A Hero of Our Time
Most stories have a plot and the characters in them are
serving the plot. “A Hero of Our Time” is the opposite. Whatever plot there is
serve to portrait the lead character. The book is composed of a number of
shorter stories that barely interlink, but has that in common that they tell of
the character in focus, Pechorin, though from different viewpoints.
One is a story told to the main narrator of the book by
Pechorin’s friend, Maxim Maximych, This is a story about a local girl, Bela,
“captured” by Pechorin and then discarded. A second is the narrator and
Maximych meeting with the actual Pechorin. A meeting greatly disappointing to
Maximych. The rest are extracts from Pechorin’s diary “published” by the main
narrator. In these parts, Pechorin is therefore himself the direct narrator and
the perspective is his own. These three stories are in turn his stay in a Black
Sea port where his interference in a smuggling operation leads to the doom of
several locals. The second, and longest, of the stories concerns his stay in a
resort town where Pechorin sabotage his friend’s, Grushnitsky’s, courtship to
the aristocratic Princess Mary by making his own competing courtship, ending in
a duel to the death with Grushnitsky. Finally, there is a short story where
Pechorin meets an officer who believes in fatalism to the point of betting on
it in a game of Russian Roulette.
The actual plots in these segments are, as mentioned, of
less interest. What is of interest is how Pechorin appears in the different
viewpoints.
I cannot say that I myself has made up my mind, neither of
what I think of Pechorin myself, nor indeed what the various observers think of
him. What remains after reading these different stories is a complex character
who is neither good nor bad, but transcends that sort of simplistic categories.
The outside view is indeed puzzled. There is admiration for
his skill and tenacity but also abhorrence for his inconstancy and disrespect.
In the story about Bela, Pechorin seems to have gotten it into his mind to obtain
the pretty daughter, Bela, of a local lord. In the process he ruins the lord’s
son, a local warrior and Bela herself while Pechorin himself seems to tire of
the game and discard it as uninteresting. In the same way, Maximych is discarded
where he thought he was a friend with Pechorin’s confidence,
This nihilism is challenged when Pechorin himself tells his
stories. While they would still appear to be about Pechorin ruining other
people for kicks, there are some deeper layers at play. Pechorin is a victim
himself, but in a complex manner. He navigates in the world both controlled by
his feeling and searching desperately for feelings. He claims he cannot feel
love, yet all he does, he does in a passion. The man without emotions is
entirely guided, indeed commanded by his strong emotions.
I cannot find a good way to describe it. Pechorin is a
character apparently without the loyalties and values the society around him
expects of a man, but at the same time a man with clarity of insight on himself
and integrity for himself that keeps him to a higher standard than most other
people.
Pechorin is both alien, from a conventional point of view
and very familiar from a human point of view and that makes him a fascinating
character and one that i myself has not entirely decoded. The title, A Hero of
Our Time” seems to indicate that he is a product of his time, of his society
and by implication represents a typical character of this environment. In that
case, this is not just a character study but a society study.
It could also be ironically meant. That Pechorin is hardly a
hero and therefore this being a warning against a character type in the
environment.
Either way, this is a fascinating read and one not like
anything I have read before. “Citizen Kane” is probably the closest I can think
of.
Recommended.
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