Theme Of Women In Eugene Onegin

Eugene Onegin, a work by the hand of perhaps one of Russia’s most prolific writers, and arguably comparable to Shakespeare in many aspects, is a fictional tale satirizing the roles of gender in society and the constraints women must adhere to, as is expected in this time period. To stray from society’s moral path, in Russia, is to demean and tarnish one’s own name, as well as one’s family’s master status as perceived through the looking glass of society. Tatyana Lerin, initially the European literature enthusiast, is the main highlight of Pushkin’s views on women. Many positions, roles and attitudes inverse completely in the relationships Pushkin is trying to emphasize. Pushkin strategically uses Tatyana and Olga as sisters who possess polar …show more content…
The narrator accomplishes this by pronouncing the emotional growth over the course of the novel and makes an example out of Tanya, by making apparent the fault in her sudden love for Eugene Onegin. As previously stated, Tanya is a thinker, who romanticizes and revels at every detail, so when she falls in love with Eugene at first sight, spends countless hours thinking about Eugene, and writes the letter to him professing her love, he degrades her sincerity and she learned from this lesson. I think that Pushkin is perhaps satirizing the cliché of love at first sight and is trying to convey the lesson that one cannot love without truly knowing the individual. This lesson is not truly taken to heart by Tatyana after she professes her love to Eugene Onegin, but afterwards when she reads his books and understanding who he truly was. Eugene Onegin and Tatyana talk seldom throughout the novel and when they do, there is a lingering sense of awkwardness in their didactic interactions, made evident by the narrator. Perhaps Eugene Onegin and Pushkin both want to find a woman who embody confidence and nontraditional values. The irony in this perspective is that even though Tanya became a confident, individualized, woman who wasn’t fake, Eugene is the one who we find out is …show more content…
There are three roles for men and women, the men represented by Eugene, Vladimir, and the fictional Pushkin, while the women represented by Tatyana, Olga and Pushkin’s Muse. Then, there is the love triangle which is formed by Pushkin, Tatyana and Eugene Onegin, which develops over the course of the novel. As previously noted, Pushkin shows a bit of infatuation for Tatyana, but as she emotionally matures, Pushkin essentially sees her bloom into this type of person and over time sees her fit into his description of his Muse. Maybe Pushkin’s Muse wasn’t an actual person, and in fact was really just an