A Hero of Our Time - Gregoriy Pechorin is No Hero
Is Pechorin, the protagonist of Mikhail Lermontov's novella A Hero of Our Time an honorable man? Much of Pechorin's behavior proves him to be a cruel and insensitive man, who seems to bring only havoc and destruction to a situation. He is often aggravating, self-serving and insensitive to others. However in other instances, Pechorin proves himself to be the least reprehensible character. He shows himself to be a man with great self knowledge and knowledge of human behavior.
Pechorin can be seen as a dangerous man, who is insensitive and manipulative to others for self-serving reasons to the point of their destruction. Over the course of this book, A Hero of Our Time, Pechorin plays a major role, whether intentionally or recklessly, in the cruel destruction of four secondary
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In many situations, Pechorin proves himself to be a man capable of honest feelings of love and sympathy. Pechorin feels a "desperate pang of sadness" (105) when he remembers Vera, the woman he once loved and feels understood by. "A long forgotten thrill passed through my body at the sound of that (Vera's) sweet voice. Her deep tranquil eyes look straight into mine" (110) Pechorin writes, describing their reunion. When they part, Pechorin recalls, "I felt a pang in my heart as I did our first parting. How I rejoiced to feel it. Was it youth coming back to me with all it's healthy passion ..." (112), suggesting he embraces such pure feelings. His affection for Vera is so strong, that he asks himself, however cynically, "Perhaps I've fallen in love myself? No, that's nonsense." (138) The thought of not being able to see Vera one last time and say goodbye causes Pechorin to react emotionally and weep "like a child...weeping bitterly, not attempting to hold back the tears and sobs...All my coolness and self-control vanished, my heart wilted, reason desserts me."
A hero is a person that has acquired admiration from others for their dignified qualities. Heroes can be found everywhere, but there is one particular hero from the book Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease that looms in the crowd. The story is told from the perspective of a 14-year old boy from Cumberland named Peter Brownrigg. As Peter wanders through sixteenth century England, we quickly discover that he is a hero. His actions of bravery, determination, and intelligence throughout the novel clearly demonstrate this matter.
He regards himself as a fraud. These insecurities are the foundation of Proctors character development into an anti-hero.
Heroes in literature and history, more often than not, meet tragic ends, unless they were created by Walt Disney. These particular people are often seen as someone who is apart from the masses in morals and attempt to accomplish a higher calling for the common good. The problem with this type of hero is that they are destined for suffering.Two such characters exist in classic literature, Winston Smith of George Orwell’s 1984 and Hamlet of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.” Hamlet is the true classic tragic hero, though, because he is of noble birth, possesses high moral standards, completes the task he is given to better the world, and causes tragedy in both his life and the lives of others.
During Russia’s transition to communism in the early 20th century, conflict and unease permeated every part of life. Nothing was stable and very little of what the Bolsheviks had fought for had come to fruition by the time the USSR disbanded in 1991. The “classless society”, which was to work together for the prosperity of everyone, never became a reality. In the end, the majority of Russia’s 20th century was an utter failure on a grand scale. However, there were many amazing products of the system do to the great importance of education in Russian culture. Priceless novels were written, timeless movies were made, and great scientific endeavors were realized despite the rigid control placed upon Russian persons by the government. In fact, some of the most memorable written works of the time were written protests to the creativity-stifling situation many writers found themselves in. Because of the danger to their lives should the wrong people be upset by their writings, Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov wrote their most popular, Soviet-life condemning novels under the guise of satire. Even though they’re satirizing the same subject, in both We and The Master and Margarita respectively, they take very different paths to do so.
First, Dostoevsky gives the reader the character, Raskolnokov. He is the main character, whom Fyodor uses to show two sides of people their admirable side and their disgusting side. He loves Raskolnokov, which is why Fyodor uses Raskolnokov’s point of view throughout the whole novel. Personally, Fyodor dislikes some of his qualities but understands that all people are plagued with some bad traits, and that Raskolnokv is trying to make emends for some of his wrong doings, i.e. the murder of the pawnbroker and her sister. He knows that what he did was wrong and is willing to suffer for his crime, and he does throughout the whole book with his constant depression. Dostoesky believes in punishment for your crimes, this is why he shows Raskolnokov suffering through most of the novel, to show his great love for penance. Dostoevsky likes the kind giving nature of people; this is why he portrays the main character as a kind, gentle, and giving, person. Often, Raskolnokov thinks only of others benefits such as when he helped Katerina by giving her all his money for Marmelodov, as well as his caring about what happens to his sister with her marriage to Luzhin. Raskolnokov hates Luzhin’s arrogant and pompous attitude, which reflects Dostoevsky’s animosity of the same qualities in people in the real world.
Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, took the time to inform the world about his experiences as a prisoner of Auschwitz during the Holocaust in order for it to never happen again. Wiesel uses a language so unbearably painful yet so powerful to depict his on memories of the Holocaust in order to convey the horrors he managed to survive through. When the memoir begins, Elie Wiesel, a jewish teenager living in the town of Sighet, Transylvania is forced out of his home. Despite warnings from Moshe the Beadle about German prosecutions of Jews, Wiesel’s family and the other townspeople fail to flee the country before the German’s invade. As a result, the entire Jewish population is sent to concentration camps. There, in the Auschwitz death camp, Wiesel is separated from his mother and younger sister but remains with his father. As he struggles to survive against starvation, physical, emotional and spiritual abuse he also looses faith in God. As weeks and months pass, Wiesel battles a conflict between fighting to live for his father or letting him die, giving himself the best chance of survival. Over the course of the memoir, Wiesel’s father dies and he is left with a guilty conscience but a relieved heart because now he can just fend for himself and only himself. A few months later, the Allied soldiers free the lucky prisoners that are left. Although Wiesel survives the concentration camps, he leaves behind his own innocence and is forever haunted by the death and violence he had witnessed. Wiesel and the rest of the prisoners lived in fear every minute of every hour of every day and had to live in a place where there was not one single place that there was no danger of death. After reading Night and Wiesel’s acceptance speech of the Nobe...
Infatuation causes Helena to lose all sense of dignity, as can be seen when in the woods, she desperately pleads with Demetrius to ?but treat me as your spaniel?. Here, Helena also becomes irrational, obsessed with pursuing Demetrius, though it is obvious that Demetrius is fixated on winning Hermia?s hand in marriage. Helena?s infatuation also causes her to see things from a skewed perspective, for she falsely believes that when she divulges Hermia?s plans for eloping with Lysander, Demetrius? love for Helena will rekindle. As the audience, we know that the most probable course of action for Demetrius upon hearing such news is to pursue Lysander and Hermia, or to report them to Theseus or Egeus. Clearly, infatuation has clouded Helena?s ability to think clearly, and she sees things in her own idealistic way.
...the horrific incident of his murder to his dearest Porphyria. Finally, the employment of the clever use of irony serves in proving the persona’s inner madness, as what he thinks and does is contrary to what Porphyria has done earlier prior to her death. Though the persona’s execution of his late lover was done to keep his everlasting moment of intimacy with her, the act was still malevolent and evil, and was a poor and foolish attempt in displaying his own affection for his love. In the end, it greatly epitomized his greediness over keeping Porphyria to himself, and his cruelty by taking away her life for his own benefit.
Nietzsche starts by laying out the famous example of the madman screaming, “God is dead.” The madman exclaims that humanity doesn’t understand what it has done. They have killed god and they don’t seem to mind, they can’t see the consequences yet. He states that he thinks he has come too early and that this is just the beginning of the problem. This passage introduces the idea of a loss of religious fate in humanity. The madman has a negative outlook on this event, questioning what is next to come. Historically religion se...
The aristocratic women or rather the “mothers” enjoy the benefits of wealth and high society and use their perspective abilities to influence men. These women portray three very different kinds of female roles. Arina Barzarova the selfless caretaker, Evdoksya Kukshina the independent feminist, and Anna Odintsova who is both guardian and liberal, but all maintain emotional, social, and romantic control over the men in their lives. Arina Vlasevna Bazarova, the overly emotional mother of Enyushka Bazarova, is an intensely superstitious woman who “believed in all manner of omens, soothsayings, incantations, and pr...
He uses them for amusement(Bela), to satisfy his ego(Vera), and to attack other men(Princess Mary) For instance, in ‘Princess Mary’, Pechorin talks about his “colorless youth” , to make Mary feel sympathetic towards him so he can exploit her. The detail and technicality of the story he told her, clearly demonstrates his special intellect and keen observation, in tandem with the theme of Romanticism. Additionally, he objectifies these women involuntarily, metaphorically comparing them to different animals, “There was a good deal of breeding in her…Breeding in woman, as in horses, is a great thing: a discovery”(Lermontov 75), “hid herself frightened out through the thicket” (Lermontov 76), “like a snake, she gilded from between my arms”(Lermontov 77), “but she clung like a cat” (Lermontov 78), “her serpent-like nature” (Lermontov 78) . Here Pechorin degrades women by comparing them to animals and uses possessive pronouns
Humanity, according to Nietzsche, is infected by an illness. It is the kind of illness that has infected every single man, religious or non-religious alike. It is his aim to release his readers from the illness. In much the same way as a doctor, he wishes to do so by primarily sourcing the cause of the illness, and secondly by diagnosing it. It is Nietzsche’s belief that this metaphoric illness is morality.
Hansen, Bruce. “Dostoevsky’s Theodicy.” Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1996. At . accessed 18 November 2001.
In the second part of this essay expanding upon my reading of nineteenth century Russian authors, the short stories of Anton Chekhov, “The Lady with the White Dog” and the “Medical Case” will be compared. These two great authors’ whose stylistic qualities often create problems in interpretation for non-Russian speaking readers like me that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.
In this essay we will embrace Nietzsche’s philosophy for the sake of the fact that he proposed that God is dead, life is worthless, and fate ultimately surpasses faith. In the end, he provided for many, an alternative philosophy of life that became life affirming. On the other end, the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche has many diversions, for a countless number of reasons. Undoubtedly, most of those in disagreement to Nietzsche’s philosophy base their objections on a misperceived threat to their unwavering doctrine of religious faith. To make this evident, we begin with one of philosophy’s most argumentative, yet widely misunderstood quotes.