The personality of the emperor of France excites the minds of historians and writers of all times. The secret of the evil genius that destroyed millions of human lives has been tried by many scientists and writers.
Leo Tolstoy acted as an objective critic, the image and characterization of Napoleon in the novel "War and Peace" is highlighted comprehensively, without warning.
What does the Emperor of France look like?
The thin face of Napoleon in 1805 near Austerlitz testified to his busy schedule, fatigue, and youthful enthusiasm. In 1812, the emperor of France looks different: a round belly indicates a passion for fatty foods. A plump neck peeps out of the collar of the blue uniform, and the bulges of thick thighs are well drawn through the tight fabric of white leggings.
Military trained posture allowed Bonaparte to look majestic until the last days. He was distinguished by his small stature, stocky figure and involuntarily protruding belly, he constantly wore over the knee boots - life passed on horseback. The man became famous as a well-groomed dandy with white beautiful hands, he loved perfume, his body was constantly enveloped in a thick aroma of cologne.
Napoleon launched a military campaign against Russia at the age of forty. His dexterity and movements were less nimble than in his youth, but his step remained firm and quick. The emperor's voice sounded loud, he tried to clearly pronounce each letter, especially beautifully pronouncing the last syllable in words.
How Napoleon is characterized by the heroes of the novel "War and Peace"
Anna Scherrer, the hostess of the Petersburg salon, repeats the rumors spread from Prussia that Bonaparte is invincible, Europe will not be able to stop his army. It is only 1805, some of the guests invited to the party speak admiringly about the activities of the new French government, its ambitious leader.
At the beginning of the novel, Andrei Bolkonsky considers the military figure promising. At the aforementioned evening, the young prince recalls the noble deeds of the commander, which command respect: visits to hospitals, communication with plague-infected soldiers.
After the Battle of Borodino, when the Russian officer had to die among the many dead soldiers, he heard Napoleon above him. He spoke about the picture of death unfolding before his eyes, admiring, with delight, with inspiration. Prince Andrei realized that he was hearing the words of a sick person, obsessed with other people's suffering, vile and mundane with unhealthy instincts.
Similarly, Pierre Bezukhov was disappointed in the image of the French commander. The young count emphasized the state professionalism of a figure who managed to separate the abuses of the revolution, who accepted the equality of citizens as the basis of a new political government. Especially diligently, Pierre tried to explain to the Russian nobility the positive meaning of freedom of speech, which originated in young France.
On the ashes of Moscow, Bezukhov changed his mind to the opposite. Under the theatrical grandeur of Napoleon's soul, Pierre saw the scale of the lawlessness perpetrated by the emperor alone. The result of the actions of the person in power was inhuman cruelty. Mass lawlessness was the result of greed and insignificance.
Nikolai Rostov, due to his youth and directness, considered Napoleon a criminal, and as an emotionally mature representative of the youth, he hated the commander of the enemy army with all the strength of his youthful soul.
The Russian statesman Count Rostopchin compares the activities of the evil genius with the pirate traditions that took place on the ships they seized.
Napoleon's character traits
The future conqueror of Europe had Italian roots, could, like most representatives of this nation, spontaneously change facial expressions. But contemporaries argued that the expression of complacency and happiness was often present on the face of a little man, especially in moments of battle.
The author repeatedly mentions narcissism, self-adoration of this character, selfishness reaches the level of insanity. An outright lie breaks from his lips, underlined by a sincere expression in his eyes. War for him is a noble craft, he does not notice that behind these words is a red picture of millions of ruined lives, rivers of blood flow from the battlefields.
The mass murder of peoples turns into a habit, a passionate addiction. Napoleon himself calls war his craft. A military career has been his life goal since his youth. Having reached power, the emperor appreciates luxury, organizes a magnificent court, demands honor. His orders are carried out unquestioningly, he himself, according to Tolstoy, began to believe in the correctness of his thoughts, as the only correct ones.
The emperor is under the delusion that his beliefs are infallible, ideal, and perfect in their truth. Tolstoy does not deny that Bonaparte has considerable experience in waging war, but the character is not an educated person, but, on the contrary, is a limited person in many respects.
The second half of the 19th century introduced a new trend into Russian literature. Events in Europe and in foreign countries became the subjects of Russian works. Of course, at that important historical moment, the attention of all of Europe was riveted to the personality of Napoleon, the great and glorious commander. Of course, Russia could not stand aside, because, in the end, Napoleonic troops reached its territory.
Many Russian writers made Napoleon the hero of their literary creations. Lev Nikolaevich did not stand aside. In the novel "War and Peace" the reader repeatedly meets with the French commander. However, the author of the work does not depict him in majestic colors. On the contrary, we face a selfish, narcissistic, cruel and callous person.
Tolstoy ironically describes the image of Napoleon, portrays him in a caricature style. Lev Nikolaevich constantly calls Napoleon small, undersized, with a round belly and fat thighs. The author of the novel describes the cold, self-satisfied facial features of the French military commander.
An interesting fact is emphasized by Lev Nikolaevich. He demonstrates the change in appearance, the image of Napoleon during military events. If during the battle of Austerlitz, he looks self-confident, on his face there are emotions of joy, inspiration. That, the Battle of Borodino shows us a completely different, mutated military leader. His face had a yellowish tint, was slightly swollen, heavy. The eyes have lost all luster, become cloudy and dark.
Tolstoy on the pages of his novel creates a contrasting comparison of the image of Napoleon and Kutuzov. Both of them can be called famous historical figures. However, Kutuzov was a man of the people. Soldiers loved him, ordinary people respected him. And all thanks to that humanity, that honesty that lived inside Kutuzov. Napoleon, on the other hand, is depicted as a despotic, ruthless strategist who did not care at all about human casualties and losses, both in the ranks of his army and in the ranks of the enemy.
The author of the novel feels a certain disgust for the personality of Napoleon. In his opinion, the actions of this person contradict all concepts of conscience and honesty. It was not in vain that the great French commander became the hero of a grandiose novel. After all, he played an important role, both in the history of Europe and in the life of Russia. Using his example, Lev Nikolaevich shows the true meaning of the personality of a person who alarmed half the world.
He does not believe in the rationality and expediency of historical will. For him, there are only single interests in history. Therefore, history turns into a disorderly clash of individual human wills. And if this is so, then in history the one who is more active and energetic always wins. Hence - the cult of personal activity for Napoleon and for all the characters who do not believe in the inner wisdom of being. And if life and history do not have this higher wisdom, then intrigue and adventure become a means to achieve one's own goals. Napoleon's invasion of Russia is also an attempt to establish adventure as a world law, that is, to turn the arbitrariness of personal egoism into the law of history. The whole activity of Napoleon is such an attempt on the scale of world history. In an effort to impose his egoistic will on world history, according to Tolstoy, he comes into conflict with the world's will, so he is doomed...
The main features of Napoleon in "War and Peace" are: complacency, arrogance, false chivalry, false gallantry, acting, irritability, dominance, tyranny, inseparable from megalomania. An example of Napoleon's posturing is a scene with a portrait of a born son playing with a globe on the eve of the Battle of Borodino. An example of megalomania is Bonaparte's threat to wipe Prussia off the map of Europe. In the guise of Napoleon, Tolstoy constantly emphasizes physicality: calves, heels, fat shoulders...
But the main question is why Tolstoy belittles the role of Napoleon in history, why he disputes the seemingly undeniable military and state genius of Napoleon. The fact is that the images of historical figures (Speransky, Napoleon, Kutuzov, Alexander I) Tolstoy associated with the problem of the role of the individual in history, the problem of the role of the individual - with the problem of power. Europe of that time was a Europe of limited and unlimited monarchies, but even then Tolstoy wrote that historical descriptions of how some king, having quarreled with another king, gathered an army, fought and won a victory, were strange to him. In contrast to such descriptions, Tolstoy suggested: "... in order to study the laws of history, we must change the subject of observation, leave the kings and generals alone." Not so much portraying, as with cold sarcasm, debunking the personality of Napoleon, Tolstoy attacked the very idea of unlimited power, which grew out of the immoral idea of the imaginary superiority of one person over others. Trying to imagine Napoleon and others assuming the role of leaders of history, Tolstoy wanted to prove that they are all a toy in the hands of history and, moreover, an evil toy. And the greatness of these so-called "creators of history" was invented by other people not disinterestedly, but in order, firstly, to justify the power over ordinary people, and, secondly, to approve the division of people into two camps (3 here Tolstoy, like Dostoevsky , opposes the division of people into categories).
Konstantin Simonov, who closely studied War and Peace to create his own book about the Patriotic War, wrote that even now, a century later, reading these angry pages of the epic, you feel the full power of Tolstoy's moral rightness and clairvoyance. Tolstoy writes that in the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon did everything that was required of an experienced military leader, and yet he lost. Tolstoy insists that Napoleon, as a military man, as a commander, is no lower than Kutuzov. But he is lower than Kutuzov as a person, the pain of other people is alien to him, interest in the inner world of others, mercy is alien. For Tolstoy, among all human talents, the highest and indisputable is the moral giftedness of a person. It is precisely such a gift, such a talent that Napoleon does not have, who does not know how to share the grief of other people. This means that Napoleon is lower than Kutuzov, because he is morally mediocre; because he is morally a villain. Napoleon is not a genius because "genius and villainy are two things that are incompatible"; i.e. Tolstoy applies to the personality of Napoleon a humanistic moral principle, simply and concisely expressed by Mozart in Pushkin's "little tragedy".
The image of Napoleon in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace” is revealed in depth and diversified, but with an emphasis on the personality of Napoleon the man, and not Napoleon the commander. The author characterizes him, based primarily on his own vision of this historical person, but based on facts. Napoleon was the idol of many contemporaries, for the first time we hear about him in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer, and we perceive the image of the character in many ways: as an outstanding commander and a strong-willed person who deserves respect, and as a despotic tyrant who is dangerous both for other peoples and for his country . Napoleon is an invader on Russian soil and immediately turns from an idol into a negative hero.
Tolstoy portrays Napoleon satirically. This can be seen in the external characteristics: he speaks as if his words are written down for him in historical textbooks, his calf of his left leg trembles, and his thick thigh and chest give him solidity.
Tolstoy sometimes depicts the hero as a playing child, who rides in a carriage, holding on to ribbons and at the same time believes that he is making history, then he compares it with a gambler who, as it seemed to him, calculated all the combinations, but for some unknown reason turned out to be a loser. In the image of Napoleon, Tolstoy strives to portray, first of all, not a commander, but a person with his moral and moral qualities.
The action of the novel develops at a time when the French emperor turned from a bourgeois revolutionary into a despot and conqueror. For Napoleon, glory and greatness are above all. He seeks to impress people with his appearance and words. Pose and phrase are not so much qualities of Napoleon's personality, but more indispensable attributes of a “great” person. He renounces true life, “with its essential interests, health, illness, work, rest…with the interests of thought, science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, passions.” He chooses for himself the role of an actor who is alien to human qualities. Tolstoy characterizes Napoleon not as a great man, but as inferior and defective.
When examining the battlefield littered with corpses near Borodino after the battle, “a personal human feeling for a short moment prevailed over that artificial ghost of life that he had served for so long. He endured the suffering and death that he saw on the battlefield. The heaviness of his head and chest reminded him of the possibility of suffering and death for him too.” However, this feeling was too fleeting. Napoleon imitates human feelings. Even looking at the portrait of his young son, he “made an air of thoughtful tenderness. He felt that what he would say and do now was history. Each of his gestures, each of his movements are subject to some feeling known only to him - the understanding that he is a great person, whom millions of people look at every moment, and all his words and gestures will certainly become historically significant.
Encouraged by the victories, Napoleon is unable to see how great the number of victims of the war. During the Battle of Borodino, even nature opposes the aggressive plans of the French emperor: the sun shines dazzlingly in the eyes, the enemy positions are hidden in the fog. All reports of adjutants immediately become outdated, military commanders do not report on the course of the battle, but make orders themselves. Events develop without the participation of Napoleon, without the use of his military skills. Having entered Moscow, abandoned by the inhabitants, Bonaparte wants to restore order in it, but his troops are engaged in robberies and discipline cannot be restored in them. Feeling like a winner at first, Napoleon is forced to leave the city and flee in disgrace. Bonaparte leaves, and his army is left without leadership. The conquering tyrant instantly becomes a low, pathetic and helpless creature. Thus, the image of the commander, who believed that he was able to make history, is debunked.
The image of Napoleon in "War and Peace"
The image of Napoleon in “War and Peace” is one of L.N. Tolstoy. In the novel, the French emperor operates during the period when he has turned from a bourgeois revolutionary into a despot and conqueror. Tolstoy's diary entries while working on War and Peace show that he followed a conscious intention - to rip off the halo of false greatness from Napoleon. The idol of Napoleon is glory, greatness, that is, the opinion of other people about him. It is natural that he seeks to make a certain impression on people with words and appearance. Hence his passion for posture and phrase. They are not so much the qualities of Napoleon's personality as the obligatory attributes of his position as a “great” person. Acting, he renounces real, genuine life, "with its essential interests, health, illness, work, rest ... with the interests of thought, science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, passions". The role that Napoleon plays in the world does not require the highest qualities, on the contrary, it is possible only for someone who renounces the human in himself. “Not only does a good commander not need genius and any special qualities, but on the contrary, he needs the absence of the highest and best human qualities - love, poetry, tenderness, philosophical, inquisitive doubt. For Tolstoy, Napoleon is not a great person, but an inferior, defective person.
Napoleon - "executioner of peoples". According to Tolstoy, evil is brought to people by an unfortunate person who does not know the joys of true life. The writer wants to inspire his readers with the idea that only a person who has lost a true idea of himself and the world can justify all the cruelties and crimes of war. This is what Napoleon was. When he examines the battlefield of the Battle of Borodino, a battlefield littered with corpses, here for the first time, as Tolstoy writes, “a personal human feeling for a short moment prevailed over that artificial ghost of life that he had served for so long. He endured the suffering and death that he saw on the battlefield. The heaviness of his head and chest reminded him of the possibility of suffering and death for him too.” But this feeling, writes Tolstoy, was brief, instantaneous. Napoleon has to hide the absence of a living human feeling, to imitate it. Having received a portrait of his son, a little boy, as a gift from his wife, “he went up to the portrait and pretended to be thoughtful tenderness. He felt that what he would say and do now was history. And it seemed to him that the best thing he could do now was that he, with his greatness ... so that he showed, in contrast to this greatness, the simplest paternal tenderness.
Napoleon is able to understand the experiences of other people (and for Tolstoy this is the same as not feeling like a person). This makes Napoleon ready "... to play that cruel, sad and difficult, inhuman role that was intended for him." Meanwhile, according to Tolstoy, a person and society are alive precisely by “personal human feeling”.
“Personal human feeling” saves Pierre Bezukhov when he, suspected of espionage, is brought for interrogation to Marshal Dava. Pierre, believing that he was sentenced to death, reflects: “Who finally executed, killed, took his life - Pierre, with all his memories, aspirations, hopes, thoughts? Who did it? And Pierre felt that it was nobody. It was an order, a warehouse of circumstances.” But if a human feeling appears in people who fulfill the requirements of this “order”, then it is hostile to “order” and saving for a person. This feeling saved Pierre. “Both of them at that moment vaguely foresaw countless things and realized that they are both children of humanity, that they are brothers.”
When L.N. Tolstoy talks about the attitude of historians to "great people", and in particular to Napoleon, he leaves a calm epic manner of narration and we hear the passionate voice of Tolstoy - a preacher. But at the same time, the author of War and Peace remains a consistent, strict and original thinker. It is not difficult to be ironic about Tolstoy, who renders greatness to recognized historical figures. It is more difficult to understand the essence of his views and assessments and to compare them. “And it would never occur to anyone,” Tolstoy declared, “that the recognition of greatness, immeasurable by the measure of good and bad, is only the recognition of one’s insignificance and immeasurable smallness.” Many reproached L.N. Tolstoy for his biased portrayal of Napoleon, but to the best of our knowledge, no one has refuted his arguments. Tolstoy, as is characteristic of him, transfers the problem from an objectively abstract plane to a vitally personal one; he addresses not only the mind of a person, but the integral person, his dignity.
The author rightly believes that a person, evaluating a phenomenon, evaluates himself, necessarily giving himself one or another meaning. If a person recognizes as great something that is in no way commensurate with him, with his life, feelings, or even hostile to everything that he loves and appreciates in his personal life, then he recognizes his insignificance. To value that which despises and denies you is not to value yourself. L.N. Tolstoy does not agree with the notion that the course of history is determined by individuals. He considers this view "... not only incorrect, unreasonable, but also contrary to the whole human being." To the whole “human being”, and not only to the mind of his reader, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy addresses.
