The famous Pushkin novel in verse not only captivated lovers of Russian literature with high poetic skill, but also caused controversy about the ideas that the author wanted to express here. These disputes did not bypass the main character - Eugene Onegin. The definition of “extra person” has long been attached to it. However, even today it is interpreted differently. And this image is so multifaceted that it provides material for a variety of readings. Let's try to answer the question: in what sense can Onegin be considered a "superfluous person", and were there any spiritual aspirations in his life?
In one of the drafts for "Eugene Onegin" Pushkin noted: "Hero, be first a man." And his Onegin, of course, is first and foremost a man. No superfluous, but just a person. A representative of a certain era - the 1810s, a certain class group - the St. Petersburg secular nobility, a certain way of life, when it was necessary to painfully invent activities and entertainment for oneself in order to kill the all-consuming boredom. The poet draws us a circle of Onegin's interests:
A small scientist, but a pedant:
He had a lucky talent
No compulsion to speak
Touch everything lightly
With a learned air of a connoisseur
To remain silent in an important dispute,
And make the ladies smile
The fire of unexpected epigrams.
He had no desire to rummage
In chronological dust
Genesis of the earth;
But the days of the past are jokes
From Romulus to the present day
He kept it in his memory.
No high passion
For the sounds of life do not spare,
He could not have iambic from a chorea;
No matter how we fought, to distinguish.
Branil Homer, Theocritus;
But read Adam Smith,
And there was a deep economy,
That is, he was able to judge
How does the state grow rich?
And what lives, and why
He doesn't need gold
When a simple product has.
A certain dispersion and superficiality of Eugene's intellectual requests is striking, especially since he especially succeeded in the "science of tender passion" praised by Ovid Nason. Yes, and Onegin was educated not too systematically, not differing, however, in this respect from the majority of people of his generation. As Pushkin emphasized: “We all learned little by little something and somehow ...” However, one should not judge Pushkin's hero too harshly. Although Onegin never mastered the basics of poetic theory, this did not prevent him from creating sharp and untalented epigrams that were successful in society. And the interest in the advanced for that time works of the English political economist Adam Smith testifies to the young man's desire for practical knowledge, which he then tries to put into practice. Let us recall how Onegin, on his estate, “replaced the yoke ... of corvée with an old dues with a light one, and the slave blessed his fate.” The hero is clearly not alien to the spirit of the times and is ready to alleviate the situation of the people at least in the small. But you should not make him a Decembrist either - political issues for Onegin are not as significant as successes on the love front.
The content of "Eugene Onegin" is well known. Fed up with secular life, Eugene retires to the village, where he soon becomes just as bored. Onegin at first rejects Tatyana's love, and then unsuccessfully tries to unite with her. In the meantime, he kills a friend in a duel, sets off to travel, returns, meets Tatyana again at the St. Petersburg ball, already the wife of a familiar general. He declares his love to her, receives recognition of reciprocity along with the rejection of adultery. The heroine now puts marital duty above love feelings. Onegin is severely punished. But is it only the secular vices that Pushkin denounces in him? No, the poet himself admitted in one of his letters that in "Eugene Onegin" there is "no mention" of satire. And in another letter, in October 1824, he reported that among his neighbors in Mikhailovskoye he had “the reputation of Onegin”, at the same time he was subject to a completely Onegin mood: “I am in the best position imaginable in order to complete my poetic novel, but boredom is a cold muse, and my poem does not move at all ... ”In letters to friends, Pushkin repeatedly emphasized that the word“ satirical ”should not be mentioned in“ Eugene Onegin ”, in particular, so as not to interfere with the passage of the novel through censorship. However, here it was the poet's intention, and not the fear of censorship slingshots, that pushed the satirical principle into the background.
Onegin, unlike Pushkin, is not a poet. His boredom is not illuminated by glimpses of genuine poetic inspiration. It can be said, of course, that Yevgeny is an "extra person" in the sense that he does not perform any obvious socially useful function, is not in demand by society. Pushkin knew that he himself, like many comrades in St. Petersburg, could have found himself in the same position, had he not possessed God's gift of creativity. However, after all, Onegin is always looking for something, he is possessed by "hunting for a change of place." Here Eugene returned from his wanderings, and the author asks the question:
Is he still the same, or has he calmed down?
Ile poses as an eccentric?
Can you tell me how he came back?
What will he present to us?
What will it be now?
Melmoth,
Cosmopolitan, patriot,
Harold, Quaker, prude,
Or another flaunts a mask,
Or just be a good fellow,
How are you and me, how is the whole world?
Onegin has many masks in the novel, and he brings evil to many, ridiculously killing Lensky and ultimately making Tatyana unhappy, but in essence, as Pushkin hints, he is a kind person at heart and consciously does no harm to anyone. What drives Onegin? I think, by and large, - the desire for spiritual freedom, for the "freedom of dreams", for the unattainable ideal of beauty. And in the end, he turns out to be even more unhappy than the beloved who left him. The hero, together with Pushkin himself, admits:
I thought: liberty and peace -
A replacement for happiness. My God!
How wrong I was, how punished!
Such is the disappointing result of Onegin's spiritual quest. But not Pushkin. Indeed, in 1836, shortly before his death, Alexander Sergeevich wrote the famous: “There is no happiness in the world, but there is peace and freedom.” For a brilliant poet, creative peace, creative freedom can be the highest value, while for a mere mortal like Eugene, happiness still remains such.
Plan
1. Onegin is an extra person
2. Acquaintance with Onegin
3. Differences between Onegin and the villagers
4. Onegin and love
5. The hard fate of Onegin
A novel in verse "", written by A.S. Pushkin is a unique work that has made a great contribution to the development of Russian classical literature. The poet began work on it in 1823, and finished only 8 years later - in 1831.
Philosophical problems are raised in the novel, one of them is the problem of the “superfluous person”, in the role of which the protagonist acts. The character of Eugene Onegin personifies the entire Russian nobility of the 19th century.
He very accurately described the lifestyle and life of an aristocratic, educated and already tired of life youth. Why are people like Onegin considered to be "superfluous people"? Let's look at this issue using the example of the work itself.
The narrative in the novel begins with the acquaintance of readers with Onegin. According to the author, we learn that he was born in St. Petersburg, grew up here and now speaks French perfectly, dances the mazurka well, is familiar with the rules of etiquette ("And he bowed at ease ..."). Thanks to these skills, he was perfectly at home in high society (“The Light decided that he was smart and very nice ...”), whose members were no different from himself. Or rather, at first glance, they were no different, but in fact there is a huge gap between the main character and the environment in which he grew up. Here is the first reason why we can call it “superfluous” - the young nobles of St. Petersburg like such a secular life, and Onegin was annoyed by it. That is why he so quickly decided to move to the village.
Onegin moved to the provinces, but at heart he remained a city nobleman. The change of scenery did not relieve him of the blues, but, moreover, it further emphasized his dissimilarity to those around him. In the village, Onegin encounters open, sensual and passionate people such as Tatiana and Olga Larin and Vladimir Lensky. Although the latter did not grow up in a rural environment, but studied abroad, he was able to maintain his love and interest in life. And most importantly, Lensky remains sincere to the very end, unlike Onegin, who hides real feelings under masks of indifference and impudence. Hypocrisy is characteristic of the high society of St. Petersburg, but not in a deaf village.
The difference between the inhabitants of the village, "a charming corner", according to Yevgeny, and Onegin himself is also revealed in his inability to love. In the episodes of the meeting of the main character with, it is clear how unprepared he is for such high feelings. It is good that he honestly confessed to Tatyana, seeing her sincerity and love. Onegin is afraid of losing his freedom, he is not ready for a serious relationship, and skillfully disguises his fears with the help of rudeness, coldness and disregard for the emotions of others. As a result, Onegin's life turns into a series of tragedies - the murder of a friend, the loss of a beloved woman. Love for him is an inaccessible luxury. Only later, having met Tatiana, he himself fell in love with no memory, but she was already married.
Thus, with his difficult character, selfishness and unwillingness to change, he does not fit into either noble life or provincial life. He, as they say, is "superfluous" both there and here. Moreover, this does not bring him any benefit or pleasure - Eugene Onegin is doomed to eternal suffering.
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In the novel of the great A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" before us is an excerpt from the life of a nobleman of the Russian Empire of the XIX century. It is through this representative of high society that the author gives an extensive description of the life and customs of the privileged class.
The novel begins with a story about Onegin's childhood. The father of our hero led an idle life, which ultimately led to his ruin. He had little interest in his son, so the young man was placed in the care of a careless Frenchman who approached his education in a completely irresponsible way. So, although he was a nobleman, Eugene was a poorly educated person, but he still had a reputation in high society as a real intellectual. Having begun to lead a full-fledged secular life, he completely surrendered to passions and vices. He gave special preference to love affairs, becoming a real thief of women's hearts. But after some time, our hero lost interest in balls, art and novels. Having lost interest in entertainment, he fell into despondency and blues. Unfortunately, his story is by no means an exception. Pushkin showed how the idleness and irresponsibility of an entire class lead to the emergence of many young, beautiful, well-mannered, but empty and unadapted to life young men - superfluous people.
Feeling the aimlessness of his existence, Onegin left the world and soon moved to the provinces. With this change of scenery, Eugene hoped to dispel his blues, but the rural nature and worries about the economy soon bored him. Of all the neighbors, he was able to get closer only to Lensky. But in the end, everything turns into a tragedy. If the hero had dealt with high society, nothing terrible would have happened, because the behavior characteristic of Onegin was the norm for the high society of his time. But in the provincial landlord environment, this caused a storm of indignation, and the offended poet, in anger, challenged his best friend to a duel. It seems that it would be possible to extinguish the absurd conflict by apologizing, but in the capital, repentance would become a shame for Eugene, and he could not allow this. In the end, the young man gives his life in vain. This is the main tragedy of Onegin. Wanting to leave the soulless environment, he cannot get rid of secular habits that alienate him from ordinary people. That is why the protagonist of the novel is an extra person, doomed to eternal loneliness.
Being a nobleman, Pushkin saw the decomposition of the nobility in the 19th century. Extra people are its consequence. The poet believed that sooner or later this would lead to the collapse of the elite and the death of the empire. And, as we know, he was not mistaken.
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With the poem "Eugene Onegin" Pushkin began the theme of "superfluous" people in Russian literature. Following him, this problem was developed by Griboedov with the play “Woe from Wit”, M. Lermontov in the story “A Hero of Our Time”, Turgenev in “Fathers and Sons” and in “Notes of a Superfluous Man”, Goncharov in “Oblomov” and other writers of that time .
Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century brought to the fore the education of a new person, active, enterprising and useful to society. Then this expression appeared for the first time - superfluous people. As a rule, these are wealthy, educated people. They are able to purposefully serve their homeland and society. Able, but not willing. Service often meant the struggle for democratic freedoms.
But Pushkin and his contemporaries were influenced by Byronian romanticism. They created images of all dissatisfied, bored skeptics. An extra person in early romantic literature was Aleko from, who fled from civilized society to a gypsy camp, but even in it he did not find his place and purpose in life. Aleko served as a precursor as a literary hero.
Why do we consider Eugene Onegin an extra person? It would seem that before us is a young man who has everything ahead of him. But Eugene lives. While he lived in St. Petersburg, all that interested him was entertainment: balls, theaters, drinking with friends, women, intrigues. The daily repetition of the same entertainments, the same conversations, faces led our hero to a skeptical attitude towards people.
Onegin does not seek to create a family, he does not serve anywhere. He lives on income from the peasants, but even here he does not lift a finger to somehow increase productivity, improve the lives of those who belong to him. No. We must give him credit for the fact that he replaced the corvee with dues, for which the peasants were grateful to him, and the neighbors-landlords became wary. This was the end of his economic work. If we recall a well-known proverb, we can say that Onegin did not build a house, did not plant a tree, and did not give birth to a child.
Onegin was capable of intrigues in order to disperse the blood, to have some fun. When he started flirting with at the name party, he didn't really think about the consequences. After all, a young and pretty creature with a doll face could take his flirting at face value and fall in love. He did not care how he would perceive his flirting with Olga, how she felt. It was important for him to amuse his own ego and piss him off.
He does not say where Onegin went after the duel, where he was before meeting Tatyana. But having met Onegin in St. Petersburg, we again see an idle person who now consoles himself with love for someone else's wife, and sees the meaning of his being in the fact that he follows her to all social events where she happens to be.
Literary critics believe that "superfluous people" appeared due to some kind of social instability, and if Russia had a different social system and a different political situation, they would not exist. But it's not. There are many examples of people who lived and worked in the same years and in the same social and social system, and at the same time gained fame, created a fortune for their descendants (that is, they grew a tree and built a house). Examples? We won't go far for them. These are the authors of literary works who wrote the books mentioned. By the way, Onegin tried to take up a pen and write something, but it did not work out. Laziness, inability to socially significant work turned out to be stronger than him.
But not even laziness gave rise to extra people. She herself was born from the absence of any purpose.
One of the literary critics had the idea that Onegin would embark on the path of struggle against the autocracy, would find himself in the ranks of the Decembrists. If this happens, then not out of the conviction that they are right, and the desire to free the country from tyranny. But only from the desire to at least something to occupy your idle mind, to drive adrenaline in the blood.
In Russian literature, there are works in which the main characters are a type of "superfluous person". One of these works is the novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". It is believed that it was in Pushkin's novel that the first "extra person" appeared in literature.
The very concept of "an extra person" was formulated by I.S. Turgenev in the middle of the 19th century. "Superfluous" was called a hero from a noble environment, in conflict with society, unable to realize himself in accordance with his knowledge and abilities. He was always smarter than others, therefore he could not exist in harmony with society, which brought him up according to its own laws.
Eugene Onegin - the main character of the novel by A.S. Pushkin - is just such an "extra person". Let's try to understand this issue. Why does Onegin belong to this type of people? Who is he? What place does it occupy in society?
Eugene Onegin - a native of the nobility. He received a good education, although we also feel the irony in some of Pushkin's lines: “... a wretched Frenchman, / So that the child would not be exhausted, / He taught him everything jokingly ...” Onegin “is cut in the latest fashion; / How a London dandy is dressed”, knows French, Latin, speaks beautifully, knows how to dance, can support any conversation. Secular society accepted Eugene with open arms: "The world decided / That he is smart and very nice." Onegin plunged headlong into secular life. Every day he travels to guests, to balls, to masquerades. He is welcome everywhere, women love him and are waiting for his attention. But all these idle days, entertainment, empty talk bored Eugene. He cannot find a place for himself in this society.
Accidentally "by the will of fate" having got into the village, Onegin could start a new life. He tries to write, but nothing worthwhile comes out of his pen, he takes up a book, but also cannot do this for a long time. Although in the village Onegin takes up the management of his household. He even facilitates the peasant "tribute": "He replaced the old corvée with a yoke / I replaced the quitrent with a light quitrent." But it doesn't last long. Onegin is not able to constantly engage in some kind of business. Everything becomes boring and monotonous. This is the imprint of the very social education. Even in love, Onegin cannot be himself. He answers the sincere confession of Tatyana Larina with a moralizing speech about how a girl should behave. He does not accept her love, talking about his secular manners and preferences. And two years later, he will regret it bitterly.
Onegin is smarter and more educated than the society in which he lives. He has his talent, but he is not able to use it. Those laws, beliefs, orders that live in the world did not make Onegin happy. He is an "extra person". And it is unlikely that he will be able to live in harmony with himself and society. A.S. Pushkin gives the reader the opportunity to imagine what Onegin will be like later, he leaves open the finale of the novel. But, in my opinion, Eugene Onegin will retain the type of "superfluous person."
