Description of everyday life in the novel by Eugene Onegin. The essay “Life and customs of the capital and provincial nobility in the novel “Eugene Onegin. My choice of topic
The outstanding nineteenth-century critic Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky called the novel in verse by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” “an encyclopedia of Russian life.” In this work, the author, to one degree or another, reflected all social strata of Russian society. But he most fully described the life and customs of the nobility, the ruling class of that time - the class to which the poet himself belonged.
In the novel we encounter an image of three categories, three social sections of noble society: this is, firstly, the St. Petersburg high society; secondly, small-scale rural environment; and thirdly - the Moscow patriarchal nobility. These three groups have both similarities and differences between them.
To see the differences, you need to remember how each of the three groups is depicted in Eugene Onegin.
At the beginning of the novel, we, together with the title character, find ourselves in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire. St. Petersburg in the first quarter of the nineteenth century was the center of politics and culture. Onegin's lifestyle is typical of young people of that time. His life passes in constant idleness, endless entertainment:
Sometimes he was still in bed:
They bring notes to him.
What? Invitations? Indeed,
Three houses for the evening call:
There will be a ball, there will be a children's party.
Where will my prankster ride?
Who will he start with? Doesn't matter:
It’s no wonder to keep up everywhere.
Life in St. Petersburg is built according to the European model, which is evident both in fashion and in the abundance of “foreign words.” But despite all the apparent fullness and fast pace of life, it is, as the poet notes, “monotonous and motley.” It is not surprising, therefore, that to the main characters of the novel, standing above their environment, such a life seems worthless. Onegin quickly becomes disillusioned with her, and Tatyana, having become a prominent representative of high society after her marriage, gives him the following characteristics: “a hateful life is tinsel” and “the rags of a masquerade.”
Small-scale nobles lead a completely different way of life, shown in detail in the example of the Larin family. Their life is closer to the folk one. The Larins retained “the habits of the dear old times.” But at the same time, the “sweet old lady” Larina turns out to be an inveterate serf-owner: she “beat the maids in anger,” like Mrs. Prostakova in Fonvizin’s “The Minor,” and “shaved the foreheads” of the men, that is, sent them to serve in the army. And her landowner greed was manifested in the fact that peasant girls, picking berries for their owners, had to sing all the time: “so that evil lips do not secretly eat the master’s berries.”
Among the local nobility there is virtually no spiritual life. Tatyana’s father Dmitry Larin considered books “an empty toy,” and Onegin’s late uncle, as a “village old-timer,” was mainly occupied with “cursing with the housekeeper, looking out the window and squashing flies.”
Standing out from this environment are Onegin himself and his friend Lensky, a romantic young man educated in Germany. The boiling of young thoughts is noticeable in their communication:
Everything gave rise to disputes between them and led them to think:
Tribes of past treaties,
The fruits of science, good and evil,
And age-old prejudices,
And the grave secrets are fatal.
However, when depicting Lensky’s possible future if he had not been killed in a duel, Pushkin is very ironic. He suggests that the young romantic, under the influence of everyday rural life, could eventually repeat the typical fate of a landed nobleman:
I would really know life
I had gout at the age of forty,
He drank, he ate, he got bored, he grew fat, he grew weaker, and finally, in his bed, he would die among the children,
Whining women and doctors.
There are no fundamental differences from the rural landowner in the life of the Moscow nobility. When Tatyana is brought to Moscow “for the bride fair,” Pushkin gives us a detailed picture of Moscow society. In contrast to the West-oriented St. Petersburg high society, Moscow residents lead a patriarchal lifestyle, which is very similar to that described in Griboyedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit.” Here “everything is the same as before.” The rigidity and inactivity of Moscow life is emphasized by the abundance of nouns in this part of the novel. While the dynamism of St. Petersburg is created by the use of predominantly verbs.
In describing the Moscow noble society, Pushkin generously uses satirical colors. Conversations in Moscow living rooms are “incoherent vulgar nonsense”, where “no thoughts will flash for the whole day.” In general, the depiction of the life and morals of the nobility in Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” shows the historical doom of this class, unable to lead Russia along the path of progress.
Federal Agency for Education
Saratov State University
Course work
on the topic of:
Life and interior in the novel
"Eugene Onegin»
Completed by: 2nd year student of the faculty
IFIZh, specialty:
"Journalism",
Checked:
Saratov 2009
Introduction
1.
2. Everyday life in the depiction of the main characters in the novel “Eugene
Onegin"
3. Interior in the depiction of the images of the main characters in the novel “Eugene Onegin”
Conclusion
List of literature and sources.
Introduction
The novel “Eugene Onegin” is the most significant work of A. S. Pushkin in terms of volume, in terms of coverage of life events, and in terms of the variety of themes and ideas. Not every real encyclopedia gives such a laconic and at the same time complete picture of the era: of ideals, morals and passions, of the life of representatives of all classes, which “Eugene Onegin” gives of his time.
But, depicting Russian life with an unprecedentedly wide, truly encyclopedic scope, the author, first of all, creates a work of art based on interest in man. Each person is characterized not only by personal characteristics, such as the level of intellectual development, character, appearance, but also by the environment in which he exists, his home, and the things around him. Moreover, to the extent that a person influences the formation of his environment, his consciousness and way of life are also a “product” of his environment. Therefore, the artist, creating the image of the hero of the work, describes not only the person himself, his relationship with the world of people, but also gives a description of his home, the places he visits, reveals the hero’s lifestyle, considering his habits, behavior in everyday life, his interaction with the world nature.
This technique in literature takes on a special artistic form, and the deeper we can study the features of this form, the more fully the content of the image of a person will be revealed to us. All this fully applies to A.S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”.
Of course, the main place in the novel is occupied by the description of the life of the main character - the young metropolitan nobleman Eugene Onegin. Describing one ordinary day of Onegin, dwelling on the details of everyday life and interior, giving sketches of the external appearance of the heroes, and even making digressions on gastronomic topics, the author, in the course of the plot of the novel, gives the reader a complete picture of the environment in which the characters’ characters were formed, their spiritual state.
The inextricable connection of a person with everyday life, his way of life, occupies a significant place in many literary works. Life and interior in literature is the comprehension of the “language” of the human environment and way of life through figurative words.
The purpose of this work is to consider the description of everyday life and interior as an artistic form of depicting the main characters of the novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". In accordance with the goal, the following tasks were identified:
To study the role of the description of everyday life and interior in the characterization of the hero of the work, in creating the atmosphere necessary for the embodiment of the author's plan;
Explore the features and aesthetic originality of the description of life and interior in the novel;
Consider the description of everyday life and interior as an artistic form of depicting the main characters of the novel “Eugene Onegin”.
1. Everyday life and interior as an artistic form of depicting a person
From the very beginning, “Eugene Onegin” was conceived by Pushkin as a broad historical picture, as an artistic recreation of a historical era. This is one of the most inexhaustible and profound works of Russian literature, which is confirmed by the huge number of studies by modern literary scholars devoted to the form, genre of the novel in verse, the essence of the plan and its implementation, the ideological, aesthetic, moral and philosophical issues of the novel.
These studies began with the critical works of the 19th and 20th centuries. The most significant and fundamental critical work is the work of Belinsky, which is a cycle of 11 articles under the general title “Works of Alexander Pushkin” (1843-1846).
The history of commenting on the novel “Eugene Onegin” is interesting. After all, as soon as Pushkin’s novel surpassed its time and became the property of a new reading environment, much in it required additional explanation. In the 20th century, the first post-revolutionary editions of Pushkin’s works generally refused to comment on “Eugene Onegin.” Separate editions of “Eugene Onegin” appeared, equipped with brief comments by G.O. Vinokura and B.O. Tomashevsky and intended mainly for a wide range of readers.
In 1932, a new commentary was created by N.L. Brodsky, who wrote in the preface to the third edition, stating that the task arose to outline the time that determined the fate and psychology of the main characters of the novel, to reveal the range of ideas of the author himself in a constantly changing reality.
In 1978, “Eugene Onegin” was published with comments by A.E. Tarkhova.
One of the most significant events in the modern interpretation of Eugene Onegin was the publication in 1980. Commentary by Yu. M. Lotman. In the book "Eugene Onegin". Commentary" includes "Essay on the life of the nobility of Onegin's time" - a valuable guide for studying not only "Eugene Onegin", but also all Russian literature of Pushkin's time.
Yu.M. Lotman expresses an interesting idea about the spatial image of the world created by every culture, including Russian. “The relationship between man and the spatial image of the world is complex,” writes the researcher. “On the one hand, this image is created by a person, on the other hand, it actively shapes the person immersed in it.”
The artist’s desire to create works of art is based on an interest in man. But each person is a personality, character, individuality, and a special, unique appearance, and the environment in which he exists, and his home, and the world of things surrounding him, and much more... Walking through life, a person interacts with himself, with people close and distant to him, with time, with nature... And therefore, when creating an image of a person in art, the artist seems to look at him from different sides, recreating and describing him in different ways. The artist is interested in everything about a person - his face and clothes, habits and thoughts, his home and place of work, his friends and enemies, his relationships with the human world and the natural world. In literature, such interest takes a special artistic form, and the deeper you can study the features of this form, the more fully the content of the image of a person in the art of words will be revealed to you, the closer the artist and his view of man will become to you.
In literary criticism, there are several types of artistic descriptions, such as: portrait, landscape, home, as well as life and interior. But let us emphasize that both the one and the other, and the third, set the main task precisely to the image of a person. It is important to keep in mind that these are types of artistic descriptions, and it is the description that expresses the author’s assessment.
The inextricable connection of a person with everyday life, his way of life has always worried artists. Therefore, everyday life, in the broad sense of the word, is given a special, honorable place in literature.
Life and interior in literature is the comprehension of the “language” of the human environment and way of life through figurative words.
Very often, getting to know a person begins with a description of his habitat, his way of life. In literature, a situation often occurs when, through a description of a lifestyle, the author seeks to reveal the inner world of the hero of the work, his character.
Everyday life, as a way of life, is a set of connections and relationships to satisfy a person’s material needs and ensure his spiritual comfort in everyday life. The realization of the hero’s spiritual aspirations, revealing his life position, within the framework of material capabilities and social status.
Sometimes, the description of everyday scenes can perform a more complex, symbolic, multi-valued function, becoming the starting point of the author's ideas, embodying the author's philosophical views on the world and man.
The interior in a literary work is a type of artistic description of the internal state of the house or place in which the hero of the work is constantly located, from those sides that represent it in the author’s vision and allow the image of the described character to be most clearly revealed.
This artistic technique is one of the most important means of characterizing a literary hero. By creating the interior of the hero’s home, the author penetrates into the depths of a person’s soul, because our home is a materialized “model” of our inner self.
Description of the interior is one of the most important means of revealing the author's intention, which is subject to both the requirements of the literary direction or genre, and the author's goals: to reveal the state of the hero, to contrast the world around him with human beliefs, to establish compositional connections between the elements of the work, etc.
The place of description of everyday life and interior in the composition of a literary work is extremely important and varied:
The reader’s acquaintance with the hero of the work can begin with a description of the interior;
The description of the interior and lifestyle can be monolithic, when the author presents all its features at once, as a single “block”, and “broken”, in which the described details are “scattered” throughout the text;
Individual everyday details can be described by the author or one of the characters;
The novel "Eugene Onegin" is a realistic work. A.S. Pushkin depicted in it the contemporary noble society of the 20s of the 19th century, showing in detail how and what the nobles lived not only in both capitals, but also in the provinces.
The St. Petersburg nobility is characterized by vanity and tawdry: “it’s no wonder to keep up everywhere.” The day of the main character Eugene Onegin is the embodiment of vanity:
Sometimes he was still in bed:
They bring notes to him.
What? Invited? Indeed,
Three houses are calling for the evening...
And then - alternating entertainment. Onegin lives by the clock, without attaching meaning to what he does. His day begins in the afternoon, he gets up late - this is one of the features of the life of aristocrats. After dinner, Onegin goes to the theater, although it has lost its charm for him, has become something ordinary, boring:
More cupids, devils, snakes
They jump and make noise on stage...
And Onegin went out;
He goes home to get dressed.
The ball began at nine or ten o'clock in the evening, but it was customary for secular young people to arrive after midnight. After the night's entertainment, Onegin went to bed:
What about my Onegin? Half asleep
He goes to bed from the ball.
Evgeniy, within the framework of that time, was a fairly highly educated and well-mannered person, although he studied and was raised at home:
He's completely French
He could express himself and wrote;
I danced the mazurka easily
And he bowed casually.
And Pushkin also notes that Onegin “has his hair cut in the latest fashion.” In the hero’s office there is “amber on the pipes of Constantinople, porcelain and bronze on the table, perfume in cut crystal.”
In this metropolitan society, public opinion is placed above all else, which creates a special type of behavior:
And here is public opinion!
Spring of honor, our idol!
And this is what the world revolves on!
The main feature of the provincial nobility is patriarchy and loyalty to antiquity:
They kept life peaceful
Habits of a dear old man.
Among provincial entertainments, the ball occupies a special place, and new trends have not yet penetrated into the outback, and therefore tradition dominates in dancing:
I also saved the mazurka
Initial beauties:
Jumps, heels, mustaches.
In the provinces, women read mostly sentimental novels. Tatyana's reading range is typical for a village young lady: novels by Richardson and Rousseau, Martyn Zadeka's dream book.
Villagers eat a lot. Pushkin describes village pickles with pleasure. Food is almost the most essential part of village life.
The local nobles are one big family. They love to gossip with each other. The relationship between nobles and peasants is not an independent theme in the novel; they are only mentioned in connection with the characteristics of the main characters:
He is the yoke of corvée, the ancient
I replaced it with easy quitrent;
And the slave blessed fate.
The Larin family can serve as a mirror of the local nobility. Pushkin describes their life in detail. Olga and Tatyana's mother was a Moscow young lady in her youth. Then she married a landowner, at first she cried, but then she got used to it and became a full-fledged mistress:
She went to work
I salted mushrooms for the winter.
The novel also depicts the Larins’ guests who came to Tatiana’s name day:
With his portly wife
Fat Pustyakov arrived;
Gvozdin, an excellent owner,
Owner of poor men;
The Skotinins, the gray-haired couple...
District dandy Petushkov,
My cousin, Buyanov,
In down, in a cap with a visor
(As you know him, of course)
And retired adviser Flyanov,
Heavy gossip, old rogue,
Glutton, bribe-taker and buffoon.
It is easy to notice that all the guests have “speaking” surnames. And of course, they are all incorrigible conservatives. When Onegin replaced corvee with quitrent, they called him a most dangerous eccentric and ended their friendship with him.
There, in the village, the best representatives of the nobility met. Such are Lensky and Onegin. Lensky became a close friend of Evgeniy. He was fond of the philosophical teachings that were fashionable at that time and dreamy romantic poetry divorced from life. Lensky has many excellent inclinations, but he lacks knowledge and understanding of reality. He perceives people as a romantic and a dreamer.
Like Onegin, Lensky is alien to the society of the provincial nobility with its narrow interests, but he idealizes Olga Larina, an ordinary girl who takes love lightly. Her image is a parody of a sentimental portrait.
The central female image in the novel is the image of Tatyana Larina. Pushkin calls his heroine a “Russian soul,” a “sweet ideal.” There are traits in Tatyana's character that make her similar to Onegin and Lensky. Tatyana amazes with her uniqueness and originality. Onegin is “unsociable,” lives as an “anchorite,” and Tanya “seemed like a stranger in her own family.” She feels lonely both in the village and in high society. She is simple and sincere.
Tatiana was raised by a serf nanny. Tatiana's nanny is a true representative of women from the common people. She tells in the novel about the fate of a peasant woman.
Life in the provinces flows measuredly and monotonously, but at the same time it is not without a certain practical meaning, and in the life of Moscow society “no changes are visible,” “everything is the same as before.” You can hear incoherent nonsense in the living rooms. The noble assembly gathers to show off the new vest, to boast about this and that. Moscow life is boring and empty. Everything about her is pale, indifferent: “They slander even boringly.” In general, Moscow is like an intermediate link between the provinces and St. Petersburg.
“Eugene Onegin” is a highly original and national Russian work. Pushkin's novel formed a solid foundation for new Russian poetry, new Russian literature.
The novel "Eugene Onegin" is the greatest creation of A.S. Pushkin. It is a poetic account of events, where the poet’s description of contemporary life in Russian society organically merges with the author’s lyrical diary, with his reflections on time and himself. Pushkin depicts Russian life itself, the picture of the morals of the secular and local nobility with an unprecedentedly wide, truly encyclopedic scope, and at the same time does it with his characteristic laconicism, in an extremely concise form. Roman A.S. Pushkin is the first realistic work in Russian literature, and all the typical images presented in it contain a broad artistic generalization. "Eugene Onegin" is deeply historical both in its method of depicting reality and in its content. Belinsky saw in the work “a picture of the morals of Russian society, at one of the most interesting moments of its development.” Despite the fact that "Eugene Onegin" is a historical poem, there is not a single historical person among its heroes, Pushkin describes the life of the St. Petersburg nobility, the St. Petersburg high society, the life of provincial landowners and introduces numerous historical realities associated with socio-political and cultural events of Russian life of the 20s of the XIX century. Depicting only a few representatives of one circle or another, giving generalized images, A.S. Pushkin was able to fully depict entire layers of society, differing in their moral, cultural appearance, and way of life. Each hero of the novel is a shining example, a typical representative of a certain circle of people, a certain social stratum. At the same time, each hero was formed under the influence of the picture of morals that reigned around him, as well as under the influence of the environment in which he lived. It was they who left their imprint on the views and worldview of all the heroes of Eugene Onegin, making them exactly the way we see them on the pages of the novel. Thus, Eugene Onegin is a typical young secular man, a representative of freedom-loving and at the same time dissatisfied, bored noble youth. A “young rake” appears before us, an egoist and skeptic with a sharp and evil tongue. The environment to which Eugene belonged and the mores of that society shaped his beliefs, morals and interests. The author makes fun of his scholarship, the depth of his economic knowledge; he does not know how to pay attention to the feelings of others, easily offending and not noticing it. Secular society shaped and made Onegin like this. Thus, in his relationship with Lensky, he openly demonstrates his attachment to the foundations and morals of secular society. Despising them, he could not break these laws. A striking example of this is the hero’s behavior at Tatyana’s name day and the duel with Lensky. Each hero of the novel is a product and victim of the society in which he grew up, received his education, upbringing, where his basic principles of life were formed. Describing secular St. Petersburg society, Pushkin characterizes it quite evilly, saying that in this environment one can “harden, harden and finally petrify.” The author’s attitude towards this circle of people is clear from the very first pages of the novel: Here, however, was the color of the capital, And the nobility, and fashion models, Everywhere you meet faces, Necessary fools... ...And you won’t even find funny stupidity in you, light empty! Pushkin ironically describes the example of a “wonderful man” from the point of view of the world: Blessed is he who was young from his youth, Blessed is he who matured in time... Who at twenty was a dandy or smart, And at thirty married advantageously; Who, at fifty, freed himself from private and other debts, Who has been talked about for a whole century: K.K. wonderful person. The local nobility, with its morals and customs, is most fully represented in the novel at the ball in honor of Tatyana’s name day: Fat Pustyakov arrived with his portly wife; Gvozdin, an excellent owner, Owner of poor peasants; The Skotinins, a gray-haired couple... And the retired councilor Flyanov, a heavy gossip, an old plow, a glutton, a bribe-taker and a buffoon. Here the author uses telling surnames, endowing the landowners with mainly negative traits: they are ruthless serf-owners, people of low culture, with base interests (all their conversations are “about haymaking, about wine, about the kennel, about their relatives”). It is not surprising that Tatyana could not find her place in this circle and was indifferent to their interests. Against the background of the others, Pushkin singles out the Larin family: They kept in their peaceful life the Habits of dear old times... On Trinity Day, when the people, Yawning, listen to the prayer service, Touchingly at the dawn, They shed three tears... The Larin family is that environment in in which Tatyana grew up, she embraced all the kindness, simplicity, patriarchy and sickle morals and way of life. The author also gives far from flattering characteristics to Moscow society. He portrays him sharply, sharply satirically: But no change is visible in them, Everything in them is according to the old model... Lyubov Petrovna still lies the same... Ivan Petrovich is just as stupid, Semyon Petrovich is just as stingy. Pushkin emphasizes the typicality of the characteristics of the selected individuals with a variety of examples that fit under one general definition - Griboyedov’s Moscow. Thus, in the novel “Eugene Onegin,” Pushkin depicted Russian society for us at “one of the most interesting moments of development,” recreating a truly realistic picture of the morals and customs of Russia in the first quarter of the 19th century.
2. The theme of man and nature in Fet’s poem “Dawn bids farewell to the earth...”
The poem “Dawn bids farewell to the earth...” at first glance is quite simple, dim, calm. But this is exactly what you immediately think about: what is its simplicity? Why, despite everyday life, do you return to it again? How does unpretentiousness turn into attractiveness?
The author allows us to see a “piece of the evening” through the eyes of the narrator:
Dawn says goodbye to the earth,
Steam lies at the bottom of the valleys,
I look at the forest covered in darkness,
And to the lights of its peaks.
And we see a bright scarlet reflection of the setting sun in the high clear sky, we turn our gaze down - there the darkness of the earth is hidden by a light soft veil of foggy steam haze. Contrast of light and darkness, color and space, brightness and mutedness: “the dawn says goodbye to the earth.”
Forest... The forest, of course, is deciduous: there are lindens, maples, rowan trees, birches, aspens - all those trees whose foliage becomes bright in the fall. That’s why the “lights of its peaks” are striking: yellow, scarlet, brown-crimson, glowing and glowing in the rays of the sunset.
This means it is an autumn, September evening. It’s still warm, but the coolness is somewhere very close, you want to shudder your shoulders chillily. The forest has already plunged into darkness, no birds can be heard, mysterious rustles and smells make you wary, and...
How imperceptibly they go out
The rays go out in the end!
With what bliss they bathe in them
The trees are their lush crown!
The trees here are living, thinking, feeling creatures; they say goodbye to the light of day, to the warmth of summer, to the softness and heaviness of foliage. It is very pleasant: to be young, slender and strong, to caress each of your leaves with elastic waves of the wind, and “with such bliss,” with pleasure, with pleasure, to bathe “your magnificent crown” in the rays of the evening dawn! But the trees know that soon, soon this will end, and we must have time to enjoy life: the splendor of the crown, the singing of forest birds, sunrises, sunsets, sun and rain...
And more and more mysterious, more immeasurable
Their shadow grows, grows like a dream:
How subtle at the dawn of evening
Their light essay is exalted!
The observer’s gaze slid up and down: “sky-earth”, and now there is also a feeling of depth and space, “the shadow grows”, and the picture becomes three-dimensional, whole, alive. And how beautiful, charming and unique are the gentle, light,
lacy outlines of clumps of trees on the light fawn-blue screen of the sky. The rays went out, the forest darkened, the color picture disappeared and now the photograph has turned into a daguerreotype. And on the ground the pattern is repeated with elongated cartoon lines,
distorted, but recognizable and beautiful in its own way.
The subtlest vibrations and moods of the human soul are captured and conveyed by this simple, familiar picture in the same simple and familiar words.
As if sensing a double life
And she is doubly fanned, -
And they feel their native land,
And they ask for the sky.
Trees are amazing creatures. They are immovably attached by their roots to one place where they drink the juices of mother earth. But they can move branches, leaves, their whole body in the ocean of air where they live. Extraordinarily interesting
watching the movement of tall trees in the forest when you look at them from below for a long time. There is an absolute feeling that they communicate with each other, understand each other; they sway, rustle, listen, answer, nod in agreement
or negatively, indignantly waving the branches like hands. Maybe they see us? can they think? feel? be in love?
They, like us, are born, live, grow, eat, breathe, reproduce, get sick, die, they have enemies and friends.
But how often do we think about this?
A.A. Fet undoubtedly loved nature, knew a lot about flora and fauna, knew how to notice and enjoy the celebration of life, although “nothing human was alien to him.” He dreamed of restoring his noble title, of achieving material
prosperity, so he did not marry his beloved and loving dowry. Contemporaries characterized him as a practical person, which did not prevent him from capturing the “thrill of life” and generously sharing it with his reader.
It’s surprising that in the poem “Dawn bids farewell to the earth...” not a word was said about the time of year, nor about sounds, colors, smells, nor about weather or temperature, but you see, hear, feel all this as if you were personally there.
the narrator's place. The author’s language is so simple, understandable and close to everyday speech that it seems: “Yes, I could easily tell it like that myself.” Yes, it’s simple, like everything ingenious.
A. S. Pushkin worked for more than seven years on the first realistic novel in verse, “Eugene Onegin,” which reflected “his whole life, his whole soul, all his love,” “his feelings, concepts, ideals.” This work, reflecting one of the turning points in Russian history, raises a number of problems: philosophical, social, moral. The novel amazes with its volume and depth of thought, and therefore literary critics could not pass by it without saying a few words about it. One of the prominent critics of the last century, Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky, analyzing Pushkin’s work, calls it “an encyclopedia of Russian life.”
In his poetic novel - in its narrative part itself and in numerous lyrical digressions, which Pushkin called “chatter” - the poet depicts Russian life with an unprecedentedly wide, truly encyclopedic scope, but at the same time he does it laconically, in an extremely compressed form, truly approaching the brevity of encyclopedic articles and notes. In “Eugene Onegin” the author shows us cold and selfish St. Petersburg, patriarchal Moscow, a village preserving traditions and customs, creates realistic portraits of the nobles of that time, the class to which he himself belonged and whose life he knew well. This is the “encyclopedic nature” of the novel. Pushkin spoke in an extremely concise form about the life, morals, and customs of Russia in the first quarter of the 19th century.
Of course, the main place in the novel is occupied by the description of the life of the main character - the young metropolitan “rake” Eugene Onegin, using the example of whose life the author shows the life and customs of secular society. We learn about the typical upbringing of noble children at that time:
At first Madame followed him,
Then Monsieur replaced him.
The child was harsh, but sweet.
Monsieur l "Abbe, poor Frenchman,
So that the child does not get tired,
I taught him everything jokingly,
I didn’t bother you with strict morals...
Education was superficial, “to something and somehow,” and the required set of knowledge included only the French language, the ability to dance the mazurka, “bow at ease,” and “the science of tender passion.” We also see the reading circle of young people of that time: sentimental novels and Latin “went out of fashion,” and young people became interested in Adam Smith, the “singer of Giaour and Juan” Byron and other romantic authors, as well as novels that “reflected the century and the modern the person is depicted quite accurately.” The first chapter shows in detail the daily routine of the young rake: aimlessly wasting his life on the boulevards, in restaurants and theaters, at carefree feasts. We see both the clothes of the main character (“putting on a wide bolivar”), and his office, which contains “everything that scrupulous London trades for abundant whims and carries to us along the Baltic waves for timber and lard,” and the menus in restaurants are described in detail:
Before him roast-beef is bloody,
And truffles, the luxury of youth,
French cuisine has the best color,
And Strasbourg's pie is imperishable
Between live Limburg cheese
And golden pineapple
The theater of that time is especially fully represented - its repertoire, artists, famous playwrights:
Magic land! There in the old days,
Satire is a brave ruler,
Fonvizin, friend of freedom, shone,
And the overbearing Prince;
There Ozerov involuntary tributes
People's tears, applause
Shared with young Semyonova...
The life of the local nobility is described in no less detail. Pushkin lived quite a long time on his Mikhailovskoye estate and knew well the life of provincial landowners. He could judge the life of the peasants from the stories of his nanny Arina Rodionovna, whose image he partly created in the person of his nanny Tatyana Larina. The author shows the activities of the district landowners: their meetings, feasts, holidays, work, pickling mushrooms, conversations “about haymaking, about wine, about the kennel and their relatives”; reading circle: sentimental novels and Martyn Zadeki’s dream book. We can judge the life of the provincial nobility from the example of the Larin family and the activities of the old woman Larina:
She went to work
Salted mushrooms for the winter,
She kept expenses, shaved her foreheads,
At their Shrovetide
There were Russian pancakes;
Twice a year they fasted;
Loved the round swing
Podblyudny songs, round dance...
Tatyana, Pushkin’s favorite heroine, embodies the ideal of a Russian woman; she was close to the people and absorbed their spirit:
Tatyana believed the legends
Of common folk antiquity,
And dreams, and card fortune-telling,
And the predictions of the moon.
The seventh chapter shows patriarchal Moscow. Her description is very... looks like Griboyedov's, which is no coincidence. The author once again wanted to emphasize its patriarchy, loyalty to tradition, and conservatism:
But no change is visible in them;
Everything about them is the same as the old model;
At Aunt Princess Elena's
Still the same tulle cap;
Everything is whitewashed Lukerya Lvovna,
Lyubov Petrovna lies all the same,
Ivan Petrovich is just as stupid
Semyon Petrovich is also stingy...
But, unlike Griboedov, Pushkin still loves Moscow precisely for its sincerity, warmth and commitment to national traditions. He admires its rich history, its rich military exploits:
Napoleon waited in vain
Intoxicated with the last happiness,
Moscow kneeling
With the keys of the old Kremlin:
No, my Moscow did not go
To him with a guilty head.
Not a holiday, not a receiving gift,
She was preparing a fire
To the impatient hero.
In addition to sketches of the life of Russia, given directly in the narrative part of the novel, we learn a lot from the author’s lyrical digressions. Constantly interrupting the narrative of the novel with his remarks, the author tells us his opinion about certain events, characterizes his characters, and talks about himself. So, we learn about the author’s friends, about literary life, about plans for the future, we get acquainted with his thoughts about the meaning of life, about friends, about love and much more, which gives us the opportunity to get an idea not only about the heroes of the novel, about the life of Russian society of that time, but also about the personality of the author himself. This once again confirms Belinsky’s words that Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” is an “encyclopedia of Russian life” of the first quarter of the 19th century.
