What does the name war and peace mean? The meaning of the title of the novel “War and Peace”

At first glance, the title of the great epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy seems to be the only possible one. But the original title of the work was different: “All’s well that ends well.” And, it would seem, such a title successfully emphasizes the course of the war of 1812 - great victory Russian people.

Why was the writer not satisfied with this name? Probably because his plan was much broader and deeper than just a story about the Patriotic War of 1812. Tolstoy wanted to present in all its diversity, contradictions and struggles the life of an entire era.

The theme of the work is formed by three circles of issues: problems of the people, the noble community and the personal life of a person, determined by ethical standards. Main artistic device, which the writer uses, becomes an antithesis. This technique is the core of the entire novel: the novel contrasts two wars (1805-1807 and 1812), and two battles (Austerlitz and Borodino), and military leaders (Kutuzov and Napoleon), and cities (St. Petersburg and Moscow), and characters. But in fact, this opposition is inherent in the very title of the novel: “War and Peace.”

This name reflects the deep philosophical meaning. The fact is that the word “peace” had a different meaning before the revolution. letter designation sound [and] - i is decimal, and the word was written “mir”. This spelling of the word indicated that it had multiple meanings. Indeed, the word “peace” in the title is not simple notation the concept of peace, a state opposite to war. In the novel, this word carries many meanings, illuminates important aspects people's life, views, ideals, life and customs of various strata of society.

The epic beginning in the novel “War and Peace” connects the pictures of war and peace into a single whole with invisible threads. In the same way, the word “war” means not only military actions of warring armies, but also the belligerent hostility of people in peaceful life divided by social and moral barriers. The concept of “world” appears and is revealed in the epic in its various meanings. Peace is the life of a people who are not in a state of war. The world is a peasant gathering that started a riot in Bogucharovo. The world is everyday interests, which, unlike abusive life, so prevent Nikolai Rostov from being “ wonderful person“and they annoy him so much when he comes on vacation and understands nothing in this “stupid world.” Peace is a person’s immediate environment, which is always next to him, no matter where he is: in war or in peaceful life.

And finally, behind all these meanings is philosophical idea Tolstoy about the world as the Universe, the universe in its main opposing states, which act as internal forces development and life of peoples, history, and destinies of individuals.Pierre speaks about him, proving to Prince Andrei the existence of the “kingdom of truth.” Peace is the brotherhood of people, regardless of national and class differences, to which Nikolai Rostov proclaims a toast when meeting with the Austrians.

The life that Tolstoy paints is very rich. The episodes, whether they relate to “war” or “peace,” are very different, but each expresses a deep, inner meaning life, the struggle of opposite principles in it. Internal contradictions are a prerequisite for the movement of the life of an individual and humanity as a whole. Moreover, “war” and “peace” do not exist separately. One event is connected with another, follows from another and entails the next.

In my opinion, Tolstoy uses another means artistic expression to reveal the meaning of the novel's title. Thisoxymoron . Military events included in the plot of the novel create peace and harmony in the internal and external lives of the heroes, while peaceful events, on the contrary, sow discord, misunderstanding, and fragmented destinies of the heroes. . If you look at how the heroes behave when the war reached Moscow, it becomes obvious that these military difficulties united the heroes and awakened in them feelings of compassion and sympathy for their neighbors. An example of this is the Rostov family, which receives the sick and wounded in their home, helps them with provisions and medicines, Natasha herself acts as a nurse and nurse. In these difficult times, the city seems to have lost its edges social inequality, traces of everyday quarrels and scandals between the heroes, misunderstandings that reigned in Peaceful time. That is, the war brought into the lives of the heroes that unity, brotherhood, cohesion, mutual assistance, equality that did not exist in peacetime. In addition, war also determines the spiritual order of thoughts and feelings of the heroes. It is during the war that Andrei Bolkonsky’s attitude to life changes: if before his first combat wound Bolkonsky dreamed of glory, for which he was ready to put his life on the line: “Death, wounds, loss of family, nothing is scary to me,” then after the wound received during the battle of Austerlitz, the attitude towards life changes. Having touched death, Bolkonsky begins to notice the beauty of life (blue sky), its uniqueness and the insignificance of war (Napoleon already seems small, and everything that happens around is meaningless). During the war, Pierre Bezukhov also settled down. That is, war not only creates external world heroes, but also internal. The world, on the contrary, brings discord and disharmony into the lives of the heroes. For example, everyday life brought turmoil into the soul of Andrei Bolkonsky - disappointment from Natasha’s refusal and the news about her affair with Anatoly Kuragin. To find inner harmony, Bolkonsky goes to war. For him, war is a spiritual insight and a spiritual hospital, and the world is a place of temptations and sorrows. Even the fact that Bolkonsky begins to look at his rival Anatoly Kuragin differently when he meets him with an amputated leg in a hospital speaks of the beneficial effect of war on Bolkonsky’s soul. In the world he felt hatred and rivalry towards Anatoly Kuragin, he even wanted to challenge him to a duel, and in the hospital he felt a feeling of compassion and empathy, that is, the war reconciled enemies and rivals. Dolokhov also reconciles with Pierre during the war, when a prayer service was served on the Borodin field before Smolensk miraculous icon. (in the world they quarreled over Helen Kuragina, Pierre’s wife, who had an affair with Dolokhov). All these examples suggest that war contains both external and internal peace. And the pre-war time, the life of the heroes, on the contrary, is presented in the constant fragmentation of the heroes, misunderstandings, divisions: they divide the inheritance of the old Count Bezukhov, gossip in the Scherer salon, waste their lives in absurd searches and actions, such as Pierre Bezukhov (then he will join the Masonic lodge, sometimes he dances with a bear on a bet, sometimes he takes part in city revelries, etc.), betrayal (for example, Helen), rivalry (Dolokhov-Rostov because of Sonya; Anatol Kuragin-Bolkonsky because of Natasha; Dolokhov-Pierre because of for Helen), etc. All these facets of rivalry and hostility are erased by war. Reconciles the heroes, spiritually enriches them and puts everything in its place. In addition, war awakens in the heroes and strengthens their sense of patriotism. Conclusion: everyday life, full of temptations and entertainment, the pleasures of life, takes the heroes away from spiritual riches and worldly peace, but war and grief lead them.

That is why Tolstoy’s novel “rises to the highest peaks of human thoughts and feelings, to peaks usually inaccessible to people” (N. N. Strakhov).

The meaning of the title of the novel "War and Peace"

The idea of ​​"War and Peace" goes back to the novel "The Decembrists" by L. Tolstoy. The writer felt the need to delve into the history of Russian society, to talk about the Patriotic War of 1812, in which the hero of the novel was a participant. The writer worked on the novel for seven years.

At first glance, the reader may think that the novel “War and Peace” is named this way because it reflects two eras in the life of Russian society early XIX centuries: the period of the wars against Napoleon 1805-1814 and the peace period before and after wartime. However, literary scholars make clarifications. In modern Russian, the word “peace” has two meanings: 1) an antonym to the word war; 2) human society at all. But in the Russian language of the 19th century, there were two spellings of the word “peace”: “mir” - the absence of war and “mir” - human society. The title of the novel in the old spelling included precisely the form “world”. We can conclude that the novel is devoted primarily to the problem, which is formulated as follows: “War and Russian society" However, researchers of Tolstoy’s work found the fact that the title of the novel was published not from the text written by Tolstoy himself. But the writer did not correct the spelling that was not agreed with him. This suggests that both names suited Tolstoy: “War and Peace”, “War and Peace”.

The main artistic device used by the writer is antithesis (contrast). This technique is the core of the entire novel: the novel contrasts two wars (1805-1807 and 1812), and two battles (Austerlitz and Borodino), and military leaders (Kutuzov and Napoleon), and cities (St. Petersburg and Moscow), and active faces. The contrast is inherent in the very title of the novel: “War and Peace.”

This name has a deep philosophical meaning. The title of the novel is interpreted based on the variety of meanings contained in these concepts. Just as “war” means not only the military actions of warring armies, but also the belligerent hostility of people in peaceful life, divided by social and moral barriers. The concept of “world” also reveals itself in its various meanings. Peace is the life of a people who are not in a state of war. Peace is a person’s environment, which is always near him, no matter where he is: in war or in peaceful life.

The world is the whole world, the universe. Pierre speaks about him, proving to Prince Andrei the existence of the “kingdom of truth.” Peace is a brotherhood of people, regardless of national and class differences. The world is life. The world is also a worldview, a circle of ideas of heroes.

The narrative in the novel connects the pictures of war and peace into a single whole with invisible threads. Peace and war go hand in hand. Main idea: the world denies war,

This is an epic novel in the truest sense of the word. Spread over several decades, it masterfully describes the history of Russia from the late 18th century to the first third of the 1800s. At over 1,600 pages, this is by far one of the longest novels, but unlike many much shorter books, its length is well justified. Although Tolstoy is very meticulous, his writing is easy to read, and the pages simply fly when you turn them.

It is known that at first the author wanted to title the work with the phraseology: “All’s well that ends well.” This meant a positive outcome of the war, as well as the lives of the heroes after all the events, difficulties, and ups and downs. But later the writer thought this title was too superficial, not reflecting the full depth of the novel. In addition, it limited the author in developing the plot. The phrase suggests ideal happy end for everyone, but this could not happen in principle.

There were also other options: “1805” and “Decembrist”, but they turned out to be too narrow to display all the facets of a novel of this magnitude.

What is the meaning of the name?

L. N. Tolstoy gives his most fundamental work an ambiguous title, creating a contrast. The name of the novel is deep and multifaceted. The war here not only recalls the hostilities that took place during the described historical period. This is a split in 19th century society. This spiritual path heroes, search for harmony, internal struggles, experiences, tossing. These are difficulties in relationships between people, within families, love conflicts. This is the ambiguity, the contradictory nature of the images themselves. And also clashes of views, opinions on important social issues, the correct answer to which even the author did not know.

Society at War

In turn, peace, as the opposite concept, is harmony, finding personal happiness, acceptance, understanding of oneself and others. And not just the absence of hostility. On the other hand, the events of 1805-1807 and 1812 changed the heroes, turned their worldview upside down, and raised new ones. personal qualities, helped me to know myself, my comrades, and realize the truths of life. In the novel, the words “world” and “society” are synonymous. The work could have been renamed “Society and War.” Much attention is paid to the person, the individual during hostilities. Andrei Bolkonsky is greatly changed by the Battle of Austerlitz. The author puts his hero on a fine line between life and death. Strong emotions, stress, existential experiences, serious injury become a test of the truth of his beliefs, moral ideals, strength moral principles, but Andrei breaks this severe test, deprives him of inner harmony. And Pierre compares his experience in society with the events experienced during the war to form philosophical views, your new worldview, cultivating your inner core.

The world is life, so the word in the title also carries a vital meaning.

Themes of the epic novel

Still from the film

The books are devoted to two main topics. One of them is the Russian-French wars of 1805 and 1812. Tolstoy describes the wars, particularly the battles of Austerlitz (1805) and Borodino (1812), in vivid detail, apparently with great historical accuracy. The characters of Napoleon and Kutuzov (leader of the Russian army) accept Active participation in the narrative, with lesser leaders (Bagration, de Tolly, Davout) also receiving enough attention to build a complete, interesting story. Specific events of the war are covered with the participation of the main characters of the book, such as Andrei Bolkonsky, Nikolai Rostov, Pierre Bezukhov.

The other is higher Russian society that time. The book gives a very interesting, in-depth look at this unusual society, which by today's standards is somewhat modeled, thus similar to other European societies (French, British, etc.). Tolstoy also provides some insight into life in rural Russia and the relationship between nobles and serfs, although he does not spend as much effort on this topic as in Anna Karenina.

The characters in the book are diverse and represent different ideas that Lev Nikolaevich tries to infuse into his narrative. All of them, without exception, are extremely believable, well-developed, and lively. I can't think of other authors who know how to present and develop their characters like Tolstoy.

Opposition

The novel is built on antithesis, which here becomes the main method of artistic expressiveness of the text. The dialogue of contrasts continues throughout the plot. The name has a deep philosophical meaning. Much broader than it might seem to the person who first opened this book. Peace is not just peace, the antithesis of battles and battles. This is life, people, society, views, ideals. As well as internal harmony, which the heroes strive for throughout the entire plot, and achieve through internal struggle and suffering. And war is these confrontations. The name connects all events, individuals, entire families with invisible threads, creating a single outline of the narrative.

In Russian folklore there is a truth: “Every cloud has a silver lining.” And L.N. Tolstoy: “There is no peace without war.”

(349 words) The title is extremely important for creating literary work. A real writer may spend a lot of time searching for just a few words above the main text. A well-chosen title can not only attract the reader’s attention, but also accurately convey the thoughts and ideas of the author himself. We can observe such a situation in L. N. Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace.”

Initially, it seems that the secret of the name is simple. Tolstoy depicts the era of the Napoleonic wars before us. Detailed picture, which tells the story of people's lives during this highly controversial historical moment, is intended to teach us about peaceful and military life to create historical authenticity. This is where the name comes from, as a designation for the entire era. But Tolstoy in this case looked much deeper. The novel itself begins during the war in Austria, in the St. Petersburg salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. First of all, we are presented with images of typical nobles of the nineteenth century - these are narcissistic careerists and hypocrites who do not care about anything but themselves. A little later, already at the theater of military operations, we see a similar picture: politician-commanders, careerist officers and demoralized soldiers create an atmosphere of complete hopelessness and decay. The main thing that Tolstoy wants to show us is a divided, disorganized society that knows where to direct its forces. It is in this that the secret of the first part of the title of the novel “War...” is revealed. The war that members of a decaying society wage against each other destroys the country and the people. Tolstoy denies and despises such orders prevailing in Russia. To revive a sense of community in people, the writer brings down a terrible test on them. The invasion of foreign invaders puts the Russian people on the brink of death. And it is because of the threat of an external enemy that the country truly unites. Tolstoy remains true to himself, not forgetting to show us a small, decayed aristocratic elite. But at the same time, the absolute majority of the people helps their country as best they can. And it is precisely this state one people, passionate about the idea of ​​protecting his land from invaders, reveals to us the secret of the second part of the name “...peace.” Peace in society, a clear awareness of the Russian people's brotherhood. The sacrificial struggle of each individual for the benefit of the majority, as opposed to the struggle of individuals only for their own interests.

War and peace are two states of society, diametrically opposite friend each other, based on different ideals. In fact, there are a huge number of interpretations of the title of the novel. And this once again emphasizes the depth of Tolstoy’s thoughts and the versatility of his greatest creation.

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From his father, member foreign trips Russian army during Patriotic War, L. Tolstoy inherited a sense of his own dignity, independence of judgment, pride. Having entered Kazan University, he showed extraordinary abilities in studying foreign languages, but quickly became disillusioned with student life. At the age of 19 he leaves the university and goes to Yasnaya Polyana, deciding to devote himself to improving the lives of peasants. The time begins for Tolstoy to search for a purpose in life. He is either getting ready to go to Siberia, or going first to Moscow, then to St. Petersburg; then he decides to join the Horse Guards Regiment... During these same years, L. Tolstoy was seriously involved in music, pedagogy, and philosophy. In a painful search, Tolstoy comes to the main task of his life - literary creativity. Total great writer created over 200 works, including the epic novel War and Peace. According to I. S. Turgenev, “nothing better has ever been written by anyone.” It is enough to note that the text of the novel was rewritten 7 times; its composition is striking in its complexity and harmony.

The novel “War and Peace” was conceived as a novel about a Decembrist who returned from exile, reconsidered his views, condemned the past and became a preacher of moral self-improvement.

The creation of the epic novel was influenced by the events of that time (60s of the 19th century) - the failure of Russia in Crimean War, abolition of serfdom and its consequences.

The theme of the work is formed by three circles of questions: the problems of the people, the noble community and the personal life of a person, determined by ethical standards. The main artistic device used by the writer is antithesis. This technique is the core of the entire novel: the novel contrasts two wars (1805-1807 and 1812), and two battles (Austerlitz and Borodino), and military leaders (Kutuzov and Napoleon), and cities (St. Petersburg and Moscow ), and characters. But in fact, this opposition is already inherent in the very title of the novel: “War and Peace.”

This name reflects a deep philosophical meaning. The fact is that the word “world” before the revolution had a different letter designation for the sound [i] - i decimal, and the word was written “mir”. This spelling of the word indicated that it had many meanings. Indeed, the word “peace” in the title is not a simple designation of the concept of peace,
a state opposite to war. In the novel, this word carries many meanings and illuminates important aspects of people’s life, views, ideals, life and morals of various strata of society.

The epic beginning in the novel “War and Peace” connects the pictures of war and peace into a single whole with invisible threads. In the same way, the word “war” means not only the military actions of warring armies, but also the belligerent hostility of people in peaceful life, separated by social and moral barriers. The concept of “world” appears and is revealed in the epic in its various meanings. Peace is the life of a people who are not in a state of war. The world is a peasant gathering that started a riot in Bogucharovo. The world is everyday interests, which, unlike abusive life, so prevent Nikolai Rostov from being a “wonderful man” and so annoy him when he comes on vacation and understands nothing in this “stupid world.” Peace is a person’s immediate environment, which is always next to him, no matter where he is: in war or in peaceful life.

But the world is the whole world, the universe. Pierre speaks about him, proving to Prince Andrei the existence of the “kingdom of truth.” Peace is the brotherhood of people, regardless of national and class differences, to which Nikolai Rostov proclaims his toast when meeting with the Austrians. The world is life. The world is also a worldview, a circle of ideas of heroes.

The study of human consciousness and the process of self-observation allowed Tolstoy to become a deep psychologist. In the images he created, especially in the images of the main characters of the novel, the inner life of a person is revealed - a complex contradictory process, usually hidden from prying eyes. Tolstoy, according to N. G. Chernyshevsky, reveals the “dialectic human soul”, i.e. “barely perceptible phenomena of inner life”, replacing one another with extreme speed...

Peace and war go side by side, intertwine, interpenetrate and condition each other. In the general concept of the novel, the world denies war, because the content and need of the world is work and happiness, a free and natural and therefore joyful manifestation of personality. And the content and properties of war are disunion, alienation and isolation of people, hatred and hostility, defending one’s selfish interests, this is the self-affirmation of one’s egoistic “I” - bringing destruction, grief, and death to others. The horror of the death of hundreds of people on the dam during the retreat of the Russian army after Austerlitz is shocking, especially since Tolstoy compares all this horror with peaceful pictures, with the view of the same dam at another time, when an old miller sat here with fishing rods , and his grandson, having rolled up the sleeve of his shirt, was sorting through a silver quivering fish in a watering can.

The terrible result of the Borodino battle is depicted in the following picture: “Several tens of thousands of people lay dead in different positions in the fields and meadows... on which for hundreds of years the peasants of the villages of Borodino, Gorok, Kovardin and Sechenevsky." Here the horror of murder in war becomes clear to Rostov when he sees “the roomy face of the enemy with a hole in the chin and blue eyes.”

To tell the truth about the war, Tolstoy concludes, is very difficult. And here the writer was an innovator, truthfully showing a man at war. He was the first to discover the heroism of war, at the same time presenting war as an everyday matter and as a test for everyone mental strength person. And it inevitably happened that the bearers of true heroism were simple, modest people, such as Captain Tushin or Timokhin, forgotten by history; “sinner” Natasha, who achieved the allocation of transport for the Russian wounded; General Dokhturov and Kutuzov, who never spoke about his exploits.

The very combination of “war and peace” was not new in Russian literature. In particular, it was used in A. S. Pushkin’s tragedy “Boris Godunov”:

Describe without further ado,

All that you will witness in life:

War and peace, the rule of sovereigns,Holy miracles for the saints.

Tolstoy, like Pushkin, uses the combination “war and peace” as a universal category.

The problems raised in the novel “War and Peace” have universal significance. This 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...”