Maksimych and Pechorin returned to the fortress.
The staff captain told a friend about the overheard conversation and quarrel between two men. Some time later, someone stole Kazbich's horse. It happened like this. Kazbich brought sheep to the fortress for sale. Maxim Maksimych invited him to have tea. The friends were talking, when suddenly Kazbich changed his face, rushed into the street, but saw only dust from the hooves of the horse on which Azamat was running away. Kazbich’s grief was so great that he “lay on his face as if dead,” “he lay there until late at night.”
Kazbich went to the village to see Azamat’s father, but did not find him. The prince left somewhere, and, thanks to his absence, Azamat managed to kidnap his sister for Pechorin. This was the agreement: Pechorin helped steal Kazbich’s horse in exchange for Bela. The officer secretly settled the girl with him. He showered her with gifts and hired a servant for her, but Bela got used to it very slowly. One day, Grigory could not stand it and said that if he was so disgusting to her and she could not love him, then he would immediately leave wherever he looked. But Bela threw herself on Pechorin’s neck and begged him to stay. The officer achieved his goal - he won the heart of an adamant girl.
At first everything was fine, but soon Pechorin became bored with his happy life, he realized that he no longer loved Bela. More and more often, the officer went into the forest to hunt for long hours, and sometimes for whole days. Meanwhile, Maxim Maksimych became friends with the prince's daughter.
Bela often complained to him about Gregory. One day the staff captain decided to talk to Pechorin. Grigory told a friend about his unhappy character: sooner or later he gets bored with everything. He lived in the capital, but he was tired of pleasures, high society and even study. And so Pechorin went to the Caucasus in the hope that “boredom does not live under Chechen bullets.” But after a month they stopped worrying the hero. Finally he met Bela and fell in love, but quickly realized that “the love of a savage is little better than the love of a noble lady.”
One day Pechorin persuaded Maxim Maksimych to go hunting with him. They took people, left early in the morning, by noon they found the boar, started shooting, but the animal got away. The unsuccessful hunters went back. Already at the fortress itself a shot was heard. Everyone galloped headlong towards the sound. The soldiers gathered on the rampart and pointed to the field. And a rider was flying along it, holding something white on his saddle.
Maxim Maksimych and Pechorin rushed to catch up with the fugitive. It was Kazbich who stole Bela to avenge his loss. Having caught up with the rider, Grigory fired, Kazbich’s horse fell. Then Maxim Maksimych fired, and when the smoke cleared, everyone saw a girl and Kazbich running away next to the wounded horse. The robber stabbed the girl in the back.
Bela lived for two more days, dying in terrible agony. Pechorin did not close his eyes and sat at her bedside constantly. On the second day, Bela asked for water, she seemed to feel better, but three minutes later she died. Maxim Maksimych took Pechorin out of the room, his own heart was breaking with grief, but the officer’s face was calm and did not express anything. This indifference struck Maxim Maksimych.
They buried Bela behind the fortress, by the river, near the place where Kazbich kidnapped her. Pechorin was unwell for a long time, lost weight, and three months later he was transferred to another regiment, and he left for Georgia. The staff captain did not know what happened to Kazbich.
While Maxim Maksimych was telling this story to the narrator for several days, the time came for them to part. Due to the heavy luggage, the staff captain could not move quickly; At this point the heroes said goodbye. But the narrator was lucky enough to meet the staff captain again.
After parting with Maxim Maksimych, the narrator quickly reached Vladikavkaz. But there he had to stay for three days, waiting for an opportunity - cover accompanying the convoys. Already on the second day, Maxim Maksimych arrived there. The staff captain prepared an excellent dinner for two, but there was no conversation - the men had not seen each other very long ago. The narrator, who had already begun to sketch his own story about Bel and Pechorin, believed that he would hear nothing more interesting from Maxim Maksimych.
Several carts drove into the yard. Among them was a wonderful, smart travel stroller. The heroes accepted the new arrivals as an expected opportunity. But it turned out that this stroller belonged to the same Pechorin who served with Maxim Maksimych. The staff captain wanted to see him right away. But the servant announced that his master was staying for dinner and spending the night with a friend of the colonel.
Maxim Maksimych asked the servant to tell Pechorin that he was waiting for him. The elderly military man could not find a place for himself and still did not go to bed, thinking that Pechorin was about to come. The narrator was very curious to meet the man about whom he had already heard so much. Early in the morning the staff captain went on official business. Pechorin appeared at the inn, he ordered to pack things and pawn the horses.
The narrator recognized Pechorin and sent for Maxim Maksimych. He ran as fast as he could to see his old friend. But Pechorin was cold, spoke little, said only that he was going to Persia, and did not want to stay even for lunch. When the carriage started moving, the staff captain remembered that he still had Pechorin’s papers in his hands, which he wanted to return to him at the meeting. But Grigory did not take them and left.
The sound of the wheels of Pechorin’s stroller had long since died down, and the old man still stood thoughtfully, and tears kept welling up in his eyes. He complained about young people, scolded his old friend for his arrogance, and still could not calm down. The narrator asked what kind of papers Pechorin left with Maxim Maksimych.
These were personal notes, which the now disgruntled staff captain was about to throw away. Delighted by such luck, the narrator asked to give Pechorin’s papers to him. The men said goodbye rather dryly; the angry staff captain became stubborn and grumpy.
The narrator got Pechorin's papers: it was an officer's diary. In the preface, he writes about what he learned about the death of Gregory in Persia. This fact gave, according to the narrator, the right to publish Pechorin’s notes. However, the narrator assigned his own name to someone else’s work. Why did he decide to publish someone else's diary?
“Re-reading these notes, I became convinced of the sincerity of the one who so mercilessly exposed his own weaknesses and vices. The history of the human soul, even the smallest soul, is perhaps more curious and useful than the history of an entire people, especially when it is the result of observations of a mature mind on itself and when it is written without a vain desire to arouse sympathy or surprise.
So, one desire for benefit made me print excerpts from a magazine that I got by chance. Although I have changed all my own names, those about whom it speaks will probably recognize themselves, and perhaps they will find justification for the actions of which they have hitherto accused a person who no longer has anything in common with this world: we are almost We always excuse what we understand.”
The narrator writes that he included in this book only those materials that related to Pechorin’s stay in the Caucasus. But he mentions that he still has a thick notebook in his hands, where the entire life of the officer is described. The narrator promises that someday she too will appear before the readers.
Pechorin's diary begins for the reader with his stay in Taman. The officer arrived in this “bad town” late at night. Pechorin was required to be allocated a service apartment, but all the huts were occupied. The officer's patience was coming to an end, he was tired on the road, it was cold at night. The foreman offered the only option: “There is another vatera, but your nobility will not like it; It’s unclean there!” Without going into the meaning of this phrase, Pechorin ordered to take him there. It was a small hut on the very seashore. The door was opened by a blind boy of about fourteen. The owner was not in the house. Pechorin settled down in the room with his Cossack orderly.
The Cossack instantly fell asleep, but the officer could not sleep. About three hours later, Pechorin noticed a flickering shadow, then another. He got dressed and quietly left the hut. A blind boy was walking towards him. The man hid so as not to be noticed and followed the blind man.
Some time later the blind man stopped on the shore. Pechorin watched him. A girl appeared. Very quietly they began to discuss whether another of their comrades would come. Soon, despite the storm and darkness, the boat arrived. A man brought something in a boat. Everyone took a bundle and everyone left.
The next morning, Pechorin found out that he would not be able to leave for Gelendzhik today. The officer returned to the hut, where not only the Cossack was waiting for him, but also the old woman and the girl. The girl began to flirt with Pechorin. He told her what he saw at night, but achieved nothing. Later in the evening, the girl came, threw herself on Gregory’s neck and kissed him. She also told me to come to the shore at night, when everyone was asleep.
He did just that. The girl led him to the boat and invited him to get into it. Before the hero had time to come to his senses, they were already swimming. The girl deftly and quickly rowed away from the shore. She then threw his gun into the sea and tried to throw the officer himself into the water. However
the man turned out to be stronger and threw her overboard himself. Somehow, with the help of the remains of an old oar, Pechorin moored to the pier.
On the shore, the officer saw the girl, he hid in the bushes and began to wait for what would happen next. The same man came on the boat as last night. From snatches of an overheard conversation, Pechorin realized that they were smugglers. The main one, named Yanko, left this place, taking the girl with him. The blind man was left almost without money in Taman.
Returning to the hut, Pechorin discovered that all his things had been stolen by a poor boy. There was no one to complain to, and the next day the officer managed to leave the ill-fated town. He did not know what happened to the old woman and the blind man.
Part two
(End of Pechorin's journal)
The events described in this part of Pechorin's journal cover about a month and take place in Pyatigorsk, Kislovodsk and the surrounding area. On the very first day of his stay on the waters, Pechorin meets his friend cadet Grushnitsky. Both don't like each other, but they pretend to be great friends.
They are discussing local society when suddenly two ladies walk past the men. It was Princess Ligovskaya and her daughter Mary. Grushnitsky really liked the young princess, and he tried to get to know her. From the first meeting, the princess began to dislike the impudent Pechorin and showed curiosity and goodwill towards Grushnitsky.
Pechorin had another friend in the city - Doctor Werner. He was a very smart and sharp-tongued person who really aroused Pechorin’s sympathy. One day Werner came to visit the officer. During the conversation, it became clear that Pechorin intended to mock
over the ardent Grushnitsky and hit on the princess. In addition, Werner reports about a newly arrived woman, a distant relative of the princess. In the description of the woman, Pechorin recognizes his old love - Vera.
One day at the well Pechorin meets Vera. She is a married woman, but their feelings are still strong. They are developing a dating plan: Pechorin should become a regular guest at the Ligovskys’ house, and so as not to be suspected, he should look after Mary. A successful incident at the ball leads to Pechorin being invited to the Ligovskys’ house. He thinks through a system of actions to make the princess fall in love with him.
He deliberately did not pay enough attention to her and always walked away when Grushnitsky appeared. But, as one might expect, Mary quickly became bored with the cadet, and Pechorin aroused more and more interest. One day the whole society went on a horseback ride. At some point during the journey, Pechorin tells Mary that as a child he was underestimated and unloved, so from an early age he became gloomy, heartless and became a “moral cripple.” This made a strong impression on the young sensitive girl.
At the next ball, Mary danced with Pechorin and completely lost interest in Grushnitsky. Vera left with her husband for Kislovodsk and asked Gregory to follow her. Pechorin leaves for Kislovodsk. After a few days, the whole society also moves there. The heroes go on a short excursion to watch the sunset. Pechorin helped the princess's horse cross a mountain river. Mary felt dizzy, and the officer grabbed her by the waist to keep her in the saddle.
Stealthily he kissed her on the cheek. From Princess Pechorin's reaction, he realized that she was in love with him. Returning home that evening,
the hero accidentally overheard a conversation in a tavern. Grushnitsky and his friends organized a conspiracy against him: they wanted to challenge him to a duel without loading the pistols. The next morning, Pechorin met the princess at the well and admitted that he did not love her. Soon he received a note from
Vera with an invitation. Her husband left for a few days, and she made sure she was left alone in the house. Pechorin arrived at the appointed time.
However, when he left, he was waylaid by the conspirators. A fight took place, but Pechorin managed to escape. The next morning, Grushnitsky, who had not noticed Pechorin, began to say that they had caught him under the princess’s windows. After this, Grushnitsky was challenged to a duel. Werner was chosen as a second. He returned an hour later and told what he could hear in the rivals’ house. They changed the plan: now one of Grushnitsky’s pistols must be loaded. Pechorin has his own plan, which he does not tell Werner about.
The heroes meet early in the morning in a quiet gorge. Pechorin offers to resolve everything peacefully, but is refused. Then he says that he wants to shoot, as agreed, at six paces, but on a small platform above the abyss. Even a slight wound will be enough for the enemy to fall into the abyss. The mutilated corpse will become evidence of an accident, and Dr. Werner will prudently remove the bullet. Everyone agrees. By lot it falls to Grushnitsky to shoot first. He easily wounds his opponent in the leg. Pechorin manages to stay above the abyss. He should shoot next. Pechorin asks if Grushnitsky would like to ask
forgiveness. Having received a negative answer, he asks to load his gun because he noticed that there is no bullet in it. It all ends with Pechorin shooting at the enemy, who falls from the cliff and dies.
Returning home, Pechorin receives a note from Vera. She says goodbye to him forever. The hero tries to make it to the last meeting, but on the way his horse dies. He visits the princess. She is grateful that Gregory protected her daughter from slander, and is sure that Pechorin wants to marry her. The Princess has nothing against the wedding, despite the hero’s position. He asks to see Mary. The officer forces the princess, offended by his previous confession, to tell her mother that she hates him.
This is an episode from the life of Pechorin, when he lived in a Cossack village. In the evening, a dispute ensues among the officers about whether there is fate and predestination. The hot-blooded Serbian player Vulich enters the argument. “He was brave, spoke little, but sharply; he didn’t trust his spiritual and family secrets to anyone; I almost didn’t drink wine at all, I never pursued young Cossack girls.”
Vulich suggests testing for yourself whether a person can control his own life. Pechorin jokingly offers a bet. He says that he does not believe in predestination, and poured out the entire contents of his pockets on the table - about two dozen chervonets. The Serb agrees. Moving to another room, Vulich sat down at the table, the others followed him.
For some reason Pechorin told him that he would die today. Vulich asked one of his comrades if the pistol was loaded. He didn't remember exactly. Vulich asked Pechorin to take out and toss a playing card. As soon as she touched the table, he pulled the trigger of the pistol pressed to his temple. I There was a misfire. Then the Serb immediately shot at the cap hanging over the window and shot through it. Pechorin, like everyone else, was so amazed by what happened that he believed in predestination and gave the money.
Soon everyone dispersed. On the way home, Pechorin tripped over the corpse of a chopped up pig. Then I met two Cossacks who were looking for a drunken, raging neighbor. Pechorin went to bed, but was awakened at dawn. Vulich was killed. Pechorin followed his colleagues.
3.8 / 5. 66