Difficult Happiness of Mikhail Lermontov's Heroes: The Pursuit of Happiness by a Truly Unhappy Man

Abstract

The concept of happiness is actively discussed in various areas of modern science. The present article features the phenomenon of happiness in M. Lermontov’s fiction. The statistical data were obtained from the national corpus of the Russian language. The subcorpus of Lermontov’s fiction was analyzed for such lexemes as happiness, misery, happy, and bliss. The authors used systemic and phenomenological approaches, as well as hermeneutic, analytical, statistical, and interpretive methods, to reveal the peculiarities of happiness in Lermontov's artistic world and to examine the paradoxical nature of the characters' ideas of happiness. For most personages, happiness determines the search for the meaning of life and destiny. Some characters believe that happiness is possible in this life. For example, Ashik-Kerib is a story of finding a multifaceted kind of true happiness. Other personages believe that happiness cannot be achieved and that man is a fundamentally miserable creature. However, all Lermontov's characters keep looking for happiness. The article introduces the spheres and conditions that Lermontov's heroes associate with happiness. It focuses on Pechyorin from The Hero of Our Time, his ideas about weird people, happiness, and misery.