1. The beginning of Lensky’s friendship with Onegin
2. Relations with the Larin family
3. Duel
In the novel by A. S. Pushkin, we meet two young people, educated nobles, rich enough to spend their time idly and not depend on anyone. These are Onegin and Lensky. They met in the village; their estates were located next door, and the men arrived there approximately at the same time: Onegin from St. Petersburg, and Lensky from Germany, where he studied at the university. The neighbors did not like Evgeniy: he did not want to communicate with them and did not say “yes, sir” and “no, sir.” But Vladimir, on the contrary, was liked by many, especially girls.
Handsome man, in full bloom,
Kant's admirer and poet.
He's from foggy Germany
He brought the fruits of learning:
Freedom-loving dreams
The spirit is ardent and rather strange,
Always an enthusiastic speech
And shoulder-length black curls.
Evgeny, of course, was not as educated: “We all learned a little something and somehow.” Of course, this is irony, but Onegin did not graduate from university and did not know how to write poetry. His main skill was in seducing women; Onegin was spoiled by female attention and an idle lifestyle, because most of he spent his life at balls and in entertainment.
Lensky was not spoiled high society, he retained in his soul the sublime ideals of honor, love and friendship. Lensky expressed all the enthusiasm of his feelings, his sincerity in poetry; he was not only keen on the work of great poets, but also wrote poetry himself. Lensky and Onegin did not talk about feasts and balls, since all this was alien to Lensky, and Onegin was tired of it. The young people argued a lot about everything in the world: about good and evil, about the meaning of life and about death... Onegin treated Lensky condescendingly, listening to his enthusiastic conversations with a smile, without trying to insert his “cooling word”, believing that with age Lensky’s naivety will disappear by itself.
Many parents would like to marry their daughters to the young and handsome Lensky, so he was always a welcome guest on all estates, but Lensky was not looking for adventures of the heart, but heartfelt friendship, spiritual closeness, recognition, finally. Therefore, he became friends with Onegin:
They got along. Wave and stone
Poetry and prose, ice and fire
Not so different from each other.
The poet even jokingly remarks that this friendship was formed from “there was nothing to do” (I think this is a joke, because Pushkin compares his heroes with himself, and we all know what a wonderful friend Alexander Sergeevich was!). Of course, at first the difference in the views of the young people was repulsive, but then, on the contrary, they liked this difference:
First by mutual difference
They were boring to each other;
Then I liked it; Then
We came together every day on horseback
And soon they became inseparable.
Relations with the Larin family also characterize the heroes of the poem differently. Vladimir is fascinated by Olga, Tatiana's sister. He has been infatuated with her for a long time and would dream of seeing her as his bride. Lensky often visits the Larins' house, which Onegin is surprised at, considering Lensky's pastime to be boring. And so Lensky invites Onegin with him to the Larins’ house, where he meets Tatyana. Onegin, who has seen many beauties, turns his attention to Tatyana: “Are you really in love with a younger woman?”
Onegin reveals himself as a more experienced person who knows how to understand people. Friends' tastes differ even in their choice of women. The romantic Lensky is carried away by Olga's external qualities, her lightness and cheerfulness, not noticing that she is ordinary and not very smart. He believes in Olga's loyalty, in her love and makes plans for a happy future. Onegin, wise by experience, values women for other qualities, he is more interested in deep and modest girls, in Tatyana he notices a beautiful soul, nobility and tenderness, believing that she can become a wonderful wife, capable of being faithful to her husband and loving him to the end of your days. And he's not wrong about that. We are convinced of this at the end of the novel, when during the last date she proves her loyalty to her husband, saying: “But I was given to another; I will be faithful to him forever.”
In the scene of Tatyana’s name day, Evgeny does not show his best side: he behaves ugly and heartless, being nice to his friend’s beloved, inviting her to a mazurka and whispering to her “some kind of vulgar madrigal.” Hot and romantic, Vladimir cannot excuse his friend’s behavior and challenges him to a duel. Onegin behaves coolly, calmly accepting the challenge. Although he scolds himself for making such an evil joke with Lensky:
He blamed himself for many things:
First of all, he was wrong
What is above timid, tender love?
So the evening joked carelessly...
The whole point is that he was too irritated, seeing the crowd of neighbors he despised, Tatyana’s confusion and excitement, and was angry with Lensky, who deceived him into this gathering. Undoubtedly, Lensky got excited about challenging the duel, but Onegin was too indifferent to it. Eugene should have apologized to his friend, and the matter would have been resolved peacefully. Onegin understands that he is older than Vladimir and should have been more careful than him, cooling his ardor, not accepting the tomfoolery of the young poet. Now Onegin could not cancel the duel, he did not want “the laughter of fools,” and besides, the old duelist Zaretsky was involved in the matter: “He is angry, he is a gossip, he is talkative...”. After Lensky was killed, Onegin runs to him, calling, but it’s too late.
We can say that the friends initially reacted completely differently to this story. Lensky took it very seriously, he wanted to defend Olga’s honor and punish Onegin, but Onegin treated the duel completely calmly, even overslept, being late for it. Vladimir is worried before the fight, he composes poems dedicated to Olga - his love testament, strives to spend his last minutes with his beloved, but Evgeny is absolutely calm.
To summarize, we can say that Vladimir Lensky in the work is the personification of romanticism, and Onegin is the personification of cold experience. “Ice and Fire,” as correctly noted in one of the chapters. These two heroes are very different, but they seem to complement each other. In Lensky one can note those qualities of character that Eugene so lacks, and in Onegin there was something that Lensky lacked. Onegin could have cooled Lensky’s “flame” with his “ice,” but he did not. And the poet died.
They came together. Wave and stone,
Poetry and prose, ice and fire
Not so different from each other.
A.S. Pushkin, "E.O."
Pushkin is a great poet and writer of the 19th century. He enriched Russian literature with many wonderful works. Pushkin’s most important work was his novel “E.O.” Roman in verse “E.O.” it is rightly considered an “encyclopedia of Russian life.” The author reflected in it the life of noble youth of the 19th century and showed the peculiarities of Russia at that time.
The central figures of the novel are two completely different but at the same time similar heroes - Eugene Onegin and Vladimir Lensky. Onegin receives a typical aristocratic education. Pushkin writes: “At first Madame followed him, then Monsieur replaced her.” They taught him everything in jest, but Onegin still he received the knowledge that he needed in secular society. Pushkin characterizes Evgeniy as follows:
He's completely French
Could express himself and wrote
I danced the mazurka easily
And he bowed casually;
What do you want more? The light has decided,
That he is smart and very nice.
In terms of his intelligence, Onegin stands much higher than his peers. He knew a little classical literature, had an idea about Adam Smith, read Byron, but, nevertheless, all these hobbies do not awaken romantic, fiery feelings in Eugene’s soul, like Lensky’s. Eugene spends his best years, like most young people in his circle, on balls, theaters, and love affairs. Very soon he begins to understand that this life is empty, that behind the “external tinsel” there is nothing worth it, boredom, slander, and envy reign in the world , people waste their inner strength on trifles, meaninglessly wasting their lives. A sharp, chilled mind and “oversaturation with the pleasures of light” led to Onegin losing interest in life, he falls into a deep blues:
Handra was waiting for him on guard,
And she ran after him,
Like a shadow or a faithful wife.
Out of boredom, Evgeniy tries to look for the meaning of life in some activity: he reads a lot, tries to write, but these attempts are unsuccessful. In the village where Evgeniy goes to collect his inheritance, he makes another attempt to occupy himself with something:
He is the yoke of the ancient corvée
I replaced it with easy quitrent;
And the slave blessed fate.
But in his corner he sulked,
Seeing this as terrible harm,
His calculating neighbor...
But the aversion to work, the habit of freedom and peace, lack of will and unwillingness to work led to the fact that Onegin became a real egoist, thinking only about himself, about his desires and pleasures, unable to pay attention to the feelings, interests and suffering of people, capable of it is easy to offend, insult, cause grief to a person without even noticing it. However, Evgeny is not a narcissistic egoist, but, as V.G. Belinsky said, “a suffering egoist.” He understands that he is superfluous in this senseless society, but, as neither tries nor can he completely free himself from the influence of light. Onegin was not satisfied with an empty, meaningless life. But he had neither the strength nor the desire to break with this life, he continues to be just as passive and indifferent to everyone and everything except his own peace of mind. Having received a challenge to a duel, perfectly understanding his wrongness and the meaninglessness of this duel, Onegin nevertheless accepts the challenge and kills his best friend Vladimir Lensky. The murder of Lensky turned Onegin's whole life upside down. He is no longer able to remain living in those places where everything reminded him of his terrible crime, “where the bloody shadow appeared to him every day.” And, tormented by remorse, Onegin rushes around the world. But, despite the cruelty, this test helped Eugene change internally, become more responsive to the feelings of the people around him, his heart opens to love. But here, too, Onegin expects the collapse of all his hopes for happiness. His misfortune is retribution for his aimlessly lived life.
In the novel, in contrast to Onegin, the image of Vladimir Lensky is given. Lensky plays a significant role in understanding the character of Onegin. Lensky is a nobleman, he is younger than Onegin in age. He was educated in Germany:
He's from foggy Germany
He brought the fruits of learning,
The spirit is ardent and rather strange...
Lensky's spiritual world is the complete opposite of Onegin's worldview. Lensky is a “fan of Kant and a poet,” a hopeless romantic who lives in a world of beautiful dreams and dreams. Feelings dominate his mind, he believes in sincere and pure love, in friendship, in the decency of people. Lensky looks at life through rose-colored glasses, he naively finds a kindred spirit in Olga, who is the most ordinary empty girl who quickly forgot the one who died in a duel groom
What could such seemingly different people have in common? They both belong to the noble class, both are smart, educated, both despise empty social life and both are much higher in internal development than the people around them. Lensky’s romantic soul, not spoiled life, looking for the beautiful everywhere. Pushkin writes about Lensky: “He was a dear ignoramus at heart, he was cherished by hope, and the world had a new shine and noise.” Onegin went through this a long time ago, he listened to Lensky’s passionate speeches with the smile of the elder, he tried to restrain his irony. Pushkin writes: “And I thought, it’s stupid for me to interfere with his momentary bliss, and the time will come without me, let him live for now and believe in the world’s perfection. Let’s forgive the fever of young years and youthful fever, and youthful delirium.” For Lensky, friendship is an urgent need, while Onegin makes friends “for the sake of boredom,” although he is attached to Lensky in his own way. But, despite friendly feelings, Onegin is forced to kill Lensky. Despising the world, he still values his opinion, fearing ridicule and reproach for cowardice. Because of a false sense of honor, he destroys an innocent soul. Who knows what Lensky’s fate would have been like if he had remained alive. Perhaps he would have become a Decembrist, or perhaps just a common man. The author himself believed that
He would change in many ways
I would part with the muses, get married,
In the village, happy and horny,
I would wear a quilted robe.
I think Lensky’s death is quite logical, he died as his romanticism would have died over time. According to A.I. Herzen, Lensky was only capable of quickly flaring up and fading away. And even if Onegin had not killed him, most likely, an ordinary life awaited Lensky in the future, which would cool his ardor and turn him into a simple landowner who
I drank, ate, got bored, got fat, grew weaker,
And finally in my bed
I would die among children,
Whining women and doctors.
I think that Onegin was still internally deeper than Lensky. Only deep and thoughtful people can experience dissatisfaction with life and themselves in the first place. Throughout the entire novel, I only feel pity for Eugene, because the realization of his mistakes comes to him too late. I think Onegin is just a victim of a soulless society, out of gender influence which Evgeniy was never able to get out of.
Pushkin depicted reality exactly as it was at that time, showed that in such a society rotting from within, only mediocre people, whose interests are petty and limited, can be happy. Equally exalted people like Onegin and Lensky are unhappy in this life. They either die like Lensky, or continue to live with a devastated soul like Onegin. The wealth and high position in society that they inherited do not make their life easier and do not make them happy. Society and education do not give them the opportunity for personal happiness; the realization of mistakes comes to them too late. But these mistakes cannot be blamed on the heroes themselves. Society made them like this. The environment that surrounded them from birth shaped their characters. According to Pushkin, it was the environment that made these inherently beautiful, intelligent and noble people unhappy.
- my favorite poet, whose works can be called brilliant. I read each of them with pleasure, but one of my favorites is. We studied him in literature lessons, and now we need to give a comparative comparison of Onegin and Lensky.
Comparative characteristics of two heroes
Having read the novel Eugene Onegin, we can say with confidence that Onegin and Lensky are the central figures of the work and play an important role in revealing the plot. To understand the image of Onegin and Lensky, let's make a brief comparative description of these heroes separately.
Brief description of Lensky
In order to get acquainted with the characteristics of Lensky in detail, let's turn to quotes from the work. During the events described in the novel, Lensky was eighteen. He had a “young young heart.” He did not like social life, was not spoiled by balls, had a pure soul, which “was not changed by cheerful noise.” He received his education in Germany, was amorous and timid. In the novel, Eugene Onegin is a living character, hot-tempered, believing in both friendship and love. Lensky is a romantic and poet at heart. Vladimir fell in love with Olga, and when he dedicated poems to her, he was a “singer of love.” Lensky had an ardent nature, full of inspiration and faith in the best.
Brief description of Onegin
At the time of his meeting with Lensky, Onegin was twenty-six. Unlike Lensky, Onegin loves social life, which happened that “they called him to three houses at once.” Onegin is a “hero of fun and luxury, a child,” but his life is monotonous and motley. Evgeny Onegin knows how to treat women, he easily manages to seduce them. Pushkin calls Onegin “the corrupter and tempter of young hearts.” As they say in the novel, this character is tired of friendship and does not believe in love, because he is tired of cheating. Onegin’s character was firm and “cool to life.” He is tired of dating and Onegin wants privacy. The norm for Evgeniy was frivolity in relationships.
Onegin received his knowledge at home, and he was taught so that the child would not be exhausted. In general, he was intelligent, loved history, knew classical literature, was interested in Greek and Roman literature, and had a superficial understanding of political economy and the social sciences. If Lensky not only loved poetry, but also wrote them, then Onegin did not understand this work. He completely forgot when he read such works. Evgeniy prefers to read economic literature. Onegin had no goal in life, it was empty and he did not strive for anything.
A.S. Pushkin wrote about “Eugene Onegin” this way: “I’m not writing a novel, but a novel in verse - a devilish difference.” This work stands apart from the poet's other works and is one of the most important novels of the 19th century.
One of the key characters of the novel in verse are Evgeny Onegin and Vladimir Lensky. At first glance, these are two completely different heroes, but if you look at them in more detail, you can easily notice that Vladimir is an exact copy of Evgeny before his soul illness.
The poet looks at the world as something beautiful, he sees no flaws, his young heart trembles with every philosophical thought about love and life. Lensky's soul is blind, unlike Onegin's critical gaze. But Eugene did not say his point of view, because he saw that it was pointless, and the poet himself should have realized such a view of life in the 19th century.
I can call the disease of Evgeniy’s soul in another way – boredom. He became bored and painfully hated by the entire secular society. Soon, he did not care at all about the opinions of others when, for example, being late for the ballet, he imposingly entered the hall, critically looking around at those present. But Onegin treats the poet differently. We can say that he is more lenient towards his feelings and emotions. The hero calmly listens to Lensky’s thoughts, even with a bit of irony, but still appreciates him for who he is. Soon their relationship grew into friendship. Vladimir was the only familiar person in the village with whom you could talk about art, life, books and much more.
A striking difference between them can be seen in their thinking about love. The poet is a romantic hero, and love for him is the most important and great feeling in which he so blindly believes. From the first day of his stay in the village, Vladimir was inspired by thoughts of Olga Larina. He sees her as a kindred spirit, although in reality she is a rather stupid girl who did not even remember her fiancé after his death.
Evgeniy does not believe in love. He is seductive with women, when Lensky in his place is shy from embarrassment. Onegin quickly gets tired of being in love and does not believe in eternal, sincere love. He believes that he is incapable of feelings, and immediately warns Tatyana about this. The hero speaks about this with care so that the girl does not feed herself false hopes about his, at first glance, sweet character.
Pushkin truly wrote an encyclopedia of Russian life. Every image, every character - everything is worked out with maximum precision. The writer examined absolutely all the images of that century. Reading this novel in verse, you literally find yourself in that time and look at it from the outside different heroes. Everyone has their own view of the world, and after considering everything, you have your own opinion on each situation considered in the novel “Eugene Onegin”.
In the work of A.S. Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin", in addition to Onegin himself, there is another main character. This is the author of the novel in verse himself. Throughout the entire narrative line, Pushkin is in a free conversation with the reader, every now and then interrupting one or another plot sketch with his comments.
It may seem that Pushkin is present wherever Onegin is; as if he was looking down on his hero. Therefore, speaking about Pushkin and Onegin, some literary scholars equate them, while others argue that these figures are absolutely opposite.
So, from the novel in verse we learn almost as much about Pushkin as we learn about Onegin. When the author talks about his hero at the beginning of the work, the reader understands that these two personalities are similar in many ways. Both of noble origin, they became disillusioned with the current reality and lost interest in life:
“We both knew the passion game;
Life tormented both of us;
The heat in both hearts has faded..."
This is where their similarities end. Much more can be said about the differences between the personalities of Pushkin and Onegin.
Pushkin was brought up in a family, and in the summer he visited his grandmother, Maria Hannibal. The poet had a good, bright childhood. Onegin grew up without a mother, and his father, a frivolous official, did not pay any attention to his son, entrusting his upbringing to French teachers, who taught young Onegin almost nothing. It is quite possible that it was childhood that laid the foundation in the hero for the development of such qualities as contempt for everything around him, anger, harshness and composure.
Pushkin, in turn, received a high-quality education and developed poetic principles. For Pushkin, poetry was the destiny, the duty of a man of art; he called it “a high passion.” Onegin was initially not involved in anything lofty, so “he could not distinguish an iambic from a trochee,” and he was very indifferent to poetry.
If we talk about the theater as a kind of high, then Pushkin attended concerts with the aim of spiritual enrichment of the inner world and self-development, which cannot be said about Onegin: “He enters... walks along the legs... points the lorgnette at the ladies... then, barely looking at the stage...he turned away and yawned.” For Eugene, such an event is nothing more than an extra way to interact with noble society.
The two figures being compared also have fundamentally different attitudes towards work and any purposeful activity. If A.S. Pushkin could sit day and night, choosing the most clear and appropriate word that would allow him to create a bright, memorable image in a poem or other work, but Eugene Onegin, who from childhood received everything ready-made, on a silver platter, did not want and did not know how to work: “He was sick of hard work.” He was only capable of consuming life, people, and feelings.
Feelings, another aspect in comparing A.S. Pushkin and his hero Evgeny Onegin. The meaning of love for Pushkin cannot be expressed in words, although he succeeded. Under the power of love, Pushkin wrote many wonderful poems that made up the poet’s love lyrics. Pushkin speaks of love as a heavenly, omnipotent thing that can make people do incredible, sometimes impulsive, actions.
Onegin’s attitude towards love, like everything else, is consumerist. He has affairs for one day and is not able to distinguish true love from love for people and in public. For Onegin, love is “the science of tender passion.” The key word here is science. For Pushkin, and according to generally accepted unwritten norms, love does not tolerate a scientific approach, and precise laws do not apply to it. In love, everything is more complicated than it seems. But Onegin initially formed the wrong idea about love and feelings in general. Thus, Onegin does not take even friendly relations seriously and is convinced that friends are not needed for a good life. When Eugene is overcome by the blues, he “gets tired of his friends.” For Pushkin, such an expression would have caused bewilderment and regret, because who, if not Pushkin, knows how to appreciate his friends! “To Kaverin”, “To Chaadaev”, “Pushchin”, “October 19” - all these poems were written in honor of those without whom Pushkin would not have become what he became.
So, comparing Pushkin and Onegin, you can see that, despite the fact that they are both nobles, Pushkin’s lifestyle corresponds to his personality - he develops spiritually, creates unselfishly, and does not follow the lead of the crowd. On the contrary, Onegin’s personality is strikingly different from the “menu” of life by which she lives. Onegin doesn’t know where to go to do this. But he feels that he has potential, but only readers of the novel know its true extent. The author himself sees this, but he treats the hero ironically; I do not want to impose my point of view in any way.
Finally, we come to the question of freedom. Which of the heroes is truly free? The answer is obvious.
Onegin has external freedom - he is his own master, owes nothing to anyone, goes wherever he pleases. But he does not have the main thing - internal freedom, self-understanding, harmony with himself. He is trying to find his place in this life, but inside he is overwhelmed with contradictions. And when Onegin begins to analyze his actions in the past, he experiences nothing more than disappointment, regret and comes to realize the meaninglessness of his actions. This is what makes Onegin unhappy.
Pushkin, on the contrary, although physically constrained (permanent exile, threats of censorship), is spiritually free. He realized his purpose, understood himself and, most importantly, learned to be independent. Pushkin called this state - internal freedom. It’s a pity that Eugene Onegin was not able to comprehend it.
