The main character is war and peace. The birth of an idea and creative quest

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.

It is complex because the composition of the book is multi-figured, dozens of plot lines, intertwining, form its dense artistic fabric. Simple - because all the heterogeneous heroes belonging to incompatible class, cultural, and 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 far from folk life, from the spontaneous movement of history, from the truth - or equally close to them.

Tolstoy's novel epic is permeated by the end-to-end idea that the unknowable and objective historical process is controlled directly by God; what to choose the right path and in privacy, and in great history a person can 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 the no less mysterious laws of everyday life, is wise and great, even if he is small in his social status. Anyone who boasts of his power over the nature of things, who selfishly imposes his personal interests on life, is petty, even if he is great in his social position. According to this strict opposition Tolstoy’s heroes are “distributed” into several types, into several groups.

Playmakers

Oh days - let's call them playmakers - 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 Tolstoy's hierarchy. The heroes belonging to him are always of the same type; the narrator demonstratively uses the same detail to characterize them.

The head of the capital's 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 guests to an interesting visitor. She is confident that she shapes public opinion and influences the course of things (although she herself changes her beliefs precisely in response to 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).

Drubetsky's mother Anna Mikhailovna, who persistently 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 an intelligent and proud careerist.

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

This monotony of narrative technique does not indicate the poverty of the artistic arsenal, but, on the contrary, the deliberate goal that the author sets for the narrator. Playmakers themselves are monotonous and unchanging; only their views change, the being remains the same. They don't develop. And the immobility of their images, the resemblance to death 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 moving, lively character is Fyodor Dolokhov. “Semyonovsky officer, famous player and buster,” he is endowed with an extraordinary appearance - and this alone makes him stand out from general series playmakers: “The lines... of the mouth were remarkably finely curved. In the middle, the upper lip energetically dropped onto the strong lower lip like 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 an impression such that it was impossible not to notice this face.”

Moreover, Dolokhov is languishing and bored in that pool worldly life that sucks in the rest burners. That’s why he indulges in all sorts of bad things and ends up in scandalous stories (such as the plot with the bear and the policeman in the first part, for which Dolokhov was demoted to the rank and file). In the battle scenes, we witness 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 the rules become hatred and contempt for people.

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

Dolokhov's rebellion against the world (and this is also “peace”!) playmakers In the end, it turns out that he himself is wasting his life, throwing it into disarray. And this is especially offensive for the narrator to realize, who singles Dolokhov out from the crowd, 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 “ancestral” quality of the entire family is cold selfishness. It is inherent in his father, Prince Vasily, with his courtly self-awareness. It is not for nothing that for the first time the prince appears before the reader “in a courtly, embroidered uniform, in stockings, shoes, with the stars, with a bright expression on his 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 Anatole’s son to Princess Marya, 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 and one-dimensionality of this heroine, is unable to change. It was as if she had been frozen for years in the same state: static deathly sculptural beauty. Kuragina, too, does not specifically plan anything, she also obeys almost animal instinct: bringing her husband closer and moving him away, taking lovers and intending to convert to Catholicism, preparing the ground for divorce and starting two novels at once, one of which (either) must culminate in marriage.

External beauty replaces Helen's inner content. This characteristic also applies to her brother, Anatoly Kuragin. A tall, handsome man with “beautiful big eyes,” he is not gifted with intelligence (although not as stupid as his brother Hippolytus), but “but he also had the ability of calm and unchangeable confidence, precious for the world.” This confidence is akin to the instinct of profit that controls the souls of Prince Vasily and Helen. And although Anatole does not pursue personal gain, he hunts for pleasure with the same unquenchable passion - and with the same readiness to sacrifice any neighbor. This is what 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 same role that Napoleon plays in the “military” dimension: they personify secular indifference to good and evil. At their whim, the Kuragins involve surrounding life into a terrible whirlpool. This family is like a pool. Having approached him at a dangerous distance, it is easy to die - only a miracle saves Pierre, 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 - playmakers- in Tolstoy's epic corresponds to the last, upper category of heroes - leaders . The method of depicting them is the same: the narrator draws attention to one single trait of the character’s character, behavior or appearance. And at every meeting of the reader with this hero, he stubbornly, almost insistently points out this trait.

Playmakers belong to the “world” in the worst of its meanings, nothing in history depends on them, they rotate in the emptiness of the salon. Chiefs inextricably linked with war (again in the bad sense of the word); they stand at the head of historical collisions, separated from mere mortals by an impenetrable veil of their own greatness. But if Kuragin really draw the surrounding life into the worldly whirlpool, then leaders of nations only think that involve humanity in the historical whirlwind. In fact, they are just toys of chance, tools in the invisible hands of Providence.

And here let's stop for a second to agree on one thing important rule. And once and for all. IN fiction You have already encountered and will encounter 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 should not, we have no right to confuse “real” historical figures with their conventional ones images that act in novels, stories, poems. And the Emperor, and Napoleon, and Rostopchin, and especially Barclay de Tolly, and other Tolstoy characters depicted in “War and Peace” are the same fictional heroes like Pierre Bezukhov, like Natasha Rostova or Anatol Kuragin.

They resemble real historical figures a little more than Fyodor Dolokhov resembles his prototype, reveler and daredevil R.I. Dolokhov, and Vasily Denisov - to 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 put into them by the writer, invented in accordance with the picture of life that he creates in his work.

Only by mastering this iron and irrevocable rule can we move on.

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

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

In Tolstoy's epic there is two Napoleonic images. One lives in legend about the great commander, which is retold to each other by different characters 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 believe in this legend at different stages of their journey, but also Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov. 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 dedicated 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 only recently idolized leader of the peoples, notices on the face of Napoleon, bending over him, “a 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, the meaning of which no one could understand.” And “the hero himself seemed so petty to him, with this petty vanity and joy of victory, in comparison with that high, fair and kind sky that he saw and understood.”

And the narrator - both in Austerlitz's chapters, and in Tilsit's, and in Borodin's - invariably emphasizes the ordinariness and comic insignificance of the appearance of the man whom the whole world idolizes and hates. The “fat, short” figure, “with broad, thick shoulders and an involuntarily protruding belly and chest, had that representative, dignified appearance that forty-year-old people living in the hall have.”

IN novel in the image of Napoleon there is not a trace of the power that is contained in legendary his image. For Tolstoy, only one thing matters: Napoleon, who imagined himself as the mover 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 to be the creator of his victories. The words from the historiosophical ending of the book refer to Napoleon: “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 smaller and worsened copy of Napoleon, a parody of him is the Moscow mayor Rostopchin. He fusses, fusses, 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 unflinchingly explains to the reader that Moscow residents began to leave the capital not because someone called them to do so, but because they obeyed the will of Providence that they had guessed. And the fire broke out in Moscow not because Rostopchin wanted it so (and especially not contrary to his orders), but because she couldn't help but burn: in abandoned wooden houses where invaders have settled, fire inevitably breaks out, sooner or later.

Rostopchin has the same attitude towards the departure of Muscovites and the Moscow fires that Napoleon has towards the victory on the Field of Austerlitz or 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, whether out of whim or fear.

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

It is not for nothing that even the angry, gloomy crowd in the courtyard of the Rostopchin 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 disgrace the name of the Russian!.. Rub him!” I order!" But even after this direct call-order, the crowd “groaned and advanced, but stopped again.” She still sees Vereshchagin as a man 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, obeying 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 through instantly.”

The images of Napoleon and Rostopchin stand at opposite poles of this group of heroes from War and Peace. And the bulk leaders All kinds of generals and chiefs of all stripes form here. 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 doesn’t matter which army they serve - French, Austrian or Russian. And the personification of this entire mass of generals in the epic is Barclay de Tolly, a dry “German” in Russian service. He does not understand anything about the spirit of the people and, together with other “Germans,” believes in the scheme of the correct disposition “Die erste Colonne marschiert, die zweite Colonne marschiert” (“The first column acts, the second column acts”).

The real Russian commander Barclay de Tolly, unlike the artistic image created by Tolstoy, was not a “German” (he came from a Scottish family that had been Russified a long time ago). And in his activities he never relied on a scheme. But this is where the line between the historical figure and his way which 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 at the very edge of this group of heroes, on the border separating 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 an aura of admiration.

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

Here we see Alexander for the first time during a review of Austrian and Russian troops (volume I, part three, chapter VIII). First him neutral the narrator describes: “The handsome, young Emperor Alexander... with his pleasant face and sonorous, quiet voice attracted all the attention.” And then we begin to look at the king through the eyes lover into it Nikolai Rostov: “Nicholas clearly, down to all the details, examined the beautiful, young and happy face of the emperor, he experienced a feeling of tenderness and delight, the likes of which he had never experienced before. Everything - every feature, every movement - seemed charming to him about the sovereign.” The narrator discovers in Alexander ordinary features: beautiful, pleasant. But Nikolai Rostov discovers a completely different quality in them, excellent degree: they seem beautiful, “lovely” to him.

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

It would seem that the narrator is again objective and neutral: “An unpleasant impression, only like the remains of fog on 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 his 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 towards all these qualities of the king. He says directly: “on thin lips” there was “the possibility of a variety of expressions.” That is, Alexander I always wears masks, behind which his real face is hidden.

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

In Chapter XVIII, Rostov again sees the Tsar: “The Tsar was pale, his cheeks were sunken and his eyes sunken; but there was even more charm and meekness 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 far from the nobles, from thousands of eyes fixed on him; in front of him is a simple suffering mortal, gravely experiencing the defeat of the army: “Tolya said something long and passionately to the sovereign,” and he “apparently began to cry, closed his eyes with his hand and shook Tolya’s hand”... Then we will see the king through the eyes of a helpfully proud Drubetsky (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 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 for the time being in a deep shadow. He only says through clenched 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 encounters Kutuzov (chapters X and XI, part four). Only here, and even then not for long, does he show his restrained disapproval. After all, we are talking about the resignation of Kutuzov, who had just won, together with the entire Russian people, a victory over Napoleon!

And the result of the “Alexandrov’s” plot line will be summed up only in the epilogue, where the narrator will try with all his might to maintain justice in relation to the tsar, bringing his image closer to the image of Kutuzov: the latter was necessary for the movement of peoples from west to east, and the former for the return movement peoples from east to west.

Ordinary people

Both the playmakers and the leaders in the novel are contrasted ordinary people led by the lover of truth, the Moscow lady Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova. In their world she plays the same role as in little world The Kuragins and Bilibins are played by the St. Petersburg lady Anna Pavlovna Sherer. They have not risen above the general level of their time, their era, have not learned the truth of people's life, but instinctively live in conditional agreement with it. Although they sometimes act incorrectly, and human weaknesses they are fully present.

This discrepancy, this difference in potential, the combination in one personality of different qualities, good and not so good, distinguishes ordinary people and from playmakers, and from leaders. Heroes classified in this category, as a rule, are shallow people, and yet their portraits are painted in different colors and are obviously devoid of unambiguity and uniformity.

This is, in general, the hospitable Moscow Rostov family.

The old Count Ilya Andreich, the father of Natasha, Nikolai, Petya, Vera, is a weak-willed man, he allows his managers to rob him, he suffers at the thought of ruining his children, but he can’t do anything about it. Going to the village for two years, trying to move to St. Petersburg and get a job changes little in the general state of affairs.

The Count is not very smart, but at the same time he is fully endowed by God with heartfelt gifts - hospitality, cordiality, love for family and children. Two scenes characterize him from this side - and both are imbued with lyricism, the rapture 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 yourself, show how artistic means the narrator expresses his attitude to what is happening.) And one more scene is extremely important for understanding the image of the old count: the departure from burning Moscow. It is he who first gives the reckless (from the point of view of common sense) order to let the wounded into the carts; Having removed their acquired goods from the carts for the sake of Russian officers and soldiers, the Rostovs deal the final, irreparable blow to their own condition... But they not only save several lives, but also, unexpectedly for themselves, give Natasha a chance to reconcile with Andrei.

Ilya Andreich's wife, Countess Rostova, is also not distinguished by her special intelligence - that abstract scientific mind, 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 abandon their own carriage and cannot send a carriage for one of her friends. Moreover, we see injustice, sometimes cruelty, of the Countess towards Sonya, who is completely innocent of the fact that she is without a dowry.

And yet, she also has a special gift of humanity, which separates her from the crowd of wasters of life and brings her closer to the truth of life. This is the gift of love for one's own children; instinctively wise, deep and selfless love. The decisions she makes in relation to children are dictated not simply by the desire for profit and saving the family from ruin (although this is also the case); they are aimed at arranging the lives 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 essentially ends; Having barely escaped insanity, she instantly ages and loses active interest in what is happening around her.

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

Particularly touching is the youngest, Petya, who completely absorbed the atmosphere of the Rostov house. Like his father and mother, he is not very smart, but he is extremely sincere and sincere; this soulfulness is especially expressed in his musicality. Petya instantly gives in to the impulse of his heart; therefore, it is from his point of view that we look from the Moscow patriotic crowd at Emperor Alexander I - and share genuine youthful delight. (Although we feel: the narrator’s attitude towards the emperor is not as clear 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 it have its own center? playmakers, y leaders, so he has it too ordinary people, populating the pages of War and Peace. This center is Nikolai Rostov and Marya Bolkonskaya, whose life lines, divided over the course of three volumes, ultimately still intersect, obeying the unwritten law of affinity.

“A short, curly-haired young man with an open expression on his face,” he is distinguished by “impetuousness and enthusiasm.” Nikolai, as usual, is shallow (“he had that common sense of mediocrity that told him what should have been done,” the narrator says bluntly). But he is very emotional, impetuous, warm-hearted, and therefore musical, like all the Rostovs.

His life path is traced in the epic in almost as much detail as the paths of the main characters - Pierre, Andrey, Natasha. At the beginning of War and Peace, we see Nikolai as a young university student who gives up his studies to join the army. Then before us is a young officer of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment, who is eager to fight and envies the seasoned warrior Vaska Denisov.

One of key episodes Nikolai Rostov's storyline - crossing the Enns, and then being wounded in the arm 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 occurs.

And yet it’s not for nothing that Nikolai likes it so much in the army - and is so uncomfortable in ordinary life. 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 Emperor, whom it is so natural and so pleasant to adore. And the life of civilians consists entirely of endless intricacies, of human sympathies and antipathies, clashes of private interests and common goals of the class. Arriving home on vacation, Rostov either gets confused in his relationship with Sonya, or loses to Dolokhov, which puts the family on the brink of financial disaster - and actually flees from worldly life to the regiment, like a monk to his monastery. (He doesn’t seem to notice that the same “worldly” orders operate in the army; 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 in the novel space to have an independent line and active participation in the development of the main intrigue, Nikolai is “burdened” love story. He's a good guy fair man, and therefore, having made a youthful promise to marry the dowryless Sonya, he considers himself bound for the rest of his life. And no amount of persuasion from his mother, no hints from his loved ones about the need to find 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 disappearing again.

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

Only the power of natural feeling is able to overcome this obstacle; Having gotten married, Rostov and Princess Marya live in perfect harmony, just as Kitty and Levin will later live in Anna Karenina. However, this is the difference between honest mediocrity and the impulse of truth-seeking, that the first 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 boundaries of the plot action.

Pierre, at the cost of new moral torment, new mistakes and new quests, is drawn into another turn great history: he becomes a member of the early pre-Decembrist organizations. Nikolenka is completely on his side; it is not difficult 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 sense of morality he will be on the side of the rebels. And the sincere, respectable, narrow-minded Nikolai, who has once and for all stopped developing, knows in advance that if anything happens 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 precisely thanks to ambiguity they seem especially voluminous and bright.

Both of them, Prince Andrei and Count Pierre, are rich (Bolkonsky - initially, illegitimate Bezukhov - after sudden death father), smart, although in different ways. Bolkonsky's mind is cold and sharp; Bezukhov's mind is naive, but organic. Like many young people in the 1800s, they are crazy about Napoleon; a proud dream of a special role in world history, which means the conviction that exactly personality controls 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 connect again, 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 improvement, and at first they are sure that the truth is revealed to them in the form 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 answer the call of fate, to respond to its silent question; only because of this do they ultimately rise above the general level.

Prince Andrey

Bolkonsky is unhappy at the beginning of the book; he does not love his sweet but empty wife; is indifferent to the unborn child, and in the future does not show any special paternal feelings. The family “instinct” is as alien to him as the secular “instinct”; he can't get into the category ordinary people for the same reasons that it cannot be in the row playmakers. Neither the cold emptiness of the great world, nor the warmth of the family nest attracts him. But to break into the ranks of the chosen ones leaders he not only could, but would really like to. Napoleon, we repeat again and again, is a life example and guide for him.

Having learned from Bilibin that the Russian army (this takes place in 1805) was in a hopeless situation, Prince Andrei was almost happy about the tragic news. “It occurred to him that he was precisely 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 for him the first path to glory” (volume I, part two, chapter XII ). You already know how it ends; we analyzed the scene with the eternal sky of Austerlitz in detail. The truth is revealed to Prince Andrey 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 to him immediately and in its entirety.

It would seem that Bolkonsky’s storyline is 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, taking a side road back 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 feeling of guilt towards his dead wife; throwing military service(along with a vain dream of personal greatness), Bolkonsky settles in Bogucharovo, takes care of the house, reads, and raises his son.

It would seem that he anticipates the path that Nikolai Rostov will take at the end of the fourth volume - together with Andrei's sister, Princess Marya. (Compare for yourself the descriptions of the economic concerns of Bolkonsky in Bogucharovo and Rostov in Bald Mountains - and you will be convinced of the non-random similarity, you will discover another plot parallel.) But that's the difference between ordinary heroes of "War and Peace" and truth seekers that the former stop where the latter continue their unstoppable movement.

Bolkonsky, having learned the truth of eternal heaven, thinks that it is enough to give up personal pride in order to find peace of mind. But actually country life cannot contain his unspent energy. And the truth, received as if as a gift, not personally suffered, not acquired as a result of long searches, begins to elude him. Andrei is withering in the village, his soul seems to be drying out. Pierre, who arrived in Bogucharovo, was struck by the terrible change that had occurred in his friend: “The words were kind, a smile was on the lips and face of Prince Andrei, but the look was extinguished, dead, to which, despite the visible desire, Prince Andrei could not give joyful and cheerful shine." Only for a moment does the prince awaken to a happy feeling of belonging to the truth - when for the first time after being wounded he pays attention to eternal sky. And then a veil of hopelessness again obscures 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 difficult work ahead of him; he will have to go through numerous trials before he regains his sense of unshakable truth. And from this moment on, Prince Andrei’s storyline becomes like a spiral: it goes to a new turn, repeating at a more complex level the previous stage of his fate. He is destined to fall in love again, again to indulge in ambitious thoughts, to be disappointed again - both in love and in thoughts. And finally, come to the truth again.

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

“Probably ten times older than the birch trees that made up the forest, it was ten times thicker and twice as tall as each birch tree. It was a huge oak tree, twice the girth, with branches that had apparently been broken off long ago and with broken bark overgrown with old sores. With his huge clumsy, asymmetrically splayed, gnarled hands and fingers, he stood like an old, angry and contemptuous freak between the smiling birches. 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 renewed life, is deadened. But on the affairs of the Ryazan estates, Bolkonsky will have to meet with Ilya Andreich Rostov - and, having spent the night in the Rostovs’ house, the prince again notices the bright, almost starless spring sky. And then he accidentally overhears 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); as a character folk tale, it’s as if he was sprinkled with living water - and on the way back, already at the beginning of June, the prince again sees the oak tree, personifying himself.

“The old oak tree, completely transformed, spread out like a tent of lush, dark greenery, was melting, slightly swaying in the rays of the evening sun... Juicy, young leaves broke through the tough hundred-year-old bark without knots... All best moments his lives suddenly came back to him at the same time. And Austerlitz with the high sky, and the dead, reproachful face of his wife, and Pierre on the ferry, and the girl excited by the beauty of the night, and this night, and the moon...”

Returning to St. Petersburg, Bolkonsky becomes involved in social activities with renewed vigor; he believes that he is now driven not by personal vanity, not by pride, not by “Napoleonism,” but by a selfless 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 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 constructs the plot in such a way that the reader feels from the very beginning that something is not entirely right; Andrei sees a hero in Speransky, and the narrator sees another leader. This is how Bolkonsky’s acquaintance with Speransky is described in chapter V of part three of the second volume:

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

What about this quote represents the character's point of view and what represents the narrator's point of view?

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 the mocking clarification - “as Bolkonsky thought” - comes from the narrator. Prince Andrey notices Speransky’s “disdainful calmness,” and his arrogance leader(“from an immeasurable height...”) - narrator.

In other words, Prince Andrei, in 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 food. But then a significant meeting takes place in Bolkonsky’s life: he meets the very same Natasha Rostova, whose voice moonlit night in the Ryazan estate brought him back to life. Falling in love is inevitable; matchmaking is a foregone conclusion. But since his stern father, old Bolkonsky, does not give consent to a quick marriage, Andrei is forced to go abroad and stop collaborating with Speransky, which could seduce him and lead him back to his previous path leader. And the dramatic break with the bride after her failed escape with Kuragin completely pushes Prince Andrei, as it seems to him, to the margins 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, known to Him alone. Having passed the temptation by the example of Napoleon, having happily avoided the temptation by the example of Speransky, having again lost hope for family happiness, Prince Andrey on the third repeats the pattern of his destiny over and over again. Because, having fallen under the command of Kutuzov, he is imperceptibly charged with the quiet energy of the old wise commander, as before he was charged with the stormy energy of Napoleon and the cold energy of Speransky.

It is no coincidence that Tolstoy uses the folklore principle triple hero test: after all, unlike Napoleon and Speransky, Kutuzov is truly close to the people and forms one whole with them. The artistic image of Kutuzov in “War and Peace” will be discussed in more detail below; For now, let's pay attention to this. Until now, Bolkonsky was aware that he worshiped Napoleon, he guessed that he was secretly imitating Speransky. And the hero does not even suspect that he is following the example of Kutuzov, adopting the “nationality” of the great commander. The spiritual work of self-education, using the example of Kutuzov, proceeds hidden and latent in him.

Moreover, Bolkonsky is confident that the decision to leave Kutuzov’s headquarters and go to the front, to rush into the thick of the battles, comes to him spontaneously, of course. In fact, he takes over from Mikhail Illarionovich a wise view on purely folk a character of war which is incompatible with court intrigue 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 at the small level of an individual human life with the great battle of Borodino, morally won by Kutuzov.

It was on the eve of the Battle of Borodino that Andrei met his friend Pierre; happens between them third(folklore number again!) meaningful conversation. The first took place in St. Petersburg (volume I, part one, chapter VI), during which Andrei for the first time dropped the mask of a contemptuous socialite and openly 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 mournfully doubting the meaning of life, the existence of God, internally dead, having lost the incentive to move. This meeting with Pierre became for Prince Andrei “the era from which, although in appearance it was 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 their involuntary alienation, on the eve of the day when, perhaps, both of them will die, the friends again openly discuss the most subtle, most important topics. They do not philosophize - there is neither time nor energy for philosophizing; but every word they say, even a very unfair one (like Andrei’s opinion about the prisoners), is weighed on special scales. And Bolkonsky’s final passage sounds like a premonition of imminent death: “Ah, my soul, Lately It became difficult for me to live. I see that I have begun to understand too much. But it is not right for a person to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil... Well, not for long! - he added.”

The wound on the Borodin field compositionally repeats the scene of Andrei's wound on the Austerlitz field; both there and here the truth is suddenly revealed to the hero. This truth is love, compassion, faith in God. (Here is another plot parallel.) But the fact of the matter is that in the first volume we had a character to whom the truth appeared contrary to everything; Now we see Bolkonsky, who managed to prepare himself to accept the truth - at the cost of mental anguish and tossing. Please note: the last person Andrei sees on the Field of Austerlitz 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...

Andrey has a new meeting with Natasha ahead; last meeting. Moreover, the folklore principle of triple repetition works here too. For the first time Andrey 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), explains to her and proposes. And here is the wounded Bolkonsky in Moscow, near the Rostovs’ house, at the very moment when Natasha orders the carts to be given to the wounded. The meaning of this final meeting is forgiveness and reconciliation; having forgiven Natasha and reconciled with her, Andrei finally comprehended the meaning love and therefore ready with earthly life to part... His death is depicted not as an irreparable tragedy, but as a solemnly sad result completed earthly journey.

It is not for nothing that 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 are second half of the 19th century centuries often pick up this main book of Christianity, which tells about the earthly life, teaching and resurrection of Jesus Christ; Just remember 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, and rarely resorted to the French Bible; Only after the Patriotic War did work begin on translating the Gospel into living Russian. This work was headed by the future Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret (Drozdov); The publication of the Russian Gospel in 1819 influenced many writers, including Pushkin and Vyazemsky.

Prince Andrey is destined to die in 1812; nevertheless, Lev Nikolaevich decided to decisively violate chronology, and in Bolkonsky’s dying thoughts, quotes from the Russian Gospel emerge: the birds of the air “neither sow nor reap,” but “your Father feeds them”... Why? Yes, for the simple reason that Tolstoy wants to show: the wisdom of the Gospel 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 world of the Gospel. (In general, in the novel the characters speak French more often, the further they are from the national truth; Natasha Rostova generally utters only one line in French per for four volumes!) But Tolstoy’s goal is exactly the opposite: he strives to forever link the image of Andrei, who found the 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 in a new round repeats the previous stage, then the storyline of Pierre is up to the epilogue- looks like a shrinking circle with the figure of the 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 and glasses.” Like Prince Andrei, Bezukhov does not feel himself truth-seeker; he, too, considers Napoleon a great man - and is content with the common idea that history is controlled by great men, “heroes.”

We meet Pierre at the very moment when, from an excess of vitality, he takes part in carousing and almost robbery (the story with the policeman). Life force is his advantage over the dead light (Andrei says that Pierre is the only “living person”). And this is his main problem, since Bezukhov does not know what to apply his heroic strength, she is aimless, there is something Nozdryovsky about her. Pierre initially has special spiritual and mental needs (which is why he chooses Andrey as his friend), but they are scattered and do not take on a clear and distinct form.

Pierre is distinguished by energy, sensuality, reaching the point of passion, extreme ingenuity and myopia (in the literal and figurative sense); all this dooms Pierre to take rash steps. As soon as Bezukhov becomes the heir to a huge fortune, playmakers They immediately entangle him in their nets, Prince Vasily marries Pierre to Helen. Of course, family life is not a given; accept the rules by which high society people live burners, Pierre can't. And so, having parted ways with Helen, he for the first time consciously begins to look for the answer to the questions that torment him about the meaning of life, about the purpose 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 force controls everything? - he asked himself. And there was no answer to any of these questions, except one, not a logical answer, not to these questions at all. This answer was: “If you die, everything will end. You’ll die and you’ll find out everything, or you’ll stop asking.” But it was also scary to die” (volume II, part two, chapter I.).

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

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

But the truth is opens slightly, it sounds dull, like a distant echo. And the further, the more painfully Bezukhov feels the falsity of the majority of Freemasons, the discrepancy between their petty social 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, the reconciliation with Helen, which he agreed to under Masonic influence, does not lead to anything good. And having taken a step in the social field in the direction set by the Freemasons, having started a reform on his estates, Pierre suffers an inevitable defeat - his impracticality, gullibility and lack of system doom the land experiment to failure.

The disappointed Bezukhov first turns into a good-natured shadow of his predatory wife; it seems like a whirlpool playmakers is about to close over him. Then he again starts drinking, carousing, returns to the single habits of his youth - and eventually moves from St. Petersburg to Moscow. You and I have noted more than once that in Russian literature of the 19th century, St. Petersburg was associated with the European center of official, political, and cultural life in Russia; Moscow - with a rustic, traditional Russian habitat of retired nobles and lordly idlers. The transformation of Petersburger Pierre into a Muscovite is tantamount to his abandonment of any aspirations in life.

And here the tragic and Russia-cleansing 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, his hopes for an alliance with whom were crossed out twice - 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-declares his love to Natasha: “Is everything lost? - he repeated. “If I were not me, but the most beautiful, smartest and best person in the world, and were 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 explanation with Natasha Tolstaya, through the eyes of Pierre, he shows 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 blossoming to a new life, softened and encouraged soul.” The theme of national testing 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 national unity. Out of curiosity, Pierre goes to the Borodin 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 Borodin conversation: the truth is where “they” are, ordinary soldiers, ordinary Russian people.

The views that Bezukhov professed at the beginning of “War and Peace” are turned upside down; before, he saw in Napoleon the source of the historical movement; now he sees in him the source of historical evil, the Antichrist. And he is ready to sacrifice himself to save humanity. The reader must understand: Pierre’s spiritual path has only been completed to the middle; the hero has not yet come to agreement with the narrator, who is convinced (and convinces the reader) that the matter 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 prisoners (a scene that refutes Andrei’s cruel arguments during Borodin’s last conversation), Pierre himself recognizes himself as an instrument in the wrong hands; his life and his death do not really depend on him. And communication with a simple peasant, the “rounded” soldier of the Absheron 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 people’s life in its entirety, to become a part of the universe. Only then can you feel truly immortal: “Ha, ha, ha! - Pierre laughed. And he said out loud to himself: “The soldier didn’t let me in.” They caught me, they locked me up. They are holding me captive. Who me? Me? Me - my immortal soul! Ha, ha, ha!.. Ha, ha, ha!.. - he laughed with tears welling up in his eyes... Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the receding, 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 verses, they emphasize and strengthen the internal, irregular rhythm:

The soldier didn't let me in.
They caught me, they locked me up.
They are holding me captive.
Who me? Me?

The truth sounds like folk song, - and the sky into which Pierre directs his gaze makes the attentive reader remember the ending of the third volume, the appearance 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 contrary to own intentions. He just has a long, roundabout way to get to her. And Pierre comprehends it for the first time eventually painful searches.

But there is nothing final in Tolstoy's epic. Remember we said that Pierre's storyline is only Seems circular, that if you look at 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 part of the epilogue). Pierre, the same Pierre Bezukhov, who has already comprehended the fullness of the national truth, who has renounced personal ambitions, again starts talking about the need to correct social ills, about the need to counter the government’s mistakes. 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 instincts, guesses the question that the narrator himself would clearly 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 evade the acquired and hard-won truth? And the middle one is right, ordinary Human Nikolai Rostov, who speaks with disapproval of the plans of Pierre and his new comrades? Does this mean Nikolai is now closer to Platon Karataev than Pierre himself?

Yes and no. Yes- because Pierre undoubtedly deviates from the “rounded”, family-oriented, national peaceful ideal, and is ready to join in the “war”. Yes- because in his Masonic period he had already gone 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 rid humanity of this villain. No- because the entire epic “War and Peace” is permeated with a thought that Rostov is unable 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 example submit circumstances, accept them as they are. By joining 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 will come to know it even more deeply at the end of his new path.

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

Sages

You and I talked about playmakers, O leaders, about ordinary people, O truth seekers. But there is another category of heroes in War and Peace, the mirror opposite leaders. This - sages. That is, characters who have comprehended the truth of national life and set 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 no coincidence. If circumstances had turned out differently and Bolkonsky had been internally prepared for this meeting, it could have played the same role in his life as the meeting with Platon Karataev would have played in Pierre’s life. However, alas, Andrey 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 issue boss, Prince Andrei does not understand that behind Tushin’s silence lies not servility, but an understanding of the hidden ethics of people’s life. Bolkonsky is not yet ready to meet his Karataev.

“A small, stooped man,” commander of an artillery battery, Tushin makes an extremely favorable impression on the reader from the very beginning; external awkwardness only sets off his undoubted natural intelligence. No wonder, when characterizing Tushin, Tolstoy resorts to his favorite technique, drawing attention to the hero’s eyes, this the mirror of one's heart: “Silently and smiling, Tushin, stepping over bare feet on his leg, looking questioningly with large, intelligent and kind eyes...” (volume I, part two, chapter XV).

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

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

The narrator shows this small person large plan: “a fantastic world was established in his head, which was his pleasure at that moment. The enemy’s guns in his imagination were not guns, but pipes, from which an invisible smoker released smoke in rare puffs.” At this second, it is not the Russian and French armies that are confronting each other - little Napoleon, who imagines himself to be 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 timid when a staff colonel appears at the battery. Then (Chapter 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 (Rostov arrives at the hospital) on your own, pay special attention to how - and why exactly - Tushin relates 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 general life of the people only in the midst of wars, and in peaceful circumstances he is simple, kind, timid and very a common person. And Plato is always involved in this life, 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 calms him down) is this roundness Karataev, a harmonious combination of external appearance and internal appearance. In Plato, everything is round - both movements, and the way of life that he organizes around himself, and even the homely “smell”. The narrator, with his characteristic persistence, repeats the words “round”, “rounded” as often as in the scene on the Austerlitz Field he repeated the word “sky”.

During the Battle of Shengraben, Andrei Bolkonsky was not ready to meet his Karataev, staff captain Tushin. And Pierre, by the time of the Moscow events, had matured enough to learn a lot from Plato. And above all - a true attitude towards life. That is why Karataev “remained forever in Pierre’s soul as the strongest 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 task of subordinating human freedom to the laws of God,” said the voice. - Simplicity is submission to God, you cannot escape from him. AND They simple. They They don't say it, but they do it. The spoken word is silver, and the unspoken word 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, don't connect. You can't connect thoughts, but match all these thoughts are what you need! Yes, it is necessary to mate, it is necessary to mate!”

Platon Karataev is the embodiment of this dream; it's all about it associated, he is not afraid of death, he thinks in proverbs, which summarize the age-old folk wisdom, it is not without reason that Pierre hears in his sleep the proverb “The spoken word is silver, but the unspoken word 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, no aspirations and desires. For Tolstoy he is more than a person, he is a piece of the people's soul. Karataev does not remember his own words spoken a minute ago, since he does not think in the usual meaning of this word, that is, he does not build his reasoning in a logical chain. It’s just that, as modern people would say, his mind is “connected” to the national consciousness, and Plato’s judgments reproduce transpersonal wisdom.

Karataev does not have a “special” love for people - he treats everyone equally lovingly. And to the master Pierre, and to the French soldier who ordered Plato to sew a shirt, and to the lanky dog ​​that became attached to him. Without being personality, he doesn't see personalities and around him, everyone he meets is the same particle of a single universe, like Plato himself. Death or separation therefore has no meaning for him; Karataev is not upset when he learns that the person with whom he became close has suddenly disappeared - after all, nothing changes from this! The eternal life of the people continues, and its constant presence will be revealed in every new person they meet.

The main lesson that Bezukhov learns from his communication with Karataev, the main quality that he strives to adopt from his “teacher” is voluntary dependence on eternal folk life. 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, national life in which he is involved continues, and there will be no end to it. That is why Tolstoy completes Karataev’s storyline with the second dream of Pierre, who was seen by the captive Bezukhov in the village of Shamsheva. “Life is everything. Life is God. Everything moves and moves, and this movement is God...”

"Karataev!" - Pierre remembered.

And suddenly Pierre introduced himself to a living, long-forgotten, gentle old teacher who taught Pierre geography in Switzerland... he showed Pierre a globe. This globe was a living, oscillating ball that had no dimensions. The entire surface of the ball 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 sought to spread out, to capture the greatest space, but others, striving for the same thing, compressed it, sometimes destroyed it, sometimes merged with it.

This is life, said the old teacher...

There is God in the middle, and every drop strives to expand in order to reflect Him in the greatest possible size... Here he is, Karataev, overflowing and disappearing.”

The metaphor of life as a “liquid oscillating ball” composed of individual drops combines all the symbolic images of “War and Peace” that we talked about above: the spindle, the clockwork, and the anthill; a circular movement connecting everything to everything - this is Tolstoy’s idea of ​​the people, of history, of the family. The meeting of Platon Karataev brings Pierre closer to understanding this truth.

From the image of Staff Captain Tushin we rose, as if a step up, to the image of Platon Karataev. But from Plato in the space of the epic one more step leads upward. The image of People's Field Marshal Kutuzov is raised here to an unattainable height. This an 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 elevated it to the principle of his life and his military leadership.

The main thing for Kutuzov (unlike all the leaders led by Napoleon) is to deviate from personal proud decision guess the correct course of events and don't interfere they should develop according to God's will, in truth. Having first met him 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 affectation of respect.” And we don’t immediately understand that mask the unreasoning campaigner, which Kutuzov puts on when approaching powerful people, especially the tsar, is just one of the many ways of his self-defense. After all, he cannot, must not allow these self-righteous persons to really interfere 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 contemplator, he is convinced that victory requires not intelligence, not a scheme, but “something else, independent of intelligence and knowledge.” And above all, “it takes 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, listen to all reports, all main considerations, support useful ones (that is, those that agree with the natural course of things), and reject harmful ones.

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

That is why this old, weak, voluptuous man personifies Tolstoy’s idea of ​​an ideal politician who has comprehended the main wisdom: the individual 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 his appointment as commander-in-chief, Prince Andrei reflects: “He will have nothing of his own. He... understands that there is something stronger and more significant than his will - this is the inevitable course of events... And most importantly... that he is Russian, despite the novel by Zhanlis 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 contrast the “false form of the European hero, supposedly controlling people, which history has come up with” - the “simple, modest and therefore truly majestic figure” of the people’s hero, which will never settle into this "false form"

Natasha Rostova

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

Does she belong to the life-wasters? It is impossible to even imagine this. With her sincerity, with her heightened sense of justice! Does it apply to ordinary people, like your relatives, Rostov? In many ways - yes; and yet it is not without reason that both Pierre and Andrei seek her love, are drawn to her, and stand out from the crowd. Wherein truth-seeker she - unlike them - cannot be called at all. No matter how much we re-read the scenes in which Natasha acts, we will not find anywhere 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 what Pierre and Andrei give to reflection 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 part four of the last volume, and then in the epilogue we see it next to the emphasized smart woman Marya Bolkonskaya-Rostova, this difference is especially striking. Natasha, as the narrator emphasizes, simply “didn’t deign to be smart.” But she is endowed with something else, which for Tolstoy is more important than the abstract mind, more important even than truth-seeking: the instinct of knowing life through experience. It is this inexplicable quality that brings Natasha’s image very close to to the sages, 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 one particular category: it does not obey any classification, it breaks out beyond any definition.

Natasha, “black-eyed, with big mouth, ugly, but alive,” the most emotional of all the characters in the epic; That’s why she is the most musical of all Rostovs. The element of music lives not only in its singing, which everyone around recognizes as wonderful, but also in the voice Natasha. Remember, 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 the same emotional, sensitive, intuitive root grow both her egoism, fully revealed in the story with Anatoly Kuragin, and her selflessness, which is manifested in the scene with carts for the wounded in the fire department of Moscow, and in the episodes where it is shown how she cares for a dying man Andrey, 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 other heroes of the epic, even the best, is a special gift of happiness. They all suffer, suffer, seek the truth - or, like the impersonal Platon Karataev, affectionately possess it; only Natasha unselfishly enjoys life, feels its feverish pulse - and generously shares her happiness with everyone around her. Her happiness lies in her naturalness; That’s why the narrator so harshly contrasts the scene of Natasha Rostova’s first ball with the episode of her meeting and falling in love with Anatoly Kuragin. Please note: this acquaintance takes place in theater(volume II, part five, chapter IX). That is, where it reigns a game, pretense. This is not enough for Tolstoy; it 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 the atmosphere in which Natasha’s feelings for Kuragin arise.

No wonder it is to lyrical The heroine, Natasha, is credited with the most famous comparison of War and Peace. At that moment when Pierre, after a long separation, meets Rostova together with Princess Marya and does not recognize her, - and suddenly “the face, with attentive eyes, with difficulty, with effort, like a rusty door opening, smiled, and from this open door suddenly there was a smell of and doused Pierre with forgotten happiness... It smelled, enveloped and swallowed him all up” (chapter XV of part four of the last volume).

But Natasha’s true calling, 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 no coincidence: after all, the family for Tolstoy is the same cosmos, the same holistic and saving world, like the Christian faith, like the life of the people.

Heroes of the novel "War and Peace"

L.N. Tolstoy based his assessment of the heroes of his book on “popular thought.” Kutuzov, Bagration, captains Tushin and Timokhin, Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov, Petya Rostov, Vasily Denisov, together with the people, stand up in defense of their homeland. The heroine of the novel, the wonderful “sorceress” Natasha Rostova, loves her homeland and people with all her heart. The negative characters of the novel: Prince Vasily Kuragin and his children Anatole, Hippolyte and Helen, careerist Boris Drubetskoy, money-grubber Berg, foreign generals in Russian service - they are all far from the people and care only about their own personal benefits.

The novel immortalizes Moscow's unprecedented feat. 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 hometown. “For the Russian people,” says Tolstoy, “there could be no question whether it would be good or bad under the rule of the French in Moscow. It was impossible to be under French rule: that was the worst thing.”

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

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

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

However, it should be noted that there are scenes in War and Peace where the image of Kutuzov is shown contradictorily. 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 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, whom Pierre Bezukhov met and became friends with in captivity, is also depicted contradictorily in the novel. Karataev is characterized by such traits as gentleness, humility, willingness to forgive and forget any offense. Pierre listens with surprise and then with delight to Karataev’s stories, which always end with evangelical calls to love everyone and forgive everyone. But the same Pierre had to see the terrible end of Platon Karataev. When the French were driving a party of prisoners along a muddy autumn road, Karataev fell from weakness and could not get up. And the guards mercilessly shot him. Can't forget this one scary scene: near a dirty forest road lies the murdered Karataev, and next to him sits and howls a hungry, lonely, freezing little dog, which he so recently saved from death...

Fortunately, the “Karataev” traits were unusual for the Russian people who defended their land. Reading “War and Peace”, we see that it was not the Platon Karataevs who defeated Napoleon’s army. This was done by the fearless artillerymen 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 reference book of people 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 its heroes lived after the end of the Patriotic War of 1812. Pierre Bezukhov and Natasha Rostova united their destinies and 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 carefully to his hot speeches.

You can guess about 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 depicts Nikolenka Bolkonsky’s dream. “He and Uncle Pierre walked ahead of a huge army,” Nikolenka dreamed. They were going to a difficult and glorious feat. Nikolenka’s father was with him, encouraging both him and Uncle Pierre. Waking up, Nikolenka makes a firm decision: to live in such a way as to be worthy of memory my father. "Father! Father! - Nikolenka thinks. “Yes, I will do something that would make even him happy.”

With this oath of Nikolenka, Tolstoy completes the storyline of the novel, as if lifting the curtain into the future, stretching 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, by his own admission, devoted five years of “incessant and exceptional labor.”

), the French invasion of Russia, the Battle of Borodino and the capture of Moscow, the entry of allied forces into Paris; the end of the novel is dated to 1820. The author has read many history books and memoirs of contemporaries; he understood that the task of the artist does not coincide with the task of the historian and, without striving for complete accuracy, he wanted to create the spirit of the era, the originality of its life, the picturesqueness of its 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 is always inevitable with the historian’s creative perception of the process as a continuous, vital flow. Otherwise it won't work piece of art, but dead archeology. The author did not invent anything - he only chose what seemed to him the most revealing. “Everywhere,” writes Tolstoy, “where 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. Complexity and richness " human world", depicted in the novel, can only be compared with the gallery of portraits of the multi-volume "Human Comedy" by Balzac. Tolstoy gives more than 70 detailed characteristics, outlines with a few strokes many minor persons - and they all live, do not merge with each other, and remain in memory. One sharply captured detail determines a person’s figure, his character and behavior. In the reception room of the dying Count Bezukhov, one of the heirs, Prince Vasily, walks on tiptoe in confusion. “He couldn’t walk on tiptoes and awkwardly bounced his whole body.” And in this bouncing the whole nature of the dignified and powerful prince is reflected.

In Tolstoy, the external feature acquires a deep psychological and symbolic resonance. 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; Movement, posture, gesture, the 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 mental and physical integrity and completeness that his heroes produce. In the art of creating living people with flesh and blood, breathing, moving, casting shadows, Tolstoy has no equal.

Princess Marya

At the center of the action of the novel are two noble families - the Bolkonskys and the Rostovs. The elder Prince Bolkonsky, general-in-chief of Catherine's time, a Voltairian and an intelligent gentleman, lives on the Bald Mountains estate with his daughter Marya, ugly and no longer young. Her father loves her passionately, but he raises her harshly and torments her with algebra lessons. Princess Marya “with beautiful radiant eyes” and a shy smile is an image of high spiritual beauty. She meekly bears the cross of her life, prays, accepts “God’s people” and dreams of becoming a pilgrim... “All the complex laws of humanity were concentrated for her in one simple and clear law of love and self-sacrifice, taught to her by the One Who lovingly suffered for humanity when He Himself 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 Marya's brother, Prince Andrei, does not look like his sister. This is a strong, intelligent, proud and disappointed man, feeling his superiority over those around him, burdened by his chirping, frivolous wife and looking for practically useful activities. He collaborates with Speransky in the commission for drafting laws, but soon gets tired of this abstract desk work. He is overcome by a thirst for glory, he sets out on the campaign of 1805 and, like Napoleon, awaits his “Toulon” - exaltation, greatness, “human love.” But instead of 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 deception, except this endless sky. There is nothing, nothing, except him. But even that is not there, there is nothing but silence, calmness.”

Andrey Bolkonsky

Returning to Russia, he settles on his estate and plunges into the “melancholy 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 dark despair. And only slowly dying from a wound received in the Battle of Borodino, in the face of death, does he find that “truth of life” that he has always so unsuccessfully sought: “Love is life,” he thinks. – Everything, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Love is God, and to die means for me, a particle of love, to return to the common and eternal source.”

Nikolay Rostov

Complex relationships connect the Bolkonsky family with the Rostov family. Nikolai Rostov is an integral, spontaneous nature, like Eroshka in “Cossacks” or brother Volodya in “Childhood”. He lives without questions or doubts, he has a “common sense of mediocrity.” Direct, noble, brave, cheerful, he is surprisingly attractive, despite his limitations. Of course, he does not understand the mystical soul of his wife Marya, but he knows how to create happy family, raise kind and honest children.

Natasha Rostova

His sister Natasha Rostova is one of Tolstoy’s most charming female characters. She enters the lives of each of us as a beloved and close friend. Her lively, joyful and spiritual face emits a radiance that illuminates everything around her. When she appears, everyone becomes happy, everyone starts smiling. Natasha is filled with such an excess of vitality, such a “talent for 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 smart,” as Pierre says about her, but the clairvoyance of the heart replaces her mind. She immediately “sees” a person and accurately identifies him. When her fiancé Andrei Bolkonsky leaves for war, Natasha becomes interested in the brilliant and empty Anatoly 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 about the death of her younger brother Petya in the war. Natasha forgets about her grief and selflessly looks after 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 has awakened and life has awakened.” Finally, she marries Pierre Bezukhov and turns into a child-loving mother and devoted wife: she gives up all the “pleasures of life” that she so passionately loved before, and devotes herself wholeheartedly to her new, complex responsibilities. For Tolstoy, Natasha is life itself, instinctive, mysterious and holy in her 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 the two “family chronicles” - the Bolkonskys and the Rostovs - are drawn towards him; he clearly enjoys the author's greatest sympathy and is closest to him in his spiritual makeup. Pierre belongs to the people “seeking”, reminds Nikolenka, Nekhlyudova, Venison, but most of all Tolstoy himself. Not only the external events of life pass before us, but also the consistent history of his spiritual development.

The path of quest of 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 social life, carouses, plays cards, goes to balls; An absurd marriage to the soulless beauty Helen Kuragina, a break with her and a duel with his former friend Dolokhov produce a profound revolution in him. He's interested in Freemasonry, thinks to find in him “inner peace and agreement with oneself.” But disappointment soon sets in: the philanthropic activities of the Freemasons seem insufficient to him, their passion for uniforms and magnificent ceremonies outrages him. Moral stupor and panicky fear of life come over him.

The “tangled and terrible knot of life” strangles him. And here on the Borodino field he meets the Russian people - new world opens up to him. The spiritual crisis was prepared by stunning impressions that suddenly fell upon him: he sees the fire of Moscow, is captured, spends several days awaiting the death sentence, and 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.

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

Religious inspiration covers Pierre, all questions and doubts disappear, he no longer thinks about the “meaning of life,” for 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

Soldier Platon Karataev, a meeting with whom in Moscow occupied by the French caused a revolution in seeking the truth Pierre Bezukhov, conceived by the author as a parallel to “ folk hero» Kutuzov; he is also a person without personality, passively surrendering to events. This is how Pierre sees him, that is, the author himself, but to the reader he seems different. It is not impersonality, but the extraordinary originality of his personality that strikes us. His apt words, jokes and sayings, his constant activity, his bright cheerfulness of spirit and sense of beauty (“good-naturedness”), his active love for his neighbors, humility, cheerfulness and religiosity are formed in our imagination not into the image of an impersonal “part of the whole”, but into the amazingly complete face of the people's righteous man.

Platon Karataev is the same “great Christian” as the holy fool Grisha in “Childhood”. Tolstoy intuitively felt it spiritual originality, but his rationalistic explanation skimmed the surface of this mystical soul.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, with his pure Russian pen, gave life to a whole world of characters in the novel “War and Peace.” His fictional characters, who are intertwined into entire noble families or family ties between families, show the modern reader a real reflection of those people who lived in the times described by the author. One of greatest books"War and Peace" of world significance with the confidence of a professional historian, but at the same time, as if in a mirror, presents to the whole world that Russian spirit, those characters of secular society, those historical events that were invariably present at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries.
And against the backdrop of these events, the greatness of the Russian soul is shown, in all its power and diversity.

L.N. Tolstoy and the heroes of the novel “War and Peace” experience the events of the past nineteenth century, but Lev Nikolaevich begins to describe the events of 1805. The coming war with the French, the decisively approaching the whole world and the growing greatness of Napoleon, the turmoil in Moscow secular circles and the apparent calm in St. Petersburg secular society - all this can be called a kind of background against which, like a brilliant artist, the author drew his characters. There are quite a lot of heroes - about 550 or 600. There are main and central figures, and there are others or just mentioned ones. In total, the heroes of War and Peace can be divided into three groups: central, secondary and mentioned characters. Among all of them, there are both fictional characters, both prototypes of people who surrounded the writer at that time, and those who really existed historical figures. Let's consider the main characters of the novel.

Quotes from the novel “War and Peace”

- ... I often think how unfairly the happiness of life is sometimes distributed.

A person cannot own anything while he is afraid of death. And whoever is not afraid of her, everything belongs to him.

Until now, thank God, I have been a friend of my children and enjoy their complete trust,” said the countess, repeating the misconception of many parents who believe that their children have no secrets from them.

Everything, from napkins to silver, earthenware and crystal, bore that special imprint of novelty that happens in the household of young spouses.

If everyone fought only according to their convictions, there would be no war.

Being an enthusiast became her social position, and sometimes, when she didn’t even want to, she, in order not to deceive the expectations of people who knew her, became an enthusiast.

Everything, to love everyone, to always sacrifice oneself for love, meant not loving anyone, meant not living this earthly life.

Never, never marry, my friend; Here's my advice to you: don't get married until you tell yourself that you did everything you could, and until you stop loving the woman you chose, until you see her clearly; otherwise you will make a cruel and irreparable mistake. Marry an old man who is worthless...

The central figures of the novel "War and Peace"

Rostov - counts and countesses

Rostov Ilya Andreevich

Count, father of four children: Natasha, Vera, Nikolai and Petya. A very kind and generous person who loved life very much. His exorbitant generosity ultimately led him to wastefulness. Loving husband and father. A very good organizer of various balls and receptions. However, his life on a grand scale, and selfless assistance to the wounded during the war with the French and the departure of the Russians from Moscow, dealt fatal blows to his condition. His conscience constantly tormented him because of the impending poverty of his family, but he could not help himself. After the death of his youngest son Petya, the count was broken, but nevertheless revived during the preparations for the wedding of Natasha and Pierre Bezukhov. Literally a few months pass after the Bezukhovs’ wedding when Count Rostov dies.

Rostova Natalya (wife of Ilya Andreevich Rostov)

The wife of Count Rostov and the mother of four children, this woman, aged forty-five, had oriental features. The concentration of slowness and sedateness in her was regarded by those around her as solidity and the high importance of her personality for the family. But the real reason for her mannerisms probably lies in her exhausted and weak physical condition from giving birth and raising four children. She loves her family and children very much, so the news of the death of her youngest son Petya almost drove her crazy. Just like Ilya Andreevich, Countess Rostova was very fond of luxury and the fulfillment of any of her orders.

Leo Tolstoy and the heroes of the novel “War and Peace” in Countess Rostova helped reveal the prototype of the author’s grandmother, Pelageya Nikolaevna Tolstoy.

Rostov Nikolay

Son of Count Rostov Ilya Andreevich. Loving brother and the son, who honors his family, at the same time loves to serve in the Russian army, which is very significant and important for his dignity. Even in his fellow soldiers, he often saw his second family. Although he was in love with his cousin Sonya for a long time, at the end of the novel he marries Princess Marya Bolkonskaya. A very energetic young man, with curly hair and an “open expression.” His patriotism and love for the Emperor of Russia never dried up. Having gone through many hardships of war, he becomes a brave and courageous hussar. After the death of Father Ilya Andreevich, Nikolai retires in order to improve the family’s financial affairs, pay off debts and, finally, become a good husband for Marya Bolkonskaya.

Introduced to Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich as a prototype of his father.

Rostova Natasha

Daughter of Count and Countess Rostov. A very energetic and emotional girl, considered ugly, but lively and attractive, she is not very smart, but intuitive, because she knew how to perfectly “guess people,” their mood and some character traits. Very impulsive towards nobility and self-sacrifice. She sings and dances very beautifully, which at that time was an important characteristic for a girl from secular society. Natasha’s most important quality, which Leo Tolstoy, like his heroes, repeatedly emphasize in the novel “War and Peace” is her closeness to the ordinary Russian people. And she herself completely absorbed the Russianness of culture and the strength of the spirit of the nation. However, this girl lives in her illusion of goodness, happiness and love, which, after some time, brings Natasha into reality. It is these blows of fate and her heartfelt experiences that make Natasha Rostova an adult and ultimately give her a mature true love to Pierre Bezukhov. The story of the rebirth of her soul deserves special respect, how Natasha began to attend church after succumbing to the temptation of a deceitful seducer. If you are interested in Tolstoy's works, which take a deeper look at the Christian heritage of our people, then you need to read a book about Father Sergius and how he fought temptation.

Collective prototype of the writer's daughter-in-law Kuzminskaya Tatiana Andreevna, as well as her sister - the wife of Lev Nikolaevich - Sofia Andreevna.

Rostova Vera

Daughter of Count and Countess Rostov. She was famous for her strict disposition and inappropriate, albeit fair, remarks in society. It is unknown why, but her mother did not really love her and Vera felt this acutely, apparently, which is why she often went against everyone around her. Later she became the wife of Boris Drubetsky.

She is the prototype of Tolstoy’s sister Sophia, the wife of Lev Nikolaevich, whose name was Elizaveta Bers.

Rostov Peter

Just a boy, the son of Count and Countess Rostov. Growing up, Petya, as a young man, was eager to go to war, and in such a way that his parents could not restrain him at all. Having finally escaped from parental care and joined Denisov’s hussar regiment. Petya dies in the first battle, without having had time to fight. His death greatly affected his family.

Sonya

The miniature, nice girl Sonya was the niece of Count Rostov and lived all her life under his roof. Her long-term love for Nikolai Rostov became fatal for her, because she never managed to unite with him in marriage. In addition, the old count Natalya Rostova was very against their marriage, because they were cousins. Sonya acts nobly, refusing Dolokhov and agreeing to love only Nikolai for the rest of her life, while freeing him from his promise to marry her. She lives the rest of her life under the old countess in the care of Nikolai Rostov.

The prototype of this seemingly insignificant character was Lev Nikolaevich’s second cousin, Tatyana Aleksandrovna Ergolskaya.

Bolkonsky - princes and princesses

Bolkonsky Nikolai Andreevich

The father of the main character, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. In the past, the current general-in-chief, in the present, a prince who earned himself the nickname “Prussian king” in Russian secular society. Socially active, strict like a father, tough, pedantic, but wise master of his estate. Outwardly, he was a thin old man in a powdered white wig, thick eyebrows hanging over penetrating and intelligent eyes. He doesn’t like to show feelings even to his beloved son and daughter. He constantly torments his daughter Marya with nagging and sharp words. Sitting on his estate, Prince Nikolai is constantly on the alert for events taking place in Russia, and only before his death does he lose a full understanding of the scale of the tragedy of the Russian war with Napoleon.

The prototype of Prince Nikolai Andreevich was the writer’s grandfather Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky.

Bolkonsky Andrey

Prince, son of Nikolai Andreevich. He is ambitious, just like his father, restrained in the manifestation of sensual impulses, but loves his father and sister very much. Married to the “little princess” Lisa. He had a good military career. He philosophizes a lot about life, meaning and the state of his spirit. From which it is clear that he is in some kind of constant search. After the death of his wife, in Natasha Rostova he saw hope for himself, a real girl, and not a fake one as in secular society, and some light of future happiness, so he was in love with her. Having proposed to Natasha, he was forced to go abroad for treatment, which served as a real test for both of their feelings. As a result, their wedding fell through. Prince Andrey went to war with Napoleon and was seriously wounded, after which he did not survive and died from a serious wound. Natasha devotedly looked after him until the end of his death.

Bolkonskaya Marya

Daughter of Prince Nikolai and sister of Andrei Bolkonsky. A very meek girl, not beautiful, but kind-hearted and very rich, like a bride. Her inspiration and devotion to religion serves as an example of good morals and meekness to many. She unforgettably loves her father, who often mocked her with his ridicule, reproaches and injections. And he also loves his brother, Prince Andrei. She did not immediately accept Natasha Rostova as her future daughter-in-law, because she seemed too frivolous for her brother Andrei. After all the hardships she has experienced, she marries Nikolai Rostov.

The prototype of Marya is the mother of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy - Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya.

Bezukhovs - counts and countesses

Bezukhov Pierre (Peter Kirillovich)

One of the main characters who deserves close attention and the most positive assessment. This character has experienced a lot of emotional trauma and pain, possessing a kind and highly noble disposition. Tolstoy and the heroes of the novel “War and Peace” very often express their love and acceptance of Pierre Bezukhov as a man of very high morals, complacent and a man of a philosophical mind. Lev Nikolaevich loves his hero, Pierre, very much. As a friend of Andrei Bolkonsky, the young Count Pierre Bezukhov is very loyal and responsive. Despite the various intrigues weaving under his nose, Pierre did not become embittered and did not lose his good nature towards people. And having married Natalya Rostova, he finally found the grace and happiness that he so lacked in his first wife, Helen. At the end of the novel, his desire to change the political foundations in Russia can be traced, and from afar one can even guess his Decembrist sentiments. (100%) 4 votes

Introduction

Leo Tolstoy in his epic depicted 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 common people, peasants. The depiction of all layers of Russian society allowed Tolstoy to recreate the whole picture Russian life during one of the turning points in Russian history - the era of the wars with Napoleon of 1805-1812.

In War and Peace, the characters are conventionally 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 sporadically in the novel. Among the main characters of the novel, one can highlight the central characters - Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova and Pierre Bezukhov, around whose destinies 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”, “short stature.” The author introduces Bolkonsky to the reader at the beginning of the novel - the hero was one of the guests at Anna Scherer's evening (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, which is why he goes to war. The episode that changed Bolkonsky’s worldview was the meeting with Bonaparte - wounded on the field of Austerlitz, Andrei realized how insignificant Bonaparte and all his glory really were. The second turning point in Bolkonsky’s life is his love for Natasha Rostova. The new feeling helped the hero return to a full life, to believe that after the death of his wife and everything he had suffered, he could continue to live fully. 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 girl who knows how to love: “dark-eyed, with a big mouth, ugly, but lively.” An important feature of the image of the central heroine of War and Peace is her musical talent- a beautiful voice that enchanted 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 into the world, Natasha’s betrayal of Prince Andrei and her worries because of this, finding herself in religion and crucial moment in the life of the heroine - the death of Bolkonsky. In the epilogue of the novel, Natasha appears to the reader completely different - before us is more the shadow of her husband, Pierre Bezukhov, and not the bright, active Rostova, who a few years ago danced Russian dances and “won” carts for the wounded from her mother.

Pierre Bezukhov- “a massive, fat young man with a cropped head and 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 of himself through knowledge of the world around him. Every situation in his life, every stage of life became special for the hero. life lesson. Marriage to Helen, passion for Freemasonry, love for Natasha Rostova, presence on the field of the Borodino battle (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 conventionally identifies several blocks of characters - the Rostov, Bolkonsky, Kuragin families, as well as characters included in the social circle of one of these families. The Rostovs and Bolkonskys as positive heroes, bearers of truly Russian mentality, ideas and spirituality, are contrasted negative characters Kuragin, 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. It will help to better understand the essence of each main character a brief description of heroes of War and Peace.

Graph Ilya Andreevich Rostov- a kind and generous man, for whom the most important thing in his life was family. The Count sincerely loved his wife and four children (Natasha, Vera, Nikolai and Petya), helped his wife in raising their children and did his best to maintain a warm atmosphere in the Rostov house. Ilya Andreevich cannot live without luxury, he liked to organize magnificent balls, receptions and evenings, but his wastefulness and inability to manage economic affairs ultimately 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, like her husband, loved her family very much, trying to support her children and educate them best qualities. Due to her excessive love for children, after Petya’s death, the woman almost goes crazy. In the countess, kindness towards loved ones was combined with prudence: wanting to improve the financial situation of the family, the woman tries with all her might to upset Nikolai’s marriage to the “unprofitable bride” Sonya.

Nikolay Rostov- “a short, curly-haired young man with an open expression on his face.” This is a simple-minded, open, honest and friendly 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, however, after participating first in the Battle of Shengrabe, and then in the Battle of Austerlitz and Patriotic War, Nikolai’s illusions are dispelled and the hero understands how absurd and wrong the very idea of ​​war is. Nikolai finds personal happiness in his marriage to Marya Bolkonskaya, in whom he felt a like-minded person even at their first meeting.

Sonya Rostova- “a thin, petite brunette with a soft, shaded long eyelashes look, a thick black braid that wrapped around her head twice, and a yellowish tint to the skin on her face,” the niece of Count Rostov. According to the plot of the novel, this is a quiet, reasonable, kind girl, able to love and 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 loved one.

Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky- Prince, retired General Chief. He is a proud, intelligent, strict man of short stature “with small dry hands and gray drooping eyebrows, which sometimes, as he frowned, obscured the brilliance of his intelligent and youthful sparkling eyes.” Deep down in his soul, Bolkonsky loves his children very much, but does not dare to show it (only before his death was he able to show his daughter his love). Nikolai Andreevich died from the second blow while in Bogucharovo.

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

Helen Kuragina- a bright, brilliantly beautiful woman with an “unchanging smile” and full white shoulders, who liked male company, Pierre’s first wife. Helen was not particularly intelligent, but thanks to her charm, ability to behave 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).

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

Fedor Dolokhov- “a man of average height, curly hair and light eyes,” an officer of the Semenovsky regiment, one of the leaders of the partisan movement. Fedor’s personality amazingly combined selfishness, cynicism and adventurism with the ability to love and care for his 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 destinies 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 shape their views on the world.

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