# XXXVI explained — Eugene Onegin

> Chapter companion for Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin.

## What happens

The narrator reflects on the superficiality and tediousness of high society, criticizing the empty, pious, and prudish conversations of aristocratic women, which he finds both harmless and nonsensical.

## Themes in this chapter

### The Aristocratic Malaise

The narrator expresses boredom and vexation with the manners and conversations of high society, highlighting the emptiness and artificiality of aristocratic life.

## Key lines

> Ye miracles of courtly grace, He left you first, and I must own The manners of the highest class Have latterly vexatious grown;

You paragons of courtly elegance, he abandoned you first, and I admit that the customs of the upper class have recently become irritating.

_The narrator distances himself from high society, finding its manners increasingly tiresome._

> And though perchance a lady may Discourse of Bentham or of Say, Yet as a rule their talk I call Harmless, but quite nonsensical.

And although a lady might occasionally discuss Bentham or Say, generally I find their conversation harmless but utterly meaningless.

_Even when women engage with intellectual topics, their talk is deemed superficial and without substance._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/eugene_onegin_se/chapters/xxxvi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/eugene_onegin_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/eugene_onegin_se/chapters