Is Pechorin really a hero of his time

I think yes, in Pechorin we can see a hero of our time. Moreover, the hero is not in the sense of a person who performs feats, but a person, a character, as one of the episodes of life.

He, as a character, is very symbolic, I see in him not only a personality, but a reflection of the era, of the whole society. It seems to me that the author tried to fit in one person everything, both advantages and disadvantages: intelligence, insight, fatalism, love, rivalry, envy, jealousy - in a word, absolutely everything that is inherent in society and each individual individually. Thanks to this embodiment, it is much easier to understand and see what the “world” in which everyone lives is, in this, I think, the greatest merit.

The hero himself is very interesting. He is individual, apparently, this is what attracts strong attention. He went against the system, against the crowd, the framework, one could call it nihilism, however, everything is quite understandable from his side. It contains completely incompatible qualities, practicality, rationality, calculation, and the habit of relying only on oneself and at the same time, belief in fate, destiny. It seems that such people appear with some periodicity, when society especially needs them, in order to understand that something is wrong, you need to turn around, change your life ... different points of view, on behalf of different heroes, so that everyone has their own associations, and everyone understands that in his time there will also be a “hero”.

I think yes, of course he was, is and will remain a hero not only of his own, but also of our time.

"A Hero of Our Time" is the last great work of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, which was published in full in the year of his death. However, taking into account the entire logic of the development of the writer's genius, it can be assumed that if his life had not been cut short so early, this would have been only the beginning. Lermontov promised to grow into a major Russian prose writer, since nothing equal to this work then existed in Russian literature.

Preface that changed the perception of the work

Lermontov began to think about prose in the late thirties. In 1940 the first edition of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" was published, and a year later - the second. They were distinguished by the preface, which Mikhail Yurievich added in the second version. In it, he expressed several important thoughts. First of all, all suspicions about the identification of the author with the character of the work that Lermontov wrote - "A Hero of Our Time" are swept aside here. "Pechorin is not me!" - says Mikhail Yurievich. He emphasizes that he is writing the novel not about himself, but about the hero of his time.

The second comment, contained in the preface, also shifted many of the accents of the work's perception. Lermontov mentions the naivety of the public, which is always waiting for direct conclusions or morality. Who is the "hero of our time"? Pechorin or someone else? Here Mikhail Yuryevich openly mocks those who hope to see answers to their questions at the end of the work.

"Hero of our time". Pechorin's analysis and his understanding of the meaning of life

In this work, Lermontov makes an attempt - consistent, clear and very large-scale - to answer the question of what type of personality, character is the bearer of the key properties of time. And how are such qualities motivated by external conditions? Why is Pechorin a "hero of our time" and why does he live during this period?

The work contains a very complex meaning. The fact is that the "hero of our time" Pechorin is not so much motivated by external conditions as, on the contrary, opposed to them. The novel contains a minimum of facts, references to history, to a large state scale of events.

The character seems to exist separately from the events taking place at this time. And he lives a very incomprehensible life. It is not clear what he is striving for. Does he make a career, does he want to get another rank, to meet true love. There are no answers to these questions.

The image of the main character created by others

How the personality of this character differs from other images of the work "A Hero of Our Time" shows him as a person who constantly contradicts himself. And nevertheless, the reader still understands his logic, and what kind of person he is, in principle. The difficulties of the character of the main character, this elusive "hero of the time", correspond to the complexity of looking at him.

Mikhail Yuryevich creates a very complex system that combines different storytellers and witnesses who describe events. As a result, the reader does not approach the answers to his questions, but as if, on the contrary, moves away from them.

There are descriptions of the events seen by Maksim Maksimovich, a rather simple-minded officer. He lives next to Pechorin and treats him with deep sympathy, but sees in him not the person he really is. The complex contradictory image of the main character is presented throughout the entire novel through the eyes of various characters, including himself.

The personality is lonely and deep in itself

Not only the main, but also a rather complex character in the work "A Hero of Our Time" - Pechorin. The characteristic of his personality is created with the help of the people around him. And when they analyze this person from the outside, sometimes their opinions do not coincide with his own point of view. Since, for example, Maxim notices in him much more than he himself. Observes those properties that are not visible to him.

And so it happens with every person who, like the character of the novel "Hero of Our Time" Pechorin, is deep in himself. He has almost no friends, with the exception of Dr. Werner. And it is very important that just an outside observer can see the main thing in this personality, its best qualities.

Riddle of the character of the main character

What is the chief Pechorin constantly busy with? He is absorbed in a constant search for himself. And in most cases they turn out to be a search for love, passion, truly close, cordial, friendly relations with a woman.

Alone with himself, this is very Any of his actions gives rise to opposition. Any action turns out to be not the result that he expected. He is like a director who builds his life and sees himself constantly from the outside. And all this is painful and destructive for the individual. After all, it is unnatural to constantly think about yourself.

The author's special intention in the work

Mikhail Yurievich is absolutely original. Drawing on familiar literary schemes, he offers the reader something completely different. Each event in the novel is seen from different points of view, and none is dominant.

To understand Lermontov's work, it is necessary to arrange the stories included in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" in the sequence of real events. Mikhail Yurievich is building his own author's chronology, which is different from the reality of what is happening. This sets a special artistic logic for the development of the concept of depicting a "hero of our time" - a person who embodies the essence of that period.

What else is characteristic of the work "A Hero of Our Time"? Pechorin's quotes, present throughout the novel, are filled with deep meaning and reveal the essence of the character's character. Not being able to apply his energy and talent outside, to direct his aspirations to some external object, he closes them in on himself. And every time he acts as the executioner of those people whom he loves.

The key to the character of the protagonist

The reader analyzes why Pechorin is a "hero of our time" throughout the entire work, but the philosophical key to his image is in the story "The Fatalist". It is no coincidence that it encompasses the entire novel. Here lies the confidence that fate cannot be contradicted, everything is predetermined in advance. And the predictions in the story come true in a strange way. And at the same time, Pechorin every time, being sure of the fatality of the events taking place, confronts them.

This is a person who intervenes in events, tries to change them, while at the same time convinced that this is an absolutely useless activity. A completely incomprehensible person, whose every act guarantees the opposite result, and the desire for activity ultimately contains powerlessness.

The author's invisible presence in the novel

Contemporaries could rethink situations, facts, details of everyday life thanks to the novel. For example, the duel with Grushnitsky, which is of great importance in the context of the work. Such a duel for the nineteenth century is a significant attribute of noble life. And it is very important to rethink the dueling code, which is given in the novel "A Hero of Our Time".

This wonderful work was written a year before the death of the poet, but involuntarily it seems that it describes the story of an impending duel. The author himself is invisibly present in the image of the hero, but he also endowed Grushnitsky with the character and appearance of Nikolai Solomonovich Martynov.

The novel "A Hero of Our Time" became the beginning of an entire literary tradition. Without this work and those artistic discoveries that Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov came to, perhaps there would not have been the best novels of Turgenev, Tolstoy. It is this work that begins a new era in Russian literature, where prose and especially the genre of the novel dominate.

The main task that Lermontov set himself was to create the image of a young man of his day. This creative task was in many ways suggested to him by Pushkin Onegin. But Lermontov painted a hero of that time, which came after the defeat of the Decembrist uprising. No wonder he wrote in the preface to his novel: "The Hero of Our Time ... this is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development."
Who is Pechorin? Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin - an officer exiled from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus because of some history; he was demoted, then again found himself in the Caucasus; traveled for some time and, returning home from Persia, died. It seems that we know very little about human life. But Lermontov does not strive to exhaustively show the life path of his hero, his soul, actions and motives of these actions are important for him. Pechorin comes from an aristocratic family. Nature has generously endowed this person. He differs from many people of his time in his high culture, deep mind, philosophy is not alien to him, and his memory is saturated with facts from literature and history. Pechorin thinks about good and evil, about the purpose of man, about death and religion. His aphoristic statements testify to his wit. Two people live in Pechorin: cold and calculating and deeply in love with art and poetry.
A man of deep mind, Pechorin feels his rich possibilities, he guesses about his high destiny, but lives without a purpose in life. The realization of lost opportunities haunts him constantly. It is not for nothing that in his diary he asks himself so tragically: “Why did I live? For what purpose was I born? .. And, of course, it was a high assignment for me, because I feel immense strength in my soul ... "
The complexity and richness of Pechorin's personality is reflected in the complexity and diversity of his language. Pechorin speaks poetically, often using literary quotations.
Lermontov is critical of his hero. Pechorin is exchanged on trifles. His whole life is a chain of Don Juan feats, spectacular gestures, an outward brilliance. Pechorin's love does not bring happiness to anyone, meeting with him only generates suffering. Outwardly restrained and cold, he tries to hide from others, and sometimes from himself, feelings of love and friendship. All the best qualities of this person remained unclaimed by the society of his day. Pechorin tried to do science, but realized that this would not bring him either glory or happiness. Pechorin lost faith in the possibility of realizing great ideas. “We're pretty indifferent to everything except ourselves,” he says. His disbelief, skepticism is the result of the reaction that came after December 14.
Pechorin remembers the past. His confession to Princess Mary reflects the history of the withering of the human soul, he reflects on the reasons for the disappearance of purity, its betrayal of moral foundations. The best feelings, ridiculed by the light, had to be hidden. “Everyone read on my face the signs of bad qualities that were not there; but they were supposed - and they were born ... I became secretive ... vindictive ... became envious ... I was ready to love the whole world - no one understood me: and I learned to hate ... "
Now that his best qualities have been killed, Pechorin has become gloomy and lonely. In society, he is bored, but his vital nature cannot be inactive. In the hope that "boredom does not live under the Chechen bullets", he goes to the Caucasus. Pechorin cripples the fate of people, brings them suffering, but he himself becomes a blind instrument in the hands of fate. He was bored - he forced the mountain woman Bela to fall in love with him. Pechorin did not like her, he was interested in conquering this pure, wild creature, which at first glance was so different from the ladies of the world. When the girl fell in love with him and submitted to him, Pechorin lost interest in her. He does not need slavish admiration, Bela became boring and uninteresting to him. The same thing happens with the heroes of the story "Princess Mary". Pechorin seeks Mary's love and refuses her, kills his former friend Grushnitsky in a duel. Mary hears a cold answer to her confession: "I don't love you." But the suffering of the unfortunate girl deeply touches Pechorin: "Another minute, and I would have fallen at her feet." Pechorin does not love Mary, just as he did not love Bela, he is not going to marry her, as the girl wanted. This person is not capable of love, he cannot make someone's happiness, just as he cannot be happy himself. Even his pity is cruel: “Princess ... do you know that I laughed at you? do you despise minutes? .. "
His relationship with Vera is also tragic. Vera is the only woman who loved him for who he is, she understood that behind the mask of indifference there was a kind heart and a courageous soul. Pechorin lacked human understanding. Let us recall the bitter words: "I was ready to love the whole world, - nobody understood me ..." Perhaps that is why Vera is far from being indifferent to Pechorin. But there is a gap between them - she is married.
Having received Vera's last letter, Pechorin rushes in pursuit. And when the driven horse fell under him, he fell to the wet ground and cried for a long time. A complete egoist can hardly cry. Pechorin is so used to hiding his true feelings from those around him that one has only to wake up something real in his soul, as he immediately looks around: has anyone seen. He really wanted to kill the best half of his soul, but he did not kill it, but hid it deep - as soon as she looked out for only a second, he immediately buries it deeper. There are two people in Pechorin: one lives, the other thinks and judges, and the one who judges is mercilessly harsh.
The present Pechorin is lonely, he does not trust his friends: “... of two friends, one is always the slave of the other,” he does not trust his beloved; believed that love is the enjoyment of a plucked flower, having breathed, it should be "thrown on the road: maybe someone will pick it up." Lack of faith in friendship, love deprive his life of any value.
The only person with whom Pechorin was friends was Dr. Werner. It was to him that Pechorin wanted to open his soul, but did not do this, fearing that he would remain incomprehensible.
Lermontov did not try to either condemn his hero, or show him better than he is. Pechorin was not lucky; perhaps, had this person been born in another era, he would have been able to realize himself, his talents.
If the shortcomings of each individual person are inherent only to him, they can still be corrected. But when flaws or vices are inherent in an entire generation, the blame falls not on individuals, but on society as a whole. It is not Pechorin that needs to be corrected, but, first of all, society. "A hero of his time" Pechorin is at the same time a victim of this time.

Introduction.

The novel "A Hero of Our Time" made a huge impression on me. Pechorin is a very interesting object to study from the point of view of psychology. He is always sincere with himself, but rarely tells the truth to others. All his actions, it would seem, are logical, but this logic of his is extraordinary in itself. He seemed to have experienced everything that he wanted in this life and he is already bored here. He is able to indifferently experience his falls, failures, perhaps that is why he does not particularly sympathize with other people.

Pechorin has a huge potential for exploits. He can sacrifice himself for the sake of a cause, but not a public one, but in which he is interested. The author himself regrets this. People like his hero could make a big, very big contribution to the life of society. But alas ... The era of time, society and state policy greatly affect the character and actions of a person. Expressing through Pechorin the "present" in which Lermontov lived, he collected in his hero an innumerable number of vices. Therefore, he wanted to say that the circumstances of the time of his era make people that way. Who in "our time" (Lermontov's time) is called a hero? Who is worthy of this title? Consider Pechorin: he is fearless, no one decides to him, they are trying to imitate him (Grushnitsky), he is a hero! But what lies behind this title, behind the image of the “hero”? Unlimited number of vices for which the title of hero will not be given. How the author wants to see a real hero and how he sees him in reality. This is what my essay will be about.

Pechorin as a hero of his time.

Sadly I look at our generation!

His future is either empty or dark,

Meanwhile, under the burden of knowledge and doubt,

In inaction it will grow old.

M.Yu. Lermontov

"A Hero of Our Time" is one of Lermontov's works, in which the writer's intense thoughts about the general laws of the historical development of mankind and the historical fate of Russia were refracted. But in the novel, as in the poem "Duma", Lermontov's attention is focused on his contemporary era. The novel "A Hero of Our Time", like the poem "Duma", is written in a tragic tone. "Our time" is interpreted in it as a "transition period". The latter is viewed as an era of national prehistory, as a time when the people have not yet entered the age of maturity, have not mastered the age-old conquests of world culture and therefore are not yet ready for great achievements of universal significance in the field of culture.

PECHORIN- the main character of the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time" (1838-1840). Contemporaries, including Belinsky, largely identified Pechorin with Lermontov. Meanwhile, it was important for the author to dissociate himself from his hero. According to Lermontov, Pechorin is a portrait made up of the vices of a whole generation - "in their full development." It is quite understandable why "Pechorin's Journal" is "someone else's work" for Lermontov. If not the best, then its central part is Pechorin's diary entries, entitled "Princess Mary". Nowhere is Pechorin so consistent with the image revealed by the author in the preface. "Princess Mary" appeared later than all the other stories. The foreword that Lermontov wrote for the second edition of the novel, with its critical acuteness, is primarily associated with this story. The hero he introduces to the reader is exactly the Pechorin as he is shown on the pages of Princess Mary. The critical pathos of the last period of Lermontov's life in this story manifested itself especially clearly. The character of the protagonist was obviously influenced by the different timing of the writing of the stories. Lermontov's consciousness changed very quickly. His hero also changed. Pechorin in "Princess Mary" is not quite the same that appears first in "Bela", then in "Fatalist". At the end of work on the novel, Pechorin acquired the expressiveness that was supposed to complete the promised portrait. Indeed, in "Princess Mary" he appears in the most unattractive light. Of course, this is a strong-willed, deep, demonic nature. But so it can only be perceived through the eyes of a young Princess Mary and blinded by him Grushnitsky... He imperceptibly imitates Pechorin, because he is so vulnerable and ridiculous for Pechorin. Meanwhile, even this Grushnitsky, insignificance, according to Pechorin, causes him a feeling of envy. And at the same time, how much courage Pechorin showed at the climax of the duel, knowing that his own pistol was not loaded. Pechorin really shows miracles of endurance. And the reader is already lost: who is he - this hero of our time? The intrigue came from him, and when the victim got confused, he seemed not to blame.

Pechorin is called a strange man by all the characters in the novel. Lermontov paid a lot of attention to human oddities. In Pechorin, he summarizes all his observations. Pechorin's strangeness seems to elude the definition, because the opinions of those around him are polar. He is envious, angry, cruel. At the same time, he is magnanimous, sometimes kind, that is, he is able to succumb to a good feeling, nobly protects the princess from the encroachments of the crowd. He is impeccably honest, alone with himself, smart. Pechorin is a talented writer. Lermontov attributes the wonderful "Taman" to his careless pen, generously sharing the best part of his soul with the hero. As a result, readers seem to get used to excuse a lot in Pechorin, and not even notice something at all. Belinsky defends Pechorin and actually justifies him, because "in his very vices something great shines through." But all the arguments of the critic slide on the surface of a Pechorin character. Illustrating the words of Maxim Maksimych: "Nice guy, I dare to boil you down, just a little strange ..." - Lermontov looks at his hero as an exceptional phenomenon, so the original title of the novel - "One of the heroes of our century" - was discarded. In other words, Pechorin should not be confused with anyone, especially with the poet himself, as I. Annensky categorically formulated: "Pechorin - Lermontov." A. I. Herzen, speaking on behalf of the "Lermontov" generation, argued that Pechorin expressed "the real grief and rupture of the then Russian life, the sad fate of an unnecessary, lost person." Herzen put the name of Pechorin here with the same ease with which he would have written the name of Lermontov.

According to V.G. Belinsky, Lermontov's novel is "a sad thought about our time." The work raises the problem of the fate of a strong-willed and gifted person in an era of timelessness. According to the just statement of BM Eikhenbaum, "the subject of artistic study of Lermontov ... a person endowed with heroic traits and entering into a struggle with his own age."

The hero goes through the entire book and remains unrecognized. A man without a heart - but his tears are hot, the beauty of nature intoxicates him. He commits bad deeds, but only because they are expected of him. He kills the person slandered by him, and before that the first offers him peace. Expressing multiple features, Pechorin is actually exceptional. Anyone can do evil deeds. Considering oneself as an executioner and a traitor is not given to everyone. The role of the ax, which Pechorin recognizes among people, is not at all a euphemism, not a veiled world sorrow. It is impossible to make a discount that this is stated in the diary. Confessing, Pechorin is horrified at his "pitiful" role of being an indispensable participant in the last act of a comedy or tragedy, but there is not even a shadow of remorse in these words. All his complaints are reminiscent of the "pathetic" style of Ivan the Terrible, lamenting over another victim. The juxtaposition does not seem exaggerated. Pechorin's goal is undivided power over others. All the more insistently he emphasizes that we suffer from boredom and "very deserving of regret." Pechorin's boredom tried to poeticize and develop the poet of the Lermontov school A. Grigoriev, and the result was Moscow melancholy with gypsy guitars. Pechorin says bluntly that he is bored - his life is "empty from day to day," to speak, as if in tune with a tyrant who calls himself "a stinking dog." Of course, the victims of Pechorin are not so bloody, they are primarily destroyed morally. Deciphering the idea of ​​a hero of our time must be sought in individual demonism: "The collection of evils is his element." At the forefront of Pechorin's worldview, Lermontov put the thirst for power, which destroys the personality. Of course, this is only outlined by Lermontov, and therefore his hero does not have sharp outlines. There is nothing predatory in him, on the contrary, a lot of feminine. Nevertheless, Lermontov had every reason to call Pechorin the hero of the future. It's not that scary that Pechorin sometimes "understands a vampire." For Pechorin, a field of activity has already been found: the philistine environment, in fact, is this field - the environment of dragoon captains, princesses, romantic phrasemongers - the most fertile soil for the cultivation of all kinds of "gardeners-executioners". This will be exactly what Lermontov called the complete development of vices. To crave power, to find the highest pleasure in it, is not at all the same as unwittingly destroying the life of "honest" smugglers. This is the kind of evolution that the image of Pechorin underwent from “Bela” and “Taman” to “Princess Mary”. When Belinsky admires the sparks of the greatness of Pechorin's vices, he thereby seeks to cleanse his image of petty interpretations. After all, Pechorin so picturesquely likens himself to a sailor born and raised on the deck of a robber brig. In this reading, Pechorin is bad, because the rest are even worse. Belinsky softens Pechorin's features, not noticing the question the hero posed to himself: "Is evil really so attractive?" The attractiveness of evil - this is how Lermontov described the disease of his century.

The image of Pechorin was painted with no black paint. In the end, Pechorin lost his worst half. He is like a man from a fairy tale who has lost his shadow. Therefore, Lermontov did not turn Pechorin into a vampire, but left him as a man capable of even composing Taman. This man, so similar to Lermontov, obscured Pechorin's shadow. And it is already impossible to make out whose steps to sound on the flinty path. Lermontov sketched a portrait consisting not of vices, but of contradictions. And most importantly, he made it clear that the thirst that this person suffers cannot be quenched from a well with mineral water. Destructive for everyone except himself, Pechorin is like Pushkin's anchar. It is difficult to imagine him among the yellowing fields, in the Russian landscape. He is more and more somewhere in the east - the Caucasus, Persia.

The novel "A Hero of Our Time" is "composed" of separate independent short stories. In general, it is a system of seemingly unrelated episodes from the life of the protagonist.

The novelistic principle of narration contributes to an in-depth psychological characterization of the hero. “Novella” in translation means “news”, “new”: in this way, from Klava to Klava, new facets of the contradictory character of the hero and the complex world of the epoch of the 30s of the XIX century - the era of timelessness are revealed. The hero's personal initiative, acting as a kind of experimenter in each chapter, drives the plot and, with all the "discontinuity" of the narrative, organizes it into a single whole, forming a unity of thought and a unity of feeling.

The fragmentary discreteness of the novel, the construction of it as loosely connected episodes and periods of the hero's life, in its own way reflects the "disunity" of this life. It (this life) takes place at crossroads, in pursuit of some new goal each time, in the hope of the fullness of human life. Lermontov was looking for a narrative form organically, internally corresponding to the character of the protagonist.

The discreteness of the narrative structure gave the author the opportunity to change the angle of the image, "bring together" positions, opinions, assessments, at the intersection of which not only the mysterious Pechorin became accessible, but the phenomena of reality were also comprehensively covered.

Lermontov's novel is a work born of the post-Decembrist era. The heroic attempt by the "hundred ensigns" to change the social system in Russia turned into a tragedy for them. The post-Decembrist decade was a difficult period in Russian history. These were the years of reaction and political oppression. But during this period thought worked hard. We can say that all the energy accumulated in Russian society and potentially capable of turning into action was transferred to the sphere of intellectual life. Educated Russian people set themselves the goal of developing a broad view of the world, comprehending the universal connection of phenomena, understanding the laws of the historical life of peoples and the meaning of the life of an individual. Their attention was attracted by the achievements of German classical philosophy (Schelling of the period "Systems of transcendental idealism", Hegel's objective idealism) and the latest achievements of historical science. In the decade after December 14, 1825, the desire for knowledge in Russian society was so great that it allowed prominent representatives of it, having mastered the achievements of European socio-philosophical and historical thought, to become on a par with it and independently address the pressing problems of Russian life.

Pechorin's life, as given in the novel, has no general direction. It consists of a number of scattered, episodic skirmishes with fate, which do not add up to a single "plot", nor do they contribute to the process of the hero's spiritual growth. One stage of Pechorin's biography does not serve as a psychological preparation for another, does not contribute to the hero's accumulation of life experience, which would be preserved at the next stage of his development.

Pechorin's life is, by his own admission, a chain of constant contradictions that arouse, in general, the same questions in his mind. Infinitely varying. Modifying, I take a new form every time, due to changing circumstances, these questions do not receive a final answer on the pages of the novel.

The subject of the analysis of the novel can become these tormenting questions for Pechorin, the solution of which he gave his life.

Is Pechorin a hero of his time?

Despite the fact that Pechorin's type was more of an isolated type than a collective type, the society of that time liked him and liked him very much. Pechorin did not become a "hero" of his time in the narrow sense of the word; but people of that time could sometimes mistake him for their hero, and for very understandable reasons.

The type was outlined very temptingly; Pechorin's mind and nobility impressed, his sadness and meditation touched the readers, and the inner emptiness and confusion of the hero in front of the difficult questions of life were skillfully covered by his spectacular appearance. Those of the readers who were not indifferent to only one beautiful pose could easily transfer their sympathies from the foggy heroes of Byron to Pechorin, replace the frayed and dilapidated suit with a new one.

More serious people, for their part, also found in Pechorin something akin to their hearts.

Russian life in the thirties of the XIX century put many smart people in the same position as Lermontov. For them, the task of reconciling ideals with life was equally difficult, since every year public consciousness in them grew. Many, like Lermontov, could get tired in this difficult pursuit of ideals, to the achievement of which the path was completely unclear. Why not suppose that they could, albeit for a short time, be to their heart the passive and cheerless everyday philosophy of Pechorin?

The richer the stock of spiritual powers of an intelligent person, the more bleak the moment of his mental fatigue, when he begins to doubt these powers. In the thirties, such moments of fatigue in people who were intelligent and even more developed than Lermontov were not uncommon. Life began to demand a conscious and strict attitude towards itself, its scattered phenomena needed generalization; it imposed on an intelligent person moral obligations, which were very difficult to understand and to precisely delineate.

The era was in the full sense of the word transitional: it was necessary to develop a new worldview and try to put it into practice. A person either began to act without previously justifying his actions by reason, or with a ready and integral worldview he sat idle, for reasons beyond his control. Such disagreement between mind, heart and life could at times lead people to apathy, in which a person, while maintaining his proud and intelligent appearance, ceased for a while to take an active part in life and left himself at the complete disposal of its accidents.

Pechorin was thus both understandable and sympathetic to his contemporaries; but he still cannot be called a "hero" of his time. He was not a real type or character: he reflected only one moment in the history of one type, an important moment, but not lasting; he was not the Onegin of his time.