Evgeny Onegin what year. The history of the creation of the novel “Eugene Onegin”

“Eugene Onegin” reflected the entire life of Russian society early XIX century. However, two centuries later, this work is interesting not only in historical and literary terms, but also in terms of the relevance of the questions that Pushkin posed to the reading public. Everyone, opening the novel, found something of their own in it, empathized with the characters, noted the lightness and mastery of the style. And quotes from this work have long become aphorisms, they are pronounced even by those who have not read the book itself.

A.S. Pushkin created this work for about 8 years (1823-1831). The history of the creation of “Eugene Onegin” began in Chisinau in 1823. It reflected the experience of “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, but the subject of the image was not historical and folklore characters, but modern heroes and the author himself. The poet also begins to work in line with realism, gradually abandoning romanticism. During the period of Mikhailovsky exile, he continued to work on the book, and completed it during his forced imprisonment in the village of Boldino (Pushkin was detained by cholera). Thus, the creative history of the work has absorbed the most “fertile” years of the creator, when his skill evolved at breakneck speed. So his novel reflected everything that he learned during this time, everything that he knew and felt. Perhaps the work owes its depth to this circumstance.

The author himself calls his novel “a collection of motley chapters,” each of the 8 chapters has relative independence, because the writing of “Eugene Onegin” took a long time, and each episode opened a certain stage in Pushkin’s life. The book was published in parts, each release becoming an event in the world of literature. The complete edition was published only in 1837.

Genre and composition

A.S. Pushkin defined his work as a novel in verse, emphasizing that it is lyrical-epic: the plot line, expressed by the love story of the heroes (epic beginning), is adjacent to digressions and author’s reflections (lyrical beginning). This is why the genre of Eugene Onegin is called a “novel.”

"Eugene Onegin" consists of 8 chapters. In the first chapters, readers get acquainted with the central character Evgeny, move with him to the village and meet their future friend - Vladimir Lensky. Further, the drama of the story increases due to the appearance of the Larin family, especially Tatyana. The sixth chapter is the culmination of the relationship between Lensky and Onegin and the escape of the main character. And in the finale of the work there is a denouement of the storyline of Evgeniy and Tatiana.

Lyrical digressions are related to the narrative, but they are also a dialogue with the reader; they emphasize the “free” form, closeness to intimate conversation. The same factor can explain the incompleteness and openness of the ending of each chapter and the novel as a whole.

About what?

A young nobleman, already disillusioned with life, inherits an estate in the village and goes there, hoping to dispel his blues. It begins with the fact that he was forced to sit with his sick uncle, who left his family nest to his nephew. However, the hero soon becomes bored with rural life; his existence would become unbearable if not for his acquaintance with the poet Vladimir Lensky. Friends are “ice and fire,” but differences did not interfere with friendly relations. will help you figure this out.

Lensky introduces his friend to the Larin family: the old mother, sisters Olga and Tatyana. The poet has long been in love with Olga, a flighty coquette. The character of Tatyana, who herself falls in love with Evgeny, is much more serious and integral. Her imagination had been picturing a hero for a long time; all that remained was for someone to appear. The girl suffers, is tormented, writes a romantic letter. Onegin is flattered, but understands that he cannot respond to such a passionate feeling, so he gives a harsh rebuke to the heroine. This circumstance plunges her into depression, she anticipates trouble. And trouble really came. Onegin decides to take revenge on Lensky because of an accidental disagreement, but chooses a terrible means: he flirts with Olga. The poet is offended and challenges yesterday's friend to a duel. But the culprit kills the “slave of honor” and leaves forever. The essence of the novel “Eugene Onegin” is not even to show all this. The main thing worth paying attention to is the description of Russian life and the psychologism of the characters, which develops under the influence of the depicted atmosphere.

However, the relationship between Tatiana and Evgeniy is not over. They meet at a social evening, where the hero sees not a naive girl, but a mature woman in full splendor. And he falls in love. He is also tormented and writes a message. And he meets with the same rebuke. Yes, the beauty did not forget anything, but it’s too late, she was “given to someone else”: . The failed lover is left with nothing.

The main characters and their characteristics

The images of the heroes of “Eugene Onegin” are not a random selection of characters. This is a miniature of Russian society of that time, where all the known types of noble people are scrupulously listed: the poor landowner Larin, his secular but degenerate wife in the village, the exalted and insolvent poet Lensky, his flighty and frivolous passion, etc. All of them represent Imperial Russia during its heyday. No less interesting and original. Below is a description of the main characters:

1. Eugene Onegin - main character novel. It carries within itself dissatisfaction with life, fatigue from it. Pushkin talks in detail about the environment in which the young man grew up, about how the environment shaped his character. Onegin's upbringing is typical of the nobles of those years: a superficial education aimed at being successful in decent society. He was not prepared for real business, but exclusively for secular entertainment. Therefore, from a young age I was tired of the empty glitter of balls. He has “direct nobility of soul” (he feels a friendly attachment to Lensky, does not seduce Tatyana, taking advantage of her love). The hero is capable of deep feelings, but is afraid of losing freedom. But, despite his nobility, he is an egoist, and narcissism underlies all his feelings. The essay contains the most detailed description of the character.
2. Very different from Tatyana Larina, this image appears ideal: an integral, wise, devoted nature, ready to do anything for love. She grew up in a healthy environment, in nature, and not in the light, so real feelings are strong in her: kindness, faith, dignity. The girl loves to read, and in books she drew a special, romantic image, shrouded in mystery. It was this image that was embodied in Evgenia. And Tatyana gave herself up to this feeling with all passion, truthfulness and purity. She did not seduce, did not flirt, but took upon herself the courage to confess. This brave and honest act did not find a response in Onegin’s heart. He fell in love with her seven years later, when she shone in the world. Fame and wealth did not bring happiness to the woman; she married someone she didn’t love, but Eugene’s courtship is impossible, family vows are sacred to her. More about this in the essay.
3. Tatiana's sister Olga is not of great interest, there is not a single sharp corner in her, everything is round, it is not for nothing that Onegin compares her to the moon. The girl accepts Lensky's advances. And any other person, because why not accept, she is flirtatious and empty. There is immediately a huge difference between the Larin sisters. The youngest daughter took after her mother, a flighty socialite who was forcibly imprisoned in the village.
4. However, it was the flirtatious Olga that the poet Vladimir Lensky fell in love with. Probably because it’s easy to fill the emptiness with your own content in dreams. The hero still burned with a hidden fire, felt subtly and analyzed little. He has high moral concepts, so he is alien to the light and is not poisoned by it. If Onegin talked and danced with Olga only out of boredom, then Lensky saw this as a betrayal, his former friend became an insidious tempter of a sinless girl. In Vladimir’s maximalist perception, this is immediately a break in relations and a duel. The poet lost in it. The author poses the question, what could await the character if the outcome is favorable? The conclusion is disappointing: Lensky would have married Olga, become an ordinary landowner and become vulgar in routine vegetation. You may also need .

Themes

• The main theme of the novel “Eugene Onegin” is extensive - this is Russian life. The book shows life and upbringing in the world, in the capital, village life, customs and activities, typical and at the same time unique portraits of characters are drawn. Almost two centuries later, the heroes contain features inherent in modern people; these images are deeply national.
• The theme of friendship is also reflected in Eugene Onegin. The main character and Vladimir Lensky were in close friendship. But can it be considered real? They got together by chance, out of boredom. Evgeniy sincerely became attached to Vladimir, who warmed the hero’s cold heart with his spiritual fire. However, just as quickly he is ready to insult a friend by flirting with his beloved, who is happy about it. Evgeny thinks only about himself, the feelings of other people are absolutely unimportant to him, so he could not save his comrade.
• Love is also an important theme of the work. Almost all writers talk about it. Pushkin was no exception. True love is expressed in the image of Tatiana. It can develop against all odds and remain for life. No one loved and will love Onegin as much as the main character. If you miss this, you remain unhappy for the rest of your life. Unlike the sacrificial, all-forgiving feelings of the girl, Onegin’s emotions are self-love. He was afraid of a timid girl who had fallen in love for the first time, for whose sake he would have to give up the disgusting but familiar light. But Evgeny was captivated by the cold, secular beauty, with whom visiting was already an honor, let alone loving her.
• Theme of the extra person. The trend of realism appears in Pushkin’s works. It was the environment that raised Onegin to be so disappointed. It was precisely this that preferred to see superficiality in the nobles, the focus of all their efforts on creating secular splendor. And nothing else is needed. On the contrary, upbringing in folk traditions, the company of ordinary people made the soul healthy and the nature whole, like Tatyana’s.
• Theme of devotion. Tatyana is faithful to her first and strongest love, but Olga is frivolous, changeable and ordinary. Larina's sisters are completely opposite. Olga reflects a typical secular girl, for whom the main thing is herself, her attitude towards her, and therefore she can change if there is a better option. As soon as Onegin said a couple of pleasant words, she forgot about Lensky, whose affection was much stronger. Tatyana’s heart is faithful to Evgeniy all her life. Even when he trampled on her feelings, she waited a long time and could not find another (again, unlike Olga, who was quickly consoled after Lensky's death). The heroine had to get married, but in her soul she continued to be faithful to Onegin, although love had ceased to be possible.

Problems

The problematics in the novel “Eugene Onegin” are very indicative. It reveals not only psychological and social, but also political shortcomings and even entire tragedies of the system. For example, the outdated, but no less creepy, drama of Tatyana’s mother is shocking. The woman was forced into marriage, and she broke under the pressure of circumstances, becoming an evil and despotic mistress of a hated estate. And here are the current problems raised

• The main problem that is raised throughout realism in general, and by Pushkin in Eugene Onegin in particular, is the destructive influence secular society per person per capita. A hypocritical and greedy environment poisons the personality. It imposes external requirements of decency: a young man must know a little French, read a little fashionable literature, be decently and expensively dressed, that is, make an impression, seem, and not be. And all the feelings here are also false, they only seem. That is why secular society takes away the best from people, it cools the brightest flame with its cold deception.
• Eugenia’s blues is another problematic issue. Why does the main character become depressed? Not just because he was spoiled by society. The main reason is that he does not find the answer to the question: why is all this? Why does he live? To go to theaters, balls and receptions? The absence of a vector, direction of movement, awareness of the meaninglessness of existence - these are the feelings that overcome Onegin. Here we are faced with the eternal problem of the meaning of life, which is so difficult to find.
• The problem of selfishness is reflected in the image of the main character. Realizing that no one would love him in a cold and indifferent world, Eugene began to love himself more than anyone else in the world. Therefore, he doesn’t care about Lensky (he only relieves boredom), about Tatyana (she can take away his freedom), he thinks only about himself, but for this he is punished: he remains completely alone and is rejected by Tatyana.

Idea

The main idea of ​​the novel “Eugene Onegin” is to criticize the existing order of life, which dooms more or less extraordinary natures to loneliness and death. After all, there is so much potential in Evgenia, but there is no business, only social intrigue. There is so much spiritual fire in Vladimir, and besides death, only vulgarization in a feudal, suffocating environment can await him. How many spiritual beauty and mind in Tatiana, and she can only be a mistress social evenings, dress up and carry on empty conversations.

People who do not think, do not reflect, do not suffer - these are the ones for whom the existing reality suits. This is a consumer society that lives at the expense of others, which shines while those “others” vegetate in poverty and filth. The thoughts that Pushkin thought about deserve attention to this day and remain important and pressing.

Another meaning of “Eugene Onegin”, which Pushkin laid down in his work, is to show how important it is to preserve individuality and virtue when temptations and fashions are rampant around, subjugating more than one generation of people. While Evgeny was chasing new trends and playing the cold and disappointed hero Byron, Tatyana listened to the voice of her heart and remained true to herself. Therefore, she finds happiness in love, albeit unrequited, and he finds only boredom in everything and everyone.

Features of the novel

The novel “Eugene Onegin” is a fundamentally new phenomenon in the literature of the early 19th century. He has a special composition - it is a “novel in verse”, a lyric-epic work of large volume. IN lyrical digressions the image of the author, his thoughts, feelings and ideas that he wants to convey to readers emerges.

Pushkin amazes with the ease and melodiousness of his language. His literary style is devoid of heaviness and didacticism; the author knows how to talk about complex and important things simply and clearly. Of course, a lot needs to be read between the lines, since harsh censorship was merciless even towards geniuses, but the poet is also not a natural person, so he was able to tell in the elegance of verse about the socio-political problems of his state, which were successfully hushed up in the press. It is important to understand that before Alexander Sergeevich, Russian poetry was different; he made a kind of “revolution of the game.”

The peculiarity also lies in the image system. Evgeny Onegin is the first in the gallery of “superfluous people”, who contain enormous potential that cannot be realized. Tatyana Larina “raised” female images from the place “the main character needs to love someone” to an independent and complete portrait of a Russian woman. Tatyana is one of the first heroines who looks stronger and more significant than the main character, and does not hide in his shadow. This is how the direction of the novel “Eugene Onegin” manifests itself - realism, which will more than once open the theme of the superfluous person and touch upon the difficult fate of women. By the way, we also described this feature in the essay “”.

Realism in the novel "Eugene Onegin"

"Eugene Onegin" marks Pushkin's transition to realism. In this novel, the author first raises the topic of man and society. A personality is not perceived separately, it is part of a society that educates, leaves a certain imprint or completely shapes people.

The main characters are typical, but at the same time unique. Eugene is an authentic secular nobleman: disappointed, superficially educated, but at the same time not like those around him - noble, intelligent, observant. Tatyana is an ordinary provincial young lady: she was brought up on French novels, filled with the sweet dreams of these works, but at the same time she is “Russian in soul,” wise, virtuous, loving, harmonious in nature.

It is precisely in the fact that for two centuries readers see themselves and their acquaintances in the heroes, it is precisely in the inescapable relevance of the novel that its realistic orientation is expressed.

Criticism

The novel “Eugene Onegin” evoked a great response from readers and critics. According to E.A. Baratynsky: “Everyone interprets them in their own way: some praise them, others scold them, and everyone reads them.” Contemporaries criticized Pushkin for the “labyrinth of digressions”, for the insufficiently defined character of the main character, and careless language. The reviewer Thaddeus Bulgarin, who supported the government and conservative literature, especially distinguished himself.

However, V.G. understood the novel best. Belinsky, who called it “an encyclopedia of Russian life,” is a historical work, despite the absence of historical characters. Indeed, a modern amateur belles lettres can study “Eugene Onegin” from this point of view in order to learn more about the noble society of the early 19th century.

And a century later, the comprehension of the novel in verse continued. Yu.M. Lotman saw complexity and paradox in the work. This is not just a collection of quotes familiar from childhood, it is an “organic world”. All this proves the relevance of the work and its significance for Russian national culture.

What does it teach?

Pushkin showed the life of young people and how their fate could turn out. Of course, fate depends not only on the environment, but also on the heroes themselves, but the influence of society is undeniable. The poet showed the main enemy that affects young nobles: idleness, aimlessness of existence. Alexander Sergeevich’s conclusion is simple: the creator calls not to limit oneself to secular conventions, stupid rules, but to live life to the fullest, guided by moral and spiritual components.

These ideas remain relevant to this day; modern people are often faced with a choice: to live in harmony with themselves or to break themselves for the sake of some benefits or public recognition. By choosing the second path, chasing illusory dreams, you can lose yourself and discover with horror that your life is over and nothing has been done. This is what you need to fear most.

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The lyric-epic novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” is considered a masterpiece of Russian literature. According to Belinsky, this work is an “encyclopedia of Russian life” of that time, and it significantly influenced the growth of self-awareness of Russian high society on the eve of the Decembrist uprising.

Everyone knows who wrote this novel - the great Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. This article will describe the history of the creation of the novel “Eugene Onegin”, summary by chapter, and the characteristics of the characters are also given.

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History of creation

First of all, let us briefly describe the history of the creation of “Eugene Onegin”. To write this work from Pushkin it took more than seven years. He, in his own words, decided to undertake a “feat” and, imitating Byron’s “Don Juan”, in the period 1823-1831. was closely involved in creating a novel in verse. Alexander Sergeevich decided to write a realistic work, abandoning romanticism as a fundamental creative method.

Initially, Pushkin decided to create a novel of 9 chapters. Later, the chapter “Onegin’s Travels” was excluded from the main text, excerpts from which were included in the main text as an appendix. The novel tells about the dramatic destinies of Russian nobles of that time.

And although the plot of "Eugene Onegin" is quite simple - here described love story – nevertheless, this work reflects the entire Russian reality of the first quarter of the 19th century. It succinctly, but quite clearly, shows the morals, fashions and values ​​of secular Petersburg, lordly Moscow and serf villages.

Important! To write a novel in verse by Pushkin used a special “Onegin stanza”, which includes 14 lines of iambic tetrameter. True, an exception was made for letters from Larina and Evgeniy.

At the beginning of the story, Pushkin addresses the reader with a brief description of his work.

Chapter first

In chapter 1, the reader meets a young nobleman, resident of St. Petersburg, Evgeny Onegin. His father was often in debt, loving to live large, which later led to ruin.

However, the young man received a fairly tolerable education for a representative of the high society of that time. In other words, Evgeniy acquired superficial knowledge in many subjects. He knew French and etiquette. Onegin was taught dancing and even a little Latin.

All this was more than enough for the young man to be a welcome guest at numerous balls and receptions.

Pushkin describes in detail one day of Eugene Onegin, letting the reader understand that all the hero’s days were exclusively of the same type. The young man woke up around noon so that, having put himself in perfect appearance, he could go for a walk along the boulevard. In the evenings he visited theaters or luxurious salons, from where he returned before dark.

The young man preferred exclusively short love affairs, mostly with married ladies, with whom, by the way, he quickly became fed up. He became bored in society. Evgeniy sat down to write a novel, but he lacked the zeal.

Important! It was the melancholy and boredom that turned the hero into a real cynic.

The young man was delighted with the new environment, but he was also soon bored with rural life, and the hero again plunged into the blues.

Chapter two

Evgeny naturally considers his neighbor-landowners boring, and therefore avoids their company. This is not surprising, because the newly-made heir was known as quite an eccentric - he replaced corvee with quitrent.

To have some fun Onegin became friends with Lensky. Who is Lensky? - This is a young romantic eighteen-year-old gentleman who has just returned to his estate. What was Lensky's name in the novel? – Pushkin gave him the beautiful Russian name Vladimir.

Evgeny Onegin and Vladimir Lensky “became inseparable,” despite completely different worldviews. The “admirer of Kant” read his verses to his newly-made comrade and tried to talk with him on philosophical topics. Onegin listened to Lensky, but refrained from criticism, believing that life itself would subsequently do this for him.

Vladimir was in love with his neighbor Olga Dmitrievna Larina, a sweet and cheerful girl who lived with her mother Polina and sister Tatyana. Unlike my sister, Tatyana was thoughtful and thoughtful. She loved to read a lot, help the poor and pray. The Larins were distinguished by their hospitality. In this family, it was customary to adhere to Russian customs and traditions in everything.

Chapter Three

Vladimir told his friend every day about the Larins, so that Evgeniy, in the end, himself wanted to make acquaintance with them. Arriving at Lensky’s fiancee, Onegin was surprised that his friend chose Olga, and not Tatyana, who was distinguished by her spiritual qualities.

There was a rumor among the neighbors that Evgeny had designs on Tatiana. Larina was delighted because she herself was fascinated by Onegin. The girl became even sadder and more thoughtful. She imagined her chosen one as the hero of the novels she had read, dreaming about him alone with nature. In the end, the young princess’s longing for love resulted in a letter addressed to her lover. After three days Onegin came to the Larins for an explanation with Tatyana.

This is interesting: Pushkin's poem: summary

Chapter Four

Onegin and Tatyana meet in the garden. Evgeniy opened his soul to the girl: explained that he is a person who is disillusioned with love, who does not consider marriage to be the standard of human happiness, and therefore not created “for bliss.”

But out of respect for the purity and innocence of the young lady who dared to explain in a letter, he will always have brotherly feelings for her.

In the following days Tatyana was under deep stress. Vladimir was almost constantly in Olga’s company. Onegin spent his time in solitude. One winter, Lensky visits him and invites him to Tatiana’s name day.

Chapter Five

One evening on Christmastide, Tatyana Larina, who loved to tell fortunes, put a mirror under her pillow before going to bed. This night the girl saw a strange vision. A bear helps her cross a river with a shaky bridge. Larina tries to run away from the “shaggy one,” but he overtakes her and takes her to some hut where the monsters were feasting.

Onegin was the leader of this feast. Seeing the girl enter, the young man drives out the monsters. But they are replaced by Olga and Vladimir in the hut. Evgeniy quarrels with the arriving guests. The dream ends with the owner of the hut inflicting a mortal wound on Lensky with a knife. For the next few days, Larina walked around under the impression of a dream.

The date of the name day has arrived. Many guests came to the Larins. It was noisy. Everyone was having fun. Onegin was angry with Lensky for bringing him to such a noisy feast. He became in retaliation demonstratively court Olga, the latter, did not show any displeasure. Frustrated, Vladimir leaves the holiday in a hurry with the thought of a duel.

Chapter Six

After Vladimir left, Olga and Evgeniy got bored. Late in the evening Evgeniy went home. And in the morning Lensky’s comrade Zaretsky visited him as a second in the upcoming duel. Onegin reluctantly accepted the challenge, realizing that retreating is the same as sullying one’s honor.

The next day, before dawn, the heroes of the duel met at the mill to shoot with pistols. This fight turned out to be fatal for Vladimir, since Evgeniy’s randomly fired bullet became fatal. Lensky was buried by the stream, building a small monument to him.

Chapter Seven

Olga is fascinated by the speed of the Lancer. After the wedding, the newlyweds go to the regiment. Many suitors woo Tatyana, but all are refused. The eldest princess Larina often visits Onegin’s house, namely the library.

Using her lover’s books, the girl tries to understand who Evgeny is, what his ideals are and life principles. The heroine discovers the truth about the “parody” of her chosen one.

Wanting to make her daughter happy, Princess Polina takes Tatiana to Moscow, where at the “bride fair” she meets the “fat general”.

Chapter Eight

Several years pass. After long and, naturally, boring travels, already 26-year-old Evgeniy Onegin again begins to move in the high society of St. Petersburg.

At one of the receptions, our hero meets his distant relative Prince N. and is surprised to discover that he has been married to Tatyana Larina for a long time. Often coming to visit N., Evgeniy notices that Tatyana has turned from an innocent girl into a “careless Legislator.” She behaved exclusively tactfully in front of Onegin, without any hints of past feelings. Evgeny fell in love with Tatiana, but she did not respond to his signs of attention. He wrote to her a lot, but the princess did not answer.

Tormented by “cruel blues” almost all winter, Onegin goes to N without an invitation. He managed to find a young woman at home alone. The hero throws himself at her feet, but Tatyana orders him to get up. The princess does not believe Evgeniy.

She believes that he wants to take advantage of her moral decline in order to gain himself a “seductive honor” in the world. After all, now that she got married, began to move in high society, and even appear at court, everyone would notice her “shame.”

Tatiana’s words were like thunder for Evgeniy. He had to leave his beloved without saying anything.

Characteristics of heroes

A distinctive feature of this novel is that all its characters, whether main or secondary, have clear, laconic characteristics.

Eugene Onegin

Main character - scion of bankrupt nobles with a contradictory character, which is adjusted during the course of the novel. Evgeniy received a “superficial” “French” education. He moved in high society for over seven years. What did this give Onegin:

• the hero is disappointed in love;
• became passive, cynical, and bilious towards everything;
• in the end, he just became depressed and bored from the monotony.

But... In the village, on the estate of his late, unloved uncle, after carrying out a couple of reforms regarding the way of life of the landowner, he also became bored. Subsequent travels also did not bring positive emotions to the young nobleman.

Attention! Belinsky writes that the hero was strangled by the “vulgarity of life.”

Onegin had no idea what he wanted. He didn't even try to figure it out to improve his life. But Evgeniy firmly understood that he did not want what constituted the object of happiness as “proud mediocrity.”

Having returned to the capital, after wandering and meeting Tatyana again, the young nobleman might have found happiness in love, but the princess’s refusal plunged Onegin into even greater depression.

Illustration for the novel “Eugene Onegin”

Tatyana Larina

17-year-old provincial noblewoman Tatyana Larina was distinguished by many positive qualities:

• sincerity and spontaneity of judgments;
• constancy of beliefs;
• love for all household members, including the nanny;
• elevation;
• sentimentality.

The very name of the heroine speaks of an exceptional commitment to everything Russian, pure, bright - she loved Russian nature, church holidays, steadily observed many folk traditions.

Larina’s thoughtfulness and silence were explained by the princess’s deep inner world, as well as the considerable influence of Richardson, Rousseau and other authors of numerous sentimental novels.

All this subsequently affected her feelings to Onegin, helped to subsequently identify the “parody” and remain an honest woman after marriage.

Tatyana Larina

Vladimir Lensky

A young provincial landowner who had just returned from Germany Vladimir Lensky is distinguished by the following features:

• newfangled German romanticism;
• freethinking;
• craving for philosophizing;
• poetry;
• idealization of neighbors.

The last quality was the cause of all the troubles Lensky. The idealization of his beloved Olga led to betrayal. The idealization of comrade Evgeniy became the reason for the death of Vladimir.

Here a brief description of hero.

Olga Larina

Tatiana's younger sister was an ordinary frivolous village girl, who was burdened by the role of the Muse “admirer of Kant and poet.” After the death of her admirer, she almost immediately found complete comfort in the company of the uhlan.

Love theme

Love story of the main characters This piece is very sad.

In the first part of the novel, we see how the innocent 17-year-old girl Tatyana Larina, who knows about love only from sentimental novels, folk tales, and even the stories of her nanny, pours out her feelings in a letter to the hardened womanizer Evgeny Onegin, who is finally tired of his adventures. We must pay tribute to the nobility young man, who not only did not disgrace the one who wrote first, but also honestly warned about the likely and very sad consequences of their tandem.

Onegin respected Larina’s naturalness, but treated her exclusively as a brother. After the duel and the departure of her lover, Tatiana, through notes in books, reveals the true face of her sweetheart. Larina marries the “fat general” without hesitation.

A few years later, the reader no longer sees a village simpleton, but a sophisticated and impeccable high-society lady, whom Onegin, who returned to the capital, fell hopelessly in love with. He wrote to her, she did not answer.

The reader is provided detailed description the suffering of a belated lover. On the last date Tatyana clearly and firmly explains to Evgeniy that she will not part with her husband or her own honor, no matter what temptations.

Friendship theme

Onegin and Lensky, probably, simply could not help but become friends, since in the nearby villages only the two of them were familiar with secular customs, which young people preferred to adhere to while living here. However, this friendship was exclusively external, ostentatious in nature.

Disillusioned with people and life in general, Evgeniy was not moved by odes and philosophizing on the subject of his wonderful comrade. Onegin did not understand why Lensky fell in love with Olga so much, and did not prefer Tatyana, who was close in spirit, to her.

Vladimir was most saddened by Evgeniy’s gloominess, his composure and misanthropy. This is how Onegin and Lensky communicated, friendship through boredom and misunderstanding.

Evgeny Onegin - summary

Conclusion

Numerous critics of “Eugene Onegin” recognize this work as a masterpiece of Russian literature, since in terms of the drama of the plot, the depth and brevity of the characters’ characteristics, and the peculiarities of writing, little can compare with this novel. Therefore, the material briefly presented here will not be enough to fully understand the work. The reader can fully comprehend the depth of Pushkin’s ideas by reading his great novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”.

"Eugene Onegin"- a novel in verse, written in 1823-1831, one of the most significant works Russian literature.

"Eugene Onegin" history of creation

Pushkin worked on this novel for over seven years, from 1823 to 1831. The novel was, according to the poet, the “fruit” of “the mind, cold observations and the heart of sorrowful notes.” Pushkin called his work a feat - of all his creative heritage, only “Boris Godunov” he characterized with the same word. The work shows a dramatic fate against a broad background of pictures of Russian life the best people noble intelligentsia.

Pushkin began work on Onegin in May 1823 in Chisinau, during his exile. The author abandoned romanticism as the leading creative method and began to write realistic novel in verse, although in the first chapters the influence of romanticism is still noticeable. Initially, it was assumed that the novel in verse would consist of 9 chapters, but Pushkin subsequently reworked its structure, leaving only 8 chapters. He excluded the chapter “Onegin's Travels” from the main text of the work, including its fragments as an appendix to the main text. There was a fragment of this chapter, where, according to some sources, it was described how Onegin sees military settlements near the Odessa pier, and then there were comments and judgments, in some places in an overly harsh tone. Fearing possible persecution by the authorities, Pushkin destroyed this fragment of Onegin's Travels.

The novel covers events from 1819 to 1825: from the foreign campaigns of the Russian army after the defeat of Napoleon to the Decembrist uprising. These were the years of development of Russian society, the reign of Alexander I. The plot of the novel is simple and well known, in the center of it is a love story. In general, the novel “Eugene Onegin” reflected the events of the first quarter of the 19th century, that is, the time of creation and the time of action of the novel approximately coincide.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin created a novel in verse similar to Lord Byron’s poem “Don Juan”. Having defined the novel as “a collection colorful chapters", Pushkin highlights one of the features of this work: the novel is, as it were, “opened” in time (each chapter could be the last, but can also have a continuation), thereby drawing the readers’ attention to the independence and integrity of each chapter. The novel has truly become an encyclopedia of Russian life in the 1820s, since the breadth of topics covered in it, the detail of everyday life, the multiplot of the composition, the depth of description of the characters’ characters still reliably demonstrate to readers the features of life of that era.

This is what gave V. G. Belinsky the basis to conclude in his article “Eugene Onegin”:

“Onegin can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and a highly folk work.”

From the novel, as from the encyclopedia, you can learn almost everything about the era: how they dressed, what was in fashion, what people valued most, what they talked about, what interests they lived. “Eugene Onegin” reflects the whole of Russian life. Briefly, but quite clearly, the author showed a fortress village, lordly Moscow, secular St. Petersburg. Pushkin truthfully depicted the environment in which the main characters of his novel, Tatyana Larina and Evgeny Onegin, live, and reproduced the atmosphere of the city noble salons in which Onegin spent his youth.

The novel "Eugene Onegin" is a work of amazing creative destiny. It was created for more than seven years - from May 1823 to September 1830. But work on the text did not stop until the appearance of the first complete edition in 1833. The last author's version of the novel was published in 1837. Pushkin has no works that would have an equally long creative history. The novel was not written “in one breath,” but was composed of stanzas and chapters created at different times, in different circumstances, in different periods of creativity. Work on the novel covers four periods of Pushkin’s work - from southern exile to the Boldino autumn of 1830.

The work was interrupted not only by the twists of Pushkin’s fate and new plans for the sake of which he abandoned the text of Eugene Onegin. Some poems (“Demon”, “Desert Sower of Freedom...”) arose from drafts of the novel. In the drafts of the second chapter (written in 1824), Horace’s verse “Exegi monumentum” flashed, which 12 years later became the epigraph to the poem “I erected a monument to myself not made by hands...”. It seemed that history itself was not very kind to Pushkin’s work: from a novel about a contemporary and modern life, as the poet intended “Eugene Onegin”, after 1825 it became a novel about another historical era. The “internal chronology” of the novel covers about 6 years - from 1819 to the spring of 1825.

All chapters were published from 1825 to 1832 as independent parts of a larger work and even before the completion of the novel they became facts literary process. Perhaps, if we take into account the fragmentary, intermittent nature of Pushkin’s work, it can be argued that the novel was for him something like a huge “notebook” or a poetic “album” (“notebooks” is what the poet himself sometimes calls the chapters of the novel). Over the course of more than seven years, the records were replenished with sad “notes” of the heart and “observations” of a cold mind.

This feature of the novel was noticed by its first critics. So, N.I. Nadezhdin, denying him unity and harmony of presentation, correctly defined the external appearance of the work - “a poetic album of living impressions of talent playing with its wealth.” An interesting “image-summary” of “Eugene Onegin”, complementing Pushkin’s judgments about the “free” novel, can be seen in the crossed out stanza of the seventh chapter, where it was said about Onegin’s album:

It was covered with writing and drawings

Onegin's hand all around,

Between the incomprehensible mess

Thoughts, remarks flashed,

Portraits, numbers, names,

Yes letters, the secrets of writing,

Excerpts, draft letters...

The first chapter, published in 1825, pointed to Eugene Onegin as the main character of the planned work. However, from the very beginning of work on the “big poem,” the author needed the figure of Onegin not only to express his ideas about “ modern man" There was another goal: Onegin was intended to play the role of a central character who, like a magnet, would “attract” diverse life and literary material. Silhouette of Onegin and silhouettes of other characters, barely outlined storylines As we worked on the novel, they gradually became clearer. From under the thick layers of rough notes, the contours of the destinies and characters of Onegin, Tatyana Larina, Lensky appeared (“drew in”), and was created unique image - image of the Author.

The Author's portrait is hidden. Try to imagine his appearance - except for a white spot, nothing will appear in front of you. We know a lot about the Author - about his fate and spiritual world, about literary views and even about the wines that he loves. But the Author in “Eugene Onegin” is a man without a face, without appearance, without a name.

The author is the narrator and at the same time the “hero” of the novel. The Author reflects the personality of the creator of “Eugene Onegin”. Pushkin gave him much of what he experienced, felt and changed his mind. However, identifying the Author with Pushkin is a grave mistake. It must be remembered that the Author is artistic image. The relationship between the Author in Eugene Onegin and Pushkin, the creator of the novel, is exactly the same as between the image of any person in a literary work and his prototype in real life. The image of the Author is autobiographical, it is the image of a person whose “biography” partially coincides with the real biography of Pushkin, and spiritual world and views on literature are a reflection of Pushkin’s.

Studying a novel requires a special approach: you must first of all carefully re-read it, having a commentary at hand (for example, the book by Y.M. Lotman “A.S. Pushkin’s Novel “Eugene Onegin.” Commentary”), find out the history of its creation, and achieve the most complete understanding text: it contains many realities, allusions and allegories that require explanation. You should study the structure of the novel (dedication, epigraphs, sequence and content of chapters, the nature of the narrative, interrupted by the author's digressions, author's notes). Only after this can one begin to study the main images of the novel, plot and composition, system of characters, author’s digressions and the image of the Author.

The novel “Eugene Onegin” is Pushkin’s most difficult work, despite its apparent lightness and simplicity. V.G. Belinsky called “Eugene Onegin” “an encyclopedia of Russian life,” emphasizing the scale of Pushkin’s “many years of work.” This is not critical praise of the novel, but its succinct metaphor. Behind the “variegation” of chapters and stanzas, the change in narrative techniques, hides the harmonious plan of a fundamentally innovative literary work- “a novel of life”, which absorbed a huge amount of socio-historical, everyday, literary material.

The innovation of the “novel in verse” was manifested primarily in the fact that Pushkin found a new type of problematic hero - the “hero of the time.” Evgeny Onegin became such a hero. His fate, character, relationships with people are determined by the totality of the circumstances of modern reality, extraordinary personal qualities and the range of “eternal”, universal problems that he faces.

Onegin's personality was formed in the St. Petersburg secular environment. In a detailed background (chapter one), Pushkin noted the main social factors that determined his character. This is belonging to the highest stratum of the nobility, upbringing, training, usual for this circle, the first steps in the world, the experience of a “monotonous and motley” life for eight years. The life of a “free” nobleman, not burdened with service, is vain, carefree, full of entertainment and love affairs, fits into one tiringly long day. Onegin in his early youth is “a fun and luxurious child,” “a kind fellow, / Like you and me, like the whole world.”

At this stage of his life, Onegin is an original person in his own way, witty, a “learned fellow,” but still quite ordinary, obediently following the secular “decent crowd.” The only thing in which Onegin “was a true genius”, that “he knew more firmly than all sciences,” as the Author notes, not without irony, was the “science of tender passion,” that is, the “art” of loving without loving, imitating feelings and passions, while remaining cold and prudent. However, Onegin is interesting to Pushkin not as a representative of a common social and everyday type, the whole essence of which is exhausted by a positive characteristic given out by the light-wasp rumor: “N. N. is a wonderful person.”

Onegin's character and life are shown in movement and development. In the first chapter we see a turning point in his fate: he was able to abandon stereotypes secular behavior, from the noisy, but internally empty “rite of life”. Pushkin showed how a bright, extraordinary personality. Social instinct told the poet that life was not old sample“, namely the ability to overthrow the “burden” of its conditions, to “get behind the bustle” is the main sign of a modern person.

Onegin's seclusion - his undeclared conflict with the world in the first chapter and with the society of village landowners in the second through sixth chapters - only at first glance seems to be a “quirk” caused by purely individual reasons: boredom, “Russian blues”, disappointment in the “science of tender passion” . This new stage hero's life. Pushkin emphasizes that Onegin’s “inimitable strangeness” is a kind of protest against social and spiritual dogmas that suppress a person’s personality, depriving him of the right to be himself. The emptiness of the hero’s soul was a consequence of emptiness and emptiness social life. Onegin is looking for new spiritual values, a new path: in St. Petersburg and in the village he diligently reads books, tries to write, communicates with a few like-minded people (among them are the Author and Lensky). In the village, he even tried to “establish a new order” by replacing corvee with “light rent.”

Pushkin does not simplify his hero. The search for new life truths lasted for many years and remained unfinished. The internal drama of this process is obvious: Onegin is painfully freed from the burden of old ideas about life and people, but the past does not let him go. It seems that Onegin is the rightful master of his own life. But this is just an illusion. In St. Petersburg and in the countryside, he is equally bored - he still cannot overcome spiritual laziness, cold skepticism, demonism, and dependence on “public opinion.”

The hero is by no means a victim of society and circumstances. By changing his lifestyle, he accepted responsibility for his destiny. His actions depend on his determination, will, and faith in people. However, having abandoned secular vanity, Onegin became not a figure, but a contemplator. The feverish pursuit of pleasure gave way to solitary reflection. The two tests that awaited him in the village - the test of love and the test of friendship - showed that external freedom does not automatically entail liberation from false prejudices and opinions.

In his relationship with Tatyana, Onegin showed himself to be a noble and mentally sensitive person. He managed to see in the “maiden in love” genuine and sincere feelings, living, and not bookish passions. You cannot blame the hero for not responding to Tatyana’s love: as you know, you cannot order your heart. But the fact is that Onegin listened not to the voice of his heart, but to the voice of reason. Even in the first chapter, the Author noted in Onegin a “sharp, chilled mind” and an inability to strong feelings. Onegin is a cold, rational person. This mental disproportion became the cause of the drama of failed love. Onegin does not believe in love and is not capable of loving. The meaning of love is exhausted for him by the “science of tender passion” or the “home circle” that limits human freedom.

Onegin also could not stand the test of friendship. And in this case, the cause of the tragedy was his inability to live a life of feeling. It is not for nothing that the author, commenting on the hero’s state before the duel, notes: “He could have discovered his feelings, / Instead of bristling like an animal.” Both at Tatiana’s name day and before the duel, Onegin showed himself to be a “ball of prejudice,” deaf to both the voice of his own heart and Lensky’s feelings. His behavior at the name day is the usual “secular anger”, and the duel is a consequence of indifference and fear of the evil tongue of the “old duelist” Zaretsky and the neighboring landowners. Onegin did not notice how he became a prisoner of his old idol - “public opinion.” After the murder of Lensky, Onegin was overcome by “anguish of heartfelt remorse.” Only tragedy could open to him a previously inaccessible world of feelings.

In the eighth chapter, Pushkin showed a new stage in the spiritual development of Onegin. Having met Tatiana in St. Petersburg, Onegin was completely transformed. There is nothing left in him of the former, cold and rational person - he is an ardent lover, not noticing anything except the object of his love (and in this he is very reminiscent of Lensky). Onegin experienced real feeling for the first time, but it turned into a new love drama: now Tatyana was unable to respond to his belated love. A unique explanation of the psychological state of Onegin in love, his inevitable love drama, is the author’s digression “All ages are submissive to love...” (stanza XXIX). As before, in the foreground in the characterization of the hero is the relationship between reason and feeling. Now the mind has already been defeated - Onegin loves, “without heeding the mind’s strict penalties.” He “almost went crazy / Or didn’t become a poet,” the Author notes, not without irony. There is no conclusion in the eighth chapter spiritual development a hero who believed in love and happiness. Onegin did not achieve the desired goal; there is still no harmony in him between feeling and reason. Pushkin leaves his character open, unfinished, emphasizing Onegin’s very ability to abruptly change value orientations and, note, readiness for action, for action.

Notice how often the Author reflects on love and friendship, on the relationship between lovers and friends. For Pushkin, love and friendship are two touchstones on which a person is tested; they reveal the richness of the soul or its emptiness. Onegin closed himself off from the false values ​​of the “empty light”, despising their false shine, but neither in St. Petersburg nor in the village did he discover true values ​​- universal values. The author showed how difficult it is for a person to move towards simple and understandable, seemingly life truths, what tests he must go through in order to understand - both with his mind and heart - the greatness and significance of love and friendship. From class limitations and prejudices instilled by upbringing and an idle life, through rational demonic nihilism, which denies not only false, but also genuine life values, to the discovery of love, high world feelings - this is the path of the hero’s spiritual development that Pushkin outlines.

Lensky and Tatyana Larina are not only plot partners of the title character. These are full-blooded images of contemporaries, whose fate also “reflected the century.”

Romanticist and poet Lensky seems to be the spiritual and social antipode of Onegin, an exceptional hero, completely divorced from everyday life, from Russian life. Everyday inexperience, the ardor of love feelings for Olga, “rivers” of elegies written in the spirit of “sad romanticism” - all this separates the eighteen-year-old landowner from the former St. Petersburg rake. The author, reporting on their acquaintance, first raises the differences between them to an absolute degree (“They came together. Wave and stone, / Poetry and prose, ice and fire / Are not so different from each other”), but immediately points out that exactly “mutual diversity” they liked each other. A paradoxical friendship “with nothing to do” arose.

Not only extremes united the heroes - they have a lot in common. Onegin and Lensky are alienated from the landowner environment, each of them expresses one of the tendencies of Russian spiritual life: Onegin - disappointment and skepticism, Lensky - romantic dreaminess and impulse towards the ideal. Both trends are part of European spiritual development. Onegin's idols are Byron and Napoleon. Lensky is a fan of Kant and Schiller. Lensky is also looking for the purpose of life: “the purpose of our life for him / Was a tempting riddle, / He puzzled over it / And he suspected miracles.” And most importantly, Lensky’s character, like Onegin’s character, is disharmonious and incomplete. The sensitive Lensky is as far from Pushkin's ideal of human harmony as the rationalist Onegin.

With Lensky, the novel includes themes of youth, friendship, heartfelt “ignorance,” devotion to feelings, youthful courage and nobility. In an effort to protect Olga from the “corrupter,” the hero is mistaken, but this is a sincere mistake. Lensky is a poet (another poet in the novel is the Author himself), and although the author’s commentary on his poems contains a lot of irony, good-natured ridicule, and teasing, the Author notes in them the authenticity of feelings and wit:

Lensky writes not madrigals

In the album Olga is young;

His pen breathes with love,

It does not coolly shine with sharpness;

Whatever he notices or hears

About Olga, he writes about this:

And, full of living truth,

Elegies flow like a river.

The unusual character of the hero is explained by the author from a social position. Lensky’s soul did not fade from the “cold depravity of the world”; he was brought up not only in “foggy Germany”, but also in the Russian village. There is more Russian in the “half-Russian” dreamer Lensky than in the crowd of surrounding landowners. The author writes with sadness about his death, twice (in the sixth and seventh chapters) he leads the reader to his grave. What saddens the Author is not only the death of Lensky, but also the possible impoverishment of youthful romanticism, the hero’s growing into the inert environment of the landowners. The fates of the lover of sentimental novels, Praskovya Larina, and the “village old-timer”, Uncle Onegin, ironically “rhyme” with this version of Lensky’s fate.

Tatyana Larina - “dear Ideal” of the Author. He does not hide his sympathy for the heroine, emphasizing her sincerity, depth of feelings and experiences, innocence and devotion to love. Her personality manifests itself in the sphere of love and family relationships. Like Onegin, she can be called a “genius of love.” Tatyana is a participant in the main plot action, in which her role is comparable to the role of Onegin.

Tatyana's character, just like Onegin's character, is dynamic and developing. People usually pay attention to the sharp change in her social status and appearance in the last chapter: instead of a village young lady, spontaneous and open, a majestic and cold society lady, a princess, “legislator of the hall” appeared before Onegin. Her inner world closed from the reader: Tatyana does not utter a word until her final monologue. The author also keeps the “secret” about her soul, limiting himself to the “visual” characteristics of the heroine (“How harsh! / She doesn’t see him, not a word with him; / Wow! how now she is surrounded / by Epiphany cold!”). However, the eighth chapter shows the third, final stage of the heroine’s spiritual development. Her character changes significantly already in the “village” chapters. These changes are connected with her attitude towards love, towards Onegin, and with ideas about duty.

In the second through fifth chapters, Tatyana appears as an internally contradictory person. It combines genuine feelings and sensitivity inspired by sentimental novels. The author, characterizing the heroine, points first of all to her reading range. Novels, the author emphasizes, “replaced everything” for her. Indeed, dreamy, alienated from her friends, so unlike Olga, Tatyana perceives everything around her as an unwritten novel, and imagines herself as the heroine of her favorite books. The abstraction of Tatyana’s dreams is shaded by a book-everyday parallel - the biography of her mother, who in her youth was also “crazy about Richardson”, loved “Grandison”, but, having married “involuntarily”, “torn and cried at first”, and then turned into an ordinary landowner. Tatyana, who was expecting “someone” similar to the heroes of the novels, saw in Onegin just such a hero. “But our hero, whoever he was, / Surely was not Grandison,” the Author sneers. The behavior of Tatiana in love is based on novel models known to her. Her letter, written in French, is an echo of the love letters of the heroines of the novels. The author translates Tatyana's letter, but his role as a “translator” is not limited to this: he is constantly forced to free the heroine’s true feelings from the captivity of book templates.

A revolution in Tatiana's fate occurs in the seventh chapter. External changes in her life are only a consequence of the complex process that took place in her soul after Onegin’s departure. She was finally convinced of her “optical” deception. Reconstructing Onegin’s appearance from the “traces” left in his estate, she realized that her lover was an extremely mysterious and strange man, but not at all the one she took him for. The main result of Tatiana’s “research” was her love not for a literary chimera, but for the real Onegin. She completely freed herself from bookish ideas about life. Finding herself in new circumstances, not hoping for a new meeting and reciprocity from her lover, Tatyana makes a decisive moral choice: she agrees to go to Moscow and get married. Note that this free choice a heroine for whom “all lots were equal.” She loves Onegin, but voluntarily submits to her duty to her family. Thus, Tatyana’s words in the last monologue are “But I was given to another; / I will be faithful to him forever” - news for Onegin, but not for the reader: the heroine only confirmed the choice made earlier.

We should not simplify the question of the influence of the new circumstances of her life on Tatyana’s character. In the last episode of the novel, the contrast between secular and “domestic” Tatiana becomes obvious: “Who wouldn’t recognize the old Tanya, poor Tanya / Now in the princess!” However, the heroine’s monologue indicates not only that she has retained her previous spiritual qualities, loyalty to love for Onegin and one’s marital duty. “A Lesson to Onegin” is full of unfair remarks and ridiculous assumptions. Tatyana does not understand the hero’s feelings, seeing in his love only social intrigue, a desire to lower her honor in the eyes of society, accusing him of self-interest. Onegin’s love is “small” for her, “a petty feeling,” and in him she sees only the slave of this feeling. Once again, as once in the village, Tatyana sees and “does not recognize” the real Onegin. Her false idea of ​​him is generated by the world, by that “oppressive dignity”, the methods of which, as the Author noted, she “soon accepted.” Tatyana's monologue reflects her inner drama. The meaning of this drama is not in the choice between love for Onegin and loyalty to her husband, but in the “corrosion” of feelings that occurred in the heroine under the influence of secular society. Tatyana lives by memories and is not able to even believe in the sincerity of the person who loves her. The disease from which Onegin was so painfully freed also struck Tatyana. “Empty light,” as the wise Author reminds us, is hostile to any manifestation of living, human feeling.

The main characters of “Eugene Onegin” are free from predicament and monolinearity. Pushkin refuses to see in them the embodiment of vices or “examples of perfection.” The novel consistently implements new principles for depicting heroes. The author will make it clear that he does not have ready answers to all the questions about their destinies, characters, and psychology. Rejecting the traditional Roma role of an “omniscient” narrator, he “hesitates,” “doubts,” and is sometimes inconsistent in his judgments and assessments. The author invites the reader to complete the portraits of the characters, imagine their behavior, and try to look at them from a different, unexpected point of view. For this purpose, numerous “pauses” (missing lines and stanzas) were introduced into the novel. The reader must “recognize” the characters, correlate them with his own life, with his thoughts, feelings, habits, superstitions, books and magazines read.

The appearance of Onegin, Tatyana Larina, Lensky is formed not only from the characteristics, observations and assessments of the Author - the creator of the novel, but also from gossip, gossip, and rumors. Each hero appears in the aura of public opinion, reflecting the points of view of a variety of people: friends, acquaintances, relatives, neighboring landowners, secular gossips. Society is the source of rumors about heroes. For the author, this is a rich set of everyday “optics”, which he turns into artistic “optics”. The reader is invited to choose the view of the hero that is closer to him and seems the most reliable and convincing. The author, recreating the picture of opinions, reserves the right to place the necessary accents and gives the reader social and moral guidelines.

"Eugene Onegin" looks like an improvisation novel. The effect of a casual conversation with the reader is created primarily by the expressive capabilities of iambic tetrameter - Pushkin’s favorite meter and the flexibility of the “Onegin” stanza created by Pushkin especially for the novel, which includes 14 verses of iambic tetrameter with strict rhyming CCdd EffE gg(capital letters indicate female endings, lowercase letters indicate masculine endings). The author called his lyre “chatty,” emphasizing the “free” nature of the narrative, the variety of intonations and styles of speech - from the “high,” bookish style to the colloquial style of ordinary village gossip “about haymaking, about wine, about the kennel, about your relatives.”

A novel in verse is a consistent denial of the well-known, generally accepted laws of the genre. And it’s not just a matter of daring rejection of the usual prosaic speech for a novel. In Eugene Onegin there is no coherent narrative about the characters and events that fits into the predetermined framework of the plot. In such a plot, the action develops smoothly, without breaks or retreats - from the beginning of the action to its denouement. Step by step, the author moves towards his main goal - creating images of heroes against the backdrop of a logically verified plot scheme.

In “Eugene Onegin” the Author-narrator continually “steps back” from the story about heroes and events, indulging in “free” reflections on biographical, everyday and literary topics. The heroes and the Author constantly change places: either the heroes or the Author find themselves in the center of the reader's attention. Depending on the content of specific chapters, there may be more or fewer such “intrusions” by the Author, but the principle of a “landscape”, externally unmotivated, combination of plot narration with the author’s monologues is preserved in almost all chapters. The exception is the fifth chapter, in which more than 10 stanzas are occupied by Tatyana’s dream and a new plot knot is tied - Lensky’s quarrel with Onegin.

The plot narration is also heterogeneous: it is accompanied by more or less detailed authorial “remarks to the side.” From the very beginning of the novel, the author reveals himself, as if peeking out from behind the characters, reminding us of who is leading the story, who is creating the world of the novel.

The plot of the novel superficially resembles a chronicle of the lives of the heroes - Onegin, Lensky, Tatyana Larina. As in any chronicle story, there is no central conflict. The action is built around conflicts that arise in the sphere privacy(love and friendly relations). But only a sketch of a coherent chronicle narrative is created. Already in the first chapter, containing Onegin’s background, one day of his life is described in detail, and the events associated with his arrival in the village are simply listed. Onegin spent several months in the village, but many of the details of his village life did not interest the narrator. Only individual episodes are reproduced quite fully (the trip to the Larins, the explanation with Tatyana, the name day and the duel). Onegin's almost three-year journey, which was supposed to connect two periods of his life, is simply omitted.

The time in the novel does not coincide with real time: it is either compressed, compressed, or stretched. The author often seems to invite the reader to simply “turn over” the pages of the novel, quickly reporting on the actions of the characters and their daily activities. Individual episodes, on the contrary, are enlarged, stretched out in time - attention lingers on them. They resemble dramatic “scenes” with dialogues, monologues, and clearly defined scenery (see, for example, the scene of Tatiana’s conversation with the nanny in the third chapter, the explanation of Tatiana and Onegin, divided into two “phenomena”, in the third and fourth chapters).

The author emphasizes that the life time of his characters, plot time, is an artistic convention. The “calendar” of the novel, contrary to Pushkin’s half-serious assurance in one of the notes - “in our novel, time is calculated according to the calendar,” is special. It consists of days that are equal to months and years, and months, or even years, which have received several comments from the Author. The illusion of a chronicle narrative is supported by “phenological notes” - indications of the changing seasons, weather and seasonal activities of people.

The Author either simply remains silent about many events, or replaces a direct depiction of events with a story about them. This is the most important principle of storytelling. For example, Onegin’s disputes with Lensky are reported as permanent form friendly communication, topics of controversy are listed, but none of them are shown. The same technique of keeping silent about events or simply listing them is used in the eighth chapter, where the Author talks about Onegin’s unsuccessful attempts to communicate with Tatyana. More than two years pass between the events of chapters seven and eight. This gap in the narrative is particularly noticeable.

The plot of the eighth chapter is separate from the plot of the first seven chapters. The character system has changed. In the first, “village” chapters, it was quite branched: the central characters are Onegin, Tatyana, Lensky, the secondary ones are Olga, Praskovya Larina, the nanny, Zaretsky, Princess Alina, episodic characters appear in the fifth and seventh chapters: guests at the name day, depicted in one or two strokes, Moscow relatives of the Larins. In the eighth chapter, the character system is much simpler: central characters Onegin and Tatiana remain, Tatiana's husband appears twice, there are several nameless episodic characters. The eighth chapter can be perceived as a completely independent plot narrative, which, however, does not have as detailed an exposition as the plot of the first seven chapters, and does not have a denouement of action: Onegin was abandoned by the Author “in an evil moment for him,” nothing is reported about his further fate.

Many plot situations in the novel are outlined, but remain unrealized. The author creates the impression that he has in his hands many options for the development of events, from which he chooses the necessary one or completely refuses the choice, leaving it to the reader himself. The principle of plot “multivariance” is set already in the first stanzas of the novel: Onegin (and the reader) does not know what awaits him in the village - the languid expectation of his uncle’s death, or, on the contrary, he will arrive as the owner of a “lovely corner” (later the Author reports on another, unrealized, option life of the hero: “Onegin was ready with me / To see foreign countries”). At the end of the novel, literally “abandoning” Onegin, the Author seems to invite the reader to choose for himself among the many possible options for completing the plot.

Traditional novel schemes - overcoming obstacles that arise between lovers, love rivalry, happy endings - Pushkin outlines, but decisively rejects. In fact, no external obstacles arise in front of Onegin and Tatyana, Lensky and Olga, nothing prevents the seemingly happy conclusion of their relationship. Tatyana loves Onegin, he sympathizes with Tatyana. All the neighbors unanimously predict Onegin to be her groom, but the Author chooses a path dictated not by the logic of the “family” novel, but by the logic of the characters’ characters. Lensky and Olga are even closer to the “secret of the wedding bed,” but instead of a wedding and paintings family life- the duel and death of Lensky, Olga’s short-lived sadness and her departure with the uhlan. The accomplished version of Lensky's fate is supplemented by two more, unrealized ones. After the death of the hero, the Author reflects on his two “destinations” - the lofty, poetic, about life “for the good of the world,” and the completely ordinary, “prosaic”: “I would part with the muses, get married, / In the village, happy and horned, / I would wear a quilted robe."

All options for plot action, at first glance, contradict each other. But the narrator needs them equally. He emphasizes that a novel arises from sketches, drafts, from novel situations already “worked out” by other writers. It is in his hands that the “staff” prevents the plot from wandering at all angles. In addition, unrealized plot options become important elements of the characters’ characteristics, indicating possible prospects for the development of their destinies. An interesting feature of the novel is the “plot self-awareness” of the heroes: not only Onegin, Lensky, Tatyana, but also minor characters - Tatyana’s mother, Princess Alina - are aware of unrealized options for their lives.

Despite the obvious fragmentation, intermittent, “contradictory” nature of the narrative, “Eugene Onegin” is perceived as a work that has a well-thought-out structure, a “plan form”. The novel has its own internal logic - it is consistently maintained principle of narrative symmetry.

The plot of the eighth chapter, despite its isolation, is a mirror image of part of the plot of the first seven chapters. A sort of “castling” of characters takes place: Onegin appears in the place of the loving Tatyana, and the cold, inaccessible Tatyana takes the role of Onegin. The meeting of Onegin and Tatyana at a social event, Onegin’s letter, the explanation of the characters in the eighth chapter - plot parallels to similar situations in the third and fourth chapters. In addition, the “mirroring” of the eighth chapter in relation to the first is emphasized by topographical and biographical parallels. Onegin returns to St. Petersburg, visits the house of an old friend, Prince N. His love “romance” with Tatyana outwardly resembles his half-forgotten secular “romances”. Having failed, “he again renounced the light. /In the silent study / He remembered the time / When a cruel melancholy / Was chasing him in a noisy light...” The author, as in the finale of the first chapter, recalls the beginning of work on the novel, about the friends to whom “he read the first stanzas” .

Inside the “village” chapters the same principle of symmetry applies. The seventh chapter is symmetrical to the first: if in the first chapter only Onegin is shown, then all the Author’s attention in the seventh chapter is focused on Tatyana - this is the only chapter where the main character is absent. A plot parallel arises between the pairs Onegin - Tatyana and Lensky - Olga. After the episode that ends the short love conflict between Onegin and Tatyana, the narrative switches sharply: The author wants to “amuse the imagination / With a picture of happy love” of Lensky and Olga. An implicit, hidden parallel is drawn between Tatiana’s phantasmagoric dream, filled with terrible monsters that came from two worlds - folklore and literary, and the “merry name day holiday”. The dream turns out to be not only “prophetic” (it predicts a quarrel and a duel), but also, as it were, a fantastic “draft” for a village ball.

The contradictions of improvisational narration and the compositional symmetry of chapters, episodes, scenes, descriptions - principles close to the technique of literary "montage" - do not exclude, but complement each other. Their interaction makes the novel a dynamic, internally unified literary text.

The artistic uniqueness of the novel is largely determined by the special position that the Author occupies in it.

The author in Pushkin's novel is not a traditional narrator, leading a narrative about characters and events, clearly separating himself from them and from the readers. The author is both the creator of the novel and at the same time its hero. He persistently reminds readers of the “literary quality” of the novel, that the text created by it is a new, life-like reality that must be perceived “positively,” trusting its story. The characters in the novel are fictitious, everything that is said about them has nothing to do with real people. The world in which the heroes live is also a fruit of the Author’s creative imagination. Real life is only material for a novel, selected and organized by him, the creator of the novel world.

The author conducts a constant dialogue with the reader - shares “technical” secrets, writes the author’s “criticism” of his novel and refutes possible opinions of magazine critics, draws attention to the turns of the plot action, to breaks in time, introduces plans and drafts into the text - in a word, not makes it possible to forget that the novel has not yet been completed, has not been presented to the reader as a book “ready to use” that just needs to be read. The novel is created right before the reader’s eyes, with his participation, with an eye on his opinion. The author sees him as a co-author, addressing the many-faced reader: “friend”, “foe”, “buddy”.

The author is the creator of the novel world, the creator of the plot narrative, but he is also its “destroyer”. The contradiction between the Author - the creator and the Author - the “destroyer” of the narrative arises when he, interrupting the narrative, himself enters the next “frame” of the novel - at a short time(with a remark, remark) or fills it entirely (with the author’s monologue). However, the Author, breaking away from the plot, does not separate himself from his novel, but becomes its “hero”. Let us emphasize that “hero” is a metaphor that conventionally designates the Author, because he is not an ordinary hero, a participant in the plot. It is hardly possible to isolate an independent “plot of the Author” in the text of the novel. The plot of the novel is one, the Author is outside the plot action.

The Author has a special place in the novel, defined by his two roles. The first is the role of the narrator, the storyteller, commenting on everything that happens to the characters. The second is the role of a “representative” of life, which is also part of the novel, but does not fit into the framework of the literary plot. The author finds himself not only outside the plot, but also above the plot. His life is part of the general flow of life. He is the hero of the “novel of life”, which is described in the last verses of “Eugene Onegin”:

Blessed is he who celebrates life early

Left without drinking to the bottom

Glasses full of wine,

Who hasn't finished reading her novel?

And suddenly he knew how to part with him,

Like me and my Onegin.

Individual intersections between the Author and the heroes (meetings of Onegin and the Author in St. Petersburg, which are mentioned in the first chapter, Tatyana’s letter (“I cherish him sacredly”) that came to him) emphasize that the heroes of “my novel” are only part of that life, which the Author represents in the novel.

Image of the Author is created by means other than the images of Onegin, Tatyana, Lensky. The author is clearly separated from them, but at the same time, correspondences and semantic parallels arise between him and the main characters. Without being actor The author appears in the novel as the subject of statements - remarks and monologues (they are usually called author's digressions). Speaking about life, about literature, about the novel that he creates, the Author either approaches the heroes or moves away from them. His judgments may coincide with their opinions or, conversely, oppose them. Each appearance of the Author in the text of the novel is a statement that corrects or evaluates the actions and views of the characters. Sometimes the Author directly points out the similarities or differences between himself and the heroes: “We both knew the passion game; / Life tormented both of us; / The heat has faded in both hearts”; “I am always glad to notice the difference / Between Onegin and me”; “That’s exactly what my Eugene thought”; “Tatiana, dear Tatyana! / Now I’m shedding tears with you.”

Most often, compositional and semantic parallels arise between the author’s statements and the lives of the characters. The appearance of the author's monologues and remarks, although not externally motivated, is connected with plot episodes by deep semantic connections. The general principle can be defined as follows: the action or characteristic of the hero gives rise to a response from the Author, forcing him to talk about a particular subject. Each statement of the Author adds new touches to his portrait and becomes a component of his image.

The main role in creating the image of the Author is played by his monologues - author's digressions. These are fragments of text that are completely complete in meaning, have a harmonious composition and a unique style. For ease of analysis, they can be divided into several groups.

Most of the digressions are lyrical and lyrical-philosophical. In them, saturated with various life impressions, observations, joyful and sorrowful “notes of the heart,” philosophical reflections, the spiritual world of the Author is revealed to the reader: this is the voice of a wise Poet, who has seen and experienced a lot in life. He experienced everything that makes up a person’s life: strong, sublime feelings and the coldness of doubts and disappointments, the sweet pangs of love and creativity and the painful melancholy of everyday vanity. He is either young, mischievous and passionate, or mocking and ironic. The author is attracted to women and wine, friendly communication, theater, balls, poetry and novels, but he also notes: “I was born for a peaceful life, / For village silence: / In the wilderness, the lyrical voice is louder, / Creative dreams are more vivid.” The author acutely senses the changing ages of a person: the cross-cutting theme of his thoughts is youth and maturity, “a late and barren age, / At the turn of our years.” The author is a philosopher who learned a lot of sad truths about people, but did not stop loving them.

Some digressions are imbued with the spirit of literary polemics. In an extensive digression in the third chapter (stanzas XI-XIV), an ironic “historical and literary” background is first given, and then the Author introduces the reader to the plan of his “novel in the old way.” In other digressions, the Author gets involved in debates about Russian literary language, emphasizing loyalty to the “Karamzinist” ideals of youth (chapter three, stanzas XXVII-XXIX), polemicizes with the “severe critic” (V.K. Kuchelbecker) (chapter four, stanzas XXXII-XXXIII). Critically appraising literary opinions opponents, the Author determines his literary position.

In a number of digressions, the Author ironizes ideas about life that are alien to him, and sometimes openly ridicules them. Objects of the author's irony in the digressions of the fourth chapter (stanzas VII-VIII - “Than smaller woman we love..."; stanzas ХVIII-ХХII - “Everyone in the world has enemies...”; stanzas XXVIII-XXX - “Of course, you have seen / The county young lady’s album more than once...”), the eighth chapter (stanzas X-XI - “Blessed is he who was young from a young age...”) - vulgarity and hypocrisy, envy and ill will , mental laziness and depravity, disguised by secular good manners. Such digressions can be called ironic. The author, unlike the “honorable readers” from the secular crowd, does not doubt the authentic life values and spiritual qualities of people. He is faithful to freedom, friendship, love, honor, and seeks spiritual sincerity and simplicity in people.

In many digressions, the Author appears as a St. Petersburg poet, a contemporary of the novel’s heroes. The reader learns little about his fate, these are only biographical “points” (lyceum - St. Petersburg - South - village - Moscow - St. Petersburg), slips of the tongue, hints, “dreams” that make up the external background of the author’s monologues. All the digressions in the first chapter, some of the digressions in the eighth chapter (stanzas I-VII; stanzas ХLIХ-LI), in the third chapter (stanzas XXII-XXIII), in the fourth chapter (stanza XXXV), the famous digression at the end of the sixth chapter have an autobiographical nature , in which the Author-poet says goodbye to his youth (stanzas ХLIII-ХLVI), a digression about Moscow in the seventh chapter (stanzas ХXXVI-XXXVII). Biographical details are also “encrypted” in literary and polemical digressions. The author takes into account that the reader is familiar with modern literary life.

The fullness of spiritual life, the ability to perceive the world holistically in the unity of light and dark sides are the main personality traits of the Author, distinguishing him from the heroes of the novel. It was in the Author that Pushkin embodied his ideal of a man and a poet.