45 pages • 1 hour read
Alexander PushkinEugene Onegin
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 1832A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 2-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 2 Summary
Onegin moves into the “lovely country nest” (2.1.2) and is quickly bored. His intelligent approach to farming the land riles some of his “thrifty neighbors” (2.4.9); when the angry neighbors visit, he escapes them on a horse. Of all Onegin’s neighbors, he only has time for Vladimir Lensky. The “handsome youth” (2.6.7) Lensky has recently returned from Germany. He speaks highly of German writers such as Goethe and aspires to be a poet. Though he is only 18 years old, he speaks vibrantly and excitedly about love and optimism. Onegin and Lensky share a disdain for their older, rural neighbors. They are united by their bored sense of ennui and that they both have “no desire/For marriage bonds or wedding bell” (2.13.1-2), despite neighbors’ attempts to marry off their daughters to the eligible young bachelors.
Onegin and Lensky grow close. They talk about literature, history, science, and philosophy. The topic that most fascinates them, however, is love. Lensky fondly recalls his past romantic endeavors, while Onegin shares his romantic experiences in a regretful tone. Onegin sees Lensky’s optimistic view of love as naive and inexperienced. However, he enjoys listening to his friend and remembering his own past with “friendly condescension” (2.16.12). Though he may be naive, the narrator insists that Lensky is sincere and passionate when talking or writing about love.
The relationship with most occupies Lensky’s thoughts involve a woman named Olga Larin. From a young age, the father of Lensky and Olga tried to arrange for them to be married. Lensky has been “entranced by Olga” (2.21.3) from a young age. However, the narrator believes Olga to be uninteresting. The narrator is more interested in Olga’s “sad and pensive” (2.25.5) sister Tatyana. As something of a loner, Tatyana spends more time reading French novels and surrounding herself with nature than she does playing with her friends. The mother of Olga and Tatyana was similarly obsessed with French novels; though she never read for herself, she heard about one of the heroes from these novels and fell in love with the character. When she married Olga’s father, she struggled to adapt to life in the countryside. Then, she “grew contented” (2.31.12) with life in the country to the extent that she learned to “rule the house as autocrat” (2.32.7). When Olga’s father dies, Lensky visits his grave and writes a “funeral verse for his old friend” (2.37.14). The man’s death reminds Lensky of the deaths of his own parents. The narrator takes the opportunity to reflect on the fleeting nature of life.
Chapter 3 Summary
Lensky makes frequent visits to Olga’s family home as Olga haunts his “thoughts and writer’s quill” (3.2.10). Onegin, intrigued by his friend’s behavior, goes with him. After their visit, they ride home together. Onegin mentions that Olga seems “cold and dead” (3.5.8) to him. Instead, he says, he is intrigued by her sister Tatyana. Lensky does not appreciate this disparagement of his love. Quickly enough, the local community begins to “gossip slyly” (3.6.5). People believe that Onegin will marry Tatyana. The rumor reaches Tatyana, who is intrigued by the chance to live one of the plots of her “tender novels” (3.9.2). She falls in love with Onegin from afar, becoming more introverted and love stricken. She tries to explain her love-ridden melancholy to her nurse, but the old woman has no advice for her.
Tatyana becomes consumed by the “ache of love” (3.16.1). She writes a letter to Onegin. In the letter, she describes her love for him as her “secret shame” (3.31.24). Her nurse delivers the letter to her grandson who, in turn, delivers it to Onegin. That day, Lensky visits Olga’s house. This time, Onegin is not with him, but he has promised to visit later. Tatyana waits for Onegin to visit. She sits beside a window and stares at the road. Eventually, she hears the “sudden hoofbeats” (3.38.3) of Onegin’s carriage. She runs into the garden where the peasant girls are singing songs while picking berries. Tatyana sits alone for some time. When she eventually decides to return to the house where Onegin—presumably—is waiting for her, she encounters him on a footpath instead. His eyes seem “ablaze” (3.41.5).
Chapters 2-3 Analysis
By the second chapter of Eugene Onegin, the protagonist has swapped urban boredom for rural boredom. Life in the country is just as dull for Onegin as life in the city. When he first arrives, he is momentarily intrigued by the possibility of reforming his estate. He makes some changes that improve the efficiency of the farmland but also enrage his neighbors. This attempt at social change is telling for Onegin: People do not like disruption and wish to continue in the same vein forever, whether they are talking about how to farm the land or which Saint Petersburg parties to attend. Onegin’s disillusion is shown in his growing tendency to break from social etiquette. Because the transition to rural life has not improved his opinion of Russian society, Onegin sees no reason not to be rude or ill-mannered. When his neighbors come to call, for example, he already has a horse ready to flee from his house. Onegin is tired of hiding his contempt from the outside world; his carefully constructed mask of manners and social etiquette is beginning to slip.
Rather than finding a person with a similar perspective, Onegin makes friends with a man who is almost completely different from him. The young poet Lensky lacks Onegin’s cynicism. He is an optimist who wishes to find the beauty in the world that Onegin loathes so much, which supports the theme of Cynicism and Naivety. However, they find common ground in their shared dislike of their neighbors. Onegin finds them dull, while Lensky resents their lack of interest in the beauty of nature. Though Onegin finds Lensky to be utterly naive, he is delighted that someone—finally—has the wherewithal to see the fractures and faults in Russian society. Throughout the poem, Onegin and Lensky are described as inseparable and yet diametrically opposed. They are compared to prose and poetry, to waves and mountains, and to flames and fountains.
Shortly after meeting Lensky, Onegin becomes better acquainted with the Larin sisters. Olga and Tatyana, like Onegin and Lensky, are different yet bound together. Lensky loves Olga over Tatyana. Onegin is shocked by this because he believes that Olga is dull and uninteresting, especially considering Lensky’s love of literature, poetry, and nature. Tatyana, he suggests, is the more profound and interesting of the two sisters. That they should be drawn to different women hints at the cracks that are beginning to form in the foundation of their friendship. A friendship built on a shared love of rejecting social expectations and defying etiquette struggles to survive through Onegin’s brutal honesty. He insults Olga, offending Lensky. Onegin’s treatment of Olga will be the cause of Lensky’s downfall, so this early comment hints that their subversive attitudes will cause problems.
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