About the image of Pechorin, V. G. Belinsky said: “This is the Onegin of our time, the hero of our time. Their dissimilarity is much less than the distance between Onega and Pechora.” Onegin is a mirror of the era of the 1820s, the era of the Decembrists; Pechorin is the hero of the third decade, the “cruel century”. Both of them are thinking people, but people of their time. Pechorin lived in a difficult era of social oppression and inaction, and Onegin lived during a period of social upsurge, during the Decembrists. Therefore, Belinsky says: “Onegin is bored, but Pechorin is suffering.”
Pechorin was a nobleman by birth and received a secular upbringing. Having left the care of his relatives, he “entered the big world” and “began to wildly enjoy all the pleasures.” He soon became disgusted with his frivolous life. Just like Onegin, he got bored with reading books. After the “notorious story in St. Petersburg,” Pechorin was exiled to the Caucasus.
Drawing the appearance of his hero, the author emphasizes his aristocracy: “pale, noble forehead”, “small aristocratic hand”, “dazzlingly clean linen”. Pechorin is a physically strong and resilient person: “his broad shoulders proved his strong build, capable of withstanding all difficulties nomadic life...undefeated by debauchery metropolitan life, nor spiritual storms." The portrait of the hero also reflects internal qualities: contradiction and secrecy. Isn't it surprising that, "despite light color hair, his mustache and black eyebrows... His eyes did not laugh when he laughed.”
Pechorin is endowed with an extraordinary mind, critically assessing the world around him. He reflects on the problems of good and evil, love and friendship, on the meaning human life. In his assessment of his contemporaries, he is self-critical: “We are no longer capable of making great sacrifices, either for the good of humanity, or even for our own happiness.” He has a great understanding of people, is not satisfied with the sleepy life of the “water society” and gives destructive characteristics to the capital’s aristocrats. The author emphasizes that Pechorin knows literature and history well - in his diary we find quotes from Griboyedov and Pushkin, titles of works, names of writers and literary heroes. Pechorin is insanely brave, as if playing with life. Standing on the edge of a precipice with an unloaded pistol, he exposes his chest to Grushnitsky’s shot. And this is done in order to “experience the limits of my opponent’s meanness.” A man of strong will and great potential, Pechorin passionately strives for an active life.
“Born for a high purpose,” he is forced to live in languid inaction or waste his strength on actions unworthy of a real person. Even constant adventures cannot satisfy him. Love brings only disappointment and grief. He causes grief to those around him, and this deepens his suffering. Remember what the fate of Bela, Grushnitsky, Princess Mary and Vera, Maxim Maksimych was.
However, along with the wealth of soul and talent of the hero, Lermontov also reveals negative qualities Pe-chorina. A cold egoist, he is indifferent to the suffering of others, and this characterizes him as an individualist. But the heaviest accusation against Pechorin is the lack of purpose in life, the futility of existence. Having thought about the question of the purpose of his life, he wrote in the “journal”: “Oh, it’s true, it existed and, it’s true, I had a high purpose, because I feel immense strength in my soul.”
Has Pechorin found his “highest purpose”? Did you use your “immense strength” for good? And wasn’t it about people like him from the generation of the 30s of the 19th century that Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov said in the famous “Duma”:
.. Over peace We let's pass without noise And trace,
Not having quit centuries neither thoughts prolific,
Neither geniuses started labor.
Can Pechorin be called a hero in the positive sense of the word? Or perhaps there is deep irony hidden in the very title of the novel? The answer to this question must be sought in the preface. In it, Lermontov categorically states that Pechorin is “a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation in their full development.”
“Pechorinism” was a typical disease of the time. However, even in those years, full of darkness and hopelessness, the names of true heroes appeared. They walked the “flint path” of fighters step by step and showed the world examples of patriotism and civic courage.
Moral problems of Lermontov's novel "A Hero of Our Time"
The novel “A Hero of Our Time” is the first in the history of Russian literature realistic novel with deep philosophical content. In the preface to the novel, Lermontov writes that his novel is a portrait “not of one person, but a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation in their full development.”
Pechorin lived in the first years after the defeat of the December uprising. These are difficult years for Russia. The best people executed, exiled to Siberian mines, others renounced their free-thinking ideas. In order to maintain faith in the future, to find the strength for active work in the name of the coming triumph of freedom, one had to have a noble heart, one had to be able to see real ways of struggle and serving the truth.
The overwhelming majority of thinking people of the 30s were precisely those who were unable or did not yet have time to gain this clarity of purpose, to give their strength to the struggle, from whom the ingrained order of life took away faith in the expediency of serving good, faith in its future triumph. The dominant type of the era was that type human personality, which is known in Russian history social thought under the bitter name of “superfluous person”.
Pechorin entirely belongs to this type. Before us is a young twenty-five-year-old man, suffering from his restlessness, in despair asking himself the question: “Why did I live, for what purpose was I born?” Pechorin is not an ordinary representative of the secular aristocracy. He stands out from the people around him with his originality. He knows how to critically approach any event, any person. He gives clear and precise characteristics to people. He quickly and correctly understood Grushnitsky, Princess Mary, and Doctor Werner. Pechorin is brave, has great endurance and willpower. He is the only one who rushes into the hut, where Vulich’s killer sits with a pistol, ready to kill the first one who enters him. He does not reveal his excitement when he stands under Grushnitsky’s pistol.
Pechorin is an officer. He serves, but is not cured. And when he says: “My ambition is suppressed by circumstances,” it is not difficult to understand what he means: many were making careers in those years and “circumstances” did not at all prevent them from doing so.
Pechorin has an active soul, requiring will and movement. He prefers to expose his forehead to Chechen bullets, seeks oblivion in risky adventures, changing places, but all this is just an attempt to somehow dissipate, to forget about the huge emptiness that oppresses him. He is haunted by boredom and the consciousness that living like this is hardly “worth the trouble.”
In Pechorin, nothing betrays the presence of any public interests. The spirit of skepticism, disbelief, denial, which is sharply reflected in Pechorin’s entire internal make-up, in the cruel coldness of his merciless aphorisms, speaks for itself. And it’s not for nothing that he often repeats that he is “not capable of making great sacrifices for the good of humanity,” that he is used to “doubting everything.”
The main spring of Pechorin’s actions is individualism. He goes through life without sacrificing anything for others, even for those he loves: he also loves only “for himself,” for his own pleasure. Lermontov reveals Pechorin’s individualism and considers not only his psychology, but a certain ideological concept of life. Pechorin is a true product of his time, a time of search and doubt. He is in constant duality of spirit, the stamp of constant introspection lies on his every step. “There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges it,” says Pechorin.
For Pechorin does not exist social ideals. What moral principles does he follow? “Of two friends, one is always the slave of the other,” he says. Hence his inability to true friendship and love. He is selfish and indifferent person, looking “at the sufferings and joys of others only in relation to oneself.” Pechorin considers himself the creator of his destiny and his only judge. He constantly reports to his conscience; he analyzes his actions, trying to penetrate into the origins of “good and evil.”
With the life story of Pechorin, Lermontov tells that the path of individualism is contrary to human nature and its needs. A person begins to find true joys and true fullness of life only where relationships between people are built according to the laws of goodness, nobility, justice, and humanism.
Moral problems in the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time"
Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is the main character of the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time". The novel is written in a form that is quite unusual for the reader. The events that happen to the hero are described by the author not in chronological order, which gives the work some mystery.
It seems to me that in this novel M.Yu. Lermontov tries to reveal all the secrets to the reader human soul, thereby revealing the moral side of the human worldview. “A Hero of Our Time” is definitely a portrait, but not of one person: it is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation in their full development.” And although the novel was written only in the mid-nineteenth century, nowadays people like Pechorin can be found anywhere, but it cannot be said that they are the overwhelming majority. This is wrong.
In my opinion, the main goal that M.Yu. Lermontov when writing the novel, there was a revelation of the meaning of life and moral problems personality. Pechorin was a rather reserved and secretive person, this is what distinguished him from other people. There is a barrier between Pechorin and his acquaintances that the hero cannot overcome; it is this barrier that separates him from the usual way of life and behavior of other people. Something prevents him from doing the same everyday things that everyone else does, so Pechorin appears to the reader as lonely, abandoned, extra person.
Over time, the hero begins to evaluate the events that he had to endure. The question comes to his mind: “Why did I live? For what purpose was I born? He begins to understand that time has been lost, nothing significant has happened in his life and is unlikely to happen. Pechorin bitterly realizes that he has done nothing to be recognized in society and the world around him. Pechorin involuntarily thinks about death.
All his reflections on his own actions and their analysis convince Pechorin that a person is responsible for his destiny. He tries to be responsible for his actions, no matter what they are and no matter what result they bring. After all, he, of course, understands the pain Mary causes, although it is not indifference that forces him to commit such an act, he is simply afraid of everyday life. Pechorin destroys the princess's love for herself, causing her severe mental trauma. But at the same time, he saves her from the misfortune that would await them in the future, from an affair with a low and petty creature.
Having passed such life path, which leads Pechorin to think about the purpose and meaning of life, only after making many mistakes does he begin to understand where he stumbled. Sometimes he even thinks about predestination human destiny, believing that, probably, it would be possible to build a life from other matters and actions, first thinking about it, and only then laying the foundation bricks according to a certain scheme on which his entire future life, more saturated with happiness, would be based. But if everything is predetermined, then we can’t do anything. He became an extra person. What a pity that in order to understand the essence of life, he had to lose his first and last chance for a happy life.
In addition, it cannot be said that Pechorin was a complete egoist, but we cannot talk about his caring for people. His explanations with Princess Mary tell us about his self-sacrifice; the hero did not want to deceive those he respected. Throughout the entire novel, Pechorin struggles with selfishness and sincerity of feelings towards others, the willingness to put oneself at risk only in order to finally awaken in a person. good feelings. Despite Pechorin’s attempt to somehow change his wasted life, to add drops of fun and happiness to it, he cannot withstand these moral problems, which are almost insoluble, the consequence of which is his departure from Russia with the hope of dying in places that do not remind him of the past .
It seems to me that the work of M.Yu. Lermontov is the pinnacle, the peak of magnificent creativity. "A Hero of Our Time" reveals to the reader who is able to reflect on philosophical themes, the whole essence of the human soul, no matter who we're talking about. "Hero of Our Time" - mine favorite piece of all the creations of M.Yu. Lermontov.
Problems and tests on the topic "Moral problems in M.Yu. Lermontov's novel "A Hero of Our Time""
- Orthoepy - Important Topics to repeat the Unified State Exam in Russian
Lessons: 1 Tasks: 7
- Changing past tense verbs by gender and number - Verb as part of speech grade 4
Lessons: 1 Assignments: 9 Tests: 1
M. Yu. Lermontov’s novel “Hero of Our Time” is the final work of the writer’s creativity. It reflected problems that deeply worried the author, as well as his contemporaries. Their range is extremely wide; this circumstance determined the deep and serious problems, the complex genre nature of the novel, as well as the features of its composition. Central problem The novel, according to V. G. Belinsky’s definition, is “an important question about the inner man, a question to which the century has responded.” However, despite the fact that the problem " inner man“is the main thing in the work, it is closely connected with the historical situation, which is characteristic of the time of action in the novel and the time of its writing, since Lermontov’s hero is a contemporary of the writer. Lermontov's novel is deep and complex in its problems. The questions posed in it are of a social, or public, moral, as well as philosophical nature. The main problems raised by the author of the novel “A Hero of Our Time”: the problem of the meaning of life, the problem of predetermination of human destiny and freedom of choice, the problem contemporary author generation “wandering the earth without convictions and pride”, the problem of public and personal duty, the problem of friendship and love and many others. With all the variety of themes in the novel, the central problem of the work is the question of the “inner man,” and the author’s main task is to learn and understand the “history of the human soul,” which is “almost more curious and more useful than history a whole people." Noteworthy special attention the originality of the composition of the novel, it was chosen by M. Yu. Lermontov in accordance with the author’s assignment: to learn and understand “the history of the human soul.” The peculiarity of the composition of Lermontov's novel is as follows: consisting of separate chapters, the novel, however, is surprisingly integral, since its parts are united by one hero and a single author's thought. In the novel, the chapters are not arranged in the sequence in which the events described in it could occur in the life of the hero. Thus, the reader learns about Pechorin’s death on the road from Persia in the preface to “Pechorin’s Journal”, and after it follows chapters telling about the hero’s life in the Caucasus: “Taman”, “Princess Mary” and “Fatalist”. In addition, the last short story returns the reader to the N. fortress in which the action of the first story “Bela” takes place. Thus, the composition of Lermontov’s novel can be defined as circular, which is very symbolic. Such an unusual composition was not chosen by M. Yu. Lermontov by chance; it is aimed at revealing the image of the main character, his character, helps the author first to interest the reader in the personality of Pechorin, and then gradually reveal to him the mystery of this personality. In the first story of the novel “Bela,” we learn about Pechorin thanks to Maxim Maksimych, a man far from the hero in his social origin, temperament and age, so the staff captain only points out the characteristics of the “hero of his time,” but cannot explain them. Thanks to this, Pechorin appears in the story before the reader in the form of a mysterious romantic hero, who fearlessly goes towards the wild boar, but at the same time flinches from the knocking of the window shutter. The veil of secrecy about Pechorin’s personality in the travel sketch “Maxim Maksimych” is lifted before us by a traveling officer who is a representative of the same generation and social environment as Lermontov’s hero. The narrator gives psychological portrait Pechorin, trying to explain the features of his character with physiological characteristics. However, it is not possible to learn the “history of the human soul”, to find and understand the “inner man”, making only assumptions about him from the outside. Therefore, in the subsequent chapters of the novel, which make up “Pechorin’s Journal,” M. Yu. Lermontov transfers authorship to the main character. The narration in “Taman”, “Princess Mary” and “Fatalist” is told in the first person, especially notable in this regard is the story “Princess Mary”, which has the form personal diary. In it, Pechorin explores the peculiarities of his nature, his own vices, as well as the vices of those around him and the mechanism of human relationships. The hero sets himself and tries to find answers to questions of social, moral, and philosophical nature. Among the predecessors of M. Yu. Lermontov in world literature one can name the French novelists Chateaubriand, Constant and Musset (“Confession of a Son of the Century”), who created shortly before the appearance of Lermontov’s work on canvas psychological novel the story of a hero of his time.
“In post-Lermontov literature, questions of conscience became the predominant motive... And in this sense, we can say that the first Russian prose is “A Hero of Our Time,” argued V. F. Khodasevich. Indeed, the author's focus is primarily on moral problems, although Lermontov cannot be called a moralist or a singer of virtue. In the preface to the novel, the author mockingly speaks of writers who pretend to do this, and of readers who take their moral teachings seriously: “But do not think, however, that the author of this book ever had the proud dream of becoming a corrector of human vices. God save him from such ignorance! He just had fun drawing modern man...”
Is it just fun? Of course, Lermontov cannot be suspected of wanting only to entertain himself and his readers. In the novel “A Hero of Our Time,” the author touches on the most basic issues of human existence in the world, looks into such depths of the human personality, where only Tolstoy and Dostoevsky later dared to look. And of course moral issues The novel is connected primarily with the image of the main character.
The image of Pechorin is still a mystery. For some he evoked and arouses admiration, for others - compassion and pity, for others - hostility bordering on hatred. Who is he? Strong personality, to whom “everything is allowed”? An unhappy person doomed to loneliness? Victim and hero of his time or an eternal type? By his own admission, “some will say: he was a kind fellow, others - a scoundrel. Both will be false.”
Perhaps the main problem in Lermontov’s work is the problem of morality, that is, the struggle between good and evil in man and the world. Is Pechorin good or evil? “I’m not capable of noble impulses,” he says, at times comparing himself to a vampire.
Indeed, his world is “I”, and in order to occupy it, Pechorin starts cruel games with love and death. Fate protects the hero, others pay for his games: Bela and Grushnitsky - with life, Mary and Vera - with happiness. Pechorin compares himself to the executioner's ax in the hands of fate, the necessary face of the fifth act of the tragedy. But this ruthless egoist, as he may seem, rushes, forgetting about everything, after the departed Vera and cries, realizing that he will not see her again. To last minute he provides Grushnitsky with the opportunity to abandon the vile plan, and if this happened, Pechorin would “throw himself on his neck.” Parting with Mary, he admits: “Another minute and I would have fallen at her feet.” And if he is “the cause of the misfortune of others, then he himself is no less unhappy.”
This is where the center of the moral issues of the novel lies. To what extent can a person consider fate to be the cause of his own unhappiness, and to what extent should he be responsible for himself and his actions? Does Pechorin excuse himself because he himself is unhappy, or not? The hero himself repeatedly tries to answer this question, making his own personality the favorite subject of his observations. He knows himself very well, but why he is exactly like that, he does not know. Pechorin seems to exist simultaneously in three planes of existence, each of which is an arena for the struggle between good and evil: for himself in himself, for other people - in society and before God. In accordance with this, the moral issues of the novel can be considered.
The novel was called by the author “A Hero of Our Time.” Pechorin appeared before the reading public and criticism as such a hero, a kind of portrait, “composed of the vices of an entire generation.” In the hero of the novel, many saw symptoms of the disease that struck the best part of the young Russian nobility in the thirties of the last century and gave rise to funny imitators like Grushnitsky. To Maxim Maksimych’s question about the capital’s youth, the narrator replied, “that there are many people who say the same thing... and that today those who are really bored the most are trying to hide this misfortune as a vice.” Indeed, disappointment and cold despair, exclusive focus on one’s own personality, the inability to find use for one’s powers in social activities- all this is the result of that dark era, but it’s not only that. “My soul is spoiled by light,” admits Pechorin. In fact, in order to survive and win in the world, you need to change, accept its rules, its value system, which is unthinkable without losing some - and the best! - human qualities. Where love turned into “the science of tender passion” (which the hero studied to perfection), friendship turned into a game on someone else’s pride (which is what Pechorin amuses himself with), and any sincere feeling is considered ridiculous and indecent, it was impossible to be (or seem?) to others.
But it was not only the world and society that made Pechorin a “moral cripple.” A person’s honor and dignity, willpower and proud mind do not allow him to completely shift responsibility to external circumstances. Pechorin may seem like anyone, but what does he think about himself? The novel is structured in such a way that our acquaintance with the hero becomes more and more intimate: first we hear about him from the lips of Maxim Maksimych, then we see through the eyes of the narrator and finally we read his diary. But even the diary, where Pechorin is mercilessly sincere, where his introspection is truly merciless, does not give us a complete solution! Something strange is happening: the hero here seems to be completely frank, not hiding a single emotional movement, and the reader is perplexed.
It cannot be otherwise: Pechorin is the most complete embodiment of Lermontov’s concept of man, the most important position of which is the infinity of personality, the fundamental impossibility of a final definition, and even more so an unambiguous assessment. This does not mean that Lermontov's hero is outside moral categories, but he, without a doubt, cannot be called “good” or “evil”, cannot be accused or justified. Pechorin does not recognize human judgment over himself; he knows that not a single person can be so much better than him as to allow himself to be a judge, since everyone is accountable in their actions only to God.
Man in the face of God is one of the main moral problems of Russian literature, and for Lermontov, perhaps the most important. Like to the lyrical hero Lermontov, Pechorin could say:
And may He punish me
Who invented my torment.
Pechorin was sentenced by the highest court to lifelong loneliness, but this loneliness, despite its hopelessness, is tragically beautiful. The hero is alien to Christian humility, and the heroic struggle that he wages with fate, without relying on either God or people, cannot but arouse respect. And if we are trying to pass a final moral verdict on Pechorin, let Goethe’s words force us to abandon this intention: “A true work of art, like a work of nature, always remains for our mind something infinite.”
This is exactly how the novel by M.Yu. remains for us. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time".
