Ah, dear Alexander Sergeevich! Has your pen written something more perfect than a living and eternal romance"Eugene Onegin"? Didn’t you put most of yourself, your frantic inspiration, all your poetic passion into it?
But weren’t you lying, oh immortal classic, when you said that Onegin has nothing in common with you? Aren't his character traits characteristic of you? Isn’t it your “blueness” on him, isn’t it your disappointment? Is it not your “black epigrams” that he scribbles on his enemies?
And Lensky! Really, how similar he is to you, the young lover! At you - the other, at the you whom you no longer dared to openly reveal to the world...
Lensky and Onegin... Comparative characteristics both of them are yours, oh immortal Alexander Sergeevich, a motley and living portrait on the wall of poetry. Do you agree with the idea of such audacity?
However, be that as it may, allow, in view of your silence, each admirer of your genius to draw their own conclusions, letting their own imagination fly.
We will compare and contrast two bright heroes of "Eugene Onegin", barely touching the facets of your personality directly. In order to avoid obsessive parallels between you, sir, and the characters in your poem, we will make every effort to make a dry statement of their striking characteristics.
So, Onegin. Handsome, smart, stately. In the description of his St. Petersburg daily routine, dear Alexander Sergeevich, we find your lines about no less than three hours he spends preening at the mirrors. You even compare him to a young lady dressed like a man, hurrying to a ball. Perfume, lipstick, fashionable haircut. Dandy, pedant and dandy. Always elegant in clothes. And, by the way, it will be said, nails, sir... He, like you, sir, spends a lot of time at the dressing table, caring for them.
Alas, all the actions he performs on himself in order to be attractive are just a tribute to social habit. He has long since cooled down opposite sex, disappointed in love. He doesn't want to please women at all. No! Love has long been replaced by the “art of seduction,” which, however, does not bring any satisfaction.
Social events had long ago lost all taste for him. He often goes to balls, but out of inertia, out of boredom and having nothing to do. The social circle is boring for him. Everything is disgusting, tired! But, not knowing any other life, he continues to live out his usual way of life. No friends, no love, no interest in life.
Onegin’s way of thinking, worldview - you, Alexander Sergeevich, subject everything to the merciless “Russian blues”, or depression. Immeasurable inner emptiness, lack of dreams, boredom, joylessness. At the same time, the liveliness of a cold, sober mind, the absence of cynicism, nobility.
You emphasize his prosaic nature by his inability to “distinguish trochee from iambic,” and his preference for Scott Smith, with his political economic books, only confirms the presence of non-poetic, precise thinking.
Whether it's Lensky!
What an evil muse visited you, Alexander Sergeevich, when you brought together your so-so different heroes? Could the relationship between Lensky and Onegin not lead to tragedy? Your Lensky...
Handsome, but beautiful in a different way than Onegin. You endow him with natural beauty of facial features, long, dark, curly hair. With the inspired gaze of a poet and a living, warm heart, open to the world.
Vladimir Lensky is sensitive to the perception of nature and the universe as a whole. “Suspecting miracles” in everything, he understands and feels the world in his own way. An idealist, truly!
An eighteen-year-old dreamer in love with life firmly believes in the existence of his soulmate, who is waiting and yearning for him. Into faithful, devoted friendship and the “sacred family,” as you, venerable Alexander Sergeevich, deigned to call the Holy Trinity.
Video on the topic
Describing the relationship between Onegin and Lensky with your own pen, you compare them with the union of water and stone, fire and ice, poetry and prose. How different they are!
Lensky and Onegin. Comparative characteristics
It was your pleasure, Lord of the Muses, to play these two beautiful young men in a sad game that to this day encourages the reader to sprinkle tears on the pages of your great novel. You will bring them together through friendship, at first “out of nothing to do,” and then closer. And then cruelly...
No, it's better in order. So, they get closer: Lensky and Onegin. A comparative description of these two heroes, so characteristic of your time, Alexander Sergeevich, can only be complete when describing their friendship.
So, contradictions do occur, as the English proverb states. At first, they are boring to each other due to the dissimilarity of their judgments. But a little later this difference turns into a magnet that attracts opposites. Each thesis becomes the cause of lively debates and discussions between friends, each dispute turns into a subject of deep thought. Perhaps none of them accepted the position of a comrade, but they also retained interest and respect for the flow of other people’s thoughts. Listening to Lensky, Onegin does not interrupt him with his youthfully naive judgments, poems and ancient legends. Being a disappointed realist, he is in no hurry to reproach Vladimir for idealizing people and the world.
Similarities of heroes
Daily joint horse rides, dinners by the fireplace, wine and conversations bring young people closer together. And, at the same time, over time, similarities between Onegin and Lensky are revealed. By endowing them with such bright features, you, the master of the pen, take them out of the usual circle of rural communication, with boring conversations about the kennel, your own relatives and other nonsense. The education of the main characters, which is one of the few common features of both of them, makes them yawn in the circle of the rural nobility.
Two destinies, two loves
Onegin is five or six years older than Lensky. This conclusion can be reached based on what you indicated, dear Alexander Sergeevich, at his twenty-sixth birthday at the end of the novel... When, bending his knees, he cried with love at her feet... at Tatyana's feet... But, no. Everything is in order.
Oh, great expert on the human soul, oh, the most subtle psychologist of deep feelings! Your pen reveals dead soul Onegin is the bright, pure ideal of a young maiden - Tatyana Larina. Her young, tender passion spills out before him in frank letter, which you attribute to him to preserve throughout his life as evidence of the possibility of sincerity and beauty of feelings in which he no longer believed. Alas, his moping, hardened heart was not ready to reciprocate. He tries to avoid meeting with Tatyana after a conversation with her, in which he denies her high feelings.
In parallel with this discordant love, you develop Vladimir Lensky’s feelings for Tatyana’s sister, Olga. Oh, how different these two loves are, like Lensky and Onegin themselves. A comparative description of these two feelings would be superfluous. The love of Olga and Vladimir is full of chaste passion, poetry, and youthful inspiration. The naive Lensky, who sincerely wishes his friend happiness, tries to push him into Tatyana’s arms, inviting him to her name day. Knowing Onegin's dislike for noisy receptions, he promises him a close family circle, without unnecessary guests.
Revenge, honor and duel
Oh, how much effort Eugene makes to hide his furious indignation when, having agreed, he ends up at a provincial ball with many guests, instead of the promised family dinner. But more than that, he is outraged by Tatyana’s confusion when he sat down in the place prepared for him in advance... opposite her. Lensky knew! Everything is set up!
Onegin, truly, did not want what your, Alexander Sergeevich, inexorable pen had in store when he took revenge on Lensky for his deception! When he carried his beloved Olga into his arms in a dance, when he whispered liberties in her ear, he pretended to look tenderly. Cynically and short-sightedly appealing to the jealousy and contempt of the young poet, he obediently followed the fate you had destined for both of them. Duel!
In the morning at the mill...
Both have already moved on from stupid insults. Both were already having difficulty finding a reason for a duel. But no one stopped. Pride is to blame for this: no one intended to be branded a coward by refusing a fight. The result is known. The young poet is killed by a friend's bullet two weeks before his own wedding. Onegin, unable to indulge in memories and regrets about the death of the only person close to him, leaves the country...
Upon his return, he will fall in love with the matured and blossoming Tatiana, only now a princess. Kneeling before her, he will kiss her hand and pray for love. But no, it’s too late: “Now I’ve given it to someone else and I’ll be faithful to him forever,” she will say, crying bitterly. Onegin will be left completely alone, face to face with the memories of love and a friend killed by his own hand.
Duels of the creator Onegin and quite appropriate parallels
You were reproached, dear Alexander Sergeevich, for insufficient grounds for a duel between your heroes. Funny! Didn’t your contemporaries draw parallels between these two young men and yourself? Didn’t they notice the similarities between such opposite Onegin and Lensky with your contradictory, dual nature? Didn’t they really discover this borderline split into Lensky - an inspired poet, a superstitious lyricist - and a secular rake, a cold, tired Onegin? To one you give your fiery genius, love, cheerfulness and, without knowing it, your own death. The other is given unhappy love, wanderings, alienation and, in the end, a long trip abroad, which you yourself dreamed of so much. The characterization of Onegin and Lensky is a comprehensive disclosure of yourself, isn’t it? And if such an obvious similarity of both heroes with you, dear classic, was exposed by your contemporaries, didn’t they know what easy, insignificant reasons for duels were enough for you yourself? And how many times in every week of your life have you started playing with death, fearlessly and indifferently looking at the cold trunk in the hands of your enraged opponent?
Ah, dear Alexander Sergeevich! Has your pen written anything more perfect than the living and eternal novel “Eugene Onegin”? Didn’t you put most of yourself, your frantic inspiration, all your poetic passion into it?
But weren’t you lying, oh immortal classic, when you said that Onegin has nothing in common with you? Aren't his character traits characteristic of you? Isn’t it your “blueness” on him, isn’t it your disappointment? Is it not your “black epigrams” that he scribbles on his enemies?
And Lensky! Really, how similar he is to you, the young lover! At you - the other, at the you whom you no longer dared to openly reveal to the world...
Lensky and Onegin... both of them are yours, oh immortal Alexander Sergeevich, a motley and living portrait on the wall of poetry. Do you agree with the idea of such audacity?
However, be that as it may, allow, in view of your silence, each admirer of your genius to draw their own conclusions, letting their own imagination fly.
We will compare and contrast two bright ones, barely touching the facets of your personality directly. In order to avoid obsessive parallels between you, sir, and the characters in your poem, we will make every effort to make a dry statement of their striking characteristics.
So, Onegin. Handsome, smart, stately. In the description of his St. Petersburg daily routine, dear Alexander Sergeevich, we find your lines about no less than three hours he spends preening at the mirrors. You even compare him to a young lady dressed like a man, hurrying to a ball. Perfume, lipstick, fashionable haircut. Dandy, pedant and dandy. Always elegant in clothes. And, by the way, it will be said, nails, sir... He, like you, sir, spends a lot of time at the dressing table, caring for them.
Alas, all the actions he performs on himself in order to be attractive are just a tribute to social habit. He has long cooled off towards the opposite sex, disappointed in love. He doesn't want to please women at all. No! Love has long been replaced by the “art of seduction,” which, however, does not bring any satisfaction.
Social events had long ago lost all taste for him. He often goes to balls, but out of inertia, out of boredom and having nothing to do. The world is boring to him. Everything is disgusting, tired! But, not knowing any other life, he continues to live out his usual way of life. No friends, no love, no interest in life.
Onegin’s way of thinking, worldview - you, Alexander Sergeevich, subject everything to the merciless “Russian blues”, or depression. Immeasurable inner emptiness, lack of dreams, boredom, joylessness. At the same time, the liveliness of a cold, sober mind, the absence of cynicism, nobility.
You emphasize his prosaic nature by his inability to “distinguish trochee from iambic,” and his preference for Scott Smith, with his political economic books, only confirms the presence of non-poetic, precise thinking.
Whether it's Lensky!
What evil muse visited you, Alexander Sergeevich, when you brought your so different heroes together in friendly bonds? Could the relationship between Lensky and Onegin not lead to tragedy? Your Lensky...
Handsome, but beautiful in a different way than Onegin. You give him natural beauty with long, dark, curly hair. With the inspired gaze of a poet and a living, warm heart, open to the world.
Vladimir Lensky is sensitive to the perception of nature and the universe as a whole. “Suspecting miracles” in everything, he understands and feels the world in his own way. An idealist, truly!
An eighteen-year-old dreamer in love with life firmly believes in the existence of his soulmate, who is waiting and yearning for him. Into faithful, devoted friendship and the “sacred family,” as you, venerable Alexander Sergeevich, deigned to call the Holy Trinity.
Describing the relationship between Onegin and Lensky with your own pen, you compare them with the union of water and stone, fire and ice, poetry and prose. How different they are!
Lensky and Onegin. Comparative characteristics
It was your pleasure, Lord of the Muses, to play these two beautiful young men in a sad game that to this day encourages the reader to sprinkle tears on the pages of your great novel. You will bring them together through friendship, at first “out of nothing to do,” and then closer. And then cruelly...
No, it's better in order. So, they get closer: Lensky and Onegin. A comparative description of these two heroes, so characteristic of your time, Alexander Sergeevich, can only be complete when describing their friendship.
So, contradictions occur, as stated by At first, they are boring to each other due to the dissimilarity of judgments. But a little later this difference turns into a magnet that attracts opposites. Each thesis becomes the cause of lively debates and discussions between friends, each dispute turns into a subject of deep thought. Perhaps none of them accepted the position of a comrade, but they also retained interest and respect for the flow of other people's thoughts. Listening to Lensky, Onegin does not interrupt him with his youthfully naive judgments, poems and ancient legends. Being a disappointed realist, he is in no hurry to reproach Vladimir for idealizing people and the world.
Similarities of heroes
Daily joint horse rides, dinners by the fireplace, wine and conversations bring young people closer together. And, at the same time, over time, similarities between Onegin and Lensky are revealed. By endowing them with such bright features, you, the master of the pen, take them out of the usual circle of rural communication, with boring conversations about the kennel, your own relatives and other nonsense. The education of the main characters, which is one of the few common features of both of them, makes them yawn in the circle of the rural nobility.
Two destinies, two loves
Onegin is five or six years older than Lensky. This conclusion can be reached based on what you indicated, dear Alexander Sergeevich, at his twenty-sixth birthday at the end of the novel... When, bending his knees, he cried with love at her feet... at Tatyana's feet... But, no. Everything is in order.
Oh, great expert on the human soul, oh, the most subtle psychologist of deep feelings! Your pen reveals to the dead soul of Onegin the bright, pure ideal of a young maiden - Tatyana Larina. Her young, tender passion spills out before him in a frank letter, which you attribute to him to keep for the rest of his life as evidence of the possibility of sincerity and beauty of feelings in which he no longer believed. Alas, his moping, hardened heart was not ready to reciprocate. He tries to avoid meeting with Tatyana after a conversation with her, in which he denies her high feelings.
In parallel with this discordant love, you develop Vladimir Lensky’s feelings for Tatyana’s sister, Olga. Oh, how different these two loves are, like Lensky and Onegin themselves. A comparative description of these two feelings would be superfluous. The love of Olga and Vladimir is full of chaste passion, poetry, and youthful inspiration. The naive Lensky, who sincerely wishes his friend happiness, tries to push him into Tatyana’s arms, inviting him to her name day. Knowing Onegin’s dislike for noisy receptions, he promises him a close family circle, without unnecessary guests.
Revenge, honor and duel
Oh, how much effort Eugene makes to hide his furious indignation when, having agreed, he ends up at a provincial ball with many guests, instead of the promised family dinner. But more than that, he is outraged by Tatyana’s confusion when he sat down in the place prepared for him in advance... opposite her. Lensky knew! Everything is set up!
Onegin, truly, did not want what your, Alexander Sergeevich, inexorable pen had in store when he took revenge on Lensky for his deception! When he carried his beloved Olga into his arms in a dance, when he whispered liberties in her ear, he pretended to look tenderly. Cynically and short-sightedly appealing to the jealousy and contempt of the young poet, he obediently followed the fate you had destined for both of them. Duel!
In the morning at the mill...
Both have already moved on from stupid insults. Both were already having difficulty finding a reason for a duel. But no one stopped. Pride is to blame for this: no one intended to be branded a coward by refusing a fight. The result is known. The young poet is killed by a friend's bullet two weeks before his own wedding. Onegin, unable to indulge in memories and regrets about the death of the only person close to him, leaves the country...
Upon his return, he will fall in love with the matured and blossoming Tatiana, only now a princess. Kneeling before her, he will kiss her hand and pray for love. But no, it’s too late: “Now I’ve given it to someone else and I’ll be faithful to him forever,” she will say, crying bitterly. Onegin will be left completely alone, face to face with the memories of love and a friend killed by his own hand.
Duels of the creator Onegin and quite appropriate parallels
You were reproached, dear Alexander Sergeevich, for insufficient grounds for a duel between your heroes. Funny! Didn’t your contemporaries draw parallels between these two young men and yourself? Didn’t they notice the similarities between such opposite Onegin and Lensky with your contradictory, dual nature? Didn’t they really discover this borderline split into Lensky - an inspired poet, a superstitious lyricist - and a secular rake, a cold, tired Onegin? To one you give your fiery genius, love, cheerfulness and, without knowing it, your own death. The other is given wanderings, alienation and, in the end, a long trip abroad, which you yourself so dreamed of. The characterization of Onegin and Lensky is a comprehensive disclosure of yourself, isn’t it? And if such an obvious similarity of both heroes with you, dear classic, was exposed by your contemporaries, didn’t they know what easy, insignificant reasons for duels were enough for you yourself? And how many times in every week of your life have you started playing with death, fearlessly and indifferently looking at the cold trunk in the hands of your enraged opponent?
What is he like, a contemporary of Pushkin? When you read, or rather, enjoy reading Pushkin’s masterpiece, it seems that Alexander Sergeevich was writing about himself.
He calls his main character “my good friend,” among Onegin’s friends are friends of Pushkin himself, and Pushkin himself is invisibly present everywhere in the novel. However, it would be too primitive to say that Onegin is a self-portrait. Pushkin’s soul is too complex and incomprehensible, too multifaceted and contradictory to be reflected in one “typical representative” of the “golden age”. This is probably why he lived his short life in the novel. bright life the young idealist Lensky is also part of the poet’s soul. Onegin and Lensky, both beloved by the author, so similar and different, close and distant, like the poles of one planet, like two halves of one soul... How youth inevitably ends, how maturity of mind inevitably comes, and with it conformism, so inevitable for Pushkin in the novel the death of a young romantic.
Eugene Onegin receives a typical aristocratic upbringing. Pushkin writes: “At first Madame followed him, then Monsieur replaced her.” They taught him everything jokingly, but Onegin still received the minimum knowledge that was considered mandatory among the nobility. Pushkin, making sketches, seems to remember his youth:
*We all learned a little bit
* Something and somehow,
* So upbringing, thank God,
* It’s no wonder to shine here...
*He is completely French
* Could express himself and wrote;
* Danced the mazurka easily
* And he bowed at ease;
*What do you want more?
* The light decided
* That he is smart and very nice.
In terms of intelligence, Onegin stands much higher than his peers. He knew a little classical literature, had an idea about Adam Smith, read Byron, but all this does not lead either to romantic, fiery feelings, like Lensky, or to a sharp political protest, like Griboyedov’s Chatsky. A sober, “chilled” mind and satiety with the pleasures of the world led to Onegin losing interest in life, he falls into a deep blues:
* Handra was waiting for him on guard,
* And she ran after him,
* Like a shadow or a faithful wife.
Out of boredom, Onegin tries to look for the meaning of life in some activity. He reads a lot, tries to write, but the first attempt did not lead to anything. Pushkin writes: “But nothing came of his pen.” In the village where Onegin goes to claim his inheritance, he makes another attempt practical activities:
* He is the yoke of the ancient corvée
* Replaced quitrent with light one;
* And the slave blessed fate.
* But in his corner he sulked,
* Seeing this as terrible harm,
* His calculating neighbor...
But the lordly aversion to work, the habit of freedom and peace, lack of will and pronounced selfishness - this is the legacy that Onegin received from the “high society”.
In contrast to Onegin, in the image of Lensky, a different type of noble youth is given. Lensky plays significant role in understanding the character of Onegin. Lensky is a nobleman, younger than Onegin in age. He was educated in Germany: He brought the fruits of learning from foggy Germany, An ardent and rather strange spirit...
Lensky's spiritual world is associated with a romantic worldview; he is “an admirer of Kant and a poet.” His feelings dominate his mind, he believes in love, in friendship, in the decency of people, he is an irreparable idealist who lives in a world of beautiful dreams. Lensky looks at life through rose-colored glasses, he naively finds kindred spirit’ in Olga, the most ordinary girl. The cause of Lensky’s death was indirectly Onegin, but in fact he dies from rough contact with cruel reality. What do Onegin and Lensky have in common? Both belong to a privileged circle, they are smart, educated, in their internal development, they stand above those around them, Lensky’s romantic soul looks for beauty everywhere. Onegin went through all this, tired of hypocrisy and debauchery secular society. Pushkin writes about Lensky: “He was a dear ignoramus at heart, he was cherished by hope, and there was a new shine and noise in the world.” Onegin listened to Lensky’s passionate speeches with the elder’s smile; he tried to restrain his irony: “And I thought: it’s stupid for me to interfere with his momentary bliss; and without me the time will come; let him live for now and believe in the perfection of the world; forgive the fever youth and youthful heat and youthful delirium.” For Lensky, friendship is an urgent need of nature, while Onegin makes friends “for the sake of boredom,” although in his own way he is attached to Lensky. Not knowledgeable of life Lensky embodies an equally common type of progressive noble youth, just like Onegin, disappointed in life.
Pushkin, contrasting two young people, nevertheless notes common features character. He writes: “They got together. Wave and stone, poetry and prose, ice and fire are not so different from each other.” “Not so different from each other.” How to understand this phrase? In my opinion, what unites them is that they are both self-centered, they are bright individuals who are focused only on their supposedly unique personality. “The habit of counting everyone as zeros and oneself as ones” was sooner or later bound to lead to a break. Onegin is forced to kill Lensky. Despising the world, he still values its opinion, fearing ridicule and reproach for cowardice. Because of a false concept of honor, he destroys an innocent soul. Who knows what Lensky’s fate would have been like if he had remained alive. Perhaps he would have become a Decembrist, or maybe just a common man. Belinsky, analyzing the novel, believed that Lensky was waiting for the second option. Pushkin writes: “He would have changed in many ways, would have parted with the muses, gotten married, been happy in the village and would have worn a quilted robe.”
I think Onegin was still internally deeper than Lensky. His “sharp, chilled mind” is much more pleasant than Lensky’s sublime romanticism, which would quickly disappear, like flowers disappear in late autumn. Only deep natures can experience dissatisfaction with life, Onegin is closer to Pushkin, he writes about himself and about him: L was embittered, he was gloomy, We both knew the game of passion, Life tormented both of us, The heat went out in both hearts.
Pushkin openly admits their sympathy for him, many lyrical digressions the novel is dedicated to this. Onegin suffers deeply. This can be understood from the lines: “Why wasn’t I wounded by a bullet in the chest? Why am I not a frail old man like this poor tax farmer? I am young, the life in me is strong; what should I expect? melancholy, melancholy!..” Pushkin embodied in Onegin many of those traits that would later appear in individual characters of Lermontov, Turgenev, Herzen, Goncharov and other writers. And romantics like Lensky cannot withstand the blows of life: they either reconcile with it or perish.
A comparative description of Onegin and Lensky allows us to better understand the essence of both characters and reveal the images of the heroes as fully as possible.
Two different natures
The author introduces us to Evgeniy, describes in detail the events from his childhood, gives an idea of the values and character traits that could be formed in a person surrounded by excessive care, unlimited luxury and the upbringing of a teacher to whom Russian culture is alien. He was born in St. Petersburg, was pampered and spoiled by a governess and a French teacher, but did not know parental love, was not close to his father.
Lensky's growing up was influenced by German culture, liberalism, freethinking. He received an excellent, serious education, puts all his knowledge into practice, and is full of ideas, plans, hopes and dreams.
Both characters live in prosperity: Evgeniy is the heir of all his relatives (he is the only child in the family), Lensky manages the estate, which is the fruit of his family’s many years of work.
“They got together...”
The author does not give an exact portrait of Onegin; he pays main attention to the nature of the young nobleman, his inner world. We know that he is attractive, a terrible fashionista, spends a lot of time in front of the mirror, a stealer of women’s hearts, a seducer (which means the hero’s appearance is more than pleasant).
Lensky's appearance is described in more detail: he has long black hair to his shoulders, he is very handsome and romantic. In addition, Vladimir is only 18 years old, he is hot, passionate, emotional (life was playing in him, his blood was boiling), which makes his image especially attractive.
There is no life in Evgenia, no thirst for knowledge, impressions, no feelings of any kind; Lensky, on the contrary, is full of feelings, he is a subtle romantic, a poet, a vulnerable soul.
Onegin is prone to publicity (although social life became uninteresting to him), and Lensky is a quiet homebody, he considers social entertainment a waste of time.
Onegin is a cynic, skilled at “sarcastically slandering,” he has no friends, warm relationships with anyone are alien to him. Lensky believes in friendship, is full of high ideals from romantic literature. The education of Lensky and Onegin opened up any field for their future: service, science, creativity, but the first chose estate management, and the second - complete inactivity, an idle pastime.
Comparative characteristics
A quotative and meaningful description of the characters according to the plan allows you to more clearly compare the two characters. It is presented in the table:
| Evgeny Onegin | Vladimir Lensky | |
| education | He received a home education, quite passable for those times: he spoke excellent French, had a superficial understanding of Latin, and read books on economics. | Studied at a prestigious university in Germany, inclined to literary creativity, to philosophize, writes poetry. |
| character | Onegin is indifferent, calm, cynical, arrogant, cold, lazy, unprincipled. | Vladimir is smart, honest, a little hot-tempered, active, sensitive, emotional, romantic and a little naive. |
| attitude towards love | Onegin sees love as an unnecessary feeling, simple and base, it is associated with betrayal and betrayal. He’s a heartthrob and a ladies’ man, he doesn’t believe in true love.”…his feelings cooled down early.” | Lensky, brought up on German romanticism, sincerely believes in love, in fate, and is full of emotionality and romance. |
| attitude towards friendship | Knows about friendship only superficially, does not look for friends, is a loner (“tired of friends and friendships”) | He believes in true friendship, in the fact that a friend is able to stand up for the honor of a comrade, idealizes this sphere. (“He believed that friends were ready to accept shackles for his honor...”) |
| reading and literature | Evgeniy did not find himself either in reading or in the writing field; he was “sick” of versification, and romantic books plunged him into boredom. Reads books on economics to understand government. | Poetry is his favorite craft, in it he expresses his subtle nature. Reads a lot, “fan of Kant.” |
| attitude to work | Evgeniy is not in the service and is not involved in management or housekeeping. He is wasteful and is not interested in anything at all. The situation allows him to live in complete idleness, this significantly affects his lifestyle. | Experienced owner, copes well with a large estate, manages to do everything. Active and tireless: looking for himself. |
EDUCATION
Onegin: “The poor Frenchman, so as not to exhaust the child, taught him everything jokingly, did not bother him with strict morality” - he was educated simply, without much effort, but enough to enter society. “He could express himself perfectly in French and wrote.” “What do you want more? The world decided that he was smart and very nice.” “We all learned a little something, somehow.” And according to many, Onegin was a “student fellow” - he quite pretended smart person: “With the learned air of an expert, remain silent in an important dispute.”
He knew Latin quite well, but “could not distinguish an iambic from a trochee.” His “calling” was different: “he knew more firmly than all sciences the science of tender passion”
Lensky: “He brought the fruits of learning from foggy Germany.” Lensky was well educated, loved poetry, was an admirer of Kant, and was himself a poet. As is typical for any poet, he was filled with “freedom-loving dreams and an ardent spirit.” The main science for him was art, or, to be more precise, poetry. "He wandered through the world with a lyre; under the skies of Schiller and Goethe." “And a mind still unsteady in judgment, and an eternally inspired gaze.” “The poet, in the heat of his judgments, read, forgetting himself.”
UPBRINGING:
Onegin: brought up in the spirit of the secular society of that time, and the main thing in education was compliance with society and its requirements.
Onegin "danced the mazurka easily and bowed at ease." “So, thank God, it’s no wonder we shine with our upbringing.” Evgeniy was “an exemplary student of fashion”: he was always well dressed, in fashion, and took care of himself: “You can be a efficient person and think about the beauty of your nails.” “Fearing jealous condemnation, he was a pedant in his clothes.” “He spent at least three hours in front of the mirrors and came out of the restroom looking like a windy Venus.”
Lensky: Lensky was raised as a romantic and a dreamer, “rich, good-looking, and was accepted everywhere as a groom.” I hardly knew Russia or its ideals, since I lived in Germany, which is why I formed such special opinions about art, the soul, and friends of love. And “I have not yet known heartache.”
STATE OF MIND, ATTITUDE TO LIFE VALUES:
Onegin: In his still young years, Onegin was already tired of everything, he was “oversaturated” with everyone. Early his feelings cooled down, he was tired of the noise of the world; beauties were not long the subject of his primary thoughts; he was tired of betrayal, he was tired of friends and friendship,” “he finally fell out of love with swearing, and the saber, and lead.” He was also tired of the theater: “I endured ballets for a long time, but I was also tired of Didelot.” Over time, he loses interest in many things and gets tired of life (later he became interested only in Tatyana).
Lensky: he was possessed by “freedom-loving dreams, an ardent and rather strange spirit.” “Even before it had time to fade from the cold depravity of the world, his soul was warmed by the greetings of the spirit, the caress of the virgins; he was still ignorant at heart, he was cherished by hope.” He overshadowed all doubts with a dream, believed in friendship and love, in people. He became an even greater romantic when he fell in love with Olga: “She gave the poet his first dream of youthful delight.” He fell in love with dense groves, solitude, silence.”
LIFE IN THE VILLAGE, RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBORS
Onegin: This village was a charming place, but even Onegin was tired of it: “The village where Eugene was bored.” Neighbors thought he was a "most dangerous eccentric." “At first everyone went to see him, but since they usually served him a Don stallion from the back porch, only along high road they heard their household noises, offended by such an act, everyone stopped their friendship with him." "Our neighbor is ignorant, crazy, he is a pharmacist, he drinks one glass of red wine; he doesn’t approach ladies’ arms, everything is “yes” and “no”; will not say “yes, sir” or “no, sir.” "That was the general consensus."
Lensky: “The new landowner gave rise to an equally strict analysis in the neighborhood.” Only Eugene could appreciate his gifts. Lensky tried to avoid the feasts of neighboring villages. He believed that the neighbors “the prudent conversation, of course, did not shine with either feeling, or intelligence, or poetic fire, or wit, or intelligence, or common art; but the conversation of their dear wives was much less intelligent.” In short, he did not like the company of his neighbors.
ATTITUDE TO POETRY, TO ART:
Onegin: He is rather indifferent to poetry (although he listened to Lensky with a smile, let him enjoy the “momentary bliss”). “He had no desire to rummage through the history of the earth; but he kept the anecdotes of bygone days in his memory.” “I couldn’t tell an iambic from a trochee. I scolded Homer and Theocritus, but I read Adam Smith.”
Lensky: He was a poet, poetry enlivened his soul and thoughts, he put many of his feelings into it. And the lyre was his faithful companion. “Under the sky of Schiller and Goethe, their poetic fire ignited his soul.” Poetry helped him “to believe in the world’s perfection.”
BEHAVIOR IN A DUEL:
Onegin: “Having received a letter from Lensky, where he called him to a duel, Onegin said to himself that he was “always ready.” He did not like the whole idea, but he could not stop - it was an honor.
Lensky: Vladimir wanted not to allow “the corrupter to tempt the young heart with fire and sighs and praise.” However, in the morning I realized that I was too excited, but there was no turning back.
Effective preparation for the Unified State Exam (all subjects) -