The first psychological novel in Russian literature. Topic: “Hero of Our Time” - the first psychological novel in Russian literature. A novel about an extraordinary personality. lesson plan on literature on the topic. Municipal educational institution

In the novel “A Hero of Our Time,” Lermontov poses to the reader a question that worries everyone: why do the most worthy, intelligent and energetic people of his time not find use for their remarkable abilities and wither at the very beginning of life’s impulse without a fight? The writer answers this question with the life story of the main character Pechorin. Lermontov masterfully paints the image young man, which belongs to the generation of the 30s of the XIX century and in which the vices of this generation are generalized.

The era of reaction in Russia left its mark on people's behavior. Tragic fate the hero is the tragedy of an entire generation, a generation of unrealized possibilities. The young nobleman had to either lead the life of a social slacker, or be bored and wait for death. Pechorin’s character is revealed in his relationships with various people: mountaineers, smugglers, Maxim Maksimych, the “water society”.

In clashes with the mountaineers, the “oddities” of the protagonist’s character are revealed. Pechorin has many things in common with the people of the Caucasus. Like the mountaineers, he is determined and brave. His strong will knows no barriers. The goal he sets is achieved by any means, at any cost. “That’s the kind of man he was, God knows!” - Maxim Maksimych says about him. But Pechorin’s goals themselves are petty, often meaningless, always selfish. Among ordinary people living according to the customs of their ancestors, he brings evil: he pushes Kazbich and Azamat onto the path of crimes, mercilessly destroys the mountain woman Bela only because she had the misfortune of liking him.

In the story “Bela,” Pechorin’s character still remains a mystery. True, Lermontov slightly reveals the secret of his behavior. Pechorin admits to Maxim Maksimych that his “soul is spoiled by the light.” We begin to guess that Pechorin's egoism is the result of the influence of the secular society to which he belongs from birth.

In the story “Taman” Pechorin again intervenes in life strangers. The mysterious behavior of the smugglers promised an exciting adventure. And Pechorin embarked on a dangerous adventure with the sole purpose of “getting the key to this riddle.” Dormant forces awoke, will, composure, courage and determination emerged. But when the secret was revealed, the aimlessness of Pechorin’s decisive actions was revealed.

And again boredom, complete indifference to the people around me. “Yes, and I don’t care about human joys and misfortunes, I, a traveling officer, and even on the road for official reasons!” - Pechorin thinks with bitter irony.

Pechorin's inconsistency and duality appear even more clearly when compared with Maxim Maksimych. The staff captain lives for others, Pechorin lives only for himself. One is instinctively drawn to people, the other is closed in on himself, indifferent to the fate of those around him. And it is not surprising that their friendship ends dramatically. Pechorin's cruelty towards the old man is an external manifestation of his character, and underneath this external lies a bitter doom for loneliness.

The social and psychological motivation for Pechorin’s actions clearly appears in the story “Princess Mary”. Here we see Pechorin in a circle of officers and nobles. “Water society” is the social environment to which the hero belongs.

Pechorin is bored in the company of petty envious people, insignificant intriguers, devoid of noble aspirations and basic decency. A disgust for these people, among whom he is forced to stay, is brewing in his soul.

Lermontov shows how a person’s character is influenced social conditions, the environment in which he lives. Pechorin was not born a “moral cripple.” Nature gave him a deep, sharp mind, a kind, sympathetic heart, and a strong will. However, in all life's encounters, good, noble impulses ultimately give way to cruelty. Pechorin learned to be guided only by personal desires and aspirations.

Who is to blame for the fact that Pechorin’s wonderful talents perished? Why did he become a “moral cripple”? Society is to blame, the social conditions in which the young man was brought up and lived are to blame. “My colorless youth passed in a struggle with myself and the light,” he admits, “my best qualities, fearing ridicule, I kept in the depths of my heart; they died there.”

But Pechorin is an extraordinary person. This person rises above those around him. “Yes, this man has fortitude and willpower that you don’t have,” Belinsky wrote, addressing critics of Lermontov’s Pechorin. - In his very vices, something magnificent flashes through, like lightning in black clouds, and he is beautiful, full of poetry even in those moments when human feeling rebels against him: he has a different destination, a different path than you. His passions are storms that cleanse the sphere of spirit...”

When creating “A Hero of Our Time,” unlike his previous works, Lermontov no longer imagined life, but painted it as it really was. Before us realistic novel. The writer found new ones artistic media images of persons and events. Lermontov demonstrates the ability to structure action in such a way that one character is revealed through the perception of another.

Yes, author travel notes, in which we guess the features of Lermontov himself, tells us the story of Bela from the words of Maxim Maksimych, and he, in turn, conveys Pechorin’s monologues. And in “Pechorin’s journal” we see the hero in a new light - the way he was alone with himself, the way he could appear in his diary, but would never open up in public.

Only once do we see Pechorin as the author sees him. The brilliant pages of “Maxim Maksimych” leave a deep imprint on the reader’s heart. This story evokes deep sympathy for the deceived staff captain and at the same time indignation towards the brilliant Pechorin.

The illness of the duality of the protagonist makes us think about the character of the time in which he lives and which nourishes him. Pechorin himself admits that two people live in his soul: one commits actions, and the other judges him. The tragedy of the suffering egoist is that his mind and his strength do not find worthy use. Pechorin's indifference to everything and everyone is not so much his fault as a heavy cross. “The tragedy of Pechorin,” wrote Belinsky. “First of all, in the contradiction between the loftiness of nature and the pitifulness of actions.”

It is impossible not to say that the novel “A Hero of Our Time” has the properties of high poetry. Accuracy, capacity, brilliance of descriptions, comparisons, metaphors distinguish this work. The writer's style is distinguished by the brevity and sharpness of his aphorisms. This style is brought to a high degree of perfection in the novel.

The descriptions of nature in the novel are unusually flexible. Depicting Pyatigorsk at night, Lermontov first describes what the eye notices in the darkness, and then the ear hears: “The city was asleep, only lights flickered in some windows. On three sides there were black crests of cliffs, the branches of Mashuk, on the top of which lay an ominous cloud; the moon was rising in the east; In the distance, snowy mountains sparkled like silver fringes. The shouts of the sentries were interspersed with the noise of hot springs being released for the night. Sometimes the sonorous clatter of a horse could be heard along the street, accompanied by the creaking of a Nagai cart and a mournful Tatar chorus.”

Lermontov, having written the novel “Hero of Our Time,” entered the world literature as a master of realistic prose. The young genius revealed the complex nature of his contemporary. He created a truthful, typical image that reflected the essential features of an entire generation. “Admire what the heroes of our time are like!” - the content of the book tells everyone.

The novel “A Hero of Our Time” became a mirror of the life of Russia in the 30s, the first Russian socio-psychological novel.

In the novel “A Hero of Our Time,” Lermontov developed the realistic tendency established in Russian literature by the work of Pushkin, and gave an example of a realistic psychological novel. Having deeply and comprehensively revealed the inner world of his heroes, the writer told “the story of the human soul.” At the same time, the characters of the heroes are determined by time and conditions of existence, many actions depend on the mores of a certain social environment (“simple man” Maxim Maksimych, “honest smugglers”, “children of the mountains”, “water

society"). Lermontov created a social psychological novel in which fate individual depends on public relations, and from the person himself.

For the first time in Russian literature, heroes subjected themselves, their relationships with others to merciless analysis, and their actions to self-assessment. Lermontov approaches the characters' characters dialectically, showing their psychological complexity and ambiguity, penetrating such depths inner world, which were not available in previous literature. “There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges it,” says Pechorin. In his heroes, Lermontov strives to capture not the static, but to capture the dynamics of transitional states, the inconsistency and multidirectionality of thoughts, feelings and actions. Man appears in the novel in all the complexity of his psychological appearance. Most of all this applies, of course, to the image of Pechorin.

To create psychological portrait Lermontov resorts to cross-characterization of the hero by other characters. Any one event is told from different points of view, which allows us to more fully understand and more clearly depict Pechorin’s behavior. The image of the hero is built on the principle of gradual “recognition”, when the hero is given in the perception of Maxim Maksimych (through popular consciousness), then the “publisher” (close to author's position), then through the diary of Pechorin himself (confession, introspection).

The composition of the novel also serves to deeply understand the psychology of the hero. “A Hero of Our Time” consists of five stories: “Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”, “Taman”, “Princess Mary” and “Fatalist”. It's relative independent works, united by the image of Pechorin. Lermontov violates the chronological sequence of events. Chronologically, the stories should have been arranged like this: “Taman”, “Princess Mary”, “Fatalist”, “Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”, preface to Pechorin’s magazine. The displacement of events is determined by the artistic logic of character revelation. At the beginning of the novel, Lermontov shows Pechorin’s contradictory actions, difficult to explain to others (“Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”), then the diary clarifies the motives for the hero’s actions, and his characterization deepens. In addition, the stories are grouped according to the principle of antithesis; the reflective egoist Pechorin (“Bela”) is contrasted with the integrity of the spiritually kind Maxim Maksimych (“Maksim Maksimych”); The “honest smugglers” with their freedom of feelings and actions (“Taman”) are opposed to the conventions of the “water society” with its intrigues and envy (“Princess Mary”). The first four stories show the impact that the environment has on the formation of personality. “The Fatalist” poses the problem of a person’s resistance to fate, that is, his ability to resist or even fight the predetermination of fate.

In “Hero of Our Time” Lermontov continued the theme of “Pechorin” extra people”, started by Pushkin. Pechorin is a typical representative of the noble youth of the 1830s. Lermontov writes about this in the preface to the 2nd edition of the novel: “This is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development.”

The hero of the 1830s - the time of reaction after the defeat of the Decembrists - is a man disappointed in life, living without faith, without ideals, without attachments. He has no goal. The only thing he values ​​is his own freedom. “I am ready to make any sacrifice... but I will not sell my freedom.”

Pechorin rises above his environment through strength of character and understanding of the vices and shortcomings of society. He is disgusted by the falsehood and hypocrisy, the spiritual emptiness of the environment in which he was forced to move and which morally crippled the hero.

Pechorin by nature is not devoid of kindness and sympathy; he is brave and capable of self-sacrifice. His gifted nature was born to active work. But he is the flesh of his generation, of his time - under conditions of despotism, in the “dead years” his impulses could not be realized. This devastated his soul and made him a skeptic and a pessimist from a romantic. He is only convinced that “life is boring and disgusting,” and birth is a misfortune. His contempt and hatred for high society develop into contempt for everything around them. He turns into a cold egoist, causing pain and suffering even to nice and kind people. Everyone who encounters Pechorin becomes unhappy: out of an empty whim, he tore Bela out of her usual life and destroyed her; in order to satisfy his curiosity, for the sake of an adventure that slightly invigorated him, he destroyed a nest of smugglers; without thinking about the trauma that he inflicts on Maxim Maksimych, Pechorin breaks off his friendship with him; he brought suffering to Mary, offending her feelings and dignity, and disturbed the peace of Vera, the only person who managed to understand him. He realizes that he “unwittingly played the pathetic role of an executioner or a traitor.”

Pechorin explains why he became like this: “My colorless youth passed in a struggle with myself and the light, ... my best feelings, fearing ridicule, I buried in the depths of my heart: they died there.” He turned out to be a victim of both the social environment and his own inability to resist its hypocritical morality. But, unlike others, Pechorin is fundamentally honest in his self-assessments. No one can judge him more harshly than himself. The hero’s tragedy is that he “did not guess this destination, ... was carried away by the lures of empty and ungrateful passions; ... lost forever the ardor of noble aspirations, best color life."

Glossary:

  • hero of our time, the first psychological novel in Russian literature
  • hero of our time first psychological novel
  • hero of our time psychological novel
  • why the hero of our time is the first psychological novel
  • hero of our time, the first real novel in Russian literature

Other works on this topic:

  1. And it’s boring and sad, and there’s no one to give a hand to. In a moment of spiritual adversity... Desires! What good is it to wish for in vain and forever?.. And the years pass - all the best...
  2. “A Hero of Our Time,” written in 1838-1839 based on “Notes of an Officer” and the novel “Princess Ligovskaya,” is the first major socio-psychological novel in Russian prose, combining...
  3. The history of the novel “A Hero of Our Time.” Written in 1838-1840s. In 1841, the second edition was published, in which the author included a preface explaining the purpose...
  4. The novel “A Hero of Our Time” appeared in the capital’s bookstores in 1840. The public reacted ambiguously to this work. Higher government circles and writers close to...
  5. “A Hero of Our Time” is the first lyrical and psychological novel in Russian prose. Lyrical because the author and the hero “have the same soul, the same torment.” Psychological...
  6. Many writers different eras and peoples sought to capture their contemporary, through him conveying to us their time, their ideas, their ideals. What is he like, young man...
  7. Every literary hero– always a piece of the soul of its creator. Any writer puts his views, beliefs, and ideals into it. And each hero invariably reflects the features of his...
  8. 1. Psychological picture of society in the novel. 2. What question is Pechorin interested in? 3. Composition of the novel. In the novel “A Hero of Our Time” - the first great socio-psychological work in...
  9. 1. The problem of personality in the novel. 2. Features of the time of creation. 3. The tragedy of Pechorin. 4. Author's attitude to the hero. “Hero of our time,” my dear sirs, like a portrait...

Lesson 1. Lesson topic:

“Hero of Our Time” M.Yu. Lermontov - the first psychological

novel in Russian literature.

Objective of the lesson:- to awaken interest in the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov.

Tasks:

    remind students about the basic characteristic features life of Russian society in the 30s of the 19th century, about the fate younger generation this time;

    introduce the ideological concept of the novel “A Hero of Our Time” and the subsequent literary and critical reviews of the work;

    comment the most important features works: psychologism of the novel and its composition (lack of a single plot, violation of the chronological order in the arrangement of parts of the work, the presence of three narrators in the novel - the author, Maxim Maksimovich and Pechorin).

Lesson type- a lesson in learning new knowledge.

Lesson progress

Epigraph for the lesson:

“Hero of Our Time, my dear sirs,

exactly a portrait, but not of one person: it’s a portrait,

made up of the vices of our entire generation,

in its full development"

M.Yu.Lermontov

I. Opening remarks teachers.

Roman M.Yu. Lermontov's “Hero of Our Time” was conceived by the author at the end of 1837. The main work took place in 1838, and the novel was completely completed in 1839. Soon its first chapters appeared in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski: the story “Bela” was published in 1838 with the subtitle “From the Notes of an Officer from the Caucasus”, at the end of 1839 the next story, “Fatalist”, was published, and then the story “Fatalist” was published. Taman."

To his new novel M.Yu. Lermontov first gave the name “One of the heroes of the beginning of the century.” However, in 1940, a separate edition of the novel was published under the title “Hero of Our Time.”

The 1830s and 1840s in the history of Russia, when the action of the work takes place, are dark years, marked in history as the years of the Nikolaev reaction, the years of the most brutal police regime. First of all, the situation of the people was unbearable; the fate of progressive thinking people was especially tragic. Young Lermontov’s feelings of sadness were caused by the fact that “the future generation has no future.” Passivity, disbelief, indecision, loss of purpose in life and interest in it - these are the main features of the writer’s young contemporaries.

In his work, Lermontov wanted to show what the Nikolaev reaction doomed the younger generation to. The very title of the novel, “A Hero of Our Time,” is evidence of its importance.

Assessing the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov, A.I. Herzen wrote: “In the image of Pechorin, Lermontov gave an expressive realistic and psychological portrait.” modern man, as he understands it and, unfortunately, has met it too often.”

Pechorin is a richly gifted person. The hero does not overestimate himself at all when he openly says about himself: “I feel immense strength in my soul.” With his novel, Lermontov gives an answer to the question: why are energetic and smart people do not find use for their remarkable abilities and thus “wither without a fight” at the very beginning life path? The author's closest attention is paid to the main character, to revealing his complex and contradictory character.

In his preface to Pechorin’s Journal, Lermontov writes: “The history of the human soul, even the smallest soul, is perhaps more curious and not more useful than history a whole people..." Thus, the author explains the peculiarity of his work: “A Hero of Our Time” is the first Russian psychological novel.

    Vocabulary work

In the dictionary literary terms The following definition of a psychological novel is given:a psychological novel can be called a novel where the attention of the author and reader is focused on knowledge human soul in all its manifestations.

- name the defining characteristics of a psychological novel.

Techniques for creating psychologism can be the hero’s self-analysis, assessment of the hero’s actions from the perspective of other characters, or the author’s character analysis. In his work, Lermontov uses all these techniques, which makes the work deeper.

A bit of literary theory.

Please remember what the plot of a work and the plot are.

Plot(French sujet - subject) - an event or a set of events in epic and dramatic works, the development of which allows the writer to reveal the characters of the characters and the essence of the depicted phenomena in accordance with the author's intention.

Fable (lat. fabula - story) - a chain, a series of events in an epic or dramatic work, based on the plot in chronological order.

II. Finding out students’ initial impressions of the novel “A Hero of Our Time.”

    Conversation with the class

    Which of the stories that make up the work that you read made the greatest impression on you?

    Tell us about your attitude towards the main character.

    What events from the life of Grigory Pechorin did we learn about after reading the chapter “Bela”?

    On whose behalf is this chapter narrated? What role does this play in the narrative itself?

    Who is Maxim Maksimych, on whose behalf the story is told in the chapter “Bela”? What can you tell us about him?

    Is Maxim Maksimych the person who is able to understand Grigory Pechorin?

III. Features of the novel's composition

Questions:

1. What is a plot work of art?

2. What plot elements do you know?

3. What is the composition of a work of art called? With which compositional techniques Have you met before while studying works?

4. What is special about the composition “Hero of Our Time”? Is it possible to identify elements of the plot that you already know?(A feature of the novel’s composition is the absence of a single storyline. The novel consists of five parts or stories, each of which has its own genre, its own plot and its own title. But it is the image of the main character that becomes unifying: it connects all these parts into a single novel.)

5. Consider the difference between chronological and compositional order, which is observed in the novel.

Chronological order like this: Pechorin goes to his place of service, but on the way he stops in Taman, then on the way to the place of service he visits Pyatigorsk, where for a quarrel and a duel with Grushnitsky he was exiled to the fortress. In the fortress, events happen to him that are described in the stories “Bela” and “Fatalist”. A few years later, Pechorin meets Maxim Maksimych.

Chronologically, the stories should be arranged as follows:

1. "Taman".

2. "Princess Mary".

3. "Bela".

4. "Fatalist".

5. “Maksim Maksimych.”

However, M.Yu. Lermontov in his work violates the order of the stories. In the novel they go like this:

1. "Bela".

2. “Maksim Maksimych.”

3. "Taman".

4. "Princess Mary".

5. "Fatalist".

The last three stories are the diary of the main character, which shows the story of his life, written by himself.

Questions:

1) Why does Lermontov structure his novel this way?

2) What does this composition of the work make the reader think about?

3) In what form were the first two stories written? What's special about the next three stories?

Conclusions. "Pechorin - main character novel. The characters are arranged in contrasting ways. The point is to emphasize: Pechorin is the center of the story, the Hero of his time. Composition of the work (change of narrators, violation of the chronology of events, genre of travel and diary notes, grouping characters) helps to reveal Pechorin’s character and identify the reasons that gave birth to him.”

Thus, the chosen composition of the novel provides the author with the following opportunities:

To interest the reader as much as possible in the fate of Pechorin;

Trace the history of his inner life;

The image of Pechorin in the novel is revealed in two ways: from the point of view of an outside observer and in terms of his internal disclosure.

IV. Literary and critical reviews of M. Yu. Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time.”

1. S. Burachek : Pechorin is a “monster”, “slander on an entire generation.”

2. S. Shevyrev : “Pechorin is only one ghost, cast upon us by the West.”

3. V. Belinsky : “Pechorin... a hero of our time.”

4. A. Herzen : “Pechorin is Onegin’s younger brother.”

Questions:

1) Which of literary critics, in your opinion, is more objective in his assessment of Grigory Pechorin?

Reading the preface.

(“...The Hero of our Time, my dear sirs, is like a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development...”)

Homework

1. The stories “Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”. (Characters, content, features of composition and genre, attitude towards Pechorin.)

2. Make a plan for the story “Bela”, title all its parts.

In the novel “A Hero of Our Time,” Lermontov poses to the reader a question that worries everyone: why do the most worthy, intelligent and energetic people of his time not find use for their remarkable abilities and wither at the very beginning of life’s impulse without a fight? The writer answers this question with the life story of the main character Pechorin. Lermontov masterfully paints the image of a young man who belongs to the generation of the 30s of the 19th century and who generalizes the vices of this generation. The era of reaction in Russia left its mark on people's behavior. The tragic fate of the hero is the tragedy of an entire generation, a generation of unrealized possibilities. The young nobleman had to either lead the life of a social slacker, or be bored and wait for death. Pechorin’s character is revealed in his relationships with various people: mountaineers, smugglers, Maxim Maksimych, the “water society”. In clashes with the mountaineers, the “oddities” of the protagonist’s character are revealed. Pechorin has many things in common with the people of the Caucasus. Like the mountaineers, he is determined and brave. His strong will knows no barriers. The goal he sets is achieved by any means, at any cost. “That’s the kind of man he was, God knows!” - Maxim Maksimych says about him. But Pechorin’s goals themselves are petty, often meaningless, always selfish. On Wednesday ordinary people Living according to the customs of their ancestors, he brings evil: he pushes Kazbich and Azamat onto the path of crimes, mercilessly destroys the mountain woman Bela only because she had the misfortune of liking him. In the story “Bela,” Pechorin’s character still remains a mystery. True, Lermontov slightly reveals the secret of his behavior. Pechorin admits to Maxim Maksimych that his “soul is spoiled by the light.” We begin to guess that Pechorin's egoism is the result of influence secular society , to which he belongs from birth. In the story “Taman” Pechorin again interferes in the lives of strangers. The mysterious behavior of the smugglers promised an exciting adventure. And Pechorin embarked on a dangerous adventure with the sole purpose of “getting the key to this riddle.” Dormant forces awoke, will, composure, courage and determination emerged. But when the secret was revealed, the aimlessness of Pechorin’s decisive actions was revealed. And again boredom, complete indifference to the people around me. “Yes, and I don’t care about human joys and misfortunes, I, a traveling officer, and even on the road for official reasons!” - Pechorin thinks with bitter irony. Pechorin's inconsistency and duality appear even more clearly when compared with Maxim Maksimych. The staff captain lives for others, Pechorin lives only for himself. One is instinctively drawn to people, the other is closed in on himself, indifferent to the fate of those around him. And it is not surprising that their friendship ends dramatically. Pechorin's cruelty towards the old man is an external manifestation of his character, and underneath this external lies a bitter doom for loneliness. The social and psychological motivation for Pechorin’s actions clearly appears in the story “Princess Mary”. Here we see Pechorin in a circle of officers and nobles. “Water society” is the social environment to which the hero belongs. Pechorin is bored in the company of petty envious people, insignificant intriguers, devoid of noble aspirations and basic decency. A disgust for these people, among whom he is forced to stay, is brewing in his soul. Lermontov shows how a person’s character is influenced by social conditions and the environment in which he lives. Pechorin was not born a “moral cripple.” Nature gave him a deep, sharp mind, a kind, sympathetic heart, and a strong will. However, in all life's encounters, good, noble impulses ultimately give way to cruelty. Pechorin learned to be guided only by personal desires and aspirations. Who is to blame for the fact that Pechorin’s wonderful talents perished? Why did he become a “moral cripple”? Society is to blame, the social conditions in which the young man was brought up and lived are to blame. “My colorless youth passed in a struggle with myself and the world,” he admits, “my best qualities, fearing ridicule, I kept in the depths of my heart; they died there.” But Pechorin is an extraordinary person. This person rises above those around him. “Yes, this man has fortitude and willpower that you don’t have,” Belinsky wrote, addressing critics of Lermontov’s Pechorin. “In his very vices something magnificent flashes through, like lightning in black clouds, and he is beautiful, full of poetry even in those moments when human feeling rises up against him: he has a different purpose, a different path than you. His passions are storms that cleanse the sphere of the spirit...” When creating “A Hero of Our Time,” unlike his previous works, Lermontov no longer imagined life, but painted it as it really was. This is a realistic novel. The writer found new artistic means of depicting persons and events. Lermontov demonstrates the ability to structure action in such a way that one character is revealed through the perception of another. Thus, the author of travel notes, in which we guess the features of Lermontov himself, tells us the story of Bela from the words of Maxim Maksimych, and he, in turn, conveys Pechorin’s monologues. And in “Pechorin’s journal” we see the hero in a new light - the way he was alone with himself, the way he could appear in his diary, but would never open up in public. Only once do we see Pechorin as the author sees him. The brilliant pages of “Maxim Maksimych” leave a deep imprint on the reader’s heart. This story evokes deep sympathy for the deceived staff captain and at the same time indignation towards the brilliant Pechorin. The illness of the duality of the protagonist makes us think about the character of the time in which he lives and which nourishes him. Pechorin himself admits that two people live in his soul: one commits actions, and the other judges him. The tragedy of the suffering egoist is that his mind and his strength do not find worthy use. Pechorin's indifference to everything and everyone is not so much his fault as a heavy cross. “The tragedy of Pechorin,” wrote Belinsky. “First of all, in the contradiction between the loftiness of nature and the pitifulness of actions.” It is impossible not to say that the novel “A Hero of Our Time” has the properties of high poetry. Accuracy, capacity, brilliance of descriptions, comparisons, metaphors distinguish this work. The writer's style is distinguished by the brevity and sharpness of his aphorisms. This style is brought to a high degree of perfection in the novel. The descriptions of nature in the novel are unusually flexible. Depicting Pyatigorsk at night, Lermontov first describes what the eye notices in the darkness, and then the ear hears: “The city was asleep, only lights flickered in some windows. On three sides there were black crests of cliffs, the branches of Mashuk, on the top of which lay an ominous cloud; the moon was rising in the east; In the distance, snowy mountains sparkled like silver fringes. The shouts of the sentries were interspersed with the noise of hot springs being released for the night. Sometimes the sonorous clatter of a horse could be heard along the street, accompanied by the creaking of a Nagai cart and a mournful Tatar chorus.” Lermontov, having written the novel “Hero of Our Time,” entered world literature as a master of realistic prose. The young genius revealed the complex nature of his contemporary. He created a truthful, typical image that reflected the essential features of an entire generation. “Admire what the heroes of our time are like!” - the content of the book tells everyone. The novel “A Hero of Our Time” became a mirror of the life of Russia in the 30s, the first Russian socio-psychological novel.

“A Hero of Our Time” is the first psychological novel in Russian literature

In the novel “A Hero of Our Time,” Lermontov developed the realistic tendency established in Russian literature by the work of Pushkin, and gave an example of a realistic psychological novel. Having deeply and comprehensively revealed the inner world of his heroes, the writer told “the story of the human soul.” At the same time, the characters of the heroes are determined by time and conditions of existence, many actions depend on the mores of a certain social environment (“simple man” Maxim Maksimych, “honest smugglers”, “children of the mountains”, “ water society "). Lermontov created a socio-psychological novel in which the fate of an individual depends both on social relations and on the person himself. For the first time in Russian literature, heroes subjected themselves, their relationships with others to merciless analysis, and their actions to self-assessment. Lermontov approaches the characters' characters dialectically, showing their psychological complexity and ambiguity, penetrating into such depths of the inner world that were inaccessible to previous literature. “There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges it,” says Pechorin. In his heroes, Lermontov strives to capture not the static, but to capture the dynamics of transitional states, the inconsistency and multidirectionality of thoughts, feelings and actions. Man appears in the novel in all the complexity of his psychological appearance. Most of all this applies, of course, to the image of Pechorin. To create a psychological portrait of the hero, Lermontov resorts to cross-characterization of him by other characters. Any one event is told from different points of view, which allows us to more fully understand and more clearly depict Pechorin’s behavior. The image of the hero is built on the principle of gradual “recognition”, when the hero is presented either in the perception of Maxim Maksimych (through the popular consciousness), then the “publisher” (close to the author’s position), then through the diary of Pechorin himself (confession, introspection). The composition of the novel also serves to deeply understand the psychology of the hero. “A Hero of Our Time” consists of five stories: “Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”, “Taman”, “Princess Mary” and “Fatalist”. These are relatively independent works, united by the image of Pechorin. Lermontov violates the chronological sequence of events. Chronologically, the stories should have been arranged like this: “Taman”, “Princess Mary”, “Fatalist”, “Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”, preface to Pechorin’s magazine. The displacement of events is determined by the artistic logic of character revelation. At the beginning of the novel, Lermontov shows Pechorin’s contradictory actions, difficult to explain to others (“Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”), then the diary clarifies the motives for the hero’s actions, and his characterization deepens. In addition, the stories are grouped according to the principle of antithesis; the reflective egoist Pechorin (“Bela”) is contrasted with the integrity of the spiritually kind Maxim Maksimych (“Maksim Maksimych”); “honest smugglers” with their freedom of feelings and actions (“Taman”) are opposed to the conventions of the “water society” with its intrigues and envy (“Princess Mary”). The first four stories show the impact that the environment has on the formation of personality. The Fatalist poses the problem of man’s resistance to fate, i.e. his ability to resist or even fight the predetermination of fate. In “A Hero of Our Time,” Lermontov, in the image of Pechorin, continued the theme of “superfluous people” begun by Pushkin. Pechorin is a typical representative of the noble youth of the 1830s. Lermontov writes about this in the preface to the 2nd edition of the novel: “This is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development.” The hero of the 1830s - the time of reaction after the defeat of the Decembrists - is a man disappointed in life, living without faith, without ideals, without attachments. He has no goal. The only thing he values ​​is his own freedom. “I’m ready to make any sacrifice... but I won’t sell my freedom.” Pechorin rises above his environment through strength of character and understanding of the vices and shortcomings of society. He is disgusted by the falsehood and hypocrisy, the spiritual emptiness of the environment in which he was forced to move and which morally crippled the hero. Pechorin by nature is not devoid of kindness and sympathy; he is brave and capable of self-sacrifice. His gifted nature was born for active activity. But he is flesh and blood of his generation, of his time - under conditions of despotism, in the “dead years” his impulses could not be realized. This devastated his soul and made him a skeptic and a pessimist from a romantic. He is convinced only that “life is boring and disgusting,” and birth is a misfortune. His contempt and hatred for high society develops into contempt for everything around him. He turns into a cold egoist, causing pain and suffering even to nice and kind people. Everyone who encounters Pechorin becomes unhappy: out of an empty whim, he tore Bela out of her usual life and destroyed her; in order to satisfy his curiosity, for the sake of an adventure that slightly invigorated him, he destroyed a nest of smugglers; without thinking about the trauma that he inflicts on Maxim Maksimych, Pechorin breaks off his friendship with him; he brought suffering to Mary, offending her feelings and dignity, and disturbed the peace of Vera, the only person who managed to understand him. He realizes that he “unwittingly played the pathetic role of an executioner or a traitor.” Pechorin explains why he became like this: “My colorless youth passed in a struggle with myself and the light, ... my best feelings, fearing ridicule, I buried in the depths of my heart: they died there.” He turned out to be a victim of both the social environment and his own inability to resist its hypocritical morality. But, unlike others, Pechorin is fundamentally honest in his self-assessments. No one can judge him more harshly than himself. The hero’s tragedy is that he “did not guess this destination, ... was carried away by the lures of empty and ungrateful passions; ... lost forever the ardor of noble aspirations, the best color of life.”