17.3. Why the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time" is called socio-psychological in criticism? (Based on the novel "A Hero of Our Time")
"A Hero of Our Time" is the first socio-psychological novel in Russian literature. He is also saturated genre originality. So, in the main character, Pechorin, features appear romantic hero, although it is generally accepted literary direction"Hero of our time" - realism.
The novel combines multiple features of realism, such as a conscious separation of oneself from the hero, the desire for maximum objectivity of the narrative, with a rich description of the hero's inner world, which is typical of romanticism. However, many literary critics emphasized that both Lermontov and Pushkin and Gogol differed from the romantics in that for them inner world personality serves for research, and not for the author's self-expression.
In the preface to the novel, Lermontov compares himself to a doctor who diagnoses modern society. As an example, he considers Pechorin. Main character - typical representative of his time. He is endowed with the features of a man of his era and his social circle. It is characterized by coldness, rebelliousness, passion of nature and opposition to society.
What else allows us to attribute the novel to socio-psychological? Definitely a feature of the composition. Its specificity is manifested in the fact that the chapters are not arranged in chronological order. Thus, the author wanted to gradually reveal to us the character and essence of the protagonist. First, Pechorin is shown to us through the prism of other heroes ("Bela", "Maxim Maksimych"). According to Maxim Maksimych, Pechorin was "a nice fellow ... only a little strange." Further, the narrator finds "Pechorin's journal", where the personality of the character is revealed already from his side. In these notes, the author finds many interesting situations that he managed to visit. main character. With each story, we plunge deeper into the "essence of the soul" of Pechorin. In each chapter we see many actions of Grigory Alexandrovich, which he tries to analyze on his own. And as a result, we find a reasonable explanation for them. Yes, oddly enough, all his actions, no matter how terrible and inhuman they may be, are logically justified. To test Pechorin, Lermontov confronts him with "ordinary" people. It would seem that only Pechorin stands out in the novel for his cruelty. But no, all his entourage also possess cruelty: Bela, who did not notice the attachment of the staff captain, Mary, who rejected Grushnitsky, who was in love with her, smugglers, who left the poor, blind boy to the mercy of fate. This is how Lermontov wanted to portray a cruel generation of people, one of prominent representatives which is Pechorin.
Thus, the novel can reasonably be attributed to the socio-psychological, because in it the author examines the inner world of a person, analyzes his actions and gives them an explanation.
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Lermontov, psychologism of the novel "A Hero of Our Time"
Introduction ................................................ ................................................. ..........3
1. The structure of the novel............................................... ..........................................4
2. The novel "A Hero of Our Time" as a psychological one .............................................. 5
Conclusion................................................. ................................................. ......8
Bibliography................................................ ............................................9
Introduction
"Hero of Our Time" (written in 1838-1840) - famous novel Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov, classic of Russian literature. The genre of the novel is socio-psychological realism.
The originality of the genre and composition of the novel is associated with its main feature. A Hero of Our Time is the first psychological novel in Russian literature. Therefore more detailed consideration features this novel is up to date.
Psychologism is understood as an artistic depiction of the inner world of characters, that is, their thoughts, experiences, desires, feelings. Lermontov most often uses a direct form of psychologism, a direct image inner life a person, primarily Pechorin, and conveys these processes in the form of a monologue, dialogue, psychological introspection.
The purpose of the work is to analyze the psychologism of the novel "A Hero of Our Time".
Based on the purpose of the work, the following tasks were set:
1. Consider the structure of the novel;
2. Analyze the features of the novel as a psychological one.
The object of the work is the novel "A Hero of Our Time".
The subject of the work is the features of the psychologism of the novel "A Hero of Our Time".
1. The structure of the novel
The novel consists of several parts, arranged not in chronological order. Such an arrangement serves special artistic tasks: in particular, at first Pechorin is shown through the eyes of Maxim Maksimych, and only then we see him from the inside, according to diary entries. The structure of the novel is as follows:
Preface;
PART ONE
II. Maksim Maksimych
Pechorin's Journal
Foreword
PART TWO (End of Pechorin's journal)
II. Princess Mary
III. Fatalist
The chronological order of the parts is as follows:
- "Taman";
- "Princess Mary";
- "Fatalist";
- "Maxim Maksimych".
Five years pass between the events of Bela and Pechorin's meeting with Maxim Maksimych in front of the narrator in Maxim Maksimych.
Let us consider in more detail what is the psychologism of the novel?
2. The novel "A Hero of Our Time" as a psychological
Not chronological order stories creates psychologism. All characters are shown by Pechorin and in this psychological description his character is revealed. People for him are experiments. Everything in the novel is aimed at revealing the character of Grigory Alexandrovich. So that the reader understands all this "eternal sadness" of the hero, the reasons for which lie in the very nature of Pechorin.
At the compositional level, within each movement, Lermontov resorts not to technical, but to impressive montage. Strictly observing the principle of the secondary importance of plot twists and turns compared to the logic of approaching the psychological “core” of an act, Lermontov breaks up the action. So, for example, the plot-emotional climax of “Princess Mary”, the episode of the night before the duel, and the duel itself are separated in the text by a delay and a sharp change in the circumstances of the action (that is, the conditions for filling out the diary): “And maybe I will die tomorrow!. .. and not a single creature will remain on earth who would understand me completely ... It's been a month and a half since I've been in fortress N; Maksim Maksimych went hunting
Thus, "inappropriate" attention to a pure series of events is temporarily excluded from the complex of reader's impressions.
The compositional complexity of the novel is inextricably linked with the complex psychological image that is inherent in Pechorin. It can be said that the inconsistency and ambiguity of the character of the protagonist manifested itself not only in the study of his spiritual world, but also in correlation of the protagonist with other images of the novel. That is why the author did not immediately come to compositional solution novel, thanks to which we are approaching Pechorin.
The specific interaction of space and time in the work creates a kind of cinematic effect, thanks to which all the emotional upheavals of the hero, his psychological condition It appears to the reader as a constant, continuous fact that is not eliminated by the change of specific plot events. Thus, the space and time of the protagonist and the plot in the work exist in parallel.
"Bela" and "Maxim Maksimych" give a complete exposition of the hero: from general plan("Bela") made the transition to a large - now it's time to move on to psychological development.
At the end of reading Bela, the image of Pechorin remains a mystery to the reader; the critical staff captain (“What a marvel! Tell me, please, you seem to have been to the capital, and recently: is it really all the youth there?”) further enhances the mystery, while introducing the features of the portrait of the protagonist somewhat vulgar demonism.
"Taman", although it was apparently written out of direct connection with the novel as a whole, is included in the "Hero of Our Time", like a plot and psychological "antidote" to the outcome of the stories "Bela" and "Maxim Maksimych".
If in Bela the reader can still feel a touch of naive "Rousseauism", then in Tamini it simply disappears. In truth, Pechorin already in "Bel" says that "the love of a savage is few better than love noble lady", but this can be attributed precisely to the "demonism". In the story "Taman" Pechorin, who again pursued the "love of a savage", suffers a complete defeat, finding himself on the verge of death.
Therefore, after such a defeat, Pechorin has to leave the world of "savages" and return to the world of "noble" ladies and young ladies. So we move from "Taman" to "Princess Mary".
In "Taman" Pechorin's line, the features of his behavior are omitted, and in "Princess Mary" they rise again, as we get acquainted not only with the actions of the protagonist, but also with his thoughts, aspirations, complaints - and all this ends with a meaningful "poem in prose." Its meaning goes beyond petty fuss with Princess Mary and Grushnitsky: “I, like a sailor, was born and raised on the deck of a robber brig; his soul has become accustomed to storms and battles, and, thrown ashore, he is bored and languishing, no matter how beckoning his shady grove, no matter how the peaceful sun shines on him ... However, he can’t wait for big battles and storms - and at most - that he again, as it happened more than once, will be on the verge of death - and will not die.
Thus, the reader proceeds to the story "The Fatalist", which is an epilogue. But at the same time, in the chronology of events, the event described in the Fatalist is not the last, since the meeting with Maxim Maksimych and the departure of the protagonist to Persia occur much later.
In this sense, the preface to Pechorin's Journal would be considered an epilogue, since it is in it that the news that the hero has died is reported, and some results of Pechorin's life are summed up. It turns out that the death of Pechorin is reported in the middle of the work, without details. The news is presented as simple curriculum vitae, with a transition that is stunning in its unexpectedness: “This news made me very happy.”
Thus, the author is freed from the need to end the work with the death of Pechorin. Such a decision gives Lermontov the opportunity to end the novel on a major note: Pechorin escaped death and committed a bold and useful act (for the first time throughout the novel), while he was not bound by any "empty passions", since the theme of love in the story " Fatalist is missing.
Conclusion
The novel "A Hero of Our Time" can be safely called the first in Russian prose "personal" (according to the terminology of French literature), or "analytical" novel, since its plot and ideological center is not a biography, but the character and personality of the hero, his mental life, experiences and thoughts displayed as a process.
Lermontov's true psychologism was led precisely by an increased interest in the internal characteristics of a person's personality and character. The complication of the reader's ideas about the mental complexity of a person, the multidimensionality of the structure of the human personality is one of the main merits of the author.
The initial step of the concept of man, developed in the novel, can be considered Lermontov's solution to the question of the relationship between natural-physiological and spiritual principles.
Bibliography
1. Belinsky of our time. Composition./Complete Works. T. IV. - M.: AN SSSR, 1954.
Lermontov of our time. In the book: Collected works in 4 volumes. T. 4. - M.: Pravda, 1969. // 1st ed.: Lermontov of our time. - St. Petersburg, 1840.
Belinsky of our time. Composition./Complete Works. T. IV. - M.: AN SSSR, 1954.
Eikhenbaum "Hero of our time" // Lermontov of our time. - M.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1962. - S. 125-162.
Lermontov of our time. In the book: Collected works in 4 volumes. T. 4. - M.: Pravda, 1969. // 1st ed.: Lermontov of our time. - St. Petersburg, 1840.
Eikhenbaum "Hero of our time" // Lermontov of our time. - M.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1962. - S. 125-162.
"A Hero of Our Time" by M.Yu. Lermontov as a psychological novel
The novel by M.Yu. Lermontov “A Hero of Our Time” is the first “analytical” novel in Russian literature, in the center of which is not a person’s biography, but his personality, that is, spiritual and mental life as a process. This artistic psychologism can be considered a consequence of the era, since the time when Lermontov lived was a time of deep social upheaval and disappointment caused by the failed Decembrist uprising and the era of reactions that followed. Lermontov emphasizes that the time of heroic figures has passed, a person seeks to withdraw into own world and dives into introspection. And since introspection becomes a sign of the times, then literature should also turn to the consideration of the inner world of people.
In the preface to the novel, the main character - Pechorin - is characterized as "a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation in their full development." Thus, the author was able to trace how environment influences the formation of personality, to give a portrait of the entire generation of young people of that time. But the author does not relieve the hero of responsibility for his actions. Lermontov pointed to the “disease” of the century, the treatment of which is to overcome individualism, struck by unbelief, bringing deep suffering to Pechorin and destructive to those around him. Everything in the novel is subject main task- as deeply and in detail as possible to show the state of the soul of the hero. The chronology of his life is broken, but the chronology of the narrative is strictly built. We comprehend the world of the hero from the initial characteristics that Maxim Maksimovich gives through author's description to confession in Pechorin's Journal.
Pechorin is a romantic in character and behavior, a man of exceptional abilities, an outstanding mind, strong will, high aspirations for social activities and an insatiable desire for freedom. His assessments of people and their actions are very accurate; he has a critical attitude not only to others, but also to himself. His diary is a self-disclosure “I have two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges him,” says Pechorin. What are the reasons for this split, he himself answers: “I told the truth - they did not believe me: I began to deceive; knowing well the light and springs of society, I became skilled in the science of life ... ". So he learned to be secretive, vindictive, bilious, ambitious, he became, in his words, a moral cripple.
But Pechorin is not devoid of good impulses, endowed with a warm heart capable of deeply feeling (for example: the death of Bela, a meeting with Vera and last date with Mary) Risking his life, he is the first to rush into the hut of the killer Vulich. Pechorin does not hide his sympathy for the oppressed, it is about the Decembrists exiled to the Caucasus that he says that “an ardent heart is hidden under a numbered button and an educated mind is hidden under a white cap,” but Pechorin’s trouble is that he hides spiritual impulses under a mask of indifference. This is self-defense. He strong man, but all its forces carry not a positive, but a negative charge. All activities are aimed not at creation, but at destruction. Spiritual void high society, socio-political reaction distorted and drowned out the possibilities of Pechorin. That is why Belinsky called the novel "a cry of suffering" and "a sad thought."
Almost all minor characters works become victims of the hero. Because of him, Bela loses her home and dies, Maxim Maksimovich is disappointed in friendship, Mary and Vera suffer, Grushnitsky dies at his hand, they are forced to leave native home smugglers. Indirectly, he is guilty of the death of Vulich. Grushnitsky helps the author to save Pechorin from the ridicule of readers and parodies, because he is his reflection in a crooked mirror.
Pechorin realized that under the conditions of autocracy, meaningful activity in the name of the common good is impossible. This led to his characteristic skepticism and pessimism, the conviction that "life is boring and disgusting." Doubts devastated him to the point that he had only two convictions left: birth is a misfortune, and death is inevitable. Dissatisfied with his aimless life, longing for an ideal, but not seeing it, Pechorin asks: “Why did I live? For what purpose was I born?
The "Napoleonic problem" is the central moral and psychological problem of the novel, it is a 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.
Saturated pride - this is how Pechorin defines human happiness. He perceives the suffering and joy of others as food that supports his spiritual strength. In the chapter "The Fatalist" Pechorin reflects on faith and unbelief. Man, having lost God, has lost the main thing - the system moral values, morality, the idea of spiritual equality. Respect for the world and people begins with self-respect, humiliating others, he elevates himself; triumphing over others, he feels stronger. Evil begets evil. The first suffering gives the concept of the pleasure of torturing another, Pechorin himself argues. The tragedy of Pechorin is that he accuses the world, people and time of his spiritual slavery and does not see the reasons for the inferiority of his soul. He does not know the true freedom, he is looking for it in solitude, in wanderings. That is, in external signs, so it turns out to be redundant everywhere.
Lermontov, conquering with psychological truth, vividly showed a historically specific hero with a clear motivation for his behavior. It seems to me that he was the first in Russian literature to be able to accurately reveal all the contradictions, complexities and the whole depth of the human soul.
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 author's desire to reveal the "history of the human soul", Lermontov's novel turned out to be full of deep psychological analysis. The author explores the "soul" not only of the main character, but also of all the others actors. Lermontov's psychologism is specific in that it acts not as a form of self-expression of the writer, but as an object artistic image. are analyzed and appearance hero, and his customs, and his actions, and his feelings. Lermontov is attentive to the shades of experiences, the state of a person, his gestures and postures. The author's style can be called psychological-analytical.
Pechorin's introspection is very deep, everything state of mind written out in detail and in detail, analyzes their own behavior and psychological reasons, motives and intentions of actions. Pechorin admits to Dr. Werner: “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 cognizing what, at first perception, seems mysterious, mysterious and strange. important place in a novel where the action takes place in different geographic points(by the sea, in the mountains, in the steppe, in the Cossack village), occupies 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 affects his inner world. Pechorin is convinced that the soul depends on nature and its forces. The landscape of each part of the novel is subject to the idea that is realized in it. Thus, in "Bela" Caucasian nature is depicted (rocks, cliffs, Aragva, snowy mountain peaks), which is opposed to northern nature and a disharmoniously arranged society.
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 romanticism in which the smugglers from the chapter "Taman" appear before us. The morning landscape, full of freshness, including golden clouds, is the exposition of the chapter "Maxim Maksimych". Nature in "Princess Mary" becomes psychological remedy revealing the character of Pechorin. Before the duel - in contrast - radiance is introduced sunlight, and after the duel the sun will seem dim to the hero, and its rays no longer warm. In The Fatalist, the cold light of shining stars on a dark blue vault leads Pechorin to philosophical reflections about predestination and fate.
In general, this work is a socio-psychological and philosophical novel, akin to a travel novel, close to travel notes. Genre 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 essay and a short story about the love of a European for a savage.
“Maxim Maksimych” is a story with a central episode given in close-up.
"Taman" is a synthesis of a short story and a travel essay with an unexpected ending.
"Princess Mary" - "secular story" psychological nature with the hero's diary and a satirical sketch of the mores of the "water society".
"Fatalist" philosophical tale connected with " mystical story about the fatal shot and the "mysterious case".
But all these genre forms, separate narratives became Lermontov's parts of a single whole - the study of the spiritual world modern hero, whose personality and fate unite the entire narrative. Pechorin's backstory is deliberately excluded, which gives his biography a touch of mystery.
It is interesting to know what is the second person in Pechorin, thinking and condemning, first of all, himself. Pechorin's Journal reveals the character of the hero, as it were, "from the inside", it reveals the motives of his strange deeds, 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 other characters in that he is concerned about questions of conscious human being- 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. Even he is indifferent to his own life. Only curiosity, the expectation of something new excites him.
However, by asserting human dignity, Pechorin is actively acting, resisting circumstances throughout the novel. Pechorin judges and executes himself, and this 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.
A Hero of Our Time" by M. Yu. Lermontov as a socio-psychological novel
The Hero of Our Time, my gracious sirs, is like a portrait, but not of one person; it is a portrait composed of the vices of our entire generation in their full development. M, Yu, LermontovLermontov acted as a successor to the traditions of Russian literature. As the heir to A. S. Pushkin, he belonged to the number of Russian leaders awakened by cannon shots on Senate Square. That is why, according to Herzen, "Lermontov could not find salvation in lyricism, a courageous, sad thought comes through in his poetry" and prose, we add. times (this was in 1840). Readers reacted to this work ambiguously. The highest government circles and writers close to them responded extremely negatively to the novel. Critics wrote that "A Hero of Our Time" is badly styled Western European novel, in which the author describes "in an exaggerated form the despicable character" of the main character, Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin. Critics also wrote that Lermontov portrayed himself in the novel. Having learned about these remarks, the poet wrote a preface to the second edition, in which he caustically ridiculed the attempts of critics to equate the author and Pechorin. He also wrote that "The Hero of Our Time" is a portrait of the entire generation of young people of that time. Lermontov published his novel in parts in the magazine " Domestic notes", and then published in its entirety. Belinsky really liked this work, and he was the first to say that this was not a collection of novels and short stories, but a single novel that you would understand only when you read all the parts. The novels are arranged so that they gradually Pechorin is "brought closer" to the reader: first, a story about him by Maxim Maksimych ("Bela") is given, then he is seen through the eyes of the narrator ("Maxim Maksimych"), finally, his "confession" is offered in the "magazine" (diary). chronological order, which is also included in artistic intent. The author strives to reveal the character and inner world of the hero with the greatest objectivity and depth. Therefore, in each story, he places Pechorin in a different environment, shows him in different circumstances, in collisions with people of a different Ttsihichical warehouse. Everyone is subject to the disclosure of the character of the hero figurative means novel: portrait, landscape, speech of heroes. The story "Princess Mary" can be called the main one in the novel, because here the best way the features of "A Hero of Our Time" as a psychological novel appeared. In this story, Pechorin talks about himself, reveals his soul, and it is not without reason that in the preface to Pechorin's Journal it is said that here the "history of the human soul" will appear before our eyes. In Pechorin's diary, we find his sincere confession, in which he reveals his feelings and thoughts, mercilessly scourging his inherent weaknesses and vices. Here are given both the clue to his character and the explanation of his actions. On the sleepless night before the duel, Pechorin sums up his life; “Why did I live? For what purpose was I born?... perhaps I had a high purpose, because I feel immense forces in my soul... But I did not guess this purpose, I was carried away by the baits of empty and ignoble passions; from the crucible I came out of them as hard and cold as iron, but I have lost forever the ardor of noble aspirations - the best color of life. "Pechorin has a very complex character: we cannot but condemn him for his attitude towards Bela, towards Mary, towards Maxim Maksimych, but at the same time we sympathize with the time when he ridicules the aristocratic "water society". In addition, it is immediately clear that Pechorin is head and shoulders above those around him: he is smart, brave, energetic, educated. But he is incapable of true love or o friendship, although he himself critically evaluates his life. Pechorin himself said that two people live in it, and when one does something, the other condemns him. absence life purpose- all this is characteristic of Pechorin. In the novel, his ideas about love are consistently analyzed. friendship. Pechorin, as it were, is being tested in different situations: in love with the "savage" ("Bela"), in romantic love ("Taman"), in friendship with peers (Grushnitsky), in friendship with Maxim Maksimych. But in all situations, he was in the role of a destroyer. And the reason for this is not in Pechorin's "viciousness", but in the very socio-psychological climate of society. which dooms people to a tragic mutual misunderstanding. The author does not judge his hero, and even more so does not expose, but analyzes. Pechorin judges himself. Noting the social orientation of the novel, Chernyshevsky wrote: “Lermontov ... understands and presents his Pechorin as an example of what the best, strongest, noblest people under the influence of the social situation of their circle. "Lermontov is not limited to a sketch of the" water society ", he expands the idea of \u200b\u200bthe environment typical of Pechorin by showing the officer society in the story" Fatalist "and individual statements hero. Empty, worthless, hypocritical - this is how it appears noble society in Pechorin's stories. In this environment, everything sincere perishes ("I told the truth - they did not believe me," says Pechorin Mary); in this society they laugh at the best human feelings. The story "Bela" mentions a Moscow lady who claimed that "Byron was nothing more than a drunkard." This phrase is enough to make sure of the ignorance of the arrogant representative of the world. Lermontov comes to the conclusion and convinces us readers that such a society cannot produce real heroes from its midst, that what is truly heroic and beautiful in life is beyond this circle. And even if there are special people in this environment, possessing huge opportunities, secular society they are destroyed. Reality did not give Pechorn the opportunity to act, deprived his life of purpose and meaning, and the hero constantly feels his uselessness. Raising the question of the tragic fate of outstanding people and the impossibility for them to find application for their forces in the conditions of the thirties, Lermontov at the same time showed and the perniciousness of withdrawing into oneself, closing in "proud loneliness." Departure from people devastates even an outstanding nature, and the individualism and selfishness that appear as a result of this bring deep suffering not only to the hero himself, but to everyone he encounters. M. Yu. Lermontov, depicting, in the words of Belinsky, " inner man", turned out to be in the portrayal of Pechorin and a deep psychologist, and realist artist, "objectified modern society and its representatives."
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