Does a man who loves only himself have a conscience? How does this love manifest itself in his actions? These and other questions are asked by the Russian Soviet writer E.A. Permyak.

This text raises the problem of selfishness and pride. In it, three brothers received happy hours, thereby gaining the opportunity to manage their time, which could only be obtained by helping and giving attention to others. However, they did not do this and continued to live for their own pleasure, subsequently completely losing the time granted to them. "And what can he say if he also has no conscience left to start happy hours with it?" This issue is current. In our time, selfishness has become widespread. People stopped seeing the world around us, they often began to think only about themselves, their work is aimed only at transforming and improving their own lives. "It's not for nothing that one wise man said: "A man is known in labor."

All his work, all his deeds and thoughts are aimed at shaping his own better future.

This problem is common fiction. So, for example, in the work of N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls" you can see a large number of selfish landowners. One of them is the main character, the landowner Chichikov. From early childhood, he was taught that he had to live richly. This gave rise to feelings of self-love in him. Chichikov, despite the great big problems of society, the poverty and hunger of the peasants, continued to increase his own financial condition. Other landowners did the same. They all worked only for the benefit of their own lives.

If we turn to the work of B. Vasilyev "My horses are flying", then you can see an absolutely opposite picture. Dr. Jansen was a sincere and sympathetic person. He was always in a hurry to visit his sick patients, but he was never in a hurry to leave them. Jansen wholeheartedly wanted to help everyone. This was shown by his last act. When the little boys fell into the sewer well, Jansen, not thinking about the consequences for himself, rushed to their aid, he understood that he himself was about to die, but this did not stop him. Soon the boys were saved, but Dr. Jansen gave his life for this.

Behind egoism there is no present, and hence no future. Such love does not carry anything of value, rather, on the contrary, it has a great negative impact on the world as a whole.

Updated: 2018-05-17

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The central person of the work "A Hero of Our Time" is Pechorin. It is about him and will be discussed.

The first thing to do is to understand the semantics of the word egoism. Selfishness is a kind of behavior in which a person exalts his interests above the interests of other people, selfishness, an attempt to benefit and benefit for himself, despite the needs of others. The antonym of this word is "altruism".

And what do we see in Lermontov's poem. We can see this restless, goalless, selfish soul of the protagonist. The image of the sharply negative qualities of the hero was not the author's goal in itself, he simply did everything possible to show this character without embellishment. Nothing should be hidden from the eyes of the reader.

For Pechorin, all the people around him are just cards in a playing deck. Toys and more. His goal is purely for fun, regardless of the feelings and desires of those he plays. His restless soul is cruel, straightforward. He seems to be looking for peace, satisfaction, but nothing in this life can affect him like that.

He gets only a temporary lull, and then the game bothers him, and our hero again finds himself in an agonizing search for entertainment.

But, despite this, many can fall in love with our hero with all sincerity, which often turns out to be fatal. Only one of the women was able to carry this load with dignity - Vera. This woman sees the good in the hero, and sees all his flaws. His ambition, his neglect and pampering with the most serious aspects of this life, be it love and friendship, life and death - all this, no doubt, hurts her. But his charm, his martyrdom from dissatisfaction with life, his fatalism and will inexorably beckon and only strengthen her love. Vera knows Pechorin's attitude towards herself: “You loved me like property, as a source of joys, anxieties and sorrows that alternated mutually; without which life is boring and monotonous…” And this quote once again emphasizes such a flaw in our hero as selfishness.

Pechorin's interest in Bela turns out to be disastrous. This interest he calls love. And to satisfy his feelings, he kidnaps her from home. But in order to win love, it is not enough to tear a person away from home, and the hero sets a new goal - to win Bela's heart, which he successfully succeeds. Indicative in this case is the dialogue with Maxim Maksimych, who asked Pechorin why he stole the girl, but that an answer full of bewilderment followed: “I like her.” But even this toy does not bring him pleasure, because the love of a savage woman is no better than the love of a secular young lady, and she also bored him.

In the poem, we see Pechorin's disdain even for friendship. This is striking in the episode with Maxim Maksimych, with whom so much was experienced, who so wanted to see our hero, to talk with him. And in response to this he receives only a cold, albeit friendly, handshake. This cannot but hurt, but Pechorin does not notice what scars remain from his actions in the souls of people.

selfishness in literature? In what books is this the most important question? and got the best answer

Answer from Lyudmila Tumanova[guru]
Is it acceptable to put your interests above the interests of other people? K. Akulinin poses this problem in his story. The author describes a case in a polyclinic: the main character Nikitin stood in line for a long time to see a doctor, and when he got tired of it, he decided to give a bribe to skip the line. However, sympathy for other people who were also waiting in line, did not allow him to take advantage of the ill-gotten privilege. The author expresses his attitude to the problem not directly, but through an artistic narrative: a person should not put his own interests above the interests of others. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" can be cited as a literary example. According to Raskolnikov's theory, the interests of some people ("having the right") are higher than the interests of everyone else. Raskolnikov decides to check whether he will be able to cross over for the sake of his goals. human life. However, he could not endure the severity of his deed, and could not use the stolen money of the old pawnbroker. The hero of Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" - the peasant Yermil Girin - took advantage of his position as headman to free his brother from recruitment duty, and enrolled another villager instead of him. After that, Yermil was very repentant, wanted to give up his position and even tried to commit suicide - it was so unacceptable for him to neglect the interests of another person. Despite the fact that people sometimes act immorally, stepping over other people for their own purposes, they tend to experience pangs of conscience and repent of their actions. Main character novel "Eugene Onegin", a representative of the noble intelligentsia, is depicted realistically. His life misfortune is in isolation from the Russian people. He knows neither country nor life ordinary people, nor their work. Eugene is a man of light, but a man with remarkable inclinations. He is smart, selfless, noble. “The inactivity and vulgarity of life stifle him, he doesn’t even know what he needs, what he wants, but he knows what he doesn’t need, what he doesn’t want,” writes Belinsky. His egoism Belinsky calls suffering egoism, selfishness involuntarily, due to historical circumstances.
It is unlikely that anyone will object to the assertion that Grushnitsky from "A Hero of Our Time" is an egoist. Chernyshevsky considered his egoism to be the lowest, false, grown on the soil of idleness. “As an example of a person who has very developed imaginary, fantastic aspirations, which are in fact completely alien to him, one can point to the excellent face of Grushnitsky ... This funny Grushnitsky is busy with all his might in order to feel what he does not feel at all, to achieve what he entity is not needed. He wants to be wounded, he wants to be a simple soldier, he wants to be unhappy in love, to despair, etc. - he cannot live without possessing these qualities and blessings that are seductive for him. but with what bitterness fate would strike him if it took it into her head to fulfill his desires! He would renounce love forever if he thought that any girl might not fall in love with him. He is secretly tormented by the fact that he is not yet an officer, does not remember himself with delight when he receives news of the desired production, and with contempt throws his former suit, which he was so proud of in words.
We cannot but see that Pechorin is head and shoulders above the people around him, that he is smart, educated, talented, brave, energetic. We are repelled by Pechorin's indifference to people, his inability to true love, to friendship, his individualism and selfishness. But Pechorin captivates us with a thirst for life, a desire for the best, the ability to critically evaluate our actions. He is deeply unsympathetic to us by the "pathetic actions", the waste of his strength, by the actions by which he brings suffering to other people. But we see that he himself suffers deeply.
Molchalin in Griboyedov's "Woe from Wit" is a typical representative of the Famus era, the personification of servility, lies, flattery, selfishness, self-humiliation for selfish purposes. Chatsky is absolutely the opposite of him.

Is selfishness dangerous for love? Each person has their own opinion on this matter. In order to answer this question, it is worth understanding, what is selfishness and why can it be dangerous for love? I believe that selfishness can be called a disease that needs to be fought. selfish person does not take into account the opinions of others, puts his interests, requests and problems above all else. He thinks only of himself and demands attention. Love and selfishness are completely opposite. After all, love is the most beautiful and bright feeling that a person can experience. When you love, you trust a person, respect his opinion, love him simply for what he is, appreciate every moment spent together. That is why I believe that an egoist cannot or simply does not know how to love.

I can prove the correctness of my point of view by referring to the novel by L. N. Tolstoy "War and Peace". I propose to recall the heroine of the novel, who was a heartless egoist, Helen Kuragina. She was beautiful, attractive, had many admirers, but she chose the clumsy, unsightly Pierre Bezukhov as her husband, whom she did not admire, and what is there, did not even love him. All she wanted about him was money. She was an unfaithful wife, immediately after the wedding she had a lover. I think this is selfish towards Pierre. Upon learning of this, Pierre decides to break off relations with her, but before he can dissolve the marriage, Helen falls ill and dies. This behavior of Helen suggests that she does not love Pierre, but only uses him to be surrounded by money. This is where her selfishness is manifested, she is not able to truly love Pierre, because when you love, you do not cheat on your loved one.

To make sure that an egoist really does not know how to love and appreciate what he has, it is worth referring to A.P. Chekhov's story "The Jumper". This story shows a vivid example of selfishness in a relationship. Olga Ivanovna - one of the main characters of the story is selfish and wasteful in relation to her husband, Osip Stepanovich. She does not appreciate him, does not respect his work, he does everything so that Olga does not need anything. Because of his love for her, Osip ceased to respect himself, he even turned a blind eye to the fact that she had a lover. I think it's mean to do this to someone who really loves you. But Olga does not appreciate her husband, she does not care about him, she knows that Osip will do anything for her. But only when Osip fell mortally ill, Olga realized that she was losing a dear person. It is unlikely that anyone will love her the same way that Dymov loved. Olga's selfishness is dangerous for Osip, he works without sparing himself to please his wife in everything.

Thus, a person blinded by selfishness can lose happiness, and rash acts can lead to tragedy. No wonder A.V. Sukhomlinsky argued: “It’s better not to create a family if you are an egoist. The meaning of happy love is to give. He who is in love with himself cannot give anything, he only takes and thereby inevitably poisons all the best in love. Egoism interferes here, like a physical illness.