The spiritual quest of Andrei Bolkonsky in the novel “War and Peace” (Tolstoy Lev N.). The moral quest of Andrei Bolkonsky The spiritual world of Andrei Bolkonsky

Leo Tolstoy, as a great writer, sought to show his heroes in dynamics - they grew, developed spiritually, endured various trials and therefore changed their outlook on life. The same can be said about Andrei Bolkonsky, one of the main characters in the epic novel “War and Peace.” Spiritual quest is the main theme of his character's development. We can say that all his life he was looking for meaning, a purpose for his existence, and his fate can be divided into two parts: before the Austerlitz sky and after. At the beginning of his life's journey, Bolkonsky was still inexperienced and therefore saw him in earthly glory on the battlefield, but after several wars, he realized that there was something more than the petty interests of people. But the inability to comprehend this higher meaning morally tormented the young man, he lost his taste for life, and only the love of Natasha Rostova was able to return him to it.

But it did not last forever; Bolkonsky again lost his spiritual reference point. And at the end of his short but brilliant life, on his deathbed, Prince Andrei, according to Tolstoy, finally saw a new, unearthly facet of existence, and the highest meaning that he had been looking for for so long was revealed to him.

Andrei Bolkonsky, apparently due to the influence of his father, one of the last “Catherine’s eagles,” dreamed of finding his destiny in the war and performing a feat of incredible courage that would make his name. He worked diligently at the General Staff and was an adjutant to Kutuzov himself. But in the war of 1805-1807, during the Battle of Austerlitz, Prince Andrei was wounded in the head and lay for several hours in a semi-conscious state under the beautiful Austrian sky, and it was then that he realized that all this fleeting glory, which he had set as a life goal, was nothing. compared to the very possibility of living. Having met face to face with his former idol Napoleon, the young man no longer experiences the same joy. On the contrary, everything that was previously dear to him, that is now dear to Napoleon, all this became alien to Andrey. He is painfully aware of how deeply he was mistaken in seeking to satisfy the ambitions of his youth in fame. It is after these events that the hero’s spiritual rebirth begins.

In the interval between the war of 1805-1807 and the Patriotic War of 1812, Andrei tried himself in various activities, trying to find his place in the changing Russian world. He, as a nobleman, was involved in managing his estate, and with all responsibility. Then Bolkonsky entered the public service and became the first ally of the reformer Speransky. But Andrei was disappointed in this matter too; after a while it began to seem ridiculous and meaningless to him. Returning to the village, the morally suffocating Bolkonsky goes to visit his neighbor, the landowner Rostov, on the way to whom the famous scene of his first meeting with an old oak tree occurs. The oak tree looks completely dead, and it seems that nothing can save it. Andrei takes this as a sign that his life is over. But at the Rostovs he meets Natasha Rostova, a lively, active, cheerful girl, and love lifts these two people to a new spiritual height. The hero chooses a new goal of his existence - family happiness, which he had previously refused due to his unsuccessful marriage with the unfortunate Lisa.

But due to her youth, Natasha is cheating on Andrei with Anatoly, and Bolkonsky no longer cares at all whether he lives or dies. That is why he goes to the war of 1812, where before the Battle of Borodino he has a significant conversation with Pierre about the pointlessness of wars. He says that he has tasted too much of the tree of knowledge, and therefore his time will soon come. And he was right. On the Borodino field he is mortally wounded, and in the hospital tent, when Anatoly Kuragin, with whom the prince wanted to fight a duel, has his leg cut off, Andrei experiences a completely new and unprecedented feeling that is inaccessible to people in ordinary life - he loved him with all his soul, like Jesus Christ forgave him for everything. From the emotions he experiences, Andrei cries like a child. Later, he struggles with a painful illness, and unexpectedly, when his loved ones believed that Bolkonsky was on the mend, Andrei seemed to renounce further earthly existence, and before his death a new meaning was revealed to him, the same one that he felt, but could not understand when peered into the sky over Austerlitz. The hero dies without regret and without suffering, because he fulfilled everything he could in life and renounced all this for the sake of a new plane of existence.

As a result, the spiritual quest of Andrei Bolkonsky is the main theme for the character himself and one of the main ones for the entire epic novel. Prince Andrei is going through serious life trials that divide his fate into before and after. At the beginning, he saw meaning in earthly glory, but by the end of the story he comes to the conclusion that all this is nothing compared to the new existence next to God, which opens to man after death.

Spiritual quest of Andrei Bolkonsky

The heroes of the book “War and Peace” can be divided into three categories: “dead lives”, static characters who consider the external salon manifestations of life to be its essence; heroes who “feel” life, who have the ability to feel the “fullness of life” so much that they do not see the need for reflection and analysis; and heroes seeking the truth, who are closest and most interesting to Tolstoy. Such heroes include Prince. Andrey. The starting point of the complex spiritual and philosophical quest of A.B. his psychological contradictions with the St. Petersburg salon society become apparent.

The beginning of the war and the appointment of Kutuzov to the post of adjutant fascinated him with the possibility of realizing his dream of a personal feat that would glorify him. An example of such a feat for A.B. was the capture of Toulon by Napoleon. The penetration of Napoleonic ideas is revealed in the first words of the book. Andrei getting into an argument with the Viscount at Anna Pavlovna's party. Then, having already become an adjutant, he persistently conjures up that situation - the decisive moment of the battle, his Toulon or Arcole Bridge, where he can prove himself. The night before the Battle of Austerlitz, this thought captures him so much that he seems ready to abandon his family, the people dearest to him, “for a moment of glory, triumph over people, for the love of people” whom he does not even know. Ambition forces him to inspect the terrain and positions before the battle, and draw up his own disposition plan. The desire to be in difficult places of military operations is caused by the thought that “it is he who is destined to lead the Russian army in Austria out of a hopeless situation.” The thought of glory is inseparable from the thought of triumph over people. This manifests itself in the desire to take the greatest part in the lives of other people. It is visible, say, in the “special revival of the book. Andrei, when he had to guide the young man and help him in secular success.”

The desire to be a benefactor in the lives of other people bears the features of that non-Napoleonic greatness “in the hospital in Jaffa, where he gives his hand to the plague.” Meeting of the book Andrei with captain Tushin and chief. Bagration is preparing a turning point in his ambitious plans. His ideas about heroism and glory collide with the heroism that he sees in the actions of Tushin’s battery, i.e. unconceited, caused by the consciousness of his military duty. At that time, disappointment in Toulon or the Arcole Bridge had not yet set in. Book It only seemed to Andrei that “all this was so strange, so unlike what he had hoped for,” the egoism of his glory is revealed to him on the Field of Austerlitz after being wounded.”

The sight of a high sky, not clear, but still immeasurably high, with clouds quietly creeping across it” gives rise to the realization that “everything is empty, everything is a deception, except this endless sky,” silence and tranquility. That same evening, having seen his idol, Bolkonsky “thought about the insignificance of life, the meaning of which no one could understand, and the even greater insignificance of death, the meaning of which no one living could understand and explain.” This “strict and majestic structure of thought,” raised by the “high, just and kind sky,” was that stage of Andrei’s spiritual quest, which revealed to him the insignificance of the interests that occupied Napoleon, the pettiness of his hero, with his petty vanity and the joy of victory.” And his own thoughts, which had occupied him until now, in comparison with the revealed truth, had to appear. Returning from captivity, Andrei had to experience a feeling of guilt towards his wife and responsibility for her death. When he went to war, his wife “tied” him (he was convinced that freedom from marriage was one of the conditions for achieving his goal), but disappointment in Napoleon also led to a feeling of guilt. After Auster. campaign book Andrei firmly decided to quit military service, convincing himself that he was no longer interested in it. He settled in Bogucharovo, limiting himself to worries about the estate and the child. This is precisely self-restraint, which is not internally characteristic of him.

After the book Andrei abandoned the “Napoleonic ideas” that “not almost, but completely” ruined his life; he, in his words, began to “live for himself alone.” In a dispute with Pierre, who, on the contrary, is trying to “live for others” during this period, “do good” to the peasants, Andrei argues that the peasants do not need changes, their current state is natural for them and therefore happy. Living for oneself does not violate this naturalness and brings greater benefits than Pierre’s “transformations” (or at least does not bring harm). Book Andrei, apparently, does not consider the reforms that he easily carried out on his estate to be directed activities “for others.” In a conversation with Pierre, he sharply expressed indifference to all external events of the world, but they continued to occupy him as before. The final revival of interest in life occurs after his trip to Otradnoye and meeting with Natasha Rostova. This next stage of Bolkonsky’s spiritual search is emphasized (marked) by the famous scenes of the meeting with a “huge, two-girth oak tree” on the edge of the road. His gloomy, motionless appearance evokes in the prince’s soul. Andrei “a whole new series of hopeless, but sadly pleasant thoughts”: he seemed to have thought about his whole life again, decided that it was already over, “that there was no need to start anything, that he should live out his life without doing evil, without worrying and not wanting anything.”

A forced trip to Otradnoye and a delay there, a meeting with a girl satisfied with “her own separate, probably stupid, but cheerful life,” Sonya’s accidentally overheard conversation with Natasha - all this caused “an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes, contradicting all his life."

After the second meeting with the same oak tree, but already “transformed, spreading out like a tent of lush dark greenery,” Prince. Andrei suddenly finally, permanently decided that “life is not over at 31.” “My life must not be for me alone, but also for it to be reflected on everyone.” From the newly emerged desire to participate in people's lives, a thirst for active activity arises. In essence, these are the same Napoleonic ideas, only on a new level, presented differently. “It seemed clear to him that all his life experiences should have been in vain and be meaningless if he had not applied them to business and taken an active part in life again.”

“The Case” is now attracting the book. Andrew as a way to help people. “But he sees an indispensable condition for his activity in the fact that it is reflected on everyone.” Therefore, he is attracted to the sphere of state interests, the “higher spheres,” where “the future was being prepared, on which the fate of millions depended.” The new idol who replaced Napoleon was Speransky, “a mysterious person who seemed to him a genius.” In the figure of Speransky, he tried to look for the living ideal of perfection to which he strived. And I easily believed in him, seeing “a reasonable, strictly thinking, enormously intelligent man who, with energy and perseverance, achieved power and uses it only for the good of Russia.” However, along with the rise of Speransky, “a huge number of people” Prince. Andrei began to consider them “despicable and insignificant creatures.” “A passionate feeling of admiration, similar to the one he once felt for Bonaparte,” was, however, weakened by some of Speransky’s shortcomings, which “unpleasantly struck” the prince. Andrei is too much contempt for people and “a variety of methods in proving” his opinion. The passion for reforms, however, grew almost unconsciously, and Andrei was busy drafting laws. Disappointment in Speransky sets in after the evening where Prince. Andrey dances with Nat. Rostova. The new feeling of emerging love contrasts with Bolkonsky’s “administrative” hobbies. After the ball, he notices that the dinner at Speransky’s, to which he was invited, is not interesting to him. Seeing Speransky at home, laughing, he may have “found his weak, human sides,” which he had not previously noticed due to “a different upbringing and moral habits.” In addition, everything that previously seemed to Andrey “mysterious and attractive in Speransky” now “suddenly became clear and unattractive.” Imagining his Bogucharov peasants and trying to apply to them the “Rights of Individuals”, which he was developing, Bolkonsky was surprised “how he could do such idle work for so long.” Disappointment and another extreme in Bolkonsky’s worldview did not follow. Communication with Natasha gave him a feeling of belonging to a very special world, filled with some joys unknown to him. He felt the presence of this world in Natasha back in Otradnoye and now “found a new pleasure in it.” The hero's discovery of something new is the next stage of his search. Something new and happy happened in Bolkonsky’s soul when he heard Natasha singing. Although he did not yet realize that he was in love with Rostova, his whole life seemed to him in a new light. The future opened with all its joys; the desire to enjoy freedom, strength and youth reveals to him a new truth: “To be happy, you must believe in the possibility of happiness.” After the engagement to Natasha, Prince. Andrei makes the mistake of agreeing with his father to postpone the wedding for a year. Apparently, he was not completely able to understand the essence of Natasha Rostova. She attracted him with her fullness of life, but this was precisely what excluded rationalism and prudence in her in any of its manifestations. She could not obey the pre-prepared plan: wait a year, which would give her the opportunity to test her feelings before the wedding. For Natasha, for whom every moment was valuable, a year of waiting was an insult because of its emptiness, the cessation of life. But life is unstoppable, it requires movement. Natasha found him running away from home with Kuragin. For Andrei Bolkonsky, the third, most severe disappointment in life came. The only incentive and lively interest he experiences is revenge on Kuragin. He returns to military service again, but without vain thoughts. However, his philosophical searches do not end with the spiritual drama, but, on the contrary, intensify. The era of 1812 largely contributes to this. Book Andrei, from the “high spheres” to which he had previously strived, descends to the people and enters to serve in the regiment. He came to the wish that history is made in the regiment, with the people, and least of all depends on the orders of headquarters. “Tomorrow will really depend on us,” says Andrei to Pierre before the Battle of Borodino. Bolkonsky here gets the opportunity to actually participate in the commission of a major historical event, and therefore in changing the destinies of many people. This is the fulfillment of his Napoleonic dream, but on a different level. The merging of personal life and aspirations with general ones, which becomes possible here, is an expression of the Kutuzov principle. Thus, the path of book A. from the Napoleonic ideal to Kutuzov's wisdom once again affirms Tolstoy's historical concept of swarm life and the decisive role of the people in events. Looking at a grenade that fell nearby and realizing the proximity of death, Bolkonsky thinks: “I can’t, I don’t want to die, I love life...” A heightened sense of love for life opens up to him an understanding of the love “that God preached on earth”: “ compassion, love for brothers, for those who love, love for those who hate us, which Prince Marya taught.” Thoughts of the book Andrey during his illness were more active, clearer, but acted outside his will. They could break off and be replaced by unexpected ideas. Now his entire past seemed like a building made of needles or splinters, erected and destroyed to the sounds of evenly “whispering” music. Having built this building, managing to keep it in mental balance, the book. Andrei understood the essence of “divine love”: “Loving with human love, you can move from love to hatred; but divine love cannot change. Nothing... can destroy her. She is the essence of the soul." Words of the book Andrei’s words to Natasha (“I love you more, better than before”) imply that his former human love, united with the strength acquired, becomes “bigger” and “better.” But the next stage of Bolkonsky’s spiritual evolution consists in the opposition of divine and human love, and Andrei, pondering the new beginning of eternal love revealed to him, renounced earthly life: “To love everyone, to sacrifice oneself for love, meant not to love anyone, it meant not to live this earthly life.” life." The love for earthly life, temporarily awakened by the appearance of Natasha, is defeated in the fight against death. Bolkonsky’s state, which Natasha called “it has happened,” was a manifestation of the victory of death over life.

The destruction of the barrier between life and death simultaneously erected a barrier of misunderstanding by the living of the already “half-dead.” For the book For Andrei, the consciousness of alienation from everything earthly, the joyful and strange lightness of being, made it possible to understand and feel the nearness of death, which he had previously feared, but now he saw in it an “awakening” from life, the liberation of the strength previously bound in him.

The inner world of the heroes is very rich, and the moral level is high. They develop throughout their lives and strive for perfection.

One of these heroes is Andrei Bolkonsky. The first meeting with him occurs at the moment when, wanting to escape from the idle and seemingly unnatural life that has bored him, Prince Andrei is getting ready to go to war. In the first moments of the battle at Austerlitz, it seems to him that the dream of a feat has begun to come true, but seeing the fleeing soldiers retreating out of panic, Prince Andrei feels only shame. His proud dreams dissipate, he only thinks about how to stop those running and draw them into the attack. When he falls, wounded in the head, he is no longer interested in what he previously considered valuable, what was the purpose of life. He realized that life is much more important than all ambitious dreams, the very existence of man, his connection with nature, an eternal connection.

On the Field of Austerlitz the dream of glory finally disappears. Andrei Bolkonsky, in addition, is also disappointed and loses faith in his ideal. Compared to the significant, new and lofty that Austerlitz opened to him, all his previous aspirations seem insignificant, even Napoleon himself seems no more important than a fly annoying with its buzzing.

After the Battle of Austerlitz, Prince Andrei is shocked by two more events - the birth of a child and the death of his wife. Having gone through grief and repentance, he decides that life for himself and his family is the only possible existence. But such an existence could not suit such an active personality as Prince Andrei. He inevitably had to return to life, to people, to new definitions, to love, to faith. Even though this revival was difficult, all the best that was in his soul also strived for happiness, for a new life.

First there was a conversation with Pierre on the ferry, then a moonlit night in Otradnoye. These were, as it were, milestones on the path of Prince Andrey’s return to life; they predetermined his spiritual rebirth, which was later confirmed by his meeting with the oak tree.

At the first meeting, this tree seems old and pitiful to him; It seems to Prince Andrei that the oak tree thinks and feels, and these thoughts and feelings are exactly the same as those of Andrei himself. And just as the oak tree is reborn, Prince Andrei is also reborn to life. Joy and love awaken in his soul, he believes in the possibility of happiness.

But the path of spiritual quest is not yet completed. Ambition reappears, the desire to take part in the Speransky commission. But when Prince Andrei realized the idleness of these laws, their isolation from real life, he was again disappointed.

Andrei Bolkonsky's love for Natasha helped him overcome it. All the joys of life have been revealed to him, he thinks that now happiness has been achieved.

But this happiness turned out to be short-lived. He took the break with Natasha very hard; again it seemed to him that everything around him had faded, had ceased to be happy and joyful.

But in 1812, the main goal of Prince Andrey became the defense of his homeland. Both personal grief and ambitious dreams recede into the background. He decides to serve in the active army, since this is how he can bring more benefit. A new desire awakens in his soul - service to people. One of the main features of Andrei Bolkonsky’s psychology is the ability to think clearly, evaluate and judge one’s actions, movements of the soul, and thoughts. New feelings and impressions accumulate in his soul, causing changes in his state.

In the novel you can constantly feel the author's attitude towards people and events. Everything that is highest and most beautiful, pure and kind is embodied in L.N.’s favorite heroes. Tolstoy, one of whom is Prince Andrei Bolkonsky.

“Live according to God, creating love and goodness” - these were L. N. Tolstoy’s views on the spiritual world of man, which he expressed in his declining years, turning to youth. "Who am I? Why am I living? What am I living for? - this is the range of questions that make up a person’s moral quest. All of L.N. Tolstoy’s favorite heroes are engaged in this intense spiritual search. L.N. Tolstoy has sympathy for Prince Bolkonsky, an extraordinary, thinking, searching person. “He read everything, knew everything, had an idea about everything” - such a high assessment is given to Prince Andrei in the first pages of the novel. It is quite obvious that Prince Andrei is not satisfied with the life of light, he lives according to other, more sublime and noble rules of life. In a conversation with Pierre, the prince explains his departure to war: “I am going because this life that I lead here, this life is not for me!” And here is Bolkonsky under the sky of Austerlitz. What is he thinking about on the eve of battle? - “I want fame, I want to be known to people, I want to be loved by them.” Prince Andrei listens with pleasure to the whistling of bullets, takes the banner and runs into the attack, confident that the entire battalion will follow him. In fact, he managed to run only a few meters, was wounded and bled to death on Pratsenskaya Mountain. It is at this moment that a turning point will occur in his soul, which will change his life and determine the future. “How have I not seen this high sky before? - he whispers in delirium. - And how happy I am that I finally recognized him. Yes! Everything is empty, everything is deception, except this endless sky... there is nothing but silence, tranquility.” How different these thoughts are from the previous ambitious desire for glory. A look at the endless and beautiful sky helped the hero realize the pettiness and vanity of his desires. Even Napoleon, his idol, now seems small and insignificant. Of course, Prince Andrei does not come to God, but still he discards ambitious dreams and understands that a person must look for something eternal in life. But what? The hero doesn’t know this yet.

A year and a half will pass, Prince Andrei will recover from his wound and return to Bald Mountains. But the spiritual insight at Austerlitz will not yet give Bolkonsky internal strength, will not relieve him of disappointment and pessimism, by the way, Pierre will discover this when he arrives at his estate: “He was struck by the change that had taken place in Prince Andrei. The words were affectionate, there was a smile on the lips and face of Prince Andrei, but the look was extinct, dead...” The meeting of Pierre and Prince Andrei became another important moment in the spiritual biography of the latter. Prince Andrey skeptically listens to Pierre's slogans about the need to do good to people. He himself defends something else, to live in such a way as not to do harm to others, to live for himself. And yet, “the meeting with Pierre was for Prince Andrei the era from which, although in appearance it was the same, but in the inner world his new life began.” And in this new life, Prince Andrei will list his peasants as free cultivators, replace corvee with quitrent, and in Bogucharovo peasants and courtyard children will be taught to read and write. So Bolkonsky will begin to overcome his despair and will again strive for goodness, truth, and justice. But there are still many hopes and disappointments, ups and downs ahead. Prince Andrei will closely monitor current events, think, analyze. True, he is still convinced that he will never be resurrected to happiness, joy, love. Therefore, seeing an old gnarled oak tree in the middle of a blooming spring forest, he sadly agrees with him: “... yes, he is right, this oak tree is right a thousand times... let others, young people, again succumb to this deception, but we know life, - our life is over! However, a meeting with Natasha will change his view of the world, his soul will be resurrected, and the old oak tree, though already covered with delicate greenery, will tell him about something else. “It is necessary that everyone knows me, so that my life does not go on for me alone... so that it is reflected on everyone and so that they all live with me!” - Bolkonsky will say to himself. However, the hero’s complex moral journey did not end there. The personal drama will plunge him into apathy, and what’s more, it will give rise to hatred in his soul for Anatoly Kuragin. Prince Andrei goes to war, he lives only for this vengeance, he loses himself. The true rebirth of the hero will take place in the army: the prince will be cured by communication with ordinary soldiers, with the people, with his regiment. The battle of Borodino, the blood and suffering of people that he saw, the sight of the wounded Kuragin, whose leg was taken away - all this will finally return him to the thought of forgiveness, to the desire to “be quite good”, to the desire to live for people: “Prince Andrei remembered everything , and enthusiastic pity and love for this man filled his happy heart. Prince Andrei could no longer hold on and began to cry tender, loving tears over people, over himself and over his delusions.” Thus, the fate of Andrei Bolkonsky is a complex path of moral losses and discoveries. It is important that along this path he retained true human dignity; it is not by chance that Kutuzov will tell the hero: “Your road is the road of honor.” Of course, Tolstoy likes extraordinary people like Prince Bolkonsky, people who try to live usefully, doing love and goodness.

In this lesson we will continue our conversation about the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace". Let us analyze the character of one of the main characters of the novel - Prince Andrei Bolkonsky.

Do you remember the phrase from Tolstoy’s letter to his cousin Alexandra Tolstoy:

“To live honestly, you have to struggle, get confused, struggle, make mistakes, start and quit, and start again, and quit again, and always struggle and lose.”

All his life, Tolstoy sought and spoke about the “energy of delusion,” which is necessary for creativity.

“Everything seems to be ready for writing - to fulfill one’s earthly duty, but what is missing is the impetus of faith in oneself, in the importance of the matter, there is a lack of energy of delusion, earthly elemental energy that cannot be invented. And you can’t start.”

From Tolstoy’s letter to N.N. Strakhov

Without this energy it is impossible to create, and for Tolstoy this is important: “In order to act on others, an artist must be a seeker, so that his work is a search. If he has found everything and knows everything and teaches or deliberately amuses, he does not act. Only if he searches, the viewer, listener, reader merges with him in the search.”

It is important that, according to the author, there is not and cannot be any final truth in this search. Everything that seems true now will later turn out to be just another delusion. And the search comes through connecting your personal space with the whole world. We need to find a form of coupling so that it is harmony and not confrontation. The favorite heroes of Leo Tolstoy - Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov - are constantly in search.

Prince Andrei at the beginning of the novel is the bearer of Napoleonic ideas. In Anna Pavlovna’s salon, he sympathetically quotes Napoleon, and at his home, Pierre takes the first book he comes across from the shelf - “Caesar’s Notes” (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Edition 1783. Notes on the Gallic War ()

These two people (Napoleon and Caesar) are somewhat similar in their values ​​and morals. After his wife leaves, the prince says to Pierre:

“- Never, never get married, my friend; Here's my advice to you, don't get married until you tell yourself that you did everything you could, and until you stop loving the woman you chose, until you see her clearly, and then you will make a cruel and irreparable mistake.<...>
“You don’t understand why I’m saying this,” he continued. - After all, this is a whole life story. “You say Bonaparte and his career,” he said, although Pierre did not talk about Bonaparte. - You say Bonaparte; but Bonaparte, when he worked, walked step by step towards his goal, he was free, he had nothing but his goal - and he achieved it. But tie yourself to a woman and, like a shackled convict, you lose all freedom.”.

In other words, the wife interferes with Prince Andrei on the path to his glory.

“...he had the appearance of a man who did not have time to think about the impression he made on others and was busy doing something pleasant and interesting.”

“Prince Andrei was one of those rare officers at the headquarters who believed his main interest was in the general course of military affairs.<...>he was afraid of the genius of Bonaparte, who could be stronger than all the courage of the Russian troops, and at the same time could not allow shame for his hero.”.

Next comes one very important episode. Zherkov, Nesvitsky and Prince Andrei are in the corridor of Kutuzov’s headquarters, the Austrian general is walking, and Zherkov approaches him and declares with a buffoonish look: “I have the honor to congratulate you, General Mack has arrived, completely healthy, only a little hurt here,” he added, beaming with a smile and pointing to his head.” General Mack, along with his entire army, surrendered to Napoleon. And then Prince Andrei says: “If you, dear sir,” he spoke shrilly, with a slight trembling of his lower jaw, “want to be a jester, then I cannot prevent you from doing so; but I declare to you that if you dare to act up in my presence next time, I will teach you how to behave.” Nesvitsky, in turn, is perplexed why the prince reacted this way and then an explanation follows.

"- Like what? - Prince Andrei spoke, stopping from excitement. “You must understand that we are either officers who serve our tsar and fatherland and rejoice at the common success and are sad about the common failure, or we are lackeys who do not care about the master’s business.”

We see, on the one hand, Prince Andrei’s high idea of ​​his future, his duty and role, and on the other hand, the buffoonery of Zherkov, who lowers this high idea and thereby causes a surge of indignation in Bolkonsky.

When Prince Andrei returns from the Austrians, knowing about the Russian defeats, he thinks that he is going to save the army.

Let's move on to another episode. On the night that Princess Bolkonskaya gives birth, Prince Andrei appears. And here we observe Tolstoy’s favorite situation: a person is faced with two sacraments, namely the emergence of a new life and the sacrament of death. It is important that Prince Andrei does not just cry, but he begins to feel guilty before his late wife.

Bolkonsky decides never to serve again, he lives on his estate, takes care of his son, thereby changing roles with his father. His father is active, traveling on militia business. And then Pierre, who was recently initiated into the Freemasons and is happy about enlightenment, comes to visit Bolkonsky.

“I lived for fame. (After all, what is glory? the same love for others, the desire to do something for them, the desire for their praise.) So I lived for others and not almost, but completely ruined my life. And since then I have become calm, as if I live for myself.
- How can you live for yourself? - Pierre asked, getting excited. - What about your son, sister, father?
“Yes, it’s still the same me, it’s not others,” said Prince Andrei, “but others, neighbors, le prochain, as you and Princess Mary call it, this is the main source of error and evil.” Le prochain are those Kyiv men of yours to whom you want to do good.”

And this is very important: for Bolkonsky, “I” is a broad concept; he perceives his family as a single whole with himself.

What follows is a conversation about peasants. Prince Andrey says that they need to be freed, but not for their sake, but for the sake of the nobles, because the habit of owning other people develops lust for power, cruelty and selfishness. Then Pierre understands that the prince is talking about his father. This question was relevant for Tolstoy’s contemporary Russia: the reform of 1861 had just passed, and he could not help but think about relations with the peasants.

An important episode is the conversation on the ferry, and the Prince’s answer to Pierre is important.

“Do I not feel in my soul that I am part of this vast, harmonious whole? Don’t I feel that I am in this countless number of beings in which the deity is manifested - the highest power - whatever you want - that I constitute one link, one step from lower beings to higher ones? If I see, clearly see this staircase that leads from a plant to a person, then why should I assume that this staircase, which I do not see the end of below, is lost in the plants. Why should I assume that this ladder stops with me, and does not lead further and further to higher beings? I feel that not only can I not disappear, just as nothing disappears in the world, but that I will always be and always have been. I feel that besides me, spirits live above me and that there is truth in this world.

“Yes, this is Herder’s teaching,” said Prince Andrei, “but that, my soul, is not what convinces me, but life and death, that’s what convinces me.” What is convincing is that you see a being dear to you, who is connected with you, before whom you were guilty and hoped to justify yourself (Prince Andrei’s voice trembled and turned away), and suddenly this being suffers, is tormented and ceases to be... Why? It cannot be that there is no answer! And I believe that he exists... That’s what convinces, that’s what convinced me,” said Prince Andrei.”

The prince does not want to believe that in his next life he will not be able to atone for the guilt he feels before his dead wife.

In this conversation, the prince, who promised never to serve again, utters another interesting phrase.

“If Bonaparte had stood here, near Smolensk, threatening the Bald Mountains, then I would not have served in the Russian army.” And this is what the prince says in the second volume, and already in the third he serves again.

It turns out that Prince Andrei is carrying out everything that Pierre has in mind. He converted peasants into free cultivators, built schools and hospitals. It is interesting how the prince himself objected to them:

“Well, let’s argue,” said Prince Andrei. “You say school,” he continued, bending his finger, “teachings and so on, that is, you want to take him out of his animal state and give him moral needs,” he said, pointing to a man who took off his hat and walked past them. . But it seems to me that the only possible happiness is animal happiness, and you want to deprive it of it. I envy him, and you want to make him me, but without giving him my mind, my feelings, or my means.<...>

- Oh yes. Hospitals, medicines. He has a stroke, he dies, and you bleed him, cure him, he will be crippled for ten years, a burden for everyone. It is much calmer and easier for him to die. Others will be born, and there are so many of them. If only you would regret that your extra worker was missing, the way I look at him, otherwise you want to treat him out of love for him. But he doesn't need that. And besides, what kind of imagination is there that medicine could cure anyone... Kill! - So! “he said, frowning angrily and turning away from Pierre.”

A joyful moment was the trip to Otradnoye, the incident when he overhears the conversation between Natasha and Sonya. Remember the description of the oak tree, first dry and dying, and later green, returning to life. And it begins to seem to Prince Andrei that his life is not over:

“Suddenly such an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes, contradicting his whole life, arose in his soul that he, feeling unable to understand his condition, immediately fell asleep.”

Bolkonsky arrives in St. Petersburg. And Speransky now took Napoleon’s place in his thoughts (Fig. 4):

“It became funny to him how he could expect something from Speransky and from all his activities related to him<...>

one thing confused Prince Andrei: it was Speransky’s cold, mirror-like gaze, which did not allow one to penetrate into his soul, and his white, tender hand, which Prince Andrei involuntarily looked at, as they usually look at the hands of people in power. For some reason, this mirror look and gentle hand irritated Prince Andrei.”

Rice. 4. M. Speransky ()

“It was clear that Speransky could never come up with that usual thought for Prince Andrei, that it is impossible to express everything that you think, and the doubt never occurred to me that all that I think was not nonsense. and everything that I believe in? And it was this special mindset of Speransky that most of all attracted Prince Andrei.”

These thoughts of Prince Andrei literally coincide with the entries in Tolstoy’s diary about Druzhinin (Fig. 5).

Rice. 5. A.V. Druzhinin

“I read Druzhinin’s second article. His weakness is that he will never doubt whether this is all nonsense.”

From the diary of L.N. Tolstoy

For Tolstoy, the ability to question his views is very important.

Bibliography

1. Lebedev Yu.V. Literature. Grade 10. A basic level of. At 2 o'clock, Enlightenment, 2012
2. Maarten M. The problem of family in the works of L.N. Tolstoy, 1850-1870s. - M.: MSU, 2000. - P. 211. V.B. Shklovsky.
3. Material and style in Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”, 1928

1. Internet portal “Levtolstoy.ru” ()
2. Internet portal “Russkay-literatura.ru” ()
3. Internet portal “Gold-liter.org.ua” ()

Homework

1. Write an essay on the topic (optional):

• “The spiritual appearance of Prince Andrei”
• “Prince Andrei’s attitude towards his family”

2. Draw an illustration for one of the episodes of the novel.
3. Analyze the last dream of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, think about the hidden meaning Tolstoy puts into it.