The main female characters are the hero of our time. The female image in the novel "A Hero of Our Time". The main characters of the novel. Moral purity of Faith

Pechorin's extraordinary personality is revealed through the prism of his relationship with other characters in the novel. Female images in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" are united by the main culprit of the described events, Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin, who became the cause of troubles and misfortunes in their lives.

Three heroines. Vera is a married lady from a secular society with status and position. Mary is a relative of Vera. Young, pretty. Pechorin falls in love with a girl for the sake of entertainment. Bela is the prince's daughter. She was kidnapped by Pechorin, becoming his concubine.

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. Raised. Rich. Independent and proud. Brave. How else to call her act when she decided to be the first to confess her love to Pechorin. In those days, this was not permissible.

Gregory saw in the girl the features that appealed to him. She could take offense like a child, pouting her lips. She knew how to be grateful. This was noticeable when Pechorin relieved her of the company of an annoying gentleman who drank and sticks to her. He became the savior, the prince she was waiting for. For his sake I was ready to drop everything, to rush to the ends of the world, if I called.

Mary Pechorin is not needed. Yes, she was sweet, he liked her, but the bonds of marriage were not for him. When Gregory confesses that he does not need love, for Mary it was a blow, but she stood it proudly and with dignity. After parting, the princess will remember the failed romance for a long time, hating herself for having gone on about her feelings.

Bela

Proud Circassian woman. Child of the mountains. Touching, vulnerable. Brought up in severity. She loved freedom and independence, but lost everything when her brother Azamat stole the girl from her parent's nest, handing it over to Pechorin in exchange for a horse. For a long time the girl could not get used to the new position. She did not accept gifts from the kidnapper, did not allow her to come to her. The heart gradually thawed, opening towards love. But what to expect from a narcissistic egoist. Gregory quickly lost interest in Bela. Played enough and quit.

Only Maxim Maksimych understood the girl and worried about her like his own daughter. He saw Bela suffer. When Bela was dying from a knife wound, the staff captain understood that this was the best way out. She couldn't live without love. For Pechorin, her death meant nothing. During the funeral, not a single muscle trembled on his face. He understood the involvement in Bela's death. Do not take her away from the parental home, the life of a Circassian woman could have turned out differently. Bela left for another world with regret that in the next world she could not be with her beloved. Different faiths made it difficult to unite souls in heaven. A young soul ruined by Pechorin, unable to resist his spell.

Vera Ligovskaya

Secular lady. Married. Pechorin knows her from Petersburg. Years later, they met again, already in Kislovodsk, where the princess came to improve her shaky health. Feelings flashed again. It seemed that there had not been so many years of separation. They are young again, carefree and happy. Emotional. She loved and understood Pechorin better than himself. Having married the old prince, the woman did not feel happy. Having given birth to a common child, the spouses did not become closer. When Vera finds out about the duel between Pechorin and Grushnitsky, she, in fear for the life of her beloved, confesses to her husband of treason.

Vera knew that they would not be together. She is terminally ill, but to see Pechorin every day is beyond her strength. Together with her husband, she hastily leaves Kislovodsk. Grigory rushes after, but does not have time. Having driven the horse, falls from his own powerlessness on the grass, sobbing like a small child. Having lost Faith forever, Gregory realizes how important and dear she is to him.

All three female characters had one thing in common. They are sincere in their feelings. Unique, bright personalities. Beautiful, smart, with kind hearts, an open mind. But not one was able to keep Pechorin next to him, for whom freedom is most important, and feelings, in his opinion, are empty.

Introduction

The female characters in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" were a success for Lermontov. This is how the famous critic of that time V.G. Belinsky.

Belinsky noted that the author created such monumental images of girls and women that they could only compete with the heroines of A.S. Pushkin. These women are smart, capable, beautiful in soul and body, they have a strong will, they strive to realize themselves in society. However, all the heroines of the novel are unhappy in their own way, although it must be admitted that their misfortune is a derivative of the misfortune of the main character - Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin.

It is the image of Pechorin that unites all the female characters of the novel with each other.

The work presents several central female images. This is Vera - a secular married lady who is connected with Pechorin by a love story even at the time when the young hero lived in St. Petersburg. This is Princess Mary Ligovskaya, a relative of Vera, whom Pechorin meets in Kislovodsk and, out of boredom, makes her fall in love with him. This is the daughter of the Circassian prince Bel, abducted by her brother and given to Pechorin as a concubine. And, finally, this is the girl whom Pechorin himself called Undina ("mermaid") - the beloved of the smuggler Yanko, a casual acquaintance of the protagonist of the novel.

Let's characterize briefly the main female characters from this work.

Bela

The image of the proud Circassian woman Bela, whom Pechorin, with the help of her brother, kidnapped from the parental home, aroused the enthusiastic participation of the reading public even at the first publication of the novel.
Among the female characters in "A 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 took all the blows of fate with courage. She was betrayed by her brother, giving her away for Kazbich's horse; she was betrayed by the kidnapper Pechorin, whom she loved with all her heart, but did not find reciprocity in his soul. As a result, she was killed by a man who was also secretly in love with her.

Only Maxim Maksimovich understood Bela's delicate 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 protagonist of the novel soon lost interest in the young Circassian woman, and the heroine, without reproaching her lover for anything, dutifully followed to the grave, regretting before her death only that she and Grigory Alexandrovich belong to different faiths, therefore they would not be able to meet in paradise.

It should be admitted that Lermontov succeeded in Bela's image in full, later L.N. Tolstoy in his story "Prisoner of the Caucasus" will present to the audience the image of a young Chechen girl Dina, and in this image there will be features of Bela - 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 at that time was considered unacceptable behavior on the part of a girl from a noble family.

Pechorin felt that Mary was an unusual girl from those whom he knew. He saw in her intelligence, character and spiritual strength. And although Pechorin told Grushnitsky that Mary was a classic example of a Russian girl who, with all her pride and intelligence, would 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 kind of coarse inner instinct.
Pechorin felt the spiritual strength and purity of Mary, so he tried to subjugate her, although he did not find any special meaning in this submission.

As a result, Mary also (like Bela later) deeply experienced the story with Pechorin and experienced suffering from his actions and his mental coldness towards her.

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 relationship with women, which 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 met Vera again. 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 aspired to Pechorin and understood his soul better than anyone, 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, watched Pechorin at Mary's house, he saw Pechorin go on a date to 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 Vera to tell her husband the truth about her relationship with Pechorin, her husband took her away from Kislovodsk forever. Pechorin rushed after him, but was unable to do anything.

"Undine"

The characterization of female characters in "A Hero of Our Time" would be incomplete if we did not mention the name of another heroine whom Pechorin met on Taman.

Pechorin himself called her "Undine", that is, a mermaid. The image of this girl is mysterious. She was the mistress of the smuggler Yanko, whom Pechorin actually took by surprise. Fearing that Pechorin might report Yanko to the authorities, Ondine lured Pechorin to a boat, inviting him to ride with her, and then tried to drown her companion. The latter, however, did not succeed: Pechorin threw Undine overboard.

The hero himself explained the act of Undine with a feeling of love for the young smuggler, but such a terrible love seemed unpleasant even to Pechorin himself, who was used to bringing misfortune to those whom he loved.

All women in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" are unique and striking personalities. In fact, they largely anticipate the famous female characters in Turgenev's novels. These women are beautiful, smart, strong in spirit, they have will and sensitive and kind hearts. However, none of them could keep Pechorin from falling into a moral abyss, most likely because the hero himself, looking for female love, could not fully understand the hearts of the women he loved.

The above brief characteristics of women and a description of their role in the novel will be useful for 9th grade students when collecting information for an essay on the topic "Female images in the novel" A Hero of Our Time ".

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There are four key female characters in Lermontov's novel A Hero of Our Time. As the famous critic V.G. Belinsky, the female images in this work were a success.

The chronological order of the parts of the novel is violated, therefore, the first in the life of Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin appears the so-called undine - the young lady from the chapter "Taman". The hero is impressed and intrigued, as is evident from his description:

“Decisively, I have never seen such a woman. She was far from beautiful, but ... "..." ... there was a lot of breed in her ... "..." ... the right nose drove me crazy. "

Pechorin, seeing her for the first time, tries to understand the motive of her actions, but to no avail:

“There was no sign of madness on her face; opposite her eyes with brisk insight rested on me, and these eyes seemed to have been endowed with some kind of magnetic power, and each time they seemed to be waiting for a question. "

In essence, the mermaid girl, or, as the hero calls her, undine, is the only female character who has put him in some kind of opposition. Both purely physical (she tried to drown), and psychological (she does not need him at all and is not important, she is simply afraid of him as a witness). And yes, this woman played a game with him, guided by purely her own considerations. The young lady did not have any personal interest in him, in his place could be anyone who showed his curiosity inappropriately. She kisses him in order to lure him into the sea, where she expects to get rid of the young man who has lost his head. But her plan did not succeed: Pechorin did not lose his head at that time, although he showed a certain weakness in this matter.

Further chronologically, we are talking about the events in Pyatigorsk, where Princess Mary appears. This poor girl first encountered a man with a different outlook on life than those that are accepted in modern society, and was not ready for this. It is evident that her fate should have developed according to the "standard" scheme of that time ... but both then and now, apparently, the "bad" young men had higher chances of success.

Mary is an adorable romantic girl who trustingly falls into the trap of a more experienced and less sentimental person. She is captivated by the fact that Pechorin is honest in his own way: he is not a womanizer seeking to seduce a young innocent young lady. He was touched by Grushnitsky - simply because these two types of people can rarely coexist peacefully in tandem, and the unfortunate princess was "hooked" by inertia. She is not a cutesy muslin girl who subtly plays according to the generally accepted rules of the secular environment, she sincerely fell in love, trusted ... but not that one. Her trouble is that she, willingly or unwillingly, but too romanticized the image of Pechorin.

In essence, he did not lie to the princess, did not try to discredit her. But he considered their relationship as if from the outside - while she was in the very center of events. The heroine evokes sympathy and sincere sympathy, since she is not stupid, kind and selfless. Take at least the notorious episode with the glass, which she helped Grushnitsky to raise: after all, she looked cautiously in the direction of her mother, but this was already a belated manifestation of attention to the rules of society. And the primary urge of the soul was to help the needy.

Simultaneously with Princess Mary, another woman appears in the novel - Vera. Only she, unlike the princess, does not meet Pechorin for the first time. There was a close relationship between them in the past, and in Pyatigorsk they flare up again - at least from Vera's side. Pechorin considers her the only woman in the world whom he would not be able to deceive. It is difficult to say exactly what this is connected with. But, among other things, the hero's heart does not hurt about any other woman in the novel.

"Vera is sick, very sick ..." ... "... I am afraid that she will not have consumption", "my heart sank painfully ..."

Apparently, if Pechorin could (not afraid!) Love with all his soul, like many other people, he would love Vera. But now it's not about him, but about her: she managed to become a close person, a friend, one might say. Looking ahead, I can say that Bela was not his friend in any way, and Princess Mary was not awarded such trust. For Pechorin's sake, Vera sacrificed her family well-being, admitting to her husband that she loves another, and in the meantime, it's not now to file for divorce ... And you can't say that everything was in vain: having received her farewell letter, the hero rushes headlong to catch up with her, but does not have time, and we see an unusual picture in which he lies, exhausted, and desperately sobs, lying in the wet grass.

And, finally, Bela. The most tragic female character ... A young Circassian woman kidnapped from her father's house, torn from her usual life, environment, traditions ... It would be fine if after her abduction everything could be returned to its place. Well, Grigory Aleksandrovich understood: not mine, tired of it, and left home where she came from. Sob, calm down, meet another! But now is not the twenty-first century with the habitual phenomenon of temporary cohabitation without obligations: agreed - dispersed, everyone is free. There is no way back to the aul Bele, she is already a “cut off piece”, and nothing good awaits her there, although the hero says: “… if you want, return to your father, you are free”. And in the fortress, she was not to the court. Poor girl! Precisely the victim of Pechorin.

All his sentimental thoughts, all his reasoning, all his romantic halo - nothing matters anymore. Yes, he brings everyone continuous suffering: an undine, with whom he does not even know! - breaks the current life track with her sudden intrusion, Vera is already destroying the family for the second time, Mary will not recover from her painful disappointment for a long time ... but he does this barbarously, perhaps, only with Bela.

Again, not out of malice ... but I'm all about Pechorin. You see, he instructed the dukhan woman to accustom her to the thought, "that she is mine, because she will not belong to anyone but me ...". She liked him right away when she first saw him at a wedding in the village. But the difference between her and his concept of happiness and family is unthinkable. Bela is a victim here, partly due to mentality, partly due to circumstances. She could blossom, she could! But for this, love was needed, which nourished her from the very first days in the fortress.

Bela did not ask for anything other than love, and this turned out to be an unbearable price for Pechorin. She did not react to gifts and beautiful words until he decided to take extreme measures: “I am guilty before you and must punish myself: goodbye, I'm going - where? Why do I know! Perhaps I will not chase the bullet for long ... ”.

Bela could not bear the thought of the possible death of her beloved because of her. For which, as will become clear a little later in the text, she paid with her own life.

This is not to say that the heroines of the novel are alike. They have different marital and social status, faith, occupation. The only thing that unites them is the root of their misfortune at this point in time. Merciless love for a person who could not make any of them happy due to his own inability to happiness as such ...

The basis of the writer's creativity is inspiration sent from above. Among the ancient Greeks, this inspiration has a feminine origin, because it is no coincidence that the muse is a woman. They lay down swords at her feet, perform feats in the name of a woman, and commit crimes for her sake. She is the beauty that will save the world.

In Russian literature, female images occupy a special place. Each writer, depicting his heroine, seeks to convey through her his idea of ​​pre-red. The attitude of the writer to his hero is most often revealed precisely through the attitude of this hero to the woman: Beauty has been given to him, but how can the hero manage with what has been given to him?

A woman is a source of joy, love and inspiration. And about his generation, Lermon-tov wrote: "And we hate, and we love by chance, without sacrificing anything either to malice or love, and some kind of secret cold reigns in the soul when the fire boils in the blood." These words perfectly reveal the character of the main character Pechorin and his attitude towards women. There are three of them in the novel: Bela, Princess Mary and Vera.

Bela is a young Circassian woman about whom we learn from the story of Maxim Maksimych. Pecho-rin, seeing her at the wedding, was captivated by her beauty and some kind of singularity. She seemed to him the embodiment of spontaneity, naturalness, that is, everything that Pechorin did not meet in the society ladies he knew. He was very carried away by the struggle for Bela, but when all the obstacles were destroyed and the girl happily accepted her fate, Pechorin realized that he was deceived: just as annoying as the coquetry of another. " It should not be forgotten that this is not the opinion of the author, but of Pechorin, who, as you know, was quickly disappointed in everything. Bela has a strong integral character, in which there is firmness, pride, and constancy, because she was brought up in the traditions of the Caucasus.

Princess Mary looks quite different. We learn about her from Pechorin's diary, in which the "water society" of Pyatigorsk, where the hero stayed, is described in detail. Already in the first conversation with Grushnitsky about Princess Mary, the ironic, somewhat mocking tone of the narrative sounds.

Mary Litovskaya is very young, good-looking, inexperienced, flirtatious. She, of course, is not particularly well versed in people, does not see Grushnitsky's farcicalness, and does not fully understand Pechorin's timing. She wants to live as is customary in their noble circle, with some vanity, brilliance. Mary becomes the subject of rivalry between Grushnitsky and Pechorin. This unworthy game destroys one, amuses the other. Pechorin, however, has his own goal: when he visits the Lithuanians, he has the opportunity to see Vera there.

I think that in such an environment it was very difficult for Princess Mary to become herself and, possibly, show her best qualities. Why is Pechorin so bored and lonely? To answer this question is to reveal the cause of his sorrows. Pechorin is an extraordinary person, therefore, in his own way, he looked for this in women, he was looking for the one who could understand his soul. But that was not the case. And, in my opinion, Lermontov set himself a wider task than showing young, inexperienced, unhappy girls, crushed by Pechorin's egoism.

Love in the novel is given in sketches. Lermontov did not show the development of this feeling. Pechorin cried when he drove the horse, but did not drive Vera. However, it was just a temporary impulse of the soul, but no more. In the morning he was himself again. Vera is just Pechorin's sick past. He was not happy with her, because she was someone else's wife, which, of course, was unbearable for Gregory's pride. Maybe that's why, in order to compensate for the lost balance, he is so cold with young women in love with him.

Lermontov denies his involvement in Pechorin, stating that the portrait of the hero is composed of the vices of the whole society. However, I am sure that the relationship between Pechorin and Vera is a reflection of Lermontov's tragic undivided love for Varenka Bakh-metyeva. The poet loved her all his short life. He wrote about her: "At the feet of others, I did not forget the gaze of your eyes, loving others, I only suffered from the love of former days." How similar the love handwriting of Lermontov himself is to Pechorin's in style. Lermontov was handsome, many women loved him, but he constantly returned to the image of his beloved.

A remarkable book by Novikov "On the souls of the living and the dead" has been written about the life of M. Yu. Lermontov, and many critical articles and notes have been written about him. If Pushkin is the creator of the first realistic novel about modernity in verse, then Lermon-tov is the author of the first realistic novel in prose. His book is distinguished by that depth of psychological analysis, which allowed Chernyshevsky to see Tolstoy's immediate predecessor in Lermontov.

M. Yu. Lermontov, in my opinion, did not "accidentally pay great attention to female characters in his novel. Not a single serious problem, especially the problem of a hero and time, can be considered outside the beautiful and better half of humanity. , outside of her interests, experiences and feelings.One of the discoveries made by the writer: tell me who loves this person, and I will make an idea about him.It seems to me that the portrayal of female characters in the Roma did not give the main character and the novel itself uniqueness , the freshness and accuracy of its perception, as well as the whole gamut of human experiences that penetrate deeply into the soul and remain there forever.

Roman M.Yu. Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time" is one of the first realistic novels in Russian literature. Lermontov in his work draws the image of a person whose fate reflected the tragedy of the entire Lermontov generation. An intense search for answers to the questions of what life is, what is the meaning and purpose of a person characterizes not only the protagonist of the novel, but also many young people of that time.

"A Hero of Our Time" is a monoheroic novel. All the images created by Lermontov are grouped so as to reveal the inner world of one main character as fully and deeply as possible. Pechorin does not develop, but is revealed in the pages of the novel. The most complete picture of Pechorin's character can be obtained by tracing the history of his "love affairs". In the love theme, female images are of particular importance.

In each subsequent story, Pechorin finds himself in a certain social environment. Therefore, the women with whom he meets belong to different social classes and represent different types of consciousness. Vera and Undine, Bela and Princess Mary are completely different women, but with none of them did Pechorin comprehend the real happiness he was looking for.

Undine is a young, healthy and energetic girl from a small provincial town, the only one over whom Pechorin could not prevail, she is not even endowed with a name. Pechorin calls her Undine, emphasizing her closeness to nature (Undine is a creature corresponding to the Slavic mermaid). Frightened by Pechorin's ability to convey and destroy her world, Ondine decides on a bold and cruel act. Because of only one suspicion, she, as a truly natural being, is ready to kill a person. The impetuosity, determination and naturalness of her demeanor testify to the strength of the character of Ondine. The ability to pretend (confesses to Pechorin in love in order to lure him ashore at night) speaks of the ability to achieve their goals by any means. Ondine's ways are proving to be selfish and cruel. It is noteworthy that Pechorin does not blame Undine for anything, who tried to drown him. The meeting with this girl proves Pechorin's alienation to the world of "honest smugglers" who live by their own laws, which are unknown to the hero, his alienation from them.

The image of Bela, a Circassian woman kidnapped by Pechorin, is similar to the image of Undina. Bela lived and was brought up among "natural" people, "children of nature." A characteristic feature of this people is harmony with the surrounding world. Seeing the harmony of his life, Pechorin also seeks to find it in love for Bela. However, he, a person with a developed self-awareness, is not given to find it. The image of Bela, which is based on harmony that is being built, is not given to find it. The image of Bela, which is based on harmony, built on the traditions and customs of the people, symbolizes the clear alienation of Pechorin and this world. Meek and at the same time strong, loving and unwilling to submit, Bela attracts Pechorin. However, this is only a passion, and by no means love. Good old Maxim Maksimych does not understand how you can not love this "nice girl". Admiring her charm and gaiety, Maxim Maksimych condemns Pechorin, who has grown cold towards Bela after he heard the cherished "yes". Bela, who also noticed the change in Pechorin and wept during his long absence, does not reproach him with a single word. Her behavior is a sign of her strength of character, capable of dying rather than admitting defeat. Her death is happiness for her and a tragedy for Pechorin, who once again became convinced that in the pursuit of personal happiness he ruins someone else's. Finding in himself the features that bring him closer to the people to which Bela belongs (impetuosity, ardor, passion), Pechorin at the same time understands that these qualities are not enough to find harmony with the world. The story with Bela is a vivid confirmation of this.

Princess Mary is dedicated to the Lermontovs, the most extensive of the stories that form the novel, but in the life of Pechorin, Mary occupies incomparably less space than Bel. to which a small story is dedicated, and what Vera, to whom the story is dedicated, and what Vera, which only flickers in some of Pechorin's records. While Bela was given a flash of real passion, and his feeling for Vera Pechorin realized, in the end, how love, Pechorin's meeting with Mary and his search for her love were more likely the main method of his struggle with Grushnitsky than a manifestation of an incipient feeling for her ...

Drawing Mary, Lermontov extremely clearly depicts her as a person of his time, social status and his cultural environment. Mary's life is the observance of the rules of a secular society, from which she can retreat only being sure that society will not know about it. The princess's direct human movement - to help the sick Grushnitsky raise a glass - is immediately condemned by herself from the point of view of public morality and the law of decency: it is not fitting for a high society girl to condescend to the needs of an unfamiliar demoted soldier (not knowing that he is in fact a cadet). Mary's image seems to be bifurcated: on the one hand. she is a cold socialite who knows how to hide her feelings. hiding them behind a mask of languor. and on the other hand, a sensitive and vulnerable nature, capable of overstepping decency and being the first to confess love to a young man ("Perhaps you want me to be the first to tell you that I love you?"). However, the love of a secular woman bores Pechorin just as quickly as the love of a savage, and the conversation about marriage completely pushes Pechorin away from Mary.

Pechorin's entry on June 6 ("why does she [Vera] not want to give me a chance to see her alone?") Explains a lot in his behavior towards Mary. Vera hesitates to make an appointment with Pechorin, and he hopes that her jealousy for Mary will help him break Vera's resistance. Already on June 11, Pechorin catches himself that he is almost in love with Mary. In Kislovodsk, his attraction to her becomes even stronger, he kisses when moving through Podkumok and brings her to a declaration of love. But as soon as he manages to achieve the desired date with Vera, he grows cold towards Mary and confesses to her that he does not love her, and Vera becomes "dearer to him than life, honor, happiness." Thus, Mary turns out to be only a short-term hobby of Pechorin, with her help he achieves his goals: he proves his superiority over Grushnitsky and arouses Vera's jealousy. Princess Mary, however, accepts this news steadfastly and finds the strength to say goodbye to Pechorin: "I hate you!", Although she still loves him.

While the image of Mary reflects the external sides of Pechorin's character: his belonging to high society, his secularity, then, drawing Vera, Lermontov leaves in the shadows everything that concerns her psychological and cultural ties with her environment and society: she is all revealed to us only from the side of our feelings for Pechorin. The pages dedicated to Vera prove that she lives by this love alone. Vera is the only woman who fully understood Pechorin. And she loves not his attractive appearance or the ability to keep herself in society, but for the complexity and inconsistency of his character. The situations in which Vera is shown are only meetings with Pechorin or the silent presence of the Ligovskys in the living room when he is there. Nothing is known about her lifestyle, or about relationships with people, or about her mental outlook, we do not hear her conversations with anyone except Pechorin. It seems that it exists outside the environment, almost outside of everyday life. But "Faith should be that way, because it is the image of love itself, selfless, selfless, knowing no boundaries, stepping over the prohibitions of the environment, losing nothing from the consciousness of the beloved's shortcomings and vices" (E.N. Mikhailova). And only such love can melt the bitter and thirsty heart of Pechorin. There is no secular flavor in the appearance of Vera, since secularity and sincerity are mutually exclusive concepts, and Vera is a feeling itself that does not know contradictions. However, the realization that Vera is Pechorin's only love comes to him too late, when he loses her forever. And this is the tragedy of Pechorin. It is also a tragedy that, after all, even to Vera, he is not ready to sacrifice his freedom.

The female characters in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" are completely different and opposite. Pechorin's hobby for such different characters testifies to the complexity and contradictory nature of his character, in which there are features characteristic of the natural environment and at the same time secular society. His alienation to any social and cultural environment determines the impossibility of happiness with any woman, no matter what social position she occupies and a representative of whatever type of consciousness she is.