"War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy is not just a classic novel, but a real heroic epic, the literary value of which is incomparable to any other work. The writer himself considered it a poem in which a person’s private life is inseparable from the history of an entire country.
It took Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy seven years to perfect his novel. Back in 1863, the writer more than once discussed plans to create a large-scale literary canvas with his father-in-law A.E. Bersom. In September of the same year, the father of Tolstoy’s wife sent a letter from Moscow, where he mentioned the writer’s idea. Historians consider this date official start working on the epic. A month later, Tolstoy writes to his relative that all his time and attention is occupied by new novel, which he thinks about like never before.
History of creation
The writer's original idea was to create a work about the Decembrists, who spent 30 years in exile and returned home. The starting point described in the novel was supposed to be 1856. But then Tolstoy changed his plans, deciding to depict everything from the beginning of the Decembrist uprising of 1825. And this was not destined to come true: the writer’s third idea was the desire to describe the hero’s young years, which coincided with large-scale historical events: the War of 1812. The final version was the period from 1805. The circle of heroes was also expanded: the events in the novel cover the history of many individuals who went through all the hardships of different historical periods in the life of the country.
The title of the novel had several variations. “Workers” was the name “Three Times”: the youth of the Decembrists during the Patriotic War of 1812; The Decembrist uprising of 1825 and the 50s of the 19th century, when several important events took place in the history of Russia - Crimean War, the passing of Nicholas I, the return of amnestied Decembrists from Siberia. In the final version, the writer decided to focus on the first stage, since writing a novel, even on such a scale, required a lot of effort and time. So, instead of an ordinary work, a whole epic was born, which has no analogues in world literature.
Tolstoy devoted the entire autumn and early winter of 1856 to writing the beginning of War and Peace. Already at this time, he tried more than once to quit his job, because in his opinion it was impossible to convey the entire plan on paper. Historians say that in the writer’s archive there were fifteen versions of the beginning of the epic. In the process of his work, Lev Nikolaevich tried to find answers for himself to questions about the role of man in history. He had to study many chronicles, documents, materials describing the events of 1812. The confusion in the writer’s head was caused by the fact that all information sources gave different assessments of both Napoleon and Alexander I. Then Tolstoy decided to move away from the subjective statements of strangers and display in the novel his own assessment of events, based on true facts. From diverse sources he borrowed documentary materials, notes from contemporaries, newspaper and magazine articles, letters from generals, and archival documents of the Rumyantsev Museum.
(Prince Rostov and Akhrosimova Marya Dmitrievna)
Considering it necessary to visit the scene of events, Tolstoy spent two days in Borodino. It was important for him to personally travel around the place where large-scale and tragic events unfolded. He even personally made sketches of the sun on the field during different periods of the day.
The trip gave the writer the opportunity to experience the spirit of history in a new way; became a kind of inspiration for further work. For seven years, the work proceeded with elation and “burning.” The manuscripts consisted of more than 5,200 sheets. Therefore, War and Peace is easy to read even after a century and a half.
Analysis of the novel
Description
(Napoleon is thoughtful before the battle)
The novel “War and Peace” touches on a sixteen-year period in Russian history. The starting date is 1805, the final date is 1821. The work contains more than 500 characters. These are both real-life people and those fictitious by the writer to add color to the description.
(Kutuzov, before the Battle of Borodino, considers a plan)
The novel intertwines two main storylines: historical events in Russia and the personal lives of the characters. Real historical figures mentioned in the description of the Austerlitz, Shengraben, Borodino battles; capture of Smolensk and surrender of Moscow. More than 20 chapters are devoted specifically to the Battle of Borodino, as the main decisive event of 1812.
(The illustration shows an episode of Natasha Rostova's Ball from their film "War and Peace" 1967.)
In opposition to “wartime,” the writer describes the personal world of people and everything that surrounds them. Heroes fall in love, quarrel, make peace, hate, suffer... In the confrontation between different characters, Tolstoy shows the difference in moral principles individuals. The writer is trying to tell that various events can change one’s worldview. One complete picture of the work consists of three hundred thirty-three chapters of 4 volumes and another twenty-eight chapters located in the epilogue.
First volume
The events of 1805 are described. The “peaceful” part touches on life in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The writer introduces the reader to the society of the main characters. The “military” part is the Battle of Austerlitz and Shengraben. Tolstoy concludes the first volume with a description of how military defeats affected the peaceful lives of the characters.
Second volume
(Natasha Rostova's first ball)
This is a completely “peaceful” part of the novel, which affected the lives of the heroes in the period 1806-1811: the birth of Andrei Bolkonsky’s love for Natasha Rostova; Freemasonry of Pierre Bezukhov, Karagin's kidnapping of Natasha Rostova, Bolkonsky's refusal to marry Natasha. The volume concludes with a description of a formidable omen: the appearance of a comet, which is a symbol of great upheaval.
Third volume
(The illustration shows an episode of Borodinsky's battle in the film "War and Peace" 1967.)
In this part of the epic, the writer turns to wartime: Napoleon's invasion, the surrender of Moscow, the Battle of Borodino. On the battlefield, the main male characters of the novel are forced to intersect: Bolkonsky, Kuragin, Bezukhov, Dolokhov... The end of the volume is the capture of Pierre Bezukhov, who organized unsuccessful attempt assassination attempt on Napoleon.
Volume four
(After the battle, the wounded arrive in Moscow)
The “military” part is a description of the victory over Napoleon and the shameful retreat of the French army. The writer also touches on the period of partisan warfare after 1812. All this is intertwined with the “peaceful” destinies of the heroes: Andrei Bolkonsky and Helen pass away; love arises between Nikolai and Marya; think about life together Natasha Rostova and Pierre Bezukhov. And the main character of the volume is the Russian soldier Platon Karataev, through whose words Tolstoy tries to convey all the wisdom common people.
Epilogue
This part is devoted to describing the changes in the lives of the heroes seven years after 1812. Natasha Rostova is married to Pierre Bezukhov; Nikolai and Marya found their happiness; Bolkonsky’s son Nikolenka has matured. In the epilogue, the author reflects on the role of individuals in the history of an entire country, and tries to show the historical relationships between events and human destinies.
The main characters of the novel
More than 500 characters are mentioned in the novel. The author tried to describe the most important of them as accurately as possible, endowing them with special features not only of character, but also of appearance:
Andrei Bolkonsky is a prince, the son of Nikolai Bolkonsky. Constantly searching for the meaning of life. Tolstoy describes him as handsome, reserved and with “dry” features. He has a strong will. Dies as a result of a wound received at Borodino.
Marya Bolkonskaya - princess, sister of Andrei Bolkonsky. Inconspicuous appearance and radiant eyes; piety and concern for relatives. In the novel, she marries Nikolai Rostov.
Natasha Rostova is the daughter of Count Rostov. In the first volume of the novel she is only 12 years old. Tolstoy describes her as a girl of not exactly beautiful appearance (black eyes, big mouth), but at the same time “alive.” Her inner beauty attracts men. Even Andrei Bolkonsky is ready to fight for your hand and heart. At the end of the novel she marries Pierre Bezukhov.
Sonya
Sonya is the niece of Count Rostov. In contrast to her cousin Natasha, she is beautiful in appearance, but much poorer mentally.
Pierre Bezukhov is the son of Count Kirill Bezukhov. An awkward, massive figure, kind and at the same time strong character. He can be stern, or he can become a child. He is interested in Freemasonry. Tries to change the lives of peasants and influence large-scale events. Initially married to Helen Kuragina. At the end of the novel he takes Natasha Rostova as his wife.
Helen Kuragina is the daughter of Prince Kuragin. A beauty, a prominent socialite. She married Pierre Bezukhov. Changeable, cold. Died as a result of an abortion.
Nikolai Rostov is the son of Count Rostov and Natasha's brother. Successor of the family and defender of the Fatherland. He took part in military campaigns. He married Marya Bolkonskaya.
Fyodor Dolokhov is an officer, a participant in the partisan movement, as well as a big reveler and lover of ladies.
Countess of Rostov
Countess Rostov - parents of Nikolai, Natasha, Vera, Petya. A revered married couple, an example to follow.
Nikolai Bolkonsky is a prince, the father of Marya and Andrei. In Catherine's time, a significant personality.
The author pays much attention to the description of Kutuzov and Napoleon. The commander appears before us as smart, unfeigned, kind and philosophical. Napoleon is described as a small, fat man with an unpleasantly fake smile. At the same time, it is somewhat mysterious and theatrical.
Analysis and conclusion
In the novel "War and Peace" the writer tries to convey to the reader the "people's thought." Its essence is that each positive hero has his own connection with the nation.
Tolstoy moved away from the principle of telling a novel in the first person. The assessment of characters and events occurs through monologues and author's digressions. At the same time, the writer leaves the right to the reader to evaluate what is happening. A striking example The scene of the Battle of Borodino, shown both from the side of historical facts and the subjective opinion of the hero of the novel, Pierre Bezukhov, can serve as a similar example. The writer does not forget about the bright historical figure - General Kutuzov.
The main idea of the novel lies not only in the disclosure of historical events, but also in the opportunity to understand that one must love, believe and live under any circumstances.
THE PROBLEM OF GENRE. Tolstoy found it difficult to determine the genre of his main work. “This is not a novel, even less a poem, even less a historical chronicle,” he wrote in the article “A few words about the book “War and Peace”” (1868), adding that in general “in the new period of Russian literature there is not a single piece of fiction a prose work that goes a little beyond mediocrity, which would fit well into the form of a novel, poem or story.” The poem was meant, of course, to be prosaic, Gogolian, focused on ancient epics and at the same time on a picaresque novel about modernity. The novel, as it developed in the West, was traditionally understood as a multi-event, with a developed plot, a narrative about what happened to one person or several people, who are given significantly more attention than others - not about their ordinary, regular life, but about more or a shorter incident with a beginning and an end, most often happy, consisting in the hero’s marriage to his beloved, less often unhappy, when the hero died. Even in the problematic Russian novel that preceded War and Peace, the hero’s “unique power” is observed and the endings are relatively traditional. In Tolstoy, like in Dostoevsky, “the unity of the central person is practically absent,” and the novel’s plot seems artificial to him: “... I just cannot and do not know how to put known boundaries on the persons I have invented - such as marriage or death, after which interest the narrative would be destroyed. I couldn’t help but imagine that the death of one person only aroused interest in other people, and marriage seemed mostly like the beginning, not the end of interest.”
“War and Peace” is, of course, not a historical chronicle, although Tolstoy pays great attention to history. It is calculated: “Episodes from history and discussions in which historical issues are developed occupy 186 chapters out of 333 chapters of the book,” while only 70 chapters are related to the line of Andrei Bolkonsky. There are especially many historical chapters in the third and fourth volumes. Thus, in the second part of the fourth volume, four out of nineteen chapters are related to Pierre Bezukhov, the rest are entirely military-historical. Philosophical, journalistic and historical reasoning occupy four chapters at the beginning of the first part of the epilogue and the entire second part. However, reasoning is not a sign of a chronicle; a chronicle is, first of all, a presentation of events.
There are signs of a chronicle in War and Peace, but not so much historical as family. Characters are rarely represented in literature by entire families. Tolstoy talks about the families of the Bolkonskys, Bezukhovs, Rostovs, Kuragins, Drubetskys, and mentions the Dolokhov family (although outside the family this hero behaves as an individualist and an egoist). The first three families, faithful to the family spirit, finally find themselves in kinship, which is very important, and the official kinship of Pierre, who through weakness of will married Helen, with the soulless Kuragins is liquidated by life itself. But “War and Peace” cannot be reduced to a family chronicle.
Meanwhile, Tolstoy compared his book with the Iliad, i.e. with the ancient epic. The essence of the ancient epic is “the primacy of the general over the individual.” He talks about the glorious past, about events that are not just significant, but important for large human communities and nations. An individual hero exists in him as an exponent (or antagonist) of common life.
Clear signs of the epic beginning in “War and Peace” are large volume and problem-thematic encyclopedicity. But, of course, Tolstoy’s worldview was very far from the people of the “age of heroes” and he considered the very concept of “hero” unacceptable for an artist. His characters are valuable individuals who by no means embody any extra-personal collective norms. In the 20th century “War and Peace” is often called an epic novel. This sometimes causes objections, statements that “the leading genre-forming principle of Tolstoy’s “book” should still be recognized as a “personal” thought, fundamentally not epic, but romantic,” especially “the first volumes of the work, devoted primarily to family life and personal destinies heroes, dominate not the epic, but the novel, albeit unconventional.” Of course, War and Peace does not literally use the principles ancient epic. And yet, along with the novelistic beginning, there is also the primordially opposite epic, only they do not complement each other, but turn out to be mutually permeable, creating a certain new quality, an unprecedented artistic synthesis. According to Tolstoy, a person’s individual self-affirmation is detrimental to his personality. Only in unity with others, with “common life,” can he develop and improve himself, and receive a truly worthy reward for his efforts and searches in this direction. V.A. Nedzvetsky rightly noted: “The world of the novels of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, for the first time in Russian prose, is built on the mutual movement and interest of individuals and people in each other.” In Tolstoy, the synthesis of the novel and epic principles is amazing. Therefore, there is still reason to call “War and Peace” a historical epic novel, bearing in mind that both components in this synthesis are radically updated and transformed.
The world of the archaic epic is closed in itself, absolute, self-sufficient, cut off from other eras, “rounded off”. Tolstoy’s personification of “everything Russian, good and round” (vol. 4, part 1, chapter XIII) is Platon Karataev, a good soldier in the ranks and a typical peasant, an absolutely peaceful man in captivity. His life is harmonious in all situations. After Pierre Bezukhov, who himself was expecting death, saw the execution, “this terrible murder committed by people who did not want to do it,” his faith in the improvement of the world, and in human, and into your soul and into God.” But, having talked with Plato, falling asleep next to him reassured, he “felt that the previously destroyed world was now being erected in his soul with new beauty, on some new and unshakable foundations” (vol. 4, part 1, chapter XII) . The orderliness of the world is characteristic of its epic state. But in this case, ordering occurs in one soul, which absorbs the world. This is completely out of the spirit of ancient epics.
Internally related to the epic picture of the world is the image-symbol of a water balloon that Pierre dreamed of. It has a stable shape solid and has no corners. “The idea of a circle is akin to the peasant world-community with its social isolation, mutual responsibility, specific limitations (which is reflected through the influence of Karataev in limiting Pierre’s horizons to the immediate matter). At the same time, the circle is an aesthetic figure with which the idea of achieved perfection has been associated from time immemorial” (1, p. 245), writes one of the best researchers of “War and Peace” S.G. Bocharov. In Christian culture, the circle symbolizes the sky and at the same time the highly aspiring human spirit.
However, firstly, the ball Pierre dreams of is not only constant, but also characterized by the inescapable variability of the liquid (drops merging and separating again). The stable and the changeable appear in indissoluble unity. Secondly, the ball in “War and Peace” is a symbol not so much of the present as of an ideal, desired reality. Tolstoy's searching heroes never rest on the path that introduces them to eternal, permanent spiritual values. As S.G. Bocharov notes, in the epilogue, the conservative landowner and limited man Nikolai Rostov, and not Pierre, is close to the peasant world-community and to the land. Natasha is withdrawn into the family circle, but admires her husband, whose interests are much broader, while Pierre and 15-year-old Nikolenka Bolkonsky, the true son of his father, experience acute dissatisfaction, in their aspirations they are ready to go far beyond the boundaries of the surrounding, stable circle of life. New activity Bezukhov “Karataev would not have approved, but he would have approved family life Pierre; Thus, in the end, the small world, the home circle, where the acquired good looks are preserved, are separated, and the big world, where again the circle opens into a line, a path, the “world of thought” and endless striving are resumed.” Pierre cannot become like Karataev, because Karataev’s world is self-sufficient and impersonal. “My name is Plato; Karataev’s nickname,” he introduces himself to Pierre, immediately including himself in the community, in this case a family one. For him, love for everyone excludes the high price of individuality. “Karataev had no attachments, friendship, love, as Pierre understood them; but he loved and lived lovingly with everything that life brought him to, and especially... with those people who were before his eyes. He loved his mongrel, he loved his comrades, the French, he loved Pierre, who was his neighbor; but Pierre felt that Karataev, despite all his affectionate tenderness towards him... would not be upset for a minute at being separated from him. And Pierre began to experience the same feeling towards Karataev” (vol. 4, part 1, chapter XIII). Then Pierre, like all the other prisoners, does not even try to support and save Plato, who fell ill on the way, leaves him, who will now be shot by the guards, acts as Plato himself would have acted. Karataev’s “roundness” is the momentary completeness and self-sufficiency of existence. For Pierre, with his spiritual search, in his natural environment such fullness of being is not enough.
In the epilogue, Pierre, arguing with the unreasoning, withdrawn Rostov, not only opposes Nikolai, but is also concerned about his fate, as well as the fate of Russia and humanity. “It seemed to him at that moment that he was called upon to give a new direction to the entire Russian society and the whole world,” writes Tolstoy, not without condemning “his self-righteous reasoning” (epilogue, part 1, chapter XVI). The “new direction” turns out to be inseparable from conservatism. While criticizing the government, Pierre wants to help it by creating a secret society. “The society may not be secret if the government allows it. Not only is it not hostile to the government, but it is a society of true conservatives. A society of gentlemen in the full sense of the word. We are only so that tomorrow Pugachev does not come to slaughter both my and your children,” Pierre says to Nikolai, “and so that Arakcheev does not send me to military settlement, - we only join hand in hand for the sake of it, with one goal of the common good and common security” (epilogue, part 1, chapter XIV).
Nikolai Rostov’s wife has her own internal problems, which are much deeper than her husband. “The soul of Countess Marya always strived for the infinite, eternal and perfect and therefore could never be at peace” (epilogue, part 1, chapter XV). This is very Tolstoyan: eternal anxiety in the name of the absolute.
The world of the epic novel as a whole is stable and defined in its outlines, but is not closed or complete. War subjects this world to cruel trials, brings suffering and heavy losses (the best perish: Prince Andrei, who has just begun to live and loves everyone, Petya Rostov, who also loves everyone, although differently, Karataev), but trials also strengthen what is truly durable, and what is evil and the unnatural fails. “Until the twelfth year broke out,” writes S.G. Bocharov, - it could seem that intrigue, the play of interests, the Kuragin principle prevail over the deep necessity of life; but in the context of the twelfth year, the intrigue is doomed to failure, and this is shown in the most varied facts, between which there is an internal connection - both in the fact that poor Sonya must lose and innocent tricks will not help her, and in the pitiful death of Helen, entangled in the intrigues, and in the inevitable defeat of Napoleon, his grandiose intrigue, his adventure, which he wants to impose on the world and turn into world law.” The end of the war is the restoration of the normal flow of life. Everything is being sorted out. Tolstoy's heroes pass the tests with honor, emerging from them purer and deeper than they were. Their sadness for the dead is peaceful and bright. Of course, such an understanding of life is akin to an epic one. But this is not a heroic epic in the original sense, but an idyllic one. Tolstoy accepts life as it is, despite his sharply critical attitude towards everything that separates people, makes them individualists, despite the fact that in the trials of the idyllic world there is a lot of drama and tragedy. The epilogue promises the heroes new trials, but the tone of the finale is light, because life in general is good and indestructible.
For Tolstoy there is no hierarchy of life events. Historical and personal life in his understanding are phenomena of the same order. Therefore, “everyone historical fact we need to explain it humanly...” Everything is connected to everything. The impressions of the Borodino battle leave in Pierre’s subconscious a feeling of precisely this universal connection. “The most difficult thing (Pierre continued to think or hear in his sleep) is to be able to unite in your soul the meaning of everything. Connect everything? - Pierre said to himself. - No, don't connect. You cannot connect thoughts, but connecting all these thoughts is what you need! Yes, we need to pair, we need to pair!” It turns out that at this time someone’s voice repeats several times that it is necessary, it’s time to harness (Vol. 3, Part 3, Chapter IX), i.e. keyword suggested to Pierre's subconscious by a similar word that his master says when waking up the master. Thus, in the epic novel, the global laws of existence and the subtlest movements of individual human psychology are “conjugated.”
MEANINGS OF THE WORD “PEACE”. Although in Tolstoy’s time the word “peace” was printed in the title of his book as “peace” and not “mir”, thereby meaning only the absence of war, in fact in the epic novel the meanings of this word, going back to one original one, are numerous and varied. This is the whole world (the universe), and humanity, and the national world, and peasant community, and other forms of unification of people, and what is beyond the boundaries of one or another community - so, for Nikolai Rostov, after losing 43 thousand to Dolokhov, “the whole world was divided into two uneven sections: one - our Pavlograd regiment, and the other - everything else " Certainty is always important to him. She is in the regiment. He decided to “serve well and be a completely excellent comrade and officer, that is, a wonderful person, which seemed so difficult in the world, but so possible in the regiment” (vol. 2, part 2, chapter XV). At the beginning of the war of 1812, Natasha was deeply moved in church by the words “let us pray to the Lord in peace,” she understood this as the absence of hostility, as the unity of people of all classes. “World” can mean a way of life, a worldview, a type of perception, a state of consciousness. Princess Marya, forced to live and act independently on the eve of her father’s death, “was seized by another world of everyday, difficult and free activity, completely opposite to the moral world in which she was confined before and in which the best consolation was prayer” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter VIII). The wounded Prince Andrei “wanted to return to the former world of pure thought, but he could not, and delirium pulled him into its realm” (vol. 3, part 3, chapter XXXII). Princess Marya, in the words, tone, and gaze of her dying brother, “felt a terrible alienation from everything worldly for a living person” (vol. 4, part 1, chapter XV). In the epilogue, Countess Marya is jealous of her husband for his household activities, because she cannot “understand the joys and sorrows brought to him by this separate, alien world for her” (Part 1, Chapter VII). And further it says: “As in every real family, in the Lysogorsk house several completely different worlds lived together, which, each maintaining its own peculiarity and making concessions to one another, merged into one harmonious whole. Every event that happened in the house was equally important - joyful or sad - for all these worlds; but each world had its own reasons, independent of others, to rejoice or be sad about some event” (Chapter XII). Thus, the range of meanings of the word “peace” in “War and Peace” is from the universe, space to the internal state of the individual hero. Tolstoy's macrocosm and microcosm are inseparable. Not only in the Lysogorsk house of Marya and Nikolai Rostov - throughout the book, many and diverse worlds merge “into one harmonious whole” in accordance with an unprecedented genre.
IDEA OF UNITY. The connection of everything with everything in “War and Peace” is not only stated and demonstrated in the most diverse forms. It is actively asserted as a moral and, in general, life ideal.
“Natasha and Nikolai, Pierre and Kutuzov, Platon Karataev and Princess Marya are sincerely disposed towards all people without exception and expect reciprocal goodwill from everyone,” writes V.E. Khalizev. For these characters, such a relationship is not even an ideal, but the norm. Prince Andrei, who is not devoid of primness and constantly reflective, is much more withdrawn into himself and focused on his own. At first he thinks about his personal career and fame. But he understands fame as the love of many strangers for him. Later, Bolkonsky tries to participate in government reforms in the name of benefit for the same people unknown to him, for the whole country, now not for the sake of his career. One way or another, being together with others is extremely important for him, he thinks about this at the moment of spiritual enlightenment after visiting the Rostovs in Otradnoye, after accidentally overhearing Natasha’s enthusiastic words about a wonderful night, addressed to someone much colder and indifferent than her , Sonya (there is almost a pun here: Sonya sleeps and wants to sleep), and two “meetings” with an old oak tree, at first resistant to spring and the sun, and then transformed under fresh foliage. Not so long ago, Andrei told Pierre that he was only trying to avoid illness and remorse, i.e. directly affecting only him personally. This was the result of disappointment in life after, in return for the expected glory, he had to experience injury and captivity, and his return home coincided with the death of his wife (he loved her little, but that’s why he knew remorse). “No, life is not over at thirty-one,” Prince Andrei suddenly decided, finally and without fail. - Not only do I know everything that is in me, it is necessary for everyone to know it: both Pierre and this girl who wanted to fly into the sky, it is necessary for everyone to know me, so that my life is not just for me. life, so that they don’t live like this girl, regardless of my life, so that it affects everyone and so that they all live with me!” (vol. 2, part 3, chapter III). In the foreground in this internal monologue is me, mine, but the main, summing up word is “together”.
Among the forms of unity of people, Tolstoy especially singles out two - family and national. Most of the Rostovs are, to a certain extent, a single collective image. Sonya ultimately turns out to be an alien to this family, not because she is only the niece of Count Ilya Andreich. She is loved in the family as the most loved one. But both her love for Nikolai and her sacrifice - the renunciation of her claims to marry him - are more or less forced, constructed in a mind that is limited and far from poetic simplicity. And for Vera, marriage with the calculating Berg, who is nothing like the Rostovs, becomes quite natural. In essence, the Kuragins are an imaginary family, although Prince Vasily takes care of his children, arranges a career or marriage for them in accordance with secular ideas of success, and they are in solidarity with each other in their own way: the story of the attempted seduction and abduction of Natasha Rostova by the already married Anatole is not dispensed with Helen's participation. “Oh, vile, heartless breed!” - Pierre exclaims at the sight of Anatole’s “timid and vile smile”, whom he asked to leave, offering money for the journey (vol. 2, part 5, chapter XX). The Kuragin “breed” is not at all the same as a family, Pierre knows this too well. Platon Karataev, who is married to Helen Pierre, first of all asks about his parents - the fact that Pierre does not have a mother especially upsets him - and upon hearing that he does not have “children”, again upset, he resorts to purely folk consolation: “Well, There will be young people, God willing. If only I could live in the council...” (vol. 4, part 1, chapter XII). There is absolutely no “advice” at all. IN art world According to Tolstoy, such complete egoists as Helen with her debauchery or Anatole cannot and should not have children. And after Andrei Bolkonsky, a son remains, although his young wife died in childbirth and the hope for a second marriage turned into a personal disaster. The plot of “War and Peace”, which opens directly to life, ends with the dreams of young Nikolenka about the future, the dignity of which is measured by the high criteria of the past - the authority of his father who died from a wound: “Yes, I will do something with which even he would be pleased...” (epilogue, part 1, chapter XVI).
The exposure of the main anti-hero of “War and Peace,” Napoleon, is also carried out with the help of “family” themes. Before the Battle of Borodino, he receives a gift from the Empress - an allegorical portrait of a son playing in a bilbok (“The ball represented the globe, and the stick in the other hand represented a scepter”), “a boy born of Napoleon and the daughter of the Austrian emperor, whom for some reason everyone called the king Rome". For the sake of “history,” Napoleon, “with his greatness,” “showed, in contrast to this greatness, the simplest fatherly tenderness,” and Tolstoy sees in this only a feigned “kind of thoughtful tenderness” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter XXVI ).
“Family” relationships for Tolstoy are not necessarily family relationships. Natasha, dancing to the guitar of a poor landowner, “uncle,” who plays “On the Pavement Street...”, is spiritually close to him, as well as to everyone present, regardless of the degree of relationship. She, the countess, “raised by a French emigrant” “in silk and velvet,” “knew how to understand everything that was in Anisya, and in Anisya’s father, and in her aunt, and in her mother, and in every Russian person” (t 2, part 4, chapter VII). The previous hunting scene, during which Ilya Andreich Rostov, who missed the wolf, endured the emotional abuse of the hunter Danila, is also proof that the “family” atmosphere for the Rostovs sometimes overcomes very high social barriers. According to the law of “conjugation,” this branched scene turns out to be an artistic preview of the image of the Patriotic War. “Isn’t the image of a “club” close to Danilin’s entire appearance? people's war"? On a hunt, where he was the main figure, its success depended on him, the peasant hunter only for a moment became master over his master, who was useless in the hunt,” notes S.G. Bocharov, further using the example of the image of the Moscow commander-in-chief Count Rastopchin, revealing the weakness and uselessness of the actions of the “historical” character.
At the Raevsky battery, where Pierre ends up during the Battle of Borodino, before the start of hostilities, “one felt the same and common to everyone, like a family revival” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter XXXI). The soldiers immediately dubbed the stranger “our master,” just as the soldiers of Andrei Bolkonsky’s regiment dubbed their commander “our prince.” “There is a similar atmosphere at the Tushin battery during the Battle of Shengraben, as well as in the partisan detachment when Petya Rostov arrives there,” points out V.E. Khalizev. - In this regard, let us remember Natasha Rostova, who was helping the wounded in the days of leaving Moscow: she “liked these relationships with new people, outside the usual conditions of life”... the similarity between the family and similar “swarm” communities is also important: both the unity is non-hierarchical and free... The readiness of the Russian people, primarily peasants and soldiers, for a non-coercive free unity is most similar to “Rostov” nepotism.”
Tolstoy's unity does not at all mean the dissolution of individuality into the mass. The forms of unity of people approved by the writer are the opposite of a disordered and depersonalized, inhumane crowd. The crowd is shown in scenes of soldier panic, when the defeat of the allied army in the Battle of Austerlitz became obvious, the arrival of Alexander I in Moscow after the outbreak of World War II (the episode with biscuits that the tsar throws from the balcony to his subjects, literally seized with wild delight), the abandonment of Moscow by Russian troops, when Rastop-chin gives it to the residents to be torn to pieces by Vereshchagin, supposedly the culprit of what happened, etc. A crowd is chaos, most often destructive, but the unity of people is deeply beneficial. “During the Battle of Shengraben (Tushin’s battery) and the Battle of Borodino (Raevsky’s battery), as well as in the partisan detachments of Denisov and Dolokhov, everyone knew their “business, place and purpose.” The true order of a just, defensive war, according to Tolstoy, inevitably arises anew each time from unpremeditated and unplanned human actions: the will of the people in 1812 was realized independently of any military-state demands and sanctions.” In the same way, immediately after the death of the old Prince Bolkonsky, Princess Marya did not need to make any orders: “God knows who took care of this and when, but everything happened as if by itself” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter VIII).
The popular character of the war of 1812 was clear to the soldiers. From one of them, on the way out of Mozhaisk towards Borodin, Pierre hears a tongue-tied speech: “They want to attack all the people, one word - Moscow. They want to do one end.” The author comments: “Despite the vagueness of the soldier’s words, Pierre understood everything he wanted to say...” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter XX). After the battle, shocked, this purely non-military man, belonging to the secular elite, seriously thinks about the completely impossible. “To be a soldier, just a soldier! - thought Pierre, falling asleep. “Enter this common life with your whole being, penetrate into what makes them so” (vol. 3, part 3, chapter IX). Count Bezukhov, of course, will not become a soldier, but he will be captured along with the soldiers and experience all the horrors and hardships that befell them. What led to this, however, was the plan to accomplish an absolutely individual romantic feat - to stab Napoleon with a dagger, whose supporter Pierre declared himself at the beginning of the novel, when for Andrei Bolkonsky the newly-minted French emperor was an idol and a model. Dressed as a coachman and wearing glasses, Count Bezukhov wanders through French-occupied Moscow in search of a conqueror, but instead of carrying out his impossible plan, he saves a little girl from a burning house and attacks the marauders who were robbing the Armenian woman with his fists. Arrested, he passes off the rescued girl as his daughter, “not knowing how this aimless lie escaped him” (vol. 3, part 3, chapter XXXIV). Childless Pierre feels like a father, a member of some kind of super-family.
The people are the army, and the partisans, and the Smolensk merchant Ferapontov, who is ready to set fire to his own house so that the French do not get it, and the men who did not want to bring hay to the French for good money, but burned it, and Muscovites leaving their homes, hometown simply because they do not imagine themselves under the rule of the French, these are Pierre, and the Rostovs, abandoning their property and giving up carts for the wounded at Natasha’s request, and Kutuzov with his “people's feeling.” Although, as it is estimated, only eight percent of the book is devoted to episodes with the participation of ordinary people, “the actual theme of the people” (Tolstoy admitted that he described mainly the environment that he knew well), “these percentages will increase sharply if we take into account that, from the point of view Tolstoy, the people’s soul and spirit are expressed no less than by Platon Karataev or Tikhon Shcherbaty by Vasily Denisov, Field Marshal Kutuzov, and finally - and most importantly - by himself, the author.” At the same time, the author does not idealize ordinary people. The rebellion of Bogucharov’s men against Princess Marya before the arrival of the French troops is also shown (however, these are men who were especially restless before, and Rostov, with the young Ilyin and the savvy Lavrushka, managed to pacify them very easily). After the French left Moscow, the Cossacks, men from neighboring villages and the returning residents, “finding it plundered, began to plunder it too. They continued what the French were doing” (vol. 4, part 4, chapter XIV). Formed by Pierre and Mamonov (a characteristic combination of a fictional character and a historical figure), militia regiments plundered Russian villages (vol. 4, part 1, chapter IV). Scout Tikhon Shcherbaty is not only “the most useful and brave man in the party,” i.e. in Denisov’s partisan detachment, but also capable of killing a captured Frenchman because he was “completely incompetent” and “rude.” When he said this, “his whole face stretched out into a shining, stupid smile,” the next murder he committed means nothing to him (that’s why it’s “embarrassing” for Petya Rostov to listen to him), he is ready, when it “goes dark,” to bring up “whatever ones you want.” , at least three” (vol. 4, part 3, chapter V, VI). Nevertheless, the people as a whole, the people as a huge family, are a moral guideline for Tolstoy and his favorite heroes.
The most extensive form of unity in the epic novel is humanity, people, regardless of nationality and membership in a particular community, including armies at war with each other. Even during the war of 1805, Russian and French soldiers tried to talk to each other and showed mutual interest.
In the “German” village, where the cadet Rostov stopped with his regiment, a German he met near the cowshed exclaims after his toast to the Austrians, Russians and Emperor Alexander: “And long live the whole world!” Nikolay, also in German, a little differently, picks up this exclamation. “Although there was no reason for special joy either for the German, who was cleaning out his barn, or for Rostov, who was riding with a platoon for hay, both these people looked at each other with happy delight and brotherly love, shook their heads as a sign mutual love and, smiling, they parted...” (vol. 1, part 2, chapter IV). Natural cheerfulness makes strangers, people far from each other in every sense, “brothers.” In burning Moscow, when Pierre saves a girl, he is helped by a Frenchman with a spot on his cheek, who says: “Well, it’s necessary according to humanity. All people” (vol. 3, part 3, chapter XXXIII). This is Tolstoy's translation of French words. In a literal translation, these words (“Faut etre humain. Nous sommes tous mortels, voyez-vous”) would be much less significant for the author’s idea: “You have to be humane. We are all mortal, you see.” The arrested Pierre and the cruel Marshal Davout, who was interrogating him, “looked at each other for several seconds, and this look saved Pierre. In this view, apart from all the conditions of war and trial, a human relationship was established between these two people. Both of them at that moment vaguely experienced countless things and realized that they were both children of humanity, that they were brothers” (vol. 4, part 1, chapter X).
Russian soldiers willingly seat Captain Rambal and his orderly Morel, who came out to them from the forest, by their fire, feed them, and try to sing a song together with Morel, who “sat in the best place” (vol. 4, part 4, chapter IX). about Henri the Fourth. The French boy drummer Vincent fell in love not only with Petya Rostov, who was close to him in age; good-natured partisans thinking about spring “have already changed his name: the Cossacks - into Vesenny, and the men and soldiers - into Visenya” (vol. 4, part 3, chapter VII). Kutuzov, after the battle near Krasnoye, tells the soldiers about the ragged prisoners: “While they were strong, we did not feel sorry for ourselves, but now we can feel sorry for them. They are people too. Right, guys?” (Vol. 4, Part 3, Chapter VI). This violation of external logic is indicative: before they did not feel sorry for themselves, but now they can feel sorry for them. However, having met the bewildered glances of the soldiers, Kutuzov corrects himself, says that the uninvited French got it “servely served,” and ends his speech with “an old man’s, good-natured curse,” met with laughter. Pity for defeated enemies, when there are many of them, in “War and Peace” is still far from “non-resistance to evil through violence” in the form in which the late Tolstoy would preach it; this pity is condescending and contemptuous. But the French themselves, fleeing from Russia, “all... felt that they were pitiful and disgusting people who had done a lot of evil, for which they now had to pay” (vol. 4, part 3, chapter XVI).
On the other hand, Tolstoy has a completely negative attitude towards the state-bureaucratic elite of Russia, people of society and career. And if Pierre, who experienced the hardships of captivity and experienced a spiritual revolution, “Prince Vasily, now especially proud of receiving a new place and star, seemed... a touching, kind and pitiful old man” (vol. 4, part 4, chapter XIX), then we are talking about a father who has lost two children and, out of habit, rejoices at his success in the service. This is about the same condescending pity that soldiers have for the masses of the French. People who are incapable of unity with their own kind, who are deprived of even the ability to strive for true happiness, take tinsel for life.
NATURALITY AS A NORM AND ITS DISTORTIONS. The existence of the characters condemned by Tolstoy is artificial. The same is their behavior, usually subordinate to ritual or conventional order. Everything is predetermined and marked out in Anna Pavlovna Scherer’s St. Petersburg salon (state-owned St. Petersburg and more patriarchal Moscow are contrasted in “War and Peace”), each visitor, for example, must first of all greet the old aunt, so as not to pay attention to her even once. It's like a parody of family relationships. This style of life is especially unnatural during the Patriotic War, when people of the world play at patriotism, charging fines for using the French language by inertia. In this case, it is very significant that this happens in Moscow when the enemy is approaching it, before the Battle of Borodino, when Julie Drubetskaya, getting ready to leave the city, “had a farewell party” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter XVII).
“Historical” figures, for example numerous generals, speak pathetically and take solemn poses. Emperor Alexander, upon hearing the news of the surrender of Moscow, utters the French phrase: “Have they really betrayed my ancient capital without a battle?” (vol. 4, part 1, chapter III). Napoleon constantly poses. When he is waiting for the delegation of “boyars” to Poklonnaya Hill, his majestic pose becomes absurd and comical. All this is infinitely far from the behavior of Tolstoy’s favorite heroes, from the behavior of not only Russian soldiers and men, but also soldiers of the Napoleonic army, when they are not subjugated by a false idea. And submission to such an idea can be not just absurd, but tragically absurd. While crossing the Viliya River, in front of Napoleon's eyes, the Polish colonel lets his subordinate lancers swim so that they demonstrate their devotion to the emperor. “They tried to swim forward to the other side and, despite the fact that there was a crossing half a mile away, they were proud that they were swimming and drowning in this river under the gaze of a man sitting on a log and not even looking at what they were doing” ( vol. 3, part 1, chapter II). Earlier, at the end of the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon drives around a field strewn with corpses and, seeing the wounded Bolkonsky, next to whom lies the pole of an already torn banner, says: “This is a beautiful death.” For the bleeding Prince Andrei there cannot be beautiful death. “He knew that it was Napoleon - his hero, but at that moment Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant person in comparison with what was now happening between his soul and this high, endless sky with clouds running across it” (vol. 1, part 3, chapter XIX). On the verge of life and death, Bolkonsky discovered naturalness in pure form, the beauty and limitlessness of existence as such, which for him symbolizes as if seeing the sky for the first time. The writer does not condemn Bolkonsky’s beautiful, heroic act, he only shows the futility of individual feat. He does not later condemn 15-year-old Nikolenka, who in a dream sees himself and Uncle Pierre “in helmets - the kind that were drawn in Plutarch’s edition... in front of a huge army” (epilogue, part I, chapter XVI). Enthusiasm is not contraindicated in youth. But those who try to present themselves as something like Roman heroes (for example, Rostopchin), especially during a people’s war, far from the rules and official military aesthetics, Tolstoy more than once subjects to harsh and uncompromising criticism. Tolstoy's ethics is universal and therefore ahistorical. For real participants in the War of 1812, a heroic pose and imitation of the ancients were natural, did not in the least exclude sincerity and genuine enthusiasm and, of course, did not determine their entire behavior.
Unnatural people in War and Peace also do not always consciously design their behavior. “False naturalness, a “sincere lie” (as it is said in “War and Peace” about Napoleon), is hated by Tolstoy, perhaps to an even greater extent than conscious pretense... Napoleon and Speransky, Kuragin and Drubetskaya master such a cunning “methodology “posturing that she is amusingly deceiving them.” Indicative is the scene of the unction of the dying old Count Bezukhov with a panorama of the faces of the contenders for his inheritance (three princesses, Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, Prince Vasily), among whom the confused, understanding and clumsy Pierre stands out. It is quite natural that Anna Mikhailovna and Princess Katish, snatching each other’s briefcase with a will in the presence of Prince Vasily with “jumping cheeks” (vol. 1, part 1, chapter XXI), already forget about all decency. So then Helen, after Pierre’s duel with Dolokhov, shows her anger and cynicism.
Even revelry - the flip side of secular decency - for Anatoly Kuragin and Dolokhov is largely a game, a pose. “The restless fool” Anatole realizes his ideas of what a guards officer should be like. The gentle son and brother, the poor nobleman Dolokhov, in order to lead among the rich guards officers, becomes a particularly dashing reveler, gambler and briber. He undertakes to arrange the kidnapping of Natasha Rostova for Anatoly; he is not stopped by the story of his demotion for rioting, when Anatoly was rescued by his father, but there was no one to rescue Dolokhov. Dolokhov’s very heroism - both during a revelry, when he drinks a bottle of rum on a bet in spirit, sitting on the sloping outer window sill of a tall house, and in war, when he goes on reconnaissance under the guise of a Frenchman, taking young Petya Rostov with him and risking his life like that the same as his own - demonstrative heroism, invented and entirely aimed at self-affirmation. He will not fail to remind the general of his differences during the Battle of Austerlitz, who has no time for him, since the defeat of the Russian army is inevitable. The riotous Dolokhov curries favor in the same way as the cold careerist Berg, although he is much less concerned about his career success and is ready to risk it for the sake of self-affirmation. The army environment has its own conventions, which would seem to be quite unartificial. Young Nikolai Rostov, having exposed the thief Telyanin, himself turned out to be guilty of tarnishing the honor of the regiment by not keeping silent. In his first battle, Nikolai ran away from the Frenchman, throwing a pistol at him (and received the soldier’s St. George Cross for bravery), then lost 43 thousand to Dolokhov, knowing that the family was going bankrupt, and at the estate he shouted at the manager to no avail. Over time, he becomes both a good officer and a good owner of his wife’s estate. This is normal evolution, the natural maturation of a person. Nikolai is shallow, but honest and natural, like almost all Rostovs.
Count Ilya Andreich and Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova are the same in their treatment of everyone, important and unimportant, which makes them sharply different from Anna Pavlovna Sherer. Always natural, except perhaps under the stern gaze of a commanding officer, is the small, completely non-military-looking staff captain Tushin, first shown by Tolstoy in the sutler’s tent without boots, unsuccessfully justifying himself to the staff officer: “The soldiers say: you are smarter when you are smarter” (vol. 1, part. 2, chapter XV). But Kutuzov, who falls asleep during the military council before the Battle of Austerlitz, and his closest assistant during the War of 1812, Konovnitsyn, singled out by the author from among other generals, are also natural. The brave Bagration, appearing at a gala dinner held in his honor at the Moscow English Club after the 1805 campaign, was embarrassed and awkward to the point of ridiculousness. “He walked, not knowing where to put his hands, shyly and awkwardly, along the parquet floor of the reception room: it was more familiar and easier for him to walk under bullets across a plowed field, as he walked in front of the Kursk regiment in Shengraben” (vol. 2, part 1, chapter .III). So counts and generals can behave as naturally as soldiers, embarrassed by everything artificial and pompous. A person’s behavior depends on the person himself, on what his character is. At the same time, the simplest things in life, like Natasha’s dance in her “uncle’s” house, like the whole family atmosphere at the Rostovs, are enveloped in true poetry. “In “War and Peace”... everyday life with its stable way of life is poeticized,” notes V.E. Khalizev.
Rationalistic intervention in this way of life, attempts to improve it in a strong-willed manner turn out to be fruitless and, in any case, ineffective, like Pierre’s philanthropic measures. Masonic education, writes S.G. Bocharov, “endows Pierre with the idea of a well-ordered world order, which he did not see when he was confused “in the world”.” A well-known parallel to Pierre’s charitable activities is the theoretical development of military and government reforms by Prince Andrei, when nothing repelled him in Speransky (and Pierre generally calls Bazdeev, who introduced him to Freemasonry, a “benefactor”). Both friends are disappointed in their plans and hopes. Bolkonsky, amazed by his new meeting with Natasha Rostova at the ball, for a long time cannot forget Speransky’s “neat, sad laughter.” “He remembered his legislative work, how he anxiously translated articles from the Roman and French codes into Russian, and he felt ashamed of himself. Then he vividly imagined Bogucharovo, his activities in the village, his trip to Ryazan, he remembered the peasants, Drona the headman, and, adding to them the rights of persons, which he divided into paragraphs, it became surprising to him how he could engage in such an idle activity for so long. work” (vol. 2, part 3, chapter XVIII). Pierre in captivity “learned not with his mind, but with his whole being, with his life, that man was created for happiness, that happiness is in himself, in the satisfaction of natural human needs, and that all unhappiness comes not from lack, but from excess...” ( vol. 4, part 3, chapter XII). After his release, in Oryol, “alone in a strange city, without acquaintances,” he rejoices in the satisfaction of the most simple, natural needs. “Oh, how good! How nice!” - he said to himself when they brought him a cleanly set table with fragrant broth, or when he lay down at night on a soft, clean bed, or when he remembered that his wife and the French were no more” (vol. 4, part 4, chapter XII ). He is not embarrassed by the fact that Helen’s death is also “glorious,” and he puts his liberation from a painful marriage on a par with the liberation of his homeland from the conquerors. “He... didn’t make any plans now” (vol. 4, part 4, chapter XIX), abandoning for the time being to the spontaneous flow of life, uncontrolled by anyone or anything.
The norm (natural behavior) allows for some deviations. “The freely open behavior of heroes and heroines close to Tolstoy often goes beyond the boundaries of what is generally accepted and established... In the Rostov house, it is difficult for young people to keep animation and fun within the boundaries of decency; Natasha violates household etiquette more often than others.” This is a minor problem. However, momentary egoism, which Tolstoy’s most beloved heroes are not alien to, can also be natural. The healthy flees from the sick, happiness from misfortune, the living from the dead and the dying, although not always. Natasha, with her subtle instinct, guesses about the state of her brother Nikolai when he returns home after a terrible card loss, “but she herself was so happy at that moment, she was so far from grief, sadness, reproaches that she (as often happens with young people) people) deliberately deceived herself” (vol. 2, part 1, chapter XV). At the stage, the captive Pierre was not only exhausted and unable to help the weakened Karataev - he “was too afraid for himself. He acted as if he had not seen his gaze, and hastily walked away” (vol. 4, part 3, chapter XIV). Natasha's naturalness is subjected to a cruel test when, by the will of the old Prince Bolkonsky, her wedding with Prince Andrei is postponed for a year and the groom must go abroad. “ - A whole year! - Natasha suddenly said, now only realizing that the wedding had been postponed for a year. - Why is it a year? Why is it a year?.. - This is terrible! No, this is terrible, terrible! - Natasha suddenly spoke and began to sob again. “I’ll die waiting a year: this is impossible, this is terrible” (vol. 2, part 3, chapter XXIII). Loving Natasha does not understand any conditions, and even the conventions of art are unbearable for her. After the village (with hunting, Christmastide, etc.) in her “serious mood,” “it was wild and surprising for her” to see opera stage, “she saw only painted cardboards and strangely dressed men and women, moving, speaking and singing strangely in the bright light; she knew what all this was supposed to represent, but it was all so pretentiously false and unnatural that she felt either ashamed of the actors or funny at them” (vol. 2, part 5, chapter IX). Here she begins to experience the physiological, i.e. physically natural, attraction to the handsome Anatole, introduced to her by his sister Helen. “They talked about the simplest things, and she felt that they were close, like she had never been with a man” (vol. 2, part 5, chapter X). Soon Natasha, in bewilderment, admits to herself that she loves two people at once - both the distant groom and, as it seems to her, so close Anatole, then agrees to run away with Anatole. This darkness, by the will of Tolstoy, befalls his most beloved heroine. She must cruelly repent, go through a terrible time for her (at this time there is also an unconscious beginning of her future love for Pierre, who helps resolve the situation and confesses his love for her to Natasha) and get out of her crisis in the days of the most difficult trials for her. country and family, when she demands to release the carts for the wounded, meets the dying Prince Andrei, becomes convinced of his love and forgiveness, endures his death and, finally, helps her mother endure a huge shock - the death of the teenager Petya. Natural self-will with such grave consequences for Natasha, Prince Andrei, Pierre, and others is one of those forms of naturalness that, of course, is not accepted by the author as an apologist for “common life,” human unity. Prince Andrei forgives Natasha before his death, but after his mortal wound, he no longer feels hostility towards Anatole, whose leg is being amputated next to him. And his father, nicknamed the “Prussian king,” who raised Princess Mary so strictly, before his death, touchingly, with tears, asks her for forgiveness. In the images of father and son Bolkonsky, aristocrat L.N. Tolstoy overcame his own severity and stiffness: his son Ilya recalled that during the period of “War and Peace” he looked not like Pierre Bezukhov or Konstantin Levin from “Anna Karenina”, but like Prince Andrei and even more like the old man Bolkonsky.
Prince Andrei cannot, until he has renounced everything “worldly,” overcome his pride and aristocracy. Pierre, reminding him of his own words that a fallen woman must be forgiven, he replies: “... but I didn’t say that I can forgive. I can't". He is unable to follow “in the footsteps of this gentleman” (vol. 2, part 5, chapter XXI).
Denisov, getting to know him, is recommended: “Lieutenant Colonel Denisov, better known under the name Vaska” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter XV). Colonel Bolkonsky under no circumstances is Andryushka. Having decided to serve only in the ranks of the active army (which is why “he lost himself forever in the court world, without asking to remain with the sovereign” - vol. 3, part 1, chapter XI), beloved by the soldiers of his regiment, he still could never would like to take a dip in the pond where they swam in the heat, and, dousing himself in the barn, shudders “from an incomprehensible disgust and horror at the sight of this huge number of bodies rinsing in the dirty pond” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter V ). He dies because he cannot allow himself, in front of the soldiers standing under fire, to fall to the ground in front of a spinning grenade, as the adjutant did - this is “shameful” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter XXXVI). According to Natasha, told to Princess Marya, “he is too good, he cannot, cannot live...” (vol. 4, part 1, chapter XIV). But Count Pyotr Kirillovich Bezukhov can run in horror and fall on the Borodino field, after the battle, hungry, posing as a “militia officer,” sit down next to a soldier’s fire and eat a “mush”: the soldier “handed Pierre, licking it, a wooden spoon,” and he eats a simple dish in large sips, “which seemed to him the most delicious of all the dishes that he had ever eaten” (vol. 3, part 3, chapter VIII). Then His Excellency, together with the captured soldiers, splashes barefoot through the frozen puddles under escort. So, according to Tolstoy, he can live and eventually marry his beloved Natasha.
Of course, Andrei and Pierre have a lot in common in their spiritual quests. But in the artistic system of the epic novel, which poetizes the flow of life, their fates turn out to be opposite. Bolkonsky, along with Lermontov's Pechorin, is one of the most talented characters in Russian literature and, just like him, is unhappy. An unsuccessful marriage and disappointment in social life prompt him to look for “his Toulon” in imitation of Napoleon. This leads to another disappointment, and he arrives home at the time of childbirth and the death of his wife. Having awakened over time to a new life, he tries to realize himself in serving the state and is again disappointed. Love for Natasha gives him hope for personal happiness, but he turns out to be terribly deceived and insulted: they chose an immoral nonentity, like a beautiful animal, over him. His father dies during the war, and the estate is occupied by the French. He receives a fatal wound behind Russian lines from a stray grenade and dies at 34, knowing that, having reconciled with Natasha, he will never be with her.
Pierre, the illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov, awkward, ugly, much less gifted than Prince Andrei, inherited the title and all of his father’s enormous fortune. In fact, he was not punished for the brawl. He married even more unsuccessfully than his older friend, but he happily separated from his wife after a duel with a bully, whom, holding a pistol in his hands for the first time, he accidentally shot and who missed in response, aiming at a fat enemy who was not covering himself with a pistol. He also experienced a number of disappointments; at first, unrequitedly, while still married, he fell in love with the “fallen” Natasha. During the Battle of Borodino he was in the thick of it and survived. He did not die in Moscow, captured by the French, although he got involved in a fight with them, armed. He could have been shot like others, but because of a casual glance, the cruel marshal took pity on him. He did not die at the stage, like the seemingly well-adapted peasant soldier Karataev. After captivity he fell ill. “Despite the fact that the doctors treated him, bled him and gave him medicine to drink, he still recovered” (vol. 4, part 4, chapter XII). The sudden death of Helen and the death of Andrei Bolkonsky made it possible for Pierre to marry Natasha, who, having experienced a lot, recognized a kindred spirit in him and fell in love with him despite the fact that the pain of her losses was still fresh. Ultimately, life itself arranged everything for the better for them, no matter how difficult the path they traveled was.
IMAGE OF WAR. For Tolstoy, war is “an event contrary to human reason and all human nature” (vol. 3, part 1, chapter I). Contemporaries disputed this opinion of the writer, citing the fact that humanity in its history was much more at war than it was at peace. But Tolstoy’s words mean that humanity, in fact, is not yet humane enough if strangers, often good-natured, who have nothing against each other, are forced by some irrational force to kill each other. In Tolstoy's descriptions of battles, as a rule, confusion reigns on the battlefield, people are not aware of their actions, and the orders of the commanders are not carried out, since they are delivered to the place when the situation there has already changed. The writer, especially persistently - in the last two volumes of the epic novel, denies the art of war, mocks military terms like “cut off the army” and even rejects the usual designations of military actions and accessories: not “fight”, but “kill people”, not banners, and sticks with pieces of material, etc. (in the first volume, where the discussion was not yet about the Patriotic War, in these cases ordinary, neutral vocabulary was used). The officer, regiment commander Andrei Bolkonsky, before the Battle of Borodino, quite in the spirit of the late Tolstoy, angrily says to Pierre: “War is not a courtesy, but the most disgusting thing in life... The purpose of war is murder, the weapons of war are espionage, treason and its encouragement, the ruin of the inhabitants , robbing them or stealing them to feed the army; deception and lies, called stratagems; the morals of the military class are lack of freedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery, drunkenness. And despite this, this is the highest class, respected by everyone. All kings, except the Chinese, wear a military uniform, and the one who killed the most people is given a large reward... They will come together, like tomorrow, to kill each other, kill, maim tens of thousands of people, and then they will serve thanksgiving prayers for what that they beat many people (whose number is still being added), and they proclaim victory, believing that the more people are beaten, the greater the merit” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter XXV).
Those who are not directly involved in murder also make careers in war. People like Berg receive ranks and awards thanks to the ability to “present” their imaginary exploits. Among the officers and generals of the 1st Army and the courtiers attached to it, at the beginning of the war of 1812, Prince Andrei distinguishes nine different parties and directions. Of these, “the largest group of people who, in their own way, a huge number treated others as 99 treated 1, consisted of people... wanting only one thing, and the most essential: the greatest benefits and pleasures for themselves” (vol. 3, part 1, chapter IX). Tolstoy is critical of most famous generals, and even officers of lesser rank known from history, he deprives them of their recognized merits. Thus, the most successful actions during the Battle of Shengraben (1805) are attributed to fictional characters, the modest officers Tushin and Timokhin. The first of them, not rewarded with anything, saved from the boss’s scolding by Andrei Bolkonsky, we later see without an arm in a stinking hospital, the second, Izmail’s comrade Kutuzov (Izmail was captured in 1790), in 1812 only “due to the loss of officers” ( vol. 3, part 2, chapter XXIV) received the battalion. It is not Denis Davydov who comes to Kutuzov with a plan for a guerrilla war, but Vasily Denisov, who only partially resembles his prototype.
Tolstoy's positive heroes cannot get used to professional murder. In the case near Ostrovnaya, Nikolai Rostov, already an experienced squadron commander, and not an unfired cadet as he was at Shengraben, during his successful attack does not even kill, but only wounds and takes prisoner a Frenchman and after that, in confusion, wonders why he presented to the St. George Cross. In “War and Peace” in general, in contrast to ancient epics, the author avoids showing the direct murder of man by man. It affected here personal experience Tolstoy, an officer who was an artilleryman in besieged Sevastopol, and not an infantryman or cavalryman, and did not see his victims close (in detailed descriptions of the Shengraben, Austerlitz, Borodino battles, artillery is given Special attention), but the main thing is that he clearly hated showing people killing. In a huge work with many war scenes, the title of which begins with the word “War,” there are only two more or less detailed descriptions of face-to-face killings. This is the murder of Vereshchagin by a crowd on a Moscow street at the behest of Rastopchin and the execution, also in Moscow, of five people by the French, who are frightened and carry out the sentence without wanting to. In both cases, non-military people die and not on the battlefield. Tolstoy was able to show the war as such in all its inhumanity, without depicting any of the characters as killing their own kind: not Andrei Bolkonsky (who is still true hero), neither Nikolai Rostov, nor Timokhin, nor the dashing hussar Denisov, nor even the cruel Dolokhov. They talk about the murder of a Frenchman by Tikhon Shcherbaty, but it is not directly presented, we do not see exactly how it happened.
Tolstoy also avoids showing in detail mutilated corpses, streams of blood, terrible wounds, etc. In this regard, figurativeness gives way to expressiveness; the unnaturalness and inhumanity of war is affirmed through the impression it can make. About the end of the Battle of Borodino, for example, it is said: “The clouds gathered, and rain began to fall on the dead, on the wounded, on the frightened, and on the exhausted, and on the doubting people. It was as if he was saying: “Enough, enough, people. Stop it... Come to your senses. What are you doing?’” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter XXXIX).
CONCEPT OF HISTORY. Tolstoy’s work is polemical in relation to official historiography, which glorified the exploits of heroes and ignored the decisive role of the people in events such as the Patriotic War of 1812. Its elderly participants and contemporaries found the era dear to them incorrectly depicted, devoid of an aura of majesty. But Tolstoy understood the events of more than half a century ago better than those who forgot their immediate impressions of that time and believed in myths that were presented as historical reality. The writer knew: a person is inclined to tell others what they want and expect to hear from him. Thus, the “truthful young man” Nikolai Rostov, telling Boris Drubetsky and Berg about his first (very unsuccessful) participation in battle, began “with the intention of telling everything exactly how it happened, but imperceptibly, involuntarily and inevitably for himself, he turned into a lie. If he had told the truth to these listeners, who, like himself, had heard stories about the attacks many times before... and were expecting exactly the same story - either they would not believe him, or, even worse, they would think that Rostov himself was to blame for the fact that what usually happens to storytellers of cavalry attacks did not happen to him... They were waiting for the story of how he was all on fire, not remembering himself, how he flew into a square like a storm; how he cut into it, chopped right and left; how the saber tasted the meat and how he fell exhausted, and the like. And he told them all this” (vol. 1, part 3, chapter VII), In the article “A few words about the book “War and Peace”” Tolstoy recalled how, after the loss of Sevastopol, he was instructed to summarize twenty reports into one report officers who “by order of their superiors wrote what they could not know.” From such reports, “finally, a general report is drawn up, and on this report the general opinion of the army is drawn up.” Then the participants in the events spoke not according to their impressions, but according to reports, believing that everything was exactly like that. History is written on the basis of such sources.
Tolstoy contrasted “naive, necessary military lies” with artistic penetration into the depths of things. Thus, the abandonment of Moscow to the French in 1812 was the salvation of Russia, but the participants in the historical event were far from realizing this, captured by their current marching life: “... in the army that was retreating beyond Moscow, they hardly spoke or thought about Moscow, and, looking at its conflagration, no one swore revenge on the French, but thought about the next third of the salary, about the next stop, about the Matryoshka-seller and the like...” (vol. 4, part 1, chapter IV). Tolstoy's psychological intuition allowed him to make genuine artistic and historical discoveries,
In historical figures he was interested mainly in their human, moral appearance. The portraits of these people do not pretend to be complete and are often very conditional, far from what is known about them from different sources. The Napoleon of War and Peace is, of course, Tolstoy’s Napoleon, artistic image. But the writer accurately reproduced the behavior and moral side of the personality of the French emperor. Napoleon had extraordinary abilities, and Tolstoy does not deny them, even speaking about them ironically. However, the conqueror's intentions contradict the normal course of life - and he is doomed. Tolstoy “was not interested in what Napoleon was like, and not even in what he seemed to his contemporaries, but only in what he turned out to be in the end, as a result of all his wars and campaigns.”
In historical and philosophical digressions, Tolstoy talks about predestination and the diagonal of a parallelogram - the resultant of multidirectional forces, the actions of many people, each of whom acted according to his own will. This is a rather mechanistic concept. At the same time, “in the situation of 1812, the artist Tolstoy shows not the resultant, not the diagonal, but the general direction of various individual human forces.” This general direction was guessed by Kutuzov with his instinct, who became the spokesman for the overall aspirations and played a huge role in the people's war even with external inaction. He himself is aware of this role, speaking about the French: “...I will have horse meat!” - “with me,” and not by predestination. Tolstoy’s denial of military art is a characteristic polemical extreme for him, but his highlighting of the moral factor (and not the number and location of troops, plans of commanders, etc.) is in many ways fair. In the epic novel, the depiction of the war of 1812 is comparable only to the depiction of the campaign of 1805, which took place on foreign territory in the name of goals unknown to the soldiers. In both cases, the armies were led by Napoleon and Kutuzov; at Austerlitz, the Russians and Austrians had a numerical superiority. But the results of the two wars were opposite. The War of 1812 should have ended in victory, since it was a Patriotic, people's war.
PSYCHOLOGISM. Another reproach addressed to Tolstoy was the reproach for modernizing the psychology of the characters, for attributing to people the beginning of the 19th century. thoughts, feelings and experiences characteristic of the writer’s more spiritually developed contemporaries. Tolstoy's favorite heroes are truly portrayed in psychological depth. Although Nikolai Rostov is far from an intellectual, the sentimental song he sings (vol. 1, part 1, chapter XVII) seems too primitive for him. But it is a sign of historical times. In the spirit of this time, Nikolai’s letter to Sonya (vol. 3, part 1, chapter XII), Dolokhov’s thoughts about women (vol. 2, part 1, chapter X), Pierre’s Masonic diary (vol. 2, part 3, chapter VIII, X). When is it supposedly directly reproduced? inner world characters, this should not be taken literally. The smart and subtle Bolkonsky understands: thought, feeling and their expression do not coincide. “It was clear that Speransky could never come up with that usual thought for Prince Andrei, that it is still impossible to express everything that you think...” (vol. 2, part 3, chapter VI).
Inner speech, especially unconscious sensations and experiences, do not lend themselves to literal logical formulation. And yet, conventionally, Tolstoy does this, as if he translates the language of experiences into the language of concepts. Internal monologues and quotation marks are just such a translation, sometimes outwardly contrary to logic. Princess Marya suddenly realizes that the French will soon come to Bogucharovo and that she cannot stay: “So that Prince Andrei knows that she is in the power of the French! So that she, the daughter of Prince Nikolai Andreich Bolkonsky, asks Mr. General Rameau to provide her with protection and enjoy his benefits!” (vol. 3, part 2, chapter X). Outwardly, it is direct speech, but Princess Marya does not think of herself in the third person. Such “inner speech,” taken literally, was not characteristic not only of people at the beginning of the 19th century, but also of no one subsequently. No person could ever have time to think about his love for life, grass, earth, air, like Prince Andrei two steps away from a grenade that is about to explode. This is how the perception of everything that the eye catches, heightened on the brink of life and death, is conveyed.
Tolstoy retells in his author’s speech the delirium of Prince Andrei, describes the “world” of a mortally wounded man: “And piti-piti-piti and ti-ti, and piti-piti - boom, the fly hit... And his attention was suddenly transferred to another world of reality and delirium in which something special happened. Still in this world, everything was erected without collapsing, a building, something was still stretching, the same candle was burning with a red circle, the same sphinx shirt was lying by the door; but, besides all this, something creaked, there was a smell of fresh wind, and a new white sphinx, standing, appeared in front of the door. And in the head of this sphinx there was the pale face and sparkling eyes of the very Natasha about whom he was now thinking” (vol. 3, part 3, chapter XXXII). The chain of visions and associations closes on reality; it was indeed Natasha who entered the door, and Prince Andrei did not even suspect that she was close, very close. The philosophical reflections of the dying man (sometimes formalized demonstratively logically) and his symbolic dying dream are retold. Even an uncontrollable psyche appears in specific, clear images. “The work of Tolstoy - highest point analytical, explanatory psychologism of the 19th century,” emphasizes L.Ya. Ginsburg.
Tolstoy's psychologism applies only to heroes close and dear to the author. From the inside, even the seemingly completely intact Kutuzov is shown, to whom the truth is known in advance, but not Napoleon, not Kuragins. Dolokhov can reveal his experiences in words, wounded in a duel, but such a world of sounds and visions, which is open to the inner gaze and hearing of Petya Rostov on his last night at the partisan bivouac, is inaccessible, by the will of Tolstoy, to characters primarily engaged in self-affirmation.
COMPOSITION OF AN EPIC NOVEL AND ORIGINALITY OF STYLE. The main action of War and Peace (before the epilogue) spans seven and a half years. This material is distributed unevenly across the four volumes of the epic novel. The first and third-fourth volumes cover six months each; two wars, 1805 and 1812, are compositionally correlated. The second volume is the most “novelistic”. War with the French 1806-1807 is no longer covered in such detail, despite the fact that in terms of political consequences (the Peace of Tilsit) it was more important than the campaign of 1805: politics as such is less interesting to Tolstoy (although he shows the meeting of two emperors in Tilsit) than the moral meaning of this or that wars with Napoleon. It talks even briefly about the long Russian-Turkish War, in which Kutuzov brought a quick and bloodless victory, and very briefly about the war with Sweden (“Finland”), which became the next step in Berg’s career. The war with Iran, which dragged on during those years (1804-1813), is not even mentioned. The first volume clearly correlates the disparate scale battles of Shengraben and Austerlitz. Bagration's detachment covered the retreat of Kutuzov's army, the soldiers saved their brothers, and the detachment was not defeated; under Austerlitz there is nothing to die for, and this brings a terrible defeat to the army. The second volume describes, over several years, mainly peaceful life a number of characters, which has its own difficulties.
In the last volumes, people like the Kuragins disappear one after another from the novel; in the epilogue not a word is said about Prince Vasily and his son Ippolit, Anna Pavlovna Sherer, the Drubetskys, Berg and his wife Vera (although she is in Rostov’s past), even about Dolokhov. St. Petersburg social life continues to flow even at the time of the Borodino battle, but the author now has no time to describe in detail those who live such a life. Nesvitsky, Zherkov, Telyanin turn out to be unnecessary. The death of Helen in the fourth volume is discussed briefly and summarily, in contrast to her characterization in the first volumes. After the scene on Poklonnaya Hill, Napoleon is only mentioned; in the “visual” scenes, he no longer appears as a full-fledged literary character. Partly the same thing happens with characters who did not cause the author’s rejection. For example, Bagration, one of the most significant heroes of the War of 1812, is practically not represented as a character in the third volume, he is only told about, and not in too much detail; now he apparently seems to Tolstoy mainly as a figure of official history. In the third and Thursday volumes there is more direct depiction of the common people and actual historical episodes, criticism, analyticalism, and at the same time pathos are strengthened.
Real persons and fictional characters are drawn using the same means. They act in the same scenes and are even mentioned together in Tolstoy’s discussions. The writer willingly uses the point of view of a fictional character in depicting historical events. The Shengraben battle is seen through the eyes of Bolkonsky, Rostov and the author himself, Borodino - through the eyes of the same Bolkonsky, but mainly Pierre (a non-military, unusual person) and again the author, and the positions of the author and the hero here seem to be equal; The Tilsit meeting of the emperors is given from the points of view of Rostov and Boris Drubetsky with the presence of the author's commentary; Napoleon is seen by Prince Andrei on the Field of Austerlitz, and by the Cossack Lavrushka after the French invasion of Russia, etc.
The “conjugation” into a single whole of different thematic layers and points of view of the characters corresponds to the “conjugation” of different forms of narration (in the broad sense of the word) - plastically represented paintings, overview reports of events, philosophical and journalistic reasoning. The latter belong only to the second half of the epic novel. Sometimes they are present in story chapters. Transitions from pictures to reasoning do not entail noticeable changes in the author’s speech. In one Tolstoy phrase they can combine, as completely related words, high and low, figurative-expressive and logical-conceptual series, for example at the end of the second volume: “...Pierre joyfully, with eyes wet with tears, looked at this bright star, which seemed , having flown with indescribable speed across immeasurable spaces along a parabolic line, suddenly, like an arrow pierced into the ground, it slammed into one place in the black sky of its choice and stopped, energetically raising its tail up...” The flow of life is complex, contradictory, and just as complex and sometimes the composition of “War and Peace” is naturally contradictory at all levels: from the arrangement of chapters and parts, plot episodes to the construction of one phrase. The focus on “conjugation” gives rise to a typically Tolstoyan extended and cumbersome phrase, sometimes with the same syntactic constructions, as if striving to cover all the shades of a given subject, including those that contradict one another - hence the oxymoronic epithets: out of curiosity, the Schöngraben field turns out to be “civilian” official, auditor" “with a radiant, naive and at the same time sly smile...” (vol. 1, part 2, chapter XVII), as it seems to Pierre, the comet above his head “fully corresponded to what was in him. .. softened and encouraged soul” (vol. 2, part 5, chapter XXII), etc. An extensive phrase, for example, about Kutuzov, his exhaustion historical role after the expulsion of the French from Russia, it can be set off by a short, lapidary: “And he died” (vol. 4, part 4, chapter XI).
The historical originality of the characters’ speech is ensured by the names of the realities of the time and the abundant use of the French language, moreover, a varied use: often French phrases are given as directly depicted, sometimes (with the caveat that the conversation is in French, or without it, if the French speak) them immediately replaces the Russian equivalent, and sometimes the phrase more or less conventionally combines the Russian and French parts. The author's translation is sometimes inadequate; in Russian the French phrase is given some new connotation. The speech of the common people is carefully distinguished from the speech of the nobles, but the main characters generally speak the same language, which is indistinguishable from the author’s speech. Other means are quite sufficient for individualizing characters.
In 1869, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy completed his work “War and Peace.” The epilogue, a summary of which we will describe in this article, is divided into two parts.
First part
The first part tells about the following events. 7 years have passed since the War of 1812, described in the work "War and Peace". The heroes of the novel have changed both externally and internally. We will talk about this when analyzing the epilogue. In 13, Natasha married Pierre Bezukhov. Ilya Andreevich, count, died at the same time. The old family fell apart with his death. The Rostovs' financial affairs are completely upset. However, Nikolai does not refuse the inheritance, since he sees this as an expression of reproach to his father’s memory.
Ruin of Rostov
The ruin of the Rostovs is described at the end of the work "War and Peace" (epilogue). Summary The events that make up this episode are as follows. The estate was sold under the hammer for half the price, which covered only half of the debts. Rostov, in order not to end up in a debt hole, enters military service in St. Petersburg. He lives here in a small apartment with Sonya and his mother. Nikolai values Sonya very much, believes that he owes her an unpaid debt, but understands that he could not love this girl. Nikolai's situation is getting worse. However, he is disgusted by the thought of marrying a rich woman.
Meeting of Nikolai Rostov with Princess Marya
Princess Marya comes to visit the Rostovs. Nikolai greets her coldly, showing with all his appearance that he doesn’t need anything from her. After this meeting, the princess feels in an uncertain position. She wants to understand what Nikolai is covering up with such a tone.
He makes a return visit to the princess under the influence of his mother. Their conversation turns out to be tense and dry, but Marya feels that this is only the outer shell. The soul of Rostov is still beautiful.
Nikolai's marriage, estate management
The princess finds out that he behaves this way out of pride, since he is poor and Marya is rich. In the fall of 1814, Nikolai married the princess and, together with her, Sonya and his mother, went to live on the Bald Mountains estate. He devoted himself entirely to the farm, in which the main thing is the peasant worker. Having become close to the peasants, Nikolai begins to skillfully manage the farm, which brings brilliant results. Men come from other estates asking to buy them. Even after the death of Nicholas, the people long preserve the memory of his leadership. Rostov is getting closer and closer to his wife, discovering new treasures of her soul every day.
Sonya is in Nikolai's house. For some reason Marya cannot suppress her evil feelings towards this girl. Somehow Natasha explains to her why Sonya’s fate is this: she is an “empty flower”, something is missing in her.
How has Natasha Rostova changed?
The work "War and Peace" (epilogue) continues. Brief summary of it further developments that's how it is. There are three children in the Rostov house, and Marya is expecting another addition. Natasha is visiting her brother with four children. The return of Bezukhov, who left for St. Petersburg two months ago, is expected. Natasha has gained weight, and now it’s hard to recognize her as the old girl.
Her face has an expression of calm “clarity” and “softness”. Everyone who knew Natasha before her marriage is surprised at the change that has occurred in her. Only the old countess, who understood with her mother’s instinct that all the impulses of this girl were aimed only at getting married and starting a family, wonders why others do not understand this. Natasha doesn’t take care of herself, doesn’t watch her manners. For her, the main thing is serving the home, children, and husband. This girl is very demanding of her husband and jealous. Bezukhov completely submits to his wife’s demands. He has the whole family in return. Natasha Rostova not only fulfills her husband’s wishes, but also guesses them. She always shares the way of thinking of her husband.
Conversation between Bezukhov and Nikolai Rostov
Pierre feels happy in his marriage, seeing himself reflected in his own family. Natasha misses her husband, and now he comes. Bezukhov tells Nikolai about the latest political news, says that the sovereign does not delve into any matters, the situation in the country is tense to the limit: a coup is being prepared. Pierre believes that it is necessary to organize a society, possibly illegal, in order to benefit people. Nikolai does not agree with this. He says he took an oath. In the work "War and Peace" the heroes Nikolai Rostov and Pierre Bezukhov express different opinions about the further path of development of the country.
Nikolai discusses this conversation with his wife. He considers Bezukhov a dreamer. Nikolai has enough problems of his own. Marya notices some limitations of her husband and knows that he will never understand what she understands. This makes the princess love him more, with a tinge of passionate tenderness. Rostov admires his wife’s desire for the perfect, the eternal and the infinite.
Bezukhov talks to Natasha about important matters awaiting him. According to Pierre, Platon Karataev would have approved of him and not his career, since he wanted to see calm, happiness and decorum in everything.
Nikolenka Bolkonsky's dream
Nikolenka Bolkonsky was present during Pierre’s conversation with Nikolai. The conversation made a deep impression on him. The boy adores Bezukhov and idolizes him. He also considers his father to be a kind of deity. Nikolenka has a dream. He walks with Bezukhov in front of a large army and approaches the goal. Uncle Nikolai suddenly appears in front of them in a menacing pose, ready to kill anyone who moves forward. The boy turns around and notices that it is no longer Pierre who is next to him, but Prince Andrei, his father, who is caressing him. Nikolenka decides that his father was kind to him and approved of him and Pierre. They all want the boy to study, and he will do it. And one day everyone will admire him.
Second part
Once again Tolstoy discusses the historical process. Kutuzov and Napoleon ("War and Peace") are two key historical figures in the work. The author says that history is made not by the individual, but by the masses, who are subordinate to common interests. This was understood by the commander-in-chief Kutuzov described earlier in the work ("War and Peace"), who preferred the strategy of non-intervention to active actions. It was thanks to his wise command that the Russians won. In history, a person is important only to the extent that he accepts and understands the interests of the people. Therefore, Kutuzov (“War and Peace”) is a significant person in history.
The role of the epilogue in the composition of the work
In the composition of the novel, the epilogue is the most important element in ideological understanding. It is he who carries a huge semantic load in the concept of the work. Lev Nikolaevich sums it up, touching on pressing topics such as family.
Family thought
Particular expression in this part of the work was given to the idea of the spiritual foundations of the family as an external form of unification of people. As if the differences between spouses are erased in it, the limitations of souls complement each other in communication between them. The epilogue of the novel develops this idea. Such, for example, is the family of Marya and Nikolai Rostov. In it, the principles of the Bolkonskys and Rostovs are combined in a higher synthesis.
In the epilogue of the novel is going new family, which combines Bolkon, Rostov, and, through Bezukhov, Karataev’s features that were heterogeneous in the past. As the author writes, several different worlds lived under one roof, which merged into a harmonious whole.
It is no coincidence that this new family arose, including such interesting and different images("War and Peace"). It was the result of national unity born of the Patriotic War. In this part of the work, the connection between the general and the individual is reaffirmed. The year 1812 in the history of Russia brought more than high level communication between people, removing many class restrictions and barriers, led to the emergence of broader and more complex family worlds. In the Lysogorsk family, as in any other, disputes and conflicts sometimes arise. But they only strengthen relations and are peaceful. Women, Marya and Natasha, are the guardians of its foundations.
People's thought
At the end of the epilogue, the author’s philosophical reflections are presented, in which Lev Nikolaevich again discusses the historical process. In his opinion, history is made not by the individual, but by the masses who express common interests. Napoleon ("War and Peace") did not understand this, and therefore lost the war. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy thinks so.
The last part of the work "War and Peace" - the epilogue - ends. We tried to make the summary concise and succinct. This part of the work sums up the entire large-scale creation of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy. "War and Peace", the characteristics of the epilogue of which we have presented, is a grandiose epic that was created by the author from 1863 to 1869.
Every serious literary work has as its goal to convey to the reader the author’s point of view. In some work this will be just one idea, but in the novel “War and Peace” Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy tried to present and develop his philosophy. He wrote: “Historians describe incorrectly and externally, but in order to understand, it is necessary to guess internal structure life." And since the philosophical concept he developed was new and original, the author created a genre called the epic novel.
Initially, Tolstoy wanted to write a work about the Decembrist who returned from exile, and the title had already been invented: “All’s well that ends well.” But the author realized that it is impossible to describe a phenomenon without indicating the reasons that caused it. This led Tolstoy to a more global plan for describing historical events in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. Following the change in concept, the title of the novel also changes, acquiring more global character: "War and Peace". This title not only illustrates the alternation and combination of military and peaceful episodes in the novel, as it might seem at first glance, but also includes different meanings the words "peace". “Peace” is a state “without war”, and a peasant community, and the universe (that is, everything that surrounds us; the physical and spiritual environment). This novel talks about the fact that there is war in the life of an entire people and in the life of every person, what role wars play in world history, this is a novel about the origins of the war and its outcome.
While creating the novel, the author studied the causes of historical events: the senseless and shameful campaign of 1805-1807 for the Russians, during which even a real military man, Nikolai Rostov, who was accustomed to not reasoning, was tormented by terrible doubts: “why are the arms, legs, and killed people torn off?” Here Tolstoy draws all our attention to the fact that war “is a phenomenon contrary to human reason.” Then Tolstoy proceeds to describe the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, which crippled the lives of millions, killed Petya Rostov, Platon Karataev and Prince Andrei, and brought mourning to every family. After all, with every person who dies on the battlefield, his entire uniqueness disappears. spiritual world, thousands of threads are torn, dozens of loved ones’ destinies are mutilated... But all these deaths had a righteous goal - the liberation of the Fatherland. And therefore, in 1812, “the club of the people’s war rose with all its formidable and majestic force...”. And this movement could only be led by a person who knew how to renounce all his own desires in order to express the will of the people, to be close to them, and for this he did not need to be a genius, but only needed to be able to “not interfere with anything good, not allow anything bad.” Kutuzov was like that; Napoleon, who waged a war of conquest, could not be like that.
Tolstoy sets out his historical concept using these examples. He believes that the least likely cause of any historical phenomenon is the will of one or more people in power, that the outcome of the event is determined by the behavior of each individual, seemingly insignificant, person and the entire people as a whole.
Tolstoy portrays Napoleon and Kutuzov as opposites in everything, constantly, for example, pointing out the cheerfulness and self-confidence of Napoleon and the lethargy of Kutuzov. This technique of antithesis is used throughout the novel, starting with the very title “War and Peace.”
The genre of the work also determines the composition of the novel. The composition of “War and Peace” is also based on the technique of antithesis. The novel “War and Peace” is a work of large volume. It covers 16 years (from 1805 to 1821) of the life of Russia and more than five hundred different heroes, among whom there are real characters of the historical events described, heroes invented by the author himself, and many people to whom Tolstoy does not even give names, such as “the general who ordered”, “the officer who did not arrive.” By this, the author confirms his point of view that the movement of history occurs not under the influence of any specific individuals, but thanks to all participants in the events.
To combine such a huge material into one work, it was necessary new genre- epic genre. Antithesis is also used for this purpose. Thus, all heroes can be divided into those who gravitate towards the Napoleon pole and into heroes who gravitate towards the Kutuzov pole; Moreover, the first, such as, for example, the Kuragin family, and the entire secular society led by Anna Pavlovna Scherer, Berg, Vera and others, receive some of Napoleon’s traits, although not so strongly expressed: this is the cold indifference of Helen, and narcissism and narrowness Berg's views, and Anatole's selfishness, and the hypocritical righteousness of Vera, and the cynicism of Vasil Kuragin. The heroes who are closer to Kutuzov’s pole, just like him, are natural and close to the people, they also react sensitively to global historical events, accepting them as personal misfortunes and joys (such as Pierre, Andrey, Natasha). Tolstoy endows all his positive heroes with the ability for self-improvement, their spiritual world develops throughout the novel, only Kutuzov and Platon Karataev do not look for anything, do not change, since they are “static in their positivity.”
Tolstoy also compares the heroes with each other: Prince Andrei and Anatole are different in their attitude to love, to Natasha; opposite are Dolokhov, seeking revenge “for his humble origins,” stern, cruel, cold, and Pierre, kind, sensitive, trying to understand the people around him and help them; the spiritually beautiful Helen is cold, artificial, dead, and Natasha Rostova is alive, natural, with a big mouth and big eyes, becoming even uglier when she cries (but this is a manifestation of her naturalness, for which Natasha Tolstoy loves most of all).
In the novel “War and Peace” plays a large role portrait characteristic heroes. The writer singles out some particular feature in the portrait of the hero and constantly draws our attention to it: this is Natasha’s large mouth, and Marya’s radiant eyes, and the dryness of Prince Andrei, and the massiveness of Pierre, and the old age and decrepitude of Kutuzov, and the roundness of Platon Karataev, and even fat thighs Napoleon. But the remaining features of the heroes change, and Tolstoy describes these changes in such a way that you can understand everything that happens in the souls of the heroes. Tolstoy often uses the technique of contrast, emphasizing the discrepancy between appearance and inner world, the behavior of the characters and their internal state. For example, when Nikolai Rostov, upon returning home from the front, upon meeting Sonya, greeted her dryly and addressed her as “you,” in their hearts they “called each other by “you” and kissed tenderly.”
Being an innovator in creating a new genre of the novel, Tolstoy also invented a new way of studying and depicting the feelings, experiences, and movements of the soul of the heroes. This new method of psychologism, called “dialectics of the soul” by Chernyshevsky, consists in close attention to development, change in the internal spiritual state of the characters, in the study of the smallest details of their feelings, while the plot itself seems to fade into the background. Only positive characters in the novel are endowed with the ability to internal change and self-improvement. And Tolstoy values this ability most of all in people (combined with naturalness, kindness and closeness to the people). Every positive hero the novel strives to “be quite good.” But in the novel there are heroes who improve themselves by thinking about their actions. These heroes live by their minds. Such heroes include Prince Andrei, Pierre before meeting Platon Karataev and Princess Marya. And there are heroes who live according to their inner instincts, which prompts them to do certain things. Such are Natasha, Nikolai, Petya and the old Count Rostov. Platon Karataev and Kutuzov belong to the same type.
In order to reveal the inner world of his heroes as best as possible, Tolstoy subjects them to the same tests: secular society, wealth, death, love.
Since the novel “War and Peace” is an epic novel, it describes real historical events: the Battle of Austerlitz, Shengraben, Borodino, the conclusion of the Peace of Tilsit, the capture of Smolensk, the surrender of Moscow, partisan war and others, in which, as mentioned above, , real historical figures reveal themselves. Historical events also play a compositional role in the novel. For example, since the Battle of Borodino largely determined the outcome of the War of 1812, 20 chapters of the novel are devoted to its description, and in fact it is the culminating center.
In addition to historical events, the author pays great attention to the development of relationships between the characters - this is where the plot lines of the novel develop. The novel presents a large number storylines. The novel is, as it were, a chronicle of the life of several families: the Rostov family, the Kuragin family, the Bolkonsky family.
The narration in the novel is not told in the first person, but the presence of the author in every scene is palpable: he always tries to assess the situation, show his attitude to the hero’s actions through their very description, through the hero’s internal monologue, or through the author’s digression-reasoning. Sometimes the writer gives the reader the right to figure out what is happening for himself, showing the same event from different points of view. An example of such an image is the description of the Battle of Borodino: first, the author gives detailed historical information about the balance of forces, the readiness for battle on both sides, talks about the point of view of historians; then he shows us the battle through the eyes of a non-professional in military affairs - Pierre Bezukhov (that is, he shows a sensory, rather than logical perception of the event), reveals the thoughts of Prince Andrei and Kutuzov’s behavior during the battle. In the council scene in Fili, the author first gives the floor to six-year-old Malasha (again, sensory perception of the event), and then gradually moves on to an objective presentation of events on his own behalf. And the entire second part of the epilogue rather resembles a philosophical treatise on the topic “The Driving Forces of History.”
In his novel, L. N. Tolstoy sought to express his point of view on historical events, show his attitude to many life problems, and answer the main question: “What is the meaning of life?” And Tolstoy’s credo in this matter sounds so that one cannot but agree with him: “We must live, we must love, we must believe.”
So, in the novel “War and Peace” L.N. Tolstoy sought to expound his philosophical concept of life, and for this he had to “invent” a new genre of literary work - the epic novel, as well as special kind psychologism - “dialectics of the soul”. His work took on the form of a philosophical and psychological historical novel, in which he examines and guesses the “internal structure of life.”
The novel "War and Peace" is deservedly considered one of the most impressive and grandiose works of world literature. The novel was created by L.N. Tolstoy over the course of seven long years. The work was a great success in the literary world.
Title of the novel "War and Peace"
The title of the novel itself is very ambiguous. The combination of the words “war” and “peace” can be perceived as meaning war and peacetime. The author shows the life of the Russian people before the start of the Patriotic War, its regularity and calm. Next comes a comparison with wartime: the absence of peace threw the usual course of life off track and forced people to change their priorities.
Also, the word “peace” can be considered as a synonym for the word “people”. This interpretation of the title of the novel speaks of the life, exploits, dreams and hopes of the Russian nation in the conditions of hostilities. The novel has many storylines, which gives us the opportunity to delve not only into the psychology of one particular hero, but also to see him in different life situations, evaluate his actions in the most diverse conditions, ranging from sincere friendship to his life psychology.
Features of the novel "War and Peace"
With unsurpassed skill, the author not only describes the tragic days of the Patriotic War, but also the courage, patriotism and insurmountable sense of duty of the Russian people. The novel is full of many plot lines, a variety of heroes, each of which, thanks to the author’s subtle psychological sense, is perceived as absolutely real personality together with your spiritual searches, experiences, perception of peace and love, which is so common to all of us. The heroes go through a complex process of searching for goodness and truth, and, having gone through it, they comprehend all the secrets of universal human problems of existence. The heroes have a rich, but rather contradictory inner world.
The novel depicts the life of the Russian people during the Patriotic War. The writer admires the indestructible majestic power of the Russian spirit, which was able to withstand the invasion of Napoleonic army. The epic novel masterfully combines pictures of grandiose historical events and the life of the Russian nobility, who also selflessly fought against opponents who were trying to capture Moscow.
The epic also inimitably describes elements of military theory and strategy. Thanks to this, the reader not only expands his horizons in the field of history, but also in the art of military affairs. In describing the war, Leo Tolstoy does not allow a single historical inaccuracy, which is very important in creating a historical novel.
Heroes of the novel "War and Peace"
The novel “War and Peace” first of all teaches you to find the difference between real and false patriotism. The heroes of Natasha Rostova, Prince Andrey, Tushin are true patriots who, without hesitation, sacrifice a lot for the sake of their Motherland, without demanding recognition for it.
Each hero of the novel, through long searches, finds his own meaning in life. So, for example, Pierre Bezukhov finds his true calling only during participation in the war. The fighting revealed to him a system of real values and life ideals - something that he had been looking for so long and uselessly in the Masonic lodges.