Introduction
The female characters in the novel “A Hero of Our Time” were a great success for Lermontov. This is how the famous critic of that time, V.G., described this feature of the writer’s novel. Belinsky.
Belinsky noted that the author created such monumental images of girls and women that they could compete only with the heroines of novels and stories by A.S. Pushkin. These women are smart, capable, beautiful in soul and body, they have a strong will, and strive to realize themselves in society. However, all the heroines of the novel are unhappy in their own way, although it should be recognized that their unhappiness is derived from the unhappiness of the main character, Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin.
It is the image of Pechorin that unites all the female images of the novel.
The work presents several central female characters. This is Vera, a secular married lady who has a love story with Pechorin back in the days when the young hero lived in St. Petersburg. This is Princess Mary Ligovskaya, a relative of Vera, whom Pechorin meets in Pyatigorsk and, out of boredom, falls in love with her. This is the daughter of the Circassian prince Bel, kidnapped by her brother and given to Pechorin as a concubine. And finally, this is the girl whom Pechorin himself called Ondine (“mermaid”) - the beloved of the smuggler Yanko, a casual acquaintance of the protagonist of the novel.
Let us briefly characterize the main female characters from this work.
Essay on the topic of female images in the novel “Hero of Our Time”
All poets at all times praised women, composed hymns to them, dedicated poems to them, and went to great deeds in the name of women. Women are called the beautiful half of humanity. They can inspire heroism and push them to crime. In Russian literature, many female images have been created, bright and memorable. They attract us with their poetry, kindness, tenderness and purity. This is Pushkin's Tatyana, and Turgenev's girls, and Nekrasov's heroines, and many other women. Each of them has its own world, complex or simple, but necessarily unique.
In the novel “Hero of Our Time,” Lermontov described several women who were completely different from each other. They have one thing in common: they love the main character of the novel - Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin. This is a typical young man of the 30s of the 19th century. He is smart, not without charm, witty, his speech is correct and literary. Pechorin is well versed in history, philosophy, and is capable of deep analysis. At the same time, he is selfish, mocking, cruel, cold and, as a result, lonely.
We meet Pechorin in the story “Bela”. Pechorin met Bela at her sister’s wedding, where he liked this sixteen-year-old girl. “...She was beautiful: tall, thin, black eyes, like those of a mountain chamois, and looked into your soul.” Bela falls in love with Pechorin with all her heart. Two passions collide in her soul - faith and love for Pechorin. The second wins, and Bela gives herself entirely to love. Pechorin is the only person on earth for her. In essence, that’s how it was. Bela left her home, abandoned the people of her faith, her father died, and her brother disappeared. She is kind, gentle, selfless, but she is only a drop from the sea that can satisfy Pechorin. Pechorin was attached to the girl for some time, but then he got bored with it, Bela’s love was not enough for him, his active nature was looking for new entertainment. Bela did not bring him the novelty that he expected from her; she turned out to be the same as everyone else. For Pechorin, “the love of a savage is little better than the love of a noble lady.” The girl suffers deeply, her death is natural, it becomes a deliverance for an abandoned soul. And yet we sincerely feel sorry for this wild and beautiful mountain girl. In the story about Bela, the character of the hero is just beginning to be revealed, but we can already draw some conclusions.
Another girl, a young smuggler, is a little like Bela. But it seems so only at first glance. This similarity between the girls is that both of them are not from Pechorin’s circle, not young ladies of secular society, therefore they seem charming and mysterious to him. There is something unknown and mysterious about the smuggler girl, which Pechorin strives for in the hope of getting rid of boredom. She is like a boat in the sea about which she sings a song.
Lermontov pays great attention to the eyes of the “undine,” and they attract Pechorin’s attention. The girl’s eyes emit an unusual light and have “some kind of magnetic power.” “The extraordinary flexibility of her figure, the special, only characteristic tilt of her head, long brown hair, some kind of golden tint of her slightly tanned skin on her neck and shoulders, and especially her correct nose” - all this was, according to Pechorin, charming for him. The savage attracts Pechorin with its novelty and uniqueness, but for him the main thing is another adventure, an escape from boredom. Pechorin feels strength in himself, the ability for real feats, but wastes himself on trifles. Having alarmed the “honest smugglers,” he himself regrets it.
Princess Mary is not at all like Bela. She is a social coquette, but she is still young and inexperienced, she has little understanding of people, and she is attracted by the external shine of social life. At the same time, Princess Mary is a gentle, romantic, dreamy person. Let us remember how Lermontov describes her: velvet eyes, long eyelashes blocking the path of the sun, delicate pink skin, a pretty little leg. She has girlish charm, a kind soul, and intelligence. What attracts her to Pechorin? She creates for herself the image of her beloved, relying not on life experiences, but on books she has read. Mary is looking for a hero and is ready to see him in the first person she meets. At first she likes Grushnitsky, whose “gray overcoat” created an aura of romance and mystery, then Pechorin appears. But Pechorin is not like Grushnitsky and others like him, he has a more complex nature. The girl takes Pechorin's advances at face value. She sees Pechorin's persistence and naturally concludes that he fell in love with her. This is customary in her society, where a set of book words: “my angel”, “my princess”, “your divine image” - replaces true feelings. Pechorin is different. The girl hears his strange speeches, understands that he is an extraordinary person, not like everyone else, and therefore falls in love with him. In love, she is even ready for self-sacrifice, to disregard the laws of society, she is ready to be the first to open up in her love. She hopes to hear response words from Pechorin, but he remains silent. Did she love Pechorin? Yes, she loved, but she loved the image she created, and not the real Pechorin. She did not know the real Pechorin, did not understand, and did not strive to understand. For Pechorin, she was just another hobby, a new game that he was interested in until he got bored with it. Mary could not understand that Pechorin was real and Grushnitsky was a fake; she tried to give Pechorin the happiness that would only be enough for Grushnitsky. This is her problem. But we sincerely feel sorry for Mary and condemn Pechorin, condemn him for having fun playing with Mary. Pechorin understands perfectly well what suffering he brings to the girl, but does not feel sorry for her, but enjoys what is happening: “... she will spend the night without sleep and will cry. This thought gives me immense pleasure: there are moments when I understand the Vampire...”
And finally, Vera, whom Pechorin loves. For what? He himself says that she is the only woman who could understand him and accept him with all his advantages and disadvantages. Yes, Vera managed to love Pechorin for who he is. But the relationship between Pechorin and Vera is much more complex than the relationship between Pechorin and Bela or Pechorin and Mary. Lermontov's hero is a dual and contradictory nature. On the one hand, he is tired of loving, has lost faith in women and now demands only love for himself. Faith gives him this love. On the other hand, Pechorin is an egoist, an adventure hunter, for whom the main thing is to achieve his goal. Vera is married, and he is interested in winning the love of a married woman.
Pechorin sincerely suffers when he receives the last letter from Vera. He drives his horse and cries on the wet ground. But his feelings are fleeting. Another moment - and before us again is a cold, calculating man, whose reason takes over.
He brings nothing but suffering to all the women Pechorin encounters. However, Pechorin himself suffers from loneliness and misunderstanding. Lermontov replenished the gallery of female images of Russian literature with his heroines. The tenderness of Mary, the sadness of Vera, the charm, plasticity of Bela and the mystery of the “undine” smuggler add a unique charm to Lermontov’s prose.
Bela
The image of the proud Circassian woman Bela, whom Pechorin, with the help of her brother, kidnapped from her parents' house, aroused the ardent participation of the reading public even at the first publication of the novel. Among the female images in “Hero of Our Time,” the image of Bela is one of the most touching. Bela was not to blame for what happened to her, and, nevertheless, she accepted all the blows of fate courageously. She was betrayed by her own brother, giving her away for the horse Kazbich, she was betrayed by the kidnapper Pechorin, whom she loved with all her heart, but did not find reciprocity in his soul. She ended up being killed by a man who was also secretly in love with her.
Only Maxim Maksimovich understood Bela’s subtle and sensitive soul, however, he did not know how to help her and secretly rejoiced at her death, realizing that nothing good was in store for this girl in life. Bela's love could not awaken Pechorin's soul to life from selfish egoism. The main character of the novel soon lost interest in the young Circassian woman, and the heroine, without reproaching her lover for anything, meekly followed to the grave, regretting before her death only that she and Grigory Alexandrovich belonged to different faiths, so they would not be able to meet in heaven.
It should be admitted that Lermontov was completely successful in the image of Bela, later L.N. Tolstoy, in his story “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, will present to the reading public the image of a young Chechen girl Dina, and this image will also contain Bela’s features - such as devotion and moral purity.
Princess Ligovskaya
The image of women in the novel “A Hero of Our Time” significantly complements the image of Princess Mary - a proud and beautiful Russian noblewoman who fell in love with Pechorin and confessed her feelings to him, which in those days was considered unacceptable behavior on the part of a girl from a noble family.
Pechorin felt that Mary was an unusual girl from those he knew. He saw in her intelligence, character and spiritual strength. And although Pechorin declared to Grushnitsky that Mary is a classic example of a Russian girl who, with all her pride and intelligence, will eventually marry an insignificant man, following the will of her mother, nevertheless, Grigory Alexandrovich himself decided to play with the feelings of this proud beauty.
It is difficult to say how sincerely Pechorin courted Mary, however, it should be noted that he humiliated her not out of anger, but rather, obeying some rough inner instinct. Pechorin felt Mary’s spiritual strength and purity, so he tried to subjugate her to himself, although he did not find much meaning for himself in this subordination.
As a result, Mary also (like Bela later) deeply experienced the story with Pechorin and suffered from his actions and his spiritual coldness towards her.
Princess Mary
Mary Ligovskaya is a girl from high society. Young. Beautiful. Her family is considered one of the best in the capital. Well educated. Well-mannered. Rich. Independent and proud. Brave. Otherwise, how can we call her action when she decided to be the first to confess her love to Pechorin? In those days this was unacceptable.
Grigory saw features in the girl that impressed him. She could have become childishly offended, pouting her lips. I knew how to be grateful. This was noticeable when Pechorin saved her from the company of an annoying gentleman who drank and pestered her. He became the savior, the prince she had been waiting for. For his sake I was ready to give up everything, rush to the ends of the world, if he called.
Pechorin doesn't need Mary. Yes, she was nice, he liked her, but marriage was not for him. When Gregory admits that he does not need love, it was a blow for Mary, but she withstood it proudly and with dignity. After the separation, the princess will long remember the failed romance, hating herself for being led by her feelings.
Faith
The role of female characters in “A Hero of Our Time” is quite large. In fact, Pechorin's personality is revealed to us through the prism of his relationships with women who are presented in the novel. Of great importance in this is the image of Vera, a secular married lady, with whom Pechorin was familiar back in St. Petersburg. In Kislovodsk, where the story “Princess Mary” takes place, Pechorin again met with Vera. Grigory Alexandrovich remembered his feelings for this woman, it seems that Vera did not forget her former lover.
Many readers of the novel have noticed that the image of Vera is one of the most controversial in the novel. On the one hand, the heroine strove for Pechorin and better than anyone understood his soul, full of contradictions, pride and selfishness, but on the other hand, it was Vera who became Pechorin’s “evil genius”, in fact, pushing him into a duel with Grushnitsky. That night, when Grushnitsky, full of jealousy, was guarding Pechorin at Mary’s house, he saw Pechorin going on a date with Vera, but the young hero decided that Grigory Alexandrovich was trying to seduce Mary Ligovskaya, with whom he himself was in love.
The fatal duel between Pechorin and Grushnitsky led to Vera telling her husband the truth about her relationship with Pechorin, and her husband took her away from Kislovodsk forever. Pechorin rushed after him, but could not do anything.
