Onegin and the capital's noble society. One day in the life of Onegin. The capital and local nobility in A. S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”

The capital and local nobility in A. S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”

Sample text essays

In the novel "Eugene Onegin" Pushkin with remarkable completeness unfolded the pictures of Russian life in the first quarter of the XIX century. The arrogant, luxurious St. Petersburg, ancient Moscow, dear to the heart of every Russian person, cozy country estates, and nature, beautiful in its variability, pass before the reader’s eyes in a living, moving panorama. Against this background, Pushkin’s heroes love, suffer, are disappointed, and die. Both the environment that gave birth to them and the atmosphere in which their lives take place are deeply and completely reflected in the novel.

In the first chapter of the novel, introducing the reader to his hero, Pushkin describes in detail his ordinary day, filled to the limit with visits to restaurants, theaters and balls. The life of other young St. Petersburg aristocrats was also “monotonous and motley”, all of whose worries consisted of searching for new, not yet boring entertainment. The desire for change forces Evgeny to leave for the village, then, after the murder of Lensky, he goes on a journey, from which he returns to the familiar environment of St. Petersburg salons. Here he meets Tatiana, who has become an “indifferent princess,” the mistress of an elegant drawing room where the highest nobility of St. Petersburg gathers.

Here you can meet pro-Lassians, “who have earned fame for the baseness of their souls,” and “over-starched impudents,” and “ballroom dictators,” and elderly ladies “in caps and roses, seemingly evil,” and “maidens with unsmiling faces.” These are typical regulars of St. Petersburg salons, where arrogance, stiffness, coldness and boredom reign. These people live by strict rules of decent hypocrisy, playing some role. Their faces, like their living feelings, are hidden by an impassive mask. This gives rise to emptiness of thoughts, coldness of hearts, envy, gossip, and anger. That’s why such bitterness can be heard in Tatyana’s words addressed to Evgeniy:

And to me, Onegin, this pomp,

Life's hateful tinsel,

My successes are in a whirlwind of light,

My fashionable house and evenings,

What's in them? Now I'm glad to give it away

All this rags of a masquerade,

All this shine, and noise, and fumes

For a shelf of books, for a wild garden,

For our poor home...

The same idleness, emptiness and monotony fill the Moscow salons where the Larins visit. Pushkin paints a collective portrait of the Moscow nobility with bright satirical colors:

But there is no change in them,

Everything in them is on old sample:

At Aunt Princess Elena's

Still the same tulle cap;

Everything is whitewashed Lukerya Lvovna,

Lyubov Petrovna lies all the same,

Ivan Petrovich is just as stupid

Semyon Petrovich is also stingy...

In this description, attention is drawn to the persistent repetition of small everyday details and their immutability. And this creates a feeling of stagnation of life, which has stopped in its development. Naturally, there are empty, meaningless conversations here, which Tatyana cannot understand with her sensitive soul.

Tatyana wants to listen

In conversations, in general conversation;

But everyone in the living room is occupied

Such incoherent, vulgar nonsense,

Everything about them is so pale and indifferent;

They slander even boringly...

In the noisy Moscow world, the tone is set by “smart dandies”, “holiday hussars”, “archival youths”, and self-satisfied cousins. In a whirlwind of music and dance, a vain life rushes by, devoid of any internal content.

They kept life peaceful

Habits of a dear old man;

At their Shrovetide

There were Russian pancakes;

Twice a year they fasted,

Loved Russian swings

Podblyudny songs, round dance...

The author's sympathy is aroused by the simplicity and naturalness of their behavior, closeness to folk customs, cordiality and hospitality. But Pushkin does not idealize at all patriarchal world village landowners. On the contrary, it is precisely for this circle that the defining feature becomes the terrifying primitiveness of interests, which is also manifested in regular topics conversations, and in classes, and in an absolutely empty and aimlessly lived life. How, for example, is Tatyana’s late father remembered? Only because he was a simple and kind fellow,” “he ate and drank in his dressing gown,” and “died an hour before dinner.” The life of Uncle Onegin passes similarly in the wilderness of the village, who “for forty years scolded the housekeeper, looked out the window and crushed flies ". Pushkin contrasts these good-natured lazy people with Tatyana's energetic and economical mother. A few stanzas contain her entire spiritual biography, which consists of a rather rapid degeneration of a cutesy, sentimental young lady into a real sovereign landowner, whose portrait we see in the novel.

She went to work

Salted mushrooms for the winter,

She kept expenses, shaved her foreheads,

I went to the bathhouse on Saturdays,

She beat the maids in anger -

All this without asking my husband.

With his portly wife

Fat Pustyakov arrived;

Gvozdin, an excellent owner,

Owner of poor men...

These heroes are so primitive that they do not require a detailed description, which may even consist of one surname. The interests of these people are limited to eating food and talking “about wine, about the kennel, about their relatives.” Why does Tatyana strive from luxurious St. Petersburg to this meager, wretched little world? Probably because he is familiar to her, here she can not hide her feelings, not play the role of a magnificent secular princess. Here you can immerse yourself in the familiar world of books and wonderful rural nature. But Tatyana remains in the light, perfectly seeing its emptiness. Onegin is also unable to break with society without accepting it. The unfortunate fates of the novel's heroes are the result of their conflict with both the capital and provincial society, which, however, generates in their souls submission to the opinion of the world, thanks to which friends fight in duels, and loving friend friend people break up.

This means that a broad and complete depiction of all groups of nobility in the novel plays an important role in motivating the actions of the heroes, their destinies, and introduces the reader to the circle of current social and moral problems 20s of the XIX century.

Onegin and the capital's noble society. One day in the life of Onegin.

Lesson objectives:

1. deepen students’ understanding of the novel and the era depicted in it;

2. determine how Pushkin relates to the nobility;

3. improve analysis skills literary text;

4. develop oral speech, the ability to highlight the main thing, compare;

Interdisciplinary connections: history, art.

Lesson progress

Organizational moment

2.Repetition of previously studied material.

Before we start working on the topic of the lesson, let's divide into 2 groups. The correct answer to the quick survey is the ticket for students to attend the lesson.

Find out which of the characters the author’s words belong to: Onegin or Lensky?

“Having lived without a goal, without work until the age of 26...”

“He was a dear ignoramus at heart...”

“It’s stupid for me to interfere with his momentary bliss...”

“He brought the fruits of learning from foggy Germany...”

“In love, being considered a disabled person...”

“A fan of Kant and a poet...

“In short, the Russian melancholy took possession of him little by little...”

“And shoulder-length black curls...”

“But he was sick of hard work...”

"He shared her fun..."

3. Preparation for understanding the topic of the lesson

Teacher's word:

Yes, the great Russian critic V.G. It was no coincidence that Belinsky called the novel A.S. Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” as “an encyclopedia of Russian life.” Based on the novel, you can judge the era, study the life of Russia in the 10-20s of the 19th century. So, the topic of our lesson: “The nobility in A. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin.”

Student message “History of the noble class”

Images of nobles occupy central place in the novel "Eugene Onegin". Our main characters are representatives of the nobility. Pushkin truthfully depicts the environment in which the heroes live.

3. Work on the topic of the lesson (analysis of the novel)

Teacher's word:

Pushkin described one day of Onegin, but in it he was able to summarize the entire life of the St. Petersburg nobility. Of course, such a life could not satisfy an intelligent, thinking person. We understand why Onegin was disappointed in the surrounding society, in life.

So, St. Petersburg life is hasty, bright and colorful, eventful.

At the balls, dramas of passions, intrigues were played out, deals were made, careers were arranged.

Class assignment.

1. How are Onegin’s uncle and Tatiana’s father represented? What character traits does Pushkin highlight?

(good-natured lazy people, rural playmakers;

characterized by poverty of spiritual interests; Larin was

“a good fellow”, he did not read books, he entrusted the housekeeping to his wife. Onegin's uncle "quarelled with the housekeeper, crushed flies")

Tell the life story of Praskovya Larina.

How are the heroes different from Onegin?

4.The teacher's word.

The subtopic of our lesson is “One day in the life of Onegin.”

Let's set ourselves the following goals:

We must read Chapter I expressively and comment on it;

Determine the place of the chapter in the composition of the novel;

We will work on the image of Eugene Onegin, we will observe the life of the noble intelligentsia;

We will work thoughtfully and collectedly; to be able to draw up a plan in a notebook by the end of the lesson and answer questionsproblematic question:

“But was my Eugene happy?”

(Episode from the life of the hero: Onegin goes to the village to visit his dying uncle)

What is striking about the nature of the language in the first lines of the novel?

(unusual simplicity of the narration, “conversational tone”, ease of narration, a good joke, irony is felt).

4.- As we work with the text, we will composemental map :

Onegin Day

Walking along the boulevards (waking breget)

Ball (noise, din)

Lunch at the restaurant (foreign cuisine)

Visit to the theater Return (double lorgnette)

5. Work in groups (The class is divided into 3 groups, each receives a task to search for information in the text)

Aimless walks along the boulevards .
The boulevard in the 19th century was located on Nevsky Prospekt. To

14.00 – this was the place for people to take their morning walk

Vetsky society.

Lunch at the restaurant.
The description of the lunch emphasizes the list of dishes entirely

non-Russian cuisine. Pushkin ridicules the French

names-predilections for everything foreign

Conclusion: These verses reflect typical aspects of life

St. Petersburg secular youth.

3.Visit to the theater.

Who remembers what Pushkin preferred in

period of St. Petersburg life? (theater regular, connoisseur

and a connoisseur of acting).

What does the poet say about theater and actors? (gives

characteristics of the theatrical repertoire)

How does the ballet glorify Pushkin?(living pictures appear in the reader’s imagination. The theater was located on Theater Square, on the site of the current Conservatory. The performance is at 17.00).

How does Onegin behave in the theater?(looks around casually, bows to the men, points his double lorgnette at unfamiliar ladies).

Conclusion: For the first time in the lines about Onegin his weariness with life, his dissatisfaction with it are mentioned).
VII. Commented reading beyond Chapter I.

1. Returning home.
- Shall we read the description of Onegin’s office?

What kind of things do you find here? (amber, bronze, porcelain, perfume in cut crystal, combs, files, etc.)

Like listing dishes in a restaurant, Pushkin recreates the atmosphere of life young man Petersburg light.
2. Onegin is going to the ball.

When does Onegin return home? (“Already... awakened by the drum,” these are the 6:00 morning wake-up signals for soldiers in the barracks)
- The working day of the big city begins. And the day of Eugene Onegin has just come to an end.

- “And tomorrow again, like yesterday”... This stanza summarizes a number of past paintings, indicating that the past day was Onegin’s ordinary day.
- The author asks the question: “But was my Eugene happy?”

And what happens to Onegin? (blues, dissatisfaction with life,

boredom, monotony disappoints).

What did the hero try to do with himself? (began to read, tried to take up the pen,

but this increased disappointment and caused skepticism about everything)

Who is to blame that Onegin has become like this, he can’t do anything, he’s not busy with anything?

VIII. Lesson summary .
- What did we learn about the hero from Chapter I? (We learned about the origin, upbringing, education and lifestyle of the hero).
- We found out what environment surrounds him and shapes his views and tastes. Not only an individual hero is depicted, but a typical character of the era; this is the realism of the novel.
- The nature of Chapter I allows us to say that we have before us the exposition (introduction) of the novel. There will obviously be events ahead, life clashes, and in them the hero’s personality will be revealed more fully and on a larger scale.

IX. Homework.

1. Expressive reading of Chapter II.

2. Make bookmarks in the text: the life of the Larins, the portrait of Olga, the image of Lensky.

Times change, and we change with them.

R. Owen

In the 20s of the 19th century, after Patriotic War In 1812, an ideological stratification occurred in Russian society between people with progressive views and those who still remained in the last century. This was a time of rising national self-awareness and growing dissatisfaction with the autocracy.

The novel “Eugene Onegin” reflects all aspects of Russian life at the beginning of the 19th century, so the novel can be called an “encyclopedia of Russian life.” Against the backdrop of changes in the life of Russia, Pushkin draws life and customs different groups nobility.

In the 20s, the best part of the Russian nobility opposed serfdom and absolute monarchy. L.S. Pushkin depicted in his novel Russian society beginning of the 19th century.

Provincial society is also embodied in the novel. Thus, Russia XIX century is depicted in the novel by A.S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” using the example of representatives of provincial and metropolitan society.

Pictures of the life of the capital and local nobility are organically included in Pushkin’s realistic depiction of various aspects of the era. It's about about a person’s relationship with his era and his society. A.S. Using the example of the main character, Pushkin reveals the lifestyle of the “golden noble youth.”

Onegin, tired of the noise of the ball, returns late and wakes up only “after noon.” The poet describes in detail the pastime of the protagonist, his office, more like a ladies' boudoir:

Perfume in cut crystal;

Combs, steel files,

Straight scissors, curved

And brushes of thirty kinds

For both nails and teeth.

Evgeny's life is monotonous and colorful: balls, theaters, restaurants and more balls. Such a life could not satisfy an intelligent, thinking person, so one can understand why Onegin was disappointed in the surrounding society; he was overcome by the “blues.”

Evgeny Onegin is a “superfluous” person, “smart uselessness.” He has progressive views, broad mental interests, and the ability to perceive beauty.

The high society in the novel consists of people who are selfish, indifferent, and devoid of high thoughts. Their life is artificial and empty. Knowledge and feelings here are shallow. People spend time inactive in the midst of external hustle and bustle. Pushkin describes such a society in more detail:

And know, and fashion samples,

Faces you meet everywhere

Necessary fools...

That's how high society. It is not difficult to understand why Onegin, a man of progressive views, gets tired of this society. He becomes bored, he is cold towards everything, his soul is empty; he becomes indifferent.

So life goes on in the Larins’ house without change. Everyone is doing their usual household chores. In the evenings they sometimes throw balls or simply invite guests. Life in the village passes slowly, without changes, so there is nothing special to talk about. And if any news appears, they will talk about it for a very long time. It's the same thing at balls. Conversations do not go beyond such topics as haymaking, wine, and kennels. It is no coincidence that Pushkin represents the local nobles as monsters in Tatyana’s dreams. They have become so impoverished in intelligence that they are little different from animals.

Guests at Tatiana's name day are the clearest example landowner breed. The author reveals their essence in the surnames: Skotinins, Buyanov. Tatyana is just as bored in the circle of this provincial society as Evgeny is in the circle of the capital. She is fond of novels in which she imagines her future chosen one.

She liked novels early on;

They replaced everything for her;

She fell in love with deceptions

And Richardson and Russo.

She sees her betrothed in her dreams. Reading is her favorite pastime, which distinguishes her from Olga, who since childhood loved to play and frolic in the yard with the children. She is more talkative and sociable than Tatyana. Olga - bright image simple and cutesy provincial young ladies. Native nature nourishes spiritual world Tatiana, she likes to “warn the dawn of the sunrise.”

At the beginning of the novel, Tatyana is a young provincial noblewoman, at the end of the work we see her magnificent socialite. But from the first to last pages Pushkin in this image reveals the best features of the Russian character: moral purity, integrity, poetry, simplicity.

I would like to say that in order to show off one’s upbringing, in order to be known in Russian society as an intelligent and sweet person, one had to have little: excellent knowledge French, the manners of a socialite, the ability to dance, “bow casually” and “with the learned air of an expert // Remain silent in an important dispute.” It is in high society that a person truly learns to “slanderly slander”, to hide his true feelings and thoughts, and to be a hypocrite. Everything here is false, there is no sincerity, there are scoffers and egoists all around who consider “everyone as zeros, // And themselves as ones.” In this society, life is filled with endless balls and dinners, card games, and intrigue. Years pass, people grow old, but no change is visible in them...

In his work, Pushkin paid attention to both the capital and local nobility. He opposed home education, since it could not provide the nobles with all the knowledge. The author was irritated by the morals of the capital's nobility of those times. Its representatives followed fashion trends, while treating love as a science; they performed actions for show, and not out of sincere motives. The concept of friendship was distorted in their minds, because they called everyone who belonged to the same metropolitan nobility friends as friends. It was in this environment that Onegin developed as a person.

The Larin family belongs to the local nobility. Their life is extremely different from the life of the capital's nobles. They're not talking about fashion trends and social events, but about haymaking, about relatives, about crops, etc. Despite the fact that the Larins were nobles, they were close to to the common people. Onegin in his metropolitan society I was used to various delicacies, and in the Larins’ house only traditional Russian dishes were prepared. Their house was always open to guests.

However, the local nobility was less educated, as it was located far from the capital. But Pushkin shows that in the life of both the capital and the local nobility there are dark and bright sides. Everywhere exist good people, ready to help, as well as deceitful, evil and petty people.

It was no coincidence that the great Russian critic V. G. Belinsky called A. S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” “an encyclopedia of Russian life.” This is connected, of course, with the fact that not a single work of Russian literature can compare with the immortal novel in terms of breadth of coverage contemporary writer reality. Pushkin describes his time, noting everything that was essential for the life of that generation: the life and customs of people, the state of their souls, popular philosophical, political and economic trends, literary preferences, fashion, etc. Throughout the action of the novel and in lyrical digressions the poet shows all layers of Russian society, including the high society of St. Petersburg, noble Moscow and the local nobility.

Petersburg at that time was a real center of cultural political life, a place where people lived best people Russia. There “Fonvizin, the friend of freedom, shone,” and Knyazhnin and Istomin captivated the audience. The author knew and loved St. Petersburg well, and therefore he is accurate in his descriptions, not forgetting either “the salt of secular anger”, or “necessary fools”, “starched impudents”, etc. Petersburg is clearly oriented towards the Western way of life, and this manifests itself in fashion, in the repertoire of theaters, in the abundance of “foreign words”. The life of a nobleman in St. Petersburg is filled with entertainment from morning to night, but at the same time “monotonous and motley.” With all my love for Northern capital Pushkin cannot help but note that it is the influence of the high society of St. Petersburg, the system of upbringing and education adopted there and the way of life that leaves an indelible imprint on a person’s consciousness, making him either empty and worthless, or prematurely disappointed in life. The main character of the novel, Eugene Onegin, is, of course, a resident of the capital, even though he is a step above secular society.

Through the eyes of a resident of St. Petersburg, Moscow is shown in the novel as a “bride fair.” Moscow is provincial and somewhat patriarchal. Her image is made up of nouns, which emphasizes the immobility of this city. And indeed, from the moment Tatyana’s mother left Moscow, essentially nothing has changed in her:

But no change is visible in them;

Everything about them is the same as the old model...

Describing Moscow nobility, Pushkin is often sarcastic: in the living rooms he notices “incoherent vulgar nonsense” and sadly notes that in the conversations of the people whom Tatyana meets in the living rooms, “thoughts will not flare up for the whole day.”

The poet’s contemporary Russia is rural Russia, and Pushkin emphasizes this with a play on words in the epigraph to the second chapter. This is probably why the novel most clearly shows representatives of the crossbred nobility. Landing nobles live according to a once and for all established life order. In his uncle’s chambers, Onegin finds the “calendar of the eighth year,” for “the old man, having a lot to do, did not look at other books.” The life of the landed nobility is monotonous, one day is similar to the next, and the landowners themselves are “similar” to one another.

Only Vladimir Lensky differs from other landowners, “with a soul straight from Göttingen,” and only because he received his education in Germany. However, Pushkin notes that, if Vladimir had not died in a duel, he became like all the local nobles, and twenty years later he repeated the life of old Larin or Uncle Onegin:

I would really know life

I had gout at the age of forty,

I drank, ate, got bored, got fat, grew weaker

And finally in my bed

I would die among children,

Whining women and doctors.

Pushkin also describes secular village society with irony. It is no coincidence that some guests have the surnames of characters in Fonvizin’s plays. Provincial nobility In many ways, their range of interests is funny, ridiculous and pathetic. Village life, according to Pushkin, is conducive to moving from the world of romantic dreams to the world of everyday worries. But it is no coincidence that it was among the local nobility that Pushkin’s “sweet ideal” appeared - Tatyana, whose upbringing combined the traditions of high education and folk culture. According to Pushkin, it is the local nobility that lives in close proximity to the people, and therefore it probably contains the idea of ​​​​the revival of Russia, a return to everything Russian, to our roots.