Composition on the topic “Comparative characteristics of Onegin and Pechorin. Comparative characteristics of Onegin and Pechorin

Pechorin and Onegin belong to that social type of the twenties of the nineteenth century, who were called "superfluous" people. “Suffering egoists”, “smart useless things” - Belinsky so figuratively and accurately defined the essence of this type.
So, how are the characters of Pushkin's and Lermontov's works similar and how are they different?
First of all, the heroes of both novels appear before us as historically and socially conditioned human characters. The social and political life of Russia in the twenties of the nineteenth century - the strengthening of political reaction, the decline of the spiritual strength of the young generation - gave rise to a special type of incomprehensible young man of that time.
Onegin and Pechorin are united by their origin, upbringing and education: both of them come from wealthy noble families. At the same time, both heroes do not accept many of the secular conventions, they have a negative attitude towards external secular brilliance, lies, and hypocrisy. This is evidenced, for example, by Pechorin's extended monologue about his "colorless" youth, which "leaked in the struggle with himself and the world." As a result of this struggle, he "became a moral cripple", quickly getting fed up with "all the pleasures that money can get." The same definition is quite applicable to Pushkin's hero: "having fun and luxury as a child," he quickly got tired of the worldly fuss, and "the Russian melancholy took possession of him little by little."
Unites heroes and spiritual loneliness among the secular "motley crowd". “... My soul is corrupted by light, my imagination is restless, my heart is insatiable,” Pechorin bitterly remarks in a conversation with Maxim Maksimych. The same is said about Onegin: “... early on, his feelings cooled down; he was tired of the noise of the world.
Hence, in both works, the idea of escapism arises - the desire of both heroes for solitude, their attempt to distance themselves from society, worldly fuss. This is expressed both in a literal departure from civilization, and in an escape from society into the world of inner experiences, "the conditions of light overthrowing the burden." Unites Onegin and Pechorin and the common motif of "wandering without a goal", "hunting for a change of place" (Pechorin's wanderings in the Caucasus, Onegin's fruitless travels after the duel with Lensky).
Spiritual freedom, which is understood by the characters as independence from people and circumstances, is the main value in the worldview of both characters. So, for example, Pechorin explains his lack of friends by the fact that friendship always leads to the loss of personal freedom: "Of two friends, one is always the slave of the other." The similarity of Onegin and Pechorin is also manifested in their identical attitude to love, inability for deep affection:
“Treason managed to tire;
Friends and friendship are tired.
Such a worldview determines the special significance of the actions of heroes in the lives of other people: both of them, according to Pechorin’s different expression, play the role of “axes in the hands of fate”, cause suffering to people with whom their fate confronts. Lensky dies in a duel, Tatyana suffers; similarly, Grushnitsky dies, Bela dies, the good Maksim Maksimych is offended, the way of smugglers is destroyed, Mary and Vera are unhappy.
The heroes of Pushkin and Lermontov almost equally tend to "assume", "put on a mask".
Another similarity between these heroes is that they embody the type of intellectual character who is characterized by eccentricity of judgment, dissatisfaction with himself, a penchant for irony - everything that Pushkin brilliantly defines as "a sharp, chilled mind." In this regard, there is a direct echo of Pushkin's and Lermontov's novels.
However, there are clear differences between the characters of these characters and the means of their artistic representation in both novels.
So what's the difference? If Pechorin is characterized by an unlimited need for freedom and a constant desire to “subordinate to his will what surrounds him”, “to arouse feelings of love, devotion and fear for himself”, then Onegin does not strive for constant self-affirmation at the expense of other people, takes a more passive position.
Pechorin's worldview is also distinguished by great cynicism, some disregard for people.
Onegin is characterized by spiritual apathy, indifference to the world around him. He is incapable of actively transforming reality and, “having lived without a goal, without labor until the age of twenty-six, ... he didn’t know how to do anything”, “stubborn work was sickening to him”. This hero, unlike Pechorin, is less consistent in his principles.
So, in a comparative analysis of Pushkin's and Lermontov's works, one can distinguish both common and different in the images of these heroes and the ways of their artistic embodiment. Onegin and Pechorin are typical heroes of their time and at the same time universal human types. However, if Pushkin is more interested in the socio-historical aspect of the problem of the "superfluous person", then Lermontov is concerned with the psychological and philosophical aspects of this issue.
The artistic evolution of the “superfluous person” in Russian classical literature continues primarily in the images of Oblomov and Rudin in the novels of the same name by Goncharov and Turgenev, which reflect the historical changes of this human type.

(1 option)

"Eugene Onegin" and "A Hero of Our Time" are the main milestones in the development of Russian literature of the 19th century. These are the best works of two true geniuses of Russia: A.S. Pushkin and M.Yu. Lermontov. The novels amaze readers and literary critics not only with the grandiosity of the idea, but also with their innovation. It manifests itself primarily in the disclosure of the images of the two main characters. For the first time Pushkin wrote a realistic novel in verse. It was like a revolution. The poet was worried about his creation, realizing that not all people can

Appreciate a work that was ahead of its time. These experiences were not unfounded. Even many of Pushkin's friends could not understand the genius of the concept of the work.

M.Yu. Lermontov went even further in his creative quest. The novel he created was not realistic, like Pushkin's, but combined the features of two currents. And this brilliant work was not appreciated by critics and contemporaries.

First of all, the innovation of the two novels lies in the new characters for the literature of that time. Subsequently, this type was called "an extra person." This concept implies a romantic, then a realistic image of a young man, a nobleman, smart, educated and interesting, but far from real life, disappointed, inactive, alien to his contemporaries. The gallery of these characters opens with Onegin, followed by Pechorin.

The time of the appearance of such characters is the 1830s, a period of decline. After the Decembrist uprising and the accession of Nicholas I, a cruel, reactionary politician, the public life of Russia calmed down for a long time. A new social phenomenon appeared - young people who had everything except happiness and a sense of the significance of their personality. Their suffering and quest were embodied in novels about Onegin and Pechorin, the heroes of their time.

Despite the seeming dissimilarity of the two works, their plot is built in the same way: the hero goes through some kind of test, his character is revealed depending on the situation.

Undoubtedly, the main test for both Onegin and Pechorin is the test of love.

Onegin, like Pechorin, at the beginning of the novel appears as a conqueror of other people's hearts, "a fickle admirer of charming actresses." He was not interested in deep feelings, he did not seek love for life, to the grave, but only cynically sought the adoration of pretty girls, and, having achieved it, quickly abandoned them, not thinking about the suffering caused. It was his cure for boredom.

How early could he be hypocritical,

Hold hope, be jealous

disbelieve, make believe

To seem gloomy, to languish,

Be proud and obedient

Attentive or indifferent!

In the "science of tender passion" Onegin clearly succeeded.

So, Onegin is a life-burner. But then he meets Tatyana. He manages to easily conquer this provincial young lady. She does not shine with beauty, and her soul is darkness for a windmill. And Eugene here simply plays the role of a mentor, teaches the girl how to live. But, having returned from the journey, having experienced a moral upheaval and purification, he looks at Tatyana with different eyes. Onegin falls in love with her, completely loses his head, and not because Tatyana has changed (she remained the same in her soul), but because Evgeny himself has undergone profound changes, he has grown spiritually, has become worthy of Tatyana. But Onegin was late, she is married and will be "faithful to him for a century." And this is a clear illustration of the tragedy of the "superfluous person", his "miserable lot".

Pechorin repeats the fate of Onegin. He also wanders aimlessly through life, trying to find himself, also for some reason seeks the love of women, and then leaves them. Onegin sees that Tatyana has become his victim, but it's too late. Pechorin could also prevent the tragedy of Bela and Mary, but did not want to. He also played with the fate of Vera, but she turned out to be stronger than him - and here he is, crushed and humiliated, crying about lost happiness.

In the romantic "Hero of Our Time" there is no single female image. We recognize Tatyana's traits in Bela, and in Mary, and in Vera. And thus, the love of the hero is more multifaceted and expressive.

The attitude of the characters towards friendship is no less expressively described. Lermontov again lacks unambiguity, Lensky is embodied in Grushnitsky, and in Werner, and even in Maxim Maksimych. However, a comparison of Lensky and Grushnitsky suggests itself. Pechorin and Grushnitsky are also "nothing to do friends." The plot line of a duel over a trifle, passion for one beloved of another can also be traced in both works.

It is impossible not to mention the moral quests of Onegin and Pechorin, because they are both involuntarily alien to the high society, to the society to which they should belong. Onegin travels in Russia, Pechorin in the Caucasus, both of them are trying to find the meaning and purpose of their existence in these travels. They drag women, make them suffer, shoot duels, break people's lives, without knowing why. In the end, their fate is unenviable.

Both Onegin and Pechorin are real "heroes of time". They are very similar to each other, and their tragedies are similar. In the whole world there is no shelter for them, they are destined to suffer all their lives and seek peace. Such is the fate of superfluous people.

(Option 2)

Probably, starting his novel, Lermontov thought that his main character would remind readers of the existence of Pushkin's Onegin. The undoubted similarity of the images of Eugene Onegin and Grigory Pechorin was noted by one of the first V. G. Belinsky. "Their dissimilarity among themselves is much less than the distance between Onega and Pechora ... Pechorin is the Onegin of our time," the critic wrote.

The lifetime of the characters is different. Onegin lived in the era of Decembrism, free-thinking, rebellions. Pechorin is the hero of the era of timelessness. Common to the great works of Pushkin and Lermontov is the depiction of the spiritual crisis of the noble intelligentsia. The best representatives of this class turned out to be dissatisfied with life, removed from social activities. They had no choice but to waste their strength aimlessly, turning into "superfluous people."

The formation of characters, the conditions for the education of Onegin and Pechorin, no doubt, are similar. These are people of the same circle. The similarity of the heroes lies in the fact that both of them have gone from agreement with society and themselves to the denial of light and deep dissatisfaction with life.

“But early on, his feelings cooled down,” Pushkin writes about Onegin, who “fell ill” with “Russian melancholy. Pechorin also very early “... despair was born, covered with courtesy and a good-natured smile.”

They were well-read and educated people, which put them above the rest of the young people of their circle. Education and natural curiosity of Onegin is found in his disputes with Lensky. One list of topics worth it:

Tribes of past treaties,

The fruits of science, good and evil,

And age-old prejudices

And fatal secrets of the coffin,

Fate and life...

Evidence of Onegin's high education is his extensive personal library. Pechorin, on the other hand, said this about himself: "I began to read, study - science was also tired." Possessing remarkable abilities, spiritual needs, both failed to realize themselves in life and squandered it for nothing.

In their youth, both heroes were fond of carefree secular life, both succeeded in the "science of tender passion", in the knowledge of "Russian young ladies". Pechorin says about himself: "... when I got to know a woman, I always unmistakably guessed whether she would love me ... I never became a slave to my beloved woman, on the contrary, I always acquired invincible power over their will and heart ... Is that why I never really I value ... "Neither the love of the beautiful Bela, nor the serious enthusiasm of the young Princess Mary could melt the coldness and rationality of Pechorin. It only brings misfortune to women.

The love of the inexperienced, naive Tatyana Larina also leaves Onegin indifferent at first. But later, our hero, at a new meeting with Tatyana, now a secular lady and a general, realizes that he has lost in the face of this extraordinary woman. Pechorin, it turns out, is not at all capable of a great feeling. In his opinion, "love is satiated pride."

Both Onegin and Pechorin value their freedom. Eugene writes in his letter to Tatyana:

Your hateful freedom

I didn't want to lose.

Pechorin bluntly declares: "... twenty times my life, I will even put my honor at stake, but I will not sell my freedom."

The indifference to people inherent in both, disappointment and boredom affect their attitude towards friendship. Onegin is friends with Lensky "there is nothing to do." And Pechorin says: “... I am not capable of friendship: of two friends, one is always the slave of the other, although often neither of them admits this to himself; I cannot be a slave, and commanding in this case is tedious work, because it is necessary along with this, to deceive ... "And he demonstrates this in his cold attitude towards Maxim Maksimych. The words of the old staff captain sound helplessly: "I have always said that there is no use in someone who forgets old friends! .."

Both Onegin and Pechorin, disappointed in the life around them, are critical of the empty and idle "secular mob". But Onegin is afraid of public opinion, accepting Lensky's challenge to a duel. Pechorin, shooting with Grushnitsky, takes revenge on society for unfulfilled hopes. In essence, the same evil trick led the heroes to the duel. Onegin "swore Lensky to infuriate and even take revenge" for a boring evening at the Larins. Pechorin says the following: "I lied, but I wanted to defeat him. I have an innate passion to contradict, my whole life has been only a tribute to sad and unsuccessful contradictions to the heart or mind ..."

The tragedy of feeling one's own uselessness is deepened in both by an understanding of the uselessness of one's life. Pushkin bitterly exclaims about this:

But it's sad to think that in vain

We were given youth

What cheated on her all the time,

That she deceived us

That our best wishes

That our fresh dreams

Decayed in rapid succession,

Like leaves in autumn rotten.

The hero of Lermontov seems to echo him: "My colorless youth passed in the struggle with myself and the light, my best qualities, fearing ridicule, I buried in the depths of my heart: they died there ... Having learned well the light and the springs of life, I became a moral cripple."

Pushkin's words about Onegin, when

Killing a friend in a duel

Having lived without a goal, without labor

Until the age of twenty-six

Languishing in the idleness of leisure,

he "began wandering without a goal," can also be attributed to Pechorin, who also killed a former "friend", and his life continued "without a goal, without labor." Pechorin, during the trip, reflects: "Why did I live? For what purpose was I born?"

Feeling "immense forces in his soul", but completely wasting them in vain, Pechorin seeks death and finds it "from a random bullet on the roads of Persia." Onegin, at the age of twenty-six, was also "hopelessly tired of life." He exclaims:

Why am I not pierced by a bullet,

Why am I not a sickly old man? ..

Comparing the description of the life of the heroes, one can be convinced that Pechorin is a more active person with demonic features. "To be the cause of suffering and joy for someone, without having any positive right to do so - is this not the sweetest food of our pride?" - says the hero of Lermontov. As a person, Onegin remains a mystery to us. No wonder Pushkin characterizes him like this:

A sad and dangerous eccentric,

Creation of hell or heaven

This angel, this arrogant demon,

What is he? Is it an imitation

An insignificant ghost?

Both Onegin and Pechorin are selfish, but thinking and suffering heroes. Despising the idle secular existence, they do not find ways and opportunities to freely, creatively resist it. In the tragic outcomes of the individual fates of Onegin and Pechorin, the tragedy of "superfluous people" shines through. The tragedy of the "superfluous man", in whatever era he appears, is at the same time the tragedy of the society that gave birth to him.

The undoubted similarity of the images of Eugene Onegin and Grigory Pechorin was noted by one of the first V.G. Belinsky. “Their dissimilarity among themselves is much less than the distance between Onega and Pechora ... Pechorin is the Onegin of our time,” the critic wrote.

“But sooner the feelings in him cooled down,” Pushkin writes about Onegin, who “fell ill” with the “Russian melancholy.” Pechorin is also very early "... despair was born, covered with courtesy and a good-natured smile."

... Tribes of past treaties,

The fruits of science, good and evil,

And age-old prejudices

And fatal secrets of the coffin,

Fate and life...

Evidence of Onegin's high education is his extensive personal library. Pechorin said this about himself: "I began to read, study - science was also tired." Possessing remarkable abilities, spiritual needs, both failed to realize themselves in life and squandered it for nothing.

In their youth, both heroes were fond of carefree secular life, both succeeded in the "science of tender passion", in the knowledge of "Russian young ladies". Pechorin says about himself: “... when I got to know a woman, I always accurately guessed whether she would love me ... I never became a slave to my beloved woman, on the contrary, I always acquired invincible power over their will and heart ... Is that why I never really do not I value ... "Neither the love of the beautiful Bela, nor the serious enthusiasm of the young Princess Mary could melt the coldness and rationality of Pechorin. It only brings misfortune to women.

The love of the inexperienced, naive Tatyana Larina also leaves Onegin indifferent at first. But later, our hero, at a new meeting with Tatyana, now a secular lady and a general, realizes that he has lost in the face of this extraordinary woman. Pechorin is not at all capable of a great feeling. In his opinion, "love is satiated pride."

Both Onegin and Pechorin value their freedom. Eugene writes in his letter to Tatyana:

Your hateful freedom

I didn't want to lose.

Pechorin bluntly declares: "... twenty times my life, I will even put my honor at stake, but I will not sell my freedom."

The indifference to people inherent in both, disappointment and boredom affect their attitude towards friendship. Onegin is friends with Lensky "there is nothing to do." And Pechorin says: “... I am not capable of friendship: of two friends, one is always the slave of the other, although often neither of them admits this to himself; I can’t be a slave, and in this case commanding is tedious work, because you have to deceive along with it ... ”And he demonstrates this in his cold attitude towards Maxim Maksimych. The words of the old staff captain sound helplessly: “I have always said that there is no use in someone who forgets old friends!”

Both Onegin and Pechorin, disappointed in the life around them, are critical of the empty and idle "secular mob". But Onegin is afraid of public opinion, accepting Lensky's challenge to a duel. Pechorin, shooting with Grushnitsky, takes revenge on society for unfulfilled hopes. In essence, the same evil trick led the heroes to the duel. Onegin "swore Lensky to infuriate and take revenge in order" for a boring evening at the Larins'. Pechorin says the following: “I lied, but I wanted to defeat him. I have an innate passion to contradict; my whole life has been only a tribute to sad and unfortunate contradictions of heart or mind.

The tragedy of feeling one's own uselessness is deepened in both by an understanding of the uselessness of one's life. Pushkin bitterly exclaims about this:

But it's sad to think that in vain

We were given youth

What cheated on her all the time,

That she deceived us;

That our best wishes

That our fresh dreams

Decayed in rapid succession,

Like leaves in autumn rotten.

The hero of Lermontov seems to echo him: “My colorless youth passed in the struggle with myself and the world; Fearing ridicule, I buried my best qualities in the depths of my heart: they died there... Knowing well the light and springs of life, I became a moral cripple.

Pushkin's words about Onegin, when

Killing a friend in a duel

Having lived without a goal, without labor

Until the age of twenty-six

Languishing in the idleness of leisure.,

he "began wandering without a goal", can also be attributed to Pechorin, who also killed the former "friend", and his life continued "without a goal, without labor." Pechorin during the trip reflects: “Why did I live? For what purpose was I born?

Feeling "immense forces in his soul", but completely wasting them in vain, Pechorin is looking for death and finds it "from a random bullet on the roads of Persia." Onegin, at the age of twenty-six, was also "hopelessly tired of life." He exclaims:

Why am I not pierced by a bullet,

Why am I not a sickly old man?

Comparing the description of the life of the heroes, one can be convinced that Pechorin is a more active person with demonic features. “To be the cause of suffering and joy for someone, without having any positive right to do so - is this not the sweetest food of our pride?” - says the hero of Lermontov. As a person, Onegin remains a mystery to us. No wonder Pushkin characterizes him like this:

A sad and dangerous eccentric,

Creation of hell or heaven

This angel, this arrogant demon,

What is he? Is it an imitation

An insignificant ghost?

onegin image pechorin intelligentsia

Both Onegin and Pechorin are selfish, but thinking and suffering heroes. Despising the idle secular existence, they do not find ways and opportunities to freely, creatively resist it. In the tragic outcomes of the individual fates of Onegin and Pechorin, the tragedy of "superfluous people" shines through. The tragedy of the “superfluous person”, in whatever era he appears, is at the same time the tragedy of the society that gave birth to him.

In Russian literature of the 19th century, the images of Eugene Onegin and Pechorin became symbols of the era. They combined the typical features of the representatives of the nobility with outstanding personal qualities, deep intellect and strength of character, which, alas, could not be used in the conditions of a deep moral crisis that became the main sign of the times in the 30s and 40s. Misunderstood in their circle, superfluous, they wasted their strength in vain, never being able to overcome the moral deafness of their contemporaries and the pettiness of public opinion, which was considered the main measure of human values in high society. Despite their similarities, Onegin and Pechorin are endowed with bright individual traits, thanks to which modern readers also show interest in these literary heroes.

Definition

Pechorin- the protagonist of the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time", a Russian nobleman, an officer who, on duty, ended up in the war zone in the Caucasus. The originality of the personality of this literary hero caused a sharp controversy among critics and the keen interest of contemporaneous readers.

Onegin- the main character of the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin", written by A. S. Pushkin. Onegin belongs to the noble aristocracy. His biography, according to V. G. Belinsky, became an encyclopedia of Russian life in the first half of the 19th century.

Comparison

The first chapters of "Eugene Onegin" were published by A. S. Pushkin in 1825. Readers met Pechorin in 1840. The slight difference in the time of creation of these literary images, nevertheless, was of fundamental importance for the disclosure of their personal qualities, which contemporaries perceived as a reflection of deep social processes.

At the beginning of the novel, Onegin is a secular dandy. He is rich, educated and constantly under the scrutiny of high society. Tired of idleness, Eugene makes an attempt to take up a serious matter: the reform of the economy, which he inherited. The novelty of village life turned into boredom for him: the lack of the habit of working gave rise to spleen, and all the undertakings of the learned economist came to naught.

The drama of Onegin is in the futility of his own forces and the meaninglessness of the way of life, which was imposed by public opinion and accepted by the hero as a standard, beyond which he did not dare to step. The duel with Lensky, the difficult relationship with Tatyana Larina are the result of a deep moral dependence on the opinions of the world, which played a paramount role in Onegin's fate.

Pechorin, unlike Onegin, is not so rich and noble. He serves in the Caucasus, in a place of dangerous military operations, showing miracles of courage, demonstrating endurance and strength of character. But its main feature, repeatedly emphasized in the novel, is the dual inconsistency of spiritual nobility and selfishness, bordering on cruelty.

The reader learns about Onegin's personality from the narrator's remarks and Tatiana Larina's observations. The narrator and Maxim Maksimych express judgments about Pechorin. But his inner world is fully revealed in the diary - the bitter confession of a man who could not find his place in life.

Pechorin's diary entries are the philosophy of the Byronic hero. His duel with Grushnitsky is a kind of revenge on secular society for heartlessness and passion for intrigue.

In the confrontation with the light, Pechorin, like Onegin, is defeated. Forces without application, life without a goal, inability to love and friendship, secular tinsel instead of serving a high goal - these motives in "Eugene Onegin" and "A Hero of Our Time" have a common sound.

Findings site

Pechorin became a hero of his time: the second half of the 30s of the XIX century, marked by a deep social crisis after the events associated with the Decembrist movement in Russia.
Onegin is a literary hero who could devote his life to democratic transformations in society, but due to his personal qualities he became a hostage of high society.
Pechorin understands the worthlessness of his own existence and tries to change it: at the end of the novel, he leaves Russia.
Onegin does not seek to change anything in his fate: all his actions are a consequence of the circumstances.
Pechorin is able to objectively evaluate himself and honestly admits his passions and vices.
Onegin understands his own imperfection, but he is not able to analyze his own actions and their consequences.

COMPARATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF ONEGIN AND PECHORIN

(Advanced people of the 19th century)

My life, where are you going and where?

Why is my path so obscure and mysterious to me?

Why do I not know the purpose of labor?

Why am I not the master of my desires?

Pushkin worked on the novel "Eugene Onegin" for many years, it was his favorite work. Belinsky called in his article "Eugene Onegin" this work "an encyclopedia of Russian life." Indeed, this novel gives a picture of all strata of Russian life: the high society, the small estate nobility, and the people - Pushkin studied the life of all strata of society in the early 19th century well. During the years of the creation of the novel, Pushkin had to go through a lot, lose many friends, experience bitterness from the death of the best people in Russia. The novel was for the poet, in his words, the fruit of "the mind of cold observations and the heart of sad remarks." Against the broad background of Russian pictures of life, the dramatic fate of the best people, the advanced noble intelligentsia of the Decembrist era, is shown.

Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time" would have been impossible without Onegin, because the realistic novel created by Pushkin opened the first page in the history of the great Russian novel of the 19th century.

Pushkin embodied in the image of Onegin many of those features that were later deployed in individual characters of Lermontov, Turgenev, Herzen, Goncharov. Eugene Onegin and Pechorin are very similar in character, both of them are from a secular environment, they received a good upbringing, they are at a higher stage of development, hence their melancholy, blues and dissatisfaction. All this is characteristic of more subtle and more developed souls. Pushkin writes about Onegin: "The blues was waiting for him on guard, and she ran after him, like a shadow or a faithful wife." The secular society in which Onegin moved, and later Pechorin, spoiled them. It did not require knowledge, a superficial education was enough, more important was the knowledge of the French language and good manners. Eugene, like everyone else, "danced the mazurka easily and bowed at ease." He spends his best years, like most people of his circle, on balls, theaters and love interests. Pechorin leads the same way of life. Very soon, both begin to understand that this life is empty, that nothing is worth behind the "external tinsel", boredom, slander, envy reign in the world, people spend the inner forces of the soul on gossip and anger. Petty fuss, empty talk of "necessary fools", spiritual emptiness make the life of these people monotonous, outwardly dazzling, but devoid of internal "content. Idleness, lack of high interests vulgarize their existence. A day is like a day, there is no need to work, there are few impressions, therefore the most intelligent and the best fall ill with nostalgia. They essentially do not know their homeland and people. Onegin "wanted to write, but hard work was sickening to him ...", he also did not find the answer to his questions in books. Onegin is smart and could benefit society , but the lack of need for labor is the reason that he does not find something to his liking. He suffers from this, realizing that the upper stratum of society lives off the slave labor of serfs. Serfdom was a disgrace to Tsarist Russia. Onegin in the village tried to alleviate the position of his serfs ("... with a yoke he replaced the old quitrent with a light one ..."), for which he was condemned by his neighbors, who considered him an eccentric and dangerous " freethinker." Pechorin is also not understood by many. In order to reveal the character of his hero more deeply, Lermontov places him in a variety of social spheres, confronts him with a wide variety of people. When a separate edition of A Hero of Our Time was published, it became clear that before Lermontov there had been no Russian realistic novel. Belinsky pointed out that "Princess Mary" is one of the main stories in the novel. In this story, Pechorin talks about himself, reveals his soul. Here, the features of "A Hero of Our Time" as a psychological novel were most pronounced. In Pechorin's diary, we find his sincere confession, in which he reveals his thoughts and feelings, mercilessly scourging his inherent weaknesses and vices: Here is a clue to his character and an explanation of his actions. Pechorin is a victim of his hard time. The character of Pechorin is complex and contradictory. He talks about himself; “There are two people in me: one lives, in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges him.” In the image of Pechorin, the character traits of the author himself are visible, but Lermontov was wider and deeper than his hero. Pechorin is closely associated with advanced social thought, but he considers himself among the miserable descendants who roam the earth without conviction or pride. "We are not capable of greater sacrifices, either for the good of mankind or for our own happiness," says Pechorin. He lost faith in people, his disbelief in ideas, skepticism and undoubted egoism - the result of the era that came after December 14, the era of moral decay, cowardice and vulgarity of the secular society in which Pechorin moved. The main task that Lermontov set himself was to sketch the image of a contemporary young man. Lermontov poses the problem of a strong personality, so unlike the noble society of the 30s.

Belinsky wrote that "Pechorin is the Onegin of our time." The novel "A Hero of Our Time" is a bitter reflection on the "history of the human soul", a soul ruined by the "brilliance of a deceitful capital", seeking and not finding friendship, love, happiness. Pechorin is a suffering egoist. About Onegin, Belinsky wrote: "The forces of this rich nature were left without application: life without meaning, and the novel without end." The same can be said about Pechorin. Comparing the two heroes, he wrote: "... There is a difference in the roads, but the result is the same." With all the difference in appearance and the difference in characters and Onegin; both Pechorin and Chatsky belong to the gallery of "superfluous people for whom there was neither place nor business in the surrounding society. The desire to find one's place in life, to understand the "great purpose" is the main meaning of the novel of Lermontov's lyrics. Are not these reflections occupied by Pechorin , lead him to a painful answer to the question: “Why did I live?” This question can be answered with the words of Lermontov: “Perhaps, with heavenly thought and fortitude, I am convinced that I would give the world a wonderful gift, and for that - immortality he ... "In Lermontov's lyrics and Pechorin's thoughts, we meet the sad recognition that people are skinny fruits that have ripened before time. in "A Hero of Our Time" we so clearly hear the voice of the poet, the breath of his time. Depicted the fate of his heroes, typical of their generation? Pushkin and Lermontov protest against reality, which forces people to waste their energy for nothing s.