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Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Eugene Onegin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Youth, Regrets, and the Passage of Time
Love, Courtship, and Marriage
Poetry vs. Reality
Russian Identity
Summary
Analysis
Eugene feels pleased with himself at how he got “revenge” on Lensky by dancing with Olga. Olga, however, now can’t stop thinking about Eugene. The evening ends and everyone goes to bed. Everything in the house is still, although Tatyana is lying awake, disturbed by Eugene’s sudden reappearance and wondering what to make of his dancing with Olga. She wonders whether it would be better to die, since Eugene can’t give her the happiness she needs to stay alive.
Eugene’s satisfaction with himself for dancing with Olga shows how he is selfish, unable to consider how Tatyana, Olga, and Lensky might feel about his actions. His happiness at having bested Lensky represents his reclaimed youth, if only symbolically. Tatyana’s thoughts of death are exaggerated and melodramatic, emphasizing how despite her growing disillusionment with love and romance, her youthful passion still dictates many of her thoughts and feelings.
Themes
The narrator wants to introduce a new character: Zaretsky, who is known as a rowdy gambler but who is also Lensky’s faithful friend. Zaretsky is an expert with a pistol and also a clever talker, although he often gets too drunk for his own good. Eugene knows and likes Zaretsky, and he’s surprised when, the morning after the party, Zaretsky shows up to see him. Zaretsky solemnly hands Eugene a note calling him out to a duel with Lensky. Eugene accepts, and Zaretsky returns to Lensky to deliver the news.
Zaretsky represents the passion of youth—he thoughtlessly encourages Lensky to challenge Eugene to a deal, not bothering to weight the potential consequences of engaging in such a dangerous, brutal ritual. In youth, one has more passion—but also more to lose, should one pursue one’s passions too far. Eugene has had more life than Lensky, and although his death in the duel would be tragic, it would be far more tragic for Lensky to die before his life has hardly begun.
Themes
Eugene realizes that he was wrong to take Lensky and Olga’s relationship so lightly, and he doesn’t blame Lensky for being angry. Meanwhile, Lensky waits impatiently for Zaretsky to return with the news. He goes to see Olga and is surprised to see that she is acting as carefree as always, as if nothing has changed. He finds all of his jealousy and anger going away, even though a part of him still suspects that Olga loves Eugene more than she loves Lensky. He doesn’t tell Olga about his feud with Eugene, but he still makes plans to go ahead with the duel, to make sure that Olga isn’t “corrupted” by Eugene’s false promises. Tatyana, meanwhile, can sense that something is wrong between Eugene and Lensky, but she doesn’t know how serious it is.
Eugene begins to realize the error of his actions but still doesn’t change his behavior. Similarly, Lensky has his own doubts about going ahead with the duel. But rather than calling off the duel and accepting an apology from Eugene, Lensky instead tries to find reasons to go ahead with the duel. He senses that Olga’s love for him might not be as strong as he once thought, but he nevertheless uses protecting her as a justification for why to go ahead with fighting Eugene. He pictures himself as a romantic hero protecting Olga’s virtue, echoing how many other characters in the novel confuse themselves by identifying with romance stories.
Themes
That evening, Olga and Lensky play the clavichord together, but she can tell something is preoccupying him. He refuses to tell her what’s on his mind, then goes home to inspect his pistols for the duel the next day. He writes a poem about the uncertainty he feels as he prepares to face Eugene in a duel, lamenting what a good friend Eugene used to be. When he finishes, he’s exhausted and sleeps until it’s time to go to the duel.
Rather than discussing his doubts about the duel with Olga, Lensky remains silent. This is yet another example in the story of how a failure to communicate leads to negative consequences. Lensky’s choice to write a poem about the duel shows that he’s still not taking it as seriously as he ought to, romanticizing Eugene’s betrayal using the conventions of poetry and ignoring the very real possibility that the duel will end with one of them dead.
Themes
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Eugene sleeps deeply the night before the duel. He wakes up late the following morning and has to get dressed quickly. He rides off to the appointed meeting spot, where Lensky and Zaretsky are already waiting. Zaretsky asks Eugene why he showed up without a second. Eugene says that Guillot, his French valet who brought him to the duel, will act as his second. The two duelists prepare to fight.
Dueling was technically prohibited in Russia at this time, but it was still widespread, with a long tradition and established rules. One common rule of dueling is that a duelist is accompanied and assisted by a trusted assistant known as a second. Typically, the second is a fellow gentleman. Eugene’s decision to select his valet as his second therefore breaks with tradition. On the one hand, Eugene’s choice might simply reflect his lack of preparation for the duel. On the other hand, it might serve as a symbolic gesture on Eugene’s part to signal to Lensky that he has no desire to go through with the brutal social ritual Lensky has imposed on him.
Themes
The narrator laments at how fate has turned the former friends Eugene and Lensky into enemies. The men load their pistols, and Zaretsky measures out the distance of 30 paces for the duel. He leads each duelist to where he should stand. The duel begins, and each man is hesitant to aim and fire at first. Eventually, Eugene aims and fires first.
The duel is a culmination of the mutual failure of Eugene and Lensky to communicate with each other. Their failure to understand each other suggests that sometimes it isn’t possible to bridge the gap between youthful passion (Lensky) and jaded world-weariness (Eugene)—only time and experience can compel a person to abandon their idealism and take life seriously. Although both men are hesitant to fire, Eugene ultimately does, showing how the circumstances have forced the two men into a heightened conflict.
Themes
Lensky drops his pistol and has a look of shock on his face. Eugene is also shocked and runs to Lensky calling out his name, but he doesn’t respond. Lensky is dead and lies still with blood flowing out of him. The narrator remarks that it’s a lot more satisfying to kill an enemy at a distance than to see what one has done up close. It’s even worse if one kills a young friend over one night’s rash decision. Zaretsky confirms that Lensky is dead, and Eugene rides off in a hurry back home.
Eugene’s killing of Lensky represents the culmination of the gradual breakdown of the men’s friendship. By killing Lensky, Eugene rejects his former friend and the youthly passions that he represented, causing him to sink further into regret and cynicism. Eugene was initially drawn to Lensky because of Lensky’s youth, perhaps hoping to regain some of his own youth by association. Ultimately, however, the arc of the friendship has only heightened Eugene’s world weariness: now he must carry on his shoulders his guilt over the death of his friend.
Themes
The narrator notes how tragic it is that Lensky died so young. He wonders whether Lensky may have gone on to achieve some sort of fame, perhaps as a poet, if he’d lived longer, but now that will never happen. Or maybe Lensky was fated to give up poetry and live a quiet life as a married man, being happy but cuckolded, eating too much, getting gout at age 40, and eventually passing away in his bed surrounded by children.
Although the narrator waxes poetic at first about the great things that Lensky might have accomplished, as the passage goes on, it starts to become clear that the narrator doesn’t actually think that Lensky would have achieved any particular fame. Nevertheless, while the narrator imagines a flawed and unremarkable life for Lensky, he still points to the underlying tragedy of Lensky’s life cut short.
Themes
In the future, people will eventually come by the inscription on Lensky’s grave and perhaps be moved for a moment or two. The narrator wants to tell what became of Eugene, but he says that he is getting tired for the moment and needs a rest. The narrator regrets that he has entered the “afternoon” of life and no longer has the youthful vigor that he used to.
The narrator’s own exhaustion at telling the story and his repeated complaints about aging reinforce the novel’s focus on the glorification of youth and the anxiety of aging. The narrator’s note about how, despite Lensky’s ambition, people will barely stop to think about him, reflects how fleeting life is—it is not as romantic as the great stories of literature would lead one to believe.
Themes
