Compositional features of Eugene Onegin. Features of the composition of the novel by A. S. Pushkin Evgeny Onegin

Special attention deserves consideration of the question of the composition of the novel.

Fate and Pushkin prepared a meeting between two heroes. Moreover, it immediately became clear to Tatyana that Onegin was the desired and only one. It is impossible not to notice that some episodes in the novel are repeated twice, but as if in a “mirror image”. On the one hand, there is a storyline connected with the hero - Onegin, and on the other hand - with the heroine - Tatyana.

Let's watch together:

Two letters

Chronology:

First, Tatyana writes a letter of confession to Onegin, then follows an explanation scene in the garden, where the hero reads a rebuke to the girl.

Then Tatiana’s name day, the duel with Lensky and Onegin’s departure. Tatyana is very worried about everything that happened, goes to Onegin’s estate, wants there, among things and books, to find the answer to the question of who he is - the hero of her novel. Her health is getting worse and worse. The worried mother takes Tatyana to Moscow, where she marries her.

Onegin, returning from a trip, accidentally meets Tatiana at a ball and, not yet knowing that it is she, is “struck” by her greatness and beauty. Now it is his turn to suffer, not sleep at night and eventually write a letter of confession, followed by an explanation of the heroes, and now Tatyana gives a rebuke to Onegin.

Two explanations

“Eugene Onegin” is the first realistic novel in Russian literature, which “reflected the century and modern man depicted quite accurately.” A. S. Pushkin worked on the novel from 1823 to 1831. “Now I’m not writing a novel, but a novel in verse - a devilish difference,” he wrote in a letter to P. Vyazemsky. “Eugene Onegin” - lyric epic work, in which both principles act as equal. The author freely moves from the plot narrative to lyrical digressions that interrupt the flow of “ free romance”.

There are two storylines in the novel. The first one is love story, the relationship between Onegin and Tatyana Larina, and the second is the relationship between Onegin and Lensky.

The novel consists of eight chapters. The first of them is a detailed exposition in which the author introduces us to the main character, the “young rake” Evgeny Onegin, and shows his life in the capital. In the second chapter, the beginning of the second storyline-Onegin’s acquaintance with Lensky:

First by mutual difference

They were boring to each other;

Then I liked it, then

We came together every day on horseback

And soon they became inseparable.

The beginning of the first storyline occurs in the third chapter. Onegin meets the Larin family, where he saw Tatyana. She, in turn, immediately noted Onegin:

The time has come, she fell in love...

Tatyana was brought up as a typical provincial girl of that time:

She liked novels early on;

They replaced everything for her;

She fell in love with deceptions

Both Richardson and Russo.

In her imagination, she created the image of a lover, unlike the young people around her, surrounded by some kind of secret. She behaves like a true heroine of the novel: she writes him a letter in the spirit of those that she read in books, because she “didn’t know Russian well.” The hero was “touched” by the young girl’s confession, but did not want to limit “life to the family circle,” so he lectured her in the garden, urging her to “learn to control herself.” This is a kind of culmination in the development of the first storyline.

The fifth chapter of the novel is significant in that Tatyana, tormented by “tender passion,” has a dream that has an important compositional role. It allows the reader to predict subsequent events - the death of Lensky. Tatyana’s name day is also important. They play an important role in the development of the second storyline. It was on Tatiana’s name day that Onegin “swore to enrage Lensky and take some revenge.” Lensky, sublime and passionate soul, in the grip of a fiery passion for Olga, could not tolerate the insult and betrayal of a friend and decided:

Two bullets - nothing more -

Suddenly his fate will be resolved.

Accordingly, we can call chapter six the culmination and denouement of the second storyline.

As for the first storyline, its development continues. Tatiana is taken to a bridal fair in Moscow, and then she marries an important general. Two years later she meets Onegin in St. Petersburg. Now she is already a society lady, a “legislator of the hall,” occupying the same position in society as Onegin. Now he falls in love with Tatyana and writes her a letter. Thus, in the eighth chapter, the first storyline is resolved.

However, it should be noted that an important compositional feature of the novel is the openness of the ending. There is no clear certainty in the outcome of both the first and, partly, the second storylines. Thus, the author suggests two possible paths for Lensky if he had remained alive and not been killed in a duel:

Perhaps he is for the good of the world

Or at least he was born for glory...

Or maybe even that: a poet

The ordinary one was waiting for his fate...

And here is my hero,

In a moment that is evil for him,

Reader, we will now leave,

For a long time... forever.

In addition to the unusual ending, one can note the way the novel “Eugene Onegin” is structured. The main principle of its organization is symmetry and parallelism.

Symmetry is expressed in the repetition of one plot situation in the third and eighth chapters: meeting - letter - explanation.

At the same time, Tatyana and Onegin change places. In the first case, the author is on Tatyana’s side, and in the second, on Onegin’s side. “Today it’s my turn,” says Tatyana, as if comparing two “love stories.”

Onegin has changed and says things of a completely different nature than the first time. Tatyana remains true to herself: “I love you (why lie)”...

The composition of the letters is parallel, since we can talk about the similarity of the following points: writing a letter, waiting for a response and explaining. Petersburg plays a framing role here, appearing in the first and eighth chapters. The axis of symmetry of these plot situations is Tatyana’s dream. Next feature The composition of the novel can be called the fact that the parts of the novel are opposed to each other, in some way even subordinate to the principle of antithesis: the first chapter is a description of St. Petersburg life, and the second is a show of the life of the local nobility.

The main compositional unit is the chapter, which is a new stage in the development of the plot.

Since the lyrical and epic have equal rights in the novel, lyrical digressions play an important role in the composition of the novel.

Usually lyrical digressions are related to the plot of the novel. Thus, Pushkin contrasts Tatyana with secular beauties:

I knew unattainable beauties,

Cold, clean like winter,

Relentless, incorruptible,

Incomprehensible to the mind...

There are also those that do not have a direct connection with the plot, but are connected directly with the image of the author in the novel:

I remember the sea before the storm:

How I envied the waves

Running in a stormy line

With love to lie at your feet.

Lyrical digressions appear at turning points in the narrative: before Tatiana’s explanation with Onegin, before Tatiana’s sleep, before the duel.

Often lyrical digressions contain appeals to the reader, which allows us to connect the lyrical with the epic:

Let me, my reader,

Take care of your older sister.

The compositional role of the landscape in the novel is also significant: firstly, it shows the passage of time (although time in the novel does not always correlate with real life), secondly, it characterizes inner world heroes (often natural sketches accompany the image of Tatyana).

So, despite the clarity of the composition, it seems that the author treats it with slight carelessness. The poet leaves the novel, chapters, stanzas, lines unfinished. This confirms the idea that “Eugene Onegin” is a unique work in Russian literature.

Pushkin created his novel for many years, periodically publishing individual chapters. At first glance, the narrative appears to be chaotic. Critics of those years considered the work lacking integrity. The author himself does not hide the fact that his work lacks a plan, so contradictions are inevitable. He defines his work as a collection of colorful chapters.

Taking a closer look at the novel, it becomes clear that this is a deeply holistic work, characterized by harmony and completeness.

The novel has a plot that is simple to the point of banality. It traces two lines of relationship between the main character Onegin: with Tatyana and with Lensky. The work does not have the usual ending. The author does not lead the hero either to death or to marriage. He leaves him in a difficult moment. The absence of an ending turns the plot into real story. Understatement is one of Pushkin’s techniques, according to which emptiness has a deep meaning and cannot be expressed in words.

To construct the composition of the novel, Pushkin chose the method of symmetry, according to which the characters must change the positions they occupy in the work. Tatiana meets Evgeny, unrequited love breaks out, accompanied by suffering. The author follows the heroine’s experiences and sympathizes with her. Following a harsh conversation with Onegin, a duel with Lensky occurs, which became the denouement of one direction of the plot and allowed a new one to develop.

The next time Tatyana meets Evgeny, he changes places with her, and everything that happened is repeated. But now the author is going through everything with Onegin. This circular technique makes it possible to look back again, which leaves the reading feeling of coherence.

The ring composition shows the crisis of the hero's soul. He managed to change by looking at the world through Tatyana's eyes. IN last chapter he emerges from seclusion almost like a poet, reading with “spiritual eyes.”

A return to the past makes it possible to observe Tatyana’s evolution, her maturation and acquisition of unshakable endurance. At the same time, the poverty of her character does not change. The new Tatyana still does not understand Evgeniy. In the past, she associated her beloved with literary images, which he did not comply with. Now Tatyana does not believe the truthfulness and importance of his experiences.

It is obvious that the work is built on a combination of spontaneity of presentation, diversity of images, natural continuation of the theme and extraordinary harmony, which made the novel complete. The author brought his work closer to life, making it just as unique and original.

Option 2

The work is in the form of a free novel, the central figure of which is the narrator, who builds the relationships of the characters, and also talks with readers invited to the role of direct witnesses to the events taking place.

The poet chooses a novel in verse as the genre of the work, which makes it possible to reveal the dynamic development of the characters' characters, which is impossible in romantic poem, where the hero is presented in a static state.

The novel is written in the form of a fully formed, integral, closed, complete work of art, expressed in a compositional structure that combines lyrical and epic literary principles.

The compositional core of the work is the bright poetic look of the novel, as well as the use author's image. The use of poetic form in the novel determines the features of the plot line and compositional structure, combining the constructive principles of prose and poetry. In the novel, the poet uses his new invention in the form of the Onegin stanza, which is a modification of the sonnet structure, representing iambic tetrameter of fourteen lines in a special rhyme scheme: cross, pair and encircling.

A distinctive feature of the compositional structure of the work is its symmetry, manifested in central event novel, the dream of the main character, as well as territorial isolation, expressed by the beginning of actions in St. Petersburg and ending in the same place.

The plot line of the novel is presented in two expressions: a love line and a friendship line, while love story is mirrored, since in the finale of the work main character Tatyana changes the role of a person tormented by unrequited love with the main character Onegin. The use of mirror-inverted symmetry is reinforced by the author through the demonstration of intentional textual coincidences and proportionality of parts that make up the architectural precision of the novel's drawings and perform clear expressive functions.

In order to more deeply reveal the composition of the novel, the poet uses artistic technique in the shape of landscape sketches, allowing us to demonstrate the specificity of the heroes, the brightness of their experiences, as well as the opposite attitude of Onegin and Tatyana to various social and natural phenomena. Throughout the narrative, manifestations of all seasons of the year are revealed to readers: sad summer noise, naked autumn forests, frosty winter, blooming spring.

The poetic novel exhibits organic integrity and unity, filling it with real life content. In the images of the main characters of the work, generalized, typified characters are presented, allowing the poet to build a plot using the relationships of the main characters Onegin and Tatyana, Olga and Lensky.

The compositional units of the work are eight chapters, each of which describes a new plot event, while the first chapter sets out the exposition telling about Onegin, the second begins the beginning of the relationship between Onegin and Lensky, the third chapter is devoted to Tatyana’s feelings for Onegin, the fourth and fifth chapters describe main events, and from the sixth the climax increases, leading in the subsequent seventh and eighth chapters to the finale of the storylines between Onegin and Lensky and, accordingly, Onegin and Tatyana.

A striking feature of the novel is the author’s use of architectonics in the form of omitted stanzas, which indicate transitional places in the narrative that do not affect the storyline of the work.

Peculiar compositional structure The novel, expressed in poetic freedom and flexibility, gives the work the author's genius in the narrative material, and the diversity of the collection of chapters carries a unique freshness and a sense of touching the sublime and beautiful.

Plot and features of the work

Genre: novel in verse
Plot: The novel begins with the lamentations of the young nobleman Eugene Onegin about the illness of his uncle, which forced Eugene to leave St. Petersburg and go to the sick bed to say goodbye to him. Having thus outlined the plot, the author devotes the first chapter to a story about the origin, family, and life of his hero before receiving news of a relative’s illness. The narration is told on behalf of the nameless author, who introduced himself as a good friend of Onegin.
Onegin received an appropriate upbringing - first, with a governess Madame (not to be confused with a nanny), then with a French tutor, who did not bother his pupil with an abundance of activities. Pushkin emphasizes that Evgeny’s education and upbringing were typical for a person from his environment (a nobleman who was taught by foreign teachers from childhood).Onegin's life in St. Petersburg was full of love affairs and social entertainment, but this constant series of amusements led the hero to the blues. Evgeny goes to his uncle in the village. Upon arrival, it turns out that his uncle died, and Eugene became his heir. Onegin settles in the village, but even here he is overcome by depression.Onegin’s neighbor turns out to be eighteen-year-old Vladimir Lensky, a romantic poet, who came from Germany. Lensky and Onegin converge. Lensky is in love with Olga Larina, the daughter of a local landowner. Her thoughtful sister Tatyana is not like the always cheerful Olga. Olga is one year younger than her sister, she is beautiful in appearance, but is not interesting to Onegin
Having met Onegin, Tatyana falls in love with him and writes him a letter. However, Onegin rejects her: he is not looking for a calm family life. Lensky and Onegin are invited to the Larins' for Tatiana's name day. Onegin is not happy about this invitation, but Lensky persuades him to go, promising that none of the neighboring guests will be there. In fact, upon arriving at the celebration, Onegin discovers a “huge feast,” which makes him seriously angry.
At dinner with the Larins, Onegin, in order to make Lensky jealous, unexpectedly begins to court Olga. Lensky challenges him to a duel. The duel ends with Lensky's death, and Onegin leaves the village.Three years later, he appears in St. Petersburg and meets Tatyana. Now she is an important socialite, the wife of a general. Onegin falls in love with her and tries to woo her, but this time he is rejected. Tatyana admits that she still loves Evgeniy, but says that she must remain faithful to her husband.
At this point the story is interrupted. The author leaves the discouraged Eugene and in a few remarks says goodbye to the readers and to his many years of work.
composition: the most complex: a novel within a novel, open (circular and linear at the same time) - coming to life. the composition is exclusively poetic (rhymed) Repeats the Onegin stanza in geometry (paired, circular and cross): drawing of the temple. One might say, a temple composition.

Genre of the work Genre is a novel in verse, i.e. lyric is an epic work, where the lyrical and epic have equal rights. Where the author freely moves from narrative to lyrical digressions. CONCLUSION: the genre of the free novel largely determined the composition of “Eugene Onegin”.

Plot lines of the novel 1 storyline Onegin - Tatiana: Acquaintance - evening at the Larins' (It's time to come - she fell in love) Conversation with the nanny - letter to Onegin Two days later, explanation in the garden Tatiana's Dream. Name day Tatiana comes to Onegin’s house Departure for Moscow Evening at Tatiana’s (Alas, there is no doubt! Eugene is in love with Tatiana like a child...) Letter to Tatiana. Explanation 2 storyline Onegin - Lensky: Acquaintance in the village Conversation after the evening at the Larins (Are you really in love with a smaller woman? So what? I would choose another, If only I were like you a poet) Tatyana's Name Day Duel

Composition Chapter 1 - extensive exposition Chapter 2 - the beginning of the second storyline (Onegin's acquaintance with Lensky) Chapter 3 - the beginning of the first storyline (Onegin's acquaintance with Tatyana) Chapter 6 - the duel (the climax and denouement of the second storyline) Chapter 8 - the denouement of the first plot lines

The openness of the novel is important compositional feature The unusual outcome - the lack of certainty - Lensky's two paths: Perhaps he was born for the good of the world, Or at least for glory... Or maybe this: the destiny of the poet Ordinary awaited. The outcome of the first line: And here is my hero, In a moment that is evil for him, Reader, we will now leave, For a long time... forever.

The main principle of the novel is symmetry and parallelism. Symmetry is expressed in the repetition of one plot situation in chapters 3 and 8: meeting - letter - explanation Tatyana and Onegin seem to change roles, not only in the external scheme, but also in Pushkin’s transmission of it: in the first case, Pushkin with Tatyana, in the second - with Onegin. The principle of novel organization

1. Tatiana’s integrity is contrasted with Onegin’s nature Onegin - But I was not created for bliss, - My soul is alien to him to freeze before you in agony. To turn pale and fade away... that’s bliss! Your perfections are in vain: I am not worthy of them at all... Tatyana I love you (why lie?)... Parallelism of the novel

The compositional role of lyrical digressions 1. Lyrical digressions are related to the plot of the novel. Pushkin contrasts Tatiana with secular beauties: I knew inaccessible beauties, Cold, pure as winter, Relentless, incorruptible, Incomprehensible to the mind... 2. Different size lyrical digressions - from one line (“Like Delvig drunk at a feast”) to several stanzas (Chapter 1, LVII – LX).

3. Often digressions begin or end a chapter. Beginning of Chapter 8: In those days when in the gardens of the Lyceum I blossomed serenely... End of Chapter 1: Go to the banks of the Neva, Newborn creation. And earn me a tribute of glory: Crooked talk, noise and abuse. 4. Lyrical digressions are used to transition from one narrative plan to another. Now we have something different in the subject: We’d better hurry to the ball, Where my Onegin galloped headlong in the Yamsk carriage...

5. Lyrical digressions appear before climaxes actions. Before the explanation with Onegin; Before Tatyana goes to bed; Before the duel. 6. They often contain appeals to the reader, which allows you to combine the lyrical and epic: All this meant, friends: I’m shooting with a friend.

Role insert elements 1. The letters are not written in Onegin’s stanza, which emphasizes their independent role in the novel and correlates with each other. 2. Tatiana’s dream is the axis of symmetry of the novel, a parody of the guests. It foretells future events and in a sense is an expression author's position. 3. Folklore elements accompany the image of Tatiana. They are given before turning points in her fate: - the girls' song - before the explanation with Onegin; - dream - before the name day and the duel with Lensky.

The compositional role of the novel’s internal time The novel’s time does not always correspond to the real passage of time, although certain milestones (for example, the change of seasons) also indicate real time in "Eugene Onegin". In St. Petersburg, it’s time to fly, and the author emphasizes this by using verbs: gallop, rush, fly; headlong... galloped; flew up the marble steps like an arrow. In the village, time stands almost still: six months pass between Tatyana’s explanation with Onegin and the duel.

Author's attitude to the composition Despite the clarity of the composition, it seems that the author treats it lightly and carelessly - the poet skips events in the lives of the heroes, lines, stanzas, omits an entire chapter (“Onegin’s Journey”), and leaves the denouement open. All this corresponds to the principles of late lyricism. Pushkin asserts copyright on the arbitrary construction of a “free” novel.