Description Pechorin is a hero of our time according to plan. Essay “General characteristics of the portrait of Pechorin (based on the novel “Hero of Our Time”)


Grigory Pechorin - main character novel. A unique personality that no one has been able to fully understand. Such heroes are found in every time. Any reader will be able to recognize himself in him with all the vices characteristic of people and the desire to change the world.

The image and characterization of Pechorin in the novel “A Hero of Our Time” will help you understand what kind of person he really is. How the long-term influence of the surrounding world was able to leave its mark on the depth of character, turning the complex inner world Main character.

Pechorin's appearance

Looking at a young, handsome man, it is difficult to determine how old he really is. According to the author, no more than 25, but sometimes it seemed that Gregory was already over 30. Women liked him.

“...he was generally very handsome and had one of those original physiognomies that are especially popular with secular women...”


Slim. Superbly built. Athletic build.

“... of medium height, slender, thin figure and broad shoulders proved a strong build...".


Blond. The hair was slightly curled. Dark mustache and eyebrows. When meeting him, everyone paid attention to his eyes. When Pechorin smiled, the gaze of his brown eyes remained cold.

"...they didn't laugh when he laughed..."

It was rare that anyone could bear his gaze; he was too heavy and unpleasant for his interlocutor.

The nose is slightly turned up. Snow-white teeth.

“...a slightly upturned nose, dazzling white teeth...”


The first wrinkles have already appeared on the forehead. Pechorin's gait is imposing, slightly lazy, careless. The hands, despite the strong figure, seemed small. The fingers are long, thin, characteristic of aristocrats.

Gregory dressed immaculately. The clothes are expensive, clean, well ironed. Pleasant aroma of perfume. The boots are cleaned to a shine.

Gregory's character

Gregory's appearance fully reflects internal state souls. Everything he does is imbued with a precise sequence of steps, cold prudence, through which emotions and feelings sometimes try to break through. Fearless and reckless, somewhere weak and defenseless, like a child. It is entirely created from continuous contradictions.

Grigory promised himself that he would never show his real face, forbidding him to show any feelings for anyone. He was disappointed in people. When he was real, without guile and pretense, they could not understand the depth of his soul, accusing him of non-existent vices and making claims.

“...everyone read on my face signs of bad feelings that were not there; but they were anticipated - and they were born. I was modest - I was accused of guile: I became secretive. I felt good and evil deeply; no one caressed me, everyone insulted me: I became vindictive; I was gloomy, - other children were cheerful and talkative; I felt superior to them - they put me lower. I became envious. I was ready to love the whole world, but no one understood me: and I learned to hate...”


Pechorin is constantly searching for himself. He rushes about, looking for the meaning of life, and does not find it. Rich and educated. A nobleman by birth, he is used to hanging out in high society, but he doesn’t like that kind of life. Gregory considered her empty and worthless. Good connoisseur female psychology. I could figure out each one and understand from the first minutes of the conversation what it was. Exhausted and devastated by social life, he tried to delve into science, but soon realized that power does not lie in knowledge, but in dexterity and luck.

Boredom was eating away at the man. Pechorin hoped that the melancholy would go away during the war, but he was wrong. The Caucasian War brought another disappointment. Lack of demand in life led Pechorin to actions that defied explanation and logic.

Pechorin and love

The only woman he loved was Vera. He was ready for anything for her, but they were not destined to be together. Vera is a married woman.

Those rare meetings that they could afford compromised them too much in the eyes of others. The woman was forced to leave the city. It was not possible to catch up with my beloved. He only drove the horse to death in an attempt to stop and bring her back.

Pechorin did not take other women seriously. They are a cure for boredom, nothing more. Pawns in a game where he set the rules. Boring and uninteresting creatures made him even more despondent.

Attitude towards death

Pechorin is firmly convinced that everything in life is predetermined. But this does not mean that you need to sit and wait for death. We must move forward, and she herself will find the one she needs.

The image of Georgy Alexandrovich Pechorin in the novel “A Hero of Our Time,” written by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov in 1838-1840, represents a completely new type of protagonist.

Who is Pechorin

The main character of the novel is a young man, a representative of high society.

Georgy Alexandrovich is educated and smart, brave, decisive, knows how to impress, especially the ladies, and... is tired of life.

Rich and not the happiest life experience leads him to disappointment and loss of interest in anything.

The hero becomes bored with everything in life: earthly pleasures, elite, the love of beauties, science - everything, in his opinion, happens according to the same patterns, monotonous and empty.

The hero is definitely a skeptic, but it cannot be said that feelings are alien to him. Georgy Alexandrovich has arrogance and pride (although he is self-critical), has an affection for his only comrade, Doctor Werner, and also enjoys manipulating people and their suffering as a consequence.

The hero is incomprehensible to everyone around him, and therefore he is often called strange. Pechorin repeatedly confirms the inconsistency of his character.

This inconsistency is born of the struggle of reason and feelings within him, the most striking example of which is his love for Vera, which George realizes too late. So, let's look at this hero in action through brief description by chapter.

Characteristics of Pechorin by chapters in the novel

In the first chapter of “Bela,” the narration is told on behalf of Pechorin’s old acquaintance, officer Maxim Maksimych.

In this part, the hero reveals himself as an immoral person who plays with the destinies of others. Pechorin seduces and kidnaps the daughter of a local prince, simultaneously stealing a horse from Kazbich, who is in love with her.

After some time, Bela gets bored with Pechorin, the young man breaks the girl’s heart. At the end of the chapter, she is killed by Kazbich out of revenge, and Azamat, who helps Pechorin in his crimes, is forever expelled from the family. Georgy Alexandrovich himself only continues his journey, without feeling guilty for what happened.

The narration of the subsequent chapter “Maxim Maksimych” is narrated by a certain staff captain. Being familiar with Maxim Maksimych, the narrator accidentally witnesses his meeting with Pechorin. And again the hero shows his indifference: the young man is completely cold towards his old comrade, whom he has not seen for many years.

“Taman” is the third story in the novel, which is already notes in the diary of Pechorin himself. In it, by the will of fate, a young man becomes a witness to smuggling activities. The girl involved in the crime flirted with Pechorin in order to “remove” him.

In the episode of Pechorin's attempted drowning, we see his desperate struggle for life, which is still dear to him. However, in this chapter, the hero remains indifferent to people and their destinies, which this time are spoiled by his involuntary intervention.

In the chapter "Princess Mary" main character is revealed in more detail and diversified. We see such qualities as cunning and prudence in making plans to seduce Princess Mary and duel with Grushnitsky.

Pechorin plays with their lives for his own pleasure, breaking them: Mary remains an unhappy girl with broken hearted, and Grushnitsky dies in a duel.

Georgy is cold towards all people in this secular society, except for his old friend Vera.

They once had a fleeting romance, but when new meeting their feelings take on a second life. Georgy and Vera meet secretly, but her husband, having learned about the presence of a lover, decides to take her away from the city. This event makes young man realize that Vera is the love of his life.

Georgy rushes after him, but is too late. In this episode, the main character is revealed from a completely new side: no matter how cold and cynical the young man is, he is also a human being, even he cannot be spared by this strong feeling.

In the last part, “Fatalist,” the hero is shown to have lost the slightest interest in life and even seek his own death. In the episode of the argument with the Cossacks over cards, the reader sees a certain mystical connection between Pechorin and fate: George had foreseen events in people’s lives before, and this time he foresaw the death of Lieutenant Vulich.

One gets the impression that the young man has already learned everything in this life, which he now does not feel sorry for. George says the following words about himself: “And maybe I’ll die tomorrow! ... and there will not be a single creature left on earth who would understand me completely.”

Description of Pechorin's appearance

Georgy Alexandrovich has a fairly attractive appearance. The hero has a slender, strong physique with average height.

George has blond hair, delicate pale aristocratic skin, but a dark mustache and eyebrows. The young man dressed in fashion, looked well-groomed, but walked carelessly and lazily.

Of the many quotes describing his appearance, the most telling is about his eyes, which “didn’t laugh when he laughed!<…>This is a sign of either an evil disposition or deep, constant sadness.”

His gaze always remained calm, only sometimes expressing a certain challenge or impudence.

How old is Pechorin

At the time of the action in the chapter “Princess Mary” he is about twenty-five years old. George dies at the age of about thirty, that is, still young.

Origin and social status of Pechorin

The main character of the novel has noble origin, born and raised in St. Petersburg.

All his life Georgy was a upper strata society, since he was a hereditary wealthy landowner.

Throughout the entire work, the reader can observe that the hero is a military man and bears the military rank of ensign.

Pechorin's childhood

Having learned about the childhood of the main character, his life path becomes clear. As a little boy, the best aspirations of his soul were thwarted in him: firstly, his aristocratic upbringing required it, and secondly, he was not understood, the hero was lonely since childhood.

More details about how the evolution of a kind boy into an immoral social unit took place are shown in the table with a quote from Pechorin himself:

Pechorin's education

Georgy Alexandrovich received an exclusively secular upbringing.

The young man speaks French skillfully, dances, knows how to behave in society, but he hasn’t read many books, and he soon gets tired of the world.

His parents did not play a big role in his life.

In his youth, the hero went to great lengths: he spent a lot of money on entertainment and pleasure, but this also disappointed him.

Pechorin's education

Little is known about the education of the novel's protagonist. The reader is given to understand that he was interested in science for some time, but also lost interest in it; it does not bring happiness. After this, Georgy took up military affairs, which were popular in society, which he also soon became bored with.

The death of Pechorin in the novel “Hero of Our Time”

The reader learns about the death of the hero from the preface to his diary. The cause of death remains undisclosed. What is known is that this happened to him on his way from Persia, when he was about thirty years old.

Conclusion

In this work, we briefly examined the image of the main character of the novel “A Hero of Our Time.” The character and attitude to life of the hero remain incomprehensible to the reader until the episode when Pechorin talks about his childhood.

The reason that the hero became a “moral cripple” is his upbringing, the damage from which affected not only his life, but also the fate of the people whom he hurt.

However, no matter how hard-hearted a person is, he cannot avoid true love. Unfortunately, Pechorin realizes it too late. This disappointment turns into loss last hope for a normal life and happiness of the hero.

The image was created by M. Yu. Lermontov to show the loss moral guidelines generation of the 30s of the nineteenth century.

Article menu:

A person is always driven by the desire to know his purpose. Should you go with the flow or resist it? What position in society would be correct, should all actions comply with moral standards? These and similar questions often become the main ones for young people who are actively comprehending the world and human essence. Youthful maximalism demands to give for these problematic issues clear answers, but it is not always possible to give an answer.

It is precisely this seeker of answers that M.Yu. tells us about. Lermontov in his novel “Hero of Our Time”. It should be noted that Mikhail Yuryevich was always on good terms when writing prose, and his same position remained until the end of his life - all the prose novels he started were never finished. Lermontov had the courage to bring the matter with “Hero” to its logical conclusion. This is probably why the composition, the manner of presentation of the material and the style of narration look, compared to other novels, quite unusual.

“Hero of Our Time” is a work imbued with the spirit of the era. Characteristics of Pechorin - central figure novel by Mikhail Lermontov - allows you to better understand the atmosphere of the 1830s - the time the work was written. It is not for nothing that “A Hero of Our Time” is recognized by critics as the most mature and ambitious in philosophical sense novels by Mikhail Lermontov.

Great importance there is a historical context for understanding the novel. In the 1830s Russian history was reactive. In 1825, the Decembrist uprising occurred, and subsequent years contributed to the development of a mood of loss. The Nikolaev reaction unsettled many young people: young people did not know which vector of behavior and life to choose, how to make life meaningful.

This caused the emergence of restless individuals, unnecessary people.

Origin of Pechorin

Basically, the novel singles out one hero, who is centrally in the story. It seems that this principle was rejected by Lermontov - based on the events told to the reader, the main character is Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin - a young man, an officer. However, the style of the narration gives the right to doubt - the position in the text of Maxim Maksimovich is also quite weighty.


In fact, this is a misconception - Mikhail Yuryevich has repeatedly emphasized that in his novel the main character is Pechorin, this corresponds to the main purpose of the story - to talk about typical people of the generation, to point out their vices and mistakes.

Lermontov provides rather scant information about childhood, conditions of upbringing and the influence of parents on the process of formation of Pechorin’s positions and preferences. Several fragments of it past life lift this veil - we learn that Grigory Alexandrovich was born in St. Petersburg. His parents, according to existing orders, tried to give their son a proper education, but young Pechorin did not feel the burden of science, he “quickly got bored” with them and he decided to devote himself to military service. Perhaps such an act is not connected with the emerging interest in military affairs, but with the special disposition of society towards military people. The uniform made it possible to brighten up even the most unattractive actions and character traits, because the military was loved for what they were. It was difficult to find representatives in society who did not have a military rank - military service was considered honorable and everyone wanted to “try on” honor and glory along with the uniform.

As it turned out, military affairs did not bring proper satisfaction and Pechorin quickly became disillusioned with it. Grigory Alexandrovich was sent to the Caucasus because he was involved in a duel. The events that happened to the young man in this area form the basis of Lermontov's novel.

Characteristics of Pechorin's actions and deeds

The reader gets his first impressions of the main character of Lermontov’s novel after meeting Maxim Maksimych. The man served with Pechorin in the Caucasus, in a fortress. It was the story of a girl named Bela. Pechorin treated Bela badly: out of boredom, while having fun, the young man kidnapped a Circassian girl. Bela is a beauty, at first cold with Pechorin. Gradually, the young man kindles the flame of love for him in Bela’s heart, but as soon as the Circassian woman fell in love with Pechorin, he immediately lost interest in her.


Pechorin destroys the destinies of other people, makes those around him suffer, but remains indifferent to the consequences of his actions. Bela and the girl's father die. Pechorin remembers the girl, feels sorry for Bela, the past resonates with bitterness in the hero’s soul, but does not cause Pechorin to repent. While Bela was alive, Grigory told his comrade that he still loved the girl, felt gratitude to her, but boredom remained the same, and it was boredom that decided everything.

An attempt to find satisfaction and happiness pushes the young man to experiments that the hero performs on living people. Psychological games, meanwhile, turn out to be useless: the same emptiness remains in the hero’s soul. The same motives accompany the revelation " honest smugglers» Pechorin: the act of a hero does not bring good results, only leaving the blind boy and the old woman on the brink of survival.

The love of a wild Caucasian beauty or a noblewoman - it does not matter for Pechorin. Next time, the hero chooses an aristocrat, Princess Mary, for the experiment. Handsome Gregory plays with the girl, arousing love for him in Mary’s soul, but then leaves the princess, breaking her heart.


The reader learns about the situation with Princess Mary and the smugglers from the diary that the main character kept, wanting to understand himself. In the end, even Pechorin gets tired of his diary: any activity ends in boredom. Grigory Alexandrovich does not complete anything, unable to bear the suffering of losing interest in the subject of his former passion. Pechorin's notes accumulate in a suitcase, which falls into the hands of Maxim Maksimych. The man experiences a strange attachment to Pechorin, perceiving the young man as a friend. Maxim Maksimych keeps Grigory’s notebooks and diaries, hoping to give the suitcase to a friend. But the young man does not care about fame, fame, Pechorin does not want to publish the entries, so the diaries turn out to be unnecessary waste paper. This secular disinterest of Pechorin is the peculiarity and value of Lermontov’s hero.

Pechorin has one important feature - sincerity towards himself. The hero’s actions evoke antipathy and even condemnation in the reader, but one thing needs to be recognized: Pechorin is open and honest, and the touch of vice comes from weakness of will and the inability to resist the influence of society.

Pechorin and Onegin

After the first publications of Lermontov’s novel, both readers and literary critics began to compare Pechorin from Lermontov's novel and Onegin from Pushkin's work with each other. Both heroes share similar character traits and certain actions. As researchers note, both Pechorin and Onegin were named according to the same principle. The surname of the characters is based on the name of the river - Onega and Pechora, respectively. But the symbolism doesn't end there.

Pechora is a river in the northern part of Russia (modern Komi Republic and Nanets Autonomous Okrug), by its nature it is a typical mountain river. Onega is located in the modern Arkhangelsk region and is calmer. The nature of the flow has a relationship with the characters of the heroes named after them. Pechorin's life is full of doubts and active searches for his place in society; he, like a seething stream, sweeps away everything without a trace in his path. Onegin lacks such scale destructive force, difficulties and inability to realize oneself cause in him a state of dull melancholy.

Byronism and the “superfluous man”

In order to holistically perceive the image of Pechorin, understand his character, motives and actions, it is necessary to have knowledge about the Byronic and superfluous hero.

The first concept came to Russian literature from England. J. Bynov in his poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” created unique image endowed with the desire to actively search for one's purpose, characteristics of egocentrism, dissatisfaction and desire for change.

The second is a phenomenon that arose in Russian literature itself and denotes a person who was ahead of his time and therefore alien and incomprehensible to those around him. Or someone who, based on his knowledge and understanding of everyday truths, is higher in development than the rest and, as a result, he is not accepted by society. Such characters become the cause of suffering for female representatives who love them.



Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is a classic representative of romanticism, who combined the concepts of Byronism and the superfluous man. Dejection, boredom and spleen are the product of this combination.

Mikhail Lermontov considered the life story of an individual more interesting than the history of a people. " An extra person“Pechorin is made by circumstances. The hero is talented and smart, but the tragedy of Grigory Alexandrovich lies in the lack of a goal, in the inability to adapt himself, his talents to this world, in the general restlessness of the individual. In this, Pechorin’s personality is an example of a typical decadent.

A young man’s strength goes not to finding a goal, not to realizing himself, but to adventure. Sometimes literary critics compare images Pushkinsky Evgeniy Onegin and Lermontov's Grigory Pechorin: Onegin is characterized by boredom, and Pechorin is characterized by suffering.

After the Decembrists were exiled, progressive trends and tendencies also succumbed to persecution. For Pechorin, a progressive-minded person, this meant the onset of a period of stagnation. Onegin has every opportunity to take the side of the people's cause, but refrains from doing so. Pechorin, having a desire to reform society, finds himself deprived of such an opportunity. Grigory Alexandrovich wastes the wealth of spiritual powers on trifles: he hurts girls, Vera and Princess Mary suffer because of the hero, Bela dies...

Pechorin was ruined by society and circumstances. The hero keeps a diary, where he notes that, as a child, he spoke only the truth, but adults did not believe in the boy’s words.

Then Gregory became disillusioned with life and his previous ideals: the place of truth was replaced by lies. As a young man, Pechorin sincerely loved the world. Society laughed at him and this love - Gregory’s kindness turned into anger.

The hero quickly became bored with his secular surroundings and literature. Hobbies were replaced by other passions. Only travel can save you from boredom and disappointment. Mikhail Lermontov unfolds on the pages of the novel the entire evolution of the protagonist’s personality: Pechorin’s characterization is revealed to the reader by all the central episodes in the formation of the hero’s personality.

The character of Grigory Alexandrovich is accompanied by actions, behavior, and decisions that more fully reveal the characteristics of the character’s personality. Pechorin is also appreciated by other heroes of Lermontov’s novel, for example, Maxim Maksimych, who notices the inconsistency of Grigory. Pechorin is a strong young man with a strong body, but sometimes the hero is overcome by a strange physical weakness. Grigory Alexandrovich turned 30 years old, but the hero’s face is full of childish features, and the hero looks no more than 23 years old. The hero laughs, but at the same time one can see sadness in Pechorin’s eyes. Opinions about Pechorin, expressed by different characters in the novel, allow readers to look at the hero, respectively, with different positions.

Pechorin's death expresses the idea of ​​Mikhail Lermontov: a person who has not found a goal remains superfluous, unnecessary for those around him. Such a person cannot serve for the benefit of humanity and is of no value to society and the fatherland.

In “Hero of Our Time,” the writer described the entire generation of contemporaries - young people who have lost the purpose and meaning of life. Just as Hemingway’s generation is considered lost, so Lermontov’s generation is considered lost, superfluous, restless. These young people are susceptible to boredom, which turns into a vice in the context of the development of their society.

Pechorin's appearance and age

At the beginning of the story, Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is 25 years old. He looks very good, well-groomed, so in some moments it seems that he is much younger than he actually is. There was nothing unusual about his height and build: average height, strong athletic build. He was a man with pleasant features. As the author notes, he had a “unique face,” one that women are madly attracted to. Blonde, naturally curly hair, a “slightly upturned” nose, snow-white teeth and a sweet, childish smile - all this complements his appearance favorably.

His eyes, brown in color, seemed to live a separate life - they never laughed when their owner laughed. Lermontov names two reasons for this phenomenon - either we have a person with an evil disposition, or someone who is in a state of deep depression. Lermontov does not give a direct answer which explanation (or both at once) is applicable to the hero - the reader will have to analyze these facts themselves.

His facial expression is also incapable of expressing any emotion. Pechorin does not restrain himself - he simply lacks the ability to empathize.

This appearance is finally blurred by a heavy, unpleasant look.

As you can see, Grigory Alexandrovich looks like a porcelain doll - his cute face with childish features seems like a frozen mask, not a face real person.

Pechorin's clothes are always neat and clean - this is one of those principles that Grigory Alexandrovich follows impeccably - an aristocrat cannot be an unkempt slob.

While in the Caucasus, Pechorin easily leaves his usual outfit in the closet and dresses in the national men's attire of the Circassians. Many note that these clothes make him look like a true Kabardian - sometimes people who belonged to this nationality do not look so impressive. Pechorin looks more like a Kabardian than the Kabardians themselves. But even in these clothes he is a dandy - the length of the fur, the trim, the color and size of the clothes - everything is chosen with extraordinary care.

Characteristics of character qualities

Pechorin is a classic representative of the aristocracy. He himself comes from noble family, who received a decent upbringing and education (knows French, dances well). All his life he lived in abundance, this fact allowed him to begin his journey of searching for his destiny and an activity that would not let him get bored.

At first, the attention shown to him by women pleasantly flattered Grigory Alexandrovich, but soon he was able to study the types of behavior of all women and therefore communication with ladies became boring and predictable for him. The impulse to create his own family is alien to him, and as soon as it comes to hints about marriage, his ardor for the girl instantly disappears.

Pechorin is not assiduous - science and reading push him even more than secular society, blues. A rare exception in this regard is provided by the works of Walter Scott.

When Savor became too burdensome for him, and travel, literary activity and science did not bring the desired result, Pechorin decides to start military career. He, as is customary among the aristocracy, serves in the St. Petersburg Guard. But he doesn’t stay here for long either - participation in a duel dramatically changes his life - for this offense he is exiled to serve in the Caucasus.

If Pechorin were a hero folk epic, then his constant epithet would be the word “strange.” All the heroes find something unusual in him, different from other people. This fact is not related to habits, mental or psychological development - the point here is precisely the ability to express one’s emotions, adhere to the same position - sometimes Grigory Alexandrovich is very contradictory.

He likes to cause pain and suffering to others, he is aware of this and understands that such behavior does not look good not only on him specifically, but on any person. And yet he doesn’t try to restrain himself. Pechorin compares himself to a vampire - the realization that someone will spend the night in mental anguish is incredibly flattering to him.

Pechorin is persistent and stubborn, this creates many problems for him, because of this he often finds himself in not the most pleasant situations, but here courage and determination come to his rescue.

Grigory Alexandrovich becomes the cause of destruction life paths many people. By his mercy, the blind boy and the old woman are left to their fate (the episode with the smugglers), Vulich, Bella and her father die, Pechorin’s friend dies in a duel at the hands of Pechorin himself, Azamat becomes a criminal. This list can still be replenished with many names of people to whom the main character insulted and became a reason for resentment and depression. Does Pechorin know and understand the full gravity of the consequences of his actions? Quite, but this fact does not bother him - he does not value his life, let alone the destinies of other people.

Thus, the image of Pechorin is contradictory and ambiguous. On the one hand, it is easy to find positive features character, but on the other hand, callousness and selfishness confidently reduce all his positive achievements to “no” - Grigory Alexandrovich destroys with his recklessness both his fate and the fates of the people around him. He is a destructive force that is difficult to resist.

Psychological portrait of Grigory Pechorin

Lermontov helps to imagine the character's character traits by referring to the hero's appearance and habits. For example, Pechorin is distinguished by a lazy and careless gait, but the hero’s gestures do not indicate that Pechorin is a secretive person. The young man’s forehead was marred by wrinkles, and when Grigory Alexandrovich sat, it seemed that the hero was tired. When Pechorin's lips laughed, his eyes remained motionless, sad.


Pechorin's fatigue was manifested in the fact that the hero's passion did not linger for long on any object or person. Grigory Alexandrovich said that in life he is guided not by the dictates of his heart, but by the orders of his head. This is coldness, rationality, periodically interrupted by a short-term riot of feelings. Pechorin is characterized by a trait called fatality. The young man is not afraid to go wild and seeks adventure and risk, as if testing fate.

The contradictions in Pechorin’s characterization are manifested in the fact that with the courage described above, the hero is frightened by the slightest cracking of window shutters or the sound of rain. Pechorin is a fatalist, but at the same time convinced of the importance of human willpower. There is a certain predetermination in life, expressed at least in the fact that a person will not escape death, so why then are they afraid to die? In the end, Pechorin wants to help society, to be useful by saving people from the Cossack killer.

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

4.3 (86.67%) 6 votes

Work:

Hero of our time

Pechorin Grigory Alexandrovich is the main character of the novel. It is he who Lermontov calls “the hero of our time.” The author himself notes the following: “The Hero of Our Time... is exactly a portrait, but not of one person: it is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development.” This character cannot be called positive or negative. He is rather a typical representative of his time.

P. is smart, well educated. He feels in his soul great strength that he wasted. "In this futile struggle I exhausted both the heat of my soul and the constancy of will necessary for real life; I entered this life having already experienced it mentally, and I felt bored and disgusted, like someone who reads a bad imitation of him long ago famous book". Personal traits The author expresses the hero through his appearance. P.'s aristocracy is shown through the thinness of his pale fingers. When walking, he does not swing his arms - this is how the secrecy of his nature is expressed. P.'s eyes did not laugh when he laughed. This can be called a sign of constant mental drama. The hero’s internal turmoil was especially clearly reflected in his attitude towards women. He kidnaps a young Circassian woman, Bela, from her parents’ house, enjoys her love for a while, but then he gets tired of her. Bela dies. He takes a long time and methodically to attract the attention of Princess Mary. He is driven only by the desire to completely possess someone else's soul. When the hero achieves her love, he says that he is not going to marry her. On Mineralnye Vody P. meets Vera, a woman who has loved him for many years. We learn that he tore out her entire soul. P. is sincerely carried away, but he gets bored extremely quickly, and he abandons people like a flower plucked along the way. This is the deep tragedy of the hero. Having finally realized that no one and nothing can make up the meaning of his life, P. awaits death. He found her on the road, upon returning from Persia.

Pechorin is a hero of his time. In the 30s, such a person does not find a place where he can put his strength, and therefore is doomed to loneliness. The tragedy of this personality, doomed to inaction and loneliness, is the main ideological meaning novel "A Hero of Our Time". Lermontov portrays his contemporary Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin truthfully and convincingly. Pechorin received a secular upbringing, at first he chases social entertainment, but then he will be disappointed, attempts to engage in science and a cooling towards it. He is bored, indifferent to the world and experiences deep dissatisfaction with his life. Pechorin is a deep character. He combines a “sharp, chilled mind” with a thirst for activity and willpower. He feels immense strength within himself, but wastes it on trifles, on love adventures without doing anything useful. Pechorin makes the people around him unhappy. So he interferes in the lives of smugglers, takes revenge on everyone indiscriminately, plays with the fate of Bela, the love of Vera. He defeats Grushnitsky in a duel and becomes the hero of the society he despises. He is taller environment, smart, educated. But internally devastated, disappointed. He lives “out of curiosity,” on the one hand, and on the other, he has an ineradicable thirst for life. Pechorin's character is very contradictory. He says: “I have long lived not with my heart, but with my head.” At the same time, having received Vera’s letter, Pechorin rushes like crazy to Pyatigorsk, hoping to see her at least once again. He painfully searches for a way out, thinks about the role of fate, seeks understanding among people of another circle. And he doesn’t find a sphere of activity or use for his powers. The author is interested in the complex aspects of the hero’s mental life. This helps us understand the ideological and spiritual life of Russian society in the 30s of the last century. This reflected the skill of Lermontov, the creator of the first psychological novel. The tragedy of Pechorin is the tragedy of many of his contemporaries, similar to him in their way of thinking and position in society.

Pechorin Grigory Alexandrovich - chief hero of the novel, related in type to the characters psychological novels R. Chateaubriand, B. Constant (the origin of the surname Pechorin from the name of the Pechora River, as well as the surname Onegin from the name of the Onega River, was noted by V.G. Belinsky) The history of his soul forms the content of the work. This task is directly defined in the “Preface” to “Pechorin’s Journal”. The story of Pechorin's disappointed and dying soul is set out in the hero's confessional notes with all the mercilessness of introspection; being both the author and the hero of the "magazine", P. fearlessly speaks about both his ideal impulses and dark sides your soul, and about the contradictions of consciousness. But this is not enough to create a three-dimensional image; Lermontov introduces other narrators into the narrative, not the “Pechorin” type - Maxim Maksimych, a traveling officer. Finally, Pechorin’s diary contains other reviews about him: Vera, Princess Mary, Grushnitsky, Doctor Werner. All descriptions of the hero’s appearance are also aimed at reflecting the soul (through the face, eyes, figure and details of clothing). Lermontov does not treat his hero ironically; but the very type of Pechorin personality, which arose at a certain time and in certain circumstances, is ironic. This sets the distance between the author and the hero; Pechorin is by no means Lermontov’s alter ego.

The history of P.'s soul is not presented sequentially chronologically (the chronology is fundamentally shifted), but is revealed through a chain of episodes and adventures; the novel is constructed as a cycle of stories. The plot is closed ring composition: the action begins in the fortress (Bela), and ends in the fortress (Fatalist). A similar composition is typical romantic poem: the reader’s attention is focused not on the external dynamics of events, but on the character of the hero, who never finds a worthy goal in life, returning to his starting point moral quest. Symbolically - from fortress to fortress.

P.'s character is set from the very beginning and remains unchanged; He does not grow spiritually, but from episode to episode the reader is immersed deeper and deeper into the psychology of the hero, whose inner appearance seems to have no bottom and is fundamentally inexhaustible. This is the story of Pechorin’s soul, its mystery, strangeness and attractiveness. Equal to itself, the soul cannot be measured, knows no limits to self-deepening and has no prospects for development. Therefore, P. constantly experiences “boredom”, dissatisfaction, feels the impersonal power of fate over him, which sets a limit to his mental activity, leads him from disaster to disaster, threatening both the hero himself (Taman) and other characters.

M.Yu. Lermontov called his work “Hero of Our Time.” In the title, the word “hero” is used to mean “typical representative.” By this, the author wanted to say that Pechorin absorbed in his image the features of young people of that time.

Historians call the thirties of the nineteenth century a time of “stagnation.” Then many talented people became inert, not finding worthy use for themselves. Pechorin himself says about himself: “I was ready to love the whole world, but no one understood me: and I learned to hate.” This is the reason for the duality of his soul. Two people live in him at once: one lives by feelings, and the other judges him. This inconsistency does not allow Pechorin to live life to the fullest. With a bitter feeling, he evaluates himself as a “moral cripple” whose better half of his soul has “dried up, evaporated, died.”

The image of Pechorin, to some extent, is a repetition of the image of Onegin. Even their surnames are consonant, derived from the names of two primordially Russian rivers. Both Onegin and Pechorin are real “heroes of the times.” They are very similar to each other, and their tragedies are similar. There is no refuge for them in the whole world; they are destined to suffer and seek peace all their lives. Belinsky remarked: “This is the Onegin of our time, the hero of our time. The dissimilarity between them is much less than the distance between Onega and Pechora.

Pechorin embodies typical features many people of the time when the novel was written: disappointment, lack of demand, loneliness.

The novel A Hero of Our Time, written in 1840, is considered worthy literary work. Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, the author of the novel, wanted to convey to us the atmosphere of that controversial time of contrasts. The creator of the work reflected most of the shortcomings and vices of those times, at the same time with the virtues and strength of one person.

External description of G.A. Pechorin in the chapter "Bela"

In the entire first chapter, the description and behavior of Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is conveyed from the words of the elderly staff captain Maxim Maksimych. According to his recollections, Pechorin was a slender young man. The ambition and pedantry of the protagonist was clearly visible. The following lines will confirm this: “He came to me in full form... He was so thin, white, his uniform was so new.” At the same time, the young age of the hero of the novel is emphasized.

Features of the character of Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin in the chapter “Bela”

In this chapter there are no reflections on the topic of condemning the selfishness of the protagonist. Maxim Maksimych is straightforward and a kind person. He did not understand the inner world of Grigory Alexandrovich. His longtime friend was vividly remembered in the memory of Maxim Maksimych. Pechorin’s many versatile character traits surprised the elderly staff captain. He remembers him as a man of extraordinary abilities and the owner of unprecedented selfishness and coldness towards other people's feelings. Maxim Maksimych was amazed by Pechorin’s strength and fearlessness in front of the wild boar. At the same time, an unexpected draft and opening shutters could frighten the main character to the point of shaking. For the most part, Pechorin spoke little, but he was in such a mood that you could laugh for hours at his stories. Pechorin was too attentive to his melancholy, which often overtook him when achieving certain goals.

Grigory Alexandrovich was smart, he studied a lot. In his at a young age, had extensive experience in communication and relationships with young ladies of a high circle. Pechorin masterfully knew how to probe the inner world of any person and took advantage of people’s weaknesses in the name of his game of insatiable thirst for emotions.

Pechorin's attitude towards Bela

Bela was the daughter of a local prince in the Caucasus. But for Pechorin she was a young Circassian and a savage. He looked at the black-eyed beauty with insatiable lust. Her fortitude became the reason for a bright outburst of passion in Grigory Alexandrovich. According to Maxim Maksimych, the girl was a worthy representative of the fairer sex and fell in love with him like his own daughter. The elderly man immediately felt that Pechorin wanted to take advantage of the young beauty. His intuition did not disappoint. However, Pechorin was able to defend his position and refused requests to return Bela back to her father.

At first, Grigory Alexandrovich was the most affectionate and generous husband for a southern girl. He submitted to her refusals. Over time, he managed to melt Bela's heart. He did this purposefully, he knew that he would get the desired result. Pechorin can be described as a cold-blooded manipulator. As Maxim Maksimych foresaw, over time the hero of the novel lost interest in the unfortunate girl who loved him with all her heart. He stopped pampering her and spending time with her. The girl became sad. But, according to Pechorin’s friend, this did not bother her lover. He was just leaving for for a long time. A person who is inconsistent in his choice is Gregory. He let his boredom control other people's lives.

At the end of the chapter, Bela was killed. The staff captain described Pechorin’s state as too calm and indifferent to the grief that had happened. Not a tear shone down the cheeks of this strange man.

Pechorin Grigory Aleksandrovich was a very cruel person, he loved when he took his breath away, but like a match, he burned out, having had enough another victory. It cannot be said that he was happy, because he himself was not happy with his inconstancy.