The novel by M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time" (1837-1840) - the pinnacle of the writer's creativity... This is a socio-psychological novel in which the main task of the author was the creation of an image of a contemporary person, the study of the human soul. The author was able to trace how the environment affects the formation of personality, to give a portrait of the entire generation of young people of that time. In the preface to the novel, the main character - Pechorin - characterized as "a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation in their full development." The author, shifting part of the blame onto society, the environment and education, at the same time does not relieve the hero of responsibility for his actions. Lermontov pointed to the "disease" of the century, the treatment of which is in overcoming individualism, engendered by unbelief, bringing deep suffering to Pechorin and destructive for those around him.

The plot-forming character of the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time" is Pechorin. His image runs through the entire novel and connects all its parts. This is a romantic in character and behavior, by nature a man of exceptional abilities, an outstanding mind, strong will, high aspirations for social activities and an ineradicable desire for freedom. Pechorin is not devoid of good impulses. At the evening at the Ligovskys', he "felt sorry for Vera." On the last meeting with Mary, compassion seized him with such force that "another minute" - and he would "fall at her feet." Risking his life, he was the first to rush into the hut of Vulich's killer. Pechorin does not hide his sympathy for the oppressed. There is no doubt about his sympathy for the Decembrists exiled to the Caucasus. After all, this is said about them in his diary.

But Pechorin's good aspirations did not develop... An unrestrained socio-political reaction that stifled all living things, spiritual emptiness of high society distorted and drowned out Pechorin's capabilities, incredibly disfigured his moral character, terribly reduced his inherent vital activity. That is why Belinsky called this novel "a cry of suffering" and a "sad thought." Pechorin realized that in the conditions of autocratic despotism for him and his generation meaningful activity in the name of the common good is impossible. This caused his characteristic unrestrained skepticism and pessimism, the belief that life is "boring and disgusting." Doubt devastated Pechorin to the point that he had only two convictions left: birth is a misfortune, and death is inevitable... Having parted with the environment to which he belongs by birth and upbringing, denouncing it, he creates a cruel judgment on himself. Dissatisfied with his aimless life, passionately thirsting for the ideal, but not seeing, not finding it, Pechorin asks: “Why did I live? for what purpose was I born? "

Morally crippled, Pechorin lost good goals, turned into a cold, cruel, despotic egoist, frozen in splendid isolation, hated even by himself. Pechorin manifests itself primarily as an evil force, bringing people only suffering and misery. The "Napoleonic problem" is the central moral and psychological problem of Lermontov's novel "A Hero of Our Time"; it is the problem of extreme individualism and egoism. A person who refuses to judge himself according to the same laws by which he judges others, loses moral guidelines, loses the criteria of good and evil. Pechorin not only brings misfortune to others, but he himself is unhappy. (BELINSKY)

V the story "Bela" Pechorin appears as a ruthless and callous person. He kidnaps Bela, not thinking that he is pulling her out of her home. Such an act can only be justified by strong love, but Pechorin does not experience it. He says to Maxim Maksimych: "The love of a savage is little better than the love of a noble lady ... I'm bored with her." The hero is indifferent to the feelings of others ... Bela, Kazbich, Azamat live in harmony with the environment, which Pechorin lacks... Judging by the story of "Bela", Pechorin is a monster that, without hesitation, sacrifices the prince, Azamat, Kazbich, and Bela herself ... But Lermontov makes the reader look at the hero from the other side, with his own eyes.... And if in the story Bela the narration is on behalf of Maxim Maksimych then in "Taman" it goes to Pechorin himself . It is in this short story that a complete and clear psychological portrait of the hero appears.... Pechorin is unusually attracted by the freedom that Yanko, the “undine,” the blind boy, personifies. They live in unity with the elements, with the sea, but outside the law. And Pechorin, out of curiosity, allows himself to interfere in the life of "honest smugglers", makes them flee, leaving the house and the blind boy. Pechorin is a stranger in this world too. He can find no refuge for himself anywhere.

The main disclosure of Pechorin's character takes place in the story "Princess Mary". The story of the events is led by the hero himself - this is his confession. Here we see not a simple narration, but an analysis of the actions of the hero. Pechorin interferes in the romance between Grushnitsky and Mary, destroys it, kills Grushnitsky in a duel, breaks Mary's heart, and disturbs Vera's life. He writes about the attractiveness of another person's “possession of the soul”, but does not consider whether he has a right to this possession. Pechorin is alone in this society, and after Vera's departure and an explanation with Mary, nothing connects him with the people of this circle. "Saturated pride" - this is how he defines human happiness. He perceives the suffering and joy of others "only in relation to himself" as food that supports his spiritual strength. For the sake of a capricious whim, without much hesitation, he tore Bela out of his native soil and destroyed. Maxim Maksimych is deeply offended by him. For the sake of empty curiosity, he ruined the nest of "honest smugglers", violated the family peace of Vera, grossly insulted Mary's love and dignity. The novel ends with the chapter "The Fatalist". In it, Pechorin reflects on faith and unbelief. Having lost God, man has lost the main thing - moral guidelines, a system of moral values, the idea of ​​spiritual equality. Having won the battle with the killer, Pechorin for the first time shows his ability to act for the common good. With this result, the author claims the possibility of meaningful activity. Another moral law: respect for the world, for people starts with self-respect... A person who humiliates others does not respect himself. Triumphing over the weak, he feels himself strong. Pechorin, according to Dobrolyubov, not knowing where to go and put his strength, exhausts the heat of his soul into petty passions and insignificant deeds. “Evil begets evil; the first suffering gives the concept of the pleasure of torturing another, ”he argues. "I sometimes despise myself ... Is that why I despise others too?" Pechorin constantly feels his moral inferiority, he "became a moral cripple." He says that "his soul is corrupted by the light", torn into two halves, the best of which "dried up, evaporated, died, while the other is alive at everyone's service."

"P-na's diary"- this is the confession of Ch. hero. On its pages, Pechorin talks about everything truly sincerely, but he is full of pessimism, since the vices and boredom developed by society push him to strange actions, and the natural inclinations of his soul remain unclaimed, do not find application in life, therefore, the character of the hero exists duality. By Pechorin's own admission, two people live in it: one does deeds, and the other looks from the outside and judges him.

The tragedy of the hero is that he does not see the reasons for his mental inferiority and blames the world, people and time for his spiritual slavery. Treasured by his freedom, he says: "I am ready for all sacrifices except this one; twenty times my life, I will even put my honor at stake ... But I will not sell my freedom." But he does not know true freedom - spiritual freedom. He looks for her alone, in endless wanderings, in changing places, that is, only in external signs. But it turns out to be superfluous everywhere.

Pre-romanticism and "high" romanticism: what is the meaning of the difference.

Ticket 8

Pre-romanticism, preromantism, a complex of ideological and stylistic tendencies in Western European literature of the 2nd half of the 18th - early 19th centuries. and the fine arts of the late 18th - early 19th centuries; genetically anticipating romanticism, Pre-romanticism preserves the continuity of some motives and ideas of literature sentimentalism(an appeal to "feeling", an apology for "natural" existence, poeticization of "peaceful" nature, etc.), however, these are ideologically different trends: within the framework of sentimentalism, criticism of the rationalism of the Enlightenment is carried out, while Pre-romanticism- the beginning of his complete and uncompromising denial. "Unsteady", transitional nature Pre-romanticism finds confirmation in the creative destinies of "pre-romanticists", often attributed either to romanticism (W. Blake), or even to sentimentalism (J. A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre). Associated with the advancement of the third estate, Pre-romanticism imbued with the pathos of self-determination and the affirmation of personality ("The Devil in Love" by J. Casot; to a certain extent, the works of the Marquis de Sade). In the pre-revolutionary years, French Pre-romanticism acquires a civil anti-feudal sound.

In Russia Pre-romanticism did not receive a complete expression; syncretism of Russian literature of the late 18th century. (the simultaneous presence of various ideological and artistic tendencies) reduced him to separate motives in the poetry of G.R.Derzhavin, N.I. Gnedich, V.A.Zhukovsky.

GNV is the pinnacle of creativity. An example of a limited combination of 2 thin methods (romance and realist). The theme of the "superfluous person" grew out of this novel in different ways. Pechorin - Alter ego (second self) of Lermontov. In a noble position. The content both in terms of reproachful martyrdom, and in an ironic denial interpretation ..

"GNV" is the first social psychologist and philosophical novel in Russia.

Pechorin is undoubtedly a more analytical hero than Onegin. It has more inner self-criticism, painful thoughts, experiences of discord with society, the tragedy of its position in society. Pechorin is a kind of demon, fully manifested in the conditions of ordinary life. He is superfluous by the right of his exclusivity, and this is not a mockery, but his own chosen lot. Pechorin, like Lermontov himself, also struggles with himself, with the contradictions of his "I".

The true drama of Pechorin is in the field of the spirit: between what the vulgar reality has endowed him with and the highest spiritual, merciless analysis.

Collision with common people. In terms of composition, the plot and the plot do not coincide; in terms of the plot, the novel is very rich.

The style of A Hero of Our Time, the construction of each of the five chapters that make up the novel, is highly Byronic. And "Taman", and "Bela", and "Fatalist" are built on points, on climaxes - everywhere death or the danger of death. Each chapter is a complete whole. And the plot sequence of events is broken: the episodes are reshuffled in order to make the main character more mysterious, and it is no coincidence that "Fatalist" is staged at the end.

The history of the "Hero of Our Time" begins in 1839, when the story "Bela" appeared in the "Notes of the Fatherland" with the subtitle "From the Notes of an Officer from the Caucasus." At the end of the same year, the last part of the future novel, The Fatalist, was published in the same magazine. In 1840, Taman was also published there. This was followed by a separate edition of the novel in its entirety.

"Hero of Our Time" is not just a psychological, but primarily a socio-psychological novel- both by the nature of psychologism in revealing the protagonist, and by the breadth and variety of social reality reflected in him, represented by the relief images of characters, each of which, in turn, is a certain socio-psychological type. However, the psychologism of the novel is not only social, but at the same time deeply philosophical. The relationship of a person with a person, a person with society and nature, with the world, human aspirations, opportunities and reality, free will and necessity - all these, in fact, philosophical problems are posed in The Hero of Our Time. And this makes him a novel not only socio-psychological, but also philosophical.

The problem of personality is central to the novel... Personality in its relation to society, in its conditionality by socio-historical circumstances and at the same time counteracting them - this is Lermontov's special, two-sided approach to the problem. Man and destiny, man and his purpose, the purpose and meaning of human life, its possibilities and reality - all these questions receive a multifaceted figurative embodiment in the novel.

The novel organically combines socio-psychological problems and moral-philosophical, acute plot and merciless introspection of the hero, the essay of individual descriptions and the novelistic swiftness of turns in the development of events, philosophical reflections and unusual experiments of the hero; his love, secular and other adventures turn into a tragedy of the fate of an extraordinary person that has not fully taken place. Thus, the novel, with its extraordinary compactness, is distinguished by an exceptional richness of content, a variety of problems, an organic unity of the main artistic idea that develops in the main character - Pechorin. It is the hero who is the basis of the work. The disclosure of the hero is the goal of the entire system of stories, it also determines the construction of the plot.

“A Hero of Our Time” is the first novel in Russian literature, in the center of which is presented not the biography of a person, but precisely the person's personality - his mental and mental life as a process. It is no coincidence that the work is a cycle of stories centered around one hero. The chronology of the hero's life is broken, but the chronology of the narrative is clearly built: the reader gradually comprehends the world of the main character of the novel, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, from the initial characterization given by Maksim Maksimych, through the author’s characterization to the confession in the Pechorin Journal. Secondary heroes are also needed primarily in order to fully reveal the character of Pechorin. So, the main task of M. Yu. Lermontov in the novel "Hero of Our Time" is to tell the "history of the human soul", seeing in it the signs of the era. In the preface to the Pechorin Journal, the author emphasized that the character of the hero is not a portrait of one person, but an artistic type that has absorbed the features of a whole generation of young people at the beginning of the century.

Pechorin Grigory Alexandrovich- the main character of the novel. His character was formed in an environment of high society, which makes him akin to the hero of the novel "Eugene Onegin". But the bustle and immorality of society with the "decency of pulled off masks" bored the hero. Pechorin is an officer. He serves, but does not curry favor, does not study music, does not study philosophy or military science, that is, does not seek to impress with the means available to ordinary people. M. Yu. Lermontov hints at the political nature of Pechorin's link to the Caucasus, some remarks in the text allow us to speak of his closeness to the ideology of Decembrism. So in the novel the theme of personal heroism arises in the tragic interpretation that it receives in the 30s of the XIX century. The problem of morality is connected with the image of Pechorin in the novel. In all the short stories that Lermontov will unite in the novel, Pechorin appears before us as the destroyer of the lives and destinies of other people: because of him, Circassian Bela loses his home and dies, Maxim Maksimych is disappointed in friendship with him, Mary and Vera suffer, and perishes at his hand Grushnitsky, “honest smugglers” are forced to leave their home, a young officer Vulich dies. The hero of the novel himself realizes: “As an instrument of execution, I fell on the heads of doomed victims, often without malice, always without regret ...” His whole life is a constant experiment, a game with fate, and Pechorin allows himself to risk not only his life, but and the lives of those who happened to be around. He is characterized by unbelief and individualism. Pechorin, in fact, considers himself a superman who managed to rise above ordinary morality. However, he does not want either good or evil, but only wants to understand what it is. All this cannot but repel the reader. And Lermontov does not idealize his hero. However, in my opinion, the title of the novel contains “evil irony” not over the word “hero”, but over the words “our time”.

Female images the works clarify the contradictory spiritual world of the main character; reveal the hidden motives of Pechorin's actions and motives. With a relatively small volume, Lermontov's novel, like no other in Russian literature, is saturated with female images and is distinguished by an abundance of love conflicts with the participation of the same character. The diversity of female types allows you to reveal the various hypostases of Pechorin's nature. In Taman, an attempt to unravel the girl's secret almost led the hero to death. Pechorin's love for Bela allows the author to portray a soul driven by sincere motives and satiety. Relations with Princess Mary are built in accordance with the plot of love rivalry known from romantic literature, which develops in verbal duels, half-hints, reticence, and sophisticated psychological tactics. The insincerity of the feeling is emphasized by the background against which it develops. The scenery for emotional and rhetorical competitions is a "watery" society, false morality, hypocritical conversations and actions of others.

The chapter "Fatalist" differs from the previous ones at the level of involvement of habitual intrigues and acting conflicting couples. There are no female images in it; only the daughter of the owner of the house where Pechorin stayed is mentioned. However, it is in this part of the novel that the author creates a situation of symbolic culmination of the feminine principle, expressed in the fact that the hero is opposed not to a specific coincidence of circumstances, not to particular accidents, the initiator of which was in many ways himself. The antinomy “hero - destiny”, grandiose in its philosophical content, is being erected, which brings the conflict out of the sphere of everyday life and into the space of symbolic generalization. However, even here Pechorin turns out to be true to the paradox of his own thinking: "I always go forward more boldly when I don't know what awaits me." This recognition cannot be a code that explains the inner world of the character. The hero's confession is dramatized by the realization that he is an ax in the hands of fate, destroying the lives of everyone with whom chance brings him.

The scene of the night pursuit of elusive happiness is symbolic. The dramatic climax is accompanied by images of dark skies and lonely stars. This landscape is familiar to the reader from the poem "I go out on the road alone ...", but the tragic pathos of the novel's episode removes any possibility of pacification. The confession of Pechorin contains the opposition of ideal impulses and the world, which excludes any manifestations of purity of thoughts. The theme of internal fragmentation is also evident in the structure of the novel. Pechorin's diary opens with the chapter "Taman", embodying the idea of ​​a free personality, capable of fighting against forces that far exceed its own capabilities. The "fatalist" contains the idea of ​​a person's complete dependence on fate, the predetermination of his tragic ending. It is the struggle between two principles - freedom and lack of freedom - that is the source of the character's moral illness, his constant struggle with himself.

The death of Pechorin is not furnished by the author with the elegiac decorations familiar from romantic novels. The hero dies on the road, unknown and unnecessary to anyone. This, according to Lermontov, contains the tragic pathos of modernity, indifferent to a person born, perhaps, for great deeds. Pechorin became a kind of symbol of Russian culture, personifying one of the most contradictory moments in the movement of individual and social consciousness.

The genius of M. Yu. Lermontov was expressed primarily in the fact that he created an immortal image of a hero who embodied all the contradictions of his era. It is no coincidence that V.G.Belinsky saw in Pechorin's character "a transitional state of mind, in which for a person everything old has been destroyed, but there is still no new, and in which a person is only the possibility of something real in the future and a perfect ghost in the present."

All wives. images are representatives of different worlds. Bela. She breathes with spiritual purity, kindness. But she is proud, has a sense of her own. ex. He loves Pechorin so passionately and deeply that her love seems to him frivolous. Such pure love is not enough P. for a sincere reciprocal feeling! Mary- smart, well-read, morally pure, romantic by nature, naive. She is interested in what is mysterious, inaccessible. P. quickly realized this. He, not knowing why, fell in love with Mary. Lermontov showed with help. Measure P.'s passion to rule over people, excited. feelings, bringing suffering. faith- the only one wives image, cat. compare with P. He is an unclear image. But Faith is of unity. a person who has understood the essence of P., who loves him with merits and demerits. This loyalty and insight. P. himself could not help but appreciate. In the image of Faith: humility, sacrifice, not clearly expressed. feelings of sob. ex. Lermontov with pom. Vera showed P.'s selfishness, his fear of losing Ch. in his life - freedom.

M. Yu. Lermontov was not only a great poet, but also a prose writer, whose work reflected the darkness of reaction, changes in the psychology of people. The main goal of the young genius was the desire to deeply reveal the complex nature of his contemporary. The novel "A Hero of Our Time" became a mirror of the life of Russia in the 1930s, the first Russian socio-psychological novel.

The author's intention has led to a kind of construction of the novel. Lermontov deliberately violated the chronological sequence so that the reader's attention would shift from the events to the inner world of the heroes, to the world of feelings and experiences.

The main attention in the novel is paid to Pechorin. Lermontov first gives an opportunity to find out the opinion of other people about Pechorin, and then what this young nobleman himself thinks of himself. Belinsky said about the hero of the novel: "This is Onegin of our time, a hero of our time." Pechorin was a representative of his era, his fate is more tragic than the fate of Onegin. Pechorin lives in a different time. The young nobleman had to either lead the life of a secular slacker, or be bored and wait for death. The era of reaction has left its mark on human behavior. The tragic fate of the hero is the tragedy of an entire generation, a generation of unrealized opportunities.

The influence of light was reflected in the behavior of Pechorin. An outstanding personality, he soon became convinced that in this society a person could not achieve either happiness or glory. Life has depreciated in his eyes (he was possessed by longing and boredom - faithful companions of disappointment. The hero suffocates in the stuffy atmosphere of the Nikolaev regime. Pechorin himself says: “My soul is spoiled by light.” These are the words of a man of the 30s of the XX century, a hero of his time ...

Pechorin is a gifted person. He has a deep mind, able to analyze, steel will, strong character. The hero is endowed with self-esteem. Lermontov speaks of his "strong constitution, capable of enduring all the difficulties of nomadic life." However, the author notes the strangeness, contradictory character of the hero. His eyes, which “did not laugh when he laughed,” suggest how deeply the hero lost faith in all the seductions of the world, with what hopelessness he looks at his own life prospects.

This doom had developed in him during his life in the capital. The consequence of complete disappointment in everything was "nervous weakness." Fearless Pechorin was afraid of knocking shutters, although one was hunting a wild boar, was terrified of a cold. This inconsistency characterizes the "illness" of an entire generation. In Pechorin, two people seem to live, rationality and feeling, mind and heart are fighting. The hero asserts: "I have long been living not with my heart, but with my head." I weigh, analyze my own passions and actions with strict curiosity, but without participation. "

The attitude of the hero to Vera shows Pechorin as a person capable of strong feelings. But Vera, and Mary, and the Circassian woman Bela Pechorin brings misfortune. The tragedy of the hero is that he wants to do good, but brings people only evil. Pechorin dreams of the fate of a man capable of great deeds, and commits acts that are at odds with the idea of ​​high aspirations.

Pechorin yearns for the fullness of life, looking for an ideal that was unattainable at that time. And it is not the hero's fault, but his misfortune, that his life was fruitless, his strength wasted. “My colorless youth passed in the struggle with myself and the light; I buried my best feelings, fearing ridicule, in the depths of my heart: they died there, ”Pechorin says bitterly.

In the novel, the main character is opposed to all the other characters. Kind Maksim Maksimych is noble, honest and decent, but he cannot understand Pechorin's soul due to his ignorance. Against the background of the scoundrel Grushnitsky, the wealth of the Pechorin nature, the strength of the character of the protagonist, is even more pronounced. Only Dr. Werner is somewhat similar to Pechorin. But the doctor is not completely consistent, he does not have the courage that distinguishes Pechorin. Supporting the hero before the duel with Grushnitsky, Werner did not even shake hands with Pechorin after the duel, refused friendship with those who "had the courage to take on all the burden of responsibility."

Pechorin is a person who is distinguished by persistence of will. The psychological portrait of the hero is fully revealed in the novel, reflecting the socio-political conditions that form the "hero of the time." Lermontov has little interest in the everyday, external side of people's lives, but worries about their inner world, the psychology of the actions of the characters in the novel.

"A Hero of Our Time" was the forerunner of Dostoevsky's psychological novels, and Pechorin became a natural link among "superfluous people", "Onegin's younger brother." You can treat the hero of the novel in different ways, condemn him or pity the human soul tortured by society, but one cannot but admire the skill of the great Russian writer who gave us this image, a psychological portrait of the hero of his time.

The novel by M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time" is considered the first Russian socio-psychological and philosophical novel. In connection with the desire of the author to reveal the "history of the human soul" Lermontov's novel turned out to be rich in deep psychological analysis.

The author examines the “soul” of not only the protagonist, but all the other characters as well. Lermontov's psychologism is specific in that he acts not as a form of self-expression of the writer, but as an object of artistic depiction. The external appearance of the hero, and his customs, and his actions, and his feelings are subjected to analysis. Lermontov is attentive to the shades of feelings, the state of a person, his gestures and postures. The author's style can be called psychological and analytical.
Self-analysis of Pechorin is very deep, every state of mind is written out in detail and in detail, his own behavior and psychological reasons, motives and intentions of actions are analyzed. Doctor Werner Pechorin confesses: “There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges him ...” Behind the visible in the work the essential is revealed, behind the external - the internal. Psychologism serves here as a way of discovering and knowing what at first perception seems mysterious, mysterious and strange. An important place in the novel, where the action takes place in different geographical points (by the sea, in the mountains, in the steppe, in the Cossack village), is occupied by the landscape. The perception of nature in the work helps to reveal the inner world of the hero, his condition, his susceptibility to beauty. “I remember,” Pechorin writes in his journal, “this time more than ever before, I loved nature.” The hero of the novel is close to nature with all its diversity, and it acts on his inner world. Pechorin is convinced that the soul depends on nature and its forces. The landscape of each part of the novel is subordinated to the idea that is realized in it. So, in “Bela” the Caucasian nature is sketched (rocks, cliffs, Aragva, snowy peaks of the mountains), which is opposed to the northern nature and disharmoniously arranged society.
The beautiful and majestic nature contrasts with the petty, unchanging interests of people and their suffering. The restless, capricious element of the sea contributes to the romance in which the smugglers from the Taman chapter appear before us. The morning landscape, full of freshness, including golden clouds, makes up the exposition of the chapter “Maksim Maksimych”. Nature in "Princess Mary" becomes a psychological means of revealing the character of Pechorin. Before the duel - by contrast - the radiance of sunlight is introduced, and after the duel the sun will seem dim to the hero, and its rays no longer warm it. In Fatalist, the cold light of shining stars on a dark blue vault leads Pechorin to philosophical reflections on predestination and fate.
In general, this work is a socio-psychological and philosophical novel, akin to a travel novel, close to travel notes. The genre of the psychological novel demanded the creation of a new novel structure and a special psychological plot, where Lermontov separated the author from the hero and arranged the stories in a special sequence.
“Bela” is a work that combines a travel sketch and a novella about the love of a European for a savage.
“Maksim Maksimych” is a story with a central episode given in close-up.
“Taman” is a synthesis of a short story and a travel sketch with an unexpected ending.
“Princess Mary” is a “secular story” of a psychological nature with a hero's diary and a satirical sketch of the mores of a “water society”.
“Fatalist” is a philosophical tale combined with a “mystical tale” about a fatal shot and a “mysterious incident”.
But all these genre forms, individual narratives became, for Lermontov, parts of a single whole - the study of the spiritual world of the modern hero, whose personality and fate unite the entire narrative. The prehistory of Pechorin is deliberately excluded, which gives his biography a trait of mystery.
It is interesting to know what is the second person in Pechorin who thinks and condemns himself first of all. In "Pechorin's Journal" the character of the hero is revealed, as it were "from the inside," it reveals the motives of his strange actions, his attitude towards himself, self-esteem.
For Lermontov, not only the actions of a person were always important, but their motivation, which, for one reason or another, could not be realized.
Pechorin compares favorably with the rest of the characters in that he is disturbed by questions of conscious human existence - about the purpose and meaning of human life, about its purpose. He is worried that his only purpose is to destroy other people's hopes. He is indifferent even to his life. Only curiosity, the expectation of something new excites him.
However, asserting his human dignity, Pechorin actively acts, resists circumstances throughout the entire novel. Pechorin judges and executes himself, and this is his right is emphasized by the composition, in which the last narrator is Pechorin. Everything important that was hidden from the people around him, who lived next to him, who loved him, was conveyed by Pechorin himself.

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Psychologism of Russian classical literature Esin Andrey Borisovich

M.Yu. Lermontov "HERO OF OUR TIME"

M.Yu. Lermontov

"HERO OF OUR TIME"

Lermontov's world outlook took shape in the late 20s - early 30s of the XIX century, in the era of the ideological crisis of the progressive noble intelligentsia, associated with the defeat of the December uprising and the Nikolaev reaction in all spheres of public life, including spiritual and ideological. The need to master the "mistakes of the fathers", to rethink what seemed immutable to the previous generation, to develop their own moral and philosophical position is a characteristic feature of the era of the late 1920s and 1930s. Practical action turned out to be impossible due to both objective (tough policy of autocracy) and subjective reasons: before acting, it was necessary to overcome the ideological crisis, the era of doubt and skepticism; clearly define for what and how to act. That is why, in the 30s, the philosophical searches of its best representatives, their attempts to determine, solve the most general ideological and moral problems, acquire such exceptional importance for culture, for the present and future development of society:

The idea of ​​personality, its highest value for culture, acquires exceptional significance in the 30s and becomes the starting point in the quest for the progressive noble intelligentsia. If the generation of the late 10s - early 30s still thought of the individual in harmony with society and, relying on the idea of ​​civic consciousness, limited the freedom of the individual to the interests of the state and the nation, then after the December uprising and the subsequent changes in politics, illusory, utopianism was clearly revealed this approach. Relations of antagonism were inevitably established between the autocratic Nicholas regime and a free, thinking, progressive personality. At the same time, the autocracy is actively trying to neutralize the advanced intelligentsia, flirting with it, offering a kind of cooperation, and in essence trying to put its talent in its service - this is how Nicholas I tried to make Pushkin a court poet. Under these conditions, personal freedom was increasingly perceived as the only real value, the only refuge of a person. It is no coincidence that Lermontov's Pechorin values ​​freedom so much: "A hundred times my life, I will even put my honor on the line, but I will not give up my freedom." This confession sounds unexpectedly in the mouths of a nobleman and an officer, for whom honor was traditionally the highest value - let us remember how Pushkin’s Grinev risked in the name of honor, remember the epigraph, which largely expresses the main idea of ​​the story: “Take care of honor from a young age”. Pechorin is a man of a different generation, and the fact that he is ready to put freedom above everything is very significant.

But freedom alone is not enough for the advanced consciousness of the era, because it is a subjective value that dooms a person to loneliness. Already Onegin in the last chapter of the novel (written about 1830) calls his freedom "hateful", and this is not accidental. In the advanced consciousness of the era, the need to find higher, transpersonal ideals and values, to justify one's individual existence with a lofty goal, imperiously declares itself. So far, there is no such goal - there is no moral basis for action, and freedom turns into a “burden” that condemns a person to inaction, blues, or to actions that are useless, accidental, meaningless. A person who has fully realized his inner freedom is persistently looking for what to apply this freedom to, how to apply rich inner possibilities. In other words, the 1930s were extremely characterized by an intense search for the meaning of life, reaching the deepest layers, raising the most fundamental philosophical problems.

The objective historical impossibility of finding lofty, transpersonal ideals that would satisfy the strict requirements of the individual, would agree with the principle of inner freedom and would withstand the test of doubt, led the person to realize the tragedy of his existence, gave rise to constant doubts, a complex internal struggle with himself.

The desire to independently comprehend reality, to reach the very roots in this understanding, strictly and meticulously understand the complex dialectic of life, not being satisfied with approximate solutions and questioning everything - this feature of the spiritual atmosphere brought to life a special principle of a person's approach to reality - analyticity, i.e. e. the need and ability to dismember any phenomenon, to consider the mechanisms hidden in it, to understand its deep essence, to reach the logical end in cognition. Analysis becomes the most important feature of thinking, including artistic thinking.

Lermontov was a true spokesman for the spiritual life of Russia in the 1930s, and his outlook on the world reflected with exceptional completeness those characteristic properties of the social consciousness of the era, which were discussed.

The properties of Lermontov's worldview determine the problematic and thematic content of his novel "A Hero of Our Time". The object of artistic interpretation in the novel is a character, to a certain extent close to Lermontov himself. This does not mean, of course, that Pechorin is a self-portrait, - Lermontov himself reasonably sarcastically over such an assumption in the Preface. But in Pechorin the same type of social consciousness is artistically reproduced - its main content is the process of philosophical self-determination in reality.

Moreover, the principle of typification in the novel is such that Pechorin appears as a person, to the maximum embodying all the characteristic features of public consciousness of the 30s. By the will of the author, he is endowed with such features as the extraordinary intensity of moral and philosophical searches (for Pechorin, the resolution of a moral and philosophical problem is much more important than how his personal life will turn out), exceptional willpower, an extremely similar mind, capable of penetrating to the very depths of philosophical questions ; finally, Pechorin is endowed with simply outstanding human abilities. In other words, we have an exceptional personality. Lermontov needed such a typification principle so that the questions that worried him could be posed by Pechorin at the most serious and authoritative level. Pechorin is a person who is ready to shrewdly and fearlessly reflect on the deep moral and philosophical foundations of both the world as a whole and the individual in the world. This is precisely what Lermontov needed in the light of the novel's entire problematic, which has a distinctly philosophical character. The questions that Pechorin is struggling to resolve are questions that extremely occupied the artistic consciousness of Lermontov himself. These are the problems of man and the world, the meaning of individual existence, will and fate, extraordinary talent and ordinary fate, the purpose of activity, reasons for inaction, etc. The hero's ideological and moral searches appear as the main problematic content of the entire novel.

This kind of problematic, as we remember, directly demanded a sufficiently developed and deep psychologism.

The substantial features of Lermontov's novel led to the emergence of an original psychological style in it. It could be called analytical psychology - according to the leading principle of depicting mental life. This means that Lermontov is able to decompose any internal state into its components, to make out in detail, to bring any thought to its logical conclusion. The psychological world in the novel (this concerns, of course, primarily the main character - Pechorin) appears as complex, filled with contradictions that need to be artistically identified, explained and unraveled. “I have an innate passion to contradict,” Pechorin says about himself, and further describes his inner world as follows: “My whole life was only a chain of sad unsuccessful contradictions to my heart or reason. The presence of an enthusiast casts a baptismal chill on me, and, I think, frequent intercourse with a sluggish phlegmatic would make me a passionate dreamer. "

It is not easy to understand such a psychological picture, therefore Lermontov's psychological analysis is often constructed as the discovery of hidden layers of the inner world, those motives and mental movements that do not lie on the surface are unclear at first glance even to the hero himself. Often this is an analysis of what is hidden behind this or that action or deed. For example, Grushnitsky asks Pechorin if he was moved by looking at Princess Mary; he answers in the negative. It is extremely important for Lermontov to reveal what psychological reasons are behind this answer, and Pechorin immediately names them: first, he wanted to infuriate Grushnitsky; secondly - "an innate passion to contradict"; thirdly: “... I must confess that an unpleasant, but familiar feeling ran through my heart slightly at that moment; this feeling was envy; I say boldly "envy" because I am used to admitting everything to myself. "

Self-analysis of Pechorin was always very daring, and therefore every state of mind is written out in the novel clearly and in detail. For example, as Pechorin explains his relative calmness after an unexpected meeting with Vera: “Yes, I have already passed that period of my spiritual life when they are looking for only happiness, when my heart feels the need to love someone strongly and passionately, - now I just want to be loved, and then very few; even it seems to me that one constant attachment would be enough for me: a pitiful habit of the heart! "

Explaining various psychological situations and positions, Pechorin reveals to the reader both the stable properties of his personality, and the peculiarities of his mental make-up: the logic of thinking, the ability to see cause-and-effect relationships, the ability to doubt everything, the subordination of thoughts and emotional impulses to a strong will and clear reason. “One thing has always been strange to me: I have never become the slave of my beloved woman; on the contrary, I have always acquired an invincible power over their will and heart, without trying at all about it. " Here Pechorin not so much reveals the psychological state that he is experiencing at the moment, as generalizes a number of similar psychological states: such is his mental life in general, and not at the moment. But the analysis, of course, does not end with this - Pechorin asks himself an obligatory, fundamental question for himself: “Why is this? - Is it because I never really value anything and because they were every minute afraid to let me out of their hands? or is it the magnetic influence of a strong organism? or did I just fail to meet a woman with a stubborn character? "

No matter how the hero answers this specific question, the important thing is that he ponders, doubts, and goes through options - in every somewhat difficult case he looks for an answer, learns the world with the help of reason and logic. This is the peculiarity and specificity of the psychological makeup of his personality.

The most important question for the analyst is the question of the causes and motives of human actions, deeds, states of mind, their hidden meaning. The merit of Lermontov as a psychologist is that he - almost for the first time in Russian literature - focused artistic attention not on external, plot, but on internal, psychological motivations of human behavior. The protagonist of the novel, himself highly inclined to analysis, able to penetrate into the latent motives of his own and others' actions, in the last three parts bears the main narrative load in the system of psychological style: it is he who reveals psychological motives, explains mental states - and his own, and strangers. For example, Pechorin's general considerations about the connection between a person's state of mind and purely physical reasons: “I love to ride a hot horse on tall grass ... Whatever sorrow lies in my heart, whatever anxiety a thought torments, everything will dissipate in a minute; it will become easy on the soul, the fatigue of the body will defeat the anxiety of the mind ”; “I came out of the bath fresh and cheerful, as if I were about to go to a ball. Then say that the soul does not depend on the body! "

Here is a purely psychological explanation of antipathy towards Grushnitsky: "I don't like him either: I feel that we will someday run into him on a narrow road, and one of us will be uncomfortable." Here is an explanation of the impression made on the face of a blind boy: “I confess that I have a strong prejudice against all blind, crooked, deaf, dumb, legless, armless, hunchbacked, etc. I noticed that there is always some strange relationship between a person's appearance and his soul: as if with the loss of a member, the soul loses some feeling. " But this general consideration does not cut off the psychological image: then a more concrete internal state is recorded and at the same time it is analyzed: “I was looking at him for a long time with involuntary regret, when suddenly a barely perceptible smile ran over his thin lips and, I don’t know why, it produced I have the most unpleasant impression. " The analysis does not end here either - Pechorin cannot say “I don’t know why” and not try to explain the vague mental movement: “A suspicion arose in my head that this blind man is not as blind as it seems; in vain did I try to convince myself that it was impossible to forge the thorns, and for what purpose? But what to do? I am often inclined to prejudice ... ”In the last part of the passage - the most characteristic doubt for Pechorin; at the same time, the depiction of the psychological state is finally brought to the end: the last link is the hero's suspicion, about which he will say in another place: "I like to doubt everything."

And here, finally, a masterpiece of analytical analysis of one's own behavior and psychological state, a merciless disclosure of psychological reasons, motives for actions and intentions:

“I often ask myself, why am I so persistently seeking the love of a young girl whom I don’t want to seduce and whom I will never marry? Why is this female coquetry? Vera loves me more than Princess Mary will ever love; if she seemed to me an invincible beauty, then perhaps I would have been enticed by the difficulty of the enterprise ...

But it never happened! Therefore, this is not the restless need for love that torments us in the first years of youth ...

What am I bothering with? Out of envy of Grushnitsky? Poor thing! he doesn't deserve it at all. Or is it a consequence of that nasty but invincible feeling that makes us destroy the sweet delusions of our neighbor ...

But there is an immense pleasure in the possession of a young, barely blossoming soul! .. I feel this insatiable greed in myself, consuming everything that comes my way; I look at the sufferings and joys of others only in relation to myself, as food that supports my spiritual strength. I myself am no longer able to go mad under the influence of passion; my ambition is suppressed by circumstances, but it manifested itself in a different form, for ambition is nothing but a thirst for power, and my first pleasure is to subordinate everything that surrounds me to my will. "

Here, the psychological analysis reaches the very depths of the ideological and moral content of the character, to the core of the hero's personality - his will. And let's pay attention to how analytical the above passage is: this is already an almost scientific examination of a psychological problem, both in terms of the methods of solving it and in terms of results. First, the question is posed - posed with all possible clarity and logical clarity. Then the deliberately untenable explanations are discarded (“I don’t want to seduce and will never marry”). Further, a discussion of more complex and deeper reasons begins: the need for love (“Faith loves me more ...”) and “sports interest” (“if she seemed to me an invincible beauty ...”) are rejected as possible reasons. From this, a conclusion is drawn, already directly logical: "Hence..." Possible explanations are again considered (I would like to call them hypotheses), which still do not satisfy Pechorin, and finally analytical thought goes on the right path, turning to those positive emotions that Pechorin gives to his plan and the premonition of its implementation: "But there is immense pleasure." ... The analysis proceeds in a new circle: where does this pleasure come from, what is its nature? And here is the result - the cause of the reasons, something indisputable and obvious: "my first pleasure ...". By means of a series of sequential operations and constructions, the problem has been reduced to an axiom, to something that has long been solved and indisputable.

A psychological analysis focused on only one, albeit the most gifted and complex personality, risks becoming monotonous in a large narrative, but psychologism as a depiction principle in Lermontov's novel extends to other characters as well. True, this is done with the help of all the same Pechorin: confidently and mercilessly penetrating the recesses of his own soul, he freely reads in the souls of other people, constantly explaining the motives of their actions, guessing about the reasons for this or that act, state of mind, giving an interpretation to external signs feelings: “At that moment I met her eyes: tears ran in them; her hand, resting on mine, trembled; the cheeks were flushed; she felt sorry for me! Compassion - a feeling that all women submit so easily, let its claws into her inexperienced heart. During the entire walk she was absent-minded, did not flirt with anyone - and this is a great sign! "; “All the way home, she talked and laughed every minute. There was something feverish in her movements; she never looked at me ... And the princess rejoiced inwardly, looking at her daughter; and my daughter is just having a nervous fit: she will spend the night awake and cry. "

The psychological state of Bela, Maksim Maksimych, the characters of the story "Taman" is not given to us in such detail, but, firstly, these characters themselves are psychologically quite simple, and, secondly, we mainly see only the external manifestations of their feelings because Pechorin , this narrator-psychologist, has not yet cast his analytical glance at them. But in "Princess Mary" and in "Fatalist" a kind of psychological atmosphere is created, psychologism becomes the principle of portraying a number of heroes, in many ways subordinating to itself the plot and details of the external world, and this is very important for the formation of the psychological style, psychological storytelling.

The fact is that the character of the protagonist as a whole, and of the other characters, is partly constructed by Lermontov as a kind of riddle that requires revealing the essential behind the visible, and the internal behind the external. This kind of analytical attitude - to make the mysterious clear, to reveal the hidden motives of behavior, the causes of mental states - is a specific, characteristic feature of the psychology of the "Hero of Our Time". Here psychologism serves as a tool for realistic cognition of what, at first approximation, seems mysterious. This dictates a special structure of the narrative: the change of storytellers, the organization of artistic time, the ratio of external and internal.

So, the connections between the internal, psychological state and the forms of its external expression turn out to be extremely interesting. Throughout all five stories, we can see that the heroes try not to "give themselves away" outwardly, not to show their thoughts and feelings, to hide emotional movements: Bela does not want to show her love for Pechorin and longing for him; Maxim Maksimych, hurt by Pechorin's attitude towards him, nevertheless "tries to assume an indifferent air": "He was sad and angry, although he tried to hide it"; the heroes of "Princess Mary" are constantly trying to hide their spiritual movements. This kind of behavior requires psychological decoding, and the innovation of Lermontov the psychologist consisted in the fact that he began to artistically reproduce precisely inconsistency external behavior to the internal state of the heroes, which was a great rarity or was completely absent in previous literature (excluding, perhaps, Pushkin). It is much easier to depict in literature a complete correspondence between the external and the internal - then, in fact, there is no need for psychologism as a direct penetration into the mental, invisible life of a person: joy can be designated by laughter, grief - by tears, emotional excitement - by trembling hands, etc. Lermontov follows a more complex path: he reveals ambiguous, indirect correspondences between internal and external movements, which already requires a direct psychological commentary on the depiction of the portrait and behavior, their psychological interpretation. Another thing is that the emotional movements of most of the characters are readily readable from their faces and actions, especially since the commentator and interpreter in the novel is basically such a deep psychologist, observer and analyst like Pechorin. Pechorin understands when the facial expressions and behavior of people are sincere, and when they "pretend", it is clear, and what is behind this: “She could hardly force herself not to smile and hide her triumph; she managed, however, pretty soon to assume a completely indifferent and even stern look ”; "He was embarrassed, blushed, then forcedly burst out laughing"; “Grushnitsky assumed a mysterious appearance; walks with his hands behind his back and does not recognize anyone. "

The external manifestations of the internal state, although they do not contain a big riddle here, still no longer directly express emotions and experiences, but require psychological interpretation. The really mysterious relationship between the external and the internal in the image of Pechorin himself.

The point here, firstly, is that by nature he knows how to better control himself, control himself and even pretend, and those around him are not insightful and psychologically sophisticated enough to understand the reasons and motives of his behavior, what is worth behind this or that mimic movement. Princess Mary does not notice that before the famous monologue "Yes, this has been my fate since childhood ..." This is natural, because the princess is still a completely inexperienced girl, who does not distinguish between sincerity and acting. But such an attentive person as Werner is also deceived: “I am surprised at you,” said the doctor, shaking my hand firmly. - Let me feel the pulse! .. Whoa! feverish! .. but nothing is noticeable on the face. "

Secondly, Pechorin is generally restrained: he lives primarily an inner life, preferring not to detect emotional movements - no longer for the game, but for himself. For example, Maksim Maksimych describes Pechorin's appearance and behavior after Bela's death: “His face did not express anything special, and I felt annoyed; I would die of grief in his place. Finally, he sat down on the ground, in the shade, and began to draw something with a stick in the sand. I, you know, more for decency, wanted to console him, began to speak; he raised his head and laughed ... I got a cold frost on my skin from this laughter ... "There is already a difficulty that does not lend itself to an immediate and unambiguous psychological interpretation: the hero's behavior may indicate indifference, but it may also indicate that his feelings are in this moment too much deep in order to find expression in the traditional forms of lamentations, sobs, etc.

Here, the third reason also becomes visible, due to which Pechorin's internal state and its external manifestation almost always do not correspond to each other: his internal life is too complex and contradictory to find a complete and accurate external expression for himself; in addition, it proceeds mainly in the forms of thought, which in general cannot be fully reflected in facial expressions, in actions, etc.

All this creates such a mysteriousness of the external behavior and appearance of the hero, which requires an indispensable penetration into the psychological processes associated with the ideological and moral foundations of the character. “He was a fine fellow, I dare to assure you; only a little strange, - says Maxim Maksimych about Pechorin, based on observations of external behavior. - After all, for example, in the rain, in the cold, hunting all day; everyone will be chilled, tired, but he has nothing. And another time he sits in his room, smells of the wind, assures that he has a cold; he knocks with the shutter, he shudders and turns pale, and in my presence he went to the wild boar one on one; it used to be that for hours on end you won’t get a word, but sometimes, as you begin to tell, you’ll break your bellies with laughter ... Yes, sir, I was very weird. ”

For Maksim Maksimych, in fact, there is not even a mystery here: just a strange character, you never know what people are in the world. But for the thoughtful reader Pechorin, as he appears in the story "Bela", is not just strange, but rather mysterious. We are already beginning to speculate: what is behind such contradictory behavior, what are the reasons for it. The psychological mystery of the hero is enhanced by his portrayal through the eyes of another narrator - the "publisher" of the diary, "fellow traveler" Maxim Maksimych. At this stage, the external correlates with the internal in a different way: there is still a contradiction and discrepancy, but the narrator is already trying to interpret the external behavior, to build some, at least hypothetical, conclusions about the character and the psychological world: “... I noticed that he did not wave his hands - a sure sign of some secrecy of character ”; his eyes did not laugh when he laughed: “this is a sign - either of an evil disposition, or of deep constant sadness,” and so on. Here the complexity of the relationship between the external and the psychological has already been realized; it becomes clear that there is something to look for in the hero's inner world, and thus it becomes necessary that subsequent psychological analysis on behalf of Pechorin himself, which will unfold in "Taman", "Princess Mary" and "Fatalist".

Thus, the compositional and narrative structure of The Hero of Our Time is largely subordinated to psychologism as a stylistic dominant. The change of storytellers is aimed at ensuring that psychologism is constantly strengthened, the analysis of the inner world is made deeper and more comprehensive. Maxim Maksimych's narration creates the preconditions for further psychological analysis based on the mysteriousness, the discrepancy between the external and the internal. The second story partly begins such an analysis, but, of course, in no way satisfies the reader's curiosity, but only kindles it. In Pechorin's diary, psychological analysis becomes the main element of the narrative. However, this does not happen immediately. The psychological narrative in the first story - "Taman" - is still abrupt, busy with external dynamics, as a result of which the analysis does not reach the deep reasons, to the ideological and moral essence of the character. Even at the beginning of Princess Mary, the psychological mystery is still growing. “It's fun to live in such a land! Some kind of gratifying feeling is spread in all my veins. The air is clean and fresh, like the kiss of a child; the sun is bright, the sky is blue - what would seem to be more? Why are there passions, desires, regrets? .. "And in fact: why did Pechorin suddenly remember this in the midst of this joyful nature, experiencing" some kind of gratifying feeling ", about" passions, desires, regrets "? A train of thought that is completely unmotivated outwardly is alarming, makes one assume greater psychological depth than that expressed in the diary entry. I remember the mysterious Sail:

Under it a stream is brighter than azure,

Above him a ray of golden sun ...

And he, rebellious, asks for the storm,

As if there is peace in the storms!

The riddle begins to be analytically resolved only in the course of the further narration. And the analysis ends with "Fatalist", where psychologism touches upon the deepest - philosophical - character problems.

The structure of the novel's artistic time, especially its last three parts, is also subordinated to the tasks of analytical psychologism. The narration is in a diary form, which means that the events and the experiences caused by them are recorded on paper, even if in hot pursuit, but still with some time gap, some time after they occurred. The narrative always tells not about what is happening at the moment, but about what has already happened. This also applies to the psychological states experienced by Pechorin, which is fundamentally important. The temporary distance between the experience and the story about it allows one to rationally comprehend and analyze the psychological state, understand it, look at it from the outside, look for reasons and explanations. In other words, the picture of the inner world appears before us already "processed", mediated by Pechorin's subsequent reflections on it.

This is especially true of the emotional sphere, the area of ​​feelings: they are always under subsequent rational control, and we see not so much a direct experience as a recollection of this experience, accompanied by an unchanging analysis, analysis of the reasons and the “psychological chains” caused by it: “My heart sank painfully like after the first breakup. Oh, how I rejoiced at this feeling! Is it not youth, with its beneficial storms, wants to return to me again, or is it just her farewell glance, the last gift - as a keepsake? .. "Here the distance between the time of experience and the time of telling about it is simply necessary: ​​after all, Pechorin needs some time to realize that he was delighted, and try to understand the reasons for his feelings.

Or here's another example, similar, but perhaps even more expressive:

“... I fell on the wet grass and cried like a child.

And for a long time I lay motionless and wept bitterly, not trying to hold back tears and sobs; I thought my chest would burst; all my firmness, all my composure vanished like smoke; the soul was exhausted, the reason fell silent, and if at that moment someone saw me, he would have turned away with contempt.

When the night dew and mountain breeze refreshed my burning head and my thoughts returned to their usual order, I realized that chasing lost happiness is useless and reckless ...

However, I am pleased that I can cry! However, maybe this is due to upset nerves, a night spent without sleep, two minutes against the barrel of a gun and an empty stomach. "

There are not even one, but two time gaps: Pechorin analyzes his emotional state after a while, "when the night dew and the mountain wind refreshed ... the burning head and thoughts returned to their usual order", and the entry in the diary is made a month and a half after the described events. The memory filter did its job, imparting analytical clarity to the drawing of the inner world, but at the same time depriving it of immediacy even more.

As you can see, the narrative, turned from the present into the past, aimed at what has already been experienced, has great artistic advantages from the point of view of the tasks of analytical psychologism. In such a structure of artistic time, the real flow of mental life can be stopped, replayed in memory again and again, as in slow motion repetition in modern television - the psychological state is then seen more clearly, it reveals previously imperceptible nuances, details, connections. Such a structure of artistic time is the best suited for the reproduction of complex experiences.

However, such an organization of artistic time has its drawbacks. Lermontov's psychological image has certain limits, which are set for him by the principle of narration "from the present to the past." In such a depiction, feelings, experiences, and partly thoughts, lose their immediacy, "purify", rationalize. The liveliness in the transmission of experiences is lost, the emotional intensity is weakened, the reader does not have the illusion of an experience unfolding directly before his eyes. Meanwhile, the diary form itself makes it possible to create such an illusion - for this it is only necessary to rebuild the structure of artistic time so that the entry in the diary reflects the psychological processes taking place at the very moment of writing. This technique was subsequently successfully used by L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and even in Lermontov himself we once find such a form of representation - this is a record before a duel:

“Two o'clock in the morning ... I can't sleep ... But I ought to fall asleep so that tomorrow my hand does not tremble. However, it is difficult to miss at six paces. A! Mr. Grushnitsky! your hoax you will not succeed ... You think that I will substitute my forehead for you without a dispute ... but we will cast lots! ... and then ... then ... what if his happiness outweighs? if my star finally cheats on me? ..

And maybe I will die tomorrow!., And not a single creature will remain on earth who would understand me completely. "

Here, as it were, the process of experiencing itself is directly recorded, this is no longer a look from the present into the past, but a "direct transmission" of what is being experienced at the moment. Therefore, the psychological pattern also becomes different: it appears disordered, thoughts replace each other fragmentarily, pauses appear, indicated by dots. Liveliness, immediacy in the transmission of the internal state increases, it becomes more natural, psychologically more reliable.

However, such reproduction experiences in its natural form, not passed through an analytical filter, is a unique case in Lermontov's novel. Much more often we see direct commit. thinking process. Here, analytical psychologism with the diary form of narration has much more possibilities, because if it is difficult to enter emotions on the pages of a diary directly at the moment of experience, then recording a stream of thoughts is a much more natural situation.

There is one more limitation imposed on the psychological drawing by the principle of analysis and the associated structure of artistic time. Lermontov's psychologism is focused mainly on the image of a person who is stable, static in the mental world and is much less suited to reproducing internal dynamics, the gradual transition of some feelings and thoughts to others. It was Chernyshevsky who drew attention to this feature of Lermontov's psychologism, contrasting the psychological manner of writing of Lermontov and Tolstoy. This property naturally followed from the general principles of Lermontov's depiction of the inner world: in order to comprehensively analyze this or that psychological state, it must be stopped, fixed - only then it lends itself to detailed analysis into its components. The retrospectiveness of psychological analysis also contributes to the static image: in memories, any state of mind usually appears not as a process, but as something stable, settled.

Attention mainly to the static aspects of the inner world can hardly be considered a lack of Lermontov's psychologism. In any case, the small dynamics of psychological processes is more than compensated for by the fact that such an approach to the inner world allows Lermontov to exhaustively analyze very complex psychological states. The artistic development of the contradictory nature of a person's mental life at any given moment, which became possible largely due to the depiction of psychological statics, is undoubted merit of Lermontov the psychologist, a step forward in the development of psychologism.

And it cannot be said that in "A Hero of Our Time" we do not see the mobility of the inner world at all. The above refers primarily to the reproduction of feelings and emotional states, but in the field of thought, Lermontov more than once shows us exactly the process, the movement - from one concept to another, from premises to conclusions. For example, in the following passage:

“The stars quietly shone on the dark blue vault, and it made me laugh when I remembered that there were once wise people who thought that the heavenly bodies were taking part in our insignificant disputes over a piece of land or for some fictitious rights. So what then? these lamps, lit, in their opinion, only in order to illuminate their battles and celebrations, burn with the same brilliance, and their passions and hopes have long faded with them ... But what willpower was given them the confidence that the whole sky with its countless inhabitants looks at them with sympathy, albeit dumb, but unchanging! .. And we, their pitiful descendants, wandering the earth without convictions and pride ... our own happiness, because we know its impossibility and indifferently pass from doubt to doubt. "

Here external impression gives rise to recollection, recollection gives impetus to reflection, and reflection goes through a number of stages already according to the laws of logic. The dynamics of the thought process with all its regularities has been recreated quite accurately and completely.

Sometimes we also see the image of individual emotional states in their movement: “I returned home, agitated by two different feelings. The first was sadness. “Why do they all hate me?” I thought. “Why? Have I offended anyone? And I felt that a poisonous anger was filling my soul little by little. Let in a short segment of mental life and not in such detail as later in L. Tolstoy, but here the process of the transition from one feeling to another is traced and artistically recorded; the movement of emotions is accompanied and mediated by the movement of thought.

The general principles of Lermontov's psychologism determined the corresponding system of specific forms and methods of depicting the inner world. The number of these forms is limited, and undoubtedly the leading role in their system is occupied by psychological introspection- one of the methods of depicting the inner world, when the bearer of the experience speaks about his experience. It is necessary to distinguish between two of its main forms: introspection and self-disclosure of the hero. In the second method, the hero directly expresses his thoughts and feelings, conveys the flow of mental life, often in the form of confession; the time of the experience coincides with the time of his image: the hero talks about what he is experiencing now, at the moment. In the first method, we observe not a direct expression of the experience, but a story about the experience - about our own inner world, but, as it were, from the outside. In terms of artistic time, the narrative is organized as a recollection-analysis.

It was this second form that became the leading one in Lermontov's system of psychological depiction. It is important to note that in "A Hero of Our Time" there is no neutral narrator who could add something to Pechorin's introspection, comment on his "autopsychologism", add new touches to the picture of the inner world. There is no need for such a narrator: Pechorin is a rather subtle observer and analyst, he is not afraid to tell himself the truth about his thoughts and feelings, therefore introspection gives us a fairly complete picture of the inner world, to which, in essence, there is nothing to add. “I weigh, analyze my own passions and actions with strict curiosity, but without participation,” says Pechorin to Werner. “There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges him.”

In addition, the problematic and thematic side of Lermontov's novel, which was mentioned at the beginning, required focusing on a detailed reproduction of one character that maximally embodied the moral searches of the social consciousness of the era and its inherent ideological and philosophical tendencies. In this case, the form of psychological storytelling in the first person was just more suitable: it allowed revealing the inner world of only one hero, but on the other hand, to do it with maximum depth and detail.

It is curious, however, that in the novel, besides Pechorin, there is another psychologically rich and interesting character - the character of Vera. Pechorin's analysis, aimed at her inner world, does not reveal all the mysteries of her soul, and since there is no neutral omniscient narrator from whom we could learn about the spiritual life of this heroine, Lermontov again resorts to the same technique: psychological introspection. For this, Vera's letter was introduced into the novel, in which she analyzes her feelings for Pechorin, tries to explain its reasons, traces its development. Thus, psychological introspection in A Hero of Our Time is an all-embracing and universal form of depicting any kind of complex mental movements. To reproduce simpler and more obvious experiences inherent in other characters, as already mentioned, the psychological interpretation that the protagonist gives to the actions, behavior, words, facial expressions of others is used.

Another important form of psychological depiction in the novel is internal monologue, those. such a reproduction of thoughts, which directly fixes the work of consciousness at the moment. Due to the above-mentioned features of the temporal structure, the possibilities of using this form turned out to be very limited: usually we are faced not with a direct fixation of the mental process taking place in the hero's mind at a given moment, but with the recording of these thoughts "retroactively", already analytically processed. In the same cases when we have before us a relatively direct fixation of what the hero thinks at the very moment of recording, i.e. really an internal monologue, it has some specific features. The main one is that the internal speech in the novel is built according to the laws of external speech: it is logically ordered, consistent, free from unexpected associations and side courses of thought, does not allow "abbreviated speech" (omission of words, logical constructions), internal speech, syntactic constructions, etc. If we analyze, for example, such internal monologues of Pechorin as "I often ask myself ...", "There is nothing more paradoxical than a woman's mind ...", "I run through all my past in my memory ...", then we will easily see that a person cannot always think in such rationally verified, harmonious phrases; human thinking is usually much more inconsistent and chaotic. (It is interesting to compare, in particular, the internal monologue "I run through all my past in my memory ..." and similar "external" monologues on the subject: "I have an unhappy character ..." in "Bela", "Yes, that was my fate ... "in" Princess Mary. "The speech manner and style are the same in all cases.)

A similar feature of internal monologues in the novel is connected, firstly, with the diary form of narration: the form of expression of thoughts here is not just "external speech", but written speech, which, of course, has its own rules of construction. Secondly (and more importantly), the rationalism of internal monologues is explained by the general principle of psychologism - its analyticity: Lermontov set his task not so much to recreate the flow of internal life in its real disorder, but to give an exhaustive logical and psychological analysis of mental life. This, naturally, required conducting internal speech through the filter of written speech, required its orderliness.

The original psychological style of Lermontov's novel, where all methods and forms of depiction are subordinated to the principle of analysis, naturally arose as a form of disclosing the moral and philosophical foundations of the character and ideological searches of the generation of the 30s. For the first time in Russian realistic literature, Lermontov created a major epic work in which psychologism became an indisputable artistic dominant, the main property of style. We can say that "A Hero of Our Time" is the first, in the full sense, psychological novel in Russian literature of the 19th century.

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