Features of the composition of the novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin"

01.07.2020

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The theme of the novel "Eugene Onegin" (1831) is an image of Russian life in the first quarter of the 19th century. VG Belinsky called this work "the encyclopedia of Russian life" (VG Belinsky "The Works of A. Pushkin", article 9), because in his novel Pushkin "knew how to touch so many things, to hint about so many things that belong exclusively to to the world of Russian nature, to the world of Russian society ”(ibid.). The idea of "Eugene Onegin" is to evaluate the type of modern young man, widespread in the noble society, who cannot find a worthy application for his abilities in the surrounding life, since the life goals habitual for the noble circle do not suit him, seem unworthy and petty. For this reason, such young people turn out to be "superfluous" in society.

The plot of the novel is based on the love story of Eugene Onegin and Tatiana Larina. Consequently, the plot will be based on their first meeting in the Larins' house, where Onegin falls by accident: he wanted to look at Olga, Lensky's “love object”. Moreover, the very scene of the first meeting of the main characters in the novel is not described: Onegin and Lensky argue about it, returning home from guests. From their conversation, it is clear the impression that Tatiana made on the title character. Of the two sisters, he singled out Tatiana, noting the unusualness of her appearance and the ordinariness of Olga:

Olga has no life in her features.
Exactly in the Vendic Madonna.
She is round, red-faced ... (3, V)

Tatyana, at first sight, fell in love with Onegin, which she admitted in her letter:

You just entered, I instantly knew
All was stunned, flamed
And in my thoughts she said: here he is! (3, XXXI)

The first meeting of Onegin and Tatiana takes place in the third chapter. This means that the first two chapters of the novel are an exposition of the plot, where the author tells in detail about the two main characters: about their parents, relatives, educators, their favorite activities, characters, habits. The plot culminates in the explanation of Onegin and Tatiana in the garden, when the hero indifferently refuses the love of an extraordinary girl, and Tatiana loses all hopes for happiness. Later, having gained rich experience in the "whirlwind" of social life, the heroine realized that Eugene treated her nobly, and appreciated this act:

But you
I don't blame; in that terrible hour
You acted nobly
You were right in front of me. (8, XLIII)

The second culmination is the explanation of the main characters in St. Petersburg a few years after the first. Now Tatyana, a brilliant socialite, continuing to love Onegin, refuses to respond to his fiery passion and scandalous proposal, and now Onegin, in turn, loses hope for happiness.

In addition to the main storyline - the love story of Onegin and Tatiana - Pushkin unfolds a side storyline - the story of friendship between Onegin and Lensky. There is a plot here: two young educated noblemen, finding themselves in the wilderness of the village, quickly get to know each other, as Lensky

With Onegin I wished heartily
Acquaintance is shorter to reduce.
They got along. (2, XIII)

The plot scheme of the history of friendship can be built as follows: the culmination is Onegin's behavior at Tatyana's birthday (his coquetry with Olga), the denouement is the duel of his friends and the death of Lensky. The last event is simultaneously a culmination, as it made Onegin, for the first time in his life, “shudder” (6, XXXV).

There is another subplot in the novel - the love story of Lensky and Olga. In it, the author omits the string, only mentions in passing that a tender feeling was born in the hearts of young people a long time ago:

A little boy, captured by Olga,
Without knowing heart pangs yet,
He was a tender witness
Her infant amusements ... (2, XXXI)

The culmination of this love story is the ball at Tatyana's birthday, when Olga's character is fully revealed: a vain, proud and empty coquette, she does not understand that she offends the groom with her behavior. Lensky's death unleashes not only the storyline of friendship, but also the story of his short love.

From all that has been said above, it is clear that both the main and secondary storylines are built quite simply, but the composition of the novel itself is extremely complex.

When analyzing the main storyline, several things should be noted. The first of them is a rather lengthy exposition: it consists of two chapters out of eight. Why does Pushkin describe in such detail the formation of the characters of the main characters - Onegin and Tatiana? It can be assumed that in order for the actions of both heroes to be understandable to readers, in order to most fully express the idea of the novel - the image of an intelligent but useless person who is wasting his life.

The second feature is that the main storyline has no denouement. Indeed, after the final stormy explanation with Onegin, Tatyana leaves her room, and the hero remains in place, shocked by her words. So what is next

The spur's sudden jingle rang out,
And Tatyanin's husband showed up ... (8, XLVIII)

Thus, the action ends mid-sentence: the husband finds Onegin at an inopportune hour in his wife's room. What can he think? How will the plot turn further? Pushkin does not explain anything, but declares:

And here is my hero
In a minute, angry for him,
Reader, we will now leave,
For a long time ... forever. (8, XLVIII)

For such a finale, contemporaries often reproached the author and considered the lack of a definite denouement to be a disadvantage. To this criticism, Pushkin replied in a humorous passage "In my autumn leisure ..." (1835):

You speak rightly
Which is strange, even impolite
The novel does not end interrupting,
Having already given it to print,
What should your hero
Whatever it is to marry,
At least kill ...

From these lines it follows that Pushkin's decision to interrupt the novel was quite conscious. What gives such an unusual ending for understanding the content of the work?

Onegin's husband, relative and friend, seeing the hero in his wife's room, can challenge him to a duel, and Onegin already had a duel that turned his whole life. In other words, Onegin literally finds himself in a vicious circle of events; not only the story of his love is built on the principle of "mirror reflection" (GA Gukovsky), but also his relationship with friends. The novel has no end, that is, it is built on a circular composition: the action begins and ends in St. Petersburg, in the spring, the hero never finds love, once again neglects friendship (caring for a friend's wife). Such a compositional construction successfully corresponds to the main idea of the novel: to show the hopeless, worthless life of the title character, who himself suffers from his uselessness, but cannot get out of the vicious circle of an empty life, find himself a serious occupation. With such an equestrian novel endlessly, VG Belinsky fully agreed, who asks the question: "What happened to Onegin then?" And he himself answers: "We do not know, and what do we know this, when we know that the forces of this rich nature were left without application, life without meaning, and the novel without end?" (VG Belinsky "Works of A. Pushkin", article 8).

The third feature of the composition is the presence of several plot lines in the novel. The love story of Lensky and Olga makes it possible for the author to compare the main characters with the secondary ones. Tatiana knows how to love "not jokingly" (3, XXV), and Olga quickly consoled herself after the death of Lensky and married an ulan. The disappointed Onegin is portrayed next to the dreamy, in love Lensky, who has not yet lost interest in life.

All three storylines are successfully intertwined: the climax-denouement in the history of friendship (duel) becomes at the same time the denouement in the love story of the young poet and Olga. Thus, in the three storylines, there are only two outlines (in the main story and in the history of friendship), three climaxes (two in the main and one (ball) for two side ones) and one denouement (coincides in the side storylines).

The fourth feature of the composition is the presence of inserted episodes that are not directly related to the development of the plot: Tatyana's dream, Lensky's poems, the girls' song and, of course, numerous lyrical digressions. These episodes further complicate the composition, but they do not overly prolong the action of the novel. It should be especially noted that lyrical digressions are the most important component of the work, because it is thanks to them that the broadest picture of Russian life of the specified historical period is created in the novel and the image of the author, the third protagonist of the novel, is formed.

Summing up, we note that the novel "Eugene Onegin" in the history of Russian literature was innovative both from the point of view of describing life (realistic depiction of reality), and from the point of view of creating the character of the title character (the image of Pushkin's contemporary, “an extra person”). The deep ideological content was expressed in an original form: Pushkin used a circular composition, "mirror reflection" - a repetition of the main plot episodes, omitted the final denouement. In other words, the result is a "free novel" (8, L), in which several plot lines are skillfully intertwined and there are deviations of various types (inserted episodes, more or less closely related to the plot; the author's playful and serious reasoning about everything in the world).

The construction of Eugene Onegin cannot be called logically flawless. This concerns not only the lack of a formal denouement in the novel. Strictly speaking, between the events described in the seventh and eighth chapters, several years must pass until Tatiana turns from a provincial young lady into a socialite. Initially, Pushkin decided to fill these few years with Onegin's travels across Russia (chapter "Onegin's Travel"), but later placed them in an appendix to the novel, as a result of which the plot logic was violated. This formal flaw was pointed out to the author by both friends and critics, but Pushkin ignored these remarks:

There are a lot of contradictions,
But I don’t want to fix them. (1, LX)

The author very accurately called his work "a collection of colorful chapters" (introduction): it reflected real life, arranged not according to the strict laws of logic, but rather according to the theory of probability. However, the novel, following real life, lost neither dynamism, nor artistic integrity, nor completeness.

Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" is a classic example mirror composition.

The composition can be linear, reverse, circular, mirror.

The last type of composition is called so due to the fact that individual episodes of the work seem to reflect each other, repeating themselves in all external details, but at the same time highlighting qualitative substantive differences.

Based on the main plot, we can easily identify the episode, the reflection of which becomes the final scene of the novel. This is a conversation between Tatyana and Onegin in the garden.

Recall that it unfolds the day after Onegin receives a love letter from Tatiana.

A timid girl is afraid to look up at the ruler of her thoughts, he is also agitated, but a rather strict rational judgment flies from his lips:

… There is no return to dreams and years;
I will not renew my soul ...
I love you with my brother's love
And maybe even more tender.
Listen to me without anger:
The young maiden will change more than once
Dreams are light dreams;
So the tree has its leaves
Changes every spring.
So, apparently, the sky is destined.
You will love again: but ...
Learn to rule yourself:
Not everyone will understand you like me;
Inexperience leads to trouble.

Onegin justifies his refusal with an unattractive picture of family life with him:

What could be worse in the world
Families where the poor wife
Sad for an unworthy husband
And day and evening alone;
Where is the boring husband, knowing her value
(Fate, however, cursing),
Always frowning, silent,
Angry and coldly jealous!
That's what I am. And that's what they were looking for
You are a pure, fiery soul,
When with such simplicity
Did you write to me with such a mind?
Is it really your lot
Appointed by a strict fate?

He tries to blacken himself in the eyes of Tatyana, admits the mental coldness, death of his soul:

But I am not made for bliss;
My soul is alien to him;
Your perfection is in vain:
I am not at all worthy of them.

These typical techniques of love etiquette, prescribed in the case when they want to get rid of an unwanted feeling like thunder, hit the confused Tatyana. She feels shame, guilt and pain, but finds the strength to cope with herself.

The final scene of the novel, when Tatiana receives Onegin's letter, and then receives it in her living room, exactly the opposite repeats the "arrangement of figures" of the first episode. Now Onegin is the asking, and Tatiana is the responder.

His kneeling posture is a sign of repentance. Her tears are evidence of unquenchable feelings.

But the mirror will not twist against the truth: now it is Tatiana's turn to refuse Onegin. It is preceded by a deliberate decline, a reproach for the dubiousness of Onegin's intentions:

... Then - isn't it? - in desert,
Far from vain rumor
You didn't like me ... well now
Are you following me?
Why do you have me in mind?
Is it not because in high society
Now I must appear;
That I am rich and noble
That the husband was mutilated in battles,
Why does the courtyard caress us?
Is it not because my shame
Now everyone would be noticed
And I could bring in society
Are you a seductive honor?

The passion in which Onegin confesses, Tatyana calls offensive:

I cry ... if your Tanya
You have not forgotten so far,
Then you should know: the sharpness of your abuse,
Cold, stern conversation
If only I had power
I would prefer offensive passion
And these letters and tears.
To my infant dreams
Then did you have any pity,
Although respect for the years ...
And now! - what's at my feet
Has it brought you? what a little!
As with your heart and mind
Be the feelings of a petty slave?

The inner purity is offended in it. Tatiana, as best she can, fights for her, explaining her refusal to Onegin.

She was wounded by the fact that she was a true - a village girl, unknown to anyone - he did not need him, and now - placed in conditions of nobility and splendor - has become desirable.

Perhaps, deep down, Tatiana does not believe that Onegin's feeling for her is real. Her sentence is harsh:

I got married. You should,
I ask you to leave me;
I know: in your heart there is
Both pride and outright honor.
I love you (why dissemble?),
But I am given to another;
I will be faithful to him forever.

Looping the composition of the novel with Onegin's return to St. Petersburg, Pushkin completes the initial path of the hero, stating his failure.

Compositionally, the novel consists of the following parts:

Chapter 1 - extended exposition(acquaintance with Onegin)
Chapter 2 - the beginning of the storyline "Onegin - Lensky"(acquaintance of Eugene and Vladimir)
Chapter 3 - the beginning of the storyline "Onegin - Tatiana"(acquaintance of Eugene and Tatiana, letter from Tatiana)
Chapter 4 - development of events(refusal to Tatiana)
Chapter 5 - development of events(Tatiana's birthday)
Chapter 6 - the culmination and denouement of the storyline "Onegin - Lensky"(Eugene kills Vladimir in a duel)
Chapter 7 - development of events(Eugene leaves for a trip, Tatiana leaves for Moscow)
Chapter 8 - the culmination and denouement of the storyline "Onegin - Tatiana"(meeting of heroes, Evgeny's confession and Tatyana's refusal).

History of creation. "Eugene Onegin", the first Russian realistic novel, is the most significant work of Pushkin, which has a long history of creation, covering several periods of the poet's work. According to the calculations of Pushkin himself, work on the novel lasted for 7 years, 4 months, 17 days - from May 1823 to September 26, 1830, and in 1831 “Onegin's Letter to Tatiana” was also written. The publication of the work was carried out as it was created: first, separate chapters came out, and only in 1833 the first complete edition was published. Up to this time, Pushkin did not stop making certain adjustments to the text.The novel was, according to the poet, "the fruit of the mind of cold observations and the heart of woeful notes."

Completing work on the last chapter of the novel in 1830, Pushkin sketched out his rough plan, which looks like this:

Part one. Foreword. 1st canto. Khandra (Chisinau, Odessa, 1823); 2nd canto. Poet (Odessa, 1824); 3rd canto. Young Lady (Odessa, Mikhailovskoe, 1824).

Part two. 4th canto. Village (Mikhailovskoe, 1825); 5th canto. Name days (Mikhailovskoe, 1825, 1826); 6th canto. Duel (Mikhailovskoe, 1826).

Part three. 7th canto. Moscow (Mikhailovskoe, Petersburg, 1827, 1828); Canto 8. Wandering (Moscow, Pavlovsk, Boldino, 1829); Canto 9. Big Light (Boldino, 1830).

In the final version, Pushkin had to make certain adjustments to the plan: for censorship reasons, he excluded Chapter 8 - "Wandering". Now it is being published as an appendix to the novel - "Excerpts from Onegin's Journey", and the final 9th chapter - "The Big World" - has become, accordingly, the eighth. In this form, in 1833, the novel was published as a separate edition.

In addition, there is an assumption about the existence of chapter 10, which was written in the Boldinskaya autumn of 1830, but was burned by the poet on October 19 , since it was devoted to the image of the era of the Napoleonic wars and the birth of Decembrism and contained a number of dangerous political allusions. Minor fragments of this chapter (16 stanzas), encrypted by Pushkin, have survived. The key to the cipher was found only at the beginning of the 20th century by the Pushkinist NO. Morozov, and then other researchers supplemented the decrypted text. But there is still debate about the legitimacy of the assertion that these fragments really represent parts of the unpreserved chapter 10 of the novel.

Direction and genre. "Eugene Onegin" is the first Russian realistic socio-psychological novel, and, what is important, not a prosaic novel, but a novel in verse. For Pushkin, the choice of an artistic method - not romantic, but realistic, was fundamentally important when creating this work.

Starting work on the novel during the period of southern exile, when romanticism dominates the poet's work, Pushkin soon becomes convinced that the peculiarities of the romantic method do not make it possible to solve the problem. Although in terms of genre, the poet is guided to a certain extent by Byron's romantic poem Don Juan, he rejects the one-sidedness of the romantic point of view.

Pushkin wanted to show in his novel a young man, typical of his time, against a wide background of the picture of his contemporary life, to reveal the origins of the characters being created, to show their inner logic and relationship with the conditions in which they find themselves. All this led to the creation of truly typical characters that manifest themselves in typical circumstances, which is what distinguishes realistic works.

This also gives the right to call "Eugene Onegin" a social novel, since in it Pushkin shows the noble Russia of the 20s of the XIX century, raises the most important problems of the era and seeks to explain various social phenomena. The poet does not just describe events in the life of an ordinary nobleman; he endows the hero with a bright and at the same time typical for a secular society character, explains the origin of his apathy and boredom, the reasons for his actions. At the same time, events unfold against such a detailed and carefully written material background that Eugene Onegin can also be called a social and everyday novel.

It is also important that Pushkin subjects to a careful analysis not only the external circumstances of the heroes' lives, but also their inner world. On many pages, he achieves extraordinary psychological skill, which makes it possible to gain a deeper understanding of his characters. That is why Eugene Onegin can rightfully be called a psychological novel.

His hero changes under the influence of life's circumstances and becomes capable of real, serious feelings. And let happiness bypasses him, as often happens in real life, but he loves, he worries - that's why the image of Onegin (not a conventionally romantic, but a real, living hero) so impressed Pushkin's contemporaries. Many in themselves and in their friends found his features, like the features of other characters in the novel - Tatyana, Lensky, Olga - so true was the image of typical people of that era.

At the same time, Eugene Onegin also contains features of a love story with a love story traditional for that era. The hero, tired of the light, goes to travel, meets a girl who falls in love with him. For some reason, the hero either cannot love her - then everything ends tragically, or reciprocates her, and, although at first circumstances prevent them from being together, everything ends well. It is noteworthy that Pushkin deprives such a story of a romantic connotation and gives a completely different solution. Despite all the changes that took place in the lives of the heroes and led to the emergence of mutual feelings, due to circumstances, they cannot be together and are forced to part. Thus, the plot of the novel is given a clear realism.

But the novel's innovation lies not only in its realism. Even at the beginning of work on it, Pushkin in a letter to P.A. Vyazemsky noted: "I am now writing not a novel, but a novel in verse - a devilish difference." The novel, as an epic work, presupposes the detachment of the author from the events described and objectivity in their assessment; the poetic form reinforces the lyrical principle associated with the personality of the creator. That is why “Eugene Onegin” is usually referred to as lyric-epic works, which combine the peculiarities inherent in epic and lyric poetry. Indeed, in the novel "Eugene Onegin" there are two artistic layers, two worlds - the world of "epic" heroes (Onegin, Tatiana, Lensky and other characters) and the world of the author, reflected in lyrical digressions.

Pushkin's novel was written Onegin stanza , which was based on a sonnet. But the 14-line tetrameter Pushkin iambic had a different rhyme scheme -abab vvgg deed lj :

“My uncle has the most honest rules,
When seriously ill,
He made himself respect
And I could not think of a better one.
His example to others is science;
But oh my god, what a boredom
Sitting with a sick person day and night,
Without leaving a single step away!
What a base deceit
To amuse half-dead
Correct his pillows,
It's sad to bring medicine
Sigh and think to yourself:
When will the devil take you? "

Composition of the novel. The main technique in the construction of the novel is mirror symmetry (or ring composition). The way of its expression is the change of the heroes' positions in the novel. First, Tatiana and Eugene meet, Tatiana falls in love with him, suffers from unrequited love, the author empathizes with her and mentally accompanies her heroine. At the meeting, Onegin reads her a “sermon”. Then a duel takes place between Onegin and Lensky - an event whose compositional role is the denouement of the personal storyline and the determination of the development of a love affair. When Tatyana and Onegin meet in St. Petersburg, he finds himself in her place, and all events are repeated in the same sequence, only the author is next to Onegin. This so-called ring composition allows us to return to the past and gives the impression of the novel as a harmonious, complete whole.

Also, an essential feature of the composition is the presence lyrical digressions in the novel. With their help, the image of a lyrical hero is created, which makes the novel lyrical.

Heroes of the novel . The main character, after whom the novel is named, is Eugene Onegin... At the beginning of the novel, he is 18 years old. This is a young aristocrat from the capital who received a typical secular upbringing. Onegin was born into a wealthy but ruined noble family. His childhood was spent in isolation from everything Russian, national. He was raised by a French tutor who,

So that the child is not exhausted,
I taught him everything in jest,
I did not bother with strict morality,
Slightly scolded for pranks
And he took me for a walk to the Summer Garden ”.

Thus, Onegin's upbringing and education were rather superficial.
But Pushkin's hero still received the minimum of knowledge that was considered mandatory in the noble environment. He “knew enough Latin to disassemble epigraphs,” remembered “the days of past jokes from Romulus to the present day,” and had an idea of the political economy of Adam Smith. In the eyes of society, he was a brilliant representative of the youth of his time, and all this thanks to the impeccable French language, graceful manners, wit and the art of maintaining a conversation. He led a lifestyle typical for young people of that time: he attended balls, theaters, restaurants. Wealth, luxury, enjoyment of life, success in society and among women - that is what attracted the protagonist of the novel.
But secular entertainment terribly bothered Onegin, who had already “yawned among the fashionable and old halls for a long time”. He is bored both at balls and in the theater: “... He turned away, yawned, and said:“ It's time to replace everyone; I endured ballets for a long time, but I got tired of Didlo ”. This is not surprising - it took the hero of the novel about eight years to socialize. But he was smart and stood well above the typical representatives of the secular society. Therefore, over time, Onegin felt disgust for an empty idle life. "A harsh, chilled mind" and satiety with pleasures made Onegin disappointed, "the Russian blues took possession of him."
“Languishing in spiritual emptiness,” this young man fell into depression. He tries to find the meaning of life in some kind of activity. The first such attempt was literary work, but “nothing came out of his pen”, since the upbringing system did not teach him how to work (“hard work was nauseous to him”). Onegin “read, read, but everything was useless”. On this, however, our hero does not stop. On his estate, he makes another attempt at practical activity: he replaces corvee (obligatory work on the landowner's field) with a quitrent (monetary tax). As a result, the life of serfs becomes easier. But, having carried out one reform, and that one out of boredom, “just to spend time,” Onegin again plunges into a blues. This gives VG Belinsky reason to write: “The inactivity and vulgarity of life suffocate him, he does not even know what he needs, what he wants, but he ... knows very well that he does not need, that he does not want that what the proud mediocrity is so happy with is so happy ”.
At the same time, we see that Onegin was not alien to the prejudices of the world. They could only be overcome by contact with real life. In the novel, Pushkin shows the contradictions in Onegin's thinking and behavior, the struggle between the “old” and the “new” in his mind, comparing him with other heroes of the novel: Lensky and Tatiana, weaving their fates.
The complexity and inconsistency of the character of the Pushkin hero in his relationship with Tatyana, the daughter of the provincial landowner Larin, is especially vividly revealed.
In the new neighbor, the girl saw the ideal that had long been formed under the influence of books. The bored, disappointed nobleman seems to her to be a romantic hero, he is not like other landowners. “The whole inner world of Tatiana was in the thirst for love,” writes V. G. Belinsky about the state of the girl, who was left to her secret dreams all day long:

Her imagination has long been
Burning with bliss and melancholy,
Alkalo of fatal food;
Long sincere longing
Her young breasts were pressed against her;
The soul was waiting ... for someone
And she waited ... Eyes were opened;
She said: it's him!

All the best, pure, light woke up in Onegin's soul:

Your sincerity is dear to me,
She brought excitement
Feelings that have long ceased

But Eugene Onegin does not accept Tatyana's love, explaining that he was “not created for bliss,” that is, for family life. Indifference to life, passivity, "desire for peace", inner emptiness suppressed sincere feelings. Subsequently, he will be punished for his mistake by loneliness.
In Pushkin's hero there is such a quality as “direct nobility of the soul”. He is sincerely attached to Lensky. Onegin and Lensky stood out from their midst for their high intelligence and disdain for the prosaic life of their neighbors, landowners. However, they were completely opposite in character. One was a cold, disappointed skeptic, the other an enthusiastic romantic, an idealist.

They converge.
Wave and stone
Poems and prose, ice and fire ...

Onegin does not like people at all, does not believe in their kindness and himself ruins his friend, killing him in a duel.
In the image of Onegin, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin truthfully portrayed an intelligent nobleman who stands above secular society, but has no purpose in life. He does not want to live like other nobles, he cannot live otherwise. Therefore, disappointment and melancholy become his constant companions.
AS Pushkin is critical of his hero. He sees both the trouble and the guilt of Onegin. The poet blames not only his hero, but also the society that formed such people. Onegin cannot be considered an exception among the noble youth, this is a typical character for the 20s of the XIX century.

Tatiana Larina - Pushkin's favorite heroine - is a vivid type of Russian woman of the Pushkin era. It is not for nothing that the wives of the Decembrists M. Volkonskaya, N. Fonvizina are mentioned among the prototypes of this heroine.
The very choice of the name "Tatiana", not covered by the literary tradition, is associated with "the recollection of olden days or a girl's." Pushkin emphasizes the originality of his heroine not only by choosing a name, but also by her strange position in her own family: “She seemed to be a stranger in her own family”.
The formation of Tatiana's character was influenced by two elements: the book, associated with French love stories, and the national-national tradition. "Russian soul" Tatiana loves the customs of "dear old days", she is captivated by scary stories since childhood.
There are many things that bring this heroine closer to Onegin: she is alone in society - he is unsociable; her dreaminess and weirdness is his identity. Both Onegin and Tatiana stand out sharply against the background of their environment.
But not the "young rake", but Tatiana becomes the embodiment of the author's ideal. The inner life of the heroine is not due to secular idleness, but to the influence of free nature. Tatiana was raised not by a governess, but by a simple Russian peasant woman.
The patriarchal way of life of the “simple Russian family” of the Larins is closely connected with traditional folk rituals and customs: here there are pancakes for Shrovetide, and podvodny songs, and a round swing.
The poetics of folk fortune-telling is embodied in the famous dream of Tatiana. He, as it were, predetermines the fate of the girl, foreshadowing a quarrel between two friends, and the death of Lensky, and an imminent marriage.
Endowed with an ardent imagination and a dreamy soul, Tatiana at first glance recognized in Onegin that ideal, the idea of which she had formed from sentimental novels. Perhaps the girl intuitively felt the similarity between Onegin and herself and realized that they were made for each other.
The fact that Tatyana was the first to write a love letter is explained by her simplicity, gullibility, ignorance of deception. And Onegin's rebuke, in my opinion, not only did not cool Tatyana's feelings, but strengthened them: "No, poor Tatyana is burning with more joyless passion."
Onegin continues to live in her imagination. Even when he left the village, Tatyana, visiting the manor house, vividly feels the presence of her chosen one, Everything here reminds of him: the cue forgotten on the billiards, "and the table with a faded lamp, and a pile of books", and Lord Byron's portrait, and cast-iron statuette of Napoleon. Reading Onegin's books helps the girl to understand Eugene's inner world, to think about his true essence: "Is he really a parody?"
According to V.G. Belinsky, "Visits to Onegin's house and reading his books prepared Tatyana for her transformation from a country girl into a secular lady." It seems to me that she stopped idealizing “her hero”, her passion for Onegin subsided a little, she decides to “arrange her life” without Eugene.
Soon they decide to send Tatyana to Moscow - “to the fair of brides”. And here the author fully reveals to us the Russian soul of her heroine: she touchingly says goodbye to "cheerful nature" and "sweet, quiet light." Tatiana is stuffy in Moscow, she strives in her thoughts "to the life of the field", and "empty light" causes her sharp rejection:
But everyone in the living room is occupied
Such incoherent, vulgar nonsense;
Everything about them is so pale, indifferent,
They slander even bored ...
It is no coincidence that, having married and becoming a princess, Tatiana retained the naturalness and simplicity that distinguished her so favorably from the ladies of society.
Having met Tatiana at the reception, Onegin was amazed at the change that had happened to her: instead of a "timid, in love, poor and simple girl" there appeared an "indifferent princess", "a stately, careless legislator of the hall."
But internally Tatiana remained as internally pure and moral as in her youth. That is why she, despite her feeling in Onegin, refuses him: “I love you (why dissemble?), But I am given to another; I will be faithful to him forever. "
Such a finale, according to the logic of Tatyana's character, is natural. Integral by nature, faithful to duty, brought up in the traditions of folk morality, Tatyana cannot build her happiness on her husband's dishonor.
The author values his heroine, he repeatedly confesses his love for his "sweet ideal". In the duel of duty and feeling, reason and passion, Tatiana wins a moral victory. And no matter how paradoxical Kuchelbecker's words sound: “The poet in Chapter 8 is like Tatiana himself,” they have a great meaning, because the beloved heroine is not only the ideal of a woman, but rather a human ideal, such as Pushkin wanted to see him.