Onegin and the capital's noble society message. How are the capital and local nobility similar and different in the novel “Eugene Onegin”? Sample essay text
Capital and Local Nobility in the Novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin"
In the novel “Eugene Onegin,” Pushkin revealed with remarkable completeness the Russian life of the capital and local nobility of the first quarter of the 19th century. The arrogant, luxurious St. Petersburg, cozy country estates, and nature, beautiful in its variability, pass before the reader’s eyes as a living picture. Against this background, Pushkin’s heroes love, suffer, are disappointed and die. Both the environment and the atmosphere in which their lives take place are deeply and completely reflected in the novel.
In the first chapter of the novel, introducing the reader to his hero, Pushkin describes in detail his ordinary day, filled to the limit with visits to restaurants, theaters and balls. The life of other young St. Petersburg aristocrats is also “monotonous and motley”, all of whose worries consist of searching for new, not yet boring entertainment. The desire for change forces Evgeniy to leave for the village; then, after the murder of Lensky, he goes on a journey, from which he returns to the familiar environment of St. Petersburg salons. Here he meets Tatiana, who has become an “indifferent princess,” the owner of an elegant drawing room where the highest nobility of St. Petersburg gathers.
Here you can meet “those who have earned fame for their baseness of soul,” and “overstarched impudents,” and “dictators of the sick,” and “elderly ladies // In caps and roses, seemingly evil,” and “maidens; // Not smiling faces.” These are typical regulars of St. Petersburg salons, where arrogance, stiffness, coldness and boredom reign. These people live by strict rules of “decent hypocrisy”, playing some role. Their faces, like their living feelings, are hidden by an impassive mask. This gives rise to emptiness of thoughts, coldness of hearts, envy, gossip, and anger. That’s why such bitterness can be heard in Tatyana’s words addressed to Evgeniy:
And to me, Onegin, this pomp,
Life's hateful tinsel,
My successes are in a whirlwind of light,
My fashionable house and evenings,
What's in them? Now I'm glad to give it away
All this rags of a masquerade,
All this shine, and noise, and fumes
For a shelf of books, for a wild garden,
For our poor home...
The same idleness, emptiness and monotony fill the Moscow salons where the Larins visit. Pushkin paints a portrait of the Moscow nobility with bright, satirical colors:
But there is no change in them,
Everything about them is the same as the old model:
At Mother Princess Elena's
Still the same tulle cap;
Everything is whitewashed Lukerya Lvovna,
Lyubov Petrovna lies all the same,
Ivan Petrovich is also stingy...
All this creates a feeling of stagnation of life, which has stopped in its development. Naturally, there are empty, meaningless conversations here, which Tatyana cannot understand with her sensitive soul.
Tatyana wants to listen
In conversations, in general conversation;
But everyone in the living room is occupied
Such incoherent, vulgar nonsense.
Everything about them is so pale and indifferent;
They slander even boringly.
In the noisy Moscow world, the tone is set by “smart dandies”, “holiday hussars”, “archival youths”, and self-satisfied cousins. In a whirlwind of music and dance, life rushes by without any internal content.
They kept life peaceful
Habits of peaceful old times;
At their Shrovetide
There were Russian pancakes;
Twice a year they fasted,
Loved the round swing
There are songs and a round dance.
The author's sympathy is aroused by the simplicity and naturalness of their behavior, closeness to folk customs. But the author does not at all idealize the patriarchal world of village landowners. On the contrary, it is precisely for this circle that the defining feature is the terrible primitiveness of interests. How, for example, is Tatyana’s late father remembered? Only that “he was a simple and kind fellow,” “he ate and drank in his dressing gown,” and “died an hour before dinner.” The life of Uncle Onegin passes in a similar way in the wilderness of the village, who “for forty years scolded the housekeeper, // Looked out the window and crushed flies.” Pushkin contrasts these complacent lazy people with Tatyana’s energetic and economical mother. Her entire spiritual biography fits in a few lines.
She went to work
Salted mushrooms for the winter,
She kept expenses, shaved her foreheads,
I went to the bathhouse on Saturdays,
She beat the maids, getting angry, -
All this without asking my husband.
With his portly wife
Fat Pustyakov arrived;
Gvozdin, an excellent owner,
Owner of poor men...
A broad and complete depiction of all groups of nobility in the novel plays an important role in motivating the actions of the heroes, their destinies, introduces the reader into the circle of social and moral problems.
The capital and local nobility in A. S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”
Sample essay text
In the novel “Eugene Onegin,” Pushkin unfolded with remarkable completeness the pictures of Russian life in the first quarter of the 19th century. The arrogant, luxurious St. Petersburg, ancient Moscow, dear to the heart of every Russian person, cozy country estates, and nature, beautiful in its variability, pass before the reader’s eyes in a living, moving panorama. Against this background, Pushkin’s heroes love, suffer, are disappointed, and die. Both the environment that gave birth to them and the atmosphere in which their lives take place are deeply and completely reflected in the novel.
In the first chapter of the novel, introducing the reader to his hero, Pushkin describes in detail his ordinary day, filled to the limit with visits to restaurants, theaters and balls. The life of other young St. Petersburg aristocrats was also “monotonous and motley”, all of whose worries consisted of searching for new, not yet boring entertainment. The desire for change forces Evgeny to leave for the village, then, after the murder of Lensky, he goes on a journey, from which he returns to the familiar environment of St. Petersburg salons. Here he meets Tatiana, who has become an “indifferent princess,” the mistress of an elegant drawing room, where the highest nobility of St. Petersburg gathers.
Here you can meet pro-Lassians, “who have earned fame for their baseness of soul,” and “over-starched impudents,” and “ballroom dictators,” and elderly ladies “in caps and roses, seemingly evil,” and “maidens with unsmiling faces.” These are typical regulars of St. Petersburg salons, where arrogance, stiffness, coldness and boredom reign. These people live by strict rules of decent hypocrisy, playing some role. Their faces, like their living feelings, are hidden by an impassive mask. This gives rise to emptiness of thoughts, coldness of hearts, envy, gossip, and anger. That’s why such bitterness can be heard in Tatyana’s words addressed to Evgeniy:
And to me, Onegin, this pomp,
Life's hateful tinsel,
My successes are in a whirlwind of light,
My fashionable house and evenings,
What's in them? Now I'm glad to give it away
All this rags of a masquerade,
All this shine, and noise, and fumes
For a shelf of books, for a wild garden,
For our poor home...
The same idleness, emptiness and monotony fill the Moscow salons where the Larins visit. Pushkin paints a collective portrait of the Moscow nobility with bright satirical colors:
But there is no change in them,
Everything about them is the same as the old model:
At Aunt Princess Elena's
Still the same tulle cap;
Everything is whitewashed Lukerya Lvovna,
Lyubov Petrovna lies all the same,
Ivan Petrovich is just as stupid
Semyon Petrovich is also stingy...
In this description, attention is drawn to the persistent repetition of small everyday details and their immutability. And this creates a feeling of stagnation of life, which has stopped in its development. Naturally, there are empty, meaningless conversations here, which Tatyana cannot understand with her sensitive soul.
Tatyana wants to listen
In conversations, in general conversation;
But everyone in the living room is occupied
Such incoherent, vulgar nonsense,
Everything about them is so pale and indifferent;
They slander even boringly...
In the noisy Moscow world, the tone is set by “smart dandies”, “holiday hussars”, “archival youths”, and self-satisfied cousins. In a whirlwind of music and dance, a vain life rushes by, devoid of any internal content.
They kept life peaceful
Habits of a dear old man;
At their Shrovetide
There were Russian pancakes;
Twice a year they fasted,
Loved Russian swings
Subject to songs, round dance...
The author's sympathy is evoked by the simplicity and naturalness of their behavior, closeness to folk customs, cordiality and hospitality. But Pushkin does not at all idealize the patriarchal world of village landowners. On the contrary, it is precisely for this circle that the defining feature becomes the terrifying primitiveness of interests, which manifests itself in ordinary topics of conversation, in activities, and in an absolutely empty and aimlessly lived life. How, for example, is Tatyana’s late father remembered? Only because he was a simple and kind fellow,” “he ate and drank in his dressing gown,” and “died an hour before dinner.” The life of Uncle Onegin passes similarly in the wilderness of the village, who “for forty years scolded the housekeeper, looked out the window and crushed flies “Pushkin contrasts these good-natured lazy people with Tatyana’s energetic and economical mother. In a few stanzas, her entire spiritual biography is contained, consisting of a rather rapid degeneration of a cutesy, sentimental young lady into a real sovereign landowner, whose portrait we see in the novel.
She went to work
Salted mushrooms for the winter,
She kept expenses, shaved her foreheads,
I went to the bathhouse on Saturdays,
She beat the maids in anger -
All this without asking my husband.
With his portly wife
Fat Pustyakov arrived;
Gvozdin, an excellent owner,
Owner of poor men...
These heroes are so primitive that they do not require a detailed description, which may even consist of one surname. The interests of these people are limited to eating food and talking “about wine, about the kennel, about their relatives.” Why does Tatyana strive from luxurious St. Petersburg to this meager, wretched little world? Probably because he is familiar to her, here she can not hide her feelings, not play the role of a magnificent secular princess. Here you can immerse yourself in the familiar world of books and wonderful rural nature. But Tatyana remains in the light, perfectly seeing its emptiness. Onegin is also unable to break with society without accepting it. The unhappy fates of the novel's heroes are the result of their conflict with both the capital and provincial society, which, however, generates in their souls submission to the opinion of the world, thanks to which friends fight duels, and people who love each other part.
This means that a broad and complete depiction of all groups of nobility in the novel plays an important role in motivating the actions of the heroes, their destinies, and introduces the reader to the range of current social and moral problems of the 20s of the 19th century.
In the novel, at the center of the narrative is the most progressive class of Russia in the 1st half of the 19th century - the nobility: local, Moscow and St. Petersburg. Today we will examine in detail each type of nobility and find out which of them the author sympathizes with.
Local nobility in Eugene Onegin
Representatives of the local nobility: Onegin's uncle, the Larin family, their neighbors and guests (at Tatiana's name day). In his depiction of the local nobility, Pushkin continues the tradition of Fonvizin - speaking names.
For example, Petushkov, Skotinin, Buyan. The villagers are one big family, they like to gossip (chat), but not gossip (you need to pay attention that Griboyedov’s satire is gossip, while Pushkin’s is irony). Rejection of changes regardless of their nature, narrow interest, everyday nature, economic activity, abundant and satisfying food, a patriarchal way of life - these are signs of the local nobility.
Moscow nobility in Eugene Onegin
One of the signs is that representatives are connected by family ties. The main motive is boredom and simplicity. The Moscow nobility is so hypocritical and false that the manifestation of simplicity and naturalness is perceived as bad manners. Conservatism in fashion, in clothes, nothing changes on them. The painting that Griboedov describes in “Woe from Wit” is similar to Pushkin’s painting in the novel “Eugene Onegin.”
Petersburg nobility in Eugene Onegin
One of the signs is Europeanization, that is, imitation of Europe in everything - in fashion, in manners, in behavior, in literary preferences, etc. (areas of cultural life). The main motive is vanity, an abundance of events with their monotony (remember Onegin’s daily routine - monotonous, like a mechanism (breguet)). The second motive is the motive of masquerade: the mask as a symbol of artificiality, hypocrisy, falsehood. Glitter, noise and fun are ostentatious, only emphasizing the inner emptiness. For St. Petersburg society, the main thing is honor and public opinion (this creates a special type of behavior).
Pushkin sympathizes with the local nobility. The conservatism of Moscow and the falsehood and hypocrisy of St. Petersburg cause rejection (the local nobility is described with irony, and the Moscow and St. Petersburg nobility are described satirically). One of the antitheses is the antithesis of the European artificial and natural folk image lives are revealed through the contrast between Tatiana (a representative of the local nobility) and Onegin (a representative of the St. Petersburg nobility).
In this article we bring to your attention an essay on the nobility as Pushkin shows it in the novel “Eugene Onegin”.
Nobility (High Society) in the novel "Eugene Onegin".
A.S. Pushkin in his novel “Eugene Onegin” depicted the life of the Russian nobility in the twenties of the 19th century. According to V. G. Belinsky, “ he decided to present to us the inner life of this class ».
The author of the novel pays special attention to the St. Petersburg nobility, a typical representative of which is Eugene Onegin. The poet describes the day of his hero in every detail, and Onegin’s day is a typical day of a metropolitan nobleman. Thus, Pushkin recreates a picture of the life of the entire St. Petersburg secular society.
Pushkin speaks about St. Petersburg high society with a fair amount of irony and without much sympathy, because life in the capital is “monotonous and colorful,” and the “noise of the world” gets boring very quickly.
The local, provincial nobility is represented very widely in the novel. This is Onegin’s uncle, the Larin family, guests at Tatyana’s name day, Zaretsky.
Prominent representatives of the provincial nobility gather at Tatiana’s name day: Grozdin, “ excellent owner, owner of poor men "; Petushkov, " district dandy "; Flyanov, " heavy gossip, old rogue ". If Pushkin introduces real people into the story about the capital’s nobility historical figures, for example, Kaverin, then in this case the author uses the names of famous literary characters: Skotinins are the heroes of Fonvizin’s “The Minor,” Buyanov is the hero of V.L.’s “Dangerous Neighbor.” Pushkin. The author also uses telling surnames. For example, Triquet means " beaten with a stick " - a hint that he cannot be accepted in high society, but in the provinces he is a welcome guest.
The world of the landed nobility is far from perfect, because in it spiritual interests and needs are not decisive, just as their conversations are not distinguished by intelligence:
Their conversation is sensible
About haymaking, about wine,
About the kennel, about my relatives.
However, Pushkin writes about him with more sympathy than about St. Petersburg. The provincial nobility retains naturalness and spontaneity as properties of human nature.
A good family of neighbors,
Unceremonious friends.
The local nobles were quite close to the people in terms of their attitude and way of life. This is manifested in the attitude towards nature and religion, in the observance of traditions. Pushkin pays less attention to the Moscow nobility than to the St. Petersburg nobility. Several years have passed since Pushkin wrote the 1st chapter of his novel, and A.S. Griboyedov finished the comedy “Woe from Wit,” but Pushkin adds Griboyedov’s lines to the epigraph of the seventh chapter, thereby emphasizing that little has changed in Moscow since then. The second capital has always been patriarchal. So, for example, Tatiana is met at her aunt’s by a gray-haired Kalmyk, and the fashion for Kalmyks was at the end of the 18th century.
The Moscow nobility is a collective image, in contrast to the St. Petersburg nobility, where Eugene Onegin is the main character. Pushkin, speaking about Moscow, seems to populate it with the heroes of Griboyedov’s comedy, whom time has not changed:
But there is no change in them,
Everything about them is the same as the old model...
A real historical figure also appears in Moscow society:
Vyazemsky somehow sat down with her (Tatyana) ...
But in Moscow there is still the same bustle, “ noise, laughter, running, bowing ", which leave both Tatyana and the author indifferent
Pushkin managed to give in “Eugene Onegin” a detailed picture of the life of the noble class, and at the same time, according to Belinsky, the entire society “in the form in which it was in the era he chose, that is, in the twenties of the current 19th century.”
Here is an essay characterizing high society in the novel “Eugene Onegin”.
The capital and local nobility in A. S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”
Sample essay text
In the novel "Eugene Onegin" Pushkin unfolded with remarkable completeness the pictures of Russian life in the first quarter of the 19th century. The arrogant, luxurious St. Petersburg, ancient Moscow, dear to the heart of every Russian person, cozy country estates, and nature, beautiful in its variability, pass before the reader’s eyes in a living, moving panorama. Against this background, Pushkin’s heroes love, suffer, are disappointed, and die. Both the environment that gave birth to them and the atmosphere in which their lives take place are deeply and completely reflected in the novel.
In the first chapter of the novel, introducing the reader to his hero, Pushkin describes in detail his ordinary day, filled to the limit with visits to restaurants, theaters and balls. The life of other young St. Petersburg aristocrats was also “monotonous and motley”, all of whose worries consisted of searching for new, not yet boring entertainment. The desire for change forces Evgeny to leave for the village, then, after the murder of Lensky, he goes on a journey, from which he returns to the familiar environment of St. Petersburg salons. Here he meets Tatiana, who has become an “indifferent princess,” the mistress of an elegant drawing room where the highest nobility of St. Petersburg gathers.
Here you can meet pro-Lassians, “who have earned fame for the baseness of their souls,” and “over-starched impudents,” and “ballroom dictators,” and elderly ladies “in caps and roses, seemingly evil,” and “maidens with unsmiling faces.” These are typical regulars of St. Petersburg salons, where arrogance, stiffness, coldness and boredom reign. These people live by strict rules of decent hypocrisy, playing some role. Their faces, like their living feelings, are hidden by an impassive mask. This gives rise to emptiness of thoughts, coldness of hearts, envy, gossip, and anger. That’s why such bitterness can be heard in Tatyana’s words addressed to Evgeniy:
And to me, Onegin, this pomp,
Life's hateful tinsel,
My successes are in a whirlwind of light,
My fashionable house and evenings,
What's in them? Now I'm glad to give it away
All this rags of a masquerade,
All this shine, and noise, and fumes
For a shelf of books, for a wild garden,
For our poor home...
The same idleness, emptiness and monotony fill the Moscow salons where the Larins visit. Pushkin paints a collective portrait of the Moscow nobility with bright satirical colors:
But there is no change in them,
Everything about them is the same as the old model:
At Aunt Princess Elena's
Still the same tulle cap;
Everything is whitewashed Lukerya Lvovna,
Lyubov Petrovna lies all the same,
Ivan Petrovich is just as stupid
Semyon Petrovich is also stingy...
In this description, attention is drawn to the persistent repetition of small everyday details and their immutability. And this creates a feeling of stagnation of life, which has stopped in its development. Naturally, there are empty, meaningless conversations here, which Tatyana cannot understand with her sensitive soul.
Tatyana wants to listen
In conversations, in general conversation;
But everyone in the living room is occupied
Such incoherent, vulgar nonsense,
Everything about them is so pale and indifferent;
They slander even boringly...
In the noisy Moscow world, the tone is set by “smart dandies”, “holiday hussars”, “archival youths”, and self-satisfied cousins. In a whirlwind of music and dance, a vain life rushes by, devoid of any internal content.
They kept life peaceful
Habits of a dear old man;
At their Shrovetide
There were Russian pancakes;
Twice a year they fasted,
Loved Russian swings
Podblyudny songs, round dance...
The author's sympathy is evoked by the simplicity and naturalness of their behavior, closeness to folk customs, cordiality and hospitality. But Pushkin does not at all idealize the patriarchal world of village landowners. On the contrary, it is precisely for this circle that the defining feature becomes the terrifying primitiveness of interests, which manifests itself in ordinary topics of conversation, in activities, and in an absolutely empty and aimlessly lived life. How, for example, is Tatyana’s late father remembered? Only because he was a simple and kind fellow,” “he ate and drank in his dressing gown,” and “died an hour before dinner.” The life of Uncle Onegin passes similarly in the wilderness of the village, who “for forty years scolded the housekeeper, looked out the window and crushed flies ". Pushkin contrasts these good-natured lazy people with Tatyana's energetic and economical mother. A few stanzas contain her entire spiritual biography, which consists of a rather rapid degeneration of a cutesy, sentimental young lady into a real sovereign landowner, whose portrait we see in the novel.
She went to work
Salted mushrooms for the winter,
She kept expenses, shaved her foreheads,
I went to the bathhouse on Saturdays,
She beat the maids in anger -
All this without asking my husband.
With his portly wife
Fat Pustyakov arrived;
Gvozdin, an excellent owner,
Owner of poor men...
These heroes are so primitive that they do not require a detailed description, which may even consist of one surname. The interests of these people are limited to eating food and talking “about wine, about the kennel, about their relatives.” Why does Tatyana strive from luxurious St. Petersburg to this meager, wretched little world? Probably because he is familiar to her, here she can not hide her feelings, not play the role of a magnificent secular princess. Here you can immerse yourself in the familiar world of books and wonderful rural nature. But Tatyana remains in the light, perfectly seeing its emptiness. Onegin is also unable to break with society without accepting it. The unhappy fates of the novel's heroes are the result of their conflict with both the capital and provincial society, which, however, generates in their souls submission to the opinion of the world, thanks to which friends fight duels, and people who love each other part.
This means that a broad and complete depiction of all groups of nobility in the novel plays an important role in motivating the actions of the heroes, their destinies, and introduces the reader to the range of current social and moral problems of the 20s of the 19th century.
