Lensky takes Onegin to meet Olga, <br />his fiancée. Tatiana falls <br />in love, and so, what seems quite vulgar, <br />writes him a letter that her love recalls. <br />Contrary to what she hopes he tells her <br />most tactfully, though somewhat condescending, <br />he doesn’t love her, and his tone repels her, <br />as does the message that his words are sending. <br />Lensky takes Onegin to a ball <br />where flippantly he flirt with Olga, till <br />the pride of Lensky leads to Lensky’s fall <br />whom in a duel Onegin comes to kill. <br /> <br />Reading all Onegin’s books, Tatiana <br />discovers that like them he is a fiction, <br />so love that from her that he used to garner <br />has no more value than a fifth edition. <br />Enlightened thus, she knows that she should never <br />have put into a letter to Onegin <br />her declaration. She becomes so clever <br />that when he goes to her, pathetic, beggin’, <br />she’s able proudly to declare that though <br />she loves him still, she won’t abandon <br />her husband, to whom she’s prepared to show <br />full loyalty, betraying none in tandem. <br /> <br />The moral Pushkin hopes that we will draw <br />is maybe not the one that I extract: <br />love letters women write do not ignore <br />if you are based on fiction and not fact. <br /> <br /> <br />8/13/08<br /><br />gershon hepner<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/love-letters-3/
