Maxim Maksimych in “The hero of our time” by Lermontov as the father and the friend

The article analyzes the role behavior of Maxim Maksimych, one of the key characters in Lermontov’s novel “Hero of Our Time”. The author is interested in how Maxim Maksimych, a familyless and middle-aged army officer, masters and fulfills the role of Bela’s father and the role of Pechorin’s friend. The role of the father is new and completely unfamiliar to him, and the role of the friend of a person from a different walk of life as well as a different psychological type, does not seem very natural. Maxim Maksimych is usually referred to the literary types of the ordinary people but in the psychological sense he is not so ordinary. In situations where he acts as the father or as the friend, his character is revealed in an unexpected way. The personality of Maxim Maksimych is being re-enlightened when the latent features of his character are revealed. As it is shown in the article, in the story that Maxim Maksimych tells and in which he participates, the semantics of the age and the family status of the characters become important, and that largely determines the characteristics of their relationship. When meeting Maxim Maksimych, the narrator thinks he is an elderly man of fifty something. For the story told by Maxim Maksimych it is essential that Bela is the girl of about sixteen, her brother is a boy of about fifteen, Pechorin is a young man of about twenty-five. The plot events destroy the former family status of Bela and her brother and radically change the family status of Pechorin. The family status of Maxim Maksimych, who refers to Bela as a daughter, is also changing, but in a metaphorical sense. He perceives his relationship with Pechorin as familiar and friendly. Maxim Maksimych and Pechorin met again five years after Bela’s death and Pechorin’s departure from the fortress. The author seeks to understand and explain why the new meeting left Maxim Maksimych disappointed and deceived his expectations.