A Hero of Our Time

Following a political controversy, Lermontov was assigned to a regiment in the Caucasus, where he conceived the inspiration for his best-remembered work, A Hero of Our Time.

Following another two-year sojourn in St. The following year, a few months shy of his twenty-seventh birthday, Lermontov was challenged to a duel by a fellow officer, Nikolay Martynov. Martynov shot him through the heart. A complexly narrated book, A Hero of Our Time is told from three different perspectives: What is different about these three narrative voices?

A Hero of Our Time | Arcola Theatre

Is each narrator able to observe things that the others cannot? How does the reader benefit from being given both interior and exterior views of Pechorin? Seldom has a novel derived more ironic significance from its title than A Hero of Our Time. A Hero of Our Time takes place on an untamed frontier, where an army tries to impose order on what they regard as a lawless, uncivilized native population.

In what other respects might a modern reader find the story reminiscent of an American western? Lermontov describes with great lyricism the wild but beautiful country in which his novel takes place.

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Pechorin is another classic example. Why do you think such characters were so appealing to the imaginations of the Russian authors of this era?

Although Pechorin treats his male friends with disregard, people like Maxim Maximych eagerly seek his company. Although he is scornful of women, both Vera and Princess Mary sincerely love him. How can such a cold, acerbic young man inspire so much affection? At various points in his diary, Pechorin attempts to understand and explain the paradoxes and perversities of his character.

How well does he actually understand himself? On what points does he show awareness, and on what points is he relatively blind? What stands in the way of his achieving a fuller self-knowledge? If so, what depictions of injustice fuel this critique? Does she represent a personification of conscience? Is she an emblem of regret for a road not taken?

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How would the tale be different if she had been excluded from it? Pechorin often compares life to a playing of parts. Suggest some reasons for this choice. Pechorin described his own personality as self-destructive, admitting he himself doesn't understand his purpose in the world of men. His boredom with life, feeling of emptiness, forces him to indulge in all possible pleasures and experiences, which soon, cause the downfall of those closest to him. He starts to realize this with Vera and Grushnitsky, while the tragedy with Bela soon leads to his complete emotional collapse.

His crushed spirit after this and after the duel with Grushnitsky can be interpreted that he is not the detached character that he makes himself out to be.

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Rather, it shows that he suffers from his actions. Yet many of his actions are described both by himself and appear to the reader to be arbitrary. Yet this is strange as Pechorin's intelligence is very high typical of a Byronic hero. Pechorin's explanation as to why his actions are arbitrary can be found in the last chapter where he speculates about fate. He sees his arbitrary behaviour not as being a subconscious reflex to past moments in his life but rather as fate. Pechorin grows dissatisfied with his life as each of his arbitrary actions lead him through more emotional suffering which he represses from the view of others.

A Hero of Our Time , gentlemen, is in fact a portrait, but not of an individual; it is the aggregate of the vices of our whole generation in their fullest expression.

A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Iurevich Lermontov

The Soviets elaborate a complex backstory about how she spotted the file about the English spy during her clerical work at SMERSH headquarters and became smitten with him, making her state that his picture made her think of Lermontov's Pechorin. The fact that Pechorin was all but a 'hero' or even a positive character at all in Lermontov's narration stands to indicate Fleming's wry self-deprecating wit about his most famous creation; the irony is lost, however, on western readers not familiar with Lermontov's work.

In Ingmar Bergman 's film The Silence , the young son is seen reading the book in bed. In the opening sequence of Bergman's next film Persona the same child actor is seen waking in what appears to be a mortuary and reaching for the same book. He does this purely for the satisfaction of gaining control of her emotionally, while never loving her sincerely. He is a modern-day Pechorin.

A Hero of Our Time Reader’s Guide

In Alex Mcsweeney adapted the novel into an English-language playscript. Critics received it positively, generally giving 4- and 5-star reviews. In , German stage director Kateryna Sokolova adapted the novel focusing on its longest novella, Princess Mary. The ballet was choreographed by San Francisco Ballet's Choreographer in Residence, Yuri Possokhov, and directed by Kirill Serebrennikov - who is also the author of the libretto. The score was commissioned purposefully for this production and composed by Ilya Demutsky.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This section is a candidate to be copied to Wikiquote using the Transwiki process. Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, — Basler Zeitung, Basler Zeitung in German. Tages-Anzeiger, Tages-Anzeiger in German. Russian ; published in: A Hero of Our Time. Works by Mikhail Lermontov.