Landscape after the ball. The role of composition in L's story
Composition
In Russian fiction rare works that lack a landscape. The depiction of paintings of animate and inanimate nature helps the author to create a certain mood, to convey the state of mind of the hero, to reveal the idea of the work.
For example, in Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball," the narrative is clearly divided into two episodes: a ball at the provincial leader's and the brutal punishment of a soldier. This incident drastically changed the life of the narrator Ivan Vasilyevich. Descriptions of the two events are sharply contrasted with each other. The beauty, charm of Varenka (“I saw only a tall, slender figure in a white dress with a pink belt, her radiant, dimpled face and affectionate, sweet eyes”) - and the suffering of a fugitive soldier brought to inhuman suffering (“It was something like that motley, wet, red, unnatural, that I did not believe that it was a human body ")
The feelings of the hero are contrasting. At the ball, the concepts of “love” and “happiness” define everything, but after the morning impression, bright feelings are replaced by “melancholy” and “horror”.
All this important day for the storyteller, he was accompanied by music (“In my soul I sang all the time and occasionally heard the motive of the mazurka”). And after the ball, the sounds of the flute and the drum accompany the punishment of the Tatar (“All the way in my ears a drumbeat beat and a flute whistled (...) it was some other cruel, bad music”).
The story "Caucasus" is devoted to the key theme of I. A. Bunin's work - love. It tells of forbidden love young man and a married woman. The lovers decided to secretly leave the capital for several weeks to the warm sea. There are almost no replicas in this small work, the feelings of the heroes are conveyed through landscape sketches. The descriptions of dank autumn Moscow and exotic pictures of the Caucasus are in contrast. “In Moscow, it rained cold, ... it was dirty, gloomy, the streets were wet and gleaming black with the open umbrellas of passers-by ... And it was a dark, disgusting evening when I was driving to the station, everything inside me froze from anxiety and cold.” In this passage, the inner state of the hero (excitement, fear and, perhaps, remorse from a dishonest act) merges with the Moscow bad weather.
The Caucasus, however, greeted the "fugitives" with a wealth of colors and sounds. Nature cannot feel, she is silently beautiful. A man breathes his mood into it. Suffice it to compare the Caucasus in the recollections of the narrator, when he was lonely ("autumn evenings among black cypress trees, near cold gray waves ..."), and the beautiful, fantastic Caucasus today, when his beloved woman is nearby ("In the woods, a fragrant mist shone azure, dispersed and melted , beyond the distant wooded peaks the eternal whiteness of the snowy mountains shone; "the nights were warm and impenetrable, in the black darkness fire flies were floating, twinkling, shining with topaz light, tree frogs were ringing glass bells"). The passionate feelings of the heroes make nature so surprisingly poetic, fabulous.
Topic " little man"," The tramp "is dedicated to the story" Chelkash "by M. Gorky (1895). It begins with a detailed description of the dock of a large port city: the rumble of cars, a metallic grinding, heavy giant steamers. "Everything breathes with the fashionable sounds of the anthem to Mercury" - the god of trade. The mighty sea element is tamed by metal ("The waves of the sea chained in granite are suppressed by the enormous weights sliding along their ridges, they beat against the sides of ships, against the coast, beat and murmur, foamed, polluted with various rubbish") People have become slaves of the enrichment tools they have created, they are "funny and pitiful "," insignificant in comparison with the surrounding iron colossus, heaps of goods, rattling wagons ... ". This landscape reveals to us how the greatness and beauty of nature is suppressed by human activity.
Thus, landscapes in a work of art help to penetrate deeply into the souls of the heroes and their experiences, to better understand ideological plan the author.
Other compositions on this work
"From that day on, love began to wane ..." (Based on the story of Leo Tolstoy "After the Ball") "After the ball". Leo Tolstoy After the ball “Against what is Leo Tolstoy's story“ After the Ball ”directed? What, according to the author, do changes in human relations depend on? Author and narrator in Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball" Ivan Vasilievich at the ball and after the ball (based on the story "After the Ball") Ideological and artistic originality of Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball" Personality and Society in Leo Tolstoy's Story "After the Ball" My impression of Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball" The image of Ivan Vasilievich (Based on the story of Leo Tolstoy "After the Ball") Colonel at the ball and after the ball Colonel at the ball and after the ball (based on the story of Leo Tolstoy "After the Ball") Why did Ivan Vasilyevich have a reassessment of values? (based on the story of Leo Tolstoy "After the Ball") Why is L.N. Tolstoy named "After the Ball" Why is Leo Tolstoy's story called "After the Ball" and not "The Ball"? Reception of contrast in Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball" L. Tolstoy's story "After the Ball" Life-Changing Morning (based on the story "After the Ball") The Morning That Changed Life (based on the story of Leo Tolstoy "After the Ball") What is honor, duty and conscience in my understanding (analyzing the story of Leo Tolstoy "After the Ball") Reflections of Ivan Vasilyevich in Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball" The role of chance in a person's life (On the example of Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball") Composition and meaning of Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball" Features of the composition of the story "After the ball" by L. N. Tolstoy The role of contrast in the works of Russian writers of the 19th century (On the example of Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball") Composition and meaning of a work of art (On the example of Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball") Presentation of the concept of the story "After the Ball" by Tolstoy Problems of Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball"Choose only ONE of the tasks below (2.1-2.4). In the answer form, write down the number of the assignment you have chosen, and then give a full detailed answer to the problematic question (at least 150 words), attracting the necessary theoretical and literary knowledge, relying on literary works, the position of the author and, if possible, revealing his own vision of the problem. When answering a question related to the lyrics, you must analyze at least 2 poems (their number can be increased at your discretion).
2.4. Why, out of different versions of the names - "Daughter and Father", "A Story about the Ball and Through the Line", "And you say ..." - Tolstoy settled on the name "After the Ball"?
2.5. What are the plots from the works of Russian and foreign literature are relevant to you and why? (Based on the analysis of one or two works.)
Explanation.
Comments on essays
2.1. Was the tragic ending of Mtsyri's fate predetermined? Justify your point of view.
The events described in the poem took place during the period of Georgia's voluntary annexation to Russia.
The tragedy of the fate of the protagonist is that he was captured ("he (the general) was carrying the child of the captive"). But Mtsyri had a special character, he refused to eat, because of these circumstances, "the mighty spirit of his fathers" developed in him. The dying boy was left in the monastery, where one monk left him. On the eve of taking a monastic vow, Mtsyri fled from the monastery. All this time, which he was in the monastery, he suffered from lack of will. The three days he spent in the forest revived him. He saw beautiful nature, wild animals, a young girl. What he did outside the walls of the monastery, Mtsyri himself calls the word "lived". I just lived. When he was free, Mtsyri remembered his father's house and wanted to find a way to it, but returned again to the walls of the monastery. He realized that he would not be able to find freedom. He does not want "human help" because he does not believe that people, completely different, can help him. Mtsyri is alone in this world, he is deeply aware of and experiences his loneliness.
In the hero's opinion, it is futile to argue with fate. Therefore, the tragic ending of his fate is predetermined.
Defeated, he is spiritually not broken and remains a positive image of our literature, and his masculinity, integrity, heroism were a reproach to the fragmented hearts of fearful and inactive contemporaries from the noble society.
2.2. What features of VA Zhukovsky's lyrics gave the researcher A. Veselovsky a reason to call his poetry "a landscape of the soul"?
In almost all the pictures of nature that Zhukovsky draws, there is a person who perceives it. He and nature are shown by the poet in a certain unity. They describe not so much natural phenomena as the state of mind of a person. That is why Zhukovsky's landscapes are called “landscapes of the soul”. "The life of the soul" is the real subject of the poet's elegy.
2.3. Is there a theme of love in Nikolai Gogol's story "The Overcoat"? Justify your point of view.
The theme of love in the story sounds completely different, unconventional. Love on the pages of the "Overcoat" appears in the Christian interpretation. Love for one's neighbor, commanded by Christ the Savior, is the highest virtue of a Christian. A person, “your brother,” may find himself in a very difficult situation, get into trouble, be on the verge of starvation. The titular councilor Bashmachkin, being in fair age("Akaky Akakievich got over fifty") all alone, he experienced terrible moments of despair in the misfortune that happened to him. But no one helped the sufferer, no one extended a helping hand, from no one he heard even a simple kind word, which, in the opinion of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, was capable of “comforting the grieving”. A person, enlightened by Divine truth and realizing the meaning of his earthly life, values the treasures of his soul, among which are love for God and his neighbor and sacrificial service to the Fatherland. This is Gogol's position.
2.4. Why, out of different versions of the names - "Daughter and Father", "A Tale of the Ball and Through the Line", "And you say ..." - Tolstoy settled on the name "After the Ball"?
The story "After the Ball" is built on contrast. Contrasting portrait characteristics, the behavior of Varenka's father at the ball and after the ball, the mood and thoughts of the protagonist before and after what he saw on the parade ground. The title "After the Ball" more accurately conveys the main idea of the work: a person's life can be changed by one event. For the protagonist, the turning point in his life came after the ball, from what he saw on the parade ground.
Today in the lesson we will read and analyze Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball" and pay special attention to the skill of the writer, who has rightfully become the first figure in Russian literature.
Late evening, the room is dark. It seems that everything around him is asleep, and only the great worker Tolstoy cannot tear himself away from the work, which now is the main work of his life. He wants the truth, understood by him, to become available to all people. Tolstoy here looks like a wise and majestic prophet, a strict judge and teacher of life.
At the turn of two eras, Tolstoy created a number of works, among which was the story "After the Ball". He was written in 1903, and published after the death of the writer - in 1911. The plot basis of the story was the actual events that happened to LN Tolstoy's brother - SN Tolstoy.
Rice. 2. Brothers Tolstoy (from left to right): Sergey, Nikolay, Dmitry, Lev (Moscow, 1854). ()
Varvara Andreevna Koreish was the daughter of a military commander in Kazan. The writer himself knew both her and her father. Sergei Nikolayevich's feelings for this girl faded away after he, merrily dancing a mazurka with her at the ball, saw the next morning how her father ordered the expulsion of a soldier who had escaped from the barracks through the line. This case, without a doubt, then became known to Lev Nikolaevich. The story "After the Ball" was written at the end of the writer's life. All the skill of Tolstoy the artist was embodied in him. Let's consider the artistic originality of this work.
Mazurka
Mazurka- paired three-part dance at a lively pace. By origin it is associated with folk dance Polish region Mazovia - Mazur.
Mazurka is widespread in Russian music of the 19th century. In aristocratic life, the mazurka (along with the polonaise) is one of the typical ballroom dances, and against its background the quarrel of Onegin and Lensky is played out in Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin. About Colonel Skalozub from Woe from Wit it is said: "Constellation of maneuvers and mazurkas"... The same can be said about Varenka's father.
Composition(construction, structure, architectonics) is the arrangement of the selected material in such an order that the effect of a greater impact on the reader is achieved than would be possible with simple message facts.
In the story "After the Ball," Tolstoy uses compositional technique story in story... Using this technique, he first acquaints the reader with the main character, who will later become the main storyteller. Thus, the story creates a double author's view of the story and creates additional credibility. The main storyteller is Ivan Vasilievich, who recalls the story of his youth. This was the period of the 40s of the 19th century. The narrative consists of several parts. Let's outline the story.
Story composition"After the ball":
1. Introduction. Dispute about the influence of society on a person.
2. The main part.
2.2. Execution.
3. The ending. Reasoning about a person's place in society.
Such a composition, in which the introduction and ending are taken outside the framework of the main plot, is called framing... Thus, the main narrative consists of two parts: the description of the ball and the execution. As you can see, the composition is based on antithesis reception - artistic opposition... Now let's work on the text and fill in the table, giving examples of opposition, contrast. In the table we write down quotes from the first part - the description of the ball, and the second part - after the ball, i.e. executions.
Execution
Execution- this is the name of the terrible punishment that was widespread in the army in the first half of the 19th century, introduced during the reign of Nicholas I.
The soldier was driven through the line and beaten with sticks or rods. This is how an old, 95-year-old soldier, the hero of the article of the same name by Tolstoy, Nikolai Palkin, recalls those times: “… A week did not pass so that a man or two from the regiment would not be beaten to death. Nowadays they don't even know what sticks are, but then this word did not leave my mouth. Sticks, sticks! .. Our soldiers also nicknamed Nikolai Palkin. Nikolai Pavlych, and they say Nikolai Palkin. And so the nickname went to him. "
Rice. 4. Illustration for the story "After the Ball". ()
In 1864, not far from the Yasnaya Polyana estate, an execution took place over a soldier who hit an officer who mocked him. When Tolstoy found out about this event, he decided to intercede in court for the soldier, but his help was unsuccessful. The soldier was sentenced to pass through the line.
Rice. 5. Illustration for the story "After the Ball". ()
The trial and execution made a deep impression on Tolstoy. It should be noted that the whole life of the writer was tormented by the thought of the lack of rights of the Russian soldier. It is known that Tolstoy served in the army. In 1855, he worked on a project to reform the army, including raising the question of the barbarity of execution.
After the ball |
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Description of the event itself |
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“… I was on the last day of Maslenitsa at the ball of the provincial leader, a good-natured old man, a rich hospitable man and a chamberlain. The reception was as good-natured as he was ... The ball was wonderful: the hall was beautiful, with choirs, musicians ... " |
“When I went out to the field where their house was, I saw at the end of it, in the direction of the walk, something large, black, and heard the sounds of a flute and a drum coming from there. In my soul I sang all the time and from time to time I heard the motive of the mazurka. But it was some other, harsh, bad music. " |
The main thing actor |
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Varenka: "She was in a white dress with a pink sash and white kid gloves, which did not reach the thin, sharp elbows, and in white satin shoes." “… I saw only a tall, slender figure in a white dress with a pink sash, her radiant, dimpled face and gentle, sweet eyes. I was not the only one, everyone looked at her and admired her, both men and women admired her, despite the fact that she eclipsed them all. It was impossible not to admire. " |
Punished soldier: “With each blow, the punished person, as if surprised, turned his face wrinkled with suffering in the direction from which the blow fell, and, showing his white teeth, repeated some of the same words. It was only when he was very close that I heard these words. He did not speak, but sobbed: “Brothers, have mercy. Brothers, have mercy. " “When the procession passed the place where I was standing, I caught a glimpse of the back of the punished between the rows. It was something so variegated, wet, red, unnatural that I did not believe it to be a human body. " |
Colonel's description |
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“Varenka's father was a very handsome, stately, tall and fresh old man. His face was very ruddy, with a white à la Nicolas I curled mustache, white whiskers brought up to the mustache and with temples combed forward, and the same affectionate, joyful smile, like his daughter's, was in his shiny eyes and lips. " ... |
"The colonel walked beside him, and, looking first at his feet, then at the punished, sucked in air, puffing out his cheeks, and slowly let it out through his protruding lip." “… I saw how he, with his strong hand in a suede glove, beat a frightened, undersized, weak soldier in the face for not lowering his stick strongly enough on the red back of the Tatar. - Submit fresh gauntlets! - he shouted, looking around, and saw me. Pretending that he did not know me, he hastily turned away with a menacing and vicious frown. |
The state of the narrator |
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"I was not only cheerful and contented, I was happy, blissful, I was kind, I was not me, but some unearthly creature that knows no evil and is capable of one good." |
“Meanwhile, my heart was almost physical, reaching the point of nausea, melancholy, such that I stopped several times, and it seemed to me that I was about to vomit with all the horror that entered me from this sight”. |
Thus, we have proved that the story is based on the artistic method of antithesis. Thus, Tolstoy creates two worlds that collide with each other. This is an idle world, a cheerful aristocratic life and a harsh world of reality. This is the world of good and evil that collide in the human soul.
Rice. 6. Illustration for the story "After the Ball". ()
Colonel, kind and loving father, amazes us with his cruelty, which he shows in the service. Together with Ivan Vasilyevich, we understand that he is the real one in the second part of the story. LN Tolstoy, being a count by birth, belonged to high society.
V last years his life, he more and more thought about the injustice of the world order. He wrote about this: “The task of a person in life is to save his soul; to save your soul, you need to live like God, and to live like God, you need to renounce all the joys of life, work, humble yourself, endure and be merciful. "
More than once we have got acquainted with a work of a small epic form and we know that an artistic detail plays a huge role in such works.
Artistic detail- pictorial and expressive detail, feature of any object, part of everyday life, landscape, interior, portrait, carrying an increased semantic load, characterizing not only the object itself, but also determining in many respects the reader's attitude towards it.
Internal monologue- the announcement of thoughts and feelings that reveal the inner experiences of the character, not intended for the hearing of others, when the character speaks, as it were, to himself, "to the side." It is the main method of the psychological characterization of the hero.
Tolstoy uses the method of internal monologue in the story "After the Ball" in the second part, when the narrator Ivan Vasilyevich, after what he saw, begins to analyze the events and shares his experience with us.
“Obviously, he knows something that I don’t know,” I thought of the colonel. "If I knew what he knows, I would understand what I saw, and it would not torment me." But no matter how much I thought, I could not understand what the colonel knew, and fell asleep only in the evening, and then after I went to a friend's house and got drunk with him completely drunk. Well, do you think that I then decided that what I saw was a bad thing? Not at all.
“If this was done with such confidence and was recognized by everyone as necessary, then, therefore, they knew something that I did not know,” I thought and tried to find out. But no matter how hard he tried, and then he could not find out. And without knowing it, I could not enter the military service, as I wanted before, and not only did not serve in the military, but did not serve anywhere and, as you see, was no good. ”
These words say a lot about the narrator Ivan Vasilievich. In his youth, he is a representative of high society, a careless rake who enjoys life, faced a real situation that revealed to him the truth about the world, society and a person's place in this world. This truth broke him. Ivan Vasilievich did not want to become part of the system in a society that was opposite to him, therefore he did not serve anywhere. Does Tolstoy justify him or condemn him for inaction and passivity? But don't jump to conclusions. Let's find out first what the ending was supposed to be in the draft versions of the story.
“I began to see her less often. And my love ended in nothing, but I did as I wanted, in military service and tried to develop in myself such a consciousness of my duty (I called it that), like that of the colonel, and partly achieved this. And only in old age I now understood the horror of what I saw and what I myself did. "
As you can see, Tolstoy first conceived to show the degradation of the hero. He not only did not have to draw conclusions, but also in many ways became like a colonel, performing actions for which, in his old age, Ivan Vasilyevich was ashamed. In the final version of the story, Ivan Vasilyevich refuses to serve at all. Therefore, Tolstoy does not condemn his hero. Rather, he wanted to show his disbelief that something can be changed in society, since, unfortunately, there are very few people like Ivan Vasilievich, sincere, honest, capable of compassion, with a keen sense of justice.
Summing up the lesson, I would like to emphasize once again that in all his works, L. N. Tolstoy raises universal human problems. All the skill of the writer is aimed at educating in the reader a humanist, a person who is not indifferent to those around him, a person with high moral ideals.
Humanist
Humanist- adherent of humanism; the one who recognizes the value of a person as an individual, his right to freedom, happiness, development and manifestation of his abilities, the one who considers the welfare of a person as a criterion for assessing social relations.
- Tell the story behind the story "After the Ball".
- Prepare a report on artistic identity story.
- Make a table with the characteristics of the characters in the story.
- Korovina V.Ya. and other literature. 8th grade. Textbook in 2 parts. 8th ed. - M .: Education, 2009. - Part 1 - 399 p .; Part 2 - 399 p.
- Merkin G.S. Literature. 8th grade. Textbook in 2 parts - 9th ed. - M .: 2013., Part 1 - 384 p., Part 2 - 384 p.
- Buneev R.N., Buneeva E.V. Literature. 8th grade. House without walls. In 2 parts. - M .: 2011. Part 1 - 286 p .; Part 2 - 222 p.
- Internet portal "Festival of pedagogical ideas" Open lesson "" ()
- Internet portal "referatwork.ru" ()
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The main feature of the depiction of nature in Tolstoy's novels is its depiction in indissoluble unity with man and his feelings. The perception of nature, the ability to merge with it is one of the main personal criteria for Tolstoy's heroes. It is these properties that determine the harmony of personality development in the writer, the moral health of a person, his vitality, the meaning of existence.
Tolstoy's landscape is always realistic, clear, very specific. Instead of Turgenev's half-tones, shades of colors, here we find clear, definite lines, outlines of objects, attention to the main color. As GB Kurlyandskaya notes, the writer's landscapes are characterized by "amazing relief of the image", all objects in these landscapes have a clear location. Tolstoy's landscape is simple, devoid of excessive sentimentality, "free from the fetters of poetic associations", expressive epithets, in contrast to the poetic, mysterious landscapes of Turgenev. But, as in Turgenev's novels, Tolstoy's nature is given in the perception of the hero. The writer emphasizes the deep, powerful connection between pictures of nature and the complex mental life person. And in this, Tolstoy's landscape reminds us of the landscapes created by Lermontov in the novel "A Hero of Our Time".
Let's try to analyze different kinds landscapes in the novel "War and Peace". The functions of the landscape in the novel are varied. As an element of the composition, descriptions of nature create a background against which the action takes place, precede certain events, create a certain mood, and act as a means of characterizing the heroes. The most important function of a landscape in a novel is to designate internal state heroes, the state of their thoughts and feelings.
The perception of nature determines many of Andrei Bolkonsky's mental movements. So, once "opened by him" the infinite, blue sky then accompanies all the ups and downs of the hero, it appears to him in moments of the greatest happiness and inescapable grief.
For the first time this high, solemn sky with clouds running over it appeared to Prince Andrey, when he, wounded, lay on the Austerlitz field. “Above him there was nothing but the sky - a high sky, not clear, but still immeasurably high, with gray clouds quietly creeping over it. “How quietly, calmly and solemnly, not at all the way I ran,” thought Prince Andrew ... How could I not have seen this high sky before? And how happy I am that I finally got to know him. Yes! everything is empty, everything is deception, except for this endless sky. "" The image of the sky, symbolizing eternity, is created here thanks to characteristic epithets ("endless sky", "immeasurably high" sky), metaphor ("gray clouds quietly crawling over it").
The solemn, stately and indifferently serene sky opens up to Bolkonsky all the vanity and insignificance of his ambitious thoughts. And in this regard, the landscape here has a plot-forming meaning. Prince Andrew is going through a mental crisis that determined the entire subsequent stage of his life. Ambitious thoughts and active participation in public life are replaced in the Bolkonsky by inaction, indifference to everything. “I know only two real misfortunes in life: remorse and illness. And happiness is only the absence of these two evils, ”says Prince Andrew to Pierre who has come to him.
Bezukhov convinces him that there is God, truth, virtue, encourages him to love and believe. Along with Pierre and nature, which seems to ask Prince Andrew to believe a friend. Bolkonsky looks at the red reflection of the sun over the blue flood, listens to the silence, and it seems to him that the waves, hitting the bottom of the ferry with a faint thud, are saying: "True, believe this."
And after a conversation with Pierre, Prince Andrew “for the first time after Austerlitz ... saw that high, eternal sky that he saw on the Austerlitz field, and something that had long since fallen asleep, something better that was in him, suddenly joyful and woke up young in his soul. "
The same motif of the sky appears in another landscape of the novel, when Prince Andrey comes to Otradnoye. “As soon as he opened the shutters, the moonlight, as if he had been on the alert at the window for a long time, burst into the room. He opened the window. The night was crisp and still light. In front of the window was a row of trimmed trees, black on one side and silvery-lit on the other. Under the trees there was some kind of lush, wet, curly vegetation with silvery leaves and stems in some places. Further behind the ebony trees was some kind of shiny dew roof, to the right is a large curly tree with a bright white trunk and twigs, and above it is an almost full moon in a bright, almost starless spring sky. Prince Andrey leaned against the window, and his eyes rested on this sky. "
Here Tolstoy uses emotional-color epithets (the night is "fresh and still-light", "silvery-lit" and "black" trees, "bright white trunk"), comparison (moonlight burst into the room as if "he was on the alert I have been waiting by the window for a long time "when the windows will be opened). In addition, here we can note the clear location in space of all objects, paintings that make up the landscape.
This landscape, in addition, reveals the inner appearance of Natasha, who wants to fly into the sky, and poeticizes the feeling of love arising in Prince Andrei. As A.I. Potapov notes, the landscapes poeticizing love in the novel are traditionally moonlit (the mysterious Christmastide night sets off the mutual feeling of Nikolai and Sonya).
The writer again conveys Bolkonsky's feelings after the break with Natasha through the hero's perception of the endless, blue sky: there was nothing eternal and mysterious. "
As S.G. Bocharov notes, the image of the sky is a leitmotif for Prince Andrey. In this image - "greatness, ideality, infinity of striving" and "detachment, coldness." The flip side of the rationality, rationality, severity of the hero is the thirst for something absolute and eternal, the thirst for "heavenly" perfection. But this perfection must openly manifest itself in the phenomena of life, the ideal must coincide with reality. As the researcher notes, the gap between "heaven" and earthly reality is insurmountable for the hero, and this is the deepest tragedy of Bolkonsky's image.
In his life, Prince Andrei tries to bridge this gap, and Tolstoy again sets off the state of the hero with landscapes. On guardianship of his son, Bolkonsky goes to the Ryazan estates, and Tolstoy paints here a magnificent picture of a spring forest. “Warmed by the spring sun, he sat in a carriage, looking at the first grass, the first birch leaves and the first puffs of white spring clouds scattering across the bright blue sky ... It was almost hot in the forest, no wind could be heard. The birch tree, all covered with green sticky leaves, did not move, and from last year's leaves, picking them up, the first grass and purple flowers crawled out, turning green. "
However, Bolkonsky is not touched by the "charm of spring". Here he noticed an old huge oak tree, with broken off branches, looking "some kind of old, angry and contemptuous freak." “Spring, and love, and happiness! - as if this oak spoke. - And how you don’t get tired of all the same stupid, senseless deception. Everything is the same and everything is cheating! There is no spring, no sun, no happiness. Look there, there are crushed dead spruces sitting, always lonely, and there I spread my broken, tattered fingers, wherever they grew - from the back, from the sides. As I grew up, I still stand, and I do not believe your hopes and deceptions. "
Prince Andrey glanced back at this oak several times, as if expecting something from it. These expectations of the hero are the desire to once again assert himself in the idea of the uselessness and meaninglessness of life. Prince Andrew here feels the harmonious relationship between nature and his condition, he is finally strengthened in his hopeless thoughts. Strengthening the mood of the hero, nature gives Bolkonsky's thoughts a sad and solemn mood. He feels some wisely-just regularity of his condition.
However, the natural image already chosen by the writer symbolizes the hero's delusion. Oak has always been considered a symbol of the strength and strength of life, longevity. In this sense, "old sores" on a mighty, strong tree are unnatural. Tolstoy here seems to emphasize the prematureness of the hero's spiritual aging, hinting at his rich inner potential, at his inner strength, which makes it possible to get out of a mental crisis. In Otradnoye, Bolkonsky sees Natasha, careless and happy, he involuntarily hears her conversation with Sonya, and in his soul "an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes" arises.
Returning back, Prince Andrew does not recognize the old oak tree. “The old oak tree, all transformed, stretched out like a tent of luscious, dark greenery, melted, swaying slightly in the rays of the evening sun. No gnarled fingers, no sores, no old grief and mistrust - nothing was visible. Juicy, young leaves made their way through the hundred-year-old tough bark without knots, so that it was impossible to believe that this old man had produced them. "Yes, this is the same oak," thought Prince Andrey, and suddenly an unreasonable spring feeling of joy and renewal came over him. "
As M. B. Khrapchenko notes, the origins of Tolstoy's parallelism in descriptions of man and nature are in folk poetry... V folk song heroes are often compared with images of a mighty oak, weeping willow, mountain ash, "in the poetics of a folk song, the sun, stars, moon, dawn, sunset play an important role in connection with the description of human experiences."
Landscapes reveal to us the mental states of another hero, Pierre Bezukhov. Thus, the incipient feeling of love for Natasha, which he himself is not yet fully aware of, is set off by Tolstoy with a description of a frosty winter night when Pierre leaves the Rostovs' house. “It was frosty and clear. Over the dirty, half-dark streets, over the black roofs, there was a dark starry sky. Pierre, just looking at the sky, did not feel the insulting baseness of everything earthly in comparison with the height at which his soul was. At the entrance to Arbat Square, a huge space of the starry dark sky opened up to Pierre's eyes. Almost in the middle of this sky ... there was a huge bright comet of 1812, the one that heralded, as they said, all sorts of horrors and the end of the world. But in Pierre, this bright star with a long, radiant tail did not arouse any terrible feeling. On the contrary, Pierre joyfully, eyes wet with tears, looked at this bright star ... It seemed to Pierre that this star fully corresponded to what was in his blossoming to a new life, softened and encouraged soul. "
However, this landscape has a deeper meaning. “The star of 1812 is the star of happiness for Pierre and Natasha. And she, the star of 1812, ascended over Russia, this is the star of the Russian people, this is the star of history. She prophesies troubles and triumph to all the people in his historical life and the hero of the novel - in his life. The lyrical and the epic merge inseparably and completely in this image, as in the whole novel, ”writes V. V. Ermilov.
The landscapes in the novel are also associated with the spiritual evolution of the hero. So, with the help of pictures of nature, Tolstoy analyzes the feelings experienced by Pierre during the French captivity. The landscapes here convey a special feeling of inner freedom, completeness and "strength of life", acquired by the hero after all the trials of life.
“When on the first day, getting up early in the morning, left the booth at dawn and saw at first the dark domes, the crosses of the Novodevichy Convent, saw frosty dew on the dusty grass, saw the hills of the Sparrow Hills and the wooded shore meandering over the river and hiding in the lilac distance, when felt a touch of fresh air and heard the sounds of jackdaws flying from Moscow across the field, and when then suddenly light sprang from the east and the edge of the sun solemnly floated out from behind a cloud, and domes, and crosses, and dew, and the distance, and the river, everything began to play in joyful light, - Pierre felt a new, not experienced by him feeling of joy and strength of life. "
Anaphoric repetitions (“when”, “when”, “and when”), multi-union, metaphors (“splashed with light from the east”, “wooded bank winding over the river”) here emphasize the diversity, the many colors of life, which cannot be limited by the experience of an individual a person, and even more so by these or those life circumstances.
And Tolstoy emphasizes that a joyful feeling, an understanding of this, is born in the hero through a special understanding of life, a special perception of it. Pierre, like never before, feels the Divine principle in the world, feels himself a part of being, realizing the immortality of his soul. The writer sets off the state of the hero with a picture of a calm night nature: “High in the bright sky stood full month... Forests and fields, previously unseen in the camp, now opened up in the distance. And even farther away from these forests and fields could be seen a light, wavering, inviting endless distance. Pierre looked up at 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! Thought Pierre. “And they caught it all and put it in a booth, enclosed by boards!” He smiled and went to go to bed with his comrades. ”
Analyzing this episode, S.G. Bocharov notes that Prince Andrei and Pierre look at the sky differently: “the spirit of one rushes into an endless distance, while Pierre brings the sky to the stars and encloses in his personality ... The opposition of heaven and earth is removed in the contemplation of the captive Pierre, such are his new heaven and new earth. " This landscape emphasizes the acquisition by the hero of a new attitude, a new philosophy of life.
Pictures of nature also appear in the novel as a means of characterizing the characters. More than others in the novel, Natasha Rostova is close to nature. Love for nature determines the naturalness of the heroine's behavior, her intuitive feeling of people, poetry, “life with the heart”. Natasha admires the beauty of a summer night in Otradnoye, she adores autumn hunting, with her mad gallop, the barking of hounds, and the frosty morning air.
The hunting scene takes up four chapters in the novel. And nature here is “not only a landscape, but also that world of primordiality, the world of wild animals, animals with which a person comes into contact. Communication with nature ... weakens the influence on the person of the false conventions of everyday life; natural, "pristine" passions awaken in him. With remarkable skill, Tolstoy conveys the development of these passions. The pristine nature of nature itself comes to life under the artist's pen. A seasoned wolf, hare, dogs ... become a kind of characters, whose behavior is described in detail, "notes MB Khrapchenko.
The people themselves here are becoming something like animals. So, in Nicholas, the desire to "hunt down a hardened wolf" subjugates all other feelings. Natasha screams so piercingly and wildly that "she herself should have been ashamed of this wild screeching and everyone should have been surprised at him, if it had happened at another time." However, in the eyes of Tolstoy, the ability of a person to merge inseparably with nature and feel like a part of it is positive features, largely predetermining the harmony of his earthly existence.
Helen Bezukhova, Anna Pavlovna Sherer, Prince Vasily, Anatol, Boris Drubetskoy, Anna Mikhailovna, Vera Rostova - all these heroes, on the contrary, are far from the natural world. And this "alienation" determines the falsity and unnaturalness of their behavior, their posturing, rationality, a kind of insensitivity, sometimes - immorality, "false goals in life."
Landscapes opening scenes of battles often symbolize the coming outcome of the battle. So, for example, the battle of Austerlitz in the novel is preceded by a picture of an ever-increasing fog. “The night was foggy, and the moonlight mysteriously shone through the fog”; “The fog became so strong that, despite the fact that it was dawn, it was not visible ten paces in front of me. The bushes seemed like huge trees, the flat places were cliffs and slopes ... But the columns walked for a long time in the same fog, going down and up the mountains ... he is going, that is, no one knows where, there are still many, many of ours going ”; "The fog, spreading on the mountain, only spread thicker in the lower reaches, where the troops descended." In this fog Rostov is always deceived, "mistaking bushes for trees and potholes for people."
This landscape is multifaceted: the fog symbolizes in this episode human delusions, uncertainty, uncertainty of the outcome of the battle, erroneous opinions of Russian officers. The soldiers go “no one knows where” - with this phrase the writer hints at the possibility of an unfavorable outcome of the Battle of Austerlitz.
Russian troops, inspired by the presence of the emperor, are confident of the impending victory. And Rostov, and Denisov, and Captain Kirsten, and Prince Dolgorukov, and Weyrother, and Alexander I himself - all count on a successful outcome of the battle. "Nine-tenths of the people of the Russian army at that time were in love ... with their tsar and the glory of Russian arms," writes Tolstoy. Only one Kutuzov assumes his own defeat, clearly realizing that the Russian troops are going at random, not knowing exactly where the French are.
The landscape accompanying Napoleon symbolizes his coming victory in the Battle of Austerlitz. “The fog spread like a continuous sea below, but near the village of Shlapanice, at the height at which Napoleon stood, surrounded by his marshals, it was completely light. Above him was a clear blue sky, and a huge ball of the sun, like a huge hollow crimson float, swayed on the surface of the milky sea of fog ... When the sun completely came out of the fog and splashed with a blinding shine over the fields and fog (as if he was just waiting for this to begin business), he took off the glove from his beautiful white hand ... and gave the order to start business. "
A huge, dazzling sun, correlated with the image of Napoleon, reminds us of the "sun king" - Louis XIV. This is also evidenced by the crimson color of the sun, which we associate with regal purple. The sun in this landscape symbolizes the special position of the emperor among the French troops, Napoleon's ambition, his conceit, his "artificial world of ghosts ... greatness."
The landscape preceding the Battle of Borodino is also characteristic. Pierre, who arrived at the Borodino field, was amazed at the beauty of the opening spectacle. “... This whole area was covered with troops and the smoke of shots, and the slanting rays of the bright sun rising from behind ... threw at her in the clear morning air, penetrating with a golden and pink tint of light and dark, long shadows. The distant forests, ending the panorama, as if carved out of some kind of precious yellow-green stone, were seen by their curved line of peaks on the horizon ... Golden fields and copses glittered closer. Troops were visible everywhere - in front, on the right and on the left. It was all lively, majestic and unexpected. " On the Borodino field there was "that fog that melts, spreads and shines through when the bright sun comes out and magically colors and outlines everything that is visible through it."
This magnificent picture emphasizes the beauty of Russian nature, symbolizing Russia, everything that the Russian soldiers had to defend on the Borodino field. Perceptibly sounds in this landscape the motive of opposition to the rationality of nature and the unreasonableness of human aspirations, which carry in themselves the opposite to human nature, death and suffering. In addition, the majestic picture of nature here enhances the impression of the solemnity of what is happening, emphasizes the significance of this moment.
It is characteristic that, as before the battle of Austerlitz, there was “fog and smoke” on the Borodino field. However, this fog soon "melts, diffuses and shines through when the bright sun comes out." The writer, as it were, hints to us that Napoleon's plans are illusory, that the dreams of the French about the conquest of Russia can melt away like a morning fog.
It is characteristic that the sun here is “covered with smoke”. Since the sun to some extent correlates with the image of Napoleon in the novel, this landscape symbolizes the impending moral defeat of the French troops and the confusion of the emperor, when "the terrible sight of the battlefield defeated the spiritual strength in which he believed his merit and greatness."
The landscapes in the novel also reveal Tolstoy's philosophical views. Thus, the final landscape of the scene of the Battle of Borodino emphasizes the destructive influence of human civilization, which led to senseless wars. “Above the whole field, previously so cheerful and beautiful, with its glittering bayonets and smoke in the morning sun, there was now a haze of dampness and smoke and smelled of a strange acid of saltpeter and blood. Clouds gathered, and began to drizzle on the dead, on the wounded, on the frightened and exhausted, and on doubting people. It was as if he were saying, “Enough, enough, people. Stop ... Come to your senses. What are you doing?""
As the pre-revolutionary researcher Rozhdestvin notes, Tolstoy's sense of nature developed under the influence of Rousseau. Nature and civilization are opposed in the mind of the writer. And by this, Tolstoy reminds us of Lermontov, in whose work the world of nature is opposed to the world of human life.
Thus, Tolstoy depicts man in his indissoluble unity with the elements of nature. In landscapes, the writer expresses his philosophical views, his attitude to historical events, his love for Russia.