Archetypal Features of the Images of Olga and Tatiana in the Alexandre Pushkin's Novel in Verse "Eugene Onegin"

Liashenko Tatiana PhD in Philology Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign and Russian Languages at Moscow state academy of veterinary medicine and biotechnology named after K.I. Skryabin 109472, Russia, Moscow, Ac. Skryabin's str., 23 po-russki@list.ru Other publications by this author

On May 9, 1823, work began in Chisinau on a text that was destined to become perhaps the most significant literary event of the first third of the XIX century – a novel in verse "Eugene Onegin". The novel in verse as a genre did not exist until then, but it is not difficult to notice that even after "Eugene Onegin", which had a great and undoubtedly deserved success, very few attempts were made to develop this genre direction. In Russian literature, "Eugene Onegin" has remained an original creation, which has no worthy analogues.

The works of A.S. Pushkin still attract the attention of researchers, and one of the reasons for their relevance lies, apparently, in the fact that, like many other creations of human genius, the most diverse methods of description and analytical models are applicable to them. The poetic and prose texts of the great creator, written about two hundred years ago, still amaze today with their psychological authenticity, the ability to evoke empathy of the reader, which is achieved by appealing to deep human meanings that are not influenced by time. Archetypes are just semantic universals, thanks to which a space of interaction is created that unites the author's intention and the reader's perception.

The specificity of the archetypal approach to the literary text is that one or another image with the features of an archetype is considered not just as a static set of certain features, but as dynamic relationships within the plot, reflecting the author's "model of the world". K.G. Jung, the founder of the theory of archetypes, argued that "it is impossible to give an arbitrary (or universal) characteristic of any archetype. It must be explained in a way that is indicated by the whole life situation of the individual to whom it belongs" ^{[6; p. 109]}. Speaking about archetypes in a literary text, therefore, it is necessary, first of all, to consider not the individual properties of the characters, but the specifics of the relationships in which these characters find themselves. On this basis, in the classification of archetypes used by us, created by T. Chetwynd and adapted by us to the tasks of literary analysis, four female archetypal images are distinguished: Mother, Daughter, Sister and Wife (Bride). The basis for the classification is the specificity of the relations formed by these images with the male hero, who acts as a "point of coordinator" (the term of I. Kalinauskas). This approach makes it possible to identify typically feminine archetypal traits and behavioral styles that are most clearly visible against the background of male ones ^{[2; p. 56]}.

In the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin", the author's special attention is undoubtedly paid to the image of the Bride. The love relationships of young people (Onegin and Tatiana, Lensky and Olga) form the basis of the plot of the work.

As has been repeatedly noted, the archetype of the bride-girl for world literature and folklore is one of the most popular. It can be found in a large number of fairy tales – both folk and author's. In fairy tales that tell about the hero's journey, the bride becomes a kind of reward for the central character in the finale of a difficult way to overcome difficulties; she is often endowed with superpowers that allow her to miraculously influence her chosen one, contribute to his spiritual transformation. However, any archetype, as was noticed by C.G. Jung, has the property of ambivalence, and in its negative aspect, the archetypal bride can turn her power against the hero, irreparably cripple him (most often, castrate) or even kill him. Such an unpleasant development of events takes place in cases when the Bride doubts the correctness of her choice or the hero makes a fatal mistake, thereby demonstrating that he is unworthy of the Bride.

The images of Tatiana and Olga Larin in the novel, without a doubt, contain archetypal properties, and above all, the archetype of the Bride is manifested in them, which is due to the peculiarities of the plot development. However, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the heroines are sisters; from an archetypal point of view, this circumstance is extremely significant. The archetype of the sister, according to one of the classifying signs , approaches the archetype of the bride: just like the Bride, the Sister can be perceived by the hero as a sexual object, but the connection with her does not lead the hero to serious transformations and does not bring metaphysical acquisitions. As a rule, marriage with a Sister is forced, in the absence of a real Bride, but it happens that the Sister functions in the work as a "fake Bride", and the connection with her leads the hero away from the true path. The confusion of archetypal roles in the hero's mind, the inner blindness that generates the inability to distinguish the Sister from the Bride (and vice versa), are usually not just dangerous, but disastrous.

By the time he met the Larina sisters, Onegin had already experienced a series of disappointments, tired of social life, disgusted with intellectual work, and learned the boredom of monotonous landlord life. According to the logic of a fairy tale, a meeting with a wonderful bride should bring the hero out of the crisis, open up new prospects. However, the situation described by Pushkin does not contribute to the hero's openness to miraculous changes. If you believe the poet, his hero is already married in some way: "the doldrums were waiting for him on guard, / And she ran after him, / Like a shadow or a faithful wife" (chapter 1, stanza LIV). Married to his melancholy, Onegin is not internally ready for a relationship with any other Bride, the reader receives such a hint even before Olga and Tatiana appear on the pages of the novel.

Onegin, as we remember, gained a fair amount of experience in the "science of tender passion" for eight years, he could even "give lessons" on this fascinating subject, but the archetypal bride always turns out to be more powerful than even the most sophisticated heartthrob. Tatiana's strength, according to Pushkin, lies in her sincerity, in the sincerity and spontaneity of feeling, in the absence of calculation – it is not by chance that the poet devoted several heartfelt stanzas to the heroine's love experiences, contrasting her with cold-blooded coquettes. Her letter addressed to Onegin awakened the bored soul of the hero, revived a dreary existence: "Onegin was vividly touched: / The language of girlish dreams / He stirred up thoughts in him with a swarm; / And he plunged into a sweet, sinless sleep / With his soul. / Perhaps some old-fashioned fervor / possessed Him for a moment" (chapter 4, stanza XI). A letter that can inspire a "sweet, sinless dream" to a cynical and jaded person undoubtedly has magical power. The main function of the archetypal bride, the main purpose of her magic is the awakening of life and renewal. Evgeny had a chance, but he didn't take it.

Onegin assigned Tatiana a different archetypal role; not seeing her as a Bride, he offers her the status of a Sister: "I love you with the love of a brother" (chapter 4, stanza XVI). According to the logic of the collective unconscious, reflected in mythological, fairy-tale and literary plots, such mistakes of recognition are disastrous for both the hero and the bride. If the fairy-tale prince did not discover the true owner of the slipper, but married one of the daughters of an evil stepmother, if the prince refused to kiss the princess sleeping in the coffin, if the merchant did not pull Alyonushka out of the river, but stayed to live with the witch, ignoring the substitution, this version of the finale is perceived as joyless, not promising happiness to the heroes.

Pushkin in the divination scene foreshadows Tatiana's death: her ring is taken out of the bowl to a song about the other world. We see a kind of reverse development of the fairy–tale plot: a meeting with the groom resurrects a dead princess - a meeting with Onegin kills a living Tatiana. The heroine's experiences caused by Onegin's response to her sincerity are described through lexical means and images associated with the absence of life, dying: "mechanically", "I will die", "the blood is getting cold". In a dream, she imagines her lover as the lord of infernal monsters, a murderer, foresees the upcoming duel. Tatiana, a young provincial young lady with no experience of life, turns out to be able to give an accurate and ruthless assessment of Onegin's personality, studying the books he read: "Is he a parody?" Thus, the Bride turns out to be wiser than her chosen one and spiritually stronger than him: she is not afraid of the possible consequences of her feelings, faithful to him, despite numerous warnings and direct obstacles.

But still, narrative logic is inexorable: the story must develop in accordance with the laws pre-established for it, only in this case it will be perceived as reliable, only in this case it will become recognizable to the reader. Already in the scene of Tatiana's birthday celebration, we observe the rebirth of the heroine: ardent, sensual, sincere, she takes her emotions under control: "but the will and reason overcame the power" (chapter 5, stanza XXX). At least for a moment Onegin's friendly look "revived Tanya's heart", this effect passes just as quickly, as soon as the hero's mind is occupied with the idea of taking revenge on a friend and paying attention to Olga.

Later we see Tatiana, already a married woman, restrained, "indifferent", "unapproachable", "majestic", "careless", that is, essentially inanimate, and attempts to "revive" in the form of persistent courtship and passionate writing are no longer able to really affect anything. Onegin's letter only aggravates the situation: "U! how she is now surrounded by the Epiphany cold!" (chapter 8, stanza XXXIII). And the hero himself does not come to life from his unexpected feeling, but rather falls into a serious, almost deadly illness. If Onegin was "vividly touched" by a letter written by young Tatiana, then Pushkin resorts to images of illness and death to describe the hero's passion: "She does not notice him, no matter how he fights, even if he dies", "Onegin dries up – and hardly suffers from consumption" (chapter 8, stanza XXXI), "he is ready to write to his great-grandfathers in advance about a secret meeting" (chapter 8, stanza XXXII). And even when "spring gives him life", Onegin goes to Tatiana "looking like a dead man" (chapter 8, stanza XL).

This momentary "revival" is also transmitted to the heroine: "A simple virgin, with dreams, the heart of former days, has now risen again in her" (chapter 8, stanza XLI). But the outburst of feeling is again short-lived, and now Tatiana resolutely puts an end to the relationship. As an archetypal Bride, she cannot belong to two, her magical power can only extend to one betrothed, so the phrase "I am given to another; I will be faithful to him forever" sounds natural. Tatiana spares Onegin's feelings, she, if you like, pays him the same coin for his noble but ruthless decision, for his rebuke, which she heard in the garden. The hero then assured her that he would not be looking for another girlfriend of life if he wanted peaceful family happiness; now the heroine says that, perhaps, she acted carelessly by marrying a nobleman, but in fact the archetypal bride does not make mistakes.

Pushkin clearly makes it clear to the reader that Onegin could only fall in love with a completely exceptional woman, whose virtues are obvious to his reference circle of people ("the legislator of the hall"), and Tatiana became just such a woman. Moreover, Onegin, apparently, would be most interested in an object of attraction that is inaccessible to him ("an unapproachable goddess"), and here Tatiana behaves unmistakably, igniting his passion. Simply put, Tatiana (let's say, unconsciously, but quite purposefully) takes revenge on the man who rejected her; this story resembles the plot of G.H. Andersen's fairy tale "The Swineherd" – unknown to Pushkin, of course, since it was published after the poet's death. The pathos of Andersen's fairy tale, although oppositely oriented in the gender sense, is close to Pushkin's idea: someone who is unable to appreciate a genuine treasure, but is recklessly seduced by insignificant external effects, suffers a life collapse.

Tatiana explains her position to Onegin in this way: I was "better", I was real, but then you didn't like me; now I am rich, noble and interesting to you, but I won't belong to you; suffer – and it serves you right. Aren't these the words that many women offended by men would like to say? Did they not dream of taking revenge in this way for coldness and inattention to themselves – to turn into an inaccessible ideal so that the offender would realize the scale of the loss? Pushkin offered readers a finale that accurately reflected the numerous women's social expectations, but this provided only half of the success. In addition, Tatiana's specific "revenge" contains an archetypal message addressed to the world of men and reminding that, no matter how objectively attractive and persistent a man is, the final choice always remains with a woman. In this sense, the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin", like the earlier novella "Dubrovsky", which has a similar ending, is, in modern terms, a feminist manifesto: a woman makes a choice, and a man has nothing else to do but to accept this choice submissively – to accept, ultimately, from female hands your destiny. Such, apparently, was the poet's worldview at that period of his life and work, and it is impossible not to notice the prophetic (or perhaps programming) nature of this existential attitude.

Note, however, that revenge could not have taken place without the active participation of the hero himself. Onegin did not expose himself to the blow when he coldly chastised a young county young lady who recklessly promised him "I am yours" – a really risky confession at that time, which did not promise Tatiana anything good in case of publicity. As in Andersen's fairy tale, rejected gifts do not yet provide the "corpus delicti"; the hero turned out to be a target for revenge when he began to persistently pursue a married lady, compromising her. Pushkin himself, when he was a bachelor, did not disdain such courtship, but by the time he wrote the eighth chapter of Eugene Onegin, he had already asked for the hand of Natalia Goncharova, therefore, perhaps, he sought, speaking in the pages of his work in the first person, to appear a serious and reasonable person. Pushkin's letter to Natalia Nikolaevna, already his wife, dated October 30, 1833 (the year of publication of the first separate edition of Eugene Onegin) is known, in which he condemns her for frivolous behavior, assuring that "coquetry is not in fashion and is considered a sign of bad taste" ^{[4; p. 147]}, and speaks out quite sharply regarding what I did not disdain before myself. The position of a married person can contribute to a change in moral guidelines, at least in part, but, in principle, this is not the only thing. Pushkin's hero allowed himself a risky attempt to abandon cold indifference, discovered a living, feeling soul in himself – and this soul immediately suffered punishment for all past transgressions. While you are young and cynical, you are invulnerable to mental pain, the most unpleasant feeling available to you is boredom. But one has only to open up to the multifaceted living emotional states, and suffering, breaking through the inner barriers, wins back all the dubious achievements of the former cynicism. The awakening of an anesthetized soul is always extremely painful.   

Why does Pushkin's hero necessarily need a relationship with an inaccessible woman? Of course, it would make sense to address this question to the author himself. Onegin is afraid of intimacy, he runs away from long-term relationships, and short-term ones only exhaust him: "he didn't fall in love with beauties, but dragged himself somehow." A strong passion engulfs the hero when, on the one hand, the relationship promises the fullness of sincerity (Tatiana can only love like this), and on the other hand, the obstacles to reunification are insurmountable (the beloved is the wife of an old friend, besides a serious woman with rigid moral attitudes). 

Lensky could have been in a stable marital relationship, but Pushkin had prepared a different lot for him – death by a bullet, and this despite the fact that in the storyline "Lensky – Olga" the poet seemed to intend to portray a "picture of happy love" (chapter 4, stanza XXIV).

Olga's name appears for the first time in the second chapter in connection with Lensky's frank story about his feelings. This story is bright, nothing in it portends a negative development of events: Olga is considered Lensky's bride since childhood, there are no obstacles to their marriage, the girl is almost perfect and suits the young poet like no other: "Always modest, always obedient, / Always as cheerful as the morning, / As the poet's life is simple-minded, / Like a kiss love is sweet." The fourth chapter describes the idyllic development of relations, but in the XXXIV stanza an unexpected divergence in the tastes of lovers is revealed: "A fan of glory and freedom, / In the excitement of his stormy thoughts, / Vladimir would write odes, / But Olga did not read them." Olga, as we can see, somehow suppresses the creative impulse of the young poet, restricts it. It may seem that this is a trifle, but it is significant in the context of further developments: the suppression of creative impulses shows the negative side of the archetype of the bride, which, as already mentioned above, is extremely dangerous for the hero and can threaten him with death.

At the very end of the chapter, the poet expresses doubts about Olga's feelings for Lensky: "He was loved ... at least / So he thought" (chapter 4, stanza LI). The absence of sincere feelings, the absence of total acceptance of the beloved by the Bride leads to a relationship in which the hero is metaphorically "castrated", that is, he loses the ability to self-realization. It can be assumed that such a result for Pushkin himself was no more attractive than the death to which he eventually sent Lensky. The author describes the possible scenario of the hero's fate rather darkly: "In him, the ardor of the soul would have cooled. / In many ways he would have changed, / Would have parted with the muses, married" (chapter 6, stanza XXXIX). Marriage, as we can see, is on a par with the loss of spiritual fervor, interest in creativity and life in general, and a potential wife would play a role in this joyless process by no means the last.

Olga leads Lensky to death; before that, her mother, married to an unloved man, brought Dmitry Larin to the grave. The family life of the Larins is described as quite prosperous, but nevertheless, the theme of death, the natural outcome of earthly human existence, inevitably intrudes into the narrative of a well–fed and quiet life: "And so they both aged. / And the doors of the coffin finally opened / Before the spouse, / And he took a new crown" (chapter 2, stanza XXXVI). The crown, we note, is an attribute of the marriage ceremony, and Dmitry Larin's "new crown", which marks in some way an engagement with death, being rhymed with the adverb "finally", creates a sense of long–awaited relief, which was facilitated by the final "escape" of a man from a woman who is not loving, but only accustomed to marriage - to another world. Such would have been the lot of Lensky, if his life path had not been tragically interrupted.

The imaginary "betrayal" of the beloved as an excuse for a duel (a pardonable cognitive error for a young and temperamental person living in the XIX century) in fact, it is a formal event. The young poet had to perish, if not physically, then spiritually; Pushkin, presumably, felt the death of such a subpersonality in himself, it was replaced by another subpersonality – disappointed, devastated. Even when Lensky realizes that a duel can be avoided, he nevertheless continues to persist and prove to himself that he is going to a good cause – he acts as Olga's "savior", who, in fact, there is no one to save her from, and there is no need. The hero goes to death of his own free will, but the persistence of this movement, ignoring the arguments of reason, as if a temporary affective clouding of the mind, suggest that he is under the influence of magical charms. Whose spell is this? Of course, Olga's; the reader has no one else to appoint for this role.

Olga, therefore, cannot become a genuine Bride for Lensky, or a Bride in a positive hypostasis: she is, of course, "cute", as the poet defines her, generally revealing a predilection for this epithet, but her proximity is deadly. In her relationship with Onegin, she behaves like an archetypal sister, and also manifests herself from the negative side: thoughtlessly flattered by Eugene's courtship, her behavior leads him to kill someone whom Tatiana considers a "brother", and thereby creates an obstacle between the hero and the Bride: "She must hate her brother's killer in him" (chapter 7, stanza XIV).

The archetypal sister, having fulfilled her function (positive or negative), can then disappear from the narrative, sometimes without a trace. In the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin", the author also removes Olga from the plot: she marries a lancer, she is escorted from her parents' house, and no one remembers her anymore, even Tatiana. 

In conclusion, we emphasize that the female images created in the novel in the poems "Eugene Onegin" undoubtedly carry archetypal features, which makes them deep, convincing, realistic. The features of the archetype manifest themselves in the relationships of heroines with male heroes and allow us to conclude that in the poet's worldview, the bride-woman is equally attractive and dangerous, she has tremendous influence, disposes of the fate of her chosen one and his life - in the most direct, physiological sense of the word. The bride can perform destructive actions in relation to the hero without malicious intent, obeying circumstances relevant to the norms of morality and the natural impulses of her soul, but still it is she who, being the main actor in the personal transformation of the hero, in the transformation of a young man into a man, in one way or another determines the direction of his development (or degradation). Such power is characteristic not only of the archetypal bride, but also partly of the Sister and, to a much greater extent, of the Mother. However, in Eugene Onegin, it is the relationship with the Bride that becomes the plot basis of the text, it is the final break with the beloved and the loss of hopes for reciprocity that ends the story of the central character. This suggests that in the poet's mind the image of the Bride was at that time closely connected with the themes of male self–determination, the search for existential ways, understanding the past and the difficult, sometimes painful formation of personal maturity - that is, with those questions and problems that make Pushkin's novel in verse not only a literary masterpiece, but also a work with deep psychological content.