True and false in L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"

I. Introduction

One of the main vices of modern civilization, according to Tolstoy, is the widespread dissemination of false concepts. In this regard, the problem of true and false becomes one of the leading ones in the work. How to distinguish true from false? For this, Tolstoy has two criteria: the true comes from the depths of a person’s soul and is expressed simply, without posture and “playing for the public.” The false, on the contrary, is generated by the low side of human nature and is always oriented towards an external effect.

P. Main part

1. False grandeur. “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth,” wrote Tolstoy. False grandeur is personified in the novel by Napoleon. It has neither one, nor the other, nor the third. Tolstoy shows that Napoleon sends people to their deaths for petty and largely selfish purposes. Napoleon's behavior is highly unnatural, every gesture and every word of his is designed for effect. In the novel, Napoleon is opposed by Kutuzov, whose actions are guided by love for the motherland and love for the Russian soldier. There is no game or posture in his actions; on the contrary, Tolstoy even emphasizes the outward unattractiveness of the commander. But it is Kutuzov, as the spokesman for the soul of the entire Russian people, that serves as an example of true greatness.

2. False heroism. As long as a person wants to perform a feat primarily in order to be noticed, and dreams of a feat that is certainly beautiful, this, according to Tolstoy, is not yet real heroism. This is what happens, for example, with Prince Andrei in the first volume of the novel during the Battle of Austerlitz. True heroism arises when a person thinks not about himself, but about the common cause and does not care about how he looks from the outside. Such heroism is shown in the war, first of all, by ordinary people - soldiers, captain Tushin, captain Timokhin, etc. It is together with them becomes capable of genuine heroism and Prince Andrei during the Battle of Borodino.

3. False patriotism. It is shown in the novel by a significant part of the aristocracy, from the tsar himself to Helen Bezukhova. The desire to flaunt one's patriotism (a fine for uttering a French word in a high society salon, jingoistic "posters" and grandiloquent oaths of Rostopchin, etc.) is opposed to true, unostentatious patriotism, primarily of the Russian people: soldiers and militias, the merchant Ferapontov, who burned his a shop so that the French, partisans, residents of Moscow and other cities and villages who left Napoleon’s armies “scorched earth” did not get it, etc. The best representatives of the nobility, united with the people, are also distinguished by true patriotism: Kutuzov, Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha Rostova and others.

4. False love. True love, according to Tolstoy, should arise from a feeling of spiritual closeness between people. A truly loving person thinks not so much about himself, but about his beloved or beloved. Love is only justified in the eyes of Tolstoy when it expresses spiritual unity. Such love is shown by Tolstoy mainly in the epilogue on the example of married couples Nikolai Rostov - Princess Marya and Pierre Bezukhov - Natasha. But the novel also shows love as a false and selfish feeling. So, Pierre's love for Helen is just a sensual attraction. The same can be said about Natasha's sudden passion for Anatole. A somewhat more complicated case is Prince Andrei's love for Natasha. It would seem that Andrei Bolkonsky loves quite sincerely, but the fact is that in this love he sees mainly himself: first, the possibility of his own spiritual resurrection, and then an insult to his honor. From Tolstoy's point of view, true love and individualism are incompatible.

III. Conclusion

"Simplicity, goodness and truth" are the main criteria for distinguishing the true from the false in "War and Peace".

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In the novel "War and Peace" L. N. Tolstoy reveals the most important problems of life - the problems of morality. Love and friendship, honor and nobility. Tolstoy's heroes dream and doubt, think and solve important problems for themselves. Some of them are deeply moral people, others are alien to the concept of nobility. To the modern reader, Tolstoy's heroes are close and understandable, the author's solution of moral problems helps today's reader to understand in many ways what makes Leo Tolstoy's novel a very relevant work to this day.
Love. Perhaps,

One of the most exciting problems of human life. In the novel "War and Peace" many pages are devoted to this wonderful feeling. Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Anatole pass in front of us. They all love, but they love in different ways, and the author helps the reader to see, correctly understand and appreciate the feelings of these people.
True love does not come to Prince Andrei immediately. From the very beginning of the novel, we see how far he is from secular society, and his wife Lisa is a typical representative of the world. Although Prince Andrei loves his wife in his own way (such a person could not marry without love), they are spiritually separated and cannot be happy together. His love for Natasha is a completely different feeling. He found in her a close, understandable, sincere, natural, loving and understanding person that Prince Andrei also appreciates. His feeling is very pure, gentle, caring. He believes Natasha and does not hide his love. Love makes him younger and stronger, she ennobles him, helps him. ("Such an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes arose in his soul.") Prince Andrei decides to marry Natasha, because he loves her with all his heart.
Anatole Kuragin has a completely different love for Natasha. Anatole is handsome, rich, accustomed to worship. Everything in life is easy for him. At the same time, it is empty and superficial. He never even thought about his love. Everything is simple for him, he was overcome by a primitive thirst for pleasure. And Natasha, with trembling hands, holds a "passionate" love letter composed for Anatole Dolokhov. “Love and die. I have no other choice,” reads the letter. Trite. Anatole does not think at all about the future fate of Natasha, about her happiness. Above all for him personal pleasure. Such a feeling cannot be called high. And is it love?
Friendship. With his novel, Leo Tolstoy helps the reader understand what true friendship is. The utmost frankness and honesty between two people, when neither one can even have the thought of betrayal or apostasy - just such a relationship develops between Prince Andrei and Pierre. They deeply respect and understand each other, in the most difficult moments of doubt and failure, they come to each other for advice. It is no coincidence that Prince Andrei, going abroad, tells Natasha to turn to Pierre for help only. Pierre also loves Natasha, but he does not even have the thought of taking advantage of Prince Andrei's departure to court her. Against. Although it is very difficult and difficult for Pierre, he helps Natasha in the story with Ana - Tol Kuragin, he considers it an honor to protect his friend's bride from all kinds of harassment.
Completely different relations are established between Anatole and Dolokhov, although they are also considered friends in the world. “Anatole sincerely loved Dolokhov for his intelligence and daring; Dolokhov, who needed the strength, nobility, connections of Anatole to lure rich young people into his gambling society, without letting him feel it, used and amused Kuragin. What kind of pure and honest love and friendship can we talk about here? Dolokhov indulges Anatole in his affair with Natasha, writes a love letter for him and watches with interest what is happening. True, he tried to warn Anatole when he was about to take Natasha away, but only out of fear that this would affect his personal interests.
Love and friendship, honor and nobility. L. N. Tolstoy gives an answer for solving these problems not only through the main, but also secondary images of the novel, although in answer to the question posed about morality, the author does not have secondary heroes: Berg’s petty-bourgeois ideology, Boris Drubetskogo’s “unwritten subordination,” love for the estate of Julie Karagina” and so on – this is the second half of the solution of the problem – through negative examples.
Even to the solution of the problem of whether a person is beautiful or not, the great writer approaches from very peculiar moral positions. An immoral person cannot be truly beautiful, he believes, and therefore depicts the beautiful Helen Bezukhova as a "beautiful animal". On the contrary, Marya Volkonskaya, who by no means can be called a beauty, is transformed when she looks at those around her with a “radiant” look.
JI solution. H. Tolstoy of all problems in the novel "War and Peace" from the standpoint of morality makes this work relevant, and Lev Nikolayevich - a modern writer, author of highly moral and deeply psychological works.

Essays on topics:

1. Leo Tolstoy is one of the greatest prose writers of the 19th century, the "golden age" of Russian literature. His works have been read for two centuries...

In the novel "War and Peace" L. N. Tolstoy singled out and considered "people's thought" to be the most significant. Most vividly and multifaceted, this theme is reflected in those parts of the works that tell about the war. The image of the “world” is dominated by “family thought”, which plays a very important role in the novel.

Almost all the heroes of "War and Peace" are subjected to a test of love. They do not come to true love and mutual understanding, to moral beauty all at once, but only after going through mistakes and suffering that redeems them, developing and purifying the soul.

The path to happiness was thorny for Andrei Bolkonsky. A twenty-year-old inexperienced young man, carried away and blinded by "external beauty", he marries Liza. However, very quickly, Andrey came to a painful and depressing understanding of how “cruelly and uniquely” he was mistaken. In a conversation with Pierre, Andrei almost in despair utters the words: “Never, never marry ... until you have done everything you could ... My God, what would I not give now, so as not to be married! ”

Family life did not bring Bolkonsky happiness and tranquility, he was burdened by it. He did not love his wife, but rather despised her as a child of an empty, stupid world. Prince Andrei was constantly oppressed by a sense of the futility of his life, equating him with "a court lackey and an idiot."

Then there was the sky of Austerlitz, the death of Lisa, and a deep spiritual fracture, and fatigue, melancholy, contempt for life, disappointment. Bolkonsky at that time looked like an oak tree, which "was an old, angry and contemptuous freak between smiling birches" and "did not want to submit to the charm of spring." “An unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes” arose in Andrei's soul. He left transformed, and again in front of him was an oak, but not an old, ugly oak, but covered with a “tent of juicy, dark greenery”, so that “no sores, no old distrust, no grief - nothing was visible.”

Love, like a miracle, revives Tolstoy's heroes to a new life. The true feeling for Natasha, so unlike the empty, absurd women of the world, came to Prince Andrei later and with incredible force turned over, renewed his soul. He “seemed and was a completely different, new person,” and it was as if he had stepped out of a stuffy room into the free light of God. True, even love did not help Prince Andrei humble his pride, he never forgave Natasha for “treason”. Only after a mortal wound and a mental break and a rethinking of life, Bolkonsky understood her suffering, shame and remorse and realized the cruelty of breaking up with her. “I love you more, better than before,” he then said to Natasha, but nothing, even her fiery feeling, could keep him in this world.

“I love you more, better than before,” he then said to Natasha, but nothing, not even her fiery feeling, could keep him in this world.

The fate of Pierre is somewhat similar to the fate of his best friend. Just like Andrei, who in his youth was carried away by Lisa, who had just arrived from Paris, the childishly enthusiastic Pierre is fond of the “doll” beauty of Helen. The example of Prince Andrei did not become a “science” for him, Pierre was convinced from his own experience that external beauty is not always the beauty of the inner - spiritual.

Pierre felt that there were no barriers between him and Helen, she “was terribly close to him”, her beautiful and “marble” body had power over him. And although Pierre felt that this was “not good for some reason,” he limply succumbed to the feeling inspired by this “perverse woman”, and eventually became her husband. As a result, a bitter feeling of disappointment, gloomy despondency, contempt for his wife, for life, seized him some time after the wedding, when Helen's “mysteriousness” turned into spiritual emptiness, stupidity and depravity.

Having met Natasha, Pierre, like Andrey, was amazed and attracted by her purity and naturalness. A feeling for her already timidly began to grow in his soul when Bolkonsky and Natasha fell in love with each other. The joy of their happiness mixed in his soul with sadness. Unlike Andrei, Pierre's kind heart understood and forgave Natasha after the incident with Anatole Kuragin. Although he tried to despise her, he saw the exhausted, suffering Natasha, and "a feeling of pity that had never been experienced had overwhelmed Pierre's soul." And love entered his “soul that blossomed into new life.” Pierre understood Natasha, perhaps because her connection with Anatole was similar to his passion for Helen. Natasha believed in the inner beauty of Kuragin, in communication with whom she, like Pierre and Helen, “felt with horror that there was no barrier between him and her.” After a quarrel with his wife, Pierre's life quest continues. He became interested in Freemasonry, then there was the war, and the half-childish idea of ​​​​the assassination of Napoleon, and burning - Moscow, terrible minutes of waiting for death and captivity. Having gone through suffering, the renewed, purified soul of Pierre retained his love for Natasha. Having met her, who had also changed greatly, Pierre did not recognize Natasha. They both believed that after everything they had experienced, they would be able to feel this joy, but love woke up in their hearts, and suddenly “it smelled and doused with long-forgotten happiness”, and the “forces of life” beat, and “joyful madness” took possession of them.

“Love woke up, life woke up.” The power of love revived Natasha after the spiritual apathy caused by the death of Prince Andrei.

The power of love revived Natasha after the spiritual apathy caused by the death of Prince Andrei. She thought that her life was over, but the love for her mother that arose with renewed vigor showed her that her essence - love - was still alive in her. This all-encompassing power of love, calling to life the people she loved, to whom she was directed.

The fate of Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya was not easy. Quiet, meek, ugly in appearance, but beautiful in soul, the princess during the life of her father did not hope to get married, raise children. The only one who got married, and even then for the sake of a dowry, Anatole, of course, could not understand her high spirituality, moral beauty.

In the epilogue of the novel "War and Peace" Tolstoy exalts the spiritual unity of people, which is the basis of nepotism. A new family was created, in which, it would seem, different beginnings were combined - the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys.

“Like in every real family, several completely different worlds lived together in the Bald Mountain house, which, each holding its own peculiarity and making concessions to one another, merged into one harmonious whole.”

In the novel "War and Peace" L. N. Tolstoy singled out and considered the most significant "folk thought". Most vividly and multifaceted, this theme is reflected in those parts of the works that tell about the war. The image of the "world" is dominated by "family thought", which plays a very important role in the novel. Almost all the heroes of "War and Peace" are subjected to a test of love. They do not come to true love and mutual understanding, to moral beauty all at once, but only after going through mistakes and suffering that redeems them, developing and purifying the soul. The path to happiness was thorny for Andrei Bolkonsky. A twenty-year-old inexperienced young man, carried away and blinded by "external beauty", he marries Liza. However, very quickly, Andrey came to a painful and depressing understanding of how “cruelly and uniquely” he was mistaken. In a conversation with Pierre, Andrei almost in despair utters the words: “Never, never marry ... until you have done everything you could ... My God, what would I not give now, so as not to be married!” Family life did not bring Bolkonsky happiness and tranquility, he was burdened by it. He did not love his wife, but rather despised her as a child of an empty, stupid world. Prince Andrei was constantly oppressed by a sense of the futility of his life, which equated him with "a court lackey and an idiot." Then there was the sky of Austerlitz, the death of Lisa, and a deep spiritual fracture, and fatigue, melancholy, contempt for life, disappointment. Bolkonsky at that time looked like an oak tree, which "was an old, angry and contemptuous freak between smiling birches" and "did not want to submit to the charm of spring." "An unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes" arose in Andrei's soul. He left transformed, and again in front of him was an oak, but not an old, ugly oak, but covered with a "tent of juicy, dark greenery", so that "no sores, no old distrust, no grief - nothing was visible." Love, like a miracle, revives Tolstoy's heroes to a new life. The true feeling for Natasha, so unlike the empty, absurd women of the world, came to Prince Andrei later and with incredible force turned over, renewed his soul. He “seemed and was a completely different, new person,” and it was as if he had stepped out of a stuffy room into the free light of God. True, even love did not help Prince Andrei humble his pride, he never forgave Natasha for "treason." Only after a mortal wound and a mental break and a rethinking of life, Bolkonsky understood her suffering, shame and remorse and realized the cruelty of breaking up with her. “I love you more, better than before,” he then said to Natasha, but nothing, even her fiery feeling, could keep him in this world. “I love you more, better than before,” he then said to Natasha, but nothing, not even her fiery feeling, could keep him in this world. The fate of Pierre is somewhat similar to the fate of his best friend. Just like Andrei, who in his youth was carried away by Liza, who had just arrived from Paris, the childishly enthusiastic Pierre is fond of Helen's "doll" beauty. The example of Prince Andrei did not become a “science” for him, Pierre was convinced from his own experience that external beauty is not always the beauty of the inner - spiritual. Pierre felt that there were no barriers between him and Helen, she "was terribly close to him", her beautiful and "marble" body had power over him. And although Pierre felt that this was “not good for some reason,” he limply succumbed to the feeling instilled in him by this “depraved woman,” and eventually became her husband. As a result, a bitter feeling of disappointment, gloomy despondency, contempt for his wife, for life, seized him some time after the wedding, when Helen's "mysteriousness" turned into spiritual emptiness, stupidity and depravity. Having met Natasha, Pierre, like Andrey, was amazed and attracted by her purity and naturalness. A feeling for her already timidly began to grow in his soul when Bolkonsky and Natasha fell in love with each other. The joy of their happiness mixed in his soul with sadness. Unlike Andrei, Pierre's kind heart understood and forgave Natasha after the incident with Anatole Kuragin. Although he tried to despise her, he saw the exhausted, suffering Natasha, and "a feeling of pity that had never been experienced had overwhelmed Pierre's soul." And love entered his "soul that blossomed into new life." Pierre understood Natasha, perhaps because her connection with Anatole was similar to his passion for Helen. Natasha believed in the inner beauty of Kuragin, in communication with whom she, like Pierre and Helen, “felt with horror that there was no barrier between him and her.” After a quarrel with his wife, Pierre's life quest continues. He became interested in Freemasonry, then there was the war, and the half-childish idea of ​​​​the assassination of Napoleon, and burning Moscow, terrible minutes of waiting for death and captivity. Having gone through suffering, the renewed, purified soul of Pierre retained his love for Natasha. Having met her, who had also changed greatly, Pierre did not recognize Natasha. They both believed that after everything they had experienced, they would be able to feel this joy, but love woke up in their hearts, and suddenly “it smelled and doused with long-forgotten happiness”, and the “forces of life” beat, and “joyful madness” took possession of them. “Love woke up, life woke up.” The power of love revived Natasha after the spiritual apathy caused by the death of Prince Andrei. The power of love revived Natasha after the spiritual apathy caused by the death of Prince Andrei. She thought that her life was over, but the love for her mother that arose with renewed vigor showed her that her essence - love - was still alive in her. This all-encompassing power of love, calling to life the people she loved, to whom she was directed. The fate of Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya was not easy. Quiet, meek, ugly in appearance, but beautiful in soul, the princess during the life of her father did not hope to get married, raise children. The only one who got married, and even then for the sake of a dowry, Anatole, of course, could not understand her high spirituality, moral beauty. In the epilogue of the novel "War and Peace" Tolstoy exalts the spiritual unity of people, which is the basis of nepotism. A new family was created, in which seemingly different beginnings were combined - the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys. “Like in every real family, several completely different worlds lived together in the Bald Mountain house, which, each holding its own peculiarity and making concessions to one another, merged into one harmonious whole.”

In the novel "War and Peace" L.-N. Tolstoy reveals the most important life problems - the problems of morality. and friendship, honor and nobility... Tolstoy's heroes dream and doubt, think and solve important problems for themselves. Some of them are deeply moral people, while the concept of nobility is alien to others. To the modern reader, Tolstoy's heroes are close and understandable, the author's solution of moral problems helps today's reader to understand in many ways, this makes L. N. Tolstoy's novel still a very relevant work.

Love... Perhaps one of the most exciting problems of human life. In the novel "War and Peace" many pages are devoted to this wonderful feeling. Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhoye, Anatole pass in front of us ... They all love, but they love in different ways, and the author helps the reader to see, correctly understand and appreciate the feelings of a person.

True love does not come to Prince Andrei immediately. From the very beginning of the novel, we see how far he is from secular society, and his wife Lisa is a typical representative of the world. Although Prince Andrei loves his wife in his own way (such a person could not marry without love), they are spiritually separated and cannot be happy together. His love for Natasha is a completely different feeling. He found in her a close, understandable, sincere, natural, loving and understanding person that Prince Andrei knows and appreciates. His feeling is very pure, gentle, caring. He trusts Natasha to the end and does not hide his love to anyone. Love makes him younger and stronger, ennobles him, helps him. (“Such an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes arose in his soul ...”) Prince Andrei decides to marry Natasha, because he loves her with all his heart.

Quite different. Anatole Kuragin's love for Natasha. Anatole is handsome, rich, accustomed to worship. Everything in life is easy for him. At the same time, he is stupid and superficial. He never even thought about his love. Everything is simple with him, just a thirst for pleasure. And Natasha, with trembling hands, holds a "passionate" love letter composed for Anatole Dolokhov. “Love and die. I have no other choice, ”the letter reads. Trite. Anatoly does not think at all about the future fate of Natasha, about her happiness. Above all for him personal pleasure. Such a feeling cannot be called high. And is it love?

Friendship... With his novel, Leo Tolstoy helps the reader understand what true friendship is. The utmost frankness and honesty between two people, when neither one can even have the thought of betrayal or apostasy - such relations develop between Prince Andrei and Pierre. They deeply respect and understand each other, in the most difficult moments of doubt and failure, they come for advice. It is no coincidence that Prince Andrei, going abroad, tells Natasha to turn to Pierre for help only. Pierre has been in love with Natasha for a long time, but he does not even have the thought of taking advantage of Prince Andrei's departure to court her. Against. Although it is very difficult and difficult for Pierre, he helps Natasha in the story with Anatole Kuragin, he considers it an honor and duty to protect and protect his friend's bride.

Completely different relations are established between Anatole and Dolokhov, although they are also considered friends in the world. “Anatole sincerely loved Dolokhov for his intelligence and daring; who needed the strength, nobility, connections of Anatole to lure rich young people into his gambling society, without letting him feel it, used and amused Kuragin. What kind of pure and honest love and friendship can we talk about here? Dolokhov indulges Anatole in his affair with Natasha, writes a love letter for him and watches with interest what is happening. True, he tried to warn Anatole when he was about to take Natasha away, but only out of fear that this would affect his interests.

Love and friendship, honor and nobility. L. N. Tolstoy gives a solution to these problems not only through the main, but also through the secondary images of the novel, although in response to the question posed about morality, L. N. Tolstoy has no secondary heroes: Berg’s petty-bourgeois ideology, Boris Drubetsky’s “unwritten subordination”, “love for the estate of Julie Karagina” and so on - this is the second half of the solution to the problem - through negative examples.

Even to the solution of the problem of whether a person is beautiful or not, the great writer approaches from very peculiar moral positions. An immoral person cannot be truly beautiful, he believes, and therefore depicts the beautiful Bezukhova as a "beautiful animal." On the contrary, Marya Volkonskaya, who by no means can be called a beauty, is transformed when she looks at those around her with a “radiant” look.

Leo Tolstoy's solution of all the problems in the novel "War and Peace" from the position of morality makes this work relevant, and Lev Nikolayevich - an actual writer, author of highly moral and deeply psychological works.

THE THEME OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP IN L. N. TOLSTOY’S NOVEL “WAR AND PEACE”.