ABOUT A.S. PUSHKIN'S NOVEL "EUGENE ONEGIN".

PURPOSE:

- to acquaint students with the conflicting reviews of Pushkin's contemporaries and critics of the nineteenth century about the novel "Eugene Onegin" and its characters; - improve the skills of analyzing a literary-critical article, the ability to compare different points of view and develop your own point of view on a work of art in accordance with the author's position and historical era; - to develop students' ideas about the historical conditionality of the literary process.

Criticism is a special literary genre dedicated to the analysis of literary, artistic, scientific, and other works.

Criticism - the definition of attitude to the subject (sympathetic or negative), the constant correlation of the work with life, the expansion, deepening of our understanding of the work by the power of the talent of the critic.

VISSARION GRIGORYEVICH BELINSKY

Russian thinker, writer, literary critic, publicist.

Speaking about the novel by A. S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" as a whole, Belinsky notes its historicism in the reproduced picture of Russian society. The critic considers "Eugene Onegin" a historical poem, although there is not a single historical person among its heroes.

“Pushkin took this life as it is, without diverting from it only its poetic moments; took it with all the coldness, with all its prose and vulgarity ... - notes Belinsky. - "Onegin" is a poetically true picture of Russian society in a certain era. "Onegin" can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and an eminently folk work.

According to Belinsky, in the person of Onegin, Lensky and Tatyana Pushkin portrayed Russian society.

"Works of Alexander Pushkin" 1845

EVGENY ABRAMOVICH BARATYNSKY

Poet, representative of the Pushkin galaxy.

We have released two more Onegin songs. Everyone talks about them in his own way: some praise, others scold and everyone reads ... Most do not understand him. They are looking for a romantic plot, they are looking for the ordinary and, of course, they do not find it. The high poetic simplicity of your creation seems to them the poverty of fiction, they do not notice that old and new Russia, life in all its changes, is passing before their eyes.

From a letter from Baratynsky to Pushkin.

DMITRY IVANOVICH PISAREV

Russian publicist and literary critic, revolutionary, democrat.

« frivolous beauty singer"

and its place is not on the desk

modern worker, but in a dusty

antique dealer's office.

Article "Pushkin and Belinsky" (1865)

FEDOR MIKHAILOVICH DOSTOEVSKY

One of the most significant and famous Russian writers and thinkers in the world.

In Onegin, in this immortal and inaccessible poem of his, Pushkin was a great folk writer, as no one had ever been before him.

In Pushkin, there is precisely something that is really related to the people, reaching in it almost to some kind of simple-hearted tenderness.

It can be positively said; there would be no Pushkin, there would be no talents that followed him.

From the speech of F.M. Dostoevsky at the opening of the monument to Pushkin (1880) G.)

Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" is one of the most amazing works in Russian and world literature. For more than a century and a half, a huge amount of literature of a critical and scientific nature has accumulated, and to this day the novel is surrounded by very contradictory assessments of critics and literary scholars. Pushkin looks at the world and at himself from above spiritual ideal of man. In his creation of the picture of the world, Pushkin is a humanist. So, as rightly noted by V.S. Nepomniachtchi in his book Pushkin. The Russian picture of the world”, “the question of the phenomenon of Pushkin fits into the larger context of the spiritual destinies of mankind and the role of Russia in them. There are words about Pushkin as a Russian man "in two hundred years" not a divination, but a call transmitted to us through Gogol and requiring reflection now, when it is vital"

Kedrov K. "Eugene Onegin" in the system of images of world literature / In the world of Pushkin. M., 1974, p. 120

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"EVGENY ONEGIN" A.S. PUSHKIN - THE MYSTERY OF THE NOVEL (CRITIQUE) - GENNADY VOLOVOY

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Pushkin is still the most popular poet in Russia. His significance is so great that all his creations are declared the most outstanding works in Russian literature. Each new generation of writers and critics considers it their duty to declare Pushkin a bearer of the highest morality and a model of an unattainable literary form. The poet, like a guiding star, accompanies them through the thorny
the paths of creativity, its prayers also live young men who make the first “pas” and old people, whitened with gray hair and tired of honorary titles. The rest of the people imprint Pushkin in three things that they study at school - “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish”, “I erected a monument to myself not made by hands” and “Eugene Onegin”.

They prefer not to remember that the first is a talented interpretation of a folk tale, completely giving authorship to the poet. The second is that the idea of ​​a miraculous monument does not belong to Pushkin at all, but to Horace, who literally said: "I erected a monument that is more durable than bronze." Pushkin modestly developed this idea in relation to his own personality and the significance of himself in present and future Russia. And the third ... "What did he also borrow from someone?" - An angry Pushkinist will exclaim. No, we do not dispute Pushkin's authorship here. We only note that it was very difficult for Pushkin to create his own work without a guiding idea. I had to change both the plot and the composition.

The novel "Eugene Onegin" stands at the pinnacle of the poet's work. And, of course, it is an innovative work, unsurpassed in the boldness of the creative concept. No one has yet managed to create a novel in the form of poetry. No one has been able to repeat Pushkin's ease of writing and the breadth of the material covered.

However, despite the fact that Pushkin acted as a brilliant poet, there are weaknesses in this work in compositional and dramatic development. And this is the unfortunate oversight that Pushkin made. What, in our opinion, is the secret of the novel "Eugene Onegin"? Is there a secret plan of the poet, similar to the one we considered in Lermontov and Turgenev? No, the poet did not set such a task, and there is no plot hidden in the subtext, just as there are no secret actions of the characters that eluded the reader. So what's the secret? What is the purpose of this study? Before answering this question, let's remember how many chapters the novel consists of. Of course, it consists of nine chapters and the tenth unfinished. The last chapter was burned by Pushkin for God alone reasons. There are suggestions about the political reasons that made the poet do this. We will return to this later and try to answer this question, the main thing is that the end of the novel was supposed by Pushkin in the next tenth, and not the ninth chapter.

The tenth chapter is considered as a kind of appendix to the main action of the novel, which ends with Tatyana's rebuke in the ninth chapter: "But I am given to another and I will be faithful to him for a century", a hymn of abandoned women who reproach their former lovers. The secret of the novel "Eugene Onegin" in our opinion is precisely in this in this unfinished ending. Why did Pushkin complete his work in this way? Why did the plot end at the most dramatic action, is it possible to end works of art in this way?
Traditionally, it is believed that such an ending to the novel is the height of the perfection of Pushkin's genius.

It is assumed that Onegin had to break on the marble-ice block of duty and honor of Tatyana, who gave the final answer about the impossibility of their relationship. All this novel is exhausted, the action is completed, the dramatic denouement has come. However, we are not afraid to say that Pushkin deftly tricked the audience with such an ending, in other words, he fooled. He hid the true ending of the novel, because its continuation became unprofitable for him and could spoil his reputation.

He did not complete the novel, although the finale may have been, just completed in the burned tenth chapter, in any case, the poet did not want to present it to the public. To this day, no one has understood what trick Pushkin did and why he did it. We will try to solve the mystery of the novel "Eugene Onegin".
What arguments can we bring in favor of Pushkin's hidden ending of the novel?
First, Pushkin stopped the action at the most exciting moment. He understands very well that the question may arise, why? - and therefore - Pushkin answers:

"Blessed is he who celebrates life early
Left without drinking to the bottom,
Glasses of full wine
Who has not finished reading her novel
And suddenly he knew how to part with him,
As I am with my Onegin.

Maybe someone is “blissful” not knowing exactly how the relationship between Onegin and Tatyana will develop further, but a real playwright will never stop the action at a dramatic denouement, he will give it a complete logical conclusion. If the hand of the villain is already raised above the victim, it must also fall and the last cry of the unfortunate must reach the viewer, listener or reader. If only Homer had finished his Odysseus' travels at the moment when he arrived at Ithaca and found out that a crowd of suitors were besieging his wife. What would readers ask next? And he would have answered like Pushkin - blessed is the husband, having learned that numerous applicants are seeking his wife and therefore the time has come to stop the story and leave Odysseus ...

In the above passage, there is a very important confession of the incompleteness of Pushkin himself. Life is compared to a novel that has not been read. This is a direct projection onto the unfinished novel itself. Pushkin justifies himself, trying to find arguments for such a denouement. He interrupts in advance the perplexed question of the reader and imposes his view.

Secondly, the existence of the tenth chapter. Pushkin wrote that he managed to part with Onegin. What made him change plans and return to his hero again? It is nonsense for a literary work when the author says that this is the end and soon returns to his work. Probably, Pushkin understood that his novel had no ending, no ending. As a brilliant poet, he realized his mistake and decided to correct it, but still ultimately refused. We will present our assumptions as to why this happened a bit later.

Thirdly, did Pushkin want to present Tatyana in a different light, to tear her away from the prevailing stereotype? If it were to show the final denouement, then it would have to be done. Tatyana, no matter how she led, remained faithful to duty and honor, or accepted Onegin's love, would lose her former attractiveness in the eyes of society. Onegin in the first case would have appeared as an annoying loser lover, and Tatiana as a ruthless guardian of secular principles. And in the second case, she acted as a traitor to the family hearth, a traitor to her husband and a stupid woman who abandoned her rich husband and position in society for the sake of her lover.

Now let's briefly trace the events preceding the last conversation of the characters in order to understand the logic of the further behavior of the characters after the author left them.
From Tatyana's letter to Onegin, an active relationship between the heroes begins. The letter crosses the line accepted in society and testifies to the desire of the girl to meet her beloved. She endows Onegin with the features of an ideal man.

"My whole life has been a pledge
Faithful goodbye to you;
I know you were sent to me by God
Until the grave, you are my keeper ... "

A sincere impulse of feeling, a frank confession made Tatyana a completely new heroine, which has not yet been. She is devoid of natural female cunning, she speaks directly about her feelings and wants to find understanding in this. Pushkin here puts difficult circumstances before Onegin. He must understand this young girl, he must appreciate her impulse, and if he has grown to a true understanding of love, then he will accept it. However, this does not happen. Onegin rejects the girl's love. You can justify the hero, who, by the way, they only do what they condemn for it. In fact, he was not in love with Tatyana, for him she was one of the many county young ladies, and he, spoiled by secular beauties, did not expect to meet his chosen one in the wilderness. And Tatyana's reproach for this later is also unfair. He is not in love and therefore he is right. You can’t blame the hero for not responding even to a sincere feeling, you have to respond in the same way, but he doesn’t have this.

The point is different. He did not have the maturity that came much later. He did not attach much importance to the feelings and union of two people in love. For him it was an empty phrase. Only later, after the tragedy with Lensky, after wandering, does he realize that he needs this particular girl, this recognition, which now acquires special value for him. Onegin's mistake lies in his immaturity. If he had a new acquired experience, then, of course, he would not automatically fall in love with Tatiana, but he would not have rejected her, he would have allowed his feeling to develop, he would have waited for that cherished hour when his feelings would flare up. By the time he realized it was already too late. Tatyana was married. She couldn't be as accessible as before.

Pushkin brilliantly developed the situation here. He showed how the hero gains the painful experience of true love. Now Onegin is really in love. He is madly in love. And the point is not at all how the hero is reproached for Tatyana's inaccessibility, but that he understood the value of love in a person's life. Having spent a stormy youth, disappointed in everything and everything. He found life in love. This is the highest comprehension of character made by Pushkin. And what a pity that Pushkin's genius was not able to endure and bring this character to the end.

“Lonely and superfluous in his environment, he now felt more and more acutely the need for another person. The loneliness cultivated by romanticism, the enjoyment of his suffering weighed heavily on him after the journey. Thus he was reborn to love” (1).

Of course, it is very important to analyze what nevertheless caused Onegin's love. Blagoy and some researchers believe that Onegin's love is connected with the fact that Tatyana is inaccessible: “In order to fall in love with Tatyana, Onegin needed to meet her “not this girl, timid, in love, poor and simple, but an indifferent princess, but an unapproachable goddess of luxury, gift Not you". If he had seen her again not in the magnificent, brilliant frame of high-society salons, if not the “stately” and “careless” “legislator of the halls” appeared before him, but the “poor and simple” appearance of the “tender girl” - the former Tatiana, appeared again, it is safe to say that he would again indifferently pass by her ”(2).

Yes, and Pushkin himself, it seems, also confirms this: “What is given to you does not attract.” If this is so, then there was no spiritual revival of Onegin, he remained a secular darling, to whom only the inaccessible excites interest. Yes, the character becomes smaller ... No, Pushkin only chuckles and says that the inaccessible helped Onegin understand the depth of his mistake. Blagoy is wrong, believing that if Tatyana met again in the form of a rural young lady, Onegin would turn away. No, it was already a different Eugene, he was already looking at the world with “spiritual eyes”.

But Tatyana, despite all his courtship, does not show any attention to him. Onegin cannot deal with this. “But he is stubborn, does not want to lag behind. Still hopeful, busy.” However, all his efforts come to nothing. He still does not understand that Tatyana already knows the world well and knows that many then only drag themselves in order to then expose the object of their desires in a ridiculous way. She does not believe Onegin. He has not yet said something that would open his soul. Onegin decides to speak openly and frankly about his feelings. She must understand, because she herself was in the same position quite recently. He speaks to Tatyana in her own language. He writes her a letter. There were many words of praise for the poetic nature of Tatyana's letter, behind this it is often forgotten that Onegin's letter is in no way inferior in depth and strength of feeling.

"When would you know how terrible
Longing for love,
Blaze and mind all the time
To kill the excitement in the blood;
Want to hug your knees
And crying at your feet
Pour out prayers, confessions, penalties,
Everything, everything that I could express.

What can I say - this is true poetry. This is a great example of a declaration of love between a man and a woman. Love spiritualized, pure and passionate. How can these confessions be compared with falsely sugary, with a pompous desire to preserve the peace of the beloved woman, written by the same Pushkin

"I loved you: love may still be
In my soul it has not completely died out;
But don't let it bother you anymore;
I don't want to make you sad."

No, Onegin is persistent in his passion, he does not want to be content with the “peace” of a woman, he is ready to go ahead. He carries out that program of actions which really proves love to the woman. Here beats the true African passion of Pushkin himself. If Tatyana's message is soft, poetic, disturbing. That message of Onegin is power, it is love, it is repentance...

"Your hateful freedom
I didn't want to lose.
……
I thought freedom and peace
replacement for happiness. Oh my God!
How wrong I was, how punished!”

Yes, here it happened the spiritual rebirth of the hero. Here he realized the value of being, found the meaning of his own existence.
Onegin is a subtle psychologist, he cannot accept and cannot believe that the feeling he once caused has passed without a trace. He cannot believe that his letter will not find a response in the soul of the woman he loves. Therefore, he is so unpleasantly surprised by Tatyana's behavior.

“U! as now surrounded
Epiphany cold she
…….
Where, where is confusion, compassion?
Where are the stains of tears?.. They are not, they are not!
On this face there is only a trace of anger ... "

For Onegin, this is a collapse. This is a confirmation that only ashes remained from love for him. He found no outward signs of love. Meanwhile, in fact, he did not yet know this, his letters evoked the most lively response. If this had not happened, even in the form of sympathy, a terrible evolution would have occurred, the light would have killed Tanya's beautiful soul, fortunately this did not happen. But with all her appearance, she makes it clear that she does not want to accept love. She sees the futility of their relationship for herself and makes it clear about the termination. This is well accepted by the researchers. She is both in loyalty to her convictions, in loyalty to her affections. It is in the pursuit of the ideal, in high moral principles, in moral purity. She is in need of true love, based on a deep and strong feeling.

Tatyana must remain within the bounds of decency. Duty conquers love, and this is the strength of a Russian woman. But is it really good or bad, we will reflect a little later, and now we will return to Onegin, who, having retired, continues to suffer and be reborn. Still, suffering is beneficial. Suffer - this is the evolution of the hero, this is when he becomes deeply tragic, and the writer who created him is truly great. Pushkin is great, he created a living hero and made him live and suffer with real earthly passions.
Now Onegin has already come to repeat the path of Tatyana. He reads a lot, he becomes spiritualized.

All his thoughts of Onegin are now focused on Tatyana. He cannot refuse her, although he knows that she is married, and even to a friend of his youth, to a general. He strives for it, because he realized what a priceless thing he lost through his own fault. Tatyana went to his friend, the same, probably in the past, a womanizer, but who managed to discern and not abandon the rural young lady. For Onegin to realize this is doubly insulting. But here it is important to emphasize the following - he does not think about his comrade, he does not remember him, even in his soul Onegin has no excuses for him._ At first glance, this can be regarded as a manifestation of egoism. But on the other hand, it can be assumed that he knows very well the true "price" of his friend and distant relative.

Indeed, what is Tatiana's husband? How could it be that she did not fall in love with a battle general who had been mutilated in battle? The general was old, he was with black skin, and she fell in love with him, because there was a reason, what was stopping her, because the general was a copy of her Onegin in her youth? So he did not have those positive qualities that could inspire her love.

Indeed, Tatyana's husband made a good career, he took part in military operations, but he faithfully served the regime. Unlike Onegin, he went to the royal service and reached significant heights in it. Guns have a negative attitude towards him, he believes that the general is not worthy of Tatyana's love.

And raised his nose and shoulders
The general who entered with her.

No, Tanya does not love her husband, not because she still has an everlasting love for Onegin, but because the general did not turn out to be the person who met her ideal. He needs this light, this he needs to show everyone his beautiful, clever wife and amuse his vanity. It is he who does not want to move away from the court, because awards, honors, and money are important to him. He tortures his wife. It is better for Tatyana to be back in the rural wilderness, the general does not want to hear the spiritual impulse of his wife. She cannot admit, just like Onegin, that she does not want to shine in the world, that she has other ideals. Her husband will not want to understand, she is his hostage. He wants the light to become as necessary to her as he needs it, and if this does not happen, he obliges Tatyana to live in his world.

Therefore, according to Pushkin, and we agree with him, Onegin does not bear any moral obligations to him. He is not worthy of Tatyana's love. If this were not so, then the poet would emphasize that for the sake of his own feelings, Onegin is ready to trample on the happiness of a friend. Therefore, only Tatyana appears in Onegin's thoughts. No, this is not another affair, this is not the hero's hurt pride. This is an understanding that Tatyana’s place is not in a society where: “Lukerya Lvovna is always whitening, Lyubov Petrovna is always lying, Ivan Petrovich is just as stupid, Semyon Petrovich is just as stingy, Pelageya Nikolaevna still has the same friend Monsieur Finmush, and the same spitz, and the same husband. Not at balls, where she is "everywhere surrounded by a vulgar crowd of fools, liars, empty and greedy for gossip, before dinner, to rich brides, regulars in Moscow living rooms" (3).

The love that flared up in Onegin's soul flares up every day: “Onegin is “like a child, in love” with Tatyana. “Like a child” - with all spontaneity, with all purity and faith in another person. Onegin's love for Tatyana - as it is revealed in the letter - is a thirst for another person. Such love could not separate a person from the world - it firmly connected with him, opened the way to an active and beautiful life ”(4).

With the onset of spring, feelings are more strongly played out in Onegin's soul, and he again rushes to storm Tatiana. He needs a refusal, he needs an insult, he needs to expel this demonic image from his soul, which has fettered his entire soul and mind. He hurries to Tatyana

"Striving Onegin? you in advance
You already guessed; exactly:
Rushed to her, to his Tatyana
My uncorrected eccentric…”

Let's pay attention - Onegin does not want to put up with the loss of Tatiana. He remains an "uncorrected eccentric"! A very important characteristic of the hero for further evaluation of his possible actions. In addition, Pushkin predicts the expectations of the reader, who is sure that the main explanation has not yet happened. Tatyana had to clarify herself - who she became, remained the same Tanya, or became a socialite.

Could Pushkin allow Tatyana's evolution? If this happened, if she became his pillar, then it would be the collapse of not only Tatyana and the novel itself. Then Onegin had to run away, as Chatsky did.
Yes, Pushkin led his hero along the thorny path of suffering, but Onegin did not yet know that an even more bitter lesson lay ahead of him. Onegin comes home and takes Tatyana by surprise - she was not ready for an unexpected meeting.

"The princess is alone in front of him,
Sitting, untidy, pale,
Reading a letter
And quietly tears flow like a river,
Rest your cheek on your hand."

Yes, the old Tanya came to life in her, who, however, did not die, but was only slightly powdered with secular life.

"A pleading look, a mute reproach,
She understands everything. simple maiden,
With dreams, the heart of the old days,
Now they are resurrected in it again"

Now the test fell on the lot of Tatyana. And she proves that the light did not spoil her soul, that she retained her best features. And this is terrible for Onegin, he has nothing to be disappointed in. It would be easier for him to realize that he was completely out of love, but now he clearly sees that he is loved and loved with all his heart and soul.

The action starts to unfold. The reader is captivated and intrigued. What will be next? He already expects to expect a stormy declaration of love, then quarrels and a break with her husband, then the flight of lovers from the world that condemns them. But Pushkin offers an unexpected twist. Pushkin has a different plan of action.

“What is her dream now?
There is a long silence,
And finally she is quiet:
"Enough; get up. I must
You can be frank."

Tatyana begins to teach a lesson to Onegin. She kept an unhealed wound in her soul for a long time and now splashes out her reproaches not to Onegin.
Here Pushkin shows a subtle understanding of the female character. His heroine demonstrates the manifestation of the female character in its purest form. She expresses everything that she has accumulated over the years. And although in many ways Tatyana's reproaches are unfair in her "accusatory" speech, she is beautiful.

This shows the most lively and most faithful character of the heroine. Only Pushkin could know a woman like that, the peculiarities of her behavior. And not only to know, but also to idolize, and lovingly protect, and accept reproaches. That is why Pushkin does not accuse Tatyana of the unfairness of reproaches, he lets her speak out.

"Onegin, I was younger then,
I seem to be better
And I loved you; and what?
What have I found in your heart?
What answer? One severity.
Isn't it true? You weren't news
Humble girls love?
And now - God! - the blood freezes
As soon as I remember the cold look
And this sermon… But you.”

Where did Tatyana see the severity in Onegin's teachings, when did he have a cold look? Tatyana behaves according to female logic. She continues to reproach, although she already knows that Onegin is persecuting her not because she is “rich and noble”, not because:

“... that my shame,
Now everyone would be noticed.
And could bring in society
A seductive honor for you?"

She knows that all this is not so, she knows that Onegin's soul has honor, there is dignity, but she continues to speak. And here Pushkin points out a very interesting detail. Tatyana says that her husband was wounded during the battles, and: “what caresses the court for that?” The court?.. but this is a clear indication of the insignificance of the husband, the general, who became a faithful courtier. He earned the favor of the royal court. But one should not question the attitude of Pushkin himself towards such a general. He is not the kind of person Tatyana could love. She would rather fall in love with a general who would retire from the court, who would not like balls and masquerades. As we noted above.

In general, in Tatyana's reproaches, a living and unimagined woman appeared. With all the inherent weaknesses and prejudices of women. Tatyana herself understands the injustice of her reproaches, she needs to justify her attacks and she ends her accusatory speech with words.

"How with your heart and mind
To be the feelings of a petty slave?

Of course, she recognizes in him both the mind and heart in Onegin, as she recognizes, but only in words, a petty affair in his actions. In fact, she believes in Onegin's sincerity and cannot endure a pretentious tone for a long time. She becomes again a simple and sweet Tanya.

“And to me, Onegin, this splendor,
Hateful life tinsel,
My progress in a whirlwind of light
My fashion house and evenings
What's in them? give away now
I'm glad All this masquerade rags
All this brilliance, and noise, and fumes
For a shelf of books, for a wild garden,
For our poor home
For those places where for the first time,
Onegin, I saw you
Yes, for a humble cemetery,
Where is now the cross and the shadow of the branches
Over my poor nanny ... "

The memory of the nanny speaks of Tatyana's good-heartedness. Here, in a whirlwind of masquerade, she remembers her first teacher and this shows the extraordinary height of her soul. Yes, Tatyana realized that everything that surrounds her is alien to her. False brilliance and unnecessary tinsel ruin her soul. She understands that her real life is in her past. She would love to go back there, but she can't.

And happiness was so possible
So close!.. But my fate
Already decided"

But what prevents happiness? .. What prevents you from returning back to the beautiful past? What obstacles and why stop Tatyana? After all, here is happiness nearby in the face of Onegin, sensitive, attentive, loving, sharing her views and beliefs. It seems to lend a hand and the best dreams will come true. She gives an explanation.

"I got married. You must,
I ask you to leave me;
I know there is in your heart
And pride and direct honor.
I love you (why lie?),
But I am given to another;
And I will be faithful to him for a century

It turns out Tatyana is married. Onegin did not know this. Now that he is aware of this, he, of course, will rush away with all his might. Which, by the way, he did to the delight of Pushkin and readers, who were concerned about the possible moral fall of their beloved heroine. Whether Onegin did the right thing or not about this a little later, but first, let's take a closer look at what Tatyana did and what she said.

Oddly enough, it has not yet been said that there are two diametrically opposed opinions on the statement of the heroine. Moreover, they exist in a completely peaceful relationship, although they completely exclude each other. And here is the point of view on the act of Tatyana Belinsky, which also justifies it, but in a very strange inconsistent way:

“This is the true pride of female virtue! But I have been given to another - I have been given, and not given! Eternal fidelity - to whom and in what? Loyalty to such relationships, which constitute a profanation of the feeling and purity of femininity, because some relationships that are not sanctified by love are immoral in the highest degree ... ”(5).

So, according to Belinsky, Tatiana acted in the highest degree immoral? It turns out that yes ... But the critic is in a hurry to disagree immediately with his own judgment. He declares that: "Tatyana is a type of Russian woman ...", which takes into account public opinion. “This is a lie: a woman cannot despise public opinion…” and, having realized herself, adds the exact opposite: “but she can sacrifice them modestly, without phrases, without self-praise, realizing all the greatness of her sacrifice, all the burden of the curse that she takes upon herself, obeying another higher law - the law of her nature, (and again returns to her previous point of view) and her nature is love and self-denial ... "(6).

A woman can sacrifice public opinion. Tatyana does not. But maybe Pushkin is right. Such is the moral ideal of a Russian woman - to go to self-sacrifice in the name of duty? Let's see how other Russian writers solve this moral problem. Is there any of the greats besides Pushkin who would justify the act of a woman who rejected love for the sake of secular decency.

“The more clearly Anna’s love for Vronsky and hatred for her husband comes through and grows stronger, the deeper the conflict between Anna and the high society becomes ... The more Anna feels the need to lie in this world of falsehood and hypocrisy” (7). Anna Karenina is not afraid to challenge the secular society for love. She was able to go abroad and throw off the burden of forced lies and hypocrisy. Could Tolstoy's heroine have done otherwise? Could she do what Tatyana did? No. It can be assumed that Anna is the same Tatyana, but in the continuation of the development of feelings for Onegin.

Katerina Ostrovsky, in her striving for happiness, breaks the shackles that bind her: “A decisive, integral character ... appears in Ostrovsky in the female type” (8), writes Dobrolyubov. He believes that such a woman should be "full of heroic selflessness." She yearns for a new life. Nothing can hold her back - not even death. (And for Tatyana, false obligations are above all!)

She, as in her time, Tatyana was told that: "every girl needs to get married, they showed Tikhon as her future husband, and she went for him, remaining completely indifferent to this step." Their situation is completely equal: both got married at the insistence of their relatives for an unloved person. However, if Pushkin forces his heroine to renounce love, then Ostrovsky endows his heroine with spiritual and moral strength, which: “will stop at nothing - law, kinship, custom, human court, rules of prudence - everything disappears for her before the power of inner attraction ; she does not spare herself and does not think about others” (8). (Emphasis mine. G. V. V.).

Tatyana could not overcome only two points, which are far from being so difficult as, for example, violation of the law or kinship. So who is the true type of Russian woman: Katerina and Tatyana? Both the one and the other - the researchers say sweetly. One goes to a feat, and the other gives in to difficult circumstances. Both the one and the other - they nod their heads. One sacrifices her life for freedom, the other is doomed to forever bear the yoke of the hateful light. Both the one and the other - they say with Christmas folded hands on their chests. The hypocrites are the true face of these researchers. They know they have to choose one. They do not do this, because the face is important for them, decency is important, their own reputation is important. And how many of them stuck to the great Russian literature! The time has come to clean the bottom of the great ship from their stuck shells and shells, from their rotting stench.

Quite interestingly, Chekhov solved the problem of love of the triangle. His characters do not dare to confess their feelings for a long time.
“I tried to understand the secret of a young, beautiful, intelligent woman who marries an uninteresting person, almost an old man (her husband was over forty years old), has children from him - to understand the secret of this uninteresting person, a kind man, a simpleton ... who believes in his right be happy" (10).

The love that has matured in Alekhine for years finally breaks through during the last meeting:
“When here, in the compartment, our eyes met, spiritual strength left us both, I hugged her, she pressed her face against my chest, and tears flowed from her eyes; I kiss her face, her shoulders, her hands, wet with tears - oh, how unhappy we were with her! - I confessed my love to her, and with a burning pain in my heart, I realized how unnecessary, petty and how deceptive was everything that prevented us from loving. I realized that when you love, then in your reasoning about this love you need to start from something higher, from something more important than happiness or unhappiness, sin or virtue in their current sense, or you don’t need to reason at all” (11).

Here the position is viewed from the side of the man. And this is all the more interesting, because in Onegin's claims to the married Tatyana one can see a manifestation of selfishness. Is Onegin really doing the right thing when he persuades a woman to cheat, bombarding her with love messages, pursuing her? It is these questions that Chekhov's hero is tormented by: how can their love break "the happy course of the life of her husband, children, this whole house" (12).

Alekhin's situation is much more complicated - his woman has children, and this is already a big reproach to the desire to destroy the family. Tatyana, as you know, had no children. And yet the hero understands that everything must be sacrificed for the sake of love. He himself could not overcome it. He has just matured to understand true love. Onegin has no such doubts, and in this he is much higher than Alekhine. No, Onegin is not driven by selfishness at all, but by true love, and he knows that for the sake of such love one must be able to sacrifice everything.

So who is right? Pushkin or the Ostrovsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov we have cited? One and the same problem is solved in the most opposite way. Of course, Tolstoy, and Ostrovsky, and Chekhov acted as true artists, they revealed the ugliness and injustice of the false position of a woman who is forced to live in a marriage without love. They protest against this order of things, against this legalized slavery. Love is the only connection that should bind a man and a woman.

Now let's think. Is Tatyana really the guardian of secular morality? Is Pushkin really ready to admit that love has no power over his heroine, that in the future she will also be able to resist the onslaughts of Onegin so stoically? Let's assume that Onegin did not back down, how long will the heroine have the patience to remain indifferent and virtuous? .. We think that Tatyana will act in exactly the same way as Katerina and Anna Karenina did. She will show a higher understanding of love and, like a real woman, will give up everything that interferes with her happiness. If this happens, something terrible will happen... terrible for Pushkin. Readers will smash his dear Tatiana, his example of purity and morality to smithereens ...

Pushkin was afraid of such an outcome. He decided not to develop the character of Tatyana, because he understood well what his heroine would lead to. After all, he was a genius and could not manipulate the characters, as Flaubert did with a pure tear of shamelessness in his novel Madame Bovary. One of the most famous French novels in Russia.

On the example of this novel, one can illustrate the author's arbitrariness in relation to the characters. When a writer invents a plot for the sake of his own idea of ​​how the hero should act in certain circumstances, not in accordance with his own set character. The idea of ​​the novel is the desire to please everyone, women who are disappointed in love and who do not love their own husbands, public morality, which requires them to be unconditionally faithful. At the same time, for the sake of old and jealous husbands, as a warning to unfaithful wives. With a word, Flaubert bowed to everyone, to whom he could. Everyone in this novel will find their own. The ability to please everyone creates the most benevolent opinion about a literary work, but disfigures and makes the work of art itself vitally untrue.

The story of Madame Bovary is typical for women for whom love is the highest value. She wants to love, but she cannot because her husband does not meet her ideals. From the very beginning of the novel, Flaubert took a line on the image of an ideal husband, indulging all the whims of his wife. He has angelic patience and an absolute lack of vision for the spiritual life of his wife. For the time being, Flaubert is on the side of his heroine, but only until she begins not to make unacceptable mistakes from the point of view of so-called public morality. Flaubert begins to implicitly condemn his heroine. She cheats on her husband, but does not find love. She is abandoned by her lover, she is betrayed by a young rake. A moral lesson has been taught - in love you will be deceived and will be abandoned. Conclusion - do not leave your husband, the husband will remain, and the lovers will disappear.

What leads to the collapse of a poor woman, for what offense does the author decide to send her to the next world? Lovers become the reason? Well no. Waste. Here is a terrible sin that public morality is unable to forgive a woman. Madame Bovary squanders her husband's money. She secretly takes bail money. And that's when it becomes impossible to hide the deceit and the poor husband must find out that he is completely ruined. Here, the anger of society should reach its climax. Flaubert catches him with a sensitive ear and administers a cruel court. Madame Bovary takes mouse poison.

Public morality will wave its hand to the writer approvingly, because it can forgive everything - debauchery, betrayal, betrayal, but not waste of money. This is the highest value in society. That's the reason Flaubert made the poor woman poison herself.

But Flaubert feels that this is not enough, he has not yet taught the lesson of public spanking to an unfaithful wife well enough. He begins to look for plot moves that visibly showed all the evil that Madame Bovary brought with her rash acts, so that she herself would be horrified by her delusions. He immediately sends her angel husband to the next world, who dies of grief. But this is still not enough for Flaubert, and then he recalls the children who were taken into care by the old woman - mother Bovary.

No, the writer decides, she did not love her husband, she must be punished by those whom she loved, otherwise there will be female souls that will justify her: well, her husband died from her, could not bear the suffering, but she did not love him, she is not to blame in that? And then the writer finishes off such reasoning with an argument that already deprives poor Madame Bovary of all excuses.

Grandmother quickly goes to the other world, and the poor children end up in an orphanage, where they live in poverty and are forced to beg. This is where there is no forgiveness for a woman who doomed her children to vegetation. They lived in a prosperous wealthy family, and now they have lost their parents and lead a beggarly existence.

The anger of public morality is inexorable - since all the events led to a similar ending - there is no forgiveness for this woman - she is a criminal.
Pushkin was dependent on the opinion of the society of his time. He wrote with care. After each chapter, he heard one or another opinion about his characters and adjusted the plot accordingly. He decided not to spoil the reputation of his heroine that had developed in the public mind. But as the proverb says: one fool threw a stone into the well - forty wise men do not know how to get it out of there. Researchers are also lost in conjectures, not understanding where the true ending of the novel is: “Hence the natural question: is the text that has been in front of Russian readers for a century and a half the finally completed creation of Pushkin? Or was it a compromise for the author? (13).

The finale of the novel was intentionally omitted from the novel by Pushkin. He deliberately interrupted the story. But here one can object. Perhaps Tatyana would really behave like the heroines of Ostrovsky and Tolstoy. But after all, Onegin himself did not want this, therefore Pushkin interrupted the story, that the hero himself refused and went on a trip.

Who refused Onegin? He, who in a dream and in reality raved about Tatyana, who re-read mountains of literature, who was ready for anything for the sake of his beloved woman? Pushkin perfectly understood what a beneficial rebirth took place in the soul of his hero. He knew perfectly well that Onegin would stop at nothing, therefore, in the most voluntaristic way, he deprives his hero of speechlessness. He does not give him the opportunity to personally express his love to Tatyana. First, he falls at her feet. Then "A long silence passes." Then comes Tatyana's long monologue, her reproaches and admonitions. Onegin a true gentleman cannot interrupt him. Then she leaves - he does not even try to call out to her, he came here without any hope and suddenly found out that he was also loved. Pushkin objects, but this was so unexpected for him that he could not immediately find what to say.

“She left. Worth Eugene,
As if struck by thunder.
In what a storm of sensations
Now he is heartbroken."

That is, from the shock, he went into himself so much that he began to lead like a young girl who first heard a declaration of love. But Pushkin foresees that the reader will ask, but when Onegin's shock passes, he will rush after Tatyana, he will begin to dissuade her, he will begin to swear in love. If he pursued her for so long without any hope, then now he must explain his feelings ... No matter how, Pushkin quickly forces Tatyana's husband to appear. When Onegin pursued her at balls, her husband did not appear, he stood in the shade and waited in the wings to appear at the right moment. Well, he arrived in time ... So it was possible to pull the donkey by the ears, if only he would play the right role. Now, in the presence of an unwanted witness, Onegin can no longer say anything. Pushkin carefully and unceremoniously throws him out of Tatyana's house. One would like to exclaim with the words of the poet: “Ah yes Pushkin, ah yes son of a bitch ...”, you manipulate the characters well in the direction you need. And then the author rejoices at the end of the novel.

"And here is my hero,
In a minute, evil for him,
We will now leave the reader
For a long time... forever. Behind him
Pretty we are one way
Wandering around the world."

Pushkin left his hero, and so that the reader does not doubt that the novel is finished, he adds that he left it forever. But after all, the hero remained with seething passions in his heart. Or maybe he made a scandal and challenged Tatyana's husband to a duel. Or maybe he began to court with even greater zeal. Pushkin deprives his hero of the word that he could not express what he thinks, how he should act.

Tatyana said what she had to say at that moment, but it is important for the reader to know what Onegin will say. He saw the tears of his beloved woman, he heard her declaration of love. Of course, Pushkin understands how stupid and silly Onegin's consent to leave and not to persecute would sound, which, as it were, is implied. These words are impossible in the mouth of a fiery lover, so Pushkin chooses a clever position - he silences his hero.

I wonder why readers so gullible allow themselves to be led by the nose, this is not permissible for anyone, even such a genius as Pushkin. Well, it was impossible to deprive Onegin of the word, according to all the rules of dramatic art, he had to speak out.

Pushkin is afraid that the hero will wake up and begin to convince, tell Tatyana that no, for the sake of "seductive honor", not for the sake of discrediting, not because of a petty feeling, but for the sake of true love, for the sake of happiness, he came here. And of course he offered his hand and heart, and of course the husband found out about this and a new duel, and ... In a word, Pushkin decided not to mess with his heroes anymore and left them to their fate. But in the name of what does the author manipulate his hero? Why did he need such an incomprehensible and complex combination? Why does he violate the logic of the hero's behavior, why does he change his character at a decisive moment for him?

According to all the rules of the literary genre, Onegin was obliged to explain himself to Tatiana, to give his own explanation in the new circumstances that opened up for him. Pushkin did not want this, or rather he was afraid in the same way as Gagin was afraid to let N.N. explain himself to Asya. This is what Pushkin does with his hero. He does not give a word, he does not want Onegin to pursue Tanya any more, and what if he achieves the desired result, and Tanya, the bearer of pure morality, the model of a Russian woman, will fall in the eyes of the public ... That's what Pushkin was afraid of. He decided that the best thing is to interrupt the novel. Pushkin stops the novel at the most interesting place, he will violate one of the important elements of the work of art - he does not give a decisive denouement.

And all this in the name of the same world, before the opinion of which the great genius broke down. In the subsequent act, Tatyana was to cheat on her husband, and the poet could not do anything about this. After all, he is not Flaubert, who turns his characters upside down, he understands the logic of character development, and understands that he cannot get out of this logic. Onegin will certainly continue to pursue the woman he loves and new explanations will follow, and there will be betrayal, and there will be a duel. No, Pushkin was afraid of his heroes. That is why Pushkin so unexpectedly decides to finish the novel.
Tatyana's fall in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of the reading public... yes, this is impossible... Defenders of traditional morality will rush to defend their beloved ideal. No, they wail, Tatyana would never go back on her words, never let them have an affair, never became Onegin's mistress. Come on, gentlemen, if you put Tatyana's behavior like that in valor, then for Pushkin this means the failure of her heroine. “The life of a woman is predominantly concentrated in the life of the heart; to love means to live for her, and to sacrifice means to love, writes Belinsky, but immediately stipulates: “Nature created Tatyana for this role; but society has recreated it…” (14).

No no and one more time no. Society did not re-create Tatyana. She remained a true woman capable of loving and capable of sacrificing for the sake of this love. All she needed was to finally be convinced of the strength of Onegin's feelings, that he would not throw her on the floor of the Path, as Boris did with Katerina, as Mr. N. N. carelessly did.

This is Pushkin, who deprives her of happiness with her loved one, it is he who does not give a way out and leaves her to suffer for the rest of her life, it is he who breaks Tatyana's happiness. And for what? In order not to condemn his heroine, so that he would not be condemned in society, - this clearly manifested the hypocrisy and cowardice of the singer of the "cruel age". But time, as the proverb says, is an honest man. Sooner or later, it delivers its verdict, alas, far from consoling for the great poet.

This is the secret of the novel "Eugene Onegin". Pushkin deceived the public, but did he deceive himself? He, who knew women well, he, who, as if by din, split the composition of his works. No. Soon Pushkin realized what a stupidity he had committed, how hypocritically and unworthily he completed his truly great work. He could not leave himself, just like Onegin, who pushed Tatyana away, and then returned to her. Pushkin returns to the novel! He does an incredible act of courage.

The fact of writing the tenth chapter testifies to Pushkin's recognition of his mistake in the haste to complete the novel. He finds the courage to start writing the novel again. He already sees its worthy end. In the tenth chapter, Pushkin expected to reflect the entire spectrum of social and political life from the time of the war of 1812 to the Decembrist uprising.
“Only encrypted fragments have survived, the places of which in the overall composition of the chapter are not always clear. However, these passages testify to the acute political content of the destroyed chapter. A bright and sharp characterization of the “ruler of the weak and crafty” - Alexander I, a brilliant picture of the development of political events in Russia and Europe (the war of 1812, the revolutionary movement in Spain, Italy, Greece, European reaction, etc.) - all this gives grounds to assert that, in terms of artistic merit, the tenth chapter was one of the best chapters of the novel. (fifteen).

Onegin was probably supposed to become a member of the Senate uprising. And, of course, the relationship between Onegin and Tatyana would continue. There is no doubt that the relationship would have led to a break with her husband, a new duel, Onegin's participation in the uprising and exile to Siberia, where Tatyana would follow like the wives of the Decembrists. A fitting end to a great work.

This is how Pushkin ended the action of the novel, or in some other way, we will never know, because here Pushkin does something that forever disgraced his name. He burns the tenth chapter... It's scary to think about it, he didn't hide it, didn't postpone it, but, worrying about his own fate, he destroyed it. Even Galileo, as the legend says, in the face of the Inquisition, forced to abandon his mathematical calculations, exclaimed, but still it spins. And no one persecuted Pushkin, no one drove iron needles under his nails, no one exiled him to Siberia ...

Fear of losing his position in society, fear of spoiling relations with the authorities, fear for his own future pushed Pushkin to a fatal step. Pushkinists, as flattering courtiers of the powerful Shah, announced this step as a manifestation of the highest wisdom and courage: “No matter how much suffering it costs Pushkin to burn the tenth chapter and destroy the eighth, the decision will still say goodbye to his hero and novel, which sounds with such force in the last stanzas and with the same force is enshrined in the memory and consciousness of generations of Russian readers - this decision of Pushkin was firm, recklessly bold! (16).

Yes, our great genius acted in the most insignificant, most unworthy way, he disgraced himself. But everyone is silent about it. No one can say that manuscripts don't burn if the writers themselves don't burn them. Pushkin is the first Russian writer who burned his work. He always subtly felt the line that could not be crossed in his "freedom-loving" poems, so as not to repeat the fate of the Decembrists.

Pushkin was never able to grow up, he could not get rid of his own prejudices, which ultimately led him to his death. He could not fully take place as a great writer. Nevertheless, he entered Russian literature as an innovator, as the creator of the as yet unsurpassed novel in verse. He remained in his works the same as he was in life, and nothing can be done about it - this is our genius and we accept him with all his weaknesses and shortcomings, and the novel "Eugene Onegin" remains a great work, although without a worthy conclusion.
Pushkin is a genius, but a genius not without flaws, he is the sun of Russian poetry, but the sun is not without spots...

LITERATURE

1. G. Makogonenko. Pushkin's ooman "Eugene Onegin". Hood. Lit. M., 1963. S. 7.
2. D.B.Blagoy. Pushkin's skill. Soviet writer. M. 1955. S. 194-195.
3. G. Makogonenko. Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin". Hood. Lit. M., 1963. S. 101.
4. G. Makogonenko. Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin". Hood. Lit. M., 1963. S. 122.
5. V.G. Belinsky. Collected works, vol. 6. Hood. Lit. M., 1981. S. 424.
6. V.G. Belinsky. Collected works, vol. 6. Hood. Lit. M., 1981. S. 424.
7. V. T. Plakhotishina. Mastery of Tolstoy novelist., 1960., "Dnipropetrovsk book publishing house". S. 143.
8. N. A. Dobrolyubov. Collected works in three volumes. T. 3. “Thin. Lit. M., 1952. S. 198.
9. Ibid. S. 205.
10. A. P. Chekhov. Stories. "Dagestan book publishing house". Makhachkala. 1973. S. 220.
11. Ibid. S. 222.
12. Ibid. S. 220.
13. A.S. Pushkin. The novel "Eugene Onegin. M. Hood. Lit. 1976. In the foreword by P. Antokolsky. S. 7.
14. V.G. Belinsky. Collected works, vol. 6. Hood. Lit. M., 1981. S. 424.
15. B. Meilakh. A.S. Pushkin. Essays on life and creativity. Ed. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. M., 1949. S. 116.
16. A.S. Pushkin. The novel "Eugene Onegin. M. Hood. Lit. 1976. In the foreword by P. Antokolsky. pp. 7-8.

G.V. Volovoy
THREE SECRETS OF THREE RUSSIAN GENIUS
ISBN 9949-10-207-3 Electronic book in Microsoft Reader format (*.lit).

The book is dedicated to the disclosure of encrypted works of Russian writers. A new interpretation of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" by Lermontov, the story "Asya" by Turgenev, the novel "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin, made it possible to get closer to the true author's intention. For the first time, the analysis of the composition, the plot, the actions of the characters are considered in artistic unity. This book offers a largely unexpected and fascinating reading of the classics of Russian literature.

My site on the Internet: Aphorisms.Ru - Literary site of Gennady Volovoy
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Criticism of the novel "Eugene Onegin"

On the presence of "contradictions" and "dark" places in the novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" written a lot. Some researchers believe that so much time has passed since the creation of the work that its meaning is unlikely to ever be unraveled (in particular, Yu.M. Lotman); others try to give "incompleteness" some philosophical meaning. However, the “unsolved” nature of the novel has a simple explanation: it was simply read inattentively.

Feedback from Pushkin's contemporary Belinsky

Speaking about the novel as a whole, Belinsky notes its historicism in the reproduced picture of Russian society. "Eugene Onegin", the critic believes, is a historical poem, although there is not a single historical person among its heroes.

Further, Belinsky calls the nationality of the novel. In the novel "Eugene Onegin" there are more nationalities than in any other folk Russian composition. If not everyone recognizes it as national, it is because we have long had a strange opinion that a Russian in a tailcoat or a Russian in a corset is no longer Russian and that the Russian spirit makes itself felt only where there is a zipun, bast shoes, sivuha and sour cabbage. “The secret of the nationality of every nation lies not in its clothes and cuisine, but in its, so to speak, manner of understanding things.”

According to Belinsky, the digressions made by the poet from the story, turning it to himself, are full of sincerity, feeling, intelligence, wit; the personality of the poet in them is loving and humane. “Onegin can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and an eminently folk work,” the critic says. The critic points to the realism of Eugene Onegin.

In the person of Onegin, Lensky and Tatyana, according to the critic, Pushkin portrayed Russian society in one of the phases of its formation, its development.

The critic speaks of the enormous significance of the novel for the subsequent literary process. Together with Griboyedov's contemporary genius creation Woe from Wit, Pushkin's verse novel laid a solid foundation for new Russian poetry, new Russian literature.

Belinsky gave a description of the images of the novel. Describing Onegin in this way, he notes: “Most of the public completely denied Onegin’s soul and heart, saw in him a cold, dry and selfish person by nature. It is impossible to understand a person more erroneously and crookedly! .. Secular life did not kill Onegin's feelings, but only cooled him to fruitless passions and petty entertainments ... Onegin did not like to blur in dreams, he felt more than he spoke, and did not open himself to everyone. An embittered mind is also a sign of a higher nature, therefore only by people, but also by oneself.

In Lensky, according to Belinsky, Pushkin portrayed a character completely opposite to Onegin's character, a completely abstract character, completely alien to reality. It was, according to the critic, a completely new phenomenon.

Lensky was a romantic both by nature and by the spirit of the times. But at the same time, "he was ignorant at heart," always talking about life, never knowing it. “Reality had no influence on him: his and his sorrows were the creation of his fantasy,” writes Belinsky.

“Pushkin’s great feat was that he was the first in his novel to poetically reproduce the Russian society of that time and, in the person of Onegin and Lensky, showed its main, that is, the male side; but the feat of our poet is almost higher in that he was the first to poetically reproduce, in the person of Tatyana, a Russian woman.

Tatyana, according to Belinsky, is an exceptional being, a deep, loving, passionate nature. Love for her could be either the greatest bliss or the greatest misfortune of life, without any conciliatory middle ground.

Eugene Onegin reflected the whole life of Russian society at the beginning of the 19th century. However, two centuries later, this work is interesting not only in historical and literary terms, but also in terms of the relevance of the questions that Pushkin posed to the reading public. Everyone, opening the novel, found something of their own in it, empathized with the characters, noted the lightness and mastery of style. And quotes from this work have long become aphorisms, they are pronounced even by those who have not read the book itself.

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

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

Genre and composition

A.S. Pushkin defined his work as a novel in verse, emphasizing that it is lyrical-epic: the storyline, expressed by the love story of the characters (epic beginning), is adjacent to digressions and author's reflections (lyrical beginning). That is why the genre of "Eugene Onegin" is called "novel".

"Eugene Onegin" consists of 8 chapters. In the first chapters, readers get acquainted with the central character Eugene, move with him to the village and meet a future friend - Vladimir Lensky. Further, the drama of the narration increases due to the appearance of the Larin family, especially Tatiana. The sixth chapter is the culmination of the relationship between Lensky and Onegin and the flight of the protagonist. And at the end of the work, the storyline of Eugene and Tatiana is unraveled.

Lyrical digressions are connected with the narration, but this is also a dialogue with the reader, they emphasize the “free” form, proximity to a heart-to-heart conversation. The same factor can explain the incompleteness, openness of the finale of each chapter and the novel as a whole.

About what?

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

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

However, the relationship between Tatiana and Eugene is not over. They meet at a secular evening, where the hero sees not a naive girl, but a mature woman in full splendor. And he falls in love. Also tormented and writes a message. And meets the same rebuff. Yes, the beauty has not forgotten anything, but it’s too late, she is “given to another”:. A failed lover is left with nothing.

Main characters and their characteristics

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

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

Themes

• The main theme of the novel "Eugene Onegin" is extensive - it is Russian life. The book shows life and upbringing in the world, in the capital, village life, customs and occupations, typical and at the same time unique portraits of characters are drawn. Almost two centuries later, the characters contain features that are inherent in modern people, these images are deeply national.
• The theme of friendship is also reflected in "Eugene Onegin". The main character and Vladimir Lensky were in close friendship. But can it be considered real? They met on occasion, out of boredom. Eugene sincerely became attached to Vladimir, who warmed the cold heart of the hero with his spiritual fire. However, just as quickly, he is ready to offend a friend, flirting with his beloved, who is happy about this. Eugene thinks only about himself, he is absolutely unimportant to the feelings of other people, so he could not save his comrade.
• Love is also an important theme of the work. Almost all writers talk about it. Pushkin was no exception. True love is expressed in the image of Tatyana. It can develop in spite of everything and stay for life. Nobody loved Onegin and will not love it like the main character. Missing this, you remain unhappy for life. Unlike the sacrificial, all-forgiving feelings of a girl, Onegin's emotions are pride. He was frightened by a timid girl who fell in love for the first time, for whose sake it would be necessary to abandon the disgusting, but familiar light. But Eugene was subdued by a cold secular beauty, with whom to visit is already an honor, not like loving her.
• The theme of the superfluous. The trend of realism appears in the work of Pushkin. It was the environment that brought Onegin up so disappointed. It was it that preferred to see superficiality in the nobles, the focus of all their efforts on creating secular brilliance. And nothing else is needed. On the contrary, education in folk traditions, the society of ordinary people made the soul healthy, and the nature whole, like Tatiana's.
• The theme of devotion. True to her first and strongest love Tatyana, and frivolous, changeable and ordinary Olga. Larina's sisters are completely opposite. Olga reflects a typical secular girl, for whom the main thing is herself, her attitude towards her, and therefore it is possible to change if there is a better option. As soon as Onegin said a couple of pleasant words, she forgot about Lensky, whose affection is much stronger. Tatyana's heart is true to Eugene all his life. Even when he trampled on her feelings, she waited a long time and could not find another (again, unlike Olga, who quickly consoled herself after Lensky's death). The heroine had to get married, but in her heart she continued to be faithful to Onegin, although love was no longer possible.

Problems

The problems in the novel "Eugene Onegin" are very indicative. It reveals not only psychological and social, but also political shortcomings and even whole tragedies of the system. For example, the outdated, but no less terrible, drama of Tatyana's mother is shocking. The woman was forced to marry, and she broke down under the onslaught of circumstances, becoming an evil and despotic mistress of a hated estate. And here are the actual problems raised

• The main problem that is raised in all realism in general, and Pushkin in "Eugene Onegin" in particular, is the destructive influence of secular society on the human soul. A hypocritical and greedy environment poisons the personality. It makes external demands of decency: a young man should know a little French, read a little fashionable literature, be decently and expensively dressed, that is, make an impression, seem, and not be. And all the feelings here are also false, they only seem. That is why secular society takes away the best from people, it cools the brightest flame with its cold deceit.
• The blues of Evgenia is another problematic issue. Why does the main character get depressed? Not only because society has corrupted him. The main reason is that he does not find the answer to the question: why all this? Why does he live? To go to theaters, to balls and receptions? The absence of a vector, direction of movement, awareness of the meaninglessness of existence - these are the feelings that embrace Onegin. Here we face the eternal problem of the meaning of life, which is so difficult to find.
• The problem of selfishness is reflected in the image of the protagonist. Realizing that no one would love him in a cold and indifferent world, Eugene began to love himself more than anyone in the world. Therefore, he does not care about Lensky (he only blows boredom), Tatyana (she can take away her freedom), he thinks only of himself, but he is punished for this: he remains completely alone and is rejected by Tatyana.

Idea

The main idea of ​​the novel "Eugene Onegin" is to criticize the existing order of life, which dooms more or less outstanding natures to loneliness and death. After all, there is so much potential in Eugene, but there is no business, only secular intrigues. How much spiritual fire is in Vladimir, and besides death, only vulgarization in a feudal, suffocating environment can await him. How much spiritual beauty and intelligence in Tatyana, and she can only be the hostess of secular evenings, dress up and carry on empty conversations.

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

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

Features of the novel

The novel "Eugene Onegin" is a fundamentally new phenomenon in the literature of the early 19th century. He has a special composition - this is a "novel in verse", a lyrical-epic work of great volume. In lyrical digressions, the image of the author, his thoughts, feelings and ideas, which he wants to convey to readers, emerges.

Pushkin strikes with the lightness and melodiousness of his language. His literary style is devoid of heaviness, didacticity, the author is able to talk about complex and important things simply and clearly. Of course, much needs to be read between the lines, since severe censorship was ruthless to geniuses, but the poet is also not sewn with a bastard, so he managed to tell about the socio-political problems of his state in the elegance of the verse, which were successfully hushed up in the press. It is important to understand that before Alexander Sergeevich, Russian poetry was different, he made a kind of “revolution of the game”.

The feature is also contained in the system of images. Eugene Onegin is the first in the gallery of "superfluous people", who contain a huge potential that cannot be realized. Tatyana Larina "raised" female images from the place "the main character needs someone to love" to an independent and integral portrait of a Russian woman. Tatyana is one of the first heroines who looks stronger and more significant than the main character, and does not hide in his shadow. This is how the direction of the novel "Eugene Onegin" is manifested - realism, which more than once will open the theme of an extra person and affect the difficult female fate. By the way, we also described this feature in the essay "".

Realism in the novel "Eugene Onegin"

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

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

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

Criticism

The novel "Eugene Onegin" evoked a great response from readers and critics. According to E.A. Baratynsky: "Everyone talks about them in his own way: some praise, others scold and everyone reads." Contemporaries scolded Pushkin for the "labyrinth of digressions", for the insufficiently written character of the protagonist, for the negligence of the language. The reviewer Thaddeus Bulgarin, who supported the government and conservative literature, especially distinguished himself.

However, the novel was best understood by V.G. Belinsky, who called it "an encyclopedia of Russian life", a historical work, despite the absence of historical characters. Indeed, a modern belles-lettres lover can study Eugene Onegin from this point of view as well, in order to learn more about the society of the nobility at the beginning of the 19th century.

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

What does it teach?

Pushkin showed the life of young people, how their fate can be. Of course, fate depends not only on the environment, but also on the characters themselves, but the influence of society is undeniable. The poet showed the main enemy that strikes the young nobles: idleness, the aimlessness of existence. The conclusion of Alexander Sergeevich is simple: the creator calls not to limit himself to secular conventions, stupid rules, but to live a full life, guided by moral and spiritual components.

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

The work of the poet, from the moment of its publication to the present, is subjected to serious study and comprehension not only by readers, but also by professional critics.

Since the publication of the novel was carried out as the poet wrote the next chapter, the first reviews of critics periodically changed depending on the assessment of the work as a whole.

The main qualitative complex analysis of the work is carried out by the domestic critic Belinsky V.G., who in his treatise gives detailed characteristics of the novel, calling it an encyclopedia of Russian life and evaluating the main characters as people placed by life in certain conditions. The critic highly appreciates the work depicting the Russian society of the modern period, considering the human revival of the protagonist in the person of Onegin as possible, and also highlighting the image of the main character Tatyana, emphasizing the integrity, unity of her life, deep, loving nature. The reviewer brings to the consciousness of readers the poet's achievement of freedom-loving artistic forms, moving away from romantic creativity to a realistic presentation.

Reviews about the novel are also given by many contemporaries of the poet, such as Herzen A.I., Baratynsky E.A., Dobrolyubov N.A., Dostoevsky F.M., emphasizing the revolutionary mood of the work, revealing the concept of a superfluous person in society. However, from the point of view of Dostoevsky F.M. the image of Onegin looks like a tragic hero who feels like an outcast in the existing life.

A positive characterization of the novel is expressed by Goncharov I.A., paying special attention to the description by the poet of two types of representatives of Russian women, sisters Tatyana and Olga, revealing their opposite girlish natures in the form of a passive expression of reality and, on the other hand, the ability to originality and reasonable self-awareness.

From the point of view of the poets belonging to the Decembrist movement, in the person of Bestuzhev A.A., Ryleev K.F., who pay tribute to the great poetic talent of the author, they planned to see in the image of the main character an exceptional person, different from the crowd, and not a cold dandy.

Reviewer Kireevsky I.V. systematically considers the development of Pushkin's creativity and singles out the novel as the beginning of the newest stage of Russian poetry, distinguished by picturesqueness, carelessness, special thoughtfulness, poetic simplicity and expressiveness, however, the critic does not realize the main meaning of the work, as well as the nature of the main characters.

A negative attitude towards the work is expressed by Pisarev D.I., who enters into a critical dispute with Belinsky V.G., who is a supporter of pure art and an adherent of nihilist views, who considers Onegin a worthless person, incapable of movement and development, and equates the image of Tatiana to that spoiled by romantic books essence. Having ridiculed the heroes of the work, the critic tries to prove the discrepancy visible only to him between the presentation of the sublime content of the novel in a reduced form. However, the literary critic is forced to recognize the great style of Pushkin's forms of Russian versification.

Among the indignant critics who scold the poet for numerous digressions, for the incompletely revealed character of Onegin, as well as for his careless attitude to the Russian language, Bulgarin F.V., who adheres to conservative literary views and is a representative of the ruling power, is especially distinguished. The critic does not accept a work written in the style of realism, demanding from literature an exalted character and charm, not wanting to plunge into the details of describing the life of an ordinary people.

In the Soviet period, literary critics also closely study the work, giving an artistic assessment of the poetic idea and the means of its expression. Among the critical works, the works of A.G. Zeitlin and G.A. Gukovsky deserve special attention. and Lotman Yu.M., who studied the novel as a new literary genre and deciphered for modern readers the meanings of obscure expressions and phrases, as well as the author's hidden hint. From the point of view of Yu.M. Lotman, the novel is a complex and paradoxical creation in the form of an organic world, while light verse and familiar content demonstrate the creation of a new genre that differs from prose novels and romantic poems. The reviewer points to the use by the poet of a huge number of unknown words, quotations, phraseological units

Particularly noteworthy is the article by N.A. Polevoy, who evaluates the novel as a living, simple Pushkin’s creation, distinguished by the signs of a joke poem, while being a true national work, in which the features inherent in the Russian people are clearly traced. But at the same time, the critic negatively accepts the first chapters of the novel, pointing out the details in the descriptions and focusing on the lack of an important idea and meaning.

Many reviewers distinguish the work as a folk creation, but some of them find signs of an unsuccessful imitation of Byron in the content of the novel, not recognizing the original author's reading, which portrayed the protagonist not as an ideal, but as a living human image.

According to Baratynsky E.A., each reader understands the novel from his own point of view and, despite different reviews, the work has a huge number of people who want to read it.

Multifaceted criticism considers the presence of unresolved contradictions in it as a distinctive feature of the novel, as well as numerous dark places that give the work an unfinished philosophy.

Despite numerous critical articles containing both flattering, positive reviews and negative criticism, all literary critics unanimously evaluate the poet's work as a work of historical and national value for Russian poetry, expressing truly Russian features of the folk character.

Option 2

Pushkin worked on the novel "Eugene Onegin" for eight whole years. In letters to Vyazemsky, Alexander Sergeevich with a share of irony reports that writing an ordinary novel in prose and writing a novel in verse is a diabolical difference. This novel was written in a difficult time for Pushkin - this work symbolizes a kind of transition from romanticism in the work of the great writer to realism.

"Eugene Onegin" was a very readable work at the time. Reviews about him were very peculiar - the novel was scolded and praised, a flurry of criticism fell upon the work, but all of Pushkin's contemporaries read them. The society discussed the literary heroes from "Eugene Onegin" and argued over the interpretation of the images of the characters.

The protagonist himself seemed to readers in different ways. Some people did not see anything outstanding in the image of Eugene Onegin. For example, Bulgarin said that he met people like Onegin in St. Petersburg "in batches." Not each of the critics could fully imbue the spirit of the novel of that time and appreciate the literary find of A. S. Pushkin, as well as delve into the peculiarities of writing this literary work. Pushkin wrote this work with deliberate carelessness, which caused not admiration, but censure of some critics. Some of the critics and writers, for example, Polevoy and Mitskevich, immediately convicted Pushkin of "Byronism" and attributed the novel to a "literary capriccio" - a playful poem. Belinsky, on the other hand, considered the novel a modern tragedy and called it a sad work.

The meaning of the novel "Eugene Onegin" was revealed to the reader gradually. Each new generation, unlike Pushkin's contemporaries, saw in the image of the protagonist more and more facets of his character. For the history of literary types and for the history of world literature, the novel "Eugene Onegin" is of tremendous importance. It opens the veil for our contemporaries and they can at least partially understand the worldview of the greatest poet, having studied in detail the characteristics of the heroes of the novel and analyzing their actions. In the novel "Eugene Onegin" one can see a reflection of the life of a separate era - R.V. Ivanov-Rozumnik writes in his article in 1909.

I. V. Kireevsky characterized the protagonist of the work of the same name as "an ordinary and completely insignificant creature." However, Tatyana's character was praised by Kireevsky and named the best creation of the poet.

Pushkin, when writing the novel "Eugene Onegin", used a literary device that was not very clear to his contemporaries. The descriptions and dialogues of the critics of that time were considered too simple and “folk”, almost bordering on primitive turns. The deliberate lightness and carelessness of presentation in the novel and the poet's mixing of literary words with folk caused righteous anger among his contemporaries. However, all contemporaries read "Eugene Onegin" and the heroes of this work did not leave anyone indifferent contemplators of all the passions described in the novel.

This fact proves the skill of the great writer to evoke the reader's ability to empathize with the heroes of his novel. The images of Onegin and Tatiana did not leave without a gamut of emotions both Pushkin's contemporaries and readers of different eras, including today.

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