The theme of the family in Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"

In the novel "War and Peace" LN Tolstoy singled out and considered more significant "people's thought". It is most clearly expressed in those parts of the work that tell about the war. In the depiction of the "world", "family thought" prevails, which also plays a very important role in the novel, because the author views the family as the basis of the foundations. The novel is built as a story of families. Family members inherit the characteristics of the breed. The family, according to Tolstoy, should be strengthened, since through the family a person joins the people.

In the center of the novel are three families: the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, the Kuragins. Many of the events described in the novel are shown by Tolstoy precisely through the history of these families.

The patriarchal Rostov family evokes special sympathy for the author. For the first time we meet with its members at the birthday of Countess Rostova. The first thing that is felt here is the atmosphere of love and kindness. "Love air" reigns in this family.

The older Rostovs are simple and kind people. They are glad to everyone who enters their house, and do not judge a person by the amount of money. Their daughter Natasha conquers with her sincerity, and the youngest son Petya is a kind and childishly naive boy. Here parents understand their children, and children sincerely love their parents. Together they experience troubles and joys. Getting acquainted with them, the reader understands that this is where real happiness is. Therefore, Sonya is well in the Rostovs' house. Although she is a step-daughter to them, they love her as they love their children.

Even courtyard people: Tikhon, Praskovya Savishna - are full members of this family. They love and respect their masters, live with their problems and concerns.

Vera alone, the eldest daughter of the Rostovs, does not fit into the big picture. This is a cold and selfish person. “Something the countess has been wise,” says Rostov-father, speaking of Vera. Apparently, the influence of Princess Drubetskoy, who used to be the best friend of Countess Rostova, influenced the upbringing of the eldest daughter. And, indeed, Vera is much more like the son of Countess Boris Drubetskoy than, for example, her sister Natasha.

Tolstoy shows this family not only in joy, but also in sorrow. They remain in Moscow until the last minute, although Napoleon is advancing on the city. When they finally decide to leave, they are faced with the question of what to do - leave things, despite the value of many of them, and give the carts to the wounded, or leave without thinking about other people. Natasha solves the problem. She speaks, or rather, screams with a distorted face that it is a shame to leave the wounded to the enemy. Not a single thing, even the most valuable thing, can equal a person's life. The Rostovs leave without their belongings, and we understand that such a decision is natural for this family. They simply could not have done otherwise.

The other appears in the novel, the Bolkonsky family. Tolstoy shows three generations of the Bolkonskys: the old prince Nikolai Andreevich, his children - Prince Anrei and Princess Marya - and grandson Nikolenka. In the Bolkonsky family, from generation to generation, they brought up such qualities as a sense of duty, patriotism, nobility.

If the Rostov family is based on feeling, then the defining line of the Bolkonskys is reason. The old prince Bolkonsky is firmly convinced that there are "only two virtues in the world - activity and mind." He is a man who always follows his convictions. He works himself (he writes the military regulations, then he studies the exact sciences with his daughter) and demands that the children also not be lazy. Many features of the nature of his father are preserved in the character of Prince Anrey. He also tries to find his own path in life, to be useful to his country. It is the desire to work that leads him to work on the Speransky Commission. Young Bolkonsky is a patriot, like his father. The old prince, having learned that Napoleon was going to Moscow, forgets his previous grievances and actively participates in the militia. Andrei, having lost faith in his "Toulon" under the sky of Austerlitz, vows not to take part in military campaigns anymore. But during the war of 1812, he defends his homeland and dies for it.

If in the Rostov family the relations between children and parents are friendly and trusting, then at the Bolognskys, at first glance, the situation is different. The old prince also sincerely loves Andrei and Marya. He worries about them. He notices, for example, that Andrei does not love his wife Lisa. Having told his son about this, although he sympathizes with him, he immediately reminds him of his duty to his wife and family. The very type of relationship of the Bolkonskys is different from that of the Rostovs. The prince hides his feelings for children. So, for example, with Marya, he is always strict and sometimes speaks rudely to her. He reproaches his daughter for her inability to solve mathematical problems, sharply and directly tells her that she is ugly. Princess Marya suffered from such an attitude on the part of her father, because he diligently hid his love in her in the depths of his soul. Only before his death does the old prince understand how dear his daughter is to him. In the last minutes of his life, he felt an inner kinship with her.

Marya is a special person in the Bolkonsky family. Despite the harsh upbringing, she did not harden. She loves her father, brother and nephew immensely. Moreover, she is ready to sacrifice herself for them, to give everything that she has.

The third generation of the Bolkonskys is the son of Prince Andrei Nikolenko. In the epilogue of the novel, we see him as a child. But the author shows that he listens attentively to adults, there is some kind of work going on in him. And, therefore, in this generation, the Bolkonskys' precepts of an active mind will not be forgotten.

A completely different type of family is the Kuragin family. They bring only troubles to the Bolkonsky and Rostovs. The head of the family, Prince Vasily, is a false and deceitful person. He lives in an atmosphere of intrigue and gossip. One of the main traits of his character is greed. He and his daughter Helene marry off Pierre Bezukhov, because he is rich. The most important thing in life for Prince Kuragin is money. For their sake, he is ready to commit a crime.

The children of Prince Vasily are no better than their father. Pierre correctly notes that they have such a "vile breed". Helene, unlike Princess Marya, is beautiful. But her beauty is an outward shine. In Helene there is no spontaneity and openness of Natasha.

Helen is empty, selfish and deceitful at heart. Marrying her almost ruins Pierre's life. Pierre Bezukhov was convinced from his own experience that external beauty is not always a guarantee of internal beauty and family happiness. A bitter feeling of disappointment, gloomy despondency, contempt for his wife, for life, for himself seized him some time after the wedding, when Helen's “mystery” turned into spiritual emptiness, stupidity and debauchery. Without thinking about anything, Helen arranges a romance between Anatole and Natasha Rostova. Anatol Kuragin - Helen's brother - becomes the reason for the gap between Natasha and Andrei Bolkonsky. He, like his sister, is used to indulging his whims in everything, and therefore the fate of the girl he was going to take away from home does not bother him.

The Kuragin family is opposed to the Rostov and Bolkonsky families. On the pages of the novel, we see its degradation and destruction. As for the Bolkonskys and Rostovs, Tolstoy rewards them with family happiness. They have gone through many troubles and difficulties, but managed to preserve the best that was in them - honesty, sincerity, kindness. In the finale, we see the happy family of Natasha and Pierre, built with love and respect for each other. Natasha internally merged with Pierre, did not leave in her duo "not a single corner not open for him."

Moreover, Tolstoy unites the Rostovs and Bolognskys into one family. The family of Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya combines the best features of these families. Nikolai Rostov loves his wife and admires the peed "with her soulfulness, before that almost inaccessible to him, sublime and moral world in which his wife lived." And Marya sincerely loves her husband, who “will never understand everything that she understands,” and from this she loves him even more.

The fate of Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya was not easy. Quiet, meek, outwardly ugly, but a beautiful soul, the princess, during her father's life, did not even hope to get married and have children. The only one who wooed her, and even then for the sake of a dowry, Anatol Kuragin, of course, could not understand her high spirituality, moral beauty.

A chance meeting with Rostov, his noble deed awakened in Marya an unfamiliar, exciting feeling. Her soul guessed in him "a noble, firm, selfless soul." Each meeting more and more opened each other to them, connected them. The awkward, shy princess was transformed, becoming graceful and almost beautiful. Nikolai admired the beautiful soul that had opened up to him and felt that Marya was higher than himself and Sonechka, whom he seemed to love before, but who remained a "barren flower." Her soul did not live, did not make mistakes and did not suffer, and, according to Tolstoy, did not "deserve" family happiness.

These new happy families did not arise by chance. They are the result of the unity of the entire Russian people that took place during the Patriotic War of 1812. The year 1812 changed a lot in Russia, in particular, it removed some class prejudices and gave a new level of human relations.

Tolstoy has favorite heroes and beloved families, where, perhaps, serenity does not always reign, but where people live "in peace", that is, together, together, supporting each other. Only those who are spiritually high have, according to the writer, the right to real family happiness.

Tolstoy, Lev Nikolaevich

Lev Tolstoy
in Yasnaya Polyana (1908).
Photographic portrait
works by S.M. Prokudin-Gorsky

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (August 28, 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire - November 7, 1910, Astapovo station, Ryazan province, Russian Empire) - count, one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers, revered as one of the greatest writers in the world ...

Member of the defense of Sevastopol. An educator, publicist, religious thinker, his authoritative opinion was the reason for the emergence of a new religious and moral trend - Tolstoyism. Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1873), honorary academician in the category of fine literature (1900).

A writer who was recognized as the head of Russian literature during his lifetime. Leo Tolstoy's work marked a new stage in Russian and world realism, acting as a bridge between the classic novel of the 19th century and the literature of the 20th century.

Leo Tolstoy had a strong influence on the evolution of European humanism, as well as on the development of realistic traditions in world literature.

The works of Leo Tolstoy were filmed and staged many times in the USSR and abroad; his plays have been performed on stages all over the world.

The most famous works by Tolstoy are the novels "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection", the autobiographical trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence", "Youth", the stories "Cossacks", "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", "Kreutserov sonata ”,“ Hadji Murad ”, a cycle of essays“ Sevastopol Tales ”, dramas“ Living Corpse ”and“ Power of Darkness ”, autobiographical religious and philosophical works“ Confession ”and“ What is My Faith? ” and etc.

Tolstoy's views on family and family in the work of Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy, both in his personal life and in his work, assigned a central role to the family. According to the writer, the main institution of human life is not the state or the church, but the family.

L. N. Tolstoy tells a tale about a cucumber
grandchildren Ilyusha and Sonya, 1909, Kryokshino,
photo by V.G. Chertkov.
Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya in the future - the last wife of Sergei Yesenin

Tolstoy from the very beginning of his creative activity was absorbed in thoughts of the family and dedicated his first work to this - "Childhood". Three years later, in 1855, he wrote the story "Notes of a Marker", where the writer’s craving for gambling and women can already be traced.

The same is reflected in his novel "Family Happiness", in which the relationship between a man and a woman is strikingly similar to the marital relationship of Tolstoy himself and Sophia Andreyevna.

During the period of a happy family life (1860s), which created a stable atmosphere, spiritual and physical balance and became a source of poetic inspiration, two of the writer's greatest works were written: War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

But if in "War and Peace" Tolstoy firmly defends the value of family life, being convinced of the loyalty of the ideal, then in "Anna Karenina" he already expresses doubts about its attainability. When relations in his personal family life became more difficult, these exacerbations were expressed in such works as The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata, The Devil and Father Sergius.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy paid great attention to the family. His reflections are not limited to the details of the marital relationship. In the trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth" the author gave a vivid artistic description of the child's world, in whose life an important role is played by the child's love for his parents, and vice versa - the love he receives from them.

In War and Peace, Tolstoy has already fully revealed the different types of family relationships and love. And in Family Happiness and Anna Karenina, various aspects of love in the family are simply lost behind the power of eros. The critic and philosopher NN Strakhov, after the publication of the novel "War and Peace", noted that all of Tolstoy's previous works could be classified as preliminary studies, culminating in the creation of a "family chronicle."

Despite the fact that LN Tolstoy in the novel "War and Peace" loved "people's thought", he paid a lot of attention to "family thoughts". The writer was very worried about this topic, and he had his own system of views regarding what an ideal family should be. He endowed only his most beloved heroes with a happy family life, leading them through incredibly difficult trials and making them “deserve” family happiness.
What a family should be in Tolstoy's understanding, we learn only at the very end of the novel. The novel begins with a description of an unsuccessful marriage. We are talking about Prince Bolkonsky and the little princess. We meet both of them in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. It is impossible not to pay attention to Prince Andrey - he is so unlike the others: “Apparently, all those who were in the living room were not only familiar to him, but he was so tired of him that he was very bored to look at them and listen to them”. Everyone else is interested in this living room, because here, in these conversations, gossip, their whole life. And for the wife of Prince Andrew, a lovely little woman, here is all life. And for Prince Andrew? “Of all the faces that bored him, the face of his pretty wife seemed to bore him the most. With a grimace that ruined his handsome face, he turned away from her. " And when she addressed him in a flirtatious tone, he even "closed his eyes and turned away." When they returned home, their relationship did not get any warmer. Prince Andrew is not becoming more affectionate, but we already understand that the point here is not in his bad character. Too soft and charming he was in communication with Pierre, whom he sincerely loved. He treats his wife "with cold courtesy." He advises her to go to bed early, allegedly worrying about her health, but in reality only wishing for one thing: that she would leave as soon as possible and let him talk to Pierre calmly. Before she left, he got up and "politely, like a stranger, kissed the hand." Why is he so cold with his wife expecting a child from him? He tries to be courteous, but we feel that he is rude to her. The wife tells him that he changed to her, which means that he was different before. In Scherer's drawing-room, when everyone was admiring “this pretty future mother, full of health and liveliness, who so easily endured her position,” it was difficult to understand what irritated Prince Andrew in her. But everything becomes clear when she continues to talk to her husband at home "in the same flirtatious tone as she addressed to strangers." Prince Andrew was disgusted with this flirtatious tone, this light chatter, unwillingness to ponder over one's own words. I would even like to stand up for the princess - after all, she was not to blame, she was always like that, why hadn't he noticed this before? No, Tolstoy answers, it is to blame. I am guilty because I do not feel. Only a sensitive and understanding person can come closer to happiness, because happiness is a reward for the tireless work of the soul. The little princess does not make efforts on herself, does not force herself to understand why her husband has changed towards her. But everything is so obvious. She only needed to become more attentive - to look closely, listen and understand: you cannot behave like that with Prince Andrey. But her heart told her nothing, and she continued to suffer from her husband's courteous coldness. However, Tolstoy does not take the side of Bolkonsky either: in relations with his wife, he does not look very attractive. Tolstoy does not give an unambiguous answer to the question why the life of the young Bolkonsky family has developed this way - both are to blame, and no one can change anything. Prince Andrew says to his sister: “But if you want to know the truth ... you want to know if I am happy? No. Is she happy? No. Why is this? I don’t know ... ”One can only guess why. Because they are different, because they did not understand: family happiness is labor, constant labor of two people.
Tolstoy helps his hero, freeing him from this painful marriage. Later, he will also “save” Pierre, who also drank adversity in his family life with Helene. But nothing in life is in vain. Probably, Pierre needed to get this terrible experience of life with a vile and depraved woman in order to experience complete happiness in his second marriage. Nobody knows whether Natasha would be happy if she married Prince Andrey or not. But Tolstoy felt that she would be better with Pierre. The question is, why didn't he connect them earlier? Why did you make you go through so much suffering, temptations and hardships? After all, it is obvious that they are made for each other. However, it was important for Tolstoy to trace the formation of their personalities. Both Natasha and Pierre did a tremendous spiritual work that prepared them for family happiness. Pierre carried his love for Natasha through many years, and over the years so much spiritual wealth has accumulated in him that his love has become even more serious and deeper. He went through captivity, the horror of death, terrible hardships, but his soul only grew stronger and became even richer. Natasha, who experienced a personal tragedy - a break with Prince Andrei, then his death, and then the death of her younger brother Petit and her mother's illness - also grew spiritually and was able to look at Pierre with different eyes and appreciate his love.
When you read about how Natasha has changed after marriage, at first it becomes insulting. “Plumper and wider-la”, rejoices in a baby diaper “with a yellow instead of a green spot”, jealous, buying up, abandoned singing - but what is it? However, we need to figure out why: “She felt that those charms that her instinct had taught her to use before would now only be ridiculous in the eyes of her husband, to whom she gave herself completely from the first minute - that is, with all her soul, without leaving a single corner open to him. She felt that her bond with her husband was not held by those poetic feelings that attracted him to her, but held by something else, indefinite, but firm, like the bond of her own soul with her body. " Well, how can we not remember the poor little princess Bolkonskaya, who was not given to understand what was revealed to Natasha. She considered it natural to address her husband in a flirtatious tone, as to an outsider, and it seemed to Natasha stupid to “fluff up her locks, put on robrons and sing romances in order to attract her husband to her”. It was much more important for Natasha to feel Pierre's soul, to understand what worries him, and to guess his desires. Left alone with him, she talked to him as “as soon as a wife talks to her husband, that is, with extraordinary clarity and speed, knowing and communicating each other's thoughts, in a way contrary to all the rules of logic, without the mediation of judgments, inferences and conclusions, but quite special way ”. What is this method? If you follow their conversation, it may even seem funny: sometimes their lines look completely incoherent. But this is from the outside. And they do not need long, complete phrases, they already understand each other, because their souls speak instead of them.
How does the family of Marya and Nikolai Rostov differ from the Bezukhov family? Perhaps because it is based on the constant spiritual work of Countess Marya alone. Her “eternal emotional stress, aimed only at the moral goodness of children,” delights and surprises Nicholas, but he himself is not capable of it. However, his admiration for and admiration for his wife also makes their family strong. Nikolai is proud of his wife, realizes that she is smarter and more significant, but does not envy, but rejoices, considering his wife a part of himself. Countess Marya simply loves her husband tenderly and humbly: she waited too long for her happiness and no longer believed that it would ever come.
Tolstoy shows the life of these two families, and we can well conclude on which side of his sympathies. Of course, the ideal in his view is the family of Natasha and Pierre.
A family where husband and wife are one whole, where there is no place for conventions and unnecessary impertinence, where the radiance of the eyes and a smile can say much more than long, confusing phrases. We do not know how their life will develop in the future, but we understand: wherever fate throws Pierre, Natasha will always and everywhere follow him, no matter what hardships and hardships this may threaten her.

For Tolstoy, the family is the basis for the formation of the human soul, and at the same time, in War and Peace, the introduction of the family theme is one of the ways to organize the text. The atmosphere of the house, the family nest, according to the writer, determines the warehouse of psychology, views and even the fate of the heroes. That is why, in the system of all the main images of the novel, L.N. Tolstoy singles out several families, on the example of which the author's attitude to the ideal of the hearth is clearly expressed, these are the Bolkonskys, Rostovs and Kuragin.

At the same time, the Bolkonskys and Rostovs are not just families, they are whole lifestyles, lifestyles based on Russian national traditions. Probably, these features are most fully manifested in the life of the Rostovs - a noble-naive family living with feelings and impulsive impulses, combining a serious attitude to family honor (Nikolai Rostov does not refuse his father's debts), and cordiality, and warmth of intrafamily relations, and hospitality, and hospitality, always characteristic of the Russian people.

The kindness and carelessness of the Rostov family extends not only to its members; even a stranger to them, Andrei Bolkonsky, finding himself in Otradnoye, amazed by the naturalness and cheerfulness of Natasha Rostova, seeks to change his life. And, probably, the brightest and most characteristic representative of the Rostov breed is Natasha. In its naturalness, ardor, naivety and some superficiality - the essence of the family.

Such purity of relations, high morality make the Rostovs akin to representatives of another noble family in the novel - the Bolkonskys. But in this breed, the basic qualities are opposite to those of Rostov. Everything is subject to reason, honor and duty. It is these principles that the sensual Rostovs probably cannot accept and understand.

The feeling of family superiority and dignity itself are clearly expressed in Marya - after all, she, more than all the Bolkonskys, inclined to hide her feelings, considered the marriage of her brother and Natasha Rostova unsuitable.

But along with this, one cannot fail to note the role of duty to the Fatherland in the life of this family - protecting the interests of the state for them is higher than even personal happiness. Andrei Bolkonsky leaves at a time when his wife is due to give birth; the old prince, in a fit of patriotism, having forgotten about his daughter, is eager to defend the Fatherland.

And at the same time, it must be said that in the relations of the Bolkonskys there is, albeit deeply hidden, love, natural and sincere, hidden under the mask of coldness and arrogance.

The direct, proud Bolkonskys are not at all like the cozy home Rostovs, and that is why the unity of these two clans, in Tolstoy's view, is possible only between the most uncharacteristic representatives of families (the marriage between Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya), therefore the meeting of Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky in Mytishchi serves not to unite and correct their relationship, but to fill and clarify them. This is precisely the reason for the solemnity and pretentiousness of their relationship in the last days of Andrei Bolkonsky's life.

The low, "vile" breed of the Kuragin is not at all like these two families; they can hardly even be called a family: there is no love between them, there is only the envy of the mother for her daughter, the contempt of Prince Vasily for his sons: the "calm fool" Hippolytus and the "restless fool" Anatol. Their closeness is the mutual responsibility of selfish people, their appearance, often in a romantic halo, causes crises in other families.

Anatole, a symbol of freedom for Natasha, freedom from the limitations of the patriarchal world and at the same time from the boundaries of what is permitted, from the moral framework of what is acceptable ...

In this “breed”, unlike the Rostovs and Bolkonskys, there is no cult of the child, no reverent attitude towards him.

But this family of intriguing Napoleons disappears in the fire of 1812, like the unsuccessful world adventure of the great emperor, all Helene's intrigues disappear - entangled in them, she dies.

But by the end of the novel, new families appear, embodying the best features of both clans - the pride of Nikolai Rostov gives way to the needs of the family and a growing feeling, and Natasha Rostova and Pierre Bezukhov create that homeliness, the atmosphere that they both were looking for.

Nikolai and Princess Marya will probably be happy - after all, they are precisely those representatives of the Bolkonsky and Rostov families who are able to find something in common; "Ice and fire", Prince Andrey and Natasha, were unable to link their lives - after all, even in love, they could not fully understand each other.

It is interesting to add that the condition for the connection of Nikolai Rostov and the much deeper Marya

Bolkonskaya became the lack of relations between Andrei Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova, therefore this love line is activated only at the end of the epic.

But, despite all the external completeness of the novel, one can also note such a compositional feature as the openness of the finale - after all, the last scene, the scene with Nikolenka, who absorbed all the best and purest that was in the Bolkonskys, Rostovs and Bezukhovs, is not accidental. He is the future ...

How often Tolstoy uses the word family, family to designate the Rostovs' house! What a warm light and comfort emanates from this, such a familiar and kind word to everyone! Behind this word - peace, harmony, love.

How are the Bolkonskys 'house and the Rostovs' house similar?

(First of all, the feeling of family, spiritual kinship, patriarchal way of life (general feelings of grief or joy are captured not only by family members, but even by their servants: “The Rostovs' lackeys happily rushed to take off his (Pierre's) raincoat and accept a stick and a hat”, “Nikolai takes money from Gavrila for a cab "; the Rostovs 'valet is just as devoted to the Rostovs' house as the Alpatych to the Bolkonskys 'house." The Rostovs' family, "Bolkonskys", "The Rostovs 'house"; "Bolkonskys' estate" - already in these definitions the feeling of connectedness is obvious: " On Nikolin's day, on the prince's name day, all of Moscow was at the entrance of his (Bolkonsky) house ... " in the city, but in which it was most flattering to be accepted ... ".)

What is the distinguishing feature of the Bolkonsky and Rostov houses?

(Hospitality is a distinctive feature of these houses: "Even in Otradnoye, up to 400 guests gathered," in Lysyh Gory - up to a hundred guests four times a year. Natasha, Nikolai, Petya are honest, sincere, frank with each other; they open their hearts to their parents, hoping for complete mutual understanding (Natasha - to her mother about love for herself; Nikolai - to his father even about losing 43 thousand; Petya - to everyone at home about the desire to go to war ...); Andrey and Marya are friendly (Andrey - to his father about his wife). Both families are huge parental care for children: Rostova - the eldest hesitates between the choice - carts for the wounded or family values ​​(future material security of children). The son is a warrior - the pride of the mother. She is engaged in raising children: tutors, balls, outings, youth evenings, Natasha's singing , music, preparation for study at the University of Petit; plans for their future family, children.The Rostovs and Bolkonskys love children more than themselves: Rostova - the eldest does not tolerate the death of her husband and the younger Petit; the old man Bolkonsky loves children passionately and anxiously , even his severity and exactingness come only from the desire for good for children.)

Why is the personality of old Bolkonsky interesting to Tolstoy and to us, the readers?

(Bolkonsky attracts both Tolstoy and the modern reader with his uncommonness. "An old man with keen, intelligent eyes," "with a sparkle of clever and young eyes," "inspiring a sense of deference and even fear," "was harsh and invariably demanding." A friend of Kutuzov, he is even in his youth he received a general-in-chief. And disgraced, he did not cease to be interested in politics. His energetic mind requires an exit. Nikolai Andreevich, honoring only two human virtues: "activity and mind", "was constantly busy either writing his memoirs, or calculating from higher mathematics, now turning snuff boxes on a machine, now working in the garden and observing buildings ... ”“ He himself was engaged in raising his daughter. ”It’s not for nothing that Andrei has an insistent demand to communicate with his father, whose intelligence he appreciates and whose analytical abilities never ceases to be amazed. Proud and unyielding, the prince asks his son to “hand over the notes ... to the emperor after ... my death.” And for the Academy he prepared a prize for the one who writes the history of the Suvorov wars n ... Here are my remarks, after me read for yourself, you will find some benefit. "

He creates a militia, arms people, tries to be useful, to apply his military experience in practice. Nikolai Andreevich sees in his heart the sacredness of his son and himself helps him in a difficult conversation about his abandoned wife and future child.

And the unfinished year for the old prince to test the feelings of Andrei and Natasha is also an attempt to protect his son's feelings from accidents and misfortunes: "There was a son whom it was a pity to give to the girl."

The old prince was engaged in the upbringing and education of children himself, not trusting and not delegating this to anyone.)

Why is Bolkonsky picky about his daughter before despotism?

(The key to the solution is in the phrase of Nikolai Andreevich himself: “And I don’t want you to be like our stupid young ladies.” He considers idleness and superstition to be the source of human vices. that between Marya and Andrey there is not only complete mutual understanding, but also a sincere friendship based on the unity of views ... Thoughts ... He understands how rich the spiritual world of his daughter is; he knows how beautiful she can be in moments of emotional excitement. for him the arrival and matchmaking of the Kuragin, this "stupid, heartless breed".)

When and how will paternal pride in Princess Marya declare itself?

(She will be able to refuse Anatol Kuragin, whom her father brought to woo the Bolkonskys, she will indignantly reject the patronage of the French general Roma; she will be able to suppress pride in the scene of farewell to the ruined Nikolai Rostov: “do not deprive me of your friendship.” She will even say with her father’s phrase: “To me it will hurt. ")

How is the Bolkonsky breed manifested in Prince Andrei?

(Like his father.Andrei will be disappointed in the world and go into the army. The son will want to realize his father's dream of a perfect military charter, but the work of Andrei will not be appreciated. The courage and personal bravery of the young Bolkonsky in the Battle of Austerlitz does not lead the hero to the heights of personal glory, and participation in the Battle of Schengraben convinces that true heroism is modest, and the hero is outwardly ordinary. Andrei's conviction, "owe the success of the day", at a meeting of officers ridiculed and punished.Only Andrei will stand up for him, will be able to go against the general opinion.

Andrey's activity is just as tireless as his father's ... Work on the Speransky commission, an attempt to draw up and approve his own plan for the deployment of troops near Schengraben, the liberation of the peasants, and the improvement of their living conditions. But during the war, the son, like his father, sees the main interest in the general course of military affairs.)

In what scenes will the feeling of fatherhood be manifested with special force in the old man Bolkonsky?

(Nikolai Andreevich does not trust anyone, not only fate, but even the upbringing of his children. With what "external calmness and internal malice" he agrees to Andrei's marriage with Natasha; the impossibility of parting with Princess Marya pushes him to desperate actions, spiteful, bilious: the groom will tell his daughter: "... there is nothing to disfigure himself - and so bad." By the matchmaking of the Kuragin, he was insulted for his daughter. The insult was the most painful, because it did not refer to him, to his daughter, whom he loved more than himself. "

Reread the lines about how the old man reacts to his son's declaration of love for Rostova: he shouts, then "plays a thin diplomat"; the same methods as in the Kuragin's matchmaking to Marya.

How will Marya embody the paternal ideal of the family?

(In a fatherly way, she will become demanding of her children, observing their behavior, encouraging for good deeds and punishing for evil. A wise wife, she will be able to bring up in Nicholas the need to consult with herself, and noticing that his sympathies are on the side of her youngest daughter, Natasha She will reproach herself for not enough, as it seems to her, love for her nephew, but we know that Marya is too pure in soul and honest, that she never changed the memory of her beloved brother, that for her Nikolenka is the continuation of the prince Andrey. She will call her eldest son "Andryusha".)

As Tolstoy proves his idea there is no moral core in the parents - will there be none in the children?

(Vasil Kuragin is the father of three children, but all his dreams boil down to one thing: to attach them more profitable, to get them out of hand. All Kuragin tolerate the shame of matchmaking easily. Anatole, who accidentally met Marya on the day of matchmaking, holds Burienne in his arms. with a smile of a beauty she was condescending to the idea of ​​her family and friends to marry her to Pierre. He, Anatole, is only slightly annoyed by the unsuccessful attempt to take Natasha away. a woman, having lost a leg. ”Their peace of mind is from indifference to everyone except himself: Anatole“ had the ability of peace, precious for the light, and unalterable confidence. ”Their spiritual callousness and meanness will be branded by the most honest and delicate Pierre, therefore, an accusation will come from his lips like a shot: "Where you are, there is debauchery, evil."

They are alien to Tolstoy's ethics. Egoists are closed only on themselves. Barren flowers. Nothing will be born from them, because in a family one must be able to give others the warmth of the soul and care. They only know how to take: “I'm not a fool to give birth to children” (Helen), “We must take a girl while she is still a flower in a bud” (Anatole).)

Marriages built of convenience ... Will they become a family in Tolstoy's sense of the word?

(The dream of Drubetskoy and Berg came true: they got married successfully. Everything is the same in their houses as in all rich houses. Everything is as it should be: comme il faut. But the heroes are not reborn. There are no feelings. The soul is silent.)

But the true feeling of love transforms the beloved heroes of Tolstoy. Describe it.

(Even the "intellectual" Prince Andrei, in love with Natasha, seems to Pierre to be different: "Prince Andrei seemed and was a completely different, new person."

For Andrey, Natasha's love is everything: “happiness, hope, light”. "This feeling is stronger than me." "I would not believe someone who would tell me that I can love that way." "I cannot help but love the light, I am not to blame for this", "I have never experienced anything like this." "Prince Andrew, with a radiant, enthusiastic and renewed face, stopped in front of Pierre ..."

Natasha wholeheartedly responds to Andrey's love: "But this, this has never happened to me." "I will not bear the separation" ...

Natasha comes to life after Andrei's death under the rays of Pierre's love: “The whole face, gait, look, voice - everything suddenly changed in her. The force of life, unexpected for her herself, hopes for happiness surfaced and demanded satisfaction "," The change ... surprised Princess Marya. "

Nikolai "and his wife came closer and closer, each day discovering new spiritual treasures in her." He is happy with the spiritual superiority of his wife over him and strives to be better.

The previously unknown happiness of love for her husband and children makes Marya even more attentive, kinder and more tender: “I would never, never believe,” she whispered to herself, “that you can be so happy.”

And Marya is worried about her husband's irascibility, she is painful, to tears: “She never cried from pain or annoyance, but always from sadness and pity. And when she cried, her radiant eyes acquired an irresistible charm. " In her face, "suffering and loving," Nikolai now finds answers to the questions tormenting him, is proud of him and is afraid of losing her.

After parting, Natasha meets Pierre; her conversation with her husband follows a new path, contrary to all the laws of logic ... Already because at the same time they were talking about completely different subjects ... This was the surest sign that "they fully understand each other.")

Love gives vigilance to their souls, strength to their feelings.

They can sacrifice everything for the beloved, for the happiness of others. Pierre belongs to the family, and she belongs to him. Natasha leaves all her hobbies. She has something more important, the most precious - a family. And the family is important her main talent - the talent of care, understanding, love. They: Pierre, Natasha, Marya, Nikolay - the embodiment of family thought in the novel.

But the very epithet "family" in Tolstoy is much broader and deeper. Can you prove it?

(Yes, the family circle - the Raevsky battery; father and children - captain Tushin and his batteries; "everyone looked like the children"; father to the soldiers - Kutuzov. And to the girl Malashka Kutuzov - grandfather. So she will call the commander in a relative way. Kutuzov, having recognized from Andrei about the death of Nikolai Andreevich, he will say that now the father is for the prince - he. The soldiers stopped the words Kamensky - father to Kutuzov - father. "A son worried about the fate of the Motherland" - Bagration, who in a letter to Arakcheev will express his son's concern and love to Russia.

And the Russian army is also a family, with a special, deep sense of brotherhood, unity in the face of a common misfortune. The exponent of the people's attitude to the novel is Platon Karataev. He, with his paternal, paternal attitude towards everyone, became for Pierre and for us the ideal of serving people, the ideal of kindness, conscientiousness, a model of “moral” life - life according to God, life “for everyone”.

Therefore, together with Pierre we ask Karataev: "What would he approve?" And we hear Pierre Natasha's answer: “I would approve of our family life. He so wanted to see goodness, happiness, tranquility in everything, and I would proudly show us us. " It is in the family that Pierre comes to the conclusion: “... if vicious people are interconnected and constitute strength, then honest people need to do only the same. It's so simple. ”)

Maybe Pierre was brought up outside the family, it was the family that he put at the center of his future life?

(Amazing in him, a man, childish conscientiousness, sensitivity, ability to respond to the pain of another person with his heart and alleviate his suffering. "Pierre smiled his kind smile," "Pierre sat awkwardly in the middle of the living room," "he was shy." He feels the despair of his mother , who lost a child in burning Moscow; empathizes with the grief of Marya, who lost her brother; considers himself obliged to conscience Anatole and asks him to leave, and in the salon of Scherer and his wife he will deny rumors about Natasha's escape with Anatol. Therefore, the purpose of his public service is good, "active virtue".)

In what scenes of the novel is this quality of Pierre's soul manifested especially clearly?

(A big child, a child is called Pierre and Nikolai, and Andrei. Bolkonsky will entrust him, Pierre, with the secret of love for Natasha. He will entrust Natasha, the bride. , Pierre will be a real friend in the novel. It is with him that Natasha's aunt Akhrosimov will consult about her beloved niece. But it is he, Pierre, who will introduce Andrei and Natasha at the first adult ball in her life. He will notice Natasha's confusion, whom no one has invited dance, and asks his friend Andrey to engage her.)

What are the similarities and differences in the mental structure of Pierre and Natasha?

(The structure of the souls of Natasha and Pierre is in many respects similar. Pierre confesses to a friend in an intimate conversation with Andrey: “I feel that, besides me, spirits live above me and that there is truth in this world”, “we have lived and will live forever there, in everything (he pointed to heaven). "Natasha" knows "that in her previous life everyone was angels. Pierre felt this connection very acutely (he was older) and involuntarily worried about Natasha's fate: he was happy and for some reason sad, when he listened to Andrey's confession about his love for Rostova, he seemed to be afraid of something.

But Natasha will be afraid for herself and for Andrei: "How I am afraid for him and for myself, and for everything I am afraid ..." And Andrei's feeling of love for her will be mixed with a feeling of fear and responsibility for the fate of this girl.

Pierre and Natasha will feel differently. Love will revive their souls. There will be no place for doubt in the soul, love will fill everything.

But the shrewd Tolstoy saw that at the age of 13 Natasha, with her responsive to everything truly beautiful and kind soul, noted Pierre: at the table she looked from Boris Drubetskoy, whom she swore to “love until the very end,” to Pierre; Pierre is the first adult man who is invited to dance, it is for Pierre that the girl Natasha takes a fan and pretends to be an adult. "I love him so much".

Natasha and Pierre's "unchanging moral certainty" can be traced throughout the novel. “He did not want to curry favor with the public,” he built his life on internal personal foundations: hopes, aspirations, goals, which were based on the same interest of the family; Natasha does what her heart tells her. In essence, Tolstoy emphasizes that “doing good” in his favorite characters means responding “purely intuitively, with heart and soul” to those around him. Natasha and Pierre feel, understand, "with their characteristic sensitivity of the heart," the slightest falsehood. At the age of 15 Natasha says to her brother Nikolai: "Don't be angry, but I know that you won't marry her (Sonya)." “Natasha, with her sensitivity, also noticed the state of her brother”, “She knew how to understand what was ... in every Russian person”, Natasha “understands nothing” in Pierre's sciences, but attributes great importance to them. They never "use" anyone and call for only one type of connection - spiritual kinship. They truly blow it, worry: cry, scream, laugh, share secrets, despair and again look for the meaning of life in caring for others.)

What is the significance of children in the Rostov and Bezukhov families?

(Children for people, "non-family" - a cross, a burden, a burden. And only for families they are happiness, the meaning of life, life itself. the hands of the children of Nikolai and Pierre! Do you remember the same expression on the face of Nikolai and his favorite, the black-eyed Natasha? Do you remember with what love Natasha looks into the features of her younger son's dear features, finding him like Pierre? Marya is happy in the family. we will not find family pictures at the Kuragin, Drubetsky, Berg, Karagin. Remember, Drubetskoy was "unpleasant to remember his childhood love for Natasha," and all Rostovs are absolutely happy only at home: "Everyone shouted, spoke, kissed Nikolai at the same time ", Here, at home, among relatives, Nikolai is happy as he has not been happy for a year and a half. The family world for Tolstoy's favorite characters is the world of childhood. In the most difficult moments of their lives, Andrei and Nikolai remember their relatives: Andrei on Austerlitsky the field remembers the house, Marya; under the bullets - about the father's order. In the moments of oblivion, the wounded Rostov sees his home and all his own. These heroes are living, understandable people. Their experiences, grief, joy cannot but touch.)

Can we say that the heroes of the novel have a childlike soul?

(They, the author's favorite heroes, have their own world, a high world of goodness and beauty, a childishly pure world. Natasha and Nikolai transfer themselves to the world of a winter fairy tale on Christmas Eve. In a magical dream, he spends the last night of his life at the front line Rostov. "Come on, our Matvevna," Tushin said to himself. "Matvevna" imagined in his imagination a cannon (a large, extreme, ancient cast ...). And the world of music also unites the heroes, elevating, spiritualizing them. In a dream, Rostov leads an invisible orchestra, "Princess Marya played the clavichord", Natasha is taught to sing by a famous Italian. Nikolai breaks out of a moral impasse (loss to Dolokhov in 43 thousand!) Under the influence of his sister's singing. And books play an important role in the lives of these heroes. Andrey stocks up in Brunn “for the trip with books.” Nikolai made it a rule not to buy a new book without first reading the old ones. We will see Marya, Natasha and never Helen with a book in her hands.)

IV. Results.

Even the purest word "childish" is associated with the word "family" in Tolstoy. “Rostov again entered this family world of children.” That childish and pure smile with which he had never smiled since leaving the house was blossoming in his soul and on his face. Pierre has a childish smile. The childish, enthusiastic face of the cadet Nikolai Rostov.

The childishness of the soul (purity, naivety, naturalness) that a person preserves is, according to Tolstoy, the heart - the guilt of morality, the essence of beauty in a person:

Andrei at Pratsen's height with a banner in his hands raises a soldier behind him: “Guys, go ahead! he shouted in a childish voice.

With childish unhappy eyes, he will look at Andrei Kutuzov, having learned about the death of his elder Bolkonsky, his comrade in arms. Marya will respond to her husband's outbursts of unreasonable anger with a childish expression of extreme resentment (tears).

They, these heroes, even have a confidential, homely vocabulary. The word "darling" is pronounced by the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, and Tushin, and Kutuzov. Therefore, the class walls break down, and the soldiers at the Rayevsky battery took Pierre into their family and called him our master; Nikolai and Petya easily enter the officer's family, the families of the young Rostovs - Natasha and Nikolai - are very friendly. The family develops in them the best feelings - love and dedication.

"People's Thought" in the novel "War and Peace". The historical plan in the novel. Images of Kutuzov and Napoleon. The connection in the novel is personal and general. The meaning of the image of Platon Karataev.

Target: to generalize throughout the novel the role of the people in history, the attitude of the author to the people.

During the classes

The lesson-lecture is carried out according to the plan with the recording of the theses:

I. Gradual change and deepening of the concept and theme of the novel "War and Peace".

II. "People's Thought" is the main idea of ​​the novel.

1. The main conflicts of the novel.

2. Tearing off all and sundry masks from the court and staff lackeys and drones.

3. "Russian soul" (The best part of the noble society in the novel. Kutuzov as the leader of the people's war).

4. Depiction of the moral greatness of the people and the liberating nature of the people's war of 1812.

III. Immortality of the novel "War and Peace".

To make the work good,

one must love the main, basic idea in it.

In War and Peace, I loved popular thought,

due to the war of 1812.

L. N. Tolstoy

Lecture material

LN Tolstoy, proceeding from his statement, considered "people's thought" to be the main idea of ​​the novel "War and Peace". This is a novel about the fate of the people, about the fate of Russia, about the people's feat, about the reflection of history in a person.

The main conflicts of the novel - the struggle of Russia against Napoleonic aggression and the clash of the best part of the nobility, expressing national interests, with court lackeys and staff drones, pursuing selfish, selfish interests both during the years of peace and during the years of war - are associated with the theme of the people's war.

“I tried to write the history of the people,” Tolstoy said. The protagonist of the novel is the people; a people thrown into an unnecessary and incomprehensible war of 1805, alien to their interests, a people who rose up in 1812 to defend the Motherland from foreign invaders and defeated in a just war of liberation a huge enemy army led by an invincible commander until then, a people united by a great goal - "to clear their land from the invasion."

There are more than a hundred mass scenes in the novel, over two hundred named people from the people act in it, but the meaning of the image of the people is determined, of course, not by this, but by the fact that all important events in the novel are evaluated by the author from the popular point of view. Tolstoy expresses the popular assessment of the war of 1805 in the words of Prince Andrei: “Why did we lose the battle at Austerlitz? There was no need for us to fight there: we wanted to leave the battlefield as soon as possible. " At the end of the 1st part of the 3rd volume of the novel, the writer expresses the popular assessment of the Battle of Borodino, when the French were "laid on the hand of the strongest enemy spirit," “The moral strength of the French attacking army was exhausted. Not that victory, which is determined by the pieces of matter picked up on sticks called banners, and by the space on which the troops stood and stand, but a moral victory, one that convinces the enemy of the moral superiority of his enemy and his powerlessness, was won by the Russians under Borodin ".

"Thought of the people" is everywhere present in the novel. We clearly feel it in the merciless "tearing off the masks" that Tolstoy resorts to when painting the Kuragin, Rostopchin, Arakcheev, Bennigsen, Drubetskoy, Julie Karagin, and others. Their calm, luxurious life in St. Petersburg went on in the old way.

Secular life is often given through the prism of popular views. Remember the scene of the opera and ballet performance in which Natasha Rostova meets Helen and Anatol Kuragin (vol. II, part V, chap. 9-10). “After the village ... it was all wild and surprising to her. ... -... she felt ashamed of the actors, sometimes it was funny for them. " The performance is drawn as if an observant peasant with a healthy sense of beauty is watching him, surprised at how absurdly the gentlemen amuse themselves.

More vividly "people's thought" is felt where heroes close to the people are depicted: Tushin and Timokhin, Natasha and Princess Marya, Pierre and Prince Andrei - they are all Russian in soul.

It is Tushin and Timokhin who are shown as the true heroes of the Shengraben battle, victory in the Battle of Borodino, according to Prince Andrey, will depend on the feeling that is in him, in Timokhin and in every soldier. "Tomorrow, whatever it is, we will win the battle!" - says Prince Andrey, and Timokhin agrees with him: “Here, your Excellency, it’s true, true truth.”

Both Natasha and Pierre, who understood the “latent warmth of patriotism” that was in the militia and soldiers on the eve and on the day of the Battle of Borodino, act as carriers of the people's feelings and “people's thoughts” in many scenes of the novel; Pierre, who, according to the servants' words, was "taken prisoner", and Prince Andrew, when he became "our prince" for the soldiers of his regiment.

Tolstoy portrays Kutuzov as a person who has embodied the spirit of the people. Kutuzov is a truly people's commander. Expressing the needs, thoughts and feelings of soldiers, he speaks during the review at Braunau, and during the Battle of Austerlitz, and during the liberation war of 1812. "Kutuzov," writes Tolstoy, "with all his Russian being, knew and felt what every Russian soldier felt ..." During the war of 1812, all his efforts were directed towards one goal - to cleanse his native land of invaders. On behalf of the people, Kutuzov rejects Loriston's proposal for an armistice. He understands and repeatedly says that the Battle of Borodino is a victory; Realizing, like no one else, the popular character of the war of 1812, he supports the plan for the deployment of partisan actions proposed by Denisov. It was his understanding of the feelings of the people that made the people choose this old man in disgrace as the leader of the people's war against the will of the king.

Also, "people's thought" was fully manifested in the image of the heroism and patriotism of the Russian people and the army during the Patriotic War of 1812. Tolstoy shows extraordinary stamina, courage and fearlessness of the soldiers and the best part of the officers. He writes that not only Napoleon and his generals, but all the soldiers of the French army experienced in the Battle of Borodino "a sense of horror before the enemy who, having lost half of his army, stood as formidable at the end as at the beginning of the battle."

The war of 1812 was unlike other wars. Tolstoy showed how the "cudgel of the people's war" rose, painted numerous images of partisans, and among them - the memorable image of the peasant Tikhon Shcherbaty. We see the patriotism of civilians who left Moscow, abandoned and destroyed their property. “They went because for the Russian people there could be no question: will it be good or bad under the control of the French in Moscow. You cannot be under the control of the French: that was the worst of all. "

So, reading the novel, we are convinced that the writer judges the great events of the past, the life and customs of various strata of Russian society, individuals, war and peace from the standpoint of the people's interests. And this is that “popular thought” that Tolstoy loved in his novel.

For Tolstoy, the family is the basis for the formation of the human soul, and at the same time, in War and Peace, the introduction of the family theme is one of the ways to organize the text. The atmosphere of the house, the family nest, according to the writer, determines the warehouse of psychology, views and even the fate of the heroes. That is why, in the system of all the main images of the novel, L.N. Tolstoy singles out several families, on the example of which the author's attitude to the ideal of the hearth is clearly expressed, these are the Bolkonskys, Rostovs and Kuragin.

At the same time, the Bolkonskys and Rostovs are not just families, they are whole lifestyles, lifestyles based on Russian national traditions. Probably, these features are most fully manifested in the life of the Rostovs - a noble-naive family living with feelings and impulsive impulses, combining a serious attitude to family honor (Nikolai Rostov does not refuse his father's debts), and cordiality, and warmth of intra-family relations, and hospitality, and hospitality, always characteristic of the Russian people.

The kindness and carelessness of the Rostov family extends not only to its members; even a stranger to them, Andrei Bolkonsky, finding himself in Otradnoye, amazed by the naturalness and cheerfulness of Natasha Rostova, seeks to change his life. And, probably, the brightest and most characteristic representative of the Rostov breed is Natasha. In its naturalness, ardor, naivety and some superficiality - the essence of the family.

Such purity of relations, high morality make the Rostovs akin to representatives of another noble family in the novel - the Bolkonskys. But in this breed, the basic qualities are opposite to those of Rostov. Everything is subject to reason, honor and duty. It is these principles, probably, that sensual growths cannot accept and understand.

The feeling of family superiority and dignity itself are clearly expressed in Marya - after all, she, more than all the Bolkonskys, inclined to hide her feelings, considered the marriage of her brother and Natasha Rostova unsuitable.

But along with this, one cannot fail to note the role of duty to the Fatherland in the life of this family - protecting the interests of the state for them is higher than even personal happiness. Andrei Bolkonsky leaves at a time when his wife is due to give birth; the old prince, in a fit of patriotism, having forgotten about his daughter, is eager to defend the Fatherland.

And at the same time, it must be said that in the relations of the Bolkonskys there is, albeit deeply hidden, love, natural and sincere, hidden under the mask of coldness and arrogance.

The direct, proud Bolkonskys are not at all like the cozy home Rostovs, and that is why the unity of these two clans, in Tolstoy's view, is possible only between the most uncharacteristic representatives of families (the marriage between Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya), therefore the meeting of Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky in Mytishchi serves not to unite and correct their relationship, but to fill and clarify them. This is precisely the reason for the solemnity and pretentiousness of their relationship in the last days of Andrei Bolkonsky's life.

The low, "vile" breed of the Kuragin is not at all like these two families; they can hardly even be called a family: there is no love between them, there is only the envy of the mother for her daughter, the contempt of Prince Vasily for his sons: the "calm fool" Hippolytus and the "restless fool" Anatol. Their closeness is the mutual responsibility of selfish people, their appearance, often in a romantic halo, causes crises in other families.

Anatole, a symbol of freedom for Natasha, freedom, QT restrictions of the patriarchal world and at the same time from the boundaries of what is permitted, from the moral framework of what is acceptable ...

In this “breed”, unlike the Rostovs and Bolkonskys, there is no cult of the child, no reverent attitude towards him.

But this family of intriguing Napoleons disappears in the fire of 1812, like the unsuccessful world adventure of the great emperor, all Helene's intrigues disappear - entangled in them, she dies.

But by the end of the novel, new families appear, embodying the best features of both clans - the pride of Nikolai Rostov gives way to the needs of the family and a growing feeling, and Natasha Rostova and Pierre Bezukhoye create that homeliness, the atmosphere that they both were looking for.

Nikolai and Princess Marya will probably be happy - after all, they are precisely those representatives of the Bolkonsky and Rostov families who are able to find something in common; "Ice and fire", Prince Andrey and Natasha, were unable to link their lives - after all, even in love, they could not fully understand each other.

It is interesting to add that the condition for the union of Nikolai Rostov and the much deeper Marya Bolkonskaya was the absence of relations between Andrei Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova, therefore this love line is activated only at the end of the epic.

But, despite all the external completeness of the novel, one can also note such a compositional feature as the openness of the finale - after all, the last scene, the scene with Nikolenka, who absorbed all the best and purest that was in the Bolkonskys, Rostovs and Bezukhovs, is not accidental.

He is the future ...

62. IMAGE OF FAMILIES IN THE NOVEL OF LEO TOLSTOY "WAR AND PEACE" (I option)

In the novel War and Peace, the theme of the family occupies one of the key positions. Family is the simplest form of human unity. The novel depicts the stories of the Bolkonsky, Rostov, Kuragin families, and in the epilogue also the Bezukhov family and the "new" Rostov family.

"War and Peace" is seen here not only as a historical and philosophical, but also as a family novel.

The Bolkonsky and Rostov families are contrasted with the Kuragin family, but the Bolkonsky and Rostovs are by no means identical. They embody the philosophical antithesis of simplicity (Rostov) and complexity (Bolkonsky). Kuragins, on the other hand, personify aggression, the basest aspirations of a person. Each family has its own aura, its own spirit, its own inner world.

The Bolkonskys and Rostovs live and exist according to the laws of mankind, they have their own spiritual needs. The members of these families have an inner monologue that the Kura-gins do not. Kuragins do not create, they only destroy what they touch. Pierre Bezukhoye says about them: "Vile breed." In the depiction of the Bolkonsky and Rostov families, Tolstoy demonstrates their inner, everyday life. The Kuraginh lacks the theme of home and family. Home and family do not exist for them as a value.

In the Kuragin family, it is not feelings, not humanity that rule the ball, but self-interest and calculation inherent in each member of this family. Dried apricots, as it were, do not have an inner world. This is emphasized by their portraits: they are detailed, static and seemingly lifeless. Emotionality, movement, dynamism of the portraits of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys, on the contrary, emphasize the fact that they are alive, that they live not only in body, but also in spirit.

The life of the Bolkonskys is more conflicted than the life of the Rostovs. The Rostovs' emotional attitude to life is based on feelings, on intuition, on the life of the heart. And the Bolkonskys live more obeying reason and logic, their life is the life of the mind. The Rostovs' intra-family relations are simple. Warmth and spontaneity dominate here, a certain disorder and an atmosphere of universal (except for Vera) love. Order, adherence to traditions and foundations, restraint (although not always) is the principle of the Bolkonskys' life. They perceive the world through their position, without departing from it. Their mind and intellect are a barrier to life. Even religion for Princess Marya is not just faith, but a whole worldview. The Bolkonskys seem to be afraid to see themselves as ordinary, simple. Therefore, they "see", either after experiencing something very, very strong, or before death (Prince Bolkonsky).

The Rostovs, in contrast to the Bolkonsky, have the ability to directly perceive the world (Patasha). They are natural and simple. The Rostovs' House opens its doors to many people. They have four children of their own (Vera, Nikolai, Natasha and Petya) and two strangers (poor relative Sonya and Boris Drubetskoy). But the poorer the Rostovs become, the more clearly appear in the countess, previously a kind and generous woman, the more inherent features of Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya: stinginess, mental callousness, the desire to sacrifice "strangers" for "friends."

The Rostovs and Bolkonskys can be ugly or unnecessarily simple (Natasha, Princess Marya), and the Kuraginas are beautiful (only Ippolit is an exception), but the Rostovs and Bolkonskys personify two creative principles: male and female, and the Kuragins are a destructive beginning, a beginning that destroys feelings ...

Rostovs and Bolkonskys, personifying two opposite poles, two energies, successfully complement each other. Their interaction and complementarity occurs through the marriage of Nikolai to Princess Marya. But only one family is ideal (for the author) - the Bezukhov family. It is harmonious, because the basis of this harmony is the human equivalence of Natasha and Pierre. They are entering a new phase of life purged of Napoleonic ideas. In the Bezukhov family, Pierre is the head, the intellectual center. Natasha, on the other hand, is the spiritual support of the family, its foundation, because the birth and upbringing of children, caring for her husband is her life for her. Natasha is completely devoted to this.

The Rostov family is devoid of harmony. Countess Marya is smarter than her husband, deeper as a person. Nikolai realizes that he will never understand her, that Marya's spiritual life is closed to him. He is busy with the housekeeping, standing firmly on his feet. He is modest and kind, but these qualities do not compensate for his inability to answer for his actions in front of his own conscience, do not compensate for his spiritual poverty in comparison with his wife. Rostovs and Bezukhovs are close to each other. But they are also not measurably distant. Pierre is the future Decembrist, Nikolai is the one who will be on the other side of the barricades. The author chooses a boy, Nikolenka Bolkonsky, as a judge in the dispute between Rostov and Bezukhov about the fate of Russia. He “loved his uncle, but with a faint tinge of contempt. He adored Pierre. He did not want to be either a hussar or a cavalier of St. George, like Uncle Nikolai, he wanted to be a scientist, smart and kind, like Pierre. " The child, who can choose between two principles, chooses Pierre.

Tolstoy depicted five families. The Rostovs and Bolkonskys are different, but they create and are opposed to this by the Kuragin, who destroy. The family of Nikolai and Marya is a fusion of mind and heart, but inharmonious: Marya is spiritually deeper than Nikolai. Only the Bezukhov family is quite good and, one might say, full of harmony, the foundation of which is the complete spiritual equivalence of Pierre and Natasha.

63. IMAGE OF FAMILIES IN THE NOVEL OF LEO TOLSTOY "WAR AND PEACE" (II version)

Almost every writer has a family theme in one way or another. It receives special development in the second half of the 19th century. At this time, the family is an object of controversy, polemics, a source of conflicts for the protagonists, a means of expressing the author's ideas.

Despite the fact that in the novel "War and Peace" the leading role is given to the thought of the people, family thought also has its own dynamics of development, therefore "War and Peace" is not only a historical, but also a family novel. It is characterized by the orderliness and chronicleness of the narrative. The story of the three families (Bolkonsky, Rostov, Kuragin) is fragmentarily presented in the novel, each of them having its own core and inner world. Comparing them, we can understand what norm of life Tolstoy preached. "In accordance with his worldview, a clear hierarchy of families is built in descending order: Rostovs, Bolkonskys, Kuragins. Despite the fact that Tolstoy occasionally describes them with strokes, the reader has a fairly complete picture the lives of three families, in which small details play a role in their depiction.

The Rostovs, Bolkonskys, Kuragins occupy a prominent place in secular society, or rather, in the secular life of Moscow and St. Petersburg. But all the same, the Kuragins stand out against their background. They constantly take part in intrigues and behind-the-scenes games (the story with the "mosaic portfolio" of old man Bezukhov), regulars of social events and balls. The Bolkonskys and Rostovs rarely appear in society, but they are heard by everyone; known as dowry and well-connected people.

The Kuraginhs are united by immorality (Tolstoy hints at some secret ties between Anatole and Helene), unprincipledness (an attempt to drag Natasha into an escape adventure, knowing that she is engaged), narrow-mindedness, prudence (the marriage of Pierre and Helene), false patriotism.

The vital spiritual needs of the Bolkonskys and Rostovs are solidarity, love. Painting the Kuragin, Tolstoy does not give us an exact picture of their family, does not show them all together; it is unclear whether they live together or not.

When creating images of families, Tolstoy uses a technique characteristic of his work: "tearing off all and all kinds of masks." It is mainly used in the description of the Kuragin. For example, in the “comparison of Helene with Hippolyte: he“ struck with an extraordinary resemblance to his beauty sister, "but, despite this,“ his face was clouded with idiocy. ”In this case, Helene's beauty immediately fades.

The Bolkonskys and Rostovs show the dynamics of their development, they move and improve. They have a rich, intense and complex inner monologue, a deep spiritual world, in contrast to the Kuragin, who have neither one nor the other. They are motionless, artificial; their portraits are detailed but static. It is symbolic to compare them with inanimate, cold material (Helen's marble shoulders). None of the Kuragins is ever shown in the bosom of nature, while Natasha, Nikolai, Andrei are often present in landscape descriptions. They are part of nature; they know how to feel and understand it, pass it through the soul, experience with it. This brings them closer to naturalness, to simplicity, which, according to Tolstoy, were the ideals of human life.

The constant reminder to the reader that Helene is a beauty, Anatole "unusually handsome", suggests that in fact their beauty did not seem to the writer to be true beauty. It looks more like an external gloss, emasculation, but there is nothing more behind it.

There is another feature that helps the reader to understand that the Kuragin's life form contradicts Tolstoy - their absence in the epilogue. It is easy to see that in the conclusion of the novel there are characters who are deeply sympathetic to Tolstoy. They changed, improved as a result of searches and mistakes. Dried apricots thrive, but do not change.

Tolstoy's point of view on artificiality and naturalness plays a significant role in the novel. Representatives of one side or another are the Bolkonskys and Rostovs.

The life of the Rostovs is dominated by an emotional beginning, a feeling. They are clever with the "mind of the heart", so their internal family relationships are much simpler and easier than those of the Bolkonskys. Warmth reigns in their family, “the atmosphere of universal love”. The attitude to life is formed through the sensory perception of the world, like a child. This is easily perceptible in the example of Natasha's internal monologues: they are confused, uncertain, but at the same time they come from the depths of the soul, forcefully break out. The fact that in many cases she lives by feelings is confirmed by the hunting scene: “Natasha ... squealed so piercingly that her ears rang. With this screech she expressed everything that other hunters expressed with their one-time conversation. "

In contrast to the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys are "more complicated" than them, so life in the family of Prince Andrei is more tense, the atmosphere is conflicted. They have a more developed intellectual beginning, will, logic. They are clever with the "mind of the mind". In the Bolkonsky family, the foundations, orders and laws prevail, established by the old prince, therefore, the relations between family members are dry, restrained, sometimes turning into coldness. They think in the same order and reason. For example, to Princess Marya, correspondence replaces friendship. She fully invests herself in the text. Then she has a diary, which also involves the presentation of ready-made, built-up thoughts, analysis. Therefore, the Bolkonskys - the personification of the complex, artificial - need the Rostovs as a constituent part.

In the novel, all three families carry a certain philosophical load. Drawing images of the Bolkonsky, Rostov, Kuragin, Tolstoy solves important problems for himself: false and true beauty, good and evil. The function of the Kuragin family is to bring anxiety, chaos, anxiety into the life of two other families. "Where you are, there is debauchery, evil," says Pierre Helene in a fit of anger. Kuragins represent the base material aspects of life. Depicting the Rostovs and Bolkonskys, Tolstoy reveals with their help the philosophical, aesthetic and epic aspects of his worldview.

64. "FAMILY THOUGHT" IN THE NOVEL OF LEO TOLSTOY "WAR AND PEACE" (I option)

A family. Human society began with her. With the development of civilization, it has not lost its importance. The personality of each of us begins to form from it. The family theme can be considered one of the main topics in world literature.

She found a vivid embodiment in two novels by Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. In the epic novel War and Peace, this is one of the main themes. Family Thought formed the basis of Anna Karenina, another of his novels. The heroine's love for Vronsky destroys not only her family, but also leads Anna Karenina herself to death.

In War and Peace, Tolstoy shows three different family structures typical of Russian society at the beginning of the 19th century, and their fates over several generations.

The Rostov family is shown for the first time on the birthday of the Countess and Natasha. This family holiday has nothing to do with the evening in Anna Pavlovna's drawing room, where the hostess "started up a uniform, decent talking machine." For the world, the Rostov family is somewhat strange and unusual. Count for many - "dirty bear". People of light often do not accept and do not understand the love, friendship and understanding that are characteristic of this family. These qualities of the Rostovs distinguish them favorably from the rest of the characters shown in the novel. But happiness did not come to the Rostov family immediately. Tolstoy shows this with the example of Countess Vera, the eldest daughter. “The Countess was wise with Vera,” Count Rostov says about her. The consequences of this experiment are immediately visible: the haughty and cold Vera seems to be a stranger in this close-knit family. The rest of the Rostovs are completely different. They have a sense of patriotism (Nikolai and Petya went to the orna), compassion. They are close to the people.

An example of another way of life is the Bolkonsky family. Their distinguishing feature is pride. It is she who prevents the old prince from showing his feelings. "With the people around him, from daughter to servants, the prince was harsh and invariably demanding." For him there are "only two virtues: activity and mind." In accordance with these beliefs, he raised the children. 5 this family lacks that tenderness and openness that so adorns the Rostov family.

Perhaps that is why Prince Andrew, having married without love, treats his wife as an outsider. “Marry an old man who is worthless,” he says to Pierre. The wife burdens him. But even after the death of the little princess, Prince Andrew did not find a new goal in life. Although meeting with Natasha in Otradnoye gave him hope, he did not manage to start all over again. People like the Bolkonsky father and son are not created for a quiet family life. Great deeds are their lot. Therefore, the Bolkonsky family cannot, in Tolstoy's opinion, be called ideal.

The third remya is Kuraginy. They are typical of high society: noble, once rich, and now on the verge of ruin. Their family cannot be happy: they give too much to the light. Sincere, tender feelings have no place where there is a hunt for a huge inheritance and rich brides. Both the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys almost suffered from those people.

The two families whose lives are shown in the epilogue of the novel are completely different. In the young Rostov family, love and understanding are successfully combined. Nikolai rejoices that Marya "with her soul not only belonged to him, but was also a part of himself." But at the same time he felt that he was "a nonentity before her in the spiritual world." People so different cannot create a strong family.

Another family is the Bezukhovs. Although those around them believe that Pierre is “under the shoe of his wife,” and Natasha sank down and became a slob, their family is truly happy. Yes, Natasha made Pierre obey “from the first days of their marriage,” this practically does not hinder him. Natasha often helps him understand himself. Tolstoy's attitude to this family is also conveyed by Nikolenka Volkonsky. He loves Pierre and Natasha with all his heart, and Nikolai Rostov - with a tinge of contempt.

For Tolstoy, "family thought" is one of the most important. In his opinion, not everyone can create and maintain a family. To achieve family well-being, his heroes need more than just their desire. Tolstoy gives family happiness only to the most worthy.

65. "FAMILY THOUGHT" IN THE NOVEL OF LEO TOLSTOY "WAR AND PEACE" (II version)

What do you need to be happy? Quiet family life ...<...>the ability to do good to people.

L. N. Tolstoy

In the genre "War and Peace" - an epic novel. The scale of Tolstoy's idea determined the peculiarities of the plot-and-positional structure. Conventionally, in the novel, it is customary to distinguish three plot plans - historical, socio-philosophical and family chronicle.

In the "family" part of the novel, the author describes not peasant families, but noble ones. He writes about the lives of such families, because the nobility was not burdened with the problems of poverty and survival, and they were more worried about moral problems. Describing the life of such heroes, Tolstoy studies history through the prism of the fate of ordinary citizens of the country, who shared a common share with the people. The author turns to the past in order to better understand and comprehend the present.

We find many similarities in Tolstoy's favorite heroes, the prototypes of which were the family members of the writer himself and Sofia Aleksandrovna Bers. The constant work of the soul unites Pierre, Patasha, Andrei, Marya, Nikolai, makes them kindred, makes the relationship between them friendly, "family".

Tolstoy stands at the origins of folk philosophy and adheres to the popular point of view of the family - with its patriarchal way of life, the authority of the parents, and their concern for children.

Therefore, in the center of the novel there are two families: the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys. The novel is based on a comparison of the lives of these families.

The Rostov family is closest to Tolstoy. The surrounding people are attracted by the atmosphere of love and benevolence that prevails here. Naturalness, sincerity, truly Russian hospitality, unselfishness distinguish all family members.

Standing on the popular point of view, the author considers the mother to be the moral core of the family, and the highest virtue of a woman is the sacred duty of motherhood: “The Countess was a woman with an oriental type of thin face,” she had 12 children. The sluggishness of her movements and speech, stemming from the weakness of her strength, gave her a significant look that inspires respect.

After the death of Petya and her husband, Tolstoy will call her old age “hopeless, powerless and aimless”, make her first spiritually and then physically die (“She has already done her work in life”).

Mother is a synonym for the world of the family in Tolstoy, that natural tuning fork by which the children of the Rostovs will check their lives: Natasha, Nikolai, Petya. They are united by important qualities inherent in the family of their parents: sincerity and naturalness, openness and cordiality.

Hence, from home, this ability of the Rostovs to attract people to themselves, the talent to understand someone else's soul, the ability to empathize, to participate. And all this is on the verge of self-denial. The Rostovs do not know how to feel "half", they give themselves over to the feeling that has taken possession of their souls completely. So, for example, Petya will feel sorry for the French drummer Vincent; Natasha will "revive" Andrey after a trip to Otradnoye with her enthusiastic love of life and will share her mother's grief after the death of Petya; Nicholas will protect Princess Marya in his father's estate from the riot of the peasants. For Tolstoy, the word "family" is peace, harmony, love.

Tolstoy treats the Bolkonsky family with warmth and sympathy. Bald Hills has its own special order, the rhythm of life. Prince Nikolai Andreevich evokes unchanging respect from all people, despite the fact that he has not been in the public service for a long time. He raised wonderful children.

He loves children passionately and anxiously, even his severity and exactingness come only from the desire for goodness to children. Restrained in feelings, the old prince hides a kind, unprotected heart, warm fatherly feelings under the harshness of words.

For him, the arrival and matchmaking of the Kuraghins, this "stupid heartless breed", is painful and insulting. This was the 4 most painful insult, because it did not refer to him, but to another, to his daughter, whom he loves more than himself. "

The year for testing the feelings of Andrei and Natasha is an attempt to protect the son's feeling from accidents and misfortunes: "There was a son, whom it was a pity to give to the girl."

Tolstoy proves his idea: there is no moral core in the parents - there will be none in the children. An example of this is the family of Vasily Kuragin.

Tolstoy never once calls the Kuragin family. This alone speaks volumes. Everything here is subordinated to self-interest, material gain.

Even relationships within the family of these people are inhuman. The members of this family are connected to each other with a strange mixture of base instincts and impulses: the mother feels jealousy and envy of her daughter; the father sincerely welcomes child marriages of convenience. Living human relationships are replaced by false, feigned ones. Instead of faces - masks. The writer in this case shows the family as it should not be. Their spiritual callousness, meanness of soul, selfishness, insignificance of desires are branded by Tolstoy with the words of Pierre: "Where you are, there is debauchery, evil."

In the epilogue of the novel, Tolstoy shows two happy families: Nikolai and Princess Marya, Pierre and Natasha.

Having married, Princess Marya brings refinement, warmth of confidential communication into the existence of the family. And Nikolai Rostov, not at all possessing such properties of nature at first, intuitively reaches out to his wife. Unhurriedly, calmly, lovingly, she creates a light atmosphere in the house, so necessary for everyone, especially children. In this heroine of Tolstoy, there is not just inner beauty and talent, but the gift to overcome the inner real contradictions of a person. Tolstoy's ideal is a patriarchal family with its holy care of the elders for the younger and the younger for the elders, with the ability of everyone in the family to give more than to take, with relationships built on "good and truth." Tolstoy considers the family of Pierre and Natasha to be such an ideal family.

Natasha the wife foresees and fulfills her husband's wishes. The harmony of their relationship, mutual understanding - this is exactly what will allow Pierre to feel "a joyful, firm consciousness that he is not a bad person, and he felt this because he saw himself reflected in his wife."

And on Natasha, family life "reflected only what was truly good: everything that was not entirely good was discarded."

Overcoming temptations, defeating low instincts, making terrible mistakes and atoning for them, Pierre and Natasha enter a new stage in their lives. In the Bezukhov family, Pierre is the head, the intellectual center, and Natasha is the spiritual support of the family, its foundation. Pierre's hard work for the good of Russia is the most important social contribution of this family.

In War and Peace by L. N. Tolstoy, the family fulfills its high, true purpose. Home here is a special world in which traditions are preserved, communication between generations is carried out; it is a refuge for man and the basis of everything that exists. Home as a calm, safe haven is opposed to war, family happiness is opposed to senseless mutual destruction.

66. "FAMILY THOUGHT" IN THE NOVEL OF LEO TOLSTOY "WAR AND PEACE" (Variant III)

A family. What does it mean in a person's life? In my opinion, that's all. Listen to this word: "seven I". Yes, yes, exactly seven I. In a family, people are so close to each other that they feel like a single whole, all its members are spiritually connected with each other. The family is that small world in which the character of a person, his life principles are formed. The family is the atmosphere in which he immerses himself immediately after birth. Having been born, the baby is the first to see his relatives and friends. It depends on them how he will enter human society: whether he will love him, or hate him, or simply remain indifferent. Family ties connect people all their lives. I believe that the family is the highest spiritual value.

But families can be different. The family can teach a person to do both good and evil. The family thought is very well revealed in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. The work deals with three families: Bolkonsky, Rostov and Kuragin.

Bolkonsky. At first glance, there is an excessive coldness in the house. But this is not the case! Yes, strict order reigns in the house, but it does not prevent the father, son and daughter from loving and respecting each other. How carefully the old prince Bolkonsky inquires about his daughter's health every morning! And the fact that before the arrival of Prince Vasily Kuragin they cleared the way, enrages him: “What? Minister? Which minister? Who ordered? For the princess, my daughter, they have not cleared, but for the minister! I have no ministers! "

Nikolai Bolkonsky believed that "there are only two sources of human vices: idleness and superstition, and that there are only two virtues: activity and intelligence." Therefore, he himself was involved in the upbringing of Princess Marya and gave her lessons in algebra and geometry in order to develop both main virtues in her. The old prince did not want to see his daughter an empty socialite: “Mathematics is a great thing, my madam. And I don’t want you to be like our stupid ladies. ” The old prince was able to teach the princess to love and respect people, forgive them their weaknesses, take care of them. And the honesty and courage of Prince Andrew, his contempt for secular society? All this was brought up in his son by the old prince Bolkonsky. Nikolai Bolkonsky loves Prince Andrei so much that on the day of his arrival in Ly? Yye Gory he makes an exception in his lifestyle and lets him in his half while dressing. And the young prince? When talking with his father, he follows "with lively and respectful eyes the movement, every feature of his father's face." It is with him that Prince Andrew leaves his pregnant wife and asks to raise his son in case of his death. Trust and understanding permeate the relationship between father and son. This is how the old prince Andrei sees off to the war: "Remember one thing, prince Andrei: if they kill you, it will hurt me, the old man ... And if I find out that you did not behave like the son of Nikolai Bolkonsky, I will be ... ashamed!" “You couldn’t tell me that, father,” the son replies.

The relationship between brother and sister is touching and tender. Princess Marya blesses her brother in a way, and he, in turn, worries if it is too hard for her sister from her father's character.

But, unfortunately, one common feature of all members of the Bolkonsky family prevents them from understanding the people around them. This is pride, contempt for people who have been brought up differently, who have different life principles. This prevents Prince Andrew from being happy with his wife, and the old prince from expressing all his love for his daughter; Princess Marya makes an unfavorable opinion of Natasha Rostova at the first meeting.

And what is surprising is that music, symbolizing harmony, sounds in the house all the time. Natasha's singing brings Nikolai out of the gloomy mood, who lost a large amount of money to Dolokhov: "All this, both misfortune and honor, is all nonsense ... but it is real ..."

Family, relatives - that's what is most important, the present in a person's life. During Natasha's illness, after her unsuccessful escape with Anatol Kuragin, no one cares about the shame she brought on the family, everyone only wants the patient to recover as soon as possible. And when the ailment receded, Natasha's voice and music sounded in the house again.

The Rostov and Bolkonsky families are very different from each other: in one, cordiality and hospitality are in the first place, and in the other - duty, service and honor, but there is also something that unites them: worthy people are brought up in these families, honest and courageous, capable to love and respect a person.

Kuraginas are the exact opposite. LN Tolstoy shows more than once how the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys get together at the table, and not only for lunch or dinner, but to discuss problems and consult. But we never see the Kuragin people gathered together. All members of this family are connected only by a common surname and position in the world, selfishness.

Prince Vasily barely keeps up with one evening to the next in order to better arrange his material affairs, to get to know the right people; Anatole Kuragin is having a hard time with might and main, not caring about the consequences of his behavior, believes that everything in the world was created only for his pleasure; the beautiful Helen goes from one ball to another, gives everyone her cold smile; Hippolyte baffles everyone with inappropriate jokes and anecdotes, but everything is forgiven him. Prince Vasily could not teach his children good, true love and respect are alien to them. All their feelings are ostentatious, like those of Prince Vasily himself. Coldness, alienation characterize this house. And the saddest thing is that none of the young Kuragin will be able to create a real family in the future. Helene and Pierre's marriage will be unsuccessful; Anatol, who already has a wife in Poland, will try to kidnap Natasha Rostova.

Natasha and Nikolay Rostov, Marya Volkonskaya will continue the good tradition of their families. A marriage of the convenience of Nikolai and Marya will flow into a harmonious union of two people, based on mutual respect.

And the fragile and musical Natasha? Having become Pierre's wife and having given birth to children, she gives herself entirely to the family. Happiness, calmness, health of her husband and children will become the main things for her in life. Natasha will stop going to balls and theaters, taking care of herself. Family will become the meaning of her life.

If a family supports a person in difficult times, helps him to find harmony with the world around him, to understand himself, isn't it the highest spiritual value? Yes, such a family, yes. I believe that it was precisely this idea that Leo Tolstoy wanted to express in his novel. A real family should form only good feelings in a person. Let's imagine that each person will be brought up in such a family, then the whole society will become a single family, a family in which everyone will be happy.