Evgeny Onegin - a young nobleman and aristocrat, main character greatest novel in the verses of A.S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”, which was created by the Russian genius over the course of eight years. IN this work, named outstanding literary critic XIX century V.G. Belinsky's "encyclopedia of Russian life", Pushkin reflected all his thoughts, feelings, concepts and ideals, his life, soul and love.
In the image of the main character, the author embodied the type modern man of his era, who throughout the novel, like Pushkin, grows up, gets smarter, gains experience, loses and gains friends, makes mistakes, suffers and is mistaken, makes decisions that radically change his life. The very title of the novel shows the central place of the hero in the work and Pushkin’s special attitude towards him, and although he has no prototypes in real life, he is familiar with the author, has mutual friends with him and is really connected with real life that time.
Characteristics of the main character
(Evgeniy and Tatiana, meeting in the garden)
The personality of Evgeny Onegin can be called quite complex, ambiguous and contradictory. His egoism, vanity and high demands both for the surrounding reality and for himself - on the one hand, a subtle and vulnerable mental organization, a rebellious spirit striving for freedom - on the other. The explosive mixture of these qualities makes him an extraordinary person and immediately attracts the attention of readers to his person. We meet the main character at the age of 26, he is described to us as a representative of the golden youth of St. Petersburg, indifferent and filled with anger and bilious irony, seeing no meaning in anything, tired of luxury, idleness and other earthly entertainments. To show the origins of his disappointment in life, Pushkin tells us about his origin, childhood and adolescence.
Onegin was born into an aristocratic, rich, but later bankrupt family, received a rather superficial education, divorced from the realities of Russian life, but quite typical for that time, which allowed him to easily speak French, dance the mazurka, bow naturally and have pleasant manners for going out into the world. .
Plunging into a carefree social life with its entertainment (visiting theaters, balls, restaurants), love affairs, a complete lack of responsibilities and the need to earn a living, Onegin quickly becomes fed up and feels a real disgust for the empty and idle metropolitan tinsel. He falls into depression (or, as it was called then, “Russian blues”) and tries to distract himself by finding something to do. First, this is a literary attempt at writing, which ended in complete failure, then binge reading books, which quickly bored him, and finally escape and voluntary seclusion in the wilderness of the village. His pampered lordly upbringing, which did not instill in him a love of work and a lack of willpower, led to the fact that he could not bring a single task to its logical conclusion; he spent too much time in idleness and laziness, and such a life completely ruined him.
Arriving in the village, Onegin avoids the company of neighbors, lives alone and apart. At first, he even tries to make life easier for the peasants in some way, replacing corvee with “light quitrent,” but old habits take their toll and after carrying out one single reform, he becomes bored and despondent and gives up everything.
(Painting by I. E. Repin "Duel of Onegin with Lensky" 1899)
The real gifts of fate (which Onegin selfishly did not appreciate and carelessly discarded) were sincere friendship with Lensky, whom Evgeni killed in a duel, and the sublime, bright love of the beautiful girl Tatyana Larina (also rejected). Having become a hostage of public opinion, which he really despised so much, Onegin agrees to a duel with Lensky, who has become a truly congenial person to him, and mortally wounds him in a duel.
Selfishness, indifference, indifference to life and spiritual callousness did not allow him to appreciate the great gift of love offered by fate, and for the rest of his life he remains a lonely and restless seeker of the meaning of life. Having matured and wiser, he meets Tatiana again in St. Petersburg and falls madly in love with the luxurious and brilliant society lady she has become. But it’s too late to change anything, his love is rejected out of a sense of duty and Onegin is left with nothing.
The image of the hero in the work
(Painting by Yu. M. Ignatiev based on the novel "Eugene Onegin")
The image of Onegin in Russian literature opens up a whole galaxy of heroes, the so-called “superfluous people” (Pechorin, Oblomov, Rudin, Laevsky), who suffer in the reality around them and are in search of new moral and spiritual values. But they are too weak-willed, lazy or selfish to take any real action that can change their life for the better. The ending of the work is ambiguous, Onegin remains at a crossroads and can still find himself and commit actions and deeds that will benefit society.
In the novel “Eugene Onegin” A. S. Pushkin reproduces Russian life in the 20s of the 19th century. The author-poet took Russian society into one of most interesting moments its development. He showed the awakening of social interests among the progressive people of his time, their desire to gain freedom and the opportunity for active action. This was due to inevitable collision new from class traditions environment. The personal drama of Onegin and Tatiana reflected the spiritual drama of the progressive nobility of the 20s of the 19th century, who felt the impossibility of achieving
Their ideals in the conditions of feudal reality.
Main actor In the novel by A. S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” is the nobleman Eugene Onegin.
The environment to which Onegin belonged shaped his beliefs, his morals, interests and tastes. Living in debt, Onegin's father did not come up with a special education system for his son - he acted like everyone else:
At first Madam followed him,
Then Monsieur replaced her.
Superficial, secular education was the custom, the norm. When creating the character of the hero, the author emphasized his typicality - this is how everyone was brought up in this environment. Onegin's upbringing, his interests, his life were cut off from everything national and popular.
The environment also determined the type of “occupation” of our hero, when the time of “rebellious youth” came. Savor. Onegin sleeps all day long, “turning morning at midnight”:
Wake up after noon, and again
His life is ready until morning.
Monotonous and colorful.
And tomorrow is the same as yesterday.
Social life taught Onegin to be hypocritical and slander:
How early could he be a hypocrite?
To harbor hope, to be jealous,
To dissuade, to make believe,
Seem gloomy, languish...
Evgeny Onegin was smart, noble, capable of feeling deeply and strongly. He early realized the worthlessness of secular society and felt like a stranger and an extra person in high society drawing rooms. It was hard for him and
It's unbearable to see in front of you
There's a long row of dinners alone,
See life as a ritual
And after the decorous crowd
Go without sharing with her
No common opinions, no passions.
Evgeny Onegin decides to leave St. Petersburg to his estate so as not to see this “disgusting and feigned” life of secular society. Onegin's predominant state in the village was boredom and laziness. There, Eugene decided to establish a new order in order to take care of some business, but this did not help him either. Our hero did nothing in the village, as in St. Petersburg, he was bored and entertained himself.
In his wilderness the desert sage,
He is the yoke of the ancient corvée
I replaced it with easy quitrent;
And the servant blessed him.
With his judgments and actions, Onegin incurred the suspicion of the landowners.
...sulked in his corner,
Seeing this as terrible harm,
His calculating neighbor;
The other smiled slyly
That he is a most dangerous weirdo.
And here is Onegin’s meeting with Tatyana. Evgeniy realized that this was a very “wonderful” girl, although she was not very beautiful or talkative. He judged people by their actions, by their deeds, and not by their external polish.
After Tatyana's letter, Onegin decides to tell her everything; he cannot marry her for two reasons: firstly, he did not prepare himself for family life, and secondly, he was looking for
your purpose in life. If he had married, then his whole life would have been torture for both him and Tatyana. Onegin is honest in his relationship with Tatyana, and when meeting her, he, like a loving brother, gives her a moral lesson:
Learn to control yourself;
Not everyone will understand you like I do;
Inexperience leads to trouble.
Onegin manifests selfishness in friendship and love. When he went to a duel with Lensky, he thought only about himself, about what they would say about him if he refused the duel, because the “inveterate rogue and duelist” Zaretsky got involved in it. Only after the death of his only friend Lensky, Onegin realized that he had treated him very cruelly and stupidly. He wanted to joke about tender love, but everything turned out differently - death.
Since our hero was brought up and lived far from everything national, he could not understand the Russian people; both Russian nature and the people themselves were alien to him.
Evgeny Onegin - type " extra person» I half of the 19th century century. He didn't find his place in life. Eugene broke away from secular society, but he did not join any other. “The powers of this rich nature were left without application, life without meaning...” - this is what V. G. Belinsky wrote about Onegin, who wrote the hero down as “superfluous people.” Onegin's whole life and thoughts confirm this. But whether the hero himself or time is to blame for this, history decides, we decide. The main thing is not to make mistakes and dot all the i’s correctly.
The search for the meaning of life by young people of the early 19th century in A.S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”
Pushkin’s works “Eugene Onegin” and Griboedov’s “Woe from Wit” depict the same period in the life of Russian society - the years before the Decembrist uprising. At that time, noble society was divided into three groups. Most of the nobles spent their time at balls, and were not at all interested in the fate of the Russian people or the fate of their homeland. The other group consists of people disillusioned with life, who are, however, unable to break with society and take the path of struggle. This is the hero of Pushkin's novel - Onegin.
And the smallest group of nobles, whose representative is Alexander Andreevich Chatsky, embarked on the path of struggle against the autocracy, since such people are never indifferent to the fate of the Motherland and the people. They strive with all their hearts and souls to change life for the better, even if this is achieved at the cost of their reputation, position in society and even life.
Chatsky and Onegin are young people of approximately the same age and origin; both of them, by right of birth, belong to the highest aristocracy. They received the usual education and upbringing for noble youth of that time, when they were taught “something and somehow.” The upbringing of both Chatsky and Onegin was carried out by foreign tutors, “in more numbers, at a cheaper price.” But if Evgeny Onegin, having received a certain minimum of knowledge, “enters the big world,” then Chatsky goes abroad to “search for his mind,” that is, he continues his education, and this is one of the reasons why their lives turn out so differently.
Onegin, despising the people among whom he was forced to be, remained on friendly terms with them, not finding the strength to break with the society to which he belonged. Chatsky, having returned from abroad and not seeing any changes for the better in his homeland, openly comes into conflict with the people to whose circle he belongs.
Both Chatsky and Onegin are smart people. Lisa, Sophia's maid, says that Chatsky is "sensitive, and cheerful, and sharp." Pushkin notes the “sharp, cooled mind” of his hero. And both of them are “strange” people for those among whom they had to live. Chatsky exclaims bitterly:
Am I weird? Who isn't weird? The one who is like all fools...
Pushkin also speaks of Onegin’s “inimitable strangeness.” And all the “strangeness” of the heroes was explained by dissatisfaction with the life they led. But if Chatsky is clearly aware of his responsibilities, his civic duty, then Onegin gives himself entirely to the “Russian blues.” He, “having lived without a goal, without work until the age of twenty-six, languishing in the inactivity of leisure, without service, without a wife, without business, did not know how to do anything.”
Chatsky wants to serve “the cause, not individuals.” He strives to make life easier for the people, not only denouncing the serf-owners, but also carrying out certain reforms in his domains. No wonder Famusov reproaches him: “Brother, don’t mismanage your property.” Onegin, too, like Chatsky, tried to make life easier for the peasants;
He replaced the ancient corvee with a yoke with a light quitrent... And the slave blessed fate...
But things didn’t go further than that. Not knowing the life of his people, being cut off from his national roots, Onegin was unable to complete what he started. Onegin is like that in everything. He tried to read and write, but “he was sick of persistent work.” Let us remember Chatsky’s desire for activism. In all his behavior one senses some kind of liveliness and energy. Onegin is tired of everything, he is bored from idleness.
Chatsky and Onegin manifest their ability to love differently. If Chatsky sincerely loves Sophia, seeing in her his feminine ideal, his future wife, then in Onegin “the feelings... cooled down early”, he is not capable of love. “I am not created for bliss,” he tells Tatyana.
In my opinion, Chatsky and Onegin are very different from each other, but they have a lot in common. These are people with “an embittered mind, seething in empty action.” Here it is, the “Russian blues”! But if Onegin, as Pisarev noted, can only “give up on his boredom as an inevitable evil,” then Chatsky is destined for a different path. In my opinion, his fate is sealed. Most likely, he was among those who came out to Senate Square on December 14, 1825. Then, together with everyone who took part in the conspiracy, he returned from exile only after the death of Nicholas in 1856, unless, of course, he died on the day of the uprising
I. This, it seems to me, is the main difference between Chatsky and Onegin, who was never able to realize himself. It is he who is the founder of the gallery of “superfluous people”, about whom Belinsky wrote: “And these creatures are often gifted with great moral advantages, great spiritual powers, promise a lot, fulfill little or do nothing. This is not from themselves, there is a fatum, which consists in reality, which they are surrounded by, like air, and from which it is not possible and not in the power of a person to free themselves.”
“Chatsky is a Decembrist,” wrote Herzen. And he is, of course, right. But an equally important thought is expressed by Goncharov: “Chatsky is inevitable with every change from one century to another. Every case that requires updating evokes Chatsky’s shadow.”
Both Chatsky and Onegin are equally dear to us, because they are representatives of one of the most interesting periods of our history - the first quarter of the 19th century. And, despite their shortcomings, the reader empathizes with these heroes. And let time pass and bring with it new changes, but the heroes of Griboyedov and Pushkin will always evoke in the reader only positive emotions and in many ways will serve as an example.
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“... Onegin is Russian, he is possible only in Russia, in Russia he is needed and he is greeted at every step... Lermontov’s “Hero of Our Time” is his younger brother.”
(A.I. Herzen)
Sundulling
In the nineteenth century, Russia was dominated by the autocratic-serf system. Under this system, the situation of the people was unbearable; The fate of progressive thinking people turned out to be tragic. People richly gifted by nature perished in its stuffy atmosphere or were doomed to inaction. These people with progressive views appeared on the arena of public life too early; there were no favorable conditions for their appearance; they were “superfluous” in life, and therefore died. This was reflected in the works of advanced writers of the nineteenth century. “Eugene Onegin” and “Hero of Our Time” are the best works of art of his era. At the center of events are people from high society who cannot find use for their abilities and skills.
“In his poem, he was able to touch on so much, hint at so many things that belong exclusively to the world of Russian nature, to the world of Russian society. “Onegin can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and a highly popular work.”
(V.G. Belinsky)
"Eugene Onegin"
Onegin - typical representative noble youth of the 20s of the XIX century. The poet created an image that reflects “that premature old age of the soul, which has become the main feature younger generation" Onegin is a contemporary of both the author and the Decembrists. The main character is not interested in social life, the career of an official, he is bored with everything. According to V.G. Belinsky, Onegin “was not one of the ordinary people,” but Pushkin says that Onegin’s boredom is due to the fact that he has no useful work to do. Onegin is a “suffering egoist,” but still an extraordinary person. The Russian nobility of that time was a class of landowners and landowners. Ownership of estates and serfs was a kind of measuring tape of wealth and prestige, as well as high social status. Eugene’s father “gave three balls every year and finally squandered it,” and the main character himself, after receiving an inheritance from “all his relatives,” became a rich landowner and...
Factories, waters, forests, lands
The owner is complete...
But wealth is also associated with ruin and debt. By mortgaging already mortgaged estates, debts were not only the business of poor landowners, but also of many “powers of this world.” One of these reasons in this situation was the idea that developed during the reign of Catherine II: “true noble behavior consists not only in large expenses, but also in spending beyond one’s means.” Thanks to the appearance of various educational literature from abroad, people, namely the younger generation, began to understand the harmfulness of serfdom, including Evgeniy. He “read Adam Smith and was a deep economist.” Unfortunately, there were few such people, therefore, when Onegin, under the influence of the ideas of the Decembrists, “he replaced the ancient corvée with a light quitrent for the yoke,”
...In his corner he sulked.
Seeing this as terrible harm,
His calculating neighbor.
In this case, the heir can accept the inheritance and take on the debts with it or refuse it, leaving the creditors to settle the accounts among themselves. Youth is a time of hope for inheritance. In the second half of life, one should free oneself from debts by becoming the heir of “all one’s relatives” or by marrying favorably.
Blessed...
Who was a smart guy at twenty years old?
And at thirty he is profitably married;
Who was freed at fifty
From private and other debts.
For the nobles of that time, military service was natural, and the absence of this trait had to have a special explanation. Onegin, as is clear from the novel, never served at all, which made Eugene a black sheep among his contemporaries. In this case, a new tradition is shown. Previously, refusal to serve was called selfishness, but now refusal began to take the form of a struggle for personal independence and upholding the right to live independently of state demands. So Onegin leads a life free from official duties. Not everyone could afford such a life at that time. Let us take as an example the order of early to bed and early to rise, which not only the official, but also the emperor had to obey. This was a kind of sign of aristocracy, separating the non-serving nobleman from the common people and village landowners. But the fashion of getting up, as late as possible, originated from the French aristocracy and was brought to Russia by emigrants. Favorite places for walks were Nevsky Prospekt and Promenade des Anglais, it was there that Onegin walked “putting on a wide bolivar, Onegin goes to the boulevard.” An opportunity in the afternoon to fill the gap between the restaurant and the ball was the theater. The theater was not only a place of entertainment, but also a kind of club where small talk was held.
The theater is already full; the boxes shine;
The stalls and the chairs are all in full swing;
Everything is clapping. Onegin enters
Walks between the chairs along the legs.
The double lorgnette points sideways
To the boxes of unknown ladies.
Tired of city life, Onegin settles in the village. There the friendship of Onegin and Lensky begins, who, as Pushkin says, came together “with nothing to do.” This ultimately led to a duel.
The novel “Eugene Onegin” is an inexhaustible source telling about the morals and life of that time. Onegin himself is a true hero of his time, and in order to understand him we study the time in which he lived.
“There is a lot of falsehood in Pechorin’s ideas, there are distortions in his feelings; but all this is redeemed by his rich nature"
(V.G. Belinsky)
"Hero of our time"
Pechorin is a hero of a completely different transitional time, a representative of the noble youth, who entered life after the defeat of the Decembrists. G.A. Pechorin is one of the main artistic discoveries of M.Yu. Lermontov. In it the fundamental features of the post-Decembrist era received their artistic expression. The image and type of Pechorin capture a striking discrepancy between the external and inner world. He repeatedly speaks in his diary about his inconsistency and duality. This duality was considered as a result of secular upbringing and the influence on him of the noble sphere, the transitional nature of his era.
Explaining the purpose of creating the novel, M.Yu. Lermontov, even in the preface, makes it clear what the image of Pechorin is for him: “The hero of our time, my dear sirs, is like a portrait, but not of one person: this is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development.” The author set himself the task of wanting to portray on the pages of the novel a hero of his time. And here before us is Pechorin - a tragic personality, a young man suffering from his restlessness, in despair asking himself the question “Why did I live? For what purpose was I born? In Lermontov's portrayal, Pechorin is a man of a very specific time. This is a nobleman-intellectual of the Nicholas era, its victim and hero in one person, whose soul is corrupted by the light. Pechorin's personality is presented in the novel as a unique individual manifestation of the universal human species and clan. Pechorin differs from his predecessor Onegin not only in temperament, depth of thought and feeling, willpower, but also in the degree of awareness of himself and his attitude to the world. Pechorin is more of a thinker and ideologist than Onegin. He is organically philosophical. In this regard he characteristic representative of his time, in the words of Belinsky, “the century of the philosophizing spirit.” Pechorin embodies such qualities as developed consciousness and self-awareness, the perception of oneself as a representative not only of the current society, but of the entire history of mankind as a whole. But being a son of his time and society, he also bears their indelible mark. In Gregory’s personality there is something particularly characteristic of a socially unsettled general situation, etc....................