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- Pechorin - a hero of his time
It is known that contemporaries perceived the title of the novel with surprise. Lermontov even received letters where he was asked why his strange character was a hero of time. Some were indignant! You can also be offended for your era, your contemporaries... But Mikhail Yuryevich explained that he used this name somewhat ironically. This is such a “hero”. Surely Pechorin would have been happy to think about himself like that.
And yet, I think it’s rightly said - in every joke there is only a part... What a time, such a hero! It is precisely in this era that many young people feel disappointed in everything. They are not happy with social life with intrigues and balls, building a career in the service, or a quiet life. They are, in principle, selfish. Like Pechorin, they sometimes hope to forget themselves in the war, but even there they become bored. They are not interested in anything, they cannot fall in love without memory, their intelligence and indifference are too strong.
Previously, the hero always did something for society, saving someone, for example. He chose common interests between his own interests and those of the public. But little by little society is becoming weaker, as I understand it, the person with his opinion wins. And now fighters against the system are appearing. But the only one in the field, as you know, is not a warrior. Chatsky is replaced by Onegin. Evgeny is also disappointed, but he also tries not to do harm to anyone - not to play with people. But Pechorin starts his games deliberately, with pleasure. Not right away, of course... At first he feels sorry for his captive, but having satisfied his pride and won the princess, he realizes that he does not love her. (And he didn’t love it!) But then he seduces the girls for a bet, out of spite...
In general, melancholy will be increasingly characteristic of the people of that era, especially the intelligentsia. Rhetorical questions, idleness or activity without a goal... And all this took energy. And then those who had the strength and were not tormented by unnecessary questions came to power. This is probably just the property of the system to gradually weaken. Likewise, a state that is strong at the beginning can lose strength, land, and inhabitants.
I think that contemporaries themselves would consider some naive and enthusiastic hero a fool. But they don’t like the indifferent Pechorin either. But it must be noted that he was strange in everything. Even in summer he was cold, and in winter he was hot. Now the hero of time will also probably not be an angel. And we may not be very pleased to look at him, to recognize ourselves in him.
I don’t like Pechorin either. But I think that the contemporary “hero” needed to come to his senses and correct something.
Essay 3
Lermontov's work “Hero of Our Time” consists of several parts. The main character named Pechorin is in it. Although he is very smart and cunning, he is also cynical and does not like people. Sometimes he finds himself in such a situation that readers feel sorry for him, but sometimes, on the contrary, they hate him for his actions or actions.
The author describes the main character, who is very familiar with all the feelings that a person can experience. In addition, he also sees that the people around him are heartless people. They see and notice only their own problems, but they don’t care about other people’s problems. Of course, Pechorin would be glad to change, but when he sees other people and sees their attitude towards each other, he himself gradually becomes the same as them.
And since he was a very handsome man, girls easily and simply fell in love with him. At first he looked after them, and then when he got tired of them, he easily and simply threw them away. And he didn’t care at all that it hurt them.
Among the readers there were also those people who still felt sorry for him. And that’s all because he doesn’t even know how to please himself, and then what should other people expect from him? Love has never knocked in his heart and that makes him an unhappy person. It was precisely these people that the author saw in his time, and he believes that Pechorin is a hero of his time.
If you read the work carefully, you can understand that the problem here is that Pechorin is an intelligent person, but there was no one besides him to appreciate his talent.
It may seem to many that Pechorin is one hundred percent a negative hero, but at the same time, many consider him, on the contrary, a positive hero. After all, despite all this, he copes well with all the problems that fall on him. In addition, from the first moment he shows himself on the good side, but Grushnitsky needs much more time for this.
Pechorin is very annoyed by Grushnitsky with his behavior, and in order to piss him off, he tries to make him even more angry.
As a child, almost everyone bullied the main character, and therefore now he will stop at nothing and will act to the end. Besides that, he doesn't care about other people's feelings. And since no one even tried to help him at one time, now he is not going to help anyone with anything and will only do what he considers important and necessary for him.
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Pechorin - a hero of his time
Criticism of the image
The novel “A Hero of Our Time,” as a whole, was first published in 1840. A year later, M. Yu. Lermontov added a “Preface” to it, in which he responded to the attacks of some critics.
In particular, the poet polemicized with S.P. Sheverev, who declared the main character an immoral and vicious person who does not exist in reality. Lermontov said that Pechorin “is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation.” The indignation of readers and critics is the best proof that in this image “there is more truth than you would like.”
For Lermontov's contemporaries, Grigory Alexandrovich's obvious resemblance to them might indeed have seemed offensive. Almost two centuries later, Pechorin can confidently be called a “hero of his time.”
Secular young man
Critics note many similarities between Pechorin and another famous literary hero - Evgeny Onegin. These artistic images are brought together by a wildly spent youth and early disappointment in life.
Pechorin belonged to the circle of “golden youth”. In a conversation with Maxim Maksimych, he openly talks about the reasons for the boredom that befell him. Grigory Alexandrovich is undoubtedly rich: “I began to enjoy madly all the pleasures that can be obtained for money.” The easy availability of pleasures lowered their value in his eyes.
Having entered high society, Pechorin gave himself over to social balls and evenings with the same passion. He lost count of his love victories, but discovered that “his heart was left empty...”. Following Onegin, Grigory Alexandrovich tried to find solace in the sciences, but they also bored him.
Pechorin makes a very important remark in this monologue: “Happy people are ignorant, and fame is luck.” Through the literary hero, Lermontov expresses his own view on the state of society in Nikolaev Russia.
Caucasus
Grigory Alexandrovich laconically says: “I was soon transferred to the Caucasus.” Lermontov initially planned to talk about the details of this translation, but, probably for censorship reasons, abandoned this intention. In the preface to Pechorin's Journal, he hints at "many important reasons."
The war initially made Pechorin happy with the novelty of sensations, the main one of which was the proximity of death. However, he liked the “whistle of bullets” for only a month, until he also got bored.
Thus, Pechorin appears before us as a typical “hero of his time.” This is a rich, spoiled young man who no longer knows how to entertain himself. Military success was added to secular victories. In the Caucasus, Pechorin's indifference increased many times over. Insensitivity to “the joys and misfortunes of man” explains all the actions of the protagonist.
"Immorality" by Pechorin
Pechorin's first condemnable act is his kidnapping of Bela. From a secular person's point of view there is nothing wrong with this. In response to Maxim Maksimych’s reproaches, Pechorin declares: “When do I like her?” Accustomed to always achieving victory in love, the main character goes towards his goal. The war “unties” his hands to use new methods.
Pechorin's cooling towards Bela is also easily explained. Secular romances did not last long and rarely ended in tragedy. Grigory Alexandrovich did not even imagine how close the “Asian beauty” took love to her heart.
Pechorin's life in Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk fits completely within the framework of the young officer's behavior. He resumes his affair with a married woman and weaves a love network around Princess Mary. Such “sins” were characteristic of the vast majority of Lermontov’s contemporaries. True, not many people wanted to admit them.
A duel with Grushnitsky was generally a classic way for its time to clarify relations between officers. Pechorin killed a man, but acted in strict accordance with the “code of honor.”
In fact, Pechorin can only be accused on the basis of his diary notes. In them he openly demonstrates “his own weaknesses and vices.” However, the “history of the human soul” is usually hidden from prying eyes. Who knows what dark and terrible thoughts the most respected and worthy people keep within themselves.
All of Pechorin’s “immoral” actions are based on the rules of life learned from childhood. It is not the main character himself who is to blame for them, but the environment that raised him. The image of Pechorin is Lermontov’s caustic reproach to his entire generation, and not to individual people.
Essay “Pechorin - a hero of his time”
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It is always interesting to think about why the author named his work in a certain way. For example, Mikhail Lermontov decided to call his work “Hero of Our Time”; it is quite clear that by the hero of the entire time that he described, the writer understands the main character of the entire work - a young man named Pechorin. It is worth noting that not all of those Those who even carefully read this work really understand why Pechorin can well be called a hero of the described time. Therefore, this requires additional research and analysis.
However, for me personally it is not at all difficult to do such an analysis. You should be firmly aware that a hero is not always a popular and famous person who enjoys universal love, respect and understanding. Very often, a person can be considered a hero, who opposed himself to the time of his life, truly, truly stood out from the crowd and was not like anyone else. This can be said with confidence about Pechorin. So what was typical for the main character of Mikhail Lermontov’s work? What qualities does he need and which of these qualities is the most important?
It is worth immediately noting that Pechorin was a very talented person. Whatever he planned, he succeeded in almost everything. Such people sometimes exist, but they cannot always be called a hero of a certain era. Pechorin could well have become a respected person recognized in society, but society rejected him. Instead of virtue, society found deceit in him, traits that in fact were not characteristic of this young man. Then he changed, he became what they had previously seen in him - he became soulless, insidious and vindictive. He disdained that society in where he was and lived. One might even say that he presented this society with a bold challenge from a brave man. Of course, society doesn’t let anyone off the hook for nothing, and therefore Pechorin faced the angry reaction of many people, he had to overcome this reaction. It is worth saying that very often he fully succeeded. Despite the tragic outcome, Pechorin’s fate can well be called outstanding and deserves all interest and attention.
Every time has its heroes. Heroes can be both positive and negative. It also happens that the quality of a hero cannot be determined at all. A similar situation is typical for the main character of Mikhail Lermontov’s work “Hero of Our Time” Pechorin. On the one hand, this person was abandoned and not recognized in society. On the other hand, he has achieved real success, which is almost impossible to challenge or question in any way. All this allows us to conclude that Pechorin is truly a hero of our time.
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Pechorin - a hero of his time (based on the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov “Hero of Our Time”) (First version)
The novel “A Hero of Our Time” is the pinnacle of Lermontov’s creativity. Work on this work (contemporaries called it a collection of stories) continued from 1837 to 1840. In 1841, the second edition was supplemented with a preface. In it, the author responded to his critics, who argued that Pechorin was a vicious phenomenon, atypical for Russian life, slandering the youth of Russia. The image of Pechorin is one of the greatest artistic discoveries of Russian literature. According to Lermontov, “this is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation in their full development.”
Pechorin is a hero of the transitional period, a representative of the noble youth who entered life after the defeat of the Decembrists. He is a gifted and deep person, forced to live in the dark years of the Nikolaev reaction. In his youth, Pechorin chased after secular entertainment, got fed up with it, tried to take up science, but “I got tired of science too,” and boredom set in. Disappointment in life and lack of high social ideals were a feature of many thinking people of that time.
Pechorin comes to the realization of his insignificance and uselessness. Here are his statements about himself: “my life was only a chain of sad and unsuccessful contradictions of the heart or mind”; “I have long been living not with my heart, but with my head”; “My soul is corrupted by light.”
More than anything else, Pechorin values his freedom, the opportunity to do whatever he wants, without bringing any benefit or harm to anyone. And only at the end of his life does he understand what this freedom turned out to be for him. At the end of the novel we see him completely alone, without friends (remember his cold meeting with Maxim Maksimych), without his beloved.
Pechorin is a skeptic. Rationality fights in him with feeling, mind with heart (certainly “the mind and the heart are not in harmony”!) “I sometimes despise myself... isn’t that why I despise others?”; “I have an unhappy character... if I cause misfortune to others, then I myself am no less unhappy,” he says about himself. Indeed, Pechorin is the cause of the misfortunes of many people. Bela dies, Grushnitsky is shot in a duel, through Pechorin’s fault the life of the “peaceful smugglers” is destroyed, the hearts of Vera and Princess Mary are broken. Pechorin admits that two people live in him: one commits actions, the other judges them. But is it necessary to judge Pechorin so harshly? After all, until the last minute he believed in the nobility of Grushnitsky, while he and his friends were cold-bloodedly preparing to kill him in a duel. Pechorin is certainly guilty of Bela’s death, but only indirectly. At the same time, he himself suffers deeply, although he hides his feelings under a mask of indifference. As for Mary, love for Pechorin awakened the soul of the secular young lady, because love is not only joy, but also (most often) suffering! So he’s not such a “villain,” Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin. Material from the site //iEssay.ru
Yes, the shortcomings of Lermontov’s hero, his selfishness and indifference are completely obvious to us. But for some reason Pechorin’s fate touches and worries us. We sympathize with his words: “Why did I live? For what purpose was I born?.. And, it’s true, it existed, and, it’s true, I had a high purpose, because I feel immense powers in my soul.” The time has not yet come for Pechorin’s high appointment: the time of the Decembrists has already passed, the era of the democrats has not yet arrived.
Lermontov made the image of Pechorin collective for his generation, endowing him with features typical not only of his time, but also of himself. One of the first to realize the enduring significance of Lermontov's novel was V. G. Belinsky. “Here is a book that is destined to never grow old...” he wrote. “This old book will always be new.”
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On this page there is material on the following topics:
- what Pechorin didn’t manage to do
- why Pechorin loved his freedom
- why Pechorin is a hero of his time
- the Pecherins' time has not yet come
- Pechorin - hero of his time essay
