Anna Pavlovna Scherer's salon read. Essay “Reception at the Sherer salon (analysis of an episode of the novel by L.N.

Teacher's opening speech

about L.N. Tolstoy’s skill in tying up plot lines.

After 15 versions of the beginning of the novel, Tolstoy settled on July 1805 and conversations in the salon of A.P. Scherer. It conveys the political atmosphere of that time well.

The author believed that to begin a novel such a situation should be found so that from it, “ like from a fountain"squirting action“to different places where different persons will play a role.”

The evening in the court salon turned out to be such a fountain. This episode is very important in the development of the plot; many plot threads diverge from it; this is one of the key episodes of the novel.

Tolstoy denies the norms of life of high society and, behind his external decency, grace, and secular tact, reveals the emptiness, selfishness, greed and careerism of the “cream” of society. Here everything just seems: it seems that Prince Vasily Kuragin is concerned about the health of the hostess, but he pronounces the question in a tone “in which, due to decency and sympathy, indifference and even mockery shone through,” it seems that Helen Kuragina is not only beautiful, but also smart ... In fact, everything here is false: the external form hides the selfishness, prudence, indifference to everything except their own interests, the political limitations and stupidity of these people.

One involuntarily recalls the words of Lermontov:

Oh how I want to confuse their gaiety

And boldly throw an iron verse into their eyes,

Doused with bitterness and anger!

Only Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky do not look like “decently pulled masks.” L. Tolstoy begins the path of his positive heroes with their denial of the emptiness and falsehood of secular life; the author shows the heterogeneity of secular society, the presence in it of people who are disgusted by such a life.

Principles of satire by L.N. Tolostoy.

1. Constantly emphasizing the difference between what the characters say and how they say, between the external form and the internal content of life.

2. Showing the heroes at such moments when their true faces naturally appear in an imperceptible movement. Tolstoy either waits for the hero to lift his mask for a moment, or tears it off himself.

Questions and tasks for conversation on content

I - VI chapters of volume I of the novel “War and Peace”.

Volume 1, part 1, chapter. 16

Which of the representatives of the court aristocratic environment does Tolstoy introduce us to?

Select facts, epithets, comparisons, metaphors used by the writer to expose the falsehood, emptiness and unnaturalness of the aristocracy.

Give vivid examples of irony.

Part 1, ch. 2–6

How does Tolstoy make it clear that Pierre and Andrei are strangers in this society? (portrait, behavior, views)

What details indicate their spiritual closeness?

Part 1, ch. 4

What episode ends the evening in A.P. Scherer’s salon? What did the author want to emphasize with this?

For what purpose are the first chapters “full” of French?

Part 1, chapter 6

How do young people (Kuragin’s society) have fun?

Episode Analysis Plan

L. N. Tolstoy’s skill in setting up the plot lines of the novel.

A satirical expose of high society:

A) a discrepancy between what the characters say and how they say it, tearing off “all and every mask.”

B) how the heroes are characterized by their political interests;

C) what purpose do guests pursue when visiting this salon;

D) why there is French speech here;

D) how does the hostess characterize her different attitude towards the guests, why did Scherer worry about Pierre’s appearance?

3 .What distinguishes Pierre and Andrey from the regulars of the salon, how do they relate to each other and to socialites?

Student report

Ideological and compositional meaning of the episode

“In the salon of A.P. Scherer”

In significant works, as a rule, the first pages contain the seed of the entire plan. This can be said about Dead Souls. L. Tolstoy himself said about Dostoevsky that further on, it would seem, the scene in Scherer’s salon, which opens the work, is not repeated at all. We just seem to plunge into the thick of things, immediately find ourselves among the heroes of the book, captured by the flow of life. But this is not the only meaning of the scene. In it, of course, although not as clearly as in the first episodes of the novel

Dostoevsky, all the main problems of the work are outlined, the very first words that are heard in the salon, discussions about Napoleon, about wars, about the Antichrist. In the future, this will find a continuation in Pierre's attempt to kill Napoleon, in his calculations of the numerical value of this name. The whole theme of the book is war and peace, the true greatness of man and false idols, the divine and the devil. The arrangement of the characters in the scene resembles a play. Pierre, who has just found himself in the St. Petersburg world, finds himself in a society to which he is alien and which he does not understand at all. Like Chatsky, Pierre enters into unnecessary disputes, antagonizes the whole society against himself, risking earning a reputation as a madman. Among the royalist emigrants of Prussian courtiers who fled from Napoleon, Pierre proclaims that. Like Chatsky, Pierre does not understand who he is in front of, and, in the words of Pushkin, we must admit that Pierre, like Chatsky,... Bolkonsky's intervention, fortunately, served to end the dispute and extinguished passions. However, in vain, after a reception with Scherer, Prince Andrei warns Pierre about his future behavior in society. Pierre, alas, goes on a spree to Kuragin... Let's return to Anna Pavlovna's salon. The main thing for us is to trace how the main lines of the characters in the book develop in this first scene. Pierre, of course, will become a Decembrist, this is clear from his behavior from the first pages. V. Kuragin is a cunning man, in some ways reminiscent of Famusov, but without his warmth and eloquence, which, however, was depicted by Griboedov not without sympathy... The St. Petersburg public is still not the Moscow nobility. Vasily Kuragin is a calculating, cold rogue, although he is a prince, and will continue to look for clever moves. Anatole, his son, whom he mentions in a conversation with Scherer, will cause

a lot of grief for Rostov and Bolkonsky. Kuragin's other children - Hippolyte and Helen - are immoral destroyers of other people's destinies. Already in this first scene, Helen is not nearly as harmless as she might seem at first glance. There was not yet a shadow of coquetry in her, but she was fully aware of her beauty... A significant detail! Her smile (the most terrible thing that can be in a person, according to Tolstoy, is his spiritual immobility), and the expression on Helen’s face completely depends on the expression on Anna Pavlovna’s face - Tolstoy specifically emphasizes this. Three women in the salon, Scherer, Helen and Lisa, play the role of three parks, goddesses of fate. M. Gasparov interestingly compares Scherer with the work of goddesses who spin the thread of human destiny. Another motif associated with antiquity is the ancient beauty of Helen. This same antique beauty makes her look like a soulless statue. The line Prince Andrei - Lisa awakens memories of Homer's. , says Bolkonsky, explaining the reasons for his impending departure to war. Liza Volkonskaya, in contrast to the deadness of Helen, is lively and active, plays the role of Penelope (Prince Andrei, in a conversation with Pierre, emphasizes her loyalty and devotion), but some kind of fate forces Bolkonsky-Odysseus, feeling a deep break with everything around him, to abruptly break with the usual way of life and go towards the unknown and possible death. In general, of all the characters who appeared in the first scene, Bolkonsky is the most mysterious and evokes the greatest respect. The meaning of the scene in Anna Pavlovna echoes the book’s opening sequence. In the epilogue, disputes about peace and war again arise; there is the presence of the little son of Prince Andrei, who was invisibly present in Scherer’s salon then. The key moment of the scene is the discussion of Abbot Morioh's words about eternal peace. Although the abbot no longer appears on the pages, the main word is spoken, and the great book opens and ends with a debate about the possibility of eternal peace. Such a project, of course, is ideally possible; Leo Tolstoy dedicated his creation to the problem of eternal peace.

APPLICATION

Quotes for episode analysis

“Prince Bolkonsky was small in stature, a very handsome young man with definite and dry features. Everything about his figure, from his tired, bored look to his quiet, measured step, represented the sharpest contrast with his little, lively wife. He, apparently, not only knew everyone in the living room, but was already so tired of him that looking at them and listening to them was very boring for him.” (Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 3)

(vol. 1, part 1, chapter 5,)

“... this life that I lead here, this life is not for me!”

(vol. 1, part 1, chapter 4)

“His smile was not the same as other people’s, merging with a non-smile. On the contrary, when a smile came, then suddenly, instantly, a serious and even somewhat gloomy face disappeared and another one appeared - childish, kind, even stupid and as if asking for forgiveness.

(vol. 1, part 1, chapter 5)

“Pierre was clumsy. Fat, taller than usual, broad, with huge red hands, he, as they say, did not know how to enter a salon and even less knew how to leave it, that is, before leaving, to say something especially pleasant. Moreover, he was distracted. But all his absent-mindedness and inability to enter the salon and speak in it were redeemed by an expression of good nature, simplicity and modesty.”

(ibid.)

“From the age of ten, Pierre was sent abroad with his tutor, the abbot, where he stayed until he was twenty.”

"I love you". (Andrey about Pierre)

“You are dear to me, especially because you are the only living person among all our world.”

“Every time his gaze accidentally met Dolokhov’s beautiful eyes, Pierre felt like something terrible, ugly was rising in his soul.” (vol. 1, part 1, chapter 4)

Prince Vasily Kuragin

(vol. 1, part 1, chapter 1)

He then appears in Scherer's salon to help appoint his son as secretary of the embassy to Vienna.

He wants to marry Anatole to Marya Bolkonskaya, reasoning: “She has a good name and is rich. All I need".

(vol. 1, part 3, chapter 1) “... a man in strength met him, and at that very moment instinct told him that this man could be useful, and Prince Vasily approached him at the first opportunity, without preparation , by instinct, flattered, made

In July 1805, Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna, met the guests. One of the first to arrive for the evening was the “important and official” Prince Vasily. He walked up to Anna Pavlovna, kissed her hand, offering her his perfumed and shining bald head, and sat down calmly on the sofa.

Prince Vasily always spoke lazily, like an actor speaking the role of an old play. Anna Pavlovna Sherer, on the contrary, despite her forty years, was filled with animation and impulses.

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. The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna’s face, although it did not match her outdated features, expressed, like spoiled children, a constant awareness of her dear shortcoming, from which she does not want, cannot and does not find it necessary to correct herself.

After discussing state problems, Anna Pavlovna started talking to Prince Vasily about his son Anatol, a spoiled young man whose behavior causes a lot of trouble to his parents and others. Anna Pavlovna suggested that the prince marry his son to her relative, Princess Bolkonskaya, the daughter of the famous Prince Bolkonsky, a rich and stingy man with a difficult character. Prince Vasily happily agreed to the proposal and asked Anna Pavlovna to arrange this matter.

Meanwhile, other guests continued to gather for the evening. Anna Pavlovna greeted each of the new arrivals and brought them to say hello to her aunt - “a little old lady in high bows who floated out from another room.”

Anna Pavlovna's living room began to gradually fill up. The highest nobility of St. Petersburg arrived, people of the most diverse ages and characters, but identical in the society in which they all lived; Prince Vasily's daughter, the beautiful Helen, arrived, picking up her father to go with him to the envoy's holiday. She was wearing a cipher and a ball gown. The famous... young, little princess Bolkonskaya also arrived, who got married last winter and now did not go out into the big world because of her pregnancy, but still went to small evenings. Prince Hippolyte, the son of Prince Vasily, arrived with Mortemar, whom he introduced; Abbot Moriot and many others also arrived.

The young Princess Bolkonskaya arrived with her work in an embroidered gold velvet bag. Her pretty upper lip, with a slightly blackened mustache, was short in teeth, but it opened even more sweetly and sometimes stretched even more sweetly and fell onto the lower one. As is always the case with quite attractive women, her flaw—short lips and half-open mouth—seemed special to her, her actual beauty. It was fun for everyone to look at this pretty expectant mother, full of health and vivacity, bearing her situation so easily...

Soon after the little princess, a massive, fat young man with a cropped head, glasses, light trousers in the fashion of that time, a high frill and a brown tailcoat entered. This fat young man was the illegitimate son of the famous Catherine’s nobleman, Count Bezukhy, who was now dying in Moscow. He had not served anywhere yet, he had just arrived from abroad, where he was brought up, and was for the first time in society. Anna Pavlovna greeted him with a bow that belonged to people of the lowest hierarchy in her salon. But, despite this low-grade greeting, at the sight of Pierre entering, Anna Pavlovna’s face showed concern and fear, similar to that expressed at the sight of something too huge and unusual for the place...

Just as the owner of a spinning workshop, having seated the workers in their places, walks around the establishment, noticing the immobility or the unusual, creaking, too loud sound of the spindle “...” - so Anna Pavlovna, walking around her living room, approached a mug that had fallen silent or was talking too much and with one word or movement she again started up a smooth, decent conversational machine...

But amid these worries, a special fear for Pierre was still visible in her. She looked at him caringly while he came up to listen to what was being said around Mortemart and went to another circle where the abbot was speaking. For Pierre, who was brought up abroad, this evening of Anna Pavlovna was the first he saw in Russia. He knew that the entire intelligentsia of St. Petersburg was gathered here, and his eyes widened, like a child in a toy store. He was still afraid of missing smart conversations that he might overhear. Looking at the confident and graceful expressions of the faces gathered here, he kept expecting something especially smart. Finally, he approached Morioh. The conversation seemed interesting to him, and he stopped, waiting for an opportunity to express his thoughts, as young people like to do.

The evening in Anna Pavlovna Scherer's salon continued. Pierre struck up a conversation with the abbot on a political topic. They talked heatedly and animatedly, which displeased Anna Pavlovna. At this time, a new guest entered the living room - the young Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, the husband of the little princess.

Literature lesson in 10th grade

Episode Analysis

"In the cabin

Anna Pavlovna Sherer"

(based on the epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”)

Prepared by:

teacher of Russian language and literature

Karpenko N.A.

Anna Pavlovna's evening was over.
Spindle from different sides evenly and not
they made noise as they fell silent.

L. Tolstoy

Decorously pulled masks...

M. Lermontov

Target: Determine the attitude of the author of the novel to the norms of life of high society and how he expresses this.

Tasks:

1. Remember the elements of the plot and their role in the work.
2. Find out for what purpose the St. Petersburg nobility gathered in the capital's salons.
3. Reflect on the meaning of French and Russian speech in the novel.
4. Learn to work with artistic detail, through which the author characterizes his hero.
5. Understand the essence of the method of “tearing off all and every mask.”
6. Identify the artistic techniques with which Tolstoy expresses his negative attitude towards the characters.

During the classes.

1. Plot elements. The beginning of the novel.

Hello guys.

Today in the lesson we will continue our acquaintance with L. N. Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace” and visit the most famous St. Petersburg salon of 1805, where high society gathered - the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer.

Our goal : determine the author’s attitude to the norms of life of high society and how he expresses it.

Tasks:

1. Find out for what purpose the St. Petersburg nobility gathered in the capital's salons;
2. Determine the meaning of French and Russian speech in the novel;
3. Let's talk about the visitors to the salon and try to understand the essence of the method of “tearing off all and every mask” that Leo Tolstoy uses in his epic novel;
4. Let's find out with the help of what artistic techniques L.N. Tolstoy expresses his attitude towards the heroes.

But first, let's remember why this work belongs to such an epic genre as an epic novel. What genres of epic do you know? What is the difference?

How is a piece usually structured? What plot elements are required in a work of fiction?

What episode does the epic novel “War and Peace” begin with? (From the description of the salon by A.P. Sherer).

What plot element does this episode belong to?

What do you think is the significance of the plot to a work? Do you remember examples of plots in other works? (“Dowry” - Paratov’s arrival)

Why is this particular episode considered the beginning of the entire novel?

Notebook entry:

At the evening at A.P. Sherer's, all the threads of the novel are tied. Conversations in the salon of persons close to the royal court allow one to become involved in the political atmosphere of the era, because it was in July 1805 that diplomatic relations with France were broken, and this is where the basis of the plot of the novel begins - the conflict with Napoleon. Here, in the salon, the main problems of the novel arise: true and false beauty, communication, love, patriotism, the problem of the possibility of peace in the world.

What is the salon like?

Who owns the salon with the description of which the epic novel “War and Peace” begins? Please remind me who Anna Pavlovna Sherer is?

(Maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna).

Who is the maid of honor?

Let's remember who was the emperor in Russia in 1805? Who is Maria Fedorovna?

This means that all the St. Petersburg nobility gathered in the salon of the Empress's maid of honor.

So, the salon has already begun!

1. Episode analysis.

Anna Pavlovna Sherer.

Remind me who is the owner of the salon?

How did the guests know about the evening? How does Anna Pavlovna behave at her party?

What is the meaning of her life? The meaning of her life lies in maintaining her salon. She has all the qualities to be a successful socialite.

Vasily Kuragin.

Who was the first guest?

Who is V. Kuragin, what position does he hold? ()

How is he dressed?

In what tone does Vasily Kuragin speak to Anna Pavlovna? What is his speech like?

How does Anna Pavlovna greet him? Why does she mention at the very beginning of their conversation that Genoa and Lucca are estates of the Bonaparte family?

Who does Anna Pavlovna call the Antichrist? Why?

Why exactly now, in July 1805, did we talk about the war with Napoleon?

What role does Anna Pavlovna assign to Russia in this war?

How does she feel about the emperor?

What do high society nobles fear most? (revolution)

Who is Novosiltsev? What is his merit?

What is the real purpose of Vasily Kuragin’s visit? (Determine Hippolytus as first secretary to Vienna)

When did Vasily start talking about his true intentions? (After A.P. finished her fiery speech about the emperor and began to talk about those invited to the evening.)

What does this mean? (The fact that Prince Vasily is absolutely not interested in the fate of Russia and especially Anna Pavlovna’s guests. He is only interested in the fate of his children, since his financial situation depends on this).

How does a father speak about his children?

Who does Anna Pavlovna propose to marry Anatoly?

How did Vasily Kuragin react to her proposal?

How does Anna Pavlovna want to pull off this business? (Talk about this with Lisa Bolkonskaya)

Vasily Kuragin and Anna Pavlovna decide the fate of people behind their backs, forgetting about honor and dignity.

Vasily Kuragin is ready to do anything in pursuit of profit. The goal is to try to get his sons settled: Hippolytus (“the calm fool”) at the embassy in Vienna and Anatole (“the restless fool”) to marry a rich bride.)

Guests: Helen, Lisa, Hippolyte, Mortemar (an emigrant from France due to the revolution), Abbot Moriot (Italian).

- What ritual were all guests of the salon supposed to perform? (Auntie's greetings). For what? This was how it was accepted: to live not by your own mind, but by looking at your elders.

Lisa.

Description of Lisa.

Pierre.

Description of Pierre.

How did Anna Pavlovna receive him?

How was Pierre different from the other guests of the salon?

How does Pierre behave in the salon?

What definition does Anna Pavlovna give to Pierre (a person who does not know how to live).

How does Anna Pavlovna behave during the evening?

Helen.

Description of Helen.

Andrey Bolkonsky.

Description of Prince Andrey.

Why was he bored in this society?

How does society treat the prince? (He has equal rights, he is respected and feared, he can allow himself to “squint” at society. But they are strangers to him.)

Why, a year and a half after the wedding, Andrei got tired of his wife?

Who was Andrei happy to see in this salon? Why?

Who does Pierre live with in St. Petersburg? Why? Why does Prince Vasily need Pierre? (So ​​that Pierre's dying father, Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov, leaves Kuragin part of the inheritance in honor of caring for his illegitimate son).

Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya.

Who is A.M. Drubetskaya? A woman from a noble, but ruined family. Under the leadership of her father, Prince Vasily Kuragin once took his first steps at court.

Why did A.M. come to this evening? Drubetskaya?

How is she behaving? (Sits next to an unknown aunt and waits for an opportunity to talk with Vasily Kuragin about transferring her son Boris to the guard, and then to adjutant to Kutuzov.)

Who in the salon defends Napoleon, expressing their own opinion?

Who is he arguing with?

Who is attacking him? (Mortemar, Anna Pavlovna, Lisa, Ippolit)

When everyone attacked Pierre, who rescued him?

How does Pierre leave?

3. The meaning of French speech in the novel.

– For what purpose does Tolstoy introduce French into the novel? (Why is there so much French text in the Russian novel?) (This emphasizes the characters’ ignorance of their native language.

The French language is a means of characterizing the nobility with its anti-national orientation. By simply using either Russian or French, Tolstoy shows his attitude to what is being described. Pierre's words, although he undoubtedly has an excellent command of French and is more accustomed to it abroad, Tolstoy quotes only in Russian. Prince Andrei's remarks are also given mainly in Russian, with the exception of two cases: Prince Andrei, upon entering the salon, answers Anna Pavlovna's question in French, asked in French, and quotes Napoleon's speech in French.

As a rule, where lies or evil are described, the French language breaks into the novel, and later, the German language.)

Social evenings, gossip, wealth, balls - this is all that the high society nobility of St. Petersburg lives by. Tolstoy is disgusted by everything that happens here. Everything here is false, a mask hiding selfishness, indifference to everything except one’s own interests. Everything here happens like a performance in a theater. Almost everyone hides under a mask that others want to see on them; everyone does not what they want, but what needs to be done. Their speeches, gestures, words are determined by the rules of secular behavior. Their goal in life is to be rich and famous. In all this, Tolstoy saw a dead beginning, because these heroes do not change throughout the entire novel.

1. Techniques that Tolstoy uses to depict the panorama of life in secular society:

1. Method of comparison.
2. Reception of opposition.

2. “Tearing off all and every mask.”

Homework:

1. Read chapters 7-17.
2. Analysis of the episode “Natasha Rostova’s Name Day”.

Pierre Bezukhov

In the monumental epic novel “War and Peace” L.N. Tolstoy reflected many large and small problems from the life of Russian society at the beginning of the 19th century. The search for the meaning of life, true and false heroism, love and hate, life and death - these are just the most important problems facing the main characters of the novel. And everyone solves them in their own way. We have different attitudes towards the characters in the novel. But at the climax of the work - the war of 1812 - almost everyone inspires us with deep respect, since the entire Russian people rose in a single patriotic impulse. The war influenced the fates of all the characters in the book.

One of my favorite heroes is Pierre Bezukhov. He appears on the very first pages of War and Peace in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. A young man, absurd and unattractive, “fat, taller than usual, broad, with huge red hands.” Large and clumsy, it does not fit in with the elegant decor of the salon, it confuses and shocks others. But he also inspires fear. Anna Pavlovna is frightened by the young man’s gaze: smart, timid, observant, natural. This is Pierre, the illegitimate son of a Russian nobleman. In the Scherer salon they accept him only just in case, what if Count Kirill officially recognizes his son. At first, many things seem strange to us about Pierre: he was brought up in Paris and does not know how to behave in society. And only later will we understand that spontaneity, sincerity, ardor are the essential features of Pierre. Nothing will ever force him to change himself, live according to a general, average form, or conduct meaningless conversations. The image of Pierre is central in the entire figurative system of the novel. And, above all, because he was at the center of the plot of the original plan of the book about the Decembrist who returned from exile. The novel "War and Peace" is built in the form of a family chronicle. The history of a people is perceived through the prism of family history. Pierre is unique against this background. There is no one behind him, officially recognized and loved by his father, he will never recognize his parent, he will not be able to learn anything from him. Pierre is initially deprived of a family; he begins with himself. This constitutes the essence of the personality of this hero, reflects not the traits of his family, but the general traits of his character.

Like Tolstoy's other heroes, Pierre will go his way "from Napoleon to Kutuzov." This path is marked by no less mistakes and delusions than the path of Prince Andrei.

Pierre's first tragic mistake was his marriage to Helen. The author tells in detail how the depraved Helen and Prince Vasily lured the naive Pierre, how they came running in time with the icon to bless them. And having described all this, Tolstoy gazes intently at the unfortunate Pierre. Who does he blame for his ridiculous marriage? And Pierre wins his first victory - he blames himself. Pierre's spiritual attitude is initially based on the principle of true morality: first of all, judge yourself.

The second serious test for Pierre will be an unexpected duel. Insulted by Dolokhov, he throws down the challenge and finds himself once again drawn into a strange and alien game. It would seem that the outcome of the duel is the triumph of justice: taking a pistol in his hands for the first time, Pierre hits his offender. But after all this, the count’s whole life seems meaningless. Pierre is going through a deep mental crisis. This crisis is both a strong dissatisfaction with oneself and a desire to change one’s life.

Torzhok became for Pierre his Austerlitz. At this postal station he renounced his early moral Bonapartism and chose a new path. This path was shown to him by the Mason Bazdeev, who became his mentor. Pierre's appeal to the Freemasons is understandable. Bazdeev invites him to start life from scratch, to be reborn in a new, purified state. But it is also justified historically. It is known that almost all the Decembrists went through Freemasonry, and they were looking for the same thing in Freemasonry as Pierre - moral purification. Leo Tolstoy builds the fate of Pierre through a chain of illogical patterns, historical patterns. Not being a military man, he goes to the Borodino field, because historically, victory requires the participation of everyone who holds the fatherland dear. And Tolstoy made us see this battle through the eyes of Pierre, since it was he who saw the moral basis of this event. Pierre will remain in Moscow to kill Napoleon and save the girl. And, finally, in captivity he will find the path to inner freedom, join the people's truth and people's morality. The meeting with Platon Karataev, the bearer of people's truth, is an era in Pierre's life. Like Bazdeev, Karataev will enter his life as a spiritual teacher. But the entire internal energy of Pierre’s personality, the entire structure of his soul is such that, joyfully accepting the offered experience of his teachers, he does not obey them, but goes, enriched, further on his own path. And this path, according to Tolstoy, is the only one possible for a truly moral person.

Salon A.P. Scherer in "War and Peace"

L. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” begins with a description of a party in Anna Pavlovna Sherer’s salon. And this is to some extent symbolic, because the salon acts as a miniature copy of the society to which all the main characters of the work belong, without exception. As if under a microscope, the writer closely examines regular and casual visitors to the salon. He listens to their statements, assesses their mood, guesses their thoughts and feelings, watches their movements, gestures, and facial expressions.

Invited guests are courtiers, aristocrats, military and bureaucratic nobility. They all know each other well and have long known each other. They gather, talk peacefully and exchange news. But gradually the conviction develops that external goodwill and thoughtful conversations are all false and pretense. Before us are “decently pulled masks” of calculating, selfish, politically limited, morally unclean, empty and insignificant, and sometimes simply stupid and rude people.

The salon has its own unwritten rules of behavior. The tone and general direction of empty and useless conversations is set by the hostess herself - “the famous Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna.” In the manners, the conversation, the pretended participation in the fate of each of the guests, the imaginary sensitivity of Anna Pavlovna, falsehood and pretense are most visible. L. Tolstoy notes that she “was filled with excitement and impulses,” that “being an enthusiast became her social position, and sometimes, when she didn’t even want it, she, in order not to deceive the expectations of people who knew her, became an enthusiast. The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna’s face, although it did not match her outdated features, expressed, like spoiled children, the constant consciousness of her dear shortcoming, from which she does not want, cannot and does not find it necessary to correct herself.”

As if imitating the owner of the salon, her guests behave and behave in exactly the same way. They speak because something needs to be said; they smile because otherwise they will be considered impolite; they show false feelings because they don't want to appear indifferent and selfish.

But we soon begin to understand that the real essence of salon visitors is precisely the opposite characteristic. In fact, some of them come here to show off in public in their outfits, others - to listen to social gossip, others (like Princess Drubetskaya) - to successfully place their son in the service, and fourth - to make the necessary acquaintances for moving up the career ladder. After all, “influence in the world is capital that must be protected so that it does not disappear.”

Anna Pavlovna “very seriously led each new guest to a little old lady in high bows who floated out from another room,” whom she called ma tante - my aunt, called by name, “slowly moving her eyes from the guest to ma tante, and then walked away.” Paying tribute to the hypocrisy of secular society, “all the guests performed the ritual of greeting an aunt unknown to no one, interesting to anyone and unnecessary. Anna Pavlovna watched their greetings with sad, solemn sympathy, silently approving them. Ma tante spoke to everyone in the same terms about his health, about her health and about the health of Her Majesty, which was now, thank God, better. All those who approached, out of decency, without showing haste, with a feeling of relief at the fulfillment of a difficult duty, walked away from the old woman, so as not to approach her once all evening.”

The assembled society “split into three circles. In one, more masculine, the center was the abbot; in the other, young one, there is the beautiful Princess Helen, the daughter of Prince Vasily, and the pretty, rosy-cheeked, too plump for her youth, little Princess Bolkonskaya. In the third - Mortemar and Anna Pavlovna.” Anna Pavlovna, “like the owner of a spinning workshop, having seated the workers in their places, walks around the establishment, noticing the immobility or the unusual, creaking sound of the spindle, hurriedly walks, restrains it or puts it into proper motion.”

It is no coincidence that L. Tolstoy compares the Scherer salon with a spinning workshop. This comparison very accurately conveys the true atmosphere of a “properly ordered” society. The workshop is about mechanisms. And the property of mechanisms is to perform a certain, initially specified function. Mechanisms cannot think or feel. They are just soulless executors of someone else's will. A significant portion of the salon's guests have the same mechanisms.