Features of the ring composition in the heroes of our time. Compositional features of the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov's "hero of our time." List of used literature

The peculiarities of the composition of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" proceed from the fact that the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov became an advanced work of its time: in it the author used a new genre of a psycho-oriented novel, a new image of the protagonist and, accordingly, a new compositional division of the work.

The author himself, after the publication of his novel in its finished form, admitted that not a single word, not a single line in it arose by chance, everything written was subordinated to one main goal - to show readers their contemporary - a man with noble and bad inclinations who, obeying feeling selfishness, was able to realize in life only his vices, and his dignity remained only good desires.

When the novel was just published, critics and ordinary readers had many questions that concerned the compositional division of this work. We will try to consider the main of these issues.

Why was the chronology of the episodes in the life of the protagonist violated?

The peculiarities of the composition of "A Hero of Our Time" are connected with the fact that we learn about the life of the protagonist rather inconsistently. The first part of the novel tells how Pechorin kidnapped a Circassian woman Bela from his own father, made her his mistress, and later lost interest in this girl. Bela, as a result of a tragic accident, was killed by a Circassian Kazbich who was in love with her.

In the second part, entitled "Maxim Maksimovich", readers learn that several years have passed since Bela's death, Pechorin decided to go to Persia and died on the way there. From Pechorin's diary, it becomes known about the events that happened to the main character before meeting Bela: Pechorin got into a funny adventure with smugglers on Taman and in the city of Kislovodsk he met the young princess Mary Ligovskaya, whom, unwittingly, he fell in love with himself, and then refused to share her feelings. There also took place a duel between Pechorin and Grushnitsky, as a result of which the latter was killed.

The novel "A Hero of Our Time" ends with the part "Fatalist", which tells about a private episode from the life of Pechorin.

Studying the plot and composition of the "Hero of Our Time", literary scholars agree that the author violated the chronological presentation of the main character's life in order, on the one hand, to emphasize the chaotic life of Pechorin, his inability to subordinate his fate to one main idea, on the other hand, Lermontov tried to reveal the image of your protagonist gradually: first, readers saw him from the side through the eyes of Maxim Maksimovich and the narrator-officer, and then only got acquainted with Pechorin's personal diary, in which he was extremely frank.

How is the plot and plot in the novel related?

The novelty of Lermontov the prose writer contributed to the fact that the plot and plot of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" do not coincide with each other. This leads to the fact that the reader pays more attention not to the outer outline of events from the life of the protagonist, but to his inner experiences. Literary critics have dubbed this method of constructing a work "tense composition", when readers see the heroes of the novel at the peak moments of their fate.

Therefore, the composition of Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time" is a unique phenomenon in the history of Russian literature: the author talks about key episodes from the life of his hero, giving him a characterization precisely at the moments of the highest life trials: these are Pechorin's love experiences, his duel with Grushnitsky, his clash with drunken Cossack, his dangerous adventure with smugglers on Taman.

In addition, Lermontov resorts to a ring composition: for the first time we meet Pechorin in the fortress, in which he serves with Maxim Maksimovich, for the last time we see the hero in the same fortress, before he leaves for Persia.

How does the compositional articulation of the work help to reveal the image of the main character?

According to most literary critics, the originality of the compositional solution of the novel helps to examine in detail the image of Pechorin.
In the first part of Bela, Pechorin's personality is shown through the eyes of his commander, the kind and honest Maksim Maksimovich. The author debunks the myth that exists in the literature of that time about the beautiful love between a savage and a young educated nobleman. Pechorin does not in any way correspond to the image of a young romantic hero, who was created in the works of the writer's contemporaries.

In the second part of "Maxim Maksimovich" we find a more detailed description of the personality of the protagonist. Pechorin is described through the eyes of the narrator. Readers get an idea of ​​the hero's appearance and behavior. The romantic halo around Grigory Alexandrovich is finally fluttering.

In "Taman" Lermontov refutes the myth of romantic love between a girl engaged in smuggling activities and a young officer. A young smuggler with the romantic name Undine does not behave at all exalted, she is ready to kill Pechorin only because he turned out to be an unwitting witness to her crime. Pechorin is also characterized in this part as a man of an adventurous warehouse, ready to do anything to satisfy his own desires.

The part "Princess Mary" is built on the principle of a secular story: it contains a love story and a conflict between two officers for the possession of a girl's heart, which ends tragically. In this part, the image of Pechorin receives a full realistic description: readers see all the external actions of the hero and the secret movements of his soul.

In the last part of the novel "The Fatalist" Lermontov poses the most important questions for him about the meaning of human life on earth: is a person the master of his own destiny or is he led by some evil fate; is it possible to cheat your fate or is it impossible, etc.? In the last part, Pechorin appears before us in the form of a man who is ready to fight fate. However, readers understand that this struggle will lead him to an early death in the end.

The role of composition in A Hero of Our Time is very important. It is thanks to the unusual compositional division of the work that the author manages to achieve the full embodiment of his creative intention - the creation of a new psychologically oriented genre of the novel.

The presented compositional features of the work can be used by pupils of the 9th grade when preparing material for an essay on the topic "Features of the composition of the novel" A Hero of Our Time ".

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The work of M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time" is widely known and is included in the list of Russian classical literature. Its genre is defined as a psychological novel. The novel was written in the period from 1838 to 1840. When it was published, readers were divided. Some saw the bitter truth in the plot, others did not want to believe in the reality of characters like Pechorin.

Compositional structure

The composition of the novel provides for the arrangement of chapters contrary to the chronological order. First, the reader looks at the events through the eyes of a stranger, and then he is given the opportunity to draw his own conclusions about the personality of the protagonist by reading the entries from his diary.

In the work, the chapters are arranged as follows:

1. Bela.
2. Maxim Maksimych.
3. Taman.
4. Princess Mary.
5. Fatalist.

In chronological order, the events took place as follows.

1. The incident on Taman.
2. Meeting with Princess Mary.
3. An encounter with a fatalist.
4. Bela's abduction.
5. Acquaintance of the narrator with Maxim Maksimych.

The title of the work reflects the attitude of the author to his main character. The plot, briefly given below, will help to understand who Lermontov considered "the heroes of our time."

Foreword

In a short preface to the novel, Mikhail Yuryevich addresses himself directly to his readers. First reactions to the book were often negative due to the outrageous actions of his hero. Lermontov explains that Pechorin's character was created in order to show the face and true life of his contemporaries, overwhelmed by vices. But at the same time, he asks not to transfer the attitude towards Gregory to the author who created him.

The story originates in the Caucasian territory of the 19th century, where from time to time confrontations with the highlanders erupt.

Bel's Tale

A certain officer who plays the role of the narrator in the text, moves to the Caucasus and on the way he meets a staff captain named Maksim Maksimych. Men make a positive impression on each other and soon become friends. Once they have a conversation about the events of past years, in which the captain talks about the former subordinate Pechorin.

This young officer attracted attention with his beauty and intelligence, but had a fickle character. He could be burdened by trifles and express whims, but at the same time he possessed enviable courage and fearlessness. They served at that time in a military fortress, where it was rather dreary.

Out of kindness, Maxim Maksimych decided to invite Pechorin to the wedding to the prince's daughter... At the celebration, Gregory met the bride's younger sister and decided that he had to win her favor.

In this he was involuntarily helped by the staff captain, who witnessed the conversation between Bela's brother Azamat and the robber Kazbich, in which the girl's relative asked to sell him the horse Karagöz at any price. He was even ready to steal his sister, but the Circassian did not agree to this.

Pechorin, who learned about the conversation, decided to use it in his plans. He asked Azamat to steal Bela for him, for which Gregory promised to get the young man the desired horse. The deal took place, and Pechorin received not only a prisoner, but also an enemy in the person of Kazbich.

The girl settled in the house of Gregory, who was so affectionate and caring that he managed to win her heart. But as soon as Bela showed a reciprocal feeling, Pechorin's heart cooled, and she began to suffer. Maxim Maksimych tried to distract her and help her unwind, but everything only got worse. The girl saw Kazbich not far from the military fortress. The robber had already killed her father and brother, and she was afraid for her life.

Unfortunately, she had every reason to be afraid. Kazbich kidnapped her, and when the officers rushed in pursuit, the robber wounded the girl and fled. Two days later, Bela died, regretting only that she would never see her lover again.

The head captain admitted that such a fate awaited the young beauty in any case. Bela herself could not survive the indifference of Grigory, and the wound inflicted by Kazbich only brought the inevitable closer. After a while Pechorin left the fortress, Maxim Maksimych did not see him anymore.

Story Maxim Maksimych

Narrator and captain parted ways to meet again soon in Vladikavkaz. And then it happens to stop Pechorin, heading for Persia.

The young man turned out to be a really handsome and self-confident person, behaved well in society and dressed tastefully. But his cold and penetrating look, as well as his unwillingness to make contact with Maxim Maksimych, surprised the narrator. No matter how much the staff captain tried to pull Pechorin into a conversation, nothing worked. He was extremely upset by the behavior of his former subordinate, whom he treated well no matter what.

Not wanting to keep any memories of him, he gave the diaries of Gregory to the narrator, who opened and abbreviated them published after the unexpected death of the twenty-eight-year-old Pechorin, who never made it to Persia due to illness.

Head of Taman

On the pages of his diary Pechorin described the adventure that happened to him on Taman... There he met a blind boy and realized that he was keeping some kind of secret. Deciding to recognize her, the hero began surveillance, during which he witnessed the boy's meeting with a beautiful girl and a man named Yanko. The latter handed some sacks to the strange couple.

Pechorin tried to find out from the child what was in these bags, but he did not want to speak or listen. Then he met a girl, whom he gave the name of Ondine. The girl began to call him on a date. However, during an evening meeting at the pier, she tried to drown Pechorin, who suspected the trinity's smuggling activities. The man won this fight, and Ondine found herself in the water, where Yanko picked her up on his boat. While all these events were taking place, the boy stole Gregory's things, and the next morning the hero decided to leave Taman.

Princess Mary

The summary of this chapter begins from the hero's visit to Kislovodsk, where he met the cadet Grushnitsky. The young man was in love with Princess Mary Ligovskaya, and Pechorin was amused by his feeling. Gregory cynically described the girl's merits and demerits, as if it were a race horse. The taunts at Mary, the princess's irritation and the cadet's crush should have spilled over into some kind of drama, as Dr. Werner predicted. So it soon happened.

A relative, Vera, came to see Mary. It turned out that the woman was once associated with Gregory with romantic feelings that had no chance now that she was already married. Cold and cynical Pechorin suddenly remembered his passionate feelings for Vera. To calm the suffering and pain that echoed in him, he drove his horse, riding it around the neighborhood.

After all the antics of Pechorin, Grushnitsky concluded that he would never have to visit the Ligovskys and never become a welcome guest with them. Then Gregory decided to prove the opposite.

Once at the ball hosted by the princess, he suddenly became unusually courteous and polite... In addition, he had the opportunity to protect the girl from a drunken officer. The family appreciated this later, the young man began to visit the house more and more often and considered Mary's female attractiveness. Out of boredom, a desire to tease Grushnitsky and show his former lover Vera his attractiveness, he used all his charm to charm the princess.

Mary's love began to bother Vera, and she asked Pechorin to leave courtship for the girl and not think about marrying her. Although the woman was very ill and was afraid to tarnish her reputation, she promised Gregory a night date.

He soon got tired of the attention of women and the jealousy of Grushnitsky. Wanting to get rid of them, he began to behave defiantly, but Mary only suffered from this and fell in love more and more.

There were rumors in the city that the wedding of the princess with Pechorin is approaching... In fact, the young man was expecting a declaration of love from the princess. But when it was finally uttered, he rejected it, saying that her feeling was unrequited.

Mary suffered, realizing that Gregory was only laughing at her. Lermontov's hero also understood the meanness of his deed, but considered himself too free and freedom-loving person, unable to make someone's happiness. In addition, he was foretold to die by the hand of his wife.

Grushnitsky, who suspected Pechorin of dating Mary, went crazy with jealousy and challenged his opponent to a duel. On the night before the fight, the hero reasoned that if he was killed, nothing would remain after his life. However, Grushnitsky died in a duel. To drop the charges against Gregory, testimony was given that the death of the cadet was the work of the Circassians, but Vera guessed how it really was. Overwhelmed with feelings, she confessed her sympathy for the main character to her husband, and he hurried to take her away. Pechorin, who tried to catch up with the only beloved woman in his life, failed.

Meanwhile, rumors of a duel were spreading, and Gregory had to leave immediately. Having visited the princess's house, he received an offer of her hand and heart from his mother, but refused.

Chapter Fatalist

One Serb, whose name was Vulich, declared himself a fatalist, that is, a man who believed in fate. He was ready to prove his point of view in the most risky way. Since he believed that on this day he was not destined to die, he took a loaded pistol and put it to his temple. Only death by gunshot would prove him wrong. Nobody agreed to argue with him on such terms. Nobody except Pechorin.

Firmly saying that Vulich would die tonight, he suggested that the Serb shoot. He pulled the trigger, but the pistol misfired, although the next shot to the side thundered regularly.

It would seem that the Serb won the dispute, but Grigory insisted that death would overtake the unfortunate very soon. And so it happened. In the morning, Vulich was found dead. The killer was quickly found, but the Cossack, who had committed a crime by accident, being drunk, did not want to admit his guilt. He locked himself in and threatened to hack to death anyone who tried to enter. Pechorin decided to punish the Cossack and got into his dwelling through the window. The officers who came to the rescue managed to cope with the brawler.

The image of the main character

Lermontov wrote a very strong image, frightening, but at the same time admirable. Outwardly, Grigory Pechorin appears as a stately and handsome young man with the rank of an officer. He is smart and perceptive, an understanding of human psychology allows him to easily find a common language with people even after he showed them himself not in the best light.

With such qualities, Pechorin could achieve a lot, but in his life he never found meaning. He understood this especially sharply on the eve of the duel with Grushnitsky, after his death only memories would remain, and even those would hardly have brought joy to anyone.

For all the time, Pechorin could not bring happiness to the women who loved him, meetings with former colleagues were cold and aloof on his part. The fate of the cynical and often cruel hero even arouses empathy at some moments. The narrator was bribed by the sincerity of Gregory's account of the events of his life. On the pages of the diary, he is not engaged in self-justification, sometimes he admits that he himself understands the baseness of his actions, but he can no longer act otherwise.

A brief retelling of the "Hero of Our Time" reflects all the plot moves, but, unfortunately, cannot give that exciting excitement that grips the reader when meeting the original source. If possible, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the full content of the story in order to be able to draw your conclusions on the themes of fate, love and human destiny raised by the writer.

(372 words) The composition of the work plays a huge role in literary creation. The arrangement of chapters can create intrigue or convey the author's idea more clearly. The most striking example of an unusual composition we can observe in the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time".

For the first time we hear about the main character of the work from a simple, kind, but inexperienced officer Maxim Maksimych. The image created by the old soldier is truly terrifying. The reader is presented with a soulless monster, which, obeying a fleeting whim, ruined the blooming girl Bela, without experiencing a single drop of remorse. The elderly soldier does not understand Pechorin and condemns him. The personal meeting that followed the conversation with Maksim Maksimych does not at all raise the hero in the eyes of the reader. Tired, dry, extremely restrained Pechorin does not evoke any sympathy. But after the death of Grigory Alexandrovich, the author tells the readers episodes from his life even before meeting with Maxim Maksimych, and the character acquires depth and versatility. In the chapter "Taman" Pechorin, as in the case of Bela, acts as the destroyer of human happiness. Invading the lives of a group of smugglers, he forces them to flee, leaving his blind boy accomplice to their fate. In this chapter, we understand that Grigory Aleksandrovich is able to feel emotions for the people around him: he sincerely regrets that he ruined the lives of people who did nothing wrong to him. Pechorin himself, after this incident, sees in himself only a weak man, led by fate, who, unwittingly, brings continuous troubles to those around him. This is followed by the chapter "Princess Mary". It is in this chapter that the figure of the hero appears in all its tragedy. The passionate, sincere nature of Pechorin has been trying all his life to find his place in this world. Tormented by the blues, Grigory conceives a cruel experiment, as a result of which he breaks the heart of a young girl. At the same time, Lermontov shows that his hero is surrounded by hypocrites and scoundrels from the nobility, like Grushnitsky and his hangers-on. Pechorin denies the world of ostentatious brilliance and lies, but at the same time he can neither create nor find an alternative to it, and therefore is doomed to eternal wandering and loneliness. In the next chapter, entitled "The Fatalist," Gregory openly calls himself part of a lost generation, tired and doomed. But when faced with death face to face, he comes to the conviction that a person is not a weak-willed doll in the hands of fate, and can fight it.

The composition of the novel, created by Lermontov, makes it possible to better understand Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin and, if not forgive, then at least understand this man, who has become a living embodiment of an entire era.

The purpose of my essay is to get acquainted with the point of view of writers on the composition of the novel by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time", to generalize the result obtained, to understand what is the purpose of violating the chronological principle.

To begin with, I looked into the "Great Soviet Encyclopedia" and found out the meaning of the word "composition".

Composition (from Lat. Compositio - composition, composition),

1) the construction of a work of art, due to its content, nature and purpose and largely determines its perception. Composition is the most important organizing component of an artistic form, giving a work of unity and integrity, subordinating its elements to each other and to the whole. The laws of composition, emerging in the process of artistic practice, aesthetic cognition of reality are, to one degree or another, a reflection and generalization of objective laws and interconnections of phenomena of the real world. These patterns and relationships appear in an artistically embodied form, and the degree and nature of their implementation and generalization are associated with the type of art, the idea and material of the work, etc.

Composition in literature is the organization, arrangement and connection of heterogeneous components of the artistic form of a literary work. Composition includes: arrangement and correlation of characters (composition as a "system of images"), events and actions (plot composition), inserted stories and lyrical digressions (composition of non-plot elements), narrative methods or perspectives (narrative composition itself), details of the situation, behavior, experiences (composition of details).

Techniques and methods of composition are very diverse. Comparisons of events, objects, facts, details that are distant from each other in the text of the work sometimes turn out to be artistically significant. The most important aspect of composition is also the sequence in which the components of the depicted are introduced into the text - the temporary organization of a literary work as a process of discovering and deploying artistic content. And, finally, the composition includes the mutual correlation of different sides (planes, layers, levels) of the literary form. Along with the term "composition", many modern theorists use the word "structure" in the same sense.

Being itself "... an endless labyrinth of couplings ...", as Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy said, the composition completes the complex unity and integrity of the work, becoming the crown of the artistic form, which is always meaningful. "Composition is the disciplining force and organizer of the work. It is entrusted to ensure that nothing is torn to the side, into its own law, namely, it is conjugated into the whole and rotated in addition to its thought. Therefore, it usually does not accept any logical deduction and subordination. , nor a simple life sequence, although it is similar to it; its purpose is to arrange all the pieces so that they are closed in the full expression of the idea "(" Theory of Literature ").

Each work combines both general, "typical" methods for a given genre, genre or direction of composition (for example, threefold repetitions in fairy tales, recognition and silence in dramas of "intrigue", a strict stanza form of a sonnet, retardation in epics and dramas), and individual characteristic of a given writer or an individual work (for example, in Leo Tolstoy's story "Hadji Murad" the leading principle of the composition of characters and their system is polarity, including the deliberately imaginary one: Nicholas I - Shamil).

In modern literary criticism, there is also a more local use of the term "composition". In this case, the unit, the component of the composition is such a "segment" of the work (text), within which one way or perspective of the image is preserved - dynamic narration or static description, characteristic, dialogue, lyrical digression, etc. The simplest units are compiled into more complex components (an integral sketch of a portrait, mental state, reproduction of a conversation, etc.). An even larger and more independent component is the scene (in the epic, drama). In the epic, it can consist of a number of forms of representation (description, narration, monologue); it can include a portrait, landscape, interior; but throughout its entire length, one perspective is preserved, a certain point of view is maintained - the author or the character-participant, or an outside observer - the narrator; otherwise: each scene is "depicted" by someone's eyes. It is the combination of presentation forms and certain "points of view", their interconnectedness and unity, that make up the composition in this sense.

In the literature of the 20th century, the activity of the compositional principle is increasing, which is reflected in the emergence of the concept of montage (first in relation to cinema, then to theater and literature).

A Hero of Our Time is a novel consisting of five novellas and short stories, united by the protagonist, Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin. A very interesting and unusual person. Although at the same time he is the same as everyone else, with his vices, passions, feelings, desires, oddities, thoughts.

The content of the novel allows us to reconstruct the history of Pechorin's life. If we adhere to the sequence of events developing in the stories and stories of the "Hero of Our Time", then they are arranged approximately like this: Pechorin, perhaps, was exiled from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus for a duel. On the way to the place of his new service, he is delayed in Taman, where he accidentally collides with smugglers ("Taman"). After some military expedition he was allowed to use the waters in Pyatigorsk, then for a duel with Grushnitsky ("Princess Mary") he was sent under the command of Maxim Maksimych to the fortress. Having gone to the Cossack village for two weeks, Pechorin is going through a story with Vulich ("Fatalist"), and upon returning to the fortress, Bela is kidnapped. ("Bela"). ET Udodov expresses a number of convincing and interesting considerations in support of just such an understanding of the plot sequence in Lermontov's novel: first, what is told in "Fatalist" happens, and then the story with Bela. From the fortress Pechorin was transferred to Georgia, then he returned to St. Petersburg. Some time later, once again finding himself in the Caucasus, on the way to Persia, Pechorin meets with Maksim Maksimych and an officer - the author of travel notes (“Maksim Maksimych”). Finally, on the way back from Persia, Pechorin dies (Preface to "Pechorin's Journal").

What can we say about the composition of the novel by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time"? What did the author want to show with this composition? Or maybe, by doing so, he wanted to introduce some deeper, hidden meaning into the work? Although, perhaps, he simply wanted thereby to attract us, readers, to his work.

What is the main feature of the composition of this novel? Now I will try to answer this question.

Lermontov deliberately breaks the order of these events. And he talks about them not in chronological order. This principle of arranging the material made it possible to reveal the contradictory image of Pechorin with the greatest completeness and objectivity. In each of the stories, the hero shows himself from completely different sides. He is placed in different life situations, events, his lifestyle is changing. And in each of the stories he appears before us as completely different, but at the same time, absolutely the same person. Mixing and rearranging the events of the novel in comparison with their “real” plot sequence introduced a fundamentally new artistic quality into the work - the book emphasized not the chronology of events, but the “chronology of the statement” about them. A double composition was created, which made possible things that were incredible from the point of view of the "usual" narrative logic.

This can be indicated by a table in which the sequence of the novels is indicated on the left in the order in which Lermontov communicates them to the reader, and on the right - in numbers - the real sequence of the events described.

This arrangement of the parts of the novel, violating the chronological (plot) order, increases the plot tension, makes it possible to maximally interest the reader with Pechorin and his fate, gradually revealing his character in all the contradictions and complexity.

In Lermontov's novel, composition and style are subordinated to one task: to reveal the image of the hero of his time as deeply and comprehensively as possible, to trace the history of his inner life because “... the history of the human soul,” as the author of the preface to “Pechorin's Journal,” declares, “at least the smallest soul almost more curious and not more useful than the history of a whole people, especially ... when it ... was written without a vain desire to arouse participation or surprise. "

The image of Pechorin is revealed in two ways: from the point of view of an outside observer and in terms of his inner self-disclosure. That is why Lermontov's novel is clearly divided into two parts. Each of these parts has an inner unity. The first part acquaints the reader with the hero by the methods of external characteristics. The second part is prepared by the first. In the hands of the reader falls the "Pechorin Journal", in which he talks about himself in an extremely sincere confession.

The novel is structured in such a way that Pechorin and his story consistently appear before the reader from three sides, as it were. The preface by the author, written in response to contradictory interpretations of criticism and included in the second edition of the book, explains the general concept and purpose of the work. Then there are the travel notes of the author, the story "Bela".

For all its seeming simplicity, Bela's story is complex both in composition and style. The traditional romantic theme takes on a truthful, realistic character here.

Bela's tale begins with travel notes. Their author - a Russian officer wandering "for the road by the state need", looks at the Caucasian nature and Caucasian life through the eyes of a Russian person: "... and it was fun to hear in the middle of this dead sleep of nature the snorting of a tired mail troika and the uneven rattling of a Russian bell."

Central to the story "Bela" is the story of Maksim Maksimych, included in the notes of an itinerant officer. However, this story is interrupted by the description of the Cross Pass. Maksim Maksimych's story is complicated by the fact that the first part includes Kazbich's story about how he escaped from the Cossacks, and the second - Pechorin's auto-characterization. This composition of the story corresponds to its stylistic complexity. Each character has his own speech style. Maxim Maksimych cannot understand the strange, "extraordinary" actions of Pechorin, explain them all the more, so Maksim Maksimych does not try to retell Pechorin's reasoning, but only records his actions.

In the second story, linking Bela with Pechorin's Journal and entitled Maksim Maksimych, the old captain no longer tells anything. “We were silent. What else was there to talk about? ... He already told me everything that was interesting about himself ... ". Now Maxim Maksimych himself is an actor, and the author tells about him. All the reader's attention is directed to Maxim Maksimych. His behavior, his words, gestures receive an individual imprint and are noted by an observant author. But nevertheless, the most important means in this story in the characterization of Pechorin is a psychological portrait.

In the story "Maksim Maksimych", the author of the novel comes face to face with Pechorin for the only time. Lermontov did not consider it possible to put his portrait characterization into the mouth of Maxim Maksimych or any other hero of his novel. He took care of thoroughly motivating the meeting between the author and the hero of the novel, in order to draw on his behalf an accurate psychological portrait of the person whose fate the reader became interested in the story "Bel".

Pechorin's appearance is preceded by a description of his dandy carriage and spoiled footman. The arrogance of the servant contrasts sharply with the undisguised joy of Maxim Maksimych, with his impatience to see Pechorin as soon as possible.

Before proceeding to characterize Pechorin, Lermontov specifically warns the reader: "Now I must draw his portrait."

Such an outwardly accurate and at the same time psychologically penetrating recreation of the portrait of the character was a true discovery in the history of literature. It is enough to compare this portrait with any portrait in Pushkin's prose to make sure that Lermontov followed the path of further detailing, further more in-depth psychological analysis of the external appearance and internal content of his hero. He selects external details in a certain sequence and immediately interprets them in physiological, sociological and psychological terms.

After the author's meeting with Pechorin in Vladikavkaz, his notes fall into the hands of the author. In the Preface to the "Pechorin Journal" the author says what Pechorin himself could not have reported: Pechorin died while returning from a trip to Persia. This is how the author's right to publish the "Pechorin Journal", consisting of three stories: "Taman", "Princess Mary" and "Fatalist", is substantiated.

In the novels of the Pechorin Journal, written in the first person, there appears a third narrator, the third author's "I" - Pechorin himself, whose fate the reader became interested in Maksim Maksimych's story and whose significance he assessed by the portrait characteristics given by an observant author. And now the clever, secretive Pechorin, who knows how to accurately define every thought, every state of mind, both himself and his interlocutors, tells with merciless frankness about his life, about deep dissatisfaction with himself and everyone around him. In introspection, in "reflection" (in Belinsky's terminology) - the strength and weakness of Pechorin, hence his superiority over people and this is one of the reasons for his skepticism and disappointment.

The style of the "Pechorin Journal" is in many ways close to the style of the author's narration in "Bela" and "Maksim Maksimych". Belinsky also noted: "... although the author pretends to be a person completely alien to Pechorin, he strongly sympathizes with him, and there is an amazing similarity in their view of things."

With all the stylistic unity of the "Pechorin Journal", each of the three stories that make up this "Journal" has its own historical and literary genealogy.

"Taman" - an action-packed and at the same time the most lyrical story in the entire book - continues the traditions of romantic robbery stories in a new way and in a realistic manner; at the same time, the theme of the mermaid, the undine, widespread in the romantic ballad, is woven into this little story, but it is also translated into a real life plan: the undine turns into a seductive smuggler.

The reader, together with Pechorin, begins to understand that the smuggling girl only played the role of a passionately in love mermaid in order to free herself from an unwelcome officer. When it turns out that in the meantime the blind boy robbed Pechorin, the sad ironic exclamation of Pechorin sums up the truthful and bitter result of the whole incident: “... And what do I care about human joys and disasters, me, a wandering officer, and even on the road due to state necessity !. .. "

V.G.Belinsky highly appreciated "Taman": "We did not dare to make extracts from this story, because it resolutely does not allow them: it is like some kind of lyric poem, all the charm of which is destroyed by one verse released or changed not by the poet himself. ; she is all in shape; if you write it down, you should write it out all from word to word; retelling its content will give about her the same concept as a story, albeit an enthusiastic one, about the beauty of a woman whom you yourself have not seen.

In "Taman" Lermontov turns the plot situation of "Bela" on a different side. "Bela" and "Taman" are stories that are viewed one through the other. Lermontov's idea is understandable - if the hero's revival is impossible with the help of the love of a savage torn from the natural environment, then perhaps the hero's immersion in the wild, full of danger world of "honest smugglers", some semblance of the same natural state, will be salutary for Pechorin. However, the sobriety and vigilance of a great artist makes Lermontov not flatter himself with sweet Russoist-Byronic illusions. First, the romantic world of smugglers itself is as far from its original naturalness as the wild, uninitiated Caucasian region.

The second story, which is part of the "Pechorin's Journal", "Princess Mary", develops the theme of the hero of the time surrounded by the "water society".

The description of the Caucasian nature, life and customs of visitors to the Caucasian Mineral Waters in this story is uniquely combined with an ironic, if not satirical, depiction of the life of a noble "water society", surrounded by and in collision with which Pechorin is shown.

Princess Mary and her mother Princess Ligovskaya, her relative Vera and Vera's second husband, Semyon Vasilyevich, are all people of the same circle to which Pechorin belongs; he is associated with them by common Petersburg and Moscow acquaintances and memories.

In the story "Princess Mary" Pechorin appears before the reader not only as a memoirist-storyteller (as in "Taman" and "Fatalist"), but also as the author of a diary, a journal in which his thoughts and impressions are accurately recorded. This allows Lermontov to reveal the inner world of his hero with great depth.

Pechorin's diary opens with an entry made on May 11, the day after his arrival in Pyatigorsk. Detailed descriptions of subsequent events constitute, as it were, the first, "Pyatigorsk" part of the story. The June 10 entry opens the second, "Kislovodsk" part of his diary. In the second part, events develop more rapidly, consistently leading to the culmination of the story and the entire novel - to the duel between Pechorin and Grushnitsky. For a duel with Grushnitsky, Pechorin ends up in a fortress to Maxim Maksimych. This is how the story ends.

Thus, all the events of "Princess Mary" fit into a period of a little more than a month and a half. But the story of these few days makes it possible for Lermontov to reveal from the inside the contradictory image of Pechorin with exceptional depth and completeness.

It is in "Princess Mary" that the most profoundly shown the hopeless despair, the tragic hopelessness of the egoist Pechorin, an intelligent and gifted person, crippled by the environment and upbringing.

Pechorin's past, if not to talk about the earlier concept of "Princess Ligovskaya", within the "Hero of Our Time" is of little interest to Lermontov. The author is almost not busy with the question of the formation of his hero. Lermontov does not even consider it necessary to tell the reader what Pechorin did in St. Petersburg during the five years that passed after his return from the Caucasus and before his new appearance in Vladikavkaz ("Maxim Maksimych"), on his way to Persia. All of Lermontov's attention is drawn to revealing the inner life of his hero.

Not only in Russian, but also in world literature, Lermontov was one of the first to master the ability to capture and depict the "mental process of the emergence of thoughts," as Chernyshevsky put it in an article about the early stories and stories of Leo Tolstoy. And if "the mental process itself, its forms, its laws, the dialectic of the soul" were fully revealed by the means of fiction only by Tolstoy, then with all the difference between Lermontov and Tolstoy, Chernyshevsky did not accidentally name among Tolstoy's predecessors the name of the author of "A Hero of Our Time", in which "this side of psychological analysis is more developed."

In a conversation with Dr. Werner Pechorin says: “From the storm of life I took out only a few ideas - and not a single feeling. I have long been living not with my heart, but with my head. I weigh, analyze my own passions and actions with strict curiosity, but without participation. There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges him ... "

Pechorin consistently and convincingly discloses in his diary not only his thoughts and moods, but also the spiritual world and the spiritual image of those with whom he has to meet. Neither the intonation of the interlocutor's voice, nor the movements of his eyes, nor facial expressions elude his observation. Each spoken word, each gesture reveal to Pechorin the state of mind of the interlocutor. Pechorin is not only very smart, but also observant and sensitive. This explains his ability to understand people well. The portrait characteristics in "Pechorin's Journal" are striking in their depth and accuracy. We know that they were written by Lermontov, but it was no accident that Lermontov attributed them to Pechorin. So, about Dr. Werner Pechorin writes: “Werner is a wonderful person for many reasons. He is a skeptic and a materialist, like almost all doctors, and at the same time a poet, and in earnest, a poet in fact always and often in words, although he never wrote two poems in his life. He studied all the living strings of the human heart, as they study the veins of a corpse, but he never knew how to use his knowledge, ”and so on.

If Werner is Pechorin's companion, then Grushnitsky is his antipode. Pechorin meets Grushnitsky in the active detachment, and then meets him in Pyatigorsk. This meeting gives rise to a detailed portrait characterization of Grushnitsky.

Having solved Grushnitsky, Pechorin accurately reproduces his speech in his recordings and thereby finally reveals his insignificance. Grushnitsky's false, overly upbeat, declamatory utterances are replete with exclamations, questions, emphasized by pauses and silences; Grushnitsky's speech is without any measure colored with sharp antitheses, comparisons and equivalents, for example: “My soldier's greatcoat is like a seal of rejection. The participation that she arouses is as heavy as alms. "

Nature, landscape in "A Hero of Our Time", especially in "Pechorin's Journal", very often not only a background for human experiences. The landscape directly clarifies the state of a person, and sometimes contrastingly emphasizes the discrepancy between the feelings of the hero and the surrounding environment.

The key to the ideological concept of "Fatalist" is Pechorin's monologue, which combines the first part of the novella with its second part, which deals with the death of Vulich.

Reflections of Pechorin in this monologue, as it were, summarize the entire "Pechorin Journal" and even the novel "Hero of Our Time" as a whole. As E.N. Mikhailova, “Lermontov, as it were, says with his novella: no one can finally decide whether there is predestination or not, since there is always room for chance, for subjective“ blunders of thought ”when explaining phenomena; but even if predestination does exist (to which the example of Vulich's fate inclines), then in this case, the person is left with only one thing - to act, to tempt fate.

Action, struggle - this is Lermontov's last conclusion from the problem of rock. "

Valentin Ivanovich Korovin in his book "The creative path of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov writes that not one of Lermontov's works has expressed so many opposing, sometimes mutually exclusive judgments, as about the novel" A Hero of Our Time. " The controversy about the "Hero of Our Time" revealed several conflicting points of view concerning not only the artistic method, but also the very interpretation of the image of the protagonist. Lermontov's novel revealed such ideological and artistic layers that were not discovered and illuminated by his first genius interpreter - V.G. Belinsky. The central questions of the study of the novel remain two: 1) what is the artistic method of Lermontov in "A Hero of Our Time?" Is the novel a romantic or realistic work? Perhaps the novel contains a synthesis of romanticism and realism? And 2) Who is Pechorin? Does he consciously or unwillingly choose the position of an egoist? These or those answers to these questions are explained by different readings of the famous novel. And, of course, the question of the composition of the novel is closely related to one or another point of view on the novel.

The time of the creation of the novel is rich in significant events in the social and literary life. The Russian reader began to understand the ideas of Hegel, the works of the utopians - Fourier and his followers. They naturally superimposed on previous ideas - above all Rousseau. The Russian public closely followed the new trends coming from the West, and sought to comprehend the course of historical development in Russia from the proposed points of view. Neither the views of French historians, nor the most important changes taking place in literature, in particular the deepening psychologism in the works of writers of the early nineteenth century, escaped her.

Lermontov's novel is rightly attributed to philosophical prose and associated with its traditions, but this is not a philosophical novel in the traditional sense. "A Hero of Our Time" has much in common with essay literature, with a travel novel, but it is not ethnographic observations or documentary accurate descriptions accompanied by lyrical comments that become the subject of the author's attention. Lermontov's work can be compared with a confession novel, but it does not fit into this framework either. Finally, "A Hero of Our Time" appears as a cycle of stories or stories, united by one hero and the extraordinary nature of the adventures that fell to his lot. But why did Lermontov need to collect disparate stories into one novel?

"A Hero of Our Time" emerged from the intersection of many genre formations. The cyclization of stories, according to B.M. Eichenbaum, was a characteristic stage in Russian literature of the 30s. First of all, here, of course, should be called "Belkin's Tale" by A.S. Pushkin. However, it is precisely the stories that are united in Pushkin, which do not make up the whole novel. In the cases when Pushkin turned to the genre of the novel, the composition of his works was not novelistic. Pushkin's task was to present the extraordinary as ordinary everywhere, in order to affirm the primacy of the objective course of life. Each random, extraordinary episode in the life of the heroes turned into a natural one, due to external reasons beyond the control of the heroes.

The romantic passions of the heroes were placed under the control of reality, unremitting and hidden for the characters themselves.

Lermontov, undoubtedly, was full of attention to the extraordinary, outstanding personality of the noble intellectual. What is the measure of freedom provided to the individual by circumstances beyond his control? What internal driving springs determine human behavior and what is their relationship with objective conditions that cannot be established by the person himself? Lermontov's hero is initially extraordinary, "strange", and all the events in which he participates are just as extraordinary and strange. Lermontov is interested not so much in an ordinary hero as in an extraordinary hero, a powerful, titanic personality. Even Pechorin's meeting with his old friend Maksim Maksimych looks strange, unlike the usual meeting of friends who served in the same fortress. However, external strangeness receives internal motivation everywhere.

Continuing Pushkin's perspective and arguing with Pushkin, Lermontov defined his novel line in the depiction of a man of the 1930s. For him, the personality of an advanced aristocratic intellectual, in terms of his spiritual inclinations, is by no means devastated. Boredom and selfishness are explained not by the original inner emptiness of Pechorin, but by deeper reasons that distorted the nature of the heroic personality. Lermontov's "modern man" is being rehabilitated, a significant part of his guilt is removed from him. The romantic character is seen not only from the point of view of his external actions, but also internal incentives. Lermontov, as it were, gives his hero complete freedom of choice, but Pechorin's actions in an imperceptible way for the hero demonstrate not only his will, but also the power of circumstances behind them.

Lermontov's task was to make the conditioning of the personality by external circumstances appear through the intimate world, through the contradictions of restless consciousness. The inner world of Pechorin contains the contradictions of reality. Pechorin's soul is equal to the surrounding life. The world of the soul is proportionate to reality, which, however, exists objectively. This inherently romantic principle of approach to character depiction is complicated by the hero's fatal dependence on circumstances outside of him, which appear in the novel as fate, fate, premonition, prediction. At the same time, Pechorin's attitude to life as a game, the feeling of doom he experiences, the contradictory course of the hero's thoughts are everywhere presented as a philosophical and psychological generalization of life experience, and not arising independently of reality. In Lermontov, it is as if a reverse move is made in comparison with the subsequent realistic novel, not reality determines the contradictoriness of Pechorin, but the contradictions of the hero hint at the essence of life; but since these contradictions are everywhere given through the generalization of life events, then ultimately Pechorin's dependence on conditions established by him is revealed.

Thus, the hero acts as a tool for learning about life, its predetermined, disastrous, fatal course. This throws light on reality itself. But as an instrument of knowledge, the hero himself obeys the same fatal laws, independent of his personal will. The hero simultaneously imposes his will on life's circumstances and is forced to admit that this will is not only his own will, that it ultimately reflects his subordination to the prevailing conditions. Pechorin is presented as a historically natural hero of the time; it objectifies the type of consciousness, the type of thinking, molded into strictly defined forms. Since reality is initially contradictory, since it separates people, and each union ends in death or loss of spiritual values, the general law of life manifests itself regardless of the sequence of events or their cause of conjugation. The events taking place with Pechorin clearly demonstrate the fatal course of life, and their fragmented nature only emphasizes the power of circumstances independent of the hero's personal will. In exactly the same way, the hero is "taken out" from the constantly acting worldly connections. The hero is thrown into a whirlpool of life, where different circumstances, identical in their deep essence, lead to similar eventual outcomes. For Lermontov, it was extremely important, on the one hand, to show the established hero in diverse life situations, and on the other, to limit the manifestation of a contradictory, restless nature in a strictly outlined novelistic plot. Life appeared in its diverse manifestations, in the alternation of various situations and at the same time in their utmost isolation. Situations exist in isolation, without any causal connection between themselves. However, in general, they confirm some general laws of life. In the same way, Pechorin remains himself everywhere, no breaks occur in his worldview. The type of consciousness is the same everywhere, the character of the hero does not change, but the psychological motivation of the hero of the time deepens from short story to short story. Pechorin really "chases" life, which only confirms his established knowledge about it. All Pechorin's collisions with people are accidental, but each case convinces him of the laws of those concepts about life that were given to him by previous experience. At the same time, plot events are organized in such a way that they introduce new and essential elements into the foundations of the hero's psychology. New moral and psychological questions arise before him, but the episodes, deepening the psychology of the hero, do not contribute to the process of Pechorin's spiritual growth. Pechorin's life experience, extracted by philosophical generalization from each situation, is essential not because it is new every time, but because it is always the same. And this sameness, accompanying the unexpected, extraordinary adventures of the hero, demonstrates the constancy of fate, the triumph of inhuman laws that reign in life.

It is not only reality that is devoid of integrity, it is episodically closed. Pechorin is also deprived of integrity. His life is composed of a chain of unrelated events, and internal contradictions torment his soul. The composition of the novel reflects this rupture of the hero's life, due to the contradictory, winding course of reality, throwing the hero into the arms of Bela, then into a foreign country.

For the first time in Russian literature such a merciless exposure of a hero to his personality appears. The habit of introspection is combined with continuous observation of others.

The unusual composition of "A Hero of Our Time" is still controversial and is the subject of literary studies.

Korovin writes that in Lermontov's novel A Hero of Our Time, the author, who has not yet completely separated from the image he created, follows the same path as Pechorin. The "incompleteness" of the era appeared in a sharp aggravation of the personal principle and at the same time in the recognition of social determinism. Both ideas came from different ideological and artistic systems and required reconciliation. It was necessary to put personal will under the control of reality, to find a place for personal will within the framework of social determinism. This significantly complicated the creative task of Lermontov. Without eliminating Pechorin's personal will, he nevertheless put internal and external limits to it. The characters of the novel appeared as independent persons, separate from the author's gaze, capable of self-development. Reality is perceived by the heroes as something objectively given, independent of them, not absorbed by their subjective worlds. The realistic principle of the depiction in "A Hero of Our Time" won out. This is evidenced by the developed motivational sphere, an objective analysis of characters that does not allow direct author's interference, this was also facilitated by the composition of the novel.

Lermontov leads Pechorin to the consciousness that life is one. It brings suffering, is fraught with tragedies, unbearably "boring", but only in her can a person find happiness, experience the joy of struggle, outside of this, given, concrete reality, but in itself. But such a misunderstanding of life is inherent only in 19th century realism.

Lermontov's simultaneous appeal to realistic and romantic writing contains his ideological and artistic originality, which determined the composition of the novel, reflected the "incompleteness" of his creative evolution and due to the "incompleteness" of Lermontov's time.

The composition became a means of expressing Lermontov's artistic intention, a means of depicting the character of the hero.

Notes (edit)

Retardation, 1) in linguistics - a kind of phonetic analogy phenomenon, which is reduced to a change in the appearance of a word (lexeme) under the influence of the sound type of another lexeme that precedes it in the context. Typical for numerals, cf. Taj. shonzdah - "sixteen" (instead of the expected shazdah;) by analogy with ponzdah; -- "fifteen". The opposite in direction of the phenomenon - anticipation: cf. Russian "nine" (instead of "not faint") under the influence of "ten". 2) In poetics - a compositional method of delaying the development of plot action; carried out through lyrical digressions, various descriptions (landscape, interior), repetition of homogeneous episodes, etc.

A plot is a set of events in their natural chronological order. The plot is opposed to the plot: the same events, but in their presentation, that is, in the order in which the author reports them, in other words, the plot is "what really happened."

Bibliography

1. Alpatova T.A. "History of the Human Soul" in the Mirror of Narration // "Literature at School" magazine. - 2008. - No. 1

2. Belinsky V.G. Articles and reviews. Moscow: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1971.

3. Belinsky V.G. Selected articles. Moscow: Children's Literature, 1980.

4. Great Soviet Encyclopedia. http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/bse.

5. Egorov O.G. Nervous character in Russian literature // Journal "Literature at school". - 2005. - No. 3.

6. Zurov LF "Taman" by Lermontov and "L" Orco "by Georges Sand.

7. Korovin V. I. The creative way of M. Yu. Lermontov. M .: Prosveschenie, 1973

8. Lermontov M.Yu. "Hero of our time".

9. Manuilov V. A. Roman M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time" - Comments. M .: Education, 1966.

10. Mikhailova E. N. Prose of Lermontov. M., Goslitizdat, 1957.

11. Chernyshevsky NG Complete Works, vol. III. M., Goslitizdat, 1947.

Sections: Literature

M.Yu.Lermontov

A Hero of Our Time is the first psychological novel in Russian literature. The complexity of the composition. The century of M.Yu. Lermontov in the novel. Pechorin as a representative of the “portrait of a generation”.

Homework for the lesson.

1. Reading the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time".
2. Analysis of the composition of the work.

a) Who tells the story of Pechorin?

• The degree of familiarity of the narrator with the hero.
• His social status.
• Intellectual and cultural level.
• Moral qualities.

b) Analyze the plot of the novel.

c) Restore the chronological sequence of events in the novel (plot).

3. Individual task for linguists.

a) Reflection is the lexical meaning of a word.

b) A.I. Herzen, V.G.Belinsky - historical and biographical commentary.

Individual task: story about the plot of the novel by V. Nabokov.

The Hero of Our Time ... is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation.

M.Yu. Lermontov.

Russian society got acquainted with the “long chain of stories” by M.Yu. Lermontov under the general title “Hero of Our Time” in 1839-1840. From March to February, the essay was published in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. In 1840, A Hero of Our Time was published as a separate book.

The time has come for us to get acquainted with this work, to form our own idea of ​​it, to formulate (define) our own (personal) attitude towards its heroes.

Students' answers.

You are not alone in evaluating the work and its hero. The appearance of M. Yu. Lermontov's novel immediately caused a sharp controversy in society.

• Nicholas I found the novel "disgusting", showing "the great depravity of the author."
• Protective criticism fell upon Lermontov's novel, seeing in it a slander against Russian reality. Professor S.P. Shevyrev strove to prove that Pechorin was no more than an imitation of Western models, that he had no roots in Russian life.
• Earlier than others, V.G. Belinsky, who noted in it "richness of content", "deep knowledge of the human heart and modern society."
• And what about the author? For the second edition of "A Hero of Our Time" M.Yu. Lermontov writes "Preface", in which he insisted that "The Hero of Our Time, my dear sirs, is like a portrait, but not one person: this is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development." That is why these words are rendered as the epigraph of our lesson.

- What kind of generation is this, to which both M. Yu. Lermontov and his hero belong?

Doctor of Philology, Professor Panchenko is speaking (Appendix 2).

Let's dwell on this topic in more detail. To talk about the century M.Yu. Lermontov, you need to know a certain vocabulary. Follow my thoughts using the words on the chalkboard to the right.

The world outlook of M. Yu. Lermontov took shape in the late 1920s and early 1930s of the 19th century, in the era of the ideological crisis of the progressive noble intelligentsia, associated with the defeat of the December uprising and the Nikolaev reaction in all spheres of public life.

Nicholas I is a tamer of revolutions, a gendarme of Europe, a jailer of the Decembrists, etc., from the point of view of “communist” historiography. A.S. Pushkin, whose relationship with the emperor was complex and ambiguous, noted the undoubted merits and Peter's scale of his personality. "With the greatest respect" spoke about Nicholas I F.M. Dostoevsky, who, as is well known, ended up in hard labor by his will. Contradictory assessments of personality. The fact is that Nicholas I rejected any revolution as an idea, as a principle, as a method of transforming reality. The uprising of the Decembrists is not only a noble motive to eliminate “various injustices and humiliations,” but a violation of the oath of office, an attempt to violently change the state system, and criminal bloodshed. And as a reaction - a tough political regime established by the emperor.

Ideological crisis is a crisis of ideas. The ideas, ideals, goals and meaning of the life of the Pushkin generation - everything was destroyed. These are hard times, later they will be called the era of timelessness. In such years, they talk about lack of spirituality, about the decline in morality. Maybe you and I have gone through or are going through such times associated with the collapse of the Soviet Union ... But let us return to the 30s of the nineteenth century.

The need to master the “mistakes of the fathers”, to rethink what seemed immutable to the previous generation, to develop their own moral and philosophical position is a characteristic feature of the epoch of the 1920s and 1930s.

Practical action turned out to be impossible due to both objective (tough policy of autocracy) and subjective reasons: before acting, it was necessary to overcome the ideological crisis, the era of doubt and skepticism; clearly define in the name of what and how act. That is why, in the 30s, the philosophical searches of its best representatives acquired exceptional importance for society. This was extremely difficult to do. Quite another triumphant. Everywhere, as far as the eye could see, flowed slowly, as Herzen put it, “the deep and dirty river of civilized Russia, with its aristocrats, bureaucrats, officers, gendarmes, grand dukes and the emperor - a formless and voiceless mass of baseness, servility, cruelty and envy, enthralling and consuming everything ”.

Man and destiny, man and his purpose, the purpose and meaning of human life, its possibilities and reality, freedom of will and necessity - all these questions were figuratively embodied in the novel.

The problem of personality is central in the novel: "The history of the human soul ... is almost more curious and not more useful than the history of an entire people." And this statement by M.Yu. Lermontov could become an epigraph to our lesson.

It was not by chance that Pechorin established himself in the eyes of the generation of the 1930s as a typical character of the post-Kabrist era. And by his fate, by his sufferings and doubts, and by the whole structure of his inner world, he really belongs to that time. Not to understand this means not to understand anything. Not in the hero, not in the novel itself.

To understand - this is, in fact, the purpose of our lesson.

Let's turn to the composition of the composition.

I. - Who tells the story of Pechorin?

Students' answers.

• Maksim Maksimych is a staff captain, a man of the people, he has been serving in the Caucasus for a long time, he has seen a lot in his lifetime. A kind person, but limited. He spent a lot of time with Pechorin, but he didn’t understand the “weirdness” of his aristocratic colleague, a person who was too far from him in the social circle.
• Wandering Officer (narration officer). Able to understand Pechorin deeper, closer to him in terms of his intellectual and cultural level than Maxim Maksimych. However, he can only be judged on the basis of what he heard from the kind, but limited Maksim Maksimych. Pechorin "... I saw ... only once ... in my life on the high road." Subsequently, having familiarized himself with Pechorin's diary that fell into his hands, the narrator will express his opinion about the hero, but it is neither exhaustive nor unambiguous.
• And finally, the whole story passes into the hands of the hero himself - a sincere man, “who so mercilessly exposed his own weaknesses and vices”; a man of a mature mind and not conceited.

II. - How does Lermontov build the plot of the work?

Student responses(writing on the board of the plot and plot of the work is done before the lesson by two students).

Can this collection of stories be called a novel? Why Pushkin “ Stories Belkin ”? Why Gogol collection of stories"Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka"?

- Why Lermontov is in no hurry to call his brainchild a novel, denoting it in very different ways: as "notes", "compositions", "long chain of stories"? Let's remember this question.

III. - Restore the chronological order of events.

Students' answers. Correction of the recording of the plot of the novel, made before the lesson.

The chronology of events underlying the work, according to V. Nabokov.

“Taman”: about 1830 - Pechorin leaves St. Petersburg for an active detachment and stops in Taman;

"Princess Mary": May 10 - June 17, 1832; Pechorin comes from an active detachment to the waters in Pyatigorsk and then to Kislovodsk; after a duel with Grushnitsky, he was transferred to the fortress under the command of Maksim Maksimych;

"Fatalist": December 1832 - Pechorin for two weeks comes from the fortress of Maxim Maksimych to the Cossack village;

“Bela”: spring of 1833 - Pechorin kidnaps the daughter of “Prince Mirnov”, and four months later she dies at the hands of Kazbich;

“Maksim Maksimycha”: autumn of 1837 - Pechorin, going to Persia, again finds himself in the Caucasus and meets with Maksim Maksimych ”.

Let us restore the picture, made by M. Yu. Lermontov, of “chronological displacements”. It looks like this: the novel begins in the middle of the events and is brought consistently to the end of the hero's life. Then the events in the novel unfold from the beginning of the depicted chain of events to its middle.

- Why does Lermontov violate the chronology of events?

There are three issues that need immediate resolution.

Students' answers.

Conclusions of the teacher (depending on the completeness of students' answers).

All this is true, but not the whole truth. Lermontov created a completely new novel - new in form and content: a psychological novel.

Psychologism is a fairly complete, detailed and deep depiction of the feelings, thoughts and experiences of a literary character with the help of specific means of fiction.

The plot of the composition is “the history of the human soul”.

Lermontov lets us first hear about the hero, then look at him and, finally, opens his diary before us.

The change of narrators is aimed at making the analysis of the inner world deeper and more comprehensive.

• Kind, but limited Maxim Maksimych.
• Narrator Officer.
• "Observations of a mature mind over itself."

V.G. Belinsky argued that the novel "in spite of its episodic fragmentary character," you cannot read the novel in the order in which the author himself arranged it: otherwise you will read two excellent stories and several excellent stories, but you will not know the novel. "

M. Yu. Lermontov felt the novelty of his work, which combined such genres as a travel sketch, a story, a secular story, a Caucasian short story, and had all sorts of reasons for this. This was the first psychological novel in Russian literature.