The chapter's epigraph, "Morality is in the nature of things," seems to refer to Onegin's moralizing speech ("Again he'd done his moral duty") to Tatyana in the beginning of the chapter (IV.18). The chapter ends with a foreboding reflection on Lensky's youthful ignorance of marriage's boredom and the shallowness or lack of Olga's love for him. Lensky mentions that Onegin has been invited to Tatyana's name-day celebration and assuages his friend's concern that there will be a large local crowd, telling him that it will only be a family gathering. To his delight, Lensky visits one night, and the two drink. Though it is summer, it is still the far north and snow begins to fall, turning the landscape even more featureless and boring for Onegin. Olga, however, does not read what her impassioned lover writes.Īt his estate, Onegin whiles away his days in idleness.
Although, as Pushkin relates, the album is a social convention with all the attendant disingenuousness, Lensky nevertheless writes with true feeling and unusual poetic ardor. Pushkin then turns to Lensky's rosy love for Olga and the many poems he writes in her album. Beset by unhappiness, Tatyana begins to waste away. Nevertheless, he does acknowledge that Tatyana has stirred a long dormant feeling within him but also says that he is not worthy of her goodness. With this thought in mind, Onegin delivers a curt, didactic rejection to Tatyana, citing her naivety and the unpleasantness of marriage, which he considers restrictive and boring. Pushkin begins the chapter by condemning the cold, manipulative game of love, one which Onegin had once been so adept at but now intensely despises.
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