A Hero of Our Time Summary Sample

How come Mikhail Lermontov Calls Pechorin “A Hero of Our Time? ”

Mikhail Lermontov’s “A Hero of Our Time” gift ideas various perspectives on the controversial main character Pechorin. Pechorin embodies a mixture of negative, anti-heroic characteristics like manipulation of other people’s emotions and fates, narcissism, arrogance. Despite such unpleasant mix of personal characteristics, it is Pechorin who Lermontov refers to since the “hero” of his time, causing wide debates concerning the deeper meaning and legacy of the novel. The true reason behind Lermontov’s naming decision was irony. Although initially there might have already been a simple misunderstanding of the word “hero” by the readers, it soon became obvious that readers’ perception of the actual antagonist as the “hero” only underlined the rotten moral compass of Lermontov’s generation.

The novel gives different views at Pechorin from the positions of varied people, like the perspective from his own diary. As the reader gets to learn about Pechorin’s personality further into the novel, it becomes clear that moral orientation of this person is not quite appealing. Pechorin is considered by most critics as the Byronic hero, who's bored of life and searches for other ways to fulfill this existential emptiness (Winter). His friend Maksim Maximych describes Pechorin being an impulsive and manipulative person, although that he likes his company. It really is clear from Pechorin’s diary that he realizes his manipulative traits. More over, Pechorin knows that his wealthy heritage, handsome look, and capability to charm people combined help him bring chaos in to other people’s’ lives. Pechorin takes pleasure from searching romantic and active adventures for himself and mixing his close people in his seemingly chaotic and wild approach to life. In other words, Pechorin seems like a destructive, selfish, and arrogant individual who brings pain and misery not merely into other people’s lives but their own life too.

Lermontov’s original idea may have lied in depicting a character who would have embodied the vices and unfortunate faculties of his generation, of his time. It seems that even the word “hero” in the name of the novel had no classical, romantic sense of heroism. In the Russian language, “hero” can also mean “character. ” The wrong, “heroic” connotation of Pechorin’s character became so wide that Lermontov felt the need to write a preface for the 2nd edition of the novel. In the preface, mcdougal claimed that Pechorin had emerged as “a composite of all the vices of our generation in the fullness of their development” (Lermontov, 2). Therefore , the first meaning of the “hero” label meant that Pechorin was a gathered, typical character of Lermontov’s generation. Although the novel is not social, the central character does possess a symbolic representation of issues of an entire social category of the midst of 19th century Russia (Bagby, 121). In this instance, the look for traditional heroic patterns in Pechorin’s character was simply the resulted of mane readers who left misled by the name. The heroic reception of Pechorin, a completely antagonistic character, by Lermontov’s contemporaries only highlights the ironic nature of the novel’s name.

We can not know for certain whether there is Lermontov’s initial irony behind the “heroic” interpretation of Pechorin’s character. However , in his preface, Lermontov was upset that readers had “unfortunate faith […] in the literal meaning of words, ” leading to an indicator that his original intent was to create the irony into the name of the novel (Lermontov, 1). Still, the fact that readers sincerely sought out heroic attributions in the novel’s antagonist, the character, who symbolized the exactly opposite to heroic traits, fills the name of the novel with ironic meaning. Lermontov’s contemporaries saw their very own vices in Pechorin and because of referring themselves to him, felt empathetic toward the “hero, ” certainly searching for a perspective that could make him a heroic character. This narcissism and lack of need to get rid of one’s negative traits that Lermontov saw in his generation only intensifies the general public reception of Pechorin’s character. Therefore , such misreading by the contemporaries of Lermontov only meant that he reached somewhere really deep, that his character was, actually , a mirror for many people who lacked self-reflective trait to see how these were trying to justify Pechorin’s multiple and apparent vices. In cases like this, Lermontov called Pechorin the “hero” of his time and energy to underline ridiculousness and unworthiness of the primary character to be considered as a true hero.

“A Hero of Our Time” remains an exceptionally important literacy work for the annals of world’s literature. The values and ideas that it carries are as controversial as its main character, Pechorin. Although the name of the novel identifies him because the “hero, ” it is pretty clear there is nothing heroic in the original understanding of this word. Alternatively, Lermontov either planned to simply depict his generation’s vices in one character, utilizing the word “hero” in its “character” meaning, or intentionally misled the reader with regard to irony. In virtually any of these cases, Lermontov didn't perceive Pechorin as a hero. Contrastingly, he imagined this antagonist as an embodiment of bad habits of Lermontov’s generation, making the fact that for most readers Pechorin was a source of heroism even more ironic.

Works Cited

Bagby, Lewis. Lermontov’s “A Hero Of Our Time”: A crucial Companion. Northwestern University Press, 2002. Print.
Lermontov, Mikhail. A Hero Of Our Time. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday: N. p., 1958. Print.
Cold weather, Anna. “A Hero Of Our Time By Mikhail Lermontov. ” The Guardian 2010. Web. 20 Sept. 2017.