How Pechorin ended up with honest smugglers. Pechorin in the circle of honest smugglers

“And what do I care about human joys and misfortunes?”

M.Yu. Lermontov

Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time” solves a pressing problem: why do people, smart and energetic, not find use for their remarkable abilities and wither without a fight at the very beginning of life? Lermontov answers this question with the life story of Pechorin, young man, belonging to the generation of the 30s. The composition, plot of the work and the entire system of images are subordinated to the task of a comprehensive and deep disclosure of the personality of the hero and the environment that raised him.

The story told in Taman has life basis. Lermontov was in Taman in 1837. He had to stay late waiting for the ship. The old Cossack woman Tsaritsykha mistook Lermontov for a secret spy who wants to detect smugglers. Tsaritsykha’s neighbor was a beautiful Tatar woman, whose husband had dealings with smugglers. And there was a blind boy, Yashka. All life facts appear before us in a different form.

The story "Taman" is an independent work of art and at the same time is part of the novel. It is written in the form of a diary, and this is no accident. If at the beginning of the novel the author strives to show Pechorin’s contradictory actions, then later on the pages of the diary the secret and obvious motives of the hero’s actions are revealed and their reasons are analyzed.

It should be noted that in “Taman” the romantic elation of the narrative is harmoniously combined with a realistic depiction of the characters and life of free smugglers. For example, let’s take the description of Yanko’s portrait: “A man in a Tatar hat came out of the boat, but he had a Cossack haircut, and a large knife was sticking out of his belt.” And this detail (knife) reminds of dangerous profession smuggler. Somehow it is said very simply about Yanko’s prowess. “Well, blind man,” said the female gloss, “the storm is strong. Yanko will not be there." “Yanko is not afraid of the storm,” he answered. Following this dialogue, Lermontov draws a raging sea. “Slowly rising to the ridges of the waves, quickly descending from them, the boat approached the shore.” The description of the raging elements serves as a means of revealing the prowess of Yanko, for whom “everywhere there is a road, where only the wind blows and the sea makes noise.” It is not for the sake of love that he goes to great lengths, but for the sake of profit. His stinginess is amazing: the blind boy receives a small coin as a reward. And Yanko asks the old woman to tell her “that, they say, it’s time to die, I’ve healed, I need to know and honor.” Fate does not bring Pechorin and this “honest” smuggler directly together, but nevertheless Yanko is forced precisely because of him to leave the “inhabited lands.” The heroes of the story are engaged in a dangerous trade - smuggling. Lermontov deliberately does not specify what exactly they are transporting through the strait and what they are taking overseas. “Rich goods”, “the cargo was great” - we don’t know anything else. It is important for Lermontov to create in the reader a feeling of danger, unusual life, full of anxiety.

Let's trace the relationship between Pechorin and the smugglers. Having settled in a hut where it is “unclean,” Pechorin does not even think of being afraid, one might even say he behaves thoughtlessly. On the very first night, he “got up, threw on his beshmet... quietly left the hut, seeing a shadow flash past the window.” Why does he need this alien life? The answer is very simple. Everything is interesting to him, important, he needs to “touch” everything, this is probably what attracts Pechorin’s character. He is young, looking for love. But the mysterious girl lured him into the boat, he “felt her fiery breath on his face” - and at that same moment the “mermaid” threw his pistol into the water. There is no longer an “undine”; there is an enemy with whom we must fight.

To top it all off, the blind boy robbed Pechorin with the girl’s knowledge, and this completely destroys the dreams in which our hero was. Yes, Pechorin is largely to blame: inexperience, inability to understand people. And what were the consequences of the phrase: “What if, for example, I decided to inform the commandant?” And the old woman, and the blind boy, and the girl could not explain Pechorin’s actions other than the desire to “convey to the commandant.” After all, he walks around, looks out, threatens. They don’t understand that he is simply interested in these people, their lives. And this curiosity resulted in Pechorin ruining the lives of the smugglers and, moreover, almost dying himself. And when the blind boy began to cry, when the girl left forever with Yanko, then Pechorin was horrified by what he had done: “And why did fate throw me into a peaceful circle? honest smugglers? Like a stone thrown into a smooth spring, I disturbed their calm, and, like a stone, I almost sank to the bottom myself.”

As for the artistic side of the story “Taman,” it is simply impossible to overestimate it. But I would still like to more specifically define what the work is based on. These are the “three pillars”: accuracy, imagery, expressiveness. And what a selection of “telling details”! For example, Pechorin lists in his travel journal: “... two benches and a table... not a single image on the wall - a bad sign!” Looking at this poor situation, we can say that people live here temporarily, they are ready to leave their uncomfortable shelter at any moment.

Or in the scene of a conversation between a girl and a blind man, we learn that the storm is strong, the fog is getting thicker. It would seem, so what? But this is important for smugglers: you can’t go “on business” in all weathers.

The device of antithesis is interesting in the story. This is how the blind boy imagines the image of Yanko: “Yanko is not afraid of the sea or the wind.” Sort of fairy tale hero, fearless hero. But Pechorin sees Yanko differently: “a man of average height, wearing a Tatar lamb’s cap, came out of the boat,” ordinary person, not at all heroic in appearance.

The technique of combining the sublime and the base in the story is also interesting. Here romance coexists with the prose of life. The mysterious girl reminds Pechorin of a romantic heroine. But the “mermaid” sings her beautiful free song, standing on the roof of a miserable hut. The girl’s words addressed to Pechorin are mysterious, and the lamentations of the blind boy are pitiful: “Where did I go?... With a knot? What a knot!”
If we talk about the plot, it vaguely resembles the plot of “Bela”. A Russian young man meets a local “savage” girl and falls in love with her. The plot is typical for the literature of Lermontov's era. But in Taman everything is unconventional. The girl was supposed to fall in love with the newcomer. But everything turns out to be a trick. Landscape sketches give the story a romantic flavor and, contrasting with the wretchedness of the “unclean place,” open up to the reader a charming world of beauty and bliss.

The composition of the story is unique. The work opens and ends with the hero’s judgments, testifying to the bitterness of the experience gained in this event, about an attempt to be indifferent to the people with whom fate confronts him.

A.P. Chekhov, with all the severity of his assessments, said: “I don’t know the language better than Lermontov…”.

I would like to add on my own that sometimes it becomes sad when, in the modern variety of books, it is very difficult to choose reading for the soul. All this market “reading” that surrounds us everywhere, screams and gets into our eyes, is simply annoying. AND, honestly, one small story “Taman” from “A Hero of Our Time” is already worth all this “book disgrace.”

In any high-quality work, the fate of the heroes is associated with the image of their generation. How could it be otherwise? After all, people reflect the character of their time, they are its “product”. We clearly see this in the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time". Writer using life as an example typical person this era shows the image of an entire generation. Of course, Pechorin is a representative of his time; his fate reflected the tragedy of this generation. M.Yu. Lermontov was the first to create in Russian literature the image of the “lost” […]
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Analysis of the chapter “Taman” of the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time"

Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is one of the most mysterious figures Russian classical literature. Roman M.Yu. Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time" preserves best features his romantic works and stands at the origins of Russian psychological realism. Having set as my task the image of a hero of the time with a strong will and a powerful soul, but with tragic fate, research on negative and positive aspects of his generation, the author creates amazing work. “The history of the human soul is almost more curious and not more useful than history a whole people,” writes Lermontov. Logic psychological analysis the composition of the work, built on a violation of chronology, is subordinated. We learn about Pechorin from the lips of the simple and naive Maxim Maksimych, we get acquainted with his psychological portrait, which is created by the author-storyteller himself, but the leading way to organize the narrative about the hero of time is the self-analysis presented in Pechorin’s journal.

Pechorin’s journal opens with the short story “Taman”, with which the hero’s “self-disclosure” begins. The beginning of the novella, at first glance, does not foreshadow the romantic world that will be created later: “Taman is the worst little town of all the coastal cities of Russia. I almost died of hunger there, and on top of that they wanted to drown me.” However, the landscape from the very first pages of the novella is distinguished by its romanticism: “The full moon shone on the reed roof... The shore sloped down to the sea... The moon quietly looked at the restless, but submissive element...” With the help of personification, the author creates a lyrical picture. The poetics of the novella are contrasting: romantic landscapes are replaced by an accurate recreation of everyday life, a depiction of the exotic world of “honest smugglers” - an expression of the author’s position.

Let's go into the hut with the hero. “...two benches and a table and a huge chest near the stove made up all her furniture.” This everyday sketch is completely interrupted romantic phrase: "IN broken window The sea wind blew through the glass.” In fact, this phrase contains the hero’s hidden desire to plunge into the romance of adventure, and he will be satisfied.

Everything in the lives of the people with whom Pechorin stayed worries him. He has a “prejudice” against cripples, and there is a blind boy living here. In the hut, “not a single image on the wall is a bad sign.” However, Pechorin seems to act contrary. He is ready to plunge into mysterious life smugglers, instead of distancing himself from a world alien to him, and even glad of the opportunity given to him by fate. And the world of “honest smugglers” turns out to be not at all alien to the hero. It is no coincidence that, while descending the path behind the blind man, Pechorin suddenly comes to mind the phrase of the Gospel: “On that day the dumb will cry out and the blind will see.” The situation in the short story is romantic, and the hero appears in some elation. His soul, rebellious, passionate, kindred sea elements, he is ready for danger and thirsts for the storms of life.

In the novella, Pechorin (after all, he is the author of the text, according to Lermontov) creates amazing image undines, mermaids. In reality, the heroine of the novel is a simple poor girl. But Pechorin, constantly searching for the phenomena of the world hidden meaning, sees in her an image inspired by a romantic German poetry. “An extraordinary flexibility of figure,” “long brown hair,” “something wild and suspicious” in her views, “mysterious speeches,” “strange songs” - these are the components of the image of the Pechorin undine. He remembers the mermaid’s song “from word to word,” because it is about free people, people of risk, people of action. Such people are close to our hero!

True, during their duel in the boat, the undine turns into a completely real and dangerous opponent: “she grabbed my clothes like a cat, and suddenly a strong push almost threw me into the sea.” Pechorin even realizes that he is inferior to her in dexterity, but is grateful for the joy of the duel. In this fight, attention is drawn to a detail that seems to discredit the strong Pechorin - he does not know how to swim! But we have already been prepared by the previous narrative for the oddities and contradictions of the hero’s nature.

Symbolic images of the chapter “Taman”: sea, sail - continue romantic theme works. These poetic images embody the idea of freedom, liberty, to which the hero strives. The game, pretense, posturing that reign in secular society, he is looking for a sublime ideal. That is why the rebellious Yanko is close to him, to whom, in his own words, “there is a road everywhere, wherever the wind blows and the sea makes noise.” Yanko lives a free life in harmony with the world, and this is what Pechorin lacks. But the freedom-loving Yanko leaves under a white sail with the beautiful undine. Symbolic final scene“Tamani”: the ideal to which Pechorin’s soul strives so much is elusive and unattainable. Reality again destroys the romantic world. Returning to the hut, Pechorin discovers that the “honest smugglers” have simply robbed him. Perhaps that is why the last phrase of “Tamani” sounds disappointed and ironic: “And what do I care about the joys and misfortunes of people, I, a traveling officer, and even with the travel for official needs.”

The first part of Pechorin’s journal reveals to the reader precisely the romantic side of his nature. Before us appears a rebellious hero, an extraordinary personality, thirsty for storms and anxieties, a man of reckless courage, looking for his ideal. At the same time, we see how reality, the everyday life, destroys the romantic world, hero-created in his imagination. This eternal conflict of romantic poetry!

Artistically, "Taman" is an example high art. The brevity, accuracy and simplicity of the narrative, the richness of the language make the short story an unsurpassed example romantic prose. V.G. Belinsky compared the story with a lyric poem. A.P. Chekhov admitted that he was in love with these Lermontov pages. And how can one not admire the poetic skill with which it was written? prose work Lermontov! “I wrapped myself in a cloak and sat down on a stone by the fence, looking into the distance; in front of me stretched the disturbed sea like a night storm, and its monotonous noise, like the murmur of a falling asleep city, reminded me of old years, carried my thoughts north, to our cold capital. Excited by memories, I forgot myself...” We too will forget ourselves, reading Lermontov’s charming lines and enjoying the Word...

The chapter “Taman” was included in the “Pechorin Journal”. Restoring the chronological sequence of events from Pechorin’s life, one should begin reading the novel “A Hero of Our Time” with the story “Taman”, where Pechorin talks about an incident that happened to him when he first came from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus. Then follows the story “Princess Mary”, where Pechorin talks about the events in which he participated when he arrived at the waters in Pyatigorsk. Then the story “Bela”, the events of which take place in the fortress where Pechorin was exiled for a duel with Grushnitsky. Pechorin left the fortress for some time to Cossack village and witnessed the story with officer Vulich, described in the short story “Fatalist”. Then five years pass. Pechorin, having retired, lives in St. Petersburg and, bored again, goes to Persia. Along the way he meets Maxim Maksimych. Their meeting is described in the story “Maksim Maksimych”. From short preface to “Pechorin's Journal” we learn that, returning from Persia, Pechorin died. Lermontov deviated from such a chronology and structured the composition of the novel in such a way that first we learn about Pechorin from the stories about him by Maxim Maksimych and a passing officer, and then from the diary “Pechorin’s Journal”. Thus, Pechorin’s character is revealed in different situations, in a clash with other characters in the novel. And every time some new facet of the complex and rich nature Pechorina. “Taman” is the third story in order. With its problematics and the character of the hero’s environment, “Bela” continues, as it were, and is a record of an episode from the past. The story is told in the first person (Pechorina). Describing an episode from the life of smugglers, Pechorin says nothing about his thoughts and experiences. His attention is focused on showing the events themselves, their participants, and the setting. The landscape helps create the mysterious and romantic mood of the story. With amazing skill, Lermontov describes the restless sea, the moon, and clouds. “The shore sloped down to the sea almost right next to its walls, and below, dark blue waves splashed with a continuous roar. The moon quietly looked at the restless, but submissive element, and I could distinguish in its light, far from the shore, two ships,” writes Pechorin. There is an atmosphere of mystery and uncertainty around him. The night, the reed roof and white walls of the new home, the meeting with the blind boy - all this amazes Pechorin’s imagination so much that for a long time he cannot fall asleep in the new place. Much in the boy’s behavior seems incomprehensible and mysterious: how a blind man so easily descends a narrow steep path, how he feels a person’s gaze. His barely noticeable smile makes an unpleasant impression on Pechorin. Pechorin's curiosity is also spurred by the boy's actions. Alone, in the middle of the night, with some kind of bundle, he goes down to the sea. Pechorin began to watch him, hiding behind a protruding rock. He saw a white woman approach him female figure and spoke to him. From the conversation it became clear that they were waiting for Yanko, who must sail by boat on a stormy sea, bypassing the coast guards. He delivered some cargo by boat. Taking a bundle each, they set off along the shore and disappeared from sight. What kind of people live on the shore? What mysteries lie behind their unusual behavior? These questions haunt Pechorin, and he boldly invades the unknown, boldly rushes towards danger. Pechorin meets an old woman and her daughter. Hearing the song, Pechorin looked up and on the roof of the roof saw a girl in a striped dress, with loose braids, a real mermaid. Subsequently, he nicknamed her Ondine. She was unusually beautiful: “The extraordinary flexibility of her figure, the special, unique tilt of her head, her long brown hair, the kind of golden tint of her slightly tanned skin on her neck and shoulders, and especially her correct nose - all this was charming to me.” Having spoken to this girl, Pechorin spoke about the night scene on the shore, which he had witnessed, and threatened to report everything to the commandant. This was a great carelessness on his part, and he soon repented. The poetic girl - “undine”, “real mermaid” - insidiously lures Pechorin into a trap, hinting at love: “She jumped up, wrapped her arms around my neck, and a wet, fiery kiss sounded on my lips. My vision grew dark, my head began to spin, I squeezed her in my arms with all my might. youthful passion..." Ondine made an appointment with Pechorin at night on the shore. Forgetting caution, Pechorin gets into the boat. Having sailed some distance from the shore, the girl hugged Pechorin, unfastened the pistol and threw it overboard. Pechorin realized that he could die because he did not know how to swim. This gave him strength, and a short fight ended with him throwing her into the waves. The hope for love turned out to be deceived, the date ended in a fierce struggle for life. All this angers Pechorin, who suffered because of his naivety and gullibility. But, despite everything, he managed to uncover the secret of the “peaceful smugglers.” This brings disappointment to the hero: “And why did fate throw me into the peaceful circle of honest smugglers? Like a stone thrown into a smooth spring, I disturbed their calm and, like a stone, I almost sank to the bottom.” Upon returning, Pechorin discovers that the blind man had carried his things to the shore in a sack - a box, a saber with a silver frame, a Dagestan dagger - a gift from a friend. “Wouldn’t it be funny to complain to the authorities that a blind boy robbed me, and an eighteen-year-old girl almost drowned me?” In the morning Pechorin leaves for Gelendzhik. Pechorin realizes that he made a mistake by invading the lives of these people, and blames himself for invading their circle, which disrupted their lives. Yanko and the girl leave, leaving the boy and the old woman without a means of subsistence. Pechorin admits: “I don’t know what happened to the old woman and the poor blind man. And what do I care about human joys and misfortunes, me, a traveling officer, and even on the road for official reasons.” “Taman” amazes with its masterful portrayal of the characters’ characters. The image of a smuggler girl is truly romantic. This girl is characterized by bizarre mood swings, “quick transitions from the greatest anxiety to complete immobility.” Her speeches are mysterious and close in form to folk proverbs and sayings; her songs, reminiscent of folk songs, speak of her desire for a violent will. There's a lot in it vitality, courage, determination, poetry of “wild freedom”. A rich, unique nature, full of mystery, it is as if by nature itself created for the free, risk-filled life that she leads. No less colorful is the image of the smuggler Yanko, painted with spare but bright strokes. He is determined and fearless, not afraid of storms. Having learned about the danger that threatens him, he leaves his native place to look for fishing in another place: “... but everywhere is dear to me, wherever the wind blows and the sea makes noise!” But at the same time, Yanko shows cruelty and stinginess, leaving a blind boy on the shore with a few coins. Pechorin's personality is complemented by such qualities that appear in moments of danger: courage, determination, willingness to take risks, willpower. At the end of the story, Pechorin peers at the white sail that flashed between dark waves in the light of the moon. This symbolic image reminds of one of the most amazingly beautiful and deepest in thought Lermontov’s poems - “The Lonely Sail Whitens...”. The life of the main character, Pechorin, was just as rebellious and restless. “And what do I care about human joys and misfortunes?”
M. Yu. Lermontov
Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time” addresses the burning question: why people, smart and energetic, do not find use for their remarkable abilities and wither without a fight at the very beginning life path. Lermontov answers this question with the life story of Pechorin, a young man belonging to the generation of the 30s. The composition, plot of the work and the entire system of images are subordinated to the task of a comprehensive and deep disclosure of the personality of the hero and the environment that raised him.
The story told in Taman has a vital basis. Lermontov was in Taman in 1837. He had to stay late waiting for the ship. The old Cossack woman Tsaritsykha mistook Lermontov for a secret spy who wants to detect smugglers. Tsaritsykha’s neighbor was a beautiful Tatar woman, whose husband had dealings with smugglers. And there was a blind boy, Yashka.
The story “Taman” is an independent work of art and at the same time is part of a novel. It is written in the form of a diary, and this is no accident. If at the beginning of the novel the author strives to show Pechorin’s contradictory actions, then later on the pages of the diary the secret and obvious motives of the hero’s actions are revealed and their reasons are analyzed.
It should be noted that in “Taman” the romantic elation of the narrative is harmoniously combined with a realistic depiction of the characters and life of free smugglers. For example, let’s take the description of Yanko’s portrait: “A man in a Tatar hat came out of the boat, but he had a Cossack haircut, and a large knife was sticking out of his belt.” And this detail (the knife) reminds us of the dangerous profession of a smuggler. Somehow it is said very simply about Yanko’s prowess. “What, blind man,” said female voice, - the storm is strong. Yanko will not be there." “Yanko is not afraid of the storm,” he answered. Following this dialogue, Lermontov draws a raging sea. “Slowly rising to the ridges of the waves, quickly descending from them, the boat approached the shore.” The description of the raging elements serves as a means of revealing the prowess of Yanko, for whom “everywhere there is a road, where only the wind blows and the sea makes noise.” He undertakes this feat only for the sake of profit. His stinginess is amazing: the blind boy receives a small coin as a reward. And Yanko asks the old woman to tell her “that, they say, it’s time to die, I’ve healed, I need to know and honor.” Fate does not bring Pechorin and this “honest” smuggler directly together, but nevertheless, Yanko is forced precisely because of him to leave the “inhabited lands.” The heroes of the story are engaged in a dangerous trade - smuggling. Lermontov deliberately does not specify what exactly they are transporting through the strait and what they are taking overseas. “Rich goods” “the cargo was great” - we don’t know anything else. It is important for Lermontov to create in the reader a feeling of a dangerous, unusual life, full of anxiety.
Let's trace the relationship between Pechorin and the smugglers. Having settled in a hut where it is “unclean,” Pechorin does not even think of being afraid, one might even say he behaves thoughtlessly. On the very first night he “got up, threw on his beshmet; He quietly left the hut, seeing a shadow flash past the window.” Why does he need this alien life? The answer is very simple. Everything is interesting to him, important, he needs to “touch” everything, this is probably what attracts Pechorin’s character. He is young, looking for love. But the mysterious girl lured him into the boat, he “felt her fiery breath on his face” - and at that same moment the “mermaid” threw his pistol into the water. There is no longer an “undine”; there is an enemy with whom we must fight.
To top it all off, the blind boy robbed Pechorin with the girl’s knowledge, and this completely destroys the dreams in which our hero was. Yes, Pechorin is largely to blame: inexperience, inability to understand people. And what were the consequences of the phrase: “What if, for example, I decided to inform the commandant?” And the old woman, and the blind boy, and the girl could not explain Pechorin’s actions other than the desire to give them away. After all, he walks around, looks out, threatens. They don’t understand that he is simply interested in these people, their lives. And this curiosity resulted in Pechorin ruining the lives of the smugglers and, moreover, almost dying himself. And when the blind boy began to cry, when the girl left forever with Yanko, then Pechorin was horrified by what he had done: “And why did fate throw me into the peaceful circle of honest smugglers? Like a stone thrown into a smooth spring, I disturbed their calm, and, like a stone, I almost sank to the bottom myself.”
As for the artistic side of the story “Taman,” it is simply impossible to overestimate it. But I would still like to more specifically define what the work is based on. These are the “three pillars”: accuracy, imagery, expressiveness. And what a selection of “telling details”! Here, for example, Pechorin writes in his travel journal: “two benches and a table; not a single image on the wall is a bad sign!” This poor situation suggests that people live here temporarily and are ready to leave their uncomfortable shelter at any moment.
Or in the scene of a conversation between a girl and a blind man, we learn that the storm is strong, the fog is getting thicker. It would seem, so what? But this is important for smugglers: you can’t go “on business” in all weathers.
The device of antithesis is interesting in the story. This is how the blind boy imagines the image of Yanko: “Yanko is not afraid of either the sea or the wind.” A sort of fairy-tale hero, a fearless hero. But Pechorin sees Yanko differently: “a man of average height, wearing a Tatar lamb’s cap” came out of the boat, an ordinary man, not at all heroic in appearance.
The technique of combining the sublime and the base in the story is also interesting. Here romance coexists with the prose of life. The mysterious girl reminds Pechorin of a romantic heroine. But the “mermaid” sings her beautiful free song, standing on the roof of a miserable hut. The girl’s words addressed to Pechorin are mysterious, and the lamentations of the blind boy are pathetic: “Where did I go?... With a knot? What kind of knot!?”
If we talk about the plot, it vaguely resembles the plot of “Bela”. A Russian young man meets a local savage girl and falls in love with her. The plot is typical for the literature of Lermontov's era. But in Taman everything is unconventional. The girl was supposed to fall in love with the newcomer. But everything turns out to be wrong. Landscape sketches give the story a romantic flavor and, contrasting with the wretchedness of the “unclean place,” open up a charming world of beauty and bliss to the reader.
The composition of the story is unique. The work opens and ends with the hero’s judgments, testifying to the bitterness of the experience gained in this event, about an attempt to be indifferent to the people with whom fate confronts him. A.P. Chekhov, with all the severity of his assessments, said: “I don’t know the language better than Lermontov.”
I would like to add on my own that sometimes it becomes sad when, in the modern variety of books, it is very difficult to choose a book “for the soul.” All this market “reading” that surrounds us everywhere, screams and gets into our eyes, is simply annoying. And, honestly, one small story “Taman” from “A Hero of Our Time” is already worth all this waste paper.

“Taman” is the third story in order. With its problematics and the character of the hero’s environment, “Bela” continues, as it were, and is a record of an episode from the past. The story is told in the first person (Pechorina). Describing an episode from the life of smugglers, Pechorin says nothing about his thoughts and experiences. His attention is focused on showing the events themselves, their participants, and the setting. The landscape helps create the mysterious and romantic mood of the story. With amazing skill, Lermontov describes the restless sea, the moon, and clouds. “The shore sloped down to the sea almost right next to its walls, and below, dark blue waves splashed with a continuous roar. The moon quietly looked at the restless, but submissive element, and I could distinguish in its light, far from the shore, two ships,” writes Pechorin. There is an atmosphere of mystery and uncertainty around him. The night, the reed roof and white walls of the new home, the meeting with the blind boy - all this amazes Pechorin’s imagination so much that for a long time he cannot fall asleep in the new place. Much in the boy’s behavior seems incomprehensible and mysterious: how a blind man so easily descends a narrow steep path, how he feels a person’s gaze. His barely noticeable smile makes an unpleasant impression on Pechorin. Pechorin's curiosity is also spurred by the boy's actions. Alone, in the middle of the night, with some kind of bundle, he goes down to the sea. Pechorin began to watch him, hiding behind a protruding rock. He saw a white female figure approach him and speak to him. From the conversation it became clear that they were waiting for Yanko, who must sail by boat on a stormy sea, bypassing the coast guards. He delivered some cargo by boat. Taking a bundle each, they set off along the shore and disappeared from sight.

What kind of people live on the shore? What mysteries lie behind their unusual behavior? These questions haunt Pechorin, and he boldly invades the unknown, boldly rushes towards danger. Pechorin meets an old woman and her daughter. Hearing the song, Pechorin looked up and on the roof of the roof saw a girl in a striped dress, with loose braids, a real mermaid. Subsequently, he nicknamed her Ondine. She was unusually beautiful: “The extraordinary flexibility of her figure, the special, unique tilt of her head, her long brown hair, the kind of golden tint of her slightly tanned skin on her neck and shoulders, and especially her correct nose - all this was charming to me.” Having spoken to this girl, Pechorin spoke about the night scene on the shore, which he had witnessed, and threatened to report everything to the commandant. This was a great carelessness on his part, and he soon repented. The poetic girl - “undine”, “real mermaid” - insidiously lures Pechorin into a trap, hinting at love: “She jumped up, wrapped her arms around my neck, and a wet, fiery kiss sounded on my lips. My vision grew dark, my head began to spin, I squeezed her in my arms with all the strength of youthful passion...” Ondine made an appointment for Pechorin at night on the shore. Forgetting caution, Pechorin gets into the boat. Having sailed some distance from the shore, the girl hugged Pechorin, unfastened the pistol and threw it overboard. Pechorin realized that he could die because he did not know how to swim. This gave him strength, and a short fight ended with him throwing her into the waves. The hope for love turned out to be deceived, the date ended in a fierce struggle for life. All this angers Pechorin, who suffered because of his naivety and gullibility. But, despite everything, he managed to uncover the secret of the “peaceful smugglers.” This brings disappointment to the hero: “And why did fate throw me into the peaceful circle of honest smugglers? Like a stone thrown into a smooth spring, I disturbed their calm and, like a stone, I almost sank to the bottom.” Upon returning, Pechorin discovers that the blind man had carried his things to the shore in a sack - a box, a saber with a silver frame, a Dagestan dagger - a gift from a friend. “Wouldn’t it be funny to complain to the authorities that a blind boy robbed me, and an eighteen-year-old girl almost drowned me?” In the morning Pechorin leaves for Gelendzhik.

Pechorin realizes that he made a mistake by invading the lives of these people, and blames himself for invading their circle, which disrupted their lives. Yanko and the girl leave, leaving the boy and the old woman without a means of subsistence. Pechorin admits: “I don’t know what happened to the old woman and the poor blind man. And what do I care about human joys and misfortunes, me, a traveling officer, and even on the road for official reasons.”

“Taman” amazes with its masterful portrayal of the characters’ characters. The image of a smuggler girl is truly romantic. This girl is characterized by bizarre mood swings, “quick transitions from the greatest anxiety to complete immobility.” Her speeches are mysterious and close in form to folk proverbs and sayings; her songs, reminiscent of folk songs, speak of her desire for a violent will. She has a lot of vitality, courage, determination, and the poetry of “wild freedom.” A rich, unique nature, full of mystery, it is as if by nature itself created for the free, risk-filled life that she leads. No less colorful is the image of the smuggler Yanko, painted with spare but bright strokes. He is determined and fearless, not afraid of storms. Having learned about the danger that threatens him, he leaves his native place to look for fishing in another place: “... but everywhere is dear to me, wherever the wind blows and the sea makes noise!” But at the same time, Yanko shows cruelty and stinginess, leaving a blind boy on the shore with a few coins. Pechorin's personality is complemented by such qualities that appear in moments of danger: courage, determination, willingness to take risks, willpower.

At the end of the story, Pechorin peers at the white sail that flashed between the dark waves in the light of the moon. This symbolic image is reminiscent of one of the most amazingly beautiful and deepest in thought Lermontov’s poems - “The Lonely Sail Whitens...”. The life of the main character, Pechorin, was just as rebellious and restless.