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Works of Pushkin, Gogol & Lermontov

This study will discuss the works of Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, and Mikhail Lermontov, focusing on the optimism or pessimism of the authors as they express their views in their art.

In his verse novel Eugene Onegin, Pushkin paints a generally pessimistic view about Russian prospects, if we are to take the fop protagonist as a meaningful and representative product of that society. Pushkin certainly offers critical comments on the Russian aristocratic society of his time, but his criticism is far from stinging. He actually seems to be very fond of the society he mildly chastises, and he is certainly fond of the wastrel Onegin. It would seem that Pushkin wants us to see Onegin as an innate dandy, born to the part as much as shaped to it by a superficial and passionless society. The novel itself is painful to read not only because of its leaden style, but also because the poet indulges these boring aristocrats far beyond the point of amusement. There is a satirical quality to the views and writing of Pushkin which prevent this reader from having any emotional connection to the work: "Eugene was free, and as a dresser/ made London's dandy his professor./ His hair was fashionably curled,/ and now at last he saw the World." Pushkin paints a society which is indeed repressive, artificial and passionless, but he seems to be right at home as he paints.

He strains and yearns for passion between Onegin and Tanya, but it is entirely unconvincing: "Love's frantic torments went on beating/ and racking with their strain and stress/ that youthful soul, which pined for sadness;/ no, all devoured by passion's madness/ poor Tanya more intensely burns."

Pushkin tries to create a mutually unrequited love which burns with "passion's madness" in stark contrast to the stiff and soulless society around it, the society which, says Onegin, "I hate; this modish whirl, this social story, . . . All this loud parading, and all this flashy masquer...

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Works of Pushkin, Gogol & Lermontov. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:25, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1689674.html