A comparison of the letters of Onegin and Tatiana provides a good opportunity to evaluate both the novel itself and the author’s greatest subtle psychologism in his work Eugene Onegin.
Images of heroes, their feelings and thoughts are shown in letters in a special way. Unobtrusively and subtly, sincerely and vividly we see the open soul of Tatyana and Eugene, who is in love with madness, who has lost the opportunity to be with a lady of his heart and understands this.
Romance love line
The love line in the work is its foundation. Feelings of heroes are manifested in dialogues and monologues, actions.
A comparison of the two letters of Tatyana and Onegin most clearly makes the psychology of the heroes understandable, since it is in their messages that they are most open and frank with each other.
Eugene appears in the Larins' house, and the young dreamer Tatyana falls in love with him. Her feelings are bright and strong so that the girl can not cope with them. She writes a letter to Eugene, and he coldly wounds the girl with his cold answer. After that, the heroes part. Three years later, in St. Petersburg, the hero meets Tatyana at the ball. This is not a young village girl, but a confident noble lady. And then it's time for Eugene to write to her. A comparison of the letters of Tatyana and Onegin (summarized in the following sections of the article) will show us how similar and different their feelings and the situation in which they found themselves.
Elements of the epistolary genre in the novel
The word "epistolary" is almost forgotten today. Nevertheless, during the time of Pushkin, this genre flourished. There is nothing complicated in understanding and meaning of this word: it came from epistola - “letter, message”.
A comparison of the letters of Onegin and Tatyana will give us the opportunity to understand how important the elements of this genre are in Onegin. It is in their letters that the heroes most openly talk about their feelings and feelings. Messages from Tatyana and Onegin to each other show us their inner world, similarities and differences.
Tatyana's letter
When the heroine meets Onegin, she, not spoiled by male attention and under the power of her dreams and books read, of course, falls in love with him. But her feelings are chaste and pure, perhaps she loves not this young man, but her idea of ​​him. Unable to struggle with her feelings, she splashes them out in a letter.
A comparison of the two letters of Tatyana and Onegin very subtly characterizes the main characters of the novel, shows the difference in their worldview and the community of sad non-reciprocal feelings.
In the letter, Tatyana, with all her inherent sincerity, talks about her love and feelings. She describes her feelings that arose after the first meeting, and the understanding that in front of her is her beloved and narrowed.
All this, without embellishment, she reveals to Eugene, whose silence hurts to the very heart. No less terrible is his response to indifference and ostentatious composure. He says that he is not a couple to the girl, and advises her to be careful in her impulses.
Onegin's letter
A comparison of the letters of Onegin and Tatyana shows how different people lose themselves and their principles in the face of love, especially non-reciprocal.
Eugene and Tatyana are completely different people. They are distinguished by education, their place of life, worldview. But how much is common in their letters! Both heroes are ready to meet with a wall of misunderstanding and even contempt from the opponent. If Tatyana is afraid of this unknowingly, then Eugene understands that he deserves just such a reaction after a series of her actions. Once he held a letter in his hands, now he writes it himself. Three years ago, he rejected the feelings of the girl, because he considered himself not ready for marriage and responsibility, restriction of freedom and the role of family man. After his move to St. Petersburg, Eugene returns to normal life, as if there was nothing: neither a romantic girl in love, nor the murder of a close friend in a duel.
A meeting with Tatyana turns the inner world of the hero, he, perhaps for the first time in his life, falls in love. His love is different than Tatyana’s. This is an all-consuming passion that turns your head, causes unexpected actions.
Comparison of letters of heroes in the table
A striking feature of the messages of the heroes is that they seem to have a dialogue with each other. Onegin replies to the letter received years later. Let us compare the letters of Tatyana and Onegin. The table below will help us with this.
Tatyana's letter It is written at the peak of the hero’s experiences, when there is no more strength to hide his feelings | Onegin's letter Appeal to the object of his love, sincerely and without falsehood, conveys the suffering of the author | What common Both heroes in their letters are ready to condemn, but no longer able to remain silent |
In addition to common features, there are many differences in the letters. Still, they are written by different people, with different worldviews and life paths. We will talk about them in the next section.
Comparison of letters from Tatyana and Onegin. Difference table
Different features of the letters of the heroes are due to the difference in time and characters, the life circumstances in which the characters of the novel are located in verse.
| Tatyana's letter to Eugene | Onegin's letter to Tatyana |
The senses | The girl’s letter contains pure sincere love. She is bright and platonic, it is enough for the heroine to see her beloved, to listen to “his speech”. | Eugene has passion. She pushes him to a message to the girl. To see his beloved is not enough for him; he wants to “hug his knees” and tell her about his feelings. |
Experiences | Tatiana’s experiences are more serious and deep. She is afraid, she is “scared to reread” her letter. The heroine for the first time experiences such a strong feeling. | Eugene is more experienced in love affairs. This is evident from his speech in a letter full of complex turns, arguments. Tatyana writes in simple language, she talks about how she feels, without any ingenuity. |
Composition: a comparison of the letters of Onegin and Tatyana
This section of the article will be devoted to a short example of an essay on letters from heroes.
The novel "Eugene Onegin" is a real pearl of Pushkin’s creativity. He was rightly proudly called the "Encyclopedia of Life" of the Russians of the Pushkin era. This is due to the fact that in the work the author describes the life of the nobility, interiors and clothes, balls and conversations, frivolous upbringing by tutors and its consequences.
But the value of the novel is not only that. His real soul is the letters of the heroes to each other.
A comparison of the letters of Onegin and Tatyana gives a characteristic of the inner world of heroes. They are undoubtedly different people. Under the influence of all-consuming love, young Tatyana expresses her feelings in a letter. She writes sincerely and artlessly about what she can no longer hide.
A few years later, Eugene, who then rejected the feelings of the girl, meets her in St. Petersburg as a married self-confident lady and falls madly in love with himself. Tatyana pretends not to notice his feelings. In a fit of despair, Eugene, as she had before, writes her a letter.
The letters have a lot in common, it is like a dialogue of heroes that they conduct in a year. Both have an inherent fear of being ridiculed and rejected, but both also rely on the nobility and honor of their opponents.
The strongest difference in the messages of Tatyana and Onegin is style. The girl writes simply and easily, in concise and succinct sentences about what she is experiencing, with which she cannot control. Eugene’s letter is verified and thought out, his style is rather complicated and full of thoughts. This indicates the strength of the emotions of the heroes: Tatyana’s first love is still stronger than Eugene’s last passion.
Finally
The most powerful, psychologically subtle masterpieces of Russian literature includes the novel "Eugene Onegin." A comparison of the letters of Tatyana and Onegin gives the reader a subtle sense of the love and suffering of the heroes, their mental throwings and anxieties. It is in letters that the heroes before us are without tinsel of upbringing, manners or prejudice. Therefore, do not pass by this work. Although it was written almost three centuries ago, the relevance of those raised in it does not fade away.