Why is the novel called Eugene Onegin? Why is "Eugene Onegin" named A
Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”, as soon as it appeared, received well-deserved approval and even admiration from the public and critics. But it should be noted that for Russian literature of that time this was a real breakthrough - nothing like this had ever been created by Russian writers. And so far not a single writer has dared to repeat the experience of the great master of words and write realistic novel in verse. Precisely realistic, because if this work had been written in a romantic vein, following the traditions of Zhukovsky, it could only be called a poem, and not at all a novel.
“Eugene Onegin” can be called the pathos of sobering up. It is presented openly and without any embellishment - stylistic or otherwise. Any grandiloquence would be inappropriate here and would sound like a parody. And Pushkin, indeed, at the end of the seventh chapter parodies the false classical epic.
Just as casually, even at the beginning, he parodies the romantic elegy vulgarized by mediocre scribblers. Contemporaries could not read Lensky’s dying poems without smiling - all these “golden days of my spring” reminded them so much of the products of current magazine periodicals.
Pushkin wages a constant struggle in the novel on at least two fronts: against the passing classicism and against the romance that is still dear to his heart. The fight is serious. It was deeply felt by Pushkin. So experienced that it goes beyond the boundaries of intraliterary strife.
This is a struggle for the language of Russian society, for the liberation of the language from superficial influences and trends, from belated Slavicisms, from the latest foreignness, from school and seminary constraints. All this vital material is given full scope in the stanzas of the novel. And this is one of the reasons on which one can call “Eugene Onegin” a “free novel.”
Ultimately, the struggle is even broader. This is a fight for nationality, for the general democratization of Russian culture, which is completely overdue for Pushkin. After all, by the end of work on the novel, “Boris Godunov” and fairy tales had already been written. The poet is in the midst of the creative development of the nationality, in the prime of his life. In the novel, he disposed of this property with unprecedented boldness. He entrusted the element of the people to his heroine.
If it weren’t for Tatyana, the reader would never have heard the intelligent, earnest and leisurely speech of her nanny, nor would she have heard another serf peasant woman, Onegin’s housekeeper Aksinya. I would not have heard that “Song of the Girls”, which with all its crafty, cheerful, mischievous content boldly contrasts with the embarrassment and confusion of Tatyana herself. This is another reason to call the “novel free.”
In addition, Pushkin behaved very freely with regard to the form of his work. At that time, there were no examples of a realistic novel in Russian literature, and the writer himself had to invent stylistic devices and plot twists. In this regard, Pushkin was also very free in his creative impulses.
The magical, witchcraft art of Pushkin celebrates one of its most amazing victories. A two-syllable, two-beat iambic sounds at the tempo of a waltz when Tatyana’s dream is described:
Monotonous and crazy
Like a young whirlwind of life,
A noisy whirlwind swirls around the waltz;
Couple flashes after couple...
Sometimes the lines are filled with sounds: crackling, thunder, rattling... But they are also picturesque. The reader sees with his own eyes the “jumps, heels, mustaches”:
The Mazurka sounded. It happened
When the mazurka thunder roared,
Everything in the huge hall was shaking,
The parquet trembled under the heel,
The frames shook and rattled...
What freedom the lines of Pushkin’s novel breathe, what masterful handling of the native Russian language! Yes, this is a free novel!
And the image of the author! Could any writer before Pushkin, or even after him, allow himself to so freely display his image in a work, to speak so openly about his secret thoughts, dictated not by artistic necessity, but by personal aspiration and desire. Could another writer, directly addressing the reader, ironize him:
The reader is already waiting for the rhyme of the rose;
Here, take it quickly!
Yes, “Eugene Onegin” is truly a “free novel”, in which all accepted and established traditions are overthrown: from the choice of names for the characters to stylistic devices in choosing the form of the novel.
Pushkin wrote the novel “Eugene Onegin” for more than seven years: from 1823 to 1830. “Long Work” was begun when the author “still did not clearly discern” the “distance of a free novel.”
Why does he call his work a “free novel”?
Firstly, the poet himself emphasized that he was writing “not a novel, but a novel in verse,” and saw in this “a devilish difference.” The narrative is based on switching from one plane to another, on changing the tonality and intonation of the work.
Unfolds before the reader
...a collection of motley chapters,
half funny, half sad,
common people, ideal.
The novel begins completely unexpectedly, without any preambles or introductions. it opens with the internal monologue of Eugene Onegin, who goes to his dying uncle in the village and is preparing to be a hypocrite in order to receive an inheritance.
The ending of this work is as unexpected as its beginning. The author leaves his hero “at an evil moment for him.” At the moment of explanation with Tatyana, who married the general. The reader will never know what will happen to Onegin next, whether he will find the strength for a new life.
Before us is a novel without beginning and end, and this is its unusualness. The genre of the novel turns out to be free, as is its plot.
The author conducts a free and relaxed conversation with the reader about everything, “babbling away to no end”: about elegies and odes, about apple liqueur and lingonberry water, about the Russian theater and French wines. Many lyrical digressions convince the reader that at the center of the story is not the hero, but the author, whose world is infinite. The author is the lyrical center of the novel.
To create the effect of a free, improvised narrative, Pushkin comes up with the Onegin stanza, which includes 14 lines. An illusion of “chatter” arises when the author moves freely in time and space, easily moving from one subject of speech to another. He talks not only about unfulfilled hopes And broken hearts his heroes, but also tells about himself and about the universal laws of human life.
In other words, the center of the story is not the fate of individual characters, but life itself - endless and unpredictable. that is why the novel has neither beginning nor end.
Magic land! there in the old days,
Satire is a brave ruler,
Fonvizin, friend of freedom, shone,
And the overbearing Prince...
And so it is in everything. The author freely speaks about St. Petersburg balls and peaceful village silence, conveying his attitude to life, which does not coincide with the opinion of the main character. thus, the creator of the novel becomes its hero.
Let's summarize. Pushkin calls his novel “free” because the center of his narrative is not so much the fate of the heroes, but big picture life, the author’s statements on a variety of topics, his thoughts and feelings. The improvised manner of presentation is also free. The novel has neither beginning nor end.
Updated: 2017-10-23
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Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" is the first Russian realistic novel, and written in verse. It became an innovative work both in form and content. Pushkin set the task not only to show in him the “hero of the time”, Onegin, a man with “premature old age of the soul”, to create the image of a Russian woman, Tatyana Larina, but also to draw an “encyclopedia of Russian life” of that era. All this required overcoming not only the narrow framework of classicism, but also abandoning the romantic approach. Pushkin strives to bring his work as close as possible to life, which does not tolerate schematicism and predetermined structures, and therefore the form of the novel becomes “free.”
And the point is not only that the author only places an “introduction” at the end of chapter 7, ironically noting: “...Even though it’s late, there is an introduction.” And not even that the novel opens with Onegin’s internal monologue, reflecting on his trip to the village to his uncle for an inheritance, which is interrupted by a story about the hero’s childhood and youth, about the years spent in the whirlwind social life. And not even that the author often interrupts plot part, placing this or that lyrical digression, in which he can talk about anything: about literature, theater, his life, about the feelings and thoughts that excite him, about roads or about women’s legs - or he can simply talk with readers: “Hm! hmm! Noble reader, / Are all your relatives healthy? No wonder Pushkin asserted: “A novel requires chatter.”
He really doesn’t seem to be creating a work of art, but simply telling a story that happened to his good friends. That is why in the novel, next to its heroes Onegin, Tatyana, Lensky, Olga, people who lived during Pushkin appear - Vyazemsky, Kaverin, Nina Voronskaya and others. Moreover, the Author himself becomes the hero of his own novel, turning out to be a “good friend” of Onegin. The author keeps letters from Onegin and Tatyana, poems by Lensky - and they, too, are organically included in the novel, without in any way violating its integrity, although they are not written in the “Onegin stanza.”
It seems that such a work - a “free novel” - can include anything, but with all the “freedom” its composition is harmonious and thoughtful. The main thing why this feeling of freedom is created is that Pushkin’s novel exists like life itself: unpredictably and at the same time consistent with a certain internal law. Sometimes even Pushkin himself was surprised at what his heroes “did”, for example, when his beloved heroine Tatyana “got married.” It is clear why many of Pushkin’s contemporaries tried to see the traits of their friends and acquaintances in the heroes of the novel - and found them! In that amazing work life pulsates and bursts out, creating even now the effect of the reader’s “presence” at the moment the action develops. And life is always free in its many twists and turns. Such is Pushkin’s truly realistic novel, which opened the way for new Russian literature.
Probably many have read famous novel A. S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" and thought about its name. Why is the novel called "Eugene Onegin"?
This novel is named after the hero whom Pushkin represented central character of his novel in verse, it is his life that is narrated throughout the entire work. Evgeniy is a young man, a representative of the “golden noble youth,” who spends his life idly and colorfully at balls, in restaurants and in theaters. But nevertheless, he is not stupid, and he quickly gets bored with such a life, he is looking for new interests. The image of the main character contains a conflict between environment and personality, which was experienced not only by Onegin, but also by many people. Onegin is collective image young nobles of his time. Thanks to this, the novel is also called "Eugene Onegin".
Now let's turn to the meaning of the main character's name. WITH greek name“Eugene” means “noble”, and his surname comes from the name of the Severa River “Onega”. The combination of this particular surname and first name is very melodic, which is important for any poem, and this novel, as you know, is written in verse. In addition, the surname “Onegin” seems to emphasize the prudence and coldness of the main character of this novel.
Let us summarize the question of why the novel is named after Onegin:
- Eugene Onegin - main character novel, the work tells about his life, the narrative is built around this character;
- Eugene Onegin is a collective image of young noblemen of his time, he personifies the conflict between the environment and the individual;
- The sound of the first and last name "Eugene Onegin" is melodic and beautiful, which is very important for the poetic form of the novel.
It's no secret that literary works belong to certain genres and types of literature. And if we limit ourselves to three categories: epic, lyric, drama, then there are a much larger number of genres.
"Eugene Onegin": genre
The famous work of art “Eugene Onegin”, written by the great Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, has long been under the close attention of philologists and literary scholars. Not only is this work filled with deep semantic content, its genre characteristics are also very ambiguous. So, why is the definition of the genre of “Eugene Onegin” so unusual?
Types and genres of literature
To begin with, it should be noted that the work is written in poetic form, which means the genre to which it belongs is lyrical. However, despite the fact that the story is described in verse, it is absolutely impossible to call it a simple poem. The developed plot, the dynamics of events, psychologism and works within the work rightfully allow us to classify “Eugene Onegin” as a novel. According to the definition from explanatory dictionary Sergei Ivanovich Ozhegov, the novel is a prosaic epic literary work with multiple characters and a complex plot structure. Based on it, we can say that in terms of meaning and content, “Eugene Onegin” rather belongs to the type of epic and novel genre of literature.
Brief description of the plot
According to the plot, the spoiled and selfish young man from the capital Evgeny Onegin, tired of endless balls and social receptions, decides to retire to live in the village in order to somehow add variety to his identical everyday life. However, life in the village turns out to be more boring than in St. Petersburg, and Evgeniy is again attacked by the blues. He meets the young residents of the village: the eighteen-year-old talented poet Vladimir Lensky, the Larin sisters - the beautiful and cheerful Olga, the thoughtful and dreamy Tatyana.
They become the main ones actors in the plot. Lensky is engaged to Olga, while Tatyana has fallen in love with Evgeniy. However, he does not reciprocate the girl’s feelings, and having received a letter with an ardent and tender declaration of love, he tries to set her on the right path, advising her not to express her feelings to unfamiliar people in the future. Tatyana is embarrassed and offended. Meanwhile, Lensky challenges Onegin to a duel because he repeatedly invited his bride Olga to dance. Just before the duel, Tatyana sees a dream in which Evgeniy kills Vladimir, but the girl does not know about the young people’s intention to shoot, otherwise she would have prevented the duel. Onegin kills Lensky, afraid to call off the duel and become known as secular society coward. Olga does not mourn her lover for long and soon marries another. After some time, Tatyana also gets married, for some time she still continues to love Evgeniy, but then the veil falls from her eyes.
Once at a social ball these two met: Onegin, still bored and moping, and the inaccessible noble wife General Tatyana. And at this meeting the heroes swapped roles, Eugene realized that he had fallen in love with the beautiful princess, and Tatiana answered him with a phrase that later became famous: “But I was given to another and I will be faithful to him forever.”
Analysis of the genre specificity of the text
So, how, in fact, can we determine the genre in the work “Eugene Onegin”? One can say about the plot that it is really rich in events, and the dialogues and monologues of the characters are full of sensuality and psychologism. These features allow us to classify the work as a novel genre. However, the poetic form of Pushkin’s famous creation leaves the question open. Experts are inclined to argue that the genre of “Eugene Onegin” is a novel in verse. However, according to some literary critics, including Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky, this is not so. They argue that the genre of “Eugene Onegin” is a poem, since the work fully and almost with historical accuracy reproduces the life of the Russian public in the capital and beyond. V. G. Belinsky, without stinting, called “Eugene Onegin” “an encyclopedia of Russian life.” But for a poem the work still has too much large volume, the amount of text is closer to the novel. This is the first contradiction.
The second contradiction is related to the content of the novel. Again, critics call “Eugene Onegin” not only a “novel about a novel,” but also a “novel within a novel.” And if the first definition is directly influenced by the genre of “Eugene Onegin” by A. S. Pushkin, as well as the love line - central theme plot, then the second characteristic is directly related to the inside of the work.
"A Novel about a Novel"
So, as it was already clarified earlier, in terms of its genre, the work is more likely to be a novel, despite its presentation in verse. And this is the first component of the definition of “a novel about a novel.” The second undoubtedly reflects the presence of love events in the plot. As the action progresses, the reader can observe how the relationship between two couples develops: Olga Larina and Vladimir Lensky and her sisters Tatyana and Evgeny Onegin. However, the relationship of the latter still comes to the fore. It is around this couple that the plot revolves. Thus, the expression “a novel about a novel” communicates not only the presence love line in the text, but also in Once again emphasizes that in the work “Eugene Onegin” the genre is characterized as a novel.
"A Novel within a Novel"
This characteristic also contains a reference to the genre of Pushkin’s work. However, now that the question “Eugene Onegin” no longer arises - what genre?”, deciphering the second part of the phrase is not required. We are, of course, talking about the attitude to the genre. But the first part of the definition reminds us of the presence in the text of another novel - a letter from Tatyana Larina , almost work of art. Confessing her love to Onegin, Tatyana spoke about her feelings in writing. And Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin fully reflected her impulse. It is this novel as a genre characteristic within another novel - the work itself - that we are talking about. Tatyana Larina, pouring out her love for Evgeniy, gave birth to her own novel in verse, reflecting it in writing.
So, even after analyzing the work “Eugene Onegin”, it is still problematic to establish its genre. In form it is a poem, in content it is a novel. Perhaps only such a talented and great poet as Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is allowed to invent his own genre - a novel in verse - and demonstrate it with the best example.
