One of the central images of the genius novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" by A. S. Pushkin is Onegin. Let's characterize the hero based on the content of the first chapter.
Before us is an eighteen-year-old young aristocrat with a rich inheritance, which he received from his uncle. Onegin was born into a wealthy but ruined noble family. Caring for a seriously ill uncle is called "low cunning", since Eugene is bored to be in the village and tiresome to take care of a relative.
Onegin's education and upbringing was not serious: "at first Madame followed him," the Frenchman "taught him everything in jest." In the opinion of the world, Onegin is "a scholar, but a pedant," however, "He had a happy talent … to touch everything slightly with a learned air of a connoisseur." A. S. Pushkin speaks about the level of education of the nobles of the 20s of the 20th century as follows: "We all learned a little something and somehow."
But more than all other disciplines of Onegin was occupied with the "science of tender passion." He could seem at the same time indifferent and attentive, gloomy, gloomy and eloquent, languid, he knew how to amuse the ladies, slander rivals and be friends with the husbands of his beloved. Only all this is a game of love, its image. “How early could he be a hypocrite,” the author says about the hero's feelings. The main qualities that can be used to describe Onegin from the first chapter of the novel are indifference, indifference to everything that happens, frivolity. The hero is not interested in the suffering and experiences of other people.
The author attaches great importance to the image of Onegin's daily routine: waking up in the afternoon, notes with invitations to social events, a walk along the boulevard, visiting a theater, a ball, returning home in the morning. For Onegin, his appearance is very important, the hero spends about three hours a day in front of the mirror: "He is cut in the latest fashion, like a dandy Londoner dressed." The hero follows fashion, dresses stylishly in everything exquisite and foreign, mainly English and French. Fashion condemns to a superficial attitude to everything, therefore, following fashion, the hero cannot be himself.
Onegin's theatrical performances are not interesting, he visits them only for the sake of observing secular etiquette: "He bowed to men from all sides, then looked at the stage in great distraction, turned away - and yawned." Eugene Onegin is surrounded by women, friends, famous people of the art sphere, and he believes that it will always be so. Having danced and tired at the balls, Onegin returns home, but tomorrow the same thing is repeated: sleep until noon, invitations and balls.
The hero lived like this for about eight years. On the one hand, life is colorful, on the other - gray, monotonous and empty. And such a life quickly bored the hero, and soon lost interest in life in general: "the Russian blues took possession of him little by little," "nothing touched him, he did not notice anything." Thus, the literate and outstanding Onegin could not change his lifestyle, because the secular society is stronger and requires adherence to etiquette.
In the first chapter, the author's attitude to the hero is noticeable: Pushkin calls Onegin "my good friend" and talks about how he made friends with him, spent time on the embankment of the Neva, talks about how they shared memories with each other, discussed young ladies. However, Pushkin assesses all the positive qualities of his hero with irony.
So, based on the analysis of the first chapter of the novel, we can conclude that Onegin is shown contradictory: a talented, outstanding young man who has not received a systematic education, wants love, but treats feelings frivolously, knows how to behave in society and lives an active life, but misses the light. Onegin is subordinate to society, but forced to live in it. The habitual pretense is tired, irritating. Words by P. Ya. Vyazemsky is aptly characterized by the hero: "And he is in a hurry to live and in a hurry to feel", but Onegin still does not know how to live by the true values.
