The book Eugene Onegin

¶ … Eugene Onegin

The writing styles employed in Eugene Onegin, written by Alexander Pushkin, and in Crime and Punishment, authored by Fyodor Dostoevsky, are about as extremely different from one another as they can be. The former is a work of poetry written in the first person. The latter is a work of prose written by an omniscient, third-person narrator. These differences in writing styles duly affect the way that readers perceive each of these stories, adding to a degree of clarity and gravity to Dostoevsky's tale as opposed to ambiguity and levity evinced within Pushkin's.

Pushkin's usage of iambic pentameter in Onegin facilitates a steady rhyme scheme that delineates the vicissitudes incurred by the title character. This rhyme scheme, however, is frequently used to emphasize sarcasm and humor, which adds to a definite sense of light-heartedness that is prevalent for the duration of this tale. For instance, when describing Onegin's propensity for academia and for Latin in particular, Pushkin writes

Onegin knew enough to savour the meaning of an epigraph,

make Juvenal his text, or better add vale when he signed a letter; (Pushkin)

This usage of rhyme helps to reinforce the notion that Onegin is not very academic, since one of his principle educational claims is that he is able to complete a written correspondence with the Latin word for 'goodbye'. The rhyming of "better" and "letter" in this quotation alerts the reader to the author's sarcasm about what he is saying is better about Onegin's ability to master Latin. This type of sarcasm and humor is present throughout the gook and is underscored by the rhyme scheme that punctuate these laughable moments.

Dostoevsky's prose, however, is significantly more serious. It allows for the author to make grave statements regarding situations and occurrences in this book that Pushkin could have made light of with his verse and its rhyme scheme. When Raskolnikov gets less than half of the amount he is asking for when he attempts to pawn a watch early on in Dostoevsky's novel, such a failure on his part is treated in all seriousness by the author, who indicates as such by having the young man begrudgingly respond, "Hand it over," he said roughly" (Dostoevsky). The character's terse dialogue and rough delivery informs the reader that this matter is very serious for him. The laconic nature of Raskolnikov's response, underscored by the brief paragraph, is indicative of the grave nature of the most of the events in this book, which are facilitated by the author's prose.