Onegin

4 Pages 1019 Words

Pushkin’s Evgenii Onegin may be a great love story, but it is also a book that gives an insight to the Russian nobilities’ lives, their differences, and their seclusion from the real world. The movie shows life for the nobles in the early 19th century was very simple. The nobles lived in their own little world consisting of social gatherings between the same people. The nobles had everything served to them on a silver platter, and where ignorant of the harsh realities facing the average Russian citizen. Evgenii Onegin is one of these nobles, but what makes him different, is that he took all that was given to him for granted and never seemed to be satisfied.
Evgenii Onegin is a rich noble who lives in St. Petersburg. He lives a luxurious lifestyle and spends most of his time drinking and socializing with friends. For pleasure, he pays courtesans but slowly his funds start to run low and he questions whether he can continue this lifestyle. Soon enough, his uncle becomes ill, so Onegin travels to the countryside to be with him during his dying days. His uncle dies and Onegin inherits his fortune, which consists of vast amounts of land, villages, and approximately 500 serfs, but he does not seem to be to interested in his new inheritance.
One day in the woods, Onegin meets Vladimir Lensky, a country noble. Lensky is simpler and less sophisticated than what Onegin is used and Onegin takes a liking towards him. Quickly enough they become friends, spending lots of time lounging around and talking. Lensky introduces him to his fiancée Olga, which is the sister of Tatiana, the woman who will fall in love with him.
Onegin finds it hard to adjust to this new lifestyle. Although the people he spends time with are nobles, their simple lifestyles greatly contrast with the cosmopolitan lifestyle he is used to. Their clothes are different, their conversations less intellectual and even their food is not up to his high standards. The only thin...