Alexander
ARKHANGELSKY

Heroes of War and Peace

We continue to publish chapters from the new textbook on Russian literature for the 10th grade

Character system

Like everything in the epic "War and Peace", it is extremely complex and very simple at the same time.

Complicated - because the composition of the book is multi-figured, dozens of storylines, intertwining, form its dense artistic fabric. Simple - because all heterogeneous heroes belonging to incompatible class, cultural, property circles are clearly divided into several groups. And we find this division at all levels, in all parts of the epic. These are groups of heroes who are equally distant from the life of the people, from the spontaneous movement of history, from the truth - or equally close to them.

Tolstoy's novel epic is permeated with the thought that the unknowable and objective historical process is controlled directly by God; that a person can choose the right path both in private life and in great history not with the help of a proud mind, but with the help of a sensitive heart. The one who guessed right, felt the mysterious course of history and no less mysterious laws of everyday life, he is wise and great, even if he is small in his social position. He who boasts of his power over the nature of things, who egoistically imposes his personal interests on life, is petty, even if he is great in his social position. In accordance with this rigid opposition Tolstoy's heroes are "distributed" into several types, into several groups.

Life players

Oh days - let's call them playboys - busy only with chatting, arranging their personal affairs, serving their petty whims, their egocentric desires. And at any cost, regardless of the fate of other people. This is the lowest of all ranks in the Tolstoyan hierarchy. The characters related to him are always of the same type; the narrator defiantly uses the same detail to characterize them.

The head of the Moscow salon, Anna Pavlovna Sherer, appearing on the pages of War and Peace, each time with an unnatural smile, moves from one circle to another and treats the guests to an interesting visitor. She is sure that she forms public opinion and influences the course of things (although she herself changes her beliefs precisely in the wake of fashion).

The diplomat Bilibin is convinced that it is they, the diplomats, who control the historical process (but in fact he is busy with idle talk: from one scene to another, he collects wrinkles on his forehead and utters a pre-prepared sharp word).

Drubetskoy's mother Anna Mikhailovna, who stubbornly promotes her son, accompanies all her conversations with a mournful smile. In Boris Drubetsky himself, as soon as he appears on the pages of the epic, the narrator always highlights one feature: his indifferent calm of a smart and proud careerist.

As soon as the narrator starts talking about the predatory Helen, he will certainly mention her luxurious shoulders and bust. And with any appearance of the young wife of Andrei Bolkonsky, the little princess, the narrator will pay attention to her raised lip with a mustache.

This monotony of the narrative device testifies not to the poverty of the artistic arsenal, but, on the contrary, to the deliberate goal that the author sets for the narrator. Life players they themselves are monotonous - and unchanged; only their views change, the being remains the same. They don't develop. And the immobility of their images, the resemblance to deathly masks, is precisely emphasized stylistically.

The only character in the epic who belongs to this “lower” group and, for all that, is endowed with a mobile, lively character is Fyodor Dolokhov. “Semyonovsky officer, famous player and breter”, he is endowed with an extraordinary appearance - and this alone makes him stand out from the crowd playboys: “The lines... of the mouth were wonderfully subtly curved. In the middle, the upper lip fell energetically onto the strong lower lip in a sharp wedge, and something like two smiles formed in the corners, one on each side; and all together, and especially in combination with a firm, insolent, intelligent look, made such an impression that it was impossible not to notice this face.

Moreover, Dolokhov languishes, misses in that pool worldly life that sucks the rest burners. That is why he indulges in all serious, gets into scandalous stories (such as the plot with a bear and a quarterman in the first part, for which Dolokhov was demoted to the rank and file). In battle scenes, we become witnesses of Dolokhov's fearlessness, then we see how tenderly he treats his mother... But his fearlessness is aimless, Dolokhov's tenderness is an exception to his own rules. And hatred and contempt for people become the rules.

This is fully manifested in the episode with Pierre (becoming Helen's lover, Dolokhov provokes Bezukhov to a duel), and at the moment when Dolokhov helps Anatole Kuragin prepare the kidnapping of Natasha. And especially - in the scene of the card game: Fedor cruelly and dishonestly beats Nikolai Rostov, vilely taking out on him his anger at Sonya, who refused Dolokhov.

Dolokhovsky rebellion against the world (and this is also “the world”!) playboys turns out in the end that he himself burns his life, lets it into spray. And it is especially offensive to realize the narrator, who singles out Dolokhov from the general series, as if giving him a chance to break out of the terrible circle.

And in the center of this circle, this funnel that sucks in human souls, is the Kuragin family.

The main “generic” quality of the whole family is cold selfishness. He is inherent in his father, Prince Vasily, with his courtly self-awareness. Not without reason, for the first time, the prince appears before the reader precisely “in a court, embroidered uniform, in stockings, in shoes, with stars, with a bright expression of a flat face.” Prince Vasily himself does not calculate anything, does not plan ahead, one can say that instinct acts for him: when he tries to marry his son Anatole to Princess Mary, and when he tries to deprive Pierre of his inheritance, and when, having suffered an involuntary defeat along the way, he imposes on Pierre his daughter Helen.

Helen, whose "unchanging smile" emphasizes the uniqueness, one-dimensionality of this heroine, is not able to change. She seemed to have frozen for years in the same state: static, deathly-sculptural beauty. Kuragina also does not specifically plan anything, she also obeys an almost animal instinct: bringing her husband closer and removing him, making lovers and intending to convert to Catholicism, preparing the ground for divorce and starting two novels at once, one of which (any) should be crowned with marriage.

External beauty replaces Helen's internal content. This characteristic extends to her brother, Anatole Kuragin. A tall handsome man with “beautiful big eyes”, he is not gifted with a mind (although not as stupid as his brother Ippolit), but “on the other hand, he also had the ability of calmness, precious for light, and unchanging confidence.” This confidence is akin to the instinct of profit, which owns the souls of Prince Vasily and Helen. And although Anatole does not pursue personal gain, he hunts for pleasures with the same insatiable passion - and with the same readiness to sacrifice any neighbor. So he does with Natasha Rostova, making her fall in love with him, preparing to take her away - and not thinking about her fate, about the fate of Andrei Bolkonsky, whom Natasha is going to marry ...

Actually, the Kuragins play in the vain, “worldly” dimension of the “world” the very role that Napoleon plays in the “military” dimension: they personify secular indifference to good and evil. At their whim, the Kuragins involve the surrounding life in a terrible whirlpool. This family is like a pool. Approaching him at a dangerous distance, it is easy to die - only a miracle saves both Pierre, and Natasha, and Andrei Bolkonsky (who would certainly have challenged Anatole to a duel, if not for the circumstances of the war).

Chiefs

To the first, lowest category of heroes - playboys- in the Tolstoy epic corresponds to the last, upper category of heroes - leaders . The way they are portrayed is the same: the narrator draws attention to a single trait of character, behavior or appearance of the character. And every time the reader encounters this hero, he stubbornly, almost intrusively, points to this feature.

Life players belong to the "world" in the worst of its meanings, nothing in history depends on them, they revolve in the emptiness of the salon. Chiefs are inextricably linked with the war (again in the bad sense of the word); they stand at the head of historical collisions, separated from ordinary mortals by an impenetrable veil of their own greatness. But if the Kuragins really involve the surrounding life in the worldly whirlpool, then leaders of the peoples only think that involve mankind in the historical whirlwind. In fact, they are only toys of chance, tools in the invisible hands of Providence.

And here let's stop for a moment to agree on one important rule. And once and for all. In fiction, you have already met and will come across images of real historical figures more than once. In Tolstoy's epic, these are Alexander I, and Napoleon, and Barclay de Tolly, and Russian and French generals, and the Moscow governor-general Rostopchin. But we must not, we have no right to confuse "real" historical figures with their conditional images that act in novels, short stories, poems. And the sovereign emperor, and Napoleon, and Rostopchin, and especially Barclay de Tolly, and other characters of Tolstoy, bred in War and Peace, are the same fictional heroes like Pierre Bezukhov, like Natasha Rostova or Anatole Kuragin.

They look like real historical figures a little more than Fedor Dolokhov looks like his prototype, reveler and daredevil R.I. Dolokhov, and Vasily Denisov - on the partisan poet Denis Vasilyevich Davydov. The external outline of their biographies can be reproduced in a literary work with scrupulous, scientific accuracy, but the internal content is invested in them by the writer, invented in accordance with the picture of life that he creates in his work.

Only having mastered this iron and irrevocable rule, we will be able to move on.

So, discussing the lowest category of the heroes of War and Peace, we came to the conclusion that it has its own “mass” (Anna Pavlovna Sherer or, for example, Berg), its own center (Kuragins) and its own periphery (Dolokhov). According to the same principle, the highest rank is organized and arranged.

Chief of leaders, which means that the most dangerous, most deceitful of them is Napoleon.

In Tolstoy's epic two Napoleonic images. One lives in legend about the great commander, which different characters tell each other and in which he appears either as a powerful genius, or as an equally powerful villain. Not only visitors to Anna Pavlovna Scherer's salon, but also Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov believe in this legend at different stages of their journey. At first we see Napoleon through their eyes, we imagine him in the light of their life ideal.

And another image is a character acting on the pages of the epic and shown through the eyes of the narrator and the heroes who suddenly encounter him on the battlefields. For the first time, Napoleon as a character in "War and Peace" appears in the chapters devoted to the battle of Austerlitz; first, the narrator describes him, then we see him from the point of view of Prince Andrei.

The wounded Bolkonsky, who quite recently idolized leader of the peoples, notices on the face of Napoleon, bending over him, "the radiance of complacency and happiness." Having just experienced a spiritual upheaval, he looks into the eyes of his former idol and thinks "about the insignificance of greatness, about the insignificance of life, which no one could understand the meaning of." And “the hero himself seemed so petty to him, with this petty vanity and joy of victory, in comparison with that high, just and kind sky that he saw and understood.”

And the narrator - both in the Austerlitz chapters, and in the Tilsit ones, and in the Borodino chapters - invariably emphasizes the ordinary and comic insignificance of the appearance of a person who is idolized and hated by the whole world. A “fat, short” figure, “with broad, thick shoulders and an involuntarily protruding belly and chest, had that representative, portly appearance that people living in their forties have in the hall.”

IN novelistic there is no trace of the power in the image of Napoleon, which is contained in legendary his image. For Tolstoy, only one thing matters: Napoleon, who imagines himself to be the engine of history, is in fact pathetic and especially insignificant. Impersonal fate (or the unknowable will of Providence) made him an instrument of the historical process, and he imagined himself the creator of his victories. It is to Napoleon that the words from the historiosophical finale of the book refer: “For us, with the measure of good and bad given to us by Christ, there is nothing immeasurable. And there is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.”

A reduced and degraded copy of Napoleon, a parody of him, is the Moscow mayor Rostopchin. He fusses, flickers, hangs up posters, quarrels with Kutuzov, thinking that the fate of Muscovites, the fate of Russia, depends on his decisions. But the narrator sternly and steadily explains to the reader that the Moscow residents began to leave the capital not because someone called them to do this, but because they obeyed the will of Providence they guessed. And the fire broke out in Moscow, not because Rostopchin wanted it that way (and even more so not contrary to his orders), but because she could not burn: in the abandoned wooden houses where the invaders have settled, a fire inevitably breaks out, sooner or later.

Rostopchin has the same relation to the departure of the Muscovites and the Moscow fires that Napoleon has to the victory at Austerlitz or to the flight of the valiant French army from Russia. The only thing that is truly in his power (as well as in the power of Napoleon) is to protect the lives of the townspeople and militias entrusted to him, or to scatter them, out of whim or fear.

The key scene in which the narrator's attitude to leaders in general and to the image of Rostopchin in particular - the lynching of the merchant's son Vereshchagin (Volume III, Chapters XXIV-XXV). In it, the ruler is revealed as a cruel and weak person who is mortally afraid of an angry crowd and, in horror before it, is ready to shed blood without trial or investigation. Vereshchagin is described in great detail, with obvious compassion (“jangling with shackles ... pressing the collar of a sheepskin coat ... with a submissive gesture”). But after all, Rostopchin on his future victim do not look- the narrator specifically repeats several times, with pressure: "Rostopchin did not look at him." Chiefs treat people not as living beings, but as instruments of their power. And therefore they are worse than the crowd, more terrible than it.

No wonder even the angry, gloomy crowd in the courtyard of the Rostopchinsky house does not want to rush at Vereshchagin, accused of treason. Rostopchin is forced to repeat several times, setting her against the merchant's son: “Beat him!.. Let the traitor die and not shame the name of the Russian!.. Ruby! I order!" But even after this direct call-order, the crowd “groaned and advanced, but stopped again.” She still sees a man in Vereshchagin and does not dare to rush at him: “A tall fellow, with a petrified expression on his face and with a stopped raised hand, stood in front of Vereshchagin.” Only after, in obedience to the order of the officer, the soldier “with a face distorted with anger hit Vereshchagin on the head with a blunt broadsword” and the merchant’s son in a fox sheepskin coat “shortly and in surprise” cried out, “a barrier of human feeling, stretched to the highest degree, which still held the crowd broke instantly."

The images of Napoleon and Rostopchin stand at opposite poles of this group of heroes in War and Peace. And the bulk leaders form here all sorts of generals, chiefs of all stripes. All of them, as one, do not understand the inscrutable laws of history, they think that the outcome of the battle depends only on them, on their military talents or political abilities. It does not matter which army they serve at the same time - French, Austrian or Russian. And in the epic Barclay de Tolly, a dry “German” in the Russian service, becomes the personification of this whole mass of generals. He does not understand anything in the spirit of the people and, together with other “Germans”, believes in the correct disposition scheme “Die erste Colonne marschiert, die zweite Colonne marschiert” (“The first column advances, the second column advances”).

The real Russian commander Barclay de Tolly, in contrast to the artistic image created by Tolstoy, was not a “German” (he came from a Scottish, moreover, Russified family a long time ago). And in his work he never relied on a scheme. But here lies the line between the historical figure and his way that literature creates. In Tolstoy's picture of the world, "Germans" are not real representatives of a real people, but a symbol foreignness and cold rationalism, which only prevents us from understanding the natural course of things. Therefore, Barclay de Tolly as novel hero turns into a dry “German”, which he was not in reality.

And on the very edge of this group of heroes, on the border that separates the false leaders from wise men(we’ll talk about them a little later), there is an image of the Russian Tsar Alexander I. He is so isolated from the general series that at first it even seems that his image is devoid of boring unambiguity, that it is complex and multi-component. Moreover, the image of Alexander I is invariably presented in a halo of admiration.

But let's ask ourselves a question: whose Is it the admiration of the narrator or the characters? And then everything will immediately fall into place.

Here we see Alexander for the first time during the review of the Austrian and Russian troops (Volume I, Part Three, Chapter VIII). First it neutral describes the narrator: “The handsome, young emperor Alexander ... with his pleasant face and sonorous, quiet voice attracted all the power of attention.” And then we start looking at the king through the eyes in love Nikolai Rostov into it: “Nicholas clearly, to all details, examined the beautiful, young and happy face of the emperor, he experienced a feeling of tenderness and delight, the like of which he had never experienced. Everything - every feature, every movement - seemed charming to him in the sovereign. The narrator discovers in Alexander ordinary features: beautiful, pleasant. And Nikolai Rostov discovers a completely different quality in them, excellent degree: they seem to him beautiful, “charming”.

But here is chapter XV of the same part, here the narrator and Prince Andrei look at Alexander I in turn, who is by no means in love with the sovereign. This time there is no such internal gap in emotional assessments. The sovereign meets with Kutuzov, whom he clearly does not like (and we still do not know how highly the narrator appreciates Kutuzov).

It would seem that the narrator is again objective and neutral: “An unpleasant impression, only like the remnants of fog in a clear sky, ran across the young and happy face of the emperor and disappeared ... the same charming combination of majesty and meekness was in his beautiful gray eyes, and on thin lips the same possibility of various expressions and the prevailing expression of complacent, innocent youth. Again the “young and happy face”, again the charming appearance... And yet, pay attention: the narrator lifts the veil over his own attitude to all these qualities of the king. He directly says: "on thin lips" there was "the possibility of various expressions." That is, Alexander I always wears masks, behind which his real face is hidden.

What is this face? It is contradictory. It has both kindness, sincerity - and falseness, lies. But the fact of the matter is that Alexander opposes Napoleon; Tolstoy does not want to belittle his image, but he cannot exalt it. Therefore, he resorts to the only possible method: he shows the king first of all through the eyes of heroes, as a rule, devoted to him and worshiping his genius. It is they who, blinded by their love and devotion, pay attention only to the best manifestations of miscellaneous Alexander's faces; it is they who recognize in him the real leader.

In the Chapter XVIII, Rostov again sees the tsar: “The sovereign was pale, his cheeks were sunken and his eyes were sunken; but the more charm, meekness was in his features. This is a typical Rostov look - the look of an honest, but superficial officer in love with his sovereign. However, now Nikolai Rostov meets the tsar away from the nobles, from the thousands of eyes fixed on him; in front of him is a simple suffering mortal, grieving the defeat of the army: “Only something long and fervently spoke to the sovereign,” and he “apparently burst into tears, closed his eyes with his hand and shook hands with Tolya” ... Then we will see the king through the eyes of an obligingly proud Drubetskoy (volume III, part one, chapter III), the enthusiastic Petya Rostov (chapter XX, the same part and volume), Pierre - at the moment when he was captured by the general enthusiasm during the Moscow meeting of the sovereign with the deputations of the nobility and merchants (chapter XXIII )...

The narrator, with his attitude, remains in the shadows for the time being. He only says through his teeth at the beginning of the third volume: “The Tsar is a slave of history,” but he refrains from direct assessments of the personality of Alexander I until the end of the fourth volume, when the Tsar directly confronts Kutuzov (chapters X and XI, part four). Only here, and then only for a short time, does he show his restrained disapproval. After all, we are talking about the resignation of Kutuzov, who had just won a victory over Napoleon together with the entire Russian people!

And the result of the “Alexander” plot line will be summed up only in the epilogue, where the narrator will try his best to maintain justice in relation to the tsar, bring his image closer to the image of Kutuzov: the latter was necessary for the movement of peoples from west to east, and the first - for the return movement peoples from east to west.

Ordinary people

Both playboys and leaders in the novel are opposed ordinary people led by the truth-lover, Moscow mistress Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova. In their world she plays the same role as world The Kuragins and Bilibins are played by Anna Pavlovna Sherer, a lady from St. Petersburg. They have not risen above the general level of their time, their epoch, they have not come to know the truth of people's life, but instinctively live in conditional agreement with it. Although they sometimes act incorrectly, human weaknesses are fully inherent in them.

This discrepancy, this difference in potentials, the combination of different qualities in one personality, good and not so, favorably distinguishes ordinary people and from playboys, and from leaders. The heroes assigned to this category, as a rule, are shallow people, and yet their portraits are painted in different colors, obviously devoid of unambiguity, uniformity.

Such, on the whole, is the hospitable Moscow Rostov family.

Old Count Ilya Andreevich, father of Natasha, Nikolai, Petya, Vera, is a weak man, allows the managers to rob him, suffers at the thought that he is ruining the children, but he cannot do anything about it. Departure to the village for two years, an attempt to move to St. Petersburg and get a place little change in the general state of affairs.

The count is not too smart, but at the same time he is fully endowed by God with heart gifts - hospitality, cordiality, love for family and children. Two scenes characterize him from this side - and both are permeated with lyricism, ecstasy of delight: a description of a dinner in a Rostov house in honor of Bagration and a description of a dog hunt. (Analyze both of these scenes on your own, show what artistic means the narrator uses to express his attitude to what is happening.) And one more scene is extraordinarily important for understanding the image of the old count: the departure from the burning Moscow. It is he who first gives the reckless (from the point of view of common sense) order to put the wounded on the carts; having removed the acquired property from the cart for the sake of Russian officers and soldiers, the Rostovs inflict the last, irreparable blow to their own condition ... But not only save several lives, but also, unexpectedly for themselves, give Natasha a chance to reconcile with Andrei.

The wife of Ilya Andreevich, Countess Rostova, also does not have a special mind - that abstract scientific mind, to which the narrator treats with obvious distrust. She is hopelessly behind modern life; and when the family is completely ruined, the countess is not even able to understand why they should give up their own carriage and cannot send a carriage for one of her friends. Moreover, we see the injustice, sometimes the cruelty of the countess in relation to Sonya, who is completely innocent in the fact that she is a dowry.

And yet, she also has a special gift of humanity, which separates her from the crowd of playboys, brings her closer to the truth of life. It is a gift of love for one's own children; love instinctively wise, deep and selfless. The decisions she makes about her children are not just dictated by the desire for profit and saving the family from ruin (although this too); they are aimed at arranging the life of the children themselves in the best possible way. And when the countess learns about the death of her beloved youngest son in the war, her life, in essence, ends; barely avoiding insanity, she instantly grows old and loses active interest in what is happening around.

All the best Rostov qualities were passed on to the children - to everyone, except for the dry, prudent and therefore unloved Vera. (Having married Berg, she naturally moved from the category ordinary people in number playboys.) And also - except for the pupil of the Rostovs Sonya, who, despite all her kindness and sacrifice, turns out to be an “empty flower” and gradually, following Vera, rolls down from the rounded world ordinary people into the plane playboys.

Especially touching is the youngest, Petya, who completely absorbed the atmosphere of the Rostov house. Like his father and mother, he is not too smart, but extremely sincere and sincere; this sincerity is expressed in a special way in his musicality. Petya instantly surrenders to the impulse of the heart; therefore, it is from his point of view that we look from the Moscow patriotic crowd at Tsar Alexander I - and share genuine youthful enthusiasm. (Although we feel that the narrator's attitude to the emperor is not as unequivocal as the young character.) Petya's death from an enemy bullet is one of the most poignant and most memorable episodes of Tolstoy's epic.

But how does one have its own center? playboys, y leaders, so he also has ordinary people inhabiting the pages of War and Peace. This center is Nikolai Rostov and Marya Bolkonskaya, whose life lines, divided over the course of three volumes, eventually intersect anyway, obeying the unwritten law of affinity.

“A short curly young man with an open expression”, he is distinguished by “swiftness and enthusiasm”. Nikolai, as usual, is shallow (“he had that common sense of mediocrity, which told him what was supposed to be,” the narrator says bluntly). But on the other hand, he is very emotional, impulsive, cordial, and therefore musical, like all Rostovs.

His life path is traced in the epic in almost as much detail as the paths of the main characters - Pierre, Andrei, Natasha. At the beginning of War and Peace, we see Nikolai as a young university student who drops out of school to join the army. Then we have a young officer of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment, who is eager to fight and envious of the seasoned warrior Vaska Denisov.

One of the key episodes of the storyline of Nikolai Rostov is the crossing of the Enns, and then a wound in the hand during the battle of Shengraben. Here the hero first encounters an insoluble contradiction in his soul; he, who considered himself a fearless patriot, suddenly discovers that he is afraid of death and that the very thought of death is absurd - him, whom "everyone loves so much." This experience not only does not reduce the image of the hero, on the contrary: it is at that moment that his spiritual maturation takes place.

And yet, it’s not without reason that Nikolai likes it so much in the army - and it’s so uncomfortable in ordinary life. The regiment is a special world (another world in the middle wars), in which everything is arranged logically, simply, unambiguously. There are subordinates, there is a commander, and there is a commander of commanders - the sovereign emperor, whom it is so natural and so pleasant to adore. And the whole life of civilians consists of endless intricacies, of human sympathies and antipathies, the clash of private interests and the common goals of the class. Arriving home on vacation, Rostov either gets entangled in his relationship with Sonya, or completely loses to Dolokhov, which puts the family on the brink of a financial disaster - and in fact flees from worldly life to the regiment, like a monk to his monastery. (The fact that the same “worldly” rules apply in the army, he does not seem to notice; when in the regiment he has to solve complex moral problems - for example, with officer Telyanin, who stole a wallet - Rostov is completely lost.)

Like any hero who claims to have an independent line in the novel space and an active participation in the development of the main intrigue, Nikolai is “burdened” with a love plot. He is a kind fellow, an honest man, and therefore, having made a youthful promise to marry Sonya, a dowry, he considers himself bound for the rest of his life. And no mother's persuasion, no hints of relatives about the need to search for a rich bride can shake him. Despite the fact that his feeling for Sonya goes through different stages - either completely fading away, then returning again, then again disappearing.

Therefore, the most dramatic moment in the fate of Nikolai comes after the meeting in Bogucharov. Here, during the tragic events of the summer of 1812, he accidentally meets Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, one of the richest brides in Russia, whom they would dream of marrying him; Rostov disinterestedly helps the Bolkonskys get out of Bogucharov - and both of them, Nikolai and Marya, suddenly feel a mutual attraction. But what's in the environment playboys(and most ordinary people too) is considered the norm, for them it turns out to be an obstacle, almost insurmountable: she is rich, he is poor.

Only the power of natural feeling is able to overcome this barrier; having married, Rostov and Princess Marya live in perfect harmony, as Kitty and Levin will later live in Anna Karenina. However, the difference between honest mediocrity and a burst of truth-seeking lies in the fact that the former does not know development, does not recognize doubts. As we have already noted, in the first part of the epilogue between Nikolai Rostov, on the one hand, Pierre Bezukhov and Nikolenka Bolkonsky, on the other, an invisible conflict is brewing, the line of which stretches into the distance, beyond the plot action.

Pierre, at the cost of new moral torments, new mistakes and new quests, is drawn into the next turn of a big story: he becomes a member of the early pre-Decembrist organizations. Nikolenka is completely on his side; it is easy to calculate that by the time of the uprising on Senate Square he will be a young man, most likely an officer, and with such a heightened moral sense, he will be on the side of the rebels. And the sincere, respectable, narrow-minded Nikolai, who once and for all stopped in development, knows in advance that in which case he will shoot at the opponents of the legitimate ruler, his beloved sovereign ...

Truth Seekers

This is the most important of the categories; without heroes truth-seekers there would be no epic "War and Peace" at all. Only two characters, two close friends - Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov have the right to claim this special “title”. They cannot be called unconditionally positive; to create their images, the narrator uses a variety of colors - but it is thanks to ambiguity they seem particularly voluminous and bright.

Both of them, Prince Andrei and Count Pierre, are rich (Bolkonsky - initially, illegitimate Bezukhov - after the sudden death of his father), smart, although in different ways. Bolkonsky's mind is cold and sharp; Bezukhov's mind is naive, but organic. Like many young people of the 1800s, they are crazy about Napoleon; proud dream of a special role in world history, which means the conviction that it is precisely personality manages the course of things, is equally inherent in both Bolkonsky and Bezukhov. From this common point, the narrator draws two very different storylines, which at first diverge very far, and then reconnect, intersecting in the space of truth.

But this is where it turns out that truth seekers they become against their will. Neither one nor the other is going to seek the truth, they do not strive for moral perfection, and at first they are sure that the truth was revealed to them in the image of Napoleon. They are pushed to an intense search for truth by external circumstances, and perhaps by Providence itself. It’s just that the spiritual qualities of Andrei and Pierre are such that each of them is able to respond to the challenge of fate, to respond to her silent question; that is the only reason why they ultimately rise above the general level.

Prince Andrey

Bolkonsky at the beginning of the book is unhappy; he does not love his sweet but empty wife; indifferent to the unborn child, and in the future does not show special paternal feelings. The family "instinct" is as alien to him as the secular "instinct"; he can't fit in ordinary people for the same reasons that it cannot be in the series playboys. Neither the cold emptiness of the big light, nor the warmth of the family nest attracts him. But to break into the number of the elect leaders He not only could, but would very much like to. Napoleon, we repeat again and again, for him - a life example and a guide.

Having learned from Bilibin that the Russian army (it takes place in 1805) was in a hopeless situation, Prince Andrei is almost glad of the tragic news. “It occurred to him that it was precisely for him that he was destined to lead the Russian army out of this situation, that here he was, that Toulon, who would lead him out of the ranks of unknown officers and open the first path to glory for him” (Volume I, Part Two, Chapter XII ). How it ends, you already know, we analyzed the scene with the eternal sky of Austerlitz in detail. The truth is revealed to Prince Andrei herself without any effort on his part; he does not come to the conclusion about the insignificance of all narcissistic "heroes" in the face of eternity - this conclusion is him immediately and in its entirety.

It would seem that Bolkonsky's storyline has been exhausted already at the end of the first volume, and the author has no choice but to declare the hero dead. And here, contrary to ordinary logic, the most important thing begins - truth-seeking. Having accepted the truth immediately and in its entirety, Prince Andrei suddenly loses it - and begins a painful, long search, returning to the feeling that once visited him on the field of Austerlitz.

Returning home, where everyone thought he was dead, Andrei learns about the birth of his son and the death of his wife: the little princess with a short upper lip disappears from his life horizon at the very moment when he is ready to finally open his heart to her! This news shocks the hero and awakens in him a sense of guilt before his dead wife; leaving military service (along with a vain dream of personal greatness), Bolkonsky settles in Bogucharovo, does housework, reads, and brings up his son.

It would seem that he anticipates the path that Nikolai Rostov will follow at the end of the fourth volume - along with Andrei's sister, Princess Marya. (Compare on your own the descriptions of Bolkonsky's household chores in Bogucharov and Rostov in Lysy Gory - and you will be convinced of the non-random similarity, you will find another plot parallel.) But that is the difference between ordinary heroes of "War and Peace" and truth seekers that the former stop where the latter continue their unstoppable movement.

Bolkonsky, who learned the truth of the eternal sky, thinks that it is enough to give up personal pride in order to find peace of mind. But in fact, village life cannot accommodate his unspent energy. And the truth, received as if as a gift, not personally suffered, not acquired as a result of a long search, begins to elude him. Andrei in the village withers, his soul seems to dry out. Pierre, who arrived in Bogucharovo, was struck by a terrible change that had taken place in a friend: “The words were affectionate, the smile was on the lips and face of Prince Andrei, but his gaze was extinct, dead, to which, despite a visible desire, Prince Andrei could not give joyful and cheerful brilliance." Only for a moment does the prince awaken a happy sense of belonging to the truth - when for the first time after being wounded he pays attention to the eternal sky. And then the veil of hopelessness again covers his life horizon.

What happened? Why does the author “doom” his hero to inexplicable torment? First of all, because the hero must independently “ripen” to the truth that was revealed to him by the will of Providence. The soul of Prince Andrei has a difficult job ahead of him, he will have to go through numerous trials before he regains a sense of unshakable truth. And from that moment on, the plot line of Prince Andrei is likened to a spiral: it goes on a new round, repeating the previous stage of his fate at a more complex level. He is destined to fall in love again, again indulge in ambitious thoughts, again be disappointed - both in love and in thoughts. And finally, come back to the truth.

The third part of the second volume opens with a symbolic description of Andrei's trip to the Ryazan estates. Spring is coming; at the entrance to the forest, Andrey notices an old oak tree on the edge of the road.

“Probably ten times older than the birches that made up the forest, it was ten times thicker and twice as tall as each birch. It was a huge, two-girth oak, with boughs broken off long ago, apparently, and with broken bark, overgrown with old sores. With his huge clumsy, asymmetrically spread, clumsy hands and fingers, he stood between smiling birches like an old, angry and contemptuous freak. Only he did not want to submit to the charm of spring and did not want to see either spring or the sun.

It is clear that in the image of this oak personified Prince Andrei himself, who does not respond to the eternal joy of renewing life, is dead. But on the affairs of the Ryazan estates, Bolkonsky will have to meet with Ilya Andreevich Rostov - and, having spent the night in the Rostovs' house, the prince again notices a bright, almost starless spring sky. And then he accidentally hears the excited conversation between Sonya and Natasha.

A feeling of love latently awakens in Andrei's heart (although the hero himself does not understand this yet); like a character in a folk tale, he seems to be sprinkled with living water - and on the way back, already in early June, the prince again sees an oak tree, personifying himself.

“The old oak tree, all transformed, spread out like a tent of juicy, dark greenery, shimmered, slightly swaying in the rays of the evening sun ... Juicy, young leaves made their way through the tough hundred-year-old bark without knots ... All the best moments of his life suddenly in one and the same the time was remembered to him. And Austerlitz with a high sky, and the dead, reproachful face of his wife, and Pierre on the ferry, and a girl excited by the beauty of the night, and this night, and the moon ... "

Returning to St. Petersburg, Bolkonsky is involved in social activities with renewed vigor; he believes that he is now driven not by personal vanity, not pride, not “Napoleonism”, but by a disinterested desire to serve people, to serve the Fatherland. His new hero, leader, idol is the young energetic reformer Speransky. Behind Speransky, who wants to transform Russia, Bolkonsky ready to follow in exactly the same way as before he was ready to imitate Napoleon in everything, who wanted to throw the whole universe at his feet.

But Tolstoy builds the plot in such a way that the reader from the very beginning feels something is not entirely right; Andrei sees a hero in Speransky, and the narrator sees another leader. Here is how Bolkonsky's acquaintance with Speransky is described in chapter V of the third part of the second volume:

“Prince Andrei ... watched all the movements of Speransky, this man, an insignificant seminarian and now in his hands - these plump white hands - who had the fate of Russia, as Bolkonsky thought. Prince Andrei was struck by the extraordinary, contemptuous calmness with which Speransky answered the old man. He seemed to address him with his condescending word from an immeasurable height.

What in this quote reflects the point of view of the character, and what - the point of view of the narrator?

The judgment about the "insignificant seminarian" who holds the fate of Russia in his hands, of course, expresses the position of the enchanted Bolkonsky, who himself does not notice how he transfers the features of Napoleon to Speransky. And a mocking clarification - “as Bolkonsky thought” - comes from the narrator. “Contemptuous calmness” of Speransky is noticed by Prince Andrei, and arrogance leader(“from immeasurable heights...”) - the narrator.

In other words, Prince Andrei, on a new round of his biography, repeats the mistake of his youth; he is again blinded by the false example of someone else's pride, in which his own pride finds its nourishment. But here in the life of Bolkonsky a significant meeting takes place: he meets the same Natasha Rostova, whose voice on a moonlit night in the Ryazan estate brought him back to life. Falling in love is inevitable; marriage is a foregone conclusion. But since the stern father, the old man Bolkonsky, does not give consent to an early marriage, Andrei is forced to go abroad and stop working with Speransky, which could seduce him, entice him to the former path leader. And the dramatic break with the bride after her failed flight with Kuragin completely pushes Prince Andrei, as it seems to him, to the sidelines of the historical process, to the outskirts of the empire. He is again under the command of Kutuzov.

But in fact, God continues to lead Bolkonsky in a special way, to Him alone. Having passed the temptation of the example of Napoleon, happily avoiding the temptation of the example of Speransky, once again losing hope for family happiness, Prince Andrei in the third times repeats the pattern of his fate. Because, having fallen under the command of Kutuzov, he is imperceptibly charged with the quiet energy of the wise old commander, as before he was charged with the stormy energy of Napoleon and the cold energy of Speransky.

Tolstoy does not accidentally use the folklore principle Triple Hero Challenge: after all, unlike Napoleon and Speransky, Kutuzov is truly close to the people, is one with them. More details about the artistic image of Kutuzov in "War and Peace" will be discussed later; for now, let's focus on this. Until now, Bolkonsky was aware that he worshiped Napoleon, he guessed that he was secretly imitating Speransky. And the fact that he follows the example of Kutuzov, adopts the “nationality” of the great commander, the hero does not even suspect. The spiritual work of self-education, using the example of Kutuzov, proceeds in him latently, latently.

Moreover, Bolkonsky is sure that the decision to leave Kutuzov’s headquarters and go to the front, to rush into the thick of battles, comes to him spontaneously, by itself. In fact, he takes over from Mikhail Illarionovich a wise view of purely folk the nature of the war, which is incompatible with court intrigues and pride leaders. If the heroic desire to pick up the regimental banner on the field of Austerlitz was the “Toulon” of Prince Andrei, then the sacrificial decision to participate in the battles of the Patriotic War is, if you like, his “Borodino”, comparable on a small level of an individual human life with the great battle of Borodino, morally won Kutuzov.

It was on the eve of the Battle of Borodino that Andrei met his friend Pierre; going on between them third(again a folklore number!) meaningful conversation. The first took place in St. Petersburg (volume I, part one, chapter VI), during which Andrei for the first time threw off the mask of a contemptuous secular person and frankly told a friend that he was imitating Napoleon. During the second (Volume II, Part Two, Chapter XI), held in Bogucharovo, Pierre saw before him a man who mournfully doubted the meaning of life, the existence of God, who had become internally dead and had lost the incentive to move. This meeting with Pierre became for Prince Andrei “an epoch from which, although in appearance it is the same, but in the inner world, his new life began.”

And here is the third conversation (Volume III, Part Two, Chapter XXV). Having overcome an involuntary alienation, on the eve of the day when, perhaps, both of them will die, the friends once again frankly discuss the most subtle, most important topics. They do not philosophize - there is neither time nor energy for philosophizing; but each of their words, even very unfair (like Andrey's opinion about the prisoners), is weighed on special scales. And the final passage of Bolkonsky sounds like a premonition of imminent death: “Ah, my soul, lately it has become hard for me to live. I see that I began to understand too much. And it’s not good for a person to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ... Well, not for long! he added.

The injury on the field of Borodin repeats in composition the scene of the injury of Andrey on the field of Austerlitz; and there, and here the truth is suddenly revealed to the hero. This truth is love, compassion, faith in God. (Here's another plot parallel.) But the fact of the matter is that in the first volume we had a character to whom the truth was despite everything; now we see Bolkonsky, who managed to prepare himself for the acceptance of the truth - at the cost of mental anguish and throwing. Please note: the last person Andrei sees on the Austerlitz field is the insignificant Napoleon, who seemed great to him; and the last person he sees on the Borodino field is his enemy, Anatol Kuragin, also seriously wounded ...

Ahead, Andrei has a new meeting with Natasha; last meeting. Moreover, the folklore principle of triple repetition works here too. For the first time, Andrei hears Natasha (without seeing her) in Otradnoye. Then he falls in love with her during Natasha's first ball (Volume II, Part Three, Chapter XVII), talks to her and makes an offer. And now - the wounded Bolkonsky in Moscow, near the Rostovs' house, at the very moment when Natasha orders the wagons to be given to the wounded. The meaning of this final meeting is forgiveness and reconciliation; having forgiven Natasha, reconciled with her, Andrei finally comprehended the meaning love and therefore he is ready to part with earthly life ... His death is depicted not as an irreparable tragedy, but as a solemnly sad total traversed earthly field.

No wonder Tolstoy carefully introduces the theme of the Gospel into the fabric of his narrative.

We are already accustomed to the fact that the heroes of Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century often pick up this main book of Christianity, which tells about the earthly life, teachings and resurrection of Jesus Christ; remember at least Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. However, Dostoevsky wrote about his own time, while Tolstoy turned to the events of the beginning of the century, when educated people from high society turned to the Gospel much less often. For the most part, they read Church Slavonic poorly, they rarely resorted to the French Bible; only after World War II did work begin on translating the Gospel into living Russian. This work was headed by the future Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret (Drozdov); The release of the Russian Gospel in 1819 influenced many writers, including Pushkin and Vyazemsky.

Prince Andrei is destined to die in 1812; nevertheless, Lev Nikolaevich went on a decisive violation of chronology, and in Bolkonsky’s dying thoughts, quotes come up precisely from the Russian Gospel: the birds of the sky “do not sow, nor reap”, but “your Father feeds them” ... Why? Yes, for the simple reason that Tolstoy wants to show: the gospel wisdom entered Andrei's soul, it became part of his own thoughts, he reads the Gospel as an explanation of his own life and his own death. If the writer forced the hero to quote the Gospel in French or even in Church Slavonic, this would immediately separate his inner world from the Gospel world. (In general, in the novel, the characters speak French the more often, the farther they are from the public truth; Natasha Rostova generally speaks only one line in French over four volumes!) And Tolstoy’s goal is exactly the opposite: he seeks to forever link the image of Andrei, who found truth, with the theme of the gospel.

Pierre Bezukhov

If the storyline of Prince Andrei is spiral-shaped and each subsequent stage of his life repeats the previous stage on a new turn, then Pierre's storyline is up to the epilogue- looks like a narrowing circle with the figure of a peasant Platon Karataev in the center.

This circle at the beginning of the epic is immeasurably wide, almost like Pierre himself - "a massive, fat young man with a cropped head, wearing glasses." Like Prince Andrei, Bezukhov does not feel himself truth seeker; he, too, considers Napoleon a great man - and is content with the widespread notion that history is run by great men, "heroes."

We get to know Pierre at the very moment when, from an excess of vitality, he takes part in carousing and almost robbery (the story of the quarter). Life force is his advantage over the dead light (Andrei says that Pierre is the only “living person”). And this is his main trouble, since Bezukhov does not know where to apply his heroic strength, it is aimless, there is something in it Special spiritual and mental demands are inherent in Pierre from the very beginning (which is why he chooses Andrei as his friend), but they are scattered, not clothed in a clear and distinct form.

Pierre is distinguished by energy, sensuality, reaching passion, extreme ingenuity and short-sightedness (literally and figuratively); all this dooms Pierre to rash steps. As soon as Bezukhov becomes the heir to a huge fortune, playboys immediately entangle him with their nets, Prince Vasily marries Pierre to Helen. Of course, family life is not given; accept the rules by which the high society live burners, Pierre can't. And now, having parted ways with Helen, for the first time he consciously begins to look for an answer to questions that torment him about the meaning of life, about the destiny of man.

“What's wrong? What well? What should you love, what should you hate? Why live and what am I? What is life, what is death? What power governs everything? he asked himself. And there was no answer to any of these questions, except for one, not a logical answer, not at all to these questions. This answer was: “If you die, everything will end. You will die and you will know everything, or you will stop asking.” But it was also scary to die” (volume II, part two, chapter I.).

And then on his life path he meets an old freemason-mentor, Joseph Alekseevich. (Masons were members of religious and political organizations, “orders”, “lodges”, which set themselves the goal of moral self-improvement and intended to transform society and the state on this basis.) The road along which Pierre travels serves as a metaphor for the path of life in the epic; Iosif Alekseevich himself approaches Bezukhov at the post station in Torzhok and starts a conversation with him about the mysterious destiny of man. From the genre shadow of the family novel, we immediately move into the space of the novel of upbringing; Tolstoy slightly noticeably stylizes the "Masonic" chapters as novel prose of the late 18th - early 19th century.

In these conversations, conversations, readings and reflections, the same truth is revealed to Pierre that appeared on the field of Austerlitz to Prince Andrei (who may also have gone through the “Masonic skill”; in a conversation with Pierre, Bolkonsky mockingly mentions the gloves that Masons receive before marriage for your chosen one). The meaning of life is not in a heroic feat, not in becoming a leader, like Napoleon, but in serving people, feeling involved in eternity...

But the truth is reopens, it sounds muffled, like a distant echo. And the further, the more painfully Bezukhov feels the deceitfulness of the majority of Freemasons, the discrepancy between their petty secular life and the proclaimed universal ideals. Yes, Joseph Alekseevich forever remains a moral authority for him, but Freemasonry itself eventually ceases to meet Pierre's spiritual needs. Moreover, reconciliation with Helen, to which he went under Masonic influence, does not lead to anything good. And having taken a step in the social field in the direction set by the Masons, having started a reform in his estates, Pierre suffers an inevitable defeat - his impracticality, gullibility and unsystematic doom the land experiment to failure.

Disappointed Bezukhov at first turns into a good-natured shadow of his predatory wife; it seems like a whirlpool playboys is about to close over him. Then he again begins to drink, revel, returns to the single habits of youth - and in the end he moves from St. Petersburg to Moscow. We have noted more than once that in Russian literature of the 19th century Petersburg was associated with the European center of the official, political, and cultural life of Russia; Moscow - with a rural, traditional Russian habitat of retired nobles and lordly loafers. The transformation of Pierre from St. Petersburg into a Muscovite is tantamount to his rejection of any life aspirations.

And here the tragic and purifying events of the Patriotic War of 1812 are approaching. For Bezukhov, they have a very special, personal meaning. After all, he has long been in love with Natasha Rostova, hopes for an alliance with whom are twice crossed out - by his marriage to Helen and Natasha's promise to Prince Andrei. Only after the story with Kuragin, in overcoming the consequences of which Pierre played a huge role, Bezukhov half-explains his love to Natasha: “Is everything gone? he repeated. - If I were not me, but the most beautiful, smartest and best person in the world, and would be free, I would this minute on my knees ask for your hand and love ”(Volume II, Part Five, Chapter XXII).

It is no coincidence that immediately after the scene of the explanation with Natasha Tolstaya, Pierre’s eyes show the famous comet of 1811, which foreshadowed the beginning of the war: “It seemed to Pierre that this star fully corresponded to what was in his softened and encouraged soul that blossomed into a new life.” The theme of the national test and the theme of personal salvation merge together in this episode.

Step by step, the stubborn author leads his beloved hero to comprehend two inextricably linked truths: the truth of sincere family life and the truth of nationwide unity. Out of curiosity, Pierre goes to the Borodino field just on the eve of the great battle; observing, communicating with the soldiers, he prepares his mind and his heart to perceive the thought that Bolkonsky will express to him during their last Borodino conversation: the truth is where “they”, ordinary soldiers, ordinary Russian people.

The views that Bezukhov professed at the beginning of War and Peace are reversed, before he saw in Napoleon the source of historical movement, now he sees in him the source of historical evil, the Antichrist. And he is ready to sacrifice himself for the salvation of mankind. The reader must understand: Pierre's spiritual path is only halfway through; the hero has not yet come to an agreement with the narrator, who is convinced (and convinces the reader) that it is not about Napoleon at all, that the French emperor is just a toy in the hands of Providence. But the experiences that befell Bezukhov in French captivity, and most importantly, his acquaintance with Platon Karataev, will complete the work that has already begun in him.

During the execution of the prisoners (a scene that refutes Andrei's cruel arguments during the last Borodino conversation), Pierre himself recognizes himself as an instrument in the hands of others; his life and his death do not really depend on him. And communication with a simple peasant, a “rounded” soldier of the Apsheron regiment Platon Karataev, finally reveals to Pierre the prospect of a new philosophy of life. The purpose of a person is not to become a bright personality, separate from all other personalities, but to reflect the life of the people in its entirety, to become a part of the universe. Only then can one feel truly immortal: “Ha, ha, ha! Pierre laughed. And he said aloud to himself: - The soldier did not let me in. Caught me, locked me up. I am being held captive. Who me? Me? Me - my immortal soul! Ha, ha, ha! .. Ha, ha, ha! .. - he laughed with tears in his eyes ... Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the departing, playing stars. “And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me!..”” (Volume IV, Part Two, Chapter XIV).

No wonder these reflections of Pierre sound almost like folk poems, they emphasize, strengthened the internal, irregular rhythm:

The soldier didn't let me in.
Caught me, locked me up.
I am being held captive.
Who me? Me?

The truth sounds like a folk song - and the sky, into which Pierre directs his gaze, makes the attentive reader remember the finale of the third volume, the view of the comet and, most importantly, the sky of Austerlitz. But the difference between the Austerlitz scene and the experience that visited Pierre in captivity is fundamental. Andrei, as we have already said, at the end of the first volume comes face to face with the truth despite own intentions. He just has a long, roundabout way to get there. And Pierre comprehends it for the first time eventually painful quest.

But there is nothing definitive in Tolstoy's epic. Remember we said that Pierre's storyline is only Seems circular, that if you look into the epilogue, the picture will change somewhat? Now read the episode of Bezukhov's arrival from St. Petersburg and especially the scene of the conversation in the office - with Nikolai Rostov, Denisov and Nikolenka Bolkonsky (chapters XIV-XVI of the first epilogue). Pierre, the same Pierre Bezukhov, who has already comprehended the fullness of the public truth, who has renounced personal ambitions, again starts talking about the need to correct social ill-being, about the need to counteract the mistakes of the government. It is not difficult to guess that he became a member of the early Decembrist societies - and that a new thunderstorm began to swell on the historical horizon of Russia.

Natasha, with her feminine instinct, guesses the question that the narrator himself would obviously like to ask Pierre. “Do you know what I'm thinking? - she said, - about Platon Karataev. How is he? Would he approve of you now?”

What happens? Did the hero begin to shy away from the truth he had gained and suffered? And the middle one is right ordinary Human Nikolai Rostov, who speaks with disapproval of the plans of Pierre and his new comrades? So Nikolai is now closer to Platon Karataev than Pierre himself?

Yes and no. Yes- because Pierre undoubtedly deviates from the “rounded”, family, nationwide peace ideal, he is ready to join the “war”. Yes- because he had already passed in his Masonic period through the temptation of striving for the public good, and through the temptation of personal ambitions - at the moment when he counted the number of the beast in the name of Napoleon and convinced himself that it was he, Pierre, who was destined to save humanity from this villain. No- because the whole epic "War and Peace" is permeated with a thought that Rostov is not able to comprehend: we are not free in our desires, in our choice - to participate or not to participate in historical upheavals.

Pierre is much closer than Rostov to this "nerve" of history; among other things, Karataev taught him by his example submit circumstances, accept them as they are. Entering a secret society, Pierre moves away from the ideal and, in a certain sense, returns several steps back in his development - but not because he wants this, but because he can not evade the objective course of things. And, perhaps, having partially lost the truth, he learns it even more deeply at the end of his new path.

Therefore, the epic ends with a global historiosophical reasoning, the meaning of which is formulated in his last phrase: "... it is necessary to abandon non-existent freedom and recognize the dependence that we do not feel."

Sages

We told you about playboys, O leaders, about ordinary people, O truth-seekers. But there is another category of heroes in War and Peace, a mirror opposite leaders. This - sages. That is, characters who have comprehended the truth of public life and are an example for other heroes seeking the truth. These are, first of all, staff captain Tushin, Platon Karataev and Kutuzov.

Staff Captain Tushin appears in the scene of the Shengraben battle; we see him first through the eyes of Prince Andrei - and this is not accidental. If circumstances had turned out differently and Bolkonsky would have been internally ready for this meeting, she could have played the same role in his life that the meeting with Platon Karataev would play in Pierre's life. However, alas, Andrei is still blinded by the dream of his own Toulon. Having defended Tushin in chapter XXI (volume I, part two), when he is guiltily silent in front of Bagration and does not want to extradite chief, - Prince Andrei does not understand that behind Tushin's silence lies not servility, but an understanding of the hidden ethics of folk life. Bolkonsky is not yet ready to meet with his Karataev.

“A small round-shouldered man”, the commander of an artillery battery, Tushin from the very beginning makes an extremely favorable impression on the reader; external awkwardness only sets off his undoubted natural mind. Not without reason, characterizing Tushin, Tolstoy resorts to his favorite technique, draws attention to the hero’s eyes, this the mirror of one's heart: “Silently and smiling, Tushin, stepping from bare foot to foot, looked inquiringly with large, intelligent and kind eyes ...” (Volume I, Part Two, Chapter XV).

But why is such attention paid to such an insignificant figure, moreover, in the scene that immediately follows the chapter dedicated to Napoleon himself? The guess does not come to the reader immediately. But now he reaches chapter XX, and the image of the staff captain gradually begins to grow to symbolic proportions.

“Little Tushin with a pipe bitten to one side” together with his battery forgotten and left without cover; he hardly notices it, because he is completely absorbed general deed, feels itself an integral part of the whole people. On the eve of the battle, this awkward little man spoke of the fear of death and the complete uncertainty about eternal life; Now he is transforming before our eyes.

The narrator shows this small human large plan: “a fantastic world was established in his head, which constituted his pleasure at that moment. The enemy guns in his imagination were not guns, but pipes from which an invisible smoker emitted smoke in rare puffs. At this moment, it is not the Russian and French armies that are confronting each other - little Napoleon, who imagines himself great, and little Tushin, who has risen to true greatness, are confronting each other. He is not afraid of death, he is only afraid of his superiors, and immediately becomes shy when a staff colonel appears on the battery. Then (Glavka XXI) Tushin cordially helps all the wounded (including Nikolai Rostov).

In the second volume, we will once again meet with Staff Captain Tushin, who lost his arm in the war (analyze chapter XVIII of part two on your own (Rostov arrives at the hospital), pay special attention to how - and why exactly - Tushin refers to Vasily Denisov's intention to file a complaint with his superiors).

And Tushin, and another Tolstoy sage- Platon Karataev, are endowed with the same “physical” properties: they are small in stature, they have similar characters: they are affectionate and good-natured. But Tushin feels himself an integral part of the common people's life only in the midst of wars, and in peaceful circumstances he is a simple, kind, timid and very ordinary person. And Plato is involved in this life always, in any circumstances. And on war and especially able peace. Because he wears world in your soul.

Pierre meets Plato at a difficult moment in his life - in captivity, when his fate hangs in the balance and depends on many accidents. The first thing that catches his eye (and strangely soothes) is roundness Karataev, a harmonious combination of the appearance of the external and the appearance of the internal. In Plato, everything is round - both movements, and the life that he establishes around him, and even the homely “smell”. The narrator, with his characteristic insistence, repeats the words "round", "rounded" as often as in the scene on the Austerlitz field he repeated the word "sky".

Andrei Bolkonsky during the battle of Shengraben was not ready to meet with his Karataev, staff captain Tushin. And Pierre, by the time of the Moscow events, had matured to learn a lot from Plato. And above all - a true attitude to life. That is why Karataev "remained forever in Pierre's soul the most powerful and dearest memory and personification of everything Russian, kind and round." After all, on the way back from Borodino to Moscow, Bezukhov had a dream during which Pierre heard a voice. “War is the most difficult subjection of human freedom to the laws of God,” said the voice. - Simplicity is obedience to God, you can't get away from him. AND They are simple. They do not say, but do. The spoken word is silver, the unspoken is golden. A person cannot own anything while he is afraid of death. And whoever is not afraid of her, everything belongs to him. ... Connect everything? Pierre said to himself. - No, do not connect. You can't combine thoughts, but match all these thoughts - that's what you need! Yes, you have to match, you have to match!”

Platon Karataev is the embodiment of this dream; everything is in it associated, he is not afraid of death, he thinks in proverbs, in which centuries-old folk wisdom is summarized, it is not for nothing that Pierre hears the proverb in a dream “The spoken word is silver, but the unspoken is golden.”

Can Platon Karataev be called a bright personality? No way. On the contrary, he generally not a person because he does not have his own special spiritual needs, separate from the people, there are no aspirations and desires. He is more than a personality for Tolstoy, he is a particle of the people's soul. Karataev does not remember his own words spoken a minute ago, because he does not think in the usual sense of this word, that is, he does not build his reasoning in a logical chain. Simply, as modern people would say, his mind is “connected” to the public consciousness, and Plato’s judgments reproduce transcendental wisdom.

Karataev does not have a “special” love for people - he treats everyone equally lovingly. And to master Pierre, and to the French soldier who ordered Plato to sew a shirt, and to the rickety dog ​​that became attached to him. Not being personality he does not see personalities and around him, everyone he meets is the same particle of a single universe, like Plato himself. Death or separation is therefore of no importance to him; Karataev is not upset when he learns that the person with whom he became close suddenly disappeared - after all, nothing changes from this! The eternal life of the people continues, and in every new one you meet, its unchanging presence will be revealed.

The main lesson that Bezukhov learns from communication with Karataev, the main quality that he seeks to adopt from his “teacher”, is voluntary dependence on the eternal life of the people. Only she gives a person a real feeling freedom. And when Karataev, having fallen ill, begins to lag behind the column of prisoners and is shot like a dog, Pierre is not too upset. Karataev's individual life is over, but the eternal, nationwide one, in which he is involved, continues, and there will be no end to it. That is why Tolstoy completes the storyline of Karataev with the second dream of Pierre, who was seen by the captive Bezukhov in the village of Shamshevo. “Life is everything. Life is God. Everything moves and moves, and this movement is God ... "

"Karataev!" Pierre remembered.

And suddenly Pierre introduced himself as a living, long-forgotten, meek old teacher who taught geography to Pierre in Switzerland ... he showed Pierre a globe. This globe was a living, oscillating ball, without dimensions. The entire surface of the sphere consisted of drops tightly compressed together. And these drops all moved, moved, and then merged from several into one, then from one they were divided into many. Each drop strove to spill out, to capture the greatest space, but others, striving for the same, squeezed it, sometimes destroyed it, sometimes merged with it.

That's life, - said the old teacher ...

God is in the middle, and each drop seeks to expand in order to reflect Him in the largest size ... Here he is, Karataev, now spilled and disappeared.

In the metaphor of life as a “liquid oscillating ball” composed of individual drops, all the symbolic images of “War and Peace” that we spoke about above are combined: the spindle, the clock mechanism, and the anthill; a circular movement that connects everything with everything - this is Tolstoy's idea of ​​the people, of history, of the family. The meeting of Platon Karataev brings Pierre very close to comprehending this truth.

From the image of the staff captain Tushin, we climbed, as if on a step up, to the image of Platon Karataev. But even from Plato in the space of the epic one more step leads up. The image of the People's Field Marshal Kutuzov is placed here on an unattainable height. This old man, gray-haired, fat, walking heavily, with a plump face disfigured by a wound, towers over both Captain Tushin and even Platon Karataev: the truth nationalities perceived by them instinctively, he comprehended consciously and raised it to the principle of his life and his military activity.

The main thing for Kutuzov (unlike all the leaders headed by Napoleon) is to deviate from personal proud decision guess correct course of events and don't interfere them to develop according to God's will, in truth. Having met him for the first time in the first volume, in the scene of the review near Brenau, we see before us an absent-minded and cunning old man, an old campaigner, who is distinguished by an “affection of respectfulness”. And we do not immediately understand that mask unreasoning campaigner, which Kutuzov puts on when approaching ruling persons, especially the tsar, is just one of the many ways of his self-defense. After all, he cannot, must not allow the real interference of these self-satisfied persons in the course of events, and therefore he is obliged to affectionately evade their will, without contradicting it in words. So he will dodge and from the battle with Napoleon during World War II.

Kutuzov, as he appears in the battle scenes of the third and fourth volumes, is not a figure, but contemplative, he is convinced that victory requires not the mind, not the scheme, but "something else, independent of the mind and knowledge." And above all - "you need patience and time." The old commander has both in abundance; he is endowed with the gift of “calm contemplation of the course of events” and sees his main purpose in do no harm. That is, to listen to all the reports, all the main considerations, useful (that is, consistent with the natural course of things) to support, harmful to reject.

And the main secret that Kutuzov comprehended, as he is depicted in War and Peace, is the secret of maintaining folk spirit, the main force in any struggle against any enemy of the Fatherland.

That is why this old, feeble, voluptuary person personifies Tolstoy's idea of ​​an ideal policy, which comprehended the main wisdom: a person cannot influence the course of historical events and must renounce the idea of ​​freedom in favor of the idea of ​​necessity. Tolstoy “instructs” Bolkonsky to express this thought: watching Kutuzov after he was appointed commander in chief, Prince Andrei reflects: “He will not have anything of his own. He ... understands that there is something stronger and more significant than his will - this is an inevitable course of events ... And most importantly ... that he is Russian, despite the Genlis novel and French sayings ... ”(Volume III, Part second, chapter XVI).

Without the figure of Kutuzov, Tolstoy would not have solved one of the main artistic tasks of his epic: to oppose the “deceitful form of a European hero, who allegedly controls people, which history has come up with” with the “simple, modest and therefore truly majestic figure” of a folk hero who will never settle into this "deceitful form".

Natasha Rostova

If we translate the typology of the heroes of the epic into the traditional language of literary terms, then an internal pattern will be revealed by itself. The world of everyday life and the world of lies are opposed dramatic And epic characters. dramatic the characters of Pierre and Andrei are full of internal contradictions, they are always in motion and development; epic the characters of Karataev and Kutuzov are striking in their integrity. But there is a character in the portrait gallery created by Tolstoy in War and Peace that does not fit into any of the listed categories. This lyrical the character of the main character of the epic Natasha Rostova.

Does she belong to the playboys? It is impossible to think about this. With her sincerity, with her heightened sense of justice! Does it relate to ordinary people, like their relatives, Rostov? In many ways, yes; and yet it is not without reason that both Pierre and Andrey are looking for her love, are drawn to her, distinguished from the general row. Wherein truth-seeker it - unlike them - can not be called in any way. No matter how much we reread the scenes in which Natasha acts, we will never find a hint of search moral ideal, truth, truth. And in the epilogue, after marriage, she even loses the brightness of her temperament, the spirituality of her appearance; baby diapers replace for her what Pierre and Andrei are given reflections on the truth and the purpose of life.

Like the rest of the Rostovs, Natasha is not endowed with a sharp mind; when in chapter XVII of the fourth last volume, and then in the epilogue, we see her next to the emphatically intelligent woman Marya Bolkonskaya-Rostova, this difference is especially striking. Natasha, as the narrator emphasizes, simply “did not deign to be smart.” On the other hand, it is endowed with something else, which for Tolstoy is more important than an abstract mind, even more important than truth-seeking: the instinct of knowing life by experience. It is this inexplicable quality that brings Natasha's image closer to wise men, first of all to Kutuzov - despite the fact that in everything else she is closer to ordinary people. It is simply impossible to “attribute” it to any one category: it does not obey any classification, it breaks out beyond the limits of any definition.

Natasha, “black-eyed, with a big mouth, ugly, but alive”, the most emotional of all the characters in the epic; therefore she is the most musical of all the Rostovs. The element of music lives not only in her singing, which everyone around recognizes as wonderful, but also in the very voice Natasha. Remember, after all, Andrei's heart trembled for the first time when he heard Natasha's conversation with Sonya on a moonlit night, without seeing the girls talking. Natasha's singing heals brother Nikolai, who falls into despair after losing forty-three thousand, which ruined the Rostov family.

From one emotional, sensitive, intuitive root, both her egoism, which is fully revealed in the story with Anatol Kuragin, and her selflessness, which manifests itself both in the scene with carts for the wounded in the fire department of Moscow, and in the episodes where it is shown how she takes care of the dying Andrei, how he takes care of his mother, shocked by the news of Petya's death.

And the main gift that is given to her and which raises her above all the other heroes of the epic, even the best ones, is a special the gift of happiness. All of them suffer, suffer, seek the truth - or, like the impersonal Platon Karataev, affectionately possess it; only Natasha disinterestedly rejoices in life, feels her feverish pulse - and generously shares her happiness with everyone around her. Her happiness is in her naturalness; that is why the narrator so harshly contrasts the scene of Natasha Rostova's first ball with the episode of her acquaintance and falling in love with Anatole Kuragin. Please note: this acquaintance takes place in theater(volume II, part five, chapter IX). That is, where reigns a game, pretense. This is not enough for Tolstoy; he forces the epic narrator to descend down the steps of emotions, to use in descriptions of what is happening sarcasm, strongly emphasize the idea of unnaturalness atmosphere in which Natasha's feeling for Kuragin is born.

No wonder just to lyrical the heroine, Natasha, is assigned the most famous comparison of War and Peace. At that moment, when Pierre, after a long separation, meets Rostova together with Princess Mary and does not recognize her, and suddenly “a face with attentive eyes with difficulty, with an effort, like a rusty door opens, smiled, and from this dissolved door suddenly smelled and doused Pierre with forgotten happiness ... It smelled, engulfed and swallowed him all ”(chapter XV of the fourth last volume).

But the true vocation of Natasha, as Tolstoy shows in the epilogue (and unexpectedly for many readers), was revealed only in motherhood. Having gone into children, she realizes herself in them and through them; and this is not accidental: after all, the family for Tolstoy is the same cosmos, the same integral and saving world, like the Christian faith, like the life of the people.

Every book you read is another life lived, especially when the plot and characters are so worked out. "War and Peace" is a unique epic novel, there is nothing like it in Russian or world literature. The events described in it take place in St. Petersburg, Moscow, foreign estates of nobles and in Austria for the whole 15 years. The scale and characters are striking.

War and Peace is a novel that mentions over 600 characters. Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy describes them so accurately that the few well-aimed characteristics that end-to-end characters are awarded are enough to form an idea about them. Therefore, "War and Peace" is a whole life in the fullness of colors, sounds and sensations. She is worth living.

The origin of the idea and creative search

In 1856, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy began writing a story about the life of a Decembrist who returned after exile. The period of action was to be 1810-1820. Gradually, the period expanded until 1825. But by this time the main character had already matured and became a family man. And in order to better understand him, the author had to return to the period of his youth. And it coincided with a glorious era for Russia.

But Tolstoy could not write about the triumph over Bonaparte France without mentioning failures and mistakes. Now the novel already consisted of three parts. The first (according to the author's idea) was to describe the youth of the future Decembrist and his participation in the war of 1812. This is the first period of the hero's life. Tolstoy wanted to devote the second part to the Decembrist uprising. The third - the return of the hero from exile and his later life. However, Tolstoy quickly abandoned this idea: the work on the novel turned out to be too large-scale and painstaking.

Initially, Tolstoy limited the duration of his work to 1805-1812. The epilogue, dated 1920, appeared much later. But the author was worried not only about the plot, but also about the characters. "War and Peace" is not a description of the life of one hero. The central figures are several characters at once. And the main character is the people, which is much larger than the thirty-year-old Decembrist Pyotr Ivanovich Labazov who returned from exile.

Work on the novel took Tolstoy six years - from 1863 to 1869. And this is not taking into account the six that went into developing the idea of ​​a Decembrist, which became his basis.

Character system in the novel "War and Peace"

Tolstoy's main character is the people. But in his understanding, he is not just a social category, but a creative force. According to Tolstoy, the people are all the best that is in the Russian nation. Moreover, it includes not only representatives of the lower classes, but also those of the nobles who tend to want to live for the sake of others.

To the representatives of the people, Tolstoy opposes Napoleon, the Kuragins and other aristocrats - regulars in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. These are the negative characters of the novel "War and Peace". Already in the description of their appearance, Tolstoy emphasizes the mechanistic nature of their existence, lack of spirituality, "animality" of actions, lifelessness of smiles, selfishness and inability to compassion. They are incapable of change. Tolstoy does not see the possibility of their spiritual development, so they remain forever frozen, distant from a true understanding of life.

Often, researchers distinguish two subgroups of "folk" characters:

• Those who are endowed with "simple consciousness". They easily distinguish right from wrong, guided by the "mind of the heart." This subgroup includes such characters as Natasha Rostova, Kutuzov, Platon Karataev, Alpatych, officers Timokhin and Tushin, soldiers and partisans.
• Those who are "searching for themselves." Education and class barriers prevent them from connecting with the people, but they manage to overcome them. This subgroup includes such characters as Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky. It is these heroes who are shown capable of development, internal changes. They are not devoid of shortcomings, more than once they make mistakes in their life quests, but they pass all the tests with dignity. Sometimes Natasha Rostova is also included in this group. After all, she was once carried away by Anatole, forgetting about her beloved Prince Bolkonsky. The war of 1812 becomes a kind of catharsis for this entire subgroup, which makes them look at life differently and discard class conventions that until then prevented them from living according to the dictates of their hearts, as the people do.

The simplest classification

Sometimes the characters of "War and Peace" are divided according to an even simpler principle - the ability to live for the sake of others. Such a system of characters is also possible. "War and Peace", like any other work, is the vision of the author. Therefore, everything in the novel takes place in accordance with the attitude of Lev Nikolaevich. The people, in Tolstoy's understanding, are the personification of all the best that is in the Russian nation. Such characters as the Kuragin family, Napoleon, many regulars of the Scherer salon, know how to live only for themselves.

Along Arkhangelsk and Baku

• "Life-burners", from Tolstoy's point of view, are the furthest from a correct understanding of being. This group lives only for themselves, selfishly neglecting others.
• "Leaders". So Arkhangelsky and Bak call those who think they control history. To this group, for example, the authors include Napoleon.
• "Wise men" are those who understood the true world order and were able to trust providence.
• "Ordinary people". This group, according to Arkhangelsky and Bak, includes those who know how to listen to their hearts, but do not really strive anywhere.
• Truth Seekers are Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky. Throughout the novel, they are painfully searching for the truth, striving to understand what the meaning of life is.
• The authors of the textbook single out Natasha Rostova as a separate group. They believe that she is at the same time close to both "ordinary people" and "wise men". The girl easily comprehends life empirically and knows how to listen to the voice of her heart, but the most important thing for her is her family and children, as it should be, according to Tolstoy, for an ideal woman.

You can consider many more classifications of the characters in "War and Peace", but they all ultimately come down to the simplest one, which fully reflects the worldview of the author of the novel. After all, he saw true happiness in serving others. Therefore, positive (“folk”) heroes know how and want to do this, but negative ones do not.

L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace": female characters

Any work is a reflection of the author's vision of life. According to Tolstoy, the highest purpose of a woman is to take care of her husband and children. It is the keeper of the hearth that the reader sees Natasha Rostova in the epilogue of the novel.

All positive female images of the characters in War and Peace fulfill their highest purpose. The author also endows Maria Bolkonskaya with the happiness of motherhood and family life. Interestingly, she is perhaps the most positive hero of the novel. Princess Mary has practically no flaws. Despite a versatile education, she still finds her destiny, as it should be for a Tolstoy heroine, in caring for her husband and children.

A completely different fate awaits Helen Kuragina and the little princess, who did not see the joy in motherhood.

Pierre Bezukhov

This is Tolstoy's favorite character. "War and Peace" describes him as a man who by nature has a highly noble disposition, therefore he easily understands the people. All his mistakes are due to the aristocratic conventions inspired by his upbringing.

Throughout the novel, Pierre experiences many mental traumas, but does not become embittered and does not become less good-natured. He is devoted and sympathetic, often forgetting about himself in an effort to serve others. By marrying Natasha Rostova, Pierre found that grace and true happiness that he so lacked in his first marriage with the completely false Helen Kuragina.

Lev Nikolaevich loves his hero very much. He describes in detail his formation and spiritual development from the very beginning to the end. The example of Pierre shows that the main thing for Tolstoy is responsiveness and devotion. The author rewards him with happiness with his favorite female heroine - Natasha Rostova.

From the epilogue, you can understand the future of Pierre. By changing himself, he seeks to transform society. He does not accept contemporary political foundations of Russia. It can be assumed that Pierre will participate in the Decembrist uprising, or at least actively support it.

Andrey Bolkonsky

For the first time the reader meets this hero in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. He is married to Lisa - the little princess, as she is called, and will soon become a father. Andrei Bolkonsky behaves with all the regulars Sherer is extremely arrogant. But soon the reader notices that this is only a mask. Bolkonsky understands that others do not understand his spiritual quest. He talks to Pierre in a completely different way. But Bolkonsky at the beginning of the novel is not alien to the ambitious desire to achieve heights in the military field. It seems to him that he is above aristocratic conventions, but it turns out that his eyes are just as blinkered as those of the others. Andrei Bolkonsky realized too late that he had renounced his feelings for Natasha in vain. But this insight comes to him only before his death.

Like other “searching” characters in Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace, Bolkonsky has been trying all his life to find the answer to the question of what is the meaning of human existence. But he understands the highest value of the family too late.

Natasha Rostova

This is Tolstoy's favorite female character. However, the entire Rostov family seems to the author to be the ideal of nobles living in unity with the people. Natasha cannot be called beautiful, but she is lively and attractive. The girl feels the mood and characters of people well.

According to Tolstoy, inner beauty does not match outer beauty. Natasha is attractive due to her character, but her main qualities are simplicity and closeness to the people. However, at the beginning of the novel, she lives in her own illusion. Disappointment in Anatole makes her mature, contributes to the maturation of the heroine. Natasha begins attending church and ultimately finds her happiness in family life with Pierre.

Marya Bolkonskaya

The prototype of this heroine was the mother of Lev Nikolaevich. Not surprisingly, it is almost completely devoid of flaws. She, like Natasha, is ugly, but has a very rich inner world. Like other positive characters in the novel "War and Peace", at the end she also becomes happy, becoming the keeper of the hearth in her own family.

Helen Kuragina

Tolstoy has a multifaceted characterization of characters. War and Peace describes Helen as a cutesy woman with a fake smile. It immediately becomes clear to the reader that behind the external beauty there is no internal content. Marrying her becomes a test for Pierre and does not bring happiness.

Nikolay Rostov

The core of any novel is the characters. "War and Peace" describes Nikolai Rostov as a loving brother and son, as well as a true patriot. Lev Nikolaevich saw in this hero the prototype of his father. After going through the hardships of the war, Nikolai Rostov retires to pay the debts of his family, and finds his true love in the person of Marya Bolkonskaya.

Introduction

Leo Tolstoy in his epic portrayed more than 500 characters typical of Russian society. In "War and Peace" the heroes of the novel are representatives of the upper class of Moscow and St. Petersburg, key government and military figures, soldiers, people from the common people, and peasants. The image of all strata of Russian society allowed Tolstoy to recreate a complete picture of Russian life in one of the turning points in the history of Russia - the era of wars with Napoleon in 1805-1812.

In "War and Peace" the characters are conditionally divided into main characters - whose fates are woven by the author into the plot narrative of all four volumes and the epilogue, and secondary - heroes who appear episodically in the novel. Among the main characters of the novel, one can single out the central characters - Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova and Pierre Bezukhov, around whose fates the events of the novel unfold.

Characteristics of the main characters of the novel

Andrey Bolkonsky- "a very handsome young man with definite and dry features", "small stature." The author introduces the reader to Bolkonsky at the beginning of the novel - the hero was one of the guests at the evening of Anna Scherer (where many of the main characters of Tolstoy's War and Peace were also present).

According to the plot of the work, Andrei was tired of high society, he dreamed of glory, no less than the glory of Napoleon, and therefore goes to war. The episode that turned Bolkonsky's worldview upside down is the meeting with Bonaparte - Andrei, wounded on the field of Austerlitz, realized how insignificant Bonaparte and all his glory really are. The second turning point in Bolkonsky's life is the love for Natasha Rostova. The new feeling helped the hero to return to a full life, to believe that after the death of his wife and everything he had endured, he could fully live on. However, their happiness with Natasha was not destined to come true - Andrei was mortally wounded during the Battle of Borodino and soon died.

Natasha Rostova- a cheerful, kind, very emotional and loving girl: "black-eyed, with a big mouth, ugly, but alive." An important feature of the image of the central heroine of "War and Peace" is her musical talent - a beautiful voice that fascinated even people inexperienced in music. The reader meets Natasha on the girl's name day, when she turns 12 years old. Tolstoy depicts the moral maturation of the heroine: love experiences, going out, Natasha's betrayal of Prince Andrei and her feelings because of this, the search for herself in religion and the turning point in the life of the heroine - the death of Bolkonsky. In the epilogue of the novel, Natasha appears to the reader in a completely different way - we are more likely to see the shadow of her husband, Pierre Bezukhov, and not the bright, active Rostova, who a few years ago danced Russian dances and “won back” carts for the wounded from her mother.

Pierre Bezukhov- "a massive, fat young man with a cropped head, wearing glasses."

"Pierre was somewhat larger than the other men in the room", he had "an intelligent and at the same time timid, observant and natural look that distinguished him from everyone in this living room." Pierre is a hero who is in constant search for himself through the knowledge of the world around him. Each situation in his life, each life stage became a special life lesson for the hero. Marriage to Helen, passion for Freemasonry, love for Natasha Rostova, presence on the field of the Battle of Borodino (which the hero sees precisely through the eyes of Pierre), French captivity and acquaintance with Karataev completely change Pierre's personality - a purposeful and self-confident man with own views and goals.

Other important characters

In War and Peace, Tolstoy conditionally identifies several blocks of characters - the families of the Rostovs, Bolkonskys, Kuragins, as well as the characters who are part of the social circle of one of these families. The Rostovs and Bolkonskys, as positive heroes, bearers of a truly Russian mentality, ideas and spirituality, are opposed to the negative characters Kuragins, who had little interest in the spiritual aspect of life, preferring to shine in society, weave intrigues and choose acquaintances according to their status and wealth. A brief description of the heroes of War and Peace will help you better understand the essence of each main character.

Graph Ilya Andreevich Rostov- a kind and generous man, for whom the most important thing in his life was his family. The count sincerely loved his wife and four children (Natasha, Vera, Nikolai and Petya), helped his wife in raising children and did his best to maintain a warm atmosphere in the Rostovs' house. Ilya Andreevich cannot live without luxury, he liked to arrange lavish balls, receptions and evenings, but his wastefulness and inability to manage economic affairs eventually led to the critical financial situation of the Rostovs.
Countess Natalya Rostova is a 45-year-old woman with oriental features, who knows how to make an impression in high society, the wife of Count Rostov, and the mother of four children. The countess, just like her husband, loved her family very much, trying to support children and bring up the best qualities in them. Due to excessive love for children, after the death of Petya, the woman almost goes crazy. In the countess, kindness to relatives was combined with prudence: wanting to improve the financial situation of the family, the woman is trying with all her might to upset Nikolai's marriage to Sonya, "not a profitable bride".

Nikolay Rostov- "a short curly young man with an open expression." This is a simple-hearted, open, honest and benevolent young man, Natasha's brother, the eldest son of the Rostovs. At the beginning of the novel, Nikolai appears as an admiring young man who wants military glory and recognition, but after participating first in the battle of Shengrabes, and then in the Battle of Austerlitz and the Patriotic War, Nikolai's illusions are dispelled and the hero realizes how absurd and wrong the very idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwar is. Nikolai finds personal happiness in marriage with Marya Bolkonskaya, in whom he felt a congenial person even at their first meeting.

Sonya Rostova- “a thin, petite brunette with a soft look tinted with long eyelashes, a thick black braid that wrapped around her head twice, and a yellowish tint of skin on her face”, niece of Count Rostov. According to the plot of the novel, she is a quiet, reasonable, kind girl who knows how to love and is prone to self-sacrifice. Sonya refuses Dolokhov, because she wants to be faithful only to Nikolai, whom she sincerely loves. When the girl finds out that Nikolai is in love with Marya, she meekly lets him go, not wanting to interfere with the happiness of her beloved.

Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky- Prince, retired general-ashef. This is a proud, intelligent, strict to himself and others man of short stature "with small dry hands and gray hanging eyebrows, sometimes, as he frowned, obscured the shine of intelligent and as if young, shining eyes." In the depths of his soul, Bolkonsky loves his children very much, but does not dare to show this (only before his death he was able to show his daughter his love). Nikolai Andreevich died from the second blow while in Bogucharovo.

Marya Bolkonskaya- a quiet, kind, meek, prone to self-sacrifice and sincerely loving her family girl. Tolstoy describes her as a heroine with "an ugly, weak body and a thin face", but "the eyes of the princess, large, deep and radiant (as if rays of warm light sometimes came out of them in sheaves), were so good that very often, despite the ugliness of everything faces, these eyes became more attractive than beauty. The beauty of Marya's eyes after struck Nikolai Rostov. The girl was very pious, she devoted herself entirely to caring for her father and nephew, then redirecting her love to her own family and husband.

Helen Kuragina- a bright, brilliantly beautiful woman with a "unchanging smile" and full white shoulders, who liked male society, Pierre's first wife. Helen was not distinguished by a special mind, but thanks to her charm, her ability to keep herself in society and establish the necessary connections, she set up her own salon in St. Petersburg, and was personally acquainted with Napoleon. The woman died of a severe sore throat (although there were rumors in society that Helen had committed suicide).

Anatole Kuragin- Helen's brother, as handsome in appearance and noticeable in high society as his sister. Anatole lived the way he wanted, discarding all moral principles and foundations, arranged drunkenness and brawls. Kuragin wanted to steal Natasha Rostova and marry her, although he was already married.

Fedor Dolokhov- "a man of medium height, curly-haired and with bright eyes", an officer of the Semenov regiment, one of the leaders of the partisan movement. In Fedor's personality, selfishness, cynicism and adventurism were combined in an amazing way with the ability to love and care for their loved ones. (Nikolai Rostov is very surprised that at home, with his mother and sister, Dolokhov is completely different - a loving and gentle son and brother).

Conclusion

Even a brief description of the heroes of Tolstoy's "War and Peace" allows us to see the close and inextricable relationship between the fates of the characters. Like all events in the novel, the meetings and farewells of the characters take place according to the irrational, elusive law of historical mutual influences. It is these incomprehensible mutual influences that create the destinies of the heroes and form their views on the world.

Artwork test

Heroes of the novel "War and Peace"

L.N. Tolstoy put the “folk thought” as the basis for evaluating the heroes of his book. Kutuzov, Bagration, captains Tushin and Timokhin, Andrey Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov, Petya Rostov, Vasily Denisov, together with the people, stand up to defend their homeland. With all their hearts they love their homeland and people and the heroine of the novel, the wonderful "sorceress" Natasha Rostova. The negative characters of the novel: Prince Vasily Kuragin and his children Anatole, Ippolit and Helen, the careerist Boris Drubetskoy, the money-grubber Berg, foreign generals in the Russian service - they are all far from the people and care only about their own personal benefits.

The unparalleled feat of Moscow is immortalized in the novel. Its inhabitants, unlike the inhabitants of the capitals of other countries conquered by Napoleon, did not want to submit to the conquerors and left their native city. “For the Russian people,” says Tolstoy, “there could be no question of whether it would be good or bad under French rule in Moscow. It was impossible to be under the control of the French: it was the worst of all.

Entering Moscow, which looked like an empty hive. Napoleon felt that over him and his armies the hand of the strongest enemy was raised. He began to insistently seek a truce and twice sent ambassadors to Kutuzov. On behalf of the people and the army, Kutuzov decisively rejected Napoleon's proposal for peace and organized a counteroffensive of his troops, supported by partisan detachments.

Having suffered a defeat in the Battle of Tarutino, Napoleon left Moscow. Soon began a disorderly flight of his regiments. Having turned into crowds of marauders and robbers, the Napoleonic troops fled back along the same road that led them to the Russian capital.

After the battle near Krasny Kutuzov addressed his soldiers with a speech in which he heartily congratulated them on their victory and thanked them for their faithful service to the fatherland. In the scene under Krasnoy, the deepest nationality of the great commander, his love for those who saved his homeland from foreign enslavement, his true patriotism is revealed with special penetration.

However, it should be noted that there are scenes in War and Peace where the image of Kutuzov is shown inconsistently. Tolstoy believed that the development of all events taking place in the world does not depend on the will of people, but is predetermined from above. It seemed to the writer that Kutuzov thought the same way and did not consider it necessary to interfere in the development of events. But this decisively contradicts the image of Kutuzov, which was created by Tolstoy himself. The writer emphasizes that the great commander knew how to understand the spirit of the army and sought to control it, that all Kutuzov's thoughts and all his actions were aimed at one goal - to defeat the enemy.

The image of the soldier Platon Karataev, with whom Pierre Bezukhov met and became friends in captivity, is also contradictory drawn in the novel. Karataev is characterized by such features as gentleness, humility, readiness to forgive and forget any offense. Pierre listens with surprise, and then with delight, to Karataev's stories, which always end with gospel calls to love everyone and forgive everyone. But the same Pierre had to see the terrible end of Platon Karataev. When the French drove a party of prisoners along a muddy autumn road, Karataev fell from weakness and could not get up. And the guards ruthlessly shot him. One cannot forget this terrible scene: the murdered Karataev lies by the muddy forest road, and a hungry, lonely, freezing little dog sits and howls near him, which he saved so recently from death ...

Fortunately, the "Karataev" features were unusual for the Russian people who defended their land. Reading "War and Peace", we see that it was not Platon Karataev who defeated Napoleon's army. This was done by the fearless gunners of the modest Captain Tushin, the brave soldiers of Captain Timokhin, the cavalrymen of Uvarov, and the partisans of Captain Denisov. The Russian army and the Russian people defeated the enemy. And this is shown with convincing force in the novel. It is no coincidence that during the Second World War, Tolstoy's book was a reference book for people from different countries who fought against the invasion of Hitler's fascist hordes. And it will always serve as a source of patriotic inspiration for freedom-loving people.

From the epilogue that ends the novel, we learn about how his characters lived after the end of the Patriotic War of 1812. Pierre Bezukhov and Natasha Rostova joined their destinies, found their happiness. Pierre is still concerned about the future of his homeland. He became a member of a secret organization from which the Decembrists would later emerge. Young Nikolenka Bolkonsky, the son of Prince Andrei, who died from a wound received on the Borodino field, listens attentively to his heated speeches.

You can guess the future of these people by listening to their conversation. Nikolenka asked Pierre: “Uncle Pierre ... If dad were alive ... would he agree with you?” And Pierre replied: “I think so ...”

At the end of the novel, Tolstoy draws a dream of Nikolenka Bolkonsky. “He and Uncle Pierre walked ahead of a huge army,” Nikolenka dreamed. They went on a difficult and glorious feat. Nikolenka was accompanied by her father, who encouraged both him and Uncle Pierre. Waking up, Nikolenka makes a firm decision: to live in such a way as to be worthy of the memory of his father. "Father! Father! Nikolenka thinks. “Yes, I will do what even he would be pleased with.”

With this oath, Nikolenka Tolstoy completes the storyline of the novel, as if opening the veil to the future, stretching the threads from one era of Russian life to another, when the heroes of 1825, the Decembrists, entered the historical arena.

Thus ends the work to which Tolstoy, in his own admission, devoted five years of "continuous and exceptional labor."

), the French invasion of Russia, the battle of Borodino and the capture of Moscow, the entry of allied troops into Paris; the end of the novel is attributed to 1820. The author re-read many historical books and memoirs of his contemporaries; he understood that the task of the artist does not coincide with the task of the historian and, not striving for complete accuracy, he wanted to create the spirit of the era, the originality of her life, the picturesqueness of her style.

Lev Tolstoy. War and Peace. The main characters and themes of the novel

Of course, Tolstoy's historical figures are somewhat modernized: they often speak and think like the author's contemporaries. But this renewal of the old is inevitable in the creative perception of the historian of any process as a continuous, vital stream. Otherwise, the result is not a work of art, but a dead archeology. The author did not invent anything - he only chose what seemed to him the most significant. “Everywhere,” writes Tolstoy, “wherever only historical figures speak and act in my novel, I did not invent, but used materials from which I formed a whole library of books during my work.”

For "family chronicles" placed within the historical framework of the Napoleonic Wars, he used family memoirs, letters, diaries, and unpublished notes. The complexity and richness of the "human world" depicted in the novel can only be compared with the gallery of portraits of Balzac's multivolume Human Comedy. Tolstoy gives more than 70 detailed descriptions, outlines with a few strokes many minor persons - and all of them live, do not merge with each other, remain in memory. One sharply grasped detail determines the figure of a person, his character and behavior. In the waiting room of the dying Count Bezukhov, one of the heirs, Prince Vasily, walks on tiptoe in confusion. "He couldn't walk on tiptoe and jumped awkwardly with his whole body." And in this bouncing, the whole nature of the dignitary and imperious prince is reflected.

The external feature acquires a deep psychological and symbolic sound from Tolstoy. He has incomparable visual acuity, brilliant observation, almost clairvoyance. By one turn of the head or movement of the fingers, he guesses the person. Every feeling, even the most fleeting, is immediately embodied for him in a bodily sign; The movement, posture, gesture, expression of the eyes, the line of the shoulders, the trembling of the lips are read by him as a symbol of the soul. Hence the impression of spiritual and bodily wholeness and completeness that his characters produce. In the art of creating living people with flesh and blood, breathing, moving, casting a shadow, Tolstoy has no equal.

Princess Mary

In the center of the action of the novel are two noble families - Bolkonsky and Rostov. The eldest Prince Bolkonsky, general-in-chief of Catherine's time, a Voltairian and an intelligent gentleman, lives in the Bald Mountains estate with his daughter Marya, ugly and no longer young. Her father loves her passionately, but brings her up harshly and torments her with algebra lessons. Princess Mary "with beautiful radiant eyes", with a shy smile - an image of high spiritual beauty. She meekly bears the cross of her life, prays, accepts "God's people" and dreams of becoming a wanderer... He is God. What did she care about the justice or injustice of other people? She had to suffer and love herself, and she did it.

And yet she is sometimes worried about the hope of personal happiness; she wants to have a family, children. When this hope comes true and she marries Nikolai Rostov, her soul continues to strive for "infinite, eternal perfection."

Prince Andrei Bolkonsky

Princess Mary's brother, Prince Andrei, does not look like his sister. This is a strong, intelligent, proud and disappointed person, feeling his superiority over others, burdened by his chirping, frivolous wife and looking for practically useful activities. He cooperates with Speransky in the commission for the drafting of laws, but soon gets tired of this abstract office work. He is seized by a thirst for glory, he goes on a campaign in 1805 and, like Napoleon, awaits his "Toulon" - exaltation, greatness, "human love". But instead of the Toulon, the Austerlitz field awaits him, on which he lies wounded and looks into the bottomless sky. “Everything is empty,” he thinks, “everything is a lie, except for this endless sky. Nothing, nothing but him. But even that is not even there, there is nothing but silence, calmness.

Andrey Bolkonsky

Returning to Russia, he settles in his estate and plunges into the "longing of life." The death of his wife, the betrayal of Natasha Rostova, who seemed to him the ideal of girlish charm and purity, plunge him into gloomy despair. And only slowly dying from a wound received in the Battle of Borodino, in the face of death, he finds that “truth of life”, which he always so unsuccessfully sought: “Love is life,” he thinks. Everything, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love it. Love is God, and to die means for me, a particle of love, to return to the common and eternal source.

Nikolay Rostov

Complicated relations connect the Bolkonsky family with the Rostov family. Nikolai Rostov is a whole, spontaneous nature, like Eroshka in The Cossacks or Volodya's brother in Childhood. He lives without questions and doubts, he has a "common sense of mediocrity." Direct, noble, brave, cheerful, he is surprisingly attractive, despite his limitations. Of course, he cannot understand the mystical soul of his wife Marya, but he knows how to create a happy family, raise kind and honest children.

Natasha Rostova

His sister Natasha Rostova is one of the most charming female images of Tolstoy. She enters the life of each of us as a beloved and close friend. From her lively, joyful and spiritualized face, a radiance emanates, illuminating everything around her. When she appears, everyone becomes cheerful, everyone starts smiling. Natasha is full of such an excess of vitality, such a "talent of life" that her whims, frivolous hobbies, selfishness of youth and thirst for the "pleasures of life" - everything seems charming.

She is constantly on the move, intoxicated with joy, inspired by feeling; she does not reason, “does not deign to be clever,” as Pierre says about her, but the clairvoyance of the heart replaces her mind. She immediately “sees” a person and accurately defines him. When her fiancé Andrei Bolkonsky leaves for the war, Natasha becomes infatuated with the brilliant and empty Anatole Kuragin. But the break with Prince Andrei and then his death turn her whole soul upside down. Her noble and truthful nature cannot forgive herself for this guilt. Natasha falls into hopeless despair and wants to die. At this time, news comes of the death of her younger brother Petya in the war. Natasha forgets about her grief and selflessly takes care of her mother - and this saves her.

“Natasha thought,” writes Tolstoy, “that her life was over. But suddenly love for her mother showed her that the essence of her life - love - was still alive in her. Love woke up and life woke up. Finally, she marries Pierre Bezukhov and turns into a child-loving mother and devoted wife: she refuses all the "pleasures of life" that she loved so passionately before, and devotes herself wholeheartedly to her new, difficult duties. For Tolstoy, Natasha is life itself, instinctive, mysterious and holy in its natural wisdom.

Pierre Bezukhov

The ideological and compositional center of the novel is Count Pierre Bezukhov. All the complex and numerous lines of action coming from two "family chronicles" - the Bolkonskys and the Rostovs - are drawn to it; he clearly enjoys the greatest sympathy of the author and is closest to him in terms of his mental disposition. Pierre belongs to the "searching" people, reminds Nikolenka, Nekhludova, Venison but most of all Tolstoy himself. Before us are not only the external events of life, but also the consistent history of his spiritual development.

The path of searching for Pierre Bezukhov

Pierre was brought up in an atmosphere of Rousseau's ideas, he lives by feeling and is prone to "dreamy philosophizing". He is looking for the "truth", but due to weakness of will he continues to lead an empty secular life, go on a spree, play cards, go to balls; an absurd marriage to the soulless beauty Helen Kuragina, a break with her and a duel with a former friend Dolokhov produce a profound upheaval in him. He's interested in freemasonry, thinks to find in him "inner peace and harmony with himself." But disappointment soon sets in: the philanthropic activity of the Masons seems to him insufficient, their addiction to uniforms and magnificent ceremonies outrages him. Moral stupor, panicky fear of life finds on him.

"The tangled and terrible knot of life" strangles him. And now, on the Borodino field, he meets the Russian people - a new world opens up to him. The spiritual crisis was prepared by amazing impressions that suddenly fell upon him: he sees the fire of Moscow, is taken prisoner, spends several days awaiting the death sentence, is present at the execution. And then he meets "Russian, kind, round Karataev." Joyful and bright, he saves Pierre from spiritual death and leads him to God.

“First, he sought God for the goals that he set for himself,” writes Tolstoy, and suddenly he recognized in his captivity, not by words, not by reasoning, but by direct feeling, what his nanny had long told him; that God is here, here, everywhere. He learned in captivity that God in Karataev is greater, infinite and incomprehensible than in the Architecton of the universe recognized by the Masons.

Religious inspiration covers Pierre, all questions and doubts disappear, he no longer thinks about the "meaning of life", because the meaning has already been found: love for God and selfless service to people. The novel ends with a picture of the complete happiness of Pierre, who married Natasha Rostova and became a devoted husband and loving father.

Platon Karataev

The soldier Platon Karataev, whose meeting in Moscow occupied by the French made a revolution in Pierre Bezukhov, who seeks the truth, is conceived by the author as a parallel to the "people's hero" Kutuzov; he, too, is a person without a personality, passively surrendering to events. This is how Pierre sees him, i.e., the author himself, but he appears to the reader differently. It is not the impersonality, but the extraordinary originality of his personality that strikes us. His well-aimed words, jokes and sayings, his constant activity, his bright cheerfulness of spirit and sense of beauty (“goodness”), his active love for his neighbors, humility, cheerfulness and religiosity are formed in our view not in the image of an impersonal “part of the whole”, but into the amazingly whole face of the people's righteous man.

Platon Karataev is the same "great Christian" as the holy fool Grisha in "Childhood". Tolstoy intuitively felt its spiritual originality, but his rationalistic explanation glided over the surface of this mystical soul.