Lesson topic (series, 2 lessons)

The image of Pechorin through the prism of heroes. Bela's story.

Target:

Get the first idea about Pechorin, understand his actions, draw up a portrait of the hero, based on the story "Bela", find in the story "Bela" the reasons for the tragedy of Grigory Pechorin.

Update

We continue to work on the psychological novel.

How many parts are in this novel?

Introduction to the topic

Before us is "Bela" - "oriental story"

Where does the story take place?

Who is the main character?

Who tells Bela's story?

After reading the first chapter, you managed to notice a lot of unfamiliar words.

Let's turn to the explanatory dictionary, find the meaning of some words

Working with a table

Choose a description for each character

	Maskim Maksimych
He was wearing an officer's frock coat without an epaulette and a shaggy Circassian hat. He seemed about fifty; his swarthy complexion showed that he had long been familiar with the Transcaucasian sun, and his prematurely gray mustache did not correspond to his firm gait and cheerful appearance.	officer, a young man of about twenty-five. He was so thin, white, his uniform was so new. He was a nice fellow, I dare to assure you; just a little weird.	his face was the most predatory: small, dry, broad-shouldered.	the younger daughter of the owner, a girl of about sixteen. she was beautiful: tall, thin, her eyes black, like those of a mountain chamois, looked into our souls.	a boy of fifteen. there was a thug, nimble at whatever you want: whether to raise his hat at full gallop, or to shoot from a gun. One thing was not good about him: he was terribly greedy for money.

The image of Pechorin

Who introduces us to Pechorin for the first time? (Maxim Maksisych).

Read what Maxim Maksimych says about Pechorin's appearance? (a young man of about 25; he was so thin, white).

This is a young man, an officer who came to serve in the Caucasus.

And what is unusual about him, what surprises Maxim Maksimych?

So how does Maxim Pechorin see Maxima?

(strong - weak, strange - glorious, withdrawn - cheerful)

And what do these oddities in character say? (he is the same, does Pechorin behave in the same way in situations?) (inconsistency in character).

Brief retelling

How did events unfold in this story?

Your homework was to prepare a plan of events

Put the items in the plan in order

The meeting of the narrator and Maxim Maksimych

Maxim Maksimych tells the story of his acquaintance with Pechorin

Pechorin's arrival at the fortress

Prince's wedding invitation

Meeting with Bela

Quarrel between Azamat and Kazbich

Pechorin's conspiracy with Azamat

Theft of Bela in exchange for the horse Karagez

Pechorin takes care of Bela, gives her gifts, dresses her like a doll

Bela falls in love with Pechorin

Pechorin soon gets used to Bela, he gets bored, he hunts all day

The unexpected appearance of Kazbich

Maxim Maksimych and Pechorin go hunting

Revenge of Kazbich: the theft of Bela and her injury

Bela's death

Pechorin's departure to Georgia.

Lesson summary

Today we met with an unusual hero, with his controversial character

Did you like this hero? Why?

D / s to prepare a retelling of the relationship between Bela and Pechorin

Actualization (viewing an episode from a movie)

Content Conversation

Who tells the story of Bela and Pechorin?

How does Bela end up at Pechorin's?

Why does Pechorin decide to kidnap Bela?

Why is Pechorin's love for Bela doomed?

How does Pechorin achieve Bela's love?

Does Pechorin love Bela?

Why did Pechorin fall out of love with Bela?

Introduction of the new concept of "introspection"

Support your answer to the last question with words from the text.

In this passage, Pechorin talks about his life, tries to evaluate his actions, strive to understand himself. This technique is called introspection. It is used in psychology.

What do we learn about Pechorin?

“I have an unhappy character; Whether my upbringing made me that way, whether God created me that way, I don’t know; I only know that if I am the cause of the misfortune of others, then I myself am no less unhappy ... I began to enjoy wildly all the pleasures that money can get, and, of course, these pleasures disgusted me. Then I set off into the big world, and soon I also got tired of society; I fell in love with secular beauties and was loved - but their love only irritated my imagination and pride, and my heart remained empty ... I began to read, study - I also got tired of science ... Whether I'm a fool or a villain, I don't know; but it is true that I am also very pitiable…”

What literary hero does Pechorin look like? (Eugene Onegin)

What do they have in common? (Upbringing, occupation, boring monotonous life)

Compilation of a comparative table

Let's try to compare our heroes

	Eugene Onegin	Grigory Pechorin
Age		25 years old: "...a young man of about twenty-five..."
Appearance
Heroes' eyes	"... As soon as I remember the cold look..."	"...Brown eyes<...>they didn't laugh when he laughed!
Origin	Nobleman	Nobleman
Both grew up in luxury		"... I began to enjoy madly all the pleasures that you can get for money ..."
Characters of heroes
Both are weird	"...Inimitable oddity..."	"just a little weird."
Both are tired of beauties		<...>my heart is empty...
Both are tired of the sciences
Both are unhappy	“… But was my Eugene happy […]? No: early feelings in him cooled down ... "

Fill the table

	Eugene Onegin	Grigory Pechorin
Age	26 years old: "... Having lived without a goal, without labor / Until the age of twenty-six ..."
Appearance	Follows the fashion: “...Cut off according to the latest fashion; / How a London dandy is dressed...»	Good-looking: "... he was generally very good-looking ..."
Heroes' eyes
Origin and Occupation of Heroes
Origin
Both grew up in luxury	"... Having fun and luxury a child ..." "... Among everyday pleasures ..."
Characters of heroes
Both are weird		"just a little weird."
Both are tired of beauties	"... The beauties were not long / The subject of his habitual thoughts ..."	“... fell in love with secular beauties and was loved - but<...>my heart is empty...
Both are tired of the sciences	“... I read and read, but it was all to no avail [...] / Like women, he left books ...”
Both are unhappy		“... if I am the cause of the misfortune of others, then I myself am no less unhappy ...”

Summarizing

What is the problem with our heroes? (open-ended question)

The heroes have a contradictory character, they are spoiled by the high society, they have no purpose in life, they are full of all the pleasures. They get everything easily, so they quickly lose interest.

CREATION

SCHOOL ESSAYS

THE IMAGE OF PECHORIN IN THE STORY "BEL"

Based on the text of M. Yu. Lermontov's story "Bela", the following conclusions can be drawn about the personality of the main character Pechorin Grigory Alexandrovich:
This is a young man, an officer, of attractive appearance, pleasant at first sight in all respects, has a good education, a brilliant mind, excellent taste; he is an aesthete, a true aristocrat, a star of secular society.
The unusual inconsistency of his character (p. 587) predetermines that "... various extraordinary things must happen to him ...". Contradictions permeate his entire nature: ardent passion and logical reasoning, strong-willed determination and fatalism, emotional enthusiasm and apathy, romanticism and cynicism, democratic breadth of views and authoritarianism, direct complicity in events and detachment.
The actions of the protagonist of the story are impulsive, he is characterized by adventurism, curiosity and experimentation.
The breadth of Pechorin's views is not characteristic of the people of his time, and first of all, it is nihilism, which is rather inherent in the heroes of novels of the late 19th century. The Orthodox faith for him is more of a tradition than a guide to action: "... Allah is the same for all tribes, and if he allows me to love you, why will he forbid you to reciprocate me? ...", do not forget about him numerous novels in Petersburg.
It is not surprising that Pechorin shows a keen interest in the traditions of the Caucasian peoples, but this is only the interest of a researcher. To know does not mean to respect and follow. Just as Russian national traditions are not a guide to action for Pechorin, so all other norms of behavior and customs are only of cognitive interest.
The mind of our hero is inquisitive and inventive, Pechorin is like a scientist doing experiments (but, alas, on living people). This is a brilliant psychologist (forerunner of Freud), a person who brilliantly builds logical chains (who knows how to weave intrigues).
He is an unusually purposeful person, but to achieve his goal he often uses dishonest means: provocation, bribery, blackmail. He is interested in the process of achieving the goal, but as soon as the desired is realized, the interest disappears.
Despite all of the above, Pechorin appears to the reader as an extremely spoiled being, highly selfish and, in addition, absolutely infantile. He himself is an adult child who learns the world, constantly needs new impressions and new "toys". Perhaps his life credo can be expressed in the lines of a poem by my friend, the poet Pavel Budkin, widely known in narrow circles:

"I want!" - and above there is no law,
I have no other laws
This word is an icon for me,
Lips to lips pour like wine.

"Let me!" - I do not need much,
I don't want much - everything
I only want one fence
On the grave of my body.

No shadows! I am alive among the living
I will not touch cold hands and lips.
I drink for the fingers of warm givers,
The ones I'll be back to!

I drink to torment and beat,
To tear thoughts to pieces,
To have something in this life
In addition to boredom, anger and longing!

I drink for the fact that there was not enough space,
So that stamps and clichés crackle.
I want my body to get tired
Don't let your soul get tired!

My glass is almost full to the brim
I'll drink, pour more full!
May he always crown the table:
Life is a game, desire is a bet in it!
By the way, Pavel is a great admirer of M.Yu. Lermontov
It is especially bad that Pechorin is fully aware of his boundless sinful egoism, but does not at all try to fight it, on the contrary, cultivates it in every possible way.
It is not sad, but in this man there is arrogance, not only in relation to the "savages", but also to his own comrades and colleagues. His conceit is unusually high, sometimes he just feels like a god.
But why is Pechorin's personality so attractive to others?
Our hero, following his selfish impulses, is childishly sincere in all his manifestations. He sincerely falls in love, sincerely brave and courageous, sincere in stories about his disappointment in life. He even wants to sympathize and somehow console.
However, does an adult reasonable person, and even with such a mind and logic, have the right to go solely on the occasion of his own desires?
The result of such actions, alas, is deplorable, the result is the death of innocent people (Bela, her father, the missing teenage brother, spoiled, by the way, by Pechorin himself). The denial of all norms of behavior in society makes Pechorin a monster, he is even worse than the robber Kazbich (he did not allow himself to steal Bela from the family, exchanging for a horse)
For the sake of fulfilling his own ambitious goals, Pechorin is not ready to reckon with either the feelings or the lives of others, even people dear to him. A trail of death and destruction stretches behind our hero, contact with him brings only troubles and misfortunes to those around him, which, in turn, makes Pechorin unhappy too, does not allow him to have long-term attachments, turns him into a cynical wanderer on this earth.
Pechorin is a lonely, restless, restless, "wanderer persecuted by the world", casting a deadly, tragic, fatal shadow on people close and loving him.

P.S. My brief judgments about Pechorin's thoughts:
Love is a game
Friendship is a burden
Attachment is nothing
Fate - Fatum (fatalism),
Life is a lonely journey...

Pechorin is an ambiguous personality

The image of Pechorin in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" by Lermontov is an ambiguous image. It cannot be called positive, but it is not negative either. Many of his actions are worthy of condemnation, but it is also important to understand the motives of his behavior before making an assessment. The author called Pechorin a hero of his time, not because he recommended to be equal to him, and not because he wanted to ridicule him. He simply showed a portrait of a typical representative of that generation - an "extra person" - so that everyone could see what a social structure that disfigures the personality leads to.

Qualities of Pechorin

Knowledge of people

Can such a quality of Pechorin as an understanding of the psychology of people, the motives of their actions, be called bad? Another thing is that he uses it for other purposes. Instead of doing good, helping others, he plays with them, and these games, as a rule, end tragically. This was the end of the story with the mountain girl Bela, whom Pechorin persuaded her brother to steal. Having achieved the love of a freedom-loving girl, he lost interest in her, and soon Bela fell victim to the vengeful Kazbich.

Playing with Princess Mary also did not lead to anything good. Pechorin's intervention in her relationship with Grushnitsky resulted in a broken heart of the princess and death in a duel by Grushnitsky.

Ability to analyze

Pechorin demonstrates a brilliant ability to analyze in a conversation with Dr. Werner (chapter "Princess Mary"). He absolutely logically calculates that Princess Ligovskaya was interested in him, and not her daughter Mary. “You have a great gift for thinking,” Werner notes. However, this gift again does not find a worthy application. Pechorin, perhaps, could make scientific discoveries, but he was disappointed in the study of sciences, because he saw that no one needed knowledge in his society.

Independence from the opinions of others

The description of Pechorin in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" gives many a reason to accuse him of spiritual callousness. It would seem that he acted badly towards his old friend Maxim Maksimych. Upon learning that his colleague, with whom they ate more than one pood of salt together, stopped in the same city, Pechorin did not rush to meet him. Maksim Maksimych was very upset and offended by him. However, Pechorin is to blame, in fact, only for not living up to the old man's expectations. "Am I not the same?" - he reminded, nevertheless embracing Maxim Maksimych in a friendly way. Indeed, Pechorin never tries to portray himself as someone he is not, just to please others. He prefers to be rather than seem, always honest in the manifestation of his feelings, and from this point of view, his behavior deserves all approval. He also does not care what others say about him - Pechorin always does as he sees fit. In modern conditions, such qualities would be invaluable and would help him quickly achieve his goal, to fully realize himself.

Bravery

Courage and fearlessness are character traits due to which one could say “Pechorin is the hero of our time” without any ambiguity. They also appear on the hunt (Maxim Maksimych witnessed how Pechorin “went on a boar one on one”), and in a duel (he was not afraid to shoot with Grushnitsky on conditions that were obviously losing for him), and in a situation where it was necessary to pacify the raging drunken Cossack (chapter "Fatalist"). “... nothing will happen worse than death - and you can’t escape death,” Pechorin believes, and this conviction allows him to move forward more boldly. However, even the mortal danger that he faced daily in the Caucasian War did not help him cope with boredom: he quickly got used to the buzz of Chechen bullets. Obviously, military service was not his vocation, and therefore Pechorin's brilliant abilities in this area did not find further application. He decided to travel in the hope of finding a remedy for boredom "through storms and bad roads."

pride

Pechorin cannot be called conceited, greedy for praise, but he is proud enough. He is very hurt if a woman does not consider him the best and prefers another. And he strives by all means, by any means, to win her attention. This happened in the situation with Princess Mary, who at first liked Grushnitsky. From the analysis of Pechorin, which he himself does in his journal, it follows that it was important for him not so much to achieve the love of this girl as to recapture her from a competitor. “I also confess that an unpleasant, but familiar feeling ran lightly at that moment through my heart; this feeling - it was envy ... it is unlikely that there will be a young man who, having met a pretty woman who riveted his idle attention and suddenly clearly distinguishes another, who is equally unfamiliar to her, I say, there is hardly such a young man (of course, who lived in high society and accustomed to indulge his vanity), who would not be unpleasantly struck by this.

Pechorin loves to achieve victory in everything. He managed to switch Mary's interest to his own person, make the proud Bela his mistress, get a secret date from Vera, and outplay Grushnitsky in a duel. If he had a worthy cause, this desire to be the first would allow him to achieve tremendous success. But he has to give vent to his leadership in such a strange and destructive way.

selfishness

In the essay on the topic “Pechorin - the hero of our time”, one cannot fail to mention such a trait of his character as selfishness. He does not really care about the feelings and fates of other people who have become hostages of his whims, for him only the satisfaction of his own needs matters. Pechorin did not even spare Vera, the only woman whom he believed he really loved. He put her reputation at risk by visiting her at night in the absence of her husband. A vivid illustration of his dismissive, selfish attitude is his beloved horse, driven by him, who did not manage to catch up with the carriage with the departed Vera. On the way to Essentuki, Pechorin saw that “instead of a saddle, two ravens were sitting on his back.” Moreover, Pechorin sometimes enjoys the suffering of others. He imagines how Mary, after his incomprehensible behavior, "will spend the night without sleep and will cry", and this thought gives him "immense pleasure". “There are moments when I understand the Vampire…” he admits.

Pechorin's behavior is the result of the influence of circumstances

But can this bad character trait be called innate? Is Pechorin flawed from the very beginning, or was the living conditions made him so? Here is what he himself told Princess Mary: “... such was my fate from childhood. Everyone read on my face signs of bad feelings, which were not there; but they were supposed - and they were born. I was modest - they accused me of slyness: I became secretive ... I was ready to love the whole world - no one understood me: and I learned to hate ... I spoke the truth - they did not believe me: I began to deceive ... I became a moral cripple.

Finding himself in an environment that does not correspond to his inner essence, Pechorin is forced to break himself, to become what he is not in reality. This is where this internal inconsistency comes from, which left its mark on his appearance. The author of the novel draws a portrait of Pechorin: laughter with unlaughing eyes, a daring and at the same time indifferently calm look, a straight frame, limp, like a Balzac young lady, when he sat down on a bench, and other "inconsistencies".

Pechorin himself realizes that he makes an ambiguous impression: “Some revere me worse, others better than I really am ... Some will say: he was a kind fellow, others a bastard. Both will be false." But the truth is that under the influence of external circumstances, his personality has undergone such complex and ugly deformations that it is no longer possible to separate the bad from the good, the real from the false.

In the novel A Hero of Our Time, the image of Pechorin is a moral, psychological portrait of a whole generation. How many of its representatives, having not found a response in the surrounding “soul to wonderful impulses”, were forced to adapt, become the same as everyone around, or die. The author of the novel, Mikhail Lermontov, whose life ended tragically and prematurely, was one of them.

Artwork test

The image of Pechorin in the chapter "Bela" from "a hero of our time" and received the best answer

Answer from Lilia Aminova[guru]
In the story "Bela" Pechorin is shown as a typical representative of a secular society. This is especially pronounced due to the opposition of the hero to the highlanders - "children of nature". Bela, Kazbich, Azamat live in harmony with the environment, which Pechorin really lacks. In the story, the image of the hero looks unattractive, since Maxim Maksimych simply states the facts without giving them any assessment, so the hero appears as a ruthless and callous person. And this is not surprising, because Pechorin kidnaps Bela, without thinking about the consequences for her, about what tears her away from her home. Such an act can only be justified by very strong love, and Pechorin does not experience it. He says to Maxim Maksimych: “The love of a savage woman is little better than the love of a noble lady ... I'm bored with her." The hero is indifferent to the feelings of others, his attitude towards love, shown in the story, serves as proof of this. Judging about Pechorin by the first story, this is a monster, but Lermontov makes the reader look at the hero from the other side, with his own eyes, and in the short story "Taman" the story goes to Pechorin himself. It is in it that a complete and clear psychological portrait of the hero appears.

Answer from Verochka Kruglova[newbie]
liters. RU
EVERYTHING is there!

Answer from Dima Avotin[active]
Pechorin Grigory Alexandrovich is the main character of the novel. It is him Lermontov calls "the hero of our time." The author himself notes the following: "The Hero of Our Time ... is like a portrait, but not of one person: it is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development." This character cannot be called positive or negative. He is rather a typical representative of his time.
P. is smart and well educated. He feels great strength in his soul, which he wasted in vain. "In this vain struggle, I exhausted both the heat of the soul and the constancy of the will necessary for real life; I entered this life, having already experienced it mentally, and I became bored and disgusting, like someone who reads a bad imitation of a book he has long known" . The author expresses the inner qualities of the hero through his appearance. P.'s aristocracy is shown through the thinness of his pale fingers. When walking, he does not swing his arms - this is how the secrecy of his nature is expressed. P.'s eyes didn't laugh when he laughed. This can be called a sign of constant mental drama. The inner throwing of the hero was especially clearly reflected in his attitude towards women. He steals the young Circassian Bela from her parents' house, enjoys her love for some time, but then she bothers him. Bela is dying. He long and methodically attracts the attention of Princess Mary. They are driven only by the desire to completely possess someone else's soul. When the hero seeks her love, he says that he is not going to marry her. At Mineralnye Vody, P. meets Vera, a woman who has loved him for many years. We learn that he tore out her entire soul. P. is sincerely interested, but he gets bored extremely quickly, and he leaves people like a flower plucked along the way. This is the deep tragedy of the hero. Finally realizing that no one and nothing can make up the meaning of his life, P. is waiting for death. He found her on the road, on his return from Persia.

). As its very title shows, Lermontov depicted in this work typical an image that characterizes his contemporary generation. We know how low the poet valued this generation ("I look sadly ..."), - he takes the same point of view in his novel. In the "preface" Lermontov says that his hero is "a portrait made up of the vices" of the people of that time "in their full development." [Cm. See also the articles Image of Pechorin in the novel "A Hero of Our Time", Pechorin and Women.]

However, Lermontov is in a hurry to say that, speaking about the shortcomings of his time, he does not undertake to read morals to his contemporaries - he simply draws the “history of the soul” of “modern man, as he understands him and, unfortunately for others, met him too often. It will also be that the disease is indicated, but God knows how to cure it!

Lermontov. Hero of our time. Bela, Maxim Maksimych, Taman. Feature Film

So, the author does not idealize his hero: just as Pushkin executes his Aleko, in The Gypsies, so Lermontov, in his Pechorin, removes from the pedestal the image of a disappointed Byronist, an image that was once close to his heart.

Pechorin speaks about himself more than once in his notes and in conversations. He tells how disappointments haunted him since childhood:

“Everyone read on my face the signs of bad qualities that were not there; but they were supposed - and they were born. I was modest - I was accused of slyness: I became secretive. I deeply felt good and evil; no one caressed me, everyone insulted me: I became vindictive; I was gloomy - other children are cheerful and talkative; I felt superior to them—I was placed inferior. I became envious. I was ready to love the whole world - no one understood me: and I learned to hate. My colorless youth passed in the struggle with myself and the light; my best feelings, fearing ridicule, I buried in the depths of my heart; they died there. 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 and saw how others, without art, are happy, enjoying the gift of those benefits that I so tirelessly sought. And then despair was born in my chest - not the despair that is cured at the muzzle of a pistol, but cold, powerless despair, hidden behind courtesy and a good-natured smile. I became a moral cripple."

He became a "moral cripple" because he was "mutilated" by people; they not understood him when he was a child, when he became a youth and an adult ... They forced his soul duality,- and he began to live two halves of life - one ostentatious, for people, the other - for himself.

“I have an unhappy character,” says Pechorin. “Whether my upbringing created me this way, whether God created me this way, I don’t know.”

Lermontov. Hero of our time. Princess Mary. Feature film, 1955

Insulted by the vulgarity and distrust of people, Pechorin withdrew into himself; he despises people and cannot live by their interests - he experienced everything: like Onegin, he enjoyed both the vain joys of the world and the love of numerous admirers. He also studied books, looked for strong impressions in the war, but admitted that all this was nonsense, and “under Chechen bullets” is as boring as reading books. He thought to fill his life with love for Bela, but, like Aleko was mistaken in Zemfira , - so he did not manage to live one life with a primitive woman, unspoiled by culture.

“I am a fool or a villain, I do not know; but it is true that I am also very pitiful,” he says, “perhaps more than she: in me the soul is corrupted by light, the imagination is restless, the heart is insatiable; everything is not enough for me: I get used to sadness just as easily as to pleasure, and my life becomes emptier day by day; I have only one remedy: to travel.

In these words, an outstanding person is described in full size, with a strong soul, but without the possibility of applying his abilities to anything. Life is petty and insignificant, but there are many forces in his soul; their meaning is unclear, since there is nowhere to attach them. Pechorin is the same Demon, who was confused by his wide, free wings and dressed him in an army uniform. If the moods of the Demon expressed the main features of Lermontov's soul - his inner world, then in the image of Pechorin he portrayed himself in the sphere of that vulgar reality that crushed him like lead to the earth, to people ... No wonder Lermontov-Pechorin is drawn to the stars - more than once he admires the night sky - it is not for nothing that only free nature is dear to him here on earth ...

“Thin, white,” but strongly built, dressed like a “dandy”, with all the manners of an aristocrat, with well-groomed hands, he made a strange impression: strength was combined in him with some kind of nervous weakness. On his pale noble forehead there are traces of premature wrinkles. His beautiful eyes "didn't laugh when he laughed." “This is a sign of either an evil temper, or a deep, constant sadness.” In these eyes “there was no reflection of the heat of the soul, or the playful imagination, it was a brilliance, like the brilliance of smooth steel, dazzling, but cold; his gaze is short, but penetrating and heavy. In this description, Lermontov borrowed some features from his own appearance.

With contempt for people and their opinions, Pechorin, however, always, out of habit, broke down. Lermontov says that even he "sat as Balzakova sits a thirty-year-old coquette on her feather chairs after a tiring ball."

Having taught himself not to respect others, not to reckon with the world of others, he sacrifices the whole world to his own. selfishness. When Maxim Maksimych tries to offend Pechorin's conscience with careful allusions to the immorality of Bela's abduction, Pechorin calmly answers with the question: "Yes, when do I like her?" Without regret, he "executes" Grushnitsky, not so much for his meanness, but because he, Grushnitsky, dared to try to fool him, Pechorin! .. Ego was indignant. To make fun of Grushnitsky (“without fools it would be very boring in the world!”), He captivates Princess Mary; a cold egoist, he, for the sake of his desire to "have fun", brings a whole drama into Mary's heart. He ruins the reputation of Vera and her family happiness, all from the same immeasurable selfishness.

“What do I care about human joys and misfortunes!” he exclaims. But not one cold indifference causes these words in him. Although he says that “sad is funny, funny is sad, but, in general, in truth, we are rather indifferent to everything except ourselves” - this is just a phrase: Pechorin is not indifferent to people - he takes revenge, evil and merciless.

He recognizes his "minor weaknesses and bad passions." He is ready to explain his power over women by the fact that "evil is attractive." He himself finds in his soul “a bad but invincible feeling,” and he explains this feeling to us in the words:

“There is an immense pleasure in the possession of a young, barely blossoming soul! She is like a flower, whose best aroma evaporates towards the first ray of the sun, it must be picked at this moment and, after breathing it to the full, throw it along the road: maybe someone will pick it up!

He himself is aware of the presence of almost all the “seven deadly sins” in himself: he has an “insatiable greed”, which absorbs everything, which looks at the suffering and joys of others only as food that supports spiritual strength. He has a mad ambition, a thirst for power. "Happiness" - he sees in "saturated pride." “Evil begets evil: the first suffering gives an idea of ​​the pleasure of torturing another,” says Princess Mary and, half jokingly, half seriously, tells him that he is “worse than a murderer.” He himself admits that "there are moments" when he understands "Vampire". All this indicates that Pechorin does not have perfect "indifference" to people. Like the "Demon", he has a large supply of malice - and he can do this evil either "indifferently", or with passion (the feelings of the Demon at the sight of an angel).

“I love enemies,” says Pechorin, “although not in a Christian way. They amuse me, excite my blood. To be always on guard, to catch every glance, the meaning of every word, to guess the intention, to destroy conspiracies, to pretend to be deceived, and suddenly, with one push, overturn the whole huge and laborious edifice of cunning and designs - that's what I call life».

Of course, this is again a “phrase”: not all of Pechorin’s life was spent on such a struggle with vulgar people, there is a better world in him, which often makes him condemn himself. At times he is “sad,” realizing that he is playing “the miserable role of an executioner, or a traitor.” He despises himself,” he is burdened by the emptiness of his soul.

"Why did I live? for what purpose was I born?.. And, it is true, it existed, and, it is true, it was a high purpose for me, because I feel immense powers in my soul. But I did not guess this destination - I was carried away by the lures of passions, empty and ungrateful; from their furnace I came out hard and cold as iron, but I lost forever the ardor of noble aspirations - the best color of life. And since then, how many times have I played the role of an ax in the hands of fate. As an instrument of execution, I fell on the heads of doomed victims, often without malice, always without regret. My love did not bring happiness to anyone, because I did not sacrifice anything for those whom I loved; I loved for myself, for my own pleasure; I satisfied the strange need of the heart, greedily devouring their feelings, their tenderness, their joys and sufferings - and could never get enough. The result is "double hunger and despair."

“I am like a sailor,” he says, 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 ; he walks all day long on the coastal sand, listens to the monotonous murmur of the oncoming waves and peers into the misty distance: will not there, on the pale line separating the blue abyss from the gray clouds, the desired sail. (Compare Lermontov's poem " Sail»).

He is weary of life, ready to die and not afraid of death, and if he does not agree to commit suicide, it is only because he still “lives out of curiosity”, in search of a soul that would understand him: “maybe I will die tomorrow! And there will not be a single creature left on earth who would understand me completely!”