Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin", as soon as it appeared, received well-deserved approval and even admiration from the public and critics. But it should be noted that for Russian literature of that time this was a real breakthrough - nothing like this had ever been created by Russian writers. And until now, not a single writer has dared to repeat the experience of the great master of words and write a realistic novel in verse. Precisely realistic, because if this work had been written in a romantic vein, following the traditions of Zhukovsky, it could only be called a poem, and not at all a novel.
“Eugene Onegin” can be called the pathos of sobering up. It is presented openly and without any embellishment - stylistic or otherwise. Any grandiloquence would be inappropriate here and would sound like a parody. And Pushkin, indeed, at the end of the seventh chapter parodies the false classical epic.
Just as casually, even at the beginning, he parodies the romantic elegy vulgarized by mediocre scribblers. Contemporaries could not read Lensky’s dying poems without smiling - so all these “springs of my golden days”reminded them of the products of current magazine periodicals.
Pushkin wages a constant struggle in the novel on at least two fronts: against the passing classicism and against the romance that is still dear to his heart. The fight is serious. It was deeply experienced by Pushkin. So experienced that it goes beyond the boundaries of intraliterary strife.
This is a struggle for the language of Russian society, for the liberation of the language from superficial influences and trends, from belated Slavicisms, from the latest foreignness, from school and seminary constraints. All this vital material is given full scope in the stanzas of the novel. And this is one of the reasons on which one can call “Eugene Onegin” a “free novel.”
Ultimately, the struggle is even broader. This is a fight for nationality, for the general democratization of Russian culture, that is completely overdue for Pushkin. After all, by the end of work on the novel, “Boris Godunov” and fairy tales had already been written. The poet is in the midst of the creative development of the nationality, in the prime of his life. In the novel, he used this property with unprecedented boldness. He entrusted the element of the people to his heroine.
If it weren’t for Tatyana, the reader would never have heard the intelligent, earnest and leisurely speech of her nanny, nor would she have heard another serf peasant woman, Onegin’s housekeeper Aksinya. I would not have heard that “Song of the Girls”, which with all its crafty, cheerful, mischievous content boldly contrasts with the embarrassment and confusion of Tatyana herself. This is another reason to call the “novel free.”
In addition, Pushkin behaved very freely with regard to the form of his work. At that time, there were no examples of a realistic novel in Russian literature, and the writer had to invent stylistic devices and plot twists himself. In this regard, Pushkin was also very free in his creative impulses.
The magical, witchcraft art of Pushkin celebrates one of its most amazing victories. A two-syllable, two-beat iambic sounds at the tempo of a waltz when Tatyana’s dream is described:
Monotonous and crazy
Like a young whirlwind of life,
A noisy whirlwind swirls around the waltz;
Couple flashes after couple...
Sometimes the lines are filled with sounds: crackling, thunder, rattling... But they are also picturesque. The reader sees with his own eyes the “jumps, heels, mustaches”:
The Mazurka sounded. It happened
When the mazurka thunder roared,
Everything in the huge hall was shaking,
The parquet trembled under the heel,
The frames shook and rattled...
What freedom the lines of Pushkin’s novel breathe, what masterful handling of the native Russian language! Yes, this is a free novel!
And the image of the author! Could any writer before Pushkin, or even after him, allow himself to so freely display his image in a work, to speak so openly about his secret thoughts, dictated not by artistic necessity, but by personal aspiration and desire. Could another writer, directly addressing the reader, ironize him:
The reader is already waiting for the rhyme of the rose;
Here, take it quickly!
Yes, “Eugene Onegin” is truly a “free novel”, in which all accepted and established traditions are overthrown: from the choice of names for the characters to stylistic devices in choosing the form of the novel.
“Eugene Onegin” is not without a touch of poetic romanticism inherent in Pushkin. But this is already in to a greater extent a realistic work showing the life and customs of Russian reality in the 20s of the 19th century. It is no coincidence that Belinsky, in his critical analysis of Pushkin’s works, called the novel “Eugene Onegin” an encyclopedia of Russian life. “...It is a great merit on the part of the poet that he was able to so accurately capture the reality of a certain moment in the life of society...”
In the novel bright colors Russian nature is represented in all seasons. Moreover, these sketches were made so beautifully and realistically that researchers used them to determine the years in which the events described took place. In the poem, the reader will find many lyrical lines describing the beautiful Russian nature (for example, or).
The novel begins with an acquaintance with, flying to Russian outback"by post" from St. Petersburg.
How multifaceted and colorful the Russian language is! One phrase “young rake” says a lot: our main character- a somewhat frivolous and idle person. The reader will certainly find confirmation of what has been said in the subsequent narrative.
Onegin was born in St. Petersburg and received a typical home education. At that time, nobles everywhere preferred the French language. There were several reasons for this. French was unclear ordinary people, who did not always know how to read and write even in Russian, and distinguished a nobleman from a commoner. Therefore, in Russia there was an increased demand for French teachers.
Demand, as we know, creates supply, and the French flew to Russia like bees to honey. Not all of them were well educated and capable of giving the nobles a decent education, but they had the main advantage - they knew French.
We all learned a little bit
Something and somehow.
By classifying himself among such lowlifes, Alexander Sergeevich is clearly being modest. After all, he received an excellent education at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.
Pushkin shows in detail one day of a young man in St. Petersburg. This is how many representatives of high secular society lived. As they say, from the particular to the general. Balls, parties with friends, theaters.
Pushkin loved the theater and could not help but send his hero there. But Onegin came here not so much for the sake of the production, but “to look at people and show himself.”
It's time for everyone to change;
I endured ballets for a long time,
But I’m tired of Didelo too.
Pushkin loved the theater. He speaks with delight and admiration about the artists he saw during his stay in the capital. His poem has preserved for us some names and titles of productions.
But, theatrically speaking, the second act begins, the scenery changes. The reader is transported to a Russian village, where Evgeny has already galloped, his uncle has already died, and adjusting the pillows young man you won't have to.
It begins with a description of the village “where Evgeniy was bored.” Further events unfold here, in the district, between the estates of Onegin, the Larins and Lensky. Description of the house, a few strokes show how Uncle Evgeniy lived. Onegin was shy of his narrow-minded and simple-minded neighbors, and, avoiding communication with them, left the house as soon as he saw a wagon approaching his estate.
As the antipode of Onegin, another young landowner returned to his estate -. Through him the reader gets acquainted with the Larin family. Unlike Onegin, Lensky did not run away from his neighbors, but conversations “about haymaking, about wine, about the kennel, about his relatives” were of little interest to him. By the way, in this phrase Pushkin does not simply show the interests of Russian landowners. From it we can understand that in the province described agriculture was based on livestock farming. In the villages they made wine and liqueurs from fruits and berries; men were fond of hunting, kept and bred hunting dogs, which were the pride of many landowners.
And while the fathers were busy with housework and dogs, their daughters read with enthusiasm French novels, dreamed of a mysterious and romantic love, and the mothers looked for grooms for them from among their single neighbors. Such were the customs. Marriage was often a way to solve some economic problems.
A new change of scenery takes place when Mother Larina arrives in Moscow with her. Other people, other pictures. The cousins accept our Tatyana into their society, they take her out into the world. The young provincial girl makes a mixed impression on men. They examine her, discuss her, talk about her. And one fine day a certain general drew attention to her. It was a hero Patriotic War 1812, a man accepted at court and mother did everything to persuade Tatyana to marry. She could persuade her daughter, but she could not force her. In the 19th century, there were already certain rules and restrictions in this matter.
But, as follows from the further narration, Tatyana and her husband were lucky. He loved his wife and appreciated her.
But a sudden ringing sound rang out,
And Tatyana’s husband showed up,
And here is my hero,
In a moment that is evil for him,
Reader, we will now leave,
For a long time... forever.
These lines read that Tatyana’s husband will not let his wife be offended. And if he even suspects the slightest encroachment on the honor of his wife, and therefore on his honor, Onegin will not be happy.
One can endlessly discuss the authenticity and encyclopedic nature of the novel. Every line in it breathes Russianness. And it doesn’t matter who or what Pushkin writes about: about girls picking berries in the Larins’ garden, or about a social reception, whether he describes a St. Petersburg ball or a provincial festival, every line of the poem shows that it depicts a really existing society.
Roman A.S. Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" is the first Russian realistic novel, and written in verse. It became an innovative work both in form and content. Pushkin set the task not only to show in him the “hero of the time”, Onegin, a man with “premature old age of the soul”, to create the image of a Russian woman, Tatyana Larina, but also to draw an “encyclopedia of Russian life” of that era. All this required overcoming not only the narrow framework of classicism, but also abandoning the romantic approach. Pushkin sought to bring his work as close as possible to life, which does not tolerate schematicism and predetermined structures, and therefore the form of the novel becomes “free.”
And the point is not only that the author only places an “introduction” at the end of the 7th chapter, ironically noting: “... Although it’s late, there is an introduction.” And it’s not even that the novel opens with Onegin’s internal monologue, reflecting on his trip to the village to his uncle for an inheritance, which is interrupted by a story about the hero’s childhood and youth, about the years spent in the whirlwind social life. And it’s not even that the author often interrupts the plot part by placing this or that lyrical digression, in which he can talk about anything: about literature, theater, his life, about the feelings and thoughts that excite him, about roads or about women’s legs - or maybe just talk to readers: “Hm! hmm! Noble reader, / Are all your relatives healthy?
No wonder Pushkin asserted: “A novel requires chatter.” He really doesn’t seem to be creating a work of art, but simply telling a story that happened to his good friends. That is why in the novel, next to its heroes Onegin, Tatyana, Lensky, Olga, people who lived during Pushkin appear - Vyazemsky, Kaverin, Nina Voronskaya and others. Moreover, the Author himself becomes the hero of his own novel, turning out to be a “good friend” of Onegin. The author keeps letters from Onegin and Tatyana, poems by Lensky - and they, too, are organically included in the novel, without in any way violating its integrity, although they are not written in the “Onegin stanza.”
It seems that such a work - a “free novel” - can include anything, but with all the “freedom” its composition is harmonious and thoughtful. The main reason why this feeling of freedom is created is that Pushkin’s novel exists like life itself: unpredictably and at the same time consistent with a certain internal law. Sometimes even Pushkin himself was surprised at what his heroes “did”, for example, when his beloved heroine Tatyana “got married.” It is clear why many of Pushkin’s contemporaries tried to see the traits of their friends and acquaintances in the heroes of the novel - and found them!
In this amazing work, life pulsates and bursts out, creating even now the effect of the reader’s “presence” at the moment the action develops. And life is always free in its many twists and turns. Such is Pushkin’s truly realistic novel, which opened the way for new Russian literature.
Why does Lermontov call his love for his homeland “strange”? (based on lyrics by M.Yu. Lermontov)
Love for the homeland is a special feeling, it is inherent in every person, but at the same time it is very individual. Is it possible to consider him “strange”? It seems to me that here we are rather talking about how the poet, who spoke about the “unusuality” of his love for his homeland, perceives “ordinary” patriotism, that is, the desire to see the virtues, positive features inherent in his country and people.
To a certain extent, Lermontov’s romantic worldview also predetermined his “strange love” for his homeland. After all, a romantic always opposes the world around him, not finding a positive ideal in reality. The words spoken by Lermontov about his homeland in the poem “Farewell, unwashed Russia...” sound like a sentence. This is “the country of slaves, the country of masters,” the country of “blue uniforms” and the people devoted to them. The generalized portrait of his generation, drawn in the poem “Duma,” is also merciless. The fate of the country is in the hands of those who “squandered” what was the glory of Russia, and they have nothing to offer to the future. Perhaps now this assessment seems too harsh to us - after all, both Lermontov himself and many other outstanding Russian people belonged to this generation. But it becomes clearer why the person who expressed it called his love for his homeland “strange.”
This also explains why Lermontov, not finding an ideal in modernity, turns to the past in search of what really makes him proud of his country and its people. That is why the poem “Borodino,” telling about the feat of Russian soldiers, is structured as a dialogue between “past” and “present”: “Yes, there were people in our time, / Not like the current tribe: / Bogatyrs - not you!” National character is revealed here through the monologue of a simple Russian soldier, whose love for his homeland is absolute and selfless. It is significant that this poem is not romantic, it is extremely realistic.
Lermontov’s most fully mature view of the nature of patriotic feeling is reflected in one of last poems, meaningfully titled “Motherland.” The poet still denies the traditional understanding of why a person can love his homeland: “Neither glory bought with blood, / Nor peace full of proud trust, / Nor cherished legends of dark antiquity...”. Instead of all this, he will repeat three times another, the most important idea for him - his love for his homeland is “strange.” This word becomes the key:
I love my fatherland, but with a strange love!
My reason will not defeat her...
But I love - for what, I don’t know...
Patriotism cannot be explained rationally, but can be expressed through those pictures home country, which are especially close to the poet’s heart. The endless expanses of Russia, with its country roads and “sad” villages, flash before his mind’s eye. These paintings are devoid of pathos, but they are beautiful in their simplicity, like ordinary signs village life, with which the poet feels his inextricable inner connection: “With joy, unfamiliar to many, / I see a full threshing floor, / A hut covered with straw, / A window with carved shutters...”.
Only such complete immersion in folk life makes it possible to understand the author’s true attitude towards his homeland. Of course, for a romantic poet, an aristocrat, it is strange that this is how he feels love for his homeland. But maybe it’s not only about him, but also about this very mysterious country about which another great poet, a contemporary of Lermontov, will later say: “You can’t understand Russia with your mind...”? In my opinion, it is difficult to argue with this, as well as with the fact that true patriotism does not require any special evidence and is often not at all explainable.
Is Pechorin a fatalist? (based on the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov “Hero of Our Time”)
Lermontov's novel “A Hero of Our Time” is rightly called not only socio-psychological, but also moral and philosophical. The question of free will and predestination, the role of fate in human life is considered in one way or another in all parts of the novel. But a detailed answer to it is given only in the final part - the philosophical story “Fatalist”, which plays the role of a kind of epilogue.
A fatalist is a person who believes in the predetermination of all events in life, in the inevitability of fate, fate, fate. In the spirit of his time, which reconsiders the fundamental questions of human existence, Pechorin tries to decide whether the destiny of man is predetermined by a higher will or whether he himself determines the laws of life and follows them.
As the action of the story develops, Pechorin receives triple confirmation of the existence of predestination and fate. Officer
Vulich, with whom the hero makes a risky bet, was unable to shoot himself, although the pistol was loaded. Then Vulich still dies at the hands of a drunken Cossack, and Pechorin does not see anything surprising in this, since even during the argument he noticed the “stamp of death” on his face. And finally, Pechorin himself tests fate, deciding to disarm the drunken Cossack, the murderer of Vulich. “...A strange thought flashed through my head: like Vulich, I decided to tempt fate,” says Pechorin.
What is the answer of the “hero of the time,” and with him the writer himself, to this the most difficult question? Pechorin’s conclusion sounds like this: “I like to doubt everything: this disposition of mind does not interfere with the decisiveness of character; on the contrary, as for me, I always move forward more boldly when I don’t know what awaits me.” As we see, the failed fatalist turned into his opposite. If he is ready to admit that predestination exists, it is by no means to the detriment of the activity of human behavior: to be just a toy in the hands of fate, according to Pechorin, is humiliating.
It's no secret that literary works belong to certain genres and types of literature. And if we limit ourselves to three categories: epic, lyric, drama, then there are a much larger number of genres.
"Eugene Onegin": genre
The famous work of art “Eugene Onegin”, written by the great Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, has long been under close attention philologists and literary scholars. Not only is this work filled with deep semantic content, its genre characteristics are also very ambiguous. So, why is the definition of the genre of “Eugene Onegin” so unusual?
Types and genres of literature
To begin with, it should be noted that the work is written in poetic form, which means the genre to which it belongs is lyrical. However, despite the fact that the story is described in verse, it is absolutely impossible to call it a simple poem. The developed plot, the dynamics of events, psychologism and works within the work rightfully allow us to classify “Eugene Onegin” as a novel. According to the definition from explanatory dictionary Sergei Ivanovich Ozhegov, the novel is a prosaic epic literary work with multiple characters and a complex plot structure. Based on it, we can say that in terms of meaning and content, “Eugene Onegin” rather belongs to the type of epic and novel genre of literature.
Brief description of the plot
According to the plot, the spoiled and selfish young man from the capital Evgeny Onegin, tired of endless balls and social receptions, decides to retire to live in the village in order to somehow add variety to his identical everyday life. However, life in the village turns out to be more boring than in St. Petersburg, and Evgeniy is again attacked by the blues. He meets the young residents of the village: the eighteen-year-old talented poet Vladimir Lensky, the Larin sisters - the beautiful and cheerful Olga, the thoughtful and dreamy Tatyana.
They become the main ones actors in the plot. Lensky is engaged to Olga, while Tatyana has fallen in love with Evgeniy. However, he does not reciprocate the girl’s feelings, and having received a letter with an ardent and tender confession in love, and even tries to guide her on the right path, advising her not to express her feelings to unfamiliar people in the future. Tatyana is embarrassed and offended. Meanwhile, Lensky challenges Onegin to a duel because he repeatedly invited his bride Olga to dance. Just before the duel, Tatyana has a dream in which Evgeniy kills Vladimir, but the girl does not know about the young people’s intention to shoot, otherwise she would have prevented the duel. Onegin kills Lensky, afraid to call off the duel and become known as secular society coward. Olga does not mourn her lover for long and soon marries another. After some time, Tatyana also gets married, for some time she still continues to love Evgeniy, but then the scales fall from her eyes.
One day, at a social ball, these two met: the still bored and moping Onegin and the inaccessible noble wife of the general Tatyana. And at this meeting the heroes swapped roles, Eugene realized that he had fallen in love with the beautiful princess, and Tatiana answered him with a phrase that later became famous: “But I was given to another and I will be faithful to him forever.”
Analysis of the genre specificity of the text
So, how, in fact, can we determine the genre in the work “Eugene Onegin”? One can say about the plot that it is really rich in events, and the dialogues and monologues of the characters are full of sensuality and psychologism. These features allow us to classify the work as a novel genre. However, the poetic form of Pushkin’s famous creation leaves the question open. Experts are inclined to argue that the genre of “Eugene Onegin” is a novel in verse. However, according to some literary critics, including Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky, this is not so. They argue that the genre of “Eugene Onegin” is a poem, since the work fully and almost with historical accuracy reproduces the life of the Russian public in the capital and beyond. V. G. Belinsky, without stinting, called “Eugene Onegin” “an encyclopedia of Russian life.” But for a poem, the work is still too large in volume, the amount of text is closer to that of a novel. This is the first contradiction.
The second contradiction is related to the content of the novel. Again, critics call “Eugene Onegin” not only “a novel about a novel,” but also “a novel within a novel.” And if the first definition is directly influenced by the genre of “Eugene Onegin” by A. S. Pushkin, as well as the love line - central theme plot, then the second characteristic is directly related to the inside of the work.
"A Novel about a Novel"
So, as it was already clarified earlier, in terms of its genre, the work is more likely to be a novel, despite its presentation in verse. And this is the first component of the definition of “a novel about a novel.” The second undoubtedly reflects the presence of love events in the plot. As the action develops, the reader can observe how the relationship between two couples develops: Olga Larina and Vladimir Lensky and her sisters Tatyana and Evgeny Onegin. However, the relationships of the latter still come to the fore. It is around this couple that the plot revolves. Thus, the expression “a novel about a novel” communicates not only the presence love line in the text, but also in once again emphasizes that in the work “Eugene Onegin” the genre is characterized as a novel.
"A Novel within a Novel"
This characteristic also contains a reference to the genre of Pushkin’s work. However, now that the question “Eugene Onegin” no longer arises - what genre?”, deciphering the second part of the phrase is not required. We are, of course, talking about the attitude to the genre. But the first part of the definition reminds us of the presence in the text of another novel - a letter from Tatyana Larina , almost work of art. Confessing her love to Onegin, Tatyana spoke about her feelings in writing. And Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in in full reflected her impulse. It is this novel as a genre characteristic within another novel - the work itself - that we are talking about. Tatyana Larina, pouring out her love for Evgeniy, gave birth to her own novel in verse, reflecting it in writing.
So, even after analyzing the work “Eugene Onegin”, it is still problematic to establish its genre. In form it is a poem, in content it is a novel. Perhaps only such a talented and great poet as Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is allowed to invent his own genre - a novel in verse - and demonstrate it with the best example.
Pushkin wrote the novel “Eugene Onegin” for more than seven years: from 1823 to 1830. “Long Work” was begun when the author “had not yet clearly discerned” the “distance of a free novel.”
Why does he call his work a “free novel”?
Firstly, the poet himself emphasized that he was writing “not a novel, but a novel in verse,” and saw in this “a devilish difference.” The narrative is based on switching from one plane to another, on changing the tonality and intonation of the work.
Unfolds before the reader
...a collection of motley chapters,
half funny, half sad,
common people, ideal.
The novel begins completely unexpectedly, without any prefaces or introductions. it opens with the internal monologue of Eugene Onegin, who goes to his dying uncle in the village and is preparing to be a hypocrite in order to receive an inheritance.
The ending of this work is as unexpected as its beginning. The author leaves his hero “at an evil moment for him.” At the moment of explanation with Tatyana, who married the general. The reader will never know what will happen to Onegin next, whether he will find the strength for a new life.
Before us is a novel without beginning and end, and this is its unusualness. The genre of the novel turns out to be free, as is its plot.
The author conducts a free and relaxed conversation with the reader about everything, “babbling away to no end”: about elegies and odes, about apple liqueur and lingonberry water, about the Russian theater and French wines. Many lyrical digressions convinces the reader that the center of the story is not the hero, but the author, whose world is infinite. The author is the lyrical center of the novel.
To create the effect of a free, improvised narrative, Pushkin comes up with the Onegin stanza, which includes 14 lines. An illusion of “chatter” arises when the author moves freely in time and space, easily moving from one subject of speech to another. He talks not only about the unfulfilled hopes and broken hearts of his heroes, but also tells about himself and about the universal laws of human life.
In other words, the center of the story is not the fate of individual characters, but life itself - endless and unpredictable. that is why the novel has neither beginning nor end.
Magic land! there in the old days,
Satire is a brave ruler,
Fonvizin, friend of freedom, shone,
And the overbearing Prince...
And so it is in everything. The author freely speaks about St. Petersburg balls and peaceful village silence, conveying his attitude to life, which does not coincide with the opinion of the main character. thus, the creator of the novel becomes its hero.
Let's summarize. Pushkin calls his novel “free” because the center of his narrative is not so much the fate of the heroes, but rather a broad picture of life, the author’s statements on a variety of topics, his thoughts and feelings. The improvised manner of presentation is also free. The novel has neither beginning nor end.
Updated: 2017-10-23
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