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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 curtain 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 continuously.”
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. Tatiana 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, Tatiana’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 the 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 by 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 exactly... 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 in critics' assessment
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.
Appearance, habits of the heroine
Tatyana Larina is the main female character in the novel Eugene Onegin. Belinsky called the novel “an encyclopedia of Russian life.” The image of Tatyana, like the images of other heroes, was typical for Russia in the 20-30s. 19th century But Tatyana is a lively woman with a unique, strong character. Her actions, dictated by internal logic and circumstances, turn out to be unexpected even for the author: “My Tatiana got weird”.
Tatyana is not like her younger sister Olga, a cheerful beauty. The elder sister does not attract the eye with either beauty or freshness. In addition, she is uncommunicative and unkind: “Wild, sad, silent, like a timid forest deer”.
Tatyana does not resemble a traditional folklore, hard-working girl: she does not do embroidery, does not play with dolls, and is not interested in fashion and outfits. Doesn't like girls “playing and jumping in a crowd of children”, run in burners (an outdoor game), does not play pranks or play pranks.
Tatyana loves scary stories, is thoughtful, and watches the sunrise on the balcony. Since childhood, she has been inclined to escape reality into the world of dreams, imagining herself as the heroine of the novels of Richardson and Rousseau: "She fell in love with deceptions".
Character and its origins, character development
Tatyana grew up in the village and was a neighbor on the estate of Evgeniy Onegin. Her parents kept the old patriarchal way of life. It is said about the father that he was late in the past century. This is probably why Tatyana received such an exotic name, with which she is inseparable “memory of antiquity or maidenhood”. In her youth, Tatiana’s mother was fond of the same novels that her eldest daughter later read. In the village of the husband to whom Tatyana's mother was not given for love, she, in the end, “I got used to it and became happy”, having forgotten novel hobbies. The couple lived, keeping "habits of the dear old man".
Tatiana is cut off from her environment. On the one hand, she - “Russian in soul, without knowing why”. Pushkin, according to the laws of realism, reveals why Tatyana is like this. She lived in "the wilderness of a forgotten village", raised by a nanny, "heart friend", in the atmosphere "legends of common folk antiquity". But the nanny, whose prototype was Pushkin’s nanny, does not understand Tatyana’s feelings.
On the other hand, Tatyana was brought up on foreign novels, “I didn’t speak Russian well”. She writes a letter to Onegin in French because “explained herself with difficulty in her native language”.
The novel traces the change in the life of Tanya, who was brought to the capital by her mother and liked "important general". Everything that happens in St. Petersburg is alien to her: “The excitement of the world hates; it’s stuffy here... she dreams of life in the field.”.
Onegin fell in love with a completely different Tatiana, not a timid girl, poor and simple in love, but an indifferent princess, the unapproachable goddess of the luxurious, royal Neva, "legislator hall". But internally Tatyana remains the same: “Everything was quiet, it was just there”. Dignity and nobility were added to simplicity. The heroine's appearance also changes. No one would call her beautiful, but her sophistication could not be overshadowed by the first beauty of St. Petersburg.
Onegin does not recognize the old Tatiana. She is indifferent, brave, calm, free, stern. There is no coquetry in Tatyana, which "does not tolerate high society", confusion and compassion. She doesn't look like the girl who wrote “a letter where the heart speaks, where everything is outside, everything is free”.
The relationship between Tatyana and Onegin is the main plot line of the novel
After Onegin, who arrived in his village, visited the Larins, they began to propose him as Tatyana’s groom. She fell in love with Onegin simply because "the time has come". But, brought up in a healthy folk atmosphere, Tatyana is waiting for great love, her only betrothed.
Onegin taught Tatyana the most important lesson in life, which she learned well: "Learn to control yourself". He acted nobly, but Pushkin sympathizes with Tatyana: “Now I’m shedding tears with you”, - and foresees her death at the hands of "fashion tyrant"(Onegin).
The lesson that Tatyana gives Onegin, having become a society lady, in turn, consists of the same wisdom: you cannot be "feelings of a petty slave". This should be preferred "cold, stern talk". But Onegin and Tatyana have different motives. He was never able to become "natural man", as Tatyana has always been. For her, life in the world is hateful, it "masquerade rags". Tatyana deliberately doomed herself to such a life, because when she got married, for her “all the lots were equal”. And although the first love still lives in the heroine, she sincerely and confidently remains faithful to her husband. Onegin does not fully realize that his love is excited by the desire to be noticed in society, to have "seductive honor".
- “Eugene Onegin”, analysis of the novel by Alexander Pushkin
- “Eugene Onegin”, a summary of the chapters of Pushkin’s novel
Composition:
Every great artist strives to capture in his works the ideal of a heroine, in which the best qualities of his people and time were expressed. Pushkin's ideal was the image of Tatyana Larina in the novel "Eugene Onegin"
The reader first meets Tatyana in the second chapter; the heroine appears to us as a girl from a provincial Russian family, a simple county young lady. Her late father, a brigadier general, was “a kind fellow, belated in the last century,” and her patriarchal family kept “the habits of dear old times,” celebrating traditional Russian holidays: Maslenitsa, Trinity Day. The life of the young heroine passes slowly, she reads the romantic works of Richardson and Rousseau, wonders about her betrothed, believes in omens and Epiphany fears, interprets prophetic dreams based on an old book by Martyn Zadeka and loves to talk with the peasant nanny. However, from the very beginning, the author distinguishes Tatyana from an ordinary provincial family: She is in her own family
Seemed like a stranger to the girl
The girl does not engage in traditional girlish activities - she does not embroider, does not play with dolls,
she is not attracted to playing burners and outdoor games with her peers, it is boring for her, but she loves listening to the scary stories of nanny Filipyevna. Tatyana often spends the whole day sitting silently by the window, she is thoughtful and prefers solitude: She loved on the balcony
Warn the dawn of the sunrise
In order to enhance the impression, the author gives a contrasting image of Tatyana’s younger sister, Olga:
Eyes like the sky are blue,
Smile, flaxen curls,
Movements, voice, light frame,
It's all about Olga...
Olga is certainly pretty: modest, obedient, always cheerful, “sweet as love’s kiss.”
Tatyana, on the contrary, was not distinguished by either her sister’s beauty or her ruddy freshness, and could not attract attention.
However, the younger sister is internally colorless, as Eugene Onegin himself notes:
I would choose another
If only I were like you, a poet.
Olga has no life in her features
The inner emptiness is contrasted with the wealth of Tatyana’s inner world, her spiritual beauty,
kindness, moral strength and faith.
Tatyana’s main activity is reading:
She liked novels early on;
They replaced everything for her
Books have a strong influence on her behavior, Tatyana herself imagines herself as the heroine of a romantic story, and most of her actions are a copy of the relationships that appeared before her on the pages of French literature.
However, in the sweet heroine of the novel there is nothing artificial, insincere, there is no flirtatious pose and a set of banal phrases of a society girl of marriageable age. Pushkin constantly emphasizes that Tatyana “loves without art,” “loves in earnest.” With what amazing frankness and courage this modest district young lady writes to her lover, the hero of her dreams, Eugene Onegin! In the 19th century, it was not customary for young ladies to be the first to admit their
feelings. Tatyana understands that she is overstepping moral prohibitions, everything she was taught:
Now I know it's in your will
Punish me with contempt...
Her pride suffers, her ideas about what is right and what is wrong. In a letter written in French,
her characteristic romanticism and determination appear. She does not want to suffer in silence, but is ready to act and change the situation that does not suit her. At the same time, she believes in the nobility of Onegin: “You will not leave me.”
The famous critic Belinsky wrote in his article: “Tatyana suddenly decides to write to Onegin: the impulse is naive and noble; but its source is not in consciousness, but in unconsciousness: the poor girl did not know what she was doing.”
“Everything in Tatiana’s letter is true, but everything is simple. The combination of simplicity with truth constitutes the highest beauty of both feelings, deeds, and expressions...”, however, the critic is sure that she would not be able to understand or express her own feelings if she would not have resorted to the impressions left on her memory by the novels she had read uselessly and indiscriminately.
Be that as it may, the poems at the end of the letter are beautiful: they are imbued with pure feeling, and are a combination of sincerity and simplicity:
...My destiny
From now on I give it to you.
I shed tears before you,
I beg your protection...
Despite all the honesty and courage of the message, Onegin refuses Tatyana:
Your perfections are in vain:
I am not worthy of them at all.
All the poor girl’s hopes were destroyed, but Eugene’s edifying, moralizing rebuke could not kill Tatyana’s love for him, the destroyed hope did not extinguish the flame that was devouring her:
it began to burn the more stubbornly and intensely the duller and more hopeless it became. Misfortune gave new energy to passion.
And even after Tatyana visited Onegin’s village house and read his favorite books, where “Onegin’s soul involuntarily expressed itself,”
When the girl realized who fate had sent her, the heroine continues to love this person.
But now, after several years, we can see Tatyana in high society. Drawing the image of St. Petersburg Tatiana, the author writes:
She was leisurely
Not cold, not talkative,
Without an insolent look for everyone,
No pretensions to success...
Everything was quiet, it was just there
Married lady Tatyana is growing up and changing radically:
No one could make her beautiful
Name; but from head to toe
No one could find it in it
That autocratic fashion
In the high London circle
Called vulgar
Now she is an indifferent princess, an unapproachable goddess of the luxurious royal Neva, but Tatyana is indifferent to social life,
she sees the falsehood reigning in high society in St. Petersburg.
In the famous scene of Tatiana’s decisive explanation with Onegin, we see how much this trusting girl “from the wilderness of the steppe villages” felt, changed her mind, and suffered, ultimately becoming a woman wise in mind and heart. She has retained the best of the timid and simple Tanya, remembers the past, her rural house, her old nanny, her meeting with Onegin, her
“love of insane suffering”, about such possible and close happiness.
In this explanation, Tatyana’s whole being was fully expressed. Tatyana's speech begins with a reproach, in which she expresses her desire
revenge for insulted pride:
Onegin, do you remember that hour,
When in the garden, in the alley we
Fate brought us together, and so humbly
I listened to your lesson!
Today it's my turn.
The main idea of Tatyana's reproaches is the conviction that Onegin did not love her then because
that for him there was no charm of temptation in this; and now the thirst for glory brings her to her feet.
All this expresses fear for one’s virtue, and perhaps the most important thing in Tatyana’s character and behavior is an understanding of duty and responsibility to people. These feelings take precedence over love. She cannot be happy if she brings misfortune to another person, her husband, who is “maimed in battle,” is proud of her, trusts her. She will never make a deal with her conscience.
Tatyana finds the strength to calmly and with dignity say to the person she loves and loves her the famous words of recognition and farewell:
I love you (why lie?),
But I was given to someone else;
I will be faithful to him forever.
Tatyana's fate is tragic. Life brought her a lot of disappointments, she did not find in life what she was striving for, but she did not change herself. This is a very integral, strong, strong-willed female character. Tatyana's main qualities are spiritual nobility, sincerity and a sense of duty.
Tatyana is the ideal woman for the poet, and he does not hide it: “Forgive me: I love my dear Tatyana so much...”
“Harmony of spirit” constitutes the essence of her character and makes Pushkin’s heroine a “sweet ideal”, one of the attractive and vivid images of Russian and world literature.
Pushkin is a poet whose work is extremely accessible to human understanding. The clarity of images and harmony of his works have educational significance. His lyre awakens good feelings in people. No matter what he describes, no matter what he talks about, in his lines one can feel the love for people and life.
“Eugene Onegin” is one of the poet’s iconic works. The form of this work is unusual and complex. This is a novel in verse; there have been no works of this kind in Russian literature before.
“Eugene Onegin” is a source of ideas about Russian life during the Pushkin period. One of the central figures of the novel is Tatyana, the daughter of the Larins landowners.
By showing the image of Tatyana, the only integral character in the novel, Pushkin demonstrates a real phenomenon in Russian life.
"...Thoughtfulness, her friend
From the most lullabies of days
The flow of rural leisure
I decorated her with dreams..."
Tatyana lives among ordinary people who are unfamiliar with the noise and bustle of the big world. They are naive and sweet in their own way.
Tatyana is drawn to someone whom she has not yet met, but who would be smarter, better, kinder than those around her. She mistakes her neighbor, landowner Evgeny Onegin, for such a person. Over time, sweet Tatiana falls in love with him.
He is truly smarter than those around her, more knowledgeable and reasonable. He is capable of good deeds (he alleviated the plight of his serfs):
“Our Evgeniy first conceived
Establish a new order.
Vintage corvee yoke
Replaced it with easy quitrent, -
And the slave blessed fate..."
But Onegin is far from ideal. Tatyana has not yet recognized this. He is an idle gentleman, lazy, spoiled by life, uneducated, not knowing what to do, because he has no mental strength for a fruitful life, and an empty life gnaws at him with melancholy.
Tatyana writes a letter to him, declaring her love. But Onegin cannot cope with his egoism; he does not accept her spiritual impulses.
After Onegin leaves the village, Tatyana tends to be in his house, reading books. She learned a lot and understood a lot. Onegin is not what she imagined him to be. He is a selfish, selfish person, not at all the hero to whom her tender soul was yearning.
After time has passed, Onegin meets Tatyana again in St. Petersburg. She is the wife of an old general. And then Onegin looked at her in a new way. In wealth and nobility, she seems completely different. Love flared up in his soul. This time she herself rejected him, knowing his selfishness, knowing the emptiness of his soul and not wanting to break the word she gave to her husband.
This soul, kind Tatyana, knew how to love deeply. Having parted with Onegin and realizing that he was not the hero of her novel, she still continued to love him and suffered from it. Tatyana did not become the general’s wife of her own free will, her mother “begged” her about it. She did not part with her love: in her soul she loved Onegin.
Tatiana's soul is the soul of the best Russian women, no matter how different their destinies, thoughts, deeds may be.
The genius of Pushkin lies in the fact that he invited society to take a fresh look at the fate of the Russian woman. He wrote a character hitherto unknown in Russian literature. Firmness of nature, strength, simplicity, naturalness, loyalty to one’s word, decency - these traits determined the integrity and strength of the heroine’s character. Tatyana's strong principles were unshakable throughout the entire story. She was disgusted by hypocrisy, insincerity, idle talk, everything that she called “the rags of a masquerade.”
Since childhood, Tatyana was close to the people, to folk poetry. Her soulmate is the nanny, to whom she confided her secrets. Throughout the entire narrative, Tatiana's inner world does not change. No external circumstances will force her to leave the true path, or “break her spiritual makeup.” The poet's admiration and love in the novel are given to Tatyana in full.
Conclusion
Pushkin combined two eras in himself: he contained well-known features of the present and some echoes of the past, in the midst of which his own upbringing took place; on the other hand, with him a completely new period began, the period of modern literature.
With his novel “Eugene Onegin,” Pushkin taught everyone who wrote after him to depict the strength and suffering of a Russian woman just as simply and sincerely. Pushkin raised the importance of the Russian woman in our consciousness. He created the basis for those high ideals of women that we see in subsequent works of other authors.
Tatyana appears in Chapter II of the novel. The choice of the heroine’s name and the author’s thoughts on this matter seem to indicate a distinctive feature compared to other characters:
Her sister's name was Tatyana...
Tender pages of the novel
For the first time with such a name
We willfully sanctify.
In these lines, the author introduces Tatyana to the reader for the first time. We see the image of a simple provincial girl with very peculiar features. Tatyana is “wild, sad, silent”, “she seemed like a stranger in her own family”, “often the whole day she sat silently by the window.” She did not play with her sister Olga’s friends, “she was bored by their ringing laughter and the noise of their windy pleasures.” Larina grows up thoughtful and lonely. The environment to which parents, relatives, guests belong, i.e. the society of local nobles is something alien to her, which has almost no influence on Tatyana. Other aspects of her being have a stronger influence on the formation of her personality. She is captivated by “terrible stories in the dark of night in winter,” i.e. tales of a serf nanny. She loves nature, reads the novels of Richardson and Rousseau, which cultivate her sensitivity and develop her imagination.
The appearance of Onegin, who immediately struck Tatyana with his peculiarity, his dissimilarity with others whom she saw around, leads to the fact that love flares up in Tatyana.
The girl in love turns to books again: after all, she has no one to trust her secret to, no one to talk to.
Sincere and strong love does not willingly take on the character of those passionate and strong feelings with which the loving and suffering heroines of the books they read are endowed.
So, Tatiana was strongly influenced by the sentimental West, but the European novel. But this, of course, was not the main factor in Tatyana’s development.
A lot for understanding the image of Tatiana is given by the episode of Tatiana’s conversation with the nanny and the letter to Onegin. This whole scene - one of the best in the novel - is something amazing, beautiful, whole.
The nature of Tatyana's frank conversation with the old nanny is such that we see great intimacy between them. The image of Filipyevna carries the beginnings of folk wisdom; her words reflect the experience of the long and difficult life of a simple Russian woman. The story is short and simple, but it contains imagery, expressiveness, purity and power of thought and truly folk language. And we vividly imagine Tatyana in her room at night, and
On the bench
With a scarf on his gray head,
Before the young heroine,
An old woman in a long padded jacket.
We begin to understand how much the nanny and closeness to her meant to Tatyana; We note those purely Russian influences that will occupy the main place in the formation of Tatiana.
Tatyana perfectly understands the nanny’s common speech; this language is native to her. Her speech is figurative and at the same time clear; it also contains elements of popular vernacular: “I’m sick,” “what do I need,” “let him tell him”... etc.
Tatyana's letter to Onegin is a desperate act, but it is completely alien to the young girl's surroundings. Larina was guided only by feeling, but not by reason. The love letter does not contain coquetry or antics - Tatyana writes frankly, as her heart tells her.
I am writing to you - what more?
What more can I say?
And following these simple and touching words, in which one can hear trepidation and suppressed excitement, Tatyana, with ever-increasing delight, with excitement already openly pouring out in the lines of the letter, reveals this “trusting soul” of hers to Onegin. The central part of the letter is the image of Onegin, as he appeared to Tatyana in her imagination, inspired by love. The end of the letter is as sincere as its beginning. The girl is fully aware of her actions:
I'm cumming! It's scary to read...
But your honor is my guarantee,
I freeze with shame and fear...
And I boldly entrust myself to her...
The letter scene is over. Tatyana is waiting for an answer. Sparing details indicate her state, her immersion in the feeling that possessed her:
Second date with Onegin and his cold “reprimand”. But Tatyana does not stop loving.
Love's mad suffering
Haven't stopped worrying
Young soul...
Chapter V opens with a landscape of late but suddenly arrived winter. It is noteworthy that the purely Russian landscape of the winter estate and village is given through Tatyana’s perception of it.
Waking up early
Trees in winter silver,
Tatyana saw through the window
Forty merry ones in the yard
In the morning the whitewashed yard,
And softly carpeted mountains
And in direct connection with the pictures of native nature, the author’s statement of the national, Russian appearance of the heroine is expressed:
Tatiana (Russian soul,
With her cold beauty
Without knowing why)
I loved Russian winter...
Poetic pictures of Christmas fortune-telling also connect Tatyana with the Russian, national, folk principle.
“...Tatiana, on the advice of the nanny” casts spells at night in the bathhouse.
Russian national traits come to the fore more and more clearly in the development of Tatiana's image.
In his portrayal of Tatyana, Pushkin completely abandons all irony, and in this sense, Tatyana is the only character in the novel for whom, from the moment of her appearance to the end, we feel only the author’s love and respect. The poet more than once calls Tatyana “sweetheart” and declares: “I love my dear Tatyana so much.”
Tatiana's dream is a fantastic combination of motifs from the nanny's fairy tales, pictures that arose in the play of Tatiana's own imagination, but at the same time - and real life impressions. The artistic meaning of the dream in the story about Tatyana is an expression of the heroine’s state of mind, her thoughts about Onegin (even in her dreams he appears strong to her, but also threatening, dangerous, scary), and at the same time - a premonition of future misfortunes.
All subsequent tragedies: Lensky's death, Evgeniy's departure, her sister's imminent marriage - deeply touched Tatiana's heart. The impressions gained from reading books are supplemented by harsh life lessons. Gradually, Tatyana gains life experience and seriously thinks about her destiny. The image of Tatyana is increasingly enriched as events unfold, but by nature Tatyana is still the same, and her “fiery and tender heart” is still given over to the feeling that has taken possession of her once and for all.
Visiting Onegin’s house, Tatyana, with a “greedy soul,” indulges in reading. Byron's poems and novels are added to the sentimental novels read earlier.
Reading Onegin's books is a new stage in Tatyana's development. She does not freely compare what she knows about Onegin with what she learns from books. A whole swarm of new thoughts and assumptions. In the last stanzas of Chapter VII, Tatyana is in Moscow society. She “... doesn’t feel well at the housewarming party,” she seems strange to the young ladies of the Moscow noble circle, she is still reserved and silent
At the end of the work, Tatyana appears to us as a lady of secular society, but Pushkin clearly distinguishes her from the circle into which fate has brought her. Depicting her appearance at a social event, the poet emphasizes both Tatyana’s aristocracy, in the high Pushkin sense of the word, and her simplicity.
She was leisurely
Without these little antics,
Not cold, not talkative,
No imitative ideas...
Without an insolent look for everyone,
Everything was quiet, it was just there...
Episodes of meetings with Onegin after many years of separation emphasize Tatiana's complete self-control. Larina turned into a society lady, into an “indifferent princess,” “the unapproachable goddess of the luxurious, royal Neva.” But her worldview has not changed, her principles and foundations remain the same. It was these principles that prevailed over Tatiana’s innermost feeling: over her love for Eugene. The whole essence of Larina’s character is revealed in her last monologue:
...You must,
I know: in your heart there is
And pride and direct honor...
I ask you to leave me;
And pride and direct honor...
In our imagination, the image of Tatyana will forever remain something lofty, unshakable, pure and beautiful.
We also understand all the poet’s love for his creation when, in the last stanza of the novel, saying goodbye to the characters, he remembers “Tatyana’s sweet ideal.”
