Essay “Ideological and moral evolution of Pierre Bezukhov. Pierre Bezukhov: character description
Human life is complex and multifaceted. At all times there were moral values, overstepping which meant forever incurring shame and contempt. The dignity of a person is manifested in his desire for high goals. I would like to dedicate my essay to the hero of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace”, Pierre Bezukhov. This amazing person cannot but arouse interest. Pierre is focused on his personality, but he is not self-absorbed. He is keenly interested in life around him. For him, the question is very acute: “Why live and what am I?” This question is very important and decisive for him. Bezukhov thinks about the meaninglessness of life and death, about the fact that it is impossible to find the meaning of existence; about the relativity of all truths. Secular society is alien to Pierre; in empty and meaningless communication he cannot find his truth.
The questions that torment Pierre cannot be resolved through theoretical reasoning alone. Even reading books cannot help here. Pierre finds answers to his questions only in real life. Human suffering, contradictions, tragedies are all integral components of life itself. And Pierre is completely immersed in her. He approaches the truth, being in the epicenter of events, tragic and terrible. Bezukhov’s spiritual formation is, in one way or another, influenced by the war, the fire of Moscow, the French, and the suffering of people with whom he encounters very closely. Pierre has the opportunity to come into close contact with people's life. And this cannot leave him indifferent.
During the journey to Mozhaisk, Pierre is overcome by a special feeling: “the deeper he plunged into this sea of troops, the more he was overcome by anxiety, anxiety and a new joyful feeling that he had not yet experienced... He now experienced a pleasant feeling of consciousness that everything that what makes up people, the comforts of life, wealth, even life itself, is nonsense that it’s nice to put aside in comparison with something...”
On the Borodino field, Pierre understood “... the whole meaning and the whole significance of this war and the upcoming battle... He understood that hidden (1a(en1e), as they say in physics, warmth of patriotism that was in all those people whom he saw , and which explained to him why all these people were calmly and seemingly frivolously preparing for death.”
After Pierre was close to the soldiers and imbued with their courage, it began to seem right and wise to him to merge with them, with simple but wise people in their understanding of life. It is no coincidence that he says: “Be a soldier, a simple soldier!... Enter this common life with your whole being, be imbued with what makes them so.”
Throughout his life, Pierre had many hobbies and disappointments. There was a period when Pierre admired Napoleon; There was also a period of interest in Freemasonry. However, in the process of moral rebirth, Pierre abandons his former hobbies and comes to the ideas of Decembrism. His development was greatly influenced by communication with ordinary people. From the very first minutes of meeting Pierre, we understand that we have an extraordinary, sincere, open nature. Pierre feels awkward in secular society, and society does not accept him as one of their own, despite even the rich inheritance Bezukhov received from his father. He doesn't look like a regular at social salons. Pierre is too different from them to be his own.
In the process of communicating with soldiers, mainly with Platon Karataev, Pierre Bezukhov begins to understand life better. Now his thoughts are no longer abstract and speculative. He wants to direct his energies towards real actions that could help others. For example, Bezukhov strives to help those who suffered from the war. And in the epilogue he joins the secret society of the Decembrists. This decision was obviously influenced by everything he saw in the process of communicating with ordinary people. Now Bezukhov understands well all the contradictions of life, and, to the extent possible, wants to fight them. He says: “In the courts there is theft, in the army there is only one stick: shagistika, settlements, they torture the people, they stifle education. What’s young, honestly, is ruined!”
Pierre not only understands and condemns all the contradictions and shortcomings of life. He has already reached that moral and spiritual development when intentions to change the existing reality are obvious and necessary: “let there be not only virtue, but independence and activity.”
The moral quest of Pierre Bezukhov makes his image especially interesting for us. It is known that Piera herself served as the basis for the concept of the novel War and Peace. The fact that the image of Pierre is shown in development speaks of the author’s special disposition towards him. In a novel, static images are those that do not evoke warm feelings in the writer.
Pierre cannot help but delight readers with his kindness, sincerity, and directness. There are moments when his abstract reasoning, isolation from life, seems incomprehensible. But in the process of his development, he overcomes the weaknesses of his nature and moves from the need for reflection to the need for action.
Spiritual evolution of Pierre Bezukhov
Sample essay text
Russian classical literature of the 19th century affirmed the highest spiritual moral values, the awareness of which leads heroes to harmony with the world. Perhaps there is some pattern in the fact that achieving it often turns out to be impossible for noble intellectuals. Possessing many remarkable qualities, due to their privileged position and upbringing, they are doomed to a tragic break with the age-old national traditions embedded in the Russian people. Therefore, the life of the intelligent, critically thinking Onegin passes in monotonous secular pleasures, giving rise to a feeling of emptiness and boredom. Pechorin wastes his rich spiritual strength on trifles. In my opinion, it is no coincidence that Tolstoy turns to the era of 1812 in War and Peace. After all, this terrible disaster that befell Russia was able to shake Russian people of different classes to the core, force them to rethink the life around them, understand and feel what is most valuable and dear in it. It was war that could bring together a nobleman and a peasant in one trench or captivity, united by the common goal of saving the fatherland. That is, the heroic era of 1812 itself gives the hero-intellectual a chance to come to complete agreement with life, to find its highest meaning.
This theme finds its most complete expression in the image of Pierre Bezukhov, which is given by the author in the dynamics of evolution. Tracing the path of your hero. Tolstoy shows how his character changes, the worldview of a leading man of the era - a patriot, a Decembrist - is formed. At the beginning of the novel, Pierre is a fat, massive young man with an intelligent, timid and observant look that distinguishes him from the rest of the visitors to the living room. Having recently arrived from abroad, this illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov stands out in the high society salon for his naturalness, sincerity and simplicity. He is soft, pliable, and easily susceptible to the influence of others. For example, he leads a chaotic, riotous life, participating in the revelry and excesses of secular youth, although he perfectly understands the emptiness and worthlessness of such a pastime. Pierre's naivety and gullibility, inability to understand people, force him to make a number of life mistakes, the most serious of which is marrying the stupid and cynical beauty Helen Kuragina. With this rash act, Pierre deprives himself of all hope for possible personal happiness. Having separated from his wife and given her a significant share of his fortune, he seeks to find application for his strengths and abilities in other areas of life.
Tolstoy makes the hero go through a difficult path of losses, mistakes, delusions and quests. Having become close to the Freemasons, Pierre tries to find the meaning of life in religious truth. Freemasonry gave the hero the belief that there should be a kingdom of goodness and truth in the world, and the highest happiness of a person is to strive to achieve them. But these ideas are too abstract and lack specific features. Pierre cannot be satisfied with mysterious, mystical rituals and sublime conversations about good and evil. He wants to find a field of activity to translate fair and humane ideas into concrete, useful work. Therefore, Bezukhov, like Andrei, begins to engage in the improvement of his serfs. All the measures he took were imbued with sympathy for the oppressed peasantry. Pierre makes sure that punishments are used only exhortations, and not corporal, so that the men are not burdened with overwork, and hospitals, shelters and schools are established on every estate. But all of Pierre’s good intentions remained intentions. Why, wanting to help the peasants, he could not do this? The answer is simple. The young humane landowner was prevented from bringing his good undertakings to life by his naivety, lack of practical experience, and ignorance of reality. The stupid but cunning chief manager easily fooled the smart and intelligent master around his finger, creating the appearance of precise execution of his orders.
Having become completely disillusioned with Freemasonry, Pierre finds himself at a dead end in life and plunges into a state of hopeless melancholy and despair. Feeling a strong need for high noble activity, feeling rich forces within himself, Pierre nevertheless does not see the purpose and meaning of life. The Patriotic War of 1812, the general patriotism of which captured him, helps the hero find a way out of this state of discord with himself and the world around him. Not being a military officer, like Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre expressed his love for the fatherland in his own way: he formed a regiment at his own expense and took it for support, while he himself remained in Moscow to kill Napoleon as the main culprit of national disasters. It was here, in the capital occupied by the French, that Pierre’s selfless kindness was fully revealed. Seeing helpless people at the mercy of the rampaging French soldiers, he cannot remain a passive witness to the numerous human dramas unfolding before his eyes. Without thinking about his own safety, Pierre protects a woman, stands up for a madman, and saves a child from a burning house. Before his eyes, representatives of the most cultured and civilized nation are rampaging, violence and arbitrariness are being committed, people are being executed, accused of arson, which they did not commit. These terrible and painful impressions are aggravated by the situation of captivity. But the most terrible thing for the hero is not hunger and lack of freedom, but the collapse of faith in the just structure of the world, in man and God. But in a wretched barracks he meets the peasant Platon Karataev and becomes close to ordinary people. The round, affectionate soldier performs a real miracle, forcing Pierre to again look at the world brightly and joyfully, to believe in goodness, love, and justice. Communication with Karataev evokes in the hero a feeling of peace and comfort. His suffering soul warms up under the influence of the warmth and participation of a simple Russian person. Platon Karataev has some special gift of love, a feeling of blood connection with all people. His wisdom, which amazed Pierre, is that he lives in complete harmony with everything earthly, as if dissolving in it.
A turning point occurs in Bezukhov’s soul, which means accepting Platon Karataev’s life-loving view of the world. But the feeling of complete harmony for such an intelligent and inquisitive person as Pierre is impossible without participation in specific useful activities aimed at achieving a high goal - the same harmony that cannot exist in a country where the people are in the position of slaves. Therefore, Pierre naturally comes to Decembrism, joining a secret society in order to fight against everything that interferes with life and humiliates the honor and dignity of a person. This struggle becomes the meaning of his life, but does not make him a fanatic who, for the sake of an idea, consciously refuses the joys of life. At the end of the novel we see a happy man who has a good family, a faithful and devoted wife, who loves and is loved. Thus, it is Pierre Bezukhov who achieves spiritual harmony with the world and himself in War and Peace. He goes through the difficult path of searching for the meaning of life to the end and finds it, becoming an advanced, progressive person of his era.
One of the main characters of the epic “Warrior and Peace” is Pierre Bezukhov. The characteristics of the character in the work are revealed through his actions. And also through the thoughts and spiritual quests of the main characters. The image of Pierre Bezukhov allowed Tolstoy to convey to the reader an understanding of the meaning of the era of that time, of a person’s entire life.
Introducing the reader to Pierre
The image of Pierre Bezukhov is very difficult to briefly describe and understand. The reader needs to go with the hero throughout his entire
Acquaintance with Pierre is dated in the novel to 1805. He appears at a social reception hosted by Anna Pavlovna Scherer, a high-ranking Moscow lady. By that time, the young man did not represent anything interesting to the secular public. He was the illegitimate son of one of the Moscow nobles. He received a good education abroad, but upon returning to Russia, he did not find any use for himself. An idle lifestyle, carousing, idleness, dubious companies led to the fact that Pierre was expelled from the capital. With this life baggage he appears in Moscow. In turn, high society also does not attract the young man. He does not share the pettiness of interests, selfishness, and hypocrisy of its representatives. “Life is something deeper, more significant, but unknown to him,” reflects Pierre Bezukhov. “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy helps the reader understand this.
Moscow life
The change of residence did not affect the image of Pierre Bezukhov. By nature he is a very gentle person, easily falls under the influence of others, doubts about the correctness of his actions constantly haunt him. Unbeknownst to himself, he finds himself in captivity of the idle with her temptations, feasts and revelries.
After the death of Count Bezukhov, Pierre becomes the heir to the title and his father's entire fortune. Society's attitude towards young people is changing dramatically. A famous Moscow nobleman, in pursuit of the young count's fortune, marries his beautiful daughter Helen to him. This marriage did not foretell a happy family life. Very soon Pierre understands his wife’s deceit and deceit; her debauchery becomes obvious to him. Thoughts about his violated honor haunt him. In a state of rage, he commits an act that could prove fatal. Fortunately, the duel with Dolokhov ended with the wounding of the offender, and Pierre’s life was out of danger.
The path of quest of Pierre Bezukhov
After the tragic events, the young count thinks more and more about how he spends the days of his life. Everything around is confusing, disgusting and meaningless. He understands that all secular rules and norms of behavior are insignificant compared to something great, mysterious, unknown to him. But Pierre does not have sufficient fortitude and knowledge to discover this great thing, to find the true purpose of human life. The thoughts did not leave the young man, making his life unbearable. A brief description of Pierre Bezukhov gives us the right to say that he was a deep, thinking person.
Passion for Freemasonry
Having parted with Helen and given her a large share of his fortune, Pierre decides to return to the capital. On the way from Moscow to St. Petersburg, during a short stop, he meets a man who talks about the existence of the Masonic brotherhood. Only they know the true path, they are subject to the laws of existence. For Pierre's tormented soul and consciousness, this meeting, as he believed, was salvation.
Arriving in the capital, he, without hesitation, accepts the ritual and becomes a member of the Masonic lodge. The rules of another world, its symbolism, and views on life captivate Pierre. He unconditionally believes everything he hears at meetings, although much of his new life seems gloomy and incomprehensible to him. The journey of Pierre Bezukhov's quest continues. The soul still rushes about and finds no peace.
How to make life easier for people
New experiences and searches for the meaning of life lead Pierre Bezukhov to the understanding that the life of an individual cannot be happy when there are many disadvantaged people around, deprived of any rights.
He decides to take actions aimed at improving the lives of the peasants on his estates. Many people don't understand Pierre. Even among the peasants, for whose sake all this was started, there is misunderstanding and rejection of the new way of life. This discourages Bezukhov, he is depressed and disappointed.
The disappointment was final when Pierre Bezukhov (whose description describes him as a soft, trusting person) realized that he had been cruelly deceived by the manager, his funds and efforts had been wasted.
Napoleon
The alarming events taking place in France at that time occupied the minds of the entire high society. excited the consciousness of young and old. For many young people, the image of the great emperor became an ideal. Pierre Bezukhov admired his successes and victories, he idolized the personality of Napoleon. I didn’t understand the people who decided to resist the talented commander and the great revolution. There was a moment in Pierre's life when he was ready to swear allegiance to Napoleon and defend the gains of the revolution. But this was not destined to happen. Feats and achievements for the glory of the French Revolution remained only dreams.
And the events of 1812 will destroy all ideals. The adoration of Napoleon's personality will be replaced in Pierre's soul by contempt and hatred. An irresistible desire will appear to kill the tyrant, taking revenge for all the troubles that he brought to his native land. Pierre was simply obsessed with the idea of reprisal against Napoleon; he believed that this was destiny, the mission of his life.
battle of Borodino
The Patriotic War of 1812 broke the established foundation, becoming a real test for the country and its citizens. This tragic event directly affected Pierre. The aimless life of wealth and comfort was abandoned by the count without hesitation for the sake of serving the fatherland.
It was during the war that Pierre Bezukhov, whose characterization had not yet been flattering, began to look at life differently, to understand what was unknown. Getting closer to soldiers, representatives of the common people, helps to re-evaluate life.
The great Battle of Borodino played a special role in this. Pierre Bezukhov, being in the same ranks with the soldiers, saw their true patriotism without falsehood and pretense, their readiness to give their lives for the sake of their homeland without hesitation.
Destruction, blood, and related experiences give rise to the spiritual rebirth of the hero. Suddenly, unexpectedly for himself, Pierre begins to find answers to the questions that have tormented him for so many years. Everything becomes extremely clear and simple. He begins to live not formally, but with all his heart, experiencing a feeling unfamiliar to him, an explanation for which at this moment he cannot yet give.
Captivity
Further events unfold in such a way that the trials that befell Pierre should harden and finally shape his views.
Finding himself in captivity, he goes through an interrogation procedure, after which he remains alive, but before his eyes, several Russian soldiers, who were captured by the French with him, are executed. The spectacle of the execution does not leave Pierre's imagination, bringing him to the brink of madness.
And only a meeting and conversations with Platon Karataev again awaken a harmonious beginning in his soul. Being in a cramped barracks, experiencing physical pain and suffering, the hero begins to feel truly himself. The life path of Pierre Bezukhov helps to understand that being on earth is a great happiness.
However, the hero will have to reconsider his own life more than once and look for his place in it.
Fate decrees that Platon Karataev, who gave Pierre an understanding of life, was killed by the French because he fell ill and could not move. Karataev's death brings new suffering to the hero. Pierre himself was released from captivity by the partisans.
Native
Having been freed from captivity, Pierre receives news one after another from his relatives, about whom he knew nothing for a long time. He becomes aware of the death of his wife Helen. Best friend, Andrei Bolkonsky, is seriously wounded.
Karataev's death and disturbing news from relatives again excite the hero's soul. He begins to think that all the misfortunes that happened were his fault. He is the cause of the death of people close to him.
And suddenly Pierre catches himself thinking that in difficult moments of emotional distress the image of Natasha Rostova suddenly appears. She instills calm in him, gives him strength and confidence.
Natasha Rostova
During subsequent meetings with her, he realizes that he has developed a feeling for this sincere, intelligent, spiritually rich woman. Natasha has a reciprocal feeling for Pierre. In 1813 they got married.
Rostova is capable of sincere love, she is ready to live in the interests of her husband, to understand, to feel him - this is the main dignity of a woman. Tolstoy showed the family as a way to preserve a person. The family is a small model of the world. The health of this cell determines the state of the entire society.
Life goes on
The hero gained an understanding of life, happiness, and harmony within himself. But the path to this was very difficult. The work of internal development of the soul accompanied the hero all his life, and it gave its results.
But life does not stop, and Pierre Bezukhov, whose characterization as a seeker is given here, is again ready to move forward. In 1820, he informed his wife that he intended to become a member of a secret society.
Pierre is one of those people
which are strong only when
when they feel completely clean.
L. Tolstoy. Diary
On the pages of L.N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” we meet many people who, in the course of various events, undergo moral evolution, the development of ideas, and a change in worldview. One of these people is Pierre Bezukhov, whose life path was complex and difficult, but in whom the thirst for self-improvement, personal development, and the search for freedom and truth never extinguished.
Raised abroad, the illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov, Pierre appears to us as a free-thinking person, but quite far from the real Russian reality, as a result of which he becomes an obedient toy in the hands of cunning and dishonest people.
Brought up on the ideas of the French Enlightenment, Bezukhov completely denies God, but he, like every Russian person, needs some kind of faith. So he becomes a Freemason. Easily succumbing to the external charm of Freemasonry, Pierre is almost happy. He feels strong because now he can figure out where the truth is and where the lie is. However, it did not take Pierre much time to understand that those who preach poverty and correctness of life themselves live in a lie, and all their rituals only cover up the falseness of their behavior and the desire to gain their own benefit.
At one time, Pierre was extremely attracted to the image of Napoleon - he also wanted to go ahead, to be strong and invincible. However, with the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, this passion passes, Pierre realizes that he was worshiping a despot and a villain, and therefore an empty idol. Remaining in Moscow, Pierre even gets the idea to kill Napoleon, but his plan fails, and Bezukhov is captured by the French.
In captivity, Pierre Bezukhov meets Platon Karataev, and this man gives him a completely new understanding of the world and the role of man in it, answering the questions: why live and what am I? Bezukhov only develops and deepens this new understanding for himself: “I lived for myself and ruined my life. And only now, when I live... for others, only now I understand the happiness of my life.”
Tolstoy wrote: “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness, and truth.” And the whole point of Pierre Bezukhov’s ideological and moral evolution lies in the gradual overcoming of individualistic self-affirmation, in self-denial for the sake of the good and benefit of others.
After the end of the war, Pierre marries Natasha Ros-tova. Both she, after her suffering, and he, after all the misfortunes and doubts, find true happiness in their love. But Pierre does not calm down and joins a secret society. Perhaps soon, “joining hand in hand with those who love goodness,” he will go out onto Senate Square.
For Tolstoy, not only the results of the heroes’ quests are extremely important, but also the paths they took, since these paths reveal the true content of life and brightly illuminate the real relationships that exist in the world. Pierre Bezukhov’s search for truth is also unique, but it was dictated by time, circumstances, surrounding people, so it is no less important for us than those truths that the hero comprehended by the time we parted with him.
Didn't find what you were looking for? Use the search
On this page there is material on the following topics:
- diagram of the evolution of Pierre Bezukhov in the novel War and Peace
- War and peace, the evolution of the personality of Pierre Bezukhov
- personality evolution of Pierre Bezukhov quotes
- ideological and moral evolution of the personality of Pierre Bezukhov
- war and peace about Pierre Bezukhov masons 1812
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………3
Evolution of the personality of Pierre Bezukhov…………………………………..4
Conclusion……………………………………………………………...10
Used literature………………………………………………………11
The evolution of the personality of Pierre Bezukhov
In receiving humanity gr. Tolstoy draws two parallels: the history of the individual development of a gradually gaining insight, who finally found the revelation and truth of life, and the moment of the collective movement of humanity, guided by the finger of Providence. The first parallel is depicted by gr. Pierre Bezukhov, the second - Napoleonic massacres and the Patriotic War of the 12th year. A major event was chosen not without a purpose: if it is proven, the author thinks, that people are meaningless ants in grandiose situations similar to the abusive era of Napoleon, then, of course, in all other cases they do not deserve comparison even with aphids.
There are many different characters in the novel: men and women, gray-haired Catherine elders and children in diapers, princes, counts, peasants, generalissimos and subtle diplomats, generals and soldiers; even three emperors appear on the stage; but all these persons serve only as additional proof of the irrefutable fidelity of the idea personified in gr. Bezukhov and the Napoleonic movement.
Roman gr. Tolstoy begins with an image of the emptiness of high-society morals, with which he introduces the reader, introducing him to the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna. In the same salon, the author shows his hero. Pierre Bezukhov, a fat, clumsy gentleman, taller than usual, broad, with huge red hands, who does not know how to enter the salon and even less to leave it, that is, to say anything especially pleasant before leaving. In addition, the hero is very absent-minded. So, getting up to leave, instead of his hat, he grabbed a triangular hat with a general’s plume and held it, tugging at the plume, until the general asked to return it. But all his absent-mindedness and inability to enter the salon and say, which he proved especially with his ardent intercession for Napoleon and the attack on the Bourbons, was redeemed by an expression of good nature, simplicity and modesty. Pierre, the natural son of Count Bezukhov, was sent abroad with his tutor-abbot from the age of ten, where he stayed until he was twenty. When he returned to Moscow, the count released the abbot and said to the young man: “Now go to St. Petersburg, look around and choose. I agree to everything; Here’s a letter for you to Prince Vasily and here’s some money for you.” And so Pierre arrived in St. Petersburg and does not know where to place his large and fat body. Joining the military, but this means fighting against Napoleon, i.e. to help England and Austria against the greatest man in the world. Without deciding on the choice of path, Pierre joined the company of drunken revelers, led by Prince Kuragin. What kind of life this was, the reader can see from the trick of Dolokhov, who, drunk, bet that, sitting on a third-floor window and lowering his feet to the street, he would drink a bottle of rum in one gulp. Everyone was delighted, and Pierre was so inspired that he suggested repeating the same thing and was already climbing onto the window, but he was pulled off. Revelry and debauchery, nightly visits to some ladies, fun with a bear, to whose back they even once tied a quarterly overseer - these are the exploits of the hero, whose moral enlightenment gr. Tolstoy wants to determine the depth of the wisdom that should guide every person. There is some kind of force wandering around in Pierre’s large body, but the man does not know where it is going; he has nothing precisely defined, clearly worked out. Surrendering to his uncultivated unbridledness, Pierre does all sorts of wild things, and just as he, for no apparent reason, simply out of confusion of power, wanted to repeat Dolokhov’s trick, so he marries the beautiful Helen. Why did he need to get married? The high-society Anna Pavlovna decided to settle Helene, but the complacent Pierre fell like chickens. Perhaps Pierre would have escaped the net, but it so happened that at one Anna Pavlovna’s evening, Pierre found himself so close to Helen that he “with his myopic eyes involuntarily discerned the living beauty of her shoulders, neck, lips, and that it only cost him a little bend down to touch it. He heard the warmth of her body, the smell of her perfume and the creak of her corset as she moved. He saw not her marble beauty, but one that was integral with the dress; he saw and felt all the beauty of her body, which was covered only by clothes.” The gr. tells it so well. Tolstoy. We are only surprised why Pierre got married a month and a half later, and not at the same second when he felt the warmth and all the charm of Helen’s body.
Having made one stupidity, Pierre inevitably had to make a series of even new stupidities. He was captivated only by his beautiful body, and he had no other stronger moral ties with Helen. Therefore, it is not surprising that the beautiful body of Helen, who married Pierre out of convenience, was soon drawn to other, more handsome men than her husband, and Pierre began to be jealous. For what? For what? What did he have in common with Helen? Pierre knows nothing, does not understand anything. His broad, passionate nature, contained in a huge body, can only worry and seethe. He is angry with Dolokhov as his wife’s lover, and, finding fault with a trifle, calls him a scoundrel. A duel ensues, that is, a new stupidity, a stupidity that is all the more fundamental and reveals the entire uncultivated breadth of Pierre’s nature, that in his life he has never held a pistol in his hands, that he not only does not know how to load a pistol, but even how to pull the trigger. But there are forces over a person that force him to go one way and not another - the gr. reflects and tries to prove. Tolstoy. Pierre, at the scene of the duel, even decided to justify Dolokhov for what he had previously called him a scoundrel. “Perhaps I would have done the same in his place,” thought Pierre. “Even probably I would have done the same; Why this duel, this murder? Either I will kill him, or he will hit me in the head, elbow, knee. It occurred to Pierre to leave here, to run away, to hide somewhere.” And despite such fair reflections, Pierre, in response to the comments of the second, who wanted to try on the enemies - that there was no offense on either side and that it was necessary to talk with Dolokhov, answered: no, what to talk about, anyway... And just like that Fate, which forced Pierre to marry out of the blue, and out of nowhere to fight a duel, arranged it in such a way that Pierre, who could not even pull the trigger, shot the famous brute Dolokhov.
After the duel, Pierre, who was constantly thinking in hindsight, began to wonder why he had told Helen before his marriage: “Je vous aime.” “I am guilty and must bear...what? A disgrace to a name, a misfortune to life? uh, it’s all nonsense and a disgrace to the name and honor, everything is conditional, everything is independent of me. Louis XVI was executed because they said that he was dishonest and a criminal, it occurred to Pierre, and they were right from their point of view, just as those who died a martyr’s death for him and canonized him were right. . Then Robespierre was executed for being a despot. Who is right, who is wrong? - no one. But live and live: tomorrow you will die, just as you could have died an hour ago. And is it worth it to suffer when you only have one second to live compared to eternity?” Then Pierre decided that he needed to “separate” from his wife. He couldn't stay under the same roof as her. He will leave her a letter in which he announces that he intends to be separated from her forever and is leaving tomorrow. But then his wife comes in and announces to him that he is a fool and an ass, and that the whole world knows this, that he, drunk, without remembering himself, challenged a man whom he was jealous of without any reason to a duel. - Hm... hm... mutters at this Pierre. “And why could you believe that he is my lover, why? because I love his company? If you were smarter and nicer, I would prefer yours.” Pierre loses his temper, grabs a marble board from the table, swings at his wife and shouts: “I’ll kill you!” If the reader remembers that Pierre was pressing nails into the wall, then he will understand that a marble board in the hands of such a Goliath posed some danger. “God knows what Pierre would have done at that moment if Helen had not run out of the room,” notes the author.
Apparently, it is not clear why gr. Tolstoy chose such a raw, wild nature as his hero. After all, this is an unbridled Mongol. Why is he called a count, why is he given an abbot as his teacher, why is he sent abroad for ten years? Raw strength, heartfelt impulse is the basis of Pierre's character. His roaming power, contained in the body of a Goliath with the mind of an ostrich, of course, cannot come to any European results. But this is exactly what gr. Tolstoy: otherwise his philosophy, based on raw, immediate strength, will lose ground. He precisely needs the fatalism of the East, and not the reason of the West.
After his explanation with his wife, Pierre went to St. Petersburg and at the station in Torzhok, he met with some mysterious gentleman. The mysterious gentleman was a squat, big-boned, yellow, wrinkled old man with gray, overhanging eyebrows over shiny eyes of an indeterminate grayish color. The mysterious stranger, speaking, emphasized every word and, like a prophet, knew what happened to Pierre. “You are not happy, my sir,” the mysterious old man said to Pierre. “You are young, I am old.” I would like to help you to the best of my ability. But if for some reason you don’t like talking to me, then just say so, my lord. Pierre was struck by the mystery and the whole appearance of the incomprehensible old man and, like a completely warm-hearted person, timidly submitted to a force incomprehensible to him. Only then for the first time did Pierre feel that everything he did was not that he was not able to comprehend life either with his mind or his heart, and that wisdom and truth flowed past him in a key, not watering his soul. The highest wisdom is not based on reason, not on those secular sciences of physics, history and chemistry into which mental knowledge is divided. There is only one highest wisdom. The highest wisdom has one science - the science of everything, a science that explains all the universe and the place occupied by man in it... In order to accommodate this science, it is necessary to purify and renew one’s inner man, and therefore, before knowing, one must believe and improve. And to achieve these goals, the light of God, called conscience, is embedded in our soul. Look with spiritual eyes at your inner man and ask yourself: are you satisfied with yourself? What have you achieved with your mind alone? What are you? “You are young, you are rich, you are smart, educated, my sir. What have you made of all these blessings given to you by God?” said the mysterious old man, and Pierre, moved to tears, felt that he had still done nothing but stupid things. Moreover, he didn’t even believe in God. The conversation with the Freemason made a deep impression on Pierre, and the first of the external influences forced him to look at least a little into himself. Pierre was not a hopeless fool, but he had a broad Russian nature. Pierre could not think well, but he could feel well if external circumstances were favorable. Gr. Tolstoy puts him in positions that should personify a philosophy that convinces of the mental insignificance of the West and the superiority of the immediate feeling of the Russian broad nature, which does not need the mind to find the truth.
Gr. Tolstoy is right when he attributes great importance to the personal improvement of man. If the history of which he speaks is the totality of personal tyranny, then, of course, the higher the perfection of individual people, the happier the fate of mankind. But gr. Tolstoy falls into contradiction when he blocks the path to personal improvement with deadening fatalism. While trying to prove that an individual is guided by personal arbitrariness, he at the same time says that collective humanity moves according to known destinies that do not depend on it. But if history is created by the personal arbitrariness of individuals, then how can we reconcile it with fatalism? World law does not allow dualism. The same law of gravity that governs the smallest atoms governs enormous bodies and their total life. If this law falls into dualism, the universe will collapse. How, in a destroyed universe, gr. Does Tolstoy want to create his own system of social harmony?
The mysterious old man was one of the famous Freemasons and Martinists. His influence turned out to be so strong that Pierre entered the Freemasons. In Freemasonry, it seemed to him, he found the light he was looking for, found that inner peace and contentment that had not been there before. It seemed to Pierre that Freemasonry was the only expression of the best, eternal sides of humanity. Only the Masonic holy brotherhood has real meaning in life, and everything else is a dream. Pierre passionately surrendered to the new influence. He arranged dining rooms and funeral boxes; recruited new members, took care of uniting various lodges and acquiring authentic acts. He gave his money for the construction of temples and replenished, as much as he could, alms collections, for which most members were stingy and careless. He almost alone, at his own expense, supported the home of the poor, established by the Order in St. Petersburg. After a year, Pierre, however, began to feel that the ground of Freemasonry on which he stood was increasingly slipping out from under his feet, the more firmly he tried to stand on it. When he began Freemasonry, he experienced the feeling of a man trustingly placing his foot on the flat surface of a swamp. Putting his foot down, he fell through. To be completely sure of the solidity of the soil on which he stood, he planted his other foot and sank even deeper. He became disillusioned with his brothers and with the reality of the self-improvement that Freemasonry supposedly strived for. In the members of the Society, he saw not brothers in labor and exploits of his mystical order, but some kind of B., gr. D. - weak and insignificant people, from under the Masonic aprons and signs, which he saw, the uniforms and crosses that they sought in life. He realized all the falsehood and lies of the word, which did not agree with the deed, and he became sad. Pierre began to look for a way out in prayer and spiritually edifying reading. During this period, he wrote in his diary: “I go to bed with a happy and calm spirit. Great Lord, help me to walk in your paths: 1. overcome some anger with quietness and slowness; 2. lust-abstinence and aversion; 3. move away from the bustle, but do not separate yourself from: a) government affairs, b) family concerns, c) friendly relations and d) economic activities.” A little further, Pierre wrote: “I had an instructive and long conversation with brother V., who advised me to stick to brother A. Much, although unworthy, was revealed to me. Adonai is the name of the Creator of the world. Elohim is the name of the ruler of all. The third name is an ineffable name that has the meaning of everything. The difference between the poor teaching of the social sciences and our holy all-embracing teaching is clear to me. Human sciences subdivide everything in order to understand, kill everything in order to examine it. In the holy science of the Order, everything is one, everything is known in its totality and life. Trinity - the three principles of things - sulfur, mercury and salt. Sulfur of aleatic and fiery properties; in combination with salt, its fiery arouses hunger in it, through which it attracts mercury, embraces it, holds it and collectively produces individual bodies. Mercury is the liquid and volatile spiritual essence of Christ, the Holy Spirit, He.” It seemed to Pierre that this nonsense was precisely the truth that he was looking for, and that his mystical chemistry interpreted the combination of sulfur, mercury and salt much more intelligently than the chemistry of Lavoisier and Berzelius.
However, Pierre sometimes had bright moments when he again turned to his dissolute, riotous life, but these moments did not last. Pierre lived in a kind of haze, especially intensified by the general patriotic warlike mood, for Napoleon was already marching on Moscow. Pierre's nerves were extremely tense. He felt the approach of some kind of catastrophe that was supposed to change his whole life, and in everything he looked for signs of this terrible approaching moment. Napoleon is the Antichrist, and his name is the animal number 666. It seems, why go further, but the half-mad Pierre wanted at all costs to find the animal number in his own name. He wrote his name in Russian and French, shortened it, skipped letters, and finally achieved the desired number 666. This discovery excited him. How, by what connection he was connected with that great event that was predicted in the Apocalypse, he did not know; but he did not doubt this connection for a minute.
The catastrophe really came. Under the influence of warlike passion, Pierre, dressed up, went to watch the Battle of Borodino. He visited the company of soldiers and realized, as if suddenly, that they, these strange people, unknown to him until then, were the real people. “War is the most difficult subordination of human freedom to the law of God,” said some mystical voice in Pierre. Simplicity is his submission to God; you cannot escape Him. And they are simple. They don't say what they do. The spoken word is silver, not the spoken word is golden. A person cannot own anything while he is afraid of death, and whoever is not afraid of it owns everything. If there were no suffering, a person would not know his own boundaries, would not know himself. The most difficult thing is to be able to unite the meaning of everything in your soul. Connect everything? - no, don’t connect. You can’t connect thoughts, but connecting all these thoughts is what you need! Yes, we need to mate, we need to mate!”
This impulse of a sick, excited man was far from resolving the insoluble thing that Pierre was looking for. An excited person rushed everywhere and, left to himself, to his mental helplessness and wretchedness, only got confused in the sensations of a dark feeling, not finding peace in anything. Pierre did not have a healthy, active life, he never had anything to do, he absolutely did not know what to do with his huge body, and what to direct his Goliath strength to. By nature a man of passionate feelings, he had to move stones in order to calm the hot blood that was strongly fermenting in him. But the millions of contradictions encountered in this chaotic, unformed, unsettled nature forced him to look for a point of support that he had not yet found. A man of a simple democratic bent, Pierre, born by mistake from a count, felt out of place in aristocratic salons with their stiffness and conventional decency, to which he could not accustom himself. And so, having been in the company of soldiers, eating cavardachka, listening to simple soldiers’ speeches, Pierre felt his people in the soldiers and saw his sphere in the ingenuousness of their mental life. That is why a person like Karataev should have exerted enormous influence on Pierre.
References.
1. L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace” volume 1, 2, 3, 4. Moscow, 1869.
2. Roman L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace” in Russian criticism: collection. articles/ed. entry articles and comments by I.N. Sukhoi Leningrad, 1989
3. Shelgunov N.V. Works: In 2 volumes. T.2. 2nd edition St. Petersburg, 1895.
4. Strakhov N.N. Critical articles about I.S. Turgenev and L.N. Tolstoy.
T 1. Kyiv, 1901.
Introduction.
I chose the topic for my essay, “The Evolution of the Personality of Pierre Bezukhov,” because Pierre is the main person of the fifth volume, which most clearly reflects the moral process that took place in Russian souls, and with his adventures best depicts the feelings that took possession of everyone then. His flight from his palace, changing clothes, attempt to kill Napoleon, etc. - all testify to a deep mental shock, a passionate desire to somehow share the misfortunes of his homeland, to suffer when everyone else is suffering. He finally gets his way and calms down in captivity. That's why I chose this topic for my essay.
Conclusion.
In the course of writing the essay, I came to the conclusion that the inner meaning of the fifth volume is focused on Pierre and Karataev as persons who, suffering along with everyone else, but remaining without action, had the opportunity to think through and endure in their souls the impression of a great common disaster. For Pierre, a deep spiritual process ended in moral renewal; Natasha says that Pierre was morally cleansed, that captivity was a moral bathhouse for him (vol. 4, p. 136). Karataev had nothing to learn, he taught others in word and deed and died bequeathing his spirit to Pierre.
