Lesson 34

Pechorin in the system artistic images novel. Pechorin and Maxim Maksimych. Pechorin and Grushnitsky. Pechorin and Werner

Target:

Show the image of Pechorin in the system of artistic images of the novel, in his relationships with Maxim Maksimych, Grushnitsky, Werner;

Develop analytical, associative and imaginative thinking, memory, speech;

Foster humanism and intolerance towards selfishness and individualism; to form the reading culture of students.

Lesson progress

I . Organizational stage

II . Update

1. Conversation

Describe the genre of the novel “A Hero of Our Time.” What makes it unique?

What are the features of the composition of the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov? What is unique about its plot and plot?

What artistic problems can such a composition solve?

How would you explain the meaning of the novel's title?

Do you think there is a hero of our time?

III . Formation of new concepts and methods of action

1. Conversation

Today our lesson will be dedicated to the main character of the novel M.Yu. Lermontov “Hero of Our Time” - Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin. And at the very beginning of the conversation, I would like to ask you: what associations does the name of the main character evoke in you? Is her choice random?

The surname of the main character of the novel reminds us of the Pechora River and thereby associatively leads us to the image of Onegin - through the name of the Onega River. And this is no coincidence. That the image of Pechorin is oriented towards the image of Onegin was already noted by V.G. Belinsky (“this is the Onegin of our time,” “their dissimilarity is much less than the distance between Onega and Pechora”), and B.M. Eikhenbaum discovered that in the manuscript of “Princess Ligovskaya” Pechorin is named Evgeniy.

And, nevertheless, the image of Pechorin is deeply original and unique; in addition to the traits of the generation, it also contains a deeply personal, subjective principle inherent in the personality of Pechorin’s creator, that is, Lermontov himself. The image of Pechorin is as deep and full-flowing as Siberian river Pechora. However, the hero’s personality can become a disastrous dark abyss, the abyss of the deep-sea Pechora, where some of the novel’s heroes drown and die when they set foot on the edge of this seemingly calm, but treacherous, wide river.

And now I ask you, based on the text of the novel, to give a portrait description of Pechorin. What is remarkable about his appearance?

Look at the portrait of Lermontov himself. What features of Pechorin’s portrait did you see in him?

Lermontov really endows Pechorin with some traits own appearance. Let's compare the portrait of the hero through the eyes of the author and the portrait of Lermontov himself as depicted by I.S. Turgenev: some details are strikingly similar in these portraits. These are the details in Pechorin’s description: “There was something childish in his smile. (...) I must say a few more words about the eyes. First of all, they didn't laugh when he laughed! (...) his cold gaze - short, but penetrating and heavy, would leave an unpleasant impression of an indiscreet question, if he were not so indifferently calm.”

And here is a portrait of Lermontov: “There was something sinister and tragic in Lermontov’s appearance; some kind of gloomy and unkind strength, brooding contempt and passion wafted from his dark face, from those large and motionless dark eyes. Their heavy gaze was strangely inconsistent with the expression of their almost childishly tender and protruding lips.” It is possible that Turgenev had a portrait of Pechorin in his head and, looking at Lermontov, unconsciously likened Lermontov to Pechorin. Nevertheless, this similarity is significant. After all, Turgenev was a contemporary of Lermontov, and his assessment is an assessment based on fresh traces, through the eyes of an eyewitness.

Now tell me what type literary heroes refers to Pechorin?

Pechorin -romantic Byronic hero (lonely, opposed to society, disappointed in life), this is a modification of the Byronic hero on Russian soil, which can be calleddemonic type . The similarities between Pechorin and the Demon, the hero of the poem of the same name, are clearly visible.

Let's compare these heroes, and for clarity, present our observations in the form of a table.

Trait

Demon

Pechorin

love of freedom

The craving for freedom forced the Demon to rebel against the power of God.

Pechorin's love of freedom is expressed in his reluctance to become attached to one place or person.

disappointment in life

Over the past millennia, the demon managed to study the entire universe, he was tired of absolutely everything, because he tried all types of activities many times.

Pechorin is satiated with life's pleasures; he is not interested in anything after a stormy youth.

loneliness

The demon was cast out of heaven, but at the same time he did not join Satan. He is “neither darkness nor light.” It is difficult for him to get along with people because he belongs to another sphere - the Demon is a super being endowed with mystical abilities and immortality

Pechorin by at will moved away from noble society, broke ties with familiar surroundings, having left for the Caucasus, and among secular people keeps aloof. At the same time, he is not allowed to get close to ordinary people, due to origin

the desire to overcome loneliness

Demon, unlike the standard one romantic hero, tries to overcome his loneliness, seeks love, in which he hopes to find the meaning of life.

Pechorin, despite the sad experience, every time with hope starts a new relationship, although none love story did not end well for him.

lack of conscious desire for evil and fatal coincidences leading to tragedy

The demon “sows evil without pleasure” because atrocities bore him just like everything else in this world, but even when his intentions have nothing to do with evil (love for Tamara), the ending is tragic (the Demon turns out to be guilty of Tamara's death, although he did not want this at all).

Pechorin is not focused on deliberately causing harm to people, but most of his actions have negative consequences(for example, having fallen in love with Bela, he separates the girl from her family and, as a result, becomes the culprit of her death; having met Grushnitsky, he eventually kills him in a duel, etc.).

attitude towards the world as a puppet theater, the position of a “puppeteer”

The demon views people as a kind of “material” for playing out his own scenarios. He arranges the death of Tamara's fiancé because he is interested in the girl and is not inclined to accept young man as an independently thinking and feeling being. The look at the world from above is largely due to the fact that the Demon has supernatural powers.

Pechorin puts himself above all other people and believes that he has the right to interfere in someone else's fate, turning it according to his own understanding. Most shining example“directing” the situation is presented in “Princess Mary”, where Pechorin literally plays people like puppets, calculating their reactions in advance and pushing them to certain actions.

tragic figure

The demon in the author's interpretation is not so much a villain as a victim of circumstances. His state of mind, disappointment in life, embitterment are dictated by isolation from all living things, which, in turn, is not the fault of the character himself, but of the Creator, who doomed the Demon to eternal loneliness among angels, and among demons, and among people.

Pechorin is shown by the author as a tragic figure: his character is determined by time and social conditions. The fact that Pechorin does not find meaning in life is the result of the current social situation, which turns young nobles into “superfluous people.”

As you can see, in addition to the undoubted similarities, there are some differences between the characters. The most important difference is that the Demon is undoubtedly a romantic figure, a superbeing operating in mystical spheres and other worlds, and Pechorin is ordinary person, although having some of the characteristics of a romantic character. Due to his belonging to the human race, the tragedy of Pechorin’s existence is somewhat less pronounced than that of the Demon, because the Demon’s suffering is aggravated by his immortality, while Pechorin has the opportunity to get rid of torment with the arrival of death.

Now let's look at the second component of this image - « extra person ». “The extra man” of the 1830s. - a nobleman, gifted with various virtues, but who has not found his destiny, a victim of upbringing, a product of society, not needed by society itself. His difference from his predecessors, the “superfluous people” of the 1820s, is that Pechorin embodies the next stage of evolution of the type; in his life, in comparison, for example, with Pushkin’s Onegin, there is more active actions(a trip to the Caucasus, a trip to Persia, participation in the war), however, all this activity does not bring any results, Pechorin still feels worthless, and from a social point of view, his prospects are much more doubtful than those of Onegin, if only because that the 1830s in Russia were marked by a decline in political activity after the defeat of the Decembrists, much greater pessimism and inertia of society, which cannot but affect people’s lives.

Thus, Pechorin represents dual character , combining romantic and realistic features. He is a romantic hero, but he is gradually debunked and overthrown from his pedestal, he is forced to act in real life. terrestrial conditions, and this makes him change. It clearly shows the widespread type of “ extra person", which existed in Russian reality during the first half of the 19th century V.

If you trace the evolution of the hero in accordance with chronological order events, then we will see a gradual debunking of the romantic component of the hero’s character and an increase in realistic features, a “decrease” in the image.

How does he appear before us in the chapter “Taman?

In the chapter “Taman” Pechorin is presented as a romantic young man, interested in secrets, experiencing a romantic love for the beautiful “undine”. Only at the end of the story does he ask an atypical question for a romantic about the meaning of his actions, and questions the already realized romantic scenario from the point of view of rationality.

What is Pechorin like in the chapter “Fatalist”?

Here Pechorin, maintaining the appearance of a romantic hero, begins to doubt the values ​​that are unshakable for a romantic (fate, predestination), finding rational explanation mystical coincidences.

And how do we see him in the chapter “Bela”?

In the chapter “Bela,” Pechorin does not behave romantically enough in a romantic situation, his love ends in disappointment and boredom, and he hesitates instead of making a decision. There is already something to condemn him for - he ruined Bela’s fate because of a whim and became an indirect culprit of her death.

What impression does Pechorin make in the chapter “Maksim Maksimych”?

Pechorin makes a depressing impression on the officer-traveler with his lethargy and apathy (“Balzac’s thirty-year-old coquette”), and his behavior, while maintaining external signs romanticism (fundamental loneliness, refusal to meet with an old friend), becomes repulsive and reprehensible.

And finally, what do we learn about the hero from the preface to Pechorin’s Journal?

The hero dies, unable to withstand the collision with reality, having lost the incentive for further existence.

So, it becomes obvious that there is an evolution in Lermontov’s interpretation of the romantic hero and his surrounding “environment”. The hero's image is clearly declining, entering the critical sphere author's analysis and into the zone of real circumstances, the depiction of which is determined by the anti-romantic tendency of the era, observed at that time in Russian literary process. Lermontov as a “historical writer” stood on the verge of a gradually fading past and an emerging future. This also affected the artistic method of the author of “A Hero of Our Time.” The principles of realistic poetics in his artistic arsenal become dominant, but romantic poetics remains in Lermontov’s creative arsenal as part of the new artistic system. It should be noted that Lermontov’s fiction is often correlated artistic function not with the romantic “classics”, but with the works of N.V. Gogol, the founder of “ natural school».

2. Characteristics of the hero

And now, summarizing everything that has been said and relying on the text of the novel, characterize Pechorin.

Material for teachers

Pechorin is a strange, dual nature, and this strangeness clearly appears in his entire appearance, contradictory even to an outside glance. He is detached from the people around him and feels as if he is above them. The hero is indifferent to people and their feelings, otherwise his coldness would not have offended Maxim Maksimych, who was so devoted to his friendship.

On the other hand, Pechorin is merciless to himself. It’s as if he points a magnifying glass at his soul, and it appears before us without embellishment, without an attempt to hide something, smooth it out, or present it in a more favorable light, for he confesses to himself, knowing that it is impossible to deceive himself: this is what his mind is for too insightful.

Pechorin constantly reflects, is busy with constant soul-searching, self-criticism - he is disturbed internal contradictions own aspirations and actions.

At the same time, Pechorin is perceptive and sometimes sees right through a person, predicts his thoughts and actions and, armed with this knowledge, invisibly guides the actions and actions of those around him, imposing his will on them and thus reveling. Achieving power over the soul of Princess Mary, Pechorin predicts the development of events several moves ahead. And he’s even dissatisfied with this - everything becomes boring: “I know all this by heart - that’s what’s boring!”

He accurately calculates Grushnitsky’s behavior in a duel, arranging circumstances at his own will in such a way that, in essence, he deprives the enemy of the right to an aimed shot, and thereby putting himself in a more advantageous position, ensuring his own safety and at the same time the opportunity to dispose of the life of his former friend at his own discretion.

He is completely filled with pride, aware of his own superiority over those around him. But pride is always accompanied by an inferiority complex, they fight among themselves in a person’s soul, become his torment and constantly demand as food a fight with someone, a contradiction to someone, power over someone: “To be the cause of suffering for someone and joys, without having any positive right to it - isn’t this the sweetest food of our pride?”

However, in order to expose your vices to yourself so mercilessly, as Pechorin does, you need a special kind of courage. A person more often strives to hide from himself something painful in his nature, in life - even to escape from reality into the world of intoxicating and consciousness-dampening dreams, fiction, pleasant self-deception. Sober self-esteem - often additional reason internal depression, torment. Pechorin truly becomes a hero of his time, for he does not hide from the present either in the past or in dreams of the future, he becomes an exception to the rule presented by Grushnitsky, that pompous deceiver of himself.

Pechorin is a hero. But his heroism is spiritual, not spiritual in nature. Reveling in his strength or tormented by internal torment, he does not humble himself at all, even when he sees in himself obvious weaknesses, obvious falls, on the contrary: he is constantly inclined to self-justification, which is combined in his soul with grave despair. Pechorin is ready to shift the blame onto the “bad community,” but he does not at all strive to acknowledge his guilt.

Pechorin becomes a kind of moral sadist, finding special pleasure in contemplating the mental torment of those who entrusted their souls to him (primarily women, whose love he sought).

“...I loved for myself, for own pleasure; I only satisfied the strange need of my heart, greedily absorbing their feelings, their tenderness, their joys and sufferings - and could never get enough.” And what is the result? - “... there remains double hunger and despair!”

Like every person who is vaguely aware of his guilt in all his own (and not only his own) troubles and strives to justify himself at least to himself, and above all to himself, his conscience, Pechorin tries to find for himself some mitigating circumstances, if not complete getting rid of all accusations and reproaches of conscience. This cannot but push him to think about fate as a external force, which determines his actions and removes at least some share of guilt from him.

Vocabulary work

Fatalism- this is a belief in a predetermined, inevitable fate, independent of the will and actions of the person himself. Fatalism rejects personal will, human feelings and reason.

Fatalism may have had some interest for him. First of all, the existence of an immutable fate removes all responsibility from a person - and Pechorin is very prone to this. But fatalism also gives rise to lack of will, inaction, and hopelessness. And really, why fuss and desire something when everything is determined by faceless fate?

Therefore, the dispute that broke out between the characters in the story “Fatalist” regarding predestination was explained by ordinary curiosity for all participants, but in Pechorin’s soul it acquired a meaning of the greatest importance. And the tendency to recognize omnipotent fate wins. It is not without reason that “The Fatalist” ends the novel: it sums up the story, finally explaining all the mysteries of the hero’s character.

Only at the very end does it become clear that cruel laughter with which the hero responded to Maxim Maksimych’s consolations: it was a laughter of cold despair.

IV . Application. Formation of skills and abilities

1. Work in groups

The class is divided into four groups, each of which received a proactive task to prepare a message on one of the proposed topics, based on the text of the novel and textbook articles (pp. 154-162). Group messages are heard:

Group 1 - Pechorin and Maxima Maksimych;

Group 2 - Pechorin and Grushnitsky;

Group 3 - Pechorin and Doctor Werner;

Group 4 - Pechorin and Vulich;

Group 5 – friendship in Pechorin’s life.

Material for teachers

AttitudeTopast

Pechorina

Maxim Maksimovich

Everything that happened was painful.

Everything that happened was sweet.

She cannot and does not want to calmly remember the past with Maxim Maksimych, especially the story with Bela.

Shared memories become the basis for a conversation that the staff captain so eagerly awaits.

The past and reminders of it cause pain in Pechorin’s soul, since he cannot forgive himself for the story that ended with the death of Bela.

Memories of the past give Maxim Maksimych some significance: he was a participant in the same events as Pechorin.

Differences between heroes

Pechorin

Maxim Maksimovich

Tries to get to the very essence of everything, to understand the complexities human nature, and, above all, your character.

Lacking understanding general meaning things, kind and simple-minded.

Always tries to overcome circumstances.

Submissive to circumstances.

"Doubles" of Pechorin

Grushnitsky - caricature of Pechorin

We see Grushnitsky through the eyes of Pechorin, evaluate his actions through Pechorin’s perception: Grushnitsky came to Pyatigorsk to “become the hero of a novel.”

- “...He doesn’t know people and their weak strings, because he spent his whole life focusing on himself,”

He wears a fashionable mask of disappointed people, speaks in “lush phrases”, “drapes himself importantly into extraordinary feelings, sublime passions and exceptional suffering. It is his pleasure to produce the effect.”

There is “not a penny of poetry” in his soul.

Capable of meanness and deception (duel with Pechorin).

“I understood him, and for this he doesn’t love me, although outwardly we are on the most friendly terms... I don’t love him either: I feel that we will someday collide with him on a narrow road, and one of us will be in trouble.” "

Next to Pechorin, Grushnitsky looks pathetic and funny.

Grushnitsky is always trying to imitate someone.

Even on the border of life and death, Grushnitsky’s pride turns out to be stronger than honesty.

Werner - friend and “double” of Pechorin

By definition, Pechorin is a “wonderful person.” Werner and Pechorin “read each other’s souls.”

He is a "skeptic and a materialist."

He is distinguished by a deep and sharp mind, insight and observation, and knowledge of people.

He has kind heart(“crying over a dying soldier”).

Hides his feelings and moods under the guise of irony and ridicule.

Werner and Pechorin cannot be friends , since Pechorin believes that “of two friends, one is always the slave of the other, although often neither of them admits this; I cannot be a slave, and in this case commanding is tedious work, because at the same time I have to deceive..."

Werner

Pechorin

Similarities

Close spiritually and intellectually.

They hide the ability to love and compassion.

They learn indifference and selfishness.

They are afraid of the manifestation of normal human feelings.

They suppress everything human in themselves.

Differences

A witness to life, rather an observer of everything that happens from the outside.

Trying to understand the meaning and purpose of his life.

Grushnitsky

Pechorin

Similarities

People of the same circle served together.

Differences

Poser, loves pompous phrases.

Dreams of becoming the hero of a novel.

Provincial romantic.

Shallow in his ambitions and desires.

He feels other people subtly, knows how to understand their state and guess their actions.

Observant, able to analyze and draw conclusions.

Has subtle intuition.

Vulich - a player who constantly tempts fate. He seeks power over fate. His courage is explained by the fact that he is confident that every person has an appointed hour of his death and it cannot be otherwise: “Each of us is assigned a fateful minute.”

Pechorin - doesn't believe it exists higher power, controlling the actions of people. “I felt funny when I remembered that there were once wise people who thought that the heavenly bodies took part in our insignificant disputes over a piece of land or for some fictitious rights.”

“And how often do we mistake for a belief a deception of the senses or an error of reason!.. I like to doubt everything: this disposition of the mind does not interfere with the decisiveness of character; on the contrary, as for me, I always move forward more boldly when I don’t know what awaits me. After all, nothing worse can happen than death - and you can’t escape death!”

Vulich is trying to prove that fate exists, unlike free will, and he proves this in a rather strange way: by shooting himself in the temple. There is a misfire. Although the gun was loaded, Vulich remains alive. Another shot he fired at his cap on the wall and holed it right through, according to Vulich, is undoubted proof that randomness is fatally programmed.

The first strange thing: all the participants in the dispute silently agree with Vulich, as if he had proven himself right in the dispute with Pechorin, if only by the fact that he survived. The second oddity: Pechorin, who in a dispute with Vulich opposes fatalism and defends free will, before Vulich must pull the trigger, sees him pale face the seal of death and declares: “You will die today!” It turns out that Pechorin acts here as a fatalist: the seal of death implies inevitable death, and the fatalist Vulich answers Pechorin: “Maybe yes, maybe no...” - at that moment becoming a champion of free will, for his words mean freedom of choice and the uncertainty of future events.

In other words, Vulich and Pechorin constantly change places, taking opposite ideological positions and not noticing their own inconsistency at all.

V . Information stage homework

2. Prepare specifications female images novel (by groups):

VI . Reflection stage

I am not capable of friendship:

Of two friends, one is always the slave of the other,

although often none of them are present

this is not admitted.

M. Yu. Lermontov. Hero of our time

I. Pechorin in the system of male images of the novel

Group 1. Pechorin and Maxim Maksimych.

Group 2. Pechorin and Grushnitsky.

Group 3. Pechorin and Werner.

Group 4. Pechorin and Vulich.

At the end of the lesson, it is possible to draw up a plan benchmarking male images novel or reference diagram.

Variant of the plan for comparative characteristics of heroes

II. Friendship in the life of Pechorin

The male characters of the novel are Pechorin’s doubles and antipodes, but all of them are undoubtedly lower than him in intelligence, their souls are less deep, weaker character, they lack the ability to introspect.

Homework

“In friendship, one is the slave of another.” Friendship in the life of Pechorin. Pechorin in the system of male images of the novel

The lesson is centered on revealing the need for images of minor characters to understand Pechorin’s personality. Lesson work can be subordinated to a group teaching method and divided into four groups to analyze key episodes.

1st group. and Maxim Maksimych

1. Re-read Pechorin’s monologue from the chapter “” from the words “I have an unhappy character.” Why did Pechorin’s confession surprise Maxim Maksimych? What in the monologue makes the reader suffer and sympathize?

2. Re-read the scene of Pechorin’s meeting with Maxim Maksimych from the chapter “”. How does it convey the excitement of Maxim Maksimych and the indifference of Pechorin?

3. How do Pechorin and Maxim Maksimych relate to each other in the first two chapters? How does the image of Maxim Maksimych set off the image of Pechorin?

2nd group. Pechorin and Grushnitsky

1. Re-read the entry in Pechorin’s journal dated June 5. What caused the conflict between Pechorin and Grushnitsky? Why was Grushnitsky’s character unpleasant to Pechorin and why didn’t those around him notice?

2. Assess the behavior of Pechorin and Grushnitsky during the duel. What can be said about the nobility and baseness of their characters?

3. What is the compositional role of Grushnitsky’s image?

3- IGroup. PechorinANDWerner

1. Re-read Pechorin and Werner in the entry dated May 13. What is common in their intellectual development and attitude to life?

2. Re-read Werner’s note to Pechorin after the duel and the description of their last meeting. In what ways was Pechorin morally superior to Werner?

3. What is the role of the image of Werner in understanding the character of Pechorin?

4th group. Pechorin and Vulich

1. Reread the scene of the bet between Pechorin and Vulich. Why did Pechorin decide that Vulich did not value his life? Does Pechorin value his life? What meaning is revealed when comparing these images?

2. How can you evaluate Pechorin’s behavior in the scene of the capture of a drunken Cossack? Why does Vulich still die, but Pechorin remains alive? What is the artistic meaning of such an author's position?

3. What is the role of the novel’s ring composition? Why does it start and end at Fortress N?

The conclusions of the lesson can be presented in the form of a supporting diagram.

The male characters of the novel are Pechorin's doubles and antipodes, but all of them are undoubtedly lower in intelligence, their souls are less deep, their character is weaker, they lack the ability for introspection.

The possibility of friendship in Pechorin's life

All the characters in “A Hero of Our Time” that Pechorin encounters in the novel reveal to us new and different traits of the main character. Thus, relations with Maxim Maksimych, Werner, Grushnitsky reveal his understanding of friendly, friendly relations. Is friendship possible in Pechorin’s life, what does he think and how does he understand it? main character?

What is the meaning of the word friendship? The meaning of the word has not changed since the time of Lermontov. “Friendship, friendship,” we read from V. Dahl in the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language,” - mutual affection two or more people close connection their; in a good sense, disinterested, lasting affection, based on love and respect ... "

Pechorin and Maxim Maksimych

We see a similar affection in the ingenuous staff captain - the first who tells us about Pechorin. Despite the fact that Maxim Maksimych considers him strange man and clearly does not approve of the way Grigory acts with Bela, he is attached to Pechorin and considers him his friend. “We were friends,” “we were bosom friends,” - serving together, people become close, almost family, this is what Maxim Maksimych is sincerely convinced of.

Already being familiar with Pechorin, we, reading about the upcoming meeting, doubt that on Pechorin’s part it will be warm and joyful, - after all, he does not hide his character from the staff captain and does not promise friendship: “Am I a fool or a villain, I don’t know; ... in me the soul is spoiled by light, the imagination is restless, the heart is insatiable; “I can’t get enough of it: I get used to sadness just as easily as to pleasure, and my life becomes emptier day by day.” But then the meeting took place, words of joy and gratitude that Maxim Maksimych Pechorin did not forget were spoken, the old acquaintance was hugged by Grigory in a friendly manner, but why does Pechorin smell so cold, why is Maxim Maksimych offended and upset, having broken the rules for the first time for the sake of the meeting? “Am I really not the same?.. What should I do? Everyone has their own path...” says the hero, and we understand: he is not going to offend anyone, he just met an old acquaintance whom he never considered his friend.

Pechorin and Grushnitsky

Pechorin’s meeting with Grushnitsky will take place in a completely different way: “we met as old friends,” but from the first lines of the description it is clear that under the friendly relations there are completely different ones hidden. And indeed, Grushnitsky is a man whose main pleasure is to “produce an effect” and who “importantly drapes himself in extraordinary feelings” and plays the disappointed. Pechorin is disappointment itself, this is his illness, and he cannot help but feel the artificiality of the cadet and for this reason not accept him. “I understood him, and he doesn’t love me for it.”

The dramatic outcome of this relationship does not leave Pechorin indifferent. “The sight of a person would be painful for me: I wanted to be alone.” There is no answer to the question “why did I live?” For what purpose was I born?

"from the hero. “Some will say: he was a kind fellow, others – a scoundrel. Both will be false.”

None of the people passing by in a line can understand inner world Pechorina. The only woman, who understood Pechorin “perfectly, with all my petty weaknesses, bad passions”, “Faith has become dearer to me than anything in the world - more valuable than life, honor, happiness! But our hope that the protagonist's indifference and disappointment can be cured turns out to be in vain.

Love and friendship in Pechorin’s life are just as impossible as many other generally accepted human relations- not because the hero is bad or good, but because of his character and attitude to life. “Twenty times I will put my life, even my honor, on the line... but I will not sell my freedom” - this is how Pechorin builds his life, denying both love and friendship, wanting to remain independent from people and suffering from this himself.

Pechorin and Werner

Perhaps, it is in the relationship with Werner that the theme of friendship in “A Hero of Our Time” is revealed more clearly; perhaps Pechorin could have developed a friendship with the doctor, they are so similar in many ways. From the moment Werner and Pechorin “distinguished each other in the crowd,” their relationship reminded others so much of it. “Werner is a wonderful man,” the main character knows the strong and weaknesses doctors to perfection. What brought the two together? “We are quite indifferent to everything except ourselves,” “we soon understood each other and became friends.” Neither Werner nor Pechorin are capable of friendship.
Grigory denies true friendships; friendship does not exist in Pechorin’s life, since it requires self-forgetfulness, openness, trust - everything that the main character of the novel does not have. He says that “of two friends, one is always the slave of the other,” and, quite likely, this is not a conviction, but a desire to hide the inability to let anyone into his heart.

“He is a skeptic and a materialist... and at the same time a poet,” says Pechorin about his friend, and the doctor highlights and reveals the best that we find in Gregory’s character: an analytical mind, strong will, developed intelligence, sincerity. At the same time, involuntarily comparing the heroes, we more clearly perceive Pechorin’s other qualities - selfishness, insensitivity and even cruelty.

Understanding of friendship by the main character of the novel

The concept of friendship does not connect Pechorin in any way with Maxim Maksimych, or with Grushnitsky, or with Werner, or with anyone else. But does this mean that he doesn’t know, doesn’t understand? true meaning the words “friendship”, “friend”? Following Lermontov, who describes the water society, we observe how “in the world” the concept is devalued: “my friend” - this is how people who are completely indifferent address each other, or, moreover, even, like a dragoon captain, involving their interlocutor in their vile affairs.

Before the duel, Pechorin turns to Grushnitsky with the words “we were once friends,” giving him the opportunity to come to his senses. And when mental tension reaches a fever pitch, the hero “felt the need to pour out his thoughts in a friendly conversation.” But the main character has no one to share friendship with - he, relying on life experience and beliefs, unconditionally rejects any attachment. Analyzing his actions and emotional experiences, he becomes indifferent to both people and himself.

Reflecting on what you have read, you come to the conclusion that such a theme as friendship in the novel “A Hero of Our Time” by Lermontov helps to better understand the true essence of Pechorin’s character and feel his enduring modernity. These reflections are especially relevant for 9th grade students when writing an essay on the topic “Friendship in the life of Pechorin.”

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