Ippolit Kuragin is the middle son of Prince Vasily Kuragin, a respected courtier who occupies high position in society. Unlike Hippolyte, his siblings, Anatole and Helen, are highly respected people in the world. Hippolyte, on the other hand, is the complete opposite: he dresses ridiculously, is very awkward, does not know how to conduct conversations because of his own stupidity. But the prince is not embarrassed by all this, moreover, in conversations he always strives to take an active part. Because of the prince's tendency to speak first and then think, everyone laughs at him, but he, not understanding this, laughs along with everyone.
For all his oddities, Hippolyte is very popular with women. At the evening at Anna Pavlovna Sherer's, where his father brings him in order to attach his son to the post of secretary of the embassy, Ippolit flirts with Princess Lisa, making her husband Andrei Bolkonsky jealous. It is in the salon of Anna Pavlovna that Ippolit appears to the reader for the first time, demonstrating all his stupidity. Any of his remarks is inappropriate. First, courting Princess Liza Bolkonskaya, he explains to her the meaning of the coat of arms, then out of place tells an anecdote that no one understands, but Hippolyte himself begins to laugh at its end. At the same time, Hippolyte accompanies all his words and actions with the same inappropriate self-confidence.
He is also considered a jester in society because he likes to talk about politics, completely unaware of it.
The actions of the prince are just as absurd. Helping Lisa Bolkonskaya with a shawl, Ippolit does it so awkwardly that from the outside it seems as if he is trying to hug her. Confused, Lisa moves away, and the indignant Andrei Bolkonsky contemptuously walks around the prince. Then, tangled in outerwear, Ippolit says goodbye to Liza, but Prince Andrei dismisses him with hostility.
In general, Prince Ippolit Kuragin is shown by Tolstoy in the novel rather monotonously, mainly with the aim of complementing the image of Vasily Kuragin's family and contrasting his other children - the beautiful Helen and Anatole, who has a negative charm. Hippolyte has neither beautiful appearance, nor any kind of charm. With the help of the image of the prince, the author shows what worthless people can be in a higher, closer to the court, society. In the reader, Prince Hippolyte evokes only a feeling of disgust.
Option 2
Ippolit Kuragin appears in Tolstoy's epic infrequently. He is another son of Prince Vasily. His other children, Anatole and Helen, bright personalities in the light. Hippolyte, on the other hand, is completely opposite: he is dressed ridiculously, clumsily, in conversations he demonstrates his own stupidity. However, all this does not bother him, he smartly participates in conversations. His tendency to speak first and think later causes ridicule, but Hippolyte innocently does not understand this and laughs with everyone. In society, he is a jester, talking about politics, in which he understands absolutely nothing.
Unlike brother and sister, this character does not have external beauty. He is calm and polite. His absence mental abilities offset by fluency in several languages.
Hippolyte resembles his sister Helen in facial features. Only Helen is beautiful, and the appearance of Hippolyte is distorted by idiocy. Tolstoy not in vain emphasizes the outward similarity of brother and sister. Both characters are worthless and empty, not possessing the richness of the soul. Looking more closely at these heroes, the reader understands that the soul of the beautiful Helen is shown on the unattractive smug face of Hippolyte.
The old prince, having used connections, attaches his son to the diplomatic service. There is nothing special here: a nice young man speaks French easily and can speak English. Serve who needs to be able to. There is no need to worry about the benefits to the Fatherland. It's enough that he can tirelessly flail with his tongue. Ippolit settled in the embassy, what he does is unknown, but he likes himself. It turned out that here they consider his chatter to be witty. He took advantage of this and is likely to make a career.
Ippolit Kuragin in the novel looks monotonous. This character is like a bright stroke that sets off the entire Kuragin family. Ippolit is devoid of charm, the reader feels disgust for him. The author uses this hero to demonstrate the emptiness and inferiority of the people who make up a secular society. But this is - the best people close to the royal court. It turns out that it is easy for fools and ignoramuses, protected by someone's patronage, to cling to them. Characters like Hippolyte and his family members are very resilient.
Essay on Ippolit Kuragin
LN Tolstoy wrote a wonderful epic novel "War and Peace". IN this novel he presented us with the image of Ippolit Kuragin, about whom the essay will be.
Ippolit Kuragin, no doubt, speaks minor hero novel. Ippolit had a father, Prince Vasily, as well as a brother and sister - Anatole and Helen. The age of Ippolit Kuragin is not specified in the novel, but it is mentioned that he is rather cute and young.
If we talk about the appearance of Ippolit Kuragin, then you can see that his facial features were the same as those of his beautiful sister, but all this was obscured by sheer idiocy and cynicism. Hippolyte is self-confident, although thin and weak in appearance, and his face always assumed a dull grimace.
Ippolit Kuragin has a calm disposition, while he is completely stupid and empty-hearted. Many considered Hippolytus an ordinary fool. Not noticing anything around him and even his actions, Ippolit behaved like a jester. Although Hippolyte's stupidity did not interfere with his self-confidence, such excessive self-confidence interfered with himself.
Hippolyte is an awkward person, with a constantly “confused” language. He spoke Russian, but with a noticeable French accent, because it often turned out that all the aristocrats spoke French much better than their native Russian. In addition to Russian and French, Ippolit, surprisingly, knew English.
If we talk about the place of Ippolit Kuragin in society, then it is worth noting that he served as a secretary at the Russian Embassy, which was located in Austria. Hippolyte's father wanted his son to enter the diplomatic service, and he managed to achieve this. However, the author does not describe what exactly Ippolit did, but after reading the novel it becomes clear that Kuragin himself is pleased with both his work and what he does. Hippolyte liked to throw some, as he himself believed, smart words that people perceived as very witty. And he liked it, so more and more often he spoke only thoughts that came to mind, even stupid ones.
In general, Ippolit Kuragin is a base person, not distinguished by special charm or merit, he evokes a feeling of some disgust towards him. Most likely, the author of the novel presented us with the image of Ippolit Kuragin in order for us to understand what, at times, low and “empty” people the high society. However, the whole family of Vasily, and Helen, and Anatole, and Hippolyte, and even Prince Vasily himself are people who have neither intelligence, nor culture, nor any merit, although they are close to the king's court.
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Family
Prince Vasily Kuragin.
For Tolstoy, the world of the family is the basis of human
society. The Kuragin family in the novel appears as the embodiment of immorality.
Greed, hypocrisy, the ability to commit crime, dishonor for the sake of wealth,
irresponsibility for their actions in their personal lives - these are the main distinguishing
features of this family.
And how much destruction Kuragins brought - prince
Vasily, Helen, Anatole - into the life of Pierre, the Rostovs, Natasha, Andrei Bolkonsky!
Kuragins - the third in the novel family association -
devoid of generic poetry. Their familial closeness and connection is unpoetic, although she,
undoubtedly there is - instinctive mutual support and solidarity, a kind of
the mutual guarantee of almost animal egoism. Such family connection not positive
a real family connection, but, in essence, its denial. Real families -
Rostovs, Bolkonskys - they, of course, have against the Kuragins on their side
immeasurable moral superiority; but still an intrusion
low Kuragin egoism causes a crisis in the world of these families.
The whole Kuragin family are individualists who do not recognize
moral standards living according to the immutable law of the fulfillment of their insignificant
desires.
Prince Vasily Kuragin The head of this entire family is Prince Vasily
Kuragin. For the first time we meet Prince Vasily in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Sherer. He
was "in a court, embroidered uniform, in stockings, in shoes and stars, with
bright expression of a flat face. "The prince spoke" in
that exquisite French, which was not only spoken, but also thought
our grandfathers, and with those quiet, patronizing intonations that
characteristic of an aged person in high society and at court, a significant person, "" said
always lazily, as an actor says the role of an old play. "In the eyes secular society prince
Kuragin - a respected person, "close to the emperor, surrounded by a crowd
enthusiastic women, scattering social courtesies and complacently
chuckling". In words, he was a decent, sympathetic person,
but in reality there was an internal struggle going on in him between desire
to seem like a decent person and the actual depravity of his motives.
Prince Vasily "knew that influence in the world is capital that needs to be
take care that he does not disappear, and once realizing that if he begins to ask for
everyone who asks him, then soon he will not be able to ask for himself, he rarely
used this influence." But, at the same time, he
sometimes felt remorse. So, in the case of Princess Drubetskaya, he
felt "something like a pangs of conscience", as she reminded him
that "he owed his first steps in the service to her father." Prince Vasily is not alien to his father's feelings, although
they are expressed rather in the desire to "attach"
their children, rather than give them fatherly love and warmth. According to Anna Pavlovna
Scherer, people like the prince shouldn't have children.
"…And for what
will children be born to people like you? If you were not a father, I
I wouldn't be able to reproach you for anything." To which the prince replied: "What
should I do? You know, I did everything for their education.
maybe father." Prince
forced Pierre to marry Helen, while pursuing his own selfish goals. At the proposal of Anna Pavlovna Sherer "to marry
prodigal son Anatole" on Princess Maria Bolkonskaya,
learning that the princess is a rich heiress, he says:
"she
good name and rich. All I need." At the same time, Prince Vasily
does not think at all that Princess Marya may be unhappy in marriage
with the dissolute varmint Anatole, who looked at his whole life as one
continuous entertainment.
Absorbed all the vile, vicious traits of the prince
Vasily and his children.
Helen Kuragina
Helen - incarnation external beauty and internal
voids, fossils. Tolstoy constantly mentions her "monotonous", "unchanging"
smile and "ancient beauty of the body", she resembles a beautiful,
soulless statue. Helene Scherer enters the salon "noisy with her white ballroom
robe, trimmed with ivy and moss, and shining with the whiteness of the shoulders, the gloss of the hair and
diamonds, passed without looking at anyone, but smiling at everyone and, as if kindly
giving everyone the right to admire the beauty of their camp, full of shoulders, very
open in the then fashion, chest and back, and as if bringing with it a shine
bala. Helen was so beautiful that not only was there no shadow in her
coquetry, but, on the contrary, she seemed ashamed of her undoubted and
overpowering beauty. She seemed to want and could not belittle
actions of this beauty.
Helen personifies immorality and depravity.
The whole Kuragin family are individualists who do not recognize any moral standards,
living according to the immutable law of the fulfillment of their insignificant desires. Helen enters
married only for their own enrichment.
She is cheating on her husband because her nature is dominated by
animal origin. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy leaves Helen childless. "I
not such a fool to have children," she admits. Still,
being the wife of Pierre, Helen, in front of the eyes of the whole society, is arranging
his personal life.
In addition to a luxurious bust, rich and beautiful body,
this representative big light had an extraordinary ability to hide
their mental and moral poverty, and all this thanks only to the grace
her manners and memorization of some phrases and techniques. Shamelessness manifested in her
under such grandiose high-society forms, which aroused in others a little
whether not respect.
Helen is completely devoid of patriotic feelings. At that
while the whole country rose up to fight against Napoleon, and even elite
took part in this struggle in his own way ("they did not speak French and
ate simple food"), in Helen's circle, Rumyantsev, French, were refuted
rumors about the cruelty of the enemy and the war and discussed all of Napoleon's attempts to
reconciliation."
When the threat of the seizure of Moscow by Napoleonic troops
became clear, Helen went abroad. And there she shone at the imperial
yard. But now the court returns to St. Petersburg.
"Helen,
having returned together with the court from Vilna to Petersburg, she was in
predicament. In Petersburg, Helen enjoyed a special
patronage of a nobleman who occupied one of the highest positions in the state.
In the end, Helen dies. This death is direct
a consequence of her own intrigues. "Countess Elena Bezukhova
died suddenly from ... a terrible disease, which is commonly called chest
a sore throat, but in intimate circles they talked about how the queen's life doctor
Spanish prescribed Helen small doses of some kind of medicine to work
famous action; but like Helen, tormented by the fact that the old count
suspected her, and the fact that the husband to whom she wrote (this unfortunate depraved
Pierre), did not answer her, suddenly took a huge dose of the medicine prescribed for her and
died in agony before help could be given."
Ippolit Kuragin
.
"... Prince Ippolit struck with his
extraordinary resemblance to her beautiful sister, and even more so that despite
resemblance, he was strikingly ugly. His facial features were the same as those of
sister, but that everything was lit up with a cheerful, self-satisfied, young,
unchanging smile and extraordinary, ancient beauty of the body. Brother, on the other hand,
his face, too, was hazy with idiocy and invariably expressed self-confident
disgust, and the body was thin and weak. Eyes, nose, mouth - everything shrank like
as if in one indefinite boring grimace, and arms and legs always took
unnatural position.
Hippolyte was extraordinarily stupid. Because of self-confidence
with whom he spoke, no one could understand whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.
At the reception at Scherer, he appears to us "in
dark green tailcoat, in trousers the color of a frightened nymph, as he himself said, in
stockings and shoes." And such an absurdity of attire
did not bother.
His stupidity was manifested in the fact that he sometimes
spoke, and then understood what he said. Hippolyte often spoke and acted
inappropriately, expressed his opinions when they were of no use to anyone. He
liked to insert into the conversation phrases that were completely unrelated to the essence of the discussion
Topics.
The character of Hippolytus can serve as a living example of
that even positive idiocy is sometimes presented in the world as something that has
value due to the gloss attached to the knowledge of the French language, and the fact
the extraordinary property of this language to support and at the same time mask
spiritual emptiness.
Prince Vasily calls Ippolit "the deceased
fool". Tolstoy in the novel - "sluggish and breaking."
These are the dominant character traits of Hippolytus. Hippolyte is stupid, but he
stupidity at least does no harm to anyone, unlike younger brother
Anatole.
Anatole Kuragin
.
Anatole Kuragin, according to Tolstoy, "a simple
and with carnal inclinations." These are the dominant features
character of Anatole. He looked at his whole life as a continuous amusement,
which someone such for some reason undertook to arrange for him. The author's characterization of Anatole is as follows:
"He was not
is able to think neither about how his actions may respond to others, nor
what can come out of such or such an act of his."
Anatole is entirely free from consideration
responsibility and consequences of what he does. His selfishness is direct,
animal-naive and good-natured, absolute egoism, for he is not constrained by anything
Anatole inside, in consciousness, feeling. It's just that Kuragin is deprived of the ability to know
what will happen after that moment of his pleasure, and how it will affect his life
other people as others see it. All this does not exist for him at all.
He is sincerely convinced, instinctively, with all his being, that everything around has
its sole purpose is entertainment and exists for that. No regard for
people, on their opinion, on the consequences, no distant goal that would force
focus on achieving it, no remorse, reflection,
hesitation, doubt - Anatole, no matter what he does, naturally and sincerely
considers himself an impeccable person and carries his beautiful head high: freedom is truly unlimited, freedom in actions and self-awareness.
Such complete freedom was given to Anatole by his
meaninglessness. A man who is conscious of life is already subject, as
Pierre, the need to understand and decide, he is not free from life's difficulties, from
question: why? While Pierre is tortured by this difficult question,
Anatole lives, content with every minute, stupid, animalistic, but easy and
funny.
Marrying a "rich ugly heiress" -
Maria Bolkonskaya seems to him another amusement. "A
why not marry if she is very rich? It never gets in the way."
thought Anatole.
Family
Prince Vasily Kuragin.
For Tolstoy, the world of the family is the basis of human
society. The Kuragin family in the novel appears as the embodiment of immorality.
Greed, hypocrisy, the ability to commit crime, dishonor for the sake of wealth,
irresponsibility for their actions in their personal lives - these are the main distinguishing
features of this family.
And how much destruction Kuragins brought - prince
Vasily, Helen, Anatole - into the life of Pierre, the Rostovs, Natasha, Andrei Bolkonsky!
Kuragins - the third family association in the novel -
devoid of generic poetry. Their familial closeness and connection is unpoetic, although she,
undoubtedly there is - instinctive mutual support and solidarity, a kind of
the mutual guarantee of almost animal egoism. This family connection is not positive,
a real family connection, but, in essence, its denial. Real families -
Rostovs, Bolkonskys - they, of course, have against the Kuragins on their side
immeasurable moral superiority; but still an intrusion
low Kuragin egoism causes a crisis in the world of these families.
The whole Kuragin family are individualists who do not recognize
moral norms, living according to the immutable law of the fulfillment of their insignificant
desires.
Prince Vasily Kuragin The head of this entire family is Prince Vasily
Kuragin. For the first time we meet Prince Vasily in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Sherer. He
was "in a court, embroidered uniform, in stockings, in shoes and stars, with
bright expression of a flat face. "The prince spoke" in
that exquisite French, which was not only spoken, but also thought
our grandfathers, and with those quiet, patronizing intonations that
characteristic of an aged person in high society and at court, a significant person, "" said
always lazily, as an actor says the role of an old play. "In the eyes of secular society, the prince
Kuragin - a respected person, "close to the emperor, surrounded by a crowd
enthusiastic women, scattering social courtesies and complacently
chuckling". In words, he was a decent, sympathetic person,
but in reality there was an internal struggle going on in him between desire
to seem like a decent person and the actual depravity of his motives.
Prince Vasily "knew that influence in the world is capital that needs to be
take care that he does not disappear, and once realizing that if he begins to ask for
everyone who asks him, then soon he will not be able to ask for himself, he rarely
used this influence." But, at the same time, he
sometimes felt remorse. So, in the case of Princess Drubetskaya, he
felt "something like a pangs of conscience", as she reminded him
that "he owed his first steps in the service to her father." Prince Vasily is not alien to his father's feelings, although
they are expressed rather in the desire to "attach"
their children, rather than give them fatherly love and warmth. According to Anna Pavlovna
Scherer, people like the prince shouldn't have children.
"…And for what
will children be born to people like you? If you were not a father, I
I wouldn't be able to reproach you for anything." To which the prince replied: "What
should I do? You know, I did everything for their education.
maybe father." Prince
forced Pierre to marry Helen, while pursuing his own selfish goals. At the proposal of Anna Pavlovna Sherer "to marry
prodigal son Anatole" on Princess Maria Bolkonskaya,
learning that the princess is a rich heiress, he says:
"she
good name and rich. All I need." At the same time, Prince Vasily
does not think at all that Princess Marya may be unhappy in marriage
with the dissolute varmint Anatole, who looked at his whole life as one
continuous entertainment.
Absorbed all the vile, vicious traits of the prince
Vasily and his children.
Helen Kuragina
Helen is the embodiment of external beauty and internal
voids, fossils. Tolstoy constantly mentions her "monotonous", "unchanging"
smile and "ancient beauty of the body", she resembles a beautiful,
soulless statue. Helene Scherer enters the salon "noisy with her white ballroom
robe, trimmed with ivy and moss, and shining with the whiteness of the shoulders, the gloss of the hair and
diamonds, passed without looking at anyone, but smiling at everyone and, as if kindly
giving everyone the right to admire the beauty of their camp, full of shoulders, very
open in the then fashion, chest and back, and as if bringing with it a shine
bala. Helen was so beautiful that not only was there no shadow in her
coquetry, but, on the contrary, she seemed ashamed of her undoubted and
overpowering beauty. She seemed to want and could not belittle
actions of this beauty.
Helen personifies immorality and depravity.
The whole Kuragin family are individualists who do not recognize any moral standards,
living according to the immutable law of the fulfillment of their insignificant desires. Helen enters
married only for their own enrichment.
She is cheating on her husband because her nature is dominated by
animal origin. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy leaves Helen childless. "I
not such a fool to have children," she admits. Still,
being the wife of Pierre, Helen, in front of the eyes of the whole society, is arranging
his personal life.
In addition to a magnificent bust, a rich and beautiful body,
this representative of the big world had an extraordinary ability to hide
their mental and moral poverty, and all this thanks only to the grace
her manners and memorization of some phrases and techniques. Shamelessness manifested in her
under such grandiose high-society forms, which aroused in others a little
whether not respect.
Helen is completely devoid of patriotic feelings. At that
while the whole country rose up to fight against Napoleon, and even the high society
took part in this struggle in his own way ("they did not speak French and
ate simple food"), in Helen's circle, Rumyantsev, French, were refuted
rumors about the cruelty of the enemy and the war and discussed all of Napoleon's attempts to
reconciliation."
When the threat of the seizure of Moscow by Napoleonic troops
became clear, Helen went abroad. And there she shone at the imperial
yard. But now the court returns to St. Petersburg.
"Helen,
having returned together with the court from Vilna to Petersburg, she was in
predicament. In Petersburg, Helen enjoyed a special
patronage of a nobleman who occupied one of the highest positions in the state.
In the end, Helen dies. This death is direct
a consequence of her own intrigues. "Countess Elena Bezukhova
died suddenly from ... a terrible disease, which is commonly called chest
a sore throat, but in intimate circles they talked about how the queen's life doctor
Spanish prescribed Helen small doses of some kind of medicine to work
known action; but like Helen, tormented by the fact that the old count
suspected her, and the fact that the husband to whom she wrote (this unfortunate depraved
Pierre), did not answer her, suddenly took a huge dose of the medicine prescribed for her and
died in agony before help could be given."
Ippolit Kuragin
.
"... Prince Ippolit struck with his
extraordinary resemblance to her beautiful sister, and even more so that despite
resemblance, he was strikingly ugly. His facial features were the same as those of
sister, but that everything was lit up with a cheerful, self-satisfied, young,
unchanging smile and extraordinary, ancient beauty of the body. Brother, on the other hand,
his face, too, was hazy with idiocy and invariably expressed self-confident
disgust, and the body was thin and weak. Eyes, nose, mouth - everything shrank like
as if in one indefinite boring grimace, and arms and legs always took
unnatural position.
Hippolyte was extraordinarily stupid. Because of self-confidence
with whom he spoke, no one could understand whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.
At the reception at Scherer, he appears to us "in
dark green tailcoat, in trousers the color of a frightened nymph, as he himself said, in
stockings and shoes." And such an absurdity of attire
did not bother.
His stupidity was manifested in the fact that he sometimes
spoke, and then understood what he said. Hippolyte often spoke and acted
inappropriately, expressed his opinions when they were of no use to anyone. He
liked to insert into the conversation phrases that were completely unrelated to the essence of the discussion
Topics.
The character of Hippolytus can serve as a living example of
that even positive idiocy is sometimes presented in the world as something that has
value due to the gloss attached to the knowledge of the French language, and the fact
the extraordinary property of this language to support and at the same time mask
spiritual emptiness.
Prince Vasily calls Ippolit "the deceased
fool". Tolstoy in the novel - "sluggish and breaking."
These are the dominant character traits of Hippolytus. Hippolyte is stupid, but he
stupidity at least does not harm anyone, unlike his younger brother
Anatole.
Anatole Kuragin
.
Anatole Kuragin, according to Tolstoy, "a simple
and with carnal inclinations." These are the dominant features
character of Anatole. He looked at his whole life as a continuous amusement,
which someone such for some reason undertook to arrange for him. The author's characterization of Anatole is as follows:
"He was not
is able to think neither about how his actions may respond to others, nor
what can come out of such or such an act of his."
Anatole is entirely free from consideration
responsibility and consequences of what he does. His selfishness is direct,
animal-naive and good-natured, absolute egoism, for he is not constrained by anything
Anatole inside, in consciousness, feeling. It's just that Kuragin is deprived of the ability to know
what will happen after that moment of his pleasure, and how it will affect his life
other people as others see it. All this does not exist for him at all.
He is sincerely convinced, instinctively, with all his being, that everything around has
its sole purpose is entertainment and exists for that. No regard for
people, on their opinion, on the consequences, no distant goal that would force
focus on achieving it, no remorse, reflection,
hesitation, doubt - Anatole, no matter what he does, naturally and sincerely
considers himself an impeccable person and carries his beautiful head high: freedom is truly unlimited, freedom in actions and self-awareness.
Such complete freedom was given to Anatole by his
meaninglessness. A man who is conscious of life is already subject, as
Pierre, the need to understand and decide, he is not free from life's difficulties, from
question: why? While Pierre is tormented by this difficult question,
Anatole lives, content with every minute, stupid, animalistic, but easy and
funny.
Marrying a "rich ugly heiress" -
Maria Bolkonskaya seems to him another amusement. "A
why not marry if she is very rich? It never gets in the way."
thought Anatole.
Come on, come on. A woman is a man's friend. The Berlin cabinet cannot express its opinion on the alliance without expressing ... as in its last note ... you understand ... you understand ... however, if His Majesty the Emperor does not change the essence of our alliance ... Wait, I haven't finished... I think interference will be stronger than non-intervention. And ... It is impossible to consider the matter ended by the non-acceptance of our dispatch of November 28th. This is how it all ends. Demosthenes, I recognize you by the stone you hide in your golden lips! in this nasty Moravian hole. We must regale him with Brunn.
For Tolstoy, the world of the family is the basis human society. The Kuragin family in the novel appears as the embodiment of immorality. Greed, hypocrisy, the ability to commit crime, dishonor for the sake of wealth, irresponsibility for one's actions in personal life - these are the main distinctive features this family. Among the characters of "War and Peace" Kuragins live, knowing all over the world only their personal interest and
energetically seeking him by intrigue. And how much destruction the Kuragins brought - Prince Vasily, Helen, Anatole - into the life of Pierre, the Rostovs, Natasha, Andrei Bolkonsky!
Kuragins are devoid of generic poetry. Their family closeness and connection is unpoetic, although it undoubtedly exists - instinctive mutual support and solidarity, a kind of mutual guarantee of almost animal egoism. Such a family connection is not a positive, real family connection, but, in essence, its negation. Real families - the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys - have, of course, against the Kuragins on their side an immeasurable moral superiority; but all the same, the invasion of base Kuragin egoism causes a crisis in the world of these families.
The entire Kuragin family are individualists who do not recognize moral standards, living according to the unchanging law of fulfilling their insignificant desires.
Vasily Kuragin
The head of this entire family is Prince Vasily Kuragin. For the first time we meet him in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. He was "in a court, embroidered uniform, in stockings, in shoes and stars, with a bright expression of a flat face." The prince spoke in that exquisite French language, which our grandfathers not only spoke, but also thought, and with those quiet, patronizing intonations that are characteristic of an aged person in high society and at court, a significant person, "" always spoke lazily, as an actor says a role old play."
In the eyes of secular society, Prince Kuragin is a respected person, "close to the emperor, surrounded by a crowd of enthusiastic women, scattering secular courtesies and chuckling complacently." In words he was a decent, sympathetic person, but in reality he constantly had an internal struggle between the desire to appear a decent person and the actual depravity of his motives.
Tolstoy's favorite technique is the opposition of the internal and external characters of the characters. The image of Prince Vasily very clearly reflects this opposition.
The episode of the struggle for the inheritance of the old Count Bezukhov most accurately reveals the two-faced essence of Vasily Kuragin.
The prince forced Pierre to marry Helen, while pursuing his own selfish goals. To Anna Pavlovna Scherer's proposal to "marry the prodigal son Anatole" to Princess Maria Bolkonskaya, having learned that the princess is a rich heiress, he says: "She has a good surname and is rich. Everything I need." At the same time, Prince Vasily does not at all think about the fact that Princess Marya may be unhappy in marriage with the dissolute varmint Anatole, who looked at his whole life as one continuous amusement.
Absorbed all the vile, vicious traits of Prince Vasily and his children.
Helen Kuragina
Helen is the embodiment of external beauty and internal emptiness, a fossil. Tolstoy constantly mentions her "monotonous", "unchanging" smile and "ancient beauty of the body", she resembles a beautiful, soulless statue.
Helen personifies immorality and depravity, marries only for the sake of her own enrichment.
She is cheating on her husband, because her nature is dominated by the animal nature. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy leaves Helen childless.
Still, being the wife of Pierre, Helen, in front of the eyes of the whole society, is arranging her personal life.
Helen Bezukhova is not a woman, she is rather an animal. Not a single novelist has yet met this type of harlot of high society, who loves nothing in life except her body. In addition to a magnificent bust, a rich and beautiful body, this representative of the big world possessed an extraordinary ability to hide her mental and moral squalor, and all this was due only to the elegance of her manners and the memorization of some phrases and techniques.
As Helen said, in the world after the duel and departure, everyone considered Pierre a naive fool. She again began to live with her husband and created her own salon.
"Being accepted into the salon of Countess Bezukhova was considered a diploma of the mind." This unspeakably surprised Pierre, who knew that Helen was very stupid. But she was so good at teaching herself that no one thought about it.
She also played a negative role in the fate of Natasha Rostova. For fun, an empty whim, Helen ruined the life of a young girl, pushing her to treason, and did not even think about it.
Helen is completely devoid of patriotic feelings. While the whole country rose up to fight against Napoleon, and even the high society took part in this struggle in their own way ("they did not speak French and ate simple food"), rumors about the cruelty of the enemy and war and all Napoleon's attempts at reconciliation were discussed. "When the threat of the seizure of Moscow by Napoleon's troops became clear, Helen went abroad. And there she shone with imperial court. But now the court returns to St. Petersburg. “Helene, returning with the court from Vilna to St. Petersburg, was in a difficult situation. In St. Petersburg, Helen enjoyed the special patronage of a nobleman who occupied one of the highest positions in the state.
In Vilna, she became close to a young foreign prince.
For her own good, she betrays the most sacred - faith, accepts Catholicism. By this, as it seemed to her, she freed herself from the moral obligations given to Pierre, becoming his wife. Helen decides to link her fate with one of her two suitors. At the beginning of August, everything was completely decided, and she wrote a letter to her husband (who she thought was very fond of her) in which she informed him of her intention to marry NN and that she asked to complete all the necessary formalities for a divorce. But Pierre did not receive a letter, he was at war.
While waiting for a response from Pierre, Helen was idly passing the time. She still shone in the world, accepted the courtship of young people, despite the fact that she was already about to marry one of the most influential nobles, but, unfortunately, an old man.
In the end, Helen dies. This death is a direct consequence of her own intrigues.
Ippolit Kuragin
"... Prince Hippolyte struck with his extraordinary resemblance to his beautiful sister, and even more so because, despite the resemblance, he was strikingly ugly ... his face was hazy with idiocy and invariably expressed self-confident disgust, and his body was thin and weak. Eyes, nose, mouth - everything was compressed as if into one indefinite boring grimace, and the arms and legs always assumed an unnatural position.
Hippolyte was extraordinarily stupid. Due to the self-confidence with which he spoke, no one could understand whether what he said was very smart or very stupid.
At the reception at Scherer, he appears to us "in a dark green tailcoat, in pantaloons the color of a frightened nymph, as he himself said, in stockings and shoes." And such an absurd outfit did not bother him at all.
Despite the strangeness of his character, Prince Hippolyte was successful with women and was a ladies' man. So at the end of the evening in the living room Scherer, Ippolit, as if innocently caring for the little princess, Bolkonsky's wife, arouses the jealousy of the prince.
Father Prince Vasily calls Ippolit " a dead fool " . Tolstoy in the novel is "sluggish and breaking".
These are the dominant character traits of Hippolytus. Hippolyte is stupid, but at least he does not harm anyone with his stupidity, unlike his younger brother Anatole.
Anatole Kuragin
Anatole Kuragin, according to Tolstoy, "simple and with carnal inclinations." These are the dominant character traits of Anatole. He looked at his whole life as a continuous amusement that someone like that for some reason undertook to arrange for him.
"He was not in a position to consider how his actions might respond to others, nor what might come out of such or such an act of his." He is sincerely convinced, instinctively, with his whole being, that everything around him has the sole purpose of entertainment and exists for this. No looking back at people, their opinions, the consequences, no long-term goal that would force them to focus on achieving it, no remorse, reflection, hesitation, doubt - Anatole, no matter what he does, naturally and sincerely considers himself an impeccable person and highly bears its beautiful head: truly limitless freedom, freedom in actions and self-awareness.
Such complete freedom is given to Anatole by his senselessness. A person who consciously relates to life is already subject, like Pierre, to the need to understand and decide, he is not free from life's complexities, from the question: why? While Pierre is tormented by this difficult question, Anatole lives, content with every minute, stupid, animalistic, but easy and fun.
Marriage to the "rich ugly heiress" - Maria Bolkonskaya seems to him to be another amusement.
He and his father come to the Bald Mountains to get married.
Marya and her father feel offended by the excitement that the arrival of the prospective bridegroom has caused in them, and which they cannot overcome in themselves.
lovely big eyes fool Anatole "is attracted to themselves, and Princess Mary, and the little princess, and m-lle Bourienne do not remain indifferent to the beauty of Kuragin. Everyone wants to appear before him in best light. But for Princess Mary it seems insulting that she is forced to dress up and behave in a way that is not in accordance with her habits. The longer the friends picked up outfits, the less the princess wanted to meet Anatole. She understood that now she was being put on display, that she would not be able to interest anyone with her appearance, and the troubles of her friends seemed all the more inappropriate to her. So without achieving anything, the friends left the princess alone. Not only did she not change her dress, but she did not even look at herself in the mirror.
Anatole, drawing attention to the pretty m-lle Bourienne, decided that it would not be boring in the Bald Mountains either.
In a conversation with the father of Princess Mary, Anatole again proves himself to be a complete fool, a reckless rake.
Anatole seemed to Princess Marya kind, brave, resolute, courageous and generous. She was convinced of it. A thousand dreams of the future family life appeared in her mind. Anatole thought: "Poor thing! Damn bad."
M-lle Bourienne thought that this Russian prince would take her away and marry her.
Anatole was not at all interested in the princess as a person; he needed her rich dowry.
While Princess Marya went to her father at the usual hour, Mlle Bourienne and Anatole met in the winter garden.
After a conversation with her father, the princess went to her room through winter Garden and saw Anatole passionately embracing m-lle Bourienne.
When the father and Prince Vasily invited Princess Marya to give an answer, she said: "I thank you for the honor, but I will never be your son's wife."
Prince Vasily, thanks to Anatole's reckless behavior, was left with nothing.
In St. Petersburg, Anatole led the life of a riotous rake. A gambling society gathered in his house, after which there was usually a drinking bout. He leads the good-natured, trusting Pierre astray with his feigned simplicity.
Anatole also played a negative role in the fate of Natasha Rostova. His base, vicious desire to instantly have what he wants, regardless of the interests of others, led to Natasha's break with Prince Andrei, brought mental suffering to the families of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys.
Knowing that Natasha is engaged to Prince Andrei, Anatole nevertheless confesses his love to her. What could come out of this courtship, Anatole could not know, since he never knew what would come out of his every act. In a letter to Natasha, he says that either she will love him or he will die. And if Natasha says "yes", he will kidnap her and take her to the ends of the earth. Impressed by this letter, Natasha refuses Prince Andrei and agrees to escape with Kuragin. But the escape failed, Natasha's note fell into the wrong hands, and the kidnapping plan failed.
The next day, in a conversation with Natasha, Pierre revealed to her that Anatole was married, so all his promises were a lie. Then Bezukhov went to Anatole and demanded that he return Natasha's letters and leave Moscow. The next day Anatole left for Petersburg.
Having learned about Natasha's betrayal and about the role of Anatole in this, Prince Andrei was going to challenge him to a duel and searched for him for a long time throughout the army. But when he met Anatole, whose leg had just been taken away, Prince Andrei remembered everything, and enthusiastic pity for this man filled his heart. He forgave him everything.
