The superfluous person

The article considers the basic contradiction inherent in the main character of the famous novel by Mikhail Lermontov. The contradiction is between the hypertrophied desire for free goal-setting and consciousness of the insuperability of the Destiny that reduces the pull for «freedom» to a meaningless revolt. In the collision between the thought fixing this contradiction and a vital impulse we see a splitting of the person: the thought appears fruitless and the life hopeless. This contradiction is a symptom of cultural degeneration or transformation of cultural values to some «simulacra». «The superfluous person» is the simulacrum of a person.