"War and Peace": Characteristics of the Heroes (briefly). "War and Peace": characters
All characters can be roughly divided into the following groups:
- the Bolkonsky family;
- the Rostov family;
- the Bezukhov family;
- the Drubetskoy family;
- the Kuragin family;
- Historical figures;
- Heroes of the 2nd plan;
- Other heroes.
Characteristics of the Bolkonskys
The Bolkonsky clan originates from the princes who were related to Rurik. They are rich and well off. The father’s authoritarian rule reigns in the family, and the atmosphere is tense because of this. The Bolkonskys strictly follow family traditions and customs. Relationships within the family were strained, and the house was divided into two “camps”:- The first "camp" was headed by Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky. His opinion was shared by Mademoiselle Buryen and Mikhail Ivanovich, the prince's architect.
- The second group included: the daughter of Prince Marya, the son of Andrei Bolkonsky Nikolai and all the nannies and maids.
Characteristic of Andrei Bolkonsky
Andrei Bolkonsky is a wealthy heir and son of Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky. His mother is no longer alive, and there is also a sister, Marya, from his relatives, whom he loves very much. Andrey is the best friend of another protagonist of the novel. Andrey is a short, handsome guy. He is described as a person with a constantly bored look, walks slowly and unhurriedly, in contrast to his wife Lisa, who was distinguished by a cheerful and easy character. Bolkonsky looked more like a teenager than a man - the author often mentions that Andrei has small hands, a child's neck. The hero was distinguished by an inquiring mind, he was well-read and educated, he took over some of his father's features - rudeness and severity towards loved ones. Andrei Bolkonsky is a liberal landowner, he loves his peasants and makes their life easier. At the time of writing the novel, Andrei Bolkonsky was 27 years old.Characteristics of Marya Bolkonskaya
Sister of the protagonist Andrei Bolkonsky. She is young and, in the opinion of many heroes, an ugly girl, but with sad and impressive eyes. Marya is rather clumsy and had a heavy gait. Her father taught her. Through home schooling, she learned order and discipline. She knows how to play the clavichord, loves life in the country, unlike her brother. Princess Marya Bolkonskaya was distinguished by her kind and calm character, she believed in God. When communicating with people, she assessed them for their spiritual qualities, and not for their status and position. Nikolai Bolkonsky - prince, head of the family. He was distinguished by a bad character and cruel actions in relation to household members. Prince Nikolai was an old man, with a thin face and body. Bolkonsky always dressed according to his status - he was a retired general-in-chief. The prince was more feared than respected. He was distinguished by his waywardness and a rather domineering position. But at the same time Nikolai Bolkonsky is distinguished by his diligence - he is always busy with something: either writing memoirs, or teaching mathematics to the younger generation, or his favorite hobby - making snuff boxes. Nikolai Andreevich was familiar with Catherine II and Prince Potemkin, which he is very proud of.The prince is deeply worried about the invasion of French troops into the territory of Russia, and dies of a heart attack.Characteristics of Liza Bolkonskaya
Andrei Bolkonsky's wife is a cheerful and cheerful girl. She did not differ in intelligence, but she compensated for everything with kindness and a good attitude. She was a short girl, her lips were with mustache, she always went with a high hairdo. Elizaveta Karlovna comes from the German Meinen family. The family received education and secular manners. Princess Bolkonskaya loved to gossip and chat, but at the same time she was distinguished by her observation. She loved her husband deeply, but was unhappy with him. She died after the birth of her son Nikolai.Characteristic of Nikolai Bolkonsky
Was born in 1806. After the death of his mother - Liza Bolkonskaya, he is brought up by aunt Marya. Marya Bolkonskaya gives him Russian and music lessons. At the age of 7, he sees the death of Andrei's father after being wounded. In the epilogue of the novel, Nikolai is a 15-year-old handsome young man with curly hair, very similar to his father.Characteristics of the Rostov family
A noble noble family. The author describes the Rostov family as an ideal family - good-natured, with good relationships between relatives.Characteristics of Count Ilya Rostov
Ilya Andreevich Rostov is the head of the family, a cheerful and good-natured count. He is rich and has several villages under his command. A full physique, a gray head with bald patches, an always smooth-shaven face and blue eyes - the appearance of Ilya Andreevich. Those around him consider him stupid and funny, but the count was loved for his generosity and kindness. Sometimes this generosity turned into squandering. He loves his wife and children, pampers them and permits everything. Ilya Andreevich does not like to get into arguments, it is better for him to eat and have fun. Because of this fun, he loses all the money and ruins the family. After a series of misfortunes in the Rostov family, he falls ill and dies.Characteristics of Countess Natalia Rostova
Ilya Andreevich's wife, 45 years old. A mother of 12 children, however, the story is only about four. Natalya Rostova had a beautiful oriental appearance, was often tired, but at the same time aroused respect from her relatives. She married the Count when she was 16 years old. Like her husband, he is not distinguished by frugality, he loves to spend money. She tries to be strict with children, but because of her kindness, she does not succeed. Countess Natalya helps others (for example, her friend Drubetskaya). By the end of the work, after experiencing deaths, she becomes like a ghost.Characteristics of Natasha Rostova
Daughter of Count Nikolai Rostov and Natalia Rostova. She was brought up in affection and love, she was a little spoiled, but at the same time she remained a kind and sincere girl. L. Tolstoy describes little Natasha as follows: “with black eyes, a large mouth, a rather ugly, but charming and cheerful girl, with curly hair, thin legs and arms”. By the age of 16, Natasha had changed, she began to wear long dresses, dance at balls. Even more prettier already at the age of 20. She put on beautiful lace dresses, braided her hair, with an intelligent look and a sensitive attitude towards others.Important! Natasha is well versed in people, but when it comes to love relationships, she is lost (like falling in love with Kuragin).After the death of Bolkonsky, she marries Pierre Bezukhov, becomes slovenly and no longer takes care of herself, gives birth to 3 children and lives only for them.
Characteristics of Sonya Rostova
Second cousin of Natasha and Nikolai Rostov. Raised in the Rostov family from birth. A beautiful and sweet girl, intelligent and educated. He helps his friend Natasha in every possible way. Likes to recite poetry in front of an audience. She is secretly in love with Nikolai Rostov, this love is not accepted by Natalia Rostova. As a result, Sonya remains unmarried.Characteristic of Pierre Bezukhov
Another protagonist of the novel. A large young man, wears glasses, strong but awkward. The author often compares Pierre to a bear. He is the illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov, but is his favorite. Pierre lived and studied in Europe for over 10 years. At the age of 20 he came back to Russia. Bezukhov has a beautiful childish smile, sees only good qualities in people, because of this he was often deceived. His wife Helen Kuragina did just that, deceived him and forcibly married him. He cannot find a job to his liking, he is not really fond of anything, he is often idle. When Pierre becomes the heir to the Bezukhovs' fortune, he begins to engage in farming, but even there he often fails. Only after being held captive by the French begins to behave differently, becomes more restrained and calculating. At the end of the novel, he marries Natasha Rostova, after which he is perceived not as a clumsy chatterbox, but as a competent and respected person.Characteristics of the Kuragin family
Another secular family in the novel. Unlike the Bolkonskys and Rostovs, they are not distinguished by nobility and kindness to people. Prince Vasily wants to profitably give away all his children, and does not skimp on deception. There is complete harmony in the family between parents and children, both parties want to get benefits.Characteristic of Vasily Kuragin
Vasily Sergeevich Kuragin - Prince of 50 years. He is married to an ugly and fat lady. Almost bald, he likes to dress up and down, courteous. He had a beautiful deep voice, he always spoke slowly. Self-confident, indifferent, likes to laugh at other people.Communicates only for their own benefit.Characteristic of Anatol Kuragin
The youngest son of Prince Vasily. Handsome, stately with big eyes and beautiful hands. He was always well and neatly dressed. He was educated in Europe, on arrival he becomes an officer. Differs in a cheerful character, loves to drink and gather companies. Due to revelry and drunkenness, he is constantly in debt. For the sake of money, he was ready to marry Princess Marya. Anatole is a vile person, he deceives Natasha Rostova, promising to marry her. Kuragin thinks only of himself. After the battle of Borodino, he is wounded, and he changes.Characteristic of Helen Kuragina
Elena Vasilievna Kuragina (after marriage to Pierre, Bezukhova became), the elder sister of Anatol Kuragina and the daughter of Prince Vasily. Refined appearance, beautiful thin arms, thin neck, marbled skin - her external characteristics noted by the author. Helene was tall and impressed all men. Her outfits were often too revealing, although she was a graduate of the Smolny Institute. Helene is stupid, according to Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky, but others consider her adorable and smart. Helen Kuragina knows how to achieve her goal by any means, even if it is deception and hypocrisy. For the sake of money, she is ready for anything. Thus, all these characters are only part of the vast world of "War and Peace" by L. N. Tolstoy. It should be understood that the secondary characters of the novel also make up a more complete picture. We should not forget about the description of historical figures such as Napoleon and Kutuzov, who also influenced the train of thought of the main characters. We also invite you to watch the video, in which for a better understanding of the content there is a clear systematization of all the heroes of the novel “War and Peace”.Alexander
ARKHANGELSK
Heroes of War and Peace
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Character system
Like everything in the epic "War and Peace", it is extremely complex and very simple at the same time.
It is difficult - because the composition of the book is multifaceted, dozens of plot lines, intertwining, form its dense artistic fabric. It is simple - because all heterogeneous heroes belonging to incompatible class, cultural, property circles are clearly divided into several groups. And we find this division at all levels, in all parts of the epic. These are groups of heroes, equally distant from the life of the people, from the spontaneous movement of history, from the truth - or equally close to them.
Tolstoy's novel epic is permeated by the pervasive idea that the unknowable and objective historical process is controlled directly by God; that a person can choose the right path both in private life and in great history not with the help of a proud mind, but with the help of a sensitive heart. The one who guessed it, felt the mysterious course of history and no less mysterious laws of everyday life, he is wise and great, even if he is small in his social position. The one who boasts of his power over the nature of things, who selfishly imposes his personal interests on life, is small, even if he is great in his social position. Under this tough opposition Tolstoy's heroes are "distributed" into several types, into several groups.
Burners of life
Oh days - let's call them life-burners - are busy only with chatting, arranging their personal affairs, serving their petty whims, their egocentric desires. And at any cost, regardless of the fate of other people. This is the lowest of all ranks in the Tolstoy hierarchy. The heroes related to him are always of the same type; to characterize them, the narrator demonstratively uses the same detail.
The head of the capital's salon, Anna Pavlovna Sherer, appearing on the pages of War and Peace, each time with an unnatural smile moves from one circle to another and treats the guests with an interesting visitor. She is sure that she forms public opinion and influences the course of things (although she herself changes her beliefs precisely in the wake of fashion).
The diplomat Bilibin is convinced that it is they, the diplomats, who are in control of the historical process (but in fact he is busy with idle talk: from one scene to another he collects the folds on his forehead and utters a pre-prepared sharp word).
Drubetskoy's mother Anna Mikhailovna, who stubbornly promotes her son, accompanies all her conversations with a mournful smile. In Boris Drubetskoy himself, as soon as he appears on the pages of the epic, the narrator always highlights one feature: his indifferent calmness of an intelligent and proud careerist.
As soon as the narrator starts talking about the predatory Helen, he will certainly mention her luxurious shoulders and bust. And with any appearance of the young wife of Andrei Bolkonsky, a little princess, the narrator will pay attention to her raised lip with a mustache.
This monotony of the narrative technique does not testify to the poverty of the artistic arsenal, but, on the contrary, to the deliberate goal that the author sets for the narrator. Burners of life themselves are monotonous - and unchanging; only their views change, the being remains the same. They don't develop... And the immobility of their images, the resemblance to deathly masks, is precisely emphasized stylistically.
The only character in the epic who belongs to this “lower” group and for all that is endowed with a mobile, lively character is Fyodor Dolokhov. “Semyonovsky officer, famous player and brute”, he is endowed with an extraordinary appearance - and this alone makes him stand out from the crowd life-burners: “The lines ... of the mouth were remarkably finely curved. In the middle, the upper lip energetically descended on the strong lower lip in a sharp wedge, and in the corners something like two smiles formed, one on each side; and all together, and especially in combination with a firm, arrogant, intelligent gaze, made the impression that it was impossible not to notice this face ”.
Moreover, Dolokhov languishes, misses in that pool worldly life that sucks in the rest burners... That is why he goes all out, gets into scandalous stories (like, for example, the plot with the bear and the quarter in the first part, for which Dolokhov was demoted to the rank and file). In battle scenes, we become witnesses of Dolokhov's fearlessness, then we see how tenderly he treats his mother ... But his fearlessness is aimless, Dolokhov's tenderness is an exception to his own rules. And hatred and contempt for people become the rules.
This is fully manifested in the episode with Pierre (after becoming Helene's lover, Dolokhov provokes Bezukhov to a duel), and at the moment when Dolokhov helps Anatoly Kuragin prepare the abduction of Natasha. And especially - in the scene of the card game: Fyodor brutally and dishonestly beats Nikolai Rostov, vilely taking out on him his anger at Sonya, who refused Dolokhov.
Dolokhov's revolt against the world (and this is also “peace”!) life-burners in the end turns into the fact that he himself wastes his life, lets it into a spray. And it is especially offensive to realize the narrator, who distinguishes Dolokhov from the general row, as if giving him a chance to break out of the terrible circle.
And in the center of this circle, this funnel that sucks in human souls, is the Kuragin family.
The main “generic” quality of the whole family is cold egoism. He is inherent in his father, Prince Vasily, with his court identity. It is not without reason that for the first time the prince appears before the reader “in a courtly, embroidered uniform, in stockings, in shoes, with the stars, with a bright expression of a flat face”. Prince Vasily himself does not calculate anything, does not plan ahead, we can say that instinct acts for him: when he tries to marry Anatole's son to Princess Marya, and when he tries to deprive Pierre of his inheritance, and when, having suffered an involuntary defeat along the way, imposes on Pierre his daughter Helen.
Helen, whose “unchanging smile” emphasizes the unambiguity, the one-dimensionality of this heroine, is not able to change. She seemed to have frozen for years in the same state: a static deathly sculptural beauty. Kuragina also does not specifically plan anything, she also obeys an almost animal instinct: bringing her husband closer and removing him, having lovers and intending to convert to Catholicism, preparing the ground for divorce and starting two novels at once, one of which (any) must be crowned with marriage.
External beauty replaces Helen's internal content. This characteristic also applies to her brother, Anatol Kuragin. A tall, handsome man with “beautiful big eyes”, he is not gifted with intelligence (although not as stupid as his brother Hippolytus), but “on the other hand, he also had the ability of calmness, precious for the light, and unchangeable confidence.” This confidence is akin to the instinct of profit that possesses the souls of Prince Vasily and Helen. And although Anatole does not pursue personal gain, he hunts for pleasures with the same unquenchable passion - and with the same readiness to sacrifice any neighbor. This is what he does to Natasha Rostova, making her fall in love with him, preparing to take her away - and not thinking about her fate, about the fate of Andrei Bolkonsky, whom Natasha is going to marry ...
In fact, the Kuragins play in the vain, “mundane” dimension of the “world” the very role that Napoleon plays in the “military” dimension: they personify secular indifference to good and evil. On a whim the Kuragin draws the surrounding life into a terrible whirlpool. This family looks like a whirlpool. Having approached him at a dangerous distance, it is easy to die - only a miracle saves Pierre, Natasha, and Andrei Bolkonsky (who would certainly have challenged Anatole to a duel if not for the circumstances of the war).
Leaders
The first, the lowest category of heroes - life-burners- in Tolstoy's epic, the last, upper category of heroes corresponds - chiefs ... The way they are portrayed is the same: the narrator draws attention to a single trait of character, behavior or appearance of the character. And every time the reader meets this hero, he stubbornly, almost annoyingly points out this trait.
Burners of life belong to the “world” in the worst of its meanings, nothing in history depends on them, they revolve in the emptiness of the salon. Leaders inextricably linked with war (again in the bad sense of the word); they are at the head of historical collisions, separated from mere mortals by an impenetrable veil of their own greatness. But if the Kuragin really draw the surrounding life into the mundane maelstrom, then leaders of the nations only think that draw humanity into a historical whirlwind. In fact, they are only toys of chance, tools in the invisible hands of Providence.
And here, let's stop for a second to agree on one important rule. And once and for all. In fiction, you have already met and will more than once come across images of real historical figures. In the epic of Tolstoy, these are Alexander I, and Napoleon, and Barclay de Tolly, and Russian and French generals, and the Moscow governor-general Rostopchin. But we must not, we have no right to confuse "real" historical figures with their conventional images that act in novels, stories, poems. And the sovereign emperor, and Napoleon, and Rostopchin, and especially Barclay de Tolly, and other characters of Tolstoy, displayed in War and Peace, are the same fictional heroes like Pierre Bezukhov, like Natasha Rostova or Anatol Kuragin.
They look like real historical figures a little more than Fedor Dolokhov - on his prototype, a reveler and a daredevil R.I. Dolokhov, and Vasily Denisov - against the partisan poet Denis Vasilyevich Davydov. The outer outline of their biographies can be reproduced in a literary composition with scrupulous, scientific accuracy, but the inner content is put into them by the writer, invented in accordance with the picture of life that he creates in his work.
Only having mastered this iron and irrevocable rule, we will be able to move on.
So, discussing the lowest category of the heroes of War and Peace, we came to the conclusion that it has its own “mass” (Anna Pavlovna Sherer or, for example, Berg), its center (Kuraginy) and its periphery (Dolokhov). The highest category is organized, arranged according to the same principle.
Chief of chiefs, which means that the most dangerous, most deceitful of them is Napoleon.
In Tolstoy's epic there is two Napoleonic images. One lives in legend about a great commander, which different characters tell each other and in which he appears either as a powerful genius, or as an equally powerful villain. Not only the visitors of Anna Pavlovna Sherer's salon, but also Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov, believe in this legend at different stages of their journey. At first, we see Napoleon through their eyes, imagine him in the light of their ideal of life.
And another image is a character acting on the pages of an epic and shown through the eyes of a narrator and heroes who suddenly collide with him on the battlefields. For the first time, Napoleon as a character in War and Peace appears in the chapters on the Battle of Austerlitz; first it is described by the narrator, then we see it from the point of view of Prince Andrew.
The wounded Bolkonsky, who recently idolized the leader of the nations, notices on the face of Napoleon, bending over him, "a radiance of self-satisfaction and happiness." Having just gone through a spiritual upheaval, he looks into the eyes of his former idol and thinks "about the insignificance of greatness, about the insignificance of life, which no one could understand the meaning." And "the hero himself seemed so petty to him, with this petty vanity and joy of victory, in comparison with that high, fair and kind heaven that he saw and understood."
And the narrator - both in Austerlitz chapters, and in Tilsit, and in Borodino - invariably emphasizes the ordinariness and comic insignificance of the appearance of a person who is worshiped and hated by the whole world. "Plump, short" figure, "with wide, thick shoulders and involuntarily thrust forward belly and chest, had that representative, dignified appearance that forty-year-old people living in the hall have."
V novel the image of Napoleon does not have a trace of the power that lies in legendary his image. For Tolstoy, only one thing matters: Napoleon, who imagined himself to be the engine of history, is actually pitiful and especially worthless. Impersonal fate (or the unknowable will of Providence) made him an instrument of the historical process, and he imagined himself the creator of his victories. This refers to Napoleon the words from the historiosophical finale of the book: “For us, with the measure of good and bad given to us by Christ, there is no immeasurable. And there is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth. "
A reduced and worsened copy of Napoleon, a parody of him - this is the Moscow mayor Rostopchin. He fusses, fidgets, hangs posters, quarrels with Kutuzov, thinking that the fate of Muscovites, the fate of Russia depends on his decisions. But the narrator sternly and steadily explains to the reader that Moscow residents began to leave the capital not because someone called them to do this, but because they obeyed the will of Providence that they had guessed. And the fire broke out in Moscow, not because Rostopchin so wanted (and even more so not in spite of his orders), but because she could not help but burn: in the abandoned wooden houses where the invaders have settled, fire inevitably breaks out, sooner or later.
Rostopchin has the same attitude to the departure of Muscovites and the Moscow fires, which Napoleon has to the victory at the Austerlitz field or to the flight of the valiant French army from Russia. The only thing that is truly in his power (as well as in the power of Napoleon) is to protect the lives of the townspeople and militias entrusted to him, or to scatter them, whether on a whim or out of fear.
A key scene in which the narrator's attitude towards the leaders in general and to the image of Rostopchin in particular - the lynching execution of the merchant's son Vereshchagin (volume III, chapters XXIV – XXV). In it, the ruler is revealed as a cruel and weak person, mortally afraid of an angry crowd and, out of horror in front of her, ready to shed blood without trial or investigation. Vereshchagin is described in great detail, with obvious compassion ("jingling with shackles ... pressing the collar of his sheepskin coat ... with a submissive gesture"). But after all Rostopchin on his future sacrifice do not look- the narrator specifically several times, with pressure, repeats: "Rostopchin did not look at him." Leaders treat people not as living beings, but as instruments of their power. And therefore they are worse than the crowd, more terrible than it.
No wonder even the angry, gloomy crowd in the courtyard of the Rostopchin house does not want to rush to Vereshchagin, accused of treason. Rostopchin is forced to repeat several times, inciting her against the merchant's son: “Beat him! .. Let the traitor die and don’t shame the name of the Russian! .. Ruby! I order!" But even after this direct call-order, the crowd “groaned and advanced, but again stopped.” She still sees a man in Vereshchagin and does not dare to rush at him: "A tall fellow, with a petrified expression on his face and with a stopped raised hand, stood in front of Vereshchagin." Only after, obeying the order of the officer, the soldier “with a distorted malice on the head hit Vereshchagin with a blunt sword” and the merchant's son in a fox sheepskin coat “shortly and in surprise” cried out, “a barrier of human feeling stretched to the highest degree, which still kept the crowd , broke through instantly. "
The images of Napoleon and Rostopchin stand at opposite poles of this group of heroes in War and Peace. And the bulk chiefs Generals of all kinds, chiefs of all stripes form here. All of them, as one, do not understand the inscrutable laws of history, they think that the outcome of the battle depends only on them, on their military talents or political abilities. It doesn't matter which army they serve at the same time - French, Austrian or Russian. And the personification of all this mass of generals becomes in the epic Barclay de Tolly, a dry “German” in Russian service. He does not understand anything in the spirit of the people and, together with other “Germans”, believes in the scheme of the correct disposition “Die erste Colonne marschiert, die zweite Colonne marschiert” (“The first column comes out, the second column comes out”).
The real Russian commander Barclay de Tolly, in contrast to the artistic image created by Tolstoy, was not a “German” (he came from a Scottish, and a long time ago, Russified family). And in his work, he never relied on the scheme. But this is where the line lies between the historical figure and his way which literature creates. In Tolstoy's picture of the world, “Germans” are not real representatives of a real people, but a symbol alienness and cold rationalism, which only interferes with understanding the natural course of things. Therefore, Barclay de Tolly as novel hero turns into a dry “German”, which he was not in reality.
And at the very edge of this group of heroes, on the border that separates the false chiefs from wise men(we'll talk about them a little below), there is the image of the Russian Tsar Alexander I. He is so isolated from the general row that at first it even seems that his image is devoid of boring unambiguity, that it is complex and multi-component. Moreover, the image of Alexander I is invariably presented in an aura of admiration.
But let's ask ourselves a question: whose is this admiration - of the narrator or of the heroes? And then everything will immediately fall into place.
Here we see Alexander for the first time during a review of the Austrian and Russian troops (volume I, part three, chapter VIII). First it neutral the narrator describes: "The handsome, young emperor Alexander ... with his pleasant face and sonorous, quiet voice attracted all the power of attention." And then we start looking at the king with our eyes in love into it of Nikolai Rostov: “Nikolai clearly, down to all the details, examined the beautiful, young and happy face of the emperor, he experienced a feeling of tenderness and delight, the likes of which he had never experienced. Everything - every feature, every movement - seemed charming to him in the sovereign. " The narrator discovers in Alexandra ordinary features: beautiful, pleasant. And Nikolai Rostov discovers a completely different quality in them, excellent degree: they seem to him beautiful, "lovely".
But here is Chapter XV of the same part, here the narrator and Prince Andrew, who is not in love with the sovereign, look alternately at Alexander I. This time, there is no such internal gap in emotional assessments. The sovereign meets with Kutuzov, whom he clearly dislikes (and we do not yet know how highly the narrator appreciates Kutuzov).
It would seem that the narrator is again objective and neutral: “An unpleasant impression, just like the remnants of fog in a clear sky, ran over the young and happy face of the emperor and disappeared ... the same charming combination of majesty and meekness was in his beautiful gray eyes, lips the same possibility of various expressions and the predominant expression of a complacent, innocent youth ”. Again “a young and happy face”, again a charming appearance ... And yet, pay attention: the narrator lifts the veil over his own attitude to all these qualities of the king. He directly says: "on thin lips" there was "the possibility of a variety of expressions." That is, Alexander I always wears masks behind which his real face is hidden.
What is this face? It is contradictory. It contains both kindness, sincerity - and falsity, lies. But the fact of the matter is that Alexander is opposed to Napoleon; Tolstoy does not want to belittle his image, but he cannot exalt him. Therefore, he resorts to the only possible way: shows the king primarily through the eyes of heroes, as a rule, devoted to him and worshiping his genius. It is they, blinded by their love and devotion, who pay attention only to the best manifestations. miscellaneous Alexander's faces; that they recognize the real in him the leader.
In the chapter XVIII Rostov sees the tsar again: “The sovereign was pale, his cheeks were sunken and his eyes were sunken; but the more charm, meekness was in his features. " This is a typically Rostov gaze - the gaze of an honest but superficial officer in love with his sovereign. However, now Nikolai Rostov meets the tsar far from the nobles, from the thousands of eyes fixed on him; before him - a simple suffering mortal, grievingly experiencing the defeat of the army: “Tol said something long and with ardor to the sovereign”, and he “apparently wept, closed his eyes with his hand and shook Tol’s hand” ... Then we will see the tsar through the eyes of an obligingly proud Drubetskoy (volume III, part one, chapter III), enthusiastic Petya Rostov (chapter XX, the same part and volume), Pierre - at the moment when he was captured by general enthusiasm during the Moscow meeting of the sovereign with the deputations of the nobility and merchants (chapter XXIII ) ...
For the time being, the narrator with his attitude remains in a deep shadow. He only says through clenched teeth at the beginning of the third volume: “The king is the slave of history”, but refrains from direct assessments of the personality of Alexander I until the end of the fourth volume, when the king directly collides with Kutuzov (chapters X and XI, part four). Only here, and even then for a short while, does he show his discreet disapproval. After all, we are talking about the resignation of Kutuzov, who has just won, together with the entire Russian people, a victory over Napoleon!
And the result of the “Aleksandrovskaya” plot line will be summed up only in the epilogue, where the narrator will do his best to maintain justice in relation to the king, bring his image closer to the image of Kutuzov: the latter was necessary for the movement of peoples from west to east, and the first - for the return movement peoples from east to west.
Ordinary people
Both the burners and the leaders in the novel are opposed ordinary people led by the lover of truth, the Moscow lady Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova. In their the world she plays the same role as in the world The Kuragin and Bilibins are played by the Petersburg lady Anna Pavlovna Sherer. They did not rise above the general level of their time, their era, did not know the truth of the life of the people, but instinctively live in conditional agreement with it. Although they sometimes act incorrectly, human weaknesses are inherent in them to the full.
This discrepancy, this potential difference, the combination of different qualities in one person, good and not so, favorably distinguishes ordinary people and from life-burners, and from chiefs... Heroes classified in this category, as a rule, are shallow people, and yet their portraits are painted in different colors, deliberately devoid of uniqueness, uniformity.
Such is - as a whole - the hospitable Moscow family of Rostovs.
The old Count Ilya Andreevich, the father of Natasha, Nikolai, Petit, Vera, is a weak-willed person, allows the managers to rob him, suffers at the thought that he is ruining the children, but he cannot do anything about it. Departure for a village for two years, an attempt to move to St. Petersburg and get a job change little in the general state of affairs.
The count is not very smart, but at the same time he is fully endowed by God with heart gifts - hospitality, cordiality, love for family and children. Two scenes characterize him from this side - and both are permeated with lyricism, the rapture of delight: a description of a dinner in a Rostov house in honor of Bagration and a description of a hunting dog. (Analyze both of these scenes on your own, show with what artistic means the narrator expresses his attitude to what is happening.) And one more scene is extremely important for understanding the image of the old count: the departure from burning Moscow. It was he who was the first to issue a reckless (from the point of view of common sense) order to let the wounded on the carts; Having removed the acquired property from the carts for the sake of Russian officers and soldiers, the Rostovs inflict the last, irreparable blow to their own state ... But not only they save several lives, but unexpectedly for themselves give Natasha a chance to make peace with Andrey.
Ilya Andreich's wife, Countess Rostov, is also not distinguished by a special mind - that abstract, learned mind, to which the narrator treats with obvious distrust. She is hopelessly behind modern life; and when the family is completely ruined, the countess is not even able to understand why they should abandon their own carriage and cannot send a carriage for any of her friends. Moreover, we see the injustice, sometimes the cruelty of the countess in relation to Sonya, completely innocent of the fact that she is a dowry.
And yet, she also has a special gift of humanity, which separates her from the crowd of life-makers, brings her closer to the truth of life. It is the gift of love for one's own children; love instinctively wise, deep and selfless. The decisions that she makes in relation to children are dictated not simply by the desire to benefit and save the family from ruin (although this too); they are aimed at making the life of the children themselves in the best possible way. And when the countess learns about the death of her beloved younger son in the war, her life, in essence, ends; barely avoiding insanity, she instantly grows old and loses active interest in what is happening around.
All the best Rostov qualities were passed on to the children - to everyone, except for the dry, calculating and therefore unloved Vera. (After leaving Berg, she naturally moved from the category ordinary people in number life-burners.) And also - except for the Rostovs' pupil Sonya, who, despite all her kindness and sacrifice, turns out to be a "barren flower" and gradually, following Vera, slides out of the round world ordinary people flat life-burners.
Particularly touching is the younger, Petya, who has completely absorbed the atmosphere of the Rostov house. Like his father and mother, he is not very smart, but he is extremely sincere and sincere; this soulfulness is expressed in a special way in his musicality. Petya instantly surrenders to a heartfelt impulse; therefore, it is from his point of view that we look from the Moscow patriotic crowd at Tsar Alexander I - and share a genuine youthful delight. (Although we feel: the narrator does not treat the emperor as unambiguously as the young character.) Petya's death from an enemy bullet is one of the most poignant and memorable episodes of the Tolstoy epic.
But how does it have a center life-burners, at chiefs, so it has ordinary people inhabiting the pages of War and Peace. This center is Nikolai Rostov and Marya Bolkonskaya, whose life lines, divided over three volumes, in the end still intersect, obeying the unwritten law of affinity.
"A short, curly-haired young man with an open expression", he is distinguished by "swiftness and enthusiasm." Nikolai, as usual, is shallow (“he had that common sense of mediocrity, which told him what was due,” the narrator says bluntly). But on the other hand, he is very emotional, impetuous, cordial, and therefore musical, like all Rostovs.
His life path is traced in the epic in almost as much detail as the paths of the main characters - Pierre, Andrey, Natasha. At the beginning of War and Peace, we see Nikolai as a young university student who is dropping out of his studies for military service. Then before us is a young officer of the Pavlograd hussar regiment, who is eager to fight and envies the seasoned warrior Vaska Denisov.
One of the key episodes of Nikolai Rostov's storyline is crossing the Ens, and then being wounded in the arm during the Battle of Shengraben. Here the hero first encounters an insoluble contradiction in his soul; he, who considered himself a fearless patriot, suddenly discovers that he is afraid of death and that the very idea of death is absurd - him, whom "everyone loves so much." This experience not only does not reduce the image of the hero, on the contrary: it is at that moment that his spiritual maturation takes place.
And yet it's not for nothing that Nikolai likes it so much in the army - and so uncomfortable in ordinary life. The regiment is a special world (another peace in the midst of wars), in which everything is arranged logically, simply, unambiguously. There are subordinates, there is a commander, and there is a commander of commanders - the sovereign emperor, whom it is so natural and so pleasant to adore. And civilian life all consists of endless intricacies, of human sympathies and antipathies, the clash of private interests and common goals of the estate. Coming home on vacation, Rostov either gets entangled in his relationship with Sonya, then he plays out to Dolokhov, which puts the family on the brink of a monetary catastrophe - and in fact flees from worldly life to the regiment, like a monk to his monastery. (The fact that the same "worldly" order is in effect in the army, he does not seem to notice; when in the regiment he has to solve complex moral problems - for example, with officer Telyanin, who stole a wallet - Rostov is completely lost.)
Like any hero who claims to be an independent line in the novel space and actively participate in the development of the main intrigue, Nikolai is “burdened” with a love story. He is a good fellow, an honest man, and therefore, having given a youthful promise to marry the dowry Sonya, he considers himself bound for the rest of his life. And no persuasion of the mother, no hints of relatives about the need to find a rich bride can shake him. Despite the fact that his feeling for Sonya goes through different stages - either completely fading away, then returning again, then disappearing again.
Therefore, the most dramatic moment in the fate of Nikolai comes after the meeting in Bogucharovo. Here, during the tragic events of the summer of 1812, he accidentally meets Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, one of the richest brides in Russia, whom they would dream of marrying; Rostov disinterestedly helps the Bolkonskys to get out of Bogucharov - and both of them, Nikolai and Marya, suddenly feel a mutual attraction. But what's in the environment life-burners(and most ordinary people too) is considered the norm, for them it turns out to be an obstacle, almost insurmountable: she is rich, he is poor.
Only the power of natural feeling is able to overcome this obstacle; having married, Rostov and Princess Marya live in perfect harmony, as Kitty and Levin will then live in Anna Karenina. However, this is the difference between honest mediocrity and an outburst of truth-seeking, that the former does not know development, does not admit doubts. As we have already noted, in the first part of the epilogue between Nikolai Rostov, on the one hand, Pierre Bezukhov and Nikolenka Bolkonsky, on the other, an invisible conflict is brewing, the line of which stretches into the distance, beyond the plot action.
Pierre, at the cost of new moral torment, new mistakes and new searches, is drawn into another turn of the big history: he becomes a member of the early pre-Decembrist organizations. Nikolenka is completely on his side; it is easy to calculate that by the time of the uprising on Senate Square he will be a young man, most likely an officer, and with such a heightened moral sense he will be on the side of the rebels. And sincere, respectable, close-minded Nicholas, once and for all stopped in development, knows in advance that if something happens he will shoot at the opponents of the legitimate ruler, his beloved sovereign ...
Truth-seekers
This is the most important of the categories; no heroes truth seekers no epic "War and Peace" would have existed at all. Only two characters, two close friends - Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov have the right to claim this special “title”. They cannot be called unconditionally positive; to create their images, the narrator uses a variety of colors - but thanks to ambiguities they seem especially voluminous and bright.
Both of them, Prince Andrey and Count Pierre, are rich (Bolkonsky - initially, the illegitimate Bezukhov - after the sudden death of his father), smart, albeit in different ways. Bolkonsky's mind is cold and sharp; Bezukhov's mind is naive, but organic. Like many young people in the 1800s, they are crazy about Napoleon; a proud dream of a special role in world history, which means the conviction that it is personality controls the course of things, is equally inherent in both Bolkonsky and Bezukhov. From this common point, the narrator draws two very different plot lines, which at first diverge very far, and then reconnect, intersecting in the space of truth.
But it is here that it turns out that truth seekers they become against their will. Neither one nor the other is going to seek the truth, they do not strive for moral perfection, and at first they are sure that the truth was revealed to them in the image of Napoleon. They are prompted to an intense search for truth by external circumstances, and perhaps by Providence itself. It's just that the spiritual qualities of Andrei and Pierre are such that each of them is able to respond to the challenge of fate, to respond to her dumb question; only because they ultimately rise above the general level.
Prince Andrew
Bolkonsky is unhappy at the beginning of the book; he does not love his sweet but empty wife; is indifferent to the unborn child, and in the future does not show special paternal feelings. The family "instinct" is as alien to him as the secular "instinct"; he can't get into the category ordinary people for the same reasons that it cannot be in the row life-burners... Neither the cold emptiness of the great light, nor the warmth of the family and clan nest attracts him. But break into the number of the chosen ones chiefs he not only could, but would very much like to. Napoleon, we will repeat it again and again, is a life example and a reference point for him.
Having learned from Bilibin that the Russian army (this is happening in 1805) was in a hopeless situation, Prince Andrey is almost glad of the tragic news. “It occurred to him that it was precisely for him that it was intended to lead the Russian army out of this situation, that here he was, that Toulon, who would lead him out of the ranks of unknown officers and would open the first path to glory for him” (volume I, part two, chapter XII ). How it ends, you already know, we analyzed the scene with the eternal sky of Austerlitz in detail. The truth is revealed to Prince Andrew itself, without any effort on his part; he does not come to the conclusion that all narcissistic “heroes” are insignificant in the face of eternity - this conclusion is an to him at once and in its entirety.
It would seem that Bolkonsky's storyline is exhausted already at the end of the first volume, and the author has no choice but to declare the hero dead. And here, contrary to everyday logic, the most important thing begins - truth-seeking... Having accepted the truth immediately and in its entirety, Prince Andrey suddenly loses it - and begins a painful, long search, returning a side road to the feeling that once visited him on the Austerlitz field.
Returning home, where everyone considered him dead, Andrei learns about the birth of his son and the death of his wife: the little princess with a short upper lip disappears from his life horizon at the very moment when he is ready to finally open his heart to her! This news shocks the hero and awakens in him a feeling of guilt before his deceased wife; leaving military service (along with a vain dream of personal greatness), Bolkonsky settled in Bogucharovo, was engaged in housekeeping, reading, and raising a son.
It would seem that he anticipates the path that Nikolai Rostov will follow at the end of the fourth volume - together with Andrei's sister, Princess Marya. (Compare on your own the descriptions of Bolkonsky's economic concerns in Bogucharov and Rostov in Bald Hills - and you will be convinced of the non-coincidental similarity, you will find another plot parallel.) But that's the difference between ordinary heroes of "War and Peace" and truth seekers that the former stop where the latter continue their unstoppable movement.
Bolkonsky, who has learned the truth of the eternal heaven, thinks that it is enough to give up personal pride in order to find peace of mind. But in reality, village life cannot accommodate his unspent energy. And the truth, received as a gift, not personally suffered, not acquired as a result of a long search, begins to elude him. Andrei withers in the village, his soul seems to be drying out. Pierre, who arrived in Bogucharovo, was struck by the terrible change that had taken place in his friend: “The words were gentle, the smile was on the lips and face of Prince Andrei, but his gaze was extinct, dead, to which, despite his apparent desire, Prince Andrei could not give joyful and cheerful shine ”. Only for a moment a happy feeling of belonging to the truth awakens in the prince - when, for the first time after being wounded, he pays attention to the eternal sky. And then the veil of hopelessness again obscures his life horizon.
What happened? Why does the author “doom” his hero to inexplicable torment? First of all, because the hero must independently "mature" to the truth that was revealed to him by the will of Providence. The soul of Prince Andrey has a difficult job to do, he will have to go through numerous trials before he regains a sense of unshakable truth. And from that moment on, the storyline of Prince Andrei is likened to a spiral: it goes to a new round, at a more complex level repeating the previous stage of his fate. He is destined to fall in love again, again to indulge in ambitious thoughts, again to be disappointed - both in love and in thoughts. And finally, come back to the truth.
The third part of the second volume opens with a symbolic description of Andrey's trip to Ryazan estates. Spring is coming; when entering the forest, Andrei notices an old oak tree at the edge of the road.
“Probably ten times older than the birches that made up the forest, it was ten times thicker and twice the height of each birch. It was a huge oak, in two girths, with branches that had been broken off for a long time, and with broken bark, overgrown with old sores. With his huge clumsy, asymmetrically spread out gnarled hands and fingers, he stood between the smiling birches as an old, angry and contemptuous freak. Only he did not want to submit to the charm of spring and did not want to see either spring or the sun. "
It is clear that in the image of this oak personified Prince Andrew himself, who does not respond to the eternal joy of a renewing life, is dead. But on the affairs of Ryazan estates, Bolkonsky will have to meet with Ilya Andreich Rostov - and, after spending the night in the Rostovs' house, the prince again notices the bright, almost starless spring sky. And then he accidentally hears an excited conversation between Sonya and Natasha.
A feeling of love awakens latently in Andrei's heart (although the hero himself does not yet understand this); as a character of a folk tale, he seems to be sprinkled with living water - and on the way back, already at the beginning of June, the prince again sees an oak tree, personifying himself.
“The old oak tree, all transformed, spread out in a tent of luscious, dark greenery, melted slightly, swaying slightly in the rays of the evening sun ... Through the tough hundred-year-old bark, juicy, young leaves made their way without knots ... All the best moments of his life were suddenly at one and the same time was recalled to him. And Austerlitz with a high sky, and the dead reproachful face of his wife, and Pierre on the ferry, and a girl excited by the beauty of the night, and this night, and the moon ... "
Returning to St. Petersburg, Bolkonsky with renewed vigor becomes involved in social activities; he believes that he is now motivated not by personal vanity, not pride, not "Napoleonism", but a disinterested desire to serve people, to serve the Fatherland. His new hero, leader, idol is the young energetic reformer Speransky. For Speransky, who wants to transform Russia, Bolkonsky ready to follow in the same way as before he was ready to imitate Napoleon in everything, who wanted to throw the whole universe at his feet.
But Tolstoy constructs the plot in such a way that the reader feels something not quite right from the very beginning; Andrey sees a hero in Speransky, and the narrator sees another the leader... This is how Bolkonsky's acquaintance with Speransky is described in chapter V of part three of the second volume:
“Prince Andrei ... watched all the movements of Speransky, this man, an insignificant seminarian and now in his own hands - those plump white hands - who had the fate of Russia, as Bolkonsky thought. Prince Andrey was struck by the extraordinary, contemptuous calmness with which Speransky answered the old man. He seemed to be addressing him with his condescending word from an immeasurable height ”.
What in this quote reflects the character's point of view, and what is the narrator's point of view?
The judgment about the "worthless seminarian" who holds the fate of Russia in his hands, of course, expresses the position of the enchanted Bolkonsky, who himself does not notice how he transfers Napoleon's features to Speransky. And the mocking clarification - "as Bolkonsky thought" - comes from the narrator. "Contemptuous calm" of Speransky is noticed by Prince Andrey, and arrogance the leader("From an immeasurable height ...") - the storyteller.
In other words, Prince Andrew repeats the mistake of his youth at a new stage in his biography; he is again blinded by a false example of someone else's pride, in which his own pride finds food. But here in the life of Bolkonsky, a significant meeting takes place: he meets the very same Natasha Rostova, whose voice on a moonlit night in the Ryazan estate brought him back to life. Falling in love is inevitable; matchmaking is a foregone conclusion. But since the stern father, old man Bolkonsky, does not agree to a quick marriage, Andrei is forced to go abroad and stop cooperation with Speransky, which could seduce him, lead him to his old path. the leader... And the dramatic break with the bride after her failed flight with Kuragin completely pushes Prince Andrey, as it seems to him, to the sidelines of the historical process, to the outskirts of the empire. He is again under the command of Kutuzov.
But in fact, God continues to lead Bolkonsky in a special way, led by Him alone. Having passed the temptation by the example of Napoleon, happily escaping the temptation by the example of Speransky, again losing hope for family happiness, Prince Andrey in the third repeats the drawing of his fate once. Because, having fallen under the command of Kutuzov, he is imperceptibly charged with the quiet energy of the old wise commander, as before he was charged with the stormy energy of Napoleon and the cold energy of Speransky.
Tolstoy does not accidentally use the folklore principle triple test of the hero: after all, unlike Napoleon and Speransky, Kutuzov is truly close to the people, makes one whole with them. More details about the artistic image of Kutuzov in "War and Peace" will be discussed later; for now, let's pay attention to this. Until now, Bolkonsky was aware that he was worshiping Napoleon, guessed that he was secretly imitating Speransky. And the hero does not even suspect that he is following Kutuzov's example, adopting the “nationality” of the great commander. The spiritual work of self-education on the example of Kutuzov proceeds in him hidden, latent.
Moreover, Bolkonsky is sure that the decision to leave Kutuzov's headquarters and go to the front, to rush into the thick of the battles comes to him spontaneously, by itself. In fact, he takes from Mikhail Illarionovich a wise look at a purely folk the nature of the war, which is incompatible with court intrigue and pride chiefs... If the heroic desire to take up the regimental banner on the field of Austerlitz was Prince Andrey's "Toulon", then the sacrificial decision to participate in the battles of the Patriotic War is, if you will, his "Borodino", comparable at a small level of individual human life with the great battle of Borodino, morally won Kutuzov.
It was on the eve of the Battle of Borodino that Andrei met his friend Pierre; between them there is third(again a folklore number!) a meaningful conversation. The first took place in Petersburg (volume I, part one, chapter VI), during which Andrei for the first time threw off the mask of a contemptuous secular man and frankly told a friend that he was imitating Napoleon. During the second (volume II, part two, chapter XI), held in Bogucharov, Pierre saw in front of him a man mournfully doubting the meaning of life, the existence of God, internally dead, having lost the incentive to move. This meeting with Pierre became for Prince Andrey "an era from which, although in appearance and the same, but in the inner world, his new life began."
And here is the third conversation (volume III, part two, chapter XXV). Having overcome involuntary alienation, on the eve of the day when, perhaps, both of them will die, friends again openly discuss the most delicate, most important topics. They do not philosophize - there is neither time nor energy for philosophizing; but their every word, even very unfair (like Andrey's opinion about the prisoners), is weighed on special scales. And Bolkonsky's final passage sounds like a premonition of imminent death: “Oh, my soul, lately it has become hard for me to live. I see that I have begun to understand too much. And it is not good for a person to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ... Well, but not for long! he added. "
The wound on the field of Borodin compositionally repeats the scene of the injury of Andrey on the field of Austerlitz; and there, and here the hero suddenly reveals the truth. This truth is love, compassion, faith in God. (Here is another plot parallel.) But the fact of the matter is that in the first volume before us there was a character to whom the truth appeared in spite of everything; now we see Bolkonsky, who managed to prepare himself to accept the truth - at the cost of mental anguish and rushing. Pay attention: the last one Andrei sees on the Austerlitz field is the insignificant Napoleon, who seemed great to him; and the last one he sees on the Borodino field is his enemy, Anatol Kuragin, also seriously wounded ...
Andrei has a new meeting with Natasha ahead; last meeting. And here, too, the folklore principle of threefold repetition is at work. For the first time, Andrei hears Natasha (without seeing her) in Otradnoye. Then he falls in love with her during the first Natasha's ball (volume II, part three, chapter XVII), explains to her and makes an offer. And now - the wounded Bolkonsky in Moscow, near the Rostovs' house, at the very moment when Natasha orders to give the carts to the wounded. The meaning of this wrap-up meeting is forgiveness and reconciliation; having forgiven Natasha, reconciled with her, Andrey finally grasped the meaning love and therefore is ready to part with earthly life ... His death is depicted not as an irreparable tragedy, but as a solemnly sad the outcome traversed earthly field.
It is not for nothing that Tolstoy carefully introduces the theme of the Gospel into the fabric of his narrative.
We are already accustomed to the fact that the heroes of Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century often pick up this main book of Christianity, which tells about the earthly life, teachings and resurrection of Jesus Christ; just remember Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. However, Dostoevsky wrote about his modernity, while Tolstoy turned to the events of the beginning of the century, when educated people from high society turned to the Gospel much less often. For the most part, they read poorly in Church Slavonic; they rarely resorted to the French Bible; it was only after the Patriotic War that work began on translating the Gospel into living Russian. This work was headed by the future Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret (Drozdov); the release of the Russian Gospel in 1819 influenced many writers, including Pushkin and Vyazemsky.
Prince Andrew is destined to die in 1812; nevertheless, Lev Nikolaevich went for a decisive violation of the chronology, and quotations from the Russian Gospel emerge in Bolkonsky's dying reflections: the birds of the air “neither sow nor reap”, but “your Father feeds them” ... Why? Yes, for the simple reason that Tolstoy wants to show: the gospel wisdom entered Andrei's soul, it became part of his own reflections, he reads the Gospel as an explanation of his own life and his own death. If the writer forced the hero to quote the Gospel in French or even in Church Slavonic, this would immediately separate his inner world from the Gospel world. (In general, in the novel, the heroes speak French the more often, the further they are from the public truth; Natasha Rostova generally utters only one remark in French over the course of four volumes!) truth, with the theme of the gospel.
Pierre Bezukhov
If the storyline of Prince Andrew is spiral and each subsequent stage of his life on a new round repeats the previous stage, then Pierre's storyline is up to the epilogue- looks like a narrowing circle with the figure of the peasant Platon Karataev in the center.
This circle at the beginning of the epic is immeasurably wide, almost like Pierre himself - "a massive, fat young man with a bobbed head and glasses." Like Prince Andrey, Bezukhov does not feel himself truth seeker; he, too, considers Napoleon a great man - and is content with the widespread notion that history is ruled by great people, "heroes."
We get to know Pierre at the very moment when, out of an excess of vitality, he takes part in revelry and almost robberies (the story of the quarter). Vitality is his advantage over the deathly light (Andrei says that Pierre is the only “living person.”) And this is his main trouble, since Bezukhov does not know what to apply his heroic strength to, she is aimless, there is something in her. Pierre had special emotional and mental needs from the outset (that's why he chooses Andrey as his friend), but they are scattered, not clothed in a clear and precise form.
Pierre is distinguished by energy, sensuality, reaching the level of passion, extreme ingenuity and short-sightedness (literally and figuratively); all this dooms Pierre to rash steps. As soon as Bezukhov becomes the heir to a huge fortune, life-burners immediately entwine him with their nets, Prince Vasily marries Pierre to Helene. Of course, family life is not set; accept the rules by which high society live burners, Pierre can't. And now, having parted with Helen, he for the first time consciously begins to look for an answer to his tormenting questions about the meaning of life, about the purpose of man.
“What's wrong? What well? What should I love, what should I hate? Why live and what am I? What is life, what is death? What is the power that controls everything? " he asked himself. And there was no answer to any of these questions, except for one, not a logical answer, not at all to these questions. This answer was: “If you die, everything will end. If you die, you will find out everything, or you will stop asking. " But it was also scary to die ”(volume II, part two, chapter I.).
And here on his life path he meets an old Mason-mentor, Joseph Alekseevich. (Masons were called members of religious and political organizations, "orders", "lodges," which set themselves the goal of moral self-improvement and intended to transform society and the state on this basis.) The metaphor of the life path in the epic is the road along which Pierre travels; Joseph Alekseevich himself approaches Bezukhov at the post station in Torzhok and starts a conversation with him about the mysterious destiny of man. From the genre shadow of the family novel, we immediately move into the space of the novel of education; Tolstoy slightly noticeably stylizes the “Masonic” chapters to look like novel prose of the late 18th - early 19th centuries.
In these conversations, conversations, reading and reflections, Pierre reveals the same truth that appeared in the field of Austerlitz to Prince Andrew (who, perhaps, also went through the "Masonic ordeal"; in a conversation with Pierre Bolkonsky, he mockingly mentions the gloves that Freemasons receive before marriage for his chosen one). The meaning of life is not in a heroic deed, not in becoming a leader, like Napoleon, but in serving people, feeling involved in eternity ...
But the truth is opens slightly, it sounds hollow, like a distant echo. And the further, the more painfully Bezukhov feels the deceit of the majority of Freemasons, the discrepancy between their petty secular life and the proclaimed universal human ideals. Yes, Joseph Alekseevich will forever remain a moral authority for him, but Freemasonry itself eventually ceases to meet Pierre's spiritual needs. Moreover, the reconciliation with Helene, which he went to under the Masonic influence, does not lead to anything good. And having made a step in the social field in the direction set by the Freemasons, starting a reform in his estates, Pierre suffers an inevitable defeat - his impracticality, credulity and lack of system doom the land experiment to failure.
Disappointed Bezukhov first turns into the good-natured shadow of his predatory wife; it seems like a maelstrom life-burners is about to close over him. Then he again starts drinking, carousing, returns to the idle habits of youth - and in the end he moves from St. Petersburg to Moscow. You and I have repeatedly noted that in Russian literature of the 19th century St. Petersburg was associated with the European center of the bureaucratic, political, and cultural life of Russia; Moscow - with a rustic, traditionally Russian habitat of retired nobles and lordly loafers. The transformation of a Petersburg resident Pierre into a Muscovite is tantamount to his rejection of any life aspirations.
And here the tragic and cleansing events of the Patriotic War of 1812 are approaching. For Bezukhov, they have a very special, personal meaning. After all, he has long been in love with Natasha Rostova, hopes for an alliance with whom have been crossed out twice - by his marriage to Helen and Natasha's promise to Prince Andrei. Only after the story with Kuragin, in overcoming the consequences of which Pierre played a huge role, Bezukhov half-explains to Natasha in love: “Is everything lost? he repeated. “If I were not me, but the most beautiful, smartest and best man in the world, and were free, I would be on my knees this minute for your hand and your love” (volume II, part five, chapter XXII).
It is no coincidence that immediately after the scene of explanation with Natasha Tolstaya through the eyes of Pierre, he shows the famous comet of 1811, which foreshadowed the beginning of the war: “It seemed to Pierre that this star fully corresponded to what was in his soul blossoming into a new life, softened and encouraged”. The theme of the nationwide test and the theme of personal salvation merge in this episode.
Step by step, the stubborn author leads his beloved hero to the comprehension of two inextricably linked truths: the truth of a sincere family life and the truth of national unity. Out of curiosity, Pierre went to the Borodino field just before the great battle; observing, communicating with the soldiers, he prepares his mind and his heart for the perception of the thought that Bolkonsky will express to him during their last Borodino conversation: the truth is where “they” are, ordinary soldiers, ordinary Russian people.
The views that Bezukhov professed at the beginning of War and Peace are reversed, before he saw in Napoleon the source of historical movement, now he sees in him the source of historical evil, the Antichrist. And I am ready to sacrifice myself for the salvation of mankind. The reader should understand: Pierre's spiritual path has been traversed only to the middle; the hero has not yet come to an agreement with the narrator, who is convinced (and convinces the reader) that it is not Napoleon at all, that the French emperor is just a toy in the hands of Providence. But the experiences that befell Bezukhov in French captivity, and most importantly, the acquaintance with Platon Karataev, will complete the work that has already begun in him.
During the execution of the prisoners (a scene refuting Andrey's cruel arguments during the last Borodino conversation) Pierre himself recognizes himself as an instrument in the hands of others; his life and his death do not really depend on him. And communication with a simple peasant, a “roundish” soldier of the Absheron regiment, Platon Karataev, finally reveals to Pierre the perspective of a new life philosophy. The purpose of a person is not to become a bright personality, separate from all other personalities, but to reflect in oneself the life of the people in its entirety, to become a part of the universe. Only then can one feel truly immortal: “Ha, ha, ha! - Pierre laughed. And he spoke aloud to himself: - The soldier did not let me in. Caught me, locked me up They are holding me captive. Who me? Me? Me - my immortal soul! Ha, ha, ha! .. Ha, ha, ha! .. - he laughed with tears appearing in his eyes ... Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the departing, playing stars. “And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me! ..” ”(Volume IV, Part Two, Chapter XIV).
It is not for nothing that Pierre's reflections sound almost like folk poems, they emphasize, strengthen the internal, irregular rhythm:
The soldier did not let me in.
Caught me, locked me up
They are holding me captive.
Who me? Me?
The truth sounds like a folk song - and the sky, into which Pierre directs his gaze, makes the attentive reader recall the finale of the third volume, the sight of a comet and, most importantly, the sky of Austerlitz. But the difference between the Austerlitz scene and the experience that visited Pierre in captivity is fundamental. Andrei, as we have already said, at the end of the first volume comes face to face with the truth in spite of their own intentions. He only has a long roundabout way to her. And Pierre comprehends it for the first time eventually painful searches.
But nothing is final in Tolstoy's epic. Remember we said that Pierre's storyline was only seems circular, what if you look at the epilogue, the picture will change somewhat? Now read the episode of Bezukhov's arrival from St. Petersburg and especially the scene of the conversation in the office - with Nikolai Rostov, Denisov and Nikolenka Bolkonsky (chapters XIV-XVI of the first part of the epilogue). Pierre, the same Pierre Bezukhov, who has already grasped the fullness of the truth of the whole people, who renounced personal ambitions, again starts talking about the need to correct social ill-being, about the need to counteract the mistakes of the government. It is not hard to guess that he became a member of the early Decembrist societies - and that a new thunderstorm began to swell on the historical horizon of Russia.
Natasha, with her feminine instinct, guesses the question that the narrator himself would obviously like to ask Pierre. “Do you know what I'm thinking? - she said, - about Platon Karataev. How is he? Would he approve of you now? "
So what happens? The hero began to shy away from the truth he had acquired and suffered through suffering? And the middle one is right, usual Human Nikolai Rostov, who disapproves of the plans of Pierre and his new comrades? Does this mean that Nikolai is now closer to Platon Karataev than Pierre himself?
Yes and no. Yes- because Pierre undoubtedly deviates from the “round”, familial, nationwide peaceful ideal, is ready to join the “war”. Yes- because he had already passed in his Masonic period through the temptation of striving for the public good, and through the temptation of personal ambitions - at the moment when he counted the number of the beast in the name of Napoleon and convinced himself that it was he, Pierre, who was destined to rid mankind of this villain. Not- because the whole epic "War and Peace" is permeated with a thought that Rostov is not able to comprehend: we are not free in our desires, in our choice - to participate or not to participate in historical upheavals.
Pierre is much closer than Rostov to this “nerve” of history; among other things, Karataev taught him by his example submit circumstances, accept them as they are. Entering a secret society, Pierre moves away from the ideal and, in a sense, returns in his development a few steps back, but not because he wants this, but because he can not to evade the objective course of things. And, perhaps, having partially lost the truth, he cognizes it even deeper at the end of his new path.
Therefore, the epic ends with a global historiosophical reasoning, the meaning of which is formulated in his last phrase: "... it is necessary to abandon non-existent freedom and recognize the dependence we cannot perceive."
Wise men
We told you about life-savers, O leaders, about ordinary people, O truth seekers... But there is one more category of heroes in "War and Peace", the mirror opposite the leaders... This - wise men. That is, characters who have comprehended the truth of public life and are an example for other heroes looking for the truth. These are, first of all, captain Tushin, Platon Karataev and Kutuzov.
Head-captain Tushin appears in the scene of the Shengraben battle; we see him at first through the eyes of Prince Andrew - and this is no coincidence. If the circumstances had turned out differently and Bolkonsky would have been internally ready for this meeting, she could have played the same role in his life as the meeting with Platon Karataev would play in Pierre's life. However, alas, Andrei is still blinded by the dream of his own “Toulon”. Having defended Tushin in chapter XXI (volume I, part two), when he is guiltily silent before Bagration and does not want give out chief, - Prince Andrey does not understand that behind Tushino's silence lies not servility, but an understanding of the hidden ethics of folk life. Bolkonsky is not yet ready to meet with his Karataev.
“A little stooped man,” the commander of an artillery battery, Tushin from the very beginning makes an extremely favorable impression on the reader; external awkwardness only sets off his undoubted natural intelligence. No wonder, characterizing Tushin, Tolstoy resorts to his favorite technique, draws attention to the eyes of the hero, this is the mirror of one's heart: “Silently and smiling, Tushin, stepping from bare feet to foot, looked inquiringly with large, intelligent and kind eyes ...” (Volume I, Part Two, Chapter XV).
But why is such attention paid to such an insignificant figure, moreover, in the scene that immediately follows the chapter dedicated to Napoleon himself? Conjecture does not come to the reader immediately. But then he comes to chapter XX, and the image of the staff captain gradually begins to grow to symbolic proportions.
"Little Tushin with a tube bitten on one side" along with his battery forgotten and left without cover; he practically does not notice this, because he is completely absorbed common business, he feels himself an integral part of the whole people. On the eve of the battle, this awkward little man spoke of fear of death and complete uncertainty about eternal life; now he is transforming before our eyes.
The narrator shows this small human large plan: “a fantastic world was established in his head, which was his pleasure at that moment. In his imagination, the hostile cannons were not cannons, but pipes, from which an invisible smoker blew smoke in rare puffs ”. At this moment, it is not the Russian and French armies that are opposing each other - little Napoleon, who imagines himself to be great, and little Tushin, who has risen to true greatness, are opposed to each other. He is not afraid of death, he is only afraid of his superiors, and immediately becomes shy when a staff colonel appears at the battery. Then (Chapter XXI) Tushin cordially helps all the wounded (including Nikolai Rostov).
In the second volume, we will once again meet with Captain Tushin, who lost his hand in the war. (independently analyze Chapter XVIII of Part Two (Rostov arrives at the hospital), pay special attention to how - and why exactly this way - Tushin refers to Vasily Denisov's intention to file a complaint against his superiors).
And Tushin, and another Tolstoy sage- Platon Karataev, endowed with the same "physical" properties: they are small, they have similar characters: they are affectionate and good-natured. But Tushin feels himself an integral part of the common people's life only in the midst of wars and in peaceful circumstances he is a simple, kind, timid and very ordinary person. And Plato is always involved in this life, in any circumstances. And on war and especially able the world... Because he wears peace in my soul.
Pierre meets Plato at a difficult moment in his life - in captivity, when his fate hangs in the balance and depends on many accidents. The first thing that catches his eye (and strangely soothes) is roundness Karataeva, a harmonious combination of the appearance of the external and the appearance of the internal. In Plato, everything is round - both the movements, and the way of life that he builds around him, and even the homely “smell”. The narrator, with his usual persistence, repeats the words “round” and “round” as often as in the scene on the Austerlitz field he repeated the word “sky”.
Andrei Bolkonsky during the Shengraben battle was not ready to meet with his Karatayev, captain Tushin. By the time of the events in Moscow, Pierre had matured to learn a lot from Plato. And above all - a true attitude towards life. That is why Karataev "remained forever in Pierre's soul the most powerful and dear memory and the personification of everything Russian, kind and round." Indeed, even on the way back from Borodino to Moscow, Bezukhov had a dream during which Pierre heard a voice. “War is the most difficult submission of human freedom to the laws of God,” said the voice. - Simplicity is obedience to God, you can't get away from it. AND they simple. They do not say, but do. The spoken word is silver, and the unspeakable is golden. A person cannot possess anything while he is afraid of death. And whoever is not afraid of her, he owns everything. ... Connect everything? - Pierre said to himself. - No, don't connect. You can't connect thoughts, but mate all these thoughts are what you need! Yes, must be matched, must be matched!”
Platon Karataev is the embodiment of this dream; everything is exactly in it conjugated, he is not afraid of death, he thinks in proverbs, which generalize the age-old folk wisdom, it is not for nothing that in his sleep Pierre hears the proverb “The spoken word is silver, and the unspeakable is golden”.
Can Platon Karataev be called a bright personality? No way. On the contrary: he is generally not personality because he does not have his own special, separate from the people of spiritual needs, no aspirations and desires. For Tolstoy, he is more than a person, he is a part of the people's soul. Karataev does not remember his own words spoken a minute ago, since he does not think in the usual sense of the word, that is, he does not line up his reasoning in a logical chain. Simply, as modern people would say, his mind is “connected” to the national consciousness, and Plato's judgments reproduce transpersonal wisdom.
Karataev does not have a "special" love for people - he treats everyone equally lovingly... And to the master Pierre, and to the French soldier, who ordered Plato to sew a shirt, and to the bent-legged dog that became attached to him. Not being personality, he does not see personalities and around him, everyone he meets is the same particle of a single universe, like Plato himself. Death or separation is therefore irrelevant to him; Karataev is not upset when he learns that the person with whom he became close has suddenly disappeared - after all, nothing changes from this! The eternal life of the people continues, and in every new encounter its unchanging presence will be revealed.
The main lesson that Bezukhov draws from communication with Karataev, the main quality that he seeks to learn from his "teacher" is voluntary dependence on the eternal life of the people... Only she gives a person a real feeling freedom... And when Karataev, having fallen ill, begins to lag behind the column of prisoners and is shot like a dog, Pierre is not too upset. The individual life of Karataev is over, but the eternal, national life, in which he is involved, continues, and there will be no end to it. That is why Tolstoy ends the storyline of Karataev with the second dream of Pierre, who saw the captive Bezukhov in the village of Shamsheve. ““ Life is everything. Life is God. Everything moves and moves, and this movement is God ... "
"Karataev!" - Pierre remembered.
And suddenly Pierre introduced himself as a living, long forgotten, meek old teacher who taught Pierre geography in Switzerland ... he showed Pierre a globe. This globe was a living, vibrating ball without dimensions. The entire surface of the sphere consisted of drops tightly compressed together. And these drops all moved, moved and then merged from several into one, then from one they were divided into many. Each drop tried to spill out, to capture the largest space, but others, striving for the same, squeezed it, sometimes destroyed it, sometimes merged with it.
Here is life, - said the old teacher ...
There is God in the middle, and each drop seeks to expand in order to reflect Him in the greatest size ... Here he, Karataev, has spilled over and disappeared. "
In the metaphor of life as a “liquid vibrating ball” made up of separate drops, all the symbolic images of “War and Peace” that we spoke about above are combined: the spindle, the clockwork, and the anthill; a circular movement connecting everything with everything — this is Tolstoy's idea of the people, of history, of the family. The meeting of Platon Karataev brings Pierre very close to comprehending this truth.
From the image of the captain Tushin, we went up, as if a step, to the image of Platon Karataev. But even from Plato in the space of the epic one more step leads upward. The image of the people's field marshal Kutuzov is raised here to an unattainable height. This old man, gray-haired, fat, treading heavily, with a plump, disfigured face, rises above Captain Tushin and even Platon Karataev: truth nationalities, perceived by them instinctively, he consciously comprehended and elevated it to the principle of his life and his military leadership.
The main thing for Kutuzov (unlike all leaders headed by Napoleon) is to deviate from personal proud decision, guess the right course of events and do not interfere them to develop according to God's will, in truth. Having met him for the first time in the first volume, in the scene of the review near Brenau, we see in front of us an absent-minded and cunning old man, an old campaigner, who is distinguished by an “affectation of piety”. And we do not immediately understand that mask the unreasoning campaigner, which Kutuzov puts on when approaching the ruling persons, especially the tsar, is just one of the many ways of his self-defense. After all, he cannot, must not allow the real interference of these self-righteous persons in the course of events, and therefore must kindly evade their will, without contradicting it in words. So it will be dodge and from the battle with Napoleon during World War II.
Kutuzov, as he appears in the battle scenes of the third and fourth volumes, is not an activist, but beholder, he is convinced that victory requires not a mind, not a scheme, but "something else, independent of the mind and knowledge." And above all - “patience and time are needed”. The old commander has both in abundance; he is endowed with the gift of “calm contemplation of the course of events” and sees his main purpose in do no harm... That is, to listen to all the reports, all the main considerations, useful (that is, agreeing with the natural course of things) to support, to reject harmful ones.
And the main secret that Kutuzov comprehended, as he is depicted in "War and Peace", is the secret of maintaining folk spirit, the main force in any struggle against any enemy of the Fatherland.
That is why this old, weak, voluptuous person personifies Tolstoy's idea of an ideal politics, which has comprehended the main wisdom: a person cannot influence the course of historical events and must renounce the idea of freedom in favor of the idea of necessity. Tolstoy "instructs" Bolkonsky to express this idea: watching Kutuzov after the appointment of him as commander-in-chief, Prince Andrei reflects: “He will not have anything of his own. He ... understands that there is something stronger and more significant than his will - this is an inevitable course of events ... And most importantly ... that he is Russian, despite the Zhanlis novel and French sayings ... ”(volume III, part second, chapter XVI).
Without the figure of Kutuzov, Tolstoy would not have solved one of the main artistic tasks of his epic: to oppose the “deceitful form of the European hero who supposedly controls people, which history has invented” - the “simple, modest and therefore truly majestic figure” of the folk hero, who will never settle into this "Deceitful form".
Natasha Rostova
If we translate the typology of the heroes of the epic into the traditional language of literary terms, then by itself an internal regularity will be revealed. The world of the ordinary and the world of lies are opposed dramatic and epic characters. Dramatic the characters of Pierre and Andrei are full of internal contradictions, they are always in motion and development; epic the characters of Karataev and Kutuzov are striking in their integrity. But in the portrait gallery created by Tolstoy in War and Peace, there is a character that does not fit into any of the listed categories. This lyrical the character of the main character of the epic Natasha Rostova.
Does she belong to the life-burners? It is impossible to even think about it. With her sincerity, with her heightened sense of justice! Does she refer to ordinary people, like their relatives, the Rostovs? In many ways, yes; and yet it is not for nothing that both Pierre and Andrei are looking for her love, reaching out to her, singling out from the general row. Wherein truth seeker it - unlike them - can not be called in any way. No matter how much we re-read the scenes in which Natasha acts, nowhere will we find a hint of search moral ideal, truth, truth. And in the epilogue, after marriage, she even loses the brightness of temperament, the spirituality of her appearance; baby diapers replaces the fact that Pierre and Andrei are given reflections on the truth and on the purpose of life.
Like the rest of the Rostovs, Natasha is not endowed with a sharp mind; when in chapter XVII of part four of the last volume, and then in the epilogue, we see her next to the emphatically intelligent woman Marya Bolkonskaya-Rostova, this difference is especially striking. Natasha, as the narrator emphasizes, simply "did not deign to be smart." But she is endowed with something else, which for Tolstoy is more important than the abstract mind, more important even than the search for truth: the instinct of knowing life empirically. It is this inexplicable quality that brings Natasha's image very close to wise men, first of all to Kutuzov - despite the fact that in all other respects she is closer to ordinary people... It simply cannot be “attributed” to any one category: it does not obey any classification, it breaks out of any definition.
Natasha, “black-eyed, with a big mouth, ugly, but alive,” the most emotional of all the characters in the epic; that is why she is the most musical of all Rostovs. The element of music lives not only in her singing, which everyone around recognizes as wonderful, but also in voice Natasha. Remember, Andrei's heart trembled for the first time when he heard Natasha's conversation with Sonya on a moonlit night, not seeing the girls talking. Natasha's singing heals brother Nikolai, who comes to despair after the loss of forty-three thousand, who ruined the Rostov family.
From one emotional, sensitive, intuitive root, her egoism, which was fully revealed in the story with Anatol Kuragin, and her selflessness, which is manifested both in the scene with carts for the wounded in the Moscow fire department, and in episodes showing how she is shown caring for the dying grows Andrey, how he takes care of his mother, shocked by the news of Petya's death.
And the main gift that was given to her and which raises her above all the other heroes of the epic, even the best ones, is a special gift of happiness... They all suffer, torment, seek the truth - or, like the impersonal Platon Karataev, tenderly possess it; only Natasha unselfishly enjoys life, feels its feverish pulse - and generously shares her happiness with everyone around her. Her happiness lies in her naturalness; That is why the narrator so harshly opposes the scene of Natasha Rostova's first ball to the episode of her acquaintance and falling in love with Anatoly Kuragin. Please note: this acquaintance occurs in theater(volume II, part five, chapter IX). That is, where it reigns the game, pretense... This is not enough for Tolstoy; he makes the epic narrator go down the steps of emotion, use in descriptions of what is happening sarcasm, strongly emphasize the idea of unnatural the atmosphere in which Natasha's feeling for Kuragin arises.
No wonder it was to lyrical the heroine, Natasha, is credited with the most famous comparison of "War and Peace". At that moment, when Pierre, after a long separation, meets Rostova with Princess Marya and does not recognize her, and suddenly “the face, with attentive eyes with difficulty, with effort, as a rusted door opens, smiled, and suddenly there was a smell of and doused Pierre with forgotten happiness ... It smelled, engulfed and swallowed him all ”(Chapter XV of the fourth part of the last volume).
But Natasha's true vocation, as Tolstoy shows in the epilogue (and unexpectedly for many readers), was revealed only in motherhood. Having gone into children, she realizes herself in them and through them; and this is not accidental: after all, the family for Tolstoy is the same cosmos, the same integral and saving world, like the Christian faith, like the life of the people.
The image of Pierre Bezukhov in the novel "War and Peace". Composition based on the novel by Tolstoy - War and Peace. Pierre Bezukhov, by his nature, by his disposition, is predominantly an emotional person. Its characteristic features are a mind prone to "dreamy philosophizing", free-thinking, absent-mindedness, weakness of will, lack of initiative. This does not mean that Prince Andrew is incapable of experiencing a deep feeling, and Pierre is a weak thinker; one and the other are complex natures. The terms "intellectual" and "emotional" in this case mean the predominant traits of the spiritual forces of these extraordinary personalities. Pierre stands out sharply from among the people in the Scherer salon, where we first get to know him. This is "a massive, fat young man with a cropped head, glasses, in light pantaloons in the fashion of the time, with a high frill and in a brown dress coat." His look is "smart and at the same time timid, observant and natural." Its main feature is the search for "tranquility, harmony with oneself." Pierre's entire life path is an incessant search for the meaning of life, a search for a life that would be in harmony with the needs of his heart and would bring him moral satisfaction. In this he is similar to Andrei Bolkonsky.
The way of Pierre, like the way of Prince Andrew, this is the way to the people. Even during the period of passion for Freemasonry, he decides to devote his energies to the improvement of the peasants. He considers it necessary to release his serfs to freedom, thinks about establishing hospitals, shelters and schools in his villages. True, the cunning manager deceives Pierre and creates only the appearance of the reforms carried out. But Pierre is sincerely convinced that his peasants are now living well. His real rapprochement with the common people begins in captivity, when he meets the soldiers and Karataev. Pierre arises a desire to simplify himself, to merge completely with the people. The lordly life, secular salons, the luxury of tomyagi do not satisfy Pierre, He painfully feels his isolation from
Images of Natasha and Princess Marie in the novel "War and Peace". But Natasha and Princess Marya have common features.... They are both patriots. Natasha did not hesitate to donate the riches of the Moscow house of the Rostovs for the sake of saving the wounded. And Princess Marya abandons the estate to the mercy of fate when the French approach. When the homeland is in danger, family traits awaken in it - pride, courage, firmness. So it was in Bogucharovo, when a French companion invited her to stay on the estate and trust the mercy of the French general, the mercy of the enemies of Russia, her homeland. And “although it was all the same for Princess Marya wherever she stayed and whatever happened to her, she felt at the same time a representative of her late father and Prince Andrey. She involuntarily thought them with thoughts and felt them with feelings. " And one more feature makes Natasha and Princess Marya related. Princess Marya is getting married to Nikolai Rostov, and Tolstoy, drawing their family life, speaks of the happiness that she, like Natasha, found in the family. This is how Tolstoy decides the question of the appointment of a woman, limiting her interests to the framework of family life.
Let's remember another episode of the meeting of Nikolai Rostov with Sonya, when he, having arrived on vacation, does not know how to behave with his girlfriend. "He kissed her hand and called her you - Sonya, But their eyes, meeting, said" you "to each other and kissed tenderly."
Favorite heroes of Tolstoy are people with a complex mental world... In revealing such characters, Tolstoy resorts to different methods: to direct characterization from the author, to auto-characterization of the hero, to internal dialogues and reflections, etc. Internal monologues and internal dialogues allow the author to discover such intimate thoughts and moods of the heroes, which can be conveyed in a different way ( for example, using direct author's characteristics) would be difficult without violating the laws of artistic realism. Tolstoy resorts to such monologues and dialogues very often. The reflections of the wounded Prince Andrey in chapter XXXII of the third volume of the novel can serve as an example of an "internal monologue" with elements of dialogue. Here is another example of an "internal monologue" - the reflections of Natasha, childishly directly talking about herself: "What a lovely Natasha!" - She said to herself again in the words of some third collective male face. - She is good, her voice is young, and she does not bother anyone, leave only her alone ”(Chapter XXIII of the second volume).
The image of Andrei Bolkonsky. The external world with its things and phenomena is also skillfully used by Tolstoy to characterize heroes. So, describing Natasha's mood after the unexpected departure of Andrei Bolkonsky (before the matchmaking), Tolstoy reports that Natasha completely calmed down and “put on that old dress, which was especially known to her for the joy she brought in the morning.” Tolstoy is a brilliant landscape painter. He will notice young “green sticky leaves” of birch, and shrubs greening somewhere, and “juicy, dark green oak”, and moonlight that burst into the room, and the freshness of a spring night. Let us recall the wonderfully described hunting in Otradnoye. Both people, animals, and nature act here as indicators of the powerful force of life, its full blood. The landscape performs various functions in the novel. The most common feature of Tolstoy's landscape is the correspondence of this landscape to the mood of the hero. The disappointment, the gloomy mood of Prince Andrey after the break with Natasha colors the surrounding landscape in gloomy tones. “He looked at the strip of birches, with their motionless yellowness, greenery and white bark, shining in the sun. "To die ... to be killed, tomorrow, so that I would not be ... so that all this would be, but I would not be ..." He is tormented by terrible forebodings and painful thoughts of death. And these birches with their light and shadow, and these curly clouds, and this smoke of bonfires - all this around was transformed for him and seemed to be something terrible and threatening. And the poetry of Natasha's nature, on the contrary, is revealed against the background of a moonlit spring night in Otradnoye. In other cases, the landscape directly affects the person, enlightening and wisdom him. Prince Andrew, wounded at Austerlitz, looks at the sky and thinks: “Yes! Everything is empty, everything is deception, except for this endless sky. " The oak, which Prince Andrey meets twice on his way, reveals to him the “meaning of life” in completely different ways: in one case it seems to Prince Andrey the personification of hopelessness, in the other - a symbol of joyful faith in happiness.
Finally, Tolstoy uses the landscape as a means of characterizing the real situation. Let us recall, for example, the heavy fog that spread like a continuous milky-white sea over the outskirts of Austerlitz. Thanks to this fog, which covered the positions of the French, the Russian and Austrian troops were put in a worse position, since they did not see the enemy and unexpectedly faced him face to face. Napoleon, standing at a height where it was completely light, could unmistakably lead the troops.
The image of Napoleon in the novel "War and Peace". Napoleon confronts in the novel Napoleon... Tolstoy debunks this commander and an outstanding historical figure. Drawing the appearance of Napoleon, the author of the novel says that he was a "little man" with an "unpleasantly feigned smile" on his face, with "fat breasts", "round belly" and "fat spoons of short legs." Tolstoy shows Napoleon as a narcissistic and arrogant ruler of France, intoxicated with success, blinded by glory, attributing to his personality a driving role in the course of historical events. Even in small scenes, in the slightest gestures, one can feel, according to Tolstoy, Napoleon's insane pride, his acting, the conceit of a man who is accustomed to believing that every movement of his hand scatters happiness or sows grief among thousands of people. The servility of those around him lifted him to such a height that he really believed in his ability to change the course of history and influence the fate of peoples.
In contrast to Kutuzov who does not attach decisive importance to his personal will, Napoleon puts himself above all, his personality, considers himself a superman. “Only what was happening in his soul was of interest to him. Everything that was outside of him did not matter to him, because everything in the world, as it seemed to him, depended only on his will. " The word "I" is Napoleon's favorite word. In Napoleon, selfishness, individualism and rationality are emphasized - features that are absent in Kutuzov, the people's commander who thinks not about his own glory, but about the glory and freedom of the fatherland. Revealing the ideological content of the novel, we already Tolstoy "" noted the originality in Tolstoy's interpretation of certain themes of the novel. Thus, we have already said that Tolstoy, going against the revolutionary peasant democracy, obscures in his novel the acuteness of the class contradictions between the peasantry and the landowners; revealing, for example, Pierre Bezukhov's restless thoughts about the plight of serfs, he at the same time paints pictures of idyllic relationships between landowners and peasants in the estate and house of the Rostovs. We also noted the features of idealization in the image of Karataev, the originality of the interpretation of the role of personality in history, etc.
How can these features of the novel be explained? Their source must be sought in Tolstoy's worldview, which reflected the contradictions of his time. Tolstoy was a great artist. His novel "War and Peace" is one of the greatest masterpieces of world art, a brilliant work in which the breadth of an epic scope was combined with an amazing depth of penetration into the mental life of people. But Tolstoy lived in Russia in a transitional era, in an era of breaking the social and economic foundations of life, when the country was moving from a feudal-serf system to capitalist forms of life, violently protesting, in Lenin's words, “against any class domination,” Tolstoy, a landowner and an aristocrat , found a way out for himself in the transition to the position of the patriarchal peasantry. Belinsky, in his articles about Tolstoy, revealed with remarkable depth all the contradictions that were reflected in the worldview and work of Tolstoy in connection with his transition to the position of the patriarchal peasantry. These contradictions could not but be reflected in the artistic structure of the novel "War and Peace". Tolstoy, the great realist and Protestant, ultimately defeated Tolstoy, the religious philosopher, and created a work unparalleled in world literature. But while reading the novel, we still cannot help but feel the contradictions in the worldview of its author.
The image of Kutuzov in the novel "War and Peace". In the novel, Tolstoy ridicules the cult of "great personalities" created by bourgeois historians. He correctly believes that the masses of the people decide the course of history. But his assessment of the role of the masses takes on a religious connotation. He comes to the recognition of fatalism, arguing that all historical events are predetermined from above. The expression of his views in the novel Tolstoy makes the commander Kutuzov. The basis of his view is the consciousness that the creator of history, historical events is the people, and not individuals (heroes) and that all rationalistically constructed theories, no matter how good they seem, are nothing in front of the force, which is the mood, the spirit of the masses.
"Long-term military experience, - writes Tolstoy about Kutuzov, - he knew and with his senile mind understood that it was impossible for one person to lead hundreds of thousands of people fighting death, and he knew that the fate of the battle was not decided by the orders of the commander-in-chief, not the place where the troops were stationed, not the number guns and killed people, and that elusive force, called the spirit of the army, and he followed this force and directed it, as far as it was in his power. " Tolstoy also attributed to Kutuzov his erroneous fatalistic view of history, according to which the outcome of historical events was predetermined in advance. Andrei Bolkonsky says about Kutuzov: “He will not invent anything, will not undertake anything, but he will listen to everything, remember everything, put everything in its place, will not interfere with anything useful and will not allow anything harmful. He understands that there is something stronger and more significant than his will - this is the inevitable course of events - and he knows how to see them, knows how to understand their meaning and, in view of this meaning, knows how to renounce participation in these events, from his personal will aimed at other ... "
Denying the role of personality in history, Tolstoy strove to make Kutuzov only a wise observer of historical events, only a passive contemplator of them. This, of course, was Tolstoy's mistake. It inevitably had to lead to a contradictory assessment of Kutuzov. And so it happened. In the novel, a commander appears who extremely accurately evaluates the course of military events and unmistakably directs them. With the help of a well-thought-out counter-offensive plan, Kutuzov is destroying Napoleon and his army. Consequently, in a number of essential features, Kutuzov is shown historically correctly in the novel: he possesses great strategic skill, thinks through the campaign plan for long nights, acts as an active figure, hiding tremendous volitional tension behind the external calmness. So the realist artist overcame the philosophy of fatalism. The bearer of the people's spirit and the will of the people, Kutuzov deeply and correctly understood the course of things, in the midst of events he gave them a correct assessment, which was subsequently confirmed. So, he correctly assessed the significance of the Battle of Borodino, saying that it was a victory. As a commander, Kutuzov is superior to Napoleon. To wage a people's war, like the war of 1812, Tolstoy says, such a commander was needed. With the expulsion of the French, Kutuzov's mission was completed. The transfer of the war to Europe required a different commander-in-chief. “The representative of the Russian people, after the enemy was destroyed, Russia was liberated and placed on the highest level of its glory, the Russian person, as a Russian, had nothing more to do. The representative of the people's war had no choice but death. And he died. "
Portraying Kutuzov as the people's commander, as the embodiment of people's thoughts, will and feelings. Tolstoy never falls into schematism. Kutuzov is a living person. This impression is created with us primarily because Tolstoy clearly, vividly draws us a portrait of Kutuzov - his figure, gait and gestures, facial expressions, his eyes, now glowing with a pleasant affectionate smile, now taking on a mocking expression. Tolstoy gives it to us either in the perception of persons different in character and social position, or draws from himself, delving into the psychological analysis of his hero. Kutuzov's scenes and episodes depicting the commander in conversations and conversations with people close and pleasant to him, like Bolkonsky, Denisov, Bagration, his behavior on military councils, in the battles of Austerlitz and Borodino, make Kutuzov deeply human and alive. Kutuzov's speech is diverse in its lexical composition and syntactic structure. He is fluent in high society speech when he speaks or writes to the king, generals and other representatives of the aristocratic society. “I say only one thing, General,” says Kutuzov with a pleasant grace of expression and intonation that made you listen attentively to every leisurely spoken word. “I only say one thing, General, that if the matter depended on my personal desire, then the will of His Majesty Emperor Franz would have been fulfilled long ago. " But he is also fluent in simple folk language. “And that's what, brothers. I know it's difficult for us, but what can we do! Be patient: it's not long left ... Let's see the guests out, we'll rest then, ”he said to the soldiers, meeting them on the way from Krasnoye to Dobry. And in a letter to old man Bolkonsky, he discovers archaic features of the clerical style of this era: “I flatter myself and you with the hope that your son is alive, because otherwise, among the officers found on the battlefield, about whom the list was submitted to me through parliamentarians, and he would was named ".
Field Marshal Prince, Adjutant Wing Count, son-in-law of the commander Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov. All three led the soldiers into the attack under heavy fire with a battle banner in their hands. All three were wounded, only Prince Volkonsky survived. one
Tolstoy about the hero: “There I will be sent,” he thought, “with a brigade or a division, and there, with a banner in hand, I will go forward and break everything in front of me.”
“At that time a new face entered the drawing-room. The new face was the young prince Andrei Bolkonsky, the husband of the little princess. Prince Bolkonsky was short, a very handsome young man with definite and dry features. ... not only were familiar, but he was so tired of him that he was very bored to look at them and listen to them. "
Take a look at the painting by Adolph Ladürner, The Armorial Hall of the Winter Palace, with Prince Pyotr Volkonsky in the center. See how accurate Tolstoy is.
All photographs of the heroes of the novel are taken from the film "War and Peace" (1965).
Count Nikolay Rostov
Prototype: father of the writer, count.
Tolstoy about the hero: "... So much nobility, true youth, which you meet so rarely in our century between our twenty-year-olds! .."
Count Pierre Bezukhov
Tolstoy about the hero:"... When moments of cruelty were found on him, like those in which he tied the quartermaster with a bear and let him out into the water, or when he challenged a man to a duel for no reason, or killed the driver's horse with a pistol ..."; "... Dolokhov (also a partisan with a small party)."
Princess Helen Kuragina (Countess Bezukhova)
Prototype: H; beloved of the chancellor, Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, who became the morganatic wife of Duke Nikolai Maximilianovich of Leuchtenberg, grandson of Nicholas I (Tolstoy has a "young blond man with a long face and nose") 3.
Tolstoy about the heroine: "In St. Petersburg, Helen enjoyed the special patronage of a nobleman who held one of the highest positions in the state. In Vilna, she became close to a young foreign prince. When she returned to St. Petersburg, the prince and nobleman<>both claimed their rights, and for Helen a new task, even in her career, presented itself: to maintain her close relationship with both, without offending either one. "
Vasily Denisov
Prototype:, a participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, a hussar who, like the hero of the novel, fought in a partisan detachment.
Tolstoy about the hero: "... Denisov, to Rostov's surprise, in a new uniform, pomaded and perfumed, appeared in the living room as dandy as he was in battles ..."
Artillery Staff Captain Tushin
Prototypes: Major General of Artillery Ilya Timofeevich Radozhitsky and Staff Captain of Artillery Yakov Ivanovich Sudakov. In character he resembled the brother of the writer Nikolai Nikolaevich.
Tolstoy about the hero:"... Tushin appeared on the threshold, timidly making his way from behind the generals. Walking around the generals in a cramped hut, confused, as always, at the sight of his superiors ..."
Baron Alphonse Karlovich Berg
Prototype: Field Marshal, Baron, then Count 4. In the rank of second lieutenant of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment, he was wounded at Austerlitz in his right hand, but, having shifted the sword to his left hand, remained in the ranks until the end of the battle. For this he was awarded the Golden Sword "For Bravery" 5.
Tolstoy about the hero: “It was not for nothing that Berg showed everyone his right hand, wounded in the Battle of Austerlitz, and held a completely unnecessary sword in his left. ".
Anna Pavlovna Sherer
Prototype: maid of honor of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of the great poet.
Tolstoy about the heroine:"... The famous Anna Pavlovna Sherer, the lady-in-waiting and confidant of the Empress Maria Feodorovna ..."
Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova
Prototype:, which had a scandalous reputation in high society. "She was portrayed with photographic accuracy, right down to the surname and the pumping of the sleeves, as you know, LN Tolstoy in" War and Peace "6.
Tolstoy about the heroine:Akhrosimova is known "not for wealth, not for honors, but for her directness of mind and frank simplicity of treatment."
LEVOCHKA MAY BE WILL DESCRIBE US WHEN HE IS 50 YEARS OLD. SA TOLSTAYA - TO SISTER. NOVEMBER 11, 1862
1. The Patriotic War of 1812 and the liberation campaign of the Russian army in 1813-1814. Encyclopedia: In 3 volumes. T. 1. M .: Russian political encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2012. P. 364; In the same place. T. 3.P. 500.
2. The Patriotic War of 1812 and the liberation campaign of the Russian army in 1813-1814. Encyclopedia: In 3 volumes.Vol. 1.M .: Russian political encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2012. P. 410.
3. Ekshtut S.A. Nadine, or the Novel of a High-class Lady through the Eyes of the Secret Political Police. M .: Consent, 2001.S. 97-100.
4. The Patriotic War of 1812 and the liberation campaign of the Russian army in 1813-1814. Encyclopedia: In 3 volumes.Vol. 1.M .: Russian political encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2012. P. 623.
5. Ekshtut S.A. Everyday life of the Russian intelligentsia from the era of the Great Reforms to the Silver Age. M .: Molodaya gvardiya, 2012.S. 252.
6. Gershenzon M.O. Griboedovskaya Moscow. M .: Moscow worker, 1989.S. 83.
One of the main characters in the novel. Pierre is the illegitimate son of the rich and influential Count Bezukhov, from whom he received the title and inheritance only after his death. The young count lived abroad until the age of 20, where he received an excellent education. Arriving in St. Petersburg, he almost immediately became one of the richest young people, and was very confused, because he was not ready for such a great responsibility and did not know how to manage estates and dispose of serfs.
One of the main heroines of the novel, when we meet with her, she is only 13 years old. She was the daughter of a not very wealthy count, so it was believed that she should find herself a rich groom, although her parents first of all cared about her happiness.
One of the main characters of the work. He was the son of Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky, their family belonged to a very rich, noble and respected family. Andrey received an excellent education and upbringing. Bolkonsky possessed such qualities as pride, courage, decency and honesty.
The daughter of Prince Vasily, a socialite, a typical representative of the secular salons of her time. Helen is very beautiful, but her beauty is only external. At all receptions and balls, she looked dazzling, and everyone admired her, but when they got to know better, they realized that her inner world was very empty. She was like a beautiful doll, whose purpose is to lead a monotonous, cheerful life.
The son of Prince Vasily, an officer, a ladies' man. Anatole always gets into some unpleasant stories, from which his father always pulls him out. His favorite pastime is playing cards and carousing with his friend Dolokhov. Anatole is stupid and not talkative, but he himself is always sure of his uniqueness.
The son of Count Ilya Ilyich Rostov, an officer, a man of honor. At the beginning of the novel, Nikolai leaves the university and goes to serve in the Pavlograd hussar regiment. He was distinguished by courage and courage, although in the Shengraben battle he, having no idea of the war, rushes too bravely into the attack, therefore, seeing a Frenchman in front of him, throws a weapon at him and rushes to run, as a result of which he is wounded in the arm.
A prince, an influential person in society, holding important court posts. He is known for his patronage and condescension, when talking to everyone he was attentive and respectful. Prince Vasily did not stop at anything to achieve his goals, although he did not want any harm to anyone, just to carry out his plans he used the circumstances and his connections.
Daughter of old prince Nikolai Bolkonsky and sister of Andrey. Since childhood, she lived on her father's estate, where she had no friends, except for her companion, Mademoiselle Bourier. Marya considered herself ugly, but her huge expressive eyes gave her a little attractiveness.
Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky was a retired general exiled to the village of Lysye Gory. The prince lived on the estate constantly with his daughter Marya. He loved order, punctuality, never wasted his time on trifles and therefore raised children according to his harsh principles.
For the first time we meet Fedor Dolokhov in the company of Anatol Kuragin and several young officers, to whom Pierre Bezukhov will soon join. Everyone is playing cards, drinking wine and having fun: out of boredom, Dolokhov, on a bet, drinks a bottle of rum while sitting on the third-floor window with his legs out. Fedor believes in himself, does not like to lose and is very fond of taking risks, so he wins the argument.
Niece of Count Rostov, who from childhood lived and was brought up in their family. Sonya was very quiet, decent and restrained, outwardly she was beautiful, but her inner beauty cannot be seen, since she did not have the love of life and spontaneity, like Natasha.
The son of Prince Vasily, a socialite living in St. Petersburg. If his brother Anatole and sister Helene shone in society and were very beautiful, then Hippolytus was the complete opposite. He always dressed ridiculously, and this did not bother him at all. His face always expressed idiocy and disgust.
Anna Pavlovna Sherer is the first heroine we meet on the pages of the novel “War and Peace.” Anna Sherer is the owner of the most fashionable high-society salon in St. Petersburg, the lady-in-waiting and confidant of Empress Maria Feodorovna. In her salon, political news of the country is often discussed, and visiting this salon is considered good form.
Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov in the novel "War and Peace" is presented not only as the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, but also as a character connected by ordinary relations with other heroes of the novel. For the first time we meet with Kutuzov at the inspection near Braunau, where he seems absent-minded, but shows his knowledge and pays great attention to all the soldiers.
In the novel War and Peace, Napoleon Bonaparte is a negative hero, as he brings hardships and the bitterness of war to Russia. Napoleon is a historical character, French emperor, hero of the war of 1812, although he did not win.
Tikhon Shcherbaty is an ordinary Russian man who joined Denisov's detachment to fight for the Motherland. He got his nickname for the fact that he was missing one front tooth, and he himself looked a little scary. In the detachment, Tikhon was indispensable, as he was the most agile and could easily cope with the dirtiest and most difficult work.
In the novel, Tolstoy showed us many different images, with different characters and views on life. Captain Tushin is a controversial character who played a large role in the war of 1812, although he was very cowardly. Seeing the captain for the first time, no one could think that he could accomplish at least some feat.
In the novel, Platon Karataev is considered an episodic character, but his appearance is of great importance. A modest soldier of the Absheron regiment shows us the unity of the common people, the desire for life and the ability to survive in difficult conditions. Plato had the ability to become attached to people, to devote himself completely to the common cause.
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