The conversation between Andrei and Pierre on the ferry is brief. Andrei Bolkonsky's date with Pierre Bezukhov in Bogucharovo
Throughout the entire novel, L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" one can observe in the main characters of the novel moments of finding the meaning of life, inspiration, approaching a simple, vital universal truth, as well as moments of confusion or alienation and disbelief in the power of life. One of these important moments for one of the main characters of the novel, Prince Andrei, is his conversation with Pierre on the ferry.
Before meeting Pierre, Prince Andrei was heartbroken by the death of his wife: “a being dear to you, who is connected with you, before whom you were guilty and hoped to justify yourself, suffers, is tormented and ceases to exist.” And his conscience torments him because he took his pregnant wife away from secular society, whom she loved so much, left her that she spent her last months in melancholy and without him. The prince is also annoyed by the fact that he did this out of a thirst for glory, wanting to quickly get into the thick of military events, that is, thinking about himself.
He realized his mistake already there, near Austerlitz, when he realized that what he craved was not worth it.
When disappointment in Napoleon came to him, when the ideal was debunked and Andrei saw French Emperor a small, vain, narcissistic person and, most importantly, small in front of the huge sky of Austerlitz. But the prince returns to his wife, as we know, too late. This terrible mistake changes Andrei, forcing him to be more cynical, he decides to live only for himself and for his family: “I know only two real misfortunes in life: remorse and illness. And happiness is only the absence of these two evils. Live for yourself, avoiding only these two evils, that is all my wisdom."
It would seem that there is absolutely no romanticism left in Andrei’s soul, but the prince still sighs when reading a letter from his father about military successes - perhaps he regrets that he is not there. And Princess Marya herself remarked afterwards that “he needs activity, and this one is smooth, quiet life destroys him." His "look was extinguished, dead, to which, despite the visible desire, Prince Andrei could not give a joyful, cheerful shine", in the same look Pierre would later see "concentration and depression" - Bolkonsky cannot mentally recover, way of life , the thoughts he has now chosen do not suit his nature, which desires love.This is how Pierre finds him.
In a conversation on the ferry, Prince Andrei says that, having faced death, the abyss, he now believes only in the concepts of life and death, that the same future life that the heroes spoke about earlier is in the abyss, in the emptiness, in the darkness, “nowhere” . But Pierre convinces Andrei that in this future life there is God, that “we must live, we must love, we must believe that we do not live now only on this piece of land, but have lived and will forever be there, in everything,” and points to the sky . These words and this gesture were decisive, because Prince Andrei himself already felt how beautiful this big and kind sky was, how extraterrestrial this feeling of unity with it was. Perhaps this conviction of Pierre that man is eternal, like the sky, inspired Prince Andrei, who after these words “sighed and looked at Pierre with a radiant, childish, tender gaze.”
In a conversation with Pierre, this desire to live, a feeling of the beauty of life, slowly awakens in Andrey. In addition, Pierre turned out to be the only person with whom Prince Andrei was able to have a frank conversation about his experiences and feelings, trusting Pierre as a good old friend. The opportunity to speak out about painful issues also played a role in Andrei’s inspiration, in his return to life, the heaviness from his experience was finally lifted from his heart, at least a little bit. And, most importantly, Andrei again sees “that high, eternal sky that he saw while lying on the Field of Austerlitz, and something that had long fallen asleep, the best that was in him, suddenly woke up joyfully and youthfully in his soul.” The image of the sky appears again, symbolizing open space, both external and internal, spiritual, therefore, ready to accept new feelings.
The author himself sums up the meeting of these two heroes: “The meeting with Pierre was for Prince Andrei an era that began, although in appearance the same, but in his inner world new life"The conversation on the ferry became another step for Prince Andrei on the path to inner development and finding spiritual harmony. Soon, thanks to this, Bolkonsky’s heart will become open again to new love, and for a new life.
Updated: 2018-12-21
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Teacher of Russian language and literature MBOU Emelyanovskaya secondary comprehensive school №3
P. Emelyanovo
Krasnoyarsk Territory
Kuznetsova Nina Vladimirovna
Lesson-research based on the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"
Lesson topic: Comparison of the description of the landscape with the moral experiences of Andrei Bolkonsky.
Lesson Objectives:
Educational:study of the connection between the state of nature and the hero’s experiences;
Developmental:understanding how L.N. Tolstoy, using the technique of psychological landscape, helps the reader to see the hero’s way out of the moral crisis.
Educational: formation of control and self-control skills.
Tasks:
1.Train benchmarking episode.
2. Strengthen the skills of research work with text.
3.Formate linguistic, linguistic, communicative competence.
Lesson type: a lesson in consolidating new knowledge.
Lesson type: mixed lesson
Methodical techniques:research work with the text, drawing up a comparative table, reading by role.
Term: psychological landscape.
Scenery(French locality) – a picture of nature in a work of art.
Epigraph for the lesson:
The purest joy is the joy of nature.
L.N. Tolstoy
During the classes.
1. Organizational moment.
State the topic and purpose of the lesson.
2. Teacher's word. Son of L.N. Tolstoy wrote, “...my father, like very few others, loved and felt the beauty of forests, fields, meadows, and the sky. He used to say:
“Nature is infinitely diverse; every day is different from the previous one, every year there is unexpected weather.”
Let's consider the importance of nature in people's lives from the point of view of L.N. Tolstoy:
The power of life, eternal renewal, beauty, poetry, greatness, eternity and infinity, “peace and harmony” - this is what the writer sees and appreciates in nature.
Nature helps a person find his place in life, teaches him to “live a common life.”
The writer’s use of pictures of nature always enriches the work in ideological and artistic terms. Landscape can perform a huge number of very diverse functions: it is indispensable for subtle psychological analysis the state of the characters, to enhance the pictures of any events, to vividly characterize the situation in which this or that action unfolds. Pictures of nature can serve to express any thought of the author or his feelings and experiences, fulfill an ideological and compositional role, that is, help to reveal the idea of the work. By the creation of a particular landscape, one can judge the author’s attitude towards his characters, his views on nature, its role in the life of society and man. Therefore, landscape is one of the means of psychological analysis. The depiction of nature in the novel “War and Peace” is realistic, accurate, expressive and poetic. It is shown in development, in movement: autumn (hunting scene), winter (Christmas time), spring (moonlit night, awakening oak).
For the author of the epic, nature is the highest wisdom, the personification of moral ideals and true values. A “natural” person, close to nature, was the writer’s ideal. Therefore, one of the important characteristics of Tolstoy’s heroes is their attitude towards nature.
In the novel “War and Peace” we never see Helen, Anna Pavlovna, Julie Kuragina, Prince Vasily in the lap of nature, since this is not their element. They don’t like nature and don’t understand its higher meaning. Spiritually devastated, morally ugly, if they speak about nature, it is in a strained and false way.
But the heroes of the novel, who are close to the writer’s ideal - the “natural man,” perceive this harmonious world completely differently. These are spiritually beautiful people, seeking happiness, internally close to the people, dreaming of useful activities. Their life path is the path of passionate quest leading to truth and goodness. Tolstoy reveals the richness of the inner world, the “dialectics of the soul” of these heroes through their perception of nature. Nature organically enters the life of Leo Tolstoy’s “searching” heroes, intertwines with their thoughts and experiences, and sometimes helps them rethink, reconsider their lives and even radically change it.
3. Presentation. Students discuss the concept: landscape. The psychological function of the landscape is that the picture of nature helps in revealing the inner world of the hero, creating a major or minor emotional atmosphere (sometimes contrasting with the emotional state of the character). Thus, Turgenev helps the reader understand that Bazarov’s strong nature is deeper than his superficial rationalistic and nihilistic views, accompanying the scene of Bazarov’s declaration of love with the charm of a “dark night.”
In Tolstoy's works, landscape becomes an important component in revealing the “dialectic of the soul” of the heroes.
Often the landscape expresses the author’s position, philosophical views writer. This is the image of the high sky that opened to Prince Andrey after being wounded in the Battle of Austerlitz. At the end of I. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco,” a blizzard rages around the giant ship with “mourning waves from silver foam” and humming, “like a funeral mass.” This landscape expresses Bunin’s thought about the doom of modern civilization, which has reached a dead end.
Plan for analyzing landscape in a literary work.
Indicate the place of the landscape in the composition and plot of the work.
Determine the function of the landscape (place and time of action, means of revealing the psychology of the hero, expression of the author’s worldview).
In whose perception the picture is given (of the impersonal author - narrator, narrator, hero), the way of relating to the hero: as an environment or as a horizon.
The degree of expansion or laconicism, detail or generality.
What is the overall emotional (tone) of the landscape.
Reveal the relationship between psychologism and visualization.
Analysis of space and time: dynamic or static picture; local or closed; color and sound details; details - leitmotifs or details - dominants.
The writer's skill in depicting nature: means of expression (epithets, metaphors, hyperboles, etc.) and rhythmic and intonation pattern (smooth, slow or, conversely, compressed, tense). Features of the syntactic structure of the text.
Correlate the nature and functions of the landscape with the general concept of the work, the author’s worldview, with the writer’s idea of harmony or disharmony of the social, eternal and historically specific, universal and individually unique, earthly and heavenly.
Teacher's word. L.N. Tolstoy often uses the landscape to analyze the mental state of Prince Andrei in moments of his mental depression or emotional takeoff.
Write down the question in your notebook: what is a psychological landscape?
You will answer this question at the end of the lesson.
4.What brought Prince Andrei into a depressed state.
Student message
Life mistakes, erroneous dreams, moral crisis of Andrei Bolkonsky:
1.He goes to the front, dreams of his Toulon (feat, glory). Disappointed in Napoleon, experiences the death of his wife. Everything that happened plunges Prince Andrei into a crisis, from which neither worries about his son Nikolai, nor the transformations that he makes on the Bogucharov estate (he was one of the first in Russia to abolish serfdom). Andrei Bolkonsky is haunted by guilt.
Who became Prince Andrei's assistant and interlocutor on the battlefield in the face of death?
2.Reading and analysis of textbook text pp. 287-288
Conclusion: The role of assistant and interlocutor belongs to the sky. His whole life is connected with the sky. It is his first assistant and comforter, it helps the writer show all the pettiness and ridiculousness of Prince Andrei’s dreams of glory, heroism... On the battlefield in the face of death, Prince Andrei realized that idols and glory are far from the true meaning of life. “There was nothing above him anymore except the sky - a high sky, not clear, but still immeasurably high, with gray clouds quietly creeping across it... Yes! everything is empty, everything is deception, except this endless sky. There's nothing, there's nothing buthis. But even that is not there, there is nothing but silence, calm. And thank God!" “How come I haven’t seen this high sky before? And how happy I am that I finally recognized him,” thinks Bolkonsky on the Austerlitz field. From then on, the truth that was revealed to him about living life, about the insignificance of Napoleon, became his guiding star. Prince Andrei no longer seeks to play an important role in politics, and does not connect his fate with a military career. Now seeing his idol Napoleon so close, Prince Andrei understands the insignificance of this “ little man”, which he imitated. All this is small and insignificant compared to what happens between his soul and this high sky. Andrey finds the true meaning of life in serving his family and raising his son. Prince Andrei believes that his life is over. There's no hope for happiness
5. Analysis of the episode “Conversation with Pierre on the ferry.”
The scene of Andrei Bolkonsky's conversation with Pierre on the ferry helps the hero feel that life is awakening in his soul. (Part 1, Chapter 12) Description of the sky.
How did Prince Andrei feel?
(“...something better that was in him suddenly woke up joyfully and youthfully in his soul.” “... in his inner world... new life...")
Working with the textbook. (pp. 288-289)
Conclusion: After a conversation with Pierre in Bogucharovo, Prince Andrei again seems to be consulting with heaven. “For the first time after Austerlitz, he saw that high, eternal sky that he had seen while lying on the Field of Austerlitz, and something that had long fallen asleep, something better that was in him, suddenly woke up joyfully and youthfully in his soul.The sky opens to Prince Andrei at the moment of a moral crisis, at the turning points of life, when nature helps him get out of the impasse.
6. The teacher's word. Analysis of episode part 3, chapter 1
Let's explore: in what mood does Prince Andrei Bolkonsky go to Otradnoye?
Description of oak
(Prince Andrei’s condition: he did not want to see either spring or the sun).
“It’s all a deception! There is no spring, no sun, no happiness.”, “...broken, skinned fingers” “... I don’t believe your hopes and deceptions.” “...yes, he’s right, this oak tree is right a thousand times... - our life is over.”
“...he didn’t have to start anything, that he should live out his life without doing evil, without worrying and without wanting anything.”
Work from the textbook p. 289.
Conclusion:As if echoing his thoughts, an old powerful oak tree stands in a blossoming birch grove. Its branches stick out in different directions, ugly against the background of young birch trees. The oak seems to say: “Spring, and love, and happiness! And how can you not get tired of the same stupid, senseless deception!.. There is no spring, no sun, no happiness...” “Yes, he is right, this oak tree is right a thousand times,” thought Prince Andrei, “let others , young people, are again succumbing to this deception, but we know life - our life is over!” He decides to live quietly and calmly, to live out his life, doing no harm to anyone, taking care of his loved ones, fulfilling his fatherly duty.
part 3, chapter 2
8.Episode analysis. Reading by roles. Scene " moonlit night"(part 3, chapter 2)
(L.N. Tolstoy shows people’s different attitudes towards nature: Natasha’s admiration for it and Sonya’s indifference. For him, one of the signs of a real person is the ability to feel and love nature).
(“Suddenly such an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes, contradictory to his whole life, arose in his soul”)
Comparison table. Research with text.
Description of Andrei Bolkonsky's condition
Description of oak
Let's look at the table. Comparison of the state of Prince Andrey and the state of nature.
What changed in the hero’s state during the second meeting with the oak tree?
Conclusion:But how radically Prince Andrei’s thoughts change after visiting Otradny and meeting Natasha. Her night conversation with Sonya, accidentally overheard by the prince, reveals to him the soul of this girl. Her enthusiasm and admiration for life are involuntarily transferred to Bolkonsky. He begins to understand the value of life, every moment of it. On the way back he sees the same oak tree, but what a one! “The old oak tree, completely transformed, spread out like a tent of lush, dark greenery, swayed slightly in the rays of the evening sun. No gnarled fingers, no sores, no old grief and mistrust - nothing was visible. “Yes, this is the same oak tree,” thought Prince Andrei, and suddenly an unreasonable spring feeling of joy and renewal came over him.”
His whole life flashes before the prince’s mind’s eye. He is sure that this is not the time to “bury” himself. He is full of strength, he is only thirty-one years old, he can benefit not only his loved ones, which is, of course, very important. Andrei understands that he is capable of great things, he can be useful to the Fatherland, there is no point in burying himself in the village, he must go to the capital, where political life takes place.
Life awakens in the oak tree, its branches are covered with young and lush greenery. Interest in life awakens in the soul of Prince Andrei. Nature revived him, made him live, renewed him, he understood the meaning of life, its purpose.
8. Lesson summary.
Tell me, what does psychological landscape mean?
-Like L.N. Tolstoy, using the technique of psychological landscape, helps us see the hero’s way out of the moral crisis?
Homework: learn by heart: description of oak;
definition of psychological landscape, mini-essay
Organization of work in groups.
Assignment for the 1st group of students
Message on the topic:
“Life mistakes, erroneous dreams, moral crisis of Andrei Bolkonsky.”
2. Read the episode and answer the question: What did heaven help Prince Andrei understand?
3.Read the text of the textbook pp. 287-288 from the words: “From the heights of the distant sky, where his sublime soul rushed ...”, to the words: “... it seems to the prince that his life is over at thirty-one years old.”
Assignment for the 2nd group of students
Read episode "Conversation with Pierre on the Ferry".(Part 1 Chapter 12)
Answer the question: What does the scene of the conversation with Pierre on the ferry help Prince Andrei feel?
2. Prepare an expressive reading of the description of the sky.
with the words: “However, let’s go sit down...”
3.Working with the textbook. (pp. 288-289)
From the words: “Pierre brings Andrei out of a difficult mental state...” To the words: “... suddenly joyful and youthful awakened in his soul.”
Assignment for the 3rd group of students.
1. Read episode part 3, chapter 1
The special skill of L.N. Tolstoy is manifested in the fact that the same person can experience the same picture of nature in different ways, being in different moods. The writer uses the technique of comparison.
2.Explore: in what mood does Prince Andrei Bolkonsky travel to Otradnoye?
Why did he pay attention to the oak tree?
What is Prince Andrey's state at the time of his first meeting with the oak tree?
3. Fill in the comparison table with examples from the text. Research work with text.
During the analysis of the episode, students fill out a comparison table:
Description of Andrei Bolkonsky's condition
Description of oak
Work from the textbook p. 289.
From the words: “And when Prince Andrei comes to Otradnoe...” to the words: “... awakened to rebirth by a meeting with Pierre.”
The author compares the description of an oak tree with “broken knots and broken bark, overgrown with old sores” with the mood of the hero, who is depressed and sad.
7.Episode analysis. The first meeting of Andrei Bolkonsky with Natasha Rostova.
part 3, chapter 2
Pay attention to the state and thoughts of Prince Andrei.
(“...Prince Andrei, sad and preoccupied...”, “And why is she happy...?”
What did Prince Andrei feel when he saw Natasha happy and contented?
Why did he “suddenly feel pain for some reason”?
Task for group 4
The special skill of L.N. Tolstoy is manifested in the fact that the same person can experience the same picture of nature in different ways, being in different moods. The writer uses the technique of comparison.
1. Prepare role reading. Scene “Moonlit Night” (Part 3, Chapter 2)
2. Answer the questions:
Who admires a moonlit night?
Who remains indifferent to the beauty of the night?
What role does Natasha and Sonya’s conversation on a moonlit night play?
What is the condition of Prince Andrei?
Fill in the comparison table with examples from the text. What changed in the hero’s state during the second meeting with the oak tree?
Research work with text.
Description of Andrei Bolkonsky's condition
Description of oak
Conversation between Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky on the ferry.
In the happiest state of mind, returning from his southern trip, Pierre fulfilled his long-standing intention - to call on his friend Bolkonsky, whom he had not seen for two years.
At the last station, having learned that Prince Andrei was not in Bald Mountains, but in his new separated estate, Pierre went to see him.
Bogucharovo lay in an ugly, flat area, covered with fields and felled and uncut spruce and birch forests. The manor's yard was located at the end of a straight line, along the main road of the village, behind a newly dug, full-filled pond, with the banks not yet overgrown with grass, in the middle of a young forest, between which stood several large pines.
The manor's courtyard consisted of a threshing floor, outbuildings, stables, a bathhouse, an outbuilding and a large stone house with a semicircular pediment, which was still under construction. A young garden was planted around the house. The fences and gates were strong and new; under the canopy stood two fire pipes and a barrel painted green; the roads were straight, the bridges were strong, with railings. Everything bore the imprint of neatness and thrift. The servants who met, when asked where the prince lived, pointed to a small new outbuilding standing at the very edge of the pond. Prince Andrei's old uncle, Anton, dropped Pierre out of the carriage, said that the prince was at home, and led him into a clean small hallway.
Pierre was struck by the modesty of the small, albeit clean, house after the brilliant conditions in which he last saw his friend in St. Petersburg. He hurriedly entered the still pine-smelling, unplastered small room and wanted to move on, but Anton tiptoed forward and knocked on the door.
- Well, what’s there? – a sharp, unpleasant voice was heard.
“Guest,” answered Anton.
“Ask me to wait,” and I heard a chair being pushed back. Pierre walked quickly to the door and came face to face with the frowning and aged Prince Andrei, who was coming out to him. Pierre hugged him and, raising his glasses, kissed him on the cheeks and looked at him closely.
“I didn’t expect it, I’m very glad,” said Prince Andrei. Pierre said nothing; He looked at his friend in surprise, without taking his eyes off. He was struck by the change that had taken place in Prince Andrei. The words were affectionate, a smile was on Prince Andrei’s lips and face, but his gaze was dull, dead, to which, despite his apparent desire, Prince Andrei could not give a joyful and cheerful shine. Not only did his friend become thinner, paler, and more mature; but this look and the wrinkle on his forehead, expressing long concentration on one thing, amazed and alienated Pierre until he got used to them.
On a date after long separation, as always happens, the conversation could not be established for a long time; they asked and answered briefly about things that they themselves knew should have been discussed at length. Finally, the conversation began to dwell little by little on what had been said fragmentarily before, on questions about past life, about plans for the future, about Pierre's travels, about his activities, about the war, etc. That concentration and depression that Pierre noticed in the look of Prince Andrei was now expressed even more strongly in the smile with which he listened to Pierre, especially then when Pierre spoke with animated joy about the past or the future. It was as if Prince Andrei wanted, but could not, take part in what he said. Pierre began to feel that enthusiasm, dreams, hopes for happiness and goodness in front of Prince Andrei were indecent. He was ashamed to express all his new, Masonic thoughts, especially those renewed and excited in him by his last journey. He restrained himself, was afraid to be naive; at the same time, he irresistibly wanted to quickly show his friend that he was now completely different, best Pierre than the one that was in St. Petersburg.
“I can’t tell you how much I experienced during this time.” I wouldn't recognize myself.
“Yes, we have changed a lot, a lot since then,” said Prince Andrei.
- Well, what about you? - asked Pierre. – What are your plans?
- Plans? – Prince Andrey repeated ironically. - My plans? - he repeated, as if surprised at the meaning of such a word. - Yes, you see, I’m building, I want to move completely by next year...
Pierre silently peered intently into Andrei's aged face.
“No, I’m asking,” said Pierre, but Prince Andrei interrupted him:
- But what can I say about me... tell me, tell me about your journey, about everything that you did there on your estates?
Pierre began to talk about what he had done on his estates, trying as much as possible to hide his participation in the improvements made by him. Prince Andrei several times suggested to Pierre what he was telling, as if everything that Pierre had done had happened a long time ago. famous story, and listened not only not with interest, but even as if ashamed of what Pierre was telling.
Pierre felt awkward and even difficult in the company of his friend. He fell silent.
“Well, here’s the thing, my soul,” said Prince Andrei, who, obviously, was also hard and shy with his guest, “I’m here in bivouacs, I came just to look.” And now I’m going back to my sister. I'll introduce you to them. “Yes, you seem to know each other,” he said, obviously entertaining the guest with whom he now felt nothing in common. - We'll go after lunch. Now do you want to see my estate? “They went out and walked around until lunch, talking about political news and mutual acquaintances, like people who are not very close to each other. With some animation and interest, Prince Andrei spoke only about the new estate and building he was organizing, but even here, in the middle of the conversation, on the stage, when Prince Andrei was describing to Pierre the future location of the house, he suddenly stopped. “However, there’s nothing interesting here, let’s go have lunch and leave.” “At dinner the conversation turned to Pierre’s marriage.
“I was very surprised when I heard about this,” said Prince Andrei.
Pierre blushed the same way he always blushed at this, and hastily said:
“I’ll tell you someday how it all happened.” But you know it's all over, and forever.
- Forever? - said Prince Andrei. – Nothing happens forever.
– But do you know how it all ended? Have you heard about the duel?
- Yes, you went through that too.
“The one thing I thank God for is that I didn’t kill this man,” said Pierre.
- From what? - said Prince Andrei. – It’s even very good to kill an angry dog.
- No, killing a person is not good, it’s unfair...
- Why is it unfair? – repeated Prince Andrei. – What is fair and unfair is not given to people to judge. People have always been mistaken and will continue to be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider just and unjust.
“It is unfair that there is evil for another person,” said Pierre, feeling with pleasure that for the first time since his arrival, Prince Andrei became animated and began to speak and wanted to express everything that made him what he was now.
– Who told you what evil is for another person? - he asked.
- Evil? Evil? - said Pierre. – We all know what evil is for ourselves.
“Yes, we know, but the evil that I know for myself, I cannot do to another person,” said Prince Andrei, becoming more and more animated, apparently wanting to express to Pierre his new view of things. He spoke French. – Je ne connais dans la vie que maux bien réels: c’est le remord et la maladie. Il n'est de bien que l'absence de ces maux. To live for yourself, avoiding only these two evils, that is all my wisdom now.
– What about love for one’s neighbor, and self-sacrifice? - Pierre spoke. - No, I cannot agree with you! To live only in such a way as not to do evil, so as not to repent, this is not enough. I lived like this, I lived for myself and ruined my life. And only now, when I live, at least try (Pierre corrected himself out of modesty) to live for others, only now I understand all the happiness of life. No, I don’t agree with you, and you don’t mean what you say. “Prince Andrei silently looked at Pierre and smiled mockingly.
“You’ll see your sister, Princess Marya.” You’ll get along with her,” he said. “Perhaps you are right for yourself,” he continued, after a brief silence, “but everyone lives in their own way: you lived for yourself and you say that you almost ruined your life by doing this, and you only knew happiness when you began to live for others.” But I experienced the opposite. I lived for fame. (After all, what is glory? the same love for others, the desire to do something for them, the desire for their praise.) So I lived for others and not almost, but completely ruined my life. And since then I have become calm, as if I live for myself.
- How can you live for yourself? – Pierre asked, getting excited. – What about your son, sister, father?
“Yes, it’s still the same me, it’s not others,” said Prince Andrei, “but others, neighbors, le prochain, as you and Princess Marya call it, is the main source of error and evil. Le prochain are those Kyiv men of yours to whom you want to do good.
And he looked at Pierre with a mockingly defiant gaze. He apparently called Pierre.
“You’re kidding,” Pierre said, becoming more and more animated. - What kind of error and evil can there be in the fact that I wanted (very little and poorly fulfilled), but wanted to do good, and at least did something? What evil can it be that unfortunate people, our men, people just like us, growing up and dying without another concept of God and truth, like an image and meaningless prayer, will be taught in the comforting beliefs of a future life, retribution, reward, consolation ? What evil and delusion is it that people die from illness without help, when it is so easy to help them financially, and I will give them a doctor, and a hospital, and a shelter for an old man? And isn’t it a tangible, undoubted blessing that a man, a woman and a child have no rest day and night, and I will give them rest and leisure?.. - said Pierre, hurrying and lisping. “And I did it, at least poorly, at least a little, but I did something for this, and not only will you not disbelieve me that what I did is good, but you will also not disbelieve me, so that you yourself do not think so.” . “And most importantly,” Pierre continued, “I know this, and I know it correctly, that the pleasure of doing this good is the only true happiness in life.
“Yes, if you put the question like that, then that’s a different matter,” said Prince Andrei. - I build a house, plant a garden, and you are a hospital. Both can serve as a pastime. But what is fair, what is good - leave it to the one who knows everything, and not to us, to judge. Well, you want to argue,” he added, “come on.” “They left the table and sat on the porch, which served as a balcony.
“Well, let’s argue,” said Prince Andrei. “You say schools,” he continued, bending his finger, “teachings and so on, that is, you want to take him out of his animal state and give him moral needs,” he said, pointing to a man who took off his hat and walked past them. . But it seems to me that the only possible happiness is animal happiness, and you want to deprive it of it. I envy him, and you want to make him me, but without giving him my mind, my feelings, or my means. Another thing you say is to make his job easier. But in my opinion, physical labor is the same necessity for him, the same condition of his existence, as mental labor is for you and me. You can't help but think. I go to bed at three o’clock, thoughts come to me, and I can’t sleep, I toss and turn, I don’t sleep until the morning because I’m thinking and I can’t help but think, just as he can’t help but plow and mow; otherwise he will go to the tavern or become ill. Just as I cannot bear his terrible physical labor and die in a week, so he cannot bear my physical idleness, he will get fat and die. Third, what else did you say?
Prince Andrey bent his third finger.
- Oh yes. Hospitals, medicines. He has a stroke, he dies, and you bleed him, cure him, he will be crippled for ten years, a burden for everyone. It is much calmer and easier for him to die. Others will be born, and there are so many of them. If you were sorry that your extra worker was missing, the way I look at him, otherwise you want to treat him out of love for him. But he doesn't need that. And besides, what kind of imagination is there that medicine has ever cured anyone... Kill! - So! - he said, frowning angrily and turning away from Pierre.
Prince Andrei expressed his thoughts so clearly and distinctly that it was clear that he had thought about this more than once, and he spoke willingly and quickly, like a man who had not spoken for a long time. His gaze became more animated the more hopeless his judgments were.
- Oh, this is terrible, terrible! - said Pierre. “I just don’t understand how you can live with such thoughts.” The same moments came over me, it happened recently, in Moscow and on the road, but then I sink to such a degree that I don’t live, everything is disgusting to me, most importantly, myself. Then I don’t eat, I don’t wash... well, what about you...
“Why not wash your face, it’s not clean,” said Prince Andrei. – On the contrary, you should try to make your life as pleasant as possible. I live and this is not my fault, therefore, I need to live until death somehow better, without disturbing anyone.
– But what motivates you to live? With such thoughts you will sit motionless, doing nothing.
– Life doesn’t leave you alone anyway. I would be glad to do nothing, but, on the one hand, the nobility here has awarded me the honor of being elected leader; I got away with violence. They could not understand that I did not have what was needed, that I did not have that well-known good-natured and concerned vulgarity that was needed for this. Then there was this house that had to be built in order to have our own corner where we could be calm. Now the militia.
– Why don’t you serve in the army?
- After Austerlitz! - Prince Andrey said gloomily. - No, I humbly thank you, I promised myself that I would not serve in the active Russian army. And I will not. If Bonaparte had stood here, near Smolensk, threatening the Bald Mountains, then I would not have served in the Russian army. Well, that’s what I told you,” Prince Andrei continued, calming down. “Now the militia, father, is the commander-in-chief of the third district, and the only way for me to get rid of service is to be with him.”
- So you are serving?
- I serve. – He was silent for a moment.
- So why do you serve?
- But why? My father is one of the most wonderful people of his century. But he is getting old, and he is not only cruel, but he is too active. He is terrible for his habit of unlimited power and now this power given by the sovereign to the commander-in-chief over the militia. If I had been two hours late two weeks ago, he would have hanged the protocol officer in Yukhnov,” said Prince Andrei with a smile. “So I serve because, besides me, no one has influence on my father, and here and there I will save him from an act from which he would suffer later.”
- Oh, well, you see!
“Yes, mais ce n’est pas comme vous l’entendez,” continued Prince Andrei. “I did not and do not wish the slightest good to this bastard protocol officer who stole some boots from the militia; I would even be very pleased to see him hanged, but I feel sorry for my father, that is, again for myself.
Prince Andrei became more and more animated. His eyes sparkled feverishly as he tried to prove to Pierre that his actions never contained a desire for good to his neighbor.
“Well, you want to free the peasants,” he continued. - This is very good; but not for you (you, I think, did not detect anyone and did not send them to Siberia) and even less for the peasants. If they are beaten, flogged and sent to Siberia, then I think that it is no worse for them. In Siberia he leads the same bestial life, and the scars on his body will heal, and he is as happy as he was before. And this is necessary for those people who are perishing morally, making repentance for themselves, suppressing this repentance and becoming rude because they have the opportunity to execute right or wrong. This is who I feel sorry for and for whom I would like to free the peasants. You may not have seen it, but I saw how good people, brought up in these traditions of unlimited power, over the years, when they become more irritable, they become cruel, rude, they know it, they cannot resist and they become more and more unhappy.
Prince Andrei said this with such enthusiasm that Pierre involuntarily thought that these thoughts were suggested to Andrei by his father. He didn't answer him.
- So this is who and what you feel sorry for - human dignity, peace of conscience, purity, and not their backs and foreheads, which, no matter how much you cut, no matter how much you shave, will still remain the same backs and foreheads.
- No, no, and a thousand times no! “I will never agree with you,” said Pierre.
Bolkonsky
The reader first meets this hero in St. Petersburg in the living room of Anna Pavlovna Sherer with her pregnant wife Lisa. After the dinner party, he goes to his father in the village. Leaves his wife there in the care of her father and younger sister Marya. Sent to the war of 1805 against Napoleon as Kutuzov's adjutant. Participates in the Battle of Austerlitz, in which he was wounded in the head. Upon arriving home, Andrei finds his wife Lisa giving birth.
Having given birth to her son Nikolenka, Lisa dies. Prince Andrei blames himself for being cold with his wife and not paying her due attention. After a long depression, Bolkonsky falls in love with Natasha Rostova. He offers her his hand and heart, but at the insistence of his father postpones their marriage for a year and leaves abroad. Shortly before his return, Prince Andrei receives a letter of refusal from his bride. The reason for the refusal is Natasha’s affair with Anatoly Kuragin. This turn of events becomes a heavy blow for Bolkonsky. He dreams of challenging Kuragin to a duel. To drown out the pain of disappointment in the woman he loves, Prince Andrei devotes himself entirely to service.
Participates in the War of 1812 against Napoleon. During the Battle of Borodino he received a shrapnel wound in the stomach. While moving, the wounded man accidentally meets the Rostov family, and they take charge of him. Natasha, never ceasing to blame herself for cheating on her fiance and realizing that she still loves him, asks for forgiveness from Andrei, in the Rostovs’ house
Dreams and ideals
Looking for his Toulon; wants national fame and recognition; his idol is Napoleon.
To achieve my goal I am ready to sacrifice
“...Father, wife, sister are the people dearest to me... I will give them all now for a moment of glory, triumph over people.” “Death, wounds, loss of family, I’m not afraid of anything.”
Appearance
“Prince Bolkonsky was small in stature, a very handsome young man with definite and dry features”
The best moments of life
What changes in the hero
Sky near Austerlitz
He begins to understand the insignificance of Napoleon’s “petty vanity” in comparison with that “high, fair and kind sky that he saw and understood.”
The prince realized the great truth - life is an absolute value. I felt my connection with infinity: “Nothing is true except the insignificance of everything that is clear to me, and the greatness of something incomprehensible, but most important.”
Discovering the wealth of peaceful life
Returning from French captivity, Bolkonsky learns about the death of his wife. The “dead, reproachful face” of the little princess will forever remain in his memory. From this moment on, Prince Andrei will be tormented by thoughts of the neglect with which he treated his wife, he will understand and realize the value of family happiness, the joy of everyday life among family members: father, sister, son Nikolenka.
The prince repents of his ambitious dreams, the natural needs of love and goodness rise in his soul.
Meeting with Pierre in Bogucharovo
“The meeting with Pierre was for Prince Andrei the era from which, although in appearance the same, but in the inner world, his new life began.” Pierre “infects” Prince Andrei with his faith in people, in life not only earthly, but also eternal, in God.
Prince Andrei accepts some of Pierre's beliefs, which have a beneficial effect on Bolkonsky. Now the prince can admit to himself: “How happy and calm I would be if I could now say: “Lord, have mercy on me.”
Meeting with Natasha Rostova in Otradnoye
Returns to “living life”, begins to feel the joy of communicating with big world, people. In this state, Prince Andrei hurries to enter the spheres close to him government activities, agrees with Speransky.
Natasha's emotionality, her sincerity and delight give impetus to the prince's spiritual rebirth.
Love for Natasha Rostova
He changes his attitude towards Speransky, whom he has already begun to reverence as an idol, and notices in himself a disdain for the business in which he had previously been so interested: “Can this make me happier and better?”
The prince becomes happier and better from the feeling that Natasha Rostova awakens in his soul
Participation in the War of 1812 In the army, the prince becomes a caring and attentive commander. He refuses the offer to serve in the army headquarters; he is not concerned about dreams of personal glory. The soldiers call him “our prince.”
During the Battle of Borodino, Bolkonsky fulfills his duty; he is driven not by the desire for personal glory, but by the officer’s sense of honor, hatred of the enemy who ruined him native land, his Bald Mountains.
Forgiveness of Anatoly Kuragin Having seen how Anatoly Kuragin’s leg was amputated, the prince experienced sincere sympathy for the pain and suffering of this man: “The flower of love blossomed in the spring, free, independent of this life...”
Revival of love for Natasha Rostova After a serious injury, she experiences a passionate desire to live. It is at these moments that his love for Natasha Rostova returns to him. But this is a different feeling: “...he imagined her soul for the first time. For the first time I understood the cruelty of breaking up with her.”
Death of Andrei Bolkonsky
“The more he, in those hours of suffering solitude and semi-delirium that he spent after his wound, thought about a new, open beginning eternal love Moreover, without feeling it himself, he renounced earthly life. To love everyone, to always sacrifice oneself for love, meant not loving anyone, it meant not living this earthly life.”
The fate of Andrei Bolkonsky is the path of a man who makes mistakes and is able to atone for his guilt, striving for moral perfection. Initiation of the feeling of eternal love revived the strength of spirit in Prince Andrei, and he accomplished the most difficult thing, according to Tolstoy, - he died calmly and with dignity. And death became the “moment of truth” of his life.
Stages in the development of the personality of Andrei Bolkonsky
Battle of Austerlitz
Prince Andrei’s participation in the war of 1805 is connected with his ambitious dreams of glory, of his “Toulon”. A passion for Napoleon was characteristic of many representatives of the progressive noble youth early XIX century. But Andrei thirsted not only for personal glory, but also for happiness for people. Tolstoy singles him out from the crowd of staff careerists (such as Zherkov and Drubetskoy). Overcoming the “Napoleonic” beginning, the desire to become higher than the people around him, ends this stage in Andrei’s life. The sky of Austerlitz helped Prince Andrey understand that both his admiration for Napoleon and his dream of becoming the savior of the Russian army were just a delusion.
Meeting with Pierre and Natasha
Disappointed in his former ideals, having experienced the grief of loss and repentance, Prince Andrei is confident that he has understood what happiness lies in: the absence of illness and remorse. But Pierre (in an argument on the ferry) proves to him that one must believe in the goodness and high destiny of man. And the meeting with Natasha saves Prince Andrei from a spiritual crisis, awakens in him love and the desire to live.
IN Patriotic War In 1812, the fate of the prince merged for the first time with the fate of the people. He returns to the army, overcome by the same feeling of offended national pride that leads ordinary Russian soldiers into battle. In the Battle of Borodino (unlike the Battle of Austerlitz), the prince accomplishes a real moral feat, achieves harmony with himself and understands that the main purpose of man is to serve the interests of his native people.
Prince Andrei dies from a wound received on the Borodino field. Tolstoy reconciles him not only with Natasha, but with the entire world, including the wounded Anatoly Kuragin. The writer put into the image of Prince Andrei his cherished thought that life is governed only by love and kindness, and without them neither true perfection nor deliverance from torment and contradictions is possible.
"War and Peace" is one of those great works that you can reflect on endlessly, as Tolstoy examines human life from different angles. This novel raises highly moral issues that concern people in conditions of war and peace.
A feature of Tolstoy’s epic novel is the so-called “episode nature”. The author seems to give separate pictures in the mass of events. Changing episodes is similar to changing frames in a movie - this achieves the integrity of the entire work. All episodes of “War and Peace” are not random; each of them provides a characterization of either a hero, or a political situation, or war and military actions. This creates the vitality and realism of the novel.
I would like to dwell in more detail on the episode in which Pierre Bezukhov comes to Bogucharovo to visit his friend Andrei Bolkonsky. This episode is key to understanding life principles heroes, their positions and aspirations. Returning from a southern trip, Pierre Bezukhov fulfills his “long-standing intention - to call on his friend Bolkonsky, whom he has not seen for two years.”
At first, the meeting between the two men was cold, “the conversation could not be established for a long time,” but a conversation began between the interlocutors about what evil is and what its meaning is. According to Andrei Bolkonsky, “there are only two real misfortunes in life: remorse and illness, and happiness is only the absence of these two evils.” You need to live for yourself and try to avoid these phenomena.
Pierre does not accept this idea: “To live only in such a way as not to do evil, so as not to repent, this is not enough. I lived like this, I lived for myself and ruined my life. And only now, when I live, or at least try to live for others, only now I understand all the happiness of life.”
Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre do not understand each other when Bezukhov says that one should help one’s neighbors, people who are poor and suffering. What does it matter when a person can do something to another, but does not? And the main pleasure is “to do good, for good is the only true happiness in life.” Andrei Bolkonsky, reflecting on this idea, comes to a completely different conclusion, which completely contradicts Pierre's reasoning. Bolkonsky is confident that “the only possible happiness is animal happiness,” which a man possesses, and which can be deprived by giving these “happy” people moral needs.
In this episode, Andrei appears as a more unhappy person than people who suffer need. “I live and it’s not my fault, therefore, I need to live until I die somehow better, without interfering with anyone,” - here Bolkonsky’s skepticism and rejection of reality is manifested. According to this hero, people whose existence is meaningless and bestial cannot evoke pity. These people are not worthy of attention; here we cannot talk about good and evil in general, because a man does not know how to think, and therefore, truly suffer. You need to turn only to those people “who are perishing morally, making repentance for themselves, suppressing this repentance and becoming rude because they have the opportunity to execute right or wrong.”
Andrey does not see the true meaning of life, this is his tragedy. He doesn’t understand everything that Pierre says. Bezukhov realizes that Bolkonsky is deeply unhappy and wants to help him. Andrei's soul does not want to accept the truth of Pierre, who feels that “there is a kingdom of truth throughout the world.” This kingdom is omnipresent, and its name is God. “If there is a God and there is a future life, then there is truth, there is virtue; and man's highest happiness consists in striving to achieve them. You have to live, you have to love, you have to believe,” says Pierre. Bezukhov’s emotional mood nevertheless changed Andrei’s internal state, drowning out the pain of Bolkonsky, who had been trying to deny life itself for a long time: “...Coming off the ferry, he looked at the sky, which Pierre pointed out to him, and for the first time after Austerlitz he saw that high , the eternal sky, which he saw while lying on the Field of Austerlitz, and something that had long fallen asleep, something better that was in him, suddenly woke up joyfully and youthfully in his soul.”
In my opinion, the words of Pierre Bezukhov also reveal author's position, because L.N. Tolstoy saw happiness in life itself and in every moment - a step towards truth and towards God. This episode is not at all accidental in the novel. The state in which Bolkonsky finds himself after Austerlitz greatly oppresses him and does not give him any repose; he abandons past ideals and aspirations, but does not acquire new ones. Hence his deep disappointment in life.
The meeting with Bezukhov to some extent changes his passive attitude towards the world around him: “The meeting with Pierre was for Prince Andrei the era from which, although in appearance it was the same, but in the inner world his new life began.”
