Lermontov “Hero of Our Time”: characteristics, image, description, portrait. Grigory Pechorin from the novel “Hero of Our Time” by M. Yu. Lermontov: characteristics, image, description, portrait Characteristics of Pechorin in different chapters

The novel “Hero of Our Time” by M. Yu. Lermontov can be considered the first socio-psychological and philosophical work in prose. In this novel, the author tried to display the vices of an entire generation in one person, to create a multifaceted portrait.

Pechorin is a complex and contradictory person. The novel includes several stories, and in each of them the hero reveals himself to the reader from a new side.

The image of Pechorin in the chapter “Bela”

In the chapter “Bela” it opens to the reader from the words of another hero of the novel - Maxim Maksimych. This chapter describes Pechorin’s life circumstances, his upbringing and education. Here the portrait of the main character is also revealed for the first time.

Reading the first chapter, we can conclude that Grigory Alexandrovich is a young officer, has an attractive appearance, at first glance pleasant in any respect, he has good taste and a brilliant mind, an excellent education. He is an aristocrat, an esthete, one might say, a star of secular society.

Pechorin is a hero of our time, according to Maxim Maksimych

The elderly staff captain Maxim Maksimych is a gentle and good-natured man. He describes Pechorin as quite strange, unpredictable, and unlike other people. From the first words of the staff captain, one can notice the internal contradictions of the protagonist. He can be in the rain all day and feel great, and another time he can freeze from a warm breeze, he can be frightened by the slam of window shutters, but he is not afraid to go to the wild boar one on one, he can be silent for a long time, and at some point a lot talk and joke.

The characterization of Pechorin in the chapter “Bela” has practically no psychological analysis. The narrator does not analyze, evaluate or even condemn Gregory, he simply conveys many facts from his life.

The tragic story of Bel

When Maxim Maksimych tells a traveling officer a sad story that happened before his eyes, the reader becomes acquainted with the incredible cruel egoism of Grigory Pechorin. Due to his whim, the main character steals the girl Bela from her home, without thinking about her future life, about the time when he will finally get tired of her. Later, Bela suffers because of Gregory’s emerging coldness, but cannot do anything about it. Noticing how Bela is suffering, the staff captain tries to talk to Pechorin, but Grigory’s answer causes only misunderstanding in Maxim Maksimych. He can’t wrap his head around how a young man, for whom everything is going very well, can still complain about life. It all ends with the girl's death. The unfortunate woman is killed by Kazbich, who previously killed her father. Having fallen in love with Bela as his own daughter, Maxim Maksimych is amazed at the coldness and indifference with which Pechorin suffered this death.

Pechorin through the eyes of a traveling officer

The characterization of Pechorin in the chapter “Bela” differs significantly from the same image in other chapters. In the chapter “Maksim Maksimych” Pechorin is described through the eyes of a traveling officer who was able to notice and appreciate the complexity of the protagonist’s character. Pechorin's behavior and appearance are already attracting attention. For example, his gait was lazy and careless, but at the same time he walked without swinging his arms, which is a sign of a certain secrecy in his character.

The fact that Pechorin experienced mental storms is evidenced by his appearance. Gregory looked older than his years. The portrait of the main character contains ambiguity and inconsistency; he has delicate skin, a childish smile, and at the same time deep. He has light blond hair, but a black mustache and eyebrows. But the complexity of the hero’s nature is most emphasized by his eyes, which never laugh and seem to scream about some hidden tragedy of the soul.

Diary

Pechorin appears by itself after the reader encounters the thoughts of the hero himself, which he wrote down in his personal diary. In the chapter “Princess Mary,” Grigory, having a cold calculation, makes the young princess fall in love with him. As events unfold, he destroys Grushnitsky, first morally, and then physically. Pechorin writes all this in his diary, every step, every thought, accurately and truly assessing himself.

Pechorin in the chapter “Princess Mary”

The characterization of Pechorin in the chapter “Bela” and in the chapter “Princess Mary” is striking in its contrast, since in the second mentioned chapter Vera appears, who became the only woman who managed to truly understand Pechorin. It was her that Pechorin fell in love with. His feeling for her was unusually reverent and tender. But in the end, Gregory loses this woman too.

It is at the moment when he realizes the loss of his chosen one that a new Pechorin is revealed to the reader. The characterization of the hero at this stage is despair, he no longer makes plans, is ready for stupid ones and, having failed to save his lost happiness, Grigory Alexandrovich cries like a child.

Final chapter

In the chapter “Fatalist,” Pechorin reveals one more side. The main character does not value his life. Pechorin is not stopped even by the possibility of death; he perceives it as a game that helps to cope with boredom. Grigory risks his life in search of himself. He is courageous and courageous, he has strong nerves, and in a difficult situation he is capable of heroism. You might think that this character was capable of great things, having such a will and such abilities, but in reality it all came down to the “thrill”, to the game between life and death. As a result, the strong, restless, rebellious nature of the protagonist brings people only misfortune. This thought gradually arises and develops in the mind of Pechorin himself.

Pechorin is a hero of our time, a hero of his own, and of any time. This is a person who knows habits, weaknesses and, to some extent, he is an egoist, because he thinks only about himself and does not show concern for others. But in any case, this hero is romantic, he is opposed to the world around him. There is no place for him in this world, his life is wasted, and the way out of this situation is death, which overtook our hero on the way to Persia.

dream of becoming a corrector of human vices...

He just had fun drawing modern

a person as he understands him and, to his and yours

unfortunately, I met it too often.

M. Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time"

Grigory Pechorin is a young man belonging to the generation of the 30s of the 19th century, a representative of high secular society. His “best” young years were spent, in his own words, in “a struggle with himself and the light.”

Pechorin is a representative of the thinking people of his time, he has an undoubted mind and is critical of himself and the world. Pechorin's deep mind allows him to correctly judge people, and at the same time he is self-critical. He is cold, arrogant, but one cannot say that feelings are alien to him, and one cannot call him an infantile, weak-willed person. We learn that in his youth Pechorin “furiously enjoyed all the pleasures that can be obtained for money,” and... they “revolted” him. Then he set out into the big world, and soon he was also tired of society, and the love of secular beauties only irritated his imagination and pride, but his heart remained empty. Out of boredom, Pechorin began to read and study, but “he was also tired of science”; he realized that neither fame nor happiness depended on them at all, because “the happiest people are ignorant, and fame is luck, and to achieve it, you just need to be clever.” He got bored again and went to the Caucasus. This was the happiest time of his life. Pechorin sincerely hoped that “boredom does not live under Chechen bullets,” but again in vain - after a month he got used to their buzzing. Finally, having seen and fallen in love with Bela, he thought that this was an angel sent to him by “compassionate fate,” but he was mistaken again - “the love of a savage turned out to be no better than the love of a noble lady,” and he was soon tired of the ignorance and simple-heartedness of the mountain woman.

Pechorin's character is very contradictory. As the hero himself says: “My whole life has been nothing but a chain of sad and unsuccessful contradictions to my heart or mind.” Inconsistency manifests itself not only in the thoughts and actions of the hero. Lermontov, drawing a portrait of Pechorin, persistently emphasized the oddities in his appearance: he was already about thirty years old, and “there was something childish in his smile,” his eyes “did not laugh when he laughed... This is a sign of either an evil disposition or a deep , constant sadness...", and "his gaze - short, but penetrating and heavy, left such an indifferently calm impression of an immodest question and could have seemed impudent if it had not been so indifferently calm." Pechorin's gait "was careless and lazy, but... he did not wave his arms - a sure sign of some secrecy of character." On the one hand, Pechorin has a “strong build,” and on the other, “nervous weakness.”

Pechorin is a disappointed man who lives out of curiosity, skeptical about life and people, but at the same time his soul is in constant search. “I have an unhappy character,” he says, “whether my upbringing made me this way, whether God created me this way, I don’t know; I only know that if I am the cause of the misfortune of others, then I myself am no less unhappy.” This is a young man of the 30s, a time of rampant reaction, when the Decembrist uprising was already suppressed. If Onegin could go to the Decembrists (as Pushkin thought to show in the tenth chapter of his novel), Pechorin was deprived of such an opportunity, and the revolutionary democrats had not yet declared themselves as a social force. That’s why Belinsky emphasized that “Onegin is bored, and Pechorin suffers deeply... he fights to the death with life and forcibly wants to snatch his share from it...”

Pechorin denies love and happiness in family life, and his relationships with women are driven by vanity and ambition. “To arouse feelings of love, devotion and fear—isn’t this the first sign and the greatest triumph of power?” - says the hero. However, his attitude towards Vera indicates a capacity for deep feeling. Pechorin admits: “With the possibility of losing her forever, Vera became dearer to me than anything else in the world - dearer than life, honor, happiness!”

With a bitter feeling, Pechorin regards himself as a “moral cripple” whose better half of his soul has “dried up, evaporated, died.” He understands that he “had a high purpose,” feels “in his soul... immense strength,” but he wastes his life on petty actions unworthy of him. Pechorin sees the reason for his tragedy in the fact that his “soul is spoiled by the light.” “I am worthy of pity... my soul is spoiled by light, my imagination is restless, my heart is insatiable; everything is not enough for me: I get used to sadness just as easily as to pleasure, and my life becomes emptier day by day...” - Pechorin says to Maxim Maksimych. This means that he was never able to escape from the society around him.

All these inconsistencies and contradictions in appearance and behavior reflect the personal tragedy of the hero, do not allow him to live a full life, but they also reflect the tragedy of an entire generation of that time. Lermontov, in the preface to his novel, wrote that Pechorin is “a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development,” and his tragedy is that such people “are not capable of great sacrifices either for the good of humanity, or even for my own... happiness." Pechorin's diary, which presents a whole gallery of images of young people of the 30s of the 19th century, more than once confirms Lermontov's thoughts reflected in the Duma. This generation is “shamefully towards good and evil”, indifferent, languishing under the burden of “knowledge and doubt”, loving and hating by chance, as if doomed “to grow old in inaction”, “without sacrificing anything, neither malice nor love...” But in the person of Pechorin What appears before us is not only a unique person, typical of his era. This is a personality formed by this century, and in no other era could such a person appear. All the features, all the advantages and disadvantages of his time are concentrated in him.

A short essay on literature on the topic “Hero of our time: the image of Grigory Pechorin in the composition of the novel” with quotes from the text for grade 9. Pechorin in the system of images: how does he relate to other characters?

“A Hero of Our Time” is one of the first Russian psychological novels. Having appeared in print, it immediately caused a public outcry. The main task of the novel is to reveal the soul of the main character, Grigory Pechorin, in relationships with various personalities, in acute conflict situations. This is the reason for the special composition of the novel: what is important here is not chronological accuracy, but the readers’ recognition of the character.

Grigory Pechorin is a Russian officer serving in the Caucasus. He represents the image of a “superfluous person”: lonely, misunderstood, who has not found his own path, and therefore unhappy.

The character is revealed gradually, its features are not on the surface. That is why at first we see the hero through “other people’s” eyes: his colleague Maxim Maksimych and the narrator-traveler, and from the external image we move on to the secrets of the soul. Pechorin is not deprived of appearance: he is not doll-like handsome, but interesting (“... he was generally very good-looking and had one of those original physiognomies that secular women especially like...”), his facial features are correct. Everything - from his hands to his hair color - expresses thoroughbred and aristocratic character in the hero (“Despite the light color of his hair, his mustache and eyebrows were black - a sign of breed in a person, just like the black mane and black tail of a white horse...” and “ ...his stained gloves seemed deliberately tailored to fit his small aristocratic hand, and when he took off one glove, I was surprised at the thinness of his pale fingers." The eyes immediately reflect Pechorin’s personality: they never laugh, they have a steely shine, an attentive, studying gaze.

As presented by Maxim Maksimych, the main character appears as a cold, calculating person who destroys other people’s lives at his own whim. So he stole the beautiful Bela from his native village, made her fall in love with him, then she got bored, he began to neglect the girl he previously loved. As a result, Bela died, and Pechorin did not shed a single tear. Of course, we understand that the difference in the characters of the simple-hearted Maxim Maksimych and the restrained Pechorin, who suffered silently and deeply, plays a role here. After all, as we learn later, Bela was the last thread connecting the hero with the world, his last hope.

In “Pechorin's Journal” we are transported into the thoughts of the hero, we see everything through the prism of his perception. In “Taman” we see the adventurous beginning of Pechorin’s character. His thirst for adventure and desire to overcome boredom overwhelms even his keen mind and powers of observation, which is why he goes with a mysterious girl, wittily named by him Ondine, for a night walk. Pechorin almost dies, because he finds out that he ended up with smugglers. The hero stirred up a nest of criminals and destroyed a long-term way of life. For the first time the motif of fatality is heard.

“Princess Mary” is the largest part of the novel. Several aspects of the hero are shown here. Pechorin is a friend in his relationship with Dr. Werner (the main character does not believe in friendship, therefore he distances himself from Werner, despite his internally friendly attitude). Pechorin is a rival in a conflict with Grushnitsky (the main character places honor highly, does not allow himself to be laughed at, he is immeasurably stronger and higher than the enemy, but also more ruthless). Pechorin is the conqueror of hearts in his relationship with Princess Mary (he decided to seduce the girl in order to annoy Grushnitsky, amuses himself and laughs at her, soon develops sympathy for the heroine, but cannot lose his freedom and ruin Mary’s life with his presence). Pechorin is a passionate lover in his relationship with Vera (it is in front of her that he does not play a role, she has known and understood him for a long time, the loss of Vera is the main and most serious shock in the hero’s life). In all guises, Pechorin is the “axe of fate”; he left a tragic mark on the life of every hero (and even ended Grushnitsky’s life completely).

“Fatalist” is the most philosophical chapter of the novel, in which the hero asks eternal questions of fate, predestination, and his place in the world. It is the latter that he does not find. His large-scale personality does not find real meaning in all of life; he needs great achievements, but everyday life is all around him. The awareness of his own uselessness leads Pechorin to his own death in the future; he has no reason to live.

The main character of the novel “A Hero of Our Time” truly reflected the era: this generation is lost, disappointed, its best representatives have faded away without finding their way. A personality like Pechorin is rare. He really charms and can lead, his nobility, subtle mind, observation - these are the qualities that readers should learn from.

Describes only some episodes from the hero’s adult life, when his character was already formed. The first impression is that Gregory is a strong personality. He is an officer, a physically healthy man of attractive appearance, active, purposeful, and has a sense of humor. Why not a hero? However, Lermontov himself calls the main character of the novel such a bad person that it is even difficult to believe in his existence.

Pechorin grew up in a wealthy aristocratic family. Since childhood, he has not needed anything. But material abundance also has a downside - the meaning of human life is lost. The desire to strive for something, to grow spiritually, disappears. This happened to the hero of the novel. Pechorin finds no use for his abilities.

He quickly got tired of the capital's life with empty entertainment. The love of secular beauties, although it stroked one’s vanity, did not touch the heartstrings. The thirst for knowledge also did not bring satisfaction: all sciences quickly became boring. Even at a young age, Pechorin realized that neither happiness nor fame depended on science. “The happiest people are ignorant, and fame is luck, and to achieve it you just need to be clever.”.

Our hero tried to write and travel, as many young aristocrats of that time did. But these activities did not fill Gregory’s life with meaning. Therefore, boredom constantly haunted the officer and did not allow him to escape from himself. Although Gregory tried his best to do this. Pechorin is always in search of adventure, testing his fate every day: in war, in pursuit of smugglers, in a duel, breaking into the house of a murderer. He tries in vain to find a place in the world where his keen mind, energy and strength of character could be useful. At the same time, Pechorin does not consider it necessary to listen to his heart. He lives by his mind, guided by cold reason. And it constantly fails.

But the saddest thing is that people close to him suffer from the actions of the hero: Vulich, Bela and her father die tragically, Grushnitsky is killed in a duel, Azamat becomes a criminal, Mary and Vera suffer, Maxim Maksimych is offended and insulted, smugglers flee in fear, leaving them to their own devices. the fate of the blind boy and the old woman.

It seems that in search of new adventures Pechorin cannot stop at anything. He breaks hearts and destroys people's destinies. He is aware of the suffering of those around him, but he does not refuse the pleasure of deliberately tormenting them. The hero calls "sweet food for pride" the opportunity to be the cause of happiness or suffering for someone without having the right to do so.

Pechorin is disappointed in life, in social activities, in people. A feeling of despondency and despair, uselessness and uselessness lives in him. In his diary, Gregory constantly analyzes his actions, thoughts and experiences. He tries to understand himself, revealing the true reasons for his actions. But at the same time he blames society for everything, not himself.

True, episodes of repentance and the desire to look at things adequately are not alien to the hero. Pechorin was able to self-critically call himself "moral cripple" and, in fact, he turned out to be right. And what is the passionate impulse to see and talk to Vera worth? But these minutes are short-lived, and the hero, again absorbed in boredom and introspection, displays spiritual callousness, indifference, and individualism.

In the preface to the novel, Lermontov called the main character a sick person. At the same time, he meant the soul of Gregory. The tragedy is that Pechorin suffers not only because of his vices, but also his positive qualities, feeling how much strength and talent is dying in vain. Having ultimately failed to find the meaning of life, Gregory decides that his only purpose is to destroy people’s hopes.

Pechorin is one of the most controversial characters in Russian literature. In his image, originality, talent, energy, honesty and courage strangely coexist with skepticism, disbelief and contempt for people. According to Maxim Maksimovich, Pechorin’s soul consists of nothing but contradictions. He has a strong physique, but he exhibits unusual weakness. He is about thirty years old, but there is something childish in the hero’s face. When Gregory laughs, his eyes remain sad.

According to Russian tradition, the author experiences Pechorin with two main feelings: love and friendship. However, the hero does not pass any test. Psychological experiments with Mary and Bela show Pechorin as a subtle connoisseur of human souls and a cruel cynic. Gregory explains the desire to win the love of women solely by ambition. Gregory is also incapable of friendship.

The death of Pechorin is indicative. He dies on the way, on the way to distant Persia. Lermontov probably believed that a person who brings only suffering to his loved ones is always doomed to loneliness.

• “Hero of Our Time,” a summary of the chapters of Lermontov’s novel
• The image of Bela in Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time”