Roman L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is a huge epic canvas, where the fates of individual characters are intertwined with the historical past of the country. Any novel is a chain of episodes that follow in a certain sequence, and each of them brings something new to reveal the character of the hero.
The episode of Pierre and Helen's declaration of love is an important stage in the fate of these characters. For Helen, this is a profitable marriage, a rich party, and for Pierre, this is just one of the mistakes he made in his life.
Let's go back to this episode. An important event in Pierre's life takes place on Helen's name day: "... a small community of people closest to Prince Vasily had dinner, as the princess said, relatives and friends." Here we meet the high society of St. Petersburg: Princess Kuragina, Anna Pavlovna Sherer with her husband - an old general and other equally famous personalities. Pierre and Helen are the center of attention of the guests. But who are these people who surround us? All the same gossip, talk about nothing, external gloss and internal squalor, emptiness - this is the characteristic of this society, "their jokes were not funny, the news is not interesting, the revival is obviously fake." "Among those negligibly small, artificial interests that bound this society, there was a simple feeling of striving for a beautiful and healthy young man and woman for each other."
Let's pay attention to the details of the portrait of the young. Helen, as always, is divinely beautiful, "with a radiant face." Next to her, Pierre looks like an unsightly bumpkin, timid and timid, but he also has a "happy and restless face." He is happy because he was next to the most brilliant beauty of St. Petersburg.
But let's pay attention to internal state Pierre, how he feels next to Helen: “Pierre felt that he was the center of everything, and this position both pleased and embarrassed him ... He did not clearly see, did not understand or hear anything.” The hero, as if in a dream, except for the beautiful bride, he does not notice anyone and nothing around. And yet we see how hard it is for him to give a declaration of love. Internal monologues Pierre are full of doubts, thoughts about the correctness of their decision. In his heart, he understands that he is not a match for a brilliant beauty. “He was not clever that he alone occupies the attention of everyone, that he is a lucky man in the eyes of other people, that he is alone, with his ugly face, some kind of Paris possessing Elena.” But sometimes he forgets about it, feels like a real handsome man, "raises his head and rejoices in his happiness." The smiles of the guests around him are artificial and insincere. “This is not happiness for you,” some inner voice told him. “This is happiness for those who do not have what you have.” Pierre has kindness, sincerity, spiritual nobility, shyness, and these human qualities are not valued in high society. Having married Helen, he must become one of the members of this society, become like him. That is why it is so difficult for Pierre to take this step, he is constantly overcome by doubts: does he need this marriage?
Most of all, Pierre is attracted to Helen not by her appearance, not by her eyes, not by her smile, but by her bare shoulders and "beautiful breasts." He dreams of possessing this gorgeous woman, but desire is not love yet, it is only an instinct inherent in all living beings. True love is the closeness of not only bodies, but also souls, common interests similarity of characters.
Most of all, this bark is necessary for Prince Vasily in order to fix the fragile financial situation families. It is no coincidence that he is so busy around the young couple, ahead of events: “I loved your father ... and she will be a good wife to you ... God bless you! ...” He hugged his daughter, then again Pierre and kissed him with his senile mouth. But the groom has not yet uttered a word! In the eyes of the guests who watched this scene - simulated tears of tenderness.
The climax of the episode is the scene of Pierre's declaration of love to Helen. At the most crucial moment, at the request of the bride, he takes off his glasses, and his eyes look at Helen "frightened - inquiringly." He did not fully decide for himself whether he needed this marriage. And then Helen “with a quick and rough movement intercepted his lips and brought them together with hers. Her face struck Pierre with its changed, unpleasantly bewildered expression. Let's pay attention to how the beauty changes: the epithets “fast”, “rude”, “unpleasantly confused” emphasize Helen's vulgarity, she herself offers herself to the groom. The reader understands that there is not a drop of true love here. For Pierre, such an act is a surprise, and his noble heart decides: “Now it’s too late, it’s all over; Yes, I love her too." But how poor his declaration of love sounded against the backdrop of this magnificent masquerade. Not even on mother tongue, but in French. There was no sincerity in these words, no real feeling.
By using artistic details Tolstoy emphasizes that Pierre's declaration of love to Helen is only fatal mistake. Except for her naked shoulders and magnificent breasts, he seems to notice nothing around: the vulgarity, the farce of this engagement. Pierre follows only instinct, attraction, not hearing his inner voice, which prompts: “Do not make mistakes! After all, marriage is very serious, for life. And later Pierre will understand that marrying Helen is a misfortune, a mistake of his youth, a tragedy.
Tasks and tests on the topic "The scene of Pierre's explanation with Helen. (Analysis of an episode from chapter 2 of part 3 of volume 1 of Leo Tolstoy's novel" War and Peace ")"
- Spelling - Important topics for repeating the exam in the Russian language
Lessons: 5 Assignments: 7
Composition on the theme "Pierre Bezukhov and Helen Kuragina". 5.00 /5 (100.00%) 2 votes
The relationship of the characters in Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" developed in completely different ways. Many pairs formed only after a long time, when the characters were already well acquainted, or met for the first time.
The relationship between Helen Kuragina and Pierre Bezukhov was unexpected for me, as for the reader and for the rest, I think, too. From the very first meeting, Pierre Bezukhov fell in love with the beautiful, stately, proud Helen. She, in turn, treated him with contempt. When this happened, Pierre did not yet have a large fortune and was completely inconspicuous among all the men of this society.
Helen, from the very beginning, was prudent, cunning and self-serving. Her father
Vasily Kuragin raised his children: Helen and Anatole Kuragin in such a way that they would look for profit in everything.
As a result, it turned out that despising and completely disrespecting Pierre, Helen married him. This relationship was doomed from the start. After all, Helen needed only a fortune, and happy Pierre was blind from his love for the girl.
We see that this marriage "of convenience" did not lead to anything good. Relations did not work out. Pierre understood how Helen really feels about him, almost died in a duel. It becomes clear to us that true feelings You can't fake them, you can't buy them. True love nothing can be replaced.
We never tire of repeating that there is no equal in literature to Tolstoy. Why? A huge gift and artistic originality allowed Tolstoy to show the life of an entire people, an entire nation, whole country whose name is Russia. The heroes of his epic novel “War and Peace”, both positive and negative, belong primarily to the environment of the higher, ruling nobility. Tolstoy painted a broad picture of the life of a noble society, portrayed it with all its inherent advantages and disadvantages.
As a rule, Tolstoy has positive female images possess features of exclusivity, and their fates in the novel develop in a collision with the "big world", which Tolstoy paints negatively. Anna Pavlovna Sherer, Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, Julie Karagina, Helen Bezukhova bear the vicious traits of their class. Each hero is a creature of the environment, and everyone feels at home in this environment like a fish in water. If we compare the negative and positive female images in the novel, then best representatives of these groups will respectively be Helen and Natasha.
Both Natasha and Helen are women of the same circle, secular ladies, but how different they are in character and upbringing. Ellen is the embodiment external beauty and at the same time strange immobility, petrification. Her beauty is cold and dead. The author describes her "whiteness of the shoulders", "gloss of hair and diamonds", "unchanging smile", "very open chest and back" - "antique beauty of the body". She resembles a beautiful but soulless statue. Tolstoy does not mention her eyes at all, but “the eyes are the mirror of the soul.” Helen is the personification of depravity and immorality. There is always a smile on her beautiful face, but it means nothing. At its core, this is a mask that hides the emptiness of the soul and the lack of intelligence of a secular lady. If the story of one of the guests of the salon Scherer made any impression, Helen turned to the hostess of the salon and assumed the same expression that was on the face of the maid of honor. Then she went back to the "bright smile."
Natasha Rostova is beautiful in a completely different way. No special attraction appearance we don't notice. She has a too big mouth and thin shoulders, but she is attractive for her sincerity and spontaneity. Appearing for the first time at the ball, Natasha looks so little like society ladies, the contrast between her and the "light" is so clear. Natasha is a generously gifted person with a poetic attitude, she is not at all like Helen, Julie, Scherer.
The Rostov family is similar to those families from which the wives of the Decembrists came out. The way of life of the Rostovs, customs, traditions - all this is Russian, national. They absorbed the spirit of the people with its cheerfulness, the ability to suffer steadfastly, to easily make sacrifices, not for show, but with all the spiritual breadth. They are drawn to the Rostovs and to the universal favorite Natasha the best people People: Andrey Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Vasily Denisov. Constantly changeable, responding violently to everything that happens around, Natasha can "cry like a child", that is, be natural and not be shy about it. She is not able to play a role, does not depend on prying eyes, can violate etiquette. She can grow old and unrecognizably change from grief after Andrey's death. It is this vital variability and artlessness in Natasha that Tolstoy likes because her appearance is a reflection of richest world her feelings.
Society sees in Helen a beautiful, gentle, secular lady. Natasha does not look beautiful, but just a simple and happy girl. Thanks to this cheerfulness, Andrey realizes the beauty around and understands that life is worth living. He wants to act, to do good to people. The opposite, heavy feeling causes Helene in Pierre. Even before his marriage, he felt some kind of deception, the unnaturalness of their relationship. Unfortunately, only after the wedding he understands all the insignificance and baseness of this woman. Natasha, on the contrary, like others goodies novel, a true, active patriot. She will never act like Bergi and will sacrifice everything for the people. She loves her homeland, her people, in whom she believes and is proud of. There is something uniquely Russian in her soul. She subtly feels the beauty of nature.
It's hard to imagine Helen in Natasha's place. In Helen there is no feeling, no poetry, no patriotism. She does not sing, does not understand music, does not notice nature. Natasha sings soulfully, with soul, forgetting about everything. Everywhere you can see her gentle, natural soul. Here she is crying with Sonya, only because her friend is crying; here she is sincerely happy when she sees that Sonya and Nikolai are happy; here she, almost crying with pity, refuses Denisov, who is asking for help. Natasha lives honestly, with her soul. Although she is inexperienced, she is constantly changing. Helen has everything thought out in advance and is done as it should be according to unwritten laws. high society. Therefore, Helen's life is monotonous and boring. And in Tolstoy, "calmness is spiritual meanness." We never see Natasha calm, she worries, worries about her loved ones, and most importantly, she wants to help everyone.
Helen is not able to become a mother, because she has exchanged herself for the fun of a high-society life. For her, marriage is just a means of well-being. The marriage of Helen, who chose the wealthy Pierre as her husband, is a clear confirmation of this. Family and children do not play any role in her life. Excessive emancipation, according to Tolstoy, leads a woman to a misunderstanding of her own purpose. Here is Natasha - a woman in literally words. Daughter, sister, wife, mother - these are the main life positions of a woman. The world of the family is the foundation human society, and the mistress in it is a woman. It is better to be a "prolific female" than a "high society lioness".
Tasks and tests on the topic "The scene of Pierre's explanation with Helen (Analysis of an episode from L. N. Tolstoy's novel War and Peace, Chapter II, Part Three, Volume One)"
- Spelling - Important topics for repeating the exam in the Russian language
Lessons: 5 Assignments: 7
The relationship between Pierre Bezukhov and Helen Kuragina in L. N. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is not like other relationships between heroes this novel. This is the story of an unhappy marriage between two people with completely different personalities.
The relationship between the characters has changed throughout the novel, but one thing is for sure: mutual love never had in their relationship.
Seeing the beautiful Helene after a ten-year separation, Pierre falls in love with her. However, she didn't feel the same way about him.
The episode of the declaration of love is the culmination of the relationship of the characters, this an important event for Pierre and Helen. For Helen, this is beneficial in material terms marriage, and for Pierre - a life mistake. Inconspicuous, simple-hearted, naive, without a large fortune, Pierre could not please the proud and self-serving Helen. However, having received an inheritance, Pierre was able to achieve the location of the heroine.
Love, if you can call it that, between the characters was doomed to failure from the very beginning. This marriage of convenience could not bring happiness to the heroes, because you cannot buy love. Despising Pierre, Helen did not love him at all. She was only interested in a prosperous situation.
Marriage did not prevent Helen from building relationships with other young people. So the author shows the wrong people who, despite this, managed to borrow high position and observe social etiquette. This naturally did not please Pierre. He feels unhappy and lonely in his marriage. Having married, he still does not have a family. Helen ironically says that she does not want to have children from Pierre, this upsets the hero even more. The unfaithfulness of his wife was the reason for their separate life. However, Pierre is not able to live separately, so they are together again, but Helen does not stop cheating on her husband, Pierre is not her husband, but a cohabitant.
Their marriage was on the verge of collapse. Most likely, if Helen had not died, their marriage would have come to an end. After all, while Pierre was at the front, she was looking for any way to divorce her actual husband in order to marry another person. And here there is no love on her part, these are again selfish goals.
Helen clearly did not love Pierre, but we cannot say that this was not mutual. From the very beginning, Pierre was attracted to Helen by bare shoulders and "beautiful breasts." He is not in love with her, but only dreams of possessing this beautiful woman. Even in the confession scene, he did not fully understand whether he needed a marriage with Helen. There was not a drop of sincerity in his words about love, he was deceived by a feeling of lust. Tolstoy, with the help of details, indicates that Pierre's declaration of love for Helen is a huge mistake. However, this mistake allowed the hero to learn a lesson and draw conclusions: he analyzes his actions and tries to change himself for the better.
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Read the epilogue, flipped last page grandiose epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace", and I still have a lot of questions. What if it's not like that at all? What if it's the other way around? What if our brilliant author wanted to say a lot more than we thought?
Despite the apparent simplicity, L.N. Tolstoy was never a mediocre person. An integral part of his life were secrets and riddles, he was as if woven from contradictions. And when you think about it, the genius of his time Leonardo da Vinci involuntarily comes to mind. These two people, although they lived in completely different time, left behind not only the most valuable cultural heritage, but also a very long trail of secrets, mysteries and myths.
Some of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings mirror image bear hidden meaning. So kind old man becomes the image of the devil, and the demon becomes a pretty girl. That is why I allowed myself to look at the War and the world "in a mirror image." Suddenly, Lev Nikolayevich embodied something similar in his work? ..
First, I decided to take a look at the most controversial character, in my opinion, Helen Kuragina. This girl is a brilliant Petersburg noblewoman. Stately and imperturbable, she excites the minds of many men. She is loved and admired in the world. But is everything as bright and brilliant in her life as it seems at first glance?
In any characterization of Helen Kuragina, the following words sound: “a monster sits under the shell of a beauty”, “she hides the ugliness of her soul with her external beauty”, “a stupid doll that everyone likes”, “Helen married Pierre to herself”.
But what can one say about the soul of this girl without trying to look at everything through her eyes. Yes, she is beautiful and always has been. And beauty became her curse, because her beliefs, demeanor were largely dictated by the position of a woman in noble society where she played the part beautiful doll, which needs to be married off on time and successfully, and no one asked her opinion on this matter. The main occupation is to shine at balls and give birth to children, increasing the number of Russian nobles.
As for Pierre's marriage to Helen, the girl was forced to obey her father and marry a wealthy nobleman, and no one really asked her opinion on this matter.
Helen from childhood was an instrument in the hands of Prince Vasily. She knew that no one would give her the right to choose a husband, as, for example, Maria Bolkonskaya. Constant pressure from parents and society, frequent attention and understanding of the inevitability of their fate did their job. Helen became cruel and calculating. And it seems to me that she was not stupid at all, but simply skillfully concealed her mind, because at that time educated women, although admired, were not appreciated. And is foolish man could manage so skillfully high society and everyone likes it?
After marriage, Helen's life did not change much. Pierre, who seemed to be in love with her, now paid no attention to her and was only engaged in searching for his own path in life. Therefore, the girl gave all her attention to the world, where she was admired more than before.
Do I mean to say that Helen was an angel? No, of course not. She was cruel, selfish, proud and very calculating. With my thoughts, I just wanted to show that maybe she is not as bad as we think about her. And perhaps we could understand the motives of her actions. Helen was a woman ordinary woman, of that cruel time in its own way. And as a woman, she was deeply unhappy in her soul. She participated in her fate as best she could, as far as it was allowed. And, perhaps, all her bad and stupid actions are explained by only one thing - she wanted to be happy, no matter what.
One of the most bright personalities works, no doubt, is Pierre Bezukhov. At the very beginning of the book, his image causes a smile, rather than serious attitude: “A massive, fat young man with a cropped head, glasses, light trousers in the then fashion, with a high jabot and a brown tailcoat” Imagining this character, you involuntarily wonder if he could fit into that beautiful and elegant society? And it soon becomes clear that in this high society salon Pierre is a stranger. His “smart and at the same time timid, observant and natural look” has no place among the “mechanical” guests of Anna Pavlovna’s “workshop”.
But in the eyes of this very world, and in the eyes of readers, Pierre has always been and remains sweet and kind person. But, as often happens, such patient and calm people how Pierre has his skeletons in the closet.
I am well aware that there is no ideal people, and everyone has their weaknesses, but from such reasonable person like Pierre, I did not expect many things. And the first of them is his marriage to Helen. In this whole situation, the hero behaves weakly and completely flawlessly. He could not refuse the wedding, although he wanted to. He went on about Prince Vasily and was forced to obey his skillfully drawn up plan. The Kuragin family for Pierre is a personal kryptonite that he cannot resist. Recall at least the case when Pierre succumbed to the persuasion of Anatole Kuragin and almost lost his life ... All these cases show the smart and reasonable Pierre from a different, less attractive side.
All his life, Pierre Bezukhov has been looking for meaning in it. Fate takes him to a variety of places, ranging from Masonic Lodge and ending with the organization of the Decembrists. His throwings accompany us throughout the book, and after each significant event in life, the hero changes. Take at least battle of Borodino. Personally, I don’t understand why Pierre, a civilian and completely far from the war, decided to take this step, because he considered himself, no less, the savior of Russia. In the heat of battle, Pierre behaves not at all like a hero - he runs from the battlefield, frightened by shots and bloody wounds of people. No, I don’t blame him in any way, it’s just that for me Pierre’s decision to go to war was unexpected and meaningless, because he was always a humane person.
The next and, in my opinion, the most milestone in the life of Pierre was captured. There he met Platon Karataev, who was able to change his outlook on life. All the hardships and hardships helped Pierre acquire new spiritual qualities. "He learned to see the great, the eternal and the infinite ... and joyfully contemplated the ever-changing, eternally great, incomprehensible and endless life around him." He became stronger in spirit and got character. Pierre was even able to refuse a Frenchman who demanded money from him, which he would never have done before.
Having married Natasha Rostova, the hero, it would seem, finds complete happiness. In the epilogue, we see a joyful and harmonious family. But is everything so rosy in them? small world? In fact, Pierre does not leave his spiritual quest and leaves Natasha and four children for a long time, while he leaves on business. It soon becomes clear that Pierre's rebellious spirit brings him into contact with the Decembrist society. Despite this, "everything happy families happy alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
In the end, I would like to say that the truth is not always the same as we see it at the beginning. And if you want to find something that is hidden from many eyes, you need to look deeper, into the very essence of things. After researching the characters of Helen and Pierre, I realized something: the bad is not always bad, and the good often does not live up to our expectations.
See true essence things are not so easy, but let's not splurge, but look with the help of a "mirror" as the great da Vinci and Tolstoy "bequeathed".
