Pechorin and “mirages of the West”

Abstract

The article compares the image of Pechorin (A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov) and his possible French prototypes: Franjois-Rene Chateaubriand’s Rene, Benjamin Constant’s Adolphe, and Alfred de Musset’s Octave. The protagonist of Chateaubriand’s Rene - the novel that stands at the origins of psychological prose of the 19th century - is typologically related to the image of Pechorin. The common fate of these characters is dissatisfaction, emotional draining, and inner emptiness. Structurally the images share such typological features as “intimations of passions” and mingled, indefinite, incomprehensible feelings. Pechorin as well as his French “prototype” lives an abundant life, full of energy and passion, worthy of a better cause. However, Pechorin, unlike Rene, neither renounces an earthly life nor wants to retire to a monastery. The religious theme in Lermontov’s novel is not as significant as in Chateaubriand’s, who considers Christianity the only salvation from the “intimations of passions.” Benjamin Constant’s Adolphe and Pechorin share romantic perspective: motifs of loneliness, alienation from society, and immersion in the inner world. Yet Pechorin’s outlook is wider than Adolphe’s, the latter being obsessed with the slightest impulses. Pechorin’s journal contains not only reflections on psychology, but also an outline of other characters and actions, magnificent landscapes, and philosophical reflections. It is obvious that the “Princess Mary” section from A Hero of Our Time is most closely related to Constant’s Adolfe through the themes of a love affair, seduction and play of feelings. Alfred de Musset’s novel Confession of a Child of the Century is primarily related to A Hero of Our Time through the title, which declares the typicality of the characters epitomizing the entire “timeless” generation. The novels by Musset and Lermontov are adjacent to psychological realism, depicting a person through society, time, and history. Pechorin, as well as the French “child of the century”, typifies the entire generation. The similarity of the images of Rene, Adolphe, Octave, and Pechorin, on the one hand, has a general romantic character, while on the other, is probably generated by the works of George Gordon Byron, who was a poet-mediator of French influence for Lermontov. However, Byron failed to provide Lermontov with the most subtle introspection and intense reflection French romatic prose was renowned for. The search for these features may have led Lermontov to the French “reflectors”: Rene, Adolphe, and Octave. The author declares no conflicts of interests