Pushkin's Eugene Onegin; Some thoughts on Chapter Three, Stanzas 21 and 22

           Stanzas 21 and 22 contrast the love of an impulsive, innocent, country maid with some cool, even icy, beauties of St Petersburg, who abhor love. These belles have driven Onegin to boredom with the superficial social life they all thrived on for so many years, and the resulting ennui taints his appreciation of  Tanya’s confession of love for him. These stanzas contrast  the innocence of a first crush with the cynical experience of high society’s mating game.

            Stanza 21 opens lyrically, just after Tanya confesses three times to Filippyevna, her nurse, “I am in love.”(3.19, 3.20) With her heart and mind drifting, she looks at the moon.(line 2) On line 8 the moon returns her attention; ‘Сбетит ей луна.' The moon appears again as soon as her letter is finished, 'Но вот уж лунного луна / Сиянье гаснет' its light fades as the dawn breaks.(3.32) Tatyana's love is concealed by the night and lighted by the moon.

            The moon is so often mentioned in relation to Tanya, it almost becomes a character, like the seasons or the countryside. I take it that it signifies purity and romance, but also the madness of people under its influence. In Tanya's case it reflects her soul, her purity, her spirituality and her strength. The moon also brings to mind Diana, who Pushkin first mentions in 1.32. Diana is the Roman goddess of the hunt, the moon, chastity, childbirth and women. She is one of a string of mythological deities and ancient poets whose mere mention or allusion adds layers of meaning to the text; in Tanya's case, the idea of light, virginity and inaccessibility. Her isolation and inaccessibility is captured in the phrase I like best , in line 7, ‘У вот она одна' which has a sad, sweet assonance, like the word ‘solo.’

            After gazing at the moon, Tatyana's resolve bursts forth with an impetuous bold thought.(3.22.line 3) Our narrator chooses here to give her a voice, and what a voice! Tatyana is suddenly abrupt, decisive and in charge; it is a startling transition and prefigures the letter itself, described as ‘необдуманный’-injudicious, unconsidered, precipitate. Well, love can make one crazy, as Eugene discovers in chapter 8.

The narrator takes up four tasks in this stanza. First, he sets the scene and describes Tanya’s emotional state. Next he quotes her and gives her a strong voice, then describes her actions and thoughts as she writes. Finally, he addresses her directly, ‘Татьяна! Для кого ж оно?' Who is the letter for?

We are accustmed to the narrator addressing us, but now can he speak directly to Tatyana? Why does he question her—she is oblivious to him, and he knows who the letter is for! Is he suddenly playing the part of her shocked mother or aunt? There is ambiguity throughout the novel about who, in fact, is in charge of the story. I see a parallel with Christianity; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The parallel Pushkin Trinity is;

·      Pushkin the Author, who digresses with an endless supply of autobiographical anecdotes, who refers to his own and his friend’s previous works, who makes meta-literary jokes, and who treats his readers as equals,

·      Pushkin the Friend, who chats with Eugene and even attends Tatyana’s name day party, where he spots a cousin, and

·      Pushkin the Narrator, the omniscient one who tells us what the characters think and feel. As a time traveller, he can even watch Onegin leave his dressing room, then arrive at the ball ahead of him to describe his arrival. (1.27, 1.28)

In stanza 23 we meet the type of women who are the antithesis of Tatyana, and here Pushkin’s language reinforces his harsh attitude with a string of negative prefixes, ‘недоступных, неумолимых, неподкупных, непостижимых'—inaccessible, inexorable, incorruptible and unfathomable. The second quatrain contains lines beginning ‘Их, И, И' which gives a noticeable ‘bullet point effect,’ in today’s parlance. In contrast to Pushkin’s meta-literary rhyme jokes like ‘froze-rose’ and ‘truth-youth’ he has a highly unusual contrastive pairing here, ‘ада-отрада' rhyming ‘hell’ and ‘joy.’

Lines 6 and 7, in Nabokov’s translation, describe the women’s ‘austere demeanor frightening timid love,’ ironically, a precise description of how Onegin treated Tatyana. And line 8, they ‘had the knack of attracting it [love] again,’ prefigures Onegin at the name day party, who, with a silent tender look, revived Tanya’s heart, ‘Он сердце Тани оживул.' (5.34)

The italicised quotation from Dante’s Inferno is well known in its English translation, ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,’ but now is cut short, maybe because the entire line is just as well known in Russian.

In the novel overall there are numerous reflections, parallel occurences, repetitions of phrases and ideas in new situations. Events can be ‘book-ended’ by related passages. In stanza 23, I am tickled by the way it is bracketed; the first word is ‘I’ and the last word is ‘you,’ ‘Я-вы.'