50 pages • 1 hour read
Mikhail LermontovA Hero Of Our Time
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1838A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Caucasus Mountains
The motif of the Caucasus mountains pervades the novel, providing both the landscape and the emotional atmosphere for Pechorin’s journey. Due to the region’s border status, Russian writers of Lermontov’s day considered the Caucasus an exotic location and an appropriate setting for a Romantic novel that highlighted the passions and tragedies of its characters. The beautiful, treacherous terrain and the predominantly Asiatic Muslim population positioned the Caucasus mountains as the “other” in the Russian literary imagination and prompted the Orientalist depictions of the region and peoples found in A Hero of Our Time.
As the region came under Russian control in a piecemeal fashion in the early 19th century, the Caucasus remained a militarily-disputed territory and a constant outpost for the Russian army. Lermontov portrays the flying bullets, rough conditions, foreign cultures, and extreme, unpredictable weather as forces that support the themes of danger, fate, and chance with which Pechorin and the other characters grapple in the novel.
Pistols
Pistols symbolize fate, chance, and nihilism in the novel. In Book 5, Vulich engages in what famously became the first game of “Russian roulette” when he pours gunpowder into the pan of a pistol that may or may not be loaded and pulls the trigger with the muzzle against his forehead. The event represents nihilism because Vulich is willing to risk dying for a wager; the question of whether life has meaning runs throughout the novel, and this instance implies that though predestination exists, one’s life (and death) may not serve a greater purpose.
The other key incident involving pistols as instruments of fate is Pechorin’s duel with Grushnitski. As the climatic event of the novel, it is the ultimate test of Pechorin’s commitment to emotional manipulation at the expense of his own life. He is willing to risk his own life in order to push Grushnitski to a moral crisis. In this moment, his desire for revenge outweighs his concern for survival.
Grushnitski voices nihilism in this scene when he refuses Pechorin’s offer of mercy: “I despise myself and I hate you. If you do not kill me I will lie in wait for you some night and cut your throat” (118). In both Vulich’s wager and the duel, the element of chance or fate rests in whether the pistol to be fired is loaded. Equally important, however, is the nihilist mindset of the person who fires the weapon.
Horses
Horses in the novel symbolize freedom, strength, and romantic conquest. In an environment where horses are the primary mode of transportation, they also become an extension of the rider’s self.
In Book 1, Kazbich’s horse embodies this symbolism. It becomes such an object of desire that the prince’s son, Azamat, kidnaps his sister to give her to Pechorin in marriage in exchange for the horse. Kazbich, on the other hand, rejects Azamat’s offer of Bela, saying that a “mettlesome steed […] knows no treachery, no deceit” (17), unlike women. Pechorin uses his horse as part of his romantic conquest of Princess Mary when he takes advantage of her nearly falling off her horse to make an inappropriate advance. He is toying with her feelings, and she soon uses her own horse to escape.
The final and most poignant symbolic episode involving a horse is when Pechorin rides out to see Vera after receiving her letter. His horse, which is already exhausted, collapses and dies on the journey, stranding Pechorin with his sense of loss and regret. Later, when he leaves Kislovodsk, he sees his horse’s corpse, which has been picked over by ravens, symbolizing that the last hope for his love has died.
