We all wrote in childhood a school essay “Hero of Our Time” based on the novel by Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov, but most students did not really think about the motives of the writer and the background of the work. Arguing objectively, not every student is able to understand the complex psychological experiences of adults. Therefore, to the classical work, on the one hand, the simple, and on the other, the deep, it is necessary to return to adulthood and rethink, find a common or opposite with yourself, the world, the Universe ...
The birth of the genre
The work “Hero of Our Time” was the first prose novel written in the style of socio-psychological realism. In addition to the history of the protagonist, the moral and philosophical work also contained a vivid and harmonious description of the life of Russia in the 30s of the XIX century. This was a kind of experimental innovation in terms of the genre by the author, since at that time such a genre as “novel” did not exist. Lermontov later admitted that he wrote the novel “A Hero of Our Time”, drawing on Pushkin’s experience and the literary traditions of Western Europe. This influence is especially noticeable in the features of the romanticism of this novel.
Spelling background
In 1832, M. Lermontov wrote the poem “I want to live!” I want sorrow ... "Where does the young man come from so much despair, along with the maturity of thought, the accuracy of vision and such an irresistible desire for the storm? Maybe it is this life-affirming despair that attracts the attention of many generations of readers and makes Lermontov's poetry relevant today? Thoughts about the desire for the storm arise in the poem “Sail”, written in the same year: “But he, the rebel, asks for the storm, as if there is peace in the storms!” His contemporary, almost the same age, A. Herzen spoke of his generation as "poisoned from infancy."
To understand these words, one should remember in what era Lermontov had to live, and the time that was later reflected in the novel “Hero of Our Time”. It is more correct to begin the composition of the novel with an analysis of the poet’s earlier poems, since it is in them that the prerequisites are seen that prompted the author to create a unique work.
The youth of M. Lermontov came at a time that was sad enough for the history of Russia. December 14, 1825 on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg there was a Decembrist uprising, which ended in defeat. The organizers of the uprising were hanged, the participants were sent to Siberia for twenty-five years of exile. Lermontov's peers, unlike Pushkin's peers, grew up in an atmosphere of oppression. Modern schoolchildren should take this into account when preparing an essay on this topic.
"Hero of our time"
Lermontov endowed the hero with the “gloomy essence of being” of his era. At that time, commanders played the role of suppressors of the people, judges were needed to complete an unfair trial, poets - to glorify the king. An atmosphere of fear, suspicion, and hopelessness grew. In the youth of the poet there was no light and faith. He grew up in a spiritual desert and all the time he tried to break out of it.
In the poem “Monologue” there is a line: “In the midst of empty storms our youth languishes ...” It is hard to believe that the author of the poetic work was only 15 years old! But it was not ordinary youthful pessimism. Lermontov could not explain yet, but he was already beginning to understand that a person who is unable to act cannot be happy. Ten years after the Monologue, he will write the novel “A Hero of Our Time”. An essay on this topic must necessarily contain a discussion of the current time and the place of a person inside it. It is in The Hero of Our Time that the author will explain the psychology of his generation and reflect the hopelessness that his peers are doomed to.
Writing history
When writing an essay, it would be reasonable to indicate that Lermontov’s novel began to be written in 1838 under the influence of Caucasian impressions. At first it was not even a novel, but separate stories united by the main character. In 1839, the journal Domestic Notes reported that M. Lermontov was preparing to print a collection of his short stories. Each of these stories was based on a specific literary tradition: “Bela” was written in the style of a traveler’s essay, “Princess Mary” - according to the traditions of a secular story, “Taman” - in the spirit of a lyrical novel, “Fatalist” - in the style of “a mysterious story ”, Which was popular in the 1830s. Later, a full-fledged novel “A Hero of Our Time” will be born from these stories.
The essay-reasoning can be briefly supplemented by the events described in the novel “Princess Ligovskaya” (1836). This work was chronologically and subjectively preceded by The Hero. Pechorin, the guard officer, who was in love with Princess Vera Ligovsky, first appeared there. A separate chapter, Taman, was written in 1837, as it were, as it were, a continuation of Princess Ligovskaya. All these works are interconnected and have a single socio-philosophical line, a single concept and genre orientation.
Editorial changes
In the new edition, the composition of the novel “Hero of Our Time” was changed. It was recommended to supplement the composition with the chronology of writing: the story “Bela” became the initial chapter of the novel, followed by “Maxim Maksimych” and “Princess Mary”. Later, the first two stories were combined with the title “From the Officer's Notes” and became the leading part of the novel, and the second part was “Princess Mary”. It was conceived in it to expose the aching "confession" of the protagonist. During August-September 1839, M. Lermontov decided to completely rewrite all the chapters with the exception of the chapter "Bela", which at that time was already published. It was at this stage of work that the chapter “Fatalist” entered the novel.
In the first edition of the novel had the title "One of the heroes of the beginning of the century." It consisted of four parts - four separate stories, although within the meaning of the novel the author himself divided only into two parts. The initial part is the notes of the storyteller, the second is the notes of the hero. The introduction of the Fatalist chapter deepened the philosophical stream of the work. Dividing the novel into parts, Lermontov did not set the task of preserving the chronology of events, the goal was to maximize the soul of the protagonist and the soul of the people of that turbulent era.
By the end of 1839, M. Lermontov created the final version of the novel, including the chapter “Taman” in it and changing the composition of the work. The novel began with the head of Bela, followed by Maxim Maksimych. Notes of the protagonist, Pechorin, now began with the head of Taman, and ended with Fatalist. In the same edition appeared the famous "Pechorin Journal." So, the novel consists of five chapters and a new name appears: the novel “Hero of Our Time”.
What is common between Pechorin and Onegin
The surname of the protagonist of the novel connected him with Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. The surname Pechorin comes from the name of the great Russian river Pechora, located near Onega (from here, as already noted, the surname Onegin). And this relationship is not at all random.
Following A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov turns to the image of his contemporary and analyzes his fate in the conditions of his time. Lermontov penetrates even deeper into the secrets of the soul of the protagonist, reinforcing the psychology of the work and saturating it with deep philosophical reflections on the moral of society.
Genre Affiliation
“The Hero of Our Time” is a composition-reasoning, the first moral and psychological prose novel in Russian literature. This is a version of a realistic novel in which the main attention is focused on solving the moral problems posed by the writer, requiring a deep psychological analysis.
In the novel, the author solves moral and ethical problems that are relevant for their time: good and evil, love and friendship, death and religion, the purpose of man and free will. The psychology of the work lies in the fact that Lermontov focuses on the personality of the hero, his emotional experiences. Before the reader appears "naked" soul of Pechorin. The novel “Hero of Our Time” is the story of his soul.
Product Characteristic
The author changed the composition several times in order to more fully reveal the main problem - the soul searches of the protagonist. This is the whole of Lermontov. “The hero of our time”, the theme of which is seen in the description of life situations and turns in the fate of the protagonist, is completely devoid of any chronology. The question arises: why does the author not follow the chronology in the arrangement of the chapters? The chronological inconsistency is due to several reasons.
- Firstly, the novel has elements of various genres: notes, diary, socialite, essay, and the like.
- Secondly, the author sought to interest the reader, to carry out a “journey” into the psychology of the hero, to immerse the reader in the depths of the character’s inner world.
Due to the complex and "inconsistent" structure of the work, there are several storytellers in the novel, each chapter has its own. So, in the chapter “Bela” the reader learns about the course of events from the story of Maxim Maksimovich (Maksimych), in “Maxim Maksymych” the officer leads the story, the chapters “Taman”, “Princess Mary”, “Fatalist” are presented in the form of a magazine and diary of the protagonist . That is, the storyteller is Pechorin himself. The journal and diary forms allow the author to give not only an analysis of the hero’s soul, but also a deep self-analysis of the personality.
Pechorin and Bella: Indifference and Love
By nature, Pechorin was an adventurer. How else to explain the situation when Azamat, the son of one of the local princes, kidnapped his sister Bela and brought Pechorin, and in response Pechorin steals a horse from Kazbich for Azamat? The hero did not get tired of giving expensive gifts to his woman, which ultimately won her favor. The girl attracted him with her pride and rebellion.
If we talk about the power of feelings, reciprocal or unrequited love, then Lermontov's sympathy is on the side of Bela - she really fell in love with Pechorin for real. But the protagonist seemed to go with the flow, he himself could not determine whether he felt real feelings for the girl, or whether this passion was bubbling in his soul and body. This is the tragedy of the protagonist - he was unable to empathize deeply. The love affair of Pechorin-Bel contains themes of compositions. "The hero of our time" contains many points that reveal the ability of the protagonist to strong feelings. Pechorin realizes that it is the cause of the misfortunes of others, but so far he does not understand what is the matter. As a result, all his experiences are reduced to boredom, emotional emptiness and disappointment.
However, there is no need to talk about complete heartlessness. When Bela dies a terrible death, it causes sympathy for her not only among Maxim Maksimych and readers. In the last minutes of the life of Bela Pechorin became "pale as a canvas." And then “he was unwell for a long time, he lost weight, poor thing ...” He felt his sin before her, but he tried to hide all his feelings deep in his soul. Perhaps that’s why he burst out with a “strange laugh” that frightened Maxim Maksimych so much. Most likely, it was a kind of nervous breakdown. Only a real “hero of our time” could behave this way. The author was close to writing his personality traits - he lived next to such people side by side every day. The reader sees Pechorin’s act through the eyes of the narrator Maxim Maksimych, but does not understand the reasons for these actions.
The attitude of Maxim Maksimych to Pechorin
“He’s so white, his uniform is so new that I immediately realized that he was in the Caucasus recently,” Maxim Maksimych Pechorin saw this. From the description it is felt that the narrator sympathizes with Pechorin. This is evidenced by the words with diminutive suffixes that the narrator uses, and the phrase "He was a nice guy ...".
In the novel “The Hero of Our Time”, an essay on the life of Pechorin could have been written as a separate multi-page book — the author had laid such an ambiguous, vivid and deep image in it. Pechorin differed from others in his behavior: a reaction to temperature changes, sudden pallor, prolonged silence and unexpected talkativeness. Because of these “unusual” signs for old-timers, Maxim Maksimych considered Pechorin strange.
Maksimych understood the feelings driven by the younger Pechorin, but considered it necessary to return the girl to his father, although he himself became very attached to Bela, respecting her for pride and endurance. However, the words belong to him: "There are people with whom we should definitely agree." Maxim Maksimych meant Pechorin, who was a strong personality and could subordinate everyone to his will.
Color of nature
Lermontov in Russian prose is one of the first authors for whom nature is not bare scenery, but a full-fledged hero of the story. It is known that the author was captivated by the beauties of the Caucasus, its severity and grandeur. Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time” is simply permeated with pictures of nature - wild, but beautiful. As a number of critics note, it was Lermontov who added the concept of “humanization of man” to the concept “humanization of nature” already used by other writers. Special artistic techniques in the description of nature made it possible to emphasize the wild laws by which the people of the mountains lived. The same accuracy in the description and the brightness of the flavor of the Caucasus are distinguished by paintings written personally by M. Yu. Lermontov.
conclusions
So, the work “Hero of our time” - already in the very title of the first novel lies its whole essence. Pechorin is the personification of the generation. It cannot be argued that all people rushed about in emotional experiences, suffered from misunderstanding, and their souls became stiff. The protagonist personified not so much fellow citizens as an era - a complex one, sometimes cruel to people, but at the same time strong and strong-willed. This is what you need to remember when preparing the essay “A Hero of Our Time”. Lermontov brilliantly conveyed the atmosphere of society in the history of one hero.