Artistic means of depicting the inner world of a person in L. Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace. Artistic features of L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” The artistic principle of the epic novel War and Peace
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Genre
Work of Tolstoy combines features novel And epics.
As you know, the novel is based on the fate before total individual , and in the epic fate is comprehended a whole people. Tolstoy combined the features of both genres in his work.
The main thing in Tolstoy's work is heroic theme of the people. It is she who defines the meaning of “War and Peace” as epics. Recreation of grandiose historical events, pictures of great battles, especially the Battle of Borodino, majestic landscape, extensive historical and philosophical digressions of the author reveal the features of “War and Peace” as epics.
"War and Peace" carries traditions works ancient Russian literature, in particular military story. The motive of a nationwide feat in the name of saving the Russian land brings Tolstoy's work closer to The Tale of Igor's Campaign.
Moscow theme also appears in War and Peace as epic theme. Tolstoy's work reflects the people's attitude towards Moscow as the heart of Russia.
At the same time, it is important for Tolstoy the novelist to comprehend formation and development of the personalities of individual characters in their independent existence.
Distinctive feature "War and Peace" as a novel lies in the fact that it has not one or two main characters, but many heroes connected by personal destinies.
"War and Peace" has features historical novel . Here we talk about real historical events and faces. Originality"War and Peace" is that paintings from the era of the Napoleonic wars are not in the background narratives, and an independent element of the composition. Let us remember the meaning of the images of Kutuzov, Bagration, Napoleon, Alexander I.
"War and Peace" also has features family romance . It tells family stories Rostov, Bolkonsky, Kuragin.
Also, this is a novel philosophical, in which Tolstoy comprehends the most general questions (life and death, the meaning of human existence, philosophy of history).
L.N. Tolstoy himself called the principle of depicting the characters’ characters «
dialectic of the soul."
Personal in relation to the heroes is that
- change, improve, strive for an unattainable ideal,
- Least favorite heroes are static.
As a means of revealing the characters of the heroes of the novel “War and Peace,” the writer, in addition to the expressed author’s position, also uses a number of artistic techniques.
Artistic means of revealing characters in a novel
Portraits of the novel's heroes
In the portrait of his heroes, Tolstoy emphasizes one recurring detail: the thickness of Pierre, the marbling of Helen’s shoulders, the radiant eyes of Princess Marya, the trembling of Napoleon’s thighs, the decrepitude of Kutuzov...
Tolstoy is not afraid to show the ugliness of his heroes. Natasha can
"to loosen your big mouth, becoming completely bad"
Princess Marya's ugliness is constantly set off by her radiant eyes. In moments of great upheaval, transformation can occur to the characters. Describing the meeting of Natasha and Andrei in Mytishchi, Tolstoy writes that his face was scary for Rostova, but at the same time the most beautiful feelings unite the heroes. When Princess Marya fell in love with Nikolai Rostov,
“for the first time, all that pure spiritual inner work with which she had lived until now came out”:
the heroine’s appearance becomes beautiful: chesty feminine notes appear, femininity and grace are manifested in her movements.
Characteristics
Another hero can give a characterization of a particular character. So, Pierre thinks about Helen:
“Elena Vasilievna, who has never loved anything except her body, and one of the stupidest women in the world, appears to people as the height of perfection, and they worship her.”
The author himself can highlight the dominant character.
“The essence of her life—love—is still alive in her,”
- Tolstoy says about Natasha.
Tolstoy, explaining the mistakes of his heroes (Pierre, Natasha), each time speaks about an intuitive feeling of something bad, repeats words synonyms: “disgusting”, “forbidden”, “unnatural”, “dishonest”, “something indecent”, "indecent intent."
Contrast like artistic medium in the novel "War and Peace"
One of Tolstoy’s favorite techniques for revealing the characters of his heroes is contrast.
So, at the reception of contrast, there is a description of Natasha Rostova’s first ball, when her living, pure beauty is compared with the marble beauty of Helen and contrasted with her, like true - false. The images of Kutuzov and Napoleon appear as antagonists in the novel (see:).
Nature in revealing characters
The character of the hero is also determined by his ability to feel.
This ability is possessed by:
- Prince Andrey (sky of Austerlitz, oak on the road to Otradnoye),
- Pierre (starry sky),
- Natasha (night in Otradnoye)
- all the writer’s favorite heroes. The dialogue between Natasha and Sonya at night in Otradnoye is based on contrast. The charm of a summer night is alien to Sonya.
Speeches of heroes as characteristics
The speech of the character himself can also serve as his characteristic. The order of the old Prince Bolkonsky to his son before leaving for the army speaks of high moral requirements for noble honor and service to the Motherland, of hidden love for his son, of concern for his fate:
“Remember one thing, Prince Andrei: if they kill you, it will hurt me, an old man... and if I find out that you did not behave like the son of Nikolai Bolkonsky, I will be... ashamed!”
Comparison as a tool
Often, the writer uses comparisons to characterize the hero or his condition:
“he always spoke lazily, like an actor speaking the role of an old play”
(about Prince Vasily Kuragin),
An evening at Anna Pavlovna Scherer's is compared to a spinning workshop, in which
“spindles made noise evenly and incessantly from different sides,”
about Pierre's condition:
“It was as if the main screw on which his whole life was held had turned in his head.”
Description as a technique for revealing the characters of War and Peace
Important events in the hero's life can be commented on through the episode description. About Prince Andrei:
“A new, gratifying and calming feeling came over him when, looking at these girls, he realized the existence of other, completely alien to him and just as legitimate human interests as those that occupied him.”
When describing the character of the hero and his actions, the author's irony may appear, as, for example, when describing the behavior of Prince Vasily when Kutuzov was appointed commander-in-chief.
Showing the dialectic of the soul of his heroes, Tolstoy allows us to penetrate into the aspirations, experiences, and essence of the actions of people whose lives are separated from ours by almost two hundred centuries.
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Class: 10
Lesson objectives:
- Help students determine the main method of constructing an epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace".
- Develop the skill of analyzing an epic work.
- Cultivate interest in the subject.
Equipment:
- silhouette of L.N.'s face Tolstoy, cut from white paper;
- place the word “clutch” in the center of the board, attach a question mark just above it (where the topic of the lesson is usually written);
- texts of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace".
Advance task for the lesson:
Find statements from literary scholars about the composition of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace".
Lesson progress
I. Goal setting.
Who can answer the question: what technique (principle) underlies the construction of L.N.’s novel? Tolstoy's "War and Peace" at all individual levels (thematic level, level of individual episodes, scenes, detailed level, figurative, etc.)?
Are you silent? Not a single hand? Well done! And there’s nothing wrong with that, because no one will answer – neither you nor me. Let's think and reflect together. Write down the topic... Although not. We will write down the topic at the end of the lesson, formulating it together based on an analysis of the literary material.
So, during the lesson we will have to answer the question: what technique underlies the construction of the novel “War and Peace”? To help you somehow, I want to give you a little hint. The key word for today's lesson should be the word " clutch"(pay attention to the board).
II. Motivation of students (introduction to the topic of the lesson, the mood for serious work).
“Printing a work for which I have devoted four years of incessant labor under the best living conditions and the best period of life, I would like readers to receive at least a small share of the pleasure that I experienced during this work,” wrote the author of “War and Peace” .
Every responsive reader can fulfill the author’s wishes without setting himself any study goals. But “War and Peace,” starting from the title, leads the reader into such vast spaces, draws him into such an unstoppable flow of life that he inevitably becomes a researcher. Humanity has books in its great literatures that rise like the greatest peaks of the Earth. Climbing to these heights, where hundreds of millions have already been, is an untrodden path for everyone. This test is necessary and desired, an anxious and - let's believe - happy test of oneself.
III. Checking homework.
In the novel, Tolstoy traces the fates of individual characters and the fates of entire families. His characters are connected by family, friendship, love relationship. The writer constantly transfers the action from one place to another. The novel develops many plot lines.
Let's listen to what famous literary scholars say about the composition of an epic novel. Maybe these statements will help us get closer to the answer to the question (we present only some statements).
Already the first readers of the novel “War and Peace” were amazed by the perfection of its composition. Here, for example, is what N.N. said. Strakhov: “What a bulk and what harmony! No literature presents us with anything like this. Thousands of people, all possible spheres of government and privacy, history, war, all the horrors that exist on earth, all passions, all moments human life, from the cry of a newborn child to the last flash of feeling of a dying old man, all the joys and sorrows available to a person, all kinds of emotional moods, from the feelings of a thief who stole chervonets from his comrade, to the highest movements of heroism and thoughts of inner enlightenment - everything is in this book. Meanwhile, not a single figure obscures another, not a single scene, not a single impression interferes with other scenes and impressions, everything is in place, everything is clear, everything is divided and everything is in harmony with each other and with the whole. Such a miracle in art, moreover, a miracle achieved by the most by simple means, has never happened in the world." (N.N. Strakhov. “War and Peace.” Work by Count L.N. Tolstoy. 1869).
"Continuity plot development, plot flow is the basic principle of the composition of “War and Peace”. The narrative form holds all the episodes together and cements the entire composition. This is the foundation on which the entire work is built.” (A.A. Saburov. “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy. Problematics and Poetics. 1959).
“The episodes of War and Peace are connected among themselves primarily not by the unity of action, in which the same characters participate, as in an ordinary novel; these connections are secondary in nature and are themselves determined by another, more hidden, internal connection. From the point of view of the poetics of the novel, the action in War and Peace is very unfocused and uncollected. It diverges into different sides, develops in parallel lines; the internal connection that constitutes the “basis of cohesion” lies in the situation, the basic situation of human life, which Tolstoy reveals in its most diverse manifestations and events.” (S. Bocharov. L. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”. 1978).
“Of course, this is not a fresco, and if we stick to comparisons from the same series, “War and Peace” is rather a mosaic in which each pebble sparkles on its own and is included in the brilliance of the entire composition.” (P. Weil, A. Genis. Native speech. 1995).
As we can see, in all studies devoted to “War and Peace” attention is drawn to the complexity and at the same time harmony of the composition. And in one of the excerpts from critical works the children read, our word flashed through - the clue “clutch”. Let us also try to open up at least a little and enter into the secrets of Tolstoy’s stylistics.
IV. Analysis of literary material.
First training situation.
In the first chapters, Tolstoy, it would seem, calmly and leisurely describes a social evening that has no direct relation to everything that happens next. But here - unbeknownst to us - all the “threads” are tied, storylines(SL).
Identify these lines, themes - there are about a dozen of them. Reflecting on them, we can see one of the already mentioned compositional foundations of the novel - what Tolstoy called “cohesion.” (Students draw up their answers schematically in their notebooks, leaving space for writing down the topic and drawing up a diagram of “links”).
Here are possible student answers.
Pierre looks at the beautiful Helen for the first time with “almost frightened, enthusiastic eyes,” “when she passed by him.”
SL: Pierre – Hélène
Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya comes here to place her son in a warm place in the guard. “The elderly lady bore the name of Princess Drubetskaya, one of best names Russia, but she was poor, had long since left the world and had lost her former connections. She has now come to secure a placement in the guard for her only son.”
SL: Boris Drubetskoy, careerism in the army, “true” and “false” warriors
Here Pierre makes one incivility after another and, leaving, is going to put on the general’s cocked hat instead of his hat. “... he (Pierre), as they say, did not know how to enter the salon and even less knew how to leave it, that is, before leaving, say something especially pleasant. Besides, he was distracted. Getting up, instead of his hat, he grabbed a triangular hat with a general's plume and held it, pulling the plume...
- Well, have you finally decided to do something? Will you be a cavalry guard or a diplomat? – asked Prince Andrei after a moment of silence.
Pierre sat down on the sofa, tucking his legs under him.
– You can imagine, I still don’t know. I don’t like either one.”
SL: Pierre and the search for a place in life
Here it becomes clear that Prince Andrei does not love his wife and did not know yet true love, - she can come to him at her own hour, much later, when he meets and appreciates Natasha. “He apparently not only knew everyone in the living room, but was already so tired of him that he found it very boring to look at them and listen to them. Of all the faces that bored him, the face of his pretty wife seemed to bore him the most. With a grimace that spoiled him beautiful face, he turned away from her.”
SL: Prince Andrey and finding the meaning of life
Here they decide to marry Anatole to Princess Marya. "Have you ever thought about marrying your prodigal son Anatolya... I have onepetitapersonne, who is very unhappy with her father, is a girl... our relative, Princess Bolkonskaya. “Prince Vasily did not answer, although with the quickness of thought and memory characteristic of secular people, a movement of his head showed that he had taken this information into consideration.”
SL: Bolkonskie and Kuragin
“... Austria has never wanted and does not want war. She's betraying us. Russia alone must be the savior of Europe.”
“The main theme of the novel is “people's thought”, Russia is a liberator.
“...I often think how unfairly the happiness of life is sometimes distributed.” (Anna Pavlovna Sherer).
The theme of happiness in human life.
“You know, my husband is leaving me... He is going to his death. Tell me why this nasty war is happening.”
The theme of war as an anti-human phenomenon, the continuation and development of the theme stated in “Sevastopol Stories”, etc.
Now read the concluding phrase of Chapter IV of Part I of Volume I. (“…when and where will I see someone…”).
See how this relates to our keyword. Themes, ideas, plot lines, stated literally in the first lines of the novel, will develop, intersect, and reveal themselves in the future. This means that we can conclude that coupling occurs, as the examples you gave show, at several levels. Which ones? (thematic level, hero level). Let's fill out our diagram (teacher on the board, children in notebooks).
But there are other levels in the work. Is it possible to find “clutches” there? Let's look for the answer together.
Second training situation.
The class is divided into three groups and completes one of the tasks below.
- Episode “Salon A.P. Scherer” is “linked” (using Tolstoy’s own word, denoting the internal connection of individual paintings) with a description (Chapter VI) of the entertainment of St. Petersburg’s “golden” youth. What is the point of describing youth? ( This is “salon stiffness” in reverse. This description complements the characteristics of a secular society).
- Episode “Salon A.P. Scherer" is linked by contrast (characteristic compositional technique) with the episode “Name Day at the Rostovs” (chap. XIV-XVII, part I, vol. I). How is the atmosphere in the Rostovs’ house different from the atmosphere in A.P.’s salon? Scherer? How are the young Rostovs contrasted with the St. Petersburg “golden youth”?
- Episode “Salon A.P. Scherer" and the episode "Name Day at the Rostovs" are in turn linked to last chapters the first part, depicting the Bolkonsky family nest (chap. XXII-XXV). Try to establish an internal connection between these episodes. How do the atmosphere and relationships of people in Bald Mountains contrast with their depiction in A.P.’s salon? Scherer, and in what - in the Rostovs’ house?
(In order to save time during the lesson, these tasks can be given as advance ones. Regardless of when the task is offered - a lesson, homework- it is useful to recommend to the guys the following plan for analyzing episodes, reminding them that L.N. Tolstoy writer-psychologist, master artistic detail, for which the slightest gesture, tilt or turn of the head, the shine of the eyes, etc. are important:
A) portrait characteristic, characters of the episode (details of appearance, clothing);
b) the relationship of the characters with each other in the analyzed episode;
c) behavior, gestures, feelings, facial expressions, mood of the characters, variability, staticity.
In general, students’ answers to questions 2 and 3 were as follows: these episodes are “linked” according to the principle of contrast. The Bolkonsky and Rostov families are real, natural heroes, guests of A.P. Scherer and she herself are masks, puppets; everything about these “people” is artificial.
The “real life” of the Rostov family is inextricably linked with the House, the estate. It is no coincidence that the daily life of the Rostovs in the Moscow house, and the Bolkonskys in the Bald Mountains estate, is described in such detail. The artificial life of the “cream of society” takes place in St. Petersburg salons. Visitors to these salons do not have family life, there is only its imitation.
The Rostov family is an ideal harmonious whole. Love binds all family members (the dissonance is cold Faith). It manifests itself not in sentimental exaltation of feelings, but in sensitivity, attention, and closeness (“Only the heart is vigilant.” Exupery). With the Rostovs, everything is sincere, it comes from the heart. Name day scene in the Moscow house of the Rostovs. At this moment, one can feel the spiritual harmony reigning in the heroes’ house. Love breeds trust. Parents raise their children by giving them all their love. They can understand, forgive and help. And children answer their parents in the same way. Rostovs are simple. Life of the heart, wise intuition, lack of mentality, honesty and decency determine their relationships and behavior.
In contrast, the Bolkonskys are proud. These are the aristocrats in in the best sense. The Bolkonsky family is described with undoubted sympathy. All the best are passed down from generation to generation in this family. spiritual qualities and character traits: patriotism, closeness to the people, sense of duty, nobility of soul. The Bolkonskys are extremely active people. Each of the family members is constantly busy with something; there is not a drop of laziness and idleness in them, which are typical for families high society. The old prince Nikolai Andreevich, who believes that in the world “there are only two virtues - activity and intelligence,” tirelessly tries to follow his conviction. He himself, honest and educated person, wants to “develop both virtues in his daughter”, giving her lessons in algebra and geometry and distributing her life in continuous studies. Princess Marya is afraid of her father. However, internally these people are very close to each other. A distinctive feature of the Bolkonskys is high spirituality, “pride and direct honor.” The life of the old prince is a continuous activity (writing memoirs, working on a machine, managing the estate, raising children). In Prince Andrei we also see this trait, inherited from his father. Prince Andrei respects and highly honors his father, who was able to instill in him a high concept of honor(The guys confirm their thoughts and reasoning with examples from the text).
We have considered only some of the “connections” of episodes that can be found in Part I of the novel. In the novel as a whole, these stage episodes are included in “an endless labyrinth of connections, which is the essence of art,” according to L. N. Tolstoy. Let's try to verify this by reading two scenes: “The Hunting Scene” (Chapter III-VII, Part IV, Vol. II) and “The Attack Scene of Nikolai Rostov’s Squadron” (Chapter XV, Part I, Vol. III).
Reading chapters. Discussion.
What unites, “links” these two scenes?
(It would seem that the hunting scene has nothing to do with the main theme of War and Peace. However, it is here that the psychology of a person in war is revealed, when he pursues the enemy (in the episode of the attack of Nikolai Rostov’s squadron, Tolstoy will not talk about Nikolai’s experiences, noting as if in passing: “it was the same as on a hunt”), and at the same time the psychology of a wounded animal, with which the behavior of Napoleonic troops after Borodin is then directly compared).
– So, at what level does “coupling” still occur? What is the meaning of such “links”?
(“Coupling” occurs at the level of episodes. Such “coupling” allows us to give full description one episode through concatenation with another; expand the idea of some heroes in comparison with others; refer readers to events that have already occurred and draw analogies).
We continue filling out the diagram.
Third training situation.
So, we just have to consider the last level at which the clutch occurs - this is the level of the part. Find and read the description of the appearance of Andrei Bolkonsky, Napoleon and Speransky.
Prince Andrey: "What did you do withMademoiselle Scherer? “She’s going to be completely ill now,” said Prince Andrei, entering the office and rubbing his small white hands.”(Chapter V, Vol. I).
Napoleon: “Napoleon, hammering out each syllable with a calmness and confidence that was outrageous for Rostov, looked around the rows of Russian soldiers stretched out in front of him... Bonaparte, meanwhile, began to take off the glove from his small white hand...”(Chapter XXI, Part II, Vol. II).
Speransky: “Prince Andrei observed all the movements of Speransky, this man, recently an insignificant seminarian, and now in his own hands - these white, plump hands - who had the fate of Russia, as Bolkonsky thought”(Chapter V, Part III, Vol. II). “Everything was so, everything was good, but one thing embarrassed Prince Andrei: it was Speransky’s cold, mirror-like gaze, which did not let into his soul, and his white, gentle hand, which Prince Andrei involuntarily looked at...”(Chapter VI, Part III, Vol. II).
What do the descriptions of these three seemingly different heroes have in common? ( They are united by one detail - “a small, white hand”).
What does this seemingly insignificant detail mean? ( With the help of this detail, Tolstoy internally brings these three heroes closer together: they are ambitious, strive for power, have contempt for people, etc.)
Thus, our “linkage” diagram looks like this.
V. Summing up.
No research is complete without conclusions; let us summarize some results. So how did you understand what clutch is? ( Cohesion is the internal connection of individual episodes, characters, themes, details).
Look at the diagram and notes made during the lesson and try to answer the question: what are the functions of a “clutch”? (“War and Peace” are endless connections. “Connection” is the main compositional technique for constructing an epic novel. Analyzing the form, we get closer to the content. “Connections” complement the characteristics of heroes, events...).
Thus, the ideological and artistic meaning of each scene and each character of War and Peace becomes completely clear only in their compositional connections with the comprehensive content of the epic. (We recommend writing down the conclusions of students and teachers).
Title auction.
You and I have one task left unfulfilled. Look at the hanging question. Every lesson should have a title, but we don't have one. Let's have an auction of lesson titles. So, your lots are names.
The following options were proposed:
“Coupling”, “Coupling as the main method of constructing a novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”, “Endless Labyrinth of Links”, etc.
In the end, we decided to name the lesson in the words of the author of the epic novel L.N. Tolstoy: “An endless labyrinth of connections.”
VI. Homework.
Give examples of clutches of any level:
Level 1 – grade “4”: give examples of “links” of the sky image, explain their meaning.
Level 2 – score “5”: independently find examples of “clutches” and explain their functions.
This lesson can be conducted as an introductory lesson before studying the novel (then it is necessary to give advanced tasks) or as a general lesson after studying the novel, then the homework can be counted as a test.
21. Genre and stylistic originality of L. Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace”.
Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828, Yasnaya Polyana-1910, Tambov province) is one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers. Participant in the defense of Sevastopol. Educator, publicist, religious thinker, whose authoritative opinion caused the emergence of a new religious and moral movement - Tolstoyism. Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1873), honorary academician in the category of fine literature (1900).
"War and Peace" (1863 – 1869).
The idea goes back to the novel “The Decembrists”.
Time range in the novel: 1805 – 1820s. The evolution of his plan: 1856 → 1825 → 1812 → 1805.
Tolstoy talks about the decisive role of the people in history. process. He set himself target: to reveal the character of an entire people in its rise, glory, and fall. Tolstoy poses a philosophical question: about freedom and will, about the flow of life itself. At first the novel was called “Three Times: 1856, 1825, 1812”, then “1805”, then “All’s Well That Ends Well”.
Tolstoy displayed 3 plans:1) social (war and not war); 2) psychological (war is hostility); 3) philosophical (good and evil).
“V and M” is a book of a complex genre, a cat cannot be defined in one word. The features of a novel and an epic merge here. The rapprochement of “V and M” with the epic also justifies the comparison with ancient Russian. lit, especially with works of the genre of military stories, and in particular with “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” There is a synthetic nature of the genre . Turgenev and Goncharov noted the epic nature of the novel. Modern researchers call it epic novel.
In terms of the breadth of life, the depth and power of revealing human characters, world literature knows nothing equal. “What is “War and Peace”?” Tolstoy wrote about the form of his work. “It is not a novel, even less a poem, even less a historical chronicle. “War and Peace” is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed." And in a conversation with Gorky he said: “Without false modesty, this is like the Iliad.”
Features of the epic in "War and Peace": in the center - the historical fate of the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 12, the meaning of their heroic role and the image of a "holistic" existence.
Features of the novel:"War and Peace" tells about the private lives of people, showing specific individuals in their spiritual development.
Features of VIM: multiple plots and multiple characters, the widest production and time (1805-1820s), free combination of everyday details and battle scenes, art. image and author's digressions of the historical-fsf character, the meaning of the scene or character can be fully understood only in the context (z-n of conjugation), the universality of the coverage of Russian. Life, showing all the horrors of war through the perception of an amateur (Pierre) >>> a natural human view of what is happening, prototypical features of fictional characters >>> the juxtaposition of documentary and fiction.
Genre of epic novel- creation of Tolstoy. The ideological and artistic meaning of each scene and each character becomes clear only in their connection with the comprehensive content of the epic. The epic novel combines detailed pictures of Russian life, battle scenes, artistic narration and philosophical digressions. The content of the epic novel is based on events of large historical scale,“life is common, not private,” reflected in the destinies of individual people. Tolstoy achieved an unusually wide coverage of all layers of Russian life - hence the huge number characters. The ideological and artistic core of the work is the history of the people and the path best representatives nobility to the people. The work was not written to recreate history; it is not a chronicle. The author created a book about the life of the nation, created an artistic, rather than historically reliable truth (much of the actual history of that time was not included in the book; in addition, real historical facts are distorted in order to confirm the main idea of the novel, exaggeration of Kutuzov’s old age and passivity, a portrait and a number of actions Napoleon).
Historical and philosophical digressions, the author's reflections on the past, present and future are a necessary component of the genre structure of War and Peace. The composition of “War and Peace” is also subject to the requirements of the genre. The plot is based on historical events. Secondly, the significance of the destinies of families and individuals is revealed. The interest of Tolstoy the writer is focused not only on the depiction of individual human characters, but also on their connections with each other in moving and interconnected worlds. Not all of Tolstoy’s contemporaries realized the depth of the discovery he made in “War and Peace,” and in 1873 Tolstoy made an attempt to simplify the structure of the work and clear the book of reasoning, which, according to most researchers, caused serious damage to his work. It is believed that cumbersomeness, heaviness of periods (sentences), multifaceted composition, many plot lines, and an abundance of authorial digressions are integral and necessary features of War and Peace.
The artistic task itself - the epic coverage of enormous layers of historical life - required complexity, and not lightness and simplicity of form. The complicated syntactic structure of Tolstoy's prose is a tool of social and psychological analysis, an essential part of the style of the epic novel.
In part 2 of the epilogue, T sets out hisconcept of philosophy of history:
1. East is made by the masses themselves;
2. people make history individually, not together;
3. people do history unconsciously.
The basis of historicism– Tolstoy’s understanding of the inextricable connection between times and generations >>> movement into the depths of time. “ViM” is the history of the people, and “not the thoughts of wonderful generals.” Here we find glorification of the heroism of the people, the heroism of ordinary defenders of the homeland.
Tolstoy's understanding of history is defined as fatalistic. He almost completely ignores the role of the individual in history. History moves by the masses, not by reason, but by the principle of the swarm. Fatum (predestination) makes its way through various kinds of accidents. Tolstoy denies historical determinism (Chernyshevsky) >>> the opposition between Napoleon and Kutuzov, contrary to the historical opposition between Napoleon and Alexander 1.
There is an antithesis in the novel Napoleon and Kutuzov. Tolstoy draws a portrait Napoleon slightly reduced. Napoleon plays in everything; he is an actor. Kutuzov does not consider himself the demiurge of history. It's simple everywhere. Tolstoy reduces his external greatness, but emphasizes his internal activity. Kutuzov- the external embodiment of the thoughts of the people. Napoleon and Kutuzov are two principles of existence: the beginning of good, faith (Kutuzov) and evil, the Antichrist spirit (Napoleon). Tolstoy puts forward, first of all, moral demands.
“War and Peace” = “War and the People.”
Ch. hero "V&M"- not an individual person, but a mass of persons, not “I”, but “we”.
The truth about the war is revealed in different ways:
Through details (confusion of Russian troops at Austerlitz)
Through mass psychology: generalization (the mood of the troops before Borodino), snatching one person from the masses and revealing the essence of his character in a few words.
The originality of the novel: history turns into a novel, and a novel into history. Historical figures who exist in reality (Kutuzov, Napoleon, Alexander, Bagration, Dokhturov) coexist and act together with fictional characters (Prince Andrei, Natasha and Petya Rostov, Pierre Bezukhov, Princess Marya). The subtle psychologist Tolstoy knew such an important feature human soul, as a tendency to exaggerate the significance of events and tell others what they want to hear. So one of the most honest heroes of the novel, Nikolai Rostov, telling Berg about his first fight, began with the desire to tell everything as it was, but as the story progressed, “imperceptibly, involuntarily and inevitably for himself, he turned into a lie.” Based on this feature of the human soul, the writer put forward in the novel his subjective view of the historical events of that time, sometimes radically different from the views of researchers. Many historians reproached Tolstoy for the fact that historical figures the novels are far from reality, largely changed and implausible. But in his characters the writer was primarily interested in their moral character. Portraits of Bagration, Kutuzov, Napoleon are far from reality and are often quite conventional, far from what is known about them from historical documents, books and the words of contemporaries. So Napoleon in the work - artistic image, not a historical figure.
The entire novel is imbued not only with the idea of debunking the personal heroism of historical figures, but also complete denial of the special role of the individual in history. It is no coincidence that the most important feats in the novel were performed not by real people, but by fictional characters such as Tushin and Timokhin. Tolstoy says that one person is not capable of radically influencing the course of historical events, and only by uniting, as the Russian people did in the Patriotic War of 1812, is it possible to become the creator of history.
Especially clearly expressed in the novel is the author’s complete denial of the art of war. Through the mouth of Andrei Bolkonsky, the author’s point of view on the necessity of waging war is expressed in the novel: “War is an event contrary to human reason and all human nature.” In describing the battles, the writer ridicules military symbols and traditions (banners are “sticks with pieces of cloth”) and highlights the moral factor of war. Using the example of several battles, Tolstoy shows that victory depends not on the number of troops, not on the disposition of the army, and not on the plans of the commanders-in-chief, but on the morale of ordinary soldiers.
But the main thing is how the views of the writer and historians differ- this is a different understanding of what victory in a war depends on. Tolstoy saw the key to success in the moral and psychological state of the army, the patriotism of the soldiers and their understanding of the meaning and goals of the war.
Features of the poetics of “War and Peace”
Epic character The work was formed on the basis of the image of critical historical events combined with the details of the life of one person. "People's Thought" in “War and Peace” was equally expressed in Tolstoy’s definition of the role of the people as the driving force of history, recognition of the importance of their spiritual state for deciding historical fate, and in the depiction of the entire people as a whole. At the same time, among the minor and episodic characters of the novel there are clearly defined characters and types with easily recognizable individuality.
Creating images of the main characters, Tolstoy does not deviate from the principles of the “dialectics of the soul,” giving these images in development, endowing them not only with a wealth of feelings, but also with depth of thought. The images of the heroes are significantly complemented by memorable portrait characteristics (at the same time, Tolstoy often emphasizes the role of some significant detail, for example, the radiant eyes of Princess Marya), individual behavior (swift gait and harshness of communication with those around Prince Bolkonsky; Natasha’s spontaneity and liveliness), originality of speech .
Language of the novel in its own way reflects a true picture of life of that era, contains large inclusions of text written by the author in German and, mainly, in French, which conveys the real atmosphere of life in secular society. However, the bulk of the novel is The Russian literary language, magnificent in its accuracy of presentation of thought, is enriched with living examples of folk (peasant and soldier) speech.
Communication with nature often helps the characters’ comprehension of their experiences, feelings, and their intense spiritual work. The view of the sky near Austerlitz and in Bogucharovo, the oak tree encountered on the way to Otradnoye, helps Prince Andrei, for example, more fully understand the changes taking place in his inner world. The hunt in which the Rostovs participate serves as a kind of prototype of future national unity in the face of danger.
Tolstoy's skill as a battle painter is enriched by the unique (going back to ancient traditions) use of images of nature: nature, together with people, seems to be participating in battles (the fog that covered the Field of Austerlitz and hindered the Russian army; smoke and fog, the sun beating in the eyes, hindering the French at Borodino); Tolstoy entrusts his emotional assessment of the war to nature (the light rain dripping over the battlefield seems to say: “Enough, enough, people. Stop it... Come to your senses. What are you doing?”).
In relation to "War and Peace" it is often said about the principle of “conjugation”, i.e. the mutual conditionality of the alternation and sequence of episodes of the book, predetermining each other. Thus, Platon Karataev dies on the eve of the night when Pierre sees a dream that helps him understand Plato’s “truth,” but without understanding this “truth,” the hero’s further full life is impossible. Awakening from sleep occurs at the moment of the liberation of prisoners by Denisov's detachment, after which Pierre again joins the general flow of life.
Richness of content and features the poetics of the work could not but entail the destruction of the usual framework of the novel. Contemporaries did not immediately accept the unique form of Tolstoy’s new work. The author himself perfectly understood the genre nature of his work, calling it a “book” and thereby emphasizing the freedom of form and genetic connection with the epic experience of Russian and world literature.
Antithesis (contrast) is one of the most frequently used techniques used to reveal images in work of art. The essence of antithesis as a trope is the comparison of opposites, concepts or images that are antagonistic to each other. One of the most striking works built on the technique of opposition is L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace.” In it, antithesis is the main technique, laid in the foundation of constructing a system of images.All the characters in the epic novel can be quite clearly divided into two camps, or two worlds - “living” and “dead”. The action in the novel takes place in two parallel planes - the plane of “peace” and the plane of “war”. For each of the planes, the author selects certain differentiations of the heroes, and their belonging to the “dead” or “living” principle is determined.
When describing the world, the dominant criterion on the basis of which the characters are contrasted is the attitude towards the family and children. In a “dead” world, where everything is subordinated to a single goal, which is to increase one’s own fortune by any means, marriage acts only as one of the possible means. It is not difficult for anyone belonging to this camp to step over the family, as well as through other moral principles. In this regard, the most striking is the image of Helen. The only purpose for which she married Pierre Bezukhov, the heir to the entire fortune of Count Bezukhov, was to receive part of the inheritance. Breaking up with her husband and receiving more than half of his wealth is the logical conclusion of the intrigue she has built.
As an example of the absolute insignificance of moral principles for representatives of the “dead” world, one can cite the scene of the “fight” for the mosaic briefcase of the dying Count Bezukhov. The “battle” actually unfolds before the eyes of the dying man, but this circumstance has no significance for either Prince Vasily or the princess Drubetskaya, equally striving to win the “battle” by any means necessary.
Completely opposite attitude towards moral values reigns in the living world. For its representatives, family and children represent the highest ideal and become the true goal of human life. The most indicative in this regard is the Rostov family, the atmosphere in which - love and complete mutual understanding - is directly opposite to the intrigue, envy and anger in the Kuragin family. The Rostov house is open to everyone, and anyone who comes to them will be received with due kindness and cordiality. It is no coincidence that after returning from the front, Nikolai Rostov headed specifically to parents' house. The difference between the attitude towards children in the Kuragin and Rostov families is also characteristic. Prince Vasily’s only desire is to quickly get rid of the “calm fool” Ippolit and the “restless fool” Anatole, while also increasing his fortune. On the contrary, for the Rostovs, children are of important value and no child can be unloved.
But in addition to the plane of the world, in the novel there is a plane of war, where the heroes appear in a completely different form. Tolstoy chooses the main criterion in this regard, by which people are divided into “camps,” to be their attitude towards the Motherland, the manifestation of patriotism.
The “living” world is the world of true patriots, whose feelings towards the Motherland are completely sincere and genuine. Andrei Bolkonsky is not guided by any other considerations other than thoughts of defending the Fatherland when he tries to resist general panic and retreat at Austerlitz. Prince Andrei does not think about promotion or awards; he obeys only his own sense of duty. The complete opposite of Andrei Bolkonsky is Boris Drubetskoy. He sees his main task not as defending the Fatherland, but as promotion, not through merit on the battlefield, but through flattery, hypocrisy, and sycophancy towards his superiors. The fate of people means nothing to him; he is ready to sacrifice them for the sake of his own promotion and nomination for an award.
The Rostovs show patriotism in a slightly different form. Nikolai cannot kill a person, regardless of which side he is on, but when retreating from Moscow, the Rostovs sacrifice their own property to save the wounded. Berg behaves completely differently. Taking advantage of the general distress and confusion, he manages to purchase a “dressing room” for a negligible price, and this “deal” becomes a source of his pride.
True patriotism is also demonstrated by heroes who do not belong to any of the worlds and act only in the plane of war, but are also opposed to the “dead” camp. The most indicative in this regard is the feat of Captain Tushin, and especially his perception of his heroism. Tushin did not even think about the heroic essence of his act - on the contrary, he is trying to justify himself and asks for help from Andrei Bolkonsky. According to Tolstoy, true patriot does not even notice the fact that he is performing a feat - for him it is only a duty to the Motherland, devoid of any heroic flair. The feat of both Tushin’s battery and Raevsky’s battery, accomplished by the most ordinary, unremarkable people, fits this definition.
Thus, the technique of antithesis is basic for constructing a system of images of the novel and characterizing the main characters.
In fact, the antithesis, the opposition of two worlds - “dead” and “living” - forms the basis of the work and determines its structure. And, building the novel on the principle of antithesis, L.N. Tolstoy debunks the “dead” world, shows its inconsistency and affirms the human and Christian ideals that guide the “living” world.
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