The article reflects the features of Pushkin's worldview and artistic method in the novel "Eugene Onegin", and also poses the central problems of his entire work. The author reveals his inner world, expresses his attitude towards all the heroes, in many respects in his opinion coincides in Eugene Onegin - a man of the Pushkin circle. Deep lyricism permeates the novel, one of the main characters of which is the author himself. There is much in common in Onegin's character, in his "blues", which Pushkin himself once experienced, so he writes about himself and his hero. He created the image of a "hero of the time" with his spiritual quest. In all his activities, the poet expressed the most advanced ideas and trends of the era - the ideas of civil freedom and high humanism.
poet A.S. Pushkin, spiritual world, the novel "Eugene Onegin"
None of the writers before A.S. Pushkin did not reflect in his work, which has become an encyclopedia of Russian life, a true artistic chronicle of the era, so fully and clearly Russian reality, as the great national poet did. In Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin", the past and the present are intertwined in a complex unity. This is a work of exceptional significance, the only one of its kind in Russian and world literature.
The ingenious innovation of Pushkin, who laid the foundation for the tradition of the Russian socio-psychological novel, consisted in the fact that he transferred the main attention from external events, from intrigue to the development of human characters, to the depiction of the complexity of human relations, the disclosure of the spiritual world of heroes.
"Eugene Onegin" was started by the poet in a period of deep mental and creative crisis, when not only the strengths, but also the weaknesses of the modern progressive noble intelligentsia became clear to him and romantic heroes and their ideas were decisively re-evaluated. The novel, the plot of which is based on a love conflict, became simultaneously, according to Belinsky, a real "encyclopedia of Russian life" [1, p. 222], not only and not so much in the breadth of the depiction of various everyday phenomena, but in the depth of expression of the problems of the era, features human personality - the hero of the time, the son of the century.
Pushkin A.S. shows how the environment, society, conditions of upbringing determine the peculiarities of the views, feelings, behavior of his characters, which change from chapter to chapter, in accordance with the changes taking place in the life around them. At the end of the novel, the characters turn out to be very different from those at the beginning. Each of them had their own emotional trials and shocks, too much has changed in the life of the whole society.
The novel most fully expressed the features of Pushkin's worldview and artistic method, and also posed the central problems of all of his work. This is a series of moral and philosophical problems: discussions about life and happiness, about the meaning of being, about honor and duty, about freedom of conscience. In addition, there are aesthetic problems in the novel. This is the role of poetry in life, about which Lensky spoke: the relationship of friendship between the author and the hero, freedom of creativity and adherence to literary traditions. So the range of problems in this small piece is quite wide.
In Onegin's character, along with noble honor and intelligence, traits of individualism, proud contempt for people are clearly revealed - a product of time, a disease of the century. Onegin's individualistic self-awareness is a complex phenomenon. On the one hand, it is the result of heightened work of thought, dissatisfaction of others, consciousness of personal dignity - in a word, the lot of those who "lived and thought" ("Who lived and thought, he cannot but despise people in his soul") [5, p.713]. On the other hand, it contains an egoistic principle, vain self-admiration, indifference to the fate of ordinary people - everything that is condemned as alien to the people's consciousness. Tatiana is free from these features, since they are not inherent in the Russian national, folk character. In Onegin, however, they are largely superficial - a consequence of secular education, isolation from popular culture, the influence of the ideas of Western European romanticism.
Pushkin A.S. believed that he very successfully showed in "Eugene Onegin" the character of the hero, for whom the main reason for disappointment is satiety, the absent-minded social life of a young Petersburg rake. Onegin was seized by the "Russian blues" [1, p. 221], "early feelings in him cooled down," he cooled to "life completely" [5, p. 711], because he was moving in the "light" betrayed by idleness" satiated with "everyday pleasures" [7, p.55].
Onegin is not an imitation, but a historically faithful hero of the Pushkin generation, and the "Russian blues" [5, p. 711] is not a fashion, but a phenomenon caused by the property of Russian life itself, generated by the "malice of blind fortune" [5, p. 713 ], the blows of fate experienced by the best people. Pushkin captured in the person of the hero exactly the Russian blues - that which was generated by the very Russian reality and was typical for the then thinking intelligentsia [1, p. 221].
The exceptional position of the novel in the work and biography of Pushkin was pointed out in his time by Belinsky, who wrote that "Onegin" was Pushkin's most sincere work, the most beloved child of his fantasy. There are not too many works in which the personality of the poet would be reflected with such fullness, light and clear, as the personality of Pushkin was reflected in "Onegin". In him all his life, soul, his love; here are his feelings, concepts, ideals"[3, p. 495]. The novel is distinguished by the constant open presence of the author. Pushkin is interested in the image of Onegin with his dissatisfaction, with the life that many people of the world are happy with.
The novel is a lyric-epic work. Here the author reveals his inner world, expresses his attitude towards all the heroes, in many respects in his opinion coincides with Eugene Onegin. Deep lyricism permeates the novel, one of the main characters of which is the author himself. From chapter to chapter, the poet's inner world, his views on life, art are revealed, and the further, the closer the image of the poet becomes to the reader. It is noteworthy that Pushkin compares his poetic muse with Tatyana, who is brought to a social event. Like Tatiana, the poet's muse is deeply rooted in national life, she is infinitely alien to the secular rabble.
Gukovsky G.A. called the author's image the central image, he is also carried through the entire novel, and he also unites all of its text [2, p. 19]. The deep vitality, historical typicality of the hero of the novel is clearly confirmed by the nature of his "relationship" with the "author", i.e. by Pushkin himself [6, p.128].
Onegin has a lot of autobiographical information. Of course, Pushkin is not Onegin, and the poet considered it necessary to specifically warn against the naive identification of the literary hero with the author, which is common in the artistic system of romanticism with his subjectivism. Pushkin is a realist, he separated the hero from himself, he looks at him from the side, examines him.
I'm always glad to notice the difference
Between Onegin and me,
So that a mocking reader
Or some publisher
Of intricate slander
Comparing my features here,
I did not repeat afterwards shamelessly,
That I painted my own portrait [5, p.716].
And yet, in Onegin, the "hero of the time" [1, p. 222], there is a lot of Pushkin - to the extent that the poet himself was the spokesman for his generation. Onegin is a man of the Pushkin circle. He, as it was said, is a "good friend" of the poet, his inseparable "strange companion" [5, p.817]. There is a lot in common in Onegin's character, in his "blues", which Pushkin himself once experienced, so he writes about himself and his hero:
I made friends with him at that time.
I liked his features.
Unwitting devotion to dreams
Inimitable oddity
And a harsh, chilled mind.
I was embittered, he is morose:
We both knew the game of passion ;
Weighed down the life of both of us:
In both our hearts, the heat died away;
Both were awaited by the malice of Blind Fortune and the people
At the very morning of our days [5, p. 712-713].
So, both were disappointed in the secular vanity, both were tormented by life, both experienced the play of passions, both are dissatisfied and embittered, both experienced the blows of fate, "blind fortune" [5, p. 713]. Together with the "author" Onegin visited the banks of the Neva, listening to "the horn and the daring song" [5, p.714] of rowers. The thought of freedom, of a different life also overwhelms both of them. In this respect, it is extremely characteristic that, when talking about the night walks over the Neva River together with the hero, Pushkin resorts to comparing their life with a prison in which convicts languish: "When the forest is green from prison/A sleepy convict is transferred/So we were carried away by a dream/To the beginning of a young life" [5, p.714].
In the novel, Pushkin shows Onegin's duel with the young poet Lensky. "Friends spread to the extreme track,/And each took his own pistol" [5, p.779]. It seems that Pushkin, as it were, told about himself, having foreseen his fate. Onegin, himself deeply suffering, makes others suffer. Before us appears the image of a bright, extraordinary person in his own way, a noble intellectual, disillusioned with a secular society with its emptiness and vulgarity, looking for a high goal and meaning of life and at the same time carrying the features of the environment that gave birth to it.
The very biography of Onegin - one of the representatives of an empty secular society endowed by the author with all his vices, but then opposed to him - reflected the process of stratification of the nobility, characteristic of an entire generation, from among which his best part stood out. The difficulty of Onegin lies precisely in the fact that, as noted in the literature, he could organically combine features and characteristics characteristic of different, albeit internally uniform, strata of the progressive noble intelligentsia of the 1920s [6, p.125].
Eugene Onegin is an image deeply typical for Russia of Pushkin's time ("a good fellow, like you and me, like the whole world") [5, p.803]. The very biography of Onegin - one of the representatives of an empty secular society endowed by the author with all his vices, but then opposed to him - reflected the process of stratification of the nobility, characteristic of an entire generation, from among which his best part stood out. Not all the noble youth of St. Petersburg in the XIX century could afford to lead a free lifestyle, but only a few young people from among the rich and noble families. In this artificial world, the most natural human feelings were distorted, even the feeling of love turned into "the science of tender passion" [5, p. 703], into light secular flirting, into a game.
From the very beginning, in the characterization of Onegin, the possibility of spiritual evolution is outlined. Even when, out of habit and tradition, he still continues to lead a scattered social life, mentally he still does not feel happy ("But was my Eugene happy?") [5, p.700]. What satisfies mediocre, vulgar people can no longer satisfy him, a person who is tormented by "spiritual emptiness", lack of purpose and meaning in life.
The novel shows how the gap between Onegin and his environment is gradually becoming more and more acute. Simultaneously with the aggravation of Onegin's conflict with the surrounding reality, the inner contradictoriness of the hero himself, his deep duality, appears more and more sharply. Having broken with the life of a secular society, having become disillusioned with it, Onegin, at the same time, for a long time retains the habits, customs, moral norms of a secular person - everything that has taken root thanks to upbringing. Torn away from the light, it turns out to be no less distant from the people's soil, the people's element. He has no sense of unity, merging with the life of the people, moral support. This is precisely what explains the complexity, contradictions of the Onegin character, of its entire psychological makeup.
Most of all, Onegin himself suffers deeply from loneliness, mental discord, who is in a state of constant dissatisfaction with others and himself, a search for a goal and meaning of existence, a worthy cause in life and, at the same time, ambiguity of prospects, ambiguity of aspirations, isolation from people's life - all this generates terrible loneliness, mental disorder, restlessness, anger. That is why Onegin, according to the well-known definition of Belinsky, is not just an egoist, but a "suffering egoist", "an unwilling egoist" [3].
Onegin's superiority over those "who did not indulge in strange dreams", "who did not shy away from the secular rabble," for whom life is "a long line of dinners from them" [5, p.804], is obvious. Against the background of vulgar, stupid, insignificant "creatures" who live an insufficient life, the hero of Pushkin's novel stands out sharply with his restless mind, anxious heart, and high spiritual demands. This is his "inimitable strangeness" [5, p. 712], which is taken under protection in the novel. Pushkin directly confesses his love for the hero: "... I sincerely love my hero" [5, p. 783]. To Onegin's ill-wishers, Pushkin answered clearly and unequivocally: "Why is it so unfavorable/do you speak of him?" [5, p.803].
But the feelings of personal sympathy and, moreover, the love that the author feels for the hero of the novel Onegin, do not prevent him from approaching the latter research, analytically, to see in him, a contemporary, not only dignity, but also weakness, to show something and another - the result of the corresponding impact of the environment, historically established conditions. The history of relations with Tatyana Larina also serves this task of comprehensive disclosure of the hero. Thus, we can see Onegin in three stages of evolution, when he is carried away by his secular life, when he is disappointed in it, and when he leaves it.
Comparison of Onegin with Lensky helps to more sharply expose the duality of Onegin, who, although he broke with the world, is still guided by the norms of a secular society, secular morality. So, when the inevitability of a duel becomes clear, it turns out that he "alone with his soul was dissatisfied with himself." Summoning himself to a "secret trial", he "accused himself of many things" [5, p.774], he felt in his soul that he was wrong, that he should have made peace with Lensky. And yet, for Onegin, the main thing is also the "public opinion" of the world, a conventional code of secular honor, which he generally despises, however, at the very first real test it turns out to be his slave "[1, p.220].
The murder of Lensky makes a strong impression on Onegin - from now on he is relentlessly pursued by the image of a slain young man. It especially exacerbated Onegin's dissatisfaction with himself. Eugene is absolutely free from the traditions of his family, there is no patriarchy in his upbringing, he has an absolutely European noble Petersburg upbringing. Perhaps this upbringing was alien to him, perhaps in the village he wanted to find what is called Russian roots. For only two days he was delighted with the primordial Russian traditions. After two days, he tries to introduce transformations into his household, then begins to avoid neighbors. And so Onegin meets the Larins' family. Together with Pushkin, he sneers at all family members, constantly mocks them, analyzes Olga, an empty and beautiful girl, scoffs even at the treats that were provided to him in this modest family. Of course, Onegin did not appreciate the joys of provincial life. After Onegin himself killed Lensky in a duel, he leaves his village shelter without regret.
The main problem of the work - the problem of the hero of the given time correlates with the problem of the relationship between a person and a crowd. A person cannot be free from society, but when society ceases to develop it, when society is in stagnation, then the hero, Eugene Onegin in this case and Lensky as well, seeks to move away from this society and seek some kind of meaning in life. Pushkin also raises the problem of the Russian national character, which, of course, is comprehended in the image of Tatiana. Onegin and Lensky are young people who have been torn away by life from their national roots: they no longer like French and German, but they have no cultural roots of their own.
Eugene Onegin is a portrait of a whole generation, therefore it is tragic, because the fate that Russia experienced in the era of stagnation after the war of 1812 was in itself timeless, stagnant. Happiness according to "Onegin" is something that cannot be built on the misfortune and dishonor of another person. F.M. Dostoevsky believed that a person cannot understand what happiness is if he does not have a concept of truth and duty.
Onegin should be considered not only as a psychological individuality, but also as a historically specific type, the formation of which was greatly influenced by the culture of Western European romanticism; it is on this basis that the closeness between Onegin and Lensky arises [1, p.220].
We can say that in the novel, those destructive forces that controlled the destinies of the heroes turned out to be much stronger than the happy external conditions of life. Pushkin, with all his sympathy for his heroes, condemns them: Onegin - for his individualism, long-term "indifference" to life, for the absence of "work", "purpose", inspired by the idea of public good; Lensky - for his abstract daydreaming, ignorance of real life.
Thus, Pushkin, condemning his heroes, showed that the social world of these heroes crippled the positive features of their worldview and it should be replaced by another social system, and there is no place in this world for "superfluous people", "clever uselessness" [4, p.9].
Pushkin's novel teaches us to better understand life surrounding reality, makes us think deeply about it, to hate its vices. In this sense, he became the greatest "act of consciousness" for Russian society, showing that evil is hidden not in man, but in society. Pushkin managed to penetrate so deeply into the meaning of the phenomena of the life around him, because he himself stood at the forefront and the fate of his native country, its present and future were infinitely dear to him.
1. Akhmadova T.Kh. A hero with a romantic attitude in Russian literature of the first half of the XIX century / Materials of reports and speeches of the participants of the annual final scientific-practical conference. - Grozny, 2021. P. 216-222.
2. Baevsky V.S. Through the magic crystal. Monograph. - M.: "Prometheus", 1990. -158 P.
3. Belinsky V.G. Collected Works. T. 111. Goslitizdat, - M., 1948.
4. Brodsky N.L. "Eugene Onegin". Roman A.S. Pushkin. A handbook for high school teachers. Ed. 5. "Education". - M., 1964. - 415 P.
5. Pushkin A.S. Complete works in one volume. Alpha Kniga Publishing House. - M., 2010. - 1214 P.
6. Toybin I.M. Pushkin A.S. Materials for the seminary. Publishing house "Education". -M., 1964. - 239 P.
7. Fridman N.V. Romanticism in the works of A.S. Pushkin. Publishing house "Education". - M., 1980. -191 P.
