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Chapter 4
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
Meanwhile, Tatyana finds winter a cheerful time of year when everything glows with silver snow. She particularly loves traditions around Christmas, including the folklore and superstitions. She also believes in the power of dreams and cards to predict the future, and she sees shooting stars as omens. One of the prophecy games that she plays during the Yuletide season foretells a death to come soon.
Tatyana’s belief in superstitions points to her desire for clear, unambiguous answers to the conflicts of her life. In this regard, she has much in common with many of the other characters who turn to literature for insight into love, romance, and the meaning of life in general. The death prophecy she encounters is a dark omen that may foreshadow at a literal death to come, or perhaps a metaphorical death, like the death of Tatyana’s (or another character’s) youthful idealism.
Themes
One dark night, Tatyana tries unsuccessfully to use the moon and a mirror to divine the face of her future husband. That night she dreams about trying to cross a shaky bridge over a chasm. She reaches out for help but instead finds a bear coming after her. She runs, making it across the bridge into the woods until she can’t run anymore. The bear finds her, picks her up, and takes her back to his hut. He speaks and invites her to warm herself inside his place.
Eugene compared Olga to the moon earlier, noting that both are beautiful, but also cold and distant. Although Tatyana thinks her divination wasn’t successful, in some ways the moon’s coldness predicts the eventual coldness of her own marriage in the final chapter. Tatyana’s strange dream of being chased by a bear over a shaky bridge reflects her new reservations about loving so openly and vulnerably. Eugene’s rejection has taught her the dangers of wearing her heart on her sleeve. The bear, which alternates between fearsome and caring, seems to represent Eugene.
Themes
When Tatyana wakes up, she realizes she’s in a hall somewhere outside a feast, and she doesn’t see any bear around. Tatyana peeks inside at the feast and sees all sorts of strange monsters like a dog with horns, a skeleton, and a crab sitting on a spider. She is even more surprised when she notices Eugene sitting among all the monsters, entertaining them and drinking with them. Tatyana opens the door a little wider, and Eugene sees her.
Themes
Eugene opens the door wider, and all the monsters seem to stare at Tatyana, who wants to run away but feels too weak. “She’s mine!” says Eugene, and the monsters leave. Eugene takes Tatyana to a corner of the room and rests his head on her shoulder. Just then, Olga and Lensky enter the room. They argue with Eugene, getting more intense, until eventually Eugene strikes down Lensky with a knife. Lensky’s cry sends a shiver down Tatyana’s spine, and with that she wakes up from the dream, in her bedroom again.
Themes
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Tatyana tries to look up the meaning of her dream in a book. She feels like the dream has sent her a message, and it disturbs her not to know what the message is. But the dream interpretation book she reads doesn’t help, and she’s troubled by the dream for many days.
Themes
Eventually, the day of Tatyana’s name-day feast arrives. Relatives and neighbors all come to celebrate, even the narrator’s cousin. Everyone is excited, having heard there will be a ball in the evening. Amid the celebrations at dinner, Lensky and Eugene arrive. Tatyana turns “paler than the moon at dawn” when Lensky and Eugene are seated across the table from her. Eugene notices Tatyana trembling, and at this point, he is just annoyed by her and angry at Lensky for forcing him to come, particularly because Lensky downplayed how many people would be at the event. Everyone else is too busy eating to notice how Tatyana feels.
Themes
At the dinner, a man named Triquet stands up and starts to sing something he wrote in Tatyana’s honor. Afterward, when it’s time for everyone to wish Tatyana well on her day, Eugene takes pity on her and speaks sincerely, which reawakens Tatyana’s interest in him. Then everyone pushes back the chairs to make space to dance, and musicians start to play.
Themes
The narrator says the ball is so glorious that his words can’t do it justice. Feeling mischievous and still annoyed that he had to come to the party, Eugene asks Olga to dance. Lensky can’t believe what he’s seeing. Eugene dances so well that he makes Olga blush. Lensky becomes angry and jealous. When Eugene and Olga keep dancing together, Lensky at last leaves the party and rides off to get pistols for a duel.
