Abstract: The object of this research is the main character in the story "The Fashionable Lawyer" by Taffy (N. A. Lokhvitskaya), one of the brightest writers of the first half of the 20th century.
The subject of the study is the image of the main character with the classic features of a trickster and a picaro. To characterize the features of these characters, Taffy's short story "The Fashionable Lawyer" was chosen, in which, in a modern situation, a hero is shown combining the features of a troublemaker, a merry man, a rascal. The shift from accusatory social satire to political satire at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries did not affect the elegiac mood of N. A. Lokhvitskaya's stories, which did not denounce or castigate modern society. The non-classical character in Taffy's story is investigated, with transitions from established mythological characteristics to a mixture of features. Historical, biographical and deductive research methods are chosen. The historical and biographical method contributed to a retrospective analysis of the socio-cultural situation of the Russian space at the turn of the 19th century. Using the deductive method, from the general manifestation of the comic in Taffy's work to a specific character in her story "The Fashionable Lawyer", the character of the images of the trickster hero and the Picaro hero is considered. The novelty of the study lies in analyzing the traits of the hero of this story with conclusions about the partial coincidence of the character's character with the classic characteristics of the trickster and picaro. The distinguishing feature from the classic characters of the hero of the lawyer's story lies in the sincerity of his actions without realizing the tragic finale. Another vector of the novelty of this study is that N. A. Lokhvitskaya, long before the manifestation of postmodern features in Russian literature, predicted its markers in the tragicomedy of the situation, reflecting it in this story. The result of the study is expressed in the discovery of the features of the trickster hero and the picaro hero in the actions of the main character, with a shift in their classical functions. The results of this study are applicable to the analysis of N. A. Lokhvitskaya's work by both cultural scientists and literary critics. The conclusion is drawn about the tragedy of the comic and the tragedy of the comic through the main character's misunderstanding of responsibility for his actions.