The Role Of Psychopathy In A Hero Of Our Time

There are many brilliant writers that can capture and enhance the personality of a character. Some of those characters share an intense amount of mental traits that can be shared amongst us as readers. Some of those mental traits could lead to psychopathy. Psychopathy is a mental illness in which an individual does not feel love, guilt or empathy for their actions. Love, though an emotion can also become a physiological and psychological illness. The novella "Princess Mary” is the longest novella within A Hero of Our Time written by Mikhail Lermontov. It focuses on the character of Pechorin and the social chaos he witnesses in his first person-based perspective. From his actions to his thoughts, Pechorin could be characterized as a psychopath
This was the end for Mary, as she grew madly in love with him. Princess Mary then went crazy but still forces him to confess love to her but he did not budge. "Either you despise me, or you love me very much,’ she said at last in a voice that shook with tears. ‘Perhaps you wish to mock me, to play on my feelings. . . Perhaps you wish me to be the first to say that I love you?’”(P.142) To this statement Pechorin then replied “Why should I?” Pechorin knows what he was doing as this was his plan all along. As for Princess Mary when Pechorin told her that he does not love her she became ill with a nervous breakdown. She was filled with sorrow and hatred from the love she thought she had but
All Pechorin did, throughout the novella of “Princess Mary”, is take his envy from Princess Mary picking up Grushnitsky’s glass and comes up with a devious plan to mess up the other characters lives. Someone with such qualities like Pechorin needs to be attended to. However Pechorin ran away from his problems instead of facing them head on leaving Princess Mary lovesick. Pechorin writes “I love enemies, though not in the Christian way. Being always on the alert, catching their every move, the hidden meaning of every word, guessing their next step, confounding their plans, pretending to be taken in ... - that's what I call living." Even thought they say to “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”, Pechorin may have gotten a little too