Roman Eugene Onegin character Tatiana. The ideal image of the heroine in the novel "Eugene Onegin"
Tatyana Larina, one of the central characters in Pushkin’s poem “Eugene Onegin,” occupies an important place in this work, because it was in her image that the brilliant poet concentrated all the best feminine qualities that he had ever met in his life. For him, “Tatyana, dear Tatiana” is a concentration of ideal ideas about what a real Russian woman should be and one of the most beloved heroines, to whom he himself confesses his passionate feelings: “I love my dear Tatiana so much.”
Pushkin describes his heroine with great tenderness and trepidation throughout the entire poem. He sincerely empathizes with her about unrequited feelings for Onegin and is proud of how nobly and honestly she acts in the finale, rejecting his love for the sake of duty to her unloved, but God-given husband.
Characteristics of the heroine
We meet Tatyana Larina in the quiet village estate of her parents, where she was born and raised, her mother is a good wife and caring housewife, giving all of herself to her husband and children, her father is a “kind fellow”, a little stuck in the last century. Their eldest daughter appears before us as a very little girl, who, despite her young age, has unique, extraordinary character traits: calmness, thoughtfulness, silence and some external detachment, which distinguish her from all other children and in particular from her younger sister Olga.
(Illustration for the novel "Eugene Onegin" by artist E.P. Samokish-Sudkovskaya)
“Tatiana, Russian at heart” loves the nature surrounding her parents’ estate, subtly senses its beauty and experiences real pleasure from being united with it. The vast expanses of the secluded little Motherland are sweeter and closer to her heart than the “hateful life” of the St. Petersburg high society, which she never wants to exchange for what has forever become a part of her soul.
Raised, like Pushkin, by a simple woman from the people, from childhood she was in love with Russian fairy tales, legends and traditions, and was prone to mysticism, to mysterious and enigmatic folk beliefs and ancient rituals. Already in adulthood, a fascinating world of novels opened up to her, which she read avidly, forcing her to experience dizzying adventures and various life vicissitudes with her heroes. Tatyana is a sensitive and dreamy girl, living in her secluded little world, surrounded by dreams and fantasies, completely alien to the reality around her.
(K. I. Rudakova, painting "Eugene Onegin. Meeting in the Garden" 1949)
However, having met the hero of her dreams, Onegin, who seemed to her to be a mysterious and original personality, noticeably standing out from the surrounding crowd, the girl, discarding shyness and uncertainty, passionately and sincerely tells him about her love, writing a touching and naive letter, full of sublime simplicity and deep feelings. This act reveals both her willfulness and openness, as well as the spirituality and poetry of a subtle girl’s soul.
The image of the heroine in the work
Pure in soul, sincere and naive, Tatyana falls in love with Onegin, being very young, and carries this feeling throughout her life. Having written this touching letter to her chosen one, she is not afraid of condemnation and anxiously awaits an answer. Pushkin is tenderly touched by the bright feelings of his heroine and asks readers for indulgence for her, because she is so naive and pure, so simple and natural, and it is precisely these qualities for the author of the poem, who has been burned more than once at the stake of his feelings, that play a very important role in life .
Having received a bitter lesson that Onegin taught her, who read her painful moral teachings and rejected her feelings for fear of losing freedom and tying the knot, she experiences her unrequited love hard. But this tragedy does not embitter her; she will forever retain in the depths of her soul these sublime, bright feelings for the person with whom she will never be together.
Having met Onegin a few years later in St. Petersburg, already being a brilliant high-society lady with feelings and reason shackled in the impenetrable armor of secular decency and love for him hidden deep in her soul, she does not revel in her triumph, does not want to take revenge on him or humiliate him. The inner purity and sincerity of her soul, the shine of which has not dimmed in the least in the dirt of metropolitan life, does not allow her to stoop to empty and false social games. Tatyana still loves Onegin, but cannot tarnish the honor and reputation of her elderly husband and therefore rejects his such ardent, but too late love.
Tatyana Larina is a person of high moral culture with a deeply conscious sense of self-worth; literary critics call her image “the ideal image of a Russian woman,” which Pushkin created to glorify the nobility, fidelity and great purity of their unsullied life of the Russian soul.
Lonely, “she seemed like a stranger to the girl,” she didn’t like children’s games and could sit silently all day by the window, immersed in dreams. But outwardly motionless and cold, Tatyana lived a strong inner life. “The Nanny's Scary Stories” made her a dreamer, a child “out of this world.”
Shunning naive village entertainment, round dances and games, Tatyana devoted herself wholeheartedly to folk mysticism, her penchant for fantasy directly attracted her to this:
Tatyana believed the legends
Common folk antiquity:
And dreams, and card fortune-telling,
And the predictions of the moon.
She was worried about signs.
All objects are mysterious to her
They proclaimed something
Premonitions pressed in my chest.
Suddenly seeing
The young two-horned face of the moon
In the sky on the left side,
She trembled and turned pale.
Well? the beauty found the secret
And in the most horror she:
This is how nature created you,
Inclined to contradiction.
From her nanny's fairy tales, Tatyana switched early to novels.
They replaced everything for her
She fell in love with novels
And Richardson and Russo...
From a dreamer girl, Tatyana Larina became a “dreamy girl” who lived in her own special world: she surrounded herself with the heroes of her favorite novels and was alien to village reality.
Her imagination has long been
Burning with bliss and melancholy,
Hungry for fatal food.
Long-time heartache
Her young breasts were tight.
The soul was waiting for someone.
Tatyana Larina. Artist M. Klodt, 1886
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Women whose behavior and appearance differ from the generally accepted canons of the ideal have always attracted the attention of both literary figures and readers. The description of this type of people allows us to lift the veil of unknown life quests and aspirations. Tatyana Larina's image is ideal for this role
Family and childhood memories
Tatyana Larina belongs to the nobility by origin, but all her life she was deprived of an extensive secular society - she always lived in the village and never strived for an active city life.
Tatiana's father Dmitry Larin was a foreman. At the time of the actions described in the novel, he is no longer alive. It is known that he died young. “He was a simple and kind gentleman.”
The girl's mother's name is Polina (Praskovya). She was extradited as a girl under duress. For some time she was depressed and tormented, experiencing a feeling of attachment to another person, but over time she found happiness in family life with Dmitry Larin.
Tatyana also has a sister, Olga. She is not at all similar in character to her sister: cheerfulness and coquetry are a natural state for Olga.
An important person for Tatyana’s development as a person was her nanny Filipyevna. This woman is a peasant by birth and, perhaps, this is her main charm - she knows many folk jokes and stories that so captivate the inquisitive Tatyana. The girl has a very reverent attitude towards the nanny, she sincerely loves her.
Name selection and prototypes
Pushkin emphasizes the unusualness of his image at the very beginning of the story, giving the girl the name Tatyana. The fact is that for the high society of that time the name Tatyana was not characteristic. This name at that time had a pronounced folk character. In Pushkin's drafts there is information that initially the heroine had the name Natalya, but later Pushkin changed his intention.
Alexander Sergeevich mentioned that this image is not without a prototype, but did not indicate who exactly played such a role for him.
Naturally, after such statements, both his contemporaries and researchers of later years actively analyzed Pushkin’s environment and tried to find the prototype of Tatyana.
Opinions on this issue are divided. It is possible that multiple prototypes were used for this image.
One of the most suitable candidates is Anna Petrovna Kern - her similarity in character with Tatyana Larina leaves no doubt.
The image of Maria Volkonskaya is ideal for describing the tenacity of Tatyana's character in the second part of the novel.
The next person who bears a resemblance to Tatyana Larina is Pushkin’s sister Olga. In terms of her temperament and character, she ideally matches the description of Tatyana in the first part of the novel.
Tatyana also has a certain similarity with Natalya Fonvizina. The woman herself found a great resemblance to this literary character and expressed the opinion that she was the prototype of Tatyana.
An unusual suggestion about the prototype was made by Pushkin’s lyceum friend Wilhelm Kuchelbecker. He found that the image of Tatiana was very similar to Pushkin himself. This similarity is especially evident in chapter 8 of the novel. Kuchelbecker states: “the feeling with which Pushkin is filled is noticeable, although he, like his Tatyana, does not want the world to know about this feeling.”
Question about the heroine's age
In the novel, we meet Tatyana Larina during her growing up period. She is a girl of marriageable age.
The opinions of researchers of the novel on the question of the girl’s year of birth differed.
Yuri Lotman claims that Tatyana was born in 1803. In this case, in the summer of 1820 she just turned 17 years old.
However, this opinion is not the only one. There is an assumption that Tatyana was much younger. Such thoughts are prompted by the nanny’s story that she was married off at the age of thirteen, as well as the mention that Tatyana, unlike most girls her age, did not play with dolls at that time.
V.S. Babaevsky puts forward another version about Tatyana’s age. He believes that the girl should be much older than Lotman’s supposed age. If the girl had been born in 1803, then the girl’s mother’s concern about the lack of options for her daughter’s marriage would not have been so pronounced. In this case, a trip to the so-called “bride fair” would not yet be necessary.
Appearance of Tatyana Larina
Pushkin does not go into a detailed description of Tatyana Larina’s appearance. The author is more interested in the heroine's inner world. We learn about Tatyana's appearance in contrast to the appearance of her sister Olga. The sister has a classic appearance - she has beautiful blond hair and a ruddy face. In contrast to this, Tatyana has dark hair, her face is excessively pale, devoid of color.
We invite you to familiarize yourself with A. S. Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin”
Her look is full of despondency and sadness. Tatyana was too thin. Pushkin notes, “no one could call her beautiful.” Meanwhile, she was still an attractive girl, she had a special beauty.
Leisure and attitude towards needlework
It was generally accepted that the female half of society spent their free time doing needlework. The girls, in addition, also played with dolls or various active games (the most common was burners).
Tatiana does not like to do any of these activities. She loves listening to the nanny's scary stories and sitting by the window for hours.
Tatyana is very superstitious: “She was worried about omens.” The girl also believes in fortune telling and that dreams don’t just happen, they carry a certain meaning.
Tatyana is fascinated by novels - “they replaced everything for her.” She likes to feel like the heroine of such stories.
However, Tatyana Larina’s favorite book was not a love story, but a dream book “Martyn Zadeka became later / Tanya’s favorite.” Perhaps this is due to Tatyana’s great interest in mysticism and everything supernatural. It was in this book that she could find the answer to the question that interested her: “he gives her joy / in all her sorrows / and sleeps with her without leaving.”
Personality characteristics
Tatyana is not like most girls of her era. This applies to external data, hobbies, and character. Tatyana was not a cheerful and active girl who was easily given to coquetry. “Wild, sad, silent” is Tatyana’s classic behavior, especially in society.
Tatyana loves to indulge in daydreams - she can fantasize for hours. The girl has difficulty understanding her native language, but is in no hurry to learn it; in addition, she rarely engages in self-education. Tatyana gives preference to novels that can disturb her soul, but at the same time she cannot be called stupid, rather the opposite. Tatyana's image is full of “perfections”. This fact is in sharp contrast to the rest of the characters in the novel, who do not possess such components.
Due to her age and inexperience, the girl is too trusting and naive. She trusts the impulse of emotions and feelings.
Tatyana Larina is capable of tender feelings not only in relation to Onegin. With her sister Olga, despite the striking difference between the girls in temperament and perception of the world, she is connected by the most devoted feelings. In addition, she develops a feeling of love and tenderness towards her nanny.
Tatiana and Onegin
New people coming to the village always arouse interest among the permanent residents of the area. Everyone wants to meet a newcomer, learn about him - life in the village is not distinguished by the variety of events, and new people bring with them new topics for conversation and discussion.
Onegin's arrival did not go unnoticed. Vladimir Lensky, who was lucky enough to become Evgeniy’s neighbor, introduces Onegin to the Larins. Evgeny is very different from all the inhabitants of village life. His manner of speaking, behaving in society, his education and ability to conduct a conversation pleasantly amaze Tatyana, and not only her.
However, “the feelings in him cooled down early,” Onegin “has completely lost interest in life,” he is already bored with beautiful girls and their attention, but Larina has no idea about this.
Onegin instantly becomes the hero of Tatiana's novel. She idealizes the young man; he seems to her like he came straight out of the pages of her books about love:
Tatiana loves seriously
And he surrenders unconditionally
Love like a sweet child.
Tatyana suffers for a long time in languor and decides to take a desperate step - she decides to confess to Onegin and tell him about her feelings. Tatyana writes a letter.
The letter carries a double meaning. On the one hand, the girl expresses indignation and grief associated with Onegin’s arrival and her love. She has lost the peace in which she lived before and this leads the girl to bewilderment:
Why did you visit us
In the wilderness of a forgotten village
I would never have known you.
I wouldn't know bitter torment.
On the other hand, the girl, having analyzed her position, sums up: Onegin’s arrival is salvation for her, it is fate. Due to her character and temperament, Tatyana could not become the wife of any of the local suitors. She is too alien and incomprehensible for them - Onegin is another matter, he is able to understand and accept her:
It is destined in the highest council...
That is the will of heaven: I am yours;
My whole life was a pledge
The faithful date with you.
However, Tatyana’s hopes were not justified - Onegin does not love her, but was just playing with the girl’s feelings. The next tragedy in the girl’s life is the news of the duel between Onegin and Lensky, and the death of Vladimir. Evgeniy is leaving.
Tatyana falls into a blues - she often comes to Onegin’s estate and reads his books. Over time, the girl begins to understand that the real Onegin is radically different from the Eugene she wanted to see. She just idealized the young man.
This is where her unfulfilled romance with Onegin ends.
Tatiana's dream
Unpleasant events in the girl’s life, associated with the lack of mutual feelings for the object of her love, and then death, two weeks before the wedding of Vladimir Lensky’s sister’s fiancé, were preceded by a strange dream.
Tatyana always attached great importance to dreams. This same dream is doubly important for her, because it is the result of Christmas fortune-telling. Tatyana was supposed to see her future husband in a dream. The dream becomes prophetic.
At first, the girl finds herself in a snowy clearing, she approaches a stream, but the passage through it is too fragile, Larina is afraid of falling and looks around for an assistant. A bear appears from under a snowdrift. The girl gets scared, but when she sees that the bear is not going to attack, but on the contrary, he offers her his help, extends his hand to him - the obstacle has been overcome. However, the bear is in no hurry to leave the girl; he follows her, which scares Tatyana even more.
The girl tries to escape from her pursuer - she goes into the forest. Tree branches catch her clothes, take off her earrings, tear off her scarf, but Tatyana, gripped by fear, runs forward. The deep snow does not allow her to escape and the girl falls. At this time, a bear overtakes her; he does not attack her, but picks her up and carries her further.
A hut appears ahead. The bear says that his godfather lives here and Tatyana can warm up. Once in the hallway, Larina hears the sound of fun, but it reminds her of a wake. Strange guests - monsters - are sitting at the table. The girl is overcome with both fear and curiosity; she quietly opens the door - the owner of the hut turns out to be Onegin. He notices Tatyana and heads towards her. Larina wants to run away, but she can’t - the door opens and all the guests see her:
... Fierce laughter
It sounded wild; everyone's eyes
Hooves, trunks are crooked,
Tufted tails, fangs,
Mustaches, bloody tongues,
Horns and fingers are bone,
Everything points to her
And everyone shouts: mine! my!
The imperious owner calms the guests - the guests disappear, and Tatyana is invited to the table. Olga and Lensky immediately appear in the hut, causing a storm of indignation on the part of Onegin. Tatyana is horrified by what is happening, but does not dare to intervene. In a fit of anger, Onegin takes a knife and kills Vladimir. The dream ends, it’s morning already.
Tatyana's marriage
A year later, Tatiana’s mother comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to take her daughter to Moscow - Tatiana has every chance of remaining a virgin:
At Kharitonya's alley
Cart in front of the house at the gate
Has stopped. To the old aunt
The patient has been suffering from consumption for four years,
They have arrived now.
Aunt Alina joyfully received the guests. She herself was unable to get married at one time and lived alone all her life.
Here, in Moscow, Tatiana is noticed by an important, fat general. He was struck by Larina’s beauty and “meanwhile he couldn’t take his eyes off her.”
Pushkin does not reveal the general’s age, as well as his exact name, in the novel. Alexander Sergeevich calls Larina’s admirer General N. It is known that he took part in military events, which means that his career advancement could occur at an accelerated pace, in other words, he received the rank of general without being at an advanced age.
Tatyana does not feel even a shadow of love towards this man, but still agrees to the marriage.
The details of their relationship with her husband are not known - Tatyana came to terms with her role, but she did not have a feeling of love for her husband - it was replaced by affection and a sense of duty.
Love for Onegin, despite the debunking of his idealistic image, still did not leave Tatyana’s heart.
Meeting with Onegin
Two years later, Evgeny Onegin returns from his journey. He does not go to his village, but visits his relative in St. Petersburg. As it turned out, during these two years, changes occurred in the life of his relative:
“So you're married! I didn’t know before!
How long ago?” - About two years. -
"On whom?" - On Larina. - “Tatyana!”
Onegin, who always knows how to restrain himself, succumbs to excitement and feelings - he is overcome by anxiety: “Is it really her? But definitely... No...".
Tatyana Larina has changed a lot since their last meeting - they no longer look at her as a strange provincial girl:
The ladies moved closer to her;
The old women smiled at her;
The men bowed lower
The girls walked by more quietly.
Tatyana learned to behave like all secular women. She knows how to hide her emotions, is tactful towards other people, there is a certain amount of coolness in her behavior - all this surprises Onegin.
Tatyana, it seems, was not at all stunned, unlike Evgeny, by their meeting:
Her eyebrow didn't move;
She didn't even press her lips together.
Always so brave and lively, Onegin was at a loss for the first time and did not know how to speak to her. Tatyana, on the contrary, asked him with the most indifferent expression on her face about the trip and the date of his return.
Since then, Evgeniy has lost peace. He realizes that he loves a girl. He comes to them every day, but feels awkward in front of the girl. All his thoughts are occupied only with her - from the very morning he jumps out of bed and counts the hours remaining until they meet.
But the meetings do not bring relief either - Tatyana does not notice his feelings, she behaves with restraint, proudly, in a word, just like Onegin himself towards her two years ago. Consumed by excitement, Onegin decides to write a letter.
Noticing a spark of tenderness in you,
“I didn’t dare believe her,” he writes about the events of two years ago.
Evgeniy confesses his love to a woman. “I was punished,” he says, explaining his past recklessness.
Like Tatyana, Onegin entrusts her with the solution to the problem that has arisen:
Everything is decided: I am in your will
And I surrender to my fate.
However, there was no response. The first letter is followed by another and another, but they remain unanswered. Days pass - Evgeniy cannot lose his anxiety and confusion. He comes to Tatyana again and finds her sobbing over his letter. She was very similar to the girl he met two years ago. Excited Onegin falls at her feet, but
Tatyana is categorical - her love for Onegin has not yet faded, but Eugene himself ruined their happiness - he neglected her when she was unknown to anyone in society, not rich and not “favored by the court.” Evgeny was rude to her, he played with her feelings. Now she is the wife of another man. Tatyana does not love her husband, but she will “be faithful to him forever,” because it cannot be any other way. Another scenario is contrary to the girl’s life principles.
Tatyana Larina as assessed by critics
Roman A.S. Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” has become the subject of active research and scientific-critical activity for several generations. The image of the main character Tatyana Larina became the cause of repeated controversy and analysis.
- Yu. Lotman in his works he actively analyzed the essence and principle of writing Tatiana’s letter to Onegin. He came to the conclusion that the girl, having read novels, recreated “a chain of reminiscences primarily from the texts of French literature.”
- V.G. Belinsky, says that for Pushkin’s contemporaries the release of the third chapter of the novel became a sensation. The reason for this was Tatyana’s letter. According to the critic, Pushkin himself until that moment did not realize the power produced by the letter - he calmly read it, just like any other text.
The writing style is a little childish, romantic - this touches, because Tatyana was not yet aware of the feelings of love “the language of passions was so new and inaccessible to the morally dumb Tatyana: she would not have been able to understand or express her own feelings if she had not resorted to to the help of the impressions left on her.” - D. Pisarev I wasn’t so inspired by Tatyana’s image. He believes that the girl’s feelings are fake - she inspires them herself and thinks that it is the truth. While analyzing the letter to Tatiana, the critic notes that Tatiana is still aware of Onegin’s lack of interest in her person, because she suggests that Onegin’s visits will not be regular; this state of affairs does not allow the girl to become a “virtuous mother.” “And now, by your grace, I, a cruel man, must disappear,” writes Pisarev. In general, the image of a girl in his concept is not the most positive and borders on the definition of a “hillbilly”.
- F. Dostoevsky believes that Pushkin should have named his novel not after Evgeniy, but after Tatiana. Since this heroine is the main character in the novel. In addition, the writer notes that Tatyana has a much greater intelligence than Evgeniy. She knows how to act correctly in current situations. Her image is noticeably firm. “A firm type, standing firmly on its own soil,” Dostoevsky says about her.
- V. Nabokov notes that Tatyana Larina has become one of her favorite characters. As a result, her image turned “into the ‘national type’ of the Russian woman.” However, over time, this character was forgotten - with the beginning of the October Revolution, Tatyana Larina lost her significance. For Tatyana, according to the writer, there was another unfavorable period. During Soviet rule, the younger sister Olga occupied a much more advantageous position in relation to her sister.
In the novel “Eugene Onegin,” Pushkin managed to present all the diversity of life in contemporary Russia, portray Russian society “in one of the most interesting moments of its development,” create typical images of Onegin and Lensky, in whose person the “main, that is, male side” of this society. “But perhaps the greater feat of our poet is that he was the first to reproduce, in the person of Tatyana, a Russian woman,” wrote Belinsky.
Tatyana Larina is the first realistic female character in Russian literature. The heroine's worldview, her character, her mental makeup - this is revealed in the novel in great detail, her behavior is psychologically motivated. But at the same time, Tatyana is the poet’s “sweet ideal”, the “novel” embodiment of his dream of a certain type of woman. And the poet himself often speaks about this on the pages of the novel: “Tatiana’s letter is in front of me; I cherish him sacredly...”, “Forgive me: I love my dear Tatyana so much!” Moreover, the personality of the heroine, to a certain extent, embodied the poet’s own worldview.
Readers immediately felt these author's accents. Dostoevsky, for example, considered Tatiana, and not Onegin, to be the main character of the novel. And the writer’s opinion is quite reasonable. This is an integral, extraordinary, exceptional nature, with a truly Russian soul, with a strong character and spirit.
Her character remains unchanged throughout the novel. In various life circumstances, Tatiana’s spiritual and intellectual horizons expand, she gains experience, knowledge of human nature, new habits and manners characteristic of a different age, but her inner world does not change. “The portrait of her as a child, so masterfully written by the poet, is only developed, but not changed,” wrote V. G. Belinsky:
Dick, sad, silent,
Like a forest deer is timid,
She is in her own family
The girl seemed like a stranger...
Child herself, in a crowd of children
I didn’t want to play or jump
And often alone all day
She sat silently by the window.
Tatyana grew up as a thoughtful and impressionable girl, she did not like noisy children's games, fun entertainment, she was not interested in dolls and needlework. She loved to dream alone or listen to her nanny's stories. Tatyana's only friends were fields and forests, meadows and groves.
It is characteristic that, when describing village life, Pushkin does not depict any of the “provincial heroes” against the backdrop of nature. Habit, the “prose of life”, preoccupation with economic concerns, low spiritual needs - all this left its mark on their perception: local landowners simply do not notice the surrounding beauty, just as Olga or old lady Larina do not notice it,
But Tatyana is not like that, her nature is deep and poetic - she is given the ability to see the beauty of the world around her, given the ability to understand the “secret language of nature”, given the ability to love God’s light. She loves to greet the “sunrise of dawn”, to be carried away by her thoughts to the twinkling moon, to walk alone among the fields and hills. But Tatyana especially loves winter:
Tatiana (Russian soul.
Without knowing why)
With her cold beauty
I loved the Russian winter,
There is frost in the sun on a frosty day,
And the sleigh and the late dawn
The glow of pink snows,
And the darkness of Epiphany evenings.
The heroine thus introduces the motif of winter, cold, and ice into the narrative. And winter landscapes then often accompany Tatyana. Here she is, telling fortunes on a clear, frosty night at baptism. In a dream, she walks “through a snowy meadow”, sees “motionless pines” covered with tufts of snow, bushes, rapids covered in a blizzard. Before leaving for Moscow, Tatyana “is afraid of the winter journey.” V. M. Markovich notes that the “winter” motif here is “directly close to that harsh and mysterious sense of proportion, law, fate, which forced Tatiana to reject Onegin’s love.”
The heroine's deep connection with nature remains throughout the entire narrative. Tatyana lives according to the laws of nature, in complete agreement with her natural rhythms: “The time has come, she fell in love. Thus, the fallen grain of Spring is revived by fire.” And her communication with the nanny, belief in the “legends of the common people of old times,” dreams, fortune telling, signs and superstitions - all this only strengthens this mysterious connection.
Tatyana’s attitude towards nature is akin to ancient paganism; in the heroine, the memory of her distant ancestors, the memory of her family, seems to come to life. “Tatiana is all native, all from the Russian land, from Russian nature, mysterious, dark and deep, like a Russian fairy tale... Her soul is simple, like the soul of the Russian people. Tatyana is from that twilight, ancient world where the Firebird, Ivan Tsarevich, Baba Yaga were born...” wrote D. Merezhkovsky.
And this “call of the past” is expressed, among other things, in the heroine’s inextricable connection with her family, despite the fact that there she “seemed like a stranger’s girl.” Pushkin portrays Tatyana against the backdrop of her family’s life story, which takes on an extremely important meaning in the context of understanding the heroine’s fate.
In her life story, Tatyana, without wanting this, repeats the fate of her mother, who was taken to the crown, “without asking her advice,” while she “sighed for another, Whom She liked much more with her heart and mind...”. Here Pushkin seems to anticipate Tatiana’s fate with a philosophical remark: “A habit has been given to us from above: It is a substitute for happiness.” It may be objected to us that Tatyana is deprived of a spiritual connection with her family (“She seemed like a stranger in her own family”). However, this does not mean that there is no connection here, an internal, deep one, that very natural connection that constitutes the very essence of the heroine’s nature.
In addition, Tatyana was raised by a nanny from childhood, and here we can no longer talk about the lack of a spiritual connection. It is to the nanny that the heroine confides her heartfelt secret, handing over a letter for Onegin. She remembers her nanny with sadness in St. Petersburg. But what is Filipyevna’s fate? The same marriage without love:
“How did you get married, nanny?” —
So, apparently, God ordered. My Vanya
Was younger than me, my light,
And I was thirteen years old.
The matchmaker went around for two weeks
To my family, and finally
My father blessed me.
I cried bitterly out of fear,
They unraveled my braid while crying,
Yes, they took me to church singing.
Of course, the peasant girl here is deprived of freedom of choice, unlike Tatyana. But the situation of marriage itself, its perception, is repeated in Tatyana’s fate. Nyanino “So, apparently, God ordered” becomes Tatyanin “But I was given to someone else; I will be faithful to him forever."
The fashionable passion for sentimental and romantic novels also played a big role in shaping the heroine’s inner world. Her very love for Onegin manifests itself “in a bookish way,” she appropriates to herself “someone else’s delight, someone else’s sadness.” The men she knew were uninteresting to Tatyana: they “provided so little food for her exalted... imagination.” Onegin was a new man in the “village wilderness”. His mystery, secular manners, aristocracy, indifferent, bored appearance - all this could not leave Tatyana indifferent. “There are creatures whose fantasy has much more influence on the heart than how they think about it,” wrote Belinsky. Not knowing Onegin, Tatiana imagines him in the images of literary heroes well known to her: Malek-Adel, de Dinard and Werther. In essence, the heroine does not love a living person, but an image created by her “rebellious imagination.”
However, gradually she begins to discover Onegin's inner world. After his stern sermon, Tatyana remains confused, offended and bewildered. She probably interprets everything she hears in her own way, understanding only that her love was rejected. And only after visiting the hero’s “fashionable cell”, looking into his books, which contain the “sharp mark of nails,” Tatyana begins to comprehend Onegin’s perception of life, people, and fate. However, its discovery does not speak in favor of the chosen one:
What is he? Is it really imitation?
An insignificant ghost, or else
Muscovite in Harold's cloak,
interpretation of other people's whims,
A complete vocabulary of fashion words?..
Isn't he a parody?
Here the difference in the worldviews of the heroes is especially clearly exposed. If Tatyana thinks and feels in line with the Russian Orthodox tradition, Russian patriarchy, and patriotism, then Onegin’s inner world was formed under the influence of Western European culture. As V. Nepomnyashchy notes, Eugene’s office is a fashionable cell, where instead of icons there is a portrait of Lord Byron, on the table there is a small statue of Napoleon, the invader, the conqueror of Russia, Onegin’s books undermine the basis of the foundations - faith in the Divine principle in man. Of course, Tatyana was amazed to discover not only the unfamiliar world of someone else’s consciousness, but also a world that was deeply alien to her, hostile at its core.
Probably, the ill-fated duel, the outcome of which was the death of Lensky, did not leave her indifferent. A completely different, non-book image of Onegin formed in her mind. This is confirmed by the second explanation of the heroes in St. Petersburg. Tatyana does not believe in the sincerity of Evgeniy’s feelings; his persecution offends her dignity. Onegin's love does not leave her indifferent, but now she cannot respond to his feelings. She got married and devoted herself entirely to her husband and family. And an affair with Onegin in this new situation is impossible for her:
I love you (why lie?),
But I was given to another;
I will be faithful to him forever...
This choice of the heroine reflected a lot. This is the integrity of her nature, which does not allow lies and deception; and clarity of moral ideas, which excludes the very possibility of causing grief to an innocent person (husband), or frivolously disgracing him; and bookish and romantic ideals; and faith in Fate, in the Providence of God, implying Christian humility; and the laws of folk morality, with its unambiguous decisions; and an unconscious repetition of the fate of the mother and nanny.
However, in the impossibility of unity of Pushkin’s heroes there is also a deep, symbolic subtext. Onegin is the hero of “culture”, civilization (moreover, Western European culture, alien to Russian people at its very core). Tatiana is a child of nature, embodying the very essence of the Russian soul. Nature and culture in the novel are incompatible - they are tragically separated.
Dostoevsky believed that Onegin now loves in Tatyana “only his new fantasy. ...Loves fantasy, but he is a fantasy himself. After all, if she follows him, then tomorrow he will be disappointed and look at his hobby mockingly. It has no soil, it is a blade of grass carried by the wind. She [Tatyana] is not like that at all: even in despair and in the suffering consciousness that her life has been lost, she still has something solid and unshakable on which her soul rests. These are her childhood memories, memories of her homeland, the rural wilderness in which her humble, pure life began...”
Thus, in the novel “Eugene Onegin” Pushkin presents us with the “apotheosis of the Russian woman.” Tatyana amazes us with her depth of nature, originality, “rebellious imagination,” “living mind and will.” This is an integral, strong personality, capable of rising above the stereotypical thinking of any social circle, intuitively feeling the moral truth.
A.S. Pushkin is a great poet and writer of the 19th century. He enriched Russian literature with many wonderful works. One of them is the novel “Eugene Onegin”. A.S. Pushkin worked on the novel for many years; it was his favorite work. Belinsky called it “an encyclopedia of Russian life,” since it reflected, like a mirror, the entire life of the Russian nobility of that era. Despite the fact that the novel is called “Eugene Onegin,” the system of characters is organized in such a way that the image of Tatyana Larina acquires no less, if not more, importance. But Tatyana is not just the main character of the novel, she is also A.S.’s favorite heroine. Pushkin, which the poet calls “a sweet ideal.” A.S. Pushkin is madly in love with the heroine, and repeatedly admits this to her:
...I love my dear Tatiana so much!
Tatyana Larina is a young, fragile, contented, sweet young lady. Her image stands out very clearly against the background of other female images inherent in the literature of that time. From the very beginning, the author emphasizes the absence in Tatyana of those qualities that were endowed with the heroines of classical Russian novels: a poetic name, unusual beauty:
Not your sister's beauty,
Nor the freshness of her ruddy
She wouldn't attract anyone's attention.
Since childhood, Tatyana had a lot of things that distinguished her from others. She grew up as a lonely girl in her family:
Dick, sad, silent,
Like a forest deer is timid,
She is in her own family
The girl seemed like a stranger.
Tatyana also did not like to play with children and was not interested in city news and fashion. For the most part, she is immersed in herself, in her experiences:
But dolls even in these years
Tatyana didn’t take it in her hands;
About city news, about fashion
I didn’t have any conversations with her.
There is something completely different about Tatiana that captivates us: thoughtfulness, dreaminess, poetry, sincerity. She read many novels since childhood. In them she saw a different life, more interesting, more eventful. She believed that such a life, and such people are not made up, but actually exist:
She liked novels early on,
They replaced everything for her,
She fell in love with deceptions
And Richardson and Russo.
Already with the name of his heroine, Pushkin emphasizes Tatyana’s closeness to the people, to Russian nature. Pushkin explains Tatiana’s unusualness and spiritual wealth by the influence of the folk environment, the beautiful and harmonious Russian nature, on her inner world:
Tatyana (Russian in soul, Without knowing why)
With her cold beauty
I loved Russian winter.
Tatyana, a Russian soul, subtly senses the beauty of nature. One can guess another image that accompanies Tatyana everywhere and connects her with nature - the moon:
She loved on the balcony
Warn the dawn,
When on a pale sky
The round dance of the stars disappears...
...under the foggy moon...
Tatyana's soul is pure, high, like the moon. Tatyana’s “wildness” and “sadness” do not repel us, but, on the contrary, make us think that she, like the lonely moon in the sky, is extraordinary in her spiritual beauty. Tatiana's portrait is inseparable from nature, from the overall picture. In the novel, nature is revealed through Tatyana, and Tatyana - through nature. For example, spring is the birth of Tatyana’s love, and love is spring:
The time has come, she fell in love.
So the grain fell into the ground
Spring is enlivened by fire.
Tatyana shares her experiences, grief, and torment with nature; only to her can she pour out her soul. Only in solitude with nature does she find solace, and where else can she look for it, because in the family she grew up as a “stranger girl”; She herself writes in a letter to Onegin: “... no one understands me...”. Tatyana is the one for whom it is so natural to fall in love in the spring; bloom for happiness, like the first flowers bloom in the spring, when nature awakens from sleep.
Before leaving for Moscow, Tatyana first of all says goodbye to her native land:
Sorry, peaceful valleys,
And you, familiar mountain peaks,
And you, familiar forests;
Sorry cheerful nature...
With this appeal A.S. Pushkin clearly showed how difficult it was for Tatyana to part with her native land.
A.S. Pushkin also endowed Tatyana with a “fiery heart,” a subtle soul. Tatyana, at thirteen years old, is firm and unshakable:
Tatiana loves seriously
And he surrenders, of course.
Love like a sweet child.
V.G. Belinsky noted: “Tatiana’s entire inner world consisted of a thirst for love. nothing else spoke to her soul; her mind was asleep"
Tatyana dreamed of a person who would bring content into her life. This is exactly how Evgeny Onegin seemed to her. She came up with Onegin, fitting him to the model of the heroes of French novels. The heroine takes the first step: she writes a letter to Onegin, waits for an answer, but there is none.
Onegin did not answer her, but on the contrary read the instruction: “Learn to control yourself! Not everyone will understand you, as I do! Inexperience leads to disaster! Although it was always considered indecent for a girl to be the first to confess her love, the author likes Tatyana’s directness:
Why is Tatyana guilty?
Because in sweet simplicity
She knows no deception
And he believes in his chosen dream.
Having found herself in Moscow society, where “it’s easy to show off your upbringing,” Tatyana stands out for her spiritual qualities. Social life has not touched her soul, no, it is still the same old “dear Tatyana.” She is tired of the luxurious life, she suffers:
She's stuffy here... she's a dream
Strives for life in the field.
Here, in Moscow, Pushkin again compares Tatyana to the moon, which eclipses everything around with its light:
She was sitting at the table
With the brilliant Nina Voronskaya,
This Cleopatra of the Neva;
And you would truly agree,
That Nina is a marble beauty
I couldn’t outshine my neighbor,
At least she was dazzling.
Tatyana, who still loves Evgeniy, answers him firmly:
But I was given to someone else
And I will be faithful to him forever.
This confirms once again that Tatyana is noble, persistent, and faithful.
The critic V.G. also highly appreciated the image of Tatyana. Belinsky: “Great was Pushkin’s feat that he was the first in his novel to poetically reproduce Russian society of that time and, in the person of Onegin and Lensky, showed its main, that is, male, side; but perhaps the greater feat of our poet is that he was the first to poetically reproduce, in the person of Tatyana, a Russian woman.” The critic emphasizes the integrity of the heroine’s nature, her exclusivity in society. At the same time, Belinsky draws attention to the fact that the image of Tatiana represents “a type of Russian woman.”
