Jan 24 2011
The novel "Eugene Onegin" was written by Pushkin for 8 years. It describes the events of the first quarter XIX century, that is, the time of creation and the time of the novel approximately coincide. Reading it, we understand what is unique, because earlier in the world there was not a single novel in verse. Lyrical-epic genre The work involves the interweaving of two plots - the epic, the main characters of which are Onegin and Tatyana, and the lyrical, where the main character is a character called the Author, that is, the lyrical hero of the novel. "Eugene Onegin" is a realistic novel. The method of realism presupposes the absence of a predetermined, initial clear plan for the development of the action: the images of the heroes develop not simply at the will of the author, the development is due to those psychological and historical features that are embedded in the images. Completing Chapter VIII, himself emphasizes this feature of the novel:
- And the distance of free romance
- I'm through the magic crystal
- Still unclear.
Defining the novel as a “collection of motley chapters,” Pushkin emphasizes another essential feature of a realistic work: the novel is, as it were, “opened” in time, each chapter could be the last, but it can also have a continuation. Thus, the reader's attention is focused on the independent value of each chapter.
What makes this novel unique is the fact that the breadth of coverage of reality, the multiplot, the description distinctive features era, its coloring acquired such significance and authenticity that the novel became an encyclopedia of Russian life in the 20s of the last century. Reading the novel, as in an encyclopedia, we can learn everything about that era: how they dressed and what was in fashion (Onegin’s “wide bolivar” and Tatyana’s crimson beret), the menu of prestigious restaurants, what was going on in the theater (Didelot’s ballets).
Throughout the novel and digressions the poet shows all layers of Russian society of that time: the high society of St. Petersburg, noble Moscow, the local nobility, the peasantry. This allows us to speak of "Eugene Onegin" as a truly folk work. Petersburg of that time collected the best minds Russia. Fonvizin “shone” there, people of art - Knyazhin, Istomina. The author knew and loved St. Petersburg well, he is accurate in his descriptions, not forgetting either the “salt of worldly anger”, “neither the necessary impudent ones”. Through the eyes of a resident of the capital, Moscow is also shown to us - the “fair of brides”. Describing the Moscow nobility, Pushkin is often sarcastic: in the living rooms he notices "incoherent, vulgar nonsense." But at the same time, he loves Moscow, the heart of Russia: “Moscow… how much this sound has merged for the Russian heart” (it should be doubly pleasant for a Muscovite to read such lines).
Russia, contemporary to the poet, is rural. This is probably why the gallery of characters of the local nobility in the novel is the most representative. Let's look at the characters presented to us by Pushkin. The handsome Lensky, "with a soul directly Goettingen", - a romantic of the German warehouse, "an admirer of Kant." But Lensky's poems are imitative. They are parodied through and through, but they do not parody individual authors, but the clichés of romanticism themselves. mother Tatyana is rather tragic: “Without asking for advice, the girl was taken to the crown.” She “rushed and cried at first,” but replaced it with a habit: “She salted mushrooms for the winter, kept expenses, shaved her foreheads.” The appearance of Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" had a huge impact on the further development of Russian literature. It is also important that the protagonist of the novel, as it were, opens a whole gallery “ extra people” in Russian literature: Pechorin, Oblomov will continue it.
With the title of the novel, Pushkin emphasizes the central position of Onegin among other heroes of the work. Onegin is a secular young, metropolitan aristocrat who received a typical upbringing for that time under the guidance of a French tutor in the spirit of literature, cut off from national and popular soil. He leads the life of "golden youth": balls, walks along Nevsky Prospekt, visits to theaters. Although Onegin studied "something and somehow", he still has a high level of culture, differing in this respect from the majority of noble society. Pushkin hero- a product of this society, but at the same time it is alien to it. The nobility of the soul, the “sharp chilled mind” set him apart from the environment of aristocratic youth, gradually lead to disappointment in the life and interests of secular society, to dissatisfaction with the political and social situation: No, his feelings cooled down early, He was bored with the noise of light ...
The emptiness of life torments Onegin, he is overcome by spleen, boredom, and he leaves secular society, trying to engage in socially useful activities. The lordly upbringing, the lack of the habit of work (“hard work was sickening to him”) played a role, and Onegin does not complete any of his undertakings. He lives "without purpose, without labor." In the village, Onegin behaves humanely towards the peasants, but he does not think about their fate, he is more tormented by his own moods, a sense of the emptiness of life.
Having broken with secular society and being cut off from the life of the people, he loses contact with people. He rejects the love of Tatyana Larina, a gifted, morally pure girl, unable to unravel the depths of her requests, the originality of nature. Onegin kills his friend Lensky, succumbing to class prejudice, frightened by the "whisper, laughter of fools." In a depressed state of mind, Onegin leaves the village and begins wandering around Russia. These wanderings give him the opportunity to take a fuller look at life, reassess his attitude towards surrounding reality to understand how fruitlessly he wasted his life. Onegin returns to the capital and meets the same picture of the life of secular society. Love for Tatyana, now a married woman, flares up in him. But Tatyana has unraveled the selfishness and selfishness underlying the feelings for her, and rejects Onegin's love. With Onegin's love for Tatyana, Pushkin emphasizes that his hero is capable of moral rebirth, that he is not a person who has cooled off to everything, the forces of life are still seething in him, which, according to the poet's plan, should have awakened in Onegin the desire for social activity.
The image of Eugene Onegin opens up a whole gallery of “superfluous people”. Following Pushkin, images of Pechorin, Oblomov, Rudin, Laevsky were created. All these images are an artistic reflection of Russian reality.
"Eugene Onegin" - realistic novel in verse, since it presented the reader with truly living images of Russian people early XIX century. The novel gives a broad artistic generalization of the main trends in Russian social development. One can say about the novel in the words of the poet himself - this is in which “the century and modern man are reflected”. “The encyclopedia of Russian life” called Pushkin's novel by V. G. Belinsky.
In this novel, as in an encyclopedia, you can learn everything about the era, about the culture of that time: about how they dressed and what was in fashion (”wide bolivar”, tailcoat, Onegin’s vest, Tatyana’s crimson beret), menus of prestigious restaurants (” bloody steak”, cheese, bubbly ai, champagne, Strasbourg pie), what was going on in the theater (Didro’s ballets), who performed (the dancer Istomina). You can even create an exact daily routine young man. No wonder P. A. Pletnev, a friend of Pushkin, wrote about the first chapter of “Eugene Onegin”: “Your Onegin will be a pocket mirror of Russian youth.”
Throughout the course of the novel and in lyrical digressions, the poet shows all layers of Russian society of that time: the high society of St. Petersburg, noble Moscow, the local nobility, the peasantry - that is, the whole people. This allows us to speak of "Eugene Onegin" as a truly folk work.
Petersburg of that time was the habitat the best people Russia - Decembrists, writers. There “shone Fonvizin, a friend of freedom”, people of art - Knyaznin, Istomina. The author knew and loved St. Petersburg well, he is accurate in his descriptions, not forgetting either “the salt of worldly anger”, “necessary fools”, “starched impudent ones”, and the like.
Through the eyes of a metropolitan resident, Moscow is shown to us - the “fair of brides”. Moscow is provincial, somewhat patriarchal. Describing the Moscow nobility, Pushkin is often sarcastic: in the living rooms he notices "incoherent vulgar nonsense." But at the same time, the poet loves Moscow, the heart of Russia: "Moscow ... How much has merged in this sound for the Russian heart." He is proud of Moscow in the 12th year: “Napoleon, intoxicated with his last happiness, waited in vain for Moscow kneeling with the keys of the old Kremlin.”
Contemporary Russia is rural, and he emphasizes this with a play on words in the epigraph to the second chapter. This is probably why the gallery of characters of the local nobility in the novel is the most representative. Let's try to consider the main types of landowners shown by Pushkin. How a comparison immediately suggests itself with another great study of Russian life in the 19th century - Gogol's poem Dead Souls.
The handsome Lensky, “with a heart straight out of Goettingham,” a German romantic, “an admirer of Kant,” if he hadn’t died in a duel, could, according to the author, have the future of a great poet or, in twenty years, turn into a sort of Manilov and end his life the way old Larin or Uncle Onegin.
The tenth chapter of Onegin is completely devoted to the Decembrists. Pushkin unites himself with the Decembrists Lunin and Yakushkin, foreseeing "in this crowd of nobles the liberators of the peasants." The appearance of Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" had a huge impact on the further development of Russian literature. penetrating lyricism, novel, has become an integral feature of noble nest”, “and the world”, “The Cherry Orchard”. It is also important that the protagonist of the novel, as it were, opens up a whole gallery of “superfluous people” in Russian literature: Pechorin, Rudin, Oblomov.
Need a cheat sheet? Then save it - "The creative history of the creation of the novel" Eugene Onegin ". Literary writings!186 years ago in the village of Boldino Nizhny Novgorod region Alexander Pushkin completed many years of work on his most famous work, Eugene Onegin. the site recalls interesting facts related to the first verse novel in Russia.
Fact 1. Romance 7 years long
Pushkin worked on "Eugene Onegin" for seven long years. He began in May 1823 in southern exile and finished in September 1830 - this period in Pushkin's work is usually called Boldin's autumn.
With the same loud epithet, the poet awarded only one more of his works - “Boris Godunov”.
By the way, before that, in world literature in the genre of the novel in verse, only one analogue was written - romantic work George Gordon Byron"Don Juan".
Fact 2. Special stanza
Especially for his novel in verse, Alexander Sergeevich came up with a special line of poetry.The work is based on 14-line sonnets written in iambic tetrameter.
In them, the first four lines rhyme crosswise, the lines from the fifth to the eighth - in pairs, the lines from the ninth to the twelfth are connected by a ring rhyme. The remaining two lines rhyme with each other. The new kind called "Onegin's stanza".
Follower in its use was Mikhail Lermontov, who wrote his "Tambov Treasurer" in this size. What he himself admits in this poem:
“Let me be known as an Old Believer,
I don't care - I'm even glad:
I write Onegin in size;
I sing, friends, in the old way.
Please listen to this story!
Her unexpected denouement
Approve, maybe you
With a slight bow of the head
An ancient custom of observing
We are beneficent wine
Let's drink the rough verses,
And they will run, limping,
For a peaceful family
To the river of oblivion to rest.
Fact 3. Encyclopedia of Russian life
"Onegin" can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and in the highest degree folk work, ”the famous literary critic wrote about the novel Vissarion Belinsky. Indeed, a novel in verse is not just a story about the adventures of a young nobleman Onegin. From it you can learn about the way of life, life, tradition of various strata of society. Pushkin literally encyclopedically accurately reflected the Russian reality of the beginning of the 19th century, spoke about the high society of the capital, the gentlemen of Moscow, noble salons, landowners, peasants.
The novel covers events from 1819 to 1825: from the foreign campaigns of the Russian army after the defeat of Napoleon to the Decembrist uprising.
The public appreciated it. The first chapters were greeted enthusiastically.
In the “Library for Reading” they will write as follows: “It is read in all nooks and crannies of the Russian Empire, in all strata of Russian society. Everyone remembers a few verses by heart. Many of the poet's thoughts have become proverbs.
But there were also those who were dissatisfied. Baratynsky wrote to Kireevsky: “... Onegin is not deeply developed. Tatyana has no features. Lensky is insignificant. Local descriptions are fine, but only where the plastic is clean. There is nothing that would decisively characterize our Russian way of life…”.
Fact 4. Onegin is not a scoundrel
Onegin is blamed by many for rejecting the young Tatyana. However, this act can be considered from the other side - a mature man did not take advantage of the weakness of a completely child. Although the exact age of the heroine is not indicated in the novel, according to a number of researchers, Tatiana at the time of writing her famous letter it was… 13 years old!
Tatyana Larina was only 13 years old? Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
"British muse of fiction
The sleep of the maiden is disturbed.
This is how Pushkin writes about Larina. Judging by the famous explanatory dictionary Vladimir Dahl, a contemporary of Pushkin, the maiden is a girl aged 7 to 15 years.
A certain thirteen-year-old girl is also mentioned in the chapter beginning with the lines “What less woman we love…".
The fact that Onegin acted not meanly, but, on the contrary, nobly, is also evidenced by the remark of the author himself.
“Perhaps the feelings of the old ardor
He took possession of him for a moment;
But he didn't want to cheat.
The gullibility of an innocent soul."
Fact 5. Wanted to change the plot
Initially, Pushkin intended to write a novel of 9 chapters, but later he excluded the chapter "Onegin's Journey" from the main text. It was dedicated to the trip of the protagonist to the military settlements in the area of the Odessa pier and contained critical judgments. The author, fearing possible persecution and reprisals, destroyed its only copy.
By the way, Alexander Sergeevich, wanting to give the work a more finished look, initially wanted to either send Eugene Onegin to fight in the Caucasus, or turn him into a Decembrist. However, in the end, he allowed the reader to think out the ending.
In the novel, we leave a discouraged Eugene, who has just heard the answer of the grown-up Tatyana:
“I love you (why lie?),
But I am given to another;
I will be faithful to him forever.
The novel "Eugene Onegin" is a work of amazing creative destiny. It was created over seven years - from May 1823 to September 1830. But work on the text did not stop until the appearance of the first complete edition in 1833. The last author's version of the novel was published in 1837. Pushkin has no works that would have such a long creative history. The novel was not written “in one breath”, but was composed of stanzas and chapters created at different times, in different circumstances, in different periods of creativity. The work on the novel covers four periods of Pushkin's work - from the southern exile to the Boldin autumn of 1830.
The work was interrupted not only by the twists of Pushkin's fate and new ideas, for the sake of which he threw the text of "Eugene Onegin". Some poems ("The Demon", "The Desert Sower of Freedom...") arose from drafts of the novel. In the drafts of the second chapter (written in 1824), Horace's verse "Exegi monumentum" flashed through, which 12 years later became the epigraph to the poem "I erected a monument to myself not made by hands ...". It seemed that history itself was not very favorable to Pushkin's work: from a novel about a contemporary and modern life, as the poet conceived of "Eugene Onegin", after 1825 he became a novel about another historical era. The "internal chronology" of the novel covers about 6 years - from 1819 to the spring of 1825.
All chapters were published from 1825 to 1832 as independent parts of a large work, and even before the completion of the novel they became facts of the literary process. Perhaps, if we take into account the fragmentation, discontinuity of Pushkin's work, it can be argued that the novel was for him something like a huge " notebook" or a poetic "album" ("notebooks" sometimes calls the chapters of the novel the poet himself). For more than seven years, the records were replenished with sorrowful "notes" of the heart and "observations" of a cold mind.
This feature of the novel drew the attention of its first critics. So, N.I. Nadezhdin, denying him the unity and harmony of presentation, correctly defined the appearance of the work - "a poetic album of live impressions of talent, playing with its wealth." An interesting "image-outline" of "Eugene Onegin", supplementing Pushkin's judgments about the "free" novel, can be seen in the crossed out stanza of the seventh chapter, which spoke of Onegin's album:
He was painted, painted
Onegin's hand all around,
Between the incomprehensible maranya
Flashed thoughts, remarks,
Portraits, numbers, names,
Yes, letters, the secrets of writing,
Fragments, draft letters...
The first chapter, published in 1825, pointed to Eugene Onegin as the protagonist of the intended work. However, from the very beginning of work on the “great poem”, the author needed the figure of Onegin not only to express his ideas about “modern man”. There was another goal: Onegin was destined for the role of the central character, who, like a magnet, would "attract" heterogeneous life and literary material. The silhouette of Onegin and the silhouettes of other characters, barely outlined plot lines, gradually cleared up as the work on the novel progressed. From under the thick layers of rough notes, the contours of the fates and characters of Onegin, Tatyana Larina, Lensky appeared (“finished”), a unique image was created - image of the Author.
The portrait of the Author is hidden. Try to imagine his appearance - apart from a white spot, nothing will appear in front of you. We know a lot about the Author - about his fate and the spiritual world, about literary views and even about the wines that he loves. But the Author in "Eugene Onegin" is a man without a face, without appearance, without a name.
The author is the narrator and at the same time the "hero" of the novel. The Author reflected the personality of the creator of "Eugene Onegin". Pushkin gave him much of what he experienced, felt and changed his mind himself. However, identifying the Author with Pushkin is a gross mistake. It must be remembered that the Author is artistic image. The relationship between the Author in Eugene Onegin and Pushkin, the creator of the novel, is exactly the same as between the image of any person in a literary work and his prototype in real life. The image of the Author is autobiographical, it is the image of a person whose "biography" partially coincides with real biography Pushkin, and the spiritual world and views on literature are a reflection of Pushkin's.
The study of the novel requires a special approach: first of all, it is necessary to carefully re-read it, having a commentary at hand (for example, Yu.M. Lotman’s book “A.S. text: it contains many realities, allusions and allegories that require explanation. The structure of the novel should be studied (dedication, epigraphs, sequence and content of chapters, the nature of the narrative, interrupted by author's digressions, author's notes). Only after this can one begin to study the main images of the novel, the plot and composition, the system of characters, the author's digressions and the image of the Author.
The novel "Eugene Onegin" is the most difficult work of Pushkin, despite the apparent lightness and simplicity. V. G. Belinsky called "Eugene Onegin" "an encyclopedia of Russian life", emphasizing the scale of Pushkin's "many years of work." This is not a critical praise of the novel, but its capacious metaphor. Behind the "variegation" of chapters and stanzas, the change in narrative techniques, there is a harmonious concept of a fundamentally innovative literary work - a "novel of life", which has absorbed a huge socio-historical, everyday, literary material.
The innovation of the "novel in verse" was manifested primarily in the fact that Pushkin found a new type of problematic hero - the "hero of time". Eugene Onegin became such a hero. His fate, character, relationships with people are determined by the totality of the circumstances of modern reality, outstanding personal qualities and the circle of "eternal", universal problems that he faces.
Onegin's personality was formed in the St. Petersburg secular environment. In a detailed background (chapter one), Pushkin noted the main social factors that determined its character. This is belonging to the highest stratum of the nobility, the usual upbringing, training for this circle, the first steps in the world, the experience of a "monotonous and motley" life for eight years. The life of a "free" nobleman, not burdened by service - vain, carefree, full of entertainment and love stories - fits into one tiringly long day. Onegin in his early youth - "having fun and luxury a child", "a kind fellow, / Like you and me, like the whole world."
At this stage of his life, Onegin is an original, witty man in his own way, a “small scientist”, but still quite ordinary, dutifully following the secular “decency crowd”. The only thing in which Onegin “was a true genius”, that “he knew more firmly than all sciences”, as the Author remarks, not without irony, was “the science of tender passion”, that is, the “art” of loving without loving, imitating feelings and passions, remaining cold and prudent. However, Onegin is interesting to Pushkin not as a representative of a common social type, the whole essence of which is exhausted positive characteristic, issued by the light-wasp rumor: “N. N. is a wonderful person.”
Onegin's character and life are shown in motion and development. In the first chapter we see crucial moment in his fate: he was able to abandon the stereotypes of secular behavior, from the noisy, but internally empty "ritual of life." Pushkin showed how a bright, outstanding personality suddenly appeared from a faceless, but demanding unconditional obedience crowd. Social intuition prompted the poet that it was not life "on the old pattern", but precisely the ability to overthrow the "burden" of its conditions, "leave behind the hustle and bustle" - the main sign of modern man.
Onegin's seclusion - his undeclared conflict with the world in the first chapter and with the society of village landowners in the second-sixth chapters - only at first glance seems to be a "fad" caused by purely individual reasons: boredom, "Russian blues", disappointment in the "science of tender passion" . This is a new stage in the life of a hero. Pushkin emphasizes that Onegin's "inimitable strangeness" is a kind of protest against social and spiritual dogmas that suppress a person's personality, depriving him of the right to be himself. The emptiness of the hero's soul was the result of emptiness and lack of content. secular life. Onegin is looking for new spiritual values, a new path: in St. Petersburg and in the countryside, he diligently reads books, tries to write, communicates with a few people who are close in spirit (among them are the Author and Lensky). In the countryside, he even tried to "establish a new order", replacing the corvée with "easy dues".
Pushkin does not simplify his hero. The search for new life truths dragged on for many years and remained unfinished. The inner drama of this process is obvious: Onegin painfully frees himself from the burden of old ideas about life and people, but the past does not let him go. It seems that Onegin is the rightful master of his own life. But this is only an illusion. In St. Petersburg and in the countryside, he is equally bored - he still cannot overcome his spiritual laziness, cold skepticism, demonism, dependence on "public opinion".
The hero is by no means a victim of society and circumstances. By changing his lifestyle, he took responsibility for his own destiny. His actions depend on his determination, will, faith in people. However, having abandoned the secular fuss, Onegin became not a doer, but a contemplator. The feverish pursuit of pleasure gave way to solitary reflections. The two tests that awaited him in the countryside - the test of love and the test of friendship - showed that external freedom does not automatically entail liberation from false prejudices and opinions.
In relations with Tatyana Onegin proved himself to be a noble and mentally subtle person. He managed to see in the "maiden in love" genuine and sincere feelings, alive, and not bookish passions. You can’t blame the hero for not responding to Tatyana’s love: as you know, you can’t command the heart. But the fact is that Onegin listened not to the voice of his heart, but to the voice of reason. Even in the first chapter, the author noted in Onegin "a sharp, chilled mind" and an inability to strong feelings. Onegin is a cold, rational person. This spiritual disproportion became the cause of the drama of failed love. Onegin does not believe in love and is not capable of falling in love. The meaning of love is exhausted for him by the "science of tender passion" or the "home circle" that limits the freedom of man.
Onegin also did not stand the test of friendship. And in this case, the cause of the tragedy was his inability to live a life of feeling. No wonder the author, commenting on the state of the hero before the duel, remarks: "He could have discovered feelings, / And not bristle like a beast." Both at Tatyana's name day and before the duel, Onegin showed himself to be a "ball of prejudice", deaf both to the voice of his own heart and to Lensky's feelings. His behavior at the name day is the usual "social anger", and the duel is the result of indifference and fear of the evil-speaking of the "old duelist" Zaretsky and the landlord neighbors. Onegin did not notice how he became a prisoner of his old idol - "public opinion". After the murder of Lensky, Onegin was seized by "anguish of heartfelt remorse." Only tragedy could open to him a previously inaccessible world of feelings.
In the eighth chapter, Pushkin showed a new stage in the spiritual development of Onegin. Having met Tatiana in St. Petersburg, Onegin was completely transformed. There is nothing left of the former, cold and rational person in him - he is an ardent lover, not noticing anything except the object of his love (and this is very reminiscent of Lensky). Onegin experienced a real feeling for the first time, but it turned into a new love drama: now Tatyana could not answer his belated love. Peculiar explanation psychological state enamored Onegin, his inevitable love drama is the author's digression "Love is submissive to all ages ..." (stanza XXIX). As before, in the foreground in the characterization of the hero is the relationship between reason and feeling. Now the mind has been defeated - Onegin loves, "the mind is not heeding strict penalties." He “almost lost his mind / Or did not become a poet,” the Author notes, not without irony. In the eighth chapter there are no results of the spiritual development of the hero who believed in love and happiness. Onegin did not achieve the desired goal; there is still no harmony between feeling and reason in him. Pushkin leaves his character open, incomplete, emphasizing Onegin's very ability to drastically change value orientations and, let's note, readiness for action, for an act.
Pay attention to how often the Author reflects on love and friendship, on the relationship between lovers and friends. Love and friendship for Pushkin are two touchstones on which a person is tested, they reveal the richness of the soul or its emptiness. Onegin closed himself off from the false values of the "empty light", despising their false brilliance, but neither in St. Petersburg nor in the countryside did he discover true values - universal human values. The author showed how difficult it is for a person to move towards simple and understandable, it would seem, life truths, what trials he must go through in order to understand - both with his mind and heart - the greatness and significance of love and friendship. From class limitations and prejudices, inspired by upbringing and idle life, through rational demonic nihilism, which denies not only false, but also true life values, to the discovery of love, the high world of feelings - this is the path of the spiritual development of the hero draws Pushkin.
Lensky and Tatyana Larina are not only plot partners of the title character. These are full-blooded images of contemporaries, in whose fate the century was also “reflected”.
Romantic and poet Lensky seems to be the spiritual and social antipode of Onegin, an exceptional hero, completely cut off from everyday life, from Russian life. Worldly inexperience, ardor love feelings to Olga, "rivers" of elegies written in the spirit of "dull romanticism" - all this separates the eighteen-year-old landowner from the former Petersburg rake. The author, reporting on their acquaintance, first raises the differences between them to an absolute degree (“They came together. Wave and stone, / Poetry and prose, ice and fire / Not so different from each other”), but immediately indicates that it is precisely “mutual different," they liked each other. There was a paradoxical friendship "from nothing to do."
Not only extremes connected the heroes - there is a lot in common between them. Onegin and Lensky are alienated from the landlord environment, each of them expresses one of the tendencies of Russian spiritual life: Onegin - disappointment and skepticism, Lensky - romantic daydreaming and an impulse towards the ideal. Both tendencies are part of European spiritual development. Onegin's idols are Byron and Napoleon. Lensky is an admirer of Kant and Schiller. Lensky is also looking for the purpose of life: "The purpose of our life for him / Was a tempting mystery, / He puzzled over it / And suspected miracles." And most importantly, the character of Lensky, like the character of Onegin, is disharmonious, incomplete. The sensitive Lensky is just as far from Pushkin's ideal human harmony, like the rationalist Onegin.
With Lensky, the novel includes the themes of youth, friendship, cordial "ignorance", devotion to feelings, youthful courage and nobility. In an effort to protect Olga from the "corruptor", the hero is mistaken, but this is a sincere delusion. Lensky is a poet (another poet in the novel is the Author himself), and although there is a lot of irony, good-natured ridicule, banter in the author's commentary on his poems, the Author notes in them the authenticity of feelings and wit:
Not madrigals Lensky writes
In Olga's album young;
His pen breathes love
Not coldly shines with sharpness;
What neither sees nor hears
About Olga, he writes about that:
And, full of living truth,
The elegies flow like a river.
The unusual nature of the hero is explained by the author from a social standpoint. Lensky's soul did not fade from the "cold debauchery of the world", he was brought up not only in "Germany foggy", but also in the Russian village. There is more Russian in the "half-Russian" dreamer Lensky than in the crowd of surrounding landowners. The author sadly writes about his death, twice (in the sixth and seventh chapters) leads the reader to his grave. The author is saddened not only by the death of Lensky, but also by the possible impoverishment of youthful romanticism, the hero's growing into the inert landlord environment. With this version of Lensky's fate, the fates of the lover of sentimental novels Praskovya Larina and the "village old-timer" Uncle Onegin ironically "rhyme".
Tatyana Larina - "cute Ideal" of the Author. He does not hide his sympathy for the heroine, emphasizing her sincerity, depth of feelings and experiences, innocence and devotion to love. Her personality manifests itself in the sphere of love and family relations. Like Onegin, she can be called a "genius of love." Tatyana is a participant in the main plot action, in which her role is comparable to the role of Onegin.
The character of Tatyana, like the character of Onegin, is dynamic, developing. Usually pay attention to a sharp change in its social status And appearance in the last chapter: instead of a village young lady, direct and open, a majestic and cold secular lady, a princess, “legislator of the hall”, appeared before Onegin. Her inner world is closed from the reader: Tatyana does not utter a word until her final monologue. The author also keeps a “secret” about her soul, limiting herself to the “visual” characteristics of the heroine (“How harsh! / She doesn’t see him, not a word with him; / Oh! how she is now surrounded / by Epiphany cold!”). However, the eighth chapter shows the third, final stage of the heroine's spiritual development. Its character changes significantly already in the "village" chapters. These changes are connected with her attitude to love, to Onegin, with ideas about duty.
In the second - fifth chapters, Tatyana appears as an internally contradictory person. Genuine feelings and sensitivity, inspired by sentimental novels, coexist in it. The author, characterizing the heroine, points first of all to the circle of her reading. Novels, the author emphasizes, "replaced everything" for her. Indeed, dreamy, alienated from her friends, so unlike Olga, Tatyana perceives everything around her as a novel that has not yet been written, she imagines herself as the heroine of her favorite books. The abstractness of Tatyana's dreams is shaded by a literary and everyday parallel - the biography of her mother, who also in her youth was "mad about Richardson", loved "Grandison", but, having married "by captivity", "was torn and cried at first", and then turned into ordinary landowner. Tatyana, who was expecting "someone" similar to the heroes of novels, saw in Onegin just such a hero. “But our hero, whoever he was, / Surely it was not Grandison,” the Author ironically. The behavior of Tatyana in love is based on the novel models known to her. Her letter, written in French, is an echo of the love letters of the heroines of the novels. The author translates Tatyana's letter, but his role as a "translator" is not limited to this: he is constantly forced, as it were, to release the true feelings of the heroine from the captivity of book templates.
A revolution in Tatyana's fate takes place in the seventh chapter. External changes in her life are only a consequence of the complex process that went on in her soul after Onegin's departure. She was finally convinced of her "optical" deception. Restoring Onegin's appearance according to the "traces" left in his estate, she realized that her lover was an utterly mysterious, strange person, but not at all the one she took him for. The main result of Tatyana's "research" was love not for a literary chimera, but for a genuine Onegin. She completely freed herself from bookish ideas about life. Finding herself in new circumstances, not hoping for a new meeting and reciprocity of her lover, Tatyana makes a decisive moral choice: she agrees to go to Moscow and get married. Note that this free choice a heroine for whom "all lots are equal". She loves Onegin, but voluntarily submits to her duty to her family. Thus, Tatyana's words in the last monologue - “But I am given to another; / I will be faithful to him for a century ”- news for Onegin, but not for the reader: the heroine only confirmed the choice made earlier.
One should not oversimplify the question of the influence on Tatyana's character of the new circumstances of her life. IN last episode In the novel, the contrast between secular and "domestic" Tatyana becomes obvious: "Who would have known the former Tanya, poor Tanya / Now I would not recognize the princess!" However, the heroine's monologue testifies not only to the fact that she retained her former spiritual qualities, loyalty to love for Onegin and his marital duty. Onegin's Lesson is full of unfair remarks and absurd assumptions. Tatyana does not understand the feelings of the hero, seeing in his love only secular intrigue, a desire to drop her honor in the eyes of society, accusing him of self-interest. Onegin's love is "littleness" for her, "a petty feeling," and in him she sees only the slave of this feeling. Again, as once in the village, Tatyana sees and "does not recognize" the real Onegin. Her false idea of him was born of the world, that “oppressive dignity”, the methods of which, as the Author noted, she “soon adopted”. Tatyana's monologue reflects her inner drama. The meaning of this drama is not in the choice between love for Onegin and fidelity to her husband, but in the "corrosion" of feelings that occurred in the heroine under the influence of secular society. Tatyana lives in memories and is not even able to believe in the sincerity of the person who loves her. The disease, from which Onegin was so painfully freed, also struck Tatyana. The “Empty Light”, as if reminded by the wise Author, is hostile to any manifestation of a living, human feeling.
The main characters of "Eugene Onegin" are free from predeterminedness, one-linearity. Pushkin refuses to see in them the embodiment of vices or "exemplars of perfection." The novel consistently implements new principles for depicting characters. The author will make it clear that he does not have ready-made answers to all questions about their destinies, characters, psychology. Rejecting the role of the “all-knowing” narrator, traditional for the Roma, he “hesitates”, “doubts”, and is sometimes inconsistent in his judgments and assessments. The author, as it were, invites the reader to complete the portraits of the characters, imagine their behavior, try to look at them from a different, unexpected point of view. For this purpose, numerous "pauses" (missing lines and stanzas) are also introduced into the novel. The reader must "recognize" the characters, correlate them with own life, with their thoughts, feelings, habits, superstitions, read books and magazines.
The appearance of Onegin, Tatyana Larina, Lensky is formed not only from the characteristics, observations and assessments of the Author - the creator of the novel, but also from rumors, gossip, rumors. Each hero appears in a halo public opinion, reflecting the points of view of the most different people: friends, acquaintances, relatives, neighbors, landowners, secular gossips. Society is the source of rumors about heroes. For the author, this is a rich set of worldly "optics", which he turns into artistic "optics". The reader is invited to choose the view of the hero that is closer to him, it seems the most reliable and convincing. The author, recreating the picture of opinions, reserves the right to place the necessary accents, gives the reader social and moral guidelines.
"Eugene Onegin" looks like an improvisational novel. The effect of a casual conversation with the reader is created primarily expressive possibilities iambic tetrameter - Pushkin's favorite meter and the flexibility created by Pushkin specifically for the novel "Onegin" stanza, which includes 14 verses of iambic tetrameter with strict rhyming CCdd EffE gg(capital letters denote feminine endings, lowercase letters denote masculine endings). The author called his lyre "talkative", emphasizing the "free" nature of the narration, the variety of intonations and styles of speech - from the "high", bookish to the colloquial style of ordinary village gossip "about haymaking, about wine, about the kennel, about one's family."
A novel in verse is a consistent denial of the well-known, universally recognized laws of the genre. And it's not just a daring rejection of the usual prose speech for the novel. In "Eugene Onegin" there is no coherent narrative about the characters and events that fits into the predetermined framework of the plot. In such a plot, the action develops smoothly, without breaks and digressions - from the beginning of the action to its denouement. Step by step, the author goes to his main goal - to create images of heroes against the backdrop of a logically verified plot scheme.
In "Eugene Onegin" the narrator now and then "departs" from the story of the characters and events, indulging in "free" reflections on biographical, everyday and literary topics. The characters and the Author are constantly changing places: either the characters or the Author are in the center of the reader's attention. Depending on the content of specific chapters, there may be more or less such “intrusions” by the Author, but the principle of “landscape”, outwardly unmotivated, connection of plot narration with author’s monologues is preserved in almost all chapters. The exception is the fifth chapter, in which Tatyana's dream occupies more than 10 stanzas and a new plot knot is tied - Lensky's quarrel with Onegin.
The plot narrative is also heterogeneous: it is accompanied by more or less detailed author's "remarks aside". From the very beginning of the novel, the author reveals himself, as if peeking out from behind the backs of the characters, reminding him of who is leading the story, who is creating the world of the novel.
The plot of the novel outwardly resembles a chronicle of the life of the heroes - Onegin, Lensky, Tatyana Larina. As in any newsreel, there is no central conflict. The action is built around conflicts that arise in the sphere of private life (love and friendship). But only a sketch of a coherent chronicle narrative is created. Already in the first chapter, containing Onegin's background, one day of his life is described in detail, and the events associated with his arrival in the village are simply listed. Onegin spent several months in the village, but the narrator was not interested in many details of his village life. Only individual episodes are reproduced quite fully (a trip to the Larins, an explanation with Tatiana, a name day and a duel). Onegin's almost three-year journey, which was supposed to link two periods of his life, is simply omitted.
Time in the novel does not coincide with real time: it is either compressed, compressed, or stretched. The author often, as it were, invites the reader to simply “flip through” the pages of the novel, briefly reporting on the actions of the characters, on their daily activities. Separate episodes, on the contrary, are enlarged, stretched out in time - attention is delayed on them. They resemble dramatic "scenes" with dialogues, monologues, with clearly defined scenery (see, for example, the scene of Tatyana's conversation with the nanny in the third chapter, the explanation of Tatyana and Onegin, divided into two "phenomena" - in the third and fourth chapters).
The author emphasizes that the lifetime of his heroes, story time, is an artistic convention. The "calendar" of the novel, contrary to Pushkin's semi-serious assurance in one of the notes - "in our novel, time is calculated according to the calendar" - is special. It consists of days, which are equal to months and years, and months, and even years, which have been awarded several remarks by the Author. The illusion of a chronicle narrative is supported by "phenological notes" - indications of the change of seasons, weather and seasonal activities of people.
The author either simply keeps silent about many events, or replaces the direct depiction of events with a story about them. This is the most important principle of storytelling. For example, Onegin's disputes with Lensky are reported as a permanent form of friendly communication, the topics of disputes are listed, but none of them is shown. The same device of silence about events or their simple enumeration is used in the eighth chapter, where the Author tells about Onegin's unsuccessful attempts to explain himself to Tatyana. More than two years pass between the events of the seventh and eighth chapters. This discontinuity in the narrative is particularly noticeable.
The plot of the eighth chapter is separate from the plot of the first seven chapters. The character system has changed. In the first, “village” chapters, it was rather branched: the central characters are Onegin, Tatyana, Lensky, the secondary ones are Olga, Praskovya Larina, the nanny, Zaretsky, Princess Alina, episodic characters appear in the fifth and seventh chapters: guests at the name day, outlined one or two strokes, the Moscow relatives of the Larins. In the eighth chapter, the system of characters is much simpler: Onegin and Tatyana remain the central characters, Tatyana's husband appears twice, there are several nameless episodic characters. The eighth chapter can be perceived as a completely independent plot narrative, which, however, does not have the same detailed exposition as the plot of the first seven chapters, and the denouement of the action: Onegin was left by the Author "in a moment of evil for him", nothing is reported about his further fate.
Many plot situations in the novel are outlined, but remain unrealized. The author creates the impression that he has many options for the development of events in his hands, from which he chooses the necessary one or refuses to choose at all, leaving it to the reader to do it himself. The principle of plot "multiple options" is already set in the first stanzas of the novel: Onegin (and the reader) does not know what awaits him in the village - the agonizing expectation of the death of his uncle, or, on the contrary, he will arrive already as the owner of the “charming corner” (later the Author also reports on another, unrealized, option the life of the hero: "Onegin was ready with me / To see foreign countries"). At the end of the novel, literally “throwing” Onegin, the Author, as it were, invites the reader to choose among the many options completion of the story.
Traditional novel schemes - overcoming obstacles that arise between lovers, love rivalry, happy endings - Pushkin outlines, but resolutely discards. In fact, there are no external obstacles before Onegin and Tatiana, Lensky and Olga, nothing prevents the seemingly happy end of their relationship. Tatiana loves Onegin, he sympathizes with Tatiana. All the neighbors unanimously tipped Onegin for her as a suitor, but the Author chooses a path dictated not by the logic of a "family" novel, but by the logic of the characters' characters. Lensky and Olga are even closer to the "secret of the wedding bed", but instead of a wedding and paintings family life- the duel and death of Lensky, Olga's short-lived sadness and her departure with the lancer. The accomplished version of Lensky's fate is supplemented by two more, unrealized. Already after the death of the hero, the Author reflects on his two “destinies” - high, poetic, about life “for the good of the world”, and quite ordinary, “prosaic”: “I would part with the muses, get married, / In the village, happy and horned, / I would wear a quilted robe."
All versions of the plot action, at first glance, contradict each other. But the narrator needs them equally. He emphasizes that the novel arises from sketches, drafts, from novel situations already “worked out” by other writers. It is in his hands that the "staff" does not allow the plot to wander "at random". In addition, unrealized plot options become important elements of the characterization of the characters, indicating the possible prospects for the development of their destinies. An interesting feature of the novel is the “plot self-awareness” of the characters: not only Onegin, Lensky, Tatyana, but also minor characters- Tatyana's mother, Princess Alina - are aware of the unfulfilled options for their lives.
Despite the obvious fragmentation, intermittent, "contradictory" nature of the narrative, "Eugene Onegin" is perceived as a work that has a well-thought-out structure, "the form of a plan." The novel has its own internal logic - it is consistently sustained principle of narrative symmetry.
The plot of the eighth chapter, despite its isolation, is a mirror image of part of the plot of the first seven chapters. There is a kind of “castling” of the characters: Onegin is in the place of Tatyana in love, and the cold, inaccessible Tatyana is in the role of Onegin. The meeting of Onegin and Tatyana at a social event, Onegin's letter, the explanation of the characters in the eighth chapter are plot parallels to similar situations in the third - fourth chapters. In addition, the "mirror image" of the eighth chapter in relation to the first is emphasized by topographical and biographical parallels. Onegin returns to St. Petersburg, visits the house of an old friend, Prince N. His love "romance" with Tatyana outwardly resembles secular "novels" that he has half forgotten. Having failed, “he again renounced the light. / And in a silent office / He remembered the time / When the cruel melancholy / Chased him in a noisy light ... "The author, as in the finale of the first chapter, recalls the beginning of work on the novel, about friends to whom" he read the first stanzas " .
Inside the "village" chapters, the same principle of symmetry operates. The seventh chapter is symmetrical to the first: if only Onegin is shown in the first chapter, then all the attention of the Author in the seventh chapter is focused on Tatyana - this is the only chapter where the main character is absent. There is a plot parallel between the couples Onegin - Tatyana and Lensky - Olga. After the episode that ends the brief love conflict between Onegin and Tatyana, the narrative abruptly switches: The author wants to "amuse the imagination / Picture happy love» Lensky and Olga. An implicit, hidden parallel is drawn between Tatyana's dream-phantasmagoria, filled with terrible monsters that came from two worlds - folklore and literary, and "a fun birthday party." The dream turns out to be not only “prophetic” (a quarrel and a duel are predicted in it), but also, as it were, a fantastic “draft” of a village ball.
The contradictions of improvisational narration and the compositional symmetry of chapters, episodes, scenes, descriptions - principles close to the technique of literary "montage" - do not exclude, but complement each other. Their interaction makes the novel a dynamic, internally unified artistic text.
The artistic uniqueness of the novel is largely determined by the special position that the Author occupies in it.
The author in Pushkin's novel is not a traditional narrator, leading the story of the characters and events, clearly separating himself from them and from the readers. The author is both the creator of the novel and at the same time its hero. He persistently reminds readers of the "literary" nature of the novel, that the text he creates is a new, life-like reality that must be perceived "positively", trusting his story. The heroes of the novel are fictional, everything that is said about them has nothing to do with real people. The world in which heroes live is also a fruit creative fantasy Author. Real life- only material for the novel, selected and organized by him, the creator of the novel world.
The author maintains a constant dialogue with the reader - shares "technical" secrets, writes the author's "criticism" on his novel and refutes possible opinions magazine critics, draws attention to the turns of the plot action, to breaks in time, introduces plans and drafts into the text - in a word, it does not let you forget that the novel has not yet been completed, it has not been presented to the reader as a book “ready to use”, which you just need to read. The novel is created right before the eyes of the reader, with his participation, with an eye to his opinion. The author sees him as a co-author, referring to the many-sided reader: "friend", "foe", "friend".
The author is the creator of the novel world, the creator of the plot narrative, but he is also its “destroyer”. The contradiction between the Author - the creator and the Author - the "destroyer" of the narrative arises when, interrupting the narrative, he himself enters the next "frame" of the novel - for a short time (with a remark, remark) or fills it entirely (with the author's monologue). However, the Author, breaking away from the plot, does not separate himself from his novel, becomes its "hero". We emphasize that the “hero” is a metaphor that conditionally designates the Author, because he is not ordinary hero, a participant in the plot. It is hardly possible to single out an independent "plot of the Author" in the text of the novel. The plot of the novel is one, the Author is outside the plot action.
The Author has a special place in the novel, defined more specifically by his two roles. The first is the role of the narrator, the narrator, commenting on everything that happens to the characters. The second is the role of the “representative” of life, which is also part of the novel, but does not fit into the framework literary plot. The author finds himself not only outside the plot, but also above the plot. His life is part of the general flow of life. He is the hero of the "novel of life", which is said in the last verses of "Eugene Onegin":
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.
Separate intersections of the Author and the characters (the meetings of Onegin and the Author in St. Petersburg, which are mentioned in the first chapter, Tatiana's letter (“I cherish him sacredly”), which came to him), emphasize that the characters of “my novel” are only a part of that life, which is represented in the novel by the Author.
Image of the Author created by other means than the images of Onegin, Tatyana, Lensky. The author is clearly separated from them, but at the same time, there are correspondences, semantic parallels between him and the main characters. Not being a character, the Author appears in the novel as the subject of utterances - remarks and monologues (they are usually called author's digressions). Speaking about life, about literature, about the novel that he creates, the Author either approaches the characters, or moves away from them. His judgments may coincide with their opinions or, conversely, oppose them. Each appearance of the Author in the text of the novel is a statement that corrects or evaluates the actions and views of the characters. Sometimes the Author directly points to the similarities or differences between himself and the characters: “We both knew the passion game; / Tormented by the life of both of us; / In both hearts the heat died down”; “I am always glad to notice the difference / Between Onegin and me”; “That’s exactly what my Eugene thought”; “Tatiana, dear Tatiana! / With you now I shed tears.
Most often, compositional and semantic parallels arise between the statements of the Author and the lives of the characters. The appearance of the author's monologues and remarks, which are not outwardly motivated, is connected with the plot episodes by deep semantic connections. General principle can be defined as follows: the action or characterization of the hero gives rise to a response from the Author, forcing him to talk about a particular subject. Each statement of the Author adds new touches to his portrait, becomes a component of his image.
The main role in creating the image of the Author is played by his monologues - copyright digressions. These are fragments of text that are completely complete in meaning, possessing a harmonious composition and unique style. For convenience of analysis, they can be divided into several groups.
Most of the digressions are lyrical and lyrical-philosophical. In them, saturated with a variety of life impressions, observations, joyful and sorrowful “notes of the heart”, philosophical reflections, the reader opens the spiritual world of the Author: this is the voice of the wise Poet, who has seen and experienced a lot in life. He experienced everything that makes up a person's life: strong, lofty feelings and the cold of doubts and disappointments, the sweet torments of love and creativity and the painful anguish of worldly fuss. He is either young, mischievous and passionate, or mocking and ironic. The author is attracted by women and wine, companionship, theatre, balls, poems and novels, but he also notes: “I was born for a peaceful life, / For village silence: / In the wilderness, the lyrical voice is more sonorous, / Creative dreams are more alive.” The author keenly feels the change in the ages of a person: the cross-cutting theme of his thoughts is youth and maturity, “the age is late and barren, / At the turn of our years.” The author is a philosopher who learned a lot of sad truth about people, but did not stop loving them.
Some digressions are imbued with the spirit of literary controversy. In an extensive digression in the third chapter (stanzas XI-XIV), first an ironic "historical and literary" reference is given, and then the Author introduces the reader to the plan of his "novel in the old way." In other digressions, the author gets involved in disputes about Russian literary language, emphasizing fidelity to the "Karamzinist" ideals of youth (Chapter Three, stanzas XXVII-XXIX), argues with the "strict critic" (V.K. Kuchelbecker) (Chapter Four, stanzas XXXII-XXXIII). Critically evaluating the literary opinions of opponents, the Author determines his literary position.
In a number of digressions, the Author sneers at ideas about life that are alien to him, and sometimes openly ridicules them. The objects of the author's irony in the digressions of the fourth chapter (stanzas VII-VIII - "The less we love a woman ..."; stanzas XVIII-XXII - "Everyone has enemies in the world ..."; stanzas XXVIII-XXX - "Of course, you do not once you have seen / the county young lady's album ... "), the eighth chapter (stanzas X-XI - "Blessed is he who was young from his youth ...") - vulgarity and hypocrisy, envy and malevolence, mental laziness and depravity, disguised by secular good breeding. Such digressions can be called ironic. The author, unlike the "honorable readers" from the secular crowd, has no doubts about the true life values and spiritual qualities of people. He is faithful to freedom, friendship, love, honor, he looks for spiritual sincerity and simplicity in people.
In many digressions, the Author appears as a Petersburg poet, a contemporary of the heroes of the novel. The reader will learn little about his fate, these are just biographical “points” (lyceum - Petersburg - South - village - Moscow - Petersburg), slips of the tongue, allusions, “dreams” that form the external background of the author's monologues. All digressions in the first chapter, part of the digressions in the eighth chapter (stanzas I-VII; stanzas XLIX-LI), in the third chapter (stanzas XXII-XXIII), in the fourth chapter (stanza XXXV), the famous digression in the finale of the sixth chapter have an autobiographical character. , in which the Author-poet says goodbye to youth (stanzas XLIII-XLVI), digression about Moscow in the seventh chapter (stanzas ХXXVI-XXXVII). Biographical details are also "ciphered" in literary and polemical digressions. The author takes into account that the reader is familiar with modern literary life.
The fullness of spiritual life, the ability to holistically perceive the world in the unity of light and dark sides- the main personality traits of the Author, which distinguish him from the heroes of the novel. It was in the Author that Pushkin embodied his ideal of man and poet.
The history of the creation of "Eugene Onegin" - "the fruit of the mind of cold observations and the heart of sad remarks" - by the outstanding Russian classic Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin does not resemble a blitzkrieg. The work was created by the poet in an evolutionary way, marking his formation on the path of realism. The novel in verse as an event in art was a unique phenomenon. Before that, only one analogue was written in the same genre in world literature - the romantic work of George Gordon Byron "Don Juan".
The author decides to brainstorm
Pushkin went further than the great Englishman - to realism. This time, the poet set himself the most important task - to show a person who can serve as a catalyst for the further development of Russia. Alexander Sergeevich, sharing the ideas of the Decembrists, understood that huge country should be moved, like a locomotive, from a dead end path that led the whole society to a systemic crisis.
The history of the creation of "Eugene Onegin" is determined by the titanic poetic work in the period from May 1823 to September 1830, the creative rethinking of Russian reality in the first quarter of the 19th century. The novel in verse was created during four stages of Alexander Sergeevich's work: southern exile (1820 - 1824), stay "without the right to arbitrarily leave the Mikhailovskoye estate" (1824 - 1826), the period after exile (1826 - 1830), Boldinskaya autumn (1830)
A.S. Pushkin, "Eugene Onegin": the history of creation
Young Pushkin, a graduate in the words of Emperor Alexander I, “who flooded Russia with the most outrageous verses,” began writing his novel while in exile in Chisinau (thanks to the intercession of friends, transfer to Siberia was avoided). By this time he was already the idol of Russian educated youth.
The poet sought to create the image of a hero of his time. In the work, he painfully searched for an answer to the question of what should be the bearer of new ideas, the creator of the new Russia.
Socio-economic situation in the country
Consider public environment in which the novel was created. Russia won the War of 1812. This gave a tangible impetus to public aspirations for liberation from feudal fetters. First of all, the people thirsted for. Such his release inevitably entailed the restriction of the powers of the monarch. The communities of guards officers that formed immediately after the war in 1816 in St. Petersburg form the Decembrist Union of Salvation. In 1818, the "Union of Welfare" was organized in Moscow. These Decembrist organizations actively contributed to the formation of liberal public opinion and waited for an opportune moment for a coup d'état. There were many friends of Pushkin among the Decembrists. He shared their views.
Russia by that time had already become a recognized European power with a population of about 40 million people, within it the sprouts of state capitalism were ripening. However, her economic life still determined the rudiments of feudalism, the nobility and the merchant class. These social groups, gradually losing social weight, were still powerful and enjoyed influence on the life of the state, prolonging feudal relations in the country. They were champions of a society built according to the outdated Catherine's noble principles inherent in Russia XVIII century.
There were characteristic signs of the social and the whole society. Many people lived in the country educated people who understand that the interests of development require major changes and reforms. The history of the creation of "Eugene Onegin" began with the poet's personal rejection of the environment, in the words of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, the "dark kingdom"
Rising after a powerful acceleration, set and dynamism during the reign of Empress Catherine II, Russia at the beginning of the 19th century slowed down the pace of development. At the time of Pushkin's famous novel, there were no railroads in the country, no steamboats sailed along its rivers, thousands and thousands of its hardworking and talented citizens were bound hand and foot by the bonds of serfdom.
The history of "Eugene Onegin" is inextricably linked with the history of Russia at the beginning of the 19th century.
Onegin stanza
Alexander Sergeevich, “the Russian Mozart of poetry”, treated his work with special attention. He developed a new line of poetry specifically for writing a novel in verse.
The words of the poet do not flow in a free stream, but in a structured way. Every fourteen lines are combined into a specific Onegin stanza. At the same time, rhyming is unchanged throughout the novel and has the following form: CCddEffEgg (where capital letters denote feminine endings, lowercase denote masculine endings).
Undoubtedly, the history of the creation of the novel "Eugene Onegin" is the history of the creation of the Onegin stanza. It is with the help of varying stanzas that the author succeeds in creating an analogue of prose sections and chapters in his work: moving from one topic to another, changing the style of presentation from reflection to the dynamic development of the plot. Thus, the author creates the impression of a casual conversation with his reader.
Roman - "collection of motley chapters"
What makes people write works about their generation and about their native land? Why, at the same time, do they devote themselves to this work completely, working as if they were possessed?
The history of the creation of the novel "Eugene Onegin" initially obeyed the author's intention: to create a novel in verse, consisting of 9 separate chapters. Experts on the work of Alexander Sergeevich call it “open in time” due to the fact that each of its chapters is independent, and can, according to its internal logic, complete the work, although it finds its continuation in the next chapter. His contemporary, Professor of Russian Literature Nikolai Ivanovich Nadezhdin, gave classic description"Eugene Onegin" is not as a work with a rigid logical structure, but rather as a kind of poetic notebook filled with direct iridescent overflows of bright talent.
About the chapters of the novel
The chapters of "Eugene Onegin" were published from 1825 to 1832. as they were written and published in literary almanacs and magazines. They were expected, each of them became a real event in cultural life Russia.
However, one of them, dedicated to the journey of the protagonist to the area of the Odessa pier, containing critical judgments, the disgraced author preferred to withdraw in order to avoid reprisals against himself, and then destroyed its only manuscript.
In the same way, fully devoting himself to work, Boris Leonidovich Pasternak later worked on his Doctor Zhivago, Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov also wrote about his generation. Pushkin himself called his more than seven years of work on this novel in verse a feat.
Main character
The description of Eugene Onegin, according to literary critics, resembles the personality of Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev, the author of the Philosophical Letters. This is a character with powerful energy, around which the plot of the novel unfolds and other characters manifest themselves. Pushkin wrote about him as a "good friend." Eugene received a classical noble education, completely devoid of "Russianness". And although a sharp but cold mind burns in him, he is a man of light, following certain opinions and prejudices. The life of Eugene Onegin is poor. On the one hand, the morals of the world are alien to him, he sharply criticizes them; and on the other hand, he is subject to its influence. The hero cannot be called active; rather, he is an intelligent observer.
Features of the image of Onegin
His image is tragic. First, he failed the test of love. Eugene listened to reason, but not to his heart. At the same time, he acted nobly, respectfully treating Tatiana, letting her know that he was not able to love.
Second, he failed the test of friendship. Having challenged his friend, the 18-year-old romantic youth Lensky, to a duel, he blindly follows the concepts of light. It seems to him more decent not to provoke the slander of the old note duelist Zaretsky than to stop a completely stupid quarrel with Vladimir. By the way, Pushkin scientists consider the young Kuchelbecker to be the prototype of Lensky.
Tatyana Larina
The use of the name Tatyana in the novel Eugene Onegin was a know-how from Pushkin. Indeed, at the beginning of the 19th century, this name was considered common and irrelevant. Moreover, dark-haired and not ruddy, thoughtful, uncommunicative, she did not correspond to the ideals of the beauty of the world. Tatyana (like the author of the novel) loved folk tales, which her nanny generously told her. However, her particular passion was reading books.
Heroes of the novel
In addition to the aforementioned plot-forming main characters, secondary ones pass before the reader. These images of the novel "Eugene Onegin" do not form the plot, but complement it. This is Tatyana's sister Olga, an empty secular young lady with whom Vladimir Lensky was in love. The image of the nanny Tatyana, a connoisseur folk tales, has a clear prototype - the nanny of Alexander Sergeevich himself, Arina Rodionovna. Another nameless hero of the novel is Tatyana Larina's newfound husband after a quarrel with Eugene Onegin - an "important general".
The host of landlords seems to be imported into Pushkin's novel from other Russian classical works. These are the Skotinins (“Undergrowth” by Fonvizin), and Buyanov (“Dangerous Neighbor” by V. L. Pushkin).
Folk work
The highest praise for Alexander Sergeevich was the assessment given to the first chapter of "Eugene Onegin" by the man whom the poet considered his teacher - Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. The opinion was extremely laconic: “You are the first in Russian Parnassus ...”
The novel in verse encyclopedically correctly reflected the Russian reality of the beginning of the 19th century, showed the way of life, character traits, the social role of various strata of society: the St. Petersburg high society, the nobility of Moscow, landowners, peasants. Perhaps that is why, and also because of the all-encompassing and subtle display by Pushkin in his work of the values, customs, attitudes, fashion of that time, the literary critic gave him such an exhaustive description: “a work of the highest degree folk” and “an encyclopedia of Russian life”.
Pushkin wanted to change the plot
The final idea of the work was formed by the author only in 1830. He was clumsy and worn out. In order to give a traditional solid look to his creation, Alexander Sergeevich decided to either send Eugene Onegin to fight in the Caucasus, or turn him into a Decembrist. But Eugene Onegin - the hero of the novel in verse - was created by Pushkin on one inspiration, as a "collection of motley chapters", and this is his charm.
Conclusion
The work "Eugene Onegin" is the first realistic novel in verse in Russian history. It is emblematic of the 19th century. The novel was recognized by society as deeply folk. The encyclopedic description of Russian life is side by side with high artistry.
However, according to critics, the main character of this novel is not Onegin at all, but the author of the work. This character has no specific appearance. This is a kind of blind spot for the reader.
Alexander Sergeevich, in the text of the work, hints at his exile, saying that the North is “harmful” to him, etc. Pushkin is invisibly present in all actions, summarizes, makes the reader laugh, enlivens the plot. His quotes hit not in the eyebrow, but in the eye.
By the will of fate, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin reviewed the second complete edition of his novel in verse in 1937 (the first was in 1833), being already mortally wounded on the Black River near the Komendantskaya dacha. A circulation of 5,000 copies was planned to be sold throughout the year. However, readers bought it out in a week. In the future, the classics of Russian literature, each for its time, continued the creative search for Alexander Sergeevich. They all tried to create a hero of their time. And Mikhail Lermontov in the image of Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin ("A Hero of Our Time"), and Ivan Goncharov in the image of Ilya Oblomov ...
"Eugene Onegin"- a novel in verse, written in 1823-1831, one of the most significant works of Russian literature.
"Eugene Onegin" history of creation
Pushkin worked on this novel for over seven years, from 1823 to 1831. The novel was, according to the poet, "the fruit" of "the mind, cold observations and the heart of sorrowful remarks." Pushkin called the work on it a feat - of all his creative heritage, only Boris Godunov he described with the same word. In the work, against a wide background of pictures of Russian life, the dramatic fate of the best people of the noble intelligentsia is shown.
Pushkin began work on Onegin in May 1823 in Chisinau, during his exile. The author abandoned romanticism as the leading creative method and began to write a realistic novel in verse, although the influence of romanticism is still noticeable in the first chapters. Initially, it was assumed that the novel in verse would consist of 9 chapters, but later Pushkin reworked its structure, leaving only 8 chapters. He excluded the chapter "Onegin's Journey" from the main text of the work, including its fragments as an appendix to the main text. There was a fragment of this chapter, where, according to some sources, it was described how Onegin sees military settlements near the Odessa pier, and then there were remarks and judgments, in some places in an excessively harsh tone. Fearing possible persecution by the authorities, Pushkin destroyed this fragment of Onegin's Journey.
The novel covers events from 1819 to 1825: from the foreign campaigns of the Russian army after the defeat of Napoleon to the Decembrist uprising. These were the years of the development of Russian society, the reign of Alexander I. The plot of the novel is simple and well known, in the center of it - love story. In general, the events of the first quarter of the 19th century were reflected in the novel "Eugene Onegin", that is, the time of creation and the time of the novel approximately coincide.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin created a novel in verse similar to Lord Byron's poem Don Juan. Having defined the novel as a “collection of motley chapters”, Pushkin highlights one of the features of this work: the novel is, as it were, “opened” in time (each chapter could be the last, but it can also have a continuation), thereby drawing readers’ attention to the independence and integrity of each chapters. The novel became truly an encyclopedia of Russian life in the 1820s, since the breadth of the topics covered in it, the detailing of everyday life, the multi-plot composition, the depth of the description of the characters' characters still reliably demonstrate to readers the features of the life of that era.
This is what gave grounds to V. G. Belinsky in his article "Eugene Onegin" to conclude:
“Onegin can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and an eminently folk work.”
From the novel, as well as from the encyclopedia, you can learn almost everything about the era: about how they dressed, and what was in fashion, what people valued most, what they talked about, what interests they lived. "Eugene Onegin" reflected the whole of Russian life. Briefly, but quite clearly, the author showed the fortress village, the lordly Moscow, the secular St. Petersburg. Pushkin truthfully depicted the environment in which the main characters of his novel live - Tatyana Larina and Eugene Onegin, reproduced the atmosphere of the city noble salons in which Onegin spent his youth.
