What fortification did Pierre Bezukhov come to? Pierre Bezukhov: character description. The life path, the path of quest of Pierre Bezukhov. Bezukhov's life path

Pierre's life is a path of discovery and disappointment, a path of crisis and in many ways dramatic. Pierre is an emotional person. He is distinguished by a mind prone to dreamy philosophizing, absent-mindedness, weakness of will, lack of initiative, and exceptional kindness. Main feature the hero is a search for peace, agreement with oneself, a search for a life that would be in harmony with the needs of the heart and would bring moral satisfaction.

At the beginning of the novel, Pierre is a fat, massive young man with an intelligent, timid and observant look that distinguishes him from the rest of the visitors to the living room. Having recently arrived from abroad, this illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov stands out in the high society salon for his naturalness, sincerity and simplicity. He is soft, pliable, and easily susceptible to the influence of others. For example, he leads a chaotic, riotous life, participating in the revelry and excesses of secular youth, although he perfectly understands the emptiness and worthlessness of such a pastime.

Large and clumsy, it does not fit in with the elegant decor of the salon, it confuses and shocks others. But he also inspires fear. Anna Pavlovna is frightened by the young man’s gaze: smart, timid, observant, natural. This is Pierre, the illegitimate son of a Russian nobleman. In the Scherer salon they accept him only just in case, what if Count Kirill officially recognizes his son. At first, many things seem strange to us about Pierre: he was brought up in Paris and does not know how to behave in society. And only later will we understand that spontaneity, sincerity, ardor are the essential traits of Pierre. Nothing will ever force him to change himself, live according to a general, average form, or conduct meaningless conversations.

Already here it is noticeable that Pierre does not fit into the false society of flatterers and careerists, the defining feature of which is the all-pervasive lie. For this reason, the appearance of Pierre causes fear among the majority of those present, and his sincerity and straightforwardness causes outright fear. Let us remember how Pierre left the useless aunt, spoke to the French abbot and became so carried away by the conversation that he began to clearly threaten to disrupt the system of social relationships familiar to the Scherer household, thereby reviving the dead, false atmosphere.

With one intelligent and timid glance, Pierre seriously frightened the owner of the salon and her guests with their false standards of behavior. Pierre has the same kind and sincere smile; his special harmless gentleness is striking. But Tolstoy himself does not consider his hero weak and weak-willed, as it might seem at first glance: “Pierre was one of those people who, despite his external, so-called weakness of character, do not look for a confidant for his grief.”

In Pierre there is a constant struggle between the spiritual and the sensual, internal, moral essence the hero contradicts his way of life. On the one hand, he is full of noble, freedom-loving thoughts, the origins of which go back to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Pierre is an admirer of Rousseau and Montesquieu, who captivated him with the ideas of universal equality and re-education of man. On the other hand, Pierre participates in revelry in the company of Anatoly Kuragin, and here that riotous lordly beginning is manifested in him, the embodiment of which was once his father, Catherine’s nobleman, Count Bezukhov.

Pierre's naivety and gullibility, inability to understand people, force him to make a number of life mistakes, the most serious of which is marrying the stupid and cynical beauty Helen Kuragina. With this rash act, Pierre deprives himself of all hope for possible personal happiness.

This is one of the important milestones in the hero's life. But Pierre is increasingly aware that he does not have a real family, that his wife is an immoral woman. Discontent grows within him, not with others, but with himself. This is exactly what happens to truly moral people. For their disorder, they consider it possible to execute only themselves. An explosion occurs at a dinner in honor of Bagration. Pierre challenges Dolokhov, who insulted him, to a duel. After everything that happened to him, especially after the duel, Pierre finds his whole life meaningless. He is experiencing a mental crisis: this is a strong dissatisfaction with himself and the associated desire to change his life and build it on new, good principles.

Bezukhov abruptly breaks up with Helen after learning how strong her love for his money was. Bezukhov himself is indifferent to money and luxury, so he calmly agrees with the demands of his cunning wife to give her most of his fortune. Pierre is selfless and ready to do anything to quickly get rid of the lies that the insidious beauty surrounded him with. Despite his carelessness and youth, Pierre acutely senses the line between innocent jokes and dangerous games, which can cripple someone’s life, so he is openly indignant in a conversation with the scoundrel Anatole after the failed abduction of Natasha.

Having broken up with his wife, Pierre, on the way to St. Petersburg, in Torzhok, waiting for the horses at the station, asks himself difficult (eternal) questions: What is wrong? What's good? What should you love, what should you hate? Why live and what am I? What is life, what is death? What force controls everything? Here he meets the freemason Bazdeev. At the moment of spiritual discord that Pierre was experiencing, Bazdeev seems to him to be just the person he needs. Pierre is offered a path of moral improvement, and he accepts this path, because most of all he now needs to improve his life and himself.

Tolstoy makes the hero go through a difficult path of losses, mistakes, delusions and quests. Having become close to the Freemasons, Pierre tries to find the meaning of life in religious truth. Freemasonry gave the hero the belief that there should be a kingdom of goodness and truth in the world, and the highest happiness of a person is to strive to achieve them. He passionately desires to “regenerate the vicious human race.” In the teachings of the Freemasons, Pierre is attracted by the ideas of “equality, brotherhood and love,” so first of all he decides to alleviate the lot of the serfs. In moral purification for Pierre, as for Tolstoy at a certain period, lay the truth of Freemasonry, and, carried away by it, at first he did not notice what was a lie. It seems to him that he has finally found the purpose and meaning of life: “And only now, when I... try... to live for others, only now I understand all the happiness of life.” This conclusion helps Pierre find the real way in his further quests.

Pierre shares his new ideas about life with Andrei Bolkonsky. Pierre is trying to transform the Order of Freemasons, draws up a project in which he calls for activity, practical help to his neighbor, for the dissemination moral ideas in the name of the good of humanity throughout the world... However, the Freemasons decisively reject Pierre's project, and he is finally convinced of the validity of his suspicions that many of them were looking for a means of expanding their secular connections in Freemasonry, that the Freemasons - these insignificant people - were not interested problems of goodness, love, truth, the good of humanity, and the uniforms and crosses that they sought in life. Pierre cannot be satisfied with mysterious, mystical rituals and sublime conversations about good and evil. Disappointment soon sets in in Freemasonry, since Pierre’s republican ideas were not shared by his “brothers,” and besides, Pierre sees that among the Freemasons there is hypocrisy, hypocrisy, and careerism. All this leads Pierre to break with the Freemasons.

It is common for him, in a fit of passion, to succumb to such instant hobbies, accepting them as true and correct. And then, when the true essence of things is revealed, when hopes are crushed, Pierre just as actively falls into despair and unbelief, like a small child who has been offended. He wants to find a field of activity to translate fair and humane ideas into concrete, useful work. Therefore, Bezukhov, like Andrei, begins to engage in the improvement of his serfs. All the measures he took were imbued with sympathy for the oppressed peasantry. Pierre makes sure that punishments are used only exhortations, and not corporal, so that the men are not burdened with overwork, and hospitals, shelters and schools are established on every estate. But all of Pierre’s good intentions remained intentions. Why, wanting to help the peasants, he could not do this? The answer is simple. The young humane landowner was prevented from bringing his good undertakings to life by his naivety, lack of practical experience, and ignorance of reality. The stupid but cunning chief manager easily fooled the smart and intelligent master around his finger, creating the appearance of precise execution of his orders.

Feeling a strong need for high noble activity, feeling rich forces within himself, Pierre nevertheless does not see the purpose and meaning of life. The Patriotic War of 1812, the general patriotism of which captured him, helps the hero find a way out of this state of discord with himself and the world around him. His life seemed calm and serene only from the outside. "Why? Why? What is going on in the world?" - these questions never ceased to bother Bezukhov. This incessant inner work prepared his spiritual rebirth in the days Patriotic War 1812.

Contact with the people on the Borodino field was of great importance for Pierre. The landscape of the Borodino field before the start of the battle (bright sun, fog, distant forests, golden fields and copses, smoke from gunfire) correlates with Pierre’s mood and thoughts, causing him some kind of elation, a feeling of the beauty of the spectacle, the greatness of what is happening. Through his eyes, Tolstoy conveys his understanding of the decisive events in the people's historical life. Shocked by the behavior of the soldiers, Pierre himself shows courage and readiness for self-sacrifice. At the same time, one cannot help but note the naivety of the hero: his decision to kill Napoleon.

“To be a soldier, just a soldier!.. To enter this common life with the whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so,” - this is the desire that took possession of Pierre after the Battle of Borodino. Not being a military officer, like Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre expressed his love for the fatherland in his own way: he formed a regiment at his own expense and took it for support, while he himself remained in Moscow to kill Napoleon as the main culprit of national disasters. It was here, in the capital occupied by the French, that Pierre’s selfless kindness was fully revealed.

In relation to Pierre ordinary people and to nature the author’s criterion of beauty in man is once again manifested. Seeing helpless people at the mercy of the rampaging French soldiers, he cannot remain simply a witness to the numerous human dramas that unfold before his eyes. Without thinking about his own safety, Pierre protects a woman, stands up for a madman, and saves a child from a burning house. Before his eyes, representatives of the most cultured and civilized nation are rampaging, violence and arbitrariness are being committed, people are being executed, accused of arson, which they did not commit. These terrible and painful impressions are aggravated by the situation of captivity.

But the most terrible thing for the hero is not hunger and lack of freedom, but the collapse of faith in the just structure of the world, in man and God. Decisive for Pierre is his meeting with the soldier, former peasant Platon Karataev, who, according to Tolstoy, personifies the masses. This meeting meant for the hero an introduction to the people, folk wisdom, and an even closer rapprochement with ordinary people. The round, affectionate soldier performs a real miracle, forcing Pierre to again look at the world brightly and joyfully, to believe in goodness, love, and justice. Communication with Karataev evokes in the hero a feeling of peace and comfort. His suffering soul warms up under the influence of the warmth and participation of a simple Russian person. Platon Karataev has some special gift of love, a feeling of blood connection with all people. His wisdom, which amazed Pierre, is that he lives in complete harmony with everything earthly, as if dissolving in it.

In captivity, Pierre finds that peace and self-satisfaction that he had previously vainly strived for. Here he learned not with his mind, but with his whole being, with his life, that man was created for happiness, that happiness is in himself, in the satisfaction of natural human needs... Introducing himself to the people's truth, to the people's ability to live helps the inner liberation of Pierre, who was always looking for a solution question about the meaning of life: he looked for this in philanthropy, in Freemasonry, in dispersion social life, in wine, in the heroic feat of self-sacrifice, in romantic love for Natasha; he sought this through thought, and all these searches and attempts all deceived him. And finally, with the help of Karataev, this issue was resolved. The most essential thing about Karataev is loyalty and immutability. Loyalty to yourself, your only and constant spiritual truth. Pierre follows this for some time.

In characterizing the hero’s state of mind at this time, Tolstoy develops his ideas about a person’s inner happiness, which lies in complete mental freedom, calmness and tranquility, independent of external circumstances. However, having experienced the influence of Karataev’s philosophy, Pierre, upon returning from captivity, did not become a Karataevite, a non-resistance. By the very essence of his character, he was not able to accept life without searching.

A turning point occurs in Bezukhov’s soul, which means the adoption of Platon Karataev’s life-loving view of the world. Having learned the truth of Karataev, Pierre in the epilogue of the novel is already going his own way. His dispute with Nikolai Rostov proves that Bezukhov faces the problem of moral renewal of society. Active virtue, according to Pierre, can lead the country out of crisis. It is necessary to unite honest people. Happy family life(married to Natasha Rostova) does not take Pierre away from public interests.

The feeling of complete harmony for such an intelligent and inquisitive person as Pierre is impossible without participation in specific useful activities aimed at achieving a high goal - the same harmony that cannot exist in a country where the people are in the position of slaves. Therefore, Pierre naturally comes to Decembrism, entering secret society to fight against everything that interferes with life and humiliates the honor and dignity of a person. This struggle becomes the meaning of his life, but does not make him a fanatic who, for the sake of an idea, consciously refuses the joys of life. Pierre speaks with indignation about the reaction that has occurred in Russia, about Arakcheevism, theft. At the same time, he understands the strength of the people and believes in them. With all this, the hero resolutely opposes violence. In other words, for Pierre, the path of moral self-improvement remains decisive in the reconstruction of society.

Intense intellectual search, ability to selfless actions, high spiritual impulses, nobility and devotion in love (relationships with Natasha), true patriotism, the desire to make society more just and humane, truthfulness and naturalness, the desire for self-improvement make Pierre one of the best people his time.

We see at the end of the novel happy person who has a good family, a faithful and devoted wife, who loves and is loved. Thus, it is Pierre Bezukhov who achieves spiritual harmony with the world and himself in War and Peace. He goes through the difficult path of searching for the meaning of life to the end and finds it, becoming an advanced, progressive person of his era.

I would like to once again note Tolstoy’s ability to portray his hero as he is, without embellishment, natural person, which tends to constantly change. The internal changes taking place in the soul of Pierre Bezukhov are profound, and this is reflected in his appearance. When we first meet Pierre, he is “a massive, fat young man with an intensely observant gaze.” Pierre looks completely different after his marriage, in the company of the Kuragins: “He was silent... and, looking completely absent-minded, picked his nose with his finger. His face was sad and gloomy.” And when it seemed to Pierre that he had found the meaning of activity aimed at improving the lives of the peasants, he “spoke with the animation of joy.”

And only after freeing himself from the oppressive lies of the secular farce, finding himself in difficult military conditions and finding himself among ordinary Russian peasants, Pierre feels the taste of life, finds peace of mind, which again changes his appearance. Despite his bare feet, dirty torn clothes, tangled hair filled with lice, the expression in his eyes was firm, calm and animated, and he had never had such a look before.

In the image of Pierre Bezukhov, Tolstoy shows that, no matter how different paths the best of the representatives take high society in search of the meaning of life, they come to the same result: the meaning of life is in unity with their native people, in love for this people.

It was in captivity that Bezukhov came to the conviction: “Man was created for happiness.” But the people around Pierre are suffering, and in the epilogue Tolstoy shows Pierre thinking hard about how to defend goodness and truth.

So, having gone through a difficult path, full of mistakes, misconceptions in the reality of Russian history, Pierre finds himself, preserves his natural essence, and does not succumb to the influence of society. Throughout the novel, Tolstoy's hero is in constant search, emotional experiences and doubts, which ultimately lead him to his true calling.

And if at first Bezukhov’s feelings constantly fight with each other, he thinks contradictoryly, then he is finally freed from everything superficial and artificial, finds his true face and calling, clearly knows what he needs from life. We see how beautiful Pierre's true, genuine love is for Natasha, he becomes a wonderful father of the family, is actively involved in social activities, benefits people and is not afraid of new things.

Conclusion

The novel “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy introduced us to many heroes, each of whom is a bright personality and has individual traits. One of the most attractive characters in the novel is Pierre Bezukhov. His image stands at the center of “War and Peace”, because the figure of Pierre is significant for the author himself and plays a huge role in his work. It is known that the fate of this hero was the basis of the plan of the entire novel.

After reading the novel, we understand that Pierre Bezukhov is one of Tolstoy’s favorite heroes. During the story, the image of this hero undergoes significant changes, his development, which is a consequence of his spiritual quest, the search for the meaning of life, some of his highest, enduring ideals. Leo Tolstoy focuses on the sincerity, childish gullibility, kindness and purity of his hero’s thoughts. And we cannot help but notice these qualities, not appreciate them, despite the fact that at first Pierre is presented to us as a lost, weak-willed, undistinguished young man.

Fifteen years of Pierre's life are passing before our eyes. There were many temptations, mistakes and defeats on his way, but there were also many accomplishments, victories, and overcomings. Life path Pierre is an ongoing search for a worthy place in life, an opportunity to benefit people. Not external circumstances, but the internal need to improve oneself, to become better - that’s guiding star Pierre.

The problems raised by Tolstoy in the novel "War and Peace" have universal significance. His novel, according to Gorky, is “a documentary presentation of all the quests that a strong personality undertook in the 19th century in order to find a place and business for himself in the history of Russia”...

Pierre Bezukhov is considered the main character of the novel “War and Peace”. With his dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality, disappointment in the world, and searches for the meaning of life, he reminds us of the “hero of his time,” traditional for Russian literature. However, Tolstoy's novel already goes beyond literary tradition. Tolstoy's hero overcomes "tragedy" extra person", finds the meaning of life and personal happiness.

We get to know Pierre from the first pages of the novel and immediately note his dissimilarity from those around him. Count Bezukhov’s appearance, his behavior, manners - all this “does not fit” into the author’s image of the secular “public”. Pierre is a big, fat, awkward young man who has something of a child in him. This childishness is noticeable already in the very portrait of the hero. This is how Pierre’s smile differed from the smiles of other people, “merging with a non-smile.” “On the contrary, when a smile came, then suddenly, instantly, a serious and even somewhat gloomy face disappeared and another one appeared - childish, kind, even stupid and as if asking for forgiveness.”

Pierre is awkward and absent-minded, he does not have secular manners, “does not know how to enter the salon” and even less knows how to “exit it.” Openness, emotionality, timidity and naturalness distinguish him from the indifferently self-confident salon aristocrats. “You are the only living person among our entire world,” Prince Andrei tells him.

Pierre is shy, childishly trusting and simple-minded, subject to the influence of others. Hence his carousing, “hussarism” in the company of Dolokhov and Anatoly Kuragin, and his marriage to Helen. As N.K. Gudziy notes, due to the lack of internal composure and strong will, due to the disorder of his hobbies, Pierre’s character is to a certain extent opposed to the character of Andrei Bolkonsky. Pierre is not characterized by rationalism and constant introspection; there is sensuality in his nature.

However, Pierre's lifestyle here is determined not only by his personal qualities. Riotous revelry in the company of “golden youth” is also his unconscious protest “against the base boredom of the surrounding reality, a waste of energy that there is nothing ... to apply”;

The next stage of Pierre's moral quest is his passion for Freemasonry. In this teaching, the hero is attracted by a certain freedom, Freemasonry in his eyes is “the teaching of Christianity, freed from state and religious shackles,” the brotherhood of people capable of supporting each other “on the path of virtue.” It seems to Pierre that this is an opportunity to “achieve perfection”, to correct human and social vices. The ideas of the “brotherhood of free masons” seem to the hero to be a revelation that has descended on him.

However, Tolstoy emphasizes the fallacy of Pierre's views. None of the provisions of Masonic teaching is realized in the life of the hero. Trying to correct the imperfections of social relations, Bezukhov tries to change the situation of his peasants. He builds hospitals, schools, orphanages in his villages, and tries to alleviate the situation of the serfs. And it seems to him that he is achieving tangible results: grateful peasants solemnly greet him with bread and salt. However, all this “national welfare” is illusory - it is nothing more than a performance staged by the general manager on the occasion of the master’s arrival. Pierre's chief manager considers all the master's undertakings to be eccentricities, an absurd whim. And he acts in his own way, maintaining the old order on Bezukhov’s estates.

The idea of ​​personal self-improvement turns out to be just as fruitless. Despite the fact that Pierre sincerely strives to eradicate personal vices, his life goes on as before, “with the same hobbies and debauchery,” he cannot resist the “amusements of single societies,” although he considers them “immoral and humiliating.”

The inconsistency of Masonic teaching is also exposed by Tolstoy in his depiction of the behavior of the “brothers” visiting the lodge. Pierre notes that most members of the lodge in life are “weak and insignificant people,” many become Freemasons “because of the opportunity to get closer to rich, noble, influential people,” others are only interested in the external, ritual side of the teaching.

Returning from abroad, Pierre offers the “brothers” his program of socially useful activities. However, the Masons do not accept Pierre's proposals. And he is finally disappointed in the “brotherhood of free masons.”

Having broken with the Freemasons, the hero experiences a deep internal crisis, a mental catastrophe. He loses faith in the very possibility of socially useful activities. Outwardly, Pierre returns to his previous activities: benefit performances, bad paintings, statues, charitable societies, gypsies, carousing - nothing is refused. He is no longer visited, as before, by moments of despair, melancholy, disgust for life, but “the same illness, previously expressed in sharp attacks,” is now “driven inside” and does not leave him for a moment. That period of Bezukhov’s life begins when he gradually begins to turn into an ordinary “retired good-natured chamberlain living out his days in Moscow, of which there were hundreds.”

Here in the novel the motive of a disappointed hero, an “extra person”, Oblomov’s motive arises. However, in Tolstoy this motif takes on a completely different meaning than in Pushkin or Goncharov. Tolstoy’s man lives in a great era, unprecedented for Russia, which “transforms disappointed heroes,” bringing out the best and most authentic in their souls, awakening rich inner potential to life. The heroic era is “magnanimous, generous, broad”, it “integrates, purifies, elevates everyone who... is able to respond to its greatness...”.

And indeed, 1812 changes a lot in the hero’s life. This is a period of restoration of spiritual integrity, Pierre’s familiarization with the “common”, the establishment in his soul of his “sense of the purposefulness of being.” A big role here was played by Pierre's visit to Raevsky's battery during the Battle of Borodino and his stay in French captivity.

Being on the Borodino field, among the endless roar of guns, the smoke of shells, the screech of bullets, the hero experiences a feeling of horror, mortal fear. The soldiers seem to him strong and courageous, there is no fear in them, no fear for their lives. The very patriotism of these people, seemingly unconscious, comes from the very essence of nature, their behavior is simple and natural. And Pierre wants to become “just a soldier”, to free himself from the “burden outer man", from everything artificial, superficial. Faced with the people for the first time, he acutely senses the falsehood and insignificance of the secular world, feels the fallacy of his previous views and life attitudes.

Returning to Moscow, Pierre becomes imbued with the idea of ​​killing Napoleon. However, his intention is not allowed to come true - instead of the grandiose “picture murder of the French emperor,” he performs a simple, human feat, saving a child in a fire and protecting a beautiful Armenian woman from French soldiers. In this very opposition of plans and reality, one can discern Tolstoy’s favorite thought about the “external forms” of true heroism.

It is characteristic that it was for this feat that Bezukhov was captured by the French, although he was officially accused of arson. By depicting events in this aspect, Tolstoy expresses his attitude towards them. “Napoleonic army is committing the inhumane act of an unjust war; therefore, it deprives a person of freedom only for the fact that a person performs a human deed,” writes V. Ermilov.

And for Pierre they come hard days captivity, when he is forced to endure the ridicule of others, interrogations of French officers, and the cruelty of a military court. He feels like “an insignificant sliver caught in the wheels of a machine unknown to him.” This order established by the French kills, destroys, deprives him of life, “with all his memories, aspirations, hopes, thoughts.”

A meeting with Platon Karataev helps Pierre survive, gain a new view of the world and himself. The main thing for Karataev is decorum, acceptance of life as it is. Just in case life incident He has a saying: in his movements Pierre seems to feel something “calming and round.” S. G. Bocharov notes that there is a certain duality in the idea of ​​a circle: on the one hand, it is “an aesthetic figure with which the idea of ​​achieved perfection has been associated from time immemorial,” on the other hand, the idea of ​​“a circle contradicts the Faustian endless striving into the distance, the search for a goal, contradicts the path as the line along which Tolstoy’s heroes move.”

However, Pierre comes to moral satisfaction precisely through “Karataev’s roundness.” “He sought this in philanthropy, in Freemasonry, in the dispersion of social life, in wine, in the heroic feat of self-sacrifice” - but all these searches deceived him. Pierre needed to go through the horror of death, through deprivation, through what he understood in Karataev, in order to come to an agreement with himself. Having learned to appreciate simple everyday things: good food, cleanliness, fresh air, freedom, the beauty of nature - Pierre experiences a hitherto unknown feeling of joy and strength of life, a feeling of readiness for anything, moral composure, inner freedom.

These feelings are generated in the hero by the adoption of the “Karataev philosophy”. I think this was necessary for Pierre this period, the instinct of self-preservation spoke in him, and not so much physical, but the instinct of spiritual self-preservation. Life itself sometimes suggests a “way out,” and the grateful subconscious accepts it, helping a person survive in an impossible situation.

French captivity became such an “impossible situation” for Pierre. In his soul, it was as if “the spring on which everything was held” had been pulled out. “In him... faith in the improvement of the world, and in humanity, and in his soul, and in God was destroyed... Previously, when doubts of this kind were found on Pierre, these doubts had their source in his own guilt. And in the very depths of his soul Pierre then felt that from that despair and those doubts there was salvation in himself. But now he felt that it was not his fault that the world had collapsed in his eyes... He felt that returning to faith in life was not in his power.” For Bezukhov, these feelings are tantamount to suicide. That is why he is imbued with the philosophy of Platon Karataev.

However, then the hero moves away from her. And the reason for this is a certain duality, even contradiction, of this philosophy. Unity with others, the feeling of being a part of existence, the world, a sense of conciliarity are the positive features of “Karataevism”. The reverse side of it is a kind of detachment, indifference to man and the world. Platon Karataev treats everyone around him equally and kindly, without having any attachments, love, or friendship. “He loved his mongrel, he loved his comrades, the French, he loved Pierre, who was his neighbor; but Pierre felt that Karataev, despite all his affectionate tenderness towards him, ... would not be upset for a minute at being separated from him.”

As S.G. Bocharov notes, Pierre’s inner freedom is freedom not only from circumstances, but also from normal human feelings, freedom from thoughts, habitual introspection, from the search for purpose and meaning in life. However, this kind of freedom is the opposite of Pierre’s very nature, his mental make-up. Therefore, the hero breaks up with this feeling only when his former love for Natasha revives.

At the end of the novel, Pierre finds personal happiness in his marriage to Natasha Rostova. However, being happy in his family, he is still active and active. We see him as “one of the main founders” of the Decembrist societies. And the path of quest begins again: “It seemed to him at that moment that he was called to give a new direction to the entire Russian society and the whole world.”

Pierre Bezukhov is one of Tolstoy’s favorite heroes; he is close to the writer with his sincerity, restless, searching soul, a critical attitude towards everyday life, a desire for a moral ideal. His path is the eternal comprehension of the truth and its establishment in the world.

What brought Pierre Bezukhov to the Masonic Society? Why was he disappointed there? and got the best answer

Answer from Alexey Khoroshev[guru]
In his epic novel War and Peace, Tolstoy, using the example of P. Bezukhov’s meeting with the Freemasons, showed the danger of this phenomenon for Russia.
After breaking up with Helen, the search for the meaning of life and answers to the questions “What is bad? What's good? What should you love, what should you hate? Why live, and what am I…” they bring Pierre Bezukhov to the society of Freemasons. He is attracted to the ideas of “love, equality and brotherhood.” Pierre struggles to bring these ideas to life. He wants to make the life of peasants easier, build schools, shelters and hospitals on every estate. But while doing good deeds, Pierre Bezukhov is faced with misunderstanding and outright deception:
“...he did not know that due to the fact that, on his orders, they stopped sending children - women with babies to corvee labor, these same children carried out the most difficult work in their half. He did not know that the priest, who met him with a cross, was burdening the men with their exactions and that the students gathered to him were given to him with tears and were bought off by their parents for a lot of money. He did not know that the stone buildings, according to the plan, were erected by their own workers and increased the corvee of the peasants, reduced only on paper ... "
As a result, Pierre becomes disappointed with Freemasonry.
Pierre's entry into Freemasonry is one of highlights novel. L. Tolstoy very ironically described Bezukhov’s initiation into the lodge; showing Pierre the small and large world looks comical. How he was ready to give all his fortune to the Masons, but did not give it away, only for fear of seeming immodest, how during the initiation Pierre blushed to the point of tears, as children blush. Bezukhov himself began to think: “Are they laughing at me? Will I be ashamed to remember this?” How he was ready to throw himself on the swords and they were hastily pulled away from him. Pierre, entering Freemasonry, thought that the brothers would help change the world for the better, but in fact they needed him because of money (his repeated donations) and connections in high society.
Gradually, “Pierre feels that the swamp in which he has found himself is drawing him in more and more.” It seems to him: “that Freemasonry is based on appearance alone.” He sees that people (like Boris Drubetskoy) are joining Freemasonry, pursuing one goal - to get closer to famous and influential people. Tolstoy brilliantly showed that the Freemasons are the same circle of Madame Scherer, only for the elite. It seems to Pierre that Russian Freemasonry is following the wrong path, deviating from its source. He goes abroad to comprehend the highest secrets of the order. At the meeting, Bezukhov makes a speech, calls on his brothers to speak out against violence in the world, and calls on them to preach the ideals of goodness and justice. Masons should look for "worthy" ones (not scoundrels) and promote their entry into the order. Pierre's speech causes a stormy protest in the box, and his proposal is rejected.
The tragedy of Russia at that time was that the children of the Widow tried to impose their ideals on Russian society, to crush our culture, and then the whole country. Tolstoy tried to convey this to us.
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Reply from Agnes[active]
The desire to change his life for the better leads him to the Freemasons, a secret organization whose members hope to appoint their like-minded “brothers” to key government positions, gain power over the world and begin to implement the ideals of goodness.
Retelling.
After an explanation with his wife, Pierre goes to St. Petersburg and at one of the stations he meets one of the famous masons, Osip Alekseevich Bazdeev. He saw Freemasonry as a brotherhood of people united with the goal of supporting each other on the path of virtue. Pierre decided to take the path of renewal and joined the Masonic lodge.
The goal is to preserve and pass on to posterity some important sacrament; the second goal is to correct the hearts of the lodge members and the third is to correct the entire membership. Virtues corresponding to the seven steps of the Temple of Solomon, which every Mason must cultivate:
1) modesty, respect for the secrecy of the order;
2) obedience high ranks orders;
3) good morals;
4) love for humanity;
5) courage;
6) generosity;
7) love of death.
The Masons were most occupied with their own advancement to power. It seemed to him that Russian Freemasonry had gone down the wrong path. All brothers were divided into 4 categories:
occupied with the mysteries of science, the mystical side; seekers, hesitant, like himself; seeing nothing but the outer form; entered Freemasonry to get closer to rich and well-connected brothers.
After a trip abroad, he issued a call to action and was accused of vehemence.

The end of the first volume and the first part of the second is a story about lost illusions: Prince Andrei realized how insignificant glory is, how insignificant is the happiness of one, built on the misfortune of many; Nikolai Rostov did not find peace where he was looking for it; Pierre Bezukhov's eyes were opened to the society around him, which he trusted so childishly in the first days of his arrival in his homeland.

The loss of illusions shook the inner world of these people. But each of them, in their own way, in accordance with their make-up: their character, with the peculiarities of their intellect, began to look for a way out, to form their own sense of life, understanding of life.

How did Pierre's inner life change after the duel with Dolokhov? - “It was as if the main screw on which his whole life was held had turned in his head.” - What shocked him so much? - The helplessness of human thought, its inability to solve the main questions of existence. - What are these questions? - “Why live, and what am I? What is life, what is death? What force controls everything? - We see that Pierre is concerned about philosophical questions (problems of social relations are still passing him by). It seems to him that man is not the master of his destiny, but a helpless piece of the universe, a weak-willed instrument of some unknown forces. “Louis XVI was executed because he was considered a criminal, and a year later those who executed him were killed, too, for something.” Everyone is right in their own way at some point. Therefore, there is no absolute truth...

This is Pierre's peculiarity: he is a dialectician by nature, in his mind one thought causes another, then a chain reaction of considerations, conclusions, new questions; and all these are questions of a general philosophical nature. Let us remember this circumstance, because later, when we talk again about Nikolai Rostov, we will see a completely different type of thinking. And, comparing them, we will draw conclusions.

What place did new thoughts take in Pierre’s life? - “He didn’t care in comparison with the thoughts that occupied him now.” This is a feature not only of Pierre, but also of a number of Tolstoy’s other heroes, and of himself: the desire to get “to the root,” to search without resting. While asserting the superiority of intuitive knowledge over rationalistic knowledge, Tolstoy nevertheless always endowed his best heroes the ability of analytical thinking, restless searching thought. Such are Olenin, Levin, Nekhlyudov, Pierre, Andrey. And even though, as we will see, they cannot answer the questions put forward by their inquisitive thirst for knowledge of the basic laws of existence, the attractiveness of these heroes lies precisely in the passionate desire to know, to understand what life is, what is its meaning, what is the highest justice. So Pierre cannot answer the questions on which, as it seems to him, his entire future life depends. - What is he coming to? - “You will die and you will find out everything - or you will stop asking.” For anyone looking for a reasonable explanation for everything, this is a tragedy, this is the end of life. Having come to this conclusion, Levin will think about suicide. Pierre is saved by an unexpected meeting.

Who did Pierre meet at the station on his way to St. Petersburg? How did Pierre behave in the presence of this man? - Pierre, "involuntarily submitting,” sat down next to Bazdeev. - What struck Pierre with the Freemason’s speech? - “Definiteness and firmness.” We see how strong the impact of this personality is on Pierre. Just as Prince Vasily’s confidence in the correctness of everything he does once deprived the weak-willed Pierre of the ability to control himself, so now the power of Bazdeev’s fanatical faith conquers him. Bazdeev almost hypnotizes Pierre. - Did Pierre believe it? arguments Bazdeeva? - He believed not so much “the reasonable arguments that were in the Freemason’s speech”, but "intonations of conviction and the cordiality that was in the Freemason’s speech, the trembling of the voice, which sometimes almost interrupted the Mason,... those brilliant, senile eyes, grown old on the same conviction... that calmness, firmness and knowledge of one’s purpose, which shone from the whole being of the Mason and which struck him especially strongly in comparison with his dejection and hopelessness." Bazdeev's faith and conviction were stronger than his arguments. In the truth-seeking soul of Pierre, who came to the conclusion about the relativity of moral laws, about the impossibility of finding absolute truth, hidden seeds of hope and longing for faith.

Does Pierre believe in God? - No, he confesses his unbelief to the Freemason. But he listened to Bazdeev’s arguments and “with all his soul wanted to believe and believed and experienced a joyful feeling of calm, renewal and return to life”; he “was afraid of the ambiguity and weakness of his interlocutor’s arguments, he I was afraid not to believe to him". It seems to Pierre that unbelief is worse than belief in a false truth. He first believed in someone who was convinced that he “firmly” knew the truth, and therefore “irresistibly” attracted Pierre, and only then accepted the essence of Freemasonry.

Tolstoy was going to write a novel about the Decembrist. This Decembrist was supposed to be Pierre. This stage, Freemasonry, on Pierre's path to Decembrism is historically justified. Many noble revolutionaries went through Freemasonry - and because the moral teaching of the Freemasons largely coincided with moral principles advanced nobility, and because the secret organization of the Masons itself] made it possible to conspire political activity under the guise of religious vigils. Certain elements of the Masonic teaching - for example, the doctrine of “moral improvement” - anticipated Tolstoyism, although Tolstoy had a very negative attitude towards the mystical side of Freemasonry. Pierre accepted in Freemasonry what Tolstoy accepted, and rejected what was alien to Tolstoy.

What essentially attracted Pierre to Freemasonry? “He understood the “unexplored pleasure of believing in” the possibility of achieving perfection and in the possibility of brotherly and active love between people.” Tolstoy, although he studied the sources and spent many hours over Masonic manuscripts, still presented many aspects of Freemasonry in his own way. Piera attracted the supposedly Masonic formula, but in reality the gospel in Tolstoy’s interpretation: “Farewell to your enemy, do not take revenge on him, except by doing good to him.” - But what was most dear to Pierre in the Masonic teaching - “... To resist evil with all your might? , reigning in the world." - And what caused doubt in Pierre? - The ritual side of Freemasonry. - What did Pierre feel when he was accepted into the Masons? - “Where am I, what am I doing? Will they not laugh at me? remember this? Pierre has a sense of truth. He spoke about his love for Helen and at the same time felt something false, unclean, which repelled him from this woman. He accepted Freemasonry, but already upon initiation into the Freemasons, doubts about its truth and necessity appeared in him. what he does. - Whom did Pierre see among the Masons? - Those whom he knew from St. Petersburg society and who never aroused his sympathy - What smile never left Pierre’s face? "...Children's a smile of modesty, doubt and self-mockery.” - This children's purity, this rejection of falsehood does not give Pierre the opportunity to unconditionally surrender to faith. And there is something from the author here. Tolstoy saw falsehood, no matter what masks it was hidden under. Remember the words of Turgenev, who very subtly expressed this feature of Tolstoy’s worldview.

But one way or another, Pierre eventually felt ready for his new life. - Who disturbed his state of joyful renewal? - Prince Vasily. It is not for nothing that he reappears in the novel at this moment. This is the quality of the Kuragins - to appear in front of people when their souls are light, in order to poison them with these moments of joy. - Prince Vasily, trying to reconcile Pierre with Helen, return him to his former life, has an ally. Whose opinion is he referring to? - “...The Empress Dowager takes a keen interest in this whole matter. You know, she is very merciful to Helen.” - How symptomatic this is! “A corrupt creature” (in Dolokhov’s words), an empty, vulgar person, enjoys the favor of the court. Equally curious is the attitude towards Pierre, on the one hand, of Anna Pavlovna Scherer, and on the other hand, of Natasha, Prince Andrei, Princess Marya. - What does Anna Pavlovna call Pierre after his break with Helen? - “...A mad young man, corrupted by the corrupt ideas of the age.” - How did Princess Marya react to Pierre? - “...His misfortune with his wife...his kind, simple face endeared her to him.” - Such statements characterize not only the one about whom they think and speak, but the one who speaks. A deep furrow was laid by Tolstoy between two groups of heroes. Some are those who seek truth and purity, others are those to whom both truth and purity are indifferent, the only thing that matters is what place a person occupies in society. Pierre suffers from lack of measure. But then Sen finds this faith, burns with the desire to act to combat the evil that reigns in the world, and high society rejects him. He is “mad,” just as Chatsky was crazy. And just as “The silent people are blissful in the world,” so in the company of Scherer and the Kuragins Drubetskoy is blissful.

Has Boris Drubetskoy changed since our meeting with him in Olmutz? What life rule is he guided? - “He completely mastered that... unwritten subordination... according to which, for success in the service, what was needed was not effort in the service, not labor, not courage, not constancy, but only the ability to deal with those who reward for your service..." 2. How do Drubetsky’s properties of silence manifest themselves? - Firstly, he “diligently avoided stating his opinion about the facts that he conveyed” (“At my age one should not dare to have one’s own opinion,” we hear the voice of Alexei Stepanovich). Secondly, he goes to bow to women who have weight in society (his brother in spirit has already been advised to go to women “just not for that”). Only an accident prevented Molchalin from achieving what Boris achieved. - Which of the women is Drubetskoy closest to? - He becomes “a close person in the house of Countess Bezukhova.”

This is how a single line is established: the Empress - Helen - Boris; yard - vulgarity - careerism. And this whole camarilla is hostile to Pierre and hateful to Prince Andrei.

In Prince Andrei’s head at this time, too, in essence, “the main screw on which his whole life was held was turned.” He considered himself called to greatness, but greatness turned into baseness in front of him; his wife seemed to him an obstacle on the path to fame, and now that she has died, he feels guilty of something and even reads “a gentle reproach” in the face of the angel standing on the grave of the little princess.

What does he think is left for him? - There is only one thing - caring for my son’s health. - Remember what Prince Andrei experienced when his son fell ill. “It seemed to him that his son had died, and then he believed that “it’s all over,” that’s all, because the little creature is “the only thing left in his life.” When the boy recovered, “Prince Andrei wanted to grab, crush, and press this small helpless creature to his chest.” Prince Andrei's world has narrowed endlessly. And he wants to belong only to this new world of his. Everything that happens in the big world is evil and lies, vanity of vanities; only here - albeit small, but happiness.

Pierre, after the Masons revealed the truth to him, decides that he must confront the evil that reigns in the world. -What is he going to do first? - He strives to “immediately” take “measures for the complete liberation of the peasants from serfdom.” These words are very characteristic - immediately And perfect liberation. It is not known what is more in them: an impatient thirst for good or naive ideas about reality. One researcher was right when he wrote: “...for Pierre this great and so difficult, so responsible matter was only a means of personal moral satisfaction, calming his conscience, a path to self-improvement.” - How does Tolstoy explain Pierre’s failure in alleviating the situation of the peasants? - “Pierre did not have that practical tenacity that would give him the opportunity to directly get down to business, so he did not like him and only tried to pretend to the manager that he was busy with business.”

The pages depicting Pierre’s “liberation” activities are very interesting in that the reader is also present when the artist’s worldview is being disrupted. When starting to work on the novel, Tolstoy directly announced that he would not describe the life of commoners, merchants, men, “which was incomprehensible and unpleasant to him,” but would describe the life of the nobility dear to him.

The main characters are nobles. And Tolstoy has so far explained the delusions and mistakes of the best of them not by their shortcomings, but by the vices of the reality surrounding them! But for the first time his beloved hero is faced with another class, with the serf peasantry. Tolstoy was faced with a dilemma: to show his hero here as noble, humane, thereby continuing the aristocratic tendencies of the novel, or to reveal the true relations of the people with the nobility “terribly far from them,” that is, in essence, to judge the hero from the position of enslaved peasants.” Literary critic V. Shklovsky put forward a very interesting and deeply true, at least in relation to Tolstoy during the period of his work on War and Peace, thought: ... Worldview is not something previous work of art, it is constantly being built and tested artistic work» 3.

What does Pierre the “liberator” look like? - In Pierre, in the sweetest, sincere Pierre, pretense is revealed (he tried to pretend to the manager that he was busy with business) and indifference to the people's cause. (“Again, whole days, weeks, months of Pierre’s life passed in the same way preoccupied and busy between evenings, dinners, breakfasts, balls...") - Notice how the language has changed. In the author’s speech, the words with which he previously described the bigot and hypocrite Drubetskaya or Julie, who is false to the core, appear: the people introduced themselves to Pierre “prosperous and touchingly grateful for what they did to him good deeds"(you can hear the words of cutesy Julie: “Wonderful! What you said is wonderful”). And what Oblomovism is in these reflections of Pierre: “It’s difficult to imagine happier people, and... God knows what would await them in the wild.”

Did the peasants on Pierre's estates really become happy? Tell us how the life of the peasants changed as a result of Pierre’s “activities.” - The situation of the peasants not only did not improve, but in some respects worsened, in any case, “the peasants continued to give with work and money everything that they give from others, that is, everything that they can give.” Let's remember what deep meaning Tolstoy put into the word “peace” in the title of the novel. Big folk world for Tolstoy it turns out to be more valuable than the inner world of the philanthropist master. - Did Pierre understand that he had failed? - No, he “in the happiest state of mind” returned from his “journey.” This is the only time in Pierre's life when he did not feel the falsehood of his position.

How did Prince Andrei react to Pierre’s thoughts about improving the lives of the peasants? - He refutes them from the same positions of relativism on which Pierre stood so recently. Truth is relative. It now seems to Prince Andrei that simply existing, without tormenting himself with questions, is easier, better than thinking about the meaning of life, and he envies the man living an animal life. Why do people need schools? To physical torment they will add moral torment. - Well, Prince Andrei is against the liberation of the peasants? - No, he is for the liberation of the peasants, but not for them, but for... the nobles, who, being “raised in... the traditions of unlimited power , become cruel, rude,” become more and more “unhappy and unhappy.” It is interesting that Prince Andrei’s gaze “became more animated the more hopeless his judgments were.”

Tolstoy once wrote (in the preface to Chekhov’s story “Darling”) that when you direct intense attention to any phenomenon, it involuntarily appears before you in a different light than it appeared before 4 . Arguing with Pierre, with his conviction of the need to serve his neighbor, Prince Andrei becomes animated, focusing on this issue, and in some way internally agrees with Pierre.

What significance did this meeting with Pierre have for Prince Andrei? - “The meeting with Pierre was for Prince Andrey the era that began, although in appearance it was the same; the most, but in inner world his new life.” - Why do you think Pierre managed to convince Prince Andrei relatively quickly? - Of course, because this stage of Andrei’s development, with its assertion of passivity, did not correspond to the active, vital principle in his character.

One literary historian noted that everywhere in Tolstoy, through the counterversion of alternating moods, it is shown where... persons follow the path of the fundamental foundations of their natural being or allow distortions and what causes these distortions” 5 .

It was during this period that Prince Andrei allowed the distortion of “the foundations of his natural being.” At this time, skepticism and quietism are not characteristic of the author himself. Tolstoy is still approaching quietism, to which he will pay tribute in the image of Platon Karataev (remember: “... the worldview is constantly being built and tested by artistic work”). Now the act preached by Pierre is closer to him than the intelligentsia version of Prince Andrei’s Karataevism.

Let's read an excerpt from Chapter XII of the second part - “Pierre and Andrey on the ferry.” Look how Tolstoy draws the influence of nature on Prince Andrei. - “Ferry! has long been stuck, and only waves of current with a weak sound! hit the bottom of the ferry. It seemed to Prince Andrei that this rinsing of the waves was saying to Pierre’s words: “True, believe it.” And how did Prince Andrei’s face change? - “Prince Andrey sighed and radiantly, children's looked with a gentle gaze into... Pierre’s face.” - The theme of a bright and pure childhood almost automatically evokes the theme of heaven in Tolstoy. Prince Andrei, “coming off the ferry,... looked at the sky,... and 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 “What was in him suddenly woke up joyfully and youthfully in his soul.” Prince Andrei could not remain passive for long. This is typical Tolstoy positive character, always making mistakes and searching. Tolstoy wrote in a letter to his aunt: “Eternal anxiety, labor, struggle, deprivation - these are necessary conditions from which not a single person should dare to leave even for a second. To live honestly, you have to struggle, get confused, struggle, make mistakes, start and quit, and start again, and quit again, and still struggle and make mistakes.” Such is Tolstoy’s ideal, such are Andrei and Pierre the embodiment of this ideal.

Prince Andrei is “confused” not only in the peasant question. - What did he tell Pierre about his attitude towards the Russian army? - “If Bonaparte had stood here, near Smolensk, threatening the Bald Mountains, then I would not have served the Russian army.” Closed in himself, in his “I”, he is not involved in that swarm life, which will be felt later, when Bonaparte actually stands at Smolensk. But this feeling of commonality lives in his soul, which is why Pierre manages to convince Prince Andrei that although lies reign on earth, they are transitory, and the truth is eternal. "On earth.:.- says Pierre, - there is no truth - everything is lies and evil; co in the world, all over the world there is a kingdom of truth, and we are now children of the earth, and forever - children the whole world." The more the hero feels part peace, the closer this hero is to Tolstoy, and Prince Andrei, who understood the “lies and evil” reigning on earth before Pierre, joyfully accepts Pierre’s faith in the kingdom of truth throughout the world. The world of truth, goodness and justice, the vast world of higher humanity becomes the world of Pierre and Prince Andrei. Their search for reason and the difficult experience of life led them to this world.

What is Nikolai Rostov’s world like? - “The whole world was divided into two uneven sections. One is our Pavlograd regiment, and the other is everything else. And there was nothing else to worry about.” In essence, this is a repetition of the feeling of Prince Andrei: Prince Andrei has the whole world - his child, family, household, and he does not care about the rest. We have established that such self-restraint does not correspond to the fundamental foundations... of his being.” After a conversation on the ferry with Pierre, a feeling of connection with the whole world awakens in him. Let's see if Nikolai Rostov is able to break out of the narrow world called the “Pavlograd Regiment.” It seemed to Rostov that everything connected with the regiment was simple and clear. But is the regiment really so isolated from the world? - What was the situation of the Pavlograd regiment abroad? - “There was frost, mud, cold... for several days neither the horses nor the people were given provisions... Everything was eaten, and all the inhabitants fled.” - Who and how tried to improve the situation of the soldiers? It’s interesting to compare what Rostov is thinking about and what Denisov is thinking about in these days of soldiers’ malt and poverty. Rostov “was pleasantly thinking about the fact that one of these days he should receive his next rank...” And at this time Denisov’s cry is heard, scolding the soldiers because they eat the poisonous “mush root”. Denisov enters the booth and “angrily smokes a pipe.” Rostov is blissful, Denisov is worried. Their differences are still subtle, but eventually they will end up in different camps. Denisov is trying to interfere in life, Rostov believes that, having been on duty, he has done his job.

Why was Denisov punished? - Because he recaptured the convoy of another unit in order to feed his soldiers. - Who did Denisov meet in the food warehouse? - Vora Telyanin. V.I. Nemirovich Danchenko said that if in the first act there is a gun hanging on the wall, it should fire in the last act. This is the law of art 6. Telyanin’s image shoots.” If in the first volume we could still doubt who was right, Rostov or the regiment officers, now Tolstoy definitely takes the position of Nikolai Rostov in this dispute. Thrown out of the regiment, but not exposed, Telyanin turned from a petty swindler, as Denisov says, into a “chief thief.” Rostov should have been more persistent then, but he did not know how to rise above his environment, as Prince Andrei and Pierre know how to do.

The main test for Nikolai begins. What did he see in the hospital where Denisov lies? - “...The sick and wounded lay there on the floor, on straw and overcoats”; “The hospital smell was so strong... that Rostov grabbed his nose and had to stop to gather his strength and move on; the dead lie next to the living. - How does Tolstoy describe the appearance of the wounded soldiers? - One - with a face as thin as a skeleton and an unshaven beard; the face of the other is “crimson-red... on his bare feet and on his hands, still red, the veins are strained like ropes.” Rostov, when he sees all this, “a chill ran down... his back.” What did he do? “No, there’s nothing you can do here,” Rostov thought, lowering his eyes,” and then hurried away, trying to pass unnoticed through the line of those reproachful soldier’s eyes.

Now the image of the hospital is becoming dominant. No matter what Nikolai did, no matter what he thought, “the whole hospital with these severed arms and legs, with this dirt and disease” haunted him. “It seemed to him so vividly that he now felt this hospital smell of a dead body that he looked around to understand where this smell could come from.” - Which forced Nikolai Rostov to constantly return not only to thoughts about the hospital, but even to the sensations that did he experience there? - The complete opposite of what he saw in the hospital, what is happening in Tilsit after the conclusion of peace between the two emperors. Dinners and banquets follow one after another (and there are hungry people in the hospital). The soldier Lazarev, who accidentally caught the eye of the emperor, receives the order (and in the hospital - Tushin without an arm and the essentially innocent Denisov). Bonaparte is a friend of the emperor (in the hospital there are people who lost their arms and legs in the war between the emperors). - How did these observations influence Rostov? - “A painful work was going on in his mind, which he could not complete.” - For the first time, Nikolai Rostov had to think like this. In it, two principles collided with greater severity than before - the humane Rostov with the loyal hussar; his powerless thought rushes about like a hunted regiment. - And what way does Nikolai find a way out, how are his “terrible doubts” resolved? “Our job is to fulfill our duty, to hack away and not think, that’s all,” he declares.

Unconditionally and forever, the hussarism supplants the Rostov humanistic principle in Nicholas. Refusal of thought naturally leads to rejection of humanism. Prince Andrei and Pierre often make mistakes, they do not always find the right answer to painful questions, but their minds are always at work; analytical thinking is as limited for them as it is inorganic for Rostov. That is why Nikolai Rostov, finding himself in that world that seemed so confusing and incomprehensible to him, willingly or unwillingly identifies with him. “We are soldiers and nothing more,” he shouts. But this is what Alexander I and Napoleon need—not the thinking Bolkonskys and Bezukhovs, but soldiers, and nothing more.” Autocracy rests not only on bayonets, it also rests on those who subordinate their minds and their will to the power of one person. So Tolstoy leads us to the idea that no matter how kind, pure, gentle a person is, if he does not have developed critical thinking, he inevitably comes to justifying, defending imperfect social relations and objectively to meanness. Tolstoy dreams of a harmonious person, in whom equally strongly developed feeling and thought mutually complement and enrich one another.

1. How did Tolstoy show the importance of the common collective principle in the military life of soldiers?
2. Why was there confusion and disorder in the movement of the Russian army?
3. Why did Tolstoy describe the foggy morning in detail?
4. How did the image of Napoleon develop (details), who looked after the Russian army?
5. What does Prince Andrey dream of?
6. Why did Kutuzov sharply answer the emperor?
7. How does Kutuzov behave during the battle?
8. Can Bolkonsky’s behavior be considered a feat?

Volume 2
1. What attracted Pierre to Freemasonry?
2. What underlies the fears of Pierre and Prince Andrei?
3. Analysis of the trip to Bogucharovo.
4. Analysis of the trip to Otradnoye.
5. For what purpose does Tolstoy give the ball (name day) scene? Did Natasha remain “ugly, but alive”?
6. Natasha's dance. A property of nature that delighted the author.
7. Why did Natasha become interested in Anatole?
8. What is the basis of Anatole’s friendship with Dolokhov?
9. How does the author feel about Natasha after betraying Bolkonsky?

Volume 3
1. Tolstoy’s assessment of the role of personality in history.
2. How does Tolstoy reveal his attitude towards Napoleonism?
3. Why is Pierre dissatisfied with himself?
4. Analysis of the episode “retreat from Smolensk”. Why do the soldiers call Andrei “our prince”?
5. Bogucharovsky revolt (analysis). What is the purpose of the episode? How is Nikolai Rostov shown?
6. How to understand Kutuzov’s words “your road, Andrey, is the road of honor”?
7. How to understand Andrei’s words about Kutuzov “he is Russian, despite the French sayings”?
8. Why is Shengraben given through the eyes of Rostov, Austerlitz - Bolkonsky, Borodino - Pierre?
9. How to understand Andrei’s words “as long as Russia is healthy, anyone could serve it”?
10. How does the scene with the portrait of his son characterize Napoleon: “The chess is set, the game will begin tomorrow”?
11. Raevsky’s battery – important episode Borodin. Why?
12. Why does Tolstoy compare Napoleon to darkness? Does the author see the mind of Napoleon, the wisdom of Kutuzov, positive qualities heroes?
13. Why did Tolstoy depict the council in Fili through the perception of a six-year-old girl?
14. Departure of residents from Moscow. What is the general mood?
15. Scene of a meeting with the dying Bolkonsky. How is the connection between the fates of the novel’s heroes and the fate of Russia emphasized?

Volume 4
1. Why did the meeting with Platon Karataev return Pierre’s sense of the beauty of the world? Analysis of the meeting.
2. How did the author explain the meaning of guerrilla warfare?
3. What is the significance of the image of Tikhon Shcherbatov?
4. What thoughts and feelings does the death of Petya Rostov give rise to in the reader?
5. What does Tolstoy see as the main significance of the War of 1812 and what is the role of Kutuzov in it according to Tolstoy?
6. Determine the ideological and compositional meaning of the meeting between Pierre and Natasha. Could there have been a different ending?

Epilogue
1. What conclusions does the author come to?
2. What are Pierre's true interests?
3. What underlies Nikolenka’s relationship with Pierre and Nikolai Rostov?
4. Analysis of Nikolai Bolkonsky's sleep.
5. Why does the novel end with this scene?

Questions about the hero Bezukhov in Leo Tolstoy’s work “War and Peace” 1) What information does it give to understand the character of Pierre Bezukhov about what

his origin and his portrait? (vol. 1 part. 1 chapter. 2)

2) How does Pierre relate to society and does it relate to Pierre? Why?

3) What do Pierre’s statements about french revolution and Napoleon? (vol. 1 part 1 ch. 1-6)