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Stephanie Lemchuk

Professor Rollberg
Introduction to Russian Literature
No Choice, No Voice: Rudin and The Superfluous Man
06 December 2012

The superfluous man is arguably the most recognized character of literary Russia. Great
nineteenth century Russian authors including, but not limited to, Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev,
Dostoyevsky, and Tolstoy created such men in their works, men who were seen as outsiders and
having no place in society. Pushkins Eugene Onegin and Lermontovs A Hero of Our Time
present two of the most well-known superfluous men: Eugene Onegin and Gregoriy Pechorin,
respectively. These two rather dark men, cynical of society, differ from Turgenevs titular
superfluous man Dmitry Rudin. Rudin, unlike Onegin and Pechorin who choose superfluity by
their rejection of societal ideals, is made superfluous by society despite his attempts to find his
role and purpose in society and life.
Ellen Chances, drawing on the ideas of T. Winner, D.S. Mirsky, and W. Harkin,
defines the superfluous man as an ineffectual aristocrat at odds with societyan intellectual
incapable of action, an ineffective idealistwho fails to act, partly because of personal
weakness, partly because ofsocial restraints on his freedom of action (Chances 18). She also
says that Onegin and Pechorin are an early breed of these superfluous men who are romantic,
hypersensitive, aimless, and alienated heroes (18). Onegin and Pechorin display many of these
defining qualities, starting from having aristocratic backgrounds. Both Eugene and Gregoriy are
born wealthy and the time and money to do and buy everything they please but such things

became irksome to them quickly. Pechorin says, As a young man, as soon as I got my freedom I
threw myself wildly into all the pleasures that money can buy, and soon grew sick of them...Then
I went in for society high-life and before long I was tired of that too (Lermontov 27) while
Onegin is bored of the social scene of the city, The social hubbub left him boredemptied
[him] of all attachment to this life (Pushkin 23-24). The men are materially content but suffer
internally from ennui (khandra) and both leave the city in hopes of escaping the suffocating
boredom they feel in high-society life. But in reality, Onegin and Pechorin have no real
destinationthey will forever be wanderers, aimless because the ennui is inherent in them as
superfluous men, following them everywhere they go.
Pechorin and Onegin possess many positive traits such as good looks, charisma, and
intelligence, which make them superior to a lot of the personalities which surround them. They
have the means to be happy in love and friendship but choose instead to criticize society instead
of contribute to it and act spitefully toward the people who conform to it, leaving destruction in
their wakes. The duels the men engage in and their results showcase this destruction. Eugenes
duel with Lensky came about because Eugene, bored as usual, wants to stir up a controversy in
the romantic Lensky by making advances on Olga. The duel ends in Eugene killing Lensky, his
only friend. Onegin seems accepting of his actions, almost apathetic, and does not take
responsibility for his wrong-doing meanwhile Lenskys and Olgas families are devastated.
Pechorins duel with Grushnitsky also results in the death of an innocent character, a conformist.
Pechorins minimal reaction, merely shrugging to the seconds after shooting his opponent and
sending him off the cliff, showcases his amorality and distance from emotions. In the letter from
Vera, Pechorin learns that she had been compelled to tell her husband that she loves Pechorin and
confesses that she will never love another like she loves Gregoriy and must leave town

immediately. In this way he also destroys Vera and his relationship with her. Their immense
vanity and air of superiority makes them unable to empathize with others. Eugene Onegin and
Gregoriy Pechorin make conscious choices to engage in battle with innocent men just for the
sake of easing their boredom and asserting their independence from conformists of society. The
destruction they cause is a direct result of conscious actions in attempts to escape the constant
boredom and alienation they feel from society.
Turgenevs Dmitry Rudin is also considered by critics to be a superfluous man but and
shares several defining characteristics with Onegin and Pechorin. In line with Chances
definition, Rudin is handsome, charismatic, intelligent, and witty and people are drawn to him.
Darya Mikhailovna, for example, takes an immediate liking to him so much so that she becomes
almost inseparable from him for a time. He is also a magnificent speaker and he knows it,
understanding and embracing his superiority and influence over men such as Pigasov and
Bassistoff, Lezhinov pointing it out when he says, fine speaking is pardonable in a boy, but at
his years it is disgraceful to take pleasure in the sound of his own voice, and to show off!
(Turgenev 64). However in spite of his charming qualities, Rudin is also aimless. He is a
vagabond traveling from town to town, intruding into and interrupting the social circles of the
well-to-do, as he does at the estate of Darya Mikhailovna. But the impact he has on the people he
meets along his travels is not lasting and he does not, in the end, find a place for himself in
society where he can leave a lasting contribution. Notwithstanding the similarities, Rudin is a
fundamentally different type of character. Ellen Chances labels Turgenevs superfluous men as a
new generation of such people, defining them as the liberal reformer, idealistic by nature, but
incapable of effecting social change (Chances 18).

A basic difference between Rudin and Onegin and Pechorin is that he is not born into
wealth and he survives mostly by living on the dime of the towns wealthy landowners, although
he did attend university. But because of this Rudin has not been exposed to the pleasures of
society and already grown bored of them but in fact still finds enjoyment in simple things such as
strolling in the garden and having intelligent arguments. Unlike Pechorin and Onegin, Rudin
does not suffer from an overwhelming sense of ennui because, as Lezhinov often says, he is
enthusiastic about life. When the reader next meets him, some years after he leaves the estate of
Darya Mikhailovna, one sees that Rudin has lost his spark and enthusiasm and are clearly worn
out. These qualities in him are not lost because he has grown weary of the things that he once
enjoyed and succumbed to ennui, but they are beaten out of him by the hardships he faces while
trying to make a life for himself after his vagabond years come to an end. He is not bestowed
with wealth and the option to live life as he pleases that comes along with financial security.
While Onegin and Pechorin have the means to engage in any activity and fulfill any desire, they
still grow bored, even with all the options available to them. Rudin, on the other hand, is forced
by societal structure into a life in the background consuming his time with petty work of no
societal significance.
Superfluous men are not fortunate in love: to Pechorin women are conquests and he loses
Vera, the only woman he truly cares for; Onegin dismisses Tatianas profession of love and thus
ruins any chance of them being together; Rudin rejects Natalyas proposition to marry despite her
agreement to do so against her mothers wishes. In each of these instances the characters make a
conscious choice to let go of an important woman in their lives. Eugene rejects Tatiana because
of his boredom with woman and inability to connect emotionally and Gregoriy loses Vera
because of his emotional disconnect and the duel with Grushnitsky, which was just a way to fuel

his vanity and tame his boredom. Tatiana and Vera are rejected and discarded because they are
conformists and thus part of the society from which Onegin and Pechorin find superfluous and
choose to close to close their hearts and minds for, to distance themselves emotionally from.
It is said that Rudins decision not to go ahead and marry Natalya because Darya
Mikhailovna forbids it is just an excuse for Rudins inherent inability, as a superfluous man, to
act on his words, in this case act upon his proclamation of love for Natalya. But Rudin offers a
sincere explanation for his refusal to marry Natasha against her mothers will. He says that he
cannot offer her a comfortable life of wealth and leisure as she has now and that he could not
bear her to be separated from her ether on angry terms. It is true that, as Natalya points out, he is
not acting in accordance with his spoken ideas of independence and sacrifice, however is it not
that he is unwilling to tarnish his reputation and relations with Darya, it is that he does not want
Natalya to risk future happiness by making her sacrifice for him. Natalya is quick to assume that
she is the only one willing to give up everything for them to be together but it is wrong for Rudin
to believe that Natalya accepts to give up her good life and family relations to be with him? Once
he hears that she is willing, he begins to reconsider but Natalya is so hazed by his original
rejection that she fails to give Rudin a chance to redeem himself. For Rudin the chance at love
and marriage was shut as quickly as it was opened. Though he has the heart and the good
intentions to make it work he is stopped by Darya Mikhailovna, the head of the estates society,
and his unwillingness to risk ruining Natalyas relations with her mother, even if it means him
letting her go.
Rudins empathy is not limited to Natalya. By rejecting Natalyas offer to wed against her
mothers wishes he shows that he can understand Darya Mikhailovnas concerns and can level
with her. Rudin also shows a lot of compassion toward Volintsev. A first act of empathy is when

he tells Volintsev of his love for Natalya and her reciprocated feelings. Rudin shows respect by
showing up in person and is open and honest, sincerely trying to ease any hurt or remorse that
Volintsev may feel because of the loss of Natalya to Rudin. But Volintsev does not want to listen
and Rudin is forced into emotional disconnect, regretting his visit at all because of severed
relations with Volintsev and proving, against Lezhinovs convictions, that he was not there just to
satisfy a need to speak and have someone hear out his eloquent apology. Another courteous and
empathetic act is when he writes an apologetic, kind letter to Volintsev letting him know of his
departure from Darya Mikhailovnas estate. Even this letter is taken as coming from a shallow
place with malicious intentions. At this point Volintsev is furious with Rudin for all that has
happened between him and Natalya and is ready to go as far as shoot Rudin (Turgenev 95),
seeing him purely as an enemy and not taking into consideration whether or not Rudin actually
cared for Natalya. Once again, despite Rudins attempts to showcase the qualities which set him
apart from the first superfluous men he is thrown into the same mold by the people around him
who do not empathize with Rudin as he does with them.
Even with people slandering his good intentions, Rudin does not follow in the footsteps
of Onegin and Pechorin in that he does not leave behind him a path of destruction, and it is in
this way that he proves to be most superfluous. When Rudin is first described, his charm and
instant and continued captivation of Darya Mikhailovnas social circle gives the initial
impression that he will leave an impression on the family and their friends. Quite contrarily, it is
the people of the Mikhailovna estate who make their marks on Rudindoubting him and
battering his self-esteem by twisting his original intentions into something dark and battering his
self-esteem by rejecting him, left and right, from Darya to Natalya, to Lezhinov, to Volintsev.
But at the end of it all, after Rudins departure from the estate, it was as if he had never left. The

author writes, they had fallen back into the old order of thingsYes, all had fallen back into
their old orderall except Natalya (108). Although Natalya does suffer for quite some time
over losing her first love, by the end of the novel she and Volintsev are set to be married and
everyone elses lives are continuing as though Rudin were never in their lives. As Rudin
embraces Bassistoff and bids him farewell at the station, Rudin cries tears of wounded vanity
(108).
The superfluous man is a distinct type of character. He is a man who fails to accomplish
goals and find satisfaction because of some personal flaw yet is superior to the people of the
society in which he does not fit. He rallies for freedom and individuality yet is unable to achieve
this because he is misunderstood by others (Chances 19), so those qualities which lend him his
superiority are wasted and he gives back no significant contribution to society. Eugene Onegin,
Gregoriy Pechorin, and Dmitry Rudin are three superfluous men who fit this description, but in
different ways. While they all cry for individual recognition as misfits in society, Onegin and
Pechorin are misfits by choice, because they suffer from ennui and in boredom criticize society.
Rudins lot is even less fortunate because he does not stop himself from putting his words into
practice, but instead he is made superfluous by society when his ideals are rejected by the milieu
in which he finds himself.

Works Cited

1. Chances, Ellen B. Conformity's Children: An Approach to the Superfluous Man in Russian


Literature. Columbus, OH: Slavica, 1978. pp. 18-19. Print.

2. Lermontov, Mikhail Y. Trans. H.J. Wisdom and Marr Murray. Amazon.com N.p.:
Digireads.com, 2011. pp. 27 Kindle Edition.

3. Pushkin, Alexander S. Trans. Trans. Stanley Mitchell. London, England: Penguin


Classics,2008. pp.23-24 Print.

4. Turgenev, Ivan S. "Rudin." Penn State Electronic Series Publications. Trans. Constance
Garnett. Pennsylvania State University, 2004. pp. 64, 95. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.
<http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/turgenev/Rudin.pdf>.

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