Description of life in Eugene Onegin. Composition "Life and customs of the metropolitan and provincial nobility in the novel" Eugene Onegin

26.06.2020

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Cutugno with his wife. Biography. "I cheated, but I have only one woman of heart!"

It is not by chance that the great Russian critic VG Belinsky called the novel by Alexander Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" "an encyclopedia of Russian life." This is connected, of course, with the fact that not a single work of Russian literature can be compared with an immortal novel in verse in terms of the breadth of coverage of contemporary reality for the writer. Pushkin describes his time, noting everything that was essential for the life of a generation: the way of life and customs of people, the state of their souls, popular philosophical, political and economic trends, literary passions, fashions, and so on.

Throughout the action of the novel and in lyrical digressions, the poet shows all strata of Russian society, including the high society of St. Petersburg, noble Moscow and the local nobility.

Petersburg at that time was a real center of cultural and political life, a place where the best people of Russia lived. There “Fonvizin, friend of freedom, shone,” Princess and Istomin conquered the audience. The author knew and loved St. Petersburg well, and therefore he is accurate in his descriptions, not forgetting either "about the salt of worldly anger" or about "necessary fools", "starched impudent people" and the like.

Petersburg is oriented towards the Western way of life, and this manifests itself in fashion, and in the repertoire of theaters, and in the abundance of "foreign words". The life of a nobleman in St. Petersburg from morning to night is filled with entertainment, but at the same time "monotonous and variegated." For all his love for the northern capital, Pushkin cannot fail to note that it is precisely the influence of the highest Petersburg society, the system of upbringing and education adopted in it and the way of life that leaves an indelible imprint on a person's consciousness, making him either empty and worthless, or prematurely disappointed in life. The protagonist of the novel, Eugene, is, of course, a resident of the capital, even though he is one step above the secular society.

Russia, contemporary to the poet, is a country Russia, and Pushkin emphasizes this with a play on words in the epigraph to the second chapter. This is probably why the gallery of characters from the local nobility in the novel is the most representative. Local noblemen live a life, the routine of which was established once and for all many years ago. In the chambers of his uncle Onegin finds "the calendar of the eighth year", for "the old man, having a lot of things to do, did not look at other books." Nothing happens in their life, one day is similar to another. Differs from other landowners, perhaps, only Lensky, "with a soul straight from Göttingen," and that is because Vladimir receives his education in Germany. However, Pushkin foresees that if Lensky had not died, he could repeat the life of old Larin or Uncle Onegin in twenty years:

I would really know life,

He had gout at the age of forty.

Drank, ate, missed, got fat, sickly

And finally in my bed

B died in the midst of children,

Crying women and doctors.

With irony, Pushkin also describes the secular village society gathered in the Larins' house. It is no coincidence that the author gives some of the guests the names of the characters in Fonvizin's plays. The provincial nobility is in many ways funny, ridiculous and pitiful and the range of their vital interests. Village life disposes, according to Pushkin, to move from the world of romantic dreams to the world of everyday worries. But it is no coincidence that it is among the local nobility that Pushkin's "sweet ideal" appears - Tatyana Larina, in whose upbringing and education the traditions of high education and folk culture are combined. It is the local nobility who lives in close proximity to the people, and therefore the idea of rebirth is probably laid in it.

Federal Agency for Education

Saratov State University

Course work

on the topic:

Life and interior in the novel

"Eugene Onegin»

Completed: 2nd year student of the faculty

IFiZh, specialty:

"Journalism",

Checked:

Saratov 2009

Introduction

2. Everyday life in the depiction of images of the main characters in the novel “Eugene

Onegin "

3. Interior depicting 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. Pushkin in terms of volume, coverage of life events, diversity of themes and ideas. Not every real encyclopedia gives such a laconic and at the same time full picture of the era: about ideals, morals and passions, about the life of representatives of all classes, which Eugene Onegin gives about his time.

But, depicting Russian life with an unprecedentedly wide, truly encyclopedic scope, the author, first of all, creates a work of art, which is based on an interest in a person. 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 house, the things around him. At the same time, to the extent that a person influences the formation of his environment, his consciousness and way of life are also a “product” of the 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 in which he happens, reveals the hero's lifestyle, considering his habits, behavior in everyday life, his interaction with the world nature.

Such a 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 human image will be revealed to us. All this fully applies to the novel by Alexander Pushkin "Eugene Onegin".

Undoubtedly, the main place in the novel is occupied by the description of the life of the protagonist - a young nobleman from the capital Eugene Onegin. Describing one ordinary day of Onegin, dwelling on the details of everyday life and the interior, giving sketches of the external appearance of the heroes, and, even making digressions on gastronomic topics, the author, in the course of the novel's plot, gives the reader a complete picture of the environment in which the character of the heroes was formed, their spiritual state.

The inseparable connection of a person with everyday life, the way of his life, occupies a significant place in many literary works. Life and interior in literature is the comprehension of the "language" of the environment and the way of life of a person through a figurative word.

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's "Eugene Onegin". In accordance with the goal, the following tasks were identified:

To study the role of describing 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 intention;

Explore the features and aesthetic originality of the description of life and interior in the novel;

Consider the description of everyday life and the interior as an artistic form of depicting the main characters of the novel "Eugene Onegin".

1. Life and interior as an art form of the image of 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 a huge number of studies by modern literary critics devoted to the form, genre of the novel in verse, the essence of the concept and its embodiment, the ideological, aesthetic, moral and philosophical problems of the novel.

This research was initiated by the critical works of the 19th and 20th centuries. The most significant and fundamental critical work is Belinsky's work, which is a cycle of 11 articles under the general title "The Works of Alexander Pushkin" (1843-1846).

An interesting story of commenting on the novel "Eugene Onegin". After all, as soon as Pushkin's novel stepped over its time and became the property of a new reading environment, much in it demanded 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, provided with brief comments by G.O. Vinokura and B.O. Tomashevsky and designed 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 circle 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. To the book "Eugene Onegin". Commentary "included" Essay on the life of the nobility of the Onegin era "- a valuable guide for the study of 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 each, including Russian, culture. “The relationship between man and the spatial image of the world is complex,” the researcher writes. “On the one hand, this image is created by a person, on the other, it actively forms a person immersed in it.”

The artist's desire to create works of art is based on an interest in a person. But each person is a personality, character, individuality, and a special, only inherent appearance, and the environment in which he exists, and his house, and the world of things around him, and much more ... Walking through life, a person interacts with himself, with people close and distant for him, over time, with nature ... And therefore, creating an image of a person in art, the artist seems to be looking at him from different angles, recreating and describing him in different ways. In a person, the artist is interested in everything - his face and clothes, habits and thoughts, his home and place of service, his friends and foes, his relationship with the human world and the natural world. In literature, such interest takes on 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 open to you, the closer the artist and his view of a person will become to you.

In literary criticism, several types of artistic descriptions are distinguished, such as: portrait, landscape, dwelling, as well as everyday life and interior. But let us emphasize that both the one and the other, and the third, the main task is 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 inseparable connection of a person with everyday life, the way of his life has always worried artists. Therefore, everyday life, in the broadest 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 environment and the way of life of a person through a figurative word.

Very often, acquaintance with a person begins with a description of his environment, the way of his life. In literature, there is often a situation when, through a description of the way of life, 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 meet the material needs of a person and ensure his mental comfort in everyday life. 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.

An interior in a literary work is a type of artistic description of the internal state of a house or a place in which the hero of the work is constantly located, from those sides that represent him in the author's vision and allow the most vividly reveal the image of the character being described.

This artistic technique is one of the most important means of characterizing a literary hero. Creating the interior of the hero's dwelling, the author penetrates into the depths of the human soul, because our dwelling is a materialized "model" of our inner "I".

Description of the interior is one of the most important means of revealing the author's intention, which obeys both the requirements of the literary direction or genre, and the goals of the author: to reveal the state of the hero, to oppose the surrounding world to 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 diverse:

The acquaintance of the reader with the hero of the work can begin with the description of the interior;

The description of the interior and way of life can be monolithic, when the author gives all of its features at once, as a single “block”, and “torn”, in which the described details are “scattered” throughout the text;

Individual everyday details can be described by the author or someone from the characters;

Interior depicting images of the main characters in the novel

"Eugene Onegin"

The place of action plays a large and very specific role in Pushkin's novel. Events are developing all the time in any particular space. In this case, the nature of events turns out to be closely related to the place in which they unfold.

The description of the space surrounding the heroes is at the same time accurate in detail and bears metaphorical signs of their cultural, ideological and ethical characteristics.

Interior (fr. Intérieur - internal) - the architectural and artistic design of the interior space of the building, which provides a person with favorable living conditions; the internal space of a building or a separate room, the architectural solution of which is determined by its functional purpose.

The interior design is based on a synthesis of pragmatic and artistic ideas and solutions aimed at improving human conditions in a holistic, aesthetically perfect form. The interior consists of three components:

Building envelope - floor, walls, ceiling;

Subject content (equipment, furniture);

Functional processes that form both space and the sensory-psychological atmosphere.

Interior - in literature: an artistic description of the interior of the premises. The interior plays an important role in the characterization of the hero, in creating the atmosphere necessary for the embodiment of the author's intention.

In this respect, Pushkin's novel is not descriptive - the author almost nowhere gives detailed pictures of the scene. The novel does not describe the interior decoration of an ordinary landowner's house in the village or the interior of a St. Petersburg aristocratic mansion on the embankment of the Neva; he makes only scanty instructions, focusing the reader's attention on individual details.

The set: a hall, a living room, a bedroom, an office - was stable and sustained both in the layout of a St. Petersburg house and in a country manor house, in which part of the action of the novel is concentrated and takes place. In Chapter 2, the author describes Onegin's village dwelling. The reader is conveyed a sense of the strength of the patriarchal tradition, the strength and reliability of being, an atmosphere of calm and tranquility is created, suggesting a deep and serious attitude towards subsequent events.

The venerable castle was built

How castles should be built:

Superbly durable and calm

In the taste of clever antiquity.

Everywhere high chambers,

Damask wallpaper in the living room,

Portraits of kings on the walls

And stoves in colorful tiles ...

But here, in a few lines, the attitude of the hero of the novel to all this "triumph of antiquity" is presented. At the same time, the author does not disclose Onegin's opinion, but focuses the reader's attention on the inner state of the protagonist, which determines Eugene's attitude to his environment.

... Yes, however, to my friend

There was very little need for that,

Then that he yawned the same

Among the trendy and old-fashioned halls.

And then there is no solemnity, but a prosaic enumeration of quite ordinary household details of the interior follows, which, in fact, completes the formation of a holistic idea of Onegin's village house in the reader.

He settled in that peace,

Where is the village old-timer

For forty years he scolded with the housekeeper,

I looked out the window and crushed the flies.

Everything was simple: the floor is oak,

Two wardrobes, a table, a downy sofa,

Not a speck of ink anywhere.

Onegin opened the cupboards;

In one I found an expense notebook,

In another, there is a whole line of liqueurs,

Jugs of apple water

And the calendar of the eighth year ...

It is impossible not to pay attention to how, with the help of the interior, A. Pushkin masterfully creates an amazingly accurate and piercing atmosphere of a home environment, a simple village life, that world that changes a person's idea of time, carries in itself the memory of a previous life. Particularly noteworthy is such an interior detail as the "calendar of the eighth year", which turns into a symbol of history and tradition, marks the past time, emphasizes the eternity of being.

But with the help of the interior, the poet not only paints complete, historically accurate pictures. With the help of the interior, the author makes it possible in the dynamics of the development of the process to trace the important changes that have occurred to the hero over a certain period of artistic time. As an example, we can present a comparison of two fragments depicting the interior of Onegin's office in St. Petersburg and a few years later in the old former uncle's estate.

I will portray in a faithful picture

A secluded office

Where is the mod pupil exemplary

Dressed, undressed and dressed again?

Anything for a plentiful whim

Scrupulous London trades

And along the Baltic waves

Carries us for the forest and lard,

Everything in Paris tastes hungry

Choosing a useful trade,

Invents for fun

For luxury, for fashionable bliss, -

Everything decorated the study

A philosopher at the age of eighteen.

Amber on the tubes of Constantinople,

Porcelain and bronze on the table

And, feelings of pampered joy,

Perfume in faceted crystal;

Combs, steel nail files,

Straight scissors, curves

And brushes of thirty kinds

And for nails and teeth ...

But a certain period of time passes, events occur that change the fate of the heroes of the novel. We look at the world through the eyes of the main character. For the first time, Tatyana finds himself in Onegin's empty house and sees what things surrounded him, what books he read, how his habits and character were manifested through the little things of everyday life. All this helps her to truly deeply comprehend Onegin's nature, to understand him as a person, to find the very "word" that would reflect his contradictory inner world.

Tanya enters the empty house,

Where our hero lived recently.

She looks: forgotten in the hall

The cue was resting on the billiards,

On a crumpled canapé lay

Manege whip (...)

Tatiana with a tender look

He looks around at everything,

And everything seems priceless to her

All languid soul lives

Semi-agonizing joy:

And a table with a faded lamp,

And a pile of books, and under the window

Carpeted bed

And the view through the window through the moonlit gloom,

And this pale half-light,

And Lord Byron's portrait,

And a column with a cast-iron doll

Under a hat with a cloudy brow,

With hands clenched in a cross *.

* - Cast iron figurine of Napoleon.

Tatyana long in a fashionable cell

How fascinated it is ...

The beauty salon disappears, now Onegin lives almost in a "cell", although he still has not forgotten some of his secular hobbies, but he already looks more like a hermit than a "fashion pupil of an exemplary" and "fun and luxury child." Lack of luxury, simplicity of furnishings, a “pile of books” unthinkable in his office before, portraits of romantic idols - all this speaks of a change in Onegin's life values, the evolution of his inner world, and is evidence of his spiritual growth.

As the whole can be represented through its part, the plural can be seen in the single, so the depth of the image of the hero of the novel as an artistic unity is conveyed by Pushkin through the description of the detail. This forces us to consider the characterization of some features of the interior of the noble dwelling of the Onegin era as an important artistic technique that helps to reveal the essence of the images of the main characters of the novel. Creating the interior of the dwelling of the hero of the novel, the author penetrates into the depths of the human soul, presenting the dwelling as a materialized "model" of his inner "I".

Conclusion

Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" is an extremely perfect work, truly immense in the depth of its content and faithful reflection of reality, which is not only ontologically and historically broadly shown in the novel, but each fact is turned by the author into a phenomenon of art.

The well-known definition of Belinsky, who called "Eugene Onegin" "the encyclopedia of Russian life," emphasized the very special role of everyday ideas in the structure of Pushkin's novel. In the novel, a series of everyday phenomena, moral-descriptive details, things, clothes, flowers, dishes, customs passes before the reader.

But one of the features of "Eugene Onegin" is that everyday material is interpreted by Pushkin differently than his predecessors, in a new way, realistically, that is, as a typical, ideologically substantiating a person and his fate. The description of everyday realities gives us the necessary understanding of the essence of the events taking place in the novel, makes us consider the characteristics of some features of the noble life of the Onegin era as an important artistic technique that helps to reveal the essence of the images of the main characters of the novel.

Often, it is the everyday life and the interior that embody the essence of such an aspect of the poetics of a literary work as an artistic detail, becoming the most important feature of the image of the hero of the novel.

The combination of accurate and organically related descriptions of the "little things" of everyday life and interior details helps us to understand not only the inner state of the hero of the novel, but also to draw conclusions about the deep movements of the ideas of the era, becoming the starting point of the author's ideas, embodying the author's philosophical views on the world and man, allows you to judge the internal culture of society at that time.

List of literature and sources.

Pushkin A.S. Full collection cit .: In 10 volumes. Vol.5. 3rd ed. M., Science, 1964.

Belinsky V.G. Full collection cit .: In 13 volumes. M., 1953-1959.

Brodsky N.L. "Eugene Onegin". A.S. Pushkin's novel. M., 1964.

Lotman Yu.M. "Alexander Pushkin's novel" Eugene Onegin ". Commentary" - Leningrad: Enlightenment, 1980 - p. 415

V. Nabokov. Comments on "Eugene Onegin" by Alexander Pushkin. Per. from English Institute of scientific information on social sciences RAS. M., 1999.

Nepomnyashchy V.S. Pushkin. Russian picture of the world. Series "Pushkin in the XX century", issue VI. M., "Heritage", 1999.

Onegin Encyclopedia: In 2 volumes / Under total. ed. N.I. Mikhailova. M., Russian way, 1999.

Slonimsky A. Pushkin's Mastery. Ed. 2nd. M., 1963.

Strakhov N.N. Literary criticism. M., 1976.

A. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" "the encyclopedia of Russian life." This is connected, of course, with the fact that not a single Russian literature can compare with an immortal novel in verse in terms of the breadth of coverage of contemporary reality for the writer. Pushkin describes his time, noting everything that was essential for the life of a generation: the way of life and customs of people, the state of their souls, popular philosophical, political and economic trends, literary passions, fashions, and so on.

Throughout the action of the novel and in lyrical digressions, the poet shows all strata of Russian society, including the high society of St. Petersburg, noble Moscow and the local nobility.

Petersburg at that time was a real center of cultural and political life, a place where the best people of Russia lived. There “Fonvizin, friend of freedom, shone,” Princess and Istomin conquered the audience. He knew and loved St. Petersburg well, and therefore he is accurate in his descriptions, not forgetting either "about the salt of worldly anger" or "necessary fools", "starched impudent people" and the like.

Petersburg is oriented towards Western life, and this is manifested in fashion, and in the repertoire of theaters, and in the abundance of "foreign words". nobleman in St. Petersburg from morning to night is filled with entertainment, but at the same time "monotonous and variegated." For all his love for the northern capital, Pushkin cannot fail to note that it is precisely the influence of the highest Petersburg society, the system of upbringing and education adopted in it and the way of life that leaves an indelible imprint on a person's consciousness, making him either empty and worthless, or prematurely disappointed in life. The protagonist of the novel, Eugene, is, of course, a resident of the capital, even though he is one step above the secular society.

Describing the Moscow nobility, Pushkin is often sarcastic: in drawing rooms he notices "incoherent vulgar nonsense" and sadly notes that in the conversations of people whom Tatyana meets in the drawing room, "thoughts will not flare up for a whole day."
Russia, contemporary to the poet, is a country Russia, and Pushkin emphasizes this with a play on words in the epigraph to the second chapter. This is probably why the gallery of characters from the local nobility in the novel is the most representative. Local noblemen live a life, the routine of which was established once and for all many years ago. In the chambers of his uncle Onegin finds "the calendar of the eighth year", for "the old man, having a lot of things to do, did not look at other books." Nothing happens in their life, one day is similar to another. Differs from other landowners, perhaps, only Lensky, "with a soul straight from Göttingen," and that is because Vladimir receives his education in Germany. However, Pushkin foresees that, had Lensky not died in a duel, he could repeat the life of old Larin or Uncle Onegin in twenty years:

I would really know life,
He had gout at the age of forty.
Drank, ate, missed, got fat, sickly
And finally in my bed
B died in the midst of children,
Crying women and doctors.

I fell in love with Pushkin's poetry as a child

My choice of theme

I fell in love with Pushkin's poetry as a child. Mom often read me books by Russian writers, and my grandmother told me stories. My brother and I loved to listen to poetry. I especially liked the poems of Pushkin, who also loved to listen to fairy tales and stories of his nanny Arina Rodionovna and grandmother Maria Alekseevna Hannibal in childhood. Everything in Pushkin's poetry was clear, visible, the images of an old man and an old woman in "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" vividly appeared before us. And what were his poems about the boat worth:

"The wind walks on the sea

And the boat urges

He runs to himself in the waves

On inflated sails

Past Buyan Island

To the kingdom of the glorious Saltan. "

The fairy tales "About Tsar Saltan", "About the seven heroes", excerpts from the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila" fascinated me. A world of wonders opened up before me:

"Lukomorye has a green oak,

Golden chain on that oak,

And day and night the cat is a scientist

Everything goes round and round in chains. "

These lines have sunk into my soul. At school we studied Pushkin's poems about nature. Beauty-spring, golden autumn, winter are beautifully described in his poems. Perhaps, under the influence of Pushkin's poetry, I fell in love with nature.

In high school, I got acquainted with the more serious works of the poet, with his prose, with the life of the poet himself. The prose works "The Captain's Daughter", "Dubrovsky", "Belkin's Tale" and others introduced us to the history of our country, taught us high morality, and now teach us how to act in this or that case of life. The positive heroes of his works teach courage, teach to fight against evil, for the bright ideals of good.

The topic “Life and customs of Russian society in the 19th century” is very extensive, but also interesting. In literature lessons, we studied the novel "Eugene Onegin" in the 9th grade, and now we have matured, and I wanted to re-read many pages of the novel again, to understand how Pushkin portrayed the life of Russia in the pre-December period, to learn the life and customs of the capital's nobility - Moscow, Petersburg and local. To understand all this, I read additional critical literature.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is a genius Russian poet. His name is known not only in Russia, but all over the world. His works are read by people of all ages, from young to old.

A.S. was born. Pushkin in 1799. But he did not live long. His life was cut short at the moment when the poet was in the very dawn of strength. Odoevsky then said: "The sun of Russian poetry has gone down." The poet's life was cut short, but his books remained. Thanks to Pushkin, Russian literature has become one of the greatest literatures in the world. He is called the creator of the modern Russian literary language. Pushkin's language is simple, clear and understandable to everyone. But behind this simplicity and clarity is an amazing depth, great wisdom.

Pushkin began his novel in verse in May 1823, in Kishinev, during the period of his southern exile. In the preface to the first chapter, preparing it for publication, he wrote: “The first chapter represents something whole. It contains a description of the social life of a St. Petersburg young man at the end of 1819 ... ”The poet emphasized the factual, reliable nature of the material to which he turned.

Problems of the novel

The novel "Eugene Onegin" is written in verse. This is amazing: in a small book of the novel, the poet managed to reflect the life of the Russian people and nobility in the 19th century, he was able to capture the life of Russia, the way of life and customs of many segments of the population. He managed to solve one of the most difficult topics of human life - the topic of love. This is an eternal theme of Russian literature.

The main storyline in the novel is the love story of a provincial noble girl Tatiana Larina and a young nobleman from the capital Eugene Onegin.

The author describes in detail the pictures of the life of the environment in which the main characters of the novel lived and were brought up. We see in the novel a broad picture of the life, everyday life and customs of the Russian nobility in the era of the 10-20s of the 19th century. This was the time of the rise of national consciousness, awakened by the war of 1812, and the growing discontent of the progressive noble intelligentsia with the autocratic-serf system. Pushkin gives a detailed description of the different strata of the nobility: metropolitan and local, as well as the peasantry, their way of life and customs. Such a wide scope of life has never been found in any other work of world literature.

For this broadest coverage of the contemporary poet's life in Russia, for the depth of typical images and the richness of ideas, the critic Belinsky called the novel "Eugene Onegin" "an encyclopedia of Russian life."

The image of the "golden" youth in the novel

In the first chapter, Pushkin tells about the lifestyle of representatives of the "golden" youth in the person of Eugene Onegin, talks about the upbringing and education of young people. Onegin, the protagonist of the novel, was brought up according to the custom of a secular society, by a French tutor. Such upbringing was far from Russian national upbringing:

“He is in French perfectly

I could express myself and write;

Easily danced the mazurka

And bowed at ease;

What is more to you? The light decided

That he is smart and very nice. "

“We all learned a little

Something and somehow

So education, thank God,

It's no wonder we shine.

Onegin was in the opinion of many

(Judges decisive and strict),

Small scientist, but a pedant.

Had no lucky talent

Without coercion in conversation

Touch everything lightly

With the learned air of a connoisseur

Remain silent in an important dispute

And excite the smile of the ladies

By the fire of unexpected epigrams. "

Pushkin was strict about the shortcomings of the education of secular youth, but noted that Onegin's reading circle was interesting and significant. He could talk about Juvenal, a 1st century AD Roman satirist. e., knew the history of Rome: "From Romulus to the present day he kept in his memory", "scolded Homer, Theocritus." The noble intelligentsia condemned Homer for praising the kings. “But I did read Adam Smith,” an English political economist who was progressive for his time.

In the education of Eugene Onegin, a freedom-loving orientation was felt. His outlook was not narrow, he did not stand aside from the interests of his time. The author devotes a large place to the description of one day of his hero: getting up late, invitations to bed, a walk along the boulevard, lunch in a fashionable restaurant, a theater, a ball, returning home in the morning.

“He used to be in bed:

They carry notes to him.

What? Invitations? Indeed,

Three houses for the evening are called:

There will be a ball, there will be a children's party.

Where will my prankster gallop?

Who will he start with? Does not matter:

It's no wonder to keep up everywhere. "

The circle of his acquaintances testifies to the fact that he was not an empty person: Kaverin was a hussar, an officer, an educated man, he was a member of the Union of Welfare. Pushkin talks a lot about the theater of that time, about the playwright Fonvizin, about the Russian actress Semyonova, about the famous Russian ballerina Istomina:

"Brilliant, semi-airy,

The bow to the magic is obedient. "

The poet seems to argue with the chilled opinion of Onegin, who is tired of Didlot's ballets.

Talking about the life and life of the noble society, the poet talks about ordinary people. Serf servants, waiting in the cold for their masters sitting in armchairs,

“And the coachman, around the lights,

They scold the gentlemen and beat them in the palms:

And already Onegin went out;

He goes home to get dressed. "

After the theater, the hero of the novel is preparing for the ball in his office. The description of the cabinet deserves attention: porcelain, bronze, amber, "perfume in faceted crystal", etc.

"Anything for the whim of the abundant

Scrupulous London trades

And along the Baltic waves

Carries us for the forest and lard,

Everything that tastes hungry in Paris

Choosing a useful trade,

Invents for fun

For luxury, for fashionable bliss, -

Everything decorated the study

A philosopher at the age of eighteen ”.

Back in the 18th century, the enlightener N.I. Novikov wrote in his satirical magazine "Truten" about the arrival of ships from France: they brought luxury goods to St. Petersburg, and "from the St. Petersburg port on the same ships ... our trifles will be loaded like hemp, iron, leather, lard, candles, linens and so on. " For fifty years - from Novikov to Pushkin - the nature of trade has hardly changed. And the reader feels the bitterness of the author of the novel behind these seemingly light, playful verses about Russian foreign trade.

So already from the first chapter, the novel covers the most diverse aspects of the country's life.

"A merchant gets up, a peddler walks,

A cabman stretches to the exchange,

Okhtenka is in a hurry with a jug ... "

Onegin sleeps "after noon", and then everything starts all over again: his life is "monotonous and variegated, And tomorrow is the same as yesterday." The motive of boredom, fatigue and disappointment, which arose even in the story about Onegin's visit to the theater, sounds stronger and stronger:

"The disease, which the cause

It would be high time to find

Like an English spleen

In short: Russian blues

Has taken possession of him little by little ... "

He is tired of everything, he tries to find the meaning of life in reading books, but in vain. Having received news of his uncle's illness, Onegin goes to the village, takes possession of the estate. Nature, secluded fields, the murmur of a quiet stream did not heal him from melancholy. We learn that life, freed from labor and worries, could not satisfy not only Onegin, but also all representatives of the noble youth. He becomes dissatisfied with life, the existing system. This feeling was familiar to the author of the novel himself:

“I made friends with him at that time,

I liked his features

Unwitting devotion to dreams

Inimitable oddity

And a sharp, chilled mind. "

Pushkin takes his hero through a series of tests. We learn that Onegin in the village becomes a rich landowner:

"Plants, waters, forests, lands

The owner is complete. "

Its neighbors are provincial landowners. He decided to ease the plight of the serfs:

“In his wilderness, the desert sage,

Yarem he is an old corvee

Replaced the rent with an easy one;

And the slave blessed fate. "

Provincial nobility

The metropolitan and provincial noble society in the novel is not homogeneous. The provincial local nobility consisted not only of the Buyanovs and Petushkovs. After all, Lensky, "a new landowner, has galloped to his village." In the author's description of Lensky, we pay attention to the lines:

“... Kant's admirer and poet,

He's from foggy Germany

Brought fruits of scholarship:

Freedom dreams

The spirit is fiery and rather strange

Always a rave speech

And black curls up to the shoulders. "

Tatiana, in terms of her social status, also belongs to this circle. Along with the negative, almost caricatured figures of the Moscow and St. Petersburg nobility, the poet develops people of a completely different type. Onegin himself is a Petersburg nobleman; in Moscow, Vyazemsky somehow got hooked on Tatiana and managed to take her soul.

The image of Uncle Onegin was casually touched upon in several lines of the third stanza, but it is remembered well, very expressively in a few words a picture of the existence of a “village old-timer” is created. The content of uncle's cupboards - "a notebook of consumption, In another, there is a whole line of liquors, Jugs of apple water, and the Calendar of the eighth year" - figuratively reveals the emptiness, idleness and stagnation of this life. To the picture of his life, Anisya's story adds more strokes of exactly the same order: the old bari "used to be here on Sunday under the window, having put on glasses, he deigned to play fools" with the housekeeper.

In the second chapter of the novel, a vivid picture of the life of the old Larins, typical provincial landowners of the middle class, is recreated. Reading the stanzas dedicated to Larin, I note that Pushkin showed the most essential in the character of their life. Here is Mrs. Larina, in her youth - a Moscow young lady with sentimental, in accordance with the era, hobbies, with an addiction to foreign names and fashions, and now the sovereign mistress of the estate, a landowner-serf:

“She went to work,

Salted mushrooms for the winter,

She spent expenses, shaved her foreheads,

I went to the bathhouse on Saturdays,

I beat the maids with anger -

All this without asking her husband. "

The poet briefly recreates the Larins' way of life, everyday life:

"They kept in a peaceful life

The habits of cute old times;

They have a greasy carnival

There were Russian pancakes;

They fasted twice a year;

Loved the round swing

Songs, round dance are subservient;

On the day of troytsyn, when the people

Yawning listening to the prayer,

Delightfully on a beam of dawn

They shed three tears;

They consumed kvass like air,

And at the table they have guests

They carried the dishes according to their ranks. "

One feels that the author is talking about the usual meaning, and not the religious content of everyday rituals: prayer and kvass, love for swings and fasting. The people "yawning listening to the prayer". This suggests that they are not interested in him. In the story about the life and everyday life of the old men Larins, despite some irony, despite the fact that Pushkin did not forget to mention that Larina “shaved her foreheads” and “beat her maids”, we still feel some kindness of the author. Pushkin is attracted by the simplicity of the relationship, the patriarchy still preserved by the Larins, the connection with traditional Russian customs. There is no such abyss here as the group of the secular, aristocratic nobility is distant from the people.

In the fifth chapter, good-natured irony turns into sarcasm when Pushkin portrays guests in the Larins' house:

"With his burly wife

Fat Trifles arrived;

Gvozdin, excellent master,

Owner of beggar men;

Skotinins, a gray-haired couple,

With children of all ages, counting

Thirty to two years old;

County frantik Petushkov,

My cousin brother, Buyanov

In fluff, in a cap with a visor

(As you, of course, he is familiar)

And a retired adviser Flyanov,

Heavy gossip, old rogue

Glutton, bribe-taker and jester. "

Pushkin emphasizes that all landowners are serf-owners. Larina beats the maids, in punishment gives the peasants to the soldiers, married young peasants "out of passion" - the clerk and the headman were beaten, the nanny says about her early marriage.

Old Filippievna tells Tatiana about her marriage, and in her story there is a picture of the powerless position of a serf girl and a woman. In the footnote to the nanny's story in the manuscript of the novel, Pushkin wrote: “Someone asked the old woman: did you marry out of passion, grandmother? - By passion, darling, - she answered: - the clerk and the headman promised to beat me half to death. "In the old days, weddings, like destinies, were usually biased."

Pictures of native nature constantly include images of the people living among this nature: "Winter, the peasant, triumphing, renews the path on the logs"; "In the hut, singing, the maiden spins." "The shepherd does not drive the cows out of the barn" ... and so on.

Thus, in the novel, where the central place is occupied by the life of the noble society, we also find a reflection of the life of the serf peasantry. This is one of the themes of the "Encyclopedia of Russian Life".

Metropolitan nobility

The life of the capital's nobility - Petersburg and Moscow - is also reflected in many chapters of the novel.

The seventh chapter depicts the life of Moscow society. Tatiana is “taken” to related dinners, and a stanza of an openly satirical character is dedicated to the “relatives”:

“But there is no change in them;

Everything in them is on the old sample:

Aunt Princess Helena

The same tulle cap;

Everything is whitewashed Lukeria Lvovna,

All the same lies Lyubov Petrovna,

Ivan Petrovich is just as stupid ... ".

Again a series of seemingly small details: a tulle cap, Ivan Petrovich's stupidity, Semyon Petrovich's stinginess, Pelageya Nikolavna's spitz, etc. But the result is the impression of vital emptiness, stagnation. Maybe these are old people, and the younger generation is busy with more significant things? No.

"Tatiana wants to listen to

In conversations, in general conversation;

But everyone in the living room is occupied

Such incoherent, vulgar nonsense ... "

In the assembly of the nobility "the dandies seem to have written down their insolence, their vest and their inattentive lorgnette."

It is not surprising that Tatiana is “stuffy here” ... Only the appearance of Vyazemsky reminds us that in this environment not everyone is the same, there are some living forces.

The satire of Pushkin acquires the greatest acuity in the depiction of Petersburg light in the eighth chapter of the novel, in the stanzas devoted to the sketches of the guests in Tatiana's house. “Prolasov, who has earned fame for the meanness of his soul”, “the other - the ballroom dictator stood as a magazine picture, blush like a verbally cherub ...” and “a stray traveler, over-starched impudent ...” This is “the color of the capital, and nobility, and fashion images, faces everywhere, necessary fools. " In the verses excluded from the final text, the poet introduced some more persons among the guests:

“... Here I was in all my stars

The reigning censor is adamant

(Recently formidable this Cato

For bribes, he was deprived of his place);

There was still a sleepy senator,

Who spent his life with cards,

The right person for the authorities. "

Of course, the author's attitude to high society is sharply negative. He notes the emptiness of their interests, the vulgarity, the vacuousness of the conversations of the high society. Against the background of these "fools" Tatyana, Onegin and Lensky are smart, progressive representatives of the noble class. The future democrats emerged from their midst.

Let's summarize

So, Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" illuminates a whole range of issues of life, moral and aesthetic, which are of concern to people of our time even now. Working on this topic, I came to the conclusion: modern youth thinks about human characters and feelings, about love and friendship, about loyalty and betrayal, about the connection between generations, about the depth of feelings, about decency, honesty and lies. The genius of the wise poet was able to solve all these problems of life and help us, young people going into independent life.

Bibliography:

1. A. Pushkin “Works. Volume Three ", State Publishing House of Fiction, Moscow, 1957

2. K. P. Lakhostsky "Pushkin at school", UCHPEDGIZ., Leningrad, 1956

3. N. K. Semenova "Russian Literature Grade 8", Education, Moscow, 1972

Review

I fell in love with Pushkin's poetry when I was a child. My choice of theme I fell in love with Pushkin's poetry when I was a child. Mom often read me books by Russian writers, and grandmother rasska

Description of life in Eugene Onegin. Composition "Life and customs of the metropolitan and provincial nobility in the novel" Eugene Onegin

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