"Hero of Our Time": composition-reasoning. The novel "The Hero of Our Time", Lermontov

All of us wrote in childhood the school essay "The Hero of Our Time" based on the novel by Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov, but most of the students did not really think about the writer's motives and the history of the work. Arguing objectively, not every schoolboy is able to understand the complex psychological experiences of adults. Therefore, to the classical work, on the one hand - simple, and on the other - deep, it is necessary to return to mature years and re-think, to find a common or opposite to itself, the world, the universe ...

Birth of the genre

The work "Hero of Our Time" was the first prosaic novel written in the style of socio-psychological realism. Moral philosophical work contained, in addition to the history of the main character, a vivid and harmonious description of the life of Russia in the 1830s. This was a kind of experimental innovation in terms of genre on the part of the author, since at that time there was no such genre as "novel". Lermontov later admitted that he wrote the novel "The Hero of Our Time", relying on the Pushkin experience and the literary traditions of Western Europe. Especially this influence is noticeable in the features of the romanticism of this novel.

Prerequisites for writing

In 1832 M. Lermontov wrote a poem "I want to live! I want sadness ... "How does a young man have such despair, together with the maturity of his thought, the accuracy of his vision, and such an uncontrollable desire for a storm? Perhaps, it is this life-affirming desperation that attracts the attention of many generations of readers and makes Lermontov's poetry relevant today? Thoughts about the desire for storms also appear in the poem "Parus", written in the same year: "And he, the rebellious, asks for storms, as if there are rest in storms!" His contemporary, almost the same age, A.Gerzen spoke of his generation as "Poisoned from infancy".

To understand these words, it is worth remembering in what era Lermontov had to live, and the time that was later reflected in the novel "The Hero of Our Time". The composition of the novel is more correct to begin with an analysis of the poet's earlier poetry, since it is in them that the prerequisites that prompted the author to create a unique work are visible.

The youth of M. Lermontov fell on a time that was rather sad for the history of Russia. December 14, 1825 on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg there was an uprising of the Decembrists, which ended in defeat. The organizers of the uprising were hanged, the participants were sent to a twenty-five year old exile to Siberia. Lermontov's peers, unlike Pushkin's contemporaries, grew up in an atmosphere of oppression. This should take into account modern schoolchildren, preparing an essay on this topic.

"Hero of our time"

Lermontov gave the hero "the unhappy essence of being" of his era. At that time the commanders played the role of the suppressors of the people, the judges were needed to complete the unfair trial, the poets - to glorify the king. The atmosphere of fear, suspicion, hopelessness grew. In the youth of the poet there was no light and faith. He grew up in a spiritual wilderness and kept trying to escape from it all the time.

In the poem "Monologue" there is a line: "Among the storms of empty our youth is languishing ..." It's hard to believe that the author of the poetic work turned 15 years old! But it was not ordinary youthful pessimism. Lermontov could not explain, but he was beginning to understand that a person who can not act can not be happy. Ten years after the "Monologue" he will write the novel "Hero of Our Time". The writing on this subject must necessarily contain a discussion of the current time and the place of the person inside it. It is in "The Hero of Our Time" that the author will explain the psychology of his generation and reflect the desperation on which his peers are doomed.

History of writing

When writing the work it will be reasonable to indicate that the novel Lermontov began to write 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 Otechestvennye Zapiski reported that M. Lermontov was preparing to publish a collection of his novels. Each of these stories was based on a certain literary tradition: "Bela" was written in the style of the traveler's essay, "Princess Mary" - according to the traditions of the secular novel, "Taman" - in the spirit of the lyric novella, "Fatalist" - in the manner of "the story of the mysterious case ", Which was popular in the 1830s. Later from these novels a full-fledged novel "The Hero of Our Time" will be born.

Composition-reasoning can be briefly supplemented with the events described in the novel "The Princess Ligovskaya" (1836). This work chronologically and plotted preceded the "Hero". There for the first time appeared Pechorin, a Guards officer who was in love with Princess Vera Ligovskaya. A separate chapter "Taman" was written in 1837, appearing as a continuation of "The Princess Ligovskaya." All these works are related to each other and have a single social and philosophical line, a single concept and a genre orientation.

Editorial changes

In the new edition, the composition of the novel "The Hero of Our Time" was changed. The composition was recommended to be supplemented 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 notes of the officer" and became the leading part of the novel, and the second part was "Princess Mary". It was intended to state the pressing "confession" of the protagonist. During August-September 1839 M. Lermontov decided to completely rewrite all the chapters except for the chapter "Bela", which at that time was already published. It was at this stage of the work that the chapter "Fatalist" entered the novel.

In the first edition of the novel had the name "One of the heroes of the beginning of the century." He consisted of four parts - four separate stories, although the meaning of the novel shared the author himself in only two parts. The initial part - notes of the officer-narrator, the second - notes of the hero. The introduction of the chapter "Fatalist" deepened the philosophical stream of the work. Breaking the novel to pieces, Lermontov did not set the task of preserving the chronology of events, the goal was to maximally reveal the soul of the protagonist and the soul of the people of that troubled 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 Maximich. Notes of the protagonist, Pechorin, now began with the head of "Taman", and ended with "Fatalist". In the same edition appeared the well-known "Pechorin's Magazine". So, the novel consists of five chapters and a new name appears: the novel "The Hero of Our Time".

What is common between Pechorin and Onegin

The surname of the main hero of the novel connected him with Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. The name Pechorin comes from the name of the great Russian river Pechora, located near Onega (hence, as already noted, and the name Onegin). And this relationship is not accidental.

Following A. Pushkin M. Lermontov turns to the image of his contemporary and analyzes his fate in the conditions of his time. Lermontov penetrates deeper into the secrets of the soul of the protagonist, strengthening the psychology of the work and saturating it with profound philosophical reflections about the morality of society.

Genre accessory

"The Hero of Our Time" is an essay-reasoning, the first moral-psychological prose novel in Russian literature. This is a kind of realistic novel, in which the main focus is on solving the moral problems posed by the writer, requiring deep psychological analysis.

In the novel, the author decides the current moral and ethical problems: good and evil, love and friendship, death and religion, the appointment of a person and freedom of will. The psychology of the work lies in the fact that Lermontov concentrates on the personality of the hero, his emotional experiences. Before the reader appears "naked" soul Pechorin. The novel "The Hero of Our Time" is the story of his soul.

Characteristics of the work

The author changed the composition several times to more fully reveal the main problem - the spiritual quest of the main character. This is the whole Lermontov. "Hero of Our Time", whose theme is seen in the description of life situations and turns in the fate of the protagonist, completely devoid of any chronology. The question arises: why does the author not adhere to the chronology in the arrangement of the chapters? Chronological inconsistency is due to several reasons.

• First, the novel contains elements of various genres: notes, a diary, a secular narrative, an essay, and the like.
• Secondly, the author sought to interest the reader, to make a "journey" into the psychology of the hero, to immerse the reader in the depths of the inner world of the character.

Thanks to the complex and "inconsistent" structure of the work in the novel, several storytellers, in each chapter - his own. So, in the chapter "Bela" about the course of events the reader learns from the story of Maxim Maksimovich (Maksimych), in the "Maxim Maksimych" the story is led by the officer, the chapters "Taman", "Princess Mary", "Fatalist" are presented in the form of a journal and a diary of the main character . That is, the narrator is Pechorin himself. The forms of the journal and diary allow to give the author 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 Bel's sister and brought Pechorin, and in response Pechorin steals Azamat's horse from Kazbich? The hero did not tire of giving his woman expensive gifts, which eventually won her favor. The girl attracted him with her pride and disobedience.

If we talk about the power of feelings, reciprocal or unrequited love, then Lermontov's sympathy on the side of Bela - she really fell in love with Pechorin really. But the protagonist seemed to go with the flow, he himself could not determine whether the girl feels real feelings, or is the passion bubbling in his soul and body. In this and the tragedy of the protagonist - he was unable to deeply empathize. The love affair of Pechorin-Bela contains the themes of his works. "Hero of Our Time" contains many points that reveal the ability of the main character to strong feelings. Pechorin realizes that he is the cause of the misfortunes of others, but he does not yet understand what is the matter. As a result, all his experiences are reduced to boredom, emotional emptiness and disappointment.

However, it is not necessary to talk about complete cruelty. When Bela dies a terrible death, it causes sympathy for her not only with Maxim Maksimych and readers. In the last moments of Bela's life, Pechorin became "as pale as a canvas". And then "I was ill for a long time, I lost weight, poor thing ..." He felt his sin in front of her, but tried to hide all his feelings deep in his soul. Perhaps that is why he burst out with a "strange laugh", which frightened Maxim Maksimych. Most likely, it was a kind of nervous breakdown. Only a real "hero of our time" could act like this. The composition of his character to the author was close - he lived next to such people side by side every day. The reader sees the act of Pechorin through the eyes of the narrator Maxim Maksimych, but does not understand the reasons for these actions.

The ratio of Maxim Maksimych to Pechorin

"He is so white, his uniform is so new that I immediately guessed that he was in the Caucasus recently," Pechorin Maxim Maximich saw. From the description it is felt that the narrator sympathizes with Pechorin. This is evidenced by words with diminutive affectionate suffixes, which the narrator uses, and the phrase "Glorious was the guy ...".

In the novel "The Hero of Our Time," an essay on the life of Pechorin could be written in a separate multi-page book - the author was so imbued with this ambiguous, vivid and deep image. Pechorin differed from others in his behavior: a reaction to changes in temperature, sudden pallor, prolonged silence and unexpected talk. Because of these "unusual" for the old-timers, Maxim Maksimych considered Pechorin strange.

Maksimych understood the feelings, driven by the younger Pechorin, but felt it was necessary to return the girl to his father, although he strongly attached himself to Bela, respecting her for pride and endurance. However, he also owns the words: "There are people with whom you must certainly agree." Maxim Maksimych had in mind Pechorin, who was a strong personality and could subordinate everyone to his will.

Coloring of nature

Lermontov in Russian prose is one of the first authors for whom nature is not naked scenery, but a full-fledged hero of the narrative. It is known that the author was captivated by the beauty of the Caucasus, its severity and grandeur. Lermontov's novel "Hero of Our Time" is simply permeated with pictures of nature - wild, but beautiful. As noted by a number of critics, it was Lermontov who, to the notion of "humanizing nature" already used by other writers, first added "human conditioning". Special artistic techniques in describing nature allowed to emphasize the wild laws, according to which the people of the mountains lived. The same accuracy in the description and brightness of the color of the Caucasus is distinguished by paintings written personally by M. Yu. Lermontov.

conclusions

So, the work "The Hero of Our Time" - already in the very title of the first novel lies its entire essence. Pechorin is the personification of the generation. It can not be asserted that all people rushed about in spiritual experiences, suffered from misunderstanding, and their souls became hardened. The protagonist personified not so much fellow citizens as the era - a complex, sometimes cruel to people, but at the same time strong and strong-willed. This is what must be remembered when preparing the composition "The Hero of Our Time." Lermontov brilliantly conveyed the atmosphere of society in the history of one hero.