One of the main problems in A.S. Pushkin Eugene Onegin is the problem of moral choice, which determines the further fate of the characters.
If the choice is correct, then the person remains the master of his life, but in the case of an incorrect moral choice, vice versa; only fate controls everything around. Naturally, the two main characters of the novel, Eugene Onegin and Tatyana Larina, also make a moral choice.
Onegin's first moral choice turns out to be wrong, and it is because of him that the whole plot of the novel is twisted: Onegin agrees to a duel with Lensky, which he himself does not want, obeying only public opinion (refusal to duel was considered a shame for life).
The duel ends tragically - Onegin kills the young poet (in his understanding, the opinion of the world is more important than human life), and from that moment on, all the heroes of the novel no longer belong to themselves, their lives are controlled by fate.
As a result of this, Tatyana also makes her own, also wrong, moral choice - she marries an unloved person, obeying the same public opinion (it was indecent for a girl at her age to remain unmarried), thereby changing her moral principles and ideals.
After this event, the reader loses sight of Tatyana for some time, while Onegin sets off to travel. He returns a changed person, rethinks values and understands that in the world where he returned, he is already superfluous.
But then he unexpectedly meets Tatyana at the ball, matured and married. Shocked by what a luxurious woman has grown from a simple naive village girl, Onegin falls in love with this new Tatyana.
And here he makes another wrong moral choice: he tries to woo a married woman, inciting her to treason. This choice becomes tragic for him, because after the last explanation with Tatyana Onegin, her husband finds her in her private chambers. It is obvious that such an incident will be the occasion for another duel, and this duel will most likely end with the death of Onegin.
Tatyana, at the end of the novel, unlike Onegin, makes just the right moral choice: she refuses adultery to Onegin, not wanting to cheat on her husband.
Although she admits that she still loves Onegin, moral principles are more important for her - having married, she can only belong to her spouse.
Thus, one can see that Tatyana is the image of a woman in the novel. She is a more morally whole person than Onegin. She made a mistake once, but then she did not repeat her mistake.
Onegin, on the other hand, makes the wrong choice twice, for which he will be punished. It is obvious that Pushkin is more sympathetic to Tatyana, it is she who is his moral ideal.
On the example of Onegin, Pushkin depicts all the vices most characteristic of his time: this young man is arrogant and selfish, his whole life is a game for him, he is superficially educated. It was these dandies who made up the high society of St. Petersburg in the first half of the 19th century.
In the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, the novel "Eugene Onegin" occupies a special place. Pushkin wrote it for eight years: from 1823 to 1831. This time was very difficult in the history of Russia. The events of December 14, 1825 abruptly turned the history of the country, sent it in a different direction. There was a change of eras: work on the novel was begun under Alexander I, and continued and completed in the reign of Nicholas I, when all moral guidelines in society changed dramatically.
Before starting to analyze the novel, it is necessary to clearly understand the features of the genre of this work. The genre of "Eugene Onegin" is lyrical-epic. Consequently, the novel is built on the inextricable interaction of two plots: epic (where the main characters are Onegin and Tatyana) and lyrical (where the main character is the narrator). The lyrical plot in the novel dominates, since all the events of real life and the novel life of the characters are presented to the reader through the prism of the author's perception, the author's assessment.
The problems of the purpose and meaning of life are key, central in the novel, because at the turning points in history, which was the era for Russia after the December uprising, a cardinal reassessment of values takes place in the minds of people. And at such a time, the highest moral duty of the artist is to point society to eternal values, to give firm moral guidelines. The best people of the Pushkin, that is, the Decembrist generation, seem to be “leaving the game”: they are either disappointed in the old ideals, or they do not have the opportunity to fight for them in the new conditions, to put them into practice. The next generation, the one that Lermontov would call "a gloomy crowd and soon forgotten," was initially "brought to its knees." Due to the peculiarities of the genre, the novel reflects the very process of reassessment of all moral values. Time in the novel flows in such a way that we see the characters in dynamics, we trace their spiritual path. All the main characters before our eyes are going through a period of formation, painfully searching for the truth, determining their place in the world, the purpose of their existence.
The search for the meaning of life takes place in different planes of existence. The plot of the novel is based on the love of the main characters. Therefore, the manifestation of the essence of a person in the choice of a lover, in the nature of feelings is the most important feature of the image, which determines his whole attitude to life. Lyrical digressions reflect the changes in the author's feelings, his ability to both light flirtation (characteristic of "windy youth"), and true deep admiration for his beloved.
In home life we see one
A series of boring pictures...
The spouse is perceived as an object for ridicule:
... majestic cuckold,
Always happy with myself
With my dinner and my wife.
But it is necessary to pay attention to the opposition of these verses and the lines of "Fragments from Onegin's Journey":
My ideal now is the hostess,
My desire is peace...
What in youth seemed to be a sign of limitation, spiritual and mental poverty, in mature years turns out to be the only correct, moral path. And in no case can the author be suspected of hypocrisy: we are talking about maturity, about the spiritual maturation of a person, about a normal change in value criteria:
Blessed is he who was young from his youth,
Blessed is he who has matured in time.
After all, the tragedy of the main characters also stems from Onegin’s inability to “ripen in time”, due to the premature old age of the soul:
I thought: liberty and peace
replacement for happiness. My God!
How wrong I was, how punished.
Love for the author and for his heroine Tatyana Larina is a huge, intense spiritual work. For Lensky, this is a necessary romantic attribute, which is why he chooses Olga, devoid of individuality, in whom all the typical features of the heroine of sentimental novels have merged. For Onegin, love is "the science of tender passion." He will know the true feeling by the end of the novel, when the experience of suffering comes.
Human consciousness, the system of life values, as you know, are largely formed by the moral laws adopted in society. The author himself evaluates the influence of high society ambiguously. The 1st chapter gives a sharply satirical image of the world. The tragic 6th chapter ends with a lyrical digression: the author's reflections on the age limit that he is preparing to step over. And he calls on "young inspiration" to save the poet's soul from death, to prevent
...petrify
In the deadly ecstasy of light,
In this pool, where I am with you
Swim, dear friends!
Society is heterogeneous. It depends on the person himself whether he will accept the moral laws of the cowardly majority or the best representatives of the world.
The image of "dear friends" surrounding a person in a "dead" "pool of light" does not appear in the novel by chance. Just as “the science of tender passion” has become a caricature of true love, so secular friendship has become a caricature of true friendship. “There is nothing to do, friends” - such is the verdict of the author. Friendship without a deep spiritual community is only a temporary empty union. A full-fledged life is not possible without disinterested self-giving in friendship - that is why these “secular” friendships are so terrible for the author. For the author, the inability to make friends is a terrible sign of the moral degradation of modern society.
The author himself finds the meaning of life in the fulfillment of his destiny. The whole novel is full of deep reflections on art. The image of the author in this sense is unambiguous: he is first of all a poet, his life is unthinkable outside of creativity, outside of intense spiritual work. In this he is directly opposed to Eugene. And not at all because he does not plow and sow before our eyes. He has no need for work. And the education of Onegin, and his attempts to immerse himself in reading, and his effort to write (“yawning, took up the pen”) the author perceives ironically: “Hard work was sickening to him.”
Particularly important in "Eugene Onegin" is the problem of duty and happiness. In fact, Tatyana Larina is not a love heroine, she is a hero of conscience. Appearing on the pages of the novel as a 17-year-old provincial girl dreaming of happiness with her lover, she grows before our eyes into an amazingly integral heroine, for whom the concepts of honor and duty are above all. Olga, Lensky's fiancee, soon forgot the dead young man: "the young lancer captured her." For Tatiana, Lensky's death is a tragedy. She curses herself for continuing to love Onegin: "She must hate her brother's murderer in him." A heightened sense of duty dominates in the image of Tatyana. Happiness with Onegin is impossible for her: there is no happiness built on dishonor, on the misfortune of another person. Tatyana's choice is the highest moral choice, the meaning of life for her is in accordance with the highest moral criteria.
The climax of the plot is the 6th chapter, the duel between Onegin and Lensky. The value of life is tested by death. Onegin makes a tragic mistake. At this moment, the opposition of his understanding of honor and duty to the meaning that Tatyana puts into these words is especially vivid. For Onegin, the concept of "secular honor" turns out to be more significant than moral duty - and he pays a terrible price for the allowed shift in moral criteria: he is forever covered with the blood of a comrade he killed.
The author compares two possible paths of Lensky: the sublime and the mundane. And for him it is more important not what fate is more real - it is important that there will be none, because Lensky was killed. For the light that does not know the true meaning of life, human life itself is nothing.
Choose only ONE of the proposed essay topics (2.1–2.4). In the answer sheet, indicate the number of the topic you have chosen, and then write an essay of at least 200 words (if the essay is less than 150 words, then it is estimated at 0 points).
Rely on the author's position (in the essay on lyrics, consider the author's intention), formulate your point of view. Argument your theses based on literary works (in an essay on lyrics, you must analyze at least two poems). Use literary-theoretical concepts to analyze the work. Consider the composition of the essay. Write your essay clearly and legibly, following the rules of speech.
2.5. What plots from works of domestic and foreign literature are relevant to you and why? (Based on the analysis of one or two works.)
Explanation.
Comments on essays
2.1. What role does the image of military everyday life play in the poem "Vasily Terkin" by A. T. Tvardovsky?
The writer Fyodor Abramov said about the poem "Vasily Terkin" as follows: "Russia in living people's faces, intonations, words." "A book about a soldier", born in the atmosphere of the war years, is a deep study of the Russian national character, an emotional story about a soldier and his soldier's environment. Through the eyes of Terkin, an “ordinary guy”, not only pictures of battles are drawn, but also scenes of front-line life. Surprisingly organically merge in the poem a story about soldiers' everyday life and a joke, so necessary in mortal danger: the story about the accordionist Terkin sounds at ease:
... to warm up, to push
Everyone goes to the harmonist.
Surround - Stop, brothers,
Let your hands blow...
All sorts of random encounters take place in the war, and Vasily Terkin always shows ingenuity, dexterity and efficiency: he can easily find the scale hidden by the hostess, fry lard, fix the clock.
An honest, courageous and conscientious artist, A. T. Tvardovsky went through difficult front-line roads as a war correspondent, more than once was under shelling and bombing, and not only this experience, but also a huge talent helped the author create a folk poem close to millions of readers.
2.2. How does the “Ode on the Day of the Accession to the All-Russian Throne of Her Majesty Empress Elisaveta Petrovna, 1747” embody M. V. Lomonosov’s idea of an ideal historical figure?
In Lomonosov's ode, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna appears as an exalted being. The poet places great hopes on her for the peace and prosperity of Russia. First of all, Lomonosov speaks of peace, which is the key to the prosperity and happiness of any country.
Lomonosov praises the generosity of Elizabeth, expresses his hope for her mercy and attention to his native country. Lomonosov speaks of the happiness of all people. And Queen Elizabeth is the key to their peace and happiness:
When she took the throne
As the highest gave her a crown,
I returned you to Russia
The war ended.
Lomonosov idealizes the queen. He paints her as the embodiment of all virtues. And the reader may get the impression that Lomonosov did not see any shortcomings in it. But do not forget that the classical poet, which is Lomonosov, in his work should glorify reality, devoid of any vices. Moreover, the laudatory ode is a completely special genre. And Lomonosov's ode is structured in such a way that he speaks only good things about the queen.
Lomonosov talks about the beauty and grandeur of Russia, about the inexhaustible wealth that this country owns. And therefore, he believes that a great country is worthy of a great ruler, who, of course, is Elizabeth.
2.3. What is the difference between the natures of Onegin and Lensky? (According to the novel by A. S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin".)
The heroes of the novel "Eugene Onegin" are complex, lively, sometimes contradictory characters. Onegin and Lensky are close in their social and geographical position: they are landowners - neighbors. Both have an education, their spiritual needs are not limited to rural life, like most of their neighbors. Onegin was born and raised in St. Petersburg. Lensky studied in Germany, at the University of Göttingen, so it was difficult for him to find an interlocutor in the rural wilderness. Pushkin notes that both heroes are good-looking. Onegin is "very nice", life in the St. Petersburg society taught him to follow his appearance.
The difference between the characters is clearly visible in their attitude towards love. Lensky "sang love, obedient to love", he is going to marry his chosen one - Olga Larina.
Onegin has long forgotten what love is: for eight years of social life in St. Petersburg, he was accustomed to replacing a serious feeling with a “science of tender passion”, and in the countryside he was frankly bored. Pushkin gives a number of antonyms, emphasizing the opposite of the characters' characters: "wave and stone, poetry and prose, ice and fire."
In the images of Onegin and Lensky, Pushkin embodied the typical features of his contemporary youth. Heroes differ in character and worldview. Onegin ruined his best years for empty secular amusements and turned into a bored egoist. Lensky is still too young, naive, romantic, but he could turn into an ordinary landowner.
2.4. What social and moral vices does N.V. Gogol denounce in the comedy The Inspector General?
In the comedy The Inspector General, N. V. Gogol exposes the vices of society during the times of Tsarist Russia. In the center of his attention are representatives of the bureaucracy, and the author embodies their images in the characteristic characters of a small county town, where the main events take place. The author clearly shows that the local bureaucracy is mired in bribery and arbitrariness. The moral of these people is this: “There is no person who does not have some sins behind him. It is already so arranged by God himself...” The ability not to let something slip into one's hands is, in their opinion, a manifestation of intelligence and enterprise. The officials of the county town are stupid and immoral.
The work of N.V. Gogol is not so much comical as full of tragedy, because, reading it, you begin to understand: a society in which there are so many bosses who have fallen, corrupted by idleness and impunity, has no future.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - Russian poet, prose writer and playwright of the 19th century. It is he who is the founder of Russian realism. The great poet is considered one of the most authoritative figures of his time. For eight years he created a novel in verse called "Eugene Onegin". The problems presented to the reader in this work are relevant today. In our article you can find not only a description of the problems and plot of the novel, but also the history of its creation, as well as a lot of other interesting and informative information.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin began writing "Eugene Onegin" in 1823, and finished only in 1831. Pushkin sometimes called his novel a feat. It is worth noting that it is "Eugene Onegin" - the first work in the poet's repertoire, which was written in the style of realism.
Initially, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin planned to include 9 chapters in the novel, but at the end of writing he left only 8. The work describes the events of 1819 - 1825. The novel presents not only a love line, but also the vices of society. It is for this reason that the work is relevant today.
"Eugene Onegin" is an encyclopedia of Russian life, because the detail of everyday life and the depth of description of the characters' characters allow readers to understand the peculiarities of the life of people in the 19th century. The novel "Eugene Onegin" was published in parts (chapters). Some passages have been published in magazines. The publication of each chapter became an extraordinary event in society. The very first part was published in 1825.
Realism in Russian literature, as already mentioned, was first introduced in an innovative work, the author of which was Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. The protagonist of the novel is Eugene Onegin. This is a young nobleman who was highly educated and led a secular lifestyle. The main thing for him was attending balls and theaters. Onegin also liked to dine with friends at the most popular establishments in St. Petersburg. But over time, he gets bored with this lifestyle, and the hero falls into a deep depression.
Upon learning of his uncle's fatal illness, Eugene Onegin leaves for the village. Upon arrival, he finds out that his relative is no longer alive. Since the main character was the only heir, all the property goes to him. Eugene Onegin believes that the village is in dire need of transformations and reforms. While these thoughts occupy the hero, he meets and begins to maintain relations with Lensky, a young landowner. The new comrade introduces Onegin to the Larin family, in which two sisters live. One of them is Tatyana, who had the misfortune to fall in love with young Eugene at first sight.
At the ball at the Larins, a conflict arises between Lensky and Onegin, which has gone too far and ended in a duel between former friends. After Onegin kills Lensky in a fight, he leaves in despair on a journey. At this time, Tatyana is given in marriage.
Onegin and Tatyana meet at one of the balls. The protagonist suddenly awakens a belated love for the girl. Returning home, Eugene composes a love letter for Tatyana, to which she soon answers. The girl claims that she still loves the young nobleman, but cannot be with him, since she is already a married lady: “But I am given to another and I will be faithful to him for a century.”
The qualities of Onegin are especially clearly revealed to the reader in the first and last chapters of the novel. The main character is quite complex. He has a heightened self-esteem, but from time to time Eugene is forced to make concessions to society, because he is afraid of being rejected. In the novel, the author devotes a few lines dedicated to the childhood of the protagonist, which to a certain extent explains his current behavior. Eugene from the first days of his life was brought up superficially. At first glance, Onegin's childhood passed cheerfully and carefree, but in fact, everything familiar quickly caused him discontent.
The young nobleman lives It is worth noting that Onegin acts and dresses as is customary in society - in this sense, he neglects his own desires. The image of the main character is quite complex and diverse. Rejection of personal claims deprives him of the opportunity to be himself.
Eugene Onegin easily charmed any woman. He spent his free time surrounded by entertainment, which soon invariably bored him. Onegin does not value people. Confirmation of this is the duel with Lensky. Eugene easily kills a friend for no good reason. The positive features of the protagonist appear before the reader at the end of the novel. Seeing Tatyana again, he realizes that nothing excites the heart like sincerity. But, unfortunately, the hero realizes this truth too late.
“We all learned a little something and somehow” - a quote from the novel “Eugene Onegin”, which is sometimes used today. Its meaning is a reflection of the superficial education of high society during the Patriotic War of 1812. The nobility in Moscow and St. Petersburg was divided in their views into two groups: the first - the older generation, and the second - the young nobles. Most of them did not want to do anything and strive for something. In those days, the priority was knowledge of French and the ability to bow and dance correctly. On this craving for knowledge, as a rule, ended. This is confirmed by a quotation from the novel, which, because of its veracity, it will never be superfluous to repeat: "We all learned little by little something and somehow."
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is a poet who worked in the last century, but his works are still relevant today. One of his most popular works is the novel "Eugene Onegin". What problems does this work pose to readers?
Happiness and duty is one of the key problems that is presented in the novel by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". It concerns not only the main character and Tatyana, but also the girl's parents. Tatyana's mother was supposed to marry another man, the one she loved. Having entered into marriage with an unloved person, she cried and suffered, but over time she reconciled. Paradoxically, Tatyana repeated the fate of her mother. She loved Eugene Onegin with all her heart, but she married a completely different man. The girl puts duty above love and stays with her husband, to whom she does not have any feelings. Thus, upbringing affects, and the heroine sacrifices her happiness in the name of the foundations instilled from childhood.
It is difficult to argue with the fact that one of Pushkin's most popular and iconic works is "Eugene Onegin". The problems that are described in the novel made the author's creation famous all over the world.
In the novel "Eugene Onegin" the hero is shown interacting with society. It is interesting how the change of external status that occurs in Onegin's life changes his habits and behavior. The protagonist behaves completely differently in a secular and rural environment. For example, in St. Petersburg, Onegin demonstrates politeness and education, while in the countryside, on the contrary, he neglects the rules of etiquette. Based on this, we can conclude that the main character is no stranger to hypocrisy and lies.
Along the way, you meet different people. Some have willpower, are true to their worldviews, while others, on the contrary, make many mistakes and cannot find the true path. The novel "Eugene Onegin" leads readers to many thoughts. Problems associated with the search for the meaning of life help to understand oneself.
The main characters of the novel are individuals who feel lonely in a secular environment. They are capable of both love and suffering. Onegin, for example, despises and this leads him to severe depression. Tatyana is the ideal of moral purity. Her main goal is to love and be loved, but the atmosphere that reigns around the heroine sometimes changes, as do the people around her. Despite this, Tatyana remains innocent and morally blameless. But the main character eventually understands who he rejected, and this becomes the impetus for personal adjustments. Using the example of Onegin, the author of the work demonstrates how a person who comes into contact with the sincerity and spiritual beauty of another can change.
In the 19th century, the novels of Byron and Walter Scott were very popular. In terms of subject matter, they were often associated with Pushkin's verse novel. The first published chapters of "Eugene Onegin" caused a resonance in society. Reviews of the work differed significantly from each other.
In an innovative creation, the author combines many genres and styles. In his novel, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin achieves integrity and harmony of style, ways of expressing artistic thought. "Eugene Onegin" is the first novel in Russia, which is written in poetic form. Modern critics have repeatedly tried to find out what are the social and literary roots of the protagonist of the work - the "extra" person in society. Often they assumed that the creation is connected with Byron's Harold.
Tatyana Larina is the main character of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin". It is noteworthy that the author in all his works describes the image of a beautiful Russian woman. Tatyana falls in love with Onegin at first sight and for life, and is the first to confess her feelings to him. But in Eugene's callous heart there was no place for the girl's pure love.
In the image of Tatyana, incompatible things are combined into one whole: the heroine loves to guess, reads novels and believes in omens, despite the fact that she is quite religious. Her rich inner world amazes others. It is for this reason that she feels comfortable in any society. She does not get bored even in the village. And the heroine loves to indulge in dreams.
Over time, having received declarations of love from Eugene Onegin, the girl acts wisely. Tatyana suppresses her feelings and decides to stay with her husband. After all, relations with Onegin would be disastrous for the heroine.
As we said earlier, Tatyana Larina does the right thing at the end of the novel. She does not hide the fact that she still loves Eugene Onegin, but at the same time the heroine believes that she can only belong to her lawful husband.
It is Tatyana who is the most positive and moral person in the work. She makes mistakes, but then she draws the right conclusions and makes the right decision. If you carefully read the lines of the novel, it becomes clear that Tatyana is the ideal of the author himself. On the contrary, using the example of Onegin, he demonstrates all the vices of society, since the protagonist of the novel is selfish and arrogant. It was individuals like Eugene who were prominent representatives of the nobility. Therefore, he appeared in the novel as a collective image of the high society of St. Petersburg.
The moral choice of the characters is also curious. The most striking example is the duel between Lensky and Onegin. The protagonist does not want to go to her, but obeys public opinion. As a result, Lensky dies, and this is a kind of turning point. It was after the sad event described that the novel changed its measured course.
The novel by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" is the first work in verse, which was written in the spirit of realism. The main characters are the young nobleman Onegin, the village girl Tatyana Larina and the landowner Lensky. The novel intertwines a large number of storylines and images. This is one of the reasons that makes the work interesting and instructive. The novel also contains topical issues of any time: the eternal search for the meaning of life and one's place in society is touched upon. The tragedy of the work is that it is very difficult to correspond to the ideas of the environment, regardless of one's desires and principles. This inevitably leads to duality and hypocrisy. In addition, feeling like a stranger in society, as the main character feels, is also psychologically difficult. And, of course, the theme invariably attracts readers. The work is written very vividly and interestingly, so those who decide to read the novel "Eugene Onegin" will not be mistaken. The problems that are demonstrated in the work will prompt reflection and show what passions raged in the distant 19th century.
Problems and characters of the novel "Eugene Onegin"
Before talking about the problems and the main characters of the novel in the verses of "Eugene Onegin", it is necessary to clearly understand the features of the genre of this work. The genre of "Eugene Onegin" is lyrical-epic. Consequently, the novel is built on the inextricable interaction of two plots: epic (where the main characters are Onegin and Tatyana) and lyrical (where the main character is the narrator, on whose behalf the narration is being conducted). The lyrical plot is not only equal in rights in the novel - it dominates, because all the events of real life and the characters' life in the novel are presented to the reader through the prism of the author's perception, the author's assessment.
The key, central problem in the novel is the problem of the purpose and meaning of life, because at the turning points in history, which was the era for Russia after the Decembrist uprising, a cardinal reassessment of values takes place in the minds of people. And at such a time, the highest moral duty of the artist is to point society to eternal values, to give firm moral guidelines. The best people of the Pushkin - Decembrist - generation, as it were, "leave the game": they are either disappointed in the old ideals, or they do not have the opportunity in the new conditions to fight for them, to put them into practice. The next generation - the one that Lermontov will call "a gloomy crowd and soon forgotten" - was initially "put on its knees." Due to the peculiarities of the genre, the novel, which literary criticism rightly interprets as a kind of "lyrical diary" of the author, reflects the very process of reassessment of the entire system of moral values. Time in the novel flows in such a way that we see the characters in dynamics, we trace their spiritual path. All the main characters are going through a period of formation before our eyes, painfully searching for the truth, determining their place in the world, the purpose of their existence.
The central image of the novel is the image of the author. For all the autobiographical nature of this character, in no case can he be identified with Pushkin, if only because the world of the novel is an ideal, fictional world. Therefore, when we talk about the image of the author, we do not personally mean Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, but the lyrical hero of the novel "Eugene Onegin".
So, before us is the author's lyrical diary; a frank conversation with the reader, where confessional moments are interspersed with light chatter. The author is either serious or frivolous, sometimes maliciously ironic, sometimes simply cheerful, sometimes sad and always sharp. And most importantly - always absolutely sincere with the reader. Lyrical digressions reflect the changes in the author's feelings, his ability to both light flirting (characteristic of "windy youth") and deep admiration for his beloved (compare stanzas XXXII and XXXIII of the first chapter of the novel).
... we, the enemies of Hymen,
In home life we see one
A series of boring pictures...
The spouse is perceived as an object for ridicule:
... majestic cuckold,
Always happy with myself
With my dinner and my wife.
But let us pay attention to the opposition of these verses and the lines of "Fragments
from Onegin's Journey":
My ideal now is the hostess,
My desire is peace
Yes, a cabbage soup, yes, a large one.
What in youth seemed to be a sign of limitation, spiritual and mental poverty, in mature years turns out to be the only correct, moral path. And in no case should the author be suspected of hypocrisy: we are talking about the spiritual maturation of a person, about a normal change in value criteria:
Blessed is he who was young from his youth,
Blessed is he who has matured in time.
The tragedy of the protagonist in many ways stems precisely from Onegin's inability to "ripen in time", from "premature old age of the soul." What happened in the life of the author harmoniously, although not painlessly, in the fate of his hero became the cause of the tragedy.
The search for the meaning of life takes place in different planes of existence. The plot of the novel is based on the love of the main characters. Therefore, the manifestation of the essence of a person in the choice of a lover, in the nature of feelings is the most important feature of the image, which determines his entire attitude to life. Love for the author and for his heroine Tatyana is a huge, intense spiritual work. For Lensky, this is a necessary romantic attribute, which is why he chooses Olga, devoid of individuality, in whom all the typical features of the heroines of sentimental novels have merged:
Her portrait, it is very nice,
I used to love him myself
But he bored me to no end.
For Onegin, love is "the science of tender passion." He will know the true feeling by the end of the novel, when the experience of suffering comes.
"Eugene Onegin" is a realistic work, and realism, unlike other artistic methods, does not imply any final and only true solution to the main problem. On the contrary, he requires an ambiguous treatment of this problem:
This is how nature made us
prone to contradiction.
The ability to reflect the "inclination" of human nature "to contradiction", the complexity and variability of the self-consciousness of the individual in the world are the hallmarks of Pushkin's realism. The duality of the image of the author himself lies in the fact that he evaluates his generation in its integrity, without ceasing to feel like a representative of the generation, endowed with common advantages and disadvantages. Pushkin emphasizes this duality of self-awareness of the lyrical hero of the novel: “We all learned a little ...”, “We honor everyone with zeros ...”, “We all look at Napoleons”, “So people, I repent first, / / There is nothing to do friends..."
Human consciousness, the system of his life values largely form the moral laws adopted in society. The author himself regards the influence of high society ambiguously. The first chapter gives a sharply satirical depiction of the world and the pastimes of secular youth. The tragic 6th chapter, where the young poet dies, ends with a lyrical digression: the author’s reflections on the age limit that he is preparing to cross: “Am I to be thirty years old soon?” And he calls on "young inspiration" to save the "soul of the poet" from death, not to let "... turn to stone// In the deadening ecstasy of light,// In this whirlpool, where I am with you// I bathe, dear friends!". So, a whirlpool, deadening the soul. But here is the 8th chapter:
And now for the first time I muse
I bring you to a social event.
She likes order
oligarchic conversations,
And the chill of calm pride,
And this mixture of ranks and years.
Yu.M. explains this contradiction very correctly. Lotman: “The image of light received double coverage: on the one hand, the world is soulless and mechanistic, it remained an object of condemnation, on the other hand, as a sphere in which Russian culture develops, life is spiritualized by the play of intellectual and spiritual forces, poetry, pride, like the world of Karamzin and the Decembrists, Zhukovsky and the author of Eugene Onegin himself, he retains an unconditional value. Society is heterogeneous. It depends on the person himself whether he will accept the moral laws of the cowardly majority or the best representatives of the world ”(Lotman Yu.M. Roman A.S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”: Commentary. St. Petersburg, 1995).
The “cowardly majority”, “friends” surrounding a person in a “dead” “pool of light” appear in the novel for a reason. Just as “the science of tender passion” has become a caricature of true love, so secular friendship has become a caricature of true friendship. “There is nothing to do friends” - such is the author’s verdict on the friendly relations of Onegin and Lensky. Friendship without a deep spiritual community is just a temporary empty union. And this caricature of secular friendships infuriates the author: "... save us from friends, God!" Compare the scathing lines about the slander of "friends" in the fourth chapter of the novel with the penetrating verses about the nanny (stanza XXXV):
But I am the fruit of my dreams
And harmonic plots
I read only to the old nanny,
Friend of my youth...
A full-fledged life is impossible without disinterested self-giving in friendship - that is why these secular "friendships" are so terrible for the author. For in true friendship, betrayal is the most terrible sin that cannot be justified by anything, but in a secular parody of friendship, betrayal is in the order of things, normal. For the author, the inability to make friends is a terrible sign of the moral degradation of modern society.
But there is no friendship even between us.
Destroy all prejudices
We honor all zeros,
And units - themselves.
We all look at Napoleons
There are millions of bipedal creatures
For us, there is only one tool;
We feel wild and funny.
Let us pay attention to these verses, they are one of the most important, central in Russian literature of the 19th century. Pushkin's formula will form the basis of "Crime and Punishment", "War and Peace". The Napoleonic theme was first recognized and formulated by Pushkin as the problem of the purpose of human life. Napoleon appears here not as a romantic image, but as a symbol of a psychological attitude, according to which a person, for the sake of his desires, is ready to suppress, destroy any obstacle: after all, the people around him are only “two-legged creatures”!
The author himself sees the meaning of life in the fulfillment of his destiny. The whole novel is full of deep reflections on art, the image of the author in this sense is unambiguous: he is first of all a poet, his life is unthinkable outside of creativity, outside of intense spiritual work.
In this he is directly opposed to Eugene. And not at all because he does not plow and sow before our eyes. He does not need to work, to search for his destiny. And the education of Onegin, and his attempts to immerse himself in reading, and his efforts to write (“yawning, took up the pen”) the author perceives ironically: “Hard work was sickening to him.” This is one of the most important moments for understanding the novel. Although the action of the novel ends before the uprising on Senate Square, the features of a person of the Nikolaev era are often guessed in Yevgeny. A heavy cross for this generation will be the inability to find their calling, to unravel their destiny. This motif is central in the work of Lermontov, and Turgenev comprehends this problem in the image of Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov.
Particularly important in "Eugene Onegin" is the problem of duty and happiness. In fact, Tatyana Larina is not a love heroine, she is a heroine of conscience. Appearing on the pages of the novel as a seventeen-year-old provincial girl dreaming of happiness with her lover, she grows before our eyes into an amazingly whole heroine, for whom the concepts of honor and duty are above all. Olga, Lensky's fiancee, soon forgot the dead young man: "the young lancer captured her." For Tatiana, Lensky's death is a catastrophe. She curses herself for continuing to love Onegin: "She must hate in him / / The murderer of her brother." A heightened sense of duty is the dominant image of Tatyana. Happiness with Onegin is impossible for her: there is no happiness built on dishonor, on the misfortune of another person. Tatyana's choice is a deeply moral choice, the meaning of life for her is in accordance with the highest moral criteria. F.M. wrote about this. Dostoevsky in the essay "Pushkin": "... Tatyana is a solid type, standing firmly on her own ground. She is deeper than Onegin and, of course, smarter than him. She already with her noble instinct foresees where and in what the truth is, which was expressed in the final poem. Maybe Pushkin would have done even better if he called his poem after Tatiana, and not Onegin, for she is undoubtedly the main character of the poem. This is a positive type, not a negative one, this is a type of positive beauty, this is the apotheosis of a Russian woman, and she the poet intended to express the idea of the poem in the famous scene of Tatyana's last meeting with Onegin. One can even say that such a beautiful positive type of Russian woman has almost never been repeated in our fiction - except perhaps the image of Lisa in Turgenev's "Noble Nest". But the manner of looking down did something that Onegin did not even recognize Tatyana at all when he met her for the first time, in the wilderness, in a modest
the image of a pure, innocent girl, so shy before him from the first time. He was unable to distinguish completeness and perfection in the poor girl, and indeed, perhaps, he took her for a "moral embryo." This is she, an embryo, this is after her letter to Onegin! If there is anyone who is a moral embryo in the poem, it is, of course, himself, Onegin, and this is indisputable. Yes, and he could not recognize her at all: does he know the human soul? This is a distracted person, this is a restless dreamer in his whole life. He did not recognize her later, in St. Petersburg, in the form of a noble lady, when, in his own words, in a letter to Tatyana, "he comprehended with his soul all her perfections." But these are only words: she passed him by in his life, not recognized and not appreciated by him; that's the tragedy of their romance<…>.
By the way, who said that secular, court life had perniciously touched her soul and that it was precisely the dignity of a secular lady and new secular concepts that were partly the reason for her refusal to Onegin? No, it wasn't like that. No, this is the same Tanya, the same old village Tanya! She is not spoiled, on the contrary, she is depressed by this magnificent Petersburg life, broken and suffering, she hates her dignity as a secular lady, and whoever judges her otherwise does not understand at all what Pushkin wanted to say. And now she firmly says to Onegin:
But I am given to another
And I will be faithful to him forever.
She expressed this precisely as a Russian woman, this is her apotheosis. She tells the truth of the poem. Oh, I won't say a word about her religious beliefs, about her view of the sacrament of marriage - no, I won't touch on that. But what: is it because she refused to follow him, despite the fact that she herself told him: “I love you”, or because she is “like a Russian woman” (and not southern or not some kind of French) , unable to take a bold step, unable to break his fetters, unable to sacrifice the charm of honors, wealth, his secular significance, the conditions of virtue? No, the Russian woman is brave. A Russian woman will boldly follow what she believes in, and she proved it. But she is “given to another and will be faithful to him for a century”<…>. Yes, she is faithful to this general, her husband, an honest man who loves her, respects her and is proud of her. Let her “begged her mother,” but she, and no one else, agreed, she, after all, she herself swore to him to be his honest wife. Let her marry him out of desperation, but now he is her husband, and her betrayal will cover him with shame, shame and kill him. And how can a person base his happiness on the misfortune of another? Happiness is not only in the pleasures of love, but also in the highest harmony of the spirit. How to calm the spirit if a dishonest, ruthless, inhuman act stands behind? Should she run away just because my happiness is here? But what kind of happiness can there be if it is based on someone else's misfortune? Let me imagine that you yourself are building the building of human destiny with the goal of making people happy in the end, finally giving them peace and tranquility. And now imagine, too, that for this it is necessary and inevitably necessary to torture only one human being, moreover, even if not so worthy, even funny in a different way, a creature, not some Shakespeare, but just an honest old man, a young husband his wife, in whose love he blindly believes, although he does not know her heart at all, respects her, is proud of her, is happy with her and is calm. And only he must be disgraced, dishonored and tortured, and your building should be erected on the tears of this dishonored old man! Will you agree to be the architect of such a building on this condition? Here is the question. And can you admit even for a minute the idea that the people for whom you built this building would themselves agree to accept such happiness from you, if suffering is laid in its foundation<…>. Tell me, could Tatyana decide otherwise, with her lofty soul, with her heart, so affected? Not<…>. Tatyana sends Onegin away<…>. It has no soil, it is a blade of grass carried by the wind. She is not like that at all: she, both in despair and in the suffering consciousness that her life has perished, still has something solid and unshakable on which her soul rests. These are her childhood memories, memories of her homeland, the rural wilderness in which her humble, pure life began - this is "the cross and the shadow of the branches over the grave of her poor nanny." Oh, these memories and former images are now the most precious thing to her, these images are the only ones left to her, but they save her soul from final despair. And this is not a little, no, there is already a lot, because here is a whole foundation, here is something unshakable and indestructible. Here is contact with the motherland, with the native people, with its shrine<…>."
The climax of the plot is the sixth chapter, the duel between Onegin and Lensky. The value of life is tested by death. Onegin makes a tragic mistake. At this moment, the opposition of his understanding of honor and duty to the meaning that Tatyana puts into these words is especially vivid. For Onegin, the concept of "secular honor" turns out to be more significant than a moral duty - and he pays a terrible price for the allowed shift in moral criteria: he is forever on the blood of a friend he killed.
The author compares two possible paths of Lensky: the sublime (“for the good of the world, or at least glory was born”) and the mundane (“ordinary destiny”). And for him it is important not what fate is more real - it is important that there will be none, Lensky is killed. For the light that does not know the true meaning of life, human life itself has no value. For the author, it is the greatest, ontological value. Therefore, the author's sympathies and antipathies are so clearly visible in the novel "Eugene Onegin".
The attitude of the author to the heroes of the novel is always definite and unambiguous. Let us once again note Pushkin's unwillingness to be identified with Eugene Onegin: "I am always glad to notice the difference / / Between Onegin and me." Recall the ambiguity of the author's assessment of Eugene: as the novel is written, his attitude towards the hero changes: the years go by, the author himself changes, Onegin also changes. The hero at the beginning and end of the novel is two different people: in the finale, Onegin is "a tragic face." For the author, the main tragedy of Onegin lies in the gap between his true human capabilities and the role he plays: this is one of the central problems of the Onegin generation. Sincerely loving his hero, Pushkin cannot but condemn him for fear of violating secular conventions.
Tatyana is Pushkin's favorite heroine, the image closest to the author. The poet will call her "sweet ideal." The spiritual closeness of the author and Tatyana is based on the similarity of the basic principles of life: disinterested attitude to the world, closeness to nature, national consciousness.
The attitude of the author to Lensky is love-ironic. Lensky's romantic worldview is largely artificial (remember Lensky's scene at the grave of Dmitry Larin). The tragedy of Lensky for the author is that for the right to play the role of a romantic hero, Vladimir sacrifices his life: the sacrifice is absurd and senseless. The tragedy of a failed personality is also a sign of the times.
A special conversation is the author's attitude to secondary and episodic characters. He largely reveals in them not individual, but typical features. This creates the attitude of the author to society as a whole. Secular society in the novel is heterogeneous. This is also the “secular mob”, which has made the pursuit of fashion the main principle of life - in beliefs, in behavior, in reading, etc. And at the same time, the circle of people accepted in Tatyana's Petersburg salon is a true intelligentsia. The provincial society appears in the novel as a caricature of the high society. One phenomenon at Tatyana's name day of the four Skotinins (they are also the heroes of Fonvizin's comedy "Undergrowth") shows that nothing has changed in the fifty years separating the modern Pushkin province from the province described by Fonvizin. But at the same time, it is in the Russian provinces that Tatyana's appearance is possible.
Summing up, it should be said that the fate of the heroes of the novel primarily depends on the truth (or falsity) of the values that they take as the basic principles of life.
Bibliography
Monakhova O.P., Malkhazova M.V. Russian literature of the 19th century. Part 1. - M.-1994.
Lotman Yu.M. Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin": Commentary. St. Petersburg - 1995
