Writer Alexey Varlamov answers:Rector of the Literary Institute named after. A. M. Gorky

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1. At school they teach that “Eugene Onegin” is an encyclopedia of Russian life, and they explain why: because all layers of Russian society are depicted, their morals, their ideas. Is it so?

Evgeny Onegin in his office. Illustrations by E. P. Samokish-Sudkovskaya
(1908), www.poetry-classic.ru

Let's start with the fact that this very definition - “encyclopedia of Russian life” - belongs to Belinsky, and this is his interpretation.

What is an encyclopedia? A certain body of knowledge about something, a fixation of reality. The encyclopedia does not assume any development of this reality; reality is already caught, connected, recorded and nothing else can happen to it. The encyclopedia is a stop, a summary. Yes, perhaps ten years later a new encyclopedia will appear, but it will be a new one, and the old one has already taken place.

So, “Eugene Onegin” is least of all similar to the reality recorded, commented on and sorted into shelves. This living thing, a reflection of a changing, complex, contradictory life. There is no point in Onegin; it is all in constant motion.

The concept of an encyclopedia implies completeness of coverage, maximum detail, reflection of all aspects of the subject being described. But it cannot be said that Eugene Onegin, with all the greatness of this novel, completely reflected Russian life early XIX century. There are huge gaps there!

There is almost no Church and everyday life in the novel. church life, including its ritual side. One cannot consider such phrases as “twice a year they fasted”, “on Trinity Day, when the people / yawning, listen to a prayer service” or “and flocks of jackdaws on crosses” as an exhaustive depiction of the church theme. It turns out to be a country where there are flocks of jackdaws on crosses, and besides these jackdaws and crosses there is nothing Christian.

Pushkin had such a view of things, and he was not the only one.

Russian classic XIX century, with rare exceptions, passed by the Church. Just like the Russian Church passed by the Russian classics.

Let's look further. Is the military life of Russia at least somehow reflected in the novel? Almost nothing (only Dmitry Larin’s medal is mentioned, and Tatyana’s husband is a general maimed in battle). Industrial life? Very little. So what kind of encyclopedia is this? Or here’s an interesting point: in Onegin, as indeed everywhere in Pushkin, there is no large families. Eugene - only child, the Larins have two daughters. It’s the same in “The Captain’s Daughter”, in “Belkin’s Tales”. But then almost all families had many children, one or two children were a rare exception. Yes, this is for Pushkinwas needed to solve it artistic tasks, but then there’s no need to talk about an encyclopedia of Russian life.

So here Belinsky, I think, is wrong. Rather, “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy can be called an encyclopedia. Also incomplete, but much more detailed.

2. Is there any deep Christian message in “Eugene Onegin”, similar to that in, for example, “The Captain’s Daughter”?

Onegin and Lensky visiting the Larins. Illustrations by E. P. Samokish-Sudkovskaya
(1908), www.poetry-classic.ru

I am far from necessarily seeing a clear Christian message in any of Pushkin’s works. In the 1830s he undoubtedly turns to Christianity, and " Captain's daughter"is the most Christian thing not only in Pushkin, but in general in Russian literature of the “golden age.” But this is a later work, which he completed in 1836, before which “The Prophet” and “Desert Fathers and Immaculate Wives” had already been written. These motives did not arise out of nowhere for Pushkin. They were hidden in his early work and began to appear, to appear so that they became noticeable to the naked eye.

In “Eugene Onegin” you can notice this movement, this turning point. We know that the first two chapters were written while still in southern exile, and then Pushkin leaves for another exile, to Mikhailovskoye, and here something happens to him. Maybe because there, in the Pskov province, all the surrounding places are directly connected with Russian history, maybe because there he visited the Svyatogorsk Holy Dormition Monastery, often argued with the local parish priest Hilarion Raevsky and even ordered a memorial service for Byron, to the servant of God, boyar Georgy, which, of course, can be seen as a challenge, hooliganism, but by and large it was also very deep and serious. He gradually begins to feel the Christian roots of Russian history and Russian life, reads the Bible, reads Karamzin. In this sense, the last chapters of the novel differ markedly from the first. But here it is just beginning to flicker, it has not yet entered into full force.

In "The Captain's Daughter" the main Christian motive is God's Providence, obedience to God's will, which makes the two main characters happy, allows them to overcome all trials and gain the fullness of being.

It’s different with “Eugene Onegin.” An attempt to attract obvious Christian meanings would, in my opinion, be artificial. What is the Christian message there? The fact that Tatyana obeyed her mother, married the general and remained faithful to him? But what is specifically Christian about this? This is normal behavior in any traditional society. Loyalty to a vow, fidelity to one’s husband, humility are values ​​that Christianity, of course, fills with its content, but these are not exclusively Christian values. Moreover, from the text of the novel we do not see that Tatyana was particularly religious. She cannot insult her husband or tarnish his reputation, she is dependent on public opinion, but that’s a different story. But the main thing is that she is unhappy, having shown obedience to her parents’ will and loyalty to her husband. If the heroes of “The Captain’s Daughter”, “Blizzard”, “The Young Peasant Lady” will find happiness in the future, then nothing will await Tatyana. Her life is empty. She has no children, receptions and balls irritate her, she does not find consolation in religion (in any case, there are no hints of this in the text). Actually, all she can console herself with are memories of village life, about the beauty of nature. Her whole life is in the past, she lives not as she herself would like, but as the world demands of her.

"Eugene Onegin" is, in essence, a story about how two people could behappy if they realized this in time. But

Evgeny passed by Tatiana, making both of them unhappy. And there is no way out of this situation.It seems to me that be it Christian work- it would be somehow different.

If not happiness in the generally accepted sense, then at least some kind of high meaning, and not this hopelessness, at least as far as Tatyana is concerned.

3. Is there still a moral lesson in Eugene Onegin?

Tatiana writes a letter to Onegin. Illustrations by E. P. Samokish-Sudkovskaya
(1908), www.poetry-classic.ru

I think it's pointless to wonder which moral lesson Schoolchildren should learn from “Eugene Onegin” and from the story described there. Don't fall in love, otherwise you'll have to suffer? Stupid. It’s even more stupid to say: fall in love only with a worthy person. As life shows, it is impossible to control these matters.

You can, of course, say obvious things: Onegin is a negative example, an example of how initially smart, capable person, not understanding why to live, in the end finds himself in complete emptiness - both spiritual and mental. While Tatyana is a positive example, she makes ethically correct decisions in the circumstances that arise. However, this does not negate the hopelessness of the story told in the novel.

But perhaps for Pushkin himself this hopelessness of “Eugene Onegin” was vital for internal movement towards Christianity. "Onegin" posed such questions to him, the answers to which the author later gave in the same "The Captain's Daughter." That is, “Onegin” became a necessary step.

Christianity is the dominant of late Pushkin, and “Eugene Onegin” is the process of creating such a dominant, it is like the ripening of a fruit, still almost imperceptible to the eye.

And besides, Pushkin’s Christianity lies primarily in the beauty of his stanzas. This beauty is clearly of divine origin. He was a genius because he caught the light of divine beauty, felt the Wisdom of God revealed in the created world, and this light appeared in his works. Translation of divine beauty into Russian is, in my opinion, the main Christian meaning of Eugene Onegin. That is why translations of the novel into other languages ​​are not particularly successful. The content is transmitted, but this non-rational beauty is lost. For me, this is precisely the most important thing in Eugene Onegin. It evokes an incredibly strong feeling of homeland, a feeling of home.

4. Who is the main character of Eugene Onegin? Onegin, Tatyana Larina - or Pushkin himself?

Evgeniy and Tatiana - meeting in the garden. Illustrations by E. P. Samokish-Sudkovskaya
(1908), www.poetry-classic.ru

It is no coincidence that Pushkin named his novel this way: “Eugene Onegin.” But can Tatyana be considered the main character? Why not? And such an opinion can be substantiated based on Pushkin’s text. But in the same way it can be argued that main character of the novel - the author himself with his constant presence in the text. “Onegin”, how true classic, will always give rise to a lot of interpretations. This is fine. But it is not normal to perceive any of them as the ultimate truth.

5. Is it true that Pushkin’s wife, Natalya Nikolaevna, is amazingly similar to Tatyana Larina - in character, in beliefs, in attitude to life? What do you think of it?

Tatyana Larina reads books. Illustrations by E. P. Samokish-Sudkovskaya
(1908), www.poetry-classic.ru

This is the first time I’ve heard about this and I probably won’t agree with this opinion. The point is not even that, as is known, the prototypeTatiana was another woman, and not that there are any parallels between real people And literary heroes risky.

I think such a view simply contradicts what is said in Pushkin’s text about Tatyana.

Please note that Tatyana, although in her family “seemed like a stranger’s girl,” she, and not Olga, repeats the fate of her mother: she falls in love for the only time in her life, and this love remains with her forever, marries an unloved person and until her death boards remains faithful to him.

For Pushkin this moment is extremely important. The ideal Pushkin heroine is a girl or woman who can love only one person. This is Tatyana - and not like Olga, who fell in love with Lensky, but after his death she immediately fell in love with a lancer and jumped out to marry him. Onegin, reading instructions to Tatyana (“A young maiden will more than once replace light dreams with dreams; So a tree changes its leaves with every spring. It’s destined by the sky. You will fall in love again: but...”), is mistaken. Tatyana is a one-woman girl.

By the way, you can draw an interesting parallel between Tatyana Larina and Natasha Rostova. Both are considered positive heroines who express our national character and even the Christian ideal. But it's absolutely opposite friend friend of creation precisely in relation to love. Natasha Rostova is more like Olga. Either she loved Boris, then Prince Andrei, then Dolokhov, then she fell in love with Pierre. And Tolstoy admires how she changes her affections. For him, this is the essence of femininity and feminine character. Tolstoy argues with Pushkin on the question of how a woman should organize her life. I will not say which of them is right - there is no point in giving assessments here. But it seems to me that Natalya Nikolaevna Pushkina, in her inner essence, is much closer to Natasha Rostova than to Tatyana Larina (so the parallel between Dantes and Anatol Kuragin is not without meaning). Well, besides, she knew the joy of motherhood and was a wonderful mother. Tatyana is childless; in the text of the novel there is not the slightest indication that she will have children.

6. Is it true that Pushkin intended to end the novel this way: Tatiana’s husband, a general, becomes a Decembrist, and Tatiana follows him to Siberia?

Onegin's meeting with the married Tatyana. Illustrations by E. P. Samokish-Sudkovskaya
(1908), www.poetry-classic.ru

This is a version, one of the possible interpretations of Pushkin’s text, which allows for many interpretations. This text is structured in such a way that it is difficult to contradict it. I would like someone to believe that Onegin - extra person, - please, Pushkin allows this. Someone wants to think that Tatyana would have followed her Decembrist husband to Siberia - and here Pushkin does not object.

Therefore, if we talk about how “Eugene Onegin” ended, then I think Anna Akhmatova’s version is the most accurate and witty:

“How did Onegin end? - Because Pushkin got married. Married Pushkin could still write a letter to Onegin, but he could not continue the affair.”*

Pushkin wrote the first chapters of “Eugene Onegin” in 1823, being a young, flighty man, and finished the novel in 1831. That same year he got married. There may not be a direct cause-and-effect relationship here, but it seems to me that there is a deeper, more meaningful connection. The theme of marriage, marital fidelity, and the irrevocability of a wedding always worried Pushkin very much. But if in “Count Nulin” (1825) he rather laughed at marriage, then the further he went, the more seriously he began to take it. Be it the eighth chapter of "Eugene Onegin", be it "The Captain's Daughter" (1836), be it "Belkin's Tale", especially "Blizzard" (written in 1830), where both heroes understand that a wedding is the trait which is impossible to cross. It’s the same in “Dubrovsky” (Pushkin finished it in 1833), where Masha says: “It’s too late - I’m married, I’m the wife of Prince Vereisky.” Once people are married, there is no going back. Late Pushkin constantly talks about this. And the fact that he died in a duel, defending the honor of his wife and thereby, as it were, defending the irreversibility of the wedding, is not only an important touch in his biography, but also an example of how life flows into literature, and literature into life.

7. Is fourteen to fifteen years old (the average age of ninth graders) the right age to understand Pushkin’s novel?

Onegin and Tatyana - last conversation. Illustrations by E. P. Samokish-Sudkovskaya
(1908), www.poetry-classic.ru

I think so. The influence of fiction (and especially Russian classics) occurs not only at the level of consciousness. Of course, at fourteen years old it is impossible to understand the full depth of Onegin, but it is not a fact that even at forty-four they will understand it. In addition to rational perception, there is also an indirect impact of the text, emotional, it’s just the melody of the verse that works here - and all this sinks into the soul, remains in it and sooner or later can germinate. By the way, it’s the same with the Gospel. Can you understand him at seven years old? Yes, you can. But you may not understand either at thirty-seven or at seventy. A person takes from it what he is able to perceive according to his age. It's the same with the classics.

I myself read “Eugene Onegin,” like most of my peers, in the eighth grade, and I won’t say that I was amazed. But I really fell in love with “Eugene Onegin” relatively recently, about ten years ago. In this I was helped by the wonderful speeches of Valentin Semenovich Nepomnyashchiy, in which he read and commented Pushkin's novel, chapter by chapter. It was Nepomniachtchi who predetermined my adult understanding of the novel and helped me see its full depth. I won’t say that “Eugene Onegin” became my favorite Pushkin work - for me personally, “Boris Godunov”, “The Captain’s Daughter”, “ Bronze Horseman"are more significant, but since then I have re-read it several times, each time noticing new facets and shades.

But, who knows, maybe that early, half-childish perception of Onegin laid the foundation for seeing it as an adult?

In addition, when we say that children become acquainted with “Eugene Onegin” in the ninth grade, this is not an entirely accurate formulation. In the ninth grade they become familiar with this work in its entirety, but they learn many passages from it much earlier - even in primary school, or even before school. “The sky was already breathing in autumn, the sun was shining less often,” “Winter, peasant, triumphant...” - all this is familiar with early childhood. And at the age of fourteen, reading “Eugene Onegin” in its entirety, children experience the joy of recognition.

Among the main problems of the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin, the following can be identified:
- search for the meaning of life;
- the purpose of human life in society;
- heroes of that time;
- assessment of the entire system of moral values ​​of that period.
The novel by A.S. Pushkin is largely autobiographical for the author, because he, like the main character of the novel, Eugene Onegin, became disillusioned with the old ideals and moral principles of that era. But the hero is unable to look for ways to change, to do something for changes in his life; he is overcome by the eternal Russian blues, which in the novel is characterized by the fashionable English word “spleen.”
In his lines, A.S. Pushkin very confidentially tells the reader about his feelings and vision of the world. For him, family, family ties. the sacred home is of undeniable value, and this idea is conveyed in the words of the main character Tatyana Larina:
“But I was given to someone else,
And I will be faithful to him forever!”
We can trace the entire path of growing up and developing the personalities of Evgeniy and Tatiana, the changes in their worldview.
The novel also touches on issues of value human life for society, a description of the characters of that time, and the influence of advanced ideas on the ideology of society.

When I was at school, we all studied A.S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin.” The ending of this novel is very sad, and it does not meet all the “expectations” of the readers.
Throughout the entire novel, we all expect that Tatyana is a genius. pure beauty, and the female ideal will reciprocate Eugene, and they will live happily ever after for many, many years. But it turns out that everything is completely wrong:
- I love you, why lie?
But, I was given to someone else, I will be faithful to him forever.
Tatyana rejects all of Evgeniy’s advances, and this becomes a complete surprise, and the main problem of the entire novel.
Perhaps Pushkin did not tell us everything, and in the lives of the main characters everything could have turned out differently, but many people find themselves in a similar situation in our time.
In Tatiana’s life, the opportunity arose to exchange one man for another, and she faced a difficult choice between the present and the future. Onegin did not have an “impeccable reputation.”
According to the novel, he was selfish, proud, unreliable, and he “regularly changed women,” and Tatyana perfectly understood the essence of things, she had no shortage of male attention, and many men from her “circle” would like to marry her. .
Tatyana, according to the novel, is a very reasonable woman, she respected her husband, who truly loved her and wanted her to be happy only with him. Could Eugene Onegin make her happy? And why, only three years later, did he realize how much he loved her?
Having rejected Evgeniy’s advances, Tatyana acted like a reasonable woman and did not change her existing family life, for a “light affair.”
In this case, reason triumphed over feelings.
We cannot blame Tatyana, because there are so many people, so many opinions, and the problem of this novel is choosing the right one. life path!

It seems to me that in his novel Pushkin contrasts, compares and looks for similarities and differences among two different “worlds” - the world of beautiful magnificent balls, the metropolitan nobility and the world ordinary people noble blood, living more alone and modestly. The representative of the first world is the main character of the novel, Eugene Onegin, and the brightest representative of the second is Tatyana. Evgeniy is presented as a brilliant young man, educated, but mired in social life. But he is already bored with this life, and the author himself, as we see from the novel, is not delighted with it. It is full of senseless and merciless intrigues, flattery, betrayal, debauchery. Only from the outside does he seem attractive, beautiful and unusual. Those who find themselves inside it quickly lose their human dignity and strive for false values. And so Evgeny, tired of this high society, goes to the village and meets there a completely different world, people of a different type. Tatyana is pure, she is educated and smart, she is close to the ideals of her ancestors - family comes first, the desire for harmony and perfection. But Eugene did not immediately warm up to such ideals, and then, when he realized his mistake, it was too late. So the main problem lies behind the relationship between these two main characters, as the main representatives of two classes of society.

"Eugene Onegin" is one of my favorite novels. While studying it at school, I probably re-read it 5 times. Then the novel was simple for me an interesting book, no more. Probably, at that age, no one thought deeply about the problems raised by Pushkin.
Now, I think, I look at the characters in the novel from a slightly different angle. The plot is based on the love of the main characters. Together with them, we live through the stages of their spiritual formation, the search for truth, they determine their place in this life. For each of the heroes, love is something personal. For Larina this is a huge spiritual work, for Lensky it is just a light romantic attribute, for Olga it is a lack of sentimentality and individuality, for Onegin it is the science of tender passion. Next to the problem of love goes deep the problem of friendship. Right now I understand that friendship without deep spiritual attachment is impossible and temporary.
The problem of duty and happiness is especially important in the novel, since Tatyana Larina is a girl of conscience and honor and conscience are as important to her as love. As the novel progresses, she transforms into whole personality having its own moral principles and foundations, life values.
Also a huge problem described in the novel is the relationship different layers population.

Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" is a masterpiece of Russian literature. Pushkin in his work reveals many moral issues relating not only to the youth of that time, but also to our lives now.

The most pronounced problem of the work is the “golden youth”. Evgeny himself, the main character of the novel, is her a prominent representative. These people are crazy about balls social events and games. Without a high goal, they waste their lives.

Evgeny Onegin is moping, he does not accept the ideals of the society in which he is bored to be, but just like all its representatives, Evgeny lacks a high goal. This expresses the problem of finding one’s place in life.

Pushkin touches on the issue of the population's lack of education.

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Arriving at the village, Eugene could not find a person with whom he could talk. Because of their narrow-mindedness, the villagers took Evgeniy for a fool:

“Our neighbor is ignorant; crazy;

He is a pharmacist; he drinks one

A glass of red wine;

He doesn't suit ladies' arms;

Everything is yes and no; won't say yes

Or not, sir.” The author also raises questions about love and duty. Tatyana loved Evgeniy all her life, as she swore her love to him. This reflects Tatiana’s decency and devotion, while Evgeny, unlike her, could neither love nor be loved.

Friendship for Evgeny is also not something important and necessary. They could not remain friends with Lensky due to the fault of Evgeni himself.

But is it possible to become happy without knowing how to love, make friends, and also without having a high goal? Obviously not. This is a question about happiness and what it depends on.

All these moral questions make you think and re-evaluate your ideals, as well as understand for yourself what is truly important and what is the cause of the degradation of society.

Updated: 2017-12-04

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Problems and characters of the novel “Eugene Onegin”

Before talking about the issues and main characters of the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin", it is necessary to clearly understand the features of the genre of this work. The genre of “Eugene Onegin” is lyric-epic. Consequently, the novel is built on the inextricable interaction of two plots: epic (whose main characters are Onegin and Tatyana) and lyrical (where the main character is the narrator, from whose behalf the story is told). The lyrical plot is not just equal in the novel - it dominates, because all events real life and the novel’s existence of the heroes are presented to the reader through the prism of the author’s perception and assessment.

The key, central problem in the novel is the problem of the purpose and meaning of life, because at turning points in history, such as the era after the Decembrist uprising became for Russia, a radical revaluation of values ​​occurs in people's minds. And at such a time, the artist’s highest moral duty is to point out to society Eternal values, give strong moral guidelines. The best people The Pushkin - Decembrist - generation, as it were, “leave the game”: they are either disappointed in previous ideals, or do not have the opportunity to fight for them in new conditions, to bring them to life. The next generation - the one that Lermontov will call “a gloomy and soon forgotten crowd” - was initially “brought to its knees.” Due to the peculiarities of the genre, the novel, which literary criticism rightly interprets as a kind of “lyrical diary” of the author, reflects the very process of revaluation of the entire system moral values. Time in the novel flows in such a way that we see the characters in dynamics, we trace them spiritual path. Before our eyes, all the main characters are going through a period of formation, painfully searching for the truth, determining their place in the world, the purpose of their existence.

Central image novel - the image of the author. Despite all the autobiographical nature of this character, in no case can he be identified with Pushkin, if only because the world of the novel is an ideal, fictitious world. Therefore, when we talk about the image of the author, we do not mean Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin personally, but the lyrical hero of the novel “Eugene Onegin”.

So, before us is the author’s lyrical diary; a frank conversation with the reader, where confessional moments are interspersed with light chatter. The author is sometimes serious, sometimes frivolous, sometimes maliciously ironic, sometimes simply cheerful, sometimes sad and always witty. And most importantly, he is always absolutely sincere with the reader. Lyrical digressions reflect changes in the author’s feelings, his ability to both lightly flirt (characteristic of “windy youth”) and deeply adore his beloved (compare stanzas XXXII and XXXIII of the first chapter of the novel).

... we, the enemies of Hymen,

IN home life we see alone

A series of tedious pictures...

The spouse is perceived as an object of ridicule:

... majestic cuckold,

Always happy with yourself

With his lunch and his wife.

But let us pay attention to the opposition between these verses and the lines of “Excerpts

from Onegin's travels":

My ideal now is a mistress,

My desires are peace,

Yes, there’s a pot of cabbage soup, and it’s a big one.

What in youth seemed a sign of limitation, spiritual and mental poverty, in mature years turns out to be the only correct, moral path. And in no case should the author be suspected of hypocrisy: we're talking about about the spiritual maturation of a person, about the normal change of value criteria:

Blessed is he who was young from his youth,

Blessed is he who matures in time.

The tragedy of the protagonist largely stems precisely from Onegin’s inability to “ripe in time,” from the “premature old age of the soul.” What happened harmoniously in the author’s life, although not painlessly, in the fate of his hero became the cause of tragedy.

The search for the meaning of life takes place in different planes of existence. The plot of the novel is based on the love of the main characters. Therefore, the manifestation of a person’s essence in the choice of a lover, in the nature of feelings, is the most important feature of the image, determining his entire attitude to life. Love for the author and for his heroine Tatyana is a huge, intense spiritual work. For Lensky, this is a necessary romantic attribute, which is why he chooses Olga, devoid of individuality, in whom all the typical traits of heroines of sentimental novels merge:

Her portrait is very cute

I used to love him myself,

But he bored me immensely.

For Onegin, love is “the science of tender passion.” He learns true feeling towards the end of the novel, when the experience of suffering comes.

“Eugene Onegin” is a realistic work, and realism, unlike others artistic methods, does not imply any final and only correct solution to the main problem. On the contrary, it requires an ambiguity in the interpretation of this problem:

This is how nature created us,

I am prone to contradiction.

The ability to reflect the “tendency” of human nature “towards contradiction”, the complexity and variability of an individual’s self-awareness in the world - distinctive features Pushkin's realism. The duality of the image of the author himself lies in the fact that he evaluates his generation in its integrity, without ceasing to feel like a representative of a generation endowed with common advantages and disadvantages. Pushkin emphasizes this duality of self-perception of the lyrical hero of the novel: “We all learned a little ...”, “We respect everyone as zeros ...”, “We all look like Napoleons”, “So people, I am the first to repent, // There is nothing to do Friends..."

Human consciousness, its system life values largely shape moral laws accepted in society. The author himself assesses the influence of high society ambiguously. The first chapter gives a sharply satirical image of the world and the pastime of secular youth. The tragic 6th chapter, where the young poet dies, ends lyrical digression: the author’s reflections on the age limit that he is preparing to cross: “Am I going to be thirty years old soon?” And he calls on “young inspiration” to save the “soul of the poet” from death, not to let “... petrify // In the deadening ecstasy of light, // In this pool where I am with you // Bathing, dear friends!” So, a whirlpool that deadens the soul. But here is the 8th chapter:

And now I'm a muse for the first time

I bring it to a social event.

She likes order and slender

oligarchic conversations,

And the coldness of calm pride,

And this mixture of ranks and years.

Yu.M. explains this contradiction very correctly. Lotman: “The image of light received double illumination: on the one hand, the world is soulless and mechanistic, it remained an object of condemnation, on the other hand, as the sphere in which Russian culture develops, life is inspired by the play of intellectual and spiritual forces, poetry, pride, like the world of Karamzin and the Decembrists, Zhukovsky and the author of “Eugene Onegin” himself, it retains unconditional value. Society is heterogeneous. It depends on the person himself whether he will accept the moral laws of the cowardly majority or best representatives light" (Lotman Yu.M. Roman A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin": Commentary. St. Petersburg, 1995).

The “craven majority”, “friends” who surround a person in a “deadly” “pool of light” do not appear in the novel by chance. Like a caricature of true love became “the science of tender passion”, so a caricature of true friendship - secular friendship. “There’s nothing to do, friends,” is the author’s verdict on the friendly relations of Onegin and Lensky. Friendship without deep spiritual community is only a temporary empty union. And this caricature of secular friendships infuriates the author: “... save us from friends, God!” Compare the caustic lines about the slander of “friends” in the fourth chapter of the novel with the heartfelt poems about the nanny (stanza XXXV):

But I am the fruit of my dreams

And harmonic undertakings

I read only to the old nanny,

A friend of my youth...

A full life is impossible without selfless dedication in friendship - that’s why these secular “friendships” are so scary for the author. For in true friendship, betrayal is the most terrible sin, which cannot be justified by anything, but in a secular parody of friendship, betrayal is in the order of things, normal. For the author, the inability to make friends is a terrible sign of moral degradation modern society.

But there is no friendship between us either.

Having destroyed all prejudices,

We respect everyone as zeros,

And in units - yourself.

We all look at Napoleons,

There are millions of two-legged creatures

For us there is one weapon;

We feel wild and funny.

Let us pay attention to these verses; they are one of the most important and central in Russian literature of the 19th century. Pushkin’s formula will form the basis of “Crime and Punishment” and “War and Peace”. The Napoleonic theme was first recognized and formulated by Pushkin as the problem of the purpose of human life. Napoleon appears here not as a romantic image, but as a symbol psychological mood, according to which a person, for the sake of his desires, is ready to suppress and destroy any obstacle: after all, the people around him are only “two-legged creatures”!

The author himself sees the meaning of life in fulfilling his destiny. The entire novel is filled with deep reflections on art, the image of the author in this sense is unambiguous: he is, first of all, a poet, his life is unthinkable outside of creativity, outside of intense spiritual work.

In this, Evgeniy is directly opposite to him. And not at all because he does not plow and sow before our eyes. He has no need to work, to find his purpose. The author perceives Onegin’s education, and his attempts to immerse himself in reading, and his efforts to write (“yawning, he took up the pen”) ironically: “He was sick of persistent work.” This is one of the most serious moments for understanding the novel. Although the action of the novel ends before the uprising on Senate Square, in Evgeniy one can often discern the features of a man of the Nicholas era. A heavy cross for this generation will be the inability to find their calling, to unravel their destiny. This motif is central to Lermontov’s work; Turgenev also comprehends this problem in the image of Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov.

The problem of duty and happiness is especially important in Eugene Onegin. In fact, Tatyana Larina is not a love heroine, she is a heroine of conscience. Appearing on the pages of the novel as a seventeen-year-old provincial girl dreaming of happiness with her lover, before our eyes she grows into a surprisingly complete heroine, for whom the concepts of honor and duty are above all. Olga, Lensky’s fiancée, soon forgot the deceased young man: “the young uhlan captivated her.” For Tatyana, Lensky's death is a disaster. She curses herself for continuing to love Onegin: “She must hate him // The murderer of her brother.” A heightened sense of duty is the dominant image of Tatyana. Happiness with Onegin is impossible for her: there is no happiness built on dishonor, on the misfortune of another person. Tatyana's choice - deep moral choice, the meaning of life for her is in accordance with the highest moral criteria. F.M. wrote about this. Dostoevsky in the essay “Pushkin”: “...Tatyana is a solid type, standing firmly on her own soil. She is deeper than Onegin and, of course, smarter than him. She already senses with her noble instinct where and what the truth is, which is expressed in the finale poem. Perhaps Pushkin would have done even better if he had named his poem after Tatyana, and not Onegin, for she is undoubtedly the main character of the poem. This is a positive type, not a negative one, this is a type of positive beauty, this is the apotheosis of the Russian woman, and she the poet intended to express the idea of ​​the poem in the famous scene of Tatyana's last meeting with Onegin. One can even say that such a beautiful positive type of Russian woman has almost never been repeated in our fiction- except perhaps for the image of Lisa in “ Noble nest» Turgenev. But his manner of looking down made it so that Onegin didn’t even recognize Tatyana at all when he met her for the first time, in the wilderness, in a modest

in the image of a pure, innocent girl, so shy before him from the first time. He was unable to distinguish completeness and perfection in the poor girl and, indeed, perhaps mistook her for a “moral embryo.” This is her embryo, this is after her letter to Onegin! If there is anyone who is a moral embryo in the poem, it is, of course, himself, Onegin, and this is indisputable. And he could not recognize her at all: does he know the human soul? This is an abstract person, this is a restless dreamer throughout his life. He did not recognize her even later, in St. Petersburg, in the guise of a noble lady, when, in his own words, in a letter to Tatyana, “he comprehended with his soul all her perfections.” But these are only words: she passed by him in his life, unrecognized and unappreciated by him; that's the tragedy of their romance<…>.

By the way, who said that secular, court life had a pernicious effect on her soul and that it was precisely the rank of a society lady and new secular concepts that were partly the reason for her refusal to Onegin? No, it wasn't like that. No, it’s the same Tanya, the same old village Tanya! She is not spoiled, on the contrary, she is dejected by this magnificent St. Petersburg life, she is broken and suffering, she hates her rank as a society lady, and whoever judges her differently does not understand at all what Pushkin wanted to say. And so she firmly says to Onegin:

But I was given to someone else

And I will be faithful to him forever.

She said this precisely as a Russian woman, this is her apotheosis. She expresses the truth of the poem. Oh, I won’t say a word about her religious beliefs, about her view of the sacrament of marriage - no, I won’t touch on that. But what: is it because she refused to follow him, despite the fact that she herself told him: “I love you,” or because she is “like a Russian woman” (and not southern or not some kind of French) , incapable of taking a bold step, unable to break her bonds, unable to sacrifice the charm of honor, wealth, her secular significance, the conditions of virtue? No, the Russian woman is brave. A Russian woman will boldly go after what she believes in, and she has proven it. But she “was given to someone else and will be faithful to him forever”<…>. Yes, she is faithful to this general, her husband, an honest man who loves her, respects her and is proud of her. Even though her mother “begged” her, it was she, and no one else, who gave her consent; she, after all, she herself swore to him to be his honest wife. She may have married him out of desperation, but now he is her husband, and her betrayal will cover him with shame, shame and kill him. Can a person base his happiness on the misfortune of another? Happiness does not lie in the pleasures of love alone, but also in the highest harmony of the spirit. How can you calm the spirit if a dishonest, ruthless, inhumane act is behind you? Should she run away just because my happiness is here? But what kind of happiness can there be if it is based on someone else’s misfortune? Let me imagine that you yourself are erecting the building of human destiny with the goal of ultimately making people happy, finally giving them peace and quiet. And imagine, too, that for this it is necessary and inevitably necessary to torture just one human being, moreover, even if it is not so worthy, funny even at another glance, not some Shakespeare, but just an honest old man, a young husband his wife, in whose love he blindly believes, although he does not know her heart at all, respects her, is proud of her, is happy with her and is at peace. And now you just need to disgrace, dishonor and torture him and build your building on the tears of this dishonored old man! Would you agree to be the architect of such a building on this condition? Here's the question. And can you admit for a moment the idea that the people for whom you built this building would agree to accept such happiness from you, if suffering is laid in its foundation<…>. Tell me, could Tatyana, with her high soul, with her heart, so damaged, have decided differently? No<…>. Tatiana sends Onegin away<…>. It has no soil, it is a blade of grass carried by the wind. She is not like that at all: even in despair and in the suffering consciousness that her life has been lost, she still has something solid and unshakable on which her soul rests. These are her childhood memories, memories of her homeland, the rural wilderness in which her humble, clean life, is “the cross and the shadow of the branches over the grave of her poor nanny.” Oh, these memories and former images are now most precious to her, these are the only images left to her, but they are the ones who save her soul from final despair. And this is a lot, no, there is already a lot here, because there is a whole foundation, here is something unshakable and indestructible. Here is contact with the homeland, with the native people, with its shrine<…>."

The climax of the plot is the sixth chapter, the duel between Onegin and Lensky. The value of life is tested by death. Onegin makes a tragic mistake. At this moment, the contrast between his understanding of honor and duty and the meaning that Tatyana puts into these words is especially striking. For Onegin, the concept of “secular honor” turns out to be more significant than moral duty - and he pays a terrible price for allowing a shift in moral criteria: the blood of the friend he killed is on him forever.

The author compares Lensky’s two possible paths: sublime (“for the good of the world, or at least glory was born”) and down-to-earth (“ordinary destiny”). And what is important for him is not which fate is more realistic - what is important is that there will be no fate, Lensky is killed. For light, which does not know the true meaning of life, human life itself has no value. For the author, it is the greatest, ontological value. That is why the author’s sympathies and antipathies are so clearly visible in the novel “Eugene Onegin”.

The author's attitude towards the heroes of the novel is always definite and unambiguous. Let us note once again Pushkin’s reluctance to be identified with Eugene Onegin: “I am always glad to notice the difference // Between Onegin and me.” Let us recall the ambiguity of the author’s assessment of Eugene: as the novel is written, his attitude towards the hero changes: the years go by, the author himself changes, and Onegin also changes. Hero at the beginning and end of the novel - two different people: in the finale Onegin is a “tragic face.” For the author major tragedy Onegin lies in the gap between his true human capabilities and the role he plays: this is one of central problems Onegin generation. Sincerely loving his hero, Pushkin cannot help but condemn him for his fear of violating secular conventions.

Tatyana is Pushkin’s favorite heroine, the image closest to the author. The poet will call her a “sweet ideal.” The spiritual closeness of the author and Tatyana is based on the similarity of basic life principles: a selfless attitude towards the world, closeness with nature, national consciousness.

The author's attitude towards Lensky is lovingly ironic. Lensky's romantic worldview is largely artificial (remember Lensky's scene at the grave of Dmitry Larin). Lensky's tragedy for the author is that for the right to play a role romantic hero Vladimir sacrifices his life: the sacrifice is absurd and meaningless. The tragedy of a failed personality is also a sign of the times.

A special conversation is the author’s attitude towards secondary and episodic characters. In many ways, he reveals not individual, but typical traits in them. This creates the author’s attitude towards society as a whole. Secular society the novel is heterogeneous. This is also the “secular mob”, which has made the pursuit of fashion the main principle of life - in beliefs, in behavior, in reading, etc. And at the same time, the circle of people received in Tatiana’s St. Petersburg salon is the true intelligentsia. Provincial society appears in the novel as a caricature of high society. One appearance at Tatiana’s name day by the Skotinins (they are also the heroes of Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor”) shows that in the fifty years separating Pushkin’s modern province from the province described by Fonvizin, nothing has changed. But at the same time, it is in the Russian province that Tatyana’s appearance is possible.

To summarize, it should be said that the fate of the heroes of the novel primarily depends on the truth (or falsity) of the values ​​they accepted as fundamental. life principles.

Bibliography

Monakhova O.P., Malkhazova M.V. Russian literature XIX century. Part 1. - M.-1994.

Lotman Yu.M. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”: Commentary. St. Petersburg - 1995

One of the main problems in the novel by A.S. Pushkin's Evgeniy Onegin is the problem of moral choice, which determines the further fate of the heroes.

If the choice is correct, then the person remains the master of his life, but in the case of an incorrect moral choice, the opposite is true; Everything around is controlled only by fate. Naturally, both main characters of the novel, Evgeny Onegin and Tatyana Larina, make a moral choice.

Moral choice of heroes

Onegin’s first moral choice turns out to be wrong, and it is because of him that the entire plot of the novel begins: Onegin agrees to a duel with Lensky, which he himself does not want, obeying only public opinion(refusal to duel was considered a disgrace for life).

The duel ends tragically - Onegin kills the young poet (in his understanding, the opinion of the world turns out to be more important than human life), and from that moment all the heroes of the novel no longer belong to themselves, their lives are controlled by fate.

As a result, Tatyana also makes her own, also wrong, moral choice - she marries an unloved person, submitting to the same public opinion (it was indecent for a girl of her age to remain unmarried), thereby betraying her moral principles and ideals.

After this event, the reader loses sight of Tatyana for some time, and Onegin goes on a journey. He returns as a changed man, rethinks his values ​​and understands that in the world to which he has returned, he is already superfluous.

But then he unexpectedly meets Tatiana at the ball, grown up and married. Shocked by what a luxurious woman has grown from a simple naive village girl, Onegin falls in love with this new Tatiana.

And then he makes another wrong moral choice: he tries to court a married woman, inducing her to cheat. This choice becomes tragic for him, because after the last explanation with Tatyana, Onegin is found in her personal chambers by her husband. Obviously, such an incident will become the reason for another duel, and this duel will most likely end with the death of Onegin.

Pushkin's moral ideal

At the end of the novel, Tatyana, unlike Onegin, makes exactly the right moral choice: she denies Onegin adultery, not wanting to cheat on her husband.

Although she admits that she still loves Onegin, moral principles are more important to her - once she gets married, she can only belong to her husband.

Thus, you can see that Tatyana is the image of a woman in the novel. She is a more morally integral person than Onegin. She made a mistake once, but then did not repeat her mistake.

Onegin makes the wrong choice twice, for which he will be punished. It is obvious that Pushkin sympathizes more with Tatyana; she is his moral ideal.

Using the example of Onegin, Pushkin depicts all the most characteristic vices of his time: this young man is arrogant and selfish, his whole life is a game for him, he is superficially educated. It was precisely these dandies who made up the high society of St. Petersburg in the first half of the 19th century.