“Eugene Onegin” is the first Russian realistic novel and the only novel in verse in Russian literature.
The complexity of the image of E. Onegin can be traced throughout the entire novel. This lies at least in the fact that we see how very different Onegin is at the beginning and at the end of the novel. At the beginning of the novel, he is a young womanizer who goes from ball to ball. But even during this period we observe his complexity: he did not go to the theater to watch magnificent productions, not to see the brilliant Istomina on stage. Onegin - an “honorary citizen of the scenes” - is more interested in meetings and affairs with “charming actresses” than the stage, art; he likes to point “a double lorgnette at the boxes of unfamiliar ladies.” The complex, contradictory character of Onegin does not fit into the usual patterns: the hero is not a model, not a villain, he constantly deceives the reader’s expectations. Without responding to Tatyana’s feelings, he did not, however, become a “fatal seducer,” did not start a complete love game, and did not deceive her trust. His rebuke was cruel, but it was neither base nor dishonorable. “In that terrible hour, you acted nobly,” Tatyana will tell him. But the same Onegin thoughtlessly insulted Lensky, did not dare to refuse the duel, and killed his friend...
Now I want to express my opinion about the ending of the novel. I think the novel could have been continued. The fact is that Pushkin treated people like Onegin with some degree of contempt. It even seems to me that Pushkin probably loved some girl similar to Tatyana, and this girl was probably conquered by some person similar to Evgeniy. And based on all this, I believe that the end of the novel could not be happy. After all, when the first readers of the novel reproached Pushkin for ending the novel this way, he answered them: “You advise others for Onegin...”
The complexity of Onegin’s image also lies in the fact that he did not fall in love with Tatyana right away, but only later, when she had already married the prince. And why this happened, we read in the novel. Yes, I remember most of all those lines when Pushkin gives an explanation of why Evgeny fell in love with Tatyana:
But an indifferent princess,
But an unapproachable goddess.
And especially the following lines:
What is given to you does not attract you, the serpent certainly calls you To himself, to the mysterious tree: Give you the forbidden fruit. And without him, heaven is not heaven for you.
I think that it is Eugene Onegin, and no one else, who is the hero of his time. He is in the novel a man who was killed by his upbringing and social life, which no one could understand.
This is my opinion about Eugene Onegin, the hero of his time.
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- Eugene Onegin is indeed one of the main characters of the novel, since the novel describes precisely his life, his actions and deeds, experiences and feelings. The action of the novel dates back to 1819-1925, full of political events during the reign of Nicholas I. Pushkin worked Read More ......
- Let's try to compare the images of the two literary characters: Onegin and Pechorin. It is much easier to compare the heroes of one work or, in extreme cases, a writer. But talking about the characters created by Pushkin and Lermontov is as difficult as it is interesting. These brilliant artists created images of heroes, Read More ......
- Every master artistic word, reflecting contemporary reality, shows his vision of society: the vices, illnesses of its representatives, ways to solve pressing problems and ways further development. Critics call the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” by Pushkin the first Russian realistic novel. That is, the events in Read More......
- I believe that the role of Pushkin in the novel “Eugene Onegin” is no less than the role of the plot. Already in the dedication to the novel, Pushkin writes that his work is not only “a collection of motley chapters,” but also a collection of motley states of mind the poet himself. And Read More......
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- “Eugene Onegin” is rightfully considered central work A. S. Pushkin. Work on it lasted about eight and a half years. At the first mention of work on Eugene Onegin, Pushkin said: “I’m not writing a novel, but a novel in verse - a devilish difference.” Read More......
- It is difficult not to notice the similarities between Onegin and Pechorin, just as it is impossible to ignore the differences in their characters. Both of them are “superfluous people” of their time. Even V. G. Belinsky, comparing these two images, noted: “Their dissimilarity is much less Read More ......
- The novel “Eugene Onegin” is a novel about love. On life path Each of the heroes meets this wonderful feeling. But none of the characters manages to connect with the person they love. Tatyana Larina’s nanny says that in her time “they didn’t even hear Read More......
Already in the first chapter, Pushkin sometimes speaks ironically about his hero, calls him “an ardent rake” and “a philosopher at eighteen” and shows his inner emptiness and superficiality. But he is still far from the idea of debunking his hero and treats him with obvious sympathy. However, already in the first chapter, the main shortcomings of Onegin as a social type clearly appear and the main source of these shortcomings is indicated. This source lies in the lack of proper upbringing and thorough education. That is why Pushkin dwells in such detail on Onegin’s upbringing, which is very typical for wealthy noble families of that time. Since childhood, Onegin did not know the real family life: he didn’t have a mother, his father didn’t care for him; leaving it to hired tutors and governesses.
His studies were not taken seriously, he was not accustomed to systematic work; That’s why Onegin came out with a small stock of knowledge and without the habit of serious work. His upbringing gave him only an external gloss, impeccable knowledge French and the ability to behave in society.
Then Onegin, in complete freedom, indulged in all the pleasures of social life, spending his time at balls and in fashion salons, visiting the restaurant and the ballet, appearing everywhere dressed in the latest fashion, but most of all engaging in the “science of tender passion,” which he comprehended to perfection. Pushkin dwells in some detail on the description of Onegin's absent-minded St. Petersburg life, and in this description there are undoubtedly some autobiographical features. However, Onegin could not be completely satisfied with this way of life. Like Byron's Childe Harold, he was early fed up with the pleasures of life and abandoned them. In addition, the education he received, despite its superficiality, nevertheless introduced him to the higher interests of mental life and thus elevated him above the level of interests of the surrounding society. But at the same time, his education was too insufficient: Onegin picked up only some knowledge, for example, he read Adam Smith, who was in fashion in this era; but there was no connection or system in his knowledge.
Education did not develop in Onegin the ability for correct and systematic work. He doesn’t even know how to start it: fed up with the pleasures of social life, he takes up the pen - “but he was sick of persistent work: nothing came out of his pen.” He is even incapable of serious, practical reading, because he does not want to start with the basics, and he also does not have sufficient preparation; reading soon gets boring for him and he decides on the spot:
There is boredom, there is deception or delirium;
And the old are delirious of the newness.
There is no conscience in that, there is no meaning in that;
Like women, he left books,
Everyone is wearing different chains;
And a shelf with their dusty family,
And the old thing is outdated.
Covered it with mourning taffeta.
Thus, Onegin does not know what to take up, what to attach himself to; social life does not satisfy him: he fell behind some, and did not stick to others, and therefore he is left with only melancholy and apathy, which he himself takes for disappointment. Half-education is usually associated with a high opinion of oneself; therefore, Onegin considers himself entitled to treat others with contempt, although in many cases he himself is not able to rise above the prejudices of his environment; for example, despising public opinion, he, at the same time, is afraid of him and goes to a duel with Lensky, fearing the gossip of others. Realizing himself wrong, Onegin not only accepts Lensky’s challenge, but also kills his friend because of petty gossip and empty pride. Onegin shows the same arrogance regarding Tatiana.
He rejects her love because he considers himself to be above such feelings as the desire for family happiness, which seems petty and vulgar to him; he neglects, from the height of his pedestal, the love of the “village young lady” and reads dry morality to her, showing off his disappointment and coldness. But when he meets Tatyana as a brilliant society lady, surrounded by brilliance and respect, his attitude towards her changes, and he himself begins to pursue her with his love. However, now the roles have changed, and Tatiana is already reading morals to him, in response to his confession. She shows him that the source of his love is rooted in a petty sense of vanity, in the desire to conquer the heart of a brilliant and respected society woman.
Thus, the source of Onegin’s love for Tatyana is selfish vanity, showing the inner emptiness of his nature. However, having arisen from petty motives, his feeling turns into a real passion, and he is tormented by the thought of lost happiness, which “was so possible, so close!” This late awakening of a real, living human feeling, which becomes a source of suffering for Onegin, is for him a punishment for his long-term pretense, for his feigned coldness and disappointment, for his constant desire to flaunt some kind of mask. Tatyana correctly guessed this trait in him when, in Onegin’s library, she became more closely acquainted with his favorite books and with the intimate notes that he made in them.
These words contain the definition of what Onegin is: he is a “Muscovite in Harold’s cloak,” a man flaunting a fashionable mask, trying to appear different from what he really is, to give himself greater importance.
In the person of Onegin, Pushkin debunked the everyday Russian manifestation of Byronism. The author showed his inner emptiness and inconsistency. At the beginning of the novel, he looked at him only as an “ardent rake”, bored from satiety; but then he showed how this “rake”, out of petty vanity and pride, is capable of breaking a girl’s heart and shedding the blood of his own friend. Thus, by the end of the novel, Pushkin’s attitude towards his hero has changed significantly: conceived as a comic poem in the style of “Beppo”, the novel comes to a gloomy tragic denouement, and the figure of Onegin acquires a much more serious meaning than a portrait of a bored secular dandy.
Two reasons contributed to Pushkin becoming interested in Onegin: firstly, he saw in him a fairly common social type that arose on the basis of the prevailing half-education and imitation; secondly, Onegin, despite all his shortcomings, still stands above the environment: he is endowed with a remarkable mind, with a skeptical tint, he wants to seem “ positive person“[attitude to poetry, reading Adam Smith, conversations with Lensky]; he is not alien even to good aspirations: for example, having arrived in the village, “he replaced the old corvee with a light quitrent for the old corvée,” but then he cares little about his farm and the well-being of his peasants, having probably left all management to the headman and the clerk. But the main difference between him and those around him is the feeling of inner dissatisfaction that haunts him everywhere: an empty, distracted life does not attract him, and he is incapable of rational activity.
He is young, he has a lot of unspent strength, but he does not know how to apply it to work; that is why he himself languishes with the emptiness of his life, boredom haunts him, and in a fit of despair he exclaims: “I am young, life is strong in me! What should I expect? yearning! yearning!" If Onegin is a typical representative of Russian half-education of that time, then at the same time he is also a victim of it. His dissatisfaction and inner suffering elevate him above the level of society. This superiority of Onegin is the reason for Pushkin’s secret sympathy for him; at the end of the novel, he takes him under his protection from attacks from people of the golden mean.
Can you call Eugene Onegin a hero of his time?
Pushkin is a great Russian poet, the founder of Russian realism, the creator of Russian literary language. One of his greatest works is the novel “Eugene Onegin”.
Onegin is a secular St. Petersburg young man, a metropolitan aristocrat.
Describing his hero, Pushkin talks in detail about his upbringing and education. Onegin received a home education typical of aristocratic youth of that time and the upbringing of a French tutor:
Monsieur I "Abbe, poor Frenchman
So that the child does not get tired
I taught him everything jokingly,
I didn’t bother you with strict morals,
Lightly scolded for pranks
And he took me for a walk in the Summer Garden.
Having become a young man, Onegin leads a life typical of young people of that time: balls, restaurants, visiting theaters. But Evgeny Onegin, by his nature, stands out from the general mass of young people. Pushkin notes his “involuntary devotion to dreams, inimitable strangeness and sharp, chilled mind,” a sense of honor, nobility of soul. This could not but lead Onegin to disappointment in the life and interests of secular society.
When Evgeniy is overcome by the blues, he tries to do something useful activity. Nothing came of his attempt to write!
Onegin locked himself at home.
Yawning, he took up the pen.
I wanted to write, but it’s hard work
He felt sick; Nothing
It did not come from his pen.
Later, having left for the estate that he received from his uncle, Onegin tries to start organizing the peasants:
He is the yoke of the ancient corvée
I replaced it with a light quitrent...
But all his activities as a landowner were limited to this reform.
Even such strong feelings as love and friendship could not save Eugene Onegin from spiritual emptiness. He rejected Tatyana’s love, since he valued “freedom and peace” above all else.
Onegin killed his friend Lensky, as secular prejudices prevailed in the hesitations that he experienced after receiving a challenge to a duel.
It seems to me that Pushkin condemns his hero: he behaved selfishly towards the people around him, although Onegin later realized this. He can be called a hero of his time, because Eugene, just like the hero of Lermontov’s work Pechorin, was above the society in which he was located. Very few people could understand him. I think that is why Eugene Onegin was the way he is.
Young noble intellectual early XIX century, Eugene Onegin is smart, noble, capable of feeling deeply and strongly. He was able to immediately appreciate Tatyana with her discreet external beauty and rich inner world. Onegin is tactful in his relations with Lensky:
He's a cooling word
I tried to keep it in my mouth
And I thought: it’s stupid to bother me
His momentary bliss.
The repentance of Onegin, who killed a friend in a duel, is deep and sincere: “He could have discovered his feelings, and not bristled like an animal; he should have disarmed the young heart...”
Onegin’s intelligence was also manifested in the fact that he early realized the worthlessness of secular society and felt like a stranger and extra person in high society living rooms. It was hard for him and
It's unbearable to see in front of you
There's a long row of dinners alone,
See life as a ritual
And follow the decorous crowd,
Without sharing with her
No common opinions, no passions.
But Onegin’s wonderful inclinations are suppressed by social conditions, the environment in which he grew up and lived. It is no coincidence that Pushkin places in the first chapter of the novel brief description life of the main character. From this description we learn who raised Eugene and how, what he was taught, how he spent his time when the time came for his “rebellious youth.”
Onegin's upbringing, as Pushkin showed, his reading circle, his sphere of interests - all this is devoid of national foundations. It is not for nothing that foreign language vocabulary predominates in the hero’s biography, conveying the peculiarity of high society culture, far from national Russian origins.
Onegin's predominant state is boredom. Nothing could dispel his melancholy laziness. The thirst for monotonous pleasures in the absence of a real, living matter has taken root in Onegin’s psychology, and he is unable to overcome it. “He was sick of persistent work,” notes Pushkin. And since, according to the author, only in work could the creative powers of the individual manifest themselves, the outcome of Onegin’s life is bleak:
Having lived without a goal, without work
Until twenty-six years old,
Languishing in idle leisure,
Without work, without wife, without business,
I didn't know how to do anything.
Love also passed by, because the hero’s feelings became impoverished - he suppressed the involuntary excitement experienced at the sight of Tatyana and upon receiving her letter. Only later, shocked by the murder of Lensky and meeting Tatyana again, Onegin gained the ability to have great and strong feelings. In the very first chapters, Onegin is deprived of the very ability to love. His attitude towards love is entirely rational and feigned. It is in the spirit of acquired secular “truths”, the main goal of which is to enchant and seduce, to appear to be in love, and not to actually be one:
How early could he be a hypocrite?
To harbor hope, to be jealous,
To dissuade, to make believe,
Seem gloomy, languish...
This “science of tender passion” is a necessary accessory for secular salons and living rooms.
And finally, Onegin’s friendship with Lensky ended tragically. In the motivations for Onegin’s behavior, Pushkin constantly pits the impulses of his soul against the usual rules of behavior instilled by the secular environment... No matter how Onegin’s noble mind protested against the duel, social conventions shaped by the world still prevailed. Observing the unspoken law of honor established by secular society, Evgeniy kills Lensky in a duel.
In the novel, Pushkin traces the socio-psychological content of the image of Onegin. Onegin's character was formed in certain social conditions, in a certain historical era. Consequently, Onegin is presented in the novel as a national-historical type of Russian life, ultimately generated by the autocratic-serf system. His skepticism and disappointment are a reflection of the general “illness of modern Russians,” which gripped a significant part of the noble intelligentsia at the beginning of the century. Pushkin condemns not so much the hero as the secular environment that shaped him as a person. Onegins are doomed to inaction. They are no longer capable of selfless love, nor for friendship. This is where the idea of a public court arises and the blame falls not on the hero, but on the socio-historical way of Russian life.
Pushkin is a great Russian poet, the founder of Russian realism, the creator of the Russian literary language. One of his greatest works is the novel “Eugene Onegin”.
Onegin is a secular St. Petersburg young man, a metropolitan aristocrat.
Describing his hero, Pushkin talks in detail about his upbringing and education. Onegin received the home education and upbringing of a French tutor, typical of aristocratic youth of that time:
Monsieur I "Abbe, poor Frenchman
So that the child does not get tired
I taught him everything jokingly,
I didn’t bother you with strict morals,
Lightly scolded for pranks
And he took me for a walk in the Summer Garden.
Having become a young man, Onegin leads a life typical of young people of that time: balls, restaurants, visiting theaters. But Evgeny Onegin, by his nature, stands out from the general mass of young people. Pushkin notes his “involuntary devotion to dreams, inimitable strangeness and sharp, chilled mind,” a sense of honor, nobility of soul. This could not but lead Onegin to disappointment in the life and interests of secular society.
When Evgeniy is overcome by the blues, he tries to engage in some useful activity. Nothing came of his attempt to write!
Onegin locked himself at home.
Yawning, he took up the pen.
I wanted to write, but it’s hard work
He felt sick; Nothing
It did not come from his pen.
Later, having left for the estate that he received from his uncle, Onegin tries to start organizing the peasants:
He is the yoke of the ancient corvée
I replaced it with a light quitrent...
But all his activities as a landowner were limited to this reform.
Even such strong feelings as love and friendship could not save Eugene Onegin from spiritual emptiness. He rejected Tatyana’s love, since he valued “freedom and peace” above all else.
Onegin killed his friend Lensky, as secular prejudices prevailed in the hesitations that he experienced after receiving a challenge to a duel.
It seems to me that Pushkin condemns his hero: he behaved selfishly towards the people around him, although Onegin later realized this. He can be called a hero of his time, because Eugene, just like the hero of Lermontov’s work Pechorin, was above the society in which he was located. Very few people could understand him. I think that is why Eugene Onegin was the way he is.
“Eugene Onegin” is the first Russian realistic novel and the only novel in verse in Russian literature.
The complexity of the image of E. Onegin can be traced throughout the entire novel. This lies at least in the fact that we see how very different Onegin is at the beginning and at the end of the novel. At the beginning of the novel, he is a young womanizer who goes from ball to ball. But even during this period we observe his complexity: he did not go to the theater to watch magnificent productions, not to see the brilliant Istomina on stage. Onegin - “an honorary citizen of the scenes” - is more interested in meetings and affairs with “charming actresses” than the stage, art, he likes to point “a double lorgnette at the boxes of unfamiliar ladies.” The complex, contradictory character of Onegin does not fit into the usual patterns: the hero is not a model, not a villain, he constantly deceives the reader’s expectations. Without responding to Tatyana’s feelings, he did not, however, become a “fatal seducer,” did not start a complete love game, and did not deceive her trust. His rebuke was cruel, but it was neither base nor dishonorable. “In that terrible hour, you acted nobly,” Tatyana will tell him. But the same Onegin thoughtlessly insulted Lensky, did not dare to refuse the duel, and killed his friend...
Now I want to express my opinion about the ending of the novel. I think the novel could have been continued. The fact is that Pushkin treated people like Onegin with some degree of contempt. It even seems to me that Pushkin probably loved some girl similar to Tatyana, and this girl was probably conquered by some person similar to Evgeniy. And based on all this, I believe that the end of the novel could not be happy. After all, when the first readers of the novel reproached Pushkin for ending the novel this way, he answered them: “You advise others for Onegin...”
The complexity of Onegin’s image also lies in the fact that he did not fall in love with Tatyana right away, but only later, when she had already married the prince. And why this happened, we read in the novel. Yes, I remember most of all those lines when Pushkin gives an explanation of why Evgeny fell in love with Tatyana:
But an indifferent princess, But an unapproachable goddess.
And especially the following lines:
What is given to you does not attract you, the serpent certainly calls you To himself, to the mysterious tree: Give you the forbidden fruit. And without him, heaven is not heaven for you.
I think that it is Eugene Onegin, and no one else, who is the hero of his time. He is in the novel a man who was killed by upbringing and social life, whom no one could understand.
This is my opinion about Eugene Onegin, the hero of his time.
"Eugene Onegin" was created by Pushkin as the first book in Russia to realistically describe the life of the nobles. In this novel, a complex image of the secular dandy Eugene Onegin is created in verse.
Onegin - who is he?
The young man, despising the society around him, nevertheless follows the rules established by him. He doesn't try to change high society, looks at everything around him with indifference and boredom. His upbringing and natural composure do not allow him to speak out in St. Petersburg living rooms with an accusation against society.
He expresses his protest with contemptuous silence. The author, in the image of Eugene, creates the type of “suffering” egoist. This person has an extraordinary mind, which does not allow him to experience pleasure in life; he is dissatisfied with himself and other people. However, he will never dare to transform himself and environment to change the situation: “He was sick of hard work.”
Friends, then enemies
Arriving in the village, Evgeniy enjoys a quiet life for only a couple of days, and then satiety and boredom come again. He feels that here too he will be useless and worthless, superfluous, like everywhere else. Only one person from the village environment becomes close to him - this is the young poet Lensky.
Onegin and Lensky are sincere friends, since they are similar. Both were representatives of the thinking intelligentsia from the nobility, both are higher in outlook and interests than the nobility from the provinces. And both friends do not understand what they want from life. Evgeny's friendship with Lensky reveals the true essence of Onegin - he is in fact not a “parody”, not some kind of “fashionable fad”, but smart and good man. Together with Lensky, he discusses issues of philosophy, remaining with him alien and incomprehensible to the nobles. Friends are doomed to loneliness, because in their development and aspirations they are much better than others, possessing good education having deep mind and feelings. Society takes revenge on them, who despise its rules, takes revenge by destroying this friendly union. The stupid laws of the code of honor force Onegin to kill his only friend.
Unrequited feelings
Consider the image of Tatiana. Onegin and Larina are close in many qualities - they like to read, they are smart, they know how to reason, they do not like secular society, have integrity. The difference between these two personalities is that Evgeniy, who grew up far from the village, is indifferent to ordinary people and nature, while Tatyana is attached to them with all her soul.
If Onegin had responded to Tatiana’s feelings, it is unknown whether he would have been able to change. He is not capable of love, so his selfishness and frivolity led to a break with Tatyana. Knowing how to read people's souls well, Onegin was able to assess the girl's personality from the first moment. But the circumstances turned out to be such that Eugene, because of his own selfishness and fear of breaking the rules of the world, which he despises, pushed Tatyana away.
After many years Evgeniy's quest, seeing Larina again, belatedly acquires feelings for her. However, he already understands that time has passed, he himself destroyed his happiness. Tatyana still loves Onegin, but family is more important to her than love. As a result, Evgeniy again feels unnecessary and alien. Human feelings turn out to be weak before the opinion of society. Tatyana and Evgeniy are divided by this opinion, although they were very close in their inner world.
Pushkin created the image of a man who is a symbol of that time. This is a personality that was destroyed by the education system and the surrounding society.